Chapter 3 : Hide and seek.
The office was sparsely furnished, but sufficient chairs were available for all to sit. "So how can I help you?" asked Mr Levi "And why couldn't we do this out on the floor?" he finished , gesturing towards the main retail trading area, where normal business went on. Mary turned her head around. "John?" she asked. "Ah, yes" Harrigan replied "Number one : How you can help us. We need to purchase a large quantity of gold and/or gems. Mary thought you would have what we need. We need in fairly quickly, though; three days from now at the latest". "And number two? Why the secrecy?" Mr Levi pressed, curious. "Well I could tell you" Harrigan continued "but then I'd have to kill you". Mr Levi coughed and spluttered, finally calmed down by Mary. "John!" Mary howled "There's no need to go that far! He's an old man!". Harrigan, properly browbeaten and downcast, muttered an apology, and went on. "Seriously, Mr Levi, it's better if you don't know the details. They're all classified anyway". "Fine" Mr Levi said, reassured slightly "I've done things like this before for people like you. How much do you have to spend?". Harrigan scrawled the amount on a piece of notepaper and passed it over. Even Mr Levi, accustomed to dealing with large amounts of money, gasped in surprise.
"That is large indeed" he responded "I can't get what you require on such short notice alone. May I bring in some of my business associates? They are discreet, I promise you". Mary replied with "Of course. Just make sure they don't spill their guts, even to their wives. We can't afford to have this op blown by a loose-lipped jeweller". "Damn right" Harrigan muttered. "Mr Harrigan!" Mr Levi responded "They are men of great reputation in the gold and precious gems business! You don't get that far if you don't respect customer confidentiality!". "Good" Harrigan went on "Just make sure they know the score. We do need a banker who can keep his trap shut as well, so we don't have to keep the money lying around for the next three days". "I'll take you to my personal financial manager. We need him to finalise the deal as well, and it will be easier to bring him in now. You'll need to find an alternative vehicle as well. That monstrosity you came in definitely will not blend in at this man's house". Harrigan opened his mouth to speak, but Mary cut him off "Not possible for two reasons. One, we can't get another one without stealing it". Harrigan then finished off with "and Two, it's got the money in the back. I'm not moving that around any more than I have to". Mr Levi turned towards Harrigan, surprised. "You mean that, that, that..." he stuttered. "Heaps and heaps of cash?" Harrigan queried. "Yes, yes" Mr Levi replied after he calmed down "All that is outside the delivery entrance in your very dented humvee?!". "Exactly" said Mary. Mr Levi pressed a buzzer on his desk, and his assistant manager appeared shortly thereafter. "Harold" he ordered "I have some business to attend to with my banker. You are in charge until I return". Harold nodded, and went back out into the shop. "Come on then, you two." Mr Levi said, impatiently "Harold will take care of business here. I will act as intermediary between you and my banker. After all, he doesn't know you at all".
Mary bundled Mr Levi into the small amount of free seat space in the back of the humvee, before finding her own seat. Harrigan started the humvee and shot off towards the outer suburbs. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived outside the gate of a large mansion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The perimeter was surrounded by tall trees, which served two purposes; they made the property look good, and prevented any passers-by from seeing what was going on inside. Mr Levi got out and pressed a button by the speaker box on the gate post. "Yes?" a deep male voice responed. "Mr Levi here, with some associates" he said, turning to glare at Harrigan. After turning back to the grille, he continued "who have some business to conduct which requires your attention". The gates swung back, leaving the driveway open. Mr Levi got back into the humvee and shut the door, saying "Let's go, we've got fifteen seconds before the gates shut again". Two hundred yards further up the twisting driveway, they arrived at the mansion proper. There was a large man waiting for them, who turned out to be the banker. He did not volunteer his name, and neither Harrigan or Mary asked.
When they reached the dining room, four men much like Mr Levi were seated around the table. "Mr Levi" they said "Good to see you". "And you as well" Mr Levi replied "I won't have to phone you all now. We have some business to discuss. These people" he explained, gesturing to Lieutenant Harrigan and Mary "wish to purchase a large quantity of gold and gems. As I am unable to supply their needs on my own, I thought you would like to share in this venture". The still-unidentified banker spoke up "The amount required must be large if you need more than one source. My question is why?". Harrigan glared at him "Classified mission" he barked. One of the other jewellers said "Ah, one of those.". Another said "How much money do we have available?". Harrigan wrote down exactly how much on a piece of card, and passed it round "That much each. Plus 10% finder's fee, also each. Needed in three days". The banker cut in again "We can't get all of that in gold". Mary explained that while the entire amount was not required in gold, some was required. After further haggling, a deal was agreed to by all parties. Each of the jewellers, and the banker, unloaded their own shares of the cash from the back of the humvee into their own vehicles before returning to the house.
"You can drop me off at the shop before you go back to where you're from" Mr Levi said. They all got back in and headed back into town. After dropping off Mr Levi, they stopped off at a fast-food outlet, where Harrigan promptly demolished several burgers, and more fries and Coke than either he or Mary could keep track of.
Back at the base, Captain Lazarus and the corporal were loading the last of their equipment into the back of a truck, which had been liberated from behind the kitchen when the driver was inside dropping off some cargo. "Damn" groaned the corporal "My knees feel like they're about to explode, my elbows are killing me, and my back is definitely in rebellion against lawful authority" he finished as he staggered around to the cab and got in. "Cheer up, corporal!" Captain Lazarus exclaimed happily "We'll have Harrigan and Mary to help us put it on board the shuttle. Anyway, that's the army for you. If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!". The corporal turned around, looking from side to side. "Where the hell are they, sir?" he asked "Shouldn't they be back by now?". Then the armourer emerged from the back of the armoury, pulling a portable lifter with a large crate on its forks. "A few thing that just fell off the back of a supply convoy. I thought you'd like them, especially if Harrigan is involved. There's some stuff in there he'll really love". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Oh dear, oh dear" muttered the Captain, shaking his head back and forth "You and Harrigan are both the same breed of cat in this area. Pack-rats for weaponry – worse than squirrels with nuts in winter! I won't ask what's in there, I probably don't want to know anyway". The armourer perked up again "Careful with some of those boxes – don't break 'em. The stuff inside doesn't like sharp knocks much". The corporal cringed in terror "What about in the air? That stuff's going up with us" he asked. "Shouldn't be a problem – as long as the box doesn't break" the armourer replied. A shout came from the front counter. "Gotta go!" he said. Peeking around the door, he said "It's that OSI captain! What the hell does he want?". "Us, I think. Harrigan, anyway. Stall him for a couple of minutes, will you?". The corporal needed no encouragement. As soon as the Captain shut his door, the truck shot off to the barracks as fast as the corporal could take it without being caught by the OSI or the base MP's. After the corporal had hidden the truck between the mess hall and the sleeping quarters, the pair of them sat down on the steps. "I wonder what's keeping him?" wondered the Captain. A few minutes later, one of the sergeants came out of the barracks. "Captain Lazarus, sir" he asked. "The L-T's on the comm for you". "Stay here, corp." Captain Lazarus ordered, and disappeared into his office. After grabbing his com unit out of the desk he flicked it on. "Lazarus here. It had better be good, Harrigan!".
"Yes, sir! We're four miles outside the base, at the motel. The NRO truck and guards have stopped here. I think they're going to be staying here tonight and bring the satellite in and load it on the shuttle tomorrow all in one go. Anyway, Mary's just come out of the public bar and says they're almost too drunk too stand up, let alone drive". "We're on our way!" yelled the Captain. "Corp! Grab another humvee from the base motor pool. Those slack idiots on the convoy decided to stop for a bit of R&R at the motel. We're going to relieve them of their cargo". The corporal came back with an unmarked humvee a couple of minutes later. "What's this, corp?" questioned Captain Lazarus, noting the cleaner than usual appearance and more luxurious decor. After looking inside more clearly, he turned to the corporal. "That's General Franklin's personal transport you've just tea-leafed, corporal! You'd better make sure it's clean when we come back, or he'll smell a rat. He doesn't mind much if we bust a few heads in a bar when we're off-duty, but he loves his car. If it's covered in mud, crud and blood and stinking of hot metal and spent ammo when we get back, he'll crucify you!". "It was the only thing there we could use, sir!" the corporal shot back "The only other vehicle was a Brad belonging to the MPs". "Never mind" groused the Captain "Let's go".
About ten minutes later they pulled into the motel carpark. Harrigan jogged over to investigate "Oh, it's you Captain" he said, relieved "Almost gave Mary and I a heart attack when we saw General Franklin's personal humvee pull in. Better make sure this thing's clean when you put it back, corporal. If it's covered in mud, crud and blood...". The corporal cut him off with "Oh, not you as well! The Captain here gave me the third degree about that already!". "Stop teasing him about that, Harrigan" laughed Mary. Then she continued in a more subdued voice "They're still in the bar. The barman wants them dragged back to their rooms to sleep it off. If we take them off his hands we can stash them in one of the rooms later without arousing suspicion". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- They put their wet weather gear on over their fatigues and went in to the bar. The barman was just trying to persuade them they'd had enough, and to go back to their rooms to sleep it off. He turned as Mary came in with Harrigan and Lazarus. "Can your friends drag these guys back to their rooms? They've had too much to get themselves there" he asked. "Sure" Mary replied "Harrigan, can you guys grab one each and follow the barman., please?". Captain Lazarus, Lieutenant Harrigan and the corporal grabbed one in each hand by their uniform collars and dragged them out the door to their rooms. They had to return to the bar and grab the truck driver separately, as he was too fat for any of them to manage on their own. Once they'd dumped him with the others, they relieved all of the guards of their uniforms and ID badges and left the way they came. The corporal went in the General's humvee, Harrigan and Mary took the truck and NRO humvee respectively, while the Captain took his own back to base.
When they got back to the main gate it was just before shift change, so the gate guard was not as alert as he should have been. He signed the NRO vehicles in, waved the other humvees through without a glance, and went back to the guard hut and his coffee. Captain Lazarus noted the guard's name and rank from his ID badge. "That guard's not going to like his fitrep one bit this time. He'll end up in Thule, Greenland for the rest of his enlistment for that". Harrigan drove the truck over to the launch pad hangar and grabbed a lift back with Mary in the NRO humvee. "Drop this off at engineering, we'll get the night shift to respray it. Then we'll pick up our new toy tomorrow and stash it behind the ready room for later". "You're an incurable dog-robber, aren't you?" said Mary, prodding him in the shoulder. "Nah, I just find all this good stuff, and it walks off to the barracks all by itself" Harrigan replied, with a mile-wide cheesy grin on his face. Mary laughed, and they walked off to their respective quarters after dropping the NRO humvee at engineering.
Things were not going as well for Captain Shulton and his investigation. While the MP's and gate guards were positively eager to help out, they didn't actually know anything useful; the sergeant had had to caution several not to add stuff of their own to get Harrigan in even more trouble. The air force troops would know more – but we can't get anything out of them! They seem curiously tight-lipped whenever the conversation went in the direction of Lieutenant Harrigan and his activities, and neither Captain Shulton or his sergeant knew why. As for the IASA personnel, they weren't saying anything about Harrigan at all. They probably didn't actually know him, but one or two looked more than slightly tense during questioning. Damn! Oh, well, Captain Shulton thought, I'll give them the third degree tomorrow, perhaps then I'll find out what's going on here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Launch day. T minus 14 hours. Captain Shulton was awakened to the incessant chirping of his cellphone on the table. "Yes?!" he growled. "I'm the satellite convoy truck driver" came a voice very much the worse for wear "We stopped off in the hotel last night, and woke up this morning handcuffed to the inside of the hotel laundry cupboard minus our uniforms! Where the hell's the satellite disappeared off to?". After gulping down some coffee rather too quickly, the Captain replied "It should be here. Just a minute...". He put down his cellphone and picked up the room phone. "IASA launch centre" replied the morning secretary. "Captain Shulton, OSI. Can you tell me if the satellite scheduled for launch this evening is here?". The secretary tapped a few keys , and replied "Yes, Captain. Checked in last night at 2145 hours. It should be in the shuttle already. Scheduled to launch at..." the tap, tap, tap of computer keys floated down the line "2200 hours. Final prelaunch checks and loading to finish by 2130 hours.". Scratching his head, wondering what the hell was going on, he picked up his cellphone again. "You still there?" The driver replied in the affirmative "Your satellite checked in as scheduled. According to IASA, the thing's already on the the shuttle in preparation for tonight's launch. Is there some...". "Hold on" the driver interrupted "One of the guards has just come in. I'll put him on". "Can you shed some light on this whole sorry episode, soldier?!" growled the Captain, cursing the entire NRO in general and this convoy in particular "I think so, Captain. While we were all very much the worse for wear last night, I noticed something a bit odd". "Well don't stop now! Spill it!" Captain Shulton yelled. "Yes sir!" the guard replied "Most of them drank far too much to notice, but the landlord got a few of the other drinkers to drag us back to our rooms. They sure as hell weren't truckies, sir. If I had to venture an opinion, I'd say soldiers. I'm pretty sure I saw combat fatigues under the raincoat of the one dragging the humvee driver away"
Yes! thought the Captain, things are actually starting to go my way! "Thank you soldier. That will be all" he replied, thumbing the off button on the phone. After a shower, shave and clean uniform, he grabbed his sergeant from where he was chatting to one of the other visitors. "Get along to IASA and collar those two that were looking a bit shifty yesterday." Captain Shulton whispered "I'll be along shortly." "Yes, sir. Think we might find out what's going on?" the sergeant replied as they walked out of the VIP quarters. "Yes. But the air force troops are keeping their mouths firmly shut. Those IASA guys haven't had interrogation training like soldiers do. We'll tighten the thumbscrews until they tell us what we need to know" "I hear you, sir" laughed the sergeant "It'll be good to get out of this festering hole and back to civilisation". "Don't like Cape Canaveral, sarge?" continued the Captain. "No sir!" replied the sergeant "I'd prefer Nellis. Damn, sir, I'd prefer fraggin' McMurdo to this place"
In the barracks, Harrigan was going through what Captain Lazarus and the corporal had liberated from the armoury the previous day. "Hmm. Not bad at all, Captain" pondered Lieutenant Harrigan "OK, three FN FiveSeven's, with suppressors, shoulder rigs and seven loaded mags a piece" He quickly passed them out to Mary and the corporal, keeping one for himself "Next, three complete suits of Class VI body armour. Bettter put those on now"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Five minutes of struggling and cursing inconvenient buckles, plus waiting for Mary to get back later, Harrigan continued "Two M4 rifles, suppressed, ten loaded mags a piece. Plus reflex sights. Sorry corp, no shotgun, you'll have to make do with a rifle" One slightly deflated corporal later, Harrigan finished with "And my G8, of course" patting the barrel. "Hmm, fifteen drums loaded with API. What's in there, corp?" questioned Harrigan, pointing at the two mysterious crates as yet unopened. "That's a present to you from that headcase armourer"replied Captain Lazarus "None of us dared open them. He said one of them doesn't like rough handling much". Harrigan immediately yelled "Crowbar!" which the corporal dutifully passed over. Harrigan cracked both crates open and peered inside. "Right, clear the table Mary" he asked "We'll need some more space. Our little presents include one Steyr heavy sniper rifle. We are fortunate to have the magazine-fed version in 50-cal OMNI. Two cases of CS grenades. One case containing..." Harrigan heaved the latest offering onto the table "Captain? Any ideas?" turning to the Captain "You are lucky indeed, Harrigan. Enough C-4 and detonators to flatten most of the base. Makes me wish I was coming with you". "Now for the other crate" continued Harrigan "'Handle carefully – Danger' it says here. Wonder why?"
Harrigan carefully unscrewed the top off the crate and looked at the contents revealed to him. Then he turned to stare at the Captain "I'm gonna have some serious words with that armourer. If we weren't launching tonight I'd do it now." Captain Lazarus stepped forward, anxious to see what had got his Lieutenant into such a state. "Mary!" yelled the Captain, going almost purple over what he saw "Could you please confirm that what's in this 'ere box is what I think it is?". Having never heard the Captain in such a rage, Mary hurried over. Captain Lazarus just pointed at the box. "Help me out here, Harrigan" asked Mary "And please don't drop it! You could kill the whole base and half the city with that! If it is what I think it is" she added. Fifteen seconds and several scraped fingers later, the small group stood staring in surprise, and no small measure of horror at what was revealed. The corporal in particular had gone almost white with fear. "I..I..I.." he stuttered. "Calm down, corp" responded Harrigan. "Is that stuff safe sitting there on the table like that?" he finally mustered up the courage to say.
Mary had just finished a close examination of the barrel. It wasn't that large, being about 2½ feet high and half that wide, but as it contained Tabun nerve poison size wasn't an issue here. A barrel this size could indeed kill the whole base and half the city, and far more on top. "Yeah, it's fine" Mary replied "The barrel's intact, with no sign of corrosion or other damage anywhere. That armourer could get put away for ever for having that stuff, but at least he kept it properly". "Right, you lot" growled the Captain "Stash that back in it's box. I'll grab a couple of volunteers and load this stuff on the shuttle now. With any luck the replacement NRO crew hasn't shown up yet". Harrigan, well acquainted with the Captain's method of selecting volunteers, sniggered nastily but otherwise said nothing. "L-T, you and Mary will have to get as much of your money together as you can and back here by T minus 3 hours. I know we haven't had the three days we'd hoped for; we'll just have to make do. If you can gouge a bit more out of them, Mary, do it; even if they charge ruinous rates we'll have to accept it if we want to launch on time" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Corp" Captain Lazarus continued "You get the easiest job of the lot. You'll come over to the launch facility with me, but will stay behind until launch time. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and call us if anything happens. That's settled then. Everyone know what they need to do?". A chorus of "Yessir!", "Aye, Cap'n", and similar replies followed. "Well don't just flap around like a bunch of flappers, get on with it!" he yelled. Thus encouraged, they split up. Harrigan and Mary went to engineering to grab the now ex-NRO humvee. Captain Lazarus took the corporal to the barracks.
DK was definitely getting edgy. Five of their group of conspirators hadn't turned up for their shift this morning; while one or two may be a few minutes late, it was unnerving him severely that as many as five were affected enough to make them not turn up at all. After some careful questioning of the remaining technicians, he still didn't have a clue as to where they were, which wasn't helping his already paranoid state of mind one bit. At about 11am, DK decided that sitting in his office chewing his fingernails to the bone wasn't helping matters, so he walked over to the canteen in the hope that some food would settle him down enough to think straight. Half way though his sandwich, a very out of breath radar operator caught up with him at his corner table. This definitely doesn't look good, DK pondered. After a couple of minutes huffing and puffing to catch his breath, the wild-eyed tech turned to DK and told him some things that only proved him right.
"We're in deep brown doo, DK, and sinking lower by the second" he gasped "Those OSI guys just dropped out of nowhere, grabbed five of the other crew, and disappeared. Three of them won't be any trouble, but the other two were there when we were discussing, well, you know" he continued, pointing upwards "If they break...". DK cut in with "Will they? Break, I mean". "Yeah, and soon. They're not soldiers, they're just regular guys off the street. Start tightening the thumscrews, and all they'll be able to think about is saving their own careers and families. It'll come back to haunt them later, but it's too late for us then". "Pipe down!" DK growled "You want the whole base to hear?!". "Oops, yeah, sorry" a chastened radar op replied. "Right, that's settled. Get back to work before someone notices you're gone. Make sure any others who were there know the score about why the OSI are here. With any luck, that'll cause a sudden case of salmonella or something similarly nasty that'll explain the loss of some techs. I'll make sure the Captain knows what's going on"
When Mary and Harrigan turned up at engineering, a similar story awaited them. "Ah, Harrigan" the duty sergeant greeted them "First, the good news. That humvee you dropped off yesterday is fully fuelled and ready to go. Nobody will ever recognise that it started life outside the Air Force". Harrigan rubbed his hands together in glee "Good, 'cause I'll be needing that right now". "However..." the sergeant continued. "Yes?" queried Mary and Harrigan. "That OSI captain and his pet sergeant have been sniffing around. No one here likes OSI much, so we kept our mouths shut, but the last thing he said as he went out that door", the sergeant paused to point at it, then went on "was 'We'll see if your IASA comrades will be more forthcoming'. I don't know what you lot are up to, but you'd better watch yourself" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The day just gets better and better, Harrigan muttered under his breath. "Come on, Harrigan" Mary urged, getting into the humvee "The sooner we're off base, the better". "Amen to that, Mary" he replied, jumping into the humvee's driver's seat. After slamming the door shut, he treated the engineering workshop to a shower of gravel from the back of the humvee as he sped off, pausing just long enough to open a side gate, get the humvee through, and shut it again.
Mary immediately produced her mobile phone and punched in a number. "Yes, it's Mary" she replied to the voice on the other end. "We're going to have to move the timetable up a gear or two...Yes, I know it's inconvenient...How much can you get anyway?...That much?...If we must, we must...OK, the shop at 1530 hours...bye". She threw the phone over the back seat. "What's up, Mary?" Harrigan asked. "A few slight problems" Mary replied "but nothing we can't handle. Time will be tight though. We can lay our hands on about half what we planned on right now". This did not please Harrigan in the slightest. Noting his sour expression, Mary continued "We can increase that if we don't mind getting involved with a few somewhat unsavoury characters. Pawnbrokers and the like. That'll get us three-quarters of our planned resources but use all our money". Harrigan didn't like that much, but didn't have much of a choice. "It'll have to do. If those loonies try to squeeze any more out of us, I'll shoot them. This whole situation with the OSI is making me seriously angry"
Back at Canaveral, the OSI sergeant was just getting started on the third interrogation. "We know Lieutenant Harrigan was responsible for assaulting Major Beasley, and we know him and his people are planning something else as well" he told the tech currently in front of him. He was skating on thin ice here, he knew, but was banking on the hope that no-one except him and Captain Shulton knew just how thin it was. "It will go better for you if you tell me what you know. If you don't, you may lose your security clearance, and may additionally be charged with obstruction of justice as well. I'll leave you to think about it for a couple of minutes" he finished, and went out the door for a cup of coffee.
One of the other unfortunates stuck her head through the door once the sergeant was out of sight. "How's things?" she asked. "Not good" the older man replied "I'm not up to this at all. Get along to the barracks and warn them the OSI's going to come knocking soon. They'll have to confirm what they get out of me with what you tell them, so we may be able to give DK and his friends enough time to launch before these goons catch on. Now go!" he wheezed. She immediately shot off through the opposite end of the corridor, down a flight of steps, and out the back door.
At the launch site, Captain Lazarus, the corporal, and the three unfortunate volunteers were securing the barrel of Tabun in the shuttle's cargo bay when the shuttle intercom chimed. "Lazarus" the Captain barked. After a couple of seconds, he hung up. "Something's come up. You four, finish securing this stuff. Take special care with that barrel. Harrigan won't want a barrel of nerve poison bouncing around the cargo bay while manoevreing, will he?". One of the troopers piped up with "What the hell's he need that stuff for anyway?". "Need to know, private; I thought you'd know that by now" Captain Lazarus replied "Besides, that armourer may be a bit nuts, but he's come through for us a lot of times before – so we'll do him a favour and take it off his hands before he gets sprung" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "I hear you, Cap" the private replied, before tightening the last strap securing the barrel.
Two minutes later, Captain Lazarus met the female tech at the bottom of the launch tower. "Bad news, sir" she gasped. "What a surprise" the Captain muttered "OK, spill it". "Yes, sir" she replied "Andrew just got collared by OSI". "Oh, crap!" the Captain sighed "He was with this whole thing from the start, wasn't he?". "That's right, sir" the tech continued. "The only thing in your favour is that they'll spend several hours confirming any info they gather with what they get from the rest of us, which hopefully will take all afternoon and most of the night". Captain Lazarus fished his phone out of his pocket. "You can go now, miss. I've got some calls to make" he prompted. "Good luck, sir" she said, and left. We'll need lots of that, he knew as he punched Harrigan's number in.
"Almost there, John" Mary soothed, trying to calm the Lieutenant's mounting temper. Then Harrigan's phone started beeping. "Harrigan" he barked "Ah Captain...Yes, Mary's here, we're on our way to the pickup...Damn! Damn! Damn!...Yeah, I expect so...Hope they hold out long enough...Bye". Harrigan punched the 'Off' button and shoved the phone back in his pocket. "More bad news?" Mary asked. "Yep" Harrigan replied. "The whole thing's completely FUBAR'ed. The OSI grabbed a bunch of the guys who got me into this and have started getting cruel and unusual on them. If they were soldiers, we'd easily have enough time to launch before they cracked. Civvies won't last so long. It's going to be hard getting to the launch site undetected". "Ssh! We're here!" Mary hissed. Harrigan drove around to the delivery entrance where they found Mr Levi waiting for them.
"Come on!" he rasped "I don't want all this stuff out here for too long, even around here". Mary quickly opened the humvee's rear hatch, and the pair of them loaded the gold and gems in as quickly as they could. Half an hour later, Mr Levi's share was loaded. "Here's the address for the rest of your load. It's not a nice part of town, so watch yourselves, and that humvee, carefully" Mr Levi advised "The owner knows what you look like and is waiting for you. Go!". Mr Levi had to duck a shower of rubbish off the street as Harrigan burned rubber getting away.
Mary looked at the address they had been given. "While it's not as bad as it could be, we'll have to be quick." Mary explained "If the wrong people see what we've got, we'll end up starting a firefight to get away". Harrigan threaded the humvee through the drug dealers, prostitues, muggers, and general ne'er-do-well's as they made their way to the target building. "A really nice neighbourhood this is" declared Harrigan, warily "How far to go?". "Just over there" Mary replied, pointing to the pawnbroker's sign a little further down the road. "There's a service entrance down that alley. Hopefully there's no druggies or homeless people in it right now". They reached the shop without further incidents, and although the humvee got a couple more scrapes to add to its already abundant collection, these weren't added to by small pieces of hobo stuck in the radiator grille or wedged in the tyre treads. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- A balding, over-anxious man in his early 40s stuck his head out of the back door of the building. "You're those two guys Mr Levi told me about, all right. That humvee's in bad condition even for around here. In the back, fast". Harrigan and Mary followed the pawnbroker through the back door and into a storeroom. He stepped back and swept his arm in front of him. "All those crates in the middle of the room are yours. Now where's my money?" he demanded. Harrigan grabbed the pawnbroker by his collar and hoisted him a few inches off the floor. "I don't appreciate you bad manners in front of Mary" Harrigan replied quietly. After dropping him back on the floor, he continued with "But your money's out back in the humvee. Come on and help us carry it in here". All three of them spent the next fifteen minutes carting the money inside the shop to the storeroom. Harrigan and Mary spent a further fifteen minutes stashing the gold and gems in every available crevice in the humvee.
Just as they stashed the last crate on the humvee's back seat, they heard raised voices from the front of the shop. "Mary, you stay here with the humvee" decided Harrigan "I'll check this out". After a short-lived grumble from Mary, Harrigan went inside and Mary got in the humvee and locked the door. As Harrigan got closer, the voices became clearer. "You will empty all the money and jewellery from the counter" barked one robber "or we'll splatter your shit all over the room". "And burn the place to the ground on the way out" added another. "Hmm, a little exercise" thought Harrigan "Only hear two – shouldn't take long". He then pulled a suppressor from a pocket on his shoulder rig and screwed it firmly onto the barrel of his FN and proceeded further inside. As Harrigan had surmised, there was indeed a robbery in progress. However, there were three people involved, not two; and they were all armed – two with pistols, and one with a cut-down pump-shotgun.
The one with the shotgun was getting very uptight. "I told you already" the pawnbroker pleaded "I cleaned out most of my stock for a special delivery – it left ten minutes ago". Harrigan had heard enough. He raised his pistol and put three rounds straight through Mr Shotgunner's skull, splattering his head over the floor in a wet pink clould of blood and brains, before they even knew he was there. Pistol 1 and Pistol 2 just stared in horror at the remains of their ex-comrade bleeding all over the floor. Then Pistol 1 snapped out of it, turning towards Harrigan. "You killed Hector! Now it's your turn!" he screamed, firng half a dozen shots from his pistol. Harrigan ducked back behind the wall, fast. "That last one almost skimmed my hair!" he exclaimed in surprise. "That's right, hide, fool!" Pistol 2 taunted him "Afraid, ain't you?!". Before his voice had faded Harrigan popped back round the door. Firing two shots into Pistol 1's chest at close range, he then knocked the last remaining robber to the floor and planted his left boot on his chest. "Of you?!" Harrigan sneered "Hell, no! I find more dangerous things in my breakfast cereal!". "Yeah, well eat this!" he replied, squirming out form under Harrigan's foot and going for his gun. Harrigan was quicker, however, and two more shots from his pistol sent the last robber on to join his friends. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- He slapped a fresh mag in his FiveSeven, reholstered it, and yelled out to the pawnbroker, cowering behind the cash register. "You can come out now" he called "They won't hassle you again". The shaking pawnbroker stood back up and almost lost it again when he saw the mess on his floor. "You KILLED them all? Just you?" he stammered in surprise. "Yep" replied Harrigan, pleased with himself "That's my job; killing people and breaking things. I'm good at it too" and grinned to make his point. "Gotta go, I'm late. My superiors aint gonna like me hanging around out here, even if I'm providing a community service by killing robbers. Byeee!" and bolted out the door to the humvee.
Mary was not happy. "What took you so long?!" she yelled. "Ease off, Mary" Harrigan sighed "Three nutcases with guns tried to hold the place up. It took a little while to kill them all and get back out here". Mary shook her head from head from side to side "You never thought of just calling the police, did you?" she asked. "Where's the fun in that? Besides : (1) by the time they'd get here, the place would have been cleaned out of everything except one dead pawnbroker, and (2) I needed the extra practice anyway". Just then, Harrigan's cellphone rang. "Harrigan...Yes, Captain...What?!...Yes sir...Yes sir...On the way sir, just finished". "What's up?" asked Mary. Harrigan put the humvee in gear, and turned back for the base before he answered. "The OSI are too damn close. They grabbed a bunch of DK's people and are working them over right now. It's back to base for us"
Half an hour and two police patrols later, they arrived back at Canaveral. Harrigan didn't go through the main gate – the OSI sergeant would have his eye on the admission list. So he got a pair of wire cutters and made a new entrance in the fence nearer to the launch site. After re-securing the fence, they took five more minutes to reach the tower.
The corporal and three other troopers were just taking a breather before the final cargo check. "That's about it" one of the troopers said "All we've got to do is secure Harrigan's get out of jail money and we're done here". The corporal spotted a dust trail heading for the tower, fast. "Binoculars!" he yelled. After he'd taken a quick look around, he zoomed in on the windscreen and saw two familiar faces. He handed the binoculars back. "It's Mary and Harrigan" the corporal told the three curious troopers. "Grab a trolley and get down to the base of the tower. Let's get the last of Harrigan's gear stowed and get over to DK. He'll need your help on his end"
Harrigan pulled up at the base of the tower in a clould of dust. As soon as the dust cleared, he saw the three troopers waiting for him with the trolley. "Good!" Harrigan exclaimed "Properly equipped, as well! Get over here and get these crates on that trolley of yours, and stashed on the shuttle. Move!". Forty minutes and two trips later everything was stowed properly. He then called the Captain on his cellphone "Captain...Yes, I'm back...everything as expected, except I had three robbers to kill at the pawnbrokers...Mary said that too, Captain...I'll send your three volunteers back to you right away...Yes sir...Harrigan out". The three troopers and the corporal turned towards him expectantly as he punched the 'off' button and put his phone away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Corp" Harrigan explained "you'll stay here. Read a book or get some sleep. There's nothing more for you to do until launch time. The rest of us will head back and get DK's guys to launch control. OK, let's move like we've got a purpose". As soon as the three troopers bundled into the back of the humvee , Harrigan spun the wheels and took off for the barracks, where Captain Lazarus was waiting for them with his usual sour look on his face.
"Now that you've had your fun in town, Harrigan" Captain Lazarus grumbled "we'll have to get DK's crew out from under the OSI. They took them to the VIP quarters, so they'll be easy to find. I'll take my humvee; Harrigan, you take yours. Hopefully we'll be able to slip in while they're screaming at someone else and get our people away before they notice".
The two humvee's were parked out of sight of the VIP quarters, so Harrigan and Lazarus proceeded on foot while the three troopers stayed in the humvee.When they got to the front door, Captain Lazarus held his finger up in front of his mouth in the signal to be quiet "Ssh!" he whispered, and eased open the door. The pair of them quickly slid through the gap. Inside, a few of them recognised Harrigan and came over. "Quiet!" Harrigan hissed. "Don't worry about that, sir" a weather tech replied. "They've had Jamie in there for about an hour. He doesn't know about our project, but he's been screaming, shouting, and ranting fit to bring the house down about civil rights, the constitution, court-martials, lawyers, and all that kind of stuff. You could drive a tank through the front door there and they wouldn't notice". "Out, then, the lot of you" said Captain Lazarus "Before they catch on. DK's waiting for you at launch control".
No further encouragement was needed. All eight of the remaining crew scuttled out of the door and ran as fast as they could for the humvees. Both Harrigan and Lazarus kept their driving under firm control; neither of them wanted to tip off an over-eager MP as they were probably all working with the OSI by now. DK was just coming out of his office building when the two humvees pulled up right in front of him. "Whoah, guys!" DK said, alarmed "Not so close! Ah, well, at least you're here" DK peered inside the two humvees. "And so's the rest of my launch crew! Let's be off, then. We've enough time for a good meal before prelaunch checks start".
"I hear that!" Harrigan perked up as soon as he heard 'food' mentioned. "IASA cafeteria, here we come!". The group commandeered the two tables nearest the door, after which Harrigan ran off to the buffet and piled up enough food to choke an elephant onto his plate. Several of DK's people looked on in sheer amazement as Harrigan piled into an enormous steaming bowl of curry. "Is he always like that, Captain?" wondered one of the comm officers. "Yes" replied the Captain, giving the speech one more time "Sometimes the troops like to fleece visiting officers and men of their hard-earned cash by taking bets on how much he'll get through". Harrigan stopped eating long enough to add "Besides" he said, a punishing draft of high-grade Madras curry with extra chillies wafting over the immediate area, almost peeling the paint off the wall "the smell of this curry will probably kill that OSI sergeant stone dead, which will save me a few rounds for later". "You're not wrong, L-T" replied DK "It's almost killed us already". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Back in the VIP quarters, Captain Shulton was not happy. This particular IASA employee was being especially obstructive, he knew. Perhaps, I'll have more luck with a different one, he thought. "Sarge!" he yelled out of the door. "Sir?" the sergeant replied. "Go get another one, sergeant. This guy's too stubborn. We won't get anything out of him without doing something seriously illegal". The sergeant went ou to the foyer to get another IASA employee, but was greeted with an unexpectedly empty room. The sergeant scurried back in, with a very unhappy look on his face. "Sarge?" Captain Shulton asked, aware that something wasn't quite right. The sergeant just beckoned him over to the foyer entrance. Captain Shulton took one look at a foyer mysteriously devoid of prisoners and promptly hit the roof.
"WHAT THE HELL"S GOING ON?!" he screamed. The sergeant scratched his head a little, and a tentative answer came to him. "It was probably while Jamie in there was wailing like a demented banshee about deprivation of liberty and lawyers and crap" the sergeant pondered aloud "Harrigan and Lazarus may be a pair of headcases and renegades, but they're spec-ops trained headcases. That noise gave them all the distraction they needed to get that lot away. We'll not get them back now". Captain Shulton immediately grabbed the handset off the desk phone and punched up the MP's guardhouse. "Oi, you lot!" barked Captain Shulton. "Harrigan's merry men are up to something serious. Find him, and all of his confederates, and bring them in!". He slammed the phone down and turned to his sergeant. "You go along too, and make sure they get it right. I've got a headache, and I'm going back to bed" he grumped , as he went back up to his room.
Let's just get this over with, thought the sergeant. He knew he was out of his depth on this one. He'd spent most of his OSI time chasing errant corporals going AWOL, or the occasional sergeant pilfering stuff off supply convoys. But these people were special operations soldiers; tough, smart, and well accustomed to outwitting people like him. I'll just have to swarm the place with MP's and hope I get lucky, and if the Captain doesn't like it he can get stuffed.
DK was giving his crew a last-minute briefing. "Just remember, you've done this many times before, so keep calm and don't muck it up" he advised "The good Captain here and his men will watch over us and keep us safe". Captain Lazarus and the remainder of the squad on base had all drawn full loadouts from the armoury, so there were many suppressed M4's here, a few short-barrel Minami Para SAW's, and enough flashbangs and CS grenades to stretch all the way to the moon if laid end to end. They had procured a truck from the armoury for this part of the plan, as eight armed soldiers and ten technicians were too much for two humvees.
Harrigan was just finishing his second bowl of curry, when a wild-eyed and out of breath private ran into the room. "OSI!" he yelled "With MP's in support. SCATTER!". The place emptied in seconds. Harrigan was not happy at all. "They could have waited until I'd finished my curry" he grumbled. Mary brought him back to reality "Stuff the curry!" she yelled "Let's get to the shuttle before it's blocked off". They ran for their humvee and barely got the doors shut before MP's came out of the cafeteria door "STOP!" they yelled. Harrigan replied by slamming his foot to the floor, fishtailing the humvee out of the parking lot at top speed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The MP's went for their own humvee, but the minute or two this took gave Harrigan all the advantage he needed. Soon enough, the MP's realised it too. "Get that Mustang over there, this rustbucket's too slow". Five seconds later, one of the MP's had it hotwired. The other three piled in and they sped off after Harrigan as fast as they could
Mary heard the roar of a high performance engine behind them, approaching fast. She looked round and instantly identified the occupants of the car. "MP's" Mary said "They commandeered a Mustang from the parking lot". "You've got a rifle" Harrigan replied "Put a burst through the radiator. That'll dissuade all but the terminally stupid". Mary looked surprised that Harrigan would suggest firing on what were, technically, his own people; but then remembered that Harrigan ranked tinpot dictators higher than MP's on military credibility, and that he hadn't actually said 'kill'. So she grabbed her M4 and aimed back towards the fast-approaching Mustang.
One of the MP's noticed this and yelled 'GUN!'. Unfortunately he did so right in the driver's ear, and the shock nearly caused him to roll the car right over. After one of the other passengers hit their errant fellow a couple of times, the driver started weaving from side to side in an attempt to evade the gunfire from the humvee. However Mary's second burst was right on target. A storm of shells blew through the radiator, battery, distributor and starter motor. The driver thankfully managed to stop the vehicle safely, but the huge cloud of black smoke pouring from under the remains of the bonnet said that this car was a write-off. "Call that OSI sergeant" the senior MP said, resignedly "He'll have to deal with it now. He's got about half an hour before final countdown starts and the tower's off limits. We'd better head off to town, I don't want to be around when the OSI Captain starts looking for scapegoats, and I suggest you aren't around either". The one with the loud voice responded "There's a club in town that'll still be open if we hitch into town". "Not just a big mouth" the driver replied. "Let's be off". They little group ran for the nearest fence, vaulted it, and headed townwards.
DK and the soldiers were just arriving at launch control. DK banged on the door "It's me, DK, with the tower crew". "No can do" came the reply "OSI locked down the complex until they catch Harrigan". "Just let us in" DK yelled. "Can't!" came the reply. "A retard MP in there. What a surprise" DK growled "Over to you, Captain". Captain Lazarus drew a short length of primacord from one of his many pockets. After cutting it to the right length, he taped it and a mechanical detonator to the door around the lock. He then whispered "Fire in the hole!". The whole group ducked back behind the last turn in the staircase. Five seconds later there was an enormous bang as the charge exploded, throwing the lock across the room and through the window on the other side of the room. Captain Lazarus' soldiers quickly entered and secured the control centre, and opened the windows to dissipate the cloud of smoke and the stench of burnt primacord. "Somehow, I don't think I should have followed the Marcinko method of demolition this time" he muttered "Oh well, never mind. Tap, cuff, and stash guys!". After a short cacophony of blackjacks hitting skulls and handcuffs clicking shut the Captain continued "Good work, people. DK, get your people set up. Troops, set up defensive positions. I want at least one Minami covering each door". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- When the OSI sergeant found out about the fate of the MP's he was even angrier. "Right!" he grumbled "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself!". And if it goes wrong, then I won't hang around to deal with the Captain Shulton, because he'll get an even worse headache when he finds out. He grabbed his motorcycle from outside the VIP quarters, and took off for the launch tower.
Captain Lazarus got on the internal comm to the shuttle. "L-T, you safe and secure at your end yet?" he asked. The reply cam back promptly "Yeah, everything's sweet so far. Mary had to hose down a bunch of MPs in a Mustang on the way in but nothing since then. Just took out the car" aware that Captain Lazarus wouldn't like to think he'd killed his own MPs. "That's good, Harrigan. Even MPs can be useful sometimes. What?!" Harrigan yelled "Get the Steyr from the cargo hold! Sorry, Captain" Harrigan explained "That OSI sergeant is smarter than we gave him credit for. He's on a motorcycle burning hard for the tower. I'll have to take out the bike. He may not survive, Cap". "I don't much like it either, Harrigan, but needs must. Just do it. Lazarus out". Captain Lazarus thumbed the intercom off.
The corporal handed Harrigan the massive sniper rifle. After checking the ammo, Harrigan smashed a tower window and poked the huge gun out. It took seconds for Harrigan to locate the speeding motorcycle. Aim...lead target to allow for movement... BOOM! came the ear shattering noise of a 50 OMNI round cooking off, and the SLAM! of the bolt cycling another round into the chamber. One more followed, then a muffled explosion from further off as the bike blew apart. Harrigan followed the target to see the status of the OSI sergeant. While his legs were a complete mess, he was alive for now. "Corp" Harrigan replied "Get on the horn to base hospital. Get an ambulance out here for that sergeant, fast". After the corporal did so, Harrigan stashed the rifle back in the shuttle, then got back on the comm to his Captain. "Done. I've called base hospital to come and get him, he looked a mess through the scope. He should live, but both his legs are complete paste. He'll never walk again". The Captain replied "I don't like it anymore than you do, L-T. Get into the shuttle, get strapped in, prepare for immediate launch, THAT"S AN ORDER, HARRIGAN!". Harrigan perked up a bit "Aye, sir" he said, and turned to Mary and the corporal. "Strap down. Prepare for launch. Immediate preflight checks please, corp" Harrigan ordered, getting more excited with every word. They were actually going up! Going out into the deep unknown where no-one had gone outside of science fiction and returned to tell the tale! It was all he could do not to dance a jig on the tower floor. He ran through the open shuttle door, slamming and locking it shut.
Mary powered up her comm gear. "Captain, DK?" she queried "The shuttle is sealed, we are all aboard. Flight engineer" she winked at the corporal, who blushed and turned back to his instruments "reports no malfunctions. We are go for launch". DK continued "Entering into countdown hold at T minus 5 minutes for final tower system check". DK's crew immediately scurried about checking everything that could be checked. They were about to cancel the hold when there was a ferocious banging on the door. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "State your business, fast, or prepare to die!" barked the Minami gunner covering the door. A familiar voice barked straight back at him "Who do you think you are, not even recognising your own General Franklin? Open UP! That's an ORDER!". Captain Lazarus immediately got on the comm to Harrigan "Slight problem, L-T. General Franklin's turned up". "Whee!" Harrigan exclaimed, really surprised "Still, he's smart; that's how he's a general. As long as it's just him that comes in, that ought to be fine". The Captain turned to one of the other troopers. "Let the General in" he ordered. Ignoring the surprised looks, he continued "But only him. No aides or bodyguards. If any try to force their way in, kneecap 'em".
The door was opened and the General came in. Th trooper did bar his aide politely but firmly "No flunkies" he stated "The General's safe with us". The aide looked like he wanted to argue, but the General stopped him. "Go back to the office and catch up with the paperwork. Nobody's to reach me, even the President, until I get back to my office". The somewhat chastened aide muttered "Yes, sir" and slunk off back to HQ. General Franklin walked over to the main console. DK pulled up a chair for the General. "I ought to have realised it was something like this when I saw both you and Harrigan were involved in this little caper" the General thought aloud "But I didn't catch on until my wife remarked on that particular coincidence this morning". Lazarus shook his head slowly; he should have known that the General would discuss work matters with his wife. "So I came up here when I had a free moment. You inspire an amazing streak of loyalty in your men, Captain, for them to follow you into a situation like this". One of those men turned to the General and explained "The Captain, and the Lieutenant as well, have pulled our fat from the fire numerous times before sir, in combat and out. It's the least we can do to return the favour".
The General shook his head in wonder. "Can you put me through to the shuttle, please?" he asked one of the techs. She pointed out a button on his console. "Use your headset, sir. Press that button to open the line, and again when you're done". He pressed the indicated button. "Harrigan?" he asked. "Yes, General Franklin, sir?" Harrigan replied uneasily. "We're better now we're on board, sir. Don't know if we'll actually find Commander Crichton, sir. But we'll do our damndest, or die trying. Mission control?" Harrigan switched to DK's crew "Farscape 3 requests permission to launch". DK turned to General Franklin "General? Would you do the honours, sir?". General Franklin replied to Harrigan "Farscape 3 : mission granted. You are go for launch. That's an order!" he laughed.
Back in the shuttle, the unlikely crew shared a final pre-launch laugh. "Fire up this thing, corp! Time to go!". The corporal looked at a checklist taped to his leg, and pressed three buttons and flipped two toggles. "Harrigan, those two toggles over your head please". Harrigan did so. A deafening roar built up below them as the main engines and boosters cut in. "T minus ten, nine, eight..." came the voice from mission control. Mary turned and flicked a hopeful smile at Harrigan, who returned it. "I hope we find him, John" she said "Me, too, Mary. Me too". The voice continued "...five...four...three...two...one...Launch!!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------
The office was sparsely furnished, but sufficient chairs were available for all to sit. "So how can I help you?" asked Mr Levi "And why couldn't we do this out on the floor?" he finished , gesturing towards the main retail trading area, where normal business went on. Mary turned her head around. "John?" she asked. "Ah, yes" Harrigan replied "Number one : How you can help us. We need to purchase a large quantity of gold and/or gems. Mary thought you would have what we need. We need in fairly quickly, though; three days from now at the latest". "And number two? Why the secrecy?" Mr Levi pressed, curious. "Well I could tell you" Harrigan continued "but then I'd have to kill you". Mr Levi coughed and spluttered, finally calmed down by Mary. "John!" Mary howled "There's no need to go that far! He's an old man!". Harrigan, properly browbeaten and downcast, muttered an apology, and went on. "Seriously, Mr Levi, it's better if you don't know the details. They're all classified anyway". "Fine" Mr Levi said, reassured slightly "I've done things like this before for people like you. How much do you have to spend?". Harrigan scrawled the amount on a piece of notepaper and passed it over. Even Mr Levi, accustomed to dealing with large amounts of money, gasped in surprise.
"That is large indeed" he responded "I can't get what you require on such short notice alone. May I bring in some of my business associates? They are discreet, I promise you". Mary replied with "Of course. Just make sure they don't spill their guts, even to their wives. We can't afford to have this op blown by a loose-lipped jeweller". "Damn right" Harrigan muttered. "Mr Harrigan!" Mr Levi responded "They are men of great reputation in the gold and precious gems business! You don't get that far if you don't respect customer confidentiality!". "Good" Harrigan went on "Just make sure they know the score. We do need a banker who can keep his trap shut as well, so we don't have to keep the money lying around for the next three days". "I'll take you to my personal financial manager. We need him to finalise the deal as well, and it will be easier to bring him in now. You'll need to find an alternative vehicle as well. That monstrosity you came in definitely will not blend in at this man's house". Harrigan opened his mouth to speak, but Mary cut him off "Not possible for two reasons. One, we can't get another one without stealing it". Harrigan then finished off with "and Two, it's got the money in the back. I'm not moving that around any more than I have to". Mr Levi turned towards Harrigan, surprised. "You mean that, that, that..." he stuttered. "Heaps and heaps of cash?" Harrigan queried. "Yes, yes" Mr Levi replied after he calmed down "All that is outside the delivery entrance in your very dented humvee?!". "Exactly" said Mary. Mr Levi pressed a buzzer on his desk, and his assistant manager appeared shortly thereafter. "Harold" he ordered "I have some business to attend to with my banker. You are in charge until I return". Harold nodded, and went back out into the shop. "Come on then, you two." Mr Levi said, impatiently "Harold will take care of business here. I will act as intermediary between you and my banker. After all, he doesn't know you at all".
Mary bundled Mr Levi into the small amount of free seat space in the back of the humvee, before finding her own seat. Harrigan started the humvee and shot off towards the outer suburbs. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived outside the gate of a large mansion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The perimeter was surrounded by tall trees, which served two purposes; they made the property look good, and prevented any passers-by from seeing what was going on inside. Mr Levi got out and pressed a button by the speaker box on the gate post. "Yes?" a deep male voice responed. "Mr Levi here, with some associates" he said, turning to glare at Harrigan. After turning back to the grille, he continued "who have some business to conduct which requires your attention". The gates swung back, leaving the driveway open. Mr Levi got back into the humvee and shut the door, saying "Let's go, we've got fifteen seconds before the gates shut again". Two hundred yards further up the twisting driveway, they arrived at the mansion proper. There was a large man waiting for them, who turned out to be the banker. He did not volunteer his name, and neither Harrigan or Mary asked.
When they reached the dining room, four men much like Mr Levi were seated around the table. "Mr Levi" they said "Good to see you". "And you as well" Mr Levi replied "I won't have to phone you all now. We have some business to discuss. These people" he explained, gesturing to Lieutenant Harrigan and Mary "wish to purchase a large quantity of gold and gems. As I am unable to supply their needs on my own, I thought you would like to share in this venture". The still-unidentified banker spoke up "The amount required must be large if you need more than one source. My question is why?". Harrigan glared at him "Classified mission" he barked. One of the other jewellers said "Ah, one of those.". Another said "How much money do we have available?". Harrigan wrote down exactly how much on a piece of card, and passed it round "That much each. Plus 10% finder's fee, also each. Needed in three days". The banker cut in again "We can't get all of that in gold". Mary explained that while the entire amount was not required in gold, some was required. After further haggling, a deal was agreed to by all parties. Each of the jewellers, and the banker, unloaded their own shares of the cash from the back of the humvee into their own vehicles before returning to the house.
"You can drop me off at the shop before you go back to where you're from" Mr Levi said. They all got back in and headed back into town. After dropping off Mr Levi, they stopped off at a fast-food outlet, where Harrigan promptly demolished several burgers, and more fries and Coke than either he or Mary could keep track of.
Back at the base, Captain Lazarus and the corporal were loading the last of their equipment into the back of a truck, which had been liberated from behind the kitchen when the driver was inside dropping off some cargo. "Damn" groaned the corporal "My knees feel like they're about to explode, my elbows are killing me, and my back is definitely in rebellion against lawful authority" he finished as he staggered around to the cab and got in. "Cheer up, corporal!" Captain Lazarus exclaimed happily "We'll have Harrigan and Mary to help us put it on board the shuttle. Anyway, that's the army for you. If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined!". The corporal turned around, looking from side to side. "Where the hell are they, sir?" he asked "Shouldn't they be back by now?". Then the armourer emerged from the back of the armoury, pulling a portable lifter with a large crate on its forks. "A few thing that just fell off the back of a supply convoy. I thought you'd like them, especially if Harrigan is involved. There's some stuff in there he'll really love". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Oh dear, oh dear" muttered the Captain, shaking his head back and forth "You and Harrigan are both the same breed of cat in this area. Pack-rats for weaponry – worse than squirrels with nuts in winter! I won't ask what's in there, I probably don't want to know anyway". The armourer perked up again "Careful with some of those boxes – don't break 'em. The stuff inside doesn't like sharp knocks much". The corporal cringed in terror "What about in the air? That stuff's going up with us" he asked. "Shouldn't be a problem – as long as the box doesn't break" the armourer replied. A shout came from the front counter. "Gotta go!" he said. Peeking around the door, he said "It's that OSI captain! What the hell does he want?". "Us, I think. Harrigan, anyway. Stall him for a couple of minutes, will you?". The corporal needed no encouragement. As soon as the Captain shut his door, the truck shot off to the barracks as fast as the corporal could take it without being caught by the OSI or the base MP's. After the corporal had hidden the truck between the mess hall and the sleeping quarters, the pair of them sat down on the steps. "I wonder what's keeping him?" wondered the Captain. A few minutes later, one of the sergeants came out of the barracks. "Captain Lazarus, sir" he asked. "The L-T's on the comm for you". "Stay here, corp." Captain Lazarus ordered, and disappeared into his office. After grabbing his com unit out of the desk he flicked it on. "Lazarus here. It had better be good, Harrigan!".
"Yes, sir! We're four miles outside the base, at the motel. The NRO truck and guards have stopped here. I think they're going to be staying here tonight and bring the satellite in and load it on the shuttle tomorrow all in one go. Anyway, Mary's just come out of the public bar and says they're almost too drunk too stand up, let alone drive". "We're on our way!" yelled the Captain. "Corp! Grab another humvee from the base motor pool. Those slack idiots on the convoy decided to stop for a bit of R&R at the motel. We're going to relieve them of their cargo". The corporal came back with an unmarked humvee a couple of minutes later. "What's this, corp?" questioned Captain Lazarus, noting the cleaner than usual appearance and more luxurious decor. After looking inside more clearly, he turned to the corporal. "That's General Franklin's personal transport you've just tea-leafed, corporal! You'd better make sure it's clean when we come back, or he'll smell a rat. He doesn't mind much if we bust a few heads in a bar when we're off-duty, but he loves his car. If it's covered in mud, crud and blood and stinking of hot metal and spent ammo when we get back, he'll crucify you!". "It was the only thing there we could use, sir!" the corporal shot back "The only other vehicle was a Brad belonging to the MPs". "Never mind" groused the Captain "Let's go".
About ten minutes later they pulled into the motel carpark. Harrigan jogged over to investigate "Oh, it's you Captain" he said, relieved "Almost gave Mary and I a heart attack when we saw General Franklin's personal humvee pull in. Better make sure this thing's clean when you put it back, corporal. If it's covered in mud, crud and blood...". The corporal cut him off with "Oh, not you as well! The Captain here gave me the third degree about that already!". "Stop teasing him about that, Harrigan" laughed Mary. Then she continued in a more subdued voice "They're still in the bar. The barman wants them dragged back to their rooms to sleep it off. If we take them off his hands we can stash them in one of the rooms later without arousing suspicion". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- They put their wet weather gear on over their fatigues and went in to the bar. The barman was just trying to persuade them they'd had enough, and to go back to their rooms to sleep it off. He turned as Mary came in with Harrigan and Lazarus. "Can your friends drag these guys back to their rooms? They've had too much to get themselves there" he asked. "Sure" Mary replied "Harrigan, can you guys grab one each and follow the barman., please?". Captain Lazarus, Lieutenant Harrigan and the corporal grabbed one in each hand by their uniform collars and dragged them out the door to their rooms. They had to return to the bar and grab the truck driver separately, as he was too fat for any of them to manage on their own. Once they'd dumped him with the others, they relieved all of the guards of their uniforms and ID badges and left the way they came. The corporal went in the General's humvee, Harrigan and Mary took the truck and NRO humvee respectively, while the Captain took his own back to base.
When they got back to the main gate it was just before shift change, so the gate guard was not as alert as he should have been. He signed the NRO vehicles in, waved the other humvees through without a glance, and went back to the guard hut and his coffee. Captain Lazarus noted the guard's name and rank from his ID badge. "That guard's not going to like his fitrep one bit this time. He'll end up in Thule, Greenland for the rest of his enlistment for that". Harrigan drove the truck over to the launch pad hangar and grabbed a lift back with Mary in the NRO humvee. "Drop this off at engineering, we'll get the night shift to respray it. Then we'll pick up our new toy tomorrow and stash it behind the ready room for later". "You're an incurable dog-robber, aren't you?" said Mary, prodding him in the shoulder. "Nah, I just find all this good stuff, and it walks off to the barracks all by itself" Harrigan replied, with a mile-wide cheesy grin on his face. Mary laughed, and they walked off to their respective quarters after dropping the NRO humvee at engineering.
Things were not going as well for Captain Shulton and his investigation. While the MP's and gate guards were positively eager to help out, they didn't actually know anything useful; the sergeant had had to caution several not to add stuff of their own to get Harrigan in even more trouble. The air force troops would know more – but we can't get anything out of them! They seem curiously tight-lipped whenever the conversation went in the direction of Lieutenant Harrigan and his activities, and neither Captain Shulton or his sergeant knew why. As for the IASA personnel, they weren't saying anything about Harrigan at all. They probably didn't actually know him, but one or two looked more than slightly tense during questioning. Damn! Oh, well, Captain Shulton thought, I'll give them the third degree tomorrow, perhaps then I'll find out what's going on here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Launch day. T minus 14 hours. Captain Shulton was awakened to the incessant chirping of his cellphone on the table. "Yes?!" he growled. "I'm the satellite convoy truck driver" came a voice very much the worse for wear "We stopped off in the hotel last night, and woke up this morning handcuffed to the inside of the hotel laundry cupboard minus our uniforms! Where the hell's the satellite disappeared off to?". After gulping down some coffee rather too quickly, the Captain replied "It should be here. Just a minute...". He put down his cellphone and picked up the room phone. "IASA launch centre" replied the morning secretary. "Captain Shulton, OSI. Can you tell me if the satellite scheduled for launch this evening is here?". The secretary tapped a few keys , and replied "Yes, Captain. Checked in last night at 2145 hours. It should be in the shuttle already. Scheduled to launch at..." the tap, tap, tap of computer keys floated down the line "2200 hours. Final prelaunch checks and loading to finish by 2130 hours.". Scratching his head, wondering what the hell was going on, he picked up his cellphone again. "You still there?" The driver replied in the affirmative "Your satellite checked in as scheduled. According to IASA, the thing's already on the the shuttle in preparation for tonight's launch. Is there some...". "Hold on" the driver interrupted "One of the guards has just come in. I'll put him on". "Can you shed some light on this whole sorry episode, soldier?!" growled the Captain, cursing the entire NRO in general and this convoy in particular "I think so, Captain. While we were all very much the worse for wear last night, I noticed something a bit odd". "Well don't stop now! Spill it!" Captain Shulton yelled. "Yes sir!" the guard replied "Most of them drank far too much to notice, but the landlord got a few of the other drinkers to drag us back to our rooms. They sure as hell weren't truckies, sir. If I had to venture an opinion, I'd say soldiers. I'm pretty sure I saw combat fatigues under the raincoat of the one dragging the humvee driver away"
Yes! thought the Captain, things are actually starting to go my way! "Thank you soldier. That will be all" he replied, thumbing the off button on the phone. After a shower, shave and clean uniform, he grabbed his sergeant from where he was chatting to one of the other visitors. "Get along to IASA and collar those two that were looking a bit shifty yesterday." Captain Shulton whispered "I'll be along shortly." "Yes, sir. Think we might find out what's going on?" the sergeant replied as they walked out of the VIP quarters. "Yes. But the air force troops are keeping their mouths firmly shut. Those IASA guys haven't had interrogation training like soldiers do. We'll tighten the thumbscrews until they tell us what we need to know" "I hear you, sir" laughed the sergeant "It'll be good to get out of this festering hole and back to civilisation". "Don't like Cape Canaveral, sarge?" continued the Captain. "No sir!" replied the sergeant "I'd prefer Nellis. Damn, sir, I'd prefer fraggin' McMurdo to this place"
In the barracks, Harrigan was going through what Captain Lazarus and the corporal had liberated from the armoury the previous day. "Hmm. Not bad at all, Captain" pondered Lieutenant Harrigan "OK, three FN FiveSeven's, with suppressors, shoulder rigs and seven loaded mags a piece" He quickly passed them out to Mary and the corporal, keeping one for himself "Next, three complete suits of Class VI body armour. Bettter put those on now"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Five minutes of struggling and cursing inconvenient buckles, plus waiting for Mary to get back later, Harrigan continued "Two M4 rifles, suppressed, ten loaded mags a piece. Plus reflex sights. Sorry corp, no shotgun, you'll have to make do with a rifle" One slightly deflated corporal later, Harrigan finished with "And my G8, of course" patting the barrel. "Hmm, fifteen drums loaded with API. What's in there, corp?" questioned Harrigan, pointing at the two mysterious crates as yet unopened. "That's a present to you from that headcase armourer"replied Captain Lazarus "None of us dared open them. He said one of them doesn't like rough handling much". Harrigan immediately yelled "Crowbar!" which the corporal dutifully passed over. Harrigan cracked both crates open and peered inside. "Right, clear the table Mary" he asked "We'll need some more space. Our little presents include one Steyr heavy sniper rifle. We are fortunate to have the magazine-fed version in 50-cal OMNI. Two cases of CS grenades. One case containing..." Harrigan heaved the latest offering onto the table "Captain? Any ideas?" turning to the Captain "You are lucky indeed, Harrigan. Enough C-4 and detonators to flatten most of the base. Makes me wish I was coming with you". "Now for the other crate" continued Harrigan "'Handle carefully – Danger' it says here. Wonder why?"
Harrigan carefully unscrewed the top off the crate and looked at the contents revealed to him. Then he turned to stare at the Captain "I'm gonna have some serious words with that armourer. If we weren't launching tonight I'd do it now." Captain Lazarus stepped forward, anxious to see what had got his Lieutenant into such a state. "Mary!" yelled the Captain, going almost purple over what he saw "Could you please confirm that what's in this 'ere box is what I think it is?". Having never heard the Captain in such a rage, Mary hurried over. Captain Lazarus just pointed at the box. "Help me out here, Harrigan" asked Mary "And please don't drop it! You could kill the whole base and half the city with that! If it is what I think it is" she added. Fifteen seconds and several scraped fingers later, the small group stood staring in surprise, and no small measure of horror at what was revealed. The corporal in particular had gone almost white with fear. "I..I..I.." he stuttered. "Calm down, corp" responded Harrigan. "Is that stuff safe sitting there on the table like that?" he finally mustered up the courage to say.
Mary had just finished a close examination of the barrel. It wasn't that large, being about 2½ feet high and half that wide, but as it contained Tabun nerve poison size wasn't an issue here. A barrel this size could indeed kill the whole base and half the city, and far more on top. "Yeah, it's fine" Mary replied "The barrel's intact, with no sign of corrosion or other damage anywhere. That armourer could get put away for ever for having that stuff, but at least he kept it properly". "Right, you lot" growled the Captain "Stash that back in it's box. I'll grab a couple of volunteers and load this stuff on the shuttle now. With any luck the replacement NRO crew hasn't shown up yet". Harrigan, well acquainted with the Captain's method of selecting volunteers, sniggered nastily but otherwise said nothing. "L-T, you and Mary will have to get as much of your money together as you can and back here by T minus 3 hours. I know we haven't had the three days we'd hoped for; we'll just have to make do. If you can gouge a bit more out of them, Mary, do it; even if they charge ruinous rates we'll have to accept it if we want to launch on time" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Corp" Captain Lazarus continued "You get the easiest job of the lot. You'll come over to the launch facility with me, but will stay behind until launch time. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and call us if anything happens. That's settled then. Everyone know what they need to do?". A chorus of "Yessir!", "Aye, Cap'n", and similar replies followed. "Well don't just flap around like a bunch of flappers, get on with it!" he yelled. Thus encouraged, they split up. Harrigan and Mary went to engineering to grab the now ex-NRO humvee. Captain Lazarus took the corporal to the barracks.
DK was definitely getting edgy. Five of their group of conspirators hadn't turned up for their shift this morning; while one or two may be a few minutes late, it was unnerving him severely that as many as five were affected enough to make them not turn up at all. After some careful questioning of the remaining technicians, he still didn't have a clue as to where they were, which wasn't helping his already paranoid state of mind one bit. At about 11am, DK decided that sitting in his office chewing his fingernails to the bone wasn't helping matters, so he walked over to the canteen in the hope that some food would settle him down enough to think straight. Half way though his sandwich, a very out of breath radar operator caught up with him at his corner table. This definitely doesn't look good, DK pondered. After a couple of minutes huffing and puffing to catch his breath, the wild-eyed tech turned to DK and told him some things that only proved him right.
"We're in deep brown doo, DK, and sinking lower by the second" he gasped "Those OSI guys just dropped out of nowhere, grabbed five of the other crew, and disappeared. Three of them won't be any trouble, but the other two were there when we were discussing, well, you know" he continued, pointing upwards "If they break...". DK cut in with "Will they? Break, I mean". "Yeah, and soon. They're not soldiers, they're just regular guys off the street. Start tightening the thumscrews, and all they'll be able to think about is saving their own careers and families. It'll come back to haunt them later, but it's too late for us then". "Pipe down!" DK growled "You want the whole base to hear?!". "Oops, yeah, sorry" a chastened radar op replied. "Right, that's settled. Get back to work before someone notices you're gone. Make sure any others who were there know the score about why the OSI are here. With any luck, that'll cause a sudden case of salmonella or something similarly nasty that'll explain the loss of some techs. I'll make sure the Captain knows what's going on"
When Mary and Harrigan turned up at engineering, a similar story awaited them. "Ah, Harrigan" the duty sergeant greeted them "First, the good news. That humvee you dropped off yesterday is fully fuelled and ready to go. Nobody will ever recognise that it started life outside the Air Force". Harrigan rubbed his hands together in glee "Good, 'cause I'll be needing that right now". "However..." the sergeant continued. "Yes?" queried Mary and Harrigan. "That OSI captain and his pet sergeant have been sniffing around. No one here likes OSI much, so we kept our mouths shut, but the last thing he said as he went out that door", the sergeant paused to point at it, then went on "was 'We'll see if your IASA comrades will be more forthcoming'. I don't know what you lot are up to, but you'd better watch yourself" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The day just gets better and better, Harrigan muttered under his breath. "Come on, Harrigan" Mary urged, getting into the humvee "The sooner we're off base, the better". "Amen to that, Mary" he replied, jumping into the humvee's driver's seat. After slamming the door shut, he treated the engineering workshop to a shower of gravel from the back of the humvee as he sped off, pausing just long enough to open a side gate, get the humvee through, and shut it again.
Mary immediately produced her mobile phone and punched in a number. "Yes, it's Mary" she replied to the voice on the other end. "We're going to have to move the timetable up a gear or two...Yes, I know it's inconvenient...How much can you get anyway?...That much?...If we must, we must...OK, the shop at 1530 hours...bye". She threw the phone over the back seat. "What's up, Mary?" Harrigan asked. "A few slight problems" Mary replied "but nothing we can't handle. Time will be tight though. We can lay our hands on about half what we planned on right now". This did not please Harrigan in the slightest. Noting his sour expression, Mary continued "We can increase that if we don't mind getting involved with a few somewhat unsavoury characters. Pawnbrokers and the like. That'll get us three-quarters of our planned resources but use all our money". Harrigan didn't like that much, but didn't have much of a choice. "It'll have to do. If those loonies try to squeeze any more out of us, I'll shoot them. This whole situation with the OSI is making me seriously angry"
Back at Canaveral, the OSI sergeant was just getting started on the third interrogation. "We know Lieutenant Harrigan was responsible for assaulting Major Beasley, and we know him and his people are planning something else as well" he told the tech currently in front of him. He was skating on thin ice here, he knew, but was banking on the hope that no-one except him and Captain Shulton knew just how thin it was. "It will go better for you if you tell me what you know. If you don't, you may lose your security clearance, and may additionally be charged with obstruction of justice as well. I'll leave you to think about it for a couple of minutes" he finished, and went out the door for a cup of coffee.
One of the other unfortunates stuck her head through the door once the sergeant was out of sight. "How's things?" she asked. "Not good" the older man replied "I'm not up to this at all. Get along to the barracks and warn them the OSI's going to come knocking soon. They'll have to confirm what they get out of me with what you tell them, so we may be able to give DK and his friends enough time to launch before these goons catch on. Now go!" he wheezed. She immediately shot off through the opposite end of the corridor, down a flight of steps, and out the back door.
At the launch site, Captain Lazarus, the corporal, and the three unfortunate volunteers were securing the barrel of Tabun in the shuttle's cargo bay when the shuttle intercom chimed. "Lazarus" the Captain barked. After a couple of seconds, he hung up. "Something's come up. You four, finish securing this stuff. Take special care with that barrel. Harrigan won't want a barrel of nerve poison bouncing around the cargo bay while manoevreing, will he?". One of the troopers piped up with "What the hell's he need that stuff for anyway?". "Need to know, private; I thought you'd know that by now" Captain Lazarus replied "Besides, that armourer may be a bit nuts, but he's come through for us a lot of times before – so we'll do him a favour and take it off his hands before he gets sprung" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "I hear you, Cap" the private replied, before tightening the last strap securing the barrel.
Two minutes later, Captain Lazarus met the female tech at the bottom of the launch tower. "Bad news, sir" she gasped. "What a surprise" the Captain muttered "OK, spill it". "Yes, sir" she replied "Andrew just got collared by OSI". "Oh, crap!" the Captain sighed "He was with this whole thing from the start, wasn't he?". "That's right, sir" the tech continued. "The only thing in your favour is that they'll spend several hours confirming any info they gather with what they get from the rest of us, which hopefully will take all afternoon and most of the night". Captain Lazarus fished his phone out of his pocket. "You can go now, miss. I've got some calls to make" he prompted. "Good luck, sir" she said, and left. We'll need lots of that, he knew as he punched Harrigan's number in.
"Almost there, John" Mary soothed, trying to calm the Lieutenant's mounting temper. Then Harrigan's phone started beeping. "Harrigan" he barked "Ah Captain...Yes, Mary's here, we're on our way to the pickup...Damn! Damn! Damn!...Yeah, I expect so...Hope they hold out long enough...Bye". Harrigan punched the 'Off' button and shoved the phone back in his pocket. "More bad news?" Mary asked. "Yep" Harrigan replied. "The whole thing's completely FUBAR'ed. The OSI grabbed a bunch of the guys who got me into this and have started getting cruel and unusual on them. If they were soldiers, we'd easily have enough time to launch before they cracked. Civvies won't last so long. It's going to be hard getting to the launch site undetected". "Ssh! We're here!" Mary hissed. Harrigan drove around to the delivery entrance where they found Mr Levi waiting for them.
"Come on!" he rasped "I don't want all this stuff out here for too long, even around here". Mary quickly opened the humvee's rear hatch, and the pair of them loaded the gold and gems in as quickly as they could. Half an hour later, Mr Levi's share was loaded. "Here's the address for the rest of your load. It's not a nice part of town, so watch yourselves, and that humvee, carefully" Mr Levi advised "The owner knows what you look like and is waiting for you. Go!". Mr Levi had to duck a shower of rubbish off the street as Harrigan burned rubber getting away.
Mary looked at the address they had been given. "While it's not as bad as it could be, we'll have to be quick." Mary explained "If the wrong people see what we've got, we'll end up starting a firefight to get away". Harrigan threaded the humvee through the drug dealers, prostitues, muggers, and general ne'er-do-well's as they made their way to the target building. "A really nice neighbourhood this is" declared Harrigan, warily "How far to go?". "Just over there" Mary replied, pointing to the pawnbroker's sign a little further down the road. "There's a service entrance down that alley. Hopefully there's no druggies or homeless people in it right now". They reached the shop without further incidents, and although the humvee got a couple more scrapes to add to its already abundant collection, these weren't added to by small pieces of hobo stuck in the radiator grille or wedged in the tyre treads. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- A balding, over-anxious man in his early 40s stuck his head out of the back door of the building. "You're those two guys Mr Levi told me about, all right. That humvee's in bad condition even for around here. In the back, fast". Harrigan and Mary followed the pawnbroker through the back door and into a storeroom. He stepped back and swept his arm in front of him. "All those crates in the middle of the room are yours. Now where's my money?" he demanded. Harrigan grabbed the pawnbroker by his collar and hoisted him a few inches off the floor. "I don't appreciate you bad manners in front of Mary" Harrigan replied quietly. After dropping him back on the floor, he continued with "But your money's out back in the humvee. Come on and help us carry it in here". All three of them spent the next fifteen minutes carting the money inside the shop to the storeroom. Harrigan and Mary spent a further fifteen minutes stashing the gold and gems in every available crevice in the humvee.
Just as they stashed the last crate on the humvee's back seat, they heard raised voices from the front of the shop. "Mary, you stay here with the humvee" decided Harrigan "I'll check this out". After a short-lived grumble from Mary, Harrigan went inside and Mary got in the humvee and locked the door. As Harrigan got closer, the voices became clearer. "You will empty all the money and jewellery from the counter" barked one robber "or we'll splatter your shit all over the room". "And burn the place to the ground on the way out" added another. "Hmm, a little exercise" thought Harrigan "Only hear two – shouldn't take long". He then pulled a suppressor from a pocket on his shoulder rig and screwed it firmly onto the barrel of his FN and proceeded further inside. As Harrigan had surmised, there was indeed a robbery in progress. However, there were three people involved, not two; and they were all armed – two with pistols, and one with a cut-down pump-shotgun.
The one with the shotgun was getting very uptight. "I told you already" the pawnbroker pleaded "I cleaned out most of my stock for a special delivery – it left ten minutes ago". Harrigan had heard enough. He raised his pistol and put three rounds straight through Mr Shotgunner's skull, splattering his head over the floor in a wet pink clould of blood and brains, before they even knew he was there. Pistol 1 and Pistol 2 just stared in horror at the remains of their ex-comrade bleeding all over the floor. Then Pistol 1 snapped out of it, turning towards Harrigan. "You killed Hector! Now it's your turn!" he screamed, firng half a dozen shots from his pistol. Harrigan ducked back behind the wall, fast. "That last one almost skimmed my hair!" he exclaimed in surprise. "That's right, hide, fool!" Pistol 2 taunted him "Afraid, ain't you?!". Before his voice had faded Harrigan popped back round the door. Firing two shots into Pistol 1's chest at close range, he then knocked the last remaining robber to the floor and planted his left boot on his chest. "Of you?!" Harrigan sneered "Hell, no! I find more dangerous things in my breakfast cereal!". "Yeah, well eat this!" he replied, squirming out form under Harrigan's foot and going for his gun. Harrigan was quicker, however, and two more shots from his pistol sent the last robber on to join his friends. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- He slapped a fresh mag in his FiveSeven, reholstered it, and yelled out to the pawnbroker, cowering behind the cash register. "You can come out now" he called "They won't hassle you again". The shaking pawnbroker stood back up and almost lost it again when he saw the mess on his floor. "You KILLED them all? Just you?" he stammered in surprise. "Yep" replied Harrigan, pleased with himself "That's my job; killing people and breaking things. I'm good at it too" and grinned to make his point. "Gotta go, I'm late. My superiors aint gonna like me hanging around out here, even if I'm providing a community service by killing robbers. Byeee!" and bolted out the door to the humvee.
Mary was not happy. "What took you so long?!" she yelled. "Ease off, Mary" Harrigan sighed "Three nutcases with guns tried to hold the place up. It took a little while to kill them all and get back out here". Mary shook her head from head from side to side "You never thought of just calling the police, did you?" she asked. "Where's the fun in that? Besides : (1) by the time they'd get here, the place would have been cleaned out of everything except one dead pawnbroker, and (2) I needed the extra practice anyway". Just then, Harrigan's cellphone rang. "Harrigan...Yes, Captain...What?!...Yes sir...Yes sir...On the way sir, just finished". "What's up?" asked Mary. Harrigan put the humvee in gear, and turned back for the base before he answered. "The OSI are too damn close. They grabbed a bunch of DK's people and are working them over right now. It's back to base for us"
Half an hour and two police patrols later, they arrived back at Canaveral. Harrigan didn't go through the main gate – the OSI sergeant would have his eye on the admission list. So he got a pair of wire cutters and made a new entrance in the fence nearer to the launch site. After re-securing the fence, they took five more minutes to reach the tower.
The corporal and three other troopers were just taking a breather before the final cargo check. "That's about it" one of the troopers said "All we've got to do is secure Harrigan's get out of jail money and we're done here". The corporal spotted a dust trail heading for the tower, fast. "Binoculars!" he yelled. After he'd taken a quick look around, he zoomed in on the windscreen and saw two familiar faces. He handed the binoculars back. "It's Mary and Harrigan" the corporal told the three curious troopers. "Grab a trolley and get down to the base of the tower. Let's get the last of Harrigan's gear stowed and get over to DK. He'll need your help on his end"
Harrigan pulled up at the base of the tower in a clould of dust. As soon as the dust cleared, he saw the three troopers waiting for him with the trolley. "Good!" Harrigan exclaimed "Properly equipped, as well! Get over here and get these crates on that trolley of yours, and stashed on the shuttle. Move!". Forty minutes and two trips later everything was stowed properly. He then called the Captain on his cellphone "Captain...Yes, I'm back...everything as expected, except I had three robbers to kill at the pawnbrokers...Mary said that too, Captain...I'll send your three volunteers back to you right away...Yes sir...Harrigan out". The three troopers and the corporal turned towards him expectantly as he punched the 'off' button and put his phone away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "Corp" Harrigan explained "you'll stay here. Read a book or get some sleep. There's nothing more for you to do until launch time. The rest of us will head back and get DK's guys to launch control. OK, let's move like we've got a purpose". As soon as the three troopers bundled into the back of the humvee , Harrigan spun the wheels and took off for the barracks, where Captain Lazarus was waiting for them with his usual sour look on his face.
"Now that you've had your fun in town, Harrigan" Captain Lazarus grumbled "we'll have to get DK's crew out from under the OSI. They took them to the VIP quarters, so they'll be easy to find. I'll take my humvee; Harrigan, you take yours. Hopefully we'll be able to slip in while they're screaming at someone else and get our people away before they notice".
The two humvee's were parked out of sight of the VIP quarters, so Harrigan and Lazarus proceeded on foot while the three troopers stayed in the humvee.When they got to the front door, Captain Lazarus held his finger up in front of his mouth in the signal to be quiet "Ssh!" he whispered, and eased open the door. The pair of them quickly slid through the gap. Inside, a few of them recognised Harrigan and came over. "Quiet!" Harrigan hissed. "Don't worry about that, sir" a weather tech replied. "They've had Jamie in there for about an hour. He doesn't know about our project, but he's been screaming, shouting, and ranting fit to bring the house down about civil rights, the constitution, court-martials, lawyers, and all that kind of stuff. You could drive a tank through the front door there and they wouldn't notice". "Out, then, the lot of you" said Captain Lazarus "Before they catch on. DK's waiting for you at launch control".
No further encouragement was needed. All eight of the remaining crew scuttled out of the door and ran as fast as they could for the humvees. Both Harrigan and Lazarus kept their driving under firm control; neither of them wanted to tip off an over-eager MP as they were probably all working with the OSI by now. DK was just coming out of his office building when the two humvees pulled up right in front of him. "Whoah, guys!" DK said, alarmed "Not so close! Ah, well, at least you're here" DK peered inside the two humvees. "And so's the rest of my launch crew! Let's be off, then. We've enough time for a good meal before prelaunch checks start".
"I hear that!" Harrigan perked up as soon as he heard 'food' mentioned. "IASA cafeteria, here we come!". The group commandeered the two tables nearest the door, after which Harrigan ran off to the buffet and piled up enough food to choke an elephant onto his plate. Several of DK's people looked on in sheer amazement as Harrigan piled into an enormous steaming bowl of curry. "Is he always like that, Captain?" wondered one of the comm officers. "Yes" replied the Captain, giving the speech one more time "Sometimes the troops like to fleece visiting officers and men of their hard-earned cash by taking bets on how much he'll get through". Harrigan stopped eating long enough to add "Besides" he said, a punishing draft of high-grade Madras curry with extra chillies wafting over the immediate area, almost peeling the paint off the wall "the smell of this curry will probably kill that OSI sergeant stone dead, which will save me a few rounds for later". "You're not wrong, L-T" replied DK "It's almost killed us already". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Back in the VIP quarters, Captain Shulton was not happy. This particular IASA employee was being especially obstructive, he knew. Perhaps, I'll have more luck with a different one, he thought. "Sarge!" he yelled out of the door. "Sir?" the sergeant replied. "Go get another one, sergeant. This guy's too stubborn. We won't get anything out of him without doing something seriously illegal". The sergeant went ou to the foyer to get another IASA employee, but was greeted with an unexpectedly empty room. The sergeant scurried back in, with a very unhappy look on his face. "Sarge?" Captain Shulton asked, aware that something wasn't quite right. The sergeant just beckoned him over to the foyer entrance. Captain Shulton took one look at a foyer mysteriously devoid of prisoners and promptly hit the roof.
"WHAT THE HELL"S GOING ON?!" he screamed. The sergeant scratched his head a little, and a tentative answer came to him. "It was probably while Jamie in there was wailing like a demented banshee about deprivation of liberty and lawyers and crap" the sergeant pondered aloud "Harrigan and Lazarus may be a pair of headcases and renegades, but they're spec-ops trained headcases. That noise gave them all the distraction they needed to get that lot away. We'll not get them back now". Captain Shulton immediately grabbed the handset off the desk phone and punched up the MP's guardhouse. "Oi, you lot!" barked Captain Shulton. "Harrigan's merry men are up to something serious. Find him, and all of his confederates, and bring them in!". He slammed the phone down and turned to his sergeant. "You go along too, and make sure they get it right. I've got a headache, and I'm going back to bed" he grumped , as he went back up to his room.
Let's just get this over with, thought the sergeant. He knew he was out of his depth on this one. He'd spent most of his OSI time chasing errant corporals going AWOL, or the occasional sergeant pilfering stuff off supply convoys. But these people were special operations soldiers; tough, smart, and well accustomed to outwitting people like him. I'll just have to swarm the place with MP's and hope I get lucky, and if the Captain doesn't like it he can get stuffed.
DK was giving his crew a last-minute briefing. "Just remember, you've done this many times before, so keep calm and don't muck it up" he advised "The good Captain here and his men will watch over us and keep us safe". Captain Lazarus and the remainder of the squad on base had all drawn full loadouts from the armoury, so there were many suppressed M4's here, a few short-barrel Minami Para SAW's, and enough flashbangs and CS grenades to stretch all the way to the moon if laid end to end. They had procured a truck from the armoury for this part of the plan, as eight armed soldiers and ten technicians were too much for two humvees.
Harrigan was just finishing his second bowl of curry, when a wild-eyed and out of breath private ran into the room. "OSI!" he yelled "With MP's in support. SCATTER!". The place emptied in seconds. Harrigan was not happy at all. "They could have waited until I'd finished my curry" he grumbled. Mary brought him back to reality "Stuff the curry!" she yelled "Let's get to the shuttle before it's blocked off". They ran for their humvee and barely got the doors shut before MP's came out of the cafeteria door "STOP!" they yelled. Harrigan replied by slamming his foot to the floor, fishtailing the humvee out of the parking lot at top speed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- The MP's went for their own humvee, but the minute or two this took gave Harrigan all the advantage he needed. Soon enough, the MP's realised it too. "Get that Mustang over there, this rustbucket's too slow". Five seconds later, one of the MP's had it hotwired. The other three piled in and they sped off after Harrigan as fast as they could
Mary heard the roar of a high performance engine behind them, approaching fast. She looked round and instantly identified the occupants of the car. "MP's" Mary said "They commandeered a Mustang from the parking lot". "You've got a rifle" Harrigan replied "Put a burst through the radiator. That'll dissuade all but the terminally stupid". Mary looked surprised that Harrigan would suggest firing on what were, technically, his own people; but then remembered that Harrigan ranked tinpot dictators higher than MP's on military credibility, and that he hadn't actually said 'kill'. So she grabbed her M4 and aimed back towards the fast-approaching Mustang.
One of the MP's noticed this and yelled 'GUN!'. Unfortunately he did so right in the driver's ear, and the shock nearly caused him to roll the car right over. After one of the other passengers hit their errant fellow a couple of times, the driver started weaving from side to side in an attempt to evade the gunfire from the humvee. However Mary's second burst was right on target. A storm of shells blew through the radiator, battery, distributor and starter motor. The driver thankfully managed to stop the vehicle safely, but the huge cloud of black smoke pouring from under the remains of the bonnet said that this car was a write-off. "Call that OSI sergeant" the senior MP said, resignedly "He'll have to deal with it now. He's got about half an hour before final countdown starts and the tower's off limits. We'd better head off to town, I don't want to be around when the OSI Captain starts looking for scapegoats, and I suggest you aren't around either". The one with the loud voice responded "There's a club in town that'll still be open if we hitch into town". "Not just a big mouth" the driver replied. "Let's be off". They little group ran for the nearest fence, vaulted it, and headed townwards.
DK and the soldiers were just arriving at launch control. DK banged on the door "It's me, DK, with the tower crew". "No can do" came the reply "OSI locked down the complex until they catch Harrigan". "Just let us in" DK yelled. "Can't!" came the reply. "A retard MP in there. What a surprise" DK growled "Over to you, Captain". Captain Lazarus drew a short length of primacord from one of his many pockets. After cutting it to the right length, he taped it and a mechanical detonator to the door around the lock. He then whispered "Fire in the hole!". The whole group ducked back behind the last turn in the staircase. Five seconds later there was an enormous bang as the charge exploded, throwing the lock across the room and through the window on the other side of the room. Captain Lazarus' soldiers quickly entered and secured the control centre, and opened the windows to dissipate the cloud of smoke and the stench of burnt primacord. "Somehow, I don't think I should have followed the Marcinko method of demolition this time" he muttered "Oh well, never mind. Tap, cuff, and stash guys!". After a short cacophony of blackjacks hitting skulls and handcuffs clicking shut the Captain continued "Good work, people. DK, get your people set up. Troops, set up defensive positions. I want at least one Minami covering each door". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- When the OSI sergeant found out about the fate of the MP's he was even angrier. "Right!" he grumbled "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself!". And if it goes wrong, then I won't hang around to deal with the Captain Shulton, because he'll get an even worse headache when he finds out. He grabbed his motorcycle from outside the VIP quarters, and took off for the launch tower.
Captain Lazarus got on the internal comm to the shuttle. "L-T, you safe and secure at your end yet?" he asked. The reply cam back promptly "Yeah, everything's sweet so far. Mary had to hose down a bunch of MPs in a Mustang on the way in but nothing since then. Just took out the car" aware that Captain Lazarus wouldn't like to think he'd killed his own MPs. "That's good, Harrigan. Even MPs can be useful sometimes. What?!" Harrigan yelled "Get the Steyr from the cargo hold! Sorry, Captain" Harrigan explained "That OSI sergeant is smarter than we gave him credit for. He's on a motorcycle burning hard for the tower. I'll have to take out the bike. He may not survive, Cap". "I don't much like it either, Harrigan, but needs must. Just do it. Lazarus out". Captain Lazarus thumbed the intercom off.
The corporal handed Harrigan the massive sniper rifle. After checking the ammo, Harrigan smashed a tower window and poked the huge gun out. It took seconds for Harrigan to locate the speeding motorcycle. Aim...lead target to allow for movement... BOOM! came the ear shattering noise of a 50 OMNI round cooking off, and the SLAM! of the bolt cycling another round into the chamber. One more followed, then a muffled explosion from further off as the bike blew apart. Harrigan followed the target to see the status of the OSI sergeant. While his legs were a complete mess, he was alive for now. "Corp" Harrigan replied "Get on the horn to base hospital. Get an ambulance out here for that sergeant, fast". After the corporal did so, Harrigan stashed the rifle back in the shuttle, then got back on the comm to his Captain. "Done. I've called base hospital to come and get him, he looked a mess through the scope. He should live, but both his legs are complete paste. He'll never walk again". The Captain replied "I don't like it anymore than you do, L-T. Get into the shuttle, get strapped in, prepare for immediate launch, THAT"S AN ORDER, HARRIGAN!". Harrigan perked up a bit "Aye, sir" he said, and turned to Mary and the corporal. "Strap down. Prepare for launch. Immediate preflight checks please, corp" Harrigan ordered, getting more excited with every word. They were actually going up! Going out into the deep unknown where no-one had gone outside of science fiction and returned to tell the tale! It was all he could do not to dance a jig on the tower floor. He ran through the open shuttle door, slamming and locking it shut.
Mary powered up her comm gear. "Captain, DK?" she queried "The shuttle is sealed, we are all aboard. Flight engineer" she winked at the corporal, who blushed and turned back to his instruments "reports no malfunctions. We are go for launch". DK continued "Entering into countdown hold at T minus 5 minutes for final tower system check". DK's crew immediately scurried about checking everything that could be checked. They were about to cancel the hold when there was a ferocious banging on the door. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- "State your business, fast, or prepare to die!" barked the Minami gunner covering the door. A familiar voice barked straight back at him "Who do you think you are, not even recognising your own General Franklin? Open UP! That's an ORDER!". Captain Lazarus immediately got on the comm to Harrigan "Slight problem, L-T. General Franklin's turned up". "Whee!" Harrigan exclaimed, really surprised "Still, he's smart; that's how he's a general. As long as it's just him that comes in, that ought to be fine". The Captain turned to one of the other troopers. "Let the General in" he ordered. Ignoring the surprised looks, he continued "But only him. No aides or bodyguards. If any try to force their way in, kneecap 'em".
The door was opened and the General came in. Th trooper did bar his aide politely but firmly "No flunkies" he stated "The General's safe with us". The aide looked like he wanted to argue, but the General stopped him. "Go back to the office and catch up with the paperwork. Nobody's to reach me, even the President, until I get back to my office". The somewhat chastened aide muttered "Yes, sir" and slunk off back to HQ. General Franklin walked over to the main console. DK pulled up a chair for the General. "I ought to have realised it was something like this when I saw both you and Harrigan were involved in this little caper" the General thought aloud "But I didn't catch on until my wife remarked on that particular coincidence this morning". Lazarus shook his head slowly; he should have known that the General would discuss work matters with his wife. "So I came up here when I had a free moment. You inspire an amazing streak of loyalty in your men, Captain, for them to follow you into a situation like this". One of those men turned to the General and explained "The Captain, and the Lieutenant as well, have pulled our fat from the fire numerous times before sir, in combat and out. It's the least we can do to return the favour".
The General shook his head in wonder. "Can you put me through to the shuttle, please?" he asked one of the techs. She pointed out a button on his console. "Use your headset, sir. Press that button to open the line, and again when you're done". He pressed the indicated button. "Harrigan?" he asked. "Yes, General Franklin, sir?" Harrigan replied uneasily. "We're better now we're on board, sir. Don't know if we'll actually find Commander Crichton, sir. But we'll do our damndest, or die trying. Mission control?" Harrigan switched to DK's crew "Farscape 3 requests permission to launch". DK turned to General Franklin "General? Would you do the honours, sir?". General Franklin replied to Harrigan "Farscape 3 : mission granted. You are go for launch. That's an order!" he laughed.
Back in the shuttle, the unlikely crew shared a final pre-launch laugh. "Fire up this thing, corp! Time to go!". The corporal looked at a checklist taped to his leg, and pressed three buttons and flipped two toggles. "Harrigan, those two toggles over your head please". Harrigan did so. A deafening roar built up below them as the main engines and boosters cut in. "T minus ten, nine, eight..." came the voice from mission control. Mary turned and flicked a hopeful smile at Harrigan, who returned it. "I hope we find him, John" she said "Me, too, Mary. Me too". The voice continued "...five...four...three...two...one...Launch!!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------