Feels weird to be done with a story that has taken over two years to complete, but it does mean some others can start I suppose. Only 10 more to post now.

Chapter 83

The Enforcer Returns

Even though Redding ordered Sage to be escorted safely to him, the suspicious former Martian still kept all three captured rifles with him until the buggy sent to pick him up arrived at the door to the reclusive leader's private garden.

"Sorry but I can't let you go inside armed" the battered and bruised gate guard insisted.

"You want to try and take them?" Sage sneered.

The guard could do nothing but shake his head and sigh as he wondered what kind of punishment Redding would order he undergo later.

"Relax" Sage gave an evil grin and left the rifles on the ground by the door.

Even knowing what kind of person Redding was, it still did not prepare Neville Sage for the sight that greeted him. He whistled in amazement as he walked down the centre path, watching the projected clouds move across the ceiling while the trees rustled in the artificially generated breeze.

"Happy to see you're taking such good care of yourself" Sage said sarcastically when he saw the old man sitting on a park bench sipping a glass of red wine.

Two peacocks wandered out of Sage's path as he approached.

"Oh my god... what happened to you?" Redding gasped "You look disgusting."

"You're no feast for the eyes either, you fossilised old prune" Sage sneered.

"Talk to me like that again and..."

"And nothing" Sage snapped "You've lost old man and the sad part is, you don't even know it yet."

"Don't be stupid; everything is working out just as I desired it to" Redding postulated.

"Have you given any though as to why I'm here?" Sage asked.

"I assume it's because Roux doesn't need your special talents on Mars any more" Redding shrugged.

"No; it is because the Mars Deep Council couldn't cope with me using my so called special talents to protect them, and so they will soon be over run by refugees from Earth."

"Impossible!" Redding stated.

"Not when you consider Professor Adisa has the ship."

"Ship; what ship?"

"THE ship you senile old coot! The tanker you thought your precious EFA had sent to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean sixteen years ago" Sage barked.

Redding's weak heart began to beat a little faster as he realised what this news meant. He opened a small panel on the arm rest of the bench and pressed an equally small button.

"Get Adisa in here RIGHT NOW!" he ordered "Drag him if you have to!"

"Adisa is here?" Sage was actually surprised.

"He didn't tell me; he's been letting me run my mouth off while making me think NOTHING WAS HAPPENING BACK IN SUMATRA!" Redding fumed as he hurled his wine glass at one of the peacocks, falling well short of hitting it.

"Adisa... is here?" Sage continued to be surprised.

"He arrived a few months ago; but I made sure people in the area knew what to do if they ever came across him or his group of do-gooders."

A surprisingly short amount of time passed before a few guards, including Reed Branson, forcefully led the Professor into Redding's presence.

"You want to see me I assume" Linton said nonchalantly.

"See you? I WANT TO KILL YOU!" Redding admitted.

"Oh... we're back there, are we?" Linton shrugged "Who's your friend with the interesting aroma?"

"I'm not surprised you don't recognise me Professor" Sage smiled "The last time you saw me, you threatened to blow my head off with a flare gun."

"That doesn't sound like me; also I think I'd remember if I..."

Sage's smile grew when he saw the Professor memory return.

"You were that helicopter pilot" Linton gasped "The one who evacuated us from the ship."

"Yes; the same ship that is now beached in Sumatra" Sage nodded.

"THE SAME SHIP YOU NEGLECTED TO TELL ME ABOUT" Redding barked.

"I didn't think it was important" Linton shrugged.

"If you think I'm going to just stand by and let you ruin everything I've built on Mars by sending more people..."

"Relax" Linton waved off Redding's concern "Sarah's not sending anyone to Mars; she's planning settlements in the Asteroid Belt."

"SHE'S NOT SENDING ANYONE, ANYWHERE" Redding stated adamantly.

The true head of the Deep Council was clearly disturbed as he paced back and forth while he thought. Anyone who tried to speak soon stopped when Redding gave them the 'Shut up or else' stare. When he finally stopped pacing, Redding pointed a wrinkled bony finger at Sage.

"You; go wash up and put on some clean clothes. Then you and the Colonel get over to my house and I'll tell you what you're going to do about this."

"I'm going to Sumatra so I can get off this doomed rock again" Sage stated.

"YOU'LL DO WHAT I DAMN WELL TELL YOU TO DO, AND I'M TELLING YOU TO GO TO SUMATRA AND DESTROY EVERYTHING; THE SHIP, THE RAILGUN AND ANYONE WHO GET'S IN YOUR WAY!" Redding shouted and stormed off.

While his mercenary guard made sure Redding's orders were carried out, Reed Branson kept close the Professor, pretending to keep the old man from escaping.

"So what now" Linton asked "Back to the house?"

"Do you want to go back to the house?" Reed asked.

"I want to follow Redding and see what he does now" the Professor said "Maybe I can talk some sense into him."

"Well nobody told me to watch you so I think I'll get back on patrol" Reed nodded "Just stay out of sight for a few minutes so I can pretend not to notice you."

When Branson had gone, Professor Adisa hurried down the path to Redding's home as fast as his elderly legs could manage. He caught up with the man he followed shortly before Redding entered his front door and slammed it shut behind him.

"Damn that Adisa; I should have him shot just for..."

Redding's personal rant ceased when he saw a yellow warning light flashing over the fireplace. It wasn't the first time the light had informed Redding about an urgent message from Mars, but it was the first time it had flashed in over ten years. It took him a few seconds to find the panel underneath the fireplace mantel but when it finally clicked, a small door opened on the right side wall. Behind it was a keypad that worried the elderly Jamaican professor spying through the window, because he could not quite make out what number Redding punched in.

With the key code entered a large wall panel opened outwards. Behind it was a chair and a keyboard for the old man to work at. As soon as he tapped the space bar, the wall above the keyboard lit up, revealing it to be a huge monitor screen. Redding used an old style tracking ball to move the cursor to the new file labelled 'Mars Base One' and clicked to open it.

"Oh my..." he gasped as he read.

Linton could not see the message but he could see the former Prime Governor becoming visibly upset. Redding had to stop reading before he reached the end of the message; he pulled a small pill box from his top left breast pocket and fumbled with the lid. The tiny white pill was difficult to swallow with such a dry mouth, but he managed to get it down eventually and he soon completed the message. When he had finished, Redding just sat for a few minutes taking deep but broken breaths, until he felt ready to make a very important announcement.

"Attention all guards" he spoke into a desk microphone "Round up each and every resident from both villages and escort them to the door outside my park. There are to be no exceptions; all must attend."

Redding hung his head for a few seconds before he rose and made for the front door. A short time after he had left, Linton quietly slipped inside and smiled because Redding had conveniently not closed up his secret workstation. Working quickly, the Professor hurried across the room and sat down in the chair. He started looking through the draws on each side until in the fourth one, he found exactly what he was looking for.

Picking up one of the small memory sticks in the draw, he plugged it into the nearest USB port. Without looking at what he was getting, Professor Adisa did a blanket download of the entire Documents folder before pocketing the Memory Stick and making for the door. He would have liked to have stayed and searched for more, but getting away with a little is always better than getting caught and ending up with nothing.

Don't ask me why, but I just felt like doin' some reminiscing about how this all began.

This story started off in the year 2085, but the first parts I worked on were foundation shorts starting in 2032, in the aftermath of the first meteor strike.

There was a story about the lowly senator suddenly being raised to the position of President of the United States when all those above him were killed in a meteor strike on Washington, a story about the construction of the Railgun in Sumatra, one about the formation of the EFA and the early days of the war and one about a young Florian Klein and his three companions as they started construction of Mars Base One.

Some of these tales were even written in first draft, but the only one to survive long enough to be published was 'The Ship'. I figured that the story of how April and Blue became separated was the only one really needed to get the ball rolling.