Chapter Twenty-one
"Home sweet, home."
After stretching out his back Beckett pulled off his shirt. Despite his advancing years his muscles still had much of their definition. Although not as powerful as during his youth his every motion spoke of years of training and combat. Etched across his back was a series of crisscrossing scars that had never truly faded with time.
Beckett reached up and rubbed at the blast pattern mark on chest over his heart from the phaser shot that had nearly ended his life twenty years ago. When he became overly exhausted the reconstructed bones beneath the mark still ached. So tired that he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to sleep Beckett was experiencing one of those time when the phaser blast felt nearly as painful as when it had first happened.
"One of these days I'm going to have actually think about retiring." Beckett muttered to himself.
Kicking off his boots Beckett deemed himself undressed enough to crawl into bed. He took a step towards the inviting bed when his vision suddenly blurred. The distinct sensation of being beamed away washed over him. When his sight returned he discovered himself standing on a transporter pad. His Superior was standing a few feet in front of him with a steely look in his ice blue eyes.
"Damn it, Sir!" Beckett barked. "I was almost in bed. Couldn't you have at least called first rather than just tear me out of my home?"
"No time, Jack." Brian Thomlin said curtly.
"You know I normally sleep in the buff..."
"Shut up. We have a serious situation here. Come on."
Thomlin turned on his heels and walked off. Sighing heavily Beckett followed the General. The stone floor was freezing against his bare feet, but he knew better than to complain. Thomlin led Beckett into his office and went over to the small conference computer table. Thomlin put his palm against the glass surface and the computer read his handprint before springing to life.
"Things are going well with Salen so far." Beckett announced.
"I wouldn't mention the Vulcan to me right now if I were you." Thomlin growled. "If I had any time to waste yelling at you about how much money you've poured into your little pointy eared pet I'd scream at you till I was hoarse."
"He'll be worth every credit."
"You didn't really put that thing in his neck did you?"
"I did."
"Damn it, Jack, you know we've had bad luck with those things."
"Salen will be different."
"You've got way too much faith in this kid."
"He's a go..."
"Shut up, end of Vulcan discussion, right now I don't give a rat's ass about him." Thomlin snapped. "We have bigger problems."
"What's going on?"
"Councilman Ringer's daughter has been abducted."
"What?!" Beckett cried. "How the fuck did that happen?!"
"No idea."
"Do you know who has her?"
"The..." Thomlin paused and pinched the bridge of his nose "the Ka'scene cartel."
"Oh shit."
"'Oh shit' is right."
"I should have known that the Ka'scene cartel would just grow a new head after we cut the last one off."
"That's part of why I brought you down here in person."
Thomlin tapped on the table surface causing a series of profile pictures to splay across the screen. Beckett's stomach turned when Thomlin enlarged a photo of a particularly civilized looking man. Far from looking like a blood thirsty criminal the dashing man looked like a high profile dignitary. The only thing about him that gave a hint to his true nature was the glint in his green eyes, a confident, greedy, power lust that radiated from his photo.
"Why are you showing that soulless wretch to me?" Beckett snarled.
"Vinel Ka'scene is still the cartel boss, he took her." Thomlin announced.
"No! No goddam way! He is dead!" Beckett roared. "I lost seven of my best men bringing that son of bitch down! I ripped apart half of Ialus 9 to get him! We turned his compound into a smoldering crater!"
"He survived."
"No!"
"We have proof. He's alive, and powerful again, and making demands of Starfleet that we can't possiable agree to."
"How did he get this powerful again right under our noses!"
"We can't keep our eye on every scumbag in the galaxy, particularly ones that we already think are dead."
Beckett was paralyzed for a moment. Finding himself shaking with rage he raked his hands through his hair. Screaming a choice profanity he turned to the nearest wall and punched it with all his strength. The flash of pain as his flesh hit the unyielding stone was practically soothing compared to his emotions.
"Calm down, Jack." Thomlin said softly. "I need your head together on this one. We have 72 hours to get Amelia Ringer back from these animals."
"Dare I ask what happens in 72 hours?"
"They are going to publicly execute her."
"She...she's eight years old..." Beckett stuttered.
"They don't care, they will kill her."
"What do they want?"
"They want Starfleet and the Federation out of the Tallon System."
"Tallon? I don't know that one."
"A small Neutral System, once an Earth colony, but declared independant a few hundred years ago in a blood free agreement. Starfleet is there on a peaceful humanitarian mission to keep the Tallon people from starving to death during the current drought."
"What the hell does that have to do with Ka'scene?"
"They want us out so that Tallon people will die. The Ka'scene cartel is going as far as spitting the Prime Directive back in our faces. They say we are interfering with the natural development of the Tallon society."
"We are allowed to go into Neutral Systems if they ask for our help, particularly if they are ex-colonies." Beckett pointed out. "What does Tallon have that the Ka'scenes want? I assuming that they want the Tallons to all die so they can take something."
"There is evidence that there may be a very rich vein of Pergium on Tallon."
"Expensive and useful stuff." Beckett nodded.
"Yup, and in all fairness Starfleet made it a priority to save the Tallons from starvation in hopes of getting the mining rights."
"So Starfleet and the Ka'scenes want the same thing out of Tallon."
"I think we have a better way of getting it." Thomlin pointed out.
"How's Councilman Ringer taking this?"
"Better than you might think. As far as the general public they've been told that both he and his daughter have fallen ill and are under quarantine."
"Good trick for explaining his absence from Council meetings."
"Old tricks are the best. Right now we've convinced him and everyone else who knows that the best thing they can do is nothing at all. He's being far more rational about this than I would be. He fully understands that Starfleet and the Federation can't negotiate with these bastards. He also knows that Ka'scene wants more than anything for him to go public and make a huge spectacle out of this. Ka'scene wants to see Starfleet humiliated over this when we fail to save that little girl, hence why he's going to take it public himself in 72 hours."
"There is no way the Dogs are going to let Ka'scene live for another 72 hours!" Beckett spat. "Tell me where he is, I'll have my boys saddled up within the next hour, and this time I'll put a knife in his heart personally."
"Since, as you stated before, you've reduced his old compound to rubble, we don't know where he is. However...we do have one of his men."
"Is he here? Now?"
Thomlin nodded.
"I want to see this son of a bitch."
Thomlin hesitated, but nodded. They left the General's office and made their way down the hall. Even within the secure building there were two more levels of security to get through in order to see the prisoner. Beckett stepped up to the glittering forcefield that glittered in front of a small cell.
The man on the far side was not being allowed to rest. With his bloodied wrists held over his head by an ion field he had to keep on on his tip toes to keep the strain off his arms. Stripped to the waist his chest and stomach held evidence of recent abuse. Gasping for each breath the man shivered despite the sweat that dripped of his skin.
"He's not talking." Thomlin sighed. "We do know his name is Rudy Garris, but we know that from his pervious record."
"What have you tried?"
"Everything."
"Give me five minutes with him and a acetylene torch..."
"Toby worked on him for six hours while you were off at Walter Reed. He got nothing out of this guy, not even lies."
"Wow...impressive. Toby is one sick puppy." Beckett remarked with genuine awe. "Still, let me try."
"At this point I think any further torture is pointless."
"I'm not going to torture him, I thought I'd try the honey approach."
"Tried it." Thomlin shrugged. "He knows if he's set free that Ka'scene will do far worse things to him than we have. He's a dead man and he knows it. If he dies here his family gets to live, if he forces Ka'scene to kill him he has to watch his family die first."
"Fuck."
"I agree." Thomlin sighed as he stared at their useless prisoner. "The answer is in his head, he knows where that little girl is...I wish we could just reach into his mind and take what we need."
"Maybe we can..."
