part0009

Several strykers waited outside Zoe's office door while muffled screams and epitaphs made it through the thick walls. Mark, the leader of the strykers, ran up in full armor, expecting the worst. He wasn't far from the target.

"How long has this been going on?" he asked one of his lieutenants.

The warehouse team was captured--two of them by Stryker-1 using Zoe's hacker balls.”

"What about Gorth? He's impervious to that technology."

"A new stryker showed up wearing Gabe's old stealth-mode armor. She nailed Gorth from behind with some kind of stun ray."

"Yeah. The spotter says she could be Commissioner Adon's twin."

"The commissioner doesn't have a twin. What about the tech those morons were sent to retrieve?"

The lieutenant shook his helmeted head. "No joy. All three strykers are being held in an Elven Industries lab guarded by three EMEF teams and a dozen Minotaurs."

"Get our contacts to find out everything they can about this new player."

"What are you going to do?"

"She's armed with one of those disintegrate ray guns she invented. "

"I'm hoping I can grovel enough so as not to give her a reason to use it on me. Evac this section, but leave a vidbot to keep an eye on things."

"Maybe we should gas her."

"Right. That would just make her madder. Listen up! Everybody evac the area. I want seals in place at every juncture within 100 feet of this entrance. Move!"

In moments, Mark was alone except for a single vidbot clinging to the ceiling out of the line of fire from the door. Mark was positive he could see it shake. Turning his force field generators to full, he walked over to the door and gently knocked before instinctively moving to one side as a beam of energy blasted through it. He waited as the door opened followed by Zoe walking out into the corridor. "Sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you."

Mark retracted his armor. "No damage. Could you hand me the weapon please?"

She gave him the gun butt-first. "Come on in. We need to talk."

He followed her through the door and found the rough stone walls pockmarked with blast marks from the disintegrator weapon. "You OK?" he asked.

"I am surrounded by nanorobot-augmented idiots. Mark, why aren't you an idiot?"

He looked at her with pity. "Can I be honest with you?"

"You are the quintessential Tralaskan woman--smart, beautiful, with an ego the size of Mt. Lucifer. If you weren't so damn antisocial, you'd be hanging with your sisters while planning on who would be next to get a knife in their back."

"So, what do you do? You manufacture several hundred nanorobot-enhanced sycophants who unconditionally worship the ground you walk on. Unfortunately, they have no idea how to think for themselves, yet you send them out on missions that would frighten a seasoned merc. Doc, do you want a bunch of love-sick drones or a trained, cohesive army?"

She sat back in her chair and leaned her head back against its cushion. "Ever want to turn the clock back twenty years and start over?"

"You need to stop drinking and get some sleep."

"I have a project that will fix everything, but to finish it, I need those parts the morons were attempting to steal."

"Did you hear one thing I said?"

"I heard everything you said, and you're right. I let my ego take precedence over success, but that changes now. I have two tasks for you."

"First, I want you to put a team together to retrieve those parts I need. I don't care who you use or what you do. Just get me the parts."

"When do you need them by?"

"You've either developed a sense of humor or you've lost your mind..."

"Gloria has ordered the parts moved to another facility. They leave in an hour. Intercept the shipment, get the parts, then bring them to me. Simple."

Mark just stared at her.

"Second, pick one of our bright boffins to find out who this new player is."

"When?" he choked out.

"You have two hours."

He hung his head in defeat. "Anything else?"

"No, not right now. Let me know what you find. "

He got up and handed her weapon back. "Try not to use this on me. I would be deeply hurt."

"No, a plea for mercy." He walked out of the room.

"Wuss," she muttered while returning to staring at the ceiling.

Marta and her entourage walked into the boutique and were immediately approached by a senior sales clerk.

"Hello, Genna," Marta said to her.

"General, Commissioner, and this is?"

"Saffron Adon, ma'am."

"Not mine, I have sons," Anne quipped.

Genna gave Marta a pleading look.

"Genna, this is Anne, Priscilla's cousin."

"Wow, they could be twins. So, what can I do for you?"

"Lucien's throwing a dinner party, tonight. There'll be me, him, Anne, Losira, and Royce, so Anne and I need cocktail dresses."

"I'm just here to observe."

"Ah! Moral support. Excellent. Follow me, please. We just got in some new dresses that you will adore."

"What's a dress?" Anne asked. The room went silent.

"She's such a kidder," Saffron said while Marta pointed at what Genna was wearing.

"Oh. How cute!" Anne said. "This is going to be fun."

The three women followed Genna to a private fitting room where their dresses awaited them.