Desperate Measures Chapter 13

Chapter Eleven

Jia double-checked her seatbelt and harness as Erik finished docking the MX 60 in the Army ballistic transport.

It was the first time she’d flown in a military transport instead of a civilian craft, but other than a denser series of docking ports for vehicles through most of the body and some heavy docking clamps near the front for larger military vehicles, there wasn’t much difference.

It didn’t have any obvious armor on the outside, but that made sense. If they were launching ballistic transports and didn’t control the area, it was pointless to expect them to survive. Armor wouldn’t do much against decent surface-to-air missiles or AAA.

Erik had changed the color to a dull gray to stand out less, but it was pointless. The flight today was empty except for the MX 60. It was eerie.

“They’re doing final flight checks,” Emma announced. “We’ll lift off in about twenty minutes. Flight time is about an hour and a half.”

Colonel Adeyemi’s team had taken an earlier transport.

Erik let go of the control yoke and frowned. “Alina wants us to go do a major assault, but she doesn’t want us to use our advanced exos. That’s kind of annoying.”

“Politics again. Those are experimental models. It’d point too directly to the ID.” Jia shrugged. “Besides, Adeyemi’s going to provide us exos. Since when were you so picky about things?” She thought for a second. “Other than food?”

“Nothing wrong with wanting the best tool for the job. And I’ve gotten used to their mobility.” Erik furrowed his brow, a dark expression on his face. “But I wonder about him, too.”

“The colonel?” Jia stared at Erik. “You don’t trust him? That’s the last thing I expected to hear from you.”

“Oh, I trust him.” Erik shook his head. “Hell, of all the people we deal with, I trust him the most. Even more than Alina.”

“Because he’s Army?”

Erik shook his head. “Nope. The Army’s big. All the training and the

esprit de corps

in the galaxy can’t erase the fact that some guys are only looking out for themselves. It’s his motivation I trust.”

“Revenge.” Jia gave a knowing nod. “You can relate.”

“His motivation is purer than mine. His son was murdered.” Erik shook his head, a distant look in his eyes. “No man should have to bury his child. I think the colonel died the day he found out, and the man we know is just a ghost, continuing on and unable to rest until his son is fully avenged.” He nodded grimly. “He’ll never betray our conspiracy hunt, and he’ll probably get himself killed or arrested for going too far in support of it. That’s what I worry about, but maybe I shouldn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s like Lanara told me the other day,” Erik explained. “This is a war, and you don’t win wars without casualties. If Adeyemi gets too focused, he might make mistakes. The conspiracy found the jump drive lab, which means the Defense Directorate doesn’t have everything sealed up.”

“You’re worried about leaks in the military, including inadvertent?” Jia surmised.

“Exactly.” Erik nodded at her. “That is why this crap’s only going to get harder. The people at the top of the conspiracy probably barely fill a decent-sized room. They might have their monsters and Tin Men, but the average soldier in the military or the average agent in the CID or the ID wants to protect the UTC. If it was an open fight, we’d destroy them easily.” He chuckled, but there was no mirth in the sound. “We’ve gotten lucky because it’s hard to keep everything secure when you’re trying to hide in the shadows. Conspiracies want to unravel naturally. People can’t keep their mouths shut when they do something important.”

Jia sighed. “And now we’re in a conspiracy of our own, one dedicated to destroying their conspiracy.”

“Yep. This ID leak, or the agents who’ve been grabbed—it’s all the same thing. The more we have to play their game, the ultra-secrecy game, the more our advantages are neutralized, and they get hits on us like this.”

“Alina’s trying her best,” Jia countered. “The

Argo

, and convincing the military to lend us the

Bifröst.

We have Emma, too.”

Jia expected the AI to chime in at that point, but she remained silent. She was grateful for the restraint in the emotional moment.

“Isn’t that how war unfolds?” Jia murmured, conflicting thoughts swirling in her head. “We haven’t broken the enemy’s morale, so they’re growing desperate and striking back harder, like a cornered animal.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Erik shook his head. “First, it was simple corruption, and then terrorism, but they’re starting to get really scary. They tried to sink Parvati, and they activated that ship.”

“I don’t think they intended for it to get out of control,” Jia suggested.

“We don’t know that,” Erik spat through gritted teeth. “We’ve been assuming they wanted to harvest the tech for whatever reasons, but for all we know, they’re a bunch of genocidal psychopaths who want to wipe out all life on Earth.”

Jia locked eyes with him. “It doesn’t matter.”

He eyed her. “How does it not matter?”

Her voice was velvet over rock. “Because if we wipe them out, they can’t do anything.”

Erik’s lips curled into a hungry smile. “Good point.”

Both fell into their own thoughts for the next half-hour. Jia kept thinking back to her dinner with Mei. Her sister wanted a satisfying life where she could experience new things. It was a simple dream, easily obtainable with the right mindset.

But what of the conspiracy? Were they really genocidal, or was it about simple control?

Jia didn’t understand the point of it, regardless of motivation. Given the sheer resources they’d already displayed, the members had to have indirect control of large parts of the UTC. If Sophia Vand was a typical example, the conspiracy

was

the UTC.

The conspiracy was waging war not with the UTC, but with decency and freedom. A person didn’t need to be a committed Purist to be disgusted by the cybernetic and genetic modifications used by the conspiracy’s forces. The half-alien agent they’d fought on Venus might end up being one of the more mundane enemies.

Jia’s stomach churned. There might be half-Hunter hybrids out there, deadly monsters waiting to be unleashed on innocents. She didn’t care what motivation the conspiracy cited; they’d long ago crossed the line.

There was no choice left but obliteration for either side.

She swallowed, and her heart rate kicked up. An image flashed in her mind from the battle against the Hunter ship, Cutter’s death stare.

“When I became a cop,” she murmured, capturing Erik’s attention, “I believed I was a peace officer. I thought my actions would help save people’s lives.”

“They did.” Erik looked her way. “We stopped killers, terrorists, and all sorts of bastards at the NSCPD. We saved a lot of lives, and we helped a lot of other people get closure by catching the people who hurt them or their families.”

“I know, and it’s not like I didn’t see people get hurt when I was a detective, but I now understand the fundamental difference between being a cop and what we are.”

“What’s that?” Erik sounded curious.

“It’s like you discussed with Lanara.” Jia lifted her head and stared at the ceiling. “We’re not private security contractors. In a sense, we’re private military contractors fighting a shadow war.”

“Can’t say I disagree with that assessment. I also can’t say it bothers me. I spent my life as a soldier. It’s the one thing I know I’m good at. That and penjing.”

“It’s easy to imagine a police department that rarely loses officers, especially on a civilized planet,” Jia continued. “But it’s hard to imagine an army that never loses soldiers. Police help preserve the peace, but when the military’s involved, they have to destroy to bring peace.”

Erik didn’t respond for a long while. He stared through the front window, although there was nothing exciting there but the cargo bay wall of the transport. Jia looked away, embarrassed.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “And Lanara’s right. You can’t fight a war if you’re not willing to take casualties. The universe isn’t kind, and no matter how many rules and laws of war we make, there’s always somebody who doesn’t care. Somebody who will take it too far. Since we can’t afford to become them, the good guys are always at a disadvantage.”

“But it’s not hopeless,” Jia murmured.

Erik nodded, a slight smile on his face. “If you’re breathing, it’s not hopeless. Let me give you a tip I learned the hard way in my time in the service. If you focus on your losses, you’re always going to feel like crap. You need to focus on your wins because if you aren’t dead, those are going to lead to your victories. I know what brought this on.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Erik replied. “A lot of good men and women lost their lives in the fight against the Hunters, including Cutter, but I look at it differently. A small group of humans fought off an alien race far more advanced and ruthless than us. We won, and if we can win against the Hunters, we can win against the conspiracy.”

Jia offered him a rueful smile. “That makes far too much sense. You’re right.”

“One other tip. It’s okay to be angry about those we lost, but do what I’m doing.” Erik’s mouth twitched into a frown.

“Which is what?” Jia asked.

“Adding every death to the conspiracy’s bill,” Erik intoned.