Dr. Gault stepped to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate. She looked wistfully at the coffee and took a deep breath of its wonderful aroma. She loved the smell, but the caffeine left her amped up with the shakes. That was the last thing she needed right now. The chocolate was just as good and this particular café made the best. She took the small cup from the clerk and the payment was automatically debited from her ID chip. She took a sip and closed her eyes. Just the way she liked it, nice and dark. Some places used milk chocolate or put cream on the top, which she thought spoiled the taste. The stuff they made here was just perfect and she would walk clear across the building to get it.
She took a seat next to the window overlooking the bustling streets outside. She was a good twenty stories up and had a magnificent view of the city’s horizon. There wasn’t much pollution to speak of. Modern technology had saved human populations from that particular nuisance, but there were still times when fog, storms and local geologic activity cluttered the air. She took a sip of her chocolate and looked back toward the interior of the building and the people passing through the hallway. The café was directly adjacent to the Judge Advocate General’s offices and she watched as her ex walked out its doors. She smirked. Maybe the bug she’d put in the ear of Admiral Ricks about his less than helpful attitude had gotten him into some hot water. She’d suggested he’d deliberately aided in the girl’s escape, but the general pointed out that everything Cpt. Gault had done had been according to procedure, and until they had more information, there wasn’t a lot he could do. He did, however, promise to put her ex under a microscope.
Dr. Gault watched as Cpt. Gault stood for a moment outside the doors as if deliberating which way to go. He straightened his already neat uniform and took a deep breath. As he spotted the café, he walked in that direction. Dr. Gault didn’t particularly want to talk to her ex, but she wasn’t going to avoid him either. She waited at her table while he ordered with his back to her, wondering if he would even notice she was there. She took the opportunity to admire the view. He was still fit and made the uniform look good. It was too bad things hadn’t worked out, she thought. When things had been good, they’d been good. She sipped her hot chocolate and rested her chin on her hand as she took a moment to daydream. He was good looking, yes, but rules and procedure were the only other things he had. She needed someone who could match wits and be her equal, and Jason just wasn’t that guy.
He turned with a tray of food and looked for a seat, finding her place next to the window. He grimaced, but walked over and sat down without saying a word and began eating. She smirked. He was obviously pouting and wasn’t talking to her. Whoever he’d talked to in the Judge Advocate’s Office must have really worked him over. It almost made up for having to wait two days for her test subject.
“Have a seat, Jason,” she said sarcastically.
He didn’t reply, but kept eating as if he hadn’t heard.
“How’s everyone at the Judge Advocate’s Office?”
He took a sip from his drink, but didn’t reply.
“Oh, come on, Jason. Don’t be like that,” she smiled sweetly. “It was just a little payback for hi-jacking my test subject.”
He bit into one of the local vegetables and then spit it out, moving it to the side of his plate and kept eating like she wasn’t there.
“They’re going to find her anyway.” She tried to catch his eye, but he studiously ignored her. “You know that, right?”
Still nothing.
Dr. Gault was getting angry. Wasn’t this just like him to come over here, sit down and then not discuss the problem at hand.
“Quit being a poor sport. I won. Just like I always do and just like I always will. You should be used to it by now.”
He said nothing as he started on the dessert.
“She’s mine, Jason. She’s my test subject and you shouldn’t have gone messing around where you don’t belong.”
He didn’t reply and her blood started to boil.
“I’ll do whatever I want with her,” she said viciously, trying to get a rise out of him. “I’ll scan her, poke her, her prod her and put her in a cage, and when I’m satisfied I’ve gotten everything I can from the outside, I’ll dissect her into little bits and analyze those too. There’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me.” She looked for a reaction she was certain would come, but he just kept chewing his food idly as if he were eating alone.
“You have nothing here, Jason. You hear me? Answer me?” She pounded her fist on the table, which rattled his tray and utensils.
He grabbed his glass slowly, took a long drink, set it down and continued with his dessert.
Dr. Gault was so furious now, she couldn’t speak anymore and was fighting the urge to hurl her cup at him. Had they been in the privacy of their own home or her office, she wouldn’t have hesitated, but doing so in Athena’s Fleet Command would likely get her visitor pass revoked. At least temporarily until she made calls to important people to get it back. Her ex wasn’t worth the trouble.
She stood up and struggled momentarily for words and then hurled the only insult she was capable of at that moment.
“I hate you.” She cursed him as she stalked away and thought of half a dozen more colorful responses.
Cpt. Gault just smiled, wiped his mouth with his napkin and enjoyed the view overlooking the city as he finished his dessert.
***
The other team had arrived early the next morning. They’d continued the search for Cpl. Ramirez for several hours, but Lex had finally decided it was a waste of resources to continue until they had a more definite direction to focus their attention. He had split the teams into three groups. The first was to continue the search up and down the coast, in case the corporal’s body washed up on the shore somewhere. The second group would be canvassing the shops near the beach, looking for anyone who remembered her. He’d also ordered his tech team to temporarily suspend their tracking work via the video feeds and start working on the corporal’s data streams. They’d run into some corruption in the station’s video database anyway and they could come back to it later if necessary. The last team had been assigned to take LCpl. Davis into custody, toss the rooms and start an interrogation.
It was half way through the day and so far they hadn’t found anything useful. A search of both marines’ rooms had produced nothing but a pile of dirty laundry and empty beer bottles. Davis wasn’t saying much they hadn’t already heard, but had been completely cooperative. He’d expected the marine to fight and had sent four of his men just in case, but the marine had simply nodded and got into the car without complaint. Lex wasn’t sure at this point whether Davis was involved or not, but intended to hold him a while longer just in case.
For now, his team was doing the leg work on the information they’d pulled from the two corporals data streams. They’d made several purchases at the local shops, but they didn’t have the information on exactly what was purchased. Davis’ had been mostly at the local food market and fishing shop, while Ramirez had gone to two different surf shops.
They pulled to the curb in front of a small building with a brightly hand-painted sign that said Bob’s Surf and Stuff. Lex didn’t get out of the car as two of his men, still dressed in their tan pants, black shirts and sunglasses, got out and entered the store. He scanned Ramirez’ training file trying to get a better sense of the marine. He saw some early disciplinary problems, but an exemplary service record after that. She had high physical fitness scores, fighting assessments, and good psychological evaluations. All of these had been good enough to have her admitted to the T80 program. She’d been through a few minor skirmishes and had a slightly better than average kill count considering her years of service. He read through the most current fitness reviews and saw nothing that caught his interest. He looked up, sifting through the data in his mind. His eyes wandered to the side of the building where a dozen metal cylinde
rs were arranged neatly in racks next to several multicolored wetsuits.
His two men pushed through the front door of the business and returned to the car. Lex opened the window.
“Let me guess. She rented scuba gear.” They didn’t look surprised that he’d figured it out before they had. He was often a step ahead of everyone else and they were used to it.
“Purchased, actually.”
“Because she wasn’t planning on bringing it back. How many sets?”
“Two, with extra tanks.”
“Get in and let’s pull up the navigation chart for this area. I want to see where the coastal currents go.” He waited as they got inside and pulled the navigation charts.
“There is a current running right offshore. Depending on how long she stayed in, it would take her past this point here.” His number two man pushed the image to his retinal imager and highlighted the current flow and projected point of land fall. “If she stayed in any longer, she’d be shark bait. The way the current goes, she wouldn’t hit land until she hit the other side of the ocean.”
“How long would it take her to reach that point?”
“I’d guess about four hours. That’s a long time to be in the water, but definitely do-able considering the amount of air she has.”
Lex tapped his dot phone.
“Bravo team. What’s your position?”
“We’re twenty miles north searching the coast line,” came the reply.
“I’m pushing some new coordinates to you. Meet us there.”
“Sure thing, Lex.”
He cut the connection.
“Let’s go get’em, guys.” The car lifted off the ground and they turned south at an increasingly fast pace.
Lena pulled the large sunhat off her face with her free right hand as she watched the sleek black air car disappear into the distance. Her left was wrapped heavily in a towel and concealed behind her reclining chair in large bucket of water. She was sure her arm was going to turn into a prune and she was dying to take it off, but it was the only thing blocking the signal to the ID chip in her arm. For now, anyway, it had to stay where it was. She took a sip of her cold drink and sat back to finish the work on her tan.
***
Mike stepped from their make-shift shelter and stretched in the cool morning air. The sun hadn’t made it above the towering peaks that surrounded them, but the wildlife was signaling it was time to wake up. It was impossible to get any kind of good sleep the way the birds and other small animals were chattering back and forth at each other. He walked over to their cold fire pit and looked to see if there were any embers left that could be nursed into flame. He found a small section of the log they’d tossed on the fire before going to bed that he thought could be brought to life, and set about gathering sticks and other small pieces of wood to use as fuel. After ten minutes and only one lung full of smoke he managed a respectable fire.
Jackson crawled out from the shelter and stumbled to a seat on a fallen log. He was not a morning person and it usually took a few hours or a good cup of coffee to get him going. He rubbed his face vigorously, yawned, and shook his head as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. Mike tossed him a food bar for his breakfast. Although not particularly appetizing, they were easy to eat and would fill their stomachs until they could catch something on their own.
“So what do you think, shall we try our hand at setting some snares this morning?” They’d seen some rabbit-looking creatures darting through the bushes as they had hiked in. Unlike those he was familiar with, these didn’t have ears but a small set of horns and an extra set of legs. He thumbed through the wildlife identification guide he purchased before their trip. “Says here they can be pretty tasty, even if the meat is a little stringy.”
Jackson yawned again.
“Sounds good to me, man.”
“I figure we could set the snares and then go explore. I wouldn’t mind seeing the view from that peak over to the east.”
Jackson squinted through the trees.
“You mean that one? Damn, Mike. That looks like one hell of a climb.”
“It’ll wake you up and build your appetite.” Mike dug through his pack for the line he needed for the snares. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah. Give me a sec.” He stood groggily, still trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. “Let me try and splash some of that cold water on my face.”
“Make sure you use the pole, otherwise you won’t have a face afterwards.” Their experience catching fish from the day previous had warned them that standing too close to the water was not a good idea. The native fish were aggressive and would actually jump from the water to take a bite out of unsuspecting mammals that got too close to the water. Fortunately, they only lived on the larger rivers and streams where there was faster moving water.
“I remember.” He stumbled toward the stream.
Mike set out the items of food and water he would need for the day. He grabbed a smaller day pack and began putting them inside. Having done that, he pulled the topographical map for the area and planned their route to their intended destination. Jackson was right; it would be one hell of a hike. It was only five miles, but the terrain was steep and rocky. It would probably take them most of the day.
“Sergeant Weber.” The deep voice addressed him from several yards back.
Mike turned and watched as the remaining members of the team tracking them melted from the trees.
“Nice stalk, guys. Didn’t even hear you coming.”
There were four of them. They were fit, and had the hard stares of professional men who meant business. While Mike and Jackson were outfitted for a vacation in the woods wearing and using gear made for civilians, the men before him were decked out in the latest military spec ops fashions. They wore camouflaged uniforms and web gear, and had even gone so far as to apply grease paint to their exposed faces and hands. They all carried a basic combat load and the weapons they wore were silenced. One of them even had a sniper rifle slung across his back. Mike was quietly pleased he and Jackson warranted such a response. It was a nice boost to his ego.
The one who’d done the speaking motioned to two of the others.
“Go collect Cpl. Jackson.” They moved off smoothly through the trees and toward the river.
Mike waited patiently with his hands in the open to make sure there were no unfortunate, ‘misunderstandings.’
“I don’t suppose you guys would be interested in a day hike.” He was a little disappointed they’d be missing it, but that wasn’t the intended purpose of the question. He was trying to get a feel for the person in front of him and was hoping to draw him out into conversation.
“No talking.” He responded curtly.
That answered that question, he thought to himself. All business. Mike waited several more minutes before he heard yelling from the direction of the river. He moved to go check, but silenced weapons came up and convinced him it wouldn’t be a good idea. The sound of the river made it difficult to tell who exactly was yelling and why. Jackson knew there wasn’t to be any fighting here. That wasn’t their purpose and he just hoped that whatever was going on by the river didn’t involve anyone getting hurt.
Several minutes later, loud voices and the sounds of several men moving through the forest reached their ears. Jackson and one of the tracking team burst through the woods carrying the other member of the team. Large amounts of blood soaked the downed man’s right leg and a makeshift tourniquet was wrapped high on his leg. The other member of the tracking team held his arm tightly to his chest as a red stain spread from his arm and down the front of his uniform.
Mike ignored the weapons that had been trained on him and moved to help Jackson lower the injured man.
“What the hell happened?”
“They got too close to the water. I tried to warn them, but it was too late.” Jackson ripped the uniform material up the le
g where he could get a better view of the damage. There were several large chunks of flesh missing from the man’s leg, some of which were still pouring out large amounts of blood. “This one took one bite and then fell partially in the water where they had a bit of a feeding frenzy and the other one lost a part of his arm trying to pull him out.” Jackson used his shirt to temporarily staunch the flow of blood, while the retrieval team’s leader looked to the other injured member for confirmation of Jackson’s version of events.
“That’s how it happened, sir. Damn things are vicious.” The man was still holding his own arm, trying to stop the flow of blood. “He helped pull Nelson from the water and I got tagged in the process.”
The team leader slung his weapon and dropped his pack. He motioned to the remaining, uninjured member of his team.
“Get Apshu taken care of while I start on Nelson.” He knelt down and inspected the man’s damaged leg.
“It got the femoral artery,” said Jackson. As he continued to apply pressure to the wound, the man they called Nelson gritted his teeth in pain. “I got the tourniquet on, but it’s still pumping some out.”
The team leader nodded his agreement as he opened the med kit. He pulled a small tubular device from the kit, inserted a small canister of liquid and injected it through the artery in the man’s neck.
“Something for the pain, Nelson.”
Mike took a pair of forceps and flipped the power switch. When he found the femoral artery, he grasped it with the forceps, and activating the heating element in its pinchers to temporarily seal the wound. He nodded to Jackson to remove his hands, while the team’s leader held the man down. Even with the pain killer, this would be a painful process. Mike dug through the wound, located the pulsing artery’s jagged ends and clipped it with the forceps. They heated quickly and the smell of burning flesh reached their noses. The man cried out and struggled against the pain.
Mike worked for several more minutes closing off some of the larger bleeding veins and then turned to the team leader.