A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 13

Marko smiled in the starlight. 'You know, I have been trying to bring up the same subject for a long time, but did not have the bottle. How about we tidy up the loose ends and vanish? It's not like we have a money problem or anything. And besides, between us we have plenty of skills. My family would love you to bits as well.'

Jan rolled to be face to face with Marko. 'Let's do it.'

Marko took her at her word, and they made love right where they were, simply not caring of the watchers far overhead.

Part Four.

Cobalt Diamond.

One.

Marko slipped his gla.s.ses on and scanned the heavens wheeling above them as they lay relaxed in the afterglow of wonderful s.e.x.

'There he is.'

'Who?'

'Basalt.'

Jan giggled. 'Wave at him then.'

'Now that's intriguing.' Marko said seriously. 'The new camouflage system is program adaptive, right?'

Jan nodded. 'Yes, nice system - programmable as well.'

Marko reached for her wrist and started tapping out a message. 'We might be in trouble.'

Jan tensed. She tapped back. 'Tell me!'

'There is a message on the outer hull. It reads MJRUN.' Marko tapped. 'It came on for a few seconds and is gone. There is also another frigate above Basalt. Looks like one of the Games Board's Expeditor cla.s.s.'

Jan replied calmly. 'No sudden moves. We casually make our way below and start heading back to the aerodrome at a nice sedate pace.'

'Yeah, good idea. Have you something in mind?'

Jan tapped: 'Yes. Drop this craft off, lease one of the sports aircraft and start working out what to do.'

As they pulled up the anchor and headed back to the aerodrome, which was only one hundred and fifty-six kilometres away, there came further confirmation that trouble was brewing. There was a message from the local Games Board media requesting an interview when they arrived at Lyttleton Harbour. And, importantly, there were no cheerful words from Sirius on the message, just her chop. Also, another message from the house-craft company saying that there had been a problem with a navigation module and that they were to take the craft to Lyttleton Harbour for servicing.

Fortunately, Lyttleton Harbour was reasonably close to the aerodrome so they spent time getting closer, then stopped for the night in a beautiful cove along the coast from the aerodrome, and tried to get some sleep, holding each other close.

Before dawn they were up, with all their gear stowed and ready to leave in a hurry, if necessary. They had also found their secure comms units and now conversed only through them, except for making small talk about the trip in case they were being monitored. Between them, the only weapons they had were their own sidearms, a knife each, and Glint. Marko had told the ACEs what was happening the night before, and Nail and Tux had spent the entire night searching for clandestine ways off the planet, but they had not been able to find anything that would not trip the local Net's search engine's alarm.

'Tux, can we get Blackjack to pick us up?' Marko asked.

'I am in contact with her. She would need two days to configure herself for atmospheric flight as she does not have Stephine's high-speed interface any longer. The best she can do is come down into the thermosphere to effect a pick-up. She believes that Patrick is compromised and that Games Board Expeditors are on board Basalt. All other crew members have been ordered back to the ship except us. She believes that you have less then twenty-four hours before the Games Board moves against you and subsequently those sentients close to you.'

Marko groaned. 'Jan, did you see any thermosphere-capable aircraft at the aerodrome?'

'Nope, they would only be at the local hub, which is seven hundred odd kilometres north of here. Security would also be much tighter. We would not stand a chance.'

'OK, it's up to us then,' Marko said.

Jan agreed and started organising. 'Nail, get on the net and start looking through every news item in a thousand-kilometre radius of us. If the Games Board heavies are here, they will have been noticed. Glint, get eating: load up your magazine.'

Minutes later Marko added: 'Nail, is there a real-time link back to the house-craft company about electronic activities on board this craft, and are our conversations monitored?'

The cat answered quickly. 'Yes, there is a datalink. Shall I disable it? There is no corresponding datalink for monitoring of human activity.'

'No. But I want you to start to create a ten-hour sequence of readouts as if we are back at the aerodrome, showing that the engines are intact and performing flawlessly.'

Jan raised an eyebrow. 'Plan?'

Marko nodded. 'We strip out two of the antigravity units from the house-craft, plus their turbines, strap a seat onto each one and leg it straight up. We will need to get into the ancient aircraft maintenance hangars. They had all the equipment we need. Shall we lie to them, or tell them the truth, and also tell them to get as far away from us as possible?'

Jan tapped her chin. 'Go for the truth, Marko. It always amazes me how people will respond to a plea for help.'

As the local sun was rising from the sea, they arrived at the aerodrome. Marko used his hired phone and laboriously tapped out Rangi's number, which the sleepy-sounding doctor answered.

'Hey, Rangi, this is Marko. We are at the aerodrome. Jan was bitten by something when we were diving yesterday. Her bioware is not handling it. Can you come out, please?'

Rangi woke up fast. 'Be there in fifteen minutes. I live just down the road.'

When he arrived, they told him what they suspected and how, in their adventures, they had upset the Games Board on many occasions. Marko also told him what they planned to do.

Rangi looked very serious, then replied slowly. 'Hmm, well, you have to understand that we cannot be seen to a.s.sist you, but that does not mean that I cannot show you where everything is, and also where all the keys are. None of us have a lot of truck with the Games Board anyway. They scare us with their smarmy ways and their taking the brightest children then turning them into monsters who never come home again or have anything to do with their families. It is worse than a death. Right, follow me.'

He gave them the keys, told them where everything was, including the weapons and ammunition, and even where the Cooper bombs and Le Prieur rockets were stored before adding, 'In thirty or so minutes two of my sons will arrive. They are good guys and will do anything to help. The official story will be that I treated Jan, and then left, expecting you to do the same. They came down, found that you had broken in and you then forced them to help you. I will talk with Doug Evans as well, on the quiet. He is a good man and had one of his favourite nieces recruited by the Games Board. Loathes them. Jan, I had better get a reading of your blood, just to cover my a.r.s.e. I have a sample of a local sh.e.l.lfish toxin that I shall splice into the sample data so it will look legitimate.'

He took a med unit from his pocket, tapped diligently on it for a moment or so, then pressed it up against her finger for a sample. Nodding at her, he then placed a pair of large gla.s.ses on and scanned through the results in the HUD. 'Yeah, as I expected, perfect health. One day I would love to be able to afford a bio-system like yours. Stay well. Good luck, guys. Kia kaha! Courage, keep strong. Until we meet again.'

He kissed Jan on the cheek, shook Marko's hand and, for a long few seconds pressed his nose against Marko's, climbed onto his AG bike, waved and cruised away. They opened the main hangar doors, backed the house-craft in, and then rapidly got to work to strip two of the antigravity units out. The propulsion units were set up so they could be taken out quickly; as they unbolted the restrainers, the units swung out smoothly, even having little fold-out legs, which made life much easier. 'Nice design, eh, Jan?' Marko commented.

Rangi's sons, Todd and Bill, pulled up in a loud, low-slung wheeled vehicle that looked very impressive, complete with extensive exhaust pipe work down the sides. They climbed out through the top of the open c.o.c.kpit, as it had no doors, introduced themselves and got immediately to work after Marko drew a quick diagram of what he needed, knowing it was ugly but effective. Nail jacked himself into the management programs of the antigravity units and overwrote the restrictors. He also overwrote the remote controllers so, once aloft, they could not be hijacked or shut down. Under his direction, Glint then disconnected the electrics throughout the units, as they would be welding fittings to them and did not want any of the circuits to short out.

The first thing Marko did was strip the turbine exhaust back until it was a straight flow directly aft. They stripped off the casings, leaving only the top and bottom parts of the shroud. Todd and Bill had returned by this stage with two pairs of elevators from one of the First World War aircraft. Marko showed them what he wanted and they mounted them in a V configuration, bolting them on the main mounting strut along the top of the turbine. The next task was to create a c.o.c.kpit of sorts.

Todd and Bill disappeared again then returned half an hour later having found a pair of floats from some abandoned aircraft or other. They cut the front sections away and roughly welded them directly onto the outer housing of the antigravity units, then opened them up to allow access, running a self-bonding tape over the sharp edges. They disappeared for another half an hour before returning with a pair of racing seats from one of their wheeled vehicles and two pairs of cylindrical fuel tanks, which they mounted directly above the turbine.

'Marko,' Bill said. 'You have an hour of fuel and oxygen. Plan is to go straight up, yeah? We will rig the elevator so you can control the flight by warping the wings. You will have to do it manually as there is no time for anything nice.'

Over the next few hours, while also nervously looking over their shoulders, they made the crude craft controllable. Marko set up a simple throttle link to the turbines after stripping some of the electronic control lines from the housecraft, but felt bad about doing this, so had Nail use the local communication links to book and pay for six months' hire of a top-of-the-line house-craft, using one of their secret black accounts. Neither of them had ever trusted the Administration with all their funds. Marko's family handled some of his as well, as a further backstop measure, and he also had black accounts held by some of his most trusted Gjomvik clients. Marko figured that the booking would adequately cover the costs of a pair of antigrav units and the repairs.

The wind had picked up outside, gusting strong enough to rattle the big doors as they pressed on with their tasks while Glint supplied them with drinks and snacks.

'Marko, I have found a news item about four small Games Board combat craft escorting a large Games Board System Suite Airship,' Nail reported. 'They are headed towards Lyttleton and will be there to give a display for the local school children in two hours. The news reporter thinks that the display will probably be postponed due to the tropical storm.'

Marko nervously pushed a hand over his bald head. 's.h.i.t, we still have at least that amount of time to get these suckers usable. OK, we had better look at weapons. Tell me what you have, guys. We don't have a weight problem as these units have huge lift capacity.'

Todd gave them the rundown. 'We like the Lewis Air Guns: 7.71 calibre with every third bullet a tracer in a magazine of ninety-seven rounds. Cyclic rate of six hundred rounds per minute. If you had one forwards and one firing directly aft, that would be best. Easy to fit; we will get right on it. There are also the ten-kilo Cooper bombs. They have been modified with a modern timer on them so you can set the fuse. We use a little push-b.u.t.ton timer on the end of each pull cord. Punch in the time, then just yank the cord to let them go. We will mount four of them under the engine housings. The Le Prieur rockets are kind of fun: fire, and most definitely forget. Zero control, but they have a couple of kilos of incendiary explosive as the warhead, so if nothing else they will get some attention. You would have to be h.e.l.lish close to score a hit with them though; they are a big skyrocket, really, complete with a three-metre-long stick!'

Jan smiled. 'Set 'em up, guys. We will take anything you can give us within reason, and we need you gone within the hour, OK?'

When he saw them, Marko mused that Bill had not been joking about the rockets. The mounts were appallingly simple, being rings that the rockets slid back through, but the good thing was that they came with their own electrical firing cables, which they wired directly to the c.o.c.kpits. The last things the Hohepa boys did - before Jan gave them one of her untraceable money cards, which she had loaded with a few thousand dollars, and Marko gave them a data card full of Fritz's music, which they were even more excited about - was to fit a small windshield to each c.o.c.kpit, bolt five-point harnesses to the seats and also fit restraints for Nail and Glint.

Marko and Jan sent them off into the raging storm with their sincere thanks, and told them to hide for a month or more, if possible. They then stripped and lay down in their combat suit containers so the suits could form around them.

'Well, beautiful man of mine. Time to go. The eye of the storm will be overhead in a couple of minutes. Might as well make the most of it.'

They hugged and kissed each other before climbing into the thrown-together craft and belting themselves in. Glint opened the door of the building just wide enough for them to slide out. They would be taking nothing with them except the ACEs, wallets, personal weapons, a bunch of memories and a lot of ammunition. Marko fervently hoped the latter would not be needed.

Glint jumped in and clipped on his harness, sitting immediately behind Marko to act as the loader of the two Lewis guns mounted on either side of the c.o.c.kpit. The plan was for Jan to fly ahead of them, so they could provide rear cover. For the hundredth time, Marko regretted not building hands for Nail.

They took off, spiralling upwards, getting a feel for the controls. The control column was a wooden stick with non-stretching connecting cables to effect control of the elevator. Marko commented to Glint that the system was not too bad; push the stick to the right and the left elevator twisted in one direction, while pushing to the left twisted the right elevator in the other direction, creating a great rate of roll. Pull back on the stick and both elevators were warped in the same plane, with the opposite for pushing the nose down. Satisfied, they throttled up the turbines and started to climb at about sixty degrees, being buffeted hard by the wind before they popped out into the eye of the cyclonic storm - with the Games Board Airship almost directly above them. They had discussed this when they planned the flight and decided that the best defence was to provoke an attack and at least they would be seen to be the victims in the eyes of the public. And they figured that since the Games Board seemed to want them badly enough, why not give them a real run for their money. They also knew that if the GB did capture them, the outcome would not be good any way you looked at it.

Surprise and hesitation as to their ident.i.ties allowed them to close in on the Airship then roar straight up the side of it. They both saw that it was not just a System Suite Airship with the very elaborate and valuable production, editing and broadcasting facilities, but that the huge Airship was one of the Games Board's hostile-environment-capable ships. It had additional armour plating together with bigger lift capability and uprated turbo props, making it a very expensive piece of equipment.

'Tux, open a channel to the Airship. Nail, effect the best possible pompous a.r.s.e persona and demand to know why this Airship is in your airs.p.a.ce. Tell them you're aristocrats who are test flying a new type of craft. Jan, we need to get above that thing and stay above it. Nail, buy us time. Do it now.'

They listened in as he made a very good effort at delaying the reactions of the Expeditors for valuable minutes while they climbed straight up and held position above the Airship, as Tux said, 'Marko, if you want to drop bombs on it, you had better take into consideration the Coriolis effect.'

Marko grimaced. 's.h.i.t, I had forgotten about that. Give me the numbers.'

They started to move in an arc so that if they did have to drop the bombs, they would impact directly on the Airship.

'They are demanding our immediate surrender, Marko,' Nail informed him, 'and have named us. Two fighters are coming up. Yes, I see them. They are at our two o'clock, three kilometres out, and will be on us in one minute. Another two are closing on our rear. All are fully armed and antigravity equipped. They are firing across our fronts.'

Marko shouted. 'Nail, do you know this type of fighter?'

'Yes, Marko.'

'Feed Glint specific weak points. d.a.m.n, Jan has just taken a rail gun strike. Elevators are gone! Jan, just go straight up! If a target presents itself, shoot the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.'

She yelled back, 'That you can bet on, darling!'

Marko did not reply to her, instead focussing on attack. 'Glint, get to work. They are hostile. Take out the missile pods. Smoke the ones below us and, hopefully, any falling wreckage will give the Airship a hard time.'

Glint climbed above and behind Marko, gripping the antigravity unit, and started to fire his linear cannon. In Marko's faceplate, Tux opened a small rear-view screen. He watched the first three rounds blow a missile pod completely off the small stubby-winged teardrop-shaped fighter. Glint switched targets and carved up the other pod, then fired directly into the fighter's air intakes. The effect was immediate. They could not hear it, but there must have been a really good bang somewhere inside the vehicle as the entire back of it bulged out. It lost all power, then the pilot ejected, with the fighter falling towards the Airship.

Glint located the second fighter and fired at a point just below its canopy. The canopy blew off, exposing the pilot, who started to take violent evasive action. Marko reached down and started to drop the ten kilo bombs using random settings on the fuses, while keeping a close eye on Jan. They got lucky; one of the bombs detonated beside the damaged fighter, riddling the underside of the craft with large coin-sized holes. It rolled over on its back, smoke pouring out and started to tumble downwards as the pilot ejected.

Jan was. .h.i.t again as two topside fighters closed in, and the whole front of her c.o.c.kpit disintegrated. She maintained her trajectory as one of the fighters crossed in front of her and held station, trying to block her. She fired her ten rockets, two of them hitting the fighter, which promptly burst into flames. The remaining fighter started to close on her as Marko fired the Lewis at it. The range was only a few hundred metres, but as every third round was a tracer, he was able to walk the rounds across the side of the aircraft, not sure that it had any real affect. It was enough to get the fighter's attention though, and it rolled over and came straight down towards him. Marko carried on firing and then launched a couple of rockets at it as the distance between them closed, but it was Glint who did the final damage, picking a point where an electronics package was housed and punching a burst of rounds through the weak spot.

If Marko had reached up, he could have touched the Games Board craft as it flashed past them, almost taking Glint with it before he rapidly dropped back into the c.o.c.kpit. Jan was still going up, both their speeds still in a rapid climb. Marko had to push the turbine to its maximum to allow it to slowly gain on Jan and Nail. He finally came up beside her and looked across, but could not get her on the comm.

'Nail, status?'

The cat replied briefly. 'Bad, we are both damaged. Antigravity is functioning, but we have no control. Jan is not speaking. I cannot move. I have holes in me.'

Marko rolled his craft over the top of hers and his heart almost stopped. He could see that her legs were gone, as were most of her hips. The suit had sealed off, but he could also see numerous formed patches over the entire front of her suit, covering entry wounds. He wondered what the Games Board had used on her, deciding that they wanted her Soul Saver but that was all, having clearly made an effort to kill her body.

'Jan, beautiful, can you hear me?'

He heard nothing. 'No! Glint, I am going to get as close as I can. We are in stable air and the pressure is rapidly dropping. As soon as you are able, grab them both.'

Marko rolled and pushed his little craft up against Jan's, making contact. He could actually touch her as he jammed the control stick between his legs to hold it steady.

'Grab Nail. Quick, pa.s.s him to me. OK. Now slice away Jan's top harness and pa.s.s her to me. OK, OK, I have you, beautiful, you will be fine. Glint, get back over here. If you see anything at all, kill it.'

Glint reported. 'Two of the fighters impacted the Airship. The others went into the ocean.'

'I don't f.u.c.king care. How far up are we, Tux?'

'We are approaching thirty-five kilometres. At this current speed we will be in range of Blackjack in fifteen minutes.'

Marko nodded. 'Great. Glint, get rid of the remaining rockets.'

The ACE leant over each side, pulling the rockets out and dropping them.

Jan was not moving. Tux interfaced with her suit and reported that her blood pressure was low, but holding, her respiration was very shallow and her internal organs were damaged. Her biomed nanotes and the suit were keeping her alive. f.u.c.king Games Board, Marko raged to himself, as Tux said, 'Blackjack has us in sight.'

Marko had a sudden horrible thought. 'How are we going to transfer?'

'Blackjack says not to be concerned,' Tux replied. 'She has a method. On my mark shut everything down. Two minutes ... one ... thirty seconds ...'

They seemed to drag on forever.

'Mark!'

Glint and Marko simultaneously pulled the plugs shutting everything down. He could not initially see Blackjack, then looked over the side of the c.o.c.kpit and saw the sleek elegant ship coming gently up below them. When they were only metres away a portion of Blackjack's upper hull opened up and enfolded them. As soon as the hull closed over them and they found themselves on the deck, Ernst rapidly appeared from an airlock and Marko gently handed Jan down to him. He opened up far more fully than Marko had seen him do before, taking what remained of Jan into himself. From what Marko could see he was working on her at a speed that he had never seen before either. Marko stroked Nail's head. 'Nail, I need you to stay here. Give me a report every five minutes. Glint, make that little craft safe, will you, please? I need to think.'

There was nothing more he could do so he went forwards, plonked down in the command chair of Blackjack and brought up their situation on the command screens.

'Tux, tell me what was happening on board Basalt when Blackjack left.'

'They had been boarded by six heavily armed Expeditor operatives. Others followed. They demanded to know where you were. They then laid out a series of charges against you and Jan, stating that you were to be arrested on sight and handed over to them. Administration lodged a formal protest, but was overruled. They presented evidence that Jan had a.s.sa.s.sinated not less than five Games Board personnel prior to her joining Basalt. The evidence was compelling.'

Marko sat very still, listening in horror. 'They then charged you with murdering two Games Board monitors on Colonel White's ship, when they were attempting to intercede on your behalf with the alien Colonel White. Once again the evidence is compelling. Not true, as we know, but compelling in the public arena. Jan has been found guilty in absentia and sentenced to Total Death. Her backup Soul Saver has already been destroyed. Your backup has met a similar fate, but the Administration successfully argued that you should live out your natural life, due to your outstanding service record.'