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  “You will do no such thing, Doctor. This matter is closed, and I expect your discretion on this.”

  “Mr. President, is everything all right?” Nelson asked from the half open doorway.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on planet by now?” President Garrett stared at me. He realized after a second that I was looking at the massive, and from the looks of it recent, scars on his chest. Garrett pulled his shirt closed with a sharp motion and threw a hateful look at Nelson.

  “Yes, sir.” Nelson reached for the door. “We are headed to the briefing now, sir, then off to Tirus. Sorry for the interruption.”

  Nelson and I continued to the transfer control room. It was filled with agents. Roberts stood off to one side, talking to a short, skinny guy that looked younger than her.

  “All right people, you’ve heard this before, but we are going to cover it again.” Nelson pointed to one area of the room. “I want the travelers to collect there, so your boss knows who’s who. That’s right. Your boss on this mission is Harry. You have all had time to read his profile, I hope you did, and learned something. Harry is a nicer version of me, but not by much.”

  “A lot Nelson,” I added, watching the room of agents.

  “Everyone move,” Nelson ordered.

  Roberts was first to relocate. The skinny guy moved with her. Two of the three agents that had plucked me from my apartment walked over. They did not look happy to join my team. Two agents, I had not seen until now, joined the bunch. One was an older female who did not look happy. That left six agents in the room not on the mission, and of course, Nelson.

  “As you all know, Sergeant Price is a prison system technician out of research and development, so for this part of the briefing I’ll turn the deck over to him.” Nelson waved at Roberts and the skinny guy next to her moved to the center of the room.

  “Thanks, Agent Nelson.”

  I noticed Nelson tense briefly when Price addressed him.

  “First off, and don’t bother arguing this, but since we are going in as prisoners,” Price made little quotation marks in the air with his fingers, “you can’t bring your guns.”

  “What? How the hell do we defend ourselves?” This came from the older female agent. Several others voiced the same concerns. I watched and studied my team.

  “And you can’t bring your body armor.”

  “This is stupid, it’s a prison planet. We have to be able to defend ourselves if we are to go after the President’s daughter,” one of the male agents argued.

  “Relax, people, first hear the little guy out,” I ordered.

  “We’re not on the planet yet, don’t tell me what to do,” the same agent told me.

  “You were on the planet and under my command the minute you walked over to that group,” I replied. He and I stared a long minute at each other.

  The agent reached toward his sidearm, but Roberts was faster. She stopped his right hand with her left, pulled her Taser sidearm and placed the weapon against the side of his throat.

  He froze, as did everyone else in the room.

  Roberts leaned close to his ear and whispered.

  He looked sideways at her, then back to me and smiled.

  Roberts released his arm and holstered her weapon.

  “You were saying, Sergeant Price,” Nelson said to the group to get us all back on topic.

  As Price started up again, I watched Roberts. She gave me an unreadable look, then turned her attention to Price.

  “Yes, as you all know, no weapons or powered body armor are transported to the prison planets on a routine drop, and that is what this has to look like if we are to get in, find the girl, and get out.”

  “One of the reasons Agent Danbeu is here, is to get your team equipped once you make dirt fall,” Nelson tells the group. “From all of our reports, prison planets have their own systems and rules, but they are all pretty much the same. Since Agent Danbeu has lived in one and knows our agency protocols that is the reason he is in charge. Go ahead, Price, tell them what they can have.”

  Price walked over to a large storage locker, opened it and pulled out a rack of clothing. “You get this. You will find your names on the hangers with your clothes.” Price pulled one article of clothing off of the rack. It looked like heavy T-shirt material. “This is second skin armor, pretty new stuff, that has been proven very good when subjected to testing, and provides some level of protection.”

  “Armor?” asked the older female agent.

  “Yeah, it won’t take the kind of punishment your regular armor will. It won’t give you added physical strength that is not its purpose. It will stop most blunt weapon attacks from things like clubs, or stuff like that. Knives can’t cut it, on a sweeping strike, but will penetrate if the strike is a straight thrust with enough force. Small arms fire will be stopped if you are a great enough distance away. Close quarters it might help.” Price completed his dissertation.

  “This should be fine to get us started. Prison planets pretty much work the way Agent Nelson said, from what I know. New prisoners come in with nothing, they hit the landing pad and are pretty much left alone to wander around, get in trouble, and learn not to get into anybody else’s business. That’s the way Lark is and I imagine Tirus ain’t a lot different. We should have no trouble getting in and disappearing into the crowds. Asking questions shouldn’t be an issue either,” I told the group.

  “Remember, Danbeu is in charge down there, and trust me he is one mean, smart cookie.” Nelson surprised me with a handshake. “Fast trip, and good luck. Okay, people, strip out of your gear and get dressed in the second skin armor and the clothes provided,” Nelson ordered.

  I walked over to Roberts as she moved to the rack. I took her arm and pulled her to a far wall. “So what did you tell your friend?” I asked.

  Roberts looked across at me, and for the first time I really saw how crystal blue her eyes were. That in itself was a distant and painful memory.

  “I told him we needed you, for now, and later I would help him kill you.”

  “Good work,” I replied and returned to the equipment rack. My hanger only had the second skin armor on it, as they had issued me new clothes after my shower. I took off my jacket, shirt, and T-shirt, then pulled on the second skin. “Hey, Price, how do I get a larger size in this second skin armor?” I pulled on the heavy material to try to stretch it for comfort.

  “It was cut to match your armor size on record, Agent Danbeu, it should fit perfectly.”

  “In the old days, I could be skinny and let the armor be my muscle, like most agents. Of course, on a prison planet I didn’t have armor, so if I needed muscle to do something it had to be my own. I’m a little bigger now than I was back then.”

  “You got fat.” Nelson laughed at his own joke and the others followed suit.

  “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any larger armor on hand. This armor was produced, in a rush, specifically for the people on this mission. That’s why we went with service record sizes.”

  “Just deal with it, convict, or leave it here. You’re fat and we’re unarmed.” The older female looked at me and pulled on her second skin.

  “Get to the pad, all of you,” I ordered. “Let’s get this done. After all, I got a cold beer on a space station waiting for me.”

  Again Roberts was the first to move and the skinny guy, Price, right with her. Everyone took a place on the descent pad and waited for me to join them. I walked around the pad once, a quick inspection of sorts, and stepped up between the older female and Roberts. Price was one over from Roberts. I looked to Nelson. “Any last minute intel I should have?” I asked.

  President Garrett entered the transfer pad area. He was trailed by four more agents in full armor. “Good, I’m not too late. There has been a small change in plans.” Garrett motioned Nelson closer. “I have decided to send you too.”

  “You can’t, sir,” Price and Roberts said simultaneously.

  Price stepped off of the pad.

 
Roberts started to, but stopped when I touched her arm.

  She looked to me, and I shook my head slightly.

  “I don’t have any second skin armor for Agent Nelson and he can’t wear his normal armor Mr. President.”

  “And …” Roberts started to add her comments, but was stopped by a wave from the President. “Nelson, get on the pad with the others. This is not open to discussion, or comment. Now, Agent Nelson,” Garrett ordered, “and without the armor.”

  Nelson looked from him to me. “This is your fault, Harry.” He grabbed my jacket with his left hand and hit me in the gut with his right which doubled me over. Nelson let me go and stepped away from the pad. He pulled his armor off slowly, one piece at a time. As he did, he tossed each piece in the direction of the storage locker, not really caring where the armor landed. Nelson stepped onto the pad at the opposite end from me and waited for the trip to begin.

  This development felt familiar to me, as the people you trust prove not to be worth the faith you put in them. It was like watching history repeat itself, only I was not the one getting betrayed this time. “Welcome to my world, Nelson,” I added. “Doesn’t feel so good on this side of the back stabbing, does it?”

  “Send them on their way. Come back with my daughter and all of you will be set for life. Fail to do that, don’t bother coming back. You have a maximum of seven days to return,” the President ordered.

  CHAPTER 2

  The hum of the energy shield hit the ears like a hammer to the skull. It hurt, but currently we were prisoners, and no one cared if prisoners fake, or otherwise were hurt. I was not too sure how fake our prisoner status was at this point.

  The heat shielding folded up around to mid chest level with the energy shield coating from the decking, enveloping the prisoners, us, in a heatproof barrier. The energy shield barrier locked you in place against the launch and the ride down to the planet. The system had been developed and designed to put armored agents on the ground in a hurry. In battle armor, this ride was a breeze.

  When the government ran out of people to fight, the drop zone system got taken over for prisoner transfers. It was a one-way delivery system. The second web shield of the pad energized and came up around us, locking everyone in place for the trip. The energy shield that housed the pad wrapped up around the web and encased us in our transfer bubble.

  The platform lowered into the launch deck below with Garrett and his agents watching the entire time, as if we could escape the transfer pad at this point. The upper deck opening sealed as we cleared it, then half a heartbeat later we were ejected from the President’s ship, and were a fireball headed to the prison planet, Tirus.

  I watched the dead of space for the split second. The flames of entering the upper atmosphere whiteout everything. You cannot feel the heat through the drop zone pad, or the double layer of energy shield, but even with your eyes closed tightly, the brightness of the light hurt the eyes. Between that and the headache from the shield generators hum, the ride hurt.

  We hit the lower atmosphere hard with a leg numbing impact, but of course the shields held us locked in place. The white hot brilliance had faded somewhat, and I opened my eyes to see the white flames turn blue, orange, and yellow. I could not turn my head, but I could shift my eyes up to see the column of gray-white smoke trailing our descent platform. The ride would be over in minutes at this point. The energy shield of the landing pad would lock onto us, slow our decent and pull us to the prisoner offload hall. It was all automated, even the power source and controls were sealed deep underground to insure no tampering by the prisoners.

  As soon as we were down, the foam guns would coat our energy shields removing the last of the heat from our bubble, then the blowers would come to life and clear the foam. Our mission had begun.

  ***

  Newly arrived prisoners would normally find themselves standing in the middle of an open area with no one around to even say hi, welcome, or go to hell, nothing. We would land and find the settlement; there would be some kind of a settlement. The prisoners before us would have to live somewhere, and I was betting it was not in the streets.

  New prisoners had to find their own way on their new home, which in our case meant locate the crash site, find the President’s daughter, then let Roberts get us the hell off of the planet.

  I could feel the pad slowing. Our fireball ride was nearly over, and we could get to work. On the horizon, out and around us, there were buildings in various levels of decay.

  It looked like we would be landing in the night cycle of the planet. That would work to our advantage, as less people would see us depart the landing area. There would be a few seconds of confusion at landing, but I would get everyone organized and moving out of the area fast.

  We hit the ground, settled onto the landing pad and the foam covered our energy bubble. When the blowers came on and removed the foam, I could see life was not going to be as easy as I had thought, or hoped for. We were surrounded by a crowd of men and women even before the shields dropped and released us, and they were armed with clubs and some very nasty looking edged weapons.

  “All of you listen up. You are now workers for The Highman. Your obedience in this matter is expected, nothing else will be accepted.” The man that spoke to our group stood facing Roberts. He was a dirty, little, bald man with a number of scars that covered his scalp.

  “What’s this, forced work, are you crazy?” one of Nelson’s agents said back to the speaker.

  The bald man turned to the agent. “You’re his property now, yes. Shut up and listen.” The bald man thought the conversation was over and half turned to one of the other men with him. “Seven new workers for red section, tell the office.”

  “Go to hell, I’m not working for you, or this other guy you’re talking about,” the agent said to the bald man’s back.

  The bald man turned, pulled out a long, rusty looking knife and pointed it at the agent. The bald man held the weapon out at shoulders length.

  “There are no weapons on Tirus,” Roberts whispered to me.

  “Get that out of my face before I stuff it down your throat,” the agent told the bald man.

  In one smooth, practiced motion, the bald man jabbed the agent through the throat. Since he had not expected it, the agent did not even try to move. “Tell the office six new workers for red section.”

  A slide window opened at what must be the office they were talking about. “Hey, Bender needs two bodies for the demolition team,” yelled a woman at the window.

  The bald man nodded and looked to our group. “You,” he pointed at me. “And you.” He pointed to the older female agent with us. “Go into that office and wait until you’re told what to do.”

  “Thanks, at least you didn’t put me with this one,” I said to the bald man.

  “Wait.” He pointed to the older female agent. “You stay.” He pulled Roberts from the platform and pushed her in my direction. “You got anything more to say now?”

  I grabbed Roberts arm and walked off to the office. I could hear him laugh.

  CHAPTER 3

  Roberts and I entered the door to the office.

  “Hey, who told you to be on my floor, get over there until Bender wants you!” the old woman yelled, the instant we entered the office. She pointed at a dirty mat across the room near a second door.

  I could see it in Roberts’ eyes. She was about to comment when I jerked her by the arm onto the mat. “Sorry, it won’t happen again,” I told the old woman.

  The old woman pressed a button on her desk and the speakers crackled to life. “Bender, I got your two new workers.” She clicked the system back off.

  The mat was not that large which put Roberts and me close, too close for her comfort. She tried to shift position and almost stepped off of the mat. We couldn’t have that so I grabbed her by the belt and pulled her close. “Stop moving,” I ordered in a very low voice. “They killed the other guy for talking, what makes you think they won’t kill us?”
/>   Roberts looked sideways at me, but she did stop moving. We stood there for well over an hour with no one talking to us, no one watching us directly, but I had the vibe that if we moved off of the mat we would be the center of attention.

  The second door, the one near us, popped open, and in strolled this man in dirty coveralls and muddy boots. He walked straight to the old woman’s desk and bent over it. Bits of debris fell from his clothes onto her papers. “So, Alice, how’s my favorite girl today?”

  “Your two workers are over there. Don’t let them get my floor dirty,” she told the man that had just muddied it up.

  “Okay, Alice, I’ll see what I can do.” He straightened up from talking to her and turned to us.

  I got a glance, but his eyes stopped on Roberts.

  “Hello, I’m Tim, but everyone calls me Bender.” He walked over to Roberts. “You’re with me now, let me show you around.” He smiled wide and something told me it was not at me. Bender headed for the door he had come in through, but stopped at it long enough to turn back to the old woman. “Alice, I’ve taken care of my workers messing up your floor, but you will need a broom.”

  The three of us exited the office and Bender turned to face us. “Here’s the deal. You work for me now, I work for Big Chin and we all work for The Highman, clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” Roberts replied.

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  “Good, let’s go see Big Chin.” Bender led us down a hall and through a door.

  When the door opened, a strong burnt odor struck my nose. There was an open wall which provided a glimpse of the area near us. The landing platform was in a warehouse style building, the missing section of wall showed the battered remains of a city. It was only a quick look, but I thought I saw a fence of some kind between our warehouse and the city. We headed up a rusted metal staircase to a second level and along an open air hallway where there were two men at a door.