The police captain stood in front of an assembly of people with cameras pointed at him. He stood at a podium with microphones and over 400 streamers were in the room. The press room had 400 plain wooden chairs and four painted drywalls. The podium was on an elevated stage with a crystal chandelier over the center of the room. The room smelled like cigarettes and vape juice. There were hundreds of camera flashes and the lights were blindly bright.
The cop cleared his throat, putting up a large poster of the guard who brought Marci the pills. “This man’s name is Condotti Favrovi. He is a prison guard. From what we have pieced together he is a corrections officer at Sogeti State Prison. He is also a member of over half a dozen message boards and websites that were anti-police and anti-military. He hated the government and their cronies. He got into an argument with prison 2256 one day and decided to get even with her. He bought a bottle of pain pills online on the darknet and then snuck them into the jail. He then handed them to Mrs. Helios and forced her to overdose. Favrovi is currently in our custody and denies he did anything wrong. Any questions?”
As the public press conference continued, a police sergeant stood in the office of the Head of Naval Intelligence. The office had an epoxy wood desk with molten gold poured into off-world ebony. On the desk were a mini black powder cannon and his computer terminal. The floor had a Persian rug from what used to be Iran before the collapse. The office had a no smoking sign above the door and smelled sterile, almost like cleaning fluid.
The cop cleared her throat. “It is detailed in the report. Prisoner 2256 or ‘Marci’ as she liked to be called, somehow contacted the federation and stole millions of terabytes of classified documents. A prison guard who was in debt to the Orin Syndicate for Star Fleet games on an online website called kIss your money good buy dot com. He received payments from someone called James Bond from the address 666 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.”
The Director of Intelligence held up her hand and cleared her throat. “Who?”
“Oh, he was a fictional spy in a self-titled series from before the collapse of Terra Prime. Only two of the movies have survived: From Russia with Love, and Goldeneye. Anyway, we couldn’t trace the payments beyond Caltrex, which is a banking guild world so it is a neutral planet. It looks like it was a professional operation. My guess is that Marci was broken out by federation secret services and is somewhere in deep space.”
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A random elderly woman watched TV in a row house near the prison. Two men in suits and ties were at the dinner table in the kitchen. The room they were in was the third floor apartment of a three story row house. It had stone floors, a living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen/dining room.
One of the men looked at the elderly woman watching TV and then looked at his partner. “Why don’t we just kill Marci and take her intel Jon?”
Jon said in a firm voice, “Because Tim, and I said this twice already, it would deter other defectors. What is your plan for breaking Marci out of the town?”
“I believe there is a dark fire mage in this city. Correct?”
Jon nodded
Tim smiled. “Why don’t we take his wife hostage and threaten to kill her? Make a big show of it? We don’t actually hurt the woman but we use the distraction to sneak Marci onto a pirate shuttle and out of saffron.”
“I think hurting a dark fire mage’s wife would be a mistake. Now, the police are probably looking for her. Where is our bounty hunter.”
“She’s coming; she’s just taking forever. She is the best in the Federation.”
Both men laughed. “To0 bad we’re sacrificing her.”
Tim laughed even harder, “Yeah but she smokes so no big loss.”
“I believe the dark fire mage in the area has two loved ones, someone called Simmie; the other is some android called tangent.”
“I think Simmie is a lieutenant on the victory. If I remember correctly, he is a guy.”
They both looked at each other and made gagging noises. Jon said, “I’m not dealing with a queer. I remember that before the war, they were mentally unstable and generally unpleasant people. We will take Tangent hostage.”
Jon held up his hand and said, “Confederation gays are different. In fact, recently, they were given the same prisoner of war status as other prisoners. I vote we take Simmie hostage. It will mean more to the Dark Mage.”
Tim snorted through his nose and rolled his eyes, flicking his head. “I know about their change in status. I just don’t like homos.”
“Well, that’s a you problem. I am the senior agent on this case and I say we take Simmie hostage and treat him as our guest. That’s an order. You. Will. Not. Harm. Him. Clear?!”
“Yes, sir.”
Jon leaned over the table and went into Tim’s face, making a creepy smile. “I won’t have problems with you, will I?”
“No, sir.”
“Good man.” Jon slapped Tim on the shoulder. “The bounty hunter will arrive in ten minutes so why don’t we keep our guest company?”
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The next day Simmie walked on the Saffron Admiralty courtyard. He was in his dress uniform which was a white military hat with a slanted top and a gold eagle crest, a double breasted black wool jacket, with three gold rings on the cuffs, white pants with black beading, and a set of shiny dress black shoes. After presenting his yearly spending report to the commissary department, he had his vape in his mouth taking hits. He walked down a cobblestone stone path lined with trees in an isolated part of the admiralty.
Two men in masks and AI disguise clothes came up to Simmie with a gun in their Hands.
Simmie took a draw from his vape and blew vapor into the leader’s face. “If you want money, I don’t carry cash with me outside of the ship.”
“Come with us or we will kill you.”
Simmie laughed and put his hands by his side. “Do you know who I am?”
“Your Simmie Helios. Husband of Brinus Helios.”
Simmie laughed again and then said, putting his hands on his hips, “I will give you 500,000 credits and act like you didn’t try to kidnap me. I won’t press charges and I won’t tell anyone. My husband will kill you if I do.”
“We don’t care about your money and we die for the Federation.”
“Go ahead and kill me. You won’t do it because my husband has a reputation.”
Simmie started walking away and one of the two kidnappers shot him in the shoulder with a Taser. He fell to the ground, seized, and fell unconscious.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Okay, fine.”
There was the rustling of bushes and ten people screamed, “Police!” Ten cops came out of the bushes and surrounded them with their pistols drawn. The AI called the police ten minutes before this incident took place. The two kidnappers put Simmie between them and the cops.
A police sergeant stepped forward. “Surrender now and we won’t push for the death penalty.”
“So life in a Confederation prison? Go fuck yourself!”
About half a dozen streamers arrived three minutes as soon as a police cam live streamer started live streaming the incident. The police media agent was dispatched to contain the situation. Two Magi agents were also dispatched to deal with and inform Brinus All within the span of five minutes.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city… Brinus was at his great estate park talking with Castillio, who came to visit him. They were chatting when he felt something sharp hit his neck. Brinus first thought it was a saffron bee sting but Castillios reaction was to call 911. He also felt wired in a way he couldn’t put into words. He pulled it off of his neck and it was a large dart from a dart gun. He felt dizzy and weak and he almost couldn’t move because he was so weak. He snapped his fingers but no magic happened.
He looked at Castillio with eyes wide with fear. He said, “Oh shit,” and then vomited all of the food in his stomach.
The ambulance came within minutes. Two Magi officers arrived just as paramedics arrived.
The officer showed his badge as the two medics pulled out a stretcher from the back of an ambulance. “What’s happening?”
“We received a 911 call that the Duke of District Twelve was hit with a dart with an unknown substance. He is exhibiting signs of physical weakness, loss of magic, vertigo, and vomiting. We got here as quickly as we could. Move!! Now!!”
The two medics pushed the two officers out of the way. The two officers looked at each other.
One of them went onto their TriQuarter. “Call counter intelligence. It’s happening.”
“Okay, keep the police in the area. Protect the duke at all costs. Lethal force is authorized in finding prisoner 2256. Secure Tangent and take her to a safe palace. I will send other officers to secure the Duke.
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Tangent was at a university lecture. She was on a stool behind a podium giving a guest lecture about the weapons she’s designing on the Victory. The room was smokey as the students smoked their cigarettes and vapes. She couldn’t stand for the smoky haze in the lecture hall, but it wasn’t her class either way. On the white board behind her were complicated calculations with engineering Naval Academy Students on antimatter use in weapons. She was dressed in a business suit but no shoes as Lapori did not need shoes. As she talked, twenty cops and four magi agents came into the room from the top and two side doors. There were two hundred people at the assembly.
The police began clearing the room and the four agents showed her their badges.
The special agent stepped forward. “My name is special agent Forj. Your life is in danger. I will tell you what is happening on the ride to the police station but you must come with us now.”
Tangent nodded, her pupils dilated and her body tensed up, she hopped down without saying a word from the stool and then followed the agent.
In a quick motion, a police agent swung his arm at Tangent. She caught with her Lapori reflexes, something the agent likely didn’t anticipate, and before anything could be deduced, another agent shot the attacker in the head. He fell limp to floor with a lot less head on his shoulders.
A device fell loose and clamored on the floor, and Tangent recognized it. “That’s an antimatter dispulser… I’d recognize one anywhere. If that thing hit my chestplate, it would have discharged it in a blink, and exploded the whole whole campus.”
The nearest police officer sighed a breath of relief. “We need to get you out of here immediately. We’ll equip you with personal shielding while we move you.”
“I appreciate that. Whoever the terrorist is certainly knows what they’re doing…”
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The two agents were watching the live cam footage of both situations at the admiralty. Currently they were with Marci in a car in line at the space port. When the bounty hunter suggested using assassin droids, they were impressed. Despite their reputation for going off the rails, the new 4.0 version was a lot more stable if memory wipes were executed regularly. Droids, like humans, could develop personality traits on the dark triad from their line of work; like psychopathy and machiavellianism.
The navy trooper at the spaceport checkpoint came up to them, “Hello there, can I see your microchips?”
Tim said in a casual tone, “So about that? We have urgent business. Is there a way we can get around the microchip check?”
The navy trooper laughed and then said with a smile, “Unfortunately not today. Normally, I don’t mind taking a few extra coins to not check microchips. I mean, hell, everyone does. The Magi though said there is a dangerous terrorist on the loose with a kill order on them. Now show me the microchips or I will detain you.” Five navy troopers surrounded the car with their tasers drawn. Just then a security gate surrounded the car and locked. The guard frowned and said in a firm tone, “I gave you a lawful order under section 12 of the criminal code of conduct. You have thirty seconds to comply or we will taze you and arrest you for resisting arrest.”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
The two men and Marci came out of the car. Marci wore an AI mask of an elderly woman. She also had a special frequency red shawl over her also special frequency yellow sundress and an AI suit making her look seventy-years-old. The red and yellow together, according to the intel documents Marci leaked, emitted a frequency on the ultraviolet light spectrum that made the cameras combine their hue numbers to create a line of code that would corrupt the recordings.
The Gate sergeant came out with a wrist scanner. The men surrounding the car did not holster their weapons but instead pointed them at the three suspects.
Scanning Marci first, the sergeant said, “You have to excuse my men. There is an ongoing terrorist attack at the admiralty, the escape of a high profile prisoner two days ago, and supposedly the duke of district 12 was dosed with a substance and is at a hospital.”
The older woman said in a low gravelly voice, “Is Brinus okay?”
“As far as I know he is stable but critical. He is such a badass and one of the few good nobles, he’ll pull through.” The Navy trooper had an error displayed on his scanner. “That’s odd, For some reason your wrist isn’t scanning. Probably because of how old you are. These chips deteriorate as people get older. A line is building so I will have one of my men move the car and we will go inside to finish the process.”
The car was moved out of the way by another Navy trooper. The Three suspects were escorted into the immigration building to be monitored and processed.
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In the hospital, Brinus was attached to a dialysis machine. It had a large needle in his radial vein and another large needle in his radial artery in his wrist. It ran his blood through a filter and back into his body though his. He had a vape in his mouth taking puffs. Outside of his room were two cops in chairs. Inside of his room was another cop watching him. A magi officer was on his TriQuarter watching TV. The atmosphere was relaxed to not draw attention, but the personnel there were alert and ready.
Brinus looked at the officer. “How’s Simmie?”
“The police are setting up snipers. They plan on taking out the terrorists and just declared the Admiralty incident a terrorist attack.”
Brinus laughed after taking another hit on his vape. “I will burn the federation to the ground for this.”
“What makes you think it is the federation?”
“If my mom committed suicide in jail I than I have beachside property on Belfor to sell you.”
Belfor was a mythical planet that was destroyed before the foundation of the Federation. Basically, it was a paradise and was perfect in every way. It had no war, no famine, and no crime.
The Magi officer put down his TriQuarter. “What do you think you know?”
“I’m a pentestor. I think my mom was broken out of jail. I’m guessing the guard who got her the pills was set up on the anti-authority websites. I bet they created those accounts with his identity and made fake posts. The pills? They are probably coma pills or some kind of deep sleep pill. I guess they put her in a safe house near the prison for a couple of days. They created a hostage situation at the admiralty to divert media attention and then drugged me to take out the only real threat to their plan. I bet she is at the spaceport now disguised as an elderly woman so they won’t look too closely at her microchip. Tell me I’m wrong.”
The Magi started texting his boss.
Magi Officer: What do I tell Brinus? He knows everything.
Boss: What? How?
Magi officer: He mentioned that prisoner 2256 is probably at the spaceport disguised as an elderly woman. He even knew we planted the guard’s identity and posts on those websites.
Boss: Impossible! We kept that information secret. How does he know? Well… Okay. Give him a limited briefing. Tell him enough to keep him from blabbering.
“So, my boss authorized me to partially read you in. If you tell anyone what I am about to tell you and it is traced back to you, you will be tried as a treasonist.” Brinus smiled as the officer continued, “We began watching prisoner 2256 after she made contact with the subject. We knew she was contacting the federation but couldn’t read the messages. Then we noticed large payments of cash coming from Caltrex to an anonymous account. We traced the payments from Republic City to Caltrex to Saffron from the Federation Intelligence Bureau. The admiralty was hacked and 100 terabytes of information were stolen. Then she pulls all of this off today. There are 52 elderly women currently at the spaceport; the cameras are malfunctioning, and we have no clue which old lady is prisoner 2256…”