Chapter 354

The Retreat

..."I need Lieutenant Mayfield to meet me at the Ship, ASAP," Jeff subvocalized into his throat mike.

Ship shifted the view to a remote positioned above the Security building. The remote's sensors penetrated the heavy snowfall to show a figure that hurried out just as the snowplow pulled up, the plow barely stopping before the figure was inside and the machine was rolling again. The remote followed as the plow made its way up the driveway and across the back parking lot into the space where Ship sat, invisible.

As soon as Mayfield had exited the plow, Ship let down her ramp for him. After boarding Ship a short time later, he laid his coat by Jeff's and turned to his commander. "Sir?"

"At Ease, Lieutenant. Sit and watch the vid with me."

After they watched a short part of the vid, and there was a good shot of Charlotte's face, Mayfield asked, "That's Bankston, right? She's taken a stroll before bedtime before."

"It's Bankston," Jeff agreed, "but continue watching."

When Charlotte neared the drop-off, Mayfield sat up straighter. "Oh, shit. Don't tell me..."

Jeff was shaking his head. "My first thought also, but..."

On the screen, Charlotte changed course and walked toward her trailer and the stacks of supplies that were along the way. When she disappeared into them, Mayfield groaned. "I couldn't figure out how to position a camera to view all the area without putting in a tall pole to mount the camera on. But ... I couldn't do that because everything was coming in via helicopter. Those guys have enough problems with the wind up here without my adding another obstacle in the middle of the area where they are putting the supplies down."

"No need to explain, Lieutenant. You and your people have been doing a great job. Just continue to watch."

When Charlotte began to search the pipes with her black light, Mayfield came to his feet. "I need to get her in and put her on a lie detector, but ... she's a civilian. I can't legally do that..."

When Charlotte turned and left the stack of pipes, Mayfield sat back down. "What the hell was she looking for?"

"Run the rest of the vid," Jeff instructed Ship.

When Charlotte hurried out of the area, then at a much slower pace, returned to the trailer, Mayfield began to relax, but that was short lived when the remote moved to the other end of the pipes. Mayfield was back on his feet. "Shit. We should have caught that. The pipes were scanned, but..."

"The steel pipe camouflaged the pistol causing it to not show up on your scanners," Jeff finished for him. "Relax, Lieutenant. We still don't know why she was searching for the gun, but obviously this was planned because she had an ultraviolet light to check for that mark on the end-cap. And if you will notice by the readings on the bottom of the screen, this particular plastic end-cap was metal-lined, making it impossible for your scanners to find the weapon."

Mayfield sat back down with a sigh. "So what do we do? Arrest her? Speak to her boss and have her shipped out of here?"

Jeff turned his full attention from the screen to Mayfield. "Nooo," he replied, thoughtfully. "That would certainly stop the threat – whatever or whoever it is directed against – but I think we should let this play out to its conclusion."

The Lieutenant nodded toward the screen where the picture was frozen on the outline of the weapon inside the pipe. "Sir, if you will look closely, Ship's scan also displays a full magazine in the pistol. It's loaded, Sir..."

"Ah," Jeff said with a gleam in his eye, "I can take care of that. The weapon will not fire, but everything will appear normal."

When Mayfield looked a question, Jeff went hurriedly on. "I trust that you remember that I load a lot of my own ammo. I'll simply disassemble the rounds, dump the powder out, then spray a little thin oil on the primers from inside the casing. Not only will there not be any powder in the casing, but the primer won't fire either. Of course, even if a primer should fire, it would provide only enough pressure to maybe jam the bullet just inside the barrel. But it would probably scare the crap out of whomever she intends to shoot, and her as well. To further make certain nothing bad happens, I'll file the firing pin off just enough so it won't contact the primer."

"Provided she doesn't know enough about firearms to check to see if the firing pin is functional, or ... she doesn't have more ammunition, although I damn sure don't know how she could have managed to smuggle any in, unless there is some secreted somehow in some of the supplies."

Jeff thought for a second. "Well, even if she does have access to more ammunition, I can't see how she could tell that the ammo in the weapon will be nonfunctional. Powder doesn't weigh much. Very, very few people could tell the difference."

"We could always raid the trailers and scan everything again..."

"But ... as you said before, these aren't military personnel, and besides, we don't want to let her know what we've learned. Better to let her commit, then arrest her. But dammit, her bio..."

"All of the crew was double checked by my people, then by me, personally. There are no lies in her file, and absolutely no reason for her to do something like this, at least that we were able to turn up."

"Then there's something else about her that we don't know. Assuming that the gun is for her, that is. She might be a person who is going to deliver the weapon to an assassin that isn't even here yet. Hell, there could be a number of reasons, but none I can think of that is good."

Having made up his mind, Jeff issued his orders. "Have one of your camouflaged people retrieve the weapon and bring it to me. I can have it back to you in an hour, and you can have it replaced in the pipe. Ship will keep a remote in the area and will update us on Ms. Bankston's activities, especially concerning the weapon. Let's watch her surreptitiously for a while, and see what she does. It's just hard to believe that she's an assassin. Maybe there's an ex-boyfriend that she's afraid of, or maybe she's having problems with one of her coworkers. Hell, I don't know, but I have a gut feeling..."

Abruptly, Jeff came to his feet. "My wife and Selina are overdue to come out of the simulator and I'm beginning to worry about them. Ship says they're okay and the mission is just running longer than she expected, but, well..."

"Go check on them, Sir. I'll have the weapon brought to you, ASAP."

The Lieutenant grabbed his coat and was soon out the hatch, while Jeff went to the simulator. Standing just inside the door, he watched Selina and Diana as they lay on their couches looking perfectly normal.

I can bring them back if you insist, Ship said in his mind, but they have almost completed their mission and now must find their way back to the base. If I interrupt them at this point...

"They will never forgive you – or me," Jeff interjected. "I don't need a pissed-off wife or a pissed-off genius in my life, let alone both of them. Just let the simulation conclude normally," Jeff responded aloud.

Ship also shifted from mental to verbal, her soft voice sounding as if she were standing close by Jeff's side. "I have been impressed with them, as you will be when you review their mission. Whether they managed to return home 'alive' or not, they have proven remarkably resourceful, and Selina ... has distinguished herself in an adult environment, both at the academy and in her missions – and Diana has also proven herself over and over. The two have worked flawlessly as a team. Selina is an adult mentally. Unfortunately, her body remains that of a child, but in the simulation she is an adult, even though her body has not fully developed yet. My only real concern is that their returning to reality after the simulation has lasted so long – well simulation time anyway – might be a shock for Selina when she remembers that she is only six years old.

"Now, they have even managed to maneuver away from the black hole, although their warp-out with mass nearby has caused them to be lost somewhere in deep space," Ship said to tease her commander.

"Black hole? None of my scenarios had a black hole in them."

"Ah, perhaps you would like to attempt their mission when they return?"

"And get sucked into a black hole after they managed to get away? Not bloody likely. I know when to take a pass. I survived all my missions in the simulator and I'm going to keep my record unsullied," he said with a laugh.

"Everyone else who has tried this mission has lost patience and increased their speed a little too much long before they even got to the enemy base. And, of course, were killed by overwhelming firepower. All you have to do is be patient and be constantly alert for many days," Ship said, oh so sweetly.

"And you know I would lose patience and decide to shoot my way in, or something equally stupid," he returned. "I can see that Di would have the patience to do something like this, but I'm amazed that Selina managed it."

"As I have said, they have made an excellent team, each supplying what the other lacked," Ship acknowledged. "I even reversed their roles and put Selina in charge. She has not, however, allowed her superior intellect to get her into trouble, allowing a cooler head to intervene when necessary, and vice versa."

The Lieutenant has the weapon and is on the way back, Ship announced in Jeff's mind.

The Prime was standing just inside the hatch when the Lieutenant walked through and handed him a pistol and a loaded magazine.

"Well, I'll be. A Baby Glock," Jeff said, pulling the slide back and checking the chamber. "Well done, Lieutenant. Give me an hour and I'll have the ammo ready. Hell, I may even fire a few rounds since I've never fired one of these. I said something about getting some for my wives, but Diana turned up her nose at the pistol, saying it was too small to be effective in a gunfight unless you were close to your assailant. Still, it is one heck of a hideout gun," he finished as he aimed the little gun at an adjacent wall. "Of course my hand swallows it, but for up close, it's about as good as you can get. Ten round magazine in 9 mm, and, like all the Glocks, it's reliable as hell."

"I'll have someone standing by to pick it up when you're done."

"Hmmm," Jeff said. "Don't do that. We don't want to do anything that's the least bit suspicious. I'll call when the gun is ready, and you can have a trooper in camouflage meet me at the back door. That way, if they somehow have someone watching, they'll just see me standing on the back stoop checking out the weather before I go to bed ... as I do a lot, anyway."

"I'll have a regular trooper walk the perimeter with the camouflaged trooper, just as I did when we recovered the weapon. That way, there won't be anything out of the ordinary – just a trooper making the rounds on guard duty. The camouflaged trooper can peel off and replace the Glock, then leave through the gate with the regular trooper. We couldn't have gotten away with it a few months ago, but the scientists having solved the problem of the tracks was a distinct bonus, so if the trooper walks slowly, the tracks fill in behind him almost as soon as he makes them."

Jeff slipped his jacket on and dropped the Glock in one pocket and the magazine into another. "Keep me posted, Lieutenant, but for the time being, make sure your people don't do anything that would alert her."