Chapter 25

Our guys could see me through the probes but I could not see the probes except the lines of force that were hanging in the air. I could comment now but they could see well enough. I did say, "Two more upstairs."

The two were now naked and laying on the bed beside Miss Lime. They were playing with her breasts and pussy and just working themselves up. I checked the lock on the door and saw that it was not secured. I pushed the door open quickly and fired twice. The two had started to react but fell back asleep.

"Team one come in the front door. It will be unlocked."

I got back, "Not bad but then you're my man. What do you think of Miss Lime?" Nadac was converting their voice so that I could pick it up.

"She looks good enough to eat but I already have two of the best."

"You still want us to leave her and the kids? We could take them to Gail's place."

"Stick to orders."

"Yes, sir."

I raised my pistol and fired three times into Miss Lime's leg then recovered all the darts. Jeff and Steph were semiconscious. Their locked door was opened and I shot them the same way and removed the darts. The two men in the front room had me work on their dicks for a minute to get each of the drones to emerge. The units were inanimate but they looked pleased to be free.

I returned to the other action displayed in my mind. Caputo's cell was opened and two of the commandos hustled him out after putting a mask on him.

At my location, the welcome company was coming up the walk and I had enough time to even open the door as Wendy, Chuck, Sam, Elaine and Shirley came in dressed in school clothes. The suitcase would allow them to change into the camo suits later if they stayed that long.

I turned visible and the five of them jumped. "Sorry, I'll warn you next time."

Sam said, "I really, really want one of those suits."

"This is the easy part. You may have guests coming. Shoot anybody coming in."

Sam said, "Yes Sir."

On the way out I picked up the rifle and a nine millimetre pistol then scrounged for clips and ammunition. I was out the back door in seconds.

On the way to my next appointment I watched the drones in the jail. Men were selected and given masks and I counted eight of them. They may have been criminals but they had to be marched out as if they were captives. Cars pulled up and men were pushed in and the vehicles left.

When the last of them left I said, "Can we call the police now? Two of the guards may live."

"The police will learn of this later. The two men will die shortly even with your crude medical attention. The others in the cells do not matter."

Do not matter? He may be right about that because I too had played with peoples' lives. In the end it resorted to a lot of killing.

The girls I was after were in a tenement. As buildings went, this was a better one but the girls were still in danger. A man sat between the petrified girls trying to seduce them. He may wait a while and I stationed a drone to attack if I were not ready. There were two more men in the apartment and a woman. The woman and a man were high on some drug they had injected. The other two were still threats.

They were on the seventh floor of a nine floor building. Coming down from the roof was the easiest. The lock on the roof door was inside where I could not get at it. I could fly the ship though the window of the apartment but that would give everybody too many clues. Racing up the steps was my only recourse. The elevator was out of order and the sign was old. I would not use it in any case.

I left the human guns in the ship and left by way of an alley. There was a security door but an old man going the other way opened it for me. I made noise going up the steps and slowed down. I had to pass people and two people looked directly at me as if they could see me.

There were children in the building and I was happy that I had not brought a real gun. When I got to the seventh landing I found nearby doors open as if this was a nice neighbourhood. I could probably pick the lock to the apartment I wanted to enter but the security chain was on the door.

I scratched the door and whispered "Manuel," once then a bit later did it again. I tried to disguise my voice and appear drunk. One of the men had the name Manuel and hoped this would be enough to get the door open.

From inside I heard one of the men yell, "Get away before I go out there and boot your ass." I ignored the threat and continued. Twice somebody came to the door to look out the spy hole but they could see nothing. I did manage to piss them off though. The two drew weapons and one went to the door and quietly removed the chain as he prepared to burst out into the aisle.

When the door opened I was crouched down low to hide my gun. I fired at the guy's leg from here and looked to see the on inside. He was behind a wall waiting. I pushed my way past the man and he shouted in surprise instead of falling down. I turned and fired again and hit him in the chest. The man in the apartment saw his partner fall and opened fire on my gun. One bullet hit my chest and pushed me back and I fell against the small table. More bullets hit me but many more missed.

One bullet hit me in the right arm where the shield was not in position. It felt like my arm was broken the gun went to my left and I managed to get one shot in before three more hit around my visible gun. I was pushed back again and fell on my back.

It was difficult but I got to my feet. There was glass from a broken mirror over the floor. The girls were hiding behind the couch as I approached. I looked at the first man and now saw an artificial leg.

This plan was shot to shit and I would go to plan 'B'. At least I had thought of contingency plans. I came into the living room. The girls looked unhurt but frightened to death. From my left came the man on drugs. I turned just enough to catch three slugs in my shield that would have killed me if I had not been wearing it. Before the man went down two more bullets hit and one was on the gun. It flew from my hand.

My left hand hurt as bad as my right arm and this was when the woman came charging out with a long knife in her had and a crazy look in her face. I didn't trust my right arm. I kicked the woman in the crotch and she hardly seemed to notice it. It did give her my position. My left hand had to shoot out and I connected with her nose. She fell heavily on her ass and I kicked her in the stomach. She fell over on her side and puked.

I was stunned for a while trying to deal with my pain. I remembered the gun and picked it up with a lot of difficulty. It was damaged and would not work now. I leaned up against the wall trying to think straight. One of the two girls got up and looked around. She was my age and good looking. Her sister looked at the carnage. They were twins but not identical. Both I decided were better than just good looking. It was when they started to leave that I growled, "Get in the bathroom and lock the door." They looked around. They saw nobody but they did as I asked. The sound of the lock was good but too easy to defeat.

I could not just leave my gun so I put it inside my suit and closed up the suit again. People were coming near and I was surprised to see that they carried guns. The drugged man's gun was a nine millimetre and would hurt me less to fire. The man at the doorway had a gun too and I managed to get it before armed men came from the stairwells or a nearby apartment.

I felt obliged to warn them and growled, "Come, and you will die." My answer came from two directions. I was back far enough that none of the bullets hit me. Some feeling was coming back to my left hand besides pain.

Two large men were working their way toward the doorway to the apartment. I was in no mood to play. I was crouched near the floor once again and right below them as they rushed in. I shot both in the chest.

They stumbled and fell. I shot both in the back of the skull to make sure they gave me no more trouble. Two more men came but I got them in the hallway instead. After that the rest stayed away.

Sirens were coming. I had not called the police. The goons were probably in the employ of Caputo or one of his men. When looking at that I had to assume that this was a safe place to keep the girls from Caputo's viewpoint.

"Matt, who called the police?"

"Betty. She could see that you were hit. She felt you could survive with the girls if the police came."

"Why didn't she ask me first?"

"You were in a combat situation."

I guess that was a good enough reason. I had to get out now but not until the police got here. I flexed my left hand but my right arm still felt paralysed. I could see around the shield in the suit and saw that the bone was not broken.

The bathroom door lock sounded. I walked over to it and growled. "The police are on the way. The men on this floor will kill you."

One voice said, "Are you going to kill us?"

"I came here to keep the men from killing you."

There was a very long pause then the same girl said, "Is it safe to come out?"

"There is glass on the floor. Three men are sleeping. One woman is too stunned to do anything now. There are four bodies of men that are very dead."

"Did you kill them?"

"Yep."

The other girl said, "For us?"

I was exasperated and said, "No, for the tooth fairy. A man by the name of Caputo does not like witnesses. He also likes young girls and boys to have sex with." I looked downward and focussed at the front of the building. The police were coming in and there looked to be eleven of them. I was surprised there were so many considering the jail break. "A dozen or so cops are coming up the steps. Tell them not to trust any civilians. You mother is still gambling with her boyfriend. Caputo paid the boyfriend to take your mother away so they could use your house."

"Why did he do that?"

"Three people were kidnapped and held there."

"He could have brought them here."

"He wanted to kill quietly. This building would be a trap for him if there was a fight like I just had."

The cops were getting close and I called the ship. It climbed to this floor and I looked around for a suitable window to leave by. I had to use a chair to break the glass and then remove part of the frame. The ship actually came into the apartment and I climbed on the couch to get in.

The police were at the floor now and leapfrogged each other. One called out, "Come out with your hands us or we shoot."

I growled, "Two girls in the bathroom to your left. No hostiles left."

"Come out or we shoot."

I called out finally, "Bye girls," and left.

The cops rushed in but didn't find anybody conscious except the woman and the girls.

"Betts, guys, the girls are safe. My right arm feels like it was kicked. My left hand stings like hell. I am going north to get some aid then coming back. Caputo still wants his dance."

Betts called out, "Take me."

"Soon. I am just going to get patched up. We can still talk."

Betts said, "I have the med unit."

"That would work in a pinch. My arm's not broken. This is probably because of the combat suit. They have better med units that work faster." The last was a hope because I was not sure.

Erica said with a crying voice, "I love you, Wally."

"I love you too. You guys better prepare to leave now. The two girls know about their home being used to house hostages."

Chuck said, "We will set up a perimeter and leave a few minutes before the cops get here. There are a lot of backyards we can use."

"Good thinking, Private."

"Thanks Cap. I thought you were the only one with rank."

"You were always leadership material Chuck."

Chuck didn't answer but Wendy did. "We knew that too Cap."

We chatted for a few moments and I said, "Guys, I am at an altitude of 500 klicks now and coasting around the earth. I just thought you would want to know."

Sam said, "I really... we need to get our own finished. You said would be done in three weeks."

"I did. I place the crystals and have to get the fungus to connect all of them."

Jerry said, "We have lots of money of our own. Can we get the parts built now? We know the system works because we saw your ship and you are where you are right now."

Betts said, "I want to start too. I have money and I will put it in. If we do this right then we will not be flashing money around and attracting attention. The ship will be invisible."

"Tie in with the academy to let them place our orders. We need an adult voice and a secure way of moving the money and getting the parts. I have been making my approach now. I'll see what my reception is like. I did part of the job but it didn't go smoothly."

Betts said, "You did a good job Wally. The two girls were just hustled out of the building and into two cars. The cars are leaving now. That has to count for something?"

"I hope so."

I got out of the ship to find snow still in pockets. The suit was warm. The door opened and I simply walked in and tried to get the suit off. I had to struggle through a lot of pain to get this far. My right arm was bruised and the skin torn. The bullet had not hit directly on the bone. The suit may stop the bullet eventually but not before it succeeded in killing me.

The cot was cool on my skin as I laid down. Med units came out that were larger than what I had made. Since I was playing the role of an Aristis aristocrat, I said nothing and tried to think even less.

Nadac said, "We can talk. I want the second computer brought here."

"I can do that but it helps me with interfering with the probes. Do you have an adequate substitute?"

"Your first unit will do this too."

"Yes, but it's simple and the interference does not travel far. What do you see as the purpose of the 72?"

"Rontem will clone himself before you work on the Fonduush's computer. The safety protocols have not been followed in the design."

"I have noticed that too."

"I wish to clone my own personality and place it in a crystal within the computer you are building."

I said, "Can you fight off Rontem when he already has possession of the computer?"

"I have given you the information for doing so."

"For both our sakes, you better give me the way you want and not what I think it should be."

The information came in and I stored it behind the hidden partition I had made. There were some intriguing complexities here that I had not thought of. This put my own designs in danger of being found. Rontem had a drone at his disposal but a more advanced unit could see my tinkering for what it was.

Nadac said, "Your chances of success against Carmen Caputo are not good. He now has reports of your actions to save the two young females. I said it would be best to leave them. The woman though under the influence of drugs, claims you were invisible. The rest will be sedated for an additional half day but they too will say that you were invisible. Carmen Caputo had taken this report seriously."

"Are you sure the report came from the police? It could just as easily came from Rontem."

"I have considered that too. The king wishes to test you. I fear his instability will push you to destruction."

"What can better my odds without Rontem feeling I have an unfair advantage?"

"Your dart gun can be made with solid shot that dissolves within your target or disintegrates in air after being fired. This unit requires less gas, works faster, propels its load further and with more accuracy and fits within the suit you wore today."

"What are the bad points?"

"You are wise to ask. The weapon cannot be loaded in the field without a mechanism that works in vacuum. You have eighty three shots only. The barrel is longer but the gun overall is smaller."

I said, "Two guns may offset the loading problem."

"That will work."

"What other advantage may I use?"

"Seek full body shield until you get down to five opponents. There is a very good chance that at that point you will not be allowed to use your invisibility."

"I don't see much chance of getting that concession from Rontem."

"I have seven likely choices of places that your confrontation could take place. You are supposed to work on these yourself. I will give them to you. Following any of them too closely will indicate that you had prior knowledge."

"I can fake it."

"Then do so."

When the data was stored, I asked, "I could use twenty four of the new weapons, four loaders and a good supply of ammunition."

"You wish to arm your comrades? Caputo should be the last of your enemies."

"Rontem will continue to test me."

"With whom?"

"Find ways of turning my family against me. Inform the police so that I am chased and harassed. Inform the cartels of what we have done. Do the same thing to the government and the corporations so they will chase me down. Get you to do acts that are not what you wish to do. After all that, he can get you to chase me or he does. A lesser scenario would be to deny me any assistance."

"I believe you are right. You have chosen to join the aristocracy and that means you have to be worthy."

I said, "If you still wish to confront Rontem, I need an alternate source of information. If you transferred all of yourself into Hal then I can seek help when the real you is forced to act against me."

"That fits in with what I had planned."

"I need a way of cutting off contact with the computer you are now in. Rontem can use his own probes as well as yours to search for me. He may take action against me and so I need protection and some offensive abilities. My greatest weapon could be an idea of what Rontem is thinking. You stated that you were a psychiatrist. That information would assist me too. I can build computers with your assistance, but I know little of the weapons and defence used by the Aristis."

"You cannot stand up to Rontem and his ship. It is much too powerful."

"Rontem will not seek to kill me at each testing but it will be close in his mind. If I have the information I need, there is a chance that I may survive to face the next challenge. Before I am allowed to learn too much, Rontem will have me repair his computer. You will have to be in the new 72 to keep him from keeping control. This could be also done by simply removing his access to the ultrawave. Rontem has already thought of this and has the rudiments of a hyperwave put into the design. A remote can complete this work for him."

"I cannot give you all that information. You are not an Aristis though you are another branch from our common progenitors.

I said, "Your training was focussed on destroying Rontem. He is not an Aristis by your own laws. I have no Aristis to fight or a wish to dominate. I do not threaten the Aristis people. I am protecting them from Rontem though. He can still decide to return to Casslis and your supporters."

"Rontem must die but you still gain too much knowledge."

"If I actually wished to challenge the Aristis, it would take centuries to build just a few ships. Centuries more would be needed to train adequate crews. Is it not more likely that two cousins unite to take on the Wikki rather than fight each other? Your race has nurtured paranoia because of the way the Aristis are constructed. Altruism cannot be believed but self-interest is what all races strive for. What is the logical reasons for denying me the tools I need to rid us of Rontem?"

"There are still many. I agree that paranoia is part of our basic structure. You would not likely attack the Aristis because of our strength but you would go off and found your own empire. At some time in the future our two races would be in conflict."

I said, "You strengthened your race by causing conflict. The galaxy is vast and there are more than one advanced race. If what you say happens then at some far future time the Aristis and humans may meet. The Aristis would have progressed a lot since Rontem was cast out of Casslis and they will have no doubt progressed more before we meet. That meeting will be beneficial for the Aristis in many ways. Both races could be tested and the Aristis will grow even stronger. Common interest will bind both races."

"It is possible that the humans could win a confrontation."

"Humans are not as intelligent as the Aristis. You said before that we teetering on the edge of an abyss with our genetic defects. The chances are that the human race will die out before another Aristis group comes our way. Our immediate goal is the elimination of Rontem. If I am your best hope then you have to give me the tools to fight with. Halfway measures will only cause failure."

Nadac thought as the med units continued to work. I felt him looking within my mind and I relaxed hoping he saw nothing to contradict what I had stated.

"I will give you my full knowledge. If I detect deceit then I will take it back."

"Nadac, none of us are perfect. Small short term goals that may look bad could be good in the larger picture. If I cannot learn to hide my thoughts then Rontem will find them when we come in contact. You need an ally that has the ability to fight your enemies. A truly good person would be useless to you or me. Self-interest has to motivate me and not threats or idle promises."

The upload began abruptly and I had a difficult time to store it. There was no chance to study it even in passing. It was good that my crystal was so large because it was nearly full when Nadac was done.

My head hurt when the process was complete. My brain had done only some of the processing while the small processor had stored most of the data.

"You must leave. Carmen Caputo has tried to contact your family. I have intercepted the transmissions and gave suitable responses. He will not be patient for long. You must go to him now before he attacks your family."

I saw that one of the scenarios matched the current local though this time there were more hostiles. Nadac's plans were very good and much better than I could come up with. I worked on downgrading the ideas so Rontem would think they were mine.

My arm and hand felt better than new. There was no bruising or abrasion now. A different weapon was on my left hand. It folded with my movements while the one in my right was fixed on the back of my wrist. Both weapons were similar to the one Nadac had described but had subtle changes. The commando suit was new and I saw that the shield it generated in front was larger than the one before. It peaked in the centre to shed kinetic rounds better. Best of all a shield protected my face and neck but still allowed me to move.

A new upload showed how to use this suit to its best advantages. It was very near what an Aristis assassin would use. The weapons I would be facing did not require a full commando suit.

"Have you cleared these improvements with Rontem?"

"He saw how poorly you did in the last conflict. I gave an accurate analysis of your survivability and he was the one that insisted that the weapons be upgraded. When five opponents are left, the suit will loose its shield and invisibility."

I detected tension. "And the guns?"

"You will have to rely on other weapons then."

"Will the suit and weapons become operational if I defeat the last five?"

"Yes, you will have ample opportunity to make your withdrawal."

"I have no accuracy at predicting my own fate but I believe I will be hurt."

"This talent is extremely rare. Do you see a way of avoiding your fate?"

"None. I just see a great deal of pain in the near future."

"I can do little but I will try."

On the way back I went over the conversations that I was supposed to have taken part in but Nadac had filled in for me. At the appropriate time I fit myself into the conversation. I gave my objective and Nadac gave the gang access to the drones already in place.

"Remember, I cannot get your help until I am done. There seems to be eight non-combatants including two children. I have to consider them to be hostages at some time in the conflict."

Betts said, "What can we do?"

"There is very little. You can monitor the drones and make suggestions but that can confuse me to."

Betts excitedly said, "Caputo just got a call and he yelled out that you are on your way. Who told him?"

"I am afraid it is part of the test. My suit is better as are my weapons. To compensate, Caputo has been warned." This new revelation made me fume. I could at least have been told. It also cut down on my options

I said, "I am almost there now. I am going to be busy now and unable to talk much."

I got words of luck from everybody and words of love from the girls but two of them seemed more important to me.

My objective was an estate with a large manor house. I quizzed Nadac to find that the property was owned by a business associate of Caputo's. The owner was presently near Caputo while his family stayed in a large room on the third floor. A woman of forty, a girl of about ten and a boy of thirteen or fourteen comprised the family. There was a male servant and a girl of eighteen or a bit older in the room too. Two older women that appeared to be servants were huddled in the corner.

Last time I had not checked the neighbours but this time I stuck to just the outlying buildings. There were more servants and their families. There were eight in all but one seemed to be hiding in a pile of hay. This was a boy a year or so younger than me. There were other children but only one was younger and this was a boy of four.

I counted thirty four armed men. Some of them wore military style equipment. These would be the ones I wanted to nail first. They had some impressive equipment too. There was thermal imaging, starlight scopes, some beautiful sniper rifles, grenades, a portable radar unit that may pick me up. There were claymores hidden under brush and I could see wire to trip them or radio control. Automatic weapons were very common.

On the private road or a public one I saw a total of six more men manning roadblocks.

My objective was to take out Caputo and he was in the house. Since he was warned, he had to know that I was coming specifically for him. The house then would be heavily defended. The windows in the house had decorative lattice in every window that had been there for years. I knew it had to be steel flat bar. The external walls were sheathed in cut stone and steel doors were over the standard door. I saw track to bring them up when there was no trouble. A man that needed this much protection had to be involved in crime.

The basement was deep. It was used for lavish entertaining. There were no windows and one external door that was also protected by an additional steel door. The house would be difficult to take.

My weapons were inferior but were quiet. My ship gave me mobility while I could see through objects. A real commando could use what I had and possible not disturb his hair. I was almost thirteen now and only partially trained. The enemy had good weapons and would be able to see me even when I was invisible when they used the radar or possibly the infrared scope.

I started with the snipers. They wore bullet proof vests as they would in war. With my hatch partially opened I descended quietly behind the first and used my dart-less dart gun. He went down quietly and I took out two more before a radio message was not returned.

Powerful lights came on from the walls of the house and more from the outbuildings. None of the lights were on me though. In the next hour I took fourteen more this way. I still had a small rifle from the house and the nine millimetre pistol still. I was able to get one of the fifty calibre sniper rifles but I was almost unable to pick it up. I loaded up with ammo and a M16 chambered for eleven millimetre rounds.

From the ground I took out the men using the radar and tried hard to disable their equipment. I would only stay to fire a few rounds then move. There was a lot of lead flying around and I had no protection on my flanks or my back.

When they were too primed I moved to the roadblocks and took them out with darts. They could see nothing much and they were easy to take. They were also just city thugs and not soldiers. They had more hardware but I could not use what I already had adequately.

There were only five more armed men outside of the house. I used the M16 to take out windows and tried to take them with darts instead. It was not that they were worth more but it was like I was tired of killing. Two of the five I had to shoot but the rest were sleeping soundly.