Chapter 5

Three days later we landed on Wolf Three, posing as bounty hunters. It caused quite a stir in the local population as we marched our captured pirates to the local Peacekeeper's station. After that, as we were sitting in a local café scanning the crowd and the new wanted posters we had downloaded, we noticed all the hostile looks we were receiving from the local population. It seemed as though piracy may just be a normal form of business, around here. That would explain how one of the local big shots would come to be holding the ambassador's daughter.

We were just sitting there, finishing our coffee, when three large men came into the café. After scanning the customers, they opened up on us. Luckily, Cyndi was paying attention and flipped the table on the side in front of us just before they opened up with us diving behind it. It wasn't ten seconds later when all three of the large men were down.

As we were marching our prisoners back to the Peacekeeper's station, Mike said, "It looks like someone is not happy with us being here."

"It is starting to look that way, isn't it? At least it looks like Tom is going to make some money off this deal, and we'll get the info we need. What's really surprising is that the gang holding the ambassador's daughter is not led by a man, but instead by a woman named Esther Howard. She's the widow of Matt Howard, who was a local crime lord, until two years ago. He was killed by a rival gang. She operates off her large estate, which is well guarded and fortified."

Mike then asked, "Okay, we know where the girl's being held. How do we go in and get her?"

"Let's take this easy. We should go scout the estate, after dark, then return to the 'Luck of the Irish' to make our plans on the rescue."

"Okay, people, here's the plan. From our earlier scouting of Ms. Howard's estate, we know that the eight foot high wall surrounding the estate it is wired for both motion sensors and closed-circuit video surveillance. There are six roving guards on the exterior grounds, and two guard posts on each end of the main building. We don't know how many are inside. I figure there is a surveillance monitoring room somewhere inside the main building. They usually set it up close to the main entrance. It probably will be manned by between one and three guards."

"Wiz, I need you to tap their surveillance system, and put it into a continuous ten minute loop. That should make their surveillance system useless."

"Mike, I need you and Cyndi set up a sniper post with the long range needle rifles to take out targets of opportunity, and to cover our asses. Just remember to try and keep it non-lethal, in case the ambassador's daughter is not there. If that is the case, we will need some prisoners."

"Jackson, you and Tom are with me infiltrating the estate while the others cover us. We are going to tranquilize everyone in hopes of gaining access to the main house before they can set off any alarms."

Tom spoke up and said, "Commander if I may make a suggestion? We have six more of the Gilly gas limpet mines in the number one cargo hold ready to go plus a case of Gilly gas grenades. It would make the house much easier to take if everyone inside was sick."

"I forgot all about those mines your wife developed. It's a good idea and should make taking the house much easier. Although I don't think the ambassadors daughter is going to be too happy about it since it will make sure just as sick as the others."

"I think if she has a choice between remaining a prisoner, or being a little sick; she'll choose sick, any day."

We were just getting ready to kick off the rescue mission when my communicator chimed, and Mike said through my ear-bud, "Commander I have a vehicle approaching the house from the southwest."

Watching to the southwest I saw a vehicle pull to the front of the house. Two important looking man exited the back of the limousine, along with two Peacekeepers from the front. Seeing this new development, we held off entering the grounds, and were watching through IR scanners.

While watching the heat signatures of the men as they entered the home, we saw what was obviously a prisoner being brought to these men in the front room. Thinking that this might be the ambassador's daughter, we decided to hold off on our assault of the grounds. We would take the car, as soon as it left the estate, as quietly as possible."

We're trying to think of how to disable the limousine as quietly as possible, since in all probability, the limousine would be armored. Then Tom spoke up while showing us a small box.

"This is another of Desirée's inventions. It throws a directional electromagnetic pulse which should kill any electronics within fifty meters. That should cause the limo to simply shut down, for no apparent reason."

"Jesus, Tom, your wife is a gold mine with all of these inventions! She's going to have all the Techs in weapons and shipbuilding drooling to get their hands on her inventions and ideas. They'll offer her anything she wants, to get her to come work for them."