Chapter 12

The Sandgate had delivered the Wayward contingent to Earth quicker than expected. The Chief Engineer Roush had plastered Hennessey, Callaway, and AMG posters on the bulkhead outside of Engineering. The chief took pride that 'his ship' was serving as a test bed for the next generation in asynchronous drive systems. To put it mildly, his ship had a few propulsion enhancements.

Randy had spent the last week conferring with anyone who ever worked with an AI. Team Wonder Women spent time at Euro-Disney. Sergeant Capoue and his two privates disappeared with the arrival of an escort from Plans and Tactics. Anton had gone to meet with a few operatives in England.

Randy was suffering from brain drain. Needing a recharge, he requested a book to read. The Silmarillion, devoid of technology, he relaxed and read. The similarities between the story called The Sun and the Moon, the Long Peace and the Coming of Men and the Confederacy were a bit of a stretch. Then he remembered a 'circles within circles' discussion during Applied Physics. Sometimes people proved what they wanted to prove. Aristotle had confused and helped to stifle scientific learning until Copernicus provided the first nail in the coffin.

A single amber line flashed at the bottom of his pad. He had a message. Tapping the line brought a picture of his little sister Edith. Clicking on her nose, she spoke. "Mr. Z wants to see you at pad gamma three." Then she put her thumbs in her ears, waved her fingers up and down while blowing a raspberry.

Randy at first was irritated. It took a while, almost twenty minutes, for him to realize Edith had been standing in the living room of their home on Wayward. It was a clandestine message. This was exciting real secret agent stuff. Okay it was dorky. Randy punched up directions to pad gamma three on his tablet. To test himself he put the tablet on standby, from memory he quickly walked the circuitous path to the transporter nexus. If he ran in the lower lunar gravity, he discovered even the minor enhancements had him bumping his head on the ceiling. At the end of his journey, Randy found a standard video interface. Unlike the majority of nexus points on the base, this one lay behind a locked pressure door.

"Hello," Randy looked back and forth, only seeing his reflection in the glossy black screen. He received no reply, only silence. He entered into a staring contest with his reflection, if whoever watched him wanted a reaction, Randy would only show patience. His world centered on the reflective surface.

When a hand touched his shoulder, Randy almost jumped headlong into the wall. "Sorry." Andres Zucher stated seeking forgiveness for scaring Randy.

"It's alright Mr. Z," Randy half apologized. What a secret agent in training he was turning out to be. At least his shorts were dry.

"You of course realize," Andres looked back down the passageway, "I come from a long line of Swiss Ninja."

The comment made Randy smile while bringing forth a chuckle. The door opened and Randy was ushered through the doorway. Instantly the flash of a transporter greeted him. No matter how many times he traveled this way, there was an instant of non-equilibrium. He kept moving, clearing the pad, letting Andres follow him unimpeded.

In front of them stood an imposing Marine holding a clipboard.

"A9N, we are expected," said Andres calmly.

The guard looked at his clipboard. "Colonel Zucher?" he asked.

Andres nodded. The guard pointed to his right. "Two doors down."

Only numbers were visible on the doors. Andres walked instinctively down the halls, seemingly guided by providence.

"Randy," Andres slowed to walk side by side with his intern, "this is the Lipskiy Base," he paused a moment. "Think of this as MI6 and the CIA rolled into one." He turned and looked at Randy. "It gets about as exciting as a poetry reading in Swedish."

Pondering that revelation left Randy a blank. Andres wore a blank expression. Randy continued to try and read the message if any. Most likely Andres wanted his mind occupied. They stopped at one of the doors. The sign stated '9', other than that one piece of uniqueness, it looked like all the others. Andres knocked and opened the door.

"Come in gentlemen," a female voice called from inside. Randy could hear a soft English accent. For some reason it was both stereotypical and reassuring. In the next three tenths of a second, he pondered the probability the voice belonged to Miss Moneypenny.

On entering, Randy noticed a relatively large room full of empty desks. Each one similar to the next, he could see differences but there was very little individuality. The welcoming voice belonged to a young redhead who carried the rank of corporal. Scanning, he noticed the name Niven on her lapel.

"Colonel Zucher," she called again after they entered the room. "Commanders Meers and Carter are waiting for you both in the conference room."

Inside were two men. Colonel Zucher did the introductions. "Commander Carter, hello again. Thank you for waiting." He was the closer officer, "Commander Meers, it's good to see you again after all this time. Thank you for organising this meeting for me. Gentlemen," Andres turned, "this is Randy Jenkins, Randy, these are Commanders Meers and Carter."

Commander Percival Meers reached for Randy's hand first. He was just a bit taller than Randy himself was. His brown short-cropped hair complemented his brown eyes. Every Marine in Confederacy service stood at least six foot six. Unless he was in intelligence, then he or she looked ready to step back onto Earth and blend in with the populace. He looked skinny but, with augmentation, the man was much more powerful than he appeared. "Cammander Meers," he said politely.