CHAPTER SEVEN
They left the red
mobile a few miles outside of the city, deciding it was too risky to come into
the city in a car with a broken window and with probably every police officer
in the city looking for it. Sylvia untied her ponytail and let her hair loose
so as to lessen the risk of her being recognized and Retan decided to undo his
neat haircut and make it look a little fuzzier.
They found a small
hotel that Retan knew about and rented a room on the first floor. Once they had
settled down, they distributed the tasks that needed to be done. Retan was to
find information about Tmish movements and the
buildings he usually occupied. Sylvia was going to form an operation with the
plans that Retan was collecting from all across the city.
The next day, they
spent hours creating their plan of infiltration into the presidential
building…Something which was tricky considering that it was the most guarded
building on the planet. But Sylvia had noticed that Taranians
are rather calm and gentle people, this was proven by the fact that everything
from mobiles to buildings possessed minimal security systems…Even places
containing valuable things had almost nonexistent security systems that were
useless to Sylvia's standards but were perfectly acceptable to the Taranians.
This was an
advantage…
The government
thought that people would never dare do anything against the president and that
it was a waste of time to even consider wasting valuable resources to protect
him while there were other more important things that needed the time and
money.
Nonetheless, the
presidential building would be a challenge to infiltrate, even with the tricks
that she had learned during her time with several Starfleet Intelligence
veterans. But she had in her possession the most powerful weapon on the planet:
her hand phaser.
At lunch time,
Sylvia was still studying the plans of the main floor of the presidential
building while Retan munched on a piece of bread and read the newspaper. Sylvia
was surprised that the Taranians had come up with the
same ideas as "older-day" humans: Giving out the news on pieces of
paper.
"Is there
anything interesting happening in the world, today?" She asked Retan.
"Hmmm…"
He said. "Tmish made another speech…There was a
mobile chase and a terrible accident on the freeway to Uan."
Sylvia smiled.
"And other
than that…" He shrugged. "A Daqium mine
exploded today, it was a few kilometers away from Uan
to the west. It appears someone stole a lot of it from the mine before
destroying it."
"Daqium? What's that?" She asked.
"It's a
substance which is used in all our power sources, to generate electricity and
heat. It is a most powerful substance compared to other radioactive substances
which can be used for energy."
"Really?"
She said, interested. "I've never heard of this substance before…"
"Even with all
your alien knowledge?" He grinned.
"Even with
that…" She smiled back at him.
A full hour later,
they had finished their plan.
"You know,
Retan…" She said. "This is pretty dangerous…"
"It's for the
greater good, Sylvia…" He said. "Your fellow alien Tmish—or whatever his name his—must be stopped…You seem to
think that he threatens the very soul of Taran, and I
believe you. Besides…" He smiled. "I've wanted to do something like
this for a long time."
She nodded:
"All right…I only have one phaser unfortunately."
He walked to his suitcase
and opened it; he took out one of the weapons that were used by the
governmental enforcers of Taran.
"Where did you
get that?" She asked.
"I got it off
one of those agents." He checked the cartridge to make sure it was full,
it was. "I learned how to use one of these when I was a security officer
in a little village about ten years ago…I may be a little rusty but I'll
manage."
She nodded:
"All right…"
He put the gun into
his pocket: "So…When we'll we begin the 'operation'?"
"Tonight…"
She said. "After dark…"
* * *
The presidential
building was an extraordinary feat of Taranian
architecture. It was approximately 350 meters high and was a blend of the
ancient Taranian style of the last century and modern
styles from present day Taran. At night, the building
was a pleasure to look at from the exterior…But the interior was just an
enormous booby trap…
Taranians maybe
didn't use much security systems, but the ones they had were pretty good. They
had master laser sensors, thermal scanners and a whole bunch of other types of
detection material that would pick up human activity anywhere. That was going
to be the biggest challenge to Sylvia and Retan for their infiltration of the building.
"So…"
Retan said. "This is it…"
"It sure
is…" She nodded and took a deep breath.
Sylvia had insisted
that Retan not enter the building, she hated to tell him, but he was probably
going to bring more trouble than help if he went in with her.
"Keep contact
throughout the whole mission, and check-in every five minutes, okay?" She
said.
"Okay."
He nodded, and then he gave her an encouraging smile. "Good luck."
"I'll be
passing behind the building and taking the sewers entrance to infiltrate the
bottom floor. I'll call you when I'm about to enter the building."
He nodded.
She ran stealthily
towards the hatch in the ground that led to the maze of sewers that ran beneath
the city of
She landed on
something hard.
"Ouch!"
She heard as the flashlight she was holding fell to the ground and turned off.
She swung her fists
around wildly, hoping to hit whoever was wandering around the sewers in the
darkness. But someone caught her fists and grabbed her around the neck,
immobilizing her.
"My god…"
She heard a male voice say. "This is something I really didn’t
expect…"
The arm loosened
and she broke free of the person who was holding her, she fell to her knees and
managed to find the flashlight in the total darkness. She switched it on and
directed the beam at the intruder…
Standing there with
an amused smile was none other than Rear-Admiral Patrickson.
"You're out
for a
* * *
"What in the
world are you doing here?!" She demanded.
"I think I
should be the one asking you." He retorted.
"I'm a
civilian, Rear-Admiral."
He frowned:
"Oh yeah…That’s right…"
"So?" She
stared at him expectantly.
He sighed:
"I'm here to take a Starfleet Intelligence operative back home…He's been
wreaking quite some havoc on this planet in the past few months."
"You mean
president Tmish?" She asked.
"Also known as
Larson Smith…" Patrickson said. "The pathetic anagram Tmish didn't fool us back at S-I."
"But…Why were
you sent on this mission?" She asked.
He chuckled:
"Just because I'm an old guy doesn't mean I'm off active duty."
"That's not
what I mean…" She said. "I came here with my sister…She's part of
Starfleet Intelligence and we came here to bring Tmish
back!"
He frowned:
"What? Your sister?"
"Yes!"
She said. "She said she was a part of the confidential security operations
division or something…"
"I would know
that if that was the case…" He said. "And I don't know that…"
Sylvia shook her
head: "What is she then?"
"I don't
know…" Patrickson said. "But for now, we need to get to Smith."
Sylvia nodded
slowly: "Right…Smith…"
They began walking
through the sewers and Sylvia's commbadge chirped: "Yeah?" She said
as she tapped it.
Retan was in
possession of the other commbadge; Sylvia had had two of them with her on this
mission: "Sylvia? Is everything all right?"
"For
now…" She said. "I met one of my past…associates down here. He's also
trying to get Tmish back, we'll work together to get
him out."
Retan didn't say
anything for a moment then said: "Understood…I'll call you back in five
minutes."
"Right, Sylvia out."
She severed the commlink.
"Who was
that?" Patrickson asked.
"Director
Retan…" She said. "Tmish sent out killers
after him and I saved him…"
"Is he worthy
of trust?" Patrickson asked.
She hesitated, but
then she said: "Absolutely."
Patrickson nodded slowly,
unconvinced.
They came to the
end of the tunnel which ended with a large concrete wall.
"We should be
right underneath the bathrooms of the building." Sylvia said. "This
is the entrance."
She found a hatch
in the ceiling of the sewers tunnel and pushed on it, it didn't budge:
"Looks like it rusted or something…I can't get it open."
"Allow
me…" Patrickson took a small cutting laser from his pocket and began slicing
through the rusted metallic hatch. In less than a minute, the hatch fell to the
ground.
"Nice…"
Sylvia nodded appreciatively.
"Thanks."
He dropped the cutting laser into his pocket and helped her climb up into the
bathrooms through the hatch. Then she pulled him up as well.
Fortunately, no one
was in the bathroom at this hour. Patrickson took out a tricorder from his
large pocket and began scanning the area: "This room is clean; however the
main entrance hall that we will have to cross to get to the elevators has
lasers all over the floor and thermal scanners that will detect us as soon as
we step into the room."
"Do you have a
ship in orbit?" She asked.
"Yes…The USS-Farlance. Why do you ask?"
"Can't we just
beam Smith out of here?" Sylvia asked, wondering why she hadn't thought
about this earlier.
"That would be
too easy." He smiled grimly. "Smith is an S-I operative…and a pretty
good one too. He wouldn't have let himself be caught so easily…He assembled a
homemade scrambling device that blocks all attempts of molecular
transporting."
"I see…"
She said.
"He's
installed them all over this building." He said. "We can't beam
anything in or out of here."
"Great…So how
do we cross the un-crossable room out there?" She asked.
He pulled a small
device out of his endless pockets: "These are devices capable of
eliminating any thermal energy created by a human body by creating a scrambling
field around the person wearing it. We can use it to pass the thermal
scanners."
"Right…"
She nodded. "And what will we do about the lasers?"
"We can…uh…avoid
them." He smiled. "I can use these lenses to detect laser
activity." He opened a small box which he produced from the inside pocket
of his jacket and pulled out two small contact lenses which he placed on his
eyes. "I'll be your guide."
"Okay."
She nodded. "So let me have one of those thermal scrambling thingies and
let's get moving."
"Uh…" He
cleared his throat. "I only took one of these…"
She stared at him
with wide-eyes.
"I didn't know
I was going to run into you!" He said.
"So what do we
do?" She asked.
He sighed: "If
you stay close enough to me, I can activate the field around both of us. But
you'll have to literally stick to me."
"Wonderful…"
She sighed. "Well…Then let's get going."
She walked to him
and he grabbed her firmly around the waist, he activated the field and a blue
field appeared around them. Patrickson opened the door to the main hall…And
they began their journey across the spider web of security lasers that covered
the floor.