Episode 26

Gentlemen Mercenaries

Jock nodded at Park and he left around the edge of the airfield with Leighton and Ward. From where we were I spotted one sentry, sitting in the back of a hoverjeep near a transformer. Around the sulphur-yellow lights insects swirled as he looked down at a pad. Probably playing a game of solitaire. Or texting some girl.

Park walked up briskly behind the man, just like he owned the place. The soldier turned and jumped to get out but Park caught him with a blow to the chin with the heel of his hand, knocking the man out, then folded him down into the back of the vehicle. Then Leighton and Ward set a charge at the base of the transformer, then the three of them walked casually away. About 100 meters to our left was a hangar with a few men hanging around. They looked like techs, not soldiers. Maybe even civilian. They didn’t seem to notice anything.

A moment later, there was an explosion and a burst of sparks. The main lights went out and the only remaining illumination was the emergency lights coming on inside the hangar, along with the solar-charged lights on the runway. Our team was on.

We raced towards the first of the gunships and gave Ace a boost onto the wing where he worked on ratcheting open an access panel. About three minutes later, I heard the panel open, then the sound of heavy wire snips clipping cables. Another two minutes and I heard the panel close, then he jumped down.

“11 more to go,” he said, and we moved to the next aircraft. Up to the wing, pop the panel, fiddle in the guts, then down again. This time he did it in about four minutes.

And then we went to the third aircraft. We boosted Ace up onto the wing and he went to work. Then, a moment later, the cabin door swung open and a man shouted at us. The pilot!

“Shut up!” I shouted, pointing my rifle at him. He threw his hands up just as a scream echoed from inside the gunship. I swore. It was a girl. She stuck her head out from behind the pilot and he snapped at her, then looked at us. “What the devil do you think you’re doing?”

“Routine inspection,” Jock said from behind me, his rifle now aimed as well.

The pilot narrowed his eyes at us. “You’re not inspectors. You’re offworlders!”

“Yeah, well, you’d be advised to play along anyhow, flyboy,” Jock said. “How about you and your lady friend step on down nice and slow.”

The pilot grimaced, then started to climb down. In a moment, he was standing beside us. Then it was the girl’s turn.

“Come on down, sweetheart,” Jock said. “Nice and slow.”

She did, shaking and sniffling. Nice legs, though.

“Now,” Jock said to me, “zip ’em up.”

I grabbed a few zip ties from my pack and moved towards the ill-fated lovers. The woman was dressed in a short white skirt and a tight top that showed her nice flat belly. I could smell her perfume as I reached for her wrist.

Then the pilot made a stupid grab for my rifle. Jock shot him in the arm, spinning him around and knocking him to the pavement. Jock put the barrel of his gun to the man’s head and the guy went stock-still, gasping in pain. Then the girl screamed, which startled me, so I punched her in the face. She went down like a sack of flour.

“Dude,” said Ace from the wing. “You’re not supposed to hit girls.”

I shrugged, then zip-tied the two of them to one of the landing struts. “You… bastards…” gasped the pilot.

“Tell her I didn’t mean it when she wakes up,” I said, by way of apology. “We’re just a little bit jumpy.”

Then I heard further noises from the cabin of the gunship. It sounded like people talking. Jock cocked his head as well. A conversation. And then the tinny sound of gunfire. I laughed and climbed the ladder, retrieving a tablet, still playing a movie, and held it up to show Ace and Jock. Inside the cabin was a half-empty bottle of wine and a bag of some kind of orange corn puffs. I rolled the top down and stuffed it in my pack. You never know when you might need some corn puffs.

“Seems we interrupted date night,” I said to Jock as Ace jumped down off the wing.

“Yeah,” he said. “Looks like it." He looked down at the bleeding man. “We should probably kill him. Hell, the Ulimbese will probably shoot him anyway when they see him here with the girl, assuming he was on guard duty.”

“You know,” I said, “I kind of feel bad for the idiot. This is a backwater, not a lot of entertainment here.”

“True,” said Ace, looking down at the girl. “And as one player to another, this guy has decent taste in woman.”

“Listen,” said the pilot through gritted teeth. “If you leave her here… leave us here… they’ll execute me. And who knows what they’ll do to her…”

“Tell you what,” Jock said. “We’ll hide the evidence by taking the rest of your booze, then leave the girl someplace safe.”

“You won’t rape her?” said the pilot.

“Don’t insult us,” said Ace. “We’re professionals. Gentleman mercenaries, you might say.”

The pilot nodded towards the girl. “Is she okay?” he said.

I checked her pulse. Steady, though she’d be feeling that hit for days. “She’ll live.”

Jock pulled out a strip of bandage and wrapped it around the pilot’s arm. “No hard feelings,” he said, before he cracked the guy in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle.

I grabbed the wine bottle and Jock threw the girl over his shoulder. A moment later we were joined by our second team. Leighton and Park took the girl over to the jeep with the unconscious sentry and dumped her in the back next to him.

“This is taking too long,” Jock said. “Park, watch Ace on the fourth gunship, then do whatever he’s doing.”

“Short on tools,” Ace said.

I jogged over to the jeep, found a toolbox and brought it back to the team. Ace rooted through it and pulled out a screwdriver and a wrench. “Close enough,” he said. “This will do. You can use your combat knife to cut the wires, Park. Come on.”

We followed them, leaving Leighton behind to watch the girl and the felled security guy.