A Dash of Scarlet In Paradise

CHASING SHADOWS

XIX

"Commander! Sir!"

Callum was fixed at the sight of the devastated landing pad, his uniform sopping under the downpour. The inspector hurried outside to the balcony and stood in attention next to his leader.

"The hostages...they've escaped! They're gone!"

"I know."

"What do you want me to do now?"

Callum didn't answer. He headed to an elevator where he met up with Agent Hackner, "Hackner, have you done what I've asked you to?"

"Yes commander, I have the exact location of the UDCF research station. I decoded some messages between our stolen supply shuttle and the UDCF fleet."

"Good work. With their technology and our discovery, we can unlock the full potential of this." In Callum's hand was a small flask, inside was some clear purple liquid.

"And now for my payment?" Hackner opened his hand to receive his promised reward.

Callum clicked his fingers and the inspector gave him a suitcase, he opened it and inside was rows of gold and silver credit chips.

Hackner wasn't pleased with the amount, "40 thousand credits? Do you know how difficult it is to retrieve the location and all the security codes to that station?"

"Take it, or leave it. Besides, you didn't kill the other survivor you mentioned earlier."

"It was part of your plan! You told me to keep him alive!"

"I told you to get him back to me alive, not to leave him with his gun and in an unregistered location."

"I had to plant an encryption deciphering device on one of the UDCF cruisers, they could've found me and have killed me!"

"Then take it."

Hackner slammed the case shut. The elevator made a high ping and he got off, but it kept descending afterwards.

"Bounty hunter..." Callum murmured to himself.

The elevator stopped again.

"Sir, we have enough of that." He pointed to the flask and Callum replied to him as they both exited, "Load everything onto Saturn 1 and 2."

"Should I send somebody to track down the hostages?"

"No."

Callum's underground hanger held only three space crafts, Saturn 1, Saturn 2, and his personal ship, the Hellion. All had their names imprinted on one side of the wing.

He walked up to the Hellion, a superb carrier, with a brilliant design. The dark red markings on it made it easily distinguishable amongst the other two starships.

It had four wings, they were angled like those of a wasps. The Hellion had a thruster twice as powerful as the ones that the Saturn-class ships had.

Callum had always been proud of his private ship, but it was only the second time for him to have taken flight on it.

"My primary target was just to get all the Liquid Arnium I could get my hands on, I can always find new test subjects. It just seemed easier to take the ones from our enemies, those who didn't have the skill to resist or fight back."

"The admiral notes that our forces are being overrun, but only those on the planet surface, our fleet is still up there."

"That's not a problem, inspector. The PAU's aim wasn't to really take control of Nirvana, we aim for something more. This was all but a distraction so that we could obtain the Liquid Arnium."

An enormous hanger door opened, through the cockpit, Callum could see the ocean outside. The storm was still preventing the sun from making its appearance.

"Inspector, I want you to evacuate every troop we have and take them back to the fleet."

"How?"

"Use the escape pods, follow the Hellion."

"Understood."

"Oh and blow this place up."

"What?"

"We don't want anyone to find any evidence."

"Right away, self destruct sequence will be enabled in 10 minutes."

The engines of the Hellion charged up and it gave out a loud rumble. The commander sat on a round stool and picked up a book, he flipped it open to the page his bookmark was pressed against.

"Pilot, take us back to the command ship at once."