The Road to Hell

Chapter 21

David followed Rosana's tall, silent body guard to the dining room aboard the Alegra. Tanner, Talon, Fisher, and Wendy were already there. "Hey," David said in greeting. "Anyone know what this is about?" They all shook their heads. "Great."

David took a seat and Fisher moved over to sit beside him. "Sir," she said, "do you recognize Rosana's bodyguard?"

"No. Do you?"

"Yeah. I remember him from the security footage of Zeus's breakout. His name's Gantz."

Whatever Fisher was onto, David wasn't following. "So, he helped Zeus break out and now he's part of the team," he said. It all seemed pretty normal to him, but Fisher frowned.

"I seem to remember he was listed KIA during Zeus's escape, and I don't remember things wrong."

"Well obviously it's an error in the report," David concluded.

Fisher looked like she still had something to say, but the room fell silent as Rosana walked in with Gantz in tow.

"Hey everyone," she began, "I called you here because I'm finally putting Triple-S to work. Well, most of you anyway. I don't need the rest of your crew.

"In a few hours we'll be escorting Zeus to a secret parley that will be held aboard this ship. You'll be part of the security detail for the meeting."

"With whom are we meeting?" David asked.

"He didn't say," Rosana said. David could tell being kept out of the loop bothered her. "I guess we'll see when they show up. Get your stuff and get back here ASAP. There are sleeping pods on the lower decks that will serve as your accommodations during the trip."

Rosana and Gantz walked out and David and his crew made their way to the Spectral Hawk. Everybody was thinking the same thing. "Zeus and us in a confined space for what could be days? This is the chance we've been waiting for," said David. "I'm going to leave word with Farid to tell him what's going on. Pack light, we'll only need our armour and our weapons, but we also need to sneak some explosives on board. We still don't have a positive ID on Zeus, so I figure the only way to kill him for sure is during the meeting itself."

"Hence the explosives," Tanner said.

"Rosana is a smart woman, and Zeus is paranoid to a fault. I wouldn't put it past them to sweep the conference room for bugs and explosives even though this is supposed to be a secure vessel," Fisher pointed out.

David nodded, knowing full well that Rosana didn't like to take chances. "That means we have to plant the bomb after the meeting has begun."

"Won't be a problem, sir," Fisher promised. "When we're in transit, Wendy and I will scope out the ship and choose a suitable location to plant the bomb."

"Good. It's been a long time coming," David said. He stopped and put his fist to his heart, pounding it against his chest twice. "Let's do this for everyone we lost at Arcturus, aye?"

They all responded in kind and said, "Aye aye, sir!"

#

Rosana told no one where they were going, and no one knew who they were going to meet, but since several days passed before she informed them that they were close to their destination, they had to be back in Allied Space and most likely somewhere out of the way.

As she said she would, Fisher scouted out the ship and she decided that the best way to deliver the bomb would be to use an unmanned infiltration vehicle to position itself under the conference room floor and detonate upon reaching its designated destination. Tanner made the bomb, and Fisher rigged the UIV, stashing it in the lower deck's ceiling so that all she needed to do was press a button and the automated system would do the rest.