Blink: Interdiction (Book 4)

14

There was an air of inevitability about the call Darien received mere hours after the transmission ended. One of Merlynn's subordinates summoned not just him, but every single operative in the detachment, to an emergency briefing. The teams assembled swiftly, and even Vass kept any smart comments to himself, understanding the full gravity of the situation. Whoever was leading the resistance on Ravine had just made it abundantly clear that they didn't fear the local forces or the colonial reinforcements that had arrived to restore order.

What's more, they seemed to have a very legitimate axe to grind. Although it had been a long time since he'd set foot on the world, Darien knew that the handful of examples the mysterious figure had thrown out were hardly far fetched. Ravine's remoteness and lack of proper law enforcement and infrastructure made it a breeding ground for the worst kind of negligence and criminal activity. And the colonial government had stood by and let it happen.

Still, Darien doubted an armed rebellion would suddenly put the powers-that-be in a listening mood. With his thoughts weighing heavily inside his skull he led his operatives at a trudging pace into the main compound.

The thirty Blink operatives trooped through the main doors, flanked by armed marines and clad in their casual dark fatigues for moving around the base. They were ushered through the seething hive of activity by their chaperones and guided through to a series of broad, rectangular elevators. Once they were loaded in a pair of Beltock Dragoons joined them, one pressing the button for a lower level of the complex. Darien licked dry lips. None of them had been to this part of the base before.

After the elevator ground its way downwards for several floors, it juddered to a halt and its doors fell away with a creak of metal against metal, revealing a fresh warren of passages beneath the main structure. He realised that even the formidable fortifications above were little more than a smokescreen, concealing the true strength of the Karpa Luna forward base.

Even a glance around the subterranean passages was enough to show that. The low ceilinged halls had thick spars of solid metal placed every twenty feet – earthquake supports, and the walls were clearly proofed against explosives. Massive, armoured blast doors gaped open at every corridor junction, ready to slam shut at a moment's notice to seal off the base's personnel from any attacking force.

Lucky for some, Darien thought wryly as he followed the soldiers through the hallways. Eventually the Blink operatives were deposited at a large briefing room that could easily hold over a hundred people, its chairs arranged in a semi-circular arc like an amphitheatre, facing a slightly raised platform where a massive screen loomed behind a lectern. At the lectern stood Adaya Merlynn, and the screen behind burned with life.

"Take a seat," she commanded brusquely, indicating the front row of seats with a sweep of one hand.

With a nod to the two guards, Darien stepped over the threshold first, already well aware that Merlynn's mood was grim, at best. The others filed in behind him in silence and the thirty operatives took up their positions in the seats in front of the lectern. Niamh slid down beside him, arms folded, an unreadable expression on her face, while Amber sat down on the other side, her unease a little more visible from the way she tightly balled her fingers together in a tangled knot on her lap.

Once the shuffling of feet and squeaking of chairs had subsided a cold silence settled over the room, a sense of underlying tension that revealed just how seriously the military forces were taking the rebel leader's threats. The enormous screen built into the facing wall showed the dark silhouette of their antagonist in the top left corner, time stamped with the log

"I think your next objective has been made abundantly clear to us," Merlynn told them without preamble, her voice hard as granite. "I want the man behind the voice."