Whispers Of The Tempest: 10
09 Aug 2023Silvia Sharpe
Part 9 Here
Part 10
Diaz paced back and forth in his quarters. The news he had just received from Gardner Point was disturbing. A lone female operative, had managed to infiltrate and dismantle years... no decades of operations in the span of just over an hour. Hundreds of operatives, scientists, smugglers, and raiders slain. There was only one person he knew of that had that kind of skill and the thought of her being on the hunt again worried him more than any other opponent he had faced. Grenshaw leans against the table eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. Diaz begins to speak his tone filled with concern.
'Do we have anything from the cameras? Did we see her face at any point? Can we confirm if it was Duval?'
'No.. the cameras were either deactivated, or saw nothing. The few that did see the person showed the face completely covered. Regardless Marc, I don't think it was her. Look at how she sneaks around. Her gait is different to the videos we have of Duval infiltrating a base. Not only that but this person is slightly taller than her. I think whoever this was is connected to the woman I fought back on Earth.'
Grenshaw's reply is confident and precise.
****
Grenshaw had taken many profiling courses and excelled at combat tracking/hunting. His eyes never missed a movement, always analyzing every aspect of footage. He may not know Kira but he certainly knows Venus. They were in the same platoon, in the same squad, in the same fireteam. Every single mission they went on they were together. Over the years they had learned almost every facet of one another's lives. That tends to happen in the military. People with no similarities form an unbreakable bond with one another... That is until some of those people turn to greed and evil. Venus opposed everything Diaz and Grenshaw were performing with their platoon commander behind closed doors.
They offered her a cut of the profits one day, telling her about their operations after a rescue mission. Originally they only targeted the less fortunate, the ones whom nobody would notice. When Venus found out about it she went to her distantly removed cousin, Aisling, and told her about what she had witnessed and had been told, even going as far as providing the recorded evidence to her. Aisling of course despised slavery and put and immediate end to the operations. This had infuriated Venus' squad mates and platoon commander as their side income had been cut off. They began to secretly plot their revenge. So they waited, plotting and scheming on ways to destroy her life.
One fateful day would give the squad the opportunity they needed to bring Venus down. It would remove her from the squad and ultimately destroy her once peaceful life. The plan originally was to kill Venus however things had not gone according to plan. SGT Vanderschmidt, Diaz, Grenshaw, Castillo, Vasquez, Marchand, and Elias cornered a young woman in a room alone. The girl was one of Diaz's personal slaves. Everyone stood outside the room except for SGT Vanderschmidt and Venus, where Venus watched as Vanderschmidt tried to force himself onto the young woman in front of Venus, in an attempt to provoke her, so he would be able to kill her without consequence. That is not how things ended up going and Venus ended up shooting her SGT and squad leader in the head nearly point blank. The kinetic weapons munitions at that range had enough force to remove his head fully.
Knowing that there was going to be an investigation Venus removed the data chip from her helmet and handed it to Diaz. Commander Ortega knew there was a chance things wouldn't go as planned so he had a special replay box designed that would corrupt a data chip beyond recovery, even frying the the internals and making them unrepairable. This had proved to be a very useful request, as it gave them the opportunity to fabricate a story about the events that had transpired without having contradicting evidence. They schemed and planned for years before taking her to trial. The results of the trial were not what the squad had expected. Venus had been disavowed as Duchess of Amenta A6s southern regions, banished from the empire and deemed a traitor to the throne. That result however provided them with the ability to get revenge that better suited their desires. They wanted to make her their own personal slave.
Diaz and Ortega had gathered up all of the data chips from all the squad members and stored them in a databank aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge so that when they had Venus in their possession they would be able to torment her with the knowledge that they had fabricated everything. Even had the trial rigged so that no matter what she was going to be found guilty of murder, or even end up dead herself. The only thing they didn't count on was Venus being a hard target to catch. So they resorted to more aggressive and dastardly measures, kidnapping the one person she cared the most about and using her as bait.
****
Grenshaw sits and shakes his head as he watches the video footage of the chaos that had unfolded at their primary base of operations. A look of annoyance on his face. Diaz scratches his head and stops pacing around the room. He walks over to the window and stares out at the expanse of space placing both hands on the widow sill and leaning forward. An angry and frustrated look on his face.
'How much did we lose in profits because of this woman?'
Grenshaw pulls up the loss estimate. He grimaces when he sees the number. He moves himself away from Diaz before telling him the amount knowing it was going to piss him off. He clears his throat and tries to sound as calm as humanly possible, though a hint of fear can be heard as he says the number.
'If the math is correct which it should be, we just lost..... 2.9billion Cr in animal and human traffic... not to mention the other 500million in weapons, ammo, drugs, and miscellaneous stolen goods.'
Diaz turns slowly towards Grenshaw a look of disbelief mixed with unhindered rage.
'How fucking much did you just say? 3.4billion Cr? We just lost 3.4billion because of one single woman?! Find out who the hell she is and capture her! Alive! I will work her to death to repay the amount of money she just lost this organization. I have a feeling Jules is behind all of this. Bring her to the med bay and get those ship techs to search through and pull all communication logs Jules made.'
'I don't think....'
'Shut the fuck up Grenshaw! Get me Jules! NOW!'
Diaz barks the order out causing Grenshaw to flinch ever so slightly, thinking he was about to be punched by a man that has fought gorilla and grizzly bears, bare handed, for fun, and won by snapping their necks. Grenshaw very quickly exits the room not wanting to risk being around an irate Diaz. He rushes down to Jules' cell stopping only to tell the ship techs to begin pulling communication logs from Jules' ship. He composes himself and slams on the cell door for Jules. She comes to the door and sees Grenshaw instead of Diaz and smirks.
'What do you want? Did your daddy send you or have you finally grown a pair and come to finish what you started.'
'Ugh, shut the fuck up would ya. Diaz wants to see you and oh boy is he pissed. Your ass is going to medical. Oh and June.... ya we found a way to make her existence miserable.'
'No! You leave June out of this! She did nothing! Please!'
Jules cries out pleading desperately to keep her AI construct alive and safe. Grenshaw laughs at her plea and grabs the remote for Jules' cybernetics and opens the cell. Jules being unaware that Grenshaw has the remote charges him as soon as the door opens to which Grenshaw steps aside and presses the shutdown button. Jules' eyes go wide as she slams onto the floor and smashes into the wall. Grenshaw lets a devilish smile form on his lips and walks over to Jules. He reaches down and grabs her by the ankle and drags her to the medical bay. Diaz is standing just outside the med bay and sees Grenshaw dragging Jules. He laughs as he walks over to Grenshaw and takes her by the leg then proceeds to drag her into the medical bay.
'You can leave now Grenshaw.' Diaz says in a gruff and still angry tone.
Diaz tosses Jules up onto the operating table, rather slams her down onto it. He straps her down and motions the surgeon to come over. The man approaches cautiously and in some what fearful tone he stutters and stammers.
'Y.y.y.yes s.s.s.sir hhhoow c.c.can I assis.sis.sis.ist y.yo.you?'
'We are going to make her talk start by taking off that arm there.'
'Nnnn..no! Dddddooooon't pllllleeeeeaassse! IIII'lll ttttaaaallllk!' Jules struggles to speak through the neural shut down signal ravaging her cybernetics and nervous system.
The surgeon rushes off to grab a sedative and gas anesthetic. Diaz notices this and growls out.
'No! She is to remain awake! Make her watch.'
'Bbbbuut ssssir thhhaaat cccooulld kkiiiill her.'
'You wouldn't want that to happen. Especially if you want your wife and daughter to be alive at the end of this.'
The surgeon stops and places the items back and proceeds to grab the medical equipment he would need for amputation and installation of cybernetic implant coupler. Diaz grabs Jules right arm and pulls it so hard that the should dislocates sending a nausea inducing wave of pain through her entire body. Diaz smiles as he sees Jules' eyes light up with immense pain, tears forming in them.
'Who the hell did you contact about the outpost? Don't you fucking lie to me either. You raided it once before in an attempt to hunt me down like a dog. Then returned again to kill a clone of me. So who the hell was it?'
Diaz presses the shutdown button again giving Jules control again. She feels a strange sense of numbness and stiffness as the effects wear off. Not wanting to be injured in any way Jules answers truthfully, though it makes little difference as Diaz has already made up his mind about her punishment.
'No one. Please! I am begging you! Don't take my arm! Please. I don't know what you are talking about.'
****
Deep in the bowels of the Queen Anne's Revenge in dimly lit room a tray slides through a slot in the door. Nothing special, potatoes, some form of un-meat-able, and what resembles peanut butter and bread. I look at the tray with a level of disgust and disdain. A prisoner eats better than this. It's been the same miserable meal for a couple days now.
I begrudgingly make my way to the tray to eat what I can. Pain in my hands and feet from trying to break free of the confines of this hell. My throat is raw from screaming. Melli is missing and I don't know where Kira is. Jules will pay for this.
I take the peanut butter bread and take a small bite. The nutty flavor is enough to mask the horrid flavor of the preserved goopy mess that is supposedly some form of meat. Though it more resembles that can't believe it's not meat crap from the 21st century.
I hear the sound of heavy boots approaching and stop just outside the room. With the bread and peanut butter in my mouth I press my ear against the cold steel door. I try to decipher what is being said but only hear the sound of two muffled male voices. One of whom sounds like they are the boss of the other.
I hear one sentence about Azimuth arriving in a few days. Forgetting I had bread with peanut butter in my mouth gasp, causing me to drop the bread which lands face down on the floor.
"Oh damn it. That's the best part of this meal. Fuck I wish these potatoes had gravy on them." I think to myself sadly.
The sound of heavy boots departing and a knock on the door signaling for me to push the tray out comes through. I take the potatoes in my hand and push the tray out grabbing the salt and pepper packs before the slot slams shut. I strain my eyes in the darkened room not entirely certain what I am looking for.
My mind drifts to Melli. The poor little fox creature is somewhere else far away. I don't know where, though it's certainly not close by since I can't hear her screams or hear her thoughts anymore.