The Dirty Work and Those Who Do It

Posted on Fri Apr 5th, 2019 @ 9:37am by Captain Gary Taylor

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Subspace Links
Timeline: after Final Report
1540 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

[Ambassador Zhukov's Office]

Tate had been expecting this call, had been for quite a while actually, just not as long as the Ambassador had been. When it finally came through, she couldn't deny being damn near ecstatic, "Madam Ambassador, it's Lone Wolf, I recognize the code."

"About bloody time." Zhukov grumbled, snapping the monitor on, "Nicholas, where the Hell have you been?"

"Sorry I missed my call in, mother." Hanniger laughed, though in many ways she had been the only mother the orphaned Hanniger had ever known, "It got pretty hot on Cortic VI."

"I saw that." Zhukov sighed, "Did you know those idiots had a windchime?"

"I did." He nodded, "But the readings I took of it last time told me it was very dead."

"Means someone brought it online, Madam Ambassador." Tate stated the obvious, "Do you think...."

"Now, let's not get paranoid, Kerri." Zhukov cautioned.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't have heard that right." Hanniger said, an eyebrow raised, "Don't we start at paranoid?"

"And work our way up." Tate interjected, finishing one of the Queen's favorite sayings.

"So, what did you learn?" Zhukov asked, this was where the years of black bag work, years of Hanniger's life, was hopefully going to bear some fruit.

"Traun has been moving a lot of product through Cortic." Hanniger reported, "And it doesn't appear to be slowing down. Some of his stuff clearly came from a Starfleet armory, those gun drones were Obsidian Order tech. Why Traun was providing that kind of gear to that moron Quinton Dunphy is beyond me, but he's been receiving multiple shipments from the badlands and also from the Gamma, it's got to be him, Admiral."

"Then our worst fears are come true." Zhukov sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration, "Have you managed to get me numbers to run?"

"I have." He nodded, "Sending now."

A second later Tate's padd dinged as she received a list of serial numbers and lot numbers from the weapons Traun had been moving. Scanning them quickly she recognized one, "At least one crate of those tri-cobalt warheads came from Utopia Planetia, Madam Ambassador."

'Damn it." Zhukov cursed, "They report any thefts or break-ins?"

"Of course not." Tate sighed, "Means someone on the inside has been bought."

"Ma'am, whoever this Ghost is, he's ahead of us." Hanniger informed, a sad expression on his face, "His organization might be bigger than ours."

"Damn sure seems to be mirroring ours.' Tate noted.

"Indeed." Zhukov nodded in agreement, "What about this Dunphy? You sprung him, I presume."

"Correct as always." Hanniger nodded, the Wolf Queen never missed a beat, "I had to to protect my cover. We're too close to risk blowing it now."

"Agreed." Zhukov said, even if she didn't like it, "I'll explain it to Grey Wolf next time we speak."

"With all due respect, Ma'am, I'd rather he hear it direct from me." Hanniger requested, "I know he'll be upset, but when he hears the size of the fish we're after I think he'll get it, even if he doesn't like it any more than we do."

"Right." Zhukov said, rubbing her eyes, "Can we get that ops team onboard soon?" She really wished she could get Kerri and Taylor on that ship, but she feared the Ghost, who she suspected to be one of her own, might make them.

"I've about got Traun convinced we need to clean house on this ship next port we make." Hanniger replied, "I can get five or six men aboard then, should be more than enough."

"I hope you're right." Zhukov stated, adding, "Look, if it gets too hot, you extract yourself and find a safe house, we'll come for you."

"Chill, mom, I got this." Hanniger needled her, though her concern was touching, "Lone Wolf out."

[Subspace link to USS Elysium]

Hanniger input Grey Wolf's secret comm code into his own hidden console, waiting for the logo of the Elysium to be replaced by Gary Taylor's face. He broke into a broad grin when it was, "Hey, hope I didn't wake you up, old buddy." He began, "I have got one Hell of a story to tell you..."

Gary eyed the image before him and a mock scowl crossed it. "Would it matter if you did? But to ease your mind you didn't. I always expect these calls. Good to see you too my friend. Been awhile." He eased back from the monitor. " A story? Oh by all means do enlighten me."

"Okay, the first part's kinda weird. Did you know we were just withing beaming distance of each other?" Hanniger started, "I've been under cover for about a year and a half now, the Queen's orders. I was on Cortic right after the disaster, scum bag she has me embedded with used the quakes as a cover to move a hell of a lot of cutting edge weapons, stuff nobody should be able to get their hands on. So I guess you know now this isn't a stand-up fight, we're after him."

Gary listened as Hanniger spoke when he finished he spoke slowly. "I didn't know. You were on Cortic on deep cover? Let me guess. This scumbag your in deep with goes by the name Quinton Dunphy." He paused and continued, "So I gather. What do you mean after him? We had him buddy. Lock in a holding cell when...…" Now it dawned on Gary. "You bastard! You sprung him!"

"Hell no, I'm not working with that moron." Hanniger laughed, "The guy I'm under cover with is a guy named Traun. Quinton Dunphy is his adopted nephew and hanger-on. And, yeah, I sprung him, I had to otherwise I would've blown my cover and we are way too close to hanging the biggest fish of them all on the wall to risk it. Gary, the Queen is pretty sure now that this Traun can lead us straight to The Ghost. What's more is I think she's right."

"Shit. and I didn't say work with I said sprung. The Queen actually thinks this Traun can get us the Ghost. Now that would be nice to catch that slippery son of a bitch. I hope your both right."

"Here's the bad news..." Hanniger said, stopping to take a deep breath before telling one of his oldest, dearest friends, more like a brother actually, horrible news, "We're about ninety percent whoever the Ghost is, it's one of our people. The first time I went to Cortic was about fourteen months ago, the Windchime was dead, somebody had to reactivate it for that group of fools. Only a very few people have the skills and the knowledge to do it and they were all members of the pack..."

Gary listened in stony silence as Hanniger gave him not bad news but inconceivable news. "A member of the pack, helping those scum. Do you realize what your saying? What you're implying? A member of the pack is a traitor." Gary shook his head. "I know you. Your like me. Leave nothing to chance. You of course talked the Queen about this. Has she given any orders on how to proceed? Especially if we have a traitor in our midst. I know one thing. We can't afford to get paranoid."

"We start at paranoid, remember?" Hanniger laughed, then turned stone serious, "I dreamed about Remus the other night, Gary, I haven't done that in years, but two nights ago we were all there again. I woke up and knew there had to be a reason why I suddenly was dreaming of Remus again, that's when it hit me. When that weapons lab went up, we lost eight people, but we only got back five bodies. Gary, how sure are we that the other three died?"

"You aren't the only one who has had those dreams. Yes, we lost eight good people but not just that, friends, trusted comrades in arms. People you would dies for and who would die for you. When the lab went up, it was chaos, trying to get out to the pick up point and cover our tracks like we always do. We got to the evac sight and only found out later that eight died and later still that we got the bodies back. We assumed and that it looks like was our mistake that the others were incinerated in the explosion. We were wrong."

"Yeah." Hanniger nodded, forlorn, "At least one of them's out there and they've got one Hell of an axe to grind with us."

"Yep." Gary agreed. "Got an additional problem. Whoever they are, they know us as well as we do. Probably better. We need to be extra, careful from here out." He peered into the screen intently. "No heroics. You hear me Chowderhead?" Gary used an old nickname, from Hanniger's past for sometimes being too stubborn for his own good. "You need me, you holler loud."

"Right." Hanniger nodded, "I'll keep in touch, you just keep yourself safe. I'm sure the Queen will move the heavens to make sure we're all there when he goes down. See you soon."

-Off