Chapter 9

Octavian Karr

Commander Karr sat in his office. He leaned forward on the metal desk and steepled his fingers in front of him. Handler Nev Meechum stood before him, holding a datapad. "Tell me again what happened?"

"According to the log . . ." Meechum slid her finger over the device. "Let's see. Drone 0313 lost signal at 1537, in Sector 52 right on course on its return flight." She pushed bangs out of her face.

"And it contained the two suspects at that time?" Commander Karr felt the anger rising inside him.

"Yes, Sir," said Meechum. "They were both successfully restrained. All of that is on the video feed. We know now the drone hit the dome wall first. It obviously couldn't get through. It re-sent a request for new coordinates, but when it didn't receive any, it landed."

"Why did the shield come up before the drone was inside?" He clenched his teeth so hard, his jaws ached.

"Don't know, Sir. The best I have on that is the timing remained off on the drone fleet. Since the shield wall had never gone up, it didn't take as long as the expected sixteen and a half minutes. All walls were fully up in just over fourteen minutes."

"So, an administrative foul-up? Is that what cost me my fugitives?"

"Yes, Sir. It's not as if anyone had tested the Doomsday Protocol before."

"And what of the scouting party deployed from Outpost Nine?"

"They arrived at the crash site roughly three minutes after the drone went down." She spun the datapad around to show him and scrolled through the images. "It appears something attacked it from the outside, damaged the housing unit, and tore out the control board here." She pointed to the last photo.

"And the team followed the two fugitives?"

"That's right, Sir."

"Have they reported in?"

"Not yet, Sir," replied Meechum. "Their check-in is in about ten minutes."

"Update me as soon as you hear from them," he said. "What does your field experience tell you, Handler Meechum? Is that the work of a 2.0?"

Meechum looked at the photo again and enlarged the image with her fingers. "I don't know, Sir. It looks like the metal was hit and damaged with tools, likely metal on metal. I don't think a Gollum, even a 2.0, would do that. They're not known to use tools of any kind."

Commander Karr nodded in agreement. "Maybe someone from the outside smashed the drone and saved them?" If so, he wanted a line on whoever helped them.

Meechum shrugged. "Could be. But the drone didn't pick up life forms nearby. And transmitted packets of data didn't show any. We just don't know, Sir."

"What doweknow?" He would learn nothing new from this report. Hopefully, the soldiers on the ground would have more intel. "And we have no other drones available?"

"Not yet, Sir. The only drone in that sector is with the squad. The next available drone is at Base Five, about twenty-four miles away."

He sighed. "All right, call me when the squad reports in."

"Will do, Sir." Meechum turned on her heels and walked out.

Damn. What was going on now?If Drayson had only listened to him and not ordered the lockdown so quickly, Bless and the Sythy would be in hand by now.

The damnable counsel that Drayson had drummed up came back to bite them. He shook his head.Representative Bachus is a political enemy and is indeed listing the mission failures to the doctor even now.

Commander Karr preferred the system they had before Drayson formed the Top Counsel. He walked into his office and closed the door.

Some top counsel.He slammed his fist on the desk.

It was supposed to be a strategic group that shared intel on the highest levels. An attempt to get the agencies talking together and be able to act quicker overall. But like all things Representative Bachus infected, it had turned into a babbling mess of too many heads in one room. All members were rarely available simultaneously, and especially when an emergency call came through.

Things moved much quicker the old way.It wouldn't have surprised Karr if the entire council itself was Representative Bachus' idea. A way for him to slither up the chain of command. He was just a mere Representative, anyway.

He respected Dr. Drayson like always, but he couldn't put together what the older man was thinking lately. The group either rushed decisions through without thinking or made him wait for the approval. They even sped the Doomsday Protocol through. Now, New Therian was in lockdown for two weeks. It may have stopped the 2.0 attack on the city, but it cost the mission.

Not only was Julian Bless still at large, but now, he and the council were dealing with a rogue Syth-L.

CH012 would know about the attempt to capture her, and if she was free, it was unlikely she would be happy about it. But she should still have a drive to complete her mission. A Syth-L could not break mission protocol without permission. But there was no telling what she would do. They both needed to be captured, and quick. He would not tell. Dr. Drayson he had lost one of the most sophisticated and expensive pieces of Federation technology.

"Commander Karr." His commlink sparked.

Karr hit the button on his shoulder. "Karr, here." He started walking to the door. He knew it was Meechum.

"Squad Three is reporting in," she said.

"I'm on my way." Karr left the office and speed-walked down the grated metal hallway. He took the stairs since they would be faster than the lift. He came into Meechum's special control room and walked up to the console where she had the video link pulled up.

"Commander Karr is here, Sergeant," said Meechum.

"Sir," the Sergeant looked into the screen. "I just sent the video of the second crash site."

"Second crash site?" Karr leaned in for a closer look.

"Yes, Sir. It looks like they took down the second drone as well. This time, next to a river." Karr watched the video, examining another downed drone from one of the soldier's helmet cams.

"We've retrieved the data card and will upload its contents but won't be able to make a full transfer until we get back to base."

Damn shield wall. This is going to slow everything down.

How did Drayson expect him to conduct missions with the entire city shielded, blocking any transmissions? The only way they could speak to the Sergeant now was via satellite relay. "What of the two fugitives?"

"Nothing but tracks, Sir. We'll follow them. We can't be too far behind. But there is something else."

"What?" At this point, Karr wasn't sure he wanted to know unless it was news that moved the mission forward.

"There's another set of tracks," said the Sergeant. "A third set. And we're not certain, but it looks like the tracks of a canine-bot."

"What?" Karr had a desire to hit something but refrained for now. He'd take it out in the boxing ring later. "With them?"

"Looks that way, Sir."

"Has there ever been a Federation bot that has had its code broken?" Karr thought back to classified reports on Bless.

"No, Sir, not that I know of. I'm just telling you what it looks like," the Sergeant said. "No one has the tech out here to power anything close to a bot. But we'll keep moving. I'll report in at the next window."

"Outstanding, Sergeant," said Karr.

"Squad Three out." The video shut off.

"How are their vitals?" Karr asked.

Handler Meechum touched more buttons on the screen. Eight individual photos of the soldiers popped up on the screen - each with a list of vitals and EKG graphs displayed next to them. Three of them flashed in the red. "Five of the eight have not yet reached their VO2 max, including Sergeant Sheffel. But with the shield wall up, remember, any data is going through satellite relay, so we have about a sixty-second delay."

"Good," said Karr. "Keep them going. I want those two caught immediately."

"Yes, Sir." Meechum touched the screen, bringing it to life, and Karr walked out.