“I can’t
believe you let him escape!” Gideon van der Riijn shouted for the tenth or so
time as he stomped in circles around her living room; carrying on and on.
Flavia sat
in one of her custom-made, cream-colored leather recliners, one short leg
crossed over the other, flapping a pale-green silk slipper at the end of the
foot suspended in mid-air. She wore a silk gown of the same color with a pleated
and front-split skirt exposing an embroidered cream silk underskirt; the high
waist helping to balance her disproportionate body and giving her an elegant
and regal look. The bodice with the long, tight, pale-green trumpet sleeves
which were hemmed with cream colored lace made her arms look longer, too. She
had found the design in one of the online databases called ‘Fashion through the
Millennia’ under the period ‘Early Regency’. People had really been more creative
and adventurous when it came to clothes in those long past times, Flavia
thought. She regarded her freshly manicured nails with languid boredom,
comparing the nail color to the color of her dress. The color was just off. She
wondered if she should have another dress made to match the nail color or
another nail color mixed to match the dress.
By Horlus,
would her father never run out of steam? There was no point in even trying to
talk to him reasonably until he calmed down. Too bad he had shown up wanting to
talk to Garran and gloat right when he did or Flavia would have already taken
care of the situation on her own. She resented that she would have to kill
Garran Raulsten now. She had really been looking forward to her little sexual
games.
Unlike her
father’s, Flavia’s expression was perfectly composed. She pitied Gideon that he
had never learned to control his emotions, but she had wasted her breath trying
to point out to him that he could achieve so much more if only he kept, if not
his feelings then at least his facial expressions under control.
With a last
harrumph he finally took a seat in another recliner across from her. “This is a
complete disaster. If he manages to get in touch with the right people we might
have an invasion army on our doorsteps. Never mind that we have half the Horlus
III government in our pockets, too.”
Flavia
shook her head. “To get more than another rogue military operation off the
ground he would have to make his case before the Senate Subcommittee on
Interplanetary Affairs. It would take them months of deliberations to approve
and we would know what they are doing every step of the way.
“Even more
unlikely they would try another covert attack now that their A team has been
eliminated. I think the greatest danger stems from Raulsten directly. If he can
muster a team of mercenary operators and truly go rogue this time he could
potentially get close enough to do us harm, or you at least.” Flavia smiled
sweetly at her father. Personally she was safe enough. She never went out in
public herself, nor did she look like her public double. Nobody would ever
suspect her to be the true Flavia van der Riijn.
“He could
be speaking to the members of the Subcommittee or his mercenary friends right now for
all we know.” Gideon growled.
“I don’t
think he will talk to anybody official yet. He is too smart for that. He
will suspect a leak by the reception he got when he arrived here the last time.
No, I think he will lick his wounds for a while and try to figure out the
set-up before he makes a move.”
“You are
too confident. We have to be prepared for another imminent attack.”
Flavia’s
eyebrows drew together. “And you are paranoid.”
Gideon
huffed. “I just don’t like leaving loose ends.”
“Well it’s
a good thing then he will never make it back to Horlus III.”
“What do
you mean?” Gideon asked, a baffled expression on his face.
Flavia sat
up straight and spoke with an air of superiority. “Old man, it’s really time for
you to step aside and let me take over the reins. Did you think I wouldn’t plan
for an eventuality like this? He’s got a failsafe implanted.”
Gideon shot
up from his seat and shouted at her. “Then why haven’t you killed him yet?”
Flavia got
up from her seat, too and stared up into her father’s angry face. “Because you
interrupted me, you blustering old fool,” she said with cool, menacing clarity.
“Now go back to your favorite golf course and work on your handicap and let me
deal with the important matters.” She turned and headed back into her private
chambers. By Horlus, if he weren’t her father she would have seriously
considered retiring him a long time ago. Maybe it was time to consider him for
a surgical intervention for a change. The thought made her giggle.
With an
unusual spring in her step, she headed to her computer console to return to the
task which had been so rudely interrupted by her father’s unannounced visit; hijacking
a satellite to send the encrypted message that would detonate the failsafe
inside Garran Raulsten’s body.
***
After his
recent surgical nightmares, Garran had insisted on staying awake during the
procedure. Lying on his back now, Doc had strapped him to the table. As a
precaution he had said. Doc had done a spinal block and was now busy remotely
guiding a
surgical robot in removing the explosive device from Garran’s iliac
artery.
Garran turned
his head and watched Doc where he was sitting behind a specially designed
console almost at the other end of the room, peering intently at the monitor in front of
him and moving the robot’s arms and instruments with the aid of a joystick and
another set of keys and controls.
Doc had also placed a screen across Garran’s chest so he couldn’t see what the robot was doing. Another precaution, Doc had said. “Wouldn’t you be faster doing this directly, hands-on?” Garran asked after what had seemed to him like an interminable amount of time.
Doc had also placed a screen across Garran’s chest so he couldn’t see what the robot was doing. Another precaution, Doc had said. “Wouldn’t you be faster doing this directly, hands-on?” Garran asked after what had seemed to him like an interminable amount of time.
Doc
answered him without looking away from his monitor. “These failsafes are delicate
things to remove. I value my fingers.”
“I value my
life.” Garran grunted. A while later he asked. “What is so difficult? Just cut
the thing out and be done with it.”
“Do you
know why this thing is called a failsafe? Because, not only can it be detonated
remotely, it is also tamper-proof.”
Garran’s
face turned white as a sheet. “You mean it will go off regardless and then
you’ll just patch up the damage hoping I won’t bleed out beforehand?” Now he
understood why Doc had hooked him up with a plasma expander, and two liters of
artificial blood at the ready. Another precaution—obviously.
“Not
necessarily, but you need to know what you are doing. You see, it’s partially
organic. It grows tentacles into the wall of the blood vessel, but they only
grow in the direction of the blood flow. If you clamp or cut a tentacle it will
go off. If you clamp it above and the blood pressure drops to zero it will also
go off. The only way to see how far the tentacles have grown since it was implanted
is with dye. That takes a moment. Then you have to open the patient up and
follow the dye to where the longest tentacle ends. Below that’s where you
position your first two clamps. Like right ….. here.”
Doc carried
on providing a live commentary on what he was doing inside Garran’s body. “Now
you have to double clamp above. One … and two.” Doc released a sigh when the
device didn’t go off. So did Garran.
“See here
now I need to cut out a whole three centimeters of your iliac artery already.
And we are lucky, too. It’s just before the artery forks into two branches. And
now the drumroll, please…”
***
Finally the
satellite that Flavia had tapped into was rotated into the right position.
Through Riijnstone Communication Enterprises they had their own satellites in
orbit. Satellites she could have accessed much quicker and diverted more
easily, but she didn’t want there to be any direct link back to her or her
father. The satellite would broadcast the signal for one minute and that
minute would be enough to cover the section of space through which the Dark Goshawk was currently travelling.
She had
already keyed in the failsafe’s unique identifier and activation code and
entered the position coordinates from where the satellite would start
transmitting. The broadcast counter started its countdown: fifty nine – fifty
eight – fifty seven…
The
failsafe in Garran’s body would receive the communication within a few minutes.
A ship in space was relatively slow accelerating, only reaching cruising speed
after about twenty four hours, whereas her signal would be travelling at the
speed of light from the get-go. The failsafe would send an acknowledgement
before executing the order, but that signal would be too weak for her to be
able to detect it at this distance. She would have to go on faith and her
father’s spies on Horlus III to know for sure that Garran Raulsten had died a
sudden and unfortunate death.
… seven –
six – five – four – three – two – one – zero. Flavia shut down the link to the
satellite and smiled. Time for plan B.
***
The
surgical robot lifted the two clamps between which the piece of iliac artery
containing the failsafe was suspended above Garran’s pelvic region. A third arm
reached under the blood vessel to keep it from sagging then the robot rotated
away from the surgical field. Pow!
The noise was surprisingly loud as the artery exploded, pushing the robot’s
arms apart and spraying everything in the vicinity with a thin spatter of
blood.
“Fuck!”
Garran screamed.
“Wow. You
okay Garran?” Doc jumped up from his console and raced toward the operating
table.
Garran’s
eyes were closed tight and he was holding his breath. His heart rate and blood
pressure spiking to a dangerously high level.
“Garran!
Garran!” Doc shouted at him “Garran you are okay. It was already outside of
your body. He realized that the screen he had placed across Garran’s chest had
prevented him from seeing what had happened and since he couldn’t feel anything
right now… Doc pulled the screen away and lifted Garran’s head. “Garran look!
You are still in one piece.”
Garran
opened his eyes and mouth and drew in a sobbing breath. Doc lowered Garran’s
head back down and put his hand on Garran’s chest. “Garran believe me you are
fine. I just have to repair your iliac artery now.”
Garran
closed his eyes again and drew in another ragged breath. His eyes were
stinging. “Am I really okay?” His voice sounded strangled.
“Yes.
Relax. It will be over in a few minutes.”
“Doc?”
“Yeah?”
“I have
changed my mind. Just put me under until it’s all over.”
Aurora - Part 11
Very exciting!
ReplyDeleteMy heart is still racing! Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteNow . . . why, when I was counting down for the fail safe to go off, did I slowly count down--but then speed up at the end? LOL Guess I was kind of anxious to read the next part . . . ;-)
Oh wow-- that was intense! Please continue soon RyooT because I am loving this story! It's so intriguing!! Wonderful update and great job :-)
ReplyDeleteYes! That was fantastic! Thanks for the update!
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness.
ReplyDeleteWowww! That was close!
ReplyDelete