Jess remembered him, from school. “Yes sir, I remember you from in flight tactics class.” She commented. “The squirt was valid. Details in person.”
The man relaxed just a trifle. “Ack.” He said, to both her spoken and unspoken words. “Due local approx two. Clear entrance?”
Jess shook her head visibly so he could see it.
“Ack.” He responded. “Please keep this channel open. Report as needed.”
“Ack.” Jess, at last, felt a sense of relief. “Will do.”
The visible image disappeared, but the waveform remained, and she keyed it to overhead comms sending the soft sound of the open carrier into the room. “Open sig.” She announced. “We've got fleet inbound.”
The sounds of utter relief around her matched her internal feelings exactly. “Apparently a message from here got through.” She said. “So whoever made that happen, I love you.”
After a brief pause, everyone looked at Dev, who looked up in surprise, a visible blush appearing on her face. “Um.” She cleared her throat. “I don't think I did that.”
“Did I say you did?” Jess's brows arched slightly.
Dev blushed more deeply.
“Now, if I was a betting woman... “ Elaine drawled. “And I checked the logs, I bet we'd find someone's creds on that message in here.”
Doctor Dan looked up from a console he had his head completely inserted into. “Please don't make Dev pass out.” He said. “She's had a tough day.” He got up from the floor and sat down. “And I think that was the best news we could have hoped for.”
“Got that right.” Jess sighed. “Maybe this is closer to over.”
“Let me make sure everyone's on PTT.” Elaine was busy with her board. “Full power's back, and the non coms are getting the rest of daily operations up.”
“Yes.” Doctor Dan said. “My advice now is, we all get some rest before the cavalry gets here, and starts asking questions. They'll be on scan and keep off any other funny business here.” He glanced at Jess. “You might want to take a trip down to med.”
Questions. Yes. Jess recalled all the things they'd been through, and how that was all going to look to HQ. “Let's hope they believe us.” She stood up. “Let's go, Dev. “
Obediently Dev left her work and joined Jess at the door, dusting her hands off as they left ops, and walked together down the hall. “Are we going to med?”
“Yeah.” Jess said. “I need another shot, and you've got a bump on your head.”
“I do. It hurts.” The bio alt agreed. “Is it over now, Jess? Did we win?”
Jess walked along in silence for a few moments, then she nodded. “For now, I think it is.” She allowed. “And I think we survived more than we won. But I'll take it.”
Dev reached out and took her hand, closing her fingers around Jess's. “Me too.”
Part 26
Jess paused to dust a bit of debris off her sleeve, before she presented herself to the intelligence room, holding her hand to the plate and feeling the tickle of scan as it read her.
The cavalry had, in fact arrived. A dozen carriers and six big transports, carrying enough troops to handle an invasion force, which is what they'd apparently been expecting. Hard to say, really, who had been the more surprised when the most they had to do was post patrols and find places to park since the carrier bay was half in pieces.
The door opened, and she entered, giving the three men at the end of the table a nod before she settled herself in the end chair facing them.
“Agent Drake.” Bensen Alters leaned on his elbows. “Thanks for coming to talk with us. I know it's been a long couple of days for you.”
“It has.” Jess said, resting her own elbows on the table. Her nerves had finally returned to normal and she'd gotten enough med to function at least until this part was over. She was tired, and wanted her bed, and she suspected that showed.
“You doing all right, Drake? I saw you logged into med earlier.”
Jess nodded. “Got caught by three deflected blasters.” She said. “Rang my brain out.”
She'd been the first they'd called, as she'd figured. She was the senior agent in charge, after all, regardless even of the other position Bain had dangled in front of her. Now, having to face these men, she was glad she hadn't officially accepted it.
Alters cleared his throat. “This is John Bezette, and Jason Elk.” He introduced the other two. “Fleet captains.”
“Agent.” Elk nodded at her. “Your father and I went to the academy together.”
Jess nodded back. “Pretty much everyone in the corps has gone to something or other with some part of my family.” She admitted wryly. “I have yet to meet a long termer who doesn't have no shit I was there stories about one of us.”
Elk smiled briefly, lifting a hand in acknowledgment.
“When we got your message, there were many who found it very hard to believe.” Alters said. “In fact, quite a few people thought it was a trick, aimed at luring us in to a trap.”
“I can imagine that.” Jess agreed. “Especially if that was the first you were hearing of problems out here.”
Alters nodded. “Exactly.”
Elk looked around. “Based on what we can see here, that message got out just in time.”
Jess nodded again. “Not really sure where to start.” She said. “But I guess I should begin with advising you that Alexander Bain is dead.”
The three men exchanged glances.
“I killed him.” Jess continued, after a brief pause. “When he informed us that he intended to turn over this facility into enemy hands, and that he was working on their behalf to overturn not only this organization, but all of Atlantia.” She folded her hands. “There were five witnesses to that aside from myself, including Doctor Kurok, from LifeForce.”
Elk sighed. “Well, that's news.” He glanced at Alters. “Carlsen was right. He's going to be insufferable.”
Alters stood up. “What I am about to say is probably going to surprise you, Drake.” He said. “But you've done us a great service. Aside from responding to your SOS, my task here was to find Alex.” He looked profoundly relieved. “I'm damn glad he's dead. I wouldn't have known where to start asking him questions.”
Jess was, in fact, quite surprised to hear that. “You knew about his game?” She asked, cautiously.
Alters glanced at the two captains. “Just before your note came in we finished beating off an attack on the west coast facilities.” He said, quietly. “Now I understand what part that had to play in it. They draw us there, by the time we recover, they have a firm beachhead here.”
“Except they don't.” Jess remarked. “Somehow, we stopped them.”
“Somehow.” Elk smiled grimly.
“He killed Bricker.” She mentioned. “Bain, I mean.”
They stared at Jess. “John Bricker's dead?” Elk asked, after a startled pause.
Jess nodded. “First day Bain got here. Said he..” She shrugged. “Who the hell would question the old man? We all just took it for granted that he was trusted. Ops was sending notifies back to base, had no idea comm was looped and locked.”
Alters nodded. “Bricker was his nephew.” He saw Jess nod. “He told you that?” He watched her nod again. “We knew there was a leak here. He said he knew who it was.”
“Apparently he did. Intimately.” Jess responded dryly. “Bricker knew something too. He wanted to bring in techs from what he knew was an untainted source.”
“The bio alts.” Alters nodded. “That must have spooked Alex. According to the shuttle's records, he arrived on the same transport the test case did.”
“He certainly did.” Jess considered what a personal mixed blessing that had turned out to be. “Surprised the hell out of everyone but then, I was glad to see him.”
'Were you? Oh yes.” Alters looked at a bit of plas in his hands. “He reinstated you.. promoted you.. several times.” He looked up at Jess. “Definitely favored you.”