Black Market Merchant

Chapter 131: On the Move
Assistant Officer Caswell felt like he had made the correct choice. After Queen had gone into the eastern part of town and only appeared to have been meeting with the locals; he felt relieved that he didn’t involve Special Officer Hawkins after all. Even on the next day when Lisa appeared to be leaving the town with a few others, Caswell didn’t immediately report it as a concern either. Both days he only submitted a daily report to Hawkins mentioning her movements as non-threatening and nominal.

At the time Special Officer Hawkins was still preparing for the mission to track 56. When he read the reports, Hawkins dismissed them. From what he understood of that town was that even though the militia had beaten away the gang in that area, they were still nothing more than a useless rabble. Mere desert bound folk that couldn’t threaten anyone, especially not the AFR military forces.

There was one thing that did catch Caswell by surprise. The Mechs that originally were stored away, by the militia, were now marching out of the town, eastward, and he had no idea as to why. The Osprey drone watched their movements over the course of the day, from just below a single wispy cloud floating above the town. It wasn’t until the Mechs and company turned back towards the town, but now on the topside of the cliff, that Caswell figured out a likely reason.

Caswell was watching from over the shoulder of the Osprey drone’s pilot as the Mechs were seen on screen, now powering up at the dam. They could see Queen messing around with some children that they noticed hanging around her from time to time. While everyone else by the Mechs were just laying around, doing nothing. It was a rather boring experience and Caswell decided to start up a conversation.

”I believe I know the situation for the Mechs deployment.” Caswell said to the Osprey’s drone pilot. ”Queen has been occupying the dam and as we know the dam is hydroelectric. Queen must have gotten it running and offered her services to the militia to power the Mechs. Likely she met up with one of their members or heard of them someway. As to what they intend to do with those Mechs, I don’t know just yet. Doubt it is anything special. These nobodies can’t do anything anyway.”

”Perhaps they intend to try and take over the rest of town?” The Osprey Pilot replied slightly tapping the controls to the drone with one hand to correct its course. Flying this particular drone was not at all difficult and he could afford to be lax.

”Not likely.” Caswell replied tapping his chin. ”Even with those big machines on their side there is now way to get them to cross over the river. I suspect that the dam is incapable of being able to support their weight. Even if they could cross over, the Mad Dogs gang out gun and out man the militia six to one. We will only need to wait and find out to make a better guess.”

”I see. Well, if you’re right, nothing we could do about it anyway. The Special Officer is gone, and those of us left here at the base are not much more than a skeleton force.” The Osprey pilot replied.

”Hey, at least this outpost is nice and quiet. Imagine being stationed on the Texas Coalition boarder or the northern military advancement line, trying to take over Calgary and Vancouver in former Canada.” Caswell said with a grin. ”That would definitely not be a nice little picnic. I’d rather be out here anyway. The desert might be hot, but it’s a nice dry heat.”

”Eh, I like the cold better. I miss growing up in Maine. I’d take snow over sand any day.” The Pilot replied shaking his head.

Just then something unexpected happened on the video feed. It appeared that one of the Mechs had suddenly gone out of control and was flailing around oddly.

”What is going on?” The Pilot called out and he sat up to take up the controls with both hands.

Caswell grabbed onto the back of the seat as he leaned forward to get a better view of the situation. The Mech shuddered for a moment then took one lumbering step forward before coming to a stop. They could see a man clinging to the ladder of the Mech and shaking his hand angrily up at the cockpit. Moments later, three children came climbing down from within the Mech.

”Well, that was interesting. It looked like those bumpkins let some kids mess around with the Mech.” The Pilot chuckled seeing that the issue was resolved.

”Completely ridiculous. There is no way that could ever happen in a proper military. Like I said before, they are nobodies.” Caswell replied with a sigh. ”Just for the hell of it, zoom in on those kids. I wonder how old they are.”

The Pilot tapped a few commands on the screen and the video footage zoomed in on the three girls being reprimanded by Gillian at the moment. They looked to be no more than fourteen or fifteen years old.

”They really are just kids.” The Pilot remarked.

”I guess so. Well let’s get back to watching over…” Caswell started to say, but something caught his eye.

One of the girls appeared to have gotten up and had started following the man. Additionally, Queen was going with them and all were headed back for the Mech. What caught his attention most of all was the girl’s appearance. She looked kind of familiar.

After looking at her for a few moments Caswell remembered that girl was on the list of people that were to have been killed by the gangsters. Along with collecting the data of the dam, the family that knew the information was to have been eliminated according to the commands they were issued. He didn’t know why they had to be killed, but the fact that she was alive might be important. The mission’s details from back then were lacking in the report they submitted but it passed anyway, and he hadn’t given it much thought until now.

”Get a picture of that girls face. I think that Special Officer Hawkins needs to know about her. She’s not supposed to be alive and I hope that she won’t be a problem.” Caswell ordered.

…

Special Officer Hawkins was watching the battle rage outside of the city continue to unfold on screen. The Moab City defense and Hunters Clansmen were doing well in this fight. Not a single tower had come close to being breached and thousands of Twisted monsters had been slain. However, it was still far from over.

”Wouldn’t it be something if a Twisted took out 56 for us. It would save us a lot of trouble and work.” A soldier said to another soldier across the room from Hawkins.

Hawkins overheard them and decided to let it pass. He kind of felt the same way. Though he was still extremely excited to be included into the secretive Operation Chess mission, he remained attentive to watching this battle. His mind multitasked to think of the variety of missions that he would possibly be put on was limitless! His career was sure to have a positive turn.

56 and the other Hunters with him were returning to the battle after a brief break when another soldier approached the Special Officer from the back of the room.

”Sir, you have a message from home base. It’s from the Assistant Officer, labeled important.” The soldier said quietly, as if to not alert anyone.

”Let’s see it then.” Hawkins replied turning towards the soldier’s workstation. The two went back to the work area and the soldier pulled up the notification.

Hawkins scanned the message quickly and looked carefully at the attachment image. His brow furrowed deeply seeing the little girl on screen. Thinking to himself Hawkins felt disappointed in himself. ”This is not good. It seems that a little error has appeared.”

”Add this image and report, to my inbox. I need to re-evaluate it later.” Hawkins order the soldier.

”Yes Sir.” The soldier replied promptly clicking on the information.

Hawkins then slowly turned around in thought as he headed back to monitor 56. ”That girl should be dead. In that mission prior to Queens interference, there were three additional targets added onto the data collection mission. She was undoubtedly one of them. Not too sure why they had to be killed, but they all were labeled as a requirement for the mission. Did the Mad Dogs leader lie to me and let the girl live?”

Just then another soldier called out from the right side of the room to him. ”Sir, you have a call coming from the Moab City Mayors Office!”

”Answer it and give it to me.” Hawkins replied turning to quickly walk towards the soldier and phone. Taking it, he then carried the mobile phone into the mostly empty and quieter hallway. ”Hello, this is Special Officer Hawkins replying. What can I do for you?”

”Ah, Special Officer. Glad we can finally speak to you. I am Mayor Cameron Bakersfield. I was notified that you were now the one in charge of your country’s temporary operations in my city. Is this correct?” Mayor Bakersfield replied with a friendly tone.

”Yes, this is correct. I am indeed running the operation here. What can I do for you sir?” Hawkins replied. He took a glance at the two guards guarding the operations room and turned to walk away from them and further down the hall.

In the meantime, the mayor continued the conversation. ”I am just calling to inform you that we are going to be deploying our means of repelling the Horde Mother and that any forces you might have in the area will be needing to pull back. There is no need for us to cause any accidental injuries to your country’s forces.”

”I appreciate the warning, but we have no living forces deployed in the City at this time. So, no need to worry about that.” Hawkins replied. ”May I ask though, why tell me that you’re going to be attacking?”

”Two reasons. One, that no international incident may occur. The second is that your country might see that, though we are an independent city state, we are more than capable of protecting ourselves from any powerful force.” Mayor Bakersfield said calmly in reply. ”I trust that you will be giving a good report to your superior on how we conducted ourselves against the Twisted and that the same means can be done again.”

Hawkins smiled; he knew this game. In the face of a stronger and more numerous opponents, it was a smart move to have shown displays of force to deter a larger country or power from attacking a smaller one. If the plan to take out the Horde Mother worked it could definitely end up used against the AFR, if they ever tried to invade Moab.

”That is good to know.” Hawkins replied immediately. ”I will be sure to do that.”

”Excellent. Thank you for accepting my call. I am sure we will speak again. Good day.” Mayor Bakersfield said and then he ended the call.

”Well, looks like I’ll have to deal with that girl later. Things are getting interesting and she can wait.” Hawkins said to himself and turned to return back to the operations room. ”I will be sure to ensure that you, little girl, will not be another blotch on my personal record and to return you with your family soon. The same goes for you, Queen. I am going to get you soon without a doubt!”