One Good Soldier

July 1, 2394 AD

Tau Ceti, New Tharsis

Friday, 3:48 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

"Don't you even fucking twitch, Ahmi!" Moore shouted as they turned the corner. He had his targeting crosshair on Fink's forehead, but the dishonored marine had his daughter around the neck in an armored grip and the forearm HVAR of his armored suit to her head.

"Too late, Alexander," Ahmi replied, and the three of them vanished.

"Goddamnit!" Moore said. "I should have shot the bitch!"

"No, Alexander, it would have put Dee at even greater risk," Sehera scolded her husband.

"All that is well and good, Mr. President, but we need to figure out where they went," DeathRay interjected. He and Nancy began reconnoitering the pad and control panels. "Nancy?"

"Give me a minute," the CIA agent answered.

Alexander was getting antsy. Next time he wasn't going to hesitate. He was going to put a bullet through Ahmi's brain the first chance he got. Fink had a railgun round with his name on it, too.

"Thomas, Koodie, keep our backs covered." Moore told the bodyguards.

"Got it, sir."

"Any ideas yet, Ms. Penzington?" Sehera asked, looking over Boland's shoulder. DeathRay turned to the First Lady with a solemn look on his face.

"Don't worry, ma'am, we'll find her," he said.

"Well, between the president's AIC and mine, we have figured out where they went," Nancy stated. "There is a pad somewhere in the outer part of this system. Looks like it is in orbit around a moon of another one of the gas giants farther out."

"Then we go there," Alexander said.

"Well, I have a better idea, sir." Nancy paused and conferred with her AIC. "I think we should send her somewhere else. The snap-back routine for Dee has been turned off so she could go to the other facility. I believe Allison and Abigail can hack this thing if they work together. Then, sir, I would suggest we use Boland's original plan. We send all of them to the Oval Office. We follow after leaving a charge on this thing to blow it to hell and gone."

"You think you can manage that, Ms. Penzington?" Sehera tried not to get her hopes up too high.

"Yes, ma'am. President Moore's AIC is very smart and mine is, well, even smarter. Elle Ahmi's must be somewhere on a level near the two of them but certainly not better than the two of them working together. We might even tap into all of our AICs if we need extra computational power. We'll see. They are already running the dictionary search hack on her control algorithm."

"Mr. President, if this is our plan, then somebody should go ahead to the Oval Office and prepare it for our arrival," Thomas suggested. The head bodyguard was right. Alexander needed to get in there, clear out his office, and get ready to turn on the office SIF. Maybe prepare a surprise or two for Ahmi and Fink. At the same time, he didn't want to leave the system without Dee.

"Okay, Thomas, you go. Snap back and set things up. If the vice president is there, tell him that he needs to vacate immediately. I'm having Abigail download you an e-memo now with my authorization. Then there are some other instructions she is giving you. Follow them to the letter."

"I was hoping you would go, sir." Thomas hesitated with his response. "It would make us all feel better about your safety, sir."

"Thomas, go," Moore told him.

"Yes, Mr. President." The bodyguard sighed, certain that no further argument would get him anywhere. Moore knew it wouldn't, because he came to this star system to find his daughter and bring her home safely. That is just what he was going to do.

"I'll see you soon, sir. Koodie, you keep an eye on things," Thomas said and then triggered his Oval Office snap-back. He vanished with a flash of white and blue light and a crackling hissing sound.

"We're in!" Nancy sounded excited. "Her passcode was a random string of digits two-hundred symbols long. Their beacons are quantum connected to this pad. I'm setting up a site-to-site algorithm from out there to here to Earth."

"We're gonna need HE, sir. Do you three have any grenades in those suits?" Jack asked.

"If we don't have enough, the Blair can drop us down more."

"Well, we need a pretty good charge for the pad. It is several meters thick. The control panels are just in here and is all soft circuitry, which shouldn't require a lot of HE. Ten grenades at once should do it for sure."

"We have enough then," Sehera added and started pulling out grenades from her suit's forearm launcher. She counted out ten and dropped them at her feet.

"I'll set them, ma'am," Michael offered.

"No thanks, Koodie. I've set a few grenades in my day," Sehera said. Everybody but Alexander raised an eyebrow at that. Sehera knelt down and put a fifteen-second timer on each of them. As soon as an electronic signal was sent from her launcher, the clock would start on them.

"Nancy, put this on." Jack handed her the wristwatch snap-back device he had intended to give Dee. "Dee won't need it. Maybe one day you can come back for your tank and any other planes and goodies you have squirreled away here."

"I won't miss them, Boland." Nancy laughed. "Okay, we're ready to trigger this thing whenever you are, Mr. President."

"The grenades are set. I say that Michael and I will pump a few extras into the walls and around here before we go. I've also sent a message to the Blair to blast this building off the face of this planet immediately upon my signal. She's waiting on ready with the crosshairs on us."

"Well, then, here we go. Is everybody ready?" Nancy looked at everyone to make certain they were. All responded with an affirmative nod.

"Everybody make certain your helmets are on, visors in place. Trust me, just do it," Alexander said. After everyone complied, he nodded to Nancy and raised his grenade launcher. His bodyguard followed suit.

"Triggering the snap-back in three, two, one, go!" Nancy said.

There was a flash of light as usual, and for a brief instant they could see Ahmi, Fink, and Dee standing surprised on the pad in front of them. Then they disappeared again. Hopefully, they had reappeared in Washington, D.C.

"That's it. Let's go!" Nancy said.

"Admiral Walker, this is Moore."

"Yes, sir?"

"Count to ten and then rain hell on my current coordinates and don't stop till there is nothing left but a crater."

"What about you and the First Lady?"

"We're snapping back to the Oval Office. Dee is already there."

"That's good news, sir. Sir, we just had multiple Seppy ships QMT into the system. We are outnumbered here now!"

"Get a courier to Wally to get over here and help you. Now start blasting!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Go, go!" Moore said. Sehera vanished. Nancy and DeathRay flashed out. Moore and Koodie pumped a bunch of grenades through the walls, computers, down the hallway, and into the ceiling.

"Let's go, Michael."

"Yes, Mr. President."

They vanished. Seconds later the room erupted into a ball of high-energy plasma and debris. Fire spread and engulfed the floor. Then the building began to shake and shudder as DEG and missiles rained down from above. The Capitol Building of the United Separatist Republic, the house of terrorist leader Elle Ahmi, was being razed to the ground.