Its was a strange day. It was the middle of summer, yet there was ice on the well, no birds were singing. And no sound could be heard from the stables, nor from where the other farm animals were kept.
The sky was overcast, big dark black clouds covering the sky.
Looking round Linna could see the buildings that surrounded the yard, they all looked bleak and uninhabited – it was though no one had been here…

OK – so I’ve done a little more development work on the Assassins project 🙂

Isaac had reached out to his other operatives already on the station, they all knew the schedule, to make sure that central ops was taken on time.

There was a team assembling in the maintenance office down the corridor from central, and Isaac was on his way there. He had already scheduled a series of system tests to take place that would allow the team to move from there to central. If all went to plan they would make their move and be in place as the cruse liner was docking. They had two hours left, it would take him one of those just to make it across the station to be in place.

Isaac entered the maintenance office on the central corridor fifty minuets later. There were twenty people waiting there for him, including Angela and Tessa. He nodded to them as he entered. ‘ok people. We have just over an hour to make sure everything is under our control. The routines are set to start switching processes into test mode in ten mins. Does everyone have a weapon?’ there was a murmur of yes from everyone. ‘ok. We will split into three teams, team one will be working through the tunnels to access from inside the control room, team two will go down the main corridor and enter through the main door, team three will enter from the auxiliary entrance. Angela, Tessa – are you two ok working together?’ They both nodded ‘in that case Angela will head up team two, I will head up team three. Simon – you take team one. We will move out in ten minuets. Everyone check your gear.’ there was a mass rustle as everyone did so. ‘we are still unsure of the location of Danco, we don’t know what has happened to at least three operatives – they have not called in for the last twenty-four hours. Once the marines are on station, we need to make sure that all of the cartel are under our control, we can then make a start on looking for them. Team one, make a start on heading through the tunnels now, the other two teams, lets start working our way down the corridors.’

If everything went to plan it would take team one twenty mins to reach the central ops office access panels, team two would take five mins, and team three would take seven or so.

Tessa watched as Isaac left and double checked everything through again, once they had ops she would be able to start hunting through sec footage to see if there was any sign of what happened to Tirela.

There was a nod from Angela and their team moved out and down the corridor, if they were lucky there would be no one moving about, if they met anyone the action would have to be quick and silent.

They turned the last corner and could see the ops centre doors, they were on time and quickly moved into position. Angela watched the count on her watch and gave the signal to the team.

They pulled open the door and tossed in a stun bomb, they followed it in and Tessa could see the other teams entering from their places.

Angela went to the security console and entered in the over rides to bring all the section access to her, while Isaac took the station masters console.

‘Initiate Earth link’ he commanded, and the woman that had taken a seat at the communication desk entered the commands to re-establish the link to central Navy control.

‘Security initialisation is taking place’ said Angela ‘system reset in thirty seconds. Cruiser is in final docking manoeuvre, final connection in two mins. Preparing for crash dock and sec release. I don’t think any one realises what’s happened yet.’

‘Any word on Danco?’ asked Isaac.

‘He’s not here, once the sec reset takes place we will tag him, I also have the list of other people to tag ready to load.’ said Simon.

‘Sec reset in five’ said Angela, ‘four, three, two, one and reset. Earth Link established. Sec Protocol is loaded into system. Sir – it’s waiting for a Commanding Office to take command.’

Isaac removed his security id from a pocket and entered the card into the reader on the station masters console. It prompted for a voice verification ‘Admiral Kenneth Hartman, ID number four, five, three, six, two. ‘

‘Cruiser will dock in five seconds, release security seal.’

On the dock there was a shudder as the curser docked and took hold, and the men on the security desk went into a state of confusion and then panic as their screens went blank and two thousand marines started to file past them with loaded weapons.

The red warning lights started to flash and the dock seal klaxons started to sound as the seals were closed across the station.

A detachment of five marines took control of the security desk and sent a signal to central ops.

In the central ops office Angela was locking out all of the remote security stations, she had initialised a communication blackout for all traffic.

Well, I’ve been busy working on a new project, it’s a Sci-Fi thriller. I’m not going to give too much away right now, but enjoy this little snippit:

Joshua was sat in his office, he’d signalled to the sisters over three hours ago. He knew what it meant if they hadn’t got back to him by now. There was trouble; he didn’t know what it was linked to yet. He had started to monitor the station alerts after two hours. The only blip had been the maintenance tunnel alert – but that had been quickly closed down. Just the single alert in that amount of time was a bad sign. He knew how they worked. They wouldn’t contact him if they thought either they or he had been compromised.

He started to make his own plans; he wouldn’t leave the station unless absolutely necessary. His bosses had too much invested for him to leave. Taking control back from the criminal cartel that had taken the station was too important. He had some of the key naval personnel now on the station, but his plans were not compete. The sisters taking out Danco had been the next step.

They would either do it or not. But he had to be sure, so he signalled to another one of his contacts.

Angela got a beep on her comm, Isaac had requested her to report to his office. It wasn’t often you got called to see the head of the department. It wasn’t a big department, but he normally just stuck his head out of the door and yelled.

‘I’m just going to see Isaac, make sure Joe gets finished on that clean up in sector five three. Thanks’ She stood and made sure her jacket was straight. It may only be the maintenance department but that didn’t mean they couldn’t take pride in themselves.

‘Close the door Angela.’ He said as she entered. She did so and stood at attention by his desk. ‘I am Joshua. I have a job for you.’

She nodded – she had suspected that there was more to Isaac than had seemed and now she knew.

‘Two of my operatives may have been compromised, as may this office. Your target is here’ he handed over a folder. ‘You are to eliminate the targets identified. If you come across the two other persons on interest you are to render any request they give you. Assess the threat level to this office. If we are compromised I need to know, we may have to withdraw from here. I would rather do it right and get all our operatives out alive. Good luck.’ He waved his hand to dismiss her.

Angela left the office and went back to her station; she tapped at a few keys and found what she was looking for – a blip in the system about 2 hours previously. ‘I’m going to section seven five, there was a blip and I need to stretch my legs.’

Angela walked to the lift system, no need to use the trams when visiting the maint tunnels, there were lifts to everywhere. She set the lights to auto. As she approached the area she could see blood on the floor and walls, something had happened here, but there was no sign of anyone. Other than the bloody foot prints leading to an air duct.

‘Joshua sent me.’

Angela looked directly at the duct.

‘Are you Tessa or Tirela? By the looks of it something went wrong. Look me up, Angela. I will wait for an hour at the hatch on seven five.’

She turned and walked back the way she had come.

Angela sat at the café across from the hatch and watched the brunette approach, she was slim and very pretty, looked to have some Japanese in her. From the files she had to be Tessa.

The brunette sat on the chair opposite and poured from the tea pot into the mug that had been left ready.

‘Tirela has been taken. She got at least one before she went down. Looks like she’d been ambushed. A man named Bruce is in a coma in one of our safe apartments. I have initiated clean programs to remove all trace of us from the station.’ The voice that spoke was soft, quiet, barely audible and filled with a deep sorrow. ‘I’m not sure how much they know. But I am confident that Joshua is compromised.’ She drank from the mug.

It was a very hot mug of tea, it needed sugar.