War Criminals by Gavin Smith (ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📕

the Scorpion Rain Society, the largest and most influential Yakuza society on board the Daughter. It wasn’t clear who was going to emerge as the Society’s new leader. Though rumour had it that Kaneda, who had been a member of the Bethlehem Milliners, a bike gang associated with the Yakuza, was now a fully-fledged member of the Society and rising swiftly through the ranks.

‘This about Corenbloom?’ Miska asked. If the Yakuza had been protecting the crooked FBI agent from the Mafia then it was just another reason for friction between the two organisations.

Vido frowned.

‘You know what gets me about that guy?’ Vido asked. ‘He was good, I mean really good, and he went after some bad people, worked high profile cases. You know he worked on the Ultra investigation. Nearly got him in New Erebus. He was consulting with the local Feeb on Sirius 4 when they took him down. He just loved the street too much. He wanted to be like the people he put away.’

‘He said that you tried to have him killed,’ Miska said and then kicked herself. This was the kind of real-world bleed into her organisation that she couldn’t allow. Vido shrugged. He would never incriminate himself, he was a lawyer and a criminal after all. Miska knew some of it from the Daughter’s files. Corenbloom had become too ambitious. He, along with another corrupt FBI agent, a number of corrupt cops, and their criminal allies had tried to push the Mafia out of New Erebus. It had turned bloody.

‘He tell you he had Mass’s girlfriend killed?’ Vido asked.

That explained why Mass hated Corenbloom so much.

Her dad walked into the meeting room. He didn’t bother coming to attention or saluting with only Miska and Vido present. Instead he just nodded at Vido, who nodded back. Her dad was another person who Vido had made friends with despite the legion sergeant major’s best efforts to resist such a friendship.

‘You got your ass kicked,’ he said. Miska sighed. ‘How’d that happen?’

‘You seen the footage?’ she asked. Her dad nodded. ‘Should I be that outclassed?’

‘Martian nanotech?’ he asked.

‘At best. It felt like I was fighting Teramoto, y’know after he was …’ she told them.

Her dad turned to Vido. ‘That legal here?’ he asked.

Vido was shaking his head. ‘No, strictly forbidden under the articles of conflict, as mandated by the UN conflict inspector,’ he told them. ‘To be honest, some of the hardware they’re using, and now we are because we stole it from them, is borderline.’

‘Anything we can do about it?’ LSM Corbin asked.

‘Not unless we can prove it, and we’d better have really good proof. I can dig into it but I’ve not managed to find much on Duellona or Resnick,’ Vido told them. Miska and her father exchanged a look. ‘What?’

‘They came from nowhere, high-end military skills,’ her dad said. ‘Could be off-the-book members of the Spartans.’

Spartan was an umbrella term for Martian special operations units.

‘Martian boogie men?’ Miska asked. ‘Reds under the bed?’

Her dad shrugged.

‘We could hire a PR company?’ Vido said, though the resignation in his voice suggested that he knew his question was a waste of time.

‘Not a chance,’ LSM Corbin scoffed. Miska was shaking her head.

‘Well, at least give the journalist … Raff, a chance. I’ve spoken to him, he’s a good guy, sympathetic. He could tell our side of the story. Stop letting the guys tase him and tie him up,’ Vido told them, somewhat irritably Miska thought. She couldn’t help but smile. She noticed her dad was doing the same thing. ‘I’m serious, boss.’

‘No amount of PR is going to change who and what we are,’ Miska said. Or what I’ve done, she didn’t add. ‘But we’ll let the lenshead ride along next time.’

‘And you won’t tase him or tie him up?’ Vido checked.

‘Sure,’ Miska said. Uncle V didn’t look reassured. She decided to change the subject. ‘The gas mine job, you think it’s a bad idea?’

Vido shrugged. ‘We’ve got a good relationship with MACE, with the Colonial Administration. Why jeopardise that?’

‘They’re grown-ups,’ LSM Corbin pointed out.

‘There’s no way this isn’t going to feel like a knife in the back to them, no matter the realpolitik,’ Vido insisted.

‘Where are you on this?’ Miska asked her dad.

He gave the question some consideration.

‘I’d rather fight for the colonials. I think New Sun are assholes—’

‘Untrustworthy assholes,’ Vido added.

‘—but we’re either mercenaries in a free market economy or we’re not,’ her dad continued, ‘and I quite like the idea of making Triple S look stupid.’

Miska was a little surprised that her dad was prepared to go for the plan.

‘What is it they actually want us to do?’ Miska asked Vido.

‘Most of the gas mining aerostats are automated. They have a number of control platforms that are actually manned – human oversight, maintenance teams, storage depots, that kind of thing. New Sun are talking about a coordinated effort, attacking them all simultaneously. From the control platforms they can take control of the whole operation in the net.’

‘Why not just hack it?’ LSM Corbin asked.

‘Whoever’s running security will have their own hackers, and besides, it’s always easier from within a system,’ Miska told her dad. ‘Who’s running security for them?’

‘The Dogs of Love,’ Vido told them.

‘Competent but unimaginative,’ her dad said. Miska was nodding in agreement.

‘L’Amour’s a good guy,’ Vido pointed out.

‘You don’t think you’re getting a little too sentimental for this job do you, Vido?’ Miska asked.

A shadow passed over Uncle V’s face.

‘I just don’t like burning relationships with so little gain.’

‘How many?’ Miska asked.

‘Eight platforms,’ Vido told her.

‘We don’t have the shuttles,’ her dad said.

‘They’re just giving us one platform. Campbell told me it was a test of our abilities,’ Vido explained.

‘As opposed to us humiliating Triple S at their own mech base and in Port Turquoise?’ her dad asked.

‘Like I said, this is a bad idea,’ Vido told them. ‘They also want us moving all of a sudden. The moment we say yes they’ll send over the schematics. Operationally it’s up to us