Jack Of All Trades (Erotica)

There were four other members in the team. Two almost identical looking men who were just a little shorter than the Major were inspecting their weapons one more time. Their greying hair was cut military short and their cold blue eyes assessed the approaching group quickly dismissing the Altarians as a threat. Standing next to them reading a small tablet was a lanky red haired woman wearing a minimal augmentation suit. This suit helped her carry and use the heavy, sniper rail gun currently folded up against the chassis of her suit on her back. Next to her was a shorter man whose skin rivaled the Altarian’s fur for blackness. He had the assault weapons too but he was cradling a portable data terminal like a lover.

The group came to attention when the Major stopped before them. She introduced her team to the Altarians.

“This is Corporal Leo Orlov and Corporal Maxim Volkov, our assault and demolition specialists. Captain Nann Graf, our recon and suppression specialist. Finally Lieutenant Ray Sharif, our comm tech specialist. People this is…” she realized she’d forgotten to ask their names.

“Gee and Bal, Altarian Security Agents.” Bal offered.

“Where is their body armor?” Maxim asked.

“We will be fine. We must begin as soon as we can. The trail is growing cold,” Gee insisted.

“You heard the… lady. Let’s go.” Ash replied. Maxim and Leo just shared a look and stepped through the gate followed by Nann and Ray. Gee and Bal stepped through closely followed by the Major.

Then they were in the Las Vegas Gate Terminal once more. The Major addressed the team.

“Our target was taken from a rear access corridor behind the Gemstone Casino leading to the mall. A team of armed assailants used a flashbang to temporarily blind the target’s security team and proceeded to kill two of the agents with shots from their assault weapons.” She stared at Gee and Bal to see if they understood her concerns.

“That is not completely accurate.” Gee began and the group turned to look at her. “The location and the use of the flashbang is correct but it should be noted that the assailants were ex-military, well trained, and well equipped. Their weapons were state of the art and well maintained. Our agents weren’t killed from being shot by assault rifles but rather a grenade launcher. They had moved too far ahead of Ambassador Danner making the grenade launcher a more effective means to take them out.”

“What’s the source of that information?” the Major asked with a scowl.

Gee looked at her. “First hand. We were the two agents who survived the attack.”

The group stared back at the Altarians with wide eyes.

Bal took up the story. “Ambassador Danner recognized the name of the casino and took immediate steps to exit the trap almost before it had been sprung. He protected Gee and I from the flash bang and pushed us out into the service corridor where we observed the group attempting to flank us. We opened fire on them but Ambassador Danner was rendered unconscious. When he was down we began to take fire from the team inside the corridor so we had to retreat. As the weapon used on the Ambassador was non-lethal we identified their purpose was to abduct him and our escaping to report would serve him better.”

The Major was quickly reassessing the value of her ‘advisors’. “Trackers?”

“Three active ones which all went offline thirty minutes after the abduction. In three different locations within Las Vegas. There is one more tracker which may still be viable. It’s a sleeper. It has a range of around a mile and will activate when it detects an echo pulse.”

“Damn. These are not amateurs. We need a larger team, Major.” Nann commented.

“We have permission to call in local law enforcement and any military resources available in our locale.” Ash responded. “First we have to establish a location. I assume we will be visiting the casino?”

Gee nodded. “We might have been directed there considering Jack’s- Ambassador Danner’s response.” She avoided looking at the Major after her little slip. Nann traded looks with her boss.

They made their way outside of the Terminal building and Gee saw a woman outside the barricade waving at her. She recognized the woman as the clerk from the last store. She had Jack’s shopping bags in her other hand.

“Major Ash, one moment please.” Gee said and walked over to speak with the shop clerk who recognized Gee.

“OMIGOD! Did you find him?” Vicki gushed, her face wet with tears.

“We are hunting for him now. Rest assured we will find him,” Gee said to assure the young woman.

“I- I haven’t been able- they won’t let me-” Vickie gestured at the shopping bags helplessly.

Gee took Vicki’s hand to calm her. “Do you have the card I gave you?” The woman nodded. Gee gestured for one of the Gate Security Agents to come over to them.

“This woman has Altarian Embassy business inside. She is to be given the same courtesy any Altarian courier would be shown. Please escort her inside and guide her back out.” The man looked like he was about to protest but Vicki held up the card and the words died on his lips. He held the barricade open for her to step through. Vicki smiled widely at Gee and walked into the building after the man. Gee walked back to the team.

“What was that about?” the Major asked.

“A courtesy returned,” was all Gee would say but Bal nodded.

They wasted no further time in getting to the Casino entrance. They were met by a group of security personnel and some administrators.

“I’m Major Ash from Earth’s Security Council Force. Who’s in charge here?” she said showing her badge.

A slight man in a dark grey suit stepped forward. “I’m Walter Jensen, Senior Executive Administrator of Gemstone. How may we be of service?” He waved away the security team now that they knew who they were dealing with.

“Earlier this evening there was an abduction of the Altarian Ambassador in a back corridor of your establishment,” the major began.

“Yes, the police came by to secure the service corridor and to do their investigation. Could we possibly continue this discussion in my office? It will make the customers more comfortable without all the hardware on display.

The Major nodded and they followed him through the front hall and past the lounge.

Bal suddenly stopped and gestured to Gee. The two turned and walked into the lounge. Ray followed then Nann. The Major stopped Walter and the rest followed the Altarians into the entrance way of the lounge.

Bal turned to face the team. “How frequently is this board updated?” On one wall of the lounge above the bar was an odds board. A huge display showing all of the pending events people could bet on. Jack’s name was on the board in several places. The first one was pretty mundane. Place a bet for the purpose of his visit but further along there was a bet for his ability to leave, alive.

“When did this first entry go on the board?” Gee asked Walter.

“I don’t know. Why?” he said, definitely looking uncomfortable.

“It sets a time line for when our presence in Las Vegas was noted. As the first set of odds are related to his purpose for visiting it had to be just after our arrival. This means we were made the moment we arrived. It doesn’t explain why Ambassador Danner was abducted but based on the fact that we identified these ex-military mercenaries approximately forty minutes after our arrival it means someone received the notification of our arrival the moment we were identified. The personnel were likely already in place and our arrival was an opportunity to be taken.”Text content © NôvelDrama.Org.

The Major nodded with that analysis. She glanced and nodded at Ray then looked over to Walter. “Who updates the odds board?”

The man was beginning to sweat. “It’s automated. It comes in on a feed from a central data collection center. These odds are in the Celebrity category so that comes from news stories and camera feeds. Facial recognition identifies people of interest who arrive and the odds are based on recent events they’ve been involved in. The ‘What are they here for’ is a low payout introductory bet.”

“But if someone were to set an alert on the system to activate when a particular person arrived, like an Altarian Ambassador, that would lead us to a potential suspect, wouldn’t it?” the Major asked the executive who had the deer in the headlights look.

“Got it Major. It was erased and the system was purged but the backup still had a reference.” Ray commented looking at his terminal. “Uh, this originated from the Chief Executive’s terminal, a Maury Levine.”

“Mr. Jensen, we’ll need to speak with Mr. Levine,” the Major said.

“That’s, uh, not going to be possible,” Walter mumbled.

“Sure, it is. You tell us where he is and we go to him and ask him a few questions. Simple,” she replied casually.

“He’s not here and we don’t know where he is.” Jensen said with a wince.

“Hey, I found a reference to a ‘Jack Danner’ working for the Gemstone… a long time ago.” Ray said with surprise in his voice.

“ARE YOU IN OUR HUMAN RESOURCES FILES?!?” Walter squeaked in outrage.

“We have the authority to take this place apart digitally. Every credit, every data packet, for as long as it takes to get answers to our investigation.” Major Ash said coldly.

“Look, I told you I don’t know where he is!” Walter barked.

“Who does?”

Jensen’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled to come up with something he could say to protect himself AND his employer.

“Major, I’ve tapped into the security system and I have a recording of Maury Levine being escorted by several men who appear to be ex-military. He got into an Empress ground skimmer and left the building approximately fifteen minutes after the abduction.” Ray said.

“An Empress? What’s the range on that model?” Ash asked.

“Around 2000 kilometers.”

“Cross country capable?”

“Yes Major. In comfort, stealthed, and armored.” Ray said with just a little envy in his tone.

“Shit!”

“You can still track it.” Gee said calmly. “The Empress uses four independent antigrav panels which present a very distinct energy output pattern.

Ray looked at the Altarian. “How do I track that?”