Enemy Action (Book 3 of The Imperial Marines Saga) Read online

  Diana almost smiled at her friend’s scowl. It wasn’t that Andrea necessarily wanted to keep the otherwise illegal stunner and flechette pistol on her person or in her wall locker, but her friend had a real problem with other people stepping on what she saw as her prerogatives.

  Maybe that had something to do with how she’d been raised, but it would make for some excitement if the armorer put his foot down. Which he almost certainly would.

  Well, she’d known the next few months would be fun, and it looked as if the party was about to get started.

  3

  Andrea had known the weapons were going to cause her grief, but she’d learned one lesson early in life. If you didn’t want someone taking away everything you had, you had to stand up for the privileges you’d earned.

  Besides, having weapons at hand when someone eventually tried to kill her wasn’t a bad thing. And she was sure someone would try to kill her again at some point.

  With her coming from the Singularity, making enemies was a trivial matter. Most potential foes would be satisfied with dark glares and slurs, but some would take their grievances further.

  Considering that an Imperial noble had tried to have her killed during basic training, she’d be a fool to take anything for granted. Like Grace had always said, hope for the best and plan for the worst.

  In this case, planning for the worst meant having access to weapons to defend herself with once the people that should have been her allies tried to kill her.

  Those thoughts flowed through her mind as she followed Reed down the corridor and into the basement. That was where the armory was located because it was more secure underground.

  Just like every other armory she’d seen to date, this one had a wide area where the marines could clean their weapons in front of what amounted to an armored cage where the armorer interfaced with them to collect weapons and perform other tasks.

  The armorer’s actual workspace was in the back, where they could work on the weapons without worrying about people looking over their shoulders. Or taking something. Inventory control was pretty critical when weapons like these were involved.

  Reed walked up to the cage and banged her fist against the wire mesh. A few moments later, a man in dirty coveralls with sergeant’s tabs stepped up to the counter. His blond hair was perhaps slightly longer than regulations allowed, but since the man worked out of sight, he could probably get away with it.

  “Yeah?”

  “Private First Class Tolliver has some personal weapons and seems to believe she has authorization to keep them in her quarters or on her person whenever she chooses, Sergeant Sherman,” Reed said with a cheery smile. “I’d like your opinion on the matter.”

  With that, Reed set the box on the counter in front of the armorer, put her hands behind her back, and stepped to the side so she could watch the situation unfold.

  Andrea found it difficult to read exactly what the woman was thinking. Either she had excellent control of her responses, or she just didn’t care what the outcome was.

  The latter was hard to imagine, but at this point, Andrea didn’t know the other woman well enough to make a judgment call. She’d have to consult with Diana—her resident expert on reading people—later.

  Sherman slid the wire barrier in front of the counter open, pulled her box inside, and opened it. As soon as he did, he sucked in a surprised breath and looked back at Reed.

  “Do you know what you have here? These handcrafted weapons are undoubtedly worth more than both of us combined make in a year. I didn’t think it was possible to make them this small either. These things are works of art and almost certainly illegal as hell.”

  He closed the barrier before going into his workshop for a scanner wand, which he proceeded to wave over the box.

  “Definitely illegal. Neither one of these weapons shows up in the scan. If I didn’t have them right in front of me, I’d never have known they were there. I can’t begin to count how many regulations and Imperial laws the mere existence of these weapons violates.

  “I also can’t imagine any way these could be made legal or that anyone would be allowed to carry even the stunner on base. If you’ve got paperwork, PFC, I’d love to see it.”

  Andrea waited a beat to see if Reed would send the information to the armorer, but when nothing happened, she stepped up to the counter and forwarded the man the Imperial dispensation and permits.

  She knew from having read them herself that they were brief and to the point. They acknowledged that the weapons were patently illegal in the Empire and yet gave her permission to both possess and bear them wherever she chose, other than in the presence of the emperor himself. That was the sole exclusion.

  Sherman’s eyes unfocused as he read everything, and then his eyebrows shot squarely up to his hairline. “Is this some kind of joke? There is no way the emperor or his sworn people would give anyone permission to carry this kind of weaponry wherever they chose. I think these are forgeries.”

  “There is information in the dispensation about how to contact the Imperial Representatives on any world and verify its authenticity,” Andrea said. “You don’t have to take my word for it, Sergeant.”

  “I also don’t have to double-check on this nonsense either. I’m impounding both these weapons until an officer can make a determination. I’ll issue you a receipt.”

  Her implants immediately pinged with an electronic receipt for the weapons and the storage box. Most people would’ve let the matter pass at that point, but Andrea wasn’t most people.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist, Sergeant. That’s my personal property, and I have an Imperial dispensation allowing me to keep them. If you’re going to dispute it, let’s summon an officer and get this settled right now.”

  “If you’ve got a problem with me seizing these illegal weapons, PFC, then you can trot your butt upstairs and talk to an officer yourself. This isn’t my problem. It’s yours.”

  And with that, the man picked up the box and walked back into the armory proper, slamming the reinforced door behind him.

  “Well, that didn’t work out quite the way you expected, did it?” Reed asked, seemingly amused. “As an interested observer, I have to say I’m invested in the outcome. Should we summon an officer and start your first day off with fireworks?”

  That was the last thing Andrea wanted to do, but it looked like it would have to happen. Marching up to Van Buren’s office was a little too dramatic for her taste, but she wasn’t averse to sending him a summary of the situation and copies of the Imperial dispensation and permits.

  She did so, not marking it as urgent. The man would get around to it when he had time.

  “I’ve sent a message to Senior Lieutenant Van Buren,” Andrea said. “He’s going to make whatever decision he makes, and I’ll live with the consequences.”

  Losing the weapons was a setback, but life didn’t always go your way. This was one of those situations.

  While her request worked its way through the chain of command, she still had gear to draw, and then she needed to meet the rest of her squad. A fire team was like a tight little family, but so was the squad as a whole.

  There were going to be others besides Reed whose opinions mattered, and she needed to meet them and find out how they reacted to her.

  Based on her experience, more than a few were going to be severely pissed off that she was there at all, and she wasn’t going to rule out a fight. If that happened, well, it happened.

  It was best to get any trouble out of the way as soon as possible anyway.

  Jerome was surprised when he got a call from Eric Sherman, the Delta Company armorer, requesting that he come down and discuss something the man didn’t want to talk about over the com.

  It was unusual, but that didn’t stop him from going down to find out what was going on. He had a little time to burn until Tolliver and the other greenies finished drawing their supplies and returned to their quarters.

  When he walked into the armory, Eric was already waiting just inside the door leading deeper into the armory. With a gesture, his friend invited him in.

  That was unusual too. Most armorers were extremely protective of their domains, Eric included. There were rules about who could be inside the armory and under what conditions.

  “What’s going on?” Jerome asked as soon as Eric closed the door behind them.

  “First, I want you to take a look at these and tell me what you think,” Eric said, leading him to a beat-up metal table with a wooden box on it. The lid was closed, but it looked like it held something valuable because the grain of the wood was luxurious and deeply polished.

  At the man’s urging, Jerome opened the box. Nestled into padded cutouts were a stunner, a flechette pistol, and three magazines/power packs for each.

  He’d never seen examples of either weapon so customized. Each was significantly smaller than those used by the Imperial Marines or available on the civilian market in the case of the stunner. They were also much more finely crafted than anything he’d ever seen, almost qualifying as works of art.

  “They belong to Tolliver,” the armorer said.

  Jerome grunted. He should’ve known.

  “So, I can understand having a flechette pistol of her own is unusual, but what makes this something you’d want to talk to me about?” he asked. “Isn’t this just a personal weapon being turned in to be held while she’s on base?”

  “Not even close,” his friend said. “She sent me permits, and something she said was an Imperial dispensation that allowed her to carry either of these weapons—which are both highly illegal because they’re not detectable by any scanner—wherever she wants, including here on base.

  “I told her that was bull and confiscated them. Not a chan
ce in hell I’m letting either of these things just float around unless someone orders me to.”

  Jerome blinked in surprise at his friend’s outburst. “So she submitted a forged authorization to keep illegal weapons on the base? That has to be some kind of record, doesn’t it? She only just got here.”

  “Some people think big, my man. She said she’d kick it up the chain of command, so she’s not acting like they’re forgeries. I shot a copy of everything to the lieutenant in charge of the armory too. I figure the brass will get it sorted out.

  “I gotta say that I’m not sure what to think. First of all, why would she feel the need to carry a lethal weapon on base? Even a stunner seems paranoid. You’d think she was in danger of being attacked or something.”

  Maybe she was. Coming from the Singularity and flaunting those tattoos would earn her a lot of enemies. Most people would be satisfied with feeding her a knuckle sandwich, but it wouldn’t surprise him if someone wanted to seek a more permanent solution to her presence.

  None of this made any sense to him. Tolliver was drawing all the wrong kinds of attention to herself, and there was no way anyone was going to trust her with the kind of classified information that would make a difference to the Singularity.

  As a spy—if that was what she was playing at—she was doing a terrible job.

  The mystery of what the hell she was doing and why she was doing it was only getting deeper, and he was going to have to at least make some kind of initial assessment before he went crazy.

  “I’ve already taken them apart,” Eric continued. “Some real genius went into making these things out of materials that weren’t going to trigger an alert. You can bet your ass I’m taking notes because a master weaponsmith designed and built these.

  “They have to have come off the black market. There aren’t any serial numbers or identifying information anywhere on them. They’re beyond state of the art and completely untraceable.”

  Jerome nodded. “So, if they’re not detectable, how did Reed get her hands on them?”

  “Maybe she saw the box and asked questions,” Eric said with a shrug. “Hell, as strange as the situation is, maybe Tolliver let her know they were there. The four of them would be living in one room, so there are only so many secrets they can keep from one another.

  “If you want more details, you’re going to have to ask Reed.”

  “That’s not the kind of problem I wanted dumped in my lap, but I’ll look into it,” he said. “Let me know what the final decision is. If one of my people is carrying a weapon, I need to know about it.”

  “You got it.”

  Eric escorted him out of the armory, and Jerome found himself walking up the stairs already lost in thought. The girl had only been here a matter of hours. What the hell was she trying to accomplish?

  He shook his head and cursed quietly. There was a lot going on under the surface here, and he needed to understand her at a deeper level. It was time to start doing some in-depth research on the Singularity.

  A lot of the information would be classified, but maybe Bashir could shake some information loose that would put this in context. The officer would have to come through if he wanted Jerome to be able to do his job.

  He quickly composed a note to the major, letting him know about the weapons and requesting as much information about the Singularity and the girl’s tattoos as he could get.

  That done, he headed for the mess hall. If he didn’t get something to eat now, odds were the lack of calories would really screw him over before the day was done.

  There would be time to confront his new problem child when he’d finished a quick meal. First, he needed to meet with his fire team leaders and get their thoughts on the situation and, if possible, get them on board with his secret mission without letting them know he had one.

  4

  It only took Diana about an hour to draw basic supplies and get back to their quarters. She kept expecting either the platoon leader or someone higher in the chain of command to call Andrea in to discuss those kickass weapons of hers, but nothing happened.

  Based on the glances Claudio was shooting towards their friend, he was thinking the same thing. He eventually eased over to her while Andrea was talking with Reed.

  “Do you think she’s just trying to start trouble?” he asked in a quiet tone.

  Keeping their voices down was smart, since their friend had a wicked sense of hearing.

  “You mean with the weapons?” she murmured back. “Probably not. You’ve got to remember she comes from a very different society than ours. Even though she’s been in the Empire for almost seven years, that kind of background is hard to overcome. You’ve never heard the full story of where she grew up, but it was a hellhole.

  “I don’t have time to tell you the entire story—and it’s not my tale to tell—but I think you should ask her more about it. Now that you’re not being such an ass, maybe she’ll even tell you.”

  “I’m not an ass. I’m assertive.”

  She snorted. “The bottom line is that she had to put up with her crèche mates trying to kill her, as well as what amounted to psychological torture for the first twelve years of her life.

  “Is it really paranoia when they’re actually out to get you?”

  Claudio compressed his lips and slowly nodded. “I suppose that’s a valid point. It also probably explains some of her reactions to me and my sunny disposition. I have to admit that JR was right. She does kind of grow on people. Like a fungus.”

  Diana punched him in the arm and grinned. “She’s working her magic on you. It sounds like someone doesn’t have quite the same chip on his shoulder as when we first met.”

  He shrugged. “I may be slow, but even I can see there’s more to her than meets the eye. I came into this with some preconceptions that turned out to be wrong. With more exposure, she’s actually pretty cool.

  “If we ever get into another fight, I know she’ll be solid because she handled the thing on the training ship pretty well. I was wrong to think she didn’t have what it took to be an Imperial Marine.”

  He grinned. “The jury is still out on you.”

  “Jackass,” she said, giving him another punch. “You’re turning into a big old softy. Besides, I know you like me better than you let on. Don’t think I miss the way you stare in the shower. You think I’m hot, which is true.”

  That made the tall blond man blush, and he turned partly away from her. “We’re not supposed to bring that kind of thing up. The marines are coed for a reason, and making a point of noticing I’m looking at you violates the spirit of that.”

  Diana laughed, not bothering to lower her tone now that they weren’t talking about her friend. “And looking in the first place doesn’t? Come on, I’ll admit being naked in the shower with the boys was really uncomfortable in the beginning, but after a while, you just accept that you’re going to see what you see.

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the view. It just means you have to keep the boners to a minimum.”

  He turned even redder, and then he laughed. “Now I know you’re yanking my chain, but I’ll admit you’re not hard on the eyes. Don’t think it means any more than that.”

  “You’re not hard on the eyes either. Sand off a few more of those rough edges, and maybe we can talk about this again. What do you think about Andrea? Do you think she’s pretty?”

  “That’s a dangerous subject to chat about with a woman you’ve just said you have some interest in, but I’m going to assume this isn’t a trick. She’s a little skinny for my taste, and it really takes a lot to look past those tattoos. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m attracted to her, but I can see that she is attractive.

  “The fact that she can tie me into a pretzel is also a factor, though I’m not sure if it’s a positive or negative one at this point. Once you get past her abrasive personality, I suppose she’s okay.”

  That ridiculous statement made Diana laugh again, drawing attention from Andrea and Reed, though they didn’t break off their conversation. She made sure to look as natural as possible as she turned her back towards the women.