The Tempest Affair

¤PART TWO¤

Lt. Thomas Burke left from his superiors' office and started back toward his own office.  All the paperwork had been finished, so now Burke could concentrate on isolating the Caliban bug and purging it from the Metaverse.  With any luck, Bill, Victor, and Cowboy should have taken care of that by now, and Justice and Sil may have located Chaotis to obtain the cipher code needed to patch the alterations Caliban had made.

He was outside the door to his office when he saw a tall, redhaired man in a khaki uniform pressing Cowboy's head against a desk and trying to snap a pair of handcuffs to his wrists.  The redhaired man was being pulled at by Dirk, Bill, and Victor, but muscles bulged beneath the redheaded man's uniform; he wasn't going anywhere.

Burke reacted automatically by raising his keytool.  "Cron, containment field!"  A red energy bola shot out and wrapped itself around the redheaded man, pulling him away from Cowboy, who rubbed his face, handcuffs dangling from one wrist.  Burke came over and detached them with a lockpick from Cron, then turned to the redhaired man.  "Oh, it's Jamie Mac," he sighed.  "I thought I smelled scotch."

"Listen here, ye sasenach bastard," the redhaired man snarled in a Scottish accent, "either ye le' me out o' this right now, or I'll 'ave yuir arse so tied up with lawsuits ye'll wish ye'd never been born!"

Burke turned to Dirk and Cowboy.  "Dirk, Cal, meet Colonel James MacKenzie, better known to us here at Administration as Jamie Mac.  He happens to be head of security for none other than Senator Albert Brosky."  This revelation earned a sneer from Cowboy; Brosky was 'Hacker Enemy Number One,' after all.  "That said, it explains why he was trying to arrest you, Cal."

"That man," Jamie Mac went on, jerking his head at Cowboy, "is a hacker!  He should be in jail!"

"That man," Burke pointed out, "was given a pardon for his crimes by Senator Farlowe.  So your boss has no right ordering him to be arrested."  He looked at his wrist.  "Cron, release field."  The red coils about Jamie Mac were released, and the big Scotsman growled angrily as he stood back up, rubbing at his nose -- which Dirk and Cowboy could now see had been broken.  "Now, Jamie Mac, kindly leave and let us finish our work, and if you ever threaten someone who is aiding one of my investigations again, I'll have your arse so tied up with lawsuits that not even Brosky's slick barristers will be able to help you!"

"Yeah," Bill piped up, "beat it, Colonel Scotch!"

Jamie Mac looked ready to clobber Bill for that, but Burke still had his keytool out, so he settled for snarling at him again, then plodded out.  As he reached the door, the comm rang.  Burke tapped it on.  "Project Metaverse Administration.  Guardian Leftanant Thomas Burke speaking."

"Burke, it's Justice.  We've got the cipher code," came the distinctive gravelly voice of Nathan Justice.

Burke snapped at Victor, who was ready to punch it into a prompt on his computer.  "What is it, Mr. Justice?"

"The code is Stratford, dash, 48291.  We've secured the building that Chaotis was hiding out in, but he managed to get away.  So did Chrome."

"I copy, Mr. Justice.  I'll dispatch the local Guardians to you.  What is your location?"

"Sector E-Six, System Linksys.  Building's address is 432 Ether Blvd."

"Copy that.  Good work, Mr. Justice.  Soon as the Guardians get there, get them to talk to me, then you can come back."

"Copy that, Burke.  Justice out."

Burke turned off his comm and looked up to see Jamie Mac's face turning as red as his hair.  "What are you still doing here, Colonel?  I've told you to leave."

"Who was that on the phone?" Jamie Mac inquired.

"Nathan Justice, another man aiding me on my investigation."

Jamie Mac's bearded chin quivered.  "Tall man, about this tall, brown hair, beard, and eyes like pitch?"

"That's right."

The Scot snarled.  "Thanks, Leftanant, but I think I'll stay here and wait for Mr. Justice to get back."

By the time Justice and Sil made it to Administration (after first stopping at the Grizzly to drop off the Bit and Sentry, as well as patch their wounds up a bit), and past security to Burke's office, Cowboy, Bill, and Victor had managed to purge Caliban out of the Teracomputer's systems and patch the altered code.  Dirk was seated off to the side, grinning as the three programmers danced and celebrated.  He looked up and grinned wider as he saw Justice and Sil.

"What's up, Nat?" the mechanic inquired.  "You look a little beat-up."

"Getting clobbered by an eight-foot-tall cyborg will do that to you," Justice said.  "I take it the bug's gone?"

"You're right, Mr. Justice," Burke said, coming over to shake his hand.  "I couldn't have done this without you."

"Sure you could," Justice replied, "but you would've taken longer, and you might've lost a few systems before those bureaucratic assholes in the Council could do something about it."

"Hey!  Watch what ye say about them!" an angry Scottish voice bellowed.  Jamie Mac thundered over to loom over Justice, whom he was taller than by about six inches.  "I work for one of those 'bureaucratic arseholes'!"

Justice looked up at him coolly, then tilted his head as he noticed the colonel's broken nose.  "I've met you before," he said plainly.

"Damn right, ye did, ye sasenach bastard!" Jamie Mac spat.  "Ye broke my nose!"

"You got in my way," Justice replied. "It happens."

"I oughta deck ye, ye filthy brigand!"

"You do that and I'll kill you," Justice said.  "By the way," he said abruptly, stepping back and offering a hand, "my name's Nathan Justice.  What's yours? So I can notify your next of kilt."

Jamie Mac nearly charged, but Burke stopped him.  "Mr. Justice, this is Colonel James MacKenzie, head of security for Senator Brosky."

"Ah," Justice said, nodding.  "I thought I smelled shark...but that might be the scotch on his breath."
"Now you know why we call him Colonel Scotch," Bill offered from the side.

Jamie Mac turned to snarl back at the sprite, but Bill just grinned back.  Burke shoved Jamie Mac aside.  "Leave, Colonel, or I'll have you escorted out and thrown in jail."

Jamie Mac just grunted and stormed out the door.  Justice looked back at Burke.  "Pleasant fellow," he remarked.

"Not all the time."

A day later, Justice and Burke were back in the Risc Bar, talking over a glass of dark root beer (for Burke), and a bottle of "generic 'cohol" (for Justice).  Most of it was typical stuff about the job they'd just completed.

"I tell you, Burke," Justice said, "you ever get tired of the Guardian life, you've got a spot in my crew.  I could always use a man with your skills and experience."

"Thanks, Mr. Justice," Burke replied, "but I don't think I'll be leaving the Guardians any time soon."

Justice nodded.   He swigged his beer for a moment, then said, "Chaotis is a human."

"How do you know that?" Burke inquired.

"When I shot him, he bled red," the mercenary replied.

"Well, that narrows down the field to about twelve billion," Burke said dryly.  "Anything else I can use?"

"Oh, yes," Justice said, draining his beer.  "I have a way to narrow down the field to about twelve."

"Really?" Burke asked.  "How's that?"

Justice looked Burke square in the eye.  "Chaotis used to be a Hellbat."

Burke nearly choked on his root beer.  "H-how do you know?"

"Because he called me 'Major.'"  Justice looked at him.  "A very select group of people still alive know that about me.  One person is you.  One person is Max Jennings.

"Since it's obvious that Chaotis isn't Max Jennings," Justice went on, "or you, that leaves very few people."

Burke nodded.  "I can draw up a list..."

"Don't bother, I know all the names already," Justice said.  He stood up.  "But knowing this, it's going to make it a lot harder to kill him when the time comes."  He nodded at Burke.  "See you later, Burke."  And he walked away.

Burke stared at his root beer for a long while before he raised his notepad.  He typed in a command: Display roster, Guardian 19th Squadron, "Hellbats."

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