Turncoat: Turncoat Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 5.3

I took my seat at my computer, a confirmation of download flashing on the screen. Someone must have backed me out of the servers before they came running after me because I sat at my home screen. I opened the files and pushed the manifest to the back, the small holoscreen struggled to display all of the information as it floated in the air and fritzed on the occasion.

“I can make you a copy of the information,” I told Kai.

“Give me the highlights, departure time, arrival time, which track, who will be on, how many prisoners, anything else worth mentioning,” he instructed. “Then make me a copy that we can send back to command.”

“Yes, sir,” I said and began shifting through the various documents. “The train leaves Aelmere at oh six hundred in two days and will be arriving in Praia around sixteen thirty the next day. It’s a thirty four hour, nonstop trip going straight through the heart of our territory on the S380 Red before changing to the M4 South at the base of the mountains. From there it will join the S381 Red to Praia. The train is accompanied by a company of Dead Heads, two engineers and a hacker. Roughly three hundred prisoners are expected to be aboard and they haven’t been sorted yet, so men, women, children, the elderly, all are to be expected.”

“Forty-two armed soldiers, thirty-nine of them with extensive training,” Vicki said.

“Forty-one armed soldiers, Hackers are piss poor shots at best,” Nick said.

I hated to admit it but Nick was right. I was put into hacker training because my rifle skills were less than adequate, among other reasons. I mean, I met the minimum requirements for hacker training, just barely.

“Tawny, what’d you carry as a hacker?” Nick asked.

I closed my eyes. “Never saw the front lines, remember?” I said.

“Yeah, but you did training jumps for practice insertion,” Nick said. “So, what’d you carry?”

“A forty-five caliber pistol and then the standard hacker field load out,” I said.

Nick raised an eye brow. “Which would be?” he asked.

“You never had a hacker with you?” I asked.

“Only special forces get hackers, well at least the good ones with real hacker gear,” he said. “I was infantry, our hackers had second hand gear that rarely worked and were better with a gun than a computer.”

“Full body armor, forty-five, signal jammers, triggered blackout kit, communication scramblers, a bunch of premade hacks programmed onto an interface and a knife,” I said. “Plus any additional gear the mission required, like drop suits or jump suits.”

Vicki looked away and I looked down at my feet. “It’s not your fault, Vicki,” I said.

She didn’t respond as Nick finished taping her bad rib and handed her the bottle of pain killers. “Don’t go overdosing now. We don’t know how many of us will be doing this train job. Can’t lose you yet.”

Vicki punched him on the shoulder. “I am not as expendable as you think,” she said.

“So, forty two people protecting three hundred,” Nick recapped. “How many of us are going in again?”

“Don’t know yet,” Kai said. “Tawny, don’t make any plans. You two, we’re leaving.”

Nick helped Vicki stand and put his jacket around her. They started for the door with Vicki leaning heavily on Nick. Kai stepped out and what he said hit me.

“What’s ‘don’t make plans’ mean?” I asked standing.

“It means you’re coming with us,” Nick said. “So, I would put in for leave if you can.”