AWF Chpt 40

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=Chapter 40=
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==A Warrior's Family==
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===Discussing Issues===
Monhegan
October 3029
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Hap found Anastasia looking over cheeses. She had selected three bottles of wine and had them in a very nice, and Hap was certain, very expensive basket.
Anastasia looked up at Hap, "Hey you."
"Hey. Hello. Look, we should probably leave soon. As soon as we can." Hap said.
"Café menu too gourmet?" Anastasia teased.
"Let's just say I saw something I didn't like." Hap looked around making sure no other familiar faces were watching them.
Anastasia saw his worried expression, "Do we need to leave right now? Can I finish shopping?
Hap nodded as she held up two cheeses and asked, "Smoked goat cheese or dill and-"
"Smoked." Hap said as Anastasia handed the basket to him and dropped in the smoked cheese. "Sorry, I shouldn't interrupt." Hap apologized. "I'm always going to choose the smoked option, and I really think we need to go."
"I was thinking that we need a few more things. " Anastasia said, looking around.
"I think we have enough." Hap told her as he examined the contents of the basket. There was a few apples, a sweet pepper, the wine, cheeses, crackers, a few jars of sauces or condiments Hap couldn't recognize, a tin of some seafood something, a large jar of a chocolate and tree nut spread, and strawberries.
"It's probably fine, and I know where we can find a few herbs." Anastasia said mysteriously as she walked to the checkout counter. There were few customers, and they were able to pay and leave quickly. Hap was taken back by the price, a few of the items, to include one of the wine bottles, was much cheaper than he would have guessed, but he felt it was pricey.
They left the store as Hap told her about the ROM agent and the contents of her purse. Hap was sure it was a kit bag for spies and assassins. As he explained the contents, Hap realized it didn't have a needle gun or hypodermic poison dispenser. There was no deadly weapon in the bag. They concluded it was likely ComStar was only observing them for now. They returned to the company area without incident.
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Hap and Anastasia found Cody and Mal in the loft of the 'mech bay, and gave them the memory card. Hap explained how he got it and what he thought it might contain. Mal put the card into her computer and started pulling up images of Anastasia and her Valkyrie from the previous weeks.
"I can try to figure out where these were taken from, but it would help if you could tell me what sort of lens was on the camera." Mal said as she scrolled through the images.
"Why don't you see if the global positioning data is included?" Cody said.
Mal closed the images and pulled up another menu, "Oh it is. Give me a second." Mal started typing furiously in a console window.
As Mal typed Anastasia asked, "Cody, how do you live with the idea that ComStar seeks to kill you?"
"You're looking at it. I don't get out much. I keep a low profile. I move around with this company a lot. I'm about to go through all these pictures and see if they seem to have taken much notice of me."
"How do you send messages to your family?" Anastasia asked.
"I don't think I have any. Once Mom died, it was just Dad and me. Now, it's just me."
"And me." Mal added.
"Me and Mal." Cody said. "So I got all I need here, and I stay away from the ComStar offices."
"What would you do if they did discover you were still with McFinnigan and Sons?" Anastasia asked.
"Well they sort of already know I'm here, but they think I'm a simpleton. I had a long talk with Kelly about this. We decided if we ever thought ComStar was looking for me again, I'd go into hiding. He has family on Donegal that know how to hide people. He told me I'd probably end up helping 'them', which I think is Heimdall. I'm okay with that, but I don't think Kelly wants to lose me."
"Really Kelly doesn't want to lose me, because we all know we're inseparable." Mal said as she kept typing.
Cody nodded, "So Kelly tells me to keep a low profile, and don't draw attention to myself."
Anastasia got quiet as Mal loaded a map on her screen, "Alright, I think I got it."
Red circles popped up all over the map. Many of them were overlapping. Mal touched one of them and a picture of Anastasia's Valkyrie was displayed. The date and time were in the picture's corner. "Well this is you on patrol about a week ago. It was taken near Turquois Lake." Mal touched another dot. This time it showed Anastasia's Valkyrie being rearmed during the fight with the Immortals.
Hap looked over the map. "The ROM agent took a lot of pictures around Turquoise Lake."
Cody looked for a long time, "None of the pictures were taken inside the fence line. So at least we don't have to worry about ComStar hiding right outside the door."
"I think we should go and talk to the commander." Anastasia said. "We need to talk to him about this and about some of the things my mother told me."
"You never did tell me what your mother told you, or why she thought I was still an officer." Hap said
"Sorry, everything was so strange at the ComStar office and then we were just so giddy and excited. Mother told me that she hadn't heard anything from AFFS High Command and generally there was a comms blackout from Klathandu. She knew it was a siege and it was going poorly, but she couldn't get more information than that, nor would AFFS high command talk to her about me."
"According to Mother and our lawyer, we made every reasonable effort to follow orders and protect ourselves. The facts are we were in a tactically indefensible position, cut off from our unit. Additionally our last orders were to report to a starport which implied a high likelihood of evacuation from the planet. Our lawyer feels we can hardly be faulted for accepting the offer to be extracted."
"That seems reasonable, except we failed to report to the local AFFS representation once we realized that we were mistaken." Hap said
Anastasia shrugged, "We sought legal advice first. Given our circumstances, this is still a reasonable action. It's best now to let the lawyers work this out amongst themselves. This is why we need to speak with Rowyena. Our lawyer will have a lot of questions, and will want the video for our rescue."
"Yeah you should probably go talk to Rowyena, she can be a little defensive when she gets surprised by other lawyers. We'll keep looking at these pictures and see if there is anything interesting." Cody said.
Anastasia and Hap went to the ops building. Fletch, Kelly, and Rowyena had their offices on the top floor. Anastasia and Hap had not yet visited their offices, and were surprised to find the top floor contained only the three large offices connected by a central room. In the central room was a large desk and Elinor was sitting at it. There were also a few children playing with toys and sitting at child size tables in a corner. Hap had seen these children before, but he wasn't sure exactly whose they were.
Elinor looked surprised as they walked into her office. "Master Haphazard and Ms. Vallois are here." Elinor called out. She smiled pleasantly them, "Fancy that, we were jest speaking about you."
"I'm sorry. Are we allowed to just enter?" Anastasia asked, "Is this your office?"
"Well yes, but seeing as I'm the secretary, it's fine. Ye can come here any time child, but if ye want to speak to the XO, Commander, or Legal ye may need an appointment."
Rowyena stepped into the center room. She appeared irritated, "Who is Henry C. Le'Cebra? And why has he sent me a list of demands for," She read off from the paper in her hand, "'Copies of any videos, pictures, documentary evidence, or other artifacts of the ex-filtration of Anastasia Maria Capetian-Vallois and Harold Fedrick Calahad from the planet Klathandu on or about the 15th of August 3029.'"
"Henry C. Le'Cebra is my family lawyer." Anastasia said, "He is attempting to clear up the nature of our sudden departure from Klathandu. I sent a note to my mother and explained the specifics of how we left Klathandu, and my concern that we would be charged with desertion. Mr. Le'Cebra is trying best a case that we did not desert our command, rather we had limited options and choose the best option to preserve our lives and prevent additional combat equipment from falling into enemy hands."
Rowyena nodded and seemed eager to help, "Oh, aye, I see. Yes. Certainly. I'll help yer lawyer. I'll even get sworn statements from Hawkins and my father. Seems simple and reasonable."
"Yer not plannin' to leave us child?" Kelly asked from the door of his office.
"No." Anastasia said, "I am not, but I was concerned, given what you had said about the cadets who were told their parents would lose their titles. I worried that the AFFS high command or other nobles may try to punish my mother for my actions."
Kelly nodded, "We always respect taking care o' family."
"That's why we came now." Hap said, "Sorry. It didn't occur to us that you would get a surprise note from Anastasia's family lawyer. We were coming to give you context before he contacted you."
Rowyena shrugged, "It's fine, if I were him I'd be doing the same thing.
"There is another issue I wanted to speak to you about." Anastasia said, "I believe I've been targeted by ComStar for assassination."
Kelly pulled out his pipe and tobacco pouch, "Oh? What would make ye think that?"
Anatasia explained how she was part of an AFFS special weapons research team, her father's mysterious death, and their strange experiences at the ComStar office and at the gourmet food store. As she described her experiences Fletch and Tatyana joined them.
Kelly smoked as he listened. Finally he asked, "I'm guessing you've shared your experiences with Cody?"
"We have, Sir." Hap said. "He told us about his father, and how you threw ComStar off his trail. We even gave him and Mal the memory card from the camera that the ROM agent left behind."
Kelly looked over at Tatyana, "What do you think?"
"I must see pictures." Tatyana replied, "But I was analyst, and HUMINT collector, not assassin, and only know Maskirovka techniques, not ComStar."
"What would Maskirovka do, kokhanyy?" Fletch asked.
Tatyana shook her head, "Maskirovka likes to make statement, they like fear. Fear is weapon. ComStar likes" She seemed to think, "to be nevydymyy, invisible. You never know was ComStar. Maskirovka has policy, you push us, we knock you down. You knock us down, we break leg. You hurt us, we hurt you more, and we make sure you know we hurt you, maybe hurt your kid too. ComStar policy is patience and be unknown. Maybe ComStar kill you, maybe was avariya, accident. Long time to plan accident."
"How long do you think ComStar has been targeting you?" Fletch asked Hap and Anastasia.
"They had pictures from the day we fought the Immortals. That was the day after we had the odd experience in the ComStar office."
Tatyana moved her head from side to side as she thought, "A few weeks not long enough to plan 'accident'. Operation likely in observation and planning phase."
"The ROM agent didn't seem to take any pictures inside our company area, so our security seems to be keeping them out." Hap said.
"They are rent-a-cops. Lowest of Mercenaries." Tatyana replied, "Easy to bribe, easy to…charm, easy to get past. This assumes ComStar agents not working as guards. I would not trust them to protect us."
"How do you want to handle this boss?" Fletch asked.
Kelly exhaled smoke through his nose, "Yer honestly not tryin' to get out of yer contract?"
"No. If I was I would just ask my mother to buy me out of my contract." Anastasia said.
Kelly nodded. "Alright, give me a few days to think how I'm going to fool the bastards that have the best intelligence apparatus in the sphere. Tatyana, get with Cody and Mal and see if you can figure out anything that might be helpful from those pictures."
"Dah!"
Kelly seemed lost in thought, "We could stage your death. I have a cousin that can get you a whole new identity. I jest don't know what we'd tell your mother."
"I would prefer not to worry my mother." Anastasia said.
"That's always the trick, not worrying mother." Rowyena sighed.
Elinor's eyes flashed, "Is there somethin' ye need to tell me?"
Hap sensed it was time to leave. "I believe we'll be going, and I apologize that we did not come to talk to you sooner." Hap said
Kelly shrugged, "I understand, and appreciate ye came without us havin' to find you. Come back in a few days, and hopefully I'll have an answer as to how we're going to solve yer 'little' problem."
Hap and Anastasia walked down the stairs hand in hand. "Feel better?" Hap asked.
"Maybe." Anastasia said. "It's been another day where we've gone from one emotional extreme to the other. I just want a nice quiet place for us to be together." She sighed. "I sort of found one."
"Sort of found one?" Hap asked.
Anastasia nodded, "While you were convalescing I was wandering around looking for a quiet place to read and found the door to the barrack's roof unlocked. Someone had made a rooftop garden up there. Most of what was planted was perennial flowers, and some herbs. The herbs box has become the plant equivalent to a Solaris VII arena, and it appears the mint is winning the competition. The flowers still look good though, particularly the roses.
Hap noticed Anastasia still had her picnic basket full of wine, cheeses and other exotic foods. "I'm guessing you'd like to have a rooftop picnic."
"Since I found this curious garden I've been thinking, 'if I had Hap with me, this would be perfect.'"
"Does anyone else know it?" Hap asked as he opened the door leading outside.
"Mags and Kate. Mag's is pretty good at keeping things to herself, and Kate appreciates the solitude and likes working on the various plants. It appears to be a hobby of hers. She tells me if she can rehabilitate enough of the basil, and get her tomatoes to grow, she'll make us all bruschetta." Anastasia replied.
"Sounds good for the future, but for tonight, the sun will be setting in soon. Are you planning a private moonlit picnic for us?"
Anastasia nodded excitedly, "Yes a quiet, private, moonlit picnic just for us."
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