“Exactly.”
“Where do we start?” the Marine NCO asked.
“The last agent I have a location on was staying in a rental apartment in Nueva Portugal,” Roslyn said. “I need to access the records for the rental company, but at least theoretically, his lease isn’t up yet.
“I plan to check that out first.”
“Then what are we waiting for, sir?” Mooren asked. “Corporal Knight can breach any lock ever built.” She gestured to a petite Black woman who was listening patiently and nodded firmly at the gesture.
“We’re waiting for you to decide what you need on the shuttle, Sergeant,” Roslyn replied with a chuckle. “I expect to be intermittently on the surface and back up on Huntress, but I suggest you load for bear…and for a long stay.”
10
“Nueva Portugal Spaceport Control, this is shuttle Huntress-Charlie. We are on the provided vector and slowing to land. Do we have a pad assignment?”
Roslyn listened to Lieutenant Alvina Herbert talking to the ground control while studying the city beneath them through the shuttle’s cameras. Nueva Portugal had been well named in several ways. It was built on a peninsula that stuck out into Sorprendidas’s warm oceans, with vast white beaches visible from the air.
A mountain range at the east end of the peninsula provided readily accessible raw resources, while the peninsula itself was covered in farms suggesting fertile soil—and the oceans were likely a rich source of aquaculture and fish.
All of that supported Sorprendidas’s second-largest city, a metropolis of two million people. The peninsula supported almost five million total souls, making up the region of Nueva Portugal as opposed to the city itself.
The spaceport was on the western extreme of the peninsula, with clearly marked water docks for larger landing-capable ships. For shuttles like theirs, a hundred floating pads were hooked up to piers that stretched out into the water.
“Understood, landing pad forty-four,” Herbert told the ground control. “Stay is currently indefinite; we’re on Navy business.”
The redheaded pilot paused.
“No, I’m not going to explain further,” she said. “Navy business. If it becomes your business, we’ll tell you.”
“Be nice, Lieutenant,” Roslyn murmured. “We’re supposed to be making friends here, not enemies.”
She wasn’t going to allow Herbert to actually tell ground control what they were up to, but that didn’t mean they had to be rude about it.
The pilot waved her off, continuing to listen to her headset.
“I understand, I understand,” she assured ground control. “We’ve got our course set for forty-four. The shuttle will be secured against intrusion as our team goes into the city. Can we arrange vehicle rental?”
There was a pause.
“Really? Well, my boss will be sure to pass on her thanks. Nice working with you, NPSC.”
With no visible change, Herbert turned to Roslyn and raised an eyebrow.
“There’s apparently several vehicles already waiting for us, organized by the Nueva Portugal Guardia,” the pilot told her. “Did we arrange that in advance?”
Roslyn sighed and shook her head.
“No, we didn’t,” she admitted. “Not unless Captain Daalman or Major Dickens didn’t tell us something, which seems unlikely.”
She turned to look into the back compartment.
“Mooren, I’m going to need backup when we touch down,” she told the Sergeant. “Everybody else stay aboard until the Sergeant and I have talked to the locals.”
Her day was messy enough. This was a complication she could have lived without.
There were six vehicles waiting on the floating dock next to their landing pad, Roslyn realized. Only two of them would be capable of hauling her entire team—and somehow, she didn’t think showing up in an armored utility vehicle with bright gold and blue Guardia coloring was going to help her need to be subtle.
An officer in a similarly brightly colored uniform was standing in front of the collection of vehicles. He wasn’t visibly armed, but he was tapping a hand impatiently on his hip—which probably also expressed the mood of the two more drably dressed tactical officers behind him with the stunguns.
“Officer, we didn’t request an escort,” Roslyn greeted the man as she and Mooren crossed the small-but-disconcerting gap between the floating launchpad and the long fixed dock. “May I ask what’s going on?”
“I am Lieutenant Celio Oliveira,” the young man greeted her. His tone was more servile than his body language suggested. “The Guardia wishes to provide any necessary support for the RMN’s operations in our city…so that you can leave as quickly as possible.
“The presence of Martian military personnel is going to be an active irritant to several segments of our population and create potential difficulties for the Guardia,” he concluded. “We wish only to help you complete your duties and return to your ship as efficiently as possible.”
Roslyn eyed him for a few seconds, then sighed.
“I appreciate the effort, Lieutenant Oliveira,” she told him. “But I can’t make any promises as to how long my duties here on the surface are going to take. I can provide you with my contact information to make sure that we coordinate with the Guardia as necessary, but I’m tasked with matters of the Mountain’s security, and I can’t delay or abrogate that mission.”
“I see,” he said stiffly. “I hope that transportation will help?”
“It will, though I’ll admit that marked vehicles will not,” Roslyn told him. She studied the vehicles. There were only two unmarked vehicles, and they were standard electric sedans. They could maybe fit all twelve members of her team into the two cars, but it would be a squeeze.
“On the other hand, if the Guardia would like to assist, I could use access to your computer systems,” she continued. “We can travel to a Guardia station with you, and you can arrange unmarked transport for twelve.”
Unless they had some kind of low-profile unmarked armored personnel carrier, Roslyn didn’t think that Lieutenant Oliveira could manage that.
“I should be able to arrange that, sir,” he admitted. “Both access and vehicles, Mage-Lieutenant Commander…”
“Chambers,” she told him, somewhat surprised by his managing to read her insignia. “If the Guardia can be quietly helpful, I suspect that will
