Part 21 (2/2)
At that moment, Gart Xerx appeared at Riker's side, his huffing and puffing indicating that he had been running the entire way. ”Sindareen raiders!” he gasped out.
Riker glanced at him and said, ”Yes, sir, we know. We're handling this. Now if you'll just-”
”Chandra's in there!”
”What?” Riker turned back to him. ”How do you...” And then he caught himself, remembering with whom he was dealing. ”Yes, of course you'd know, wouldn't you. Is she all right?”
”She's been hurt. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d shot her in the leg.”
Riker's face darkened, thinking of the sweet, eager bride he'd seen all those weeks back. ”Is she all right?”
”As all right as can be expected, considering she's been shot,” said Xerx evenly. Clearly he was trying to fight down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him. He was obviously searching for that place of central calm that Deanna had told Riker about. And then, almost as an afterthought, Xerx added, ”Deanna's with her. She's bandaging the wound as best she can.”
Riker tried not to show his reaction to this latest bit of information. In fact, instead of acknowledging the news, he merely said, ”Good.” But the way Xerx looked up at him spoke volumes to Riker; Xerx must have immediately intuited precisely what was going through Riker's mind, and what his true feelings about learning of Deanna's presence were.
Riker was determined to remain all business. ”Can you communicate with her? Find out information?”
”What do you want to know?”
”Everything.”
Deanna dabbed at the wound with the cloth, the bleeding having slowed down significantly. She looked up at Chandra, ready to offer some words of comfort, but she saw from Chandra's expression that her friend's mind was not on the trouble at hand. At first she a.s.sumed that Chandra had merely separated herself in order to spare herself the pain. But then she realized precisely what was going on: Chandra was communicating with someone outside. Chandra took a moment to glance at Deanna and nod slowly in confirmation.
Maror came up behind them and looked at them once before nodding brisk approval. ”Good. No whimpering. Keeping things to yourself. That's what we like to see. You're making this much easier on all of us.” Then he raised his comm unit to get a very brief a.s.sessment from Karpas as to the movements of the Federation personnel... brief since he was perfectly aware that Riker was doubtlessly monitoring every word.
”Precisely thirty-two of our people in there,” said Xerx to Riker. He wasn't looking at Riker, but instead seemed to be staring off into thin air. ”There are nine of the Sindareen. This Maror you spoke to is definitely the leader. They aren't threatening the hostages beyond telling them to keep out of trouble. They seem intent on stripping the museum of its works for the purpose of selling them to some private collector.” Xerx shuddered slightly. ”What a barbaric idea.”
”Compared to some of the things I've heard about the Sindareen doing, that's positively civilized,” replied Riker. ”They're probably the only race in the galaxy that the Ferengi actually enjoy dealing with. All right, Gart... tell her that she should let us know the moment that the Sindareen start moving for their s.h.i.+p. Tang, I want your people deployed-”
”Already done, sir.” Tang pointed to several different locations.
Riker looked around and smiled grimly. The security personnel gathered in the street served as a distraction. In the meantime, more of them had been deployed to strategic points in surrounding buildings, crouched on rooftops or poised in windows. They had phasers armed and targeted on the rooftop where the Spider perched like an oversize predator.
”Problem is,” continued Tang, ”the Sindareen may not look it, but they're pretty tough. Phaser blasts can stop them, but not on lower settings. Ranges that stun the Sindareen can severely injure, even kill other humanoids.”
”Humanoids such as Betazoids,” said Riker slowly.
”Right. Which means if they bring any of the hostages along as potential s.h.i.+elds...”
”You'll have to work around it, Sergeant. Alert your marksmen to take extreme care. We're not going to lose these raiders, under any circ.u.mstances.”
”Yes, sir. And just in case they do make it to their s.h.i.+p...” Tang gestured to one of his security team. He was lugging a large case, and he staggered over with it to Tang and placed it at his feet. Tang snapped it open and Riker saw within the case the formidable Level 10, shoulder-mounted phaser cannon, Model II. Tang hefted it out of the case, and Riker was impressed again by the display of strength on the part of the smaller man. As he had before, he patted it affectionately and said, ”Believe me, Lieutenant... they're not going to get away.”
”That's good to hear. All right, Sergeant. Apprise your people that we definitely have nine Sindareen in there. I don't want any, repeat, any shots fired until we've counted nine of them emerging and approaching the s.h.i.+p. As soon as the last one is out, which means the hostages are unguarded-start firing. If they manage to get airborne, I'll be counting on you to bring them down. I do not,” he reiterated, ”want to see them get away. We're going to be sending a message to them and all of their kind, and we're sending it now.”
”Understood, Lieutenant.”
”Good. Oh... and watch your aim, Sergeant,” Riker cautioned. ”You miss them and hit the Betazed moon, and we'd have a problem on our hands.”
”I won't miss, Lieutenant. Count on it.”
The cases were loaded and the other Sindareen were bringing them up toward the roof. Maror stood in front of the Betazoids, studying them apprisingly for a moment.
”As charming as this has been,” he said, ”we really have to take leave of you now. However... it's my concern that the Federation men might decide to give us problems upon our departure. And so, just for some added protection, I'd like one of you to accompany me. Ideally, I'd bring all of you... but our s.h.i.+p is small, and we're heavily loaded already. So it's going to have to be one. Now, let's see...” He scanned them briefly, and then, tucking his weapon under one arm, he said firmly, ”You. You're wounded anyway, so you won't give any trouble.” And he reached for Chandra.
”No! Leave her alone!” shouted Deanna as Maror grabbed the frantic Chandra by the arm. Deanna leaped forward, her fingernails raking across Maror's face, and Maror howled in fury as lines of blood welled up on his pale cheek. His face contorted with rage, he hurled Chandra to the parquet floor, and her head cracked with explosive force against it.
Deanna instinctively turned toward her friend, but Maror grabbed her and swung her around. He yanked her forward and snarled in her face, ”You know, I thought you had nerve. And intelligence. Out of respect for that, I was going to leave you be. But you weren't intelligent enough to know when you were getting off lucky. So now, foolish little Betazoid... it's going to be you.”
Xerx actually gasped in fright and staggered slightly. Riker put a hand behind him to steady him and was almost afraid to ask what had happened.
He didn't have to ask as Xerx said, ”I've lost contact. Chandra's unconscious.” Riker waited for Xerx to pull himself together sufficiently to provide more information, and Xerx did so. ”There was something... they-the Sindareen-were going to take one of the hostages with them. For a s.h.i.+eld. And they were taking Chandra. And she struggled and fell... and now I have no sense of her. Lieutenant...” And there was pure terror in his voice.
Tang's comm unit crackled to life. ”This is Sommers at Gamma Point,” snapped a voice. ”I have a visual. They're coming out, sir!”
”All units are to wait for my signal!” barked Tang. ”Repeat, not a shot is to be fired until you have the clearance from central command!” He looked to Riker. ”You're the CO, Lieutenant. Gonna be your call.”
”We stick with the plan. When all nine are exposed, we open fire,” said Riker firmly.
”My daughter! G.o.ds, Lieutenant... you can't shoot my child!”
”They'll shoot clear of her, Gart,” Riker said, looking to Tang for confirmation.
Tang nodded his head in agreement. Then from his supplies belt, he removed a small pair of electronic sensor binos and, putting them to his eyes, studied the rooftop.
”Get me one of those,” ordered Riker.
”Binos for the lieutenant!” snapped Tang, not removing his gaze from the rooftop. Moments later, Hirsch reappeared and handed a pair of the instruments to Riker. Now he had the roof under close scrutiny as well.
At first there was no movement at all, and for a moment Riker toyed with the notion that this was all some sort of scam-that, in fact, another means of escape was all set up, and the s.h.i.+p was simply there as a distraction. But then he saw the door to the roof slide open and the first of the Sindareen appeared-two of them, lugging a large crate between them.
”Hold fire,” said Riker softly, and the order was repeated by Tang. It wasn't necessary, really. Everyone knew what their orders were and what they were supposed to do.
There was an eerie silence over the area. When Tang had been in similar situations, the buzz of the crowd was positively deafening, and sometimes came close to interfering with the job. Whatever was going through the minds and hearts of the Betazoids, they were having the exquisite courtesy to do it quietly.
More of the Sindareen appeared, lugging more crates. Riker counted them off softly to himself... five... six... and then he said, ”Have we got them targeted, Tang?”
”Target report,” said Tang into his comm unit.
”Alpha Point, target acquired,” came the first reply. The snipers had chosen their targets in order of appearance based on their designation: Alpha took the first target to appear, Beta took the second, and so on.
One by one the rest of the snipers reported in. All of them had targets in their sights.
Eight of the Sindareen had made themselves visible. Riker muttered a low curse. The lead two were approaching the confines of the s.h.i.+p. Sure enough, a second later one of the snipers reported, ”This is Alpha Point. About to lose target acquisition. Awaiting instructions.”
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