Pandora's Chase

Chapter Forty-Five

Braider sat comfortably in his chair with his whiskey in the back billiards room of the Spot and Drain. Minding his own thoughts, he pondered their last operation looking forward to the standard one-month reprieve after a long undercover bout. His first mate and fellow IPAC agent, Tommy, was at the back of the room, which opened to another larger billiards room. He was talking up some woman, acting like his normal sleazy self.

They'd always come here after a job and it was turning out to be another typical night inside the loud smoke filled bar, until his comm beeped with a message from command.

SECURE CHECK IN REQUIRED

COMMAND CENTER - ALPHA

DIRECTOR GENERAL LAWRENCE

"Central command?" Braider said to himself.

Nervous, he keyed into the IPAC command center and shuffled through the crowd and found a quiet corner to have his conversation. He'd never been instructed to contact central before. This was well above his standard protocol.

A voice answered his call, "Command. What's your ID?"

"Agent B-Nine-M-Three-Four-Eight-E."

"Code check?

"Code Check - Blue Glacier," Braider answered.

"Code Check clear, thank you sir, one moment." There was silence for the span of one breath, letting Braider's heart beat a thousand times.

"We have you connecting with Director General Lawrence today, correct?

"Yes, thank you."

There was a silence on the line before, "Agent Braider?" The man spoke with a smooth voice. As if he had not a care in the world.

"General Lawrence," Braider answered respectfully. "It's an honor."

"You've just completed a sting operation on Esandrea on your morning today, correct?"

"Yes, sir. I have."

"Well I'm sorry to have to do this, but we need you to skip your standard month pass and must ask you to get back to work. We have a time sensitive special op for you."

"Yes of course, sir. Sounds important." If the general was ordering this, it had to be.

"It is. And I'm afraid there is no time for preparations. I understand you have a partner and also contracted a civilian to fly with you as well."

"Yes, sir. We call him Scrat."

"Yes, you do. You'll need an extra hand and we don't have enough time to send you any other agents. Hire a local if you must."

"What's the job, sir?"

"There's a boy, Chase Dekker, though he may be traveling under another name. We'll send you the file we have on him so far, there's a picture in there. We have his parents but we need him. He's on his way to find something we've been looking for. As far as we can tell, he's still on Oscent, hooked up with a Paira Sange and her brother. You know them?

"No, sir."

"Well you have your work cut out for you then. I need you to locate Chase. He will resist and we can't have him jacking things up, so take the girl too and use her as incentive to keep him compliant. Leave Esandrea right away, ready for a long haul. Find out where he's heading and make sure he finds what he's after. We need everything he has with him now and make sure to get everything he finds when you take him where he's going. Understand?"

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"This is top level classified so tell your team this is important and that there will be a bonus but don't let on how important it is. Got it?"