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I hope it's not his last....

Keep it coming MA!

Secret team up. Interesting.

Café la Fleur
Samantha City, Taurus
Taurian Concordat
November 27, 3025

Not again, Phil thought as a shadow fell across the table he was sitting at in the bustling café and he looked up at the man who was joining him.  It had been a pleasant day, warm for the late autumn, but with a nice gentle breeze blowing through the trees that lined the streets.  Streets that were filled with celebrating people and music.

“You have to acknowledge that the Taurians do know how to throw a party,” Victor Li mused as he sat down at the table and sipped at his cup of espresso.

“What do you want?” the MI-4 agent asked sourly, setting down his own cup of sweet—too sweet—iced tea.

“Some of those bar-b-que oysters on the half-shell would be nice—say, is that the famous la Fleur stuffed artichoke you have there?”

Phil frowned, and then he sighed and slid the plates across the table; Victor smiled and he lifted a piece of the artichoke stuffed with peppers and crab meat and placed it within his mouth—he smiled as he chewed with his eyes closed.

“Oh, that is good,” he said after swallowing.

“What do you want?” Phil asked again, and then he frowned as he saw the Samantha City Metro ticket that the Capellan had set on the table.  “Going somewhere?  Not staying around for the fireworks tonight?”

Victor smiled and he shrugged.  “I hear the fishing is good along the coast—they are biting tonight.”

Phil’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head.  “Your boys are making a play for the Core tonight—we both know that they are.  Why are you leaving before the job is done?”

“Not my boys—they don’t work for me,” the Capellan answered as he placed the ticket back in his jacket pocket.  “And they don’t play by the normal rules, Phil,” he warned.

The Davion agent nodded slowly.  “Didn’t think they looked like normal field agents from the Mask—Death Commandoes?”

Victor smiled, but he said nothing, and Phil nodded again.

“The Chancellors bully-boys themselves; they planning on shooting their way in and extracting the Core?”

“Phil,” Victor chuckled.  “I do like you—you are one of the better agents that Quintus has out here in the real world.  You know I cannot answer that.”

“I know that you wouldn’t be leaving on the eve of the mission getting underway . . . unless,” Phil suddenly cursed and he sucked in a deep breath of air.

“The fireworks will be rather . . . spectacular tonight, so I understand,” the Capellan said with a nod.  And then his face grew rather serious.  “If things go according to plan, I would imagine that you could see them from orbit!”

Phil looked around, but the two men were—relatively—isolated in the bustling open-air patio.  He leaned forward and whispered.  “Are they out of their fucking minds?”

Victor shrugged again.  “To those men, the mission comes first—and if the Chancellor cannot have the Core, then no one will.”

“The Bulls will go berserk, Victor,” Phil hissed quietly, and then he blanched.  “Michael.  You got Davion warheads from Michael, didn’t you?”

Victor smiled—but he didn’t answer.  He didn’t need to.

“Shit, shit, shit,” whispered Phil.  “Why tell me?”

“I respect you—you are a worthy opponent, Phil Sheridan.  You can do as I am doing—and leave Samantha City before the . . . display erupts.  Or, you can try to stop them from lighting the fuse.  Either way, I owe you for the time you saved my life on Kittery.  Consider that debt payed, whichever choice you make.”

Phil sat back and he exhaled slowly . . . and he nodded.  Field intelligence work sometimes made for strange bed-fellows, he thought.  And if Victor Li was anything, it was honorable.  Or as honorable as the job allowed for.

“You won’t be lending a hand, I presume?”

“Against loyal Capellans operating at—what has to be—the direct authority of the Chancellor?  Would you go against an operation that you knew Hanse Davion had started—even if you objected?”

“I’d like to think so,” muttered Phil, “but it would all depend on the circumstances.”

Victor bowed his head, lifting one hand to acknowledge the point. 

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” Phil asked in a bitter voice.  “I’ve got two other field agents—both MI-4—tasked with observing this cluster-fuck, not getting in the way.  There are at least a dozen of those Commandoes—how the hell can I stop them by myself?”

“Well, you can ask for help,” chuckled a woman’s soprano voice, and Phil groaned as Victor smiled.

“Nicky Kirkland,” the Capellan said as he rose to his feet.  “It is good to see you again,” he told the MIM agent.  “And your companion?”

“Victor Li, Phil Sheridan,” she said with a smile, “may I introduce Hauptmann-Kommandant Gerhadt Manstein.”

“Retired Hauptmann-Kommandant, my dear,” the Lyran added.  “Now, I am just a Lyran businessman who seeks to return a profit to my home.”

Phil cursed again, and Victor chuckled.  “And business is good, ja?” the Capellan asked.

“Business . . . could be better,” Gerhadt answered.  “It has been difficult to break into the Taurian markets.  At least through conventional practices.”

“This just gets better and better,” muttered Phil.  “A Norn and Nicky.  This is my backup?  To stop your guys?”

“They are not my guys,” Victor repeated.  And then his smile got even larger.  “And it looks as if we have two more guests arriving.”

“Does everyone on this freaking planet know we are foreign agents?” Phil muttered.

“Only those of us who take the time and effort to observe, Mister Sheridan,” Maxwell Danforth answered as he took off his hat and bowed to the Canopian agent, “Madame, it is a pleasure,” he said as he kissed the back of her hand.

“Phil, you could learn a thing or two from this gentlemen . . . who is?” Nicky cooed as she batted her eyelids.

“Maxwell Danforth—agent of SAFE,” the Marik spy answered.

“SAFE?” four surprised voices sputtered in unison.

“SAFE,” Maxwell said with a grin, “you don’t think we are ALL as incompetent as Walter Krogh, do you?”

No one answered and Max laughed.  “And may I introduce to you Osami Koga, of the Draconis Combine Internal Security Force.”

“Who’s next—the Outworlders?”

“They are busy trying to find the Core on the Gamma continent,” Maxwell answered with a grin.  “But we—we six—have something that we must discuss.  A certain Death Commando operation that will kill many, many innocent Taurians this very night unless we manage to stop it.”

“I am here because you asked, Danforth,” replied the Kurita, “but why should I care about the lives of Taurians, innocent or otherwise?”

“Because the Commandoes will be destroying the Core that your master sent you to recover, Osami,” Max answered simply.  “The Core that we are ALL tasked with recovering.  I doubt that any of you have orders NOT to cooperate with other agents—I know I don’t.”

“That’s because it is so insane that none of our superiors would WRITE such an order!” sputtered Phil, and there were nods of agreement.

“A dozen Death Commandoes and at least one nuclear device, ladies and gentlemen,” Maxwell continued.  “Alone, we cannot stop them from reaching the Core and destroying it—along with a good part of Samantha City.  Together?  Ah, together,” he said with a smile.  “Together, we can stop them AND recover a copy of the Core for our superiors.”

“You say that as if we do not have our own plans for the Core,” replied Nicky.

“You mean those two nubile young women you have snuck into the chief researcher’s bed, Miss Kirkland?  Yes, they will DIE tonight when the Death Commandoes barge in . . . and those Commandoes will seize their copy of the Core that they are making.  And then the nuke will go off.”

She started.  “How the hell did you . . .,” she began.

“We aren’t all Walter Krogh, my dear.  My team and I have been watching you since you arrived on Taurus—and I have access to certain . . . equipment that can even the odds.”

There was silence for a moment and then Phil sighed again.  “We team up and stop the Death Commandoes and get a copy of the Core—what’s going to keep one of us from back-stabbing the rest and running off with it?”

Maxwell laughed.  “My dear Phil—the game will be afoot!  That is all part of the fun.”

And one by one, each of the field agents slowly nodded—even Victor and Phil.

“Good.  We don’t have a lot of time, so if you will join me at my safe house, we have MUCH to discuss and prepare for,” Maxwell finished as he stood and threw a hundred-bull note on the table. 

They are....but, as a special salt to the dish, if they get caught, they'll have been caught trying to stop a nuke from going off in a Taurian City.  One cannot but think that that would buy them SOME goodwill. 

I take the core is buried under a "big W"?

Okay a movie a year older than me but that I know. LOL