-unknown
--Betrayal, Martinis, & Rock 'n' Roll--
By this time, meeting 463391-PL had been adjourned for almost two hours and the members were in their personal dormitories. Rose, having used clearing the dishes from the table as an excuse, stayed after everybeast had left to talk secretly with Grellus Oakstaff, the grizzly bear whom Jonas and Rose had been "communicating" with.
"You fool!" she cried, "What do you think you were doing trying to interrupt the meeting? We'll blow our cover that way! You already know that nobeast but members or aides with permission to speak may! Cordassis will hear about this."
"Idiots!" screeched the voice of the coyote in their earpieces. "I already have!" Turning Rose's microphone off, he added to Grellus, "One more slipup like that and I'll have yer hide for a jacket!"
Their earpieces beeped softly before becoming completely silent. Jonas entered, carrying a small black cube with blinking lights in both paws.
"It's a communication blocker, mates. The cameras and earpieces are deactivated for now."
Rose and Grellus sighed briefly before the vixen slapped Jonas. "That's for giving me lip at the docking bay."
The bear grunted, glaring at Rose before she slumped into one of the chairs at the table. "So," she said, facing up at her comrades, "What do we do about the Star Force issue?"
"Who cares?" said Jonas, sliding into the seat at the head of the table. "What I'd like to do is gain control of this station." He stroked the soft cloth armrests before adding, "Shean can keep his lost-cause business. With this station, I - er, we could gain control of the entire system!"
"How do you figure that?" inquired Rose, sipping Karn's unfinished coffee.
"Think about it," he said, grinning evilly. "What is said here goes, right? All we have to do is make everybeast believe the Board is still in order and we could have this system on a silver platter with out names on it!"
"And just what do you do when election time comes around?" the vixen asked, finishing the lukewarm drink.
"Well, we've got at least one year of rule, right?" He began laughing and was soon joined by Rose and Grellus.
The bright noon sun filtered through the treetops and onto the surface of the clear water of the calm, slow moving stream that snaked through the woods, one of the few flourishing on the normally dry planet of Tews. A sudden warm gust of wind from the west blew across the south flowing stream.
Two young beasts of little more than fourteen Loamhedge years came scrambling up the hill by the stream. The gecko, who had made it over first, grabbed his tail, curling into a hoop, and rolled down into the water. The raccoon, scampering not long after, leaped onto a branch hanging over the stream, then let go, landing in the water with a loud splash.
They both sat in the water for a while, laughing like two hyenas. "Boy," said Nami, the raccoon, having stopped laughing first, "Your parent were wrong when they named you Lohi. Doesn't that mean 'slow' or something?"
The gecko nodded, still chuckling a bit. "Yeah, but it's da kine fam'ly name. An' speakin' of what it means, I t'ink I should be teaching you da language instead o' futtin' around like dis."
"Yeah, yeah," said the raccoon. "Just talk to me in it all the time. Should be good enough vocabulary practice."
The gecko looked up, considering something, then looked back at Nami before saying, "You like 'em in da kine normal structure or like da common structure?"
Nami shrugged, then said, "Common language structure. I'm just trying to learn the language, not how to speak it." There was a moment of silence before the two friends resumed their boisterous laughter, still sitting in the stream.
Shean Cordassis was also laughing, not because of something funny that was said, but because he had had too much to drink.
"You know," said the coyote to the weasel displayed on his computer screen, "I've always wondered if you were supposed to eat both of the three olives..."
"Uh... sir?" said the weasel, becoming impatient, "For one thing, there are only supposed to be two."
Shean waved his glass at the weasel, spilling some of the gin on his lap. "I happen to like all four of them." He suddenly donned a face of anger, bearing his sharp fangs at the weasel, and spoke to the weasel in a drunken rage. "Are you trying to take my olives away from me? I could have to olives for fired of embezzlement." The coyote finished his drink, nipped one of the pimento olives off the toothpick, then threw the other one, still skewered on the toothpick, across the room where it hit the wall and splattered into many green olive bits.
Shean began to laugh wildly, saying to the weasel, "I love it when it does that." He slammed the glass on the desk, watching it shatter, then added, "Do you want one? I can have one sent to you..."
"Er... no thanks, sir. Maybe now isn't a good time for me to -"
"What? What are you saying? Any time is a good time for a... uh... er..."
"Martini, sir?"
"Why yes, don't mind if I do." Yawning, the coyote waved a paw at the weasel. "On second though, I think you'd better go." Nodding, as if agreeing with what he said, Shean slumped to his desk. His head hitting the keyboard, the window on the screen closed, and the company president commenced to snore.
The full moon shone brightly like a silver coin over Redwall City, the stars sparkling like diamonds on a backdrop of black velvet. A slow cool breeze began to blow, rustling the treetops in the surrounding area. The light of the fireflies and the musical chirping of the crickets could not compare with the lights and music coming from the convention center in the middle of the city.
Two spotlights announced the event by shining columns of light into the infinite night sky. The "Rock Hard" Tour had arrived from Sa'ia on Ates and the groups were performing their last concert on Loamhedge before they would be moving on to Cafari on Shout. The "Rock Hard" Tour concert was complete with blaring guitar solos, dazzling light effects, and screaming fans.
Four otters in the canopy-roof seats hanging from the ceiling sat back, enjoying the music.
"See, mates?" said the shortest otter, whose name was Marco, "I told you the canopy seats were the best. "He reclined in the cotton cushion seat, putting his paws behind his head and closing his eyes, seeming to absorb the music.
"Aye," added his younger, taller brother Polo, "An' there's no shouting beasts jumpin' all over you." He leaned against the railing in front of the seats, keeping his gaze on the bands below.
The two other otters, Wes Trueflight and his date, Jannis Whiteheart sat holding paw, cheering as the bands changed and sitting together quietly when they were performing.
When a bull, ocelot, Monitor lizard, and stoat appeared on stage after the curtains rose to reveal the next band, the entire auditorium echoed with cheering and screaming. Everybeast knew the group; it was the universally popular band known as BioHazard performing their signature slow-rock hit, "Life Is Precious".
Jannis sniffled a bit as the intro began, then started to cry before the first verse had even finished.
Wes turned to his left, a concerned look on his face. "Something wrong, Jan?"
Jannis had her head down, shaking it, then turned and looked up at Wes, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't want you to leave," she said, her voice broken with sobbing.
The Trueflight otter sighed, holding her right paw with both of his. "I don't have a choice. You know I'd stay if I could."
"Then why don't you?" she said, in a voice only Wes could hear. Before he could answer, she embraced him tightly as though it would keep him from leaving while the band below continued its song.
At the same time, a lone hare at the immense control panel backstage was hugging himself and shivering.
"Wish I knew how to shut off the bally air conditioning," he muttered to himself. As BioHazard go to the bull's drum solo, Nicholas made adjustments to the sound, then continued to shiver.
Nicholas Woodsorrel had been just recently hired by BioHazard to be their technician, controlling the sound and light effects as they played. The Woodsorrel hare was the few of his "older" generation to be interested in the old rock-style music that had made a comeback a decade ago.
The hare could see the audience through the one-way window on the right side of the backstage area. Spotting the two otters in the canopy seats, he communicated to the ocelot on keyboard through the headset communicators.
"Gavin, ol' chap, Nicholas 'ere..." said the hare, pressing a button on the headphones, keeping his gaze on the hugging couple.
"Yeah, what is it?" replied the wildcat, somewhat frustrated.
Nicholas chuckled a bit, saying, "I found that couple-of-the-thingummy y' wanted."
The ocelot suddenly sounded interested. "Couple-of-the-night? Great, where are they?"
"The otters in the canopy section. They're havin' a hug right- wait, they just sat back down again."
Nicholas watched the keyboard player nod. "I see 'em." Gavin played a little longer before adding. "We're wrapping up. Check the ticket files and find their names. Get the spotlight set up too, and make it quick. The song ends in a few seconds."
"Already on it," said the hare, using the computer console on his right. After a few button pushes, he answered "Canopy D, Row One, Seats Fourteen and Fifteen. Wes Trueflight and Jannis Whiteheart."
"Thanks, Nicholas," replied the ocelot as he played the last notes of the song. While the ocelot and the stoat, lead singer Amelio DeCini, had a short conference after the end of the song, Nicholas was positioning the blue spotlight over Wes and Jannis.
"Attention everybeast," said Amelio, having returned to the microphone, "We have chosen the BioHazard Couple-of-the-night to spend the evening with the band at the Rio Sol Resort five star restaurant." The audience immediately began to cheer and scream. The stoat raised his paws, silencing the crowd. "They are sitting," he began, slowly and suspenseful, "In section Canopy D... Row One... Seats Fourteen and Fifteen!" The crowd began to cheer again as the blue spotlight switched on and shone on the two otters.
Jannis and Wes exchanged glances, holding paws and doing their best to muster a smile. Marco who was sitting next to Wes, nudged him saying, "See? Told you these were the best seats in the house."
Jonas, Rose, and Grellus were also enjoying the best seats in the house when a knock came from the door that led to the dormitories. "Jonas?î came a voice from behind it. The three spies looked at each other with wide eyes, then all suddenly went into action: the bear and vixen dove under the table while Jonas got up out of Garthon's chair and opened the door a crack.
The mouse sneered at Dirk when he saw the ferret outfitted in his blue suit through the opening. "What do you want?"
Dirk motioned behind him down the hall. "We can't lock down 'til ye head t' yore room."
Jonas motioned to his comrades by waving a footpaw behind the open door. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in a second." He closed the door and went over to the bear and vixen who were heading for the door opposite Dirk was it.
"That was close, mates. I'll see you in a few hours before the others are up."
Rose nodded, "Right. We'll be in the guest quarters as usual." The two beasts slipped out the door facing the dorm exit just as Dirk came in through the opposite door.
Jonas nearly jumped as the ferret entered. "I thought I told you I'd be there!"
"I know," said Dirk, nodding, "But Garthon wanted me t' person'ly make sure ye did."
"Huh," grumbled the Zarcon representative, "Big-Board-Head-Beast needs to send me a dibbun sitter." Jonas marched out, nose in the air.
Dirk was about to follow him when he noticed a metal box on the table, red and blue lights blinking alternately. Pocketing the small object, he hurried after Jonas and headed for his private room next to the mouse's.
As the beasts on board Station 13-M were preparing to go to sleep, Shean Cordassis had just waken up with the rising sun and a pounding headache. Five green triangles were glowing in the bottom right corner of the computer screen, the one farthest to the right still blinking.
He pressed various other buttons before finding the one that activated the video window, groaning as the image of the same weasel from the night before appeared. "Sir? Are ye okay?"
The coyote clutched his head with his right paw, which still reeked of gin. "Yeah," he said, gingerly rubbing the bump on the side of his head, "I'm fine."
"I tried t' contact ye three times in th' past hour. After th' second call without a response, I start'd t' get concerned..."
"I'm fine, I told ye." Shean pressed the call button on his desk, saying, "Send up a glass of water and some aspirin, now."
"Yez, zir," replied the Monitor on the other side of the intercom.
"Now," said the coyote, turning back to the weasel, "What was so import'nt that ye had t' call me... four times was it?"
"Three, sir. Four countin' this'n."
"Whatever," said Shean, waving a paw, "What do ye 'ave to report?"
The weasel nodded before replying, "Well, sir, not an hour after th' first time I called, th' excavators in Site L hit somethin' solid..."
"They better not have broken it!" shouted the coyote, paws on his desk and his face up in the camera.
"Actually, sir," said the weasel, flipping through the pages of his clipboard, "It turned out t' be solid concrete." Shean settled back into his chair, calm and with paws folded, as though nothing happened. "So," continued the weasel, "We dug around it and we found it t' be a small building, dimensions 20 feet tall, 50 feet wide, 75 feet long."
"And? Did ye get in?"
"No, sir, th' door was locked."
Shean resumed his state of frustration and disorder just as the attendant entered with his aspirin and water. Sitting back down calmly and adjusting his cactus clasp string tie, he popped the capsules into his mouth and took a gulp of the water, giving the unfinished glass back to the Monitor who had given it to him.
The reptile bowed as he left, and Shean looked back at the computer. "Did ye find anythin' else?"
"Er... there was a manila envelope under a metal plate by th' door."
"Send it to me, express delivery."
"Yes, sir." The weasel saluted briefly before saying, "That's all."
"Alright, then." Shean closed the window, four of the triangles disappearing as he did, and looked at his spies' camera. Rose's and Grellus' both showed the control room of the Station, but Jonas' only displayed static.
"Jonas?" said Shean, speaking into the mouse's earpiece feed. "Jonas, come in. Yore cam'ra's broken..." Getting no response, the coyote pounded a clenched paw on the desk. "He'd better be dead," he grumbled to himself, "'Cause if he's not, I'll kill 'im m'self..."