Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 16
The Phoenix rocketed up away from V'pal, clawing for altitude as the sky turned black around the canopy. The buffeting and scream of air passing over the hull faded away and, soon, the ride was silky smooth with just the hum of the ship to remind them they were underway. Jason advanced the throttle to the stop and watched as their relative velocity climbed, and the gunship zipped between the narrow gap in the picket coverage. They made it up and through without so much as a warning over the com from the ConFed ships, most of which seemed to be angling over to cover the starport near the capital.
Once they'd made it past the smaller, furthest moon with still no pursuit, Jason relaxed. He prepped the slip-drive to take them out of the V'pal System and put them back on course for their original destination, making a mental note to get a hold of Mok and explain why they were running so late. The fact their target had seemed to be waiting in ambush for Kage when they had just landed weighed heavily on him, so he decided to tell Doc to keep her unconscious for the duration of the flight.
"That could have gone better," Kage said, leaning back in his seat and slapping the release for his restraints while Jason shrugged out of his own and let them retract back into the seat.
"It also could have gone a lot worse."
5
"Do you understand what the word covert means, Captain?"
"To be honest, that all felt pretty discreet and covert."
"You can't be serious," Mok deadpanned, leaning back in his chair.
"Nah," Jason said. "We completely fucked that one up. To be honest, we didn't realize how hot the target was until the ConFed opened fire on that little spaceport."
"Yes…and then you blew two cruisers out of the sky and sent a third ship careening into a moon to, how did you put it, cover your exfil?"
"Yes."
"That's it? Just yes'" Mok spluttered. "No apology for risking this operation with your reckless use of highly controlled strategic munitions? No contrition for making the ConFed focus even harder on the Eshquarian intel officer you have strapped to a bed? None of that?"
"No."
Jason watched in fascination as Mok struggled to get himself under control, gripping the desk so hard that he could hear the wood creaking. After a few long moments Mok, one of the quadrants most feared crime lords, managed to calm himself enough to open his eyes and stare across at his guest.
"I've not lived a moral life, even before descending into the underworld of this galaxy…but I cannot imagine what I've done that makes the universe decide that I deserve to be saddled with you humans."
"Oh, come on," Jason laughed. "You only know one, and we barely see each other."
"You're bad enough on your own," Mok said. "But I've recently had dealings with your kind. Some young pup your planet's military sent retrieve a Veran information broker I sometimes use."
"Weef Zadra?" Jason asked. "You sent us to her once. I was wondering what happened to her. Kage said she just dropped off the grid. So, Earth's got her now?"
"Not exactly," Mok said. "Anyway, your fellow human couldn't just go get Zadra and take her where she wanted to go. Instead, he disrupted my entire operation in the Kaspian Reaches and stole a shuttle with a full cash shipment that was coming back here."
"Sounds like my kind of guy." Jason smiled widely and put his feet up on the desk.
"Hardly. He seemed quite a bit brighter than you and, at least, had the good sense to show some respect in my presence," Mok growled, shoving Jason's feet off the desk so hard the human had to grab the armrests of the chair to not end up on the floor. Jason had to constantly remind himself that Mok wasn't just some weasel administrator, afraid to get his hands dirty. For the time being, Mok seemed to recognize that Jason messed with him as a way of showing he no longer completely distrusted him, but the crime boss wasn't used to having people ruffle his feathers for entertainment value.
"Noted," Jason said, sitting up straighter. “So, what'd you think of Qazvi Ba?"
"That's not her real name," Mok said. "It's a code name that's part of Imperial Intelligence's Last Stand Protocols. There's always someone named Qazvi Ba. Think of it more as a job title that gets passed on. It's actually a phrase in ancient Eshquarian, a dead language from long before the time they had space travel."
"Last Stand Protocols," Jason repeated. "Sounds ominous."
"It was more of an interesting thought exercise than anything else," Mok said. "Since we—they—always had to imagine worst case scenarios for threats to the Empire, the process was formalized some centuries ago, and the service was given a substantial budget to ensure that it could weather a preemptive strike or internal coup."
“So, there are contingencies in place to handle something like what just happened?" Jason asked hopefully.
He pretended not to notice Mok's slip up during his explanation, but it was just another clue as to where the enigmatic boss had come from. Saditava Mok had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He crept in and took over the operation of a petty crime boss Jason had taken out in the pre-Omega Force days when he and the crew had just escaped captivity. Mok had then worked to quickly swallow many of the smaller, satellite operations until he stood supreme as the kingpin in a twelve-sector swath of space. The fact he had likely been a high-level Eshquarian intelligence officer explained a lot of how he was able to grasp power so quickly.
"Unfortunately, no," Mok continued his explanation. "The ConFed has never been much of a threat. Their fleet, while vast, never seemed to operate under a unified doctrine. Instead, it was parsed out to handle