Ballistic (The Palladium Wars), стр. 51

“Tonight, we are going to effect a high-risk arrest,” Dahl said. “The suspect is one Vigi Fuldas. You all have the relevant data on your briefing log. He eluded our first attempt to arrest him last night at Philharmony Station. The suspect is a known arms trafficker who has already resisted arrest aggressively. That is why we have requested the assistance of the Quick Reaction Force.”

Dahl created a screen and flicked it over her shoulder, where it expanded to fill most of the back wall. It showed a three-dimensional map of a location in Sandvik. An image of Vigi Fuldas along with his vital data hovered in the upper-left quadrant of the map.

“As the suspect was already under judicial watch prior to the attempted arrest, we were able to track his movements since last night, despite his considerable efforts to elude surveillance. He has not returned to his residence. We lost track of him for a few hours, but this afternoon, a facial recognition unit in the Artery network caught sight of him in western Sandvik near his place of employment. He has checked into a capsule hotel near the Sandvik Spaceport using a forged identity pass. It is likely that he is preparing to leave the planet to evade further apprehension measures.”

Dahl isolated a section of the map and magnified it. It showed an intersection surrounded by a variety of commercial buildings.

“The suspect has rented a capsule in the Worlds Travel Lodge at 12 West and 2 North. Tonight at 0300, we will leave a minimal number of patrol units on their usual stations. The rest will establish a perimeter around the 12W and 2N intersection for a block in either direction. There is an Artery transit station just half a block north on 2N, so pay attention to that escape vector. Apprehension will be done by the QRF, which will enter the facility from the rooftop emergency access and secure the floor, then proceed to the capsule, where the suspect will hopefully be in the deepest phase of his REM sleep. The JSP patrols will maintain the block of the intersection and the quarantine of the building until the QRF unit leader reports a successful apprehension. Once the suspect is in QRF custody, they will evacuate the area with him via gyrofoil, and the patrol units will lift the block and return to their assigned sectors. If all goes as planned and expected, the operation will conclude at 0315. Does anyone have questions?”

Idina watched as Dahl answered the few clarification requests that followed her prompt. After months of joint briefings and patrols, even the Alliance troops deferred to the Gretian police captain, talking with the same level of respect and courtesy they would use if Dahl wore a Pallas Brigade uniform instead. The JSP concept of joint responsibility and integration had been a full success, even if it had taken years to work out the friction and smooth out the burrs. But this was the only unqualified success of the occupation, achieved by the cooperation of a group of people used to discipline and teamwork. Idina wasn’t sure the model could ever be transplanted into a civilian setting, not with everyone trying to pull the rope in different directions.

“If we don’t have to fire a shot or use our stun sticks tonight, it’ll be a good op,” Idina added when there were no more questions from the troopers. “But don’t get complacent just because the streets are quiet. Things can turn to shit in a hot second.”

“Maybe I’m getting too old for this business,” Idina said when she was back in the gyrofoil with Dahl and on the way to their patrol sector. The sun had set completely now, leaving only the faintest streak of purple lingering above the horizon.

“You are not too old,” Dahl said. “You are in better shape than any of our new officers fresh from police school.”

“I will be thirty-seven this year,” Idina replied. “Seventeen years of service. That’s ancient for an infantry soldier. If I don’t take retirement in three years, they will shunt me off into a support slot until I get bored enough.”

“And why not retire? You have done more than your share for the Alliance, I think.”

“I have done this since I was twenty. I don’t really know how to do anything else.”

“You will only be forty. That leaves more than half a lifetime to learn something else.”

“Infantry skills don’t translate well into the civilian world. There isn’t much call there for killing people or breaking their stuff,” Idina said.

“You would make a fair police officer,” Dahl suggested.

“Not my calling. I don’t have the temperament. When those people overwhelmed us last night, I was ready to chop off some hands and feet.”

“And you would have been in the right,” Dahl said. “I was a moment away from deploying my sidearm. And I do not have that impulse very often. Maybe I am getting too old for this business as well.”

“What a team we make,” Idina said with a smile and looked out over the city. Her eyes had gotten used to the wide-open spaces on Gretia, the way her gaze could drift over the landscape all the way to the far horizon when the weather was clear. Maybe it was the knowledge that her time here was about to end, but for the first time, the thought of leaving this place for good made her feel strangely melancholic. She’d done three deployments to Gretia, and she was at the end of her infantry career. There was little chance they’d approve her for a fourth off-world tour, not after having to cut this one short because of medical issues. After this week, she would never see this sight again.

At least I had a full career, she thought. Half the squad she had lost in the ambush three months ago had consisted of privates on their first off-world deployments, kids