Seizure- Part 6 Positioning the Pieces

	Cookie hot wired the door and let it slide open. He delayed for a few seconds before
entering the room. When he did he barely heard the occupant as he swung a knife at Cookie's
chest. Cookie calmly raised his arm and blocked the strike. His assailant stepped back and
looked him in the eye.
	"Nice swing, Renek. You judged where my heart would be from my shadow very nicely."
Cookie flipped the lights on.
	"What are you doing in my quarters?" Renek shifted his weight, ready to pounce if Cookie
gave him half a chance or half a reason.	
	"Recruiting you for the fight to take the ship back."
	"Why should I join?"
	"Because if we don't get control of the bridge we all die. Including you. You work for
Kirwan, not Phaeton."
	"Yes, but why should I take orders from a failure like you?"
	Cookie turned on him and fixed him with a hard stare. Renek never flinched.
	"Because we are both Black Ops agents and I am your superior officer. You don't like me
for your own reasons, and that is fine with me. You are a trained assassin and right now I have
need of your skills."
	"Who do you want dead, the chief Neo or the Captain. I know about your blow-up with the
Captain."
	Cookie grinned remembering the confrontation. "Not like it was a secret. It was in the
mess during lunch right after I got back from Outpost 14."
	Renek fumed. He hadn't meant to imply that was secret knowledge, but Cookie had turned
it to his advantage and gained control of the conversation. "I know all about your career.
Everyone coming up in the Black Ops knows about the legendary Death. Assassinated a pirate
leader in his exo-fighter. Seduced the daughter of his replacement and neutralized the pirates
through scandal. Nipped a budding neo-sapien miner's strike by causing a shaft to collapse so
the fleet could rescue them and improve relations. Fought in the Battle of the Belt and lost his
leg. Single-handedly destroyed Jakob Tierka's command ship. The first operative ever to win the
Homeworld's Congress Medal of Honor.
	"Now you're just a cook. A cook who likes to play hero now and then. You can't be what
you once were, no matter how much you and Kirwan want it. You are not the pilot you were and you
are not the operative you were. And everyone who had to listen to the god awful stories about
Death loves it."
	Cookie looked at him. "Renek, you're an idiot. Now, are you going to get your sniper
rifle and kill the lead Neo or are you going to sit here and sulk while I go play hero again?"
Cookie held out the rifle he had retrieved while Renek had babbled about his career.
	Renek snatched it out of his hands. "Fine," he said with a grin. "I'll assassinate the
Neo for you."
	"Good. And don't hit the Captain. That is a direct order. Under no circumstances are you
to hurt any human crewmembers. I want that order on the record."
	At the word "record" Renek winced. He knew the rumors about what devices Cookie had
built into his leg and figured he was recording this conversation for his protection. He
scowled. "Aye-aye, sir." The last word was spit out with venom.
	Cookie turned and left. He wondered how his career history had gotten so messed up. The
story of how he assassinated the pirate leader Tristan Krelt in his exofighter was true enough,
but the rest was all blown so far out of proportion it wasn't even funny. He had never seduced
Jakob's daughter, there was no need to. He was supposed to kidnap her and frame a different
pirate clan to create a civil war, but the scandal of having a daughter sneaking off to the
asteroid belt for rendezvous with her ExoFleet lover had been enough to start the war so he let
her off without the kidnapping and tying her up that had been planned. Other than that one time,
but that was her birthday and it would have been a shame to let the silk go to waste.
	That was not even considering the story of how he stopped a miner's rebellion turning
into a revolution. No one as good as Kirwan would have sent his best pilot into a mine, the
least appropriate environment for him. What Cookie had done was blow up the rebels ammunition
store. The explosion had caused the collapse and triggered the peaceful resolution to that
event, much to Kirwan's chagrin. Cookie was certain Kirwan knew another Neo-Sapien War would
start after the fleet left Earth and had allowed it to.
	Cookie became dully aware of the sniper rifle pointed at his back. He sighed and turned
to Renek. "Go ahead, shoot."
	"I guess you aren't as good as you thought you were." Renek pulled the trigger.
	Nothing happened.
	Cookie tossed the ammunition clip to the assassin. "Works better with this."
	Renek examined the gun. He pulled out the clip that Cookie had inserted back in his
quarters. It was a dummy clip, set up to display false information about the weapon's status.
Though he hated to admit it, Renek admired Cookie's forethought.
	Cookie rounded the corner and cursed the day Kirwan had set it up that his new favorite
operative would be the one who could kill Cookie. It had dragged him out of retirement and back
into the fleet. Kirwan was not happy that Cookie found a way to avoid intelligence work and had
not yet cancelled the offer to his field agents.
	Cookie's radio vibrated and he absently answered it. "Yes?"
	Rick's voice came from the radio. "Where are you?"
	"Just added one more soldier to our fight. Gave him a special mission. He should open
the doors to the bridge for us."
	"Good. Don't tell me about it. I figured out what you are some time ago and don't want
to know any more about it."
	"Good, because I wasn't going to tell you anyway."
	"I wanted to let you know that we have people on the flight deck now. It was unmanned. I
know you want to fly so I am sending you there. Hiatt has managed to reroute sensor feeds down
here. The Frigate launched e-frames and they are flying halfway between us and them. The frigate
herself backed off and is at stand-off distance. We are in range of all her guns, and she in
ours.
	"I want you to get a flight of E-frames prepped and be ready to attack that Frigate if
we don't get the guns on-line soon. As soon as we retake the bridge I'm sure she is going to
destroy us."
	"Roger that. What's the status of the command officers?"
	"The Captain and XO are held on the bridge. Jose and Hobbes are also being held on the
bridge. Hagen is in command and is taking position for an assault on the bridge along with
O'Muirdagh and half the people we have in fighting condition. We are losing troops though as we
have to fill in duty stations to be ready for a fight with that frigate."
	"Wait a minute. If the CO and XO of the 'frames squad are elsewhere who is in charge of
our squad?"
	"O'Connor, McLean and Montgomery are the only pilots there. Unless some of the outpost
pilots are also there. They are not exactly our most experienced pilots, so you are probably
going to be in operational command. Who am I kidding, with your personality you will take
command no matter what. Anyway, get down there and assess the situation."
	"On my way."