Christopher Smith, the Peacemaker, frowned at the reports on his desk. He leaned back in his chair, trying to decide on a course of action. He had been appointed the commander of a task force for the UN. He didn't like the fact that one of his new operatives was feeding private information back to his government.
It was something he would have to fix somehow. He didn't know how he was going to do it without sending the operative back to his native country.
Smith decided the best thing he could do was confront the spy and get this over with as soon as possible. The security of the nations that had helped form this task force had been violated by the man who was supposed to be looking out for the welfare of the world instead of his country's need to pry into everything.
Smith hated this type of thing.
He stood up, and put the reports on his desk away. His team was in the renovated training center, including the spy. He headed toward the gym, jaw set as he went over his speech. He had already decided to provide a transport for the man back to his country.
Smith strode into the command center for the gym. He ordered a shutdown, then took the small elevator to the floor space. His team had made him proud in the short time they had been operating. He hated to do something like this.
"Captain Song," he said. "Get your gear. You're out of here."
Captain Song Lo Wang knew his infiltration had been reported, exposed, before Smith spoke. He didn't need his telepathy to tell him that. Being sent home would earn him some type of punishment, and loss of prestige.
Captain Wang had done his duty to his country, even though he was supposed to be acting as a member of an international task force. His telepathy allowed him to garner secrets from his comrades that China could use to blackmail them if they needed something for nothing. No one was supposed to know that he was the source of the information.
Wang nodded, not protesting. He reached into Smith's mind for the identity of the spy that had betrayed his true purpose in joining the unit. His effort only revealed that both the US and USSR had forwarded the information through their intelligence networks. The possibility of a mole would have to be reported to his superiors.
Would they believe him?
Captain Wang headed for his quarters. An armed escort fell in beside him to help him along, and then make sure he got on a plane. He knew that he would be out of the country in minutes after packing his clothes.
He should have told Smith what his real mission was so this wouldn't have happened.
He could have defected.
The only way he could avoid punishment by Chairman Mao was to find the agent that leaked his secret back to the UNITF. His telepathy should make that easy. One glance would reveal anyone's guilt.
It had only failed twice in his experience.
The Scots that had joined the task force had both caused his talent to fail. One, MacGraw, always seemed to focus things that had no bearing to who he was, his experiences, any memory. His mind was one track in some ways, but a many branched tree in others. The captain always found himself diverted down some side path away from his objective.
The other, O'Kent, seemed to have a mind made of numerous other consciousnesses that ejected his thought probe before he could get pass any reaction to his presence. The conglomerate had primary residence in the giant's head, and expressed their anger at any intruder.
Wang had sent whatever he could glean from the others back to his government. Only some of it was useful in his opinion. The rest was so personal that he excluded it from his reports. No one needed to know some of the things he had discovered.
Now he was going home.
The guards kept their faces neutral, but their minds danced around the question of Captain Song Lo Wang's exile. Smith hadn't broadcast his spying, or his powers. That was good.
The guards escorted the captain from the facility, to a waiting van, which would take him to a public airport where he would be put on a plane back to China. He had seen the whole route in the one man's mind as he considered short cuts from UNITF's headquarters to the closest airport.
His government had already been informed of his blown cover and was expected to pick him up in Bejing when he arrived.
Captain Wang expected a long debriefing, then some mission in the interior of the country. Better that than a bullet in the back of his head.
Wang closed his eyes at the thought of internal exile. He knew that was the best he could expect for being found out, even if it was not his fault. He had to do something to save his life. These thoughts were uppermost in his mind on the long trip back home.
The escorts waited for his flight to roll to the runway, before they left him alone. The captain watched them go, wishing that he had said something before his identity had been revealed. He should have arranged something, even if it had made him a traitor to his country.
Wang joined the crowd heading for the plane after it taxied to a stop. One glance at a waiting flight attendant told him that it was going to be a long trip. At least his tickets and passport were already taken care of by Smith, and being a member of the diplomatic community allowed him to pass through Switzerland's customs with ease.
Wang boarded at the end of the line, reluctant to leave. His carryon went in its place before he sat down in his chair. The seat next to him was filled with an elderly woman mentally humming a song that hadn't been on the radio since before he was born. He looked out the window, trying not to hear the thoughts running through his neighbor's mind.
The plane took off smoothly after the safety instructions and the command to buckle up and stay in their seats. Wang appreciated the comfortable change from his usual mode of travel on government cargo planes which weren't nearly as quiet as the bird he was riding home.
Captain Wang had taken a seat near the door at the back of the first class section of the plane. He had the window on his right, and appreciated the view of the landscape as the jet soared out of the mountainous borders of Switzerland. Everything looked so peaceful on the ground.
His reverie distracted him from his surroundings so that he was caught unaware that trouble was brewing before it overtook him. His first indication was a man with a heavy beard pushing the flight attendant toward the cockpit. He didn't need his telepathy to tell him the man was holding a gun in his jacket pocket.
Wang looked around, his telepathy veering through the thoughts of everyone on the plane. He found two more hijackers holding coach. The captain settled in his chair, glad that he had decided to wear a plain western suit, and not his army uniform as was his custom. That might have saved his life, allowing him to blend in with the rest of the hostages.
"Would everyone please rise and move to the back of the plane, please?," the flight attendant said over the PA system. "We are having some minor problems near the forward door. It's nothing serious, but we feel for your own safety, that everyone should move back as far as they can until the crisis has passed."
Wang waited until the rest of the passengers had started moving to the back of the plane before he stood and got in line. The same thought that had urged him to wear civilian garb, had also told him to leave his pistol in his luggage, out of reach when he needed it.
He would have to improvise something.
Captain Wang's telepathy was good for gathering information, even broadcasting his thoughts to others, but its range was limited to what he could see. The only people he could broadcast to were in the back of the plane with him. He needed a way to alert the authorities to what was going on without getting anyone killed in the process.
He wasn't ready to fall on his own sword yet either.
Wang wiped his sweaty forehead off with a handkerchief, trying to remain calm. Some of his feelings must have been sensed by the people around him as they calmed to a watchfulness. They seemed to be responding to his effort to keep his wits.
Wang decided the best thing he could do was find out who he was dealing with. The easiest way was to invade the closest man's mind, and cull out what he needed while the man kept an eye on the hostages. Anything could be useful as long as he didn't let on that he was planning some counter move before he could plan such a move.
It only took a moment to sort the hijacker's memories out. The plan was to hijack the plane, and send it crashing into a target in Europe. The leader of the group had that information, but not the lackeys. Then the infidels would burn up, while the faithful went to paradise when the plane hit.
Captain Wang didn't plan to let that happen. He wanted to live despite the welcome home he expected from his superiors. To accomplish his goal, he had to take out the two gun men in the back of the plane first. Then he could try an assault on the one in the cockpit. He needed some way to distract their attention until it was too late for them to block his move.
He needed to separate them.
Wang concentrated on the one man he had already violated. He pushed his own thoughts in the man's head, making the man want to leave the cabin. The man shook his head, like gnats were bothering him. He declared he had to go to the bathroom at the back of the cabin. He walked down the aisle and vanished into the closet before the other man could protest.
Now to take care of the other man before the first one was done with his business.
Wang directed another passenger to wave his hands to get the other hijacker's attention. When the man turned around, a dozen hands grabbed him. The captain made sure he couldn't fire his weapon as feet did their work.
Wang confiscated the hijacker's weapons before moving to the locked bathroom door. One bullet would stop the resident inside, but there was no telling what the bullet would do. Wang decided to wait for the man to come out.
The door opened as the second hijacker stepped outside. He had a moment to realize that his compatriot was on the cabin's floor before something hard crashed against the side of his head. He fell to the carpet, blood exploding from the cut where the captain had clubbed him with the other man's pistol.
Only one left.
Captain Wang moved to the front of the plane, scanning ahead with his telepathy. The leader had locked himself inside the cockpit with the pilots. His underlings had never failed him, so he didn't expect that the passengers would have disarmed them, and trussed them up like turkeys in the aisle at the back of the plane. The element of surprise was in the security officer's favor.
The problem was that Captain Wang couldn't think of anything that wouldn't stop the last hijacker from crashing the plane once he knew that something was up. Wang didn't have any experience storming locked rooms either. He was an intelligence gatherer, not a commando.
Wang put his hand on the cockpit door. He felt the minds at work in the confined space. He had bungled his assignment, allowed his betrayal to be known by the people who trusted him. Now they were the only ones he could call to help him. Smith would never allow innocents to be killed over a personal dislike.
Wang gave his situation some consideration before an idea sprang loose. He couldn't control other minds, but he could talk to them and tell the other brain some information it could use. He needed to get a message out and the pilot was the only one who could do it. He told the pilot what to say on the radio to call for help.
Wang waited by the door to the cockpit. He couldn't tell if the hidden words he had asked the pilot to send would be understood by ground control. His range wasn't that good. It would tell him if the hijacker was suspicious of some of the chatter. That was the best he could hope for at the moment.
This would be easier if he had been able to keep his radio as a member of UNITF. He could just call HQ with a report of what was going on. Now all he could do was wait, and hope his former comrades were alerted. It wouldn't take long for Red Star, or O'Kent to catch the plane with their great speed.
Minutes later, after the other hijackers had been locked in the bathrooms for their own safety, Wang felt a familiar mind approach the plane as the pilot tried to stall reaching the target. It wasn't the choice he would have made, he thought, as Svarog clamped on the door. The metal face stared through the porthole at his former comrade. The cyborg's expression was impossible to read, but it didn't take a mind reader to know he wanted a good explanation.
Wang filled in the mechanical man on what had happened, and what was planned for the plane. Svarog nodded again, his mind filled with the strange American rock and roll pathos he used. It was the most bizarre thing about the Russian creation. His face disappeared from the porthole.
The Russian cyborg had the ability to change his body. It was an experimental thing performed on someone who should have died. There was some secret there, but Wang hadn't been able to ferret it out.
Svarog drifted to the front of the plane, scanning the cockpit with his artificial senses, muttering to himself. He didn't want a catastrophe, just a surgical strike which would let the plane land without exploding on the tarmac, or coming apart in the air. He took aim with his fingers, letting them channel the laser power he wanted to use. The cyborg jetted into view of the pilot, and his passengers. His fingers blazed before anyone had a chance to do anything but wonder what was going on. The hijacker collapsed with a hole burned in his forehead.
Svarog sent a land at once to the pilot in his strange vernacular. The plane began to descend right away, the announcement that the crisis was over following moments later. Wang nodded to himself, knew that the cyborg was following the plane down to whatever strip they were heading for. The authorities would have everything in hand.
Wang made sure his prisoners were secured and out of the way while the plane landed. He didn't want anything to go wrong since the emergency was over. That would be insult on top of injury.
He wondered what would happen after things were settled with the captured hijackers. Maybe he wouldn't be shot after returning to his homeland.
The passengers were allowed to disembark before Spanish police boarded the plane. Captain Wang was escorted off the plane, frowning at the official from the Chinese embassy waiting on the tarmac. A private plane awaited, as soon as he could get the Spanish to release the good captain.
Wang couldn't miss Red Star and Svarog standing to one side.
The official talked to one of the officers, gesturing for Wang to be handed over. The Spaniard said something it didn't take mind reader to understand. The aide drew back. Red Star and Svarog took Wang by the elbows and led him to a room reserved for Customs to do searches of passengers.
"Very good work, Comrade," said Red Star, blocking the door with his armored body. "I am surprised that you acted so altruistically."
"I don't understand," said Wang, who knew what was going on as soon as he saw what was in Red Star's mind. The hijacking had been an excuse for the two Russians to intercept the plane and deal with him according to the orders of their government.
Execution had been Red Star's orders from on high to keep whatever Wang had not reported away from his masters. The captain really hadn't expected anything less.
"I am expected to murder you for the good of the Motherland," said Red Star. "I prefer not to. My commanding officer in the GRU would like to have you dissected. There's no telling what the Americans want."
"What do you plan?," asked Wang, sure that the Russian hero wouldn't do anything to him. The former cosmonaut was a hero through and through.
"Mabeline," said Svarog. "Why can't you be true?"
Wang understood exactly what the two planned then.