Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Read online

  Trinity Unleashed

  Book One

  Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado

  Rodney W. Hartman

  DEDICATION

  ______________________________

  This book is dedicated to my granddaughter Susan. You’re a sweet girl, and I love you very much. I believe the world is going to be a much better place because of you.

  Other Books by Rodney W. Hartman

  Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles

  Wizard Defiant Book One

  Wizard Cadet Book Two

  Wizard Scout Book Three

  Wizard Omega Book Four

  Wizard Rebellion Book Five

  Wizard Betrayed Book Six (TBP)

  Table of Contents

  ______________________________

  DEDICATION

  Other Books by Rodney W. Hartman

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Recon

  Chapter 2 – Saying Goodbye

  Chapter 3 – Change of Mission

  Chapter 4 – The Defiant

  Chapter 6 – The Major

  Chapter 7 – Missing Data

  Chapter 8 – The Priests

  Chapter 9 – The Temple

  Chapter 10 – Dissenters

  Chapter 11 – More Mystery

  Chapter 12 – Retrofit

  Chapter 13 – Favors Owed

  Chapter 14 – CSI Headquarters

  Chapter 15 – The Insertion

  Chapter 16 – The Hallowed Gem

  Chapter 17 – Last Kiss

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1 – Recon

  ______________________________

  Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado tried adjusting the filter of her battle helmet to compensate for the noonday suns but gave up in disgust after fiddling with it for a few seconds. The twin suns overhead made it all but impossible to make any kind of useful adjustment to the visor of her battle helmet. As a result, heat waves off the surface of the spaceport’s concrete taxiways and parking pads distorted the view of the scurrying hovercraft making detailed inspection virtually impossible.

  “Jennifer.” Trinity thought in the space of her mind she shared with her battle computer. “I need better videos. It’s too hot for either my thermals or the helmet’s regular night vision filter. Do something.”

  The images on the heads-up display of Trinity’s battle helmet took on a slightly sharper aspect.

  “Compliance,” said a feminine voice in Trinity’s mind. “How’s that, wizard scout?”

  “Better, but I still can’t identify the passengers in those vehicles? Can you?”

  “Negative, wizard scout. Not at this distance. I’m a battle computer, not a miracle worker. I calculate you either need to get closer or use your active scan.”

  Trinity weighed the risk of an active scan. All objects whether living or dead released at least some Power. A wizard scout’s scan detected that Power and provided information on the object. Like most wizard scouts, she kept her passive scan up at all times. A passive scan was similar to listening in that it only sensed what was sent out by something else. Listening picked up noise created by something whereas a passive scan detected Power released by objects. As a result, passive scans were virtually impossible to detect. On the other hand, they didn’t provide detailed information about an object. Active scans were more like old radar units in that a wizard scout had to send out Power which ‘pinged’ back from the object in order to provide detailed information. Active scans were consequently susceptible to detection by enemy sensors if not done carefully.

  After a few seconds of internal deliberations, Trinity made her decision. “I don’t want to risk an active scan at this point in time. I know I could wrap it with a stealth shield to make it more difficult to detect, but even that’s too risky if I don’t need to do it. My mission is to recon the spaceport. All I need to do is pinpoint the location of our target. I’m not supposed to get into a firefight unless absolutely necessary.”

  “Well,” said Jennifer, “since you don’t want to risk an active scan, then that leaves you with only one other option if you want to complete your mission. You need to get closer.”

  Trinity raised her head a little until the smallest area of her helmet’s visor as necessary was above the rim of the small depression where she lay. Everything in the fifteen hundred meters between her and the spaceport was flat and barren of cover. In the eighteen hours since she’d been teleported to the desert planet, she still hadn’t found a path through the spaceport’s heavily mined and guarded perimeter.

  Trinity shook her head. “Negative on getting closer. My specialization is detection. I’m not a diviner. I’m picking up several hundred electronic sensors between us and the spaceport’s force field. I can detect them, but it would take a wizard scout specializing in diviner abilities to bypass their systems. You know how rare they are. I wouldn’t make it a hundred meters before I’d have half of the Balorian security teams on me.”

  “Actually, I calculate an eighty-four percent probability you’d make it a hundred and twenty meters before they spotted you.”

  “I stand corrected, but for some reason that doesn’t give me a warm, cozy feeling.”

  Increasing the magnification on her battle helmet’s visor, Trinity took it up to maximum. The two hover-vehicles leaving a newly-arrived starship grew larger on her display. Unfortunately, the blurred image caused by the magnification made it impossible to make out the identities of the occupants.

  “Is that the best we can get out of this battle helmet?” Trinity asked.

  “Sorry, wizard scout. We’ve reached the limitations of our technology. If you’d been issued one of the newer M6 battle suits, you’d have no problem. Unfortunately, you’ve still got one of the old M4 models. I calculate if you tried getting along with your superiors a little better, maybe you’d be issued more modern equipment. As it is, you really do either have to move closer or use your active scan.”

  Trinity eyed the area between the spaceport and her again. She took another look at the hundreds of sensors picked up by her passive scan. After almost a minute, she shrugged her shoulders. “What the heck? I was getting bored anyway. Plot me the location of the sensors I’ve picked up with my passive scan onto my heads-up display. Overlay them on the known terrain features between us and the spaceport’s force field.”

  “Compliance.”

  A map of the landscape appeared on the heads-up display located on the inside of Trinity’s visor. The map showed a nearly solid perimeter of yellow dots to Trinity’s front stretching to her left and right.

  “I could do a more accurate plot if you used your active scan,” said Jennifer.

  “Negative on the active scan, Jennifer. I’m good, but I’m not that good. I told you it’s not worth the risk. We’ll just have to find another way. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “I’m a computer,” said Jennifer sounding a little indignant. “I base decisions on logic. The ‘maybe we will get lucky’ department is all yours, wizard scout.”

  Trinity sighed. She wondered if other battle computers gave their wizard scouts as much grief as Jennifer did her. Even after twelve years of working together, she had a hard time figuring her battle computer out. She had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any better during the next twelve years.

  “I calculate an eighty-seven percent probability they won’t,” said Jennifer.

  “Stop reading my mind. You know I don’t like it.”

  “Then stop thinking in our shared space. You’ve got a private ar
ea in your mind. You should try using it once in a while.”

  “Blow it out your—”

  “Incoming,” said Jennifer. “Six armored vehicles are departing that convoy on the eastern road and heading in our direction.”

  Reaching out with her mind, Trinity stretched her passive scan to the east. Sure enough, two hover-tanks and four other hover-vehicles had peeled off from a convoy traveling in the direction of the spaceport. A green line on her battle helmet’s heads-up display made a straight line from the six vehicles to her current location.

  “Bummer,” Trinity said. “How’d they spot me?”

  “We don’t know that they have, wizard scout. I calculate a seventeen percent chance they may be heading in this direction for another reason.”

  Looking around for a possible escape route, Trinity found none. The camouflage system on the M4 battle suit she wore was good, but she knew it wasn’t good enough to keep the vehicle drivers from spotting her if she left her hidey-hole and ran. The twin suns gave out too much light. Her camouflage system was intended for dimmer areas such as poorly lit warehouses or tunnels.

  “I concur,” said Jennifer who was obviously picking up her wizard scout’s thoughts. “The visual sensors on the vehicles are bound to spot you if you move now. I recommend you think of an alternate course of action since time is running out.”

  Resolutely, Trinity unhooked her phase rod from the left side of her utility belt. She flicked the switch of the modified riot baton to extend the meter long length of brerellium steel out the handle, but she didn’t activate its creallium core.

  “Smart,” said Jennifer. “Once you activate the core, the phase energy could be picked up by the vehicles’ instruments. Like I said, there’s a slim chance they haven’t spotted you yet.”

  “Yeah, right,” Trinity said. “And I’ve got some swamp land on Velos I’ll sell you real cheap if you believe that.”

  “But I don’t need any—”

  “Never mind. It was joke. Don’t get your processors in a wad over it.”

  “Compliance, wizard scout.”

  Trinity pulled the Deloris blaster out of the holster on her right hip. She did a quick calculation. The weapon’s magazine contained seventeen rounds. Two extra magazines were in the ammo pouch on her utility belt. Unlike a regular plasma weapon which used isotopic batteries, a phase weapon consisted of cartridges of creallium surrounded by phase energy. She preferred the phase weapon since the combination of solid metal and phase energy often penetrated shields or force fields a plasma weapon couldn’t.

  “You’ve got fifty-one rounds,” volunteered Jennifer.

  “Thanks for the update. I think I could’ve figured that one out for myself.”

  “You’re welcome, wizard scout.”

  Trinity gauged her chances. They weren’t good.

  “Your right,” said Jennifer. “They’re not good. The lead vehicle is only four hundred meters away now. It’s a single-occupant light reconnaissance hovercraft.”

  Raising her head slightly over the rim of the depression, Trinity eyeballed the approaching vehicle. It was a good two hundred meters ahead of its companions. The hovercraft was an older-model BR15 scout car. While a good recon vehicle in its time, its light armor made it vulnerable to small-arms fire.

  “Not to mention its electronic sensors are out of date,” said Jennifer. “That may work to your advantage.”

  Eyeing the Deloris pistol in her right hand, Trinity moved the safety to the off position. “Maybe I should’ve brought an anti-armor weapon. This little popgun isn’t going to do much good even against light armor.”

  “Shoulda; woulda; coulda,” said Jennifer sounding not the least bit sympathetic. “It’s too late to worry about it now. Besides your mission was only to recon the spaceport and locate the pirate’s prisoner for a future rescue team. It’s not to engage armor in a hopeless battle and go out in a blaze of glory.”

  Choosing to ignore her battle computer, Trinity continued to monitor the approaching vehicles. “Their formation seems odd to me. Show me the predicted individual paths of all six vehicles.”

  The overlay on her heads-up display flickered. Six green lines stretched out from the vehicles. The track of the lead vehicle passed directly over the depression where she lay. The tracks of the other vehicles stretched out two hundred meters to either side of her hole.

  “Their formation makes no sense if they’ve spotted me,” Trinity said half as a thought and half as a statement.

  “Were you talking to me, wizard scout? Do you have a request?”

  “No,” Trinity said. “I mean, yes. Connect to the tele-network. Get me the specs for the underside of a BR15 scout car. I want to know if there’s enough clearance for me to fit between its anti-gravity fans and the ground. While you’re at it, get ready to activate my battle suit’s magnetics when I give the word.”

  “Compliance.”

  Rolling over onto her back so that she was facing upward, Trinity made sure not to raise any part of her body above the rim of her hole. Just as she finished turning over, a stream of specifications began scrolling down the left side of her heads-up display.

  “I see what you have in mind, wizard scout, and I concur. Assuming the routes of the vehicles remain constant, and assuming the lead hover-car really does pass directly over your hole, and assuming the driver doesn’t fire the antipersonnel mines located on the vehicle’s underside as soon he’s above you, then your impromptu plan might work. Unfortunately, I calculate only a four percent probability your reflexes are quick enough to succeed.”

  “Understood,” Trinity said unperturbed. She’d already figured the odds of her doing it successfully on her own wasn’t good. Fortunately, she had another option. “What if I gave you control of the battle suit? What’s the probability you could latch onto the bottom of the vehicle as it passes overhead?”

  “You mean assuming this whole thing’s not a ploy to make you stay here until the pilot tears your body to shreds with those antipersonnel mines?”

  “Yeah, assuming that.”

  “Then the probability is one hundred percent, wizard scout. I’m a battle computer. As part of your battle helmet and battle suit, I’m integrated into the most advanced recon armor in the galaxy. I think at nanosecond speed. I—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Trinity said. “Save it for the recruitment videos. In the meantime, concentrate on making it happen. In about five seconds, we’re going to find out whether this is a trap or if I’m the luckiest wizard scout this side of Sirius Minor.”

  Five seconds later, Trinity figured she’d used up a large portion of her luck allotment for the year. The lead recon vehicle passed directly over her depression without slowing down. Just as two large rotating blades appeared overhead, the legs and arms of her battle suit flexed downward thrusting her up against the force of the blast from the hovercraft’s anti-gravity fans. A split-second later, her battle helmet’s face plate along with the rest of her battle suit was plastered against the underside of the vehicle.

  “Your suit’s magnetics are holding,” said Jennifer. “Unfortunately for you, there’s only a hundred centimeters clearance between your backside and the ground. You should thank your lucky stars most of the land surface on this part of the planet is relatively flat sand.”

  Trinity was grateful. She was also thankful she had enough trust in Jennifer to override the safeties in her battle suit. With the override activated, her battle computer had full control over her armor. She was basically going along for the ride inside her battle suit until Jennifer released control back to her. Not all wizard scouts trusted their battle computers enough to utilize the suit’s override option. She knew some wizard scouts who were so distrusting they’d probably refuse to activate their overrides even in the face of imminent death. She wasn’t one of those scouts. She trusted Jennifer, and she had never hesitated to give her battle computer control when the situation warranted.

  “Well, we’re here,” said Jenn
ifer. “Now what?”

  Trinity wanted to say ‘How in the galaxy would I know?’, but she refrained. Her battle computer was asking a valid question. The trouble was she didn’t have an answer at the moment.

  Glancing at the green lines on her heads-up display, Trinity made a guess at the intentions of the vehicles’ crews. “I’m thinking the leader of these pirates ordered them to make a sweep of the convoy’s flank. If my luck holds out, they should make a gradual turn to link back up with the main convoy. Maybe I can stay hidden under here all the way through the spaceport’s gate.”

  “Maybe,” replied Jennifer sounding unconvinced. “However, I calculate there’s only a better than a snowball’s chance in hell that will occur. I calculate a sixty-two percent probability the guards at the gate will sweep the underside of the vehicles with sniffers before passing them through. I highly recommend you not be under here when they do.”

  “All right then,” Trinity said. “It’s easy to shoot down other people’s ideas. Do you have any suggestions of your own?”

  “As it so happens, wizard scout, I have a list of over two thousand recommendations. Most of them have less than a tenth of one percent chance of not getting you killed. However, I do have one suggestion that has a reasonable probability of success. There appears to be a drainage culvert on both sides of the main road. Recommend you drop into the culvert as the vehicle passes over.”

  “A drainage culvert?” Trinity said. “Are you kidding me? What’s it supposed to drain? This place is dryer than the inside of one of the blast furnaces back at my parents’ brerellium steel mill on Octavis Four.”

  “Not hardly,” said Jennifer. However, since I calculate you’re making a joke, I’ll let your comment pass. In any regard, this place is only dry during the summer months when both suns are at their apex like now. In the rainy season, the road would flood without appropriate drainage.”