top, the other beneath. The pair of curved bodies were mated via the trigger guard, and then at the front with a second guard.
"They're not quite right," Keyes said. "What's that on the side?"
From what Keyes knew in briefings, Covenant plasma rifles had a small temperature gauge on the side. This had been replaced with a counter with the numerals "380" glowing on the tiny display. Someone had already tested the weapon.
"Good eye," Hansen said. "Yes, these guns let you know how many shots are left. There is also this."
She reached over and took the bulky weapon back from Watanabe. A quick, firm press near the front of the plasma rifle caused the casing to click, and a tiny targeting reticule popped up.
"What we have here," Hansen said, "is a Covenant weapon that seems modified for human usage. The counter, you'll note, doesn't use any form of Covenant numbering, but rather our own."
The truck ground to a halt.
"The Insurrectionists are already here," someone reported from a monitor.
"Good." Hansen tapped her earpiece. "Everyone knows their places, let's get it done."
She walked out the back with the plasma rifle in hand.
One of the agents at the monitors waved them over. He pulled a stool out from the wall. "We can hear what Captain Hansen there is saying, and see through a buttonhole camera."
Keyes and Watanabe stood by the agent's shoulder. "What's your name, son?" Keyes asked.
The agent glanced back. "Smith, Josh Smith, sir."
"Good to meet you, Smith." On the screen Hansen moved close to a trio of men wearing simple gray coveralls, just like herself. The man in front had a military cut, and scarred cheeks from some sort of explosion, and was whip-thin. "Who are we looking at here?"
Smith tapped another monitor lower down on the wall to reveal a set of files pertaining to the operation. "The man in front, that's Jason Kincaide, a known Insurrectionist. Mid-level sort of guy. The other two are just heavies of his."
Hansen approached Kincaide, and they shook hands. The sting was on.
But in the back of the unit, someone held up a hand. "We're getting reports of disturbances four blocks away. Can someone bring up the live sat imagery?"
One of the larger screens flickered. Keyes walked away from Smith's station and looked at it.
There were thousands of people milling about.
"I can get street cam shots," Smith said. He minimized the video of Hansen and Kincaide meeting each other and exchanging code words, and pulled up a small window showing a street corner.
The rioters had a large battering ram, made from a chopped-down tree. They were smashing in a door to a warehouse while the crowd shouted
encouragement.
"This could cause a problem," Watanabe muttered.
"Maybe," Smith said. "We'll see if they keep moving down. Anyone call this in?"
"Yeah, but they're more focused on downtown," came the reply from another agent. "This a low-priority area."
"If they were a military branch we could have over-ridden that," Smith muttered. "Shit. They're moving at us."
The mood changed inside from operational calm to nervousness. The mob could be seen on several screens as more doors were kicked in or smashed
open.
"We're going to have to call it off." Smith tapped another screen. "Hansen, we've got a mob breathing down on us; we're not getting out of here if we delay things. Nod once if you're going to break it off and jet, or twice if you think we should round these jokers up as well."
Hansen straightened, and then nodded twice.
"Go, go, go!" someone shouted from the back.
A ramp dropped from the side of the container and hit the ground, kicking up dust. The ONI agents leapt out into the warehouse, rifles up and aimed at Kincaide and his men.
Kincaide shook his head, but kept his hands up near his chest. "You sons of -- "
One of the agents hit him on the side of the head with the butt of his battle rifle and the Insurrectionist dropped to his knees.
"This won't be the end," Kincaide shouted. "There are more where I came from. We'll find you in your homes, at night, and kill you there. We won't stop until this world is ours, as it rightfully should be."
He got another jab in the head for his shouting. A trickle of blood ran down his temple, and he looked dazed. Within seconds, they had his arms zip-tied behind his back, and the three Insurrectionists were shoved quickly into the trailer.
"Let's move it!" Smith yelled at everyone. "They're about a hundred yards up the street."
"You heard the man -- pull that ramp back in, let's roll,"
Hansen shouted. She walked toward Watanabe. "Well, I guess that's that."
"I'm sorry." Watanabe stepped aside to let her stalk back down the center of the trailer. The agents up front pulled the ramp back up and dogged it shut with a loud slam. Engines belched as they started up.
"The damn situation is what's messed up, Watanabe. We're all pulling overtime and doing our duty. It's next to impossible to run ops while the city is falling apart. How are we going to face the Covenant when we don't even have our own crap in gear?"
Keyes grabbed ahold of the back of Smith's chair as the trailer jerked into motion. "They always used to say that if an alien menace threatened humanity, we'd put aside all our differences, band together to face it as one."
Watanabe shook his head sadly. "They were wrong. When you look at wars, even ones where it looks like people were united, there are always factions and jockeying. At the close of the Rain Forest Wars Neo-Friedenists turned against hardliner Friedenists in Delambre when the UNSC got in close. The Neos hated UN control, but they tried to then negotiate for a surrender that left them in some sort of power. You read Elias Carver's work?"
Keyes nodded. "Carver's a pessimist."
"Hundreds of religions. Competing corporate-backed colonies. Political persuasions of every imaginable variety breed in the shadows, and there is a lingering resentment at the UN for trying to keep all the colonies under an Earth government. The colonies, Lieutenant Keyes, are a powder keg. The Covenant advancing on us doesn't make the mixture any less volatile. And the enemy can always try to exploit that, if they have really good
intelligence. That's why these guns are worrying. They're a fuse, Keyes."
The ONI convoy drove through the giant warehouse doors.
"I'd give anything to know what factions exist among the Covenant," Keyes said.
"Yeah, but they're aliens, and we can't assume they think or work like us, because so far -- " Watanabe started, then turned. Keyes heard it too, a jetlike roaring swoosh.
The front of the command trailer erupted in a fireball. The whole unit lifted off its wheels, and slammed back down to the ground, grinding into the road as it came to a slow stop. Keyes pitched forward, slamming into a chair.
"Get down!" Hansen shouted. "RPGs!"
Fire raged in front of Keyes, licking its way up the walls. A monitor exploded from the heat, shooting glass shards everywhere. He crawled back toward Watanabe, who had pulled his sidearm out and was looking back down at the door leading out.