Vandergast (6 of 10) - Cinema Extraction Part 1

Thanks for your help Tomken, Akarge and deGaffer (and everybody else).

L'ielit sat in the office of Tribune Whitefeather again, talking about the currently planned extraction. As always, the Tribune had a steaming cup of coffee in his hands. L'ielit had been a bit nervous because the planned extraction was L'ielit's first extraction of sponsors. It was one thing to plan an extraction at Vandergast. It was something completely different to present the plan to someone who had as much experience with extractions as the Tribune. It had helped that earlier in the day the Tribune's team had again supported L'ielit and her team with intelligence and leads.

"I was first surprised when you said you'll bring in two Marine companies for extracting around two-hundred sponsors, but I can see the benefit. I sometimes wish I had more Marines," the Tribune said. He carefully sipped at his coffee. "In the last year it became nearly impossible to do big extractions from big cities. It would be nice if your plan works and you can keep the mob from building to a stampede and you can sort out Earth First terrorists."

L'ielit had arrived in the morning with the Mammoth-3, the third transport ship of Vandergast that was built with outdated technology, and the Bendigo, a Tarawa Class Marine Carrier. The Mammoth-3 had enough space for over two hundred sponsors and their concubines and dependents. The Bendigo carried six hundred Marines, including the two companies L'ielit wanted to use during the extraction. It had enough space that the Marines were allowed to bring one concubine each, just like naval personnel.

L'ielit smiled at the Tribune. She had a nice little offer for the Chief of Targeted Extractions. "Sir, if you need more men, you can get them. The Bendigo won't leave with the Mammoth-3; it will stay. On board are six hundred Marines that are eager to help on extraction missions. They are downsized to better merge with normal citizens. They are trained and fully equipped for this type of mission. They will be on an eight-week rotation with two weeks of traveling time to Vandergast. You don't even need quarters or entertainment for them. They all have one concubine with them. In addition, they can visit Earth in their free time. The six hundred concubines on board are also trained and willing to help at extractions, but more on the support part, less on security and armed missions. Vandergast is offering these Marines' service for extractions. Are you interested in them?" L'ielit already knew the Tribune's answer from the broad smile on his face.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen, this is our target," L'ielit said, pointing at a holographic map. Eight platoon leaders of her extraction team were present at the meeting.

"This is the AMC Theatre, Empire 25 at 234 West 42nd Street, New York City. This will be our very first extraction of sponsors. Therefore we will try to keep a low profile. The plan is to isolate the topmost two floors of the cinema with interdiction fields when the last film of the night has started and we want to be finished before the films have finished. Currently, 'Sex and the City 3', 'Swarm Attack 5', 'Desperate Housewives' the fourth movie and a movie about Einstein and his Theory of Relativity are on the marquee for those four auditoriums, which guarantees both a high female quota and a good amount of Confederacy-compatible sponsors." The platoon leaders grinned.

"First Platoon of Bravo Company will infiltrate the cinema one day early. They'll convince the cinema's personnel to cooperate with the help of hypnotic devices. They also will silently mark Earth First activists. If there are too many of them we'll change the location. Thanks to the AI's we already have the staff list and the duty roster. First Platoon will also check which of the staff members are worth taking with us."

"Second and Third Platoon of Bravo will be split into six teams. Each team will occupy one of the marked roofs and watch for incoming trouble. You will go in and out through transporter disks. Fourth Platoon will wait as a rapid deployment force in this garage. We have bulletproof vehicles for you which look like vans that have seen better days."

"The First and Second Platoon of Charlie Company will stay on board. They will help with dependent extractions as soon as we get the first people on board. In case of serious trouble they can be called as reinforcement. Third Platoon of Charlie will also stay on board and control the armed drones."

"Fourth Platoon of Charlie and sixty concubines will be with me and organize the crowd at the extraction. The cinema's auditoriums we want to clean out have twelve hundred seats alltogether. It's a Friday night show and it's the first week for two of the films, so we expect a full house. The Lieutenants Sneider and Webber, Sergeant Harper and I will each be extraction leader for one room. So each of us will have nine Marines and fifteen concubines to do the work."

Sergeant Potter looked around in the lobby of the cinema. He was standing near a snack bar, drinking a hot chocolate. At this early time on Thursday there were not that many patrons so his men had had plenty of opportunities to prepare the staff members of the cinema with hypnotic devices. Those little gadgets made sure that the people would follow the Marines' orders and wouldn't ask too many questions as long as the Marines managed to keep a low profile. They had introduced themselves as a security team that the media company had hired to check their cinemas. A phone call by the manager to verify that story was redirected by the AI to the Bendigo in orbit.

All the staff members had been checked for connections to Earth First and they had found three, one of them the manager of the cinema, himself. Tomorrow they would each stay at home because of a sudden illness. The Marines had also checked the staff members for sponsors. They had found two. One of them was Peter Ford, a projectionist, who had a pre-pack. His women were working at the snack bars of the cinema. It was good to have the projectionist included in the extraction since he was one of the very few people who would have tried to look into the auditoriums regularly. The other one was Rashid Clark, a member of the cinema's security. Until now Peter Ford and Rashid Clark were clueless.

For Rashid, the security check, ordered by the parent company was just a pain in the ass. Of course, the cinema was as safe as it could be. They had few problems with troublemakers, vandalism or stealing. Now those detectives were interviewing everybody and were generally disturbing the established routine. On the other hand, it was satisfying to see one of the ticket sellers getting really nervous. Rashid had suspected her of stealing money but had never been able to prove it. Rashid had to admit that those detectives had better intimidation techniques to scare a petty criminal. They were all muscular athletes, while Rashid was rather short and slender. Suddenly that fact sprang to his attention. For an ordinary team of detectives they looked too similar. Rashid was more of an observer, not the investigator type in the cinema's security team. He had an idea and wanted to check it out.

Sergeant Potter saw Rashid Clark approaching his position after ordering a café latte.

"Hello Mr. Potter, are you satisfied with the test results so far?" Rashid asked.

"Yes. We'll see how you work under the stress of a Friday night, and then we'll be gone. Right now I see no problems for your cinema," Sergeant Potter answered.

Rashid looked at the Sergeant. "I wonder where you got all those men. They all look like trained fighters of an elite corps. Bulky muscles, all nearly the same height. I wonder if this is your normal work. You are not working for somebody else by accident, maybe the Confederacy?"

Sergeant Potter froze for a split second. "What would you do if I said yes?" the Sergeant asked.

Rashid sipped on his coffee. Then he looked in the sergeant's eyes. "I would try to figure the right time and place and then be there. Is it the whole cinema?"

"Would you try to spread the word?" the Sergeant asked.

"Hell, no!" Rashid answered. "I've seen people dead from a riot outside an extraction. Maybe I would make sure that one of the hostesses is on the duty roster at the right time. I think Amelie is a nice girl."

Sergeant Potter thought for a few seconds and then he said, "She is already."

Rashid raised an eyebrow. "Okay, if you need any help..."

"Thank you," Sergeant Potter smiled, "just do as you said."

Friday night the situation at the cinema was completely different. Probably a thousand people were in the lobby at any given time, buying tickets, snacks or soft drinks. From seven PM there was continual movement. The Marines were somewhere among them but Sergeant Potter wasn't able to spot them without the help of the AI. "If this doesn’t work, it will get really messy," he thought. Shortly before nine o'clock, Sergeant Potter spotted L'ielit. With her height of nearly two meters she was a prominent sight among the film-going public. L'ielit just got her pre-ordered ticket from a booth and vanished into the depths of the cinema.

Those who had been Earth First suspects had called in sick. It seemed they all caught a sudden cold, maybe even the flu.

'Sex and the City 3' was the last of the four films shown in the auditoriums at the two topmost floors. L'ielit waited for the commercials to be over. Currently there were still people floating in from the lobby.

At five past nine, Sergeant Potter found Rashid at the helpdesk in the lobby. "Hello Mr. Clark. I was hoping that my girlfriend would show up. She was eager to see this film, but you know, women... Now I have there two tickets. Do you have any use for them? The clerks won't take them back since the film has started already."

"Why, thank you sir." Rashid took the tickets and then he searched for Amelie to convince her that a date right now was exactly what she wanted. The Sergeant was sure Rashid wouldn't talk to other people. The hypnotic block was still active.

One of the Sergeant's men, Private Fox, did something similar with Peter Ford, the other sponsor. "Hello sir," he talked to the man in a staff-only corridor. "I suggest you take these three tickets and quietly get your pre-pack in there. Please be very careful, we don't want a riot in lower floors or the lobby."

Peter Ford looked very surprised at first, but then he grinned from ear to ear. "Yes sir! Damn I've waited a long time for this. I won't mess it up at the last minute."

At 9:20, while the opening credits were being shown, L'ielit walked toward the screen. The doors were silently closed and an interdiction field appeared only a few centimeters inside the heavy doors. Then the film suddenly stopped and the lights went on again. The same thing happened in the other three auditoriums.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry to interrupt the film, but this is a Confederacy extraction. My name is Centurion L'ielit Debir. The women and men with the blue blazers with the word 'Confederacy' written on their back are Marines who will help you in the next few hours. First, I ask those people with a weapon to very slowly take them out and hand them to one of the Marines. If someone who doesn't want to leave Earth is among the weapon owners, you'll get it back after all the others have left." While L'ielit was speaking, the blazers of the Marines and the tops of the concubines had changed color. Now they collected nearly one-hundred handguns and pepperspray cans.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen!" L'ielit continued. "We will now change the standard procedure a little because we do not have that much space among the seat rows for the normal activities at a pick-up." There was laughter from the audience.

"People who don't want to leave the planet OR kids under the age of fourteen without a parent present OR people beyond their age of fertility OR adults who actually don't carry a CAP card. Everybody who fits in one of these categories, please keep your seats. Enjoy the show or try to ignore it. When we are finished here the film will continue. All others get your CAP ID ready. You'll need it in a few minutes."

There was a disturbance when a woman searched her purse for two minutes without finding her CAP card. When the man beside her tried to calm her she shouted at him and hit him in his face. A Marine hit her with a stinger and she slumped down in her seat. Then the AI informed the Marine and L'ielit that the woman's CAP ID was in the pocket of the man.

"Sir, would you please stand up and show me what's in your pockets?" the Marine asked. The man searched his pockets but tried to hide the card. With a quick move the Marine bent him over the seat back and took out the card. "Can you please tell me why this card is in your pocket? It's not yours."

"Fuck you! Nobody gets my wife as his new sex toy!" the man shouted.

The buzzing sound indicated that the stinger was used once again. L'ielit asked for the two people's CAP scores. The AI informed her that the man had a CAP score of only 3.4, while his wife had a CAP score of 5.3. L'ielit sighed. "It looks like I have to explain the rules again. EVERYBODY has to decide on his own if he or she wants to leave Earth. NOBODY is allowed to force someone else to stay or leave. You can politely ask. That's all we will tolerate."

"Okay, here is the plan for this event. We will ask everybody if he or she wants to leave Earth, no matter what CAP score you have. We know that we have two-hundred-and-forty-four potential concubines and sixteen sponsors here, eight-hundred-and-fifty concubines and two-hundred-and-sixteen sponsors in all four auditoriums we are currently cleaning out, with more female than male sponsors. This is a very uncommon ratio but the current film mix seems to attract a different audience than usual. Most concubines will get a sponsor. The normal interviewing with a test drive and everything will be done on board our colony ship. There is only one thing that we ask the concubines to do right now. Strip and make a bundle out of your clothes that you can easily carry in one hand. If you can't cope with being nude in front of so many people, it might be a good idea to sit down and stay here. The life of a concubine in the colonies requires a lot of obedience and in case you are not part of a pre-pack you will most probably have sex with one or more total strangers within the next few days. Concubines AND sponsors, go to one of the Marines and show him your CAP ID for a double check. Then walk toward one of the transporter disks. Don't start pushing. We won't leave that soon. Take your property with you. Sponsors with a pre-pack, please keep your pre-pack together. Once you have walked through the transporter, there will be other Marines. Follow their orders. They'll ask you for the names and locations of your offspring under the age of fourteen. We will collect them all as soon as possible." L'ielit watched the people organize and repeated her orders several times.

Half an hour later the cinema was nearly empty. L'ielit ordered two concubines to carry the paralyzed woman on board the Mammoth-3. "Ask her if she wants to leave Earth as a concubine as soon as she wakes up," she ordered.

Now there were only fifteen people left. The paralyzed man, a group of four women all obviously older than sixty, two young boys and eight girls also probably under the age of fourteen. L'ielit approached two of the girls. They looked disappointed and a little frightened. "May I ask why you stay here?"

"We have no CAP cards," one of the girls said with tears in her eyes. "We're runaways. We ran away from our father only two days ago. The people he is meeting lately scared us and our father didn't allow us to visit a CAP test center or do anything else. We haven't had a chance to get a CAP card and then we ran into this pick-up."

"Oh my," L'ielit sighed. "Do you have any other identity cards? We need to check your age, and then we can check your CAP score on board our ship." The girls reached for their handbags and handed L'ielit an old library card and a student ID. "AI, check these names. If they are old enough, I want to take them with us for a CAP test," L'ielit ordered sub-vocally.

<The identities of Rebecca and Susan Mills are confirmed. Rebecca is fourteen years old. Susan is fifteen years old. They both vanished together with their father fifteen months ago when their mother was picked as a concubine. We weren't able to collect Rebecca as a dependent.>

"Hmmm. You look a little younger than you are. Where have you been in the past year," L'ielit asked the girls.

Susan told their story. Their dad had told them that their mother had been killed and they had to flee. They traveled the country for several months. Their father hadn't allowed them to leave their hotel room during that time. Their father had met people who helped them with money. First it had been preachers, but very quickly people showed up that scared the girls. For the past six months they had lived in a house in Queens like prisoners. They were escorted to school and back by several of her father's new friends most of the time. Two days ago, their father left the house together with most of the other residents for some kind of meeting. The girls took the opportunity, stole some money and left the house with the few things they thought were worth taking with them.

L'ielit listened to the girls' story and made a decision. "Okay, you two come with me and you will get CAP tested. After that you can decide what to do, even returning to Earth." L'ielit spoke up, "Is there anybody else without a CAP card? We'll check your CAP score on board the ship. Anybody under the age of fourteen without a parent present or any other reason that might be temporary and fixable? We'll try something new here and pick your parents as dependents, if at least one of them is willing to leave Earth." To the AI she added sub-vocally, "Double-check the identities of those girls very carefully. A library card is not what I'd call a proof of their identity."

After that, only the old ladies and the paralyzed man were left behind. The ladies had stated that they would most likely be dead when the Sa'arm arrived. They were only unhappy because there had been no live sex show at the extraction.

No one noticed the pick-up until midnight when the first film was over and the doors opened to an empty auditorium. The Marines on the roofs of the surrounding buildings withdrew without a trace. The extractions of dependents lasted only three hours with five-hundred Marines on duty.