When Diplomacy Fails . . .

  “No?” prompted Aramis.

  “Oh, some of the files are better than others, but I’m getting partial hits already. Sloppy.”

  “Here’s tables,” Jason said.

  “Not just tables,” Elke said in wonder. “Let me throw this up. Hold on.”

  A moment later an image scrolled on the screens.

  Jason said, “Wow.”

  Alex agreed, “Wow.”

  Jason pointed with a finger.“This actually has her movements, all past, known future, and a grid. It has summaries of ranges and timeframes. I can’t think of any way to look at this except as intent to assassinate.”

  Alex said, “Okay. Elke?”

  “I concur. There’s no other way to consider it. This graph is drawn up as a predictive syllogism. When they fill in one of these boxes, they can move to be in the same place and get a free shot, and likely not even hurt us in the process.”

  “Yeah, that would eliminate her and destroy us professionally. We’ve never lost one. But lose the wrong one . . .”

  “Or,” Elke muttered, “if they miss her, they can try for us.”

  “That depends. Do they want to embarrass us or kill us?”

  “Some would go for either.”

  Alex held up a hand, and said, “Captain Das, I need to politely evict you at this point. Elke, cut him a copy of the stick.”

  Das said, “I really need to take the original.”

  “I know you do, sir, but we need to cover our legal ass. I’m holding onto it. Do please file with your legal office. That will help track its existence, and then we can let you have it in a day or so.”

  Das looked uncomfortable.

  “I officially have to refuse your request, take it with me, and I’m afraid I can’t leave without it.” He looked sad, stubborn and irritated.

  “I understand your position perfectly, sir,” Alex said. “Bart, carefully throw him out.” He clicked his phone. “Cady, Captain Das must be escorted off the premises. Gently.”

  Das let Bart drag him to the door and shove him into the waiting arms of two of the Facilities detail.

  Once it was closed and Bart sat back down, Elke and Jason both ran scans again, nodded, and continued.

  Jason said, “The point is, this is clear evidence of a current lethal threat, in process, against our principal, at any event off this installation or not in a facility we control. Even on the latter, I’d be wary.”

  “Yes. So we need to pull the plug.”

  “Where? We can’t take her back to Earth. That’s obviously a nonstarter. She won’t hear it, and any threat will be ready for it. We can’t hide out until the election’s over.”

  “Can we hide out until she can’t win?”

  Shaman said, “That would mean entire days. We’d have to kidnap her. In which case, we face criminal charges ourselves, and of course, that would boost her popularity, in which case they’d want to arrange an Elke-sized accident for her.”

  “So what options do we have? Face known threats? Admit we know about the threats and hope to evade them, with the added danger of them knowing our awareness?”

  Aramis said, “I have a suggestion, but it’s extreme.”

  “So are the circumstances. Go.”

  “We take her, skip out, leave some hints, make some calls, and try to orchestrate everyone to dogpile. Once they’re all coming down on us, we take out the internal threats, evade the minor ones, and return here triumphantly.”

  Jason said, “Hell, man, that gives her the election.” Is that what they had to do?

  Bart said, “That is what her opponents are trying to stop.”

  “True.”

  Elke said, “It also exposes us to a lot of fire.”

  Alex looked at her and replied, “If we pursue that tactic, you may of course use all the explosive you need.”

  She smiled faintly. “Then I approve of it.”

  Jason said, “Do we need to move now? Let’s get this clear.”

  Alex pulled up a connection.

  “Cady here.”

  “Jace, Alex. Come down. We need advice and may need backup.”

  “Arriving.”

  She was at the door thirty seconds later.

  Once it was closed, Alex said, “We’re discussing Plan E.” Evasion.

  Jason said, “So, this Huble character is a friend of hers. He knows all her official movements, and he knows some of the campaign ones, but not the most random ones.”

  “The random ones get nuisance attacks. The scheduled ones get more serious attacks.”

  Cady said, “That is to be expected anyway.” She seated herself on the edge of a table.

  “Yes, but these are significant attacks, escalating. They’re not massive enough to take her out, but are major enough to provoke a response from us.”

  “Embarrassment?”

  Alex said, “It fits. And Huble is a known bastard. This is not a surprise.”

  “But he’s in her party,” Cady observed, and stared at her fingers.

  “And she’s a questionable candidate—it’s very up in the air as to who might win, and she’s got a lot of baggage. But Cruk has little background. That means no dirt as well, and he’s photogenic and a good speaker, and has the incumbent edge.”

  “You think they’re trying to off her to push him?”

  “Sympathy vote. Remember Champion died in a ship crash a decade ago, and his son took the vote? Reginald, the son, was trailing by thirty points, but sympathy and a clean slate pushed him over the top.”

  “So you think they’re deliberately looking for that?”

  Aramis said, “It fits. She’s talking to a friend and relaying her movements, and they have that damned JessieM for fire correction once they’re close.”

  Alex said, “I think they’re trying to either get a lucky kill or cause us to hurt her and ourselves politically.”

  Jason said, “And they get to try to blame us if they set it up right, or at least decry our ‘incompetence.’ Or even eliminate us in the process, if they get lucky enough.”

  Bart asked, “Do you think any of our past enemies are involved?”

  Alex said, “Who knows? There are so many. None of them would mourn us. Would many of them invest money or time in it? Likely not. It’s bad for existing business. A couple of them are completely out of the field, too, and not players.”

  Alex sighed.

  Shaman spoke up. “The problem is, we aren’t investigators and have limited resources. We can’t depose anyone or go digging too deeply. So we’re doing this based on available raw intelligence and our own problem-solving ability. We’re good, but this is not our field. What we need to stick to is how urgent and significant we think a threat is, and go from there.”

  That was a clear summation.

  Jason said, “It’s clear the threats and tactics are escalating. It’s not a case of if they’ll reach critical, but when. We need to pull her out before then.” He stared at the screened charts, hoping for enlightenment.

  Bart said, “I’d do so now. It registers as unholdable. What is the word?”

  “Untenable,” Aramis said. “Whether or not we can, I agree we certainly should. I have my own reasons, of course.” His jaw clenched as he spoke.

  Shaman asked, “What else can we tell, though? Who? Who have they hired?”

  Jason said, “They’re increasingly good. My guess is they’re not amateurs, but are playing it. An obvious pro hit would be bad. An accident or faction split would be beneficial to the campaign.”

  Aramis said, “Wait, there could be some interest in a faction, too.”

  Alex nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think we have time to figure out all those connections. We should try, of course, but that’s secondary to the power behind it.”

  “Still, they escalate until they succeed, and blame whichever group is nearest, most likely, most interested at that moment, had a previous interest, doesn’t really matter.”

  Elke said, “They are going to
try to take us out, too. They can either then play the ‘We’re all allies’ card or the ‘mercenary bastards had it coming’ card. Which means they’ll be better placed for any followup against her.”

  Cady offered, “They might also try for us as a secondary target, getting them closer to her.”

  Alex grinned. “That sounds almost vid. Would any of their people trust them?”

  “They’d bring in second stringers,” Aramis said. “Other agents borrowed under the exigencies of the situation, from some bureau they don’t like as well.”

  Jason remembered something from a year past and said, “Like the Nutrition and Medication people caught in that payoff scandal.”

  Alex sounded unimpressed. “That would almost be obvious.”

  Aramis shrugged. “Not to the typical vid watcher.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. But it doesn’t matter who at this point. They’re not our concern, and in that particular case, the bastards have it coming.”

  Cady said, “Right. Our concern is keeping us alive, her alive, and disabling their attack. That’s all tied for first. Anything else is second.”

  Shaman said, “Assuming we do positively ID the threat, we cannot tell her. Nor discuss it meantime. Between her and her friend, and JessieM, we might as well flash a bulletin to the enemy directly.”

  “Concur.”

  “So we’re going to string along until almost the last minute, and try to bail before the hit happens, close enough that the attempt is made so we’re proven right.”

  Elke said, “What could possibly go wrong?”

  Alex said, “She’ll refuse to believe me. I’ll put fifty on it.”

  “No bet,” she said, sounding sad.

  CHAPTER 20

  ALEX WAS QUITE SURE his logical appeals to Highland would be a waste of time, but he was required to make an attempt. He looked at Cady.

  “Highland is probably going to resist the idea. I’ll need backup from you later. For now, I need you to let us go.”

  Cady said, “It would be better if you didn’t tell me this and just did it. But I understand. I’ll delay my people as long as possible. I’ll prep for interception later. Are we telling Corporate?”

  “Eventually, by coded message. The one I sent today just tells them I’m about to go to Earth. Meyer trusts me.”

  Cady said, “He trusts you, while he swallows handfuls of stress relievers.”

  “Yeah, well he has that luxury.”

  “I’ll be ready. Good luck, Alex.” She smiled and offered a hand.

  “Thanks,” he said, and shook.

  Cady turned and left. He waited three minutes, then walked to Highland’s section. Aramis went with him, with a nod.

  Leitelt and Branson were on duty, checked his name as a formality, and waved him in. He knew them by sight only. Cady had twenty-eight people now, in three teams.

  JessieM received him first.

  “Chief Marlow, how are you today?”

  “Very good, Jessie, thank you. Is Ms. Highland busy?”

  Jessie nodded her head toward the inner office. “She’s conducting a recorded interview. It should be done in a few minutes.”

  “I have a security issue to discuss. We can wait.”

  “I’ll ping her screen,” Jessie said, and swiped across her own interface.

  Two minutes later, Elke, Jason and Shaman came in, looking relaxed and casual in sport shirts for local daywear. It was disarming camouflage for what they were about to do.

  JessieM looked at them a bit quizzically, but monitored her screen and after a couple of minutes said, “You can go in now.”

  “Thank you.”

  He took one deep breath, knocked as a courtesy and pushed the door in.

  “Good morning, ma’am. Thank you for seeing me again.”

  “What can I do for you, Chief Marlow? I’m afraid I only have about ten minutes before my next call.”

  “That’s plenty, ma’am,” he said. He stayed standing as he said, “The first item is that we know why the threats are escalating. They make you popular. The original intents seem to have been to embarrass you out of the race. Then they attempted to make you afraid. Then to make you look incompetent. At each level, though, your visibility and popularity increase. You’re the underdog. So now they’re concertedly trying to kill you.”

  “That’s what you’re for, isn’t it?” She looked dismissive and almost gratified.

  “It is. That is exactly what we are for. Which is the point of the second item.” He watched. She didn’t notice Aramis sidling back along the wall.

  “What’s that?”

  “We need to vacate this area now.” His voice was calm, but had that professional urgency to it.

  “We seem to be perfectly safe and comfortable here,” she said, holding up her open arms. She seemed reasonable, but he expected that would change as soon as he took the next step.

  “We may seem to be, but given the progression of attacks, I must consider more explosives to be a credible and expected threat.”

  “Then deal with it. That’s what you’re paid for.”

  “Yes, ma’am, we are, and my recommendation is to leave.”

  She shook her head and turned to her screens, dismissing him with a flutter of fingers.

  He tried again while motioning discreetly for the others. “Ma’am, whoever is trying to assassinate you are professionals.”

  “That’s ridiculous, it’s some group of backward peasants.”

  “No, they want it to look that way. Right now, we need to move, and we have to accept collateral damage.”

  She looked up again. “I can’t have that with my poll numbers! It will end my campaign!”

  “Ma’am, either you walk or Aramis stuns and carries you.”

  She turned to see Aramis holding the baton centimeters from her.

  “This is felony kidnapping!”

  “Yes it is. Aramis.”

  Aramis zapped her, she twitched, her eyes rolled back and fluttered, and she slumped into his grasp.

  “That’s a nice perk,” he said, as he heaved her into a fire carry. Shaman reached over and sedated her. They both looked at JessieM, standing in the doorway, who shrugged.

  “I will come along without being stunned,” she said, sounding very nervous and fragile.

  Jason said, “Jessie, you’re probably safe if you stay here. You’re not Ms. Highland. On the other hand, they might decide to make you a sacrifice.”

  “I’d like to come along,” she said. “I expect it to be scary, but my place is with Ms. Highland.” She trembled as she spoke, but her voice was firm.

  Alex still didn’t know why anyone was loyal to this bitch, but he respected her for it anyway.

  He nodded, then said, “Jason, Elke, get us to the ARPAC. I much prefer any real allies be left alive.”

  Jason kicked the door, Elke went through grabbing for something off her harness, and they all followed.

  Jason ran as Elke did something. It was loud and pyrotechnic, but probably not actually lethal. Jason wasn’t sure if she enjoyed the hell out of that or hated it for not being potent enough. Still, they were unmolested to the vehicle. There had been some sentries and personnel around, but whatever Elke did had them all behind cover. He jumped into the driver’s hatch and hesitated.

  It was good transport, and obvious transport, and that made him scared.

  Elke apparently had read his mind.

  “I did a multifrequency burn for detonators or links, no hits. I’m checking latches and seals now. Stand by.”

  Oh, good.

  “Safe to start,” she said, as Alex said, “We’re in, Elke on ramp, ramp up, roll.” There were thumping noises of gear. A glance back showed rucks and a crate, which probably had the jump harness.

  Alex hit the igniter and nothing happened. That is, nothing bad happened. It fired as it should.

  He heard and felt movement, and Elke’s hand thrust something past him.

  “They
won’t be needing this.” It was small and flat and looked like some kind of wire harness fastener.

  “Explosive?”

  “No, tracker. When we get a moment, I’ll stick it on some other vehicle.”

  “Understood.” said Jason, “how’s the fighting?”

  “I have only intermittent access, since we don’t want to be tracked,” said Alex. “What I saw on the way out was clear in this area, but we should avoid the northeast and south.”

  “West it is, then. There’s a lot of clutter that way, though, if I recall the map.” Jason looked up at the tracking screen.

  “There is,” Elke said as she disconnected the unit. That was another hindrance. While it provided fantastic data, and was theoretically proof against enemy cracking, their putative friends could easily get into it—that’s what it was meant for. They’d travel buy the seat of the pants.

  Well, it wasn’t the first time. It felt good to be all together, well-armed and with decent protection for once.

  “Status,” Jason asked.

  Alex said, “Aramis on top gun, I’ve got the rear, Shaman has witch, Bart monitoring engines, Elke on support.”

  “Direction?”

  “North for now.”

  “Excellent. Rolling.”

  It was good to be running a proper military vehicle. The best armored limos were not close to this. That it had largely been for Highland’s image didn’t matter. It was serendipitous functionality.

  He also wasn’t concerned about cosmetic wear and tear on the vehicle, nor collateral damage. That let him drive much more aggressively.

  Damn, it felt good.

  He exploded through the gate-warning barricades, plowed through the movable blocks, which were just sand-filled drums, and slalomed around the sunken bollards.

  “Aramis, I may need obstacle removal,” he shouted back.

  Aramis replied clearly, “Can you connect? If not, say the word.”

  “Elke, do we have internal commo?”

  “We will in a moment. I’ll plug you in.”

  He rolled over the curb and didn’t notice until afterward, then cleared the bump the stupid limo had hung up on. This was how to travel.