Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (29 page)

"In
all
other
cases,
the
Others'
staffs
never
acted
on
their
own,"

Walker
Freas
said.
"Generally
the
staff
stays
in
the
office,
acting
as liaison
and
so
forth;
if
one
of
them
goes
out
on
a
route,
it's
always
in a
position
supporting
the
senior
Other."

He
fell
silent,
watching
Bleys,
who
appeared
intent
over
his screen.
After
a
moment
Toni
spoke
again.

"You've
been
telling
us
what
you
saw
before
our
arrival,"
she
said.

"Right,"
the
Soldier
said,
and
continued:
"At
what
we
now
know was
a
short
time
after
Burning
Bush
came
out
of
its
final
shift,
there was
an
explosion
of
activity
in
the
headquarters
here
in
Ceta
City. None
of
it
could
be
called
suspicious,
given
the
circumstances
of your
arrival.
And
within
a
short
time,
there
was
activity
in
all
the outlying
offices
we
were
covering."

"All
attributable
to
their
seniors
being
instructed
to
come
to
Ce
ta City,"
Toni
said.

Walker
nodded.

"But
in
Stella
Tanalingam's
office?"
Bleys
asked,
looking
up
now from
his
screen.

"Activity,
yes,"
Walker
said.
"But
no
one
went
to
Ceta
City
from that
office.
Rather,
Parnell
came
back
to
the
office
immediately,
and some
sort
of
conference
was
held,
involving
two
other
members
of the
staff—and
two
persons
unknown
to
us."

"There
was
no
way
to
listen
to
that
conference,
or
to
any
calls?" Bleys
asked.

"No.
Others'
security
is
entirely
too
good
to
allow
that.
Perhaps we
could
have
arranged
something,
with
time,
but—" "Never
mind,"
Bleys
said.
"Go
on."

"As
I
said,
we
only
had
two
people
on
the
scene,"
Walker
said. "When
the
conference
broke
up,
they
made
the
decision
to
split up.
Elizabeth
Kalra
followed
Coleman
Jones,
another
of
the
staff
at that
meeting,
and
Ken
Anderson
went
off
after
one
of
the
unknowns."
He
stopped.

"And?"
Toni
prompted
him.

"Coleman
Jones
merely
went
home,"
Walker
said,
"and
has
cither
stayed
there
or
gone
in
to
the
office.
Ken
Anderson
has
not been
heard
from
again."

CHAPTER
13

It
was
Bleys
who
finally
interrupted
the
silence.

"Was
there
any
unusual
activity
after
we
left
the
office
here?"
he asked.

"Not
for
some
time,
as
far
as
we
could
tell—with
one
exception," Walker
said.

"An
exception
arising
after
the
bomb
attack
on
our
convoy," Bleys
stated.

"Yes,"
Walker
said;
and
Sarah
nodded. "What
happened?"
Toni
asked.

"Pallas
Salvador
was
at
home—it
was
night
here
when
that
attack occurred,"
Sarah
said.
"Our
estimate
is
that
no
one
called
her
with the
news
for
several
hours.
When
she
got
the
news,
she
went
to
the office
immediately."

"And
during
that
intervening
period,
the
staff—what?"
Bleys asked.

"Two
staff
members
who
are
normally
off-duty
at
night
came
to the
headquarters
less
than
an
hour
after
the
attack,"
Walker
said. "Gelica
Costanza
and
Susan
Perry.
During
the
following
twenty
minutes
three
unknown
persons
arrived,
and
remained
there
for
over
an hour,
leaving
about
twenty
minutes
before
Pallas
Salvador
arrived."

"Descriptions?"
Bleys
asked.

"Better
than
that,"
Sarah
Kochan
said.
"Pictures."

"Pictures?"
Toni
asked.
"I
thought
even
the
most
conventional security
equipment
prevented
that
kind
of
thing?"

"Anti-eavesdropping
equipment
works
by
inhibiting
electronic circuitry,"
Sarah
said.
She
smiled.
"We
took
non-electronic
pictures as
they
entered
and
left
the
building."

"How—"
Toni
began.

"Mechanical
cameras,"
Bleys
interrupted
her.
"They
use
some sort
of
non-electronic
recording
medium
with
a
simple
mechanical lens—we
don't
have
time
to
get
sidetracked
on
that:
where
are those
pictures?"

"I'm
sending
them
to
your
screen
now,"
Sarah
said.

"I
sec,"
Bleys
said
after
a
moment.
"Are
these
the
same
people who
came
to
Parnell's
office?"

"No."

"What
descriptions
do
you
have
for
those
people?"

"A
man
and
a
woman,"
Walker
Freas
said.
"Both
estimated
to
be in
their
upper
sixties
in
age.
The
man
tall
and
muscular,
with
rosy white
skin
and
graying
brown
hair,
and
the
woman
black-haired
and brown-skinned,
about
six
inches
shorter
than
the
man
and
unusually
thin."

Toni,
who
had
moved
to
look
over
Bleys'
shoulder
at
the
pictures from
Ceta
City
while
Walker
gave
the
descriptions
of
the
unpho
tographed
people,
looked
up.

"There's
a
common
denominator,"
she
said.

"Yes,"
Bleys
nodded.
"They're
all
in
the
same
age
range."

"We
noticed
that,
too,"
Walker
Freas
said.
"And
with
only
one exception
it's
the
same
age
range
as
the
staff
members
they
conferred
with.
We
don't
think
it
could
be
a
coincidence,
but
we
don't have
an
explanation
for
it."

In
the
ensuing
silence,
Toni
pointed
out
that
tomorrow
was
the day
the
Others'
leaders
were
scheduled
to
reconvene
at
the
Ceta City
headquarters.

"You're
right,"
Bleys
said.
He
paused
to
think
for
a
moment.

"We
need
time,"
he
said.
"Get
a
message
out
postponing
the
meeting
for
seven
days—route
it
through
the
consulate
in
Abbeyville, giving
the
impression
it's
coming
from
me
there."

"All
right,"
Toni
said.

A
moment
later
the
door
annunciator
chimed.
At
a
nod
from Bleys,
Sarah
Kochan
touched
a
control,
and
the
door
opened
to
reveal
Kaj
Menowsky.
Toni
held
up
a
hand
before
he
could
speak.

"Bleys?"
she
said.
Her
tone
got
his
attention.

"You
need
to
go
with
Kaj
now
and
let
him
look
you
over,"
she said.

Bleys
looked
at
her,
then
at
Kaj
in
the
doorway.
After
a
moment he
stood
up.

"We
need
to
make
this
fast,"
he
said
to
the
medician.

Kaj
only
nodded,
and
backed
out
of
the
doorway
as
Bleys
began to
stride
toward
it.
Bleys,
however,
stopped,
and
turned
half
around.

"Find
me
some
experienced
researchers,"
he
said
to
the
room
in general.
"I
mean
experienced
in
negotiating
libraries
and
databases. I'd
prefer
they
were
our
own
people,
but
we
can
use
locals
for
the sake
of
speed,
if
we
can
maintain
security."
He
turned
away
but continued
speaking
over
his
shoulder
as
he
walked
toward
the
door.

"I
think
Henry
called
in
some
of
the
outlying
teams
to
augment the
force
that
screened
us
after
the
bombing,"
Bleys
said.
"Is
anyone
still
out
watching
the
outlying
offices?"

"Yes,"
Walker
Fre
as
said.
"Henry
sent
a
few
of
the
people
who were
originally
with
you
to
take
over
that
surveillance."

"Probably
thinking
they
were
known
to
the
local
authorities
in the
area
around
us,"
Toni
said.
"They
wouldn't
have
been
known in
the
surveillance
areas."

"Call
them
all
in,"
Bleys
said,
"except
for
the
ones
watching Lester
Parnell.
We're
going
to
need
the
rest
here."

"The
meeting's
been
postponed,"
Toni
said
when
Bleys
returned to
the
lounge
less
than
an
hour
later.
"What
did
Kaj
have
to
say?" "He
said
I'm
fine."

"I'll
check
that
with
him
later,
you
know."

"I
knew
that,"
Bleys
said.
"He
wants
to
look
you
over,
too,
you know.
In
any
case,
he'll
still
tell
you
I'm
fine,
although
he'll
probably
take
longer
than
that
to
say
it."

"And
he
thinks
you
should
take
a
nap."

"How
did
you
know
that?"

"He
always
wants
you
to
get
more
rest,"
she
said,
smiling. "I'll
admit
to
being
tired,"
he
said.
"I'll
get
a
nap
in
a
minute." "There's
a
bedroom
right
down
the
corridor,"
she
pointed
out. He
nodded.

"Where
is
everybody?"
he
asked.

"In
comms,"
she
said,
indicating
the
door
that
had
been
pointed
out
to
him
earlier.
"I'm
afraid
the
Soldiers
don't
run
to
research skills,
so
I've
got
them
looking
for
suitable
locals."