Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (30 page)

Frost hung in
the air.

“I apologise,
Mr President.”

Cortes held
White’s gaze for a few long seconds before returning to Farrell.  “Anthony
Karjalainen.  He’s someone we could work with, you think?”

“He’s
reasonably unknown but he was close with his father, and his father was very
vocal in his opposition to independence.  When Anthony takes control of
the family business he will have a big stake in Mars.  He has employees
and other assets and he would be a credible political leader.  I’ll see if
we can feel him out and get some further intelligence.  But I think so, if
it came to it.”

“Good. 
So we have a worst case plan.  Take back what is ours and install a local
government.  We give the Martians independence but on our terms. 
That’s the credible threat and it gives us plenty of room to negotiate anything
up to and including that.  When the
Aloadae
are in orbit we have
the upper hand and we can negotiate through Colonel Shaw.  It sounds good
to me, what do we think?”

“It sounds
very good, Mr President,” said Andrews.  “Militarily all we are waiting
for is for the
Aloadae
to be in shape to make the trip.  Helios
assured me they would be able to do it within four months.  Let’s call it
six, plus another month and a half for the journey.  We can start talking
about it now.  When you’re condemning the Martian actions you can talk
about the task force which will be setting off for Mars soon.  As soon as
they know we’re coming they’ll have pause for thought.”

“Farrell?”

“It’s good
from our point of view.  At the moment we have no purchase on this issue
whatsoever.  As soon as we have military in the area Colonel Shaw becomes
a player again, and her words as well as ours will carry real weight. 
I’ll look in to this Anthony Karjalainen, and we’ll think about what sort of
governmental structure we might be able to put in place.”

“Mr Vice
President?”

Gerard White
drew a deep and deliberate breath.  “You know what I think.  This is
over the top and provocative.  This isn’t foreign policy as I would run
it.  I don’t know if maybe the last seven years have got us thinking about
these things in the wrong way.  If we’ve become too used to wielding our
swords rather than our powers of persuasion.  But if you think this is the
right thing to do then you have my support.”

“I do think
it’s the right thing to do and I think Secretary Andrews and Secretary Farrell
agree with me.  This is what we are going to do.  Audrey, can you get
me an update on how things are going with the
Aloadae
?”

“Yes, Mr
President.”

“And Charles,
look in to this Anthony Karjalainen or any other suitable characters that we
might need if it comes to it.”

“Yes, Mr
President.”

“Mr Vice
President, I appreciate your support, but if you want to keep your distance
from this in public go ahead.  It might be useful for us to have some
doves on board when it comes down to the negotiations.  Okay?”

“Thank you
very much, Mr President,” said White.  “I guess that suits both of us.”

“It does,”
said Cortes.

“Where are we
at?”

“We’re good.”

“What’s
good?  You know the president is about to launch a war against Mars. 
It better be good.  It better be better than good.”  White walked
beside Sherman as they ambled around the lake in Bachman Park.  Two Secret
Service personnel were keeping a discreet distance sixty metres behind
them.  Another two were sixty metres ahead.

“We have what
you asked for.  They’re assembling the assault teams.  All
commanders, all combat vets.  We have someone.”

“Are they
in?”

“I can’t say
yet.  The teams are still being put together.  But we have
candidates.”

“And these
are reliable people?  The candidates?”

“Very.”

“What do they
know about what’s required?”

“Look,
they’re all current or former commanders, from the program.  They’ve all
been to war, they know what the score is better than you do.  They’re
cynical about Cortes and the wars.  They’d be onside even if they weren’t
being compensated.  You can trust them.”

“I wouldn’t
trust anybody who’d rat out their comrades for money.  You haven’t dealt
with anyone directly?  Deniability is central to this.  If anything
goes wrong, nothing touches me.  Better yet nothing touches you. 
You’re discreet, right?”

“Always.”

“This thing
that’s happening needs to not happen.  Now, a spanner in the works, food
poisoning, whatever it takes.  The more mundane the better.  Failed
health and safety checks, I don’t care.  We just need those refits to take
as long as government commissions usually take, or even longer, and we need the
budgets to spiral and we need everything to go wrong that can go wrong. 
All plausible, all untraceable.  You understand that?”

“I understand. 
We’re running interference.”

“Exactly. 
Interference, delay.  That’s the mission, and nothing beyond.  Helios
have told defence they can have those ships ready in four months.  In a
pig’s eye.  We just need to help them be as inefficient as we know they
can be.”

“We can cover
that.”

“When are
they making the final selections?”

“Soon. 
It’s all hush-hush.  We’ll have someone.”  Sherman stopped
walking and White was forced to stop too.  He turned to face him.  “I
know this is all softly-softly delaying tactics.  But what do you
really want?  These two machines are state of the art, cutting edge
designs, now with experimental engines, too.  There are a millions things
that could go wrong with them.  Just an enquiry into a serious failure
could take months, years to complete.  Even then it might not find
anything, particularly if we’re careful.  That would heap on even more
delays.”

“I hope
you’re not saying what I think you are.  That is off the table. 
Understand?”

“Mr Vice
President,” said Sherman, smiling for the first time that afternoon, “you
misunderstand me.  All I’m saying is we can throw popcorn from the back
row and be a pain in the ass, and add the odd day or week here and there, or,
with such highly technical, experimental machinery we might nudge something the
right way and all of a sudden there’s a major setback.  That’s what you
want, isn’t it?”

“I want those
ships to stay right where they are.  I want absolute distance from
anything that happens up there.  And I want it to happen simply, with minimal
fuss.  Goddammit, I’ll bet this is the first time in their history that
Helios will actually hit their deadlines on time.”  He started walking
again and Sherman followed on just behind his shoulder.

“I’ll see to
it that that doesn’t happen, Mr Vice President.”

Sherman had
always been a shady character.  He revelled in it.  Even his
legitimate dealings, of which there were many, had dubious undertones.  He
liked operating at the margins.  He liked late night meetings in dodgy
bars.  He liked stepping over the line.  He was the sort of man who
might win the lottery then steal a tin of beans from the local supermarket.

He liked to
keep his contacts separate from each other.  To all of them he had a murky
background.  Contacts, connections with others, no doubt, but names or
faces?  Who knew?  You couldn’t ask him, either.  He was a
master of obfuscation and evasion and if he ever sensed you were anywhere near
figuring something out on him he would be gone.  You’d be dropped - a
security risk in the real or imagined world of Rodney Sherman.

Sherman
pulled into a space on the deserted top floor of a parking garage at one of the
out of town malls.  He waited half an hour before getting out of his car
and walking leisurely to one corner of the level.  From there he could see
the open car park and access roads beyond, and the mall itself off toward the
left.  It was 02:40.

As if it had
melted from the darkness itself a figure appeared beside him.  Sherman
barely acknowledged the man as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a
packet of cigarettes.  He offered one to Sherman, who shook his head in
refusal.  The man lit his cigarette and inhaled from it deeply.  He
flicked his match over the side of the building, where it lost its flame and
disappeared into the darkness.

“We’re good,”
he said.

“We are?”
said Sherman.

“Yes. 
The final selection has been made.  They’ve been assigned to the assault
teams.  Assignments to each individual vessel will come later.  But
we’re in.”

“What about
communications once they’re aboard?”

“We have
channels.”

“Are you
sure?  Those are military ships.  Security is going to be through the
roof.”

“Relax. 
We know what we’re doing.  And we’re very discreet.”

Sherman
nodded.  “What do you need from me?”

“Further
instructions and money.”

“The money
comes when I know he’s in.  The instructions remain those we already
agreed to.  Disrupt the refit, stop the
Aloadae
from leaving for
Mars any time soon.”

“You think
it’s a he?”

“I don’t give
a shit.  The less I know the better.  When I know he - or
she - is
onboard
and causing delays
you get the money.”

“How?”

“Same as
before.  That okay with you?”

“It’s good.”

“Don’t
contact me unless absolutely necessary.”

“Of
course.  Anything else?”

Sherman
shrugged.  “You should think about quitting smoking.  It’s a
disgusting habit.”

The man took
a deep drag from his cigarette.  As he grinned back at Sherman plumes of
smoke streamed between his teeth.

Askel worked
diligently on the refit project.  She had made three EVAs in eight
weeks.  The first was to inspect the ion drives that the ship needed for
manoeuvrability.  The second was to take delivery of the NFJ engine,
delivered into orbit from Earth on a HLV boneshaker, just as she had
been.  This third time was to oversee the moving of the engine into place
on
Ephialtes
.

The original
engine had been removed early on.  It was a simple yet time consuming
reversal of the installation process.  The ship could still manoeuvre with
the ion drives.  The main engine was for speed.  They had been
orbiting sans main engine for most of the time Askel had been aboard.

Askel had a
three dimensional overlay of
Ephialtes
, the new engine and the
construction drones manoeuvring it projected virtually in front of her. 
She studied it carefully and compared it to the actual events, which she could
see by refocusing through the overlay and simply looking around.  She
could speak to the teams operating the drones through her com.  She was
untethered and could, with a few quick bursts from her jetpack, make her way to
wherever she needed to be in the mix.  The Earth turned lazily below her.

“Bring the
rear end around a bit,” she said into her com.

“Five degrees
lower,” came the reply.

“Five
degrees.  Make it seven?” said Askel.

“Affirmative,
seven.”

“
Ephialtes
,
please prepare the mounts.”

“The mounts
are ready.”

“Okay, please
stand by.”  Askel moved herself until she was behind the engine.  She
could see it was lined up pretty well.  “Drones one and two, please begin
the approach to
Ephialtes
at no more than one metre per minute”

“Roger.”

Askel used
her jets to circle the engine, looking for any damage or other anomalies. 
She checked the alignment was good, or good enough, then moved back for a
better overview.  Behind her was the Earth, one of the most magnificent
sights in the solar system, but she was fully immersed in what amounted to
threading a very big needle.

“Cameras
three, five and seven, how do we look?”

“Uh, this is
camera seven, you need to move up by about eight centimetres.”

“Camera five,
we are within the tolerances here.”

“Camera
three, we’re good here too.”

Askel floated
around to drone seven’s position to check for herself, and seeing the problem
said, “Drone one, just a two second burst, please.”

“Roger.”

She saw the
small burst of gas from one of the jets on drone one.  The movement it
created was so small as to be imperceptible.  “Camera seven, how are we
looking now?” she said.

“Camera
seven, looks good to me.  In the zone.”

Askel’s
eyes were fixed on the end of the engine as it
approached the bay.  It was smaller than the space it had to fit into but
the margins were slight.  “Cameras three and five, are we still good?”