New Title 1 (29 page)

“Fine,” Silver replied. “Hopefully this crisis won’t cause too much of a disruption to our other projects.” She turned to her assistant. “So: Let’s get down to storage, and see how much of this work we can speed along ourselves.”

~

Kris’ arrival at the compound produced no fanfare: Although she’d called ahead and told Thompson she’d just come out of an important meeting with Ceo Lenz, he obviously hadn’t said anything to anyone on the diplomatic floor about it. Consequently, she walked quietly through the first floor, eliciting no notice from the staff, and only a bit more attention from a few when she started straight up the stairs to the Presidential floors.

When she gained the top of the stairs, an aide approached her, clearly waiting for her arrival. “They’re waiting in the President’s office.”

“Thank you.” Kris proceeded across the floor to the closed door of the President’s office. Another aide stood nearby, and upon seeing Kris approach, went over and tapped on the door. Kris and the aide heard the voice from within, and the aide opened the door. Kris strode directly in, and immediately saw President Lambert behind his desk, and Enu Thompson at a chair facing the desk and allowing him a view of the rest of the room.

“Good morning,” Kris said as she took in Lambert and Thompson. “I have a report on this morning’s conference in CnC, regarding their efforts to secure Verdant against unwanted intrusion.”

“So we gathered,” Lambert said, indicating a chair on the opposite side of the desk from Thompson. Kris obediently sat down, glad at any rate to take a load off her feet and the high heels that made swift walking so uncomfortable.

“First of all,” Kris said, “Although this was, strictly speaking, a Verdant staff conference, Ceo Lenz asked me to attend. He said he wanted to make it clear that they were not discussing any offensive actions against other countries. He wanted there to be full disclosure between us. Also, he did not ask me any questions about United States policy or decisions… their business was specifically about defending Verdant from possible hostile acts. I am satisfied with his sincerity on this.”

“Understood,” Lambert said. “Go on.”

Kris nodded. “Verdant’s command staff is understandably concerned about the incidents in Fertile and Qing this morning. They are concerned about being boarded by refugees, at the very least. They are also concerned about the possibility of missile attack from the ground, though they did not specify a particular combatant. Nor did anything they directly or indirectly said suggest that they expect the United States to be that combatant.

“I discovered that Ceo Lenz has had his Science Advisor, Dr. Calvin Rios, researching a defensive screen of sorts,” she continued. “I’d actually spoken to Dr. Rios the other day, and knew he was working on something for CnC, but until this morning, I didn’t know what that was. The system they’re researching is designed to detect incoming craft or missiles, then use a particle beam to add enough energy to the detection field to actually disable or destroy the object.”

Lambert and Thompson’s faces screwed up, and they looked at each other. Thompson turned back to Kris and said, “Can that work? Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard of.”

“It’s apparently experimental,” Kris explained. “They mentioned Tranquil, as well… it may be something they are also working on. At any rate, Dr. Rios has apparently made enough progress on it to convince Lenz to order all the sciences section facilities devoted to constructing the defensive system, asap.”

“So, they have a defensive screen,” Thompson nodded. “Or, they think they do.”

Kris nodded. “Exactly. But there’s more. There was significant push-back from Coo Hardy and the head of the sciences section, Dr. Jacqueline Silver. They have been working on an experimental project of their own, which they were apparently keeping hidden from Lenz and Eo Luis. This secret project was essentially a freight project. This part will no doubt sound silly,” Kris said apologetically, “but they seem to be working on a way to molecularly disassemble solid objects, send them to a location via a com beam or something, and reassemble them at the other location.”

“What?” Lambert said, clearly perplexed. Thompson gave her a similar look.

“Like a
Brane-Boy
transporter,” Kris said simply.

Lambert’s eyes fairly popped out of his head. Thompson coughed out a laugh. “No yeah!”

“Oh, yes,” Kris nodded, “and that’s not the best part. Not only have they actually pulled it off in limited tests—”

“Are you serious?” Thompson barked, his laugh instantly gone.

“—but they have realized that the system has another use: To transport bombs and missiles.”

“
Merde
,” Lambert uttered.

“At this point,” Kris went on, “Lenz ordered the project immediately shut down. He ordered all staff to be diverted onto developing the defensive screen. Including Silver and her transporter project.”

This seemed to bring a bit of calm to Lambert’s eye, but there was still a hint of concern there. Thompson voiced his concern. “They did that in front of you?”

“Yes.”

“Is there any chance that they waited until after you left, then ordered the project restarted?”

“Yes, there is always that possibility,” Kris said honestly. “However, one of the reasons I do my job so well is my ability to read people. I’ve spent enough time around CnC, and with Hardy and Lenz, to know that they do not have any interest in developing offensive weaponry, much less turning it on anyone. Ceo Lenz in particular wanted me to be aware of his desire to be open and above-board with your office. I believe he is being completely sincere.” Even as she said the last, she considered the trouble she’d had in reading Ceo Lenz. But she reassured herself that she had read him clearly on this, and did not need to couch her opinion.

Lambert considered Kris’ report silently for a moment, before turning to Thompson. “What do you think?”

“Mmm,” Thompson begun, scratching his chin in thought. “I think Lenz is as concerned with avoiding cutting off his lifeline with Earth as he is of protecting Verdant. That’s a good thing, and something we may be able to work with. On the other hand, if this transporter thing can actually work… it could be a formidable first-strike weapon. I don’t think that’s something we can ignore.” He looked at Kris. “This is all still experimental?”

“Apparently,” Kris replied.

“Then I think there’s no question,” Thompson said. “We have to act in the interest of national security.”

“Sir?” Kris said.

“You’re right,” Lambert nodded, a strange light in his eyes. “We can’t allow them to develop this potentially devastating weapon. It would violate their U.N. charter. We have to take action.”

“Action?” Kris repeated. “Mister President, they haven’t done anything to take action against.”

“And we’re going to make sure it stays that way,” Thompson said, reaching for the com in his pocket. “The Qing incident will be the perfect justification.”

“Agreed,” Lambert said, triggering the com on his desk. “Albert?” Kris recognized the name of the head of security on the compound. “This is the President. Put us under code orange, effective immediately.” He cut off the connection, then opened another. “Open an encrypted channel to Denver,” he ordered.

“Fawkes,” Thompson said, standing up and bringing Kris to her feet. “You’re to go back to CnC. You’re going to be our direct liaison during the occupation.”

“Occupation?” Kris goggled.

“Yes, occupation,” Thompson nodded impatiently, taking Kris by the arm and starting her for the door. “We are going to annex Verdant under the U.S. flag—”

“But… we can’t do that!” Kris protested. “We don’t have authority! We can’t demonstrate a credible threat! The U.N. won’t allow it!”

“Let us worry about that,” Thompson said simply. “In the meantime, you have direct authority from the President’s office to act as you see fit to aid in the securing of Verdant CnC, including the assassination of its command officers and staff as needed.”

“
What!
I’m no—”

“Now, get going!”

The door slammed, almost before Kris realized she was already on the other side of it. She stopped and stared at the door, at the muted voices she could hear inside, and her mouth hung open as she tried to imagine what they were discussing.

“Miss Fawkes?”

Kris started at the sound of the aide’s voice. When Kris jumped, the aide jumped as well, then said, “What’s wrong?”

Kris started to answer, but her imagination was running away with her. “Oh, God,” was all she could finally manage to say, before she turned and rushed out of the Presidential offices. She extracted her com and tried to dial the number she’d been given to reach CnC. For the first time in her memory, she heard instead the tone that indicated a busy circuit. She stared at the com stupidly for a moment… then increased her pace across the office towards the landing, and the stairs to the first floor level.

She reached down and plucked the high heels from her feet, allowing her to take the stairs two at a time. Then she veered into the diplomatic offices, sliding comically on stocking feet, and arrowing to a wall of drawers. She found a drawer with her name on a small tag, and yanked it open, revealing various small personal items that included a pair of shoes that were much more sensible than her heels. Even as sensible as the shoes were, they were still styled and colored so as not to seriously clash with her immaculately-tailored suit. She slipped the sensible shoes on, deposited her heels in the drawer, then turned and bolted out of the offices.

She ran outside, crossed the compound, and waved at the security guard to open the gate as she approached. Fortunately, the guard recognized her from a distance, and no alarms had been spread from inside, so he had no reason not to start the gate open. Kris ran through when the gate was just wide enough to admit a person twice her size, and without a backward glance, she dashed for the tram terminal down the road from the park.

~

On the Presidential floor, Enu Thompson watched the video feed the security guard at the gate had sent him, showing Kris Fawkes dashing through the barely-open gate. “Thank you, Flagg,” he said, and closed the com connection. Then, after a moment, he opened a new connection.

“Lambert.”

“Enu. I don’t think Fawkes is on our side anymore.”

“Sorry to hear that. Inform the staff, then. Tell them that they are not to take any orders from Fawkes if they encounter her. Her diplomatic credentials and immunity are hereby revoked.”

“Understood.”

Calvin was glad to leave lab twenty, once he was sure that Dr. Fiennes had a satisfactory understanding of the field equations that would control the emitters. Fiennes had been easy to work with, in fact, being able to understand what Calvin, with his limited knowledge of the quantum-level states of the equations themselves, was trying to communicate to him. Between the two of them, they had managed to knock out the misunderstandings and come to a meeting of the minds. However, two of Fiennes’ staff had apparently been working very hard on their last project, and as it turned out, the interruption of that project meant a great deal of their extensive work would have to be redone from scratch. This left those two in a noticeably terse mood, and getting any assistance from them had been like pulling particularly sharp and venomous teeth. Fiennes promised to keep them both properly focused, however, so Calvin took his first opportunity to remove himself.

On his way towards Dr. Silver’s office, his com beeped with his wife’s code. “Hi, Maria,” he answered. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been listening to the news all day,”
his wife replied.
“Have you spoken to Erin?”

Calvin blinked hard to get past the non-sequitur. “Uh, no. Why?”

“Because I can’t get in touch with her! She left for school this morning, but I’ve been trying to reach her, and I keep getting full circuit messages! It took me forever to reach you!”

“Well…” Calvin had to stop and think about the strangeness of what he was hearing. “She went to
school
?”
Of course
she did… no one had declared an emergency on Verdant… “Then why are you trying to call her?”

“Honey, you haven’t been listening to the news, have you?”

“No, I’ve been pretty busy.”

“There are riots breaking out everywhere on Earth,”
Maria explained.
“Wherever that ash cloud goes, people are panicking. And now—”
(There was a break in the signal, causing Calvin to look at his com in alarm. That almost never happened. The entire satellite must be trying to call each other at once. Then the signal came back.)
“—say U.S. armed forces are ‘initiating routine training exercises!’ You know what they mean when they say that! They all want to come up to the satellites, Cal! They want to come, whether they’re welcome or not!”

“Yeah, I know that,” Calvin replied. “That’s what I’m in sciences working on…”

“I don’t think it’s safe here,”
Maria stated.
“I think we’re going to be invaded.”

“Don’t worry, honey,” Calvin soothed her. “If we know they’re coming, we can take steps to—”

“How can we stop them?”
Maria snapped.
“We can’t keep them out! Cal, if there’s fighting, I don’t want to die in space!”

“Honey! No one’s going to die!”

“I want to see Earth again. I want to see the Earth I remember, before it’s all gone! Honey, can we go home?”

“We
are
—” Calvin paused, to collect his thoughts. Maria had a penchant for panicking unnecessarily about the smallest issue… and this one, to her credit, was hardly small. Moreover, she had a mild heart condition, a congenital flaw, which could be exacerbated if she got too excited. “Maria, I want you to calm down. Verdant is not under attack. Erin’s safe at school. The circuits are busy because of too many people panicking over the newsfeeds and stuffing the lines… they’ll open up, probably soon.”

A long pause at the other end of the line. Just when Calvin thought they’d been cut off, he heard,
“—Are you sure Erin’s at school?”