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Ferreira seemed to let out a long sigh, then turned to face Vinter. ‘You were right,' he said quietly. ‘They infiltrated my men as well.'

‘I told you – if they could get to one of us, they could get to as many as they liked.'

‘You were expecting this?'

‘Something like this, just not this soon. They probably sent the activation signals a while ago. I've got Mendis looking at whether we've received any anomalous signals in the last forty-eight hours, but, even if we can detect them, it doesn't mean they have to send any more. One signal could have activated all the sleepers, but they don't necessarily all have to react simultaneously – they could have staggered response times, so we might never receive another signal to warn us, if that's what you're thinking of. They might already been primed and ready to explode at varying intervals.'

‘So we can expect this sort of random attack from now on – until they're close enough to stage a full-scale asssult?'

‘And beyond. I would guess that the volume of attacks will reach a peak during their final assault, assuming that's what they're going to do. That way, they get maximum disruption while we're trying to beat them off. Until then, it'll be more a case of psychological warfare, to keep us off-balance.'

Ferreira nodded reluctantly. ‘And again, there's nothing we can do about it except warn our troops to remain vigilant about any abnormal behaviour.'

‘I would think, after this lot, that there will be a lot of abnormal behaviour anyway… In any case, you saw what happened.' He nodded at the frozen image on the wallscreen. ‘There was no warning. Ramirez was talking to his mate da Costa on guard duty, then he simply pulled out his side-arm and shot da Costa in the head before going off on his rampage.'

‘And he and da Costa had known each other for years – they'd both signed up together,' Ferreira said, shaking his head. ‘But then, that's what Combat Conditioning does, I suppose.'

Vinter looked at him in surprise at the regret in Ferreira's voice.
However…
‘And one of Ramirez's victims was an UNSEC corporal, Colonel, who, had he been armed, might just have been able to defend himself, maybe even stop Ramirez before he killed as many as he did.'

Ferreira glanced sharply at him. ‘So we should arm your UNSEC people, is that what you're saying?'

‘Colonel, when those shuttles arrive, we're going to need everyone we can get with weapons training anyway – or were you seriously going to let thirty odd UNSEC officers go to waste?'

There was a pause, then, ‘No, I wasn't – but you're saying we should arm them
now
?'

‘You said it yourself, Colonel – we can expect similar incidents from here on in. Anyone who's weapons trained can help reduce casualties in this kind of thing. As it is, we're going to have to turn two man patrols or details into at least three – that way, if one goes berserk, he's got to kill two troops before he can really run riot, not one. It increases the chances of one of the others stopping him dead in his tracks before he can do more damage. And move away from ‘buddy' groupings – we don't want anyone hesitating because it's one of his mates who's run amok.' He shrugged. ‘If having UNSEC personnel armed bothers you, disperse them around the assignments, so you can have a three-man detail of two of your troops who aren't friends and someone from UNSEC who doesn't know either of them from Adam. That way, there won't be any freezing on the trigger from any of them if it all blows up.'

Ferreira was nodding slowly in reluctant agreement. ‘It makes sense, I suppose.' Then, he sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. ‘And the other thing, which you hadn't mentioned yet, is that we're all going to be looking at each other suspiciously, aren't we? If what you are saying is true, any of us could be a sleeper, couldn't we?'

‘Which is also what they want us to think,' said Vinter. ‘The enemy within… If you ever get the chance, Colonel, look up the Un-American Activities Committee. It makes fascinating reading – and it's exactly what EarthCorp wants us to be doing, distrusting each other and wasting time looking for enemies that aren't there, or that we won't know are enemies anyway until they run riot. If you can't trust the man standing next to you in the line, what chance have you got of winning the battle?'

Now, Ferreira's look was one of distaste. ‘This is the kind of war
you
fight, Vinter – dirty and underhand. I prefer a war when you know your enemy and confront him face to face. A clean war.'

‘A clean war?' Vinter's laugh was harsh, mocking. ‘Don't make me laugh. There's no such thing, Colonel. Because, in any war, men die when they needn't, because someone else who doesn't ever have to risk his life decides that they're going to. Die, that is. The bravery of being out of range, Colonel, that's what
your
war is all about. Or are
you
going to be the first to go into battle, to confront the enemy face to face, as you put it? I don't think so, somehow… So don't give me all this crap about a clean war, Colonel, because
all
war is dirty – no, not just dirty – it's fucking obscene.' He held Ferreira's furious glare for several seconds, knowing that the other man was only just restraining himself from attacking him –
for all the good it would do him
– then said, ‘And this is from someone who is the best fucking soldier you will ever command, Colonel. Just don't ever for a moment believe that I agree with
any
of it, do you understand me?'

Ferreira's voice was cold with suppressed rage. ‘What
I
understand, Vinter, is that when
I
give the order, you will kill
our
enemies just as efficiently – and just as ruthlessly – as I, or any of my colleagues that you claim to despise, would.
That
is what I understand. Nothing else is of any relevance to you or to me. So,
Major
Vinter – do
you
understand
me
?

‘Perfectly,
Colonel
. I always have.'

*****

The Persephone chime interrupted him as he was shaving. ‘Here.'

‘Adebayo and Mendis have set up the access you asked for, sir. It involves quite a long protocol, though. OK to send it by encrypted email? Send and Delete?'

‘Hold on a minute.' Vinter moved into the main area and over to the comp, accessing his mail. ‘Go ahead.' He watched as Kari's message arrived, then dragged the icon immediately into his personal hard drive. ‘OK, delete.'

‘Done.'
The original message disappeared from the log; unless anyone had been monitoring the message for those five seconds or so, there was no evidence that any message had ever been sent.

‘Acknowledged. And the other request?'

‘It's in hand, sir.'

‘Well done, Kari.'

‘Thanks, sir. Proserpina.'

It was only then that he realised he had used her first name;
Shit, must be more tired than I thought…

He pushed the thought aside, because now that the necessary protocol had been set up, it was time to send the message, but as he typed in the passwords that opened up his line of communications, he was very aware that, once he had sent the signal, there would be no going back. He would be committed.

Along with who knew how many others, unfortunately…

He did not have to do this, of course; there was still time to pull back from the edge. All he had to do was, literally, nothing. Just let events take their course – and run the risk of losing everything.

Put that way, he had no choice, none at all. But did he have the
right
to do this? To play God?

Vinter hesitated for a moment longer, then sent the password protocols that would enable Vinter Two to open the Shuttle Bay Doors.

*****

The next incident happened thirty hours later, when a maintenance worker in Nuclear Engineering used a heavy wrench to smash in the skull of his supervisor, sealed himself off from the rest of the ship, then started to key in the correct coded sequence of instructions to withdraw the cooling rods from Reactor Three that would have resulted in a full meltdown within two hours; he had only been prevented from completing the procedure by pumping water into the entire compartment and drowning him – and the supervisor. It was little consolation that the various safeguards would have prevented full meltdown because they entailed flooding the entire reactor space and shutting it down permanently.

‘In other words, it was intended to cause significant, but not fatal, damage,' commented Ferreira.

‘It looks like it, yes, but it means we have to introduce the same procedures throughout the ship as we're using for military details – always at least three people around,' said Vinter.

Ferreira glanced sharply at him, then shook his head in frustration, muttering something under his breath, before he nodded slowly. ‘Again, you're right. And I suppose that includes all levels of authority – by your logic, there should be someone else with us at this moment.' They were in his office, seated on each side of the desk, but there was nobody else present; for some time now, Ferreira had been by-passing his own Command Team and simply consulting Vinter on key issues, even though it was patently obvious that neither man could stand the other and did little to conceal it. Despite himself, Vinter had to concede – grudgingly – that Ferreira was a thorough professional; he had effectively appointed Vinter his Chief of Staff, despite his own personal feelings, simply because he felt that Vinter had more to offer than the rest of his Command Team.

‘True – although I think I could probably handle you if you ran amok, and you've got that remote to keep me in line. The point is that the engineer–'

‘Barzini.'

‘Barzini knew the correct password sequence for withdrawing the rods. But, apparently, there was no way he could have known it – he didn't have the necessary security rating.'

‘Oh, dear God…' Ferreira groaned as he realised the implications. ‘He must have been given the sequence as part of his activation signal.'

‘Or it was always there, buried deep in his memory and the signal simply released it.' Vinter shrugged. ‘Either way, your security has been compromised big time, Colonel.'

To Vinter's surprise, Ferreira buried his head in his hands, rubbing his face in seeming exhaustion. He was silent for almost ten seconds, before he said quietly, ‘We're going to lose this, aren't we, Vinter? They have us beaten on all fronts, damn them.'

‘It's because they planned for this – you didn't. They're bound to have the edge on you, Colonel, but they've still got to get aboard, haven't they? That's still the deciding factor – they can't afford to damage
Terra Nova
too much, so they can't just blast their way in, can they? If we can hold them off, we're still in the game.'
And, dammit, you know all this – I shouldn't have to be reminding you, should I?

Ferreira raised his head and nodded slowly. ‘Of course you're right, Vinter. Attacking a strongly defended position is always difficult, especially when you have to capture the objective intact. We still hold the strategic advantage.'

Vinter noted how Ferreira had taken refuge in military jargon; he was back on balance now. He probably would have been anyway, but, just then, it had taken Vinter to restore his confidence.
Had he been on the point of throwing in the towel and did I just talk him out of it?

Not that he would have surrendered, of course, not this early in the game – it had just been despair, that was all and that would not have lasted long, but even so, there was more than a hint of irony about the situation…

The thing is that, no matter what he thinks or decides, I can't allow him to surrender – if what I've got in mind is going to work, this thing has to be fought out to the bitter end, no matter what it costs, no matter what price has to be paid.

And it was going to be a very high price indeed…

‘Alpha Priority. Inspector Vinter to UNSEC Office.'
Kari's voice through his in-ear device over the UNSEC band –
not Persephone, so this is official
, but, although the words were formal, there was an edge of tension behind them that had Vinter running for the door even before she had finished speaking.

‘Report, Lieutenant,' he said, skidding round a corner.

He could hear her draw in her breath before replying, her voice more under control,
‘Berserker incident in Corridor Twenty Seven. Fatalities.'

Corridor Twenty Seven – right outside her office…
‘Do you need backup?'

‘Not… not now… too late.'
The last two words were almost in a murmur.

‘Do you need medical assistance?'

‘No, I'm OK… but I think it's too late for… It's on its way, anyway. Just get here.'
Her voice sounded taut, controlled, perhaps too much so?

‘OK, I'm nearly there. Just hold on, Kari.'
What the fuck had happened?

Well, that was pretty bloody obvious, because her message had been explicit about that – another berserker attack –
but was she OK?

The corridor was in the process of being secured by UNSEC patrolmen as he arrived, less than thirty seconds after she had called him –
at least they were on the ball –
and they simply nodded him through the cordon that was already being slung across the entrance.

He took in the situation in a single glance; Kari was over to the right, arms folded tightly over her chest, ashen-faced, while two UNSEC patrolmen were effectively standing guard over a New Dawn trooper lying sprawled motionless on the floor.

Four other bodies, one in UNSEC uniform, the others all civilians: the UNSEC patrolwoman was half-sitting, half lying against the far wall, a smear of blood showing how she had been pinned back against the wall by the bullets that formed a red line across her head and shoulders. She was unarmed, off duty, probably just passing through, but the first one the gunman had taken out simply because she was in uniform…
The wrong place at the wrong time.

He could almost reconstruct the scene by the positions of the gunman and his victims – the patrolwoman had been the first to die, blasted at point blank range, before the gunman had pivoted to the the left, cutting down the next victim, lying spreadeagled on his back, half his chest and shoulders ripped away, then number three, lying on her side halfway back towards the entrance Vinter had just used, probably caught still turning to run for it, then number four, lying face down, shot in the back as she had tried to flee.

Shit… three of them were women… Fuck!
Vinter knew it shouldn't make a difference, but it did, at least for him…
Vinter Prime would have been seething.

He turned towards Kari, noting that her weapon had been returned to its holster, as per Standing Orders; it was only now that he realised Ferreira and Yung-Sien had arrived and were standing in the doorway behind him. Neither had said anything – they were both watching him intently and Vinter realised that they were leaving this to him.

‘Lieutenant?' he asked, his voice deliberately formal.

Kari seemed startled for a moment, then nodded and came to attention. ‘Sir?'

‘Make your report.'

She took a deep breath, then with an evident effort to keep her voice under control, said, ‘I was in my office when I heard gunfire outside. I drew my weapon and came out of the office. I saw this man –' she pointed down at the dead trooper ‘–in the act of shooting that victim
there
.' She indicated the woman lying face down. ‘He seemed to realise I was there and turned around, so I shot him twice in the chest. He still remained on his feet, so I shot him a third time, this time in the head, and he went down.' She hesitated, then continued. ‘I then shot him twice more while he was on the ground…' Again, she broke off, taking a long breath before she continued, her voice rigidly formal: ‘To be perfectly honest, sir, I wanted to make sure he was dead. I'm aware I could face disciplinary procedures for my actions.'

‘I don't think so, Lieutenant. I don't think you had any alternative in the circumstances.'

She glanced briefly at him. ‘Thank you, sir.'

He leaned forward so that nobody else would hear his next words. ‘You did well, Kari. Don't ever think anything else, OK?'

Her eyes met his again, and this time she did not look away. She nodded slowly. ‘OK, sir.' She hesitated, then said softly, ‘And thanks again.'

Vinter gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile, then stepped back and looked around. Somehow, the medical team had arrived and were examining the bodies; he hadn't noticed them at all until now. Someone – probably Ferreira – had cleared away the watchers outside so that only Ferreira himself remained in the doorway; he nodded to Vinter, just once, before he turned and left.

‘OK, Lieutenant,' Vinter said briskly, turning back to her. ‘Get to your quarters and rest. That's an order. The report can wait for now – I think I have a pretty good idea what happened here anyway.' She opened her mouth to speak but he shook his head. ‘As I said,
Lieutenant
, that's an order.'

‘Yes, sir.'

Vinter watched her leave, giving the dead berserker only a brief glance, then sighed and walked over to the medical team.

*****

‘How is Lieutenant Sondgren?' Ferreira asked, when Vinter reported to his office, thirty minutes later.

‘She's dealing with it – she's taken a sedative and Adebayo's with her at the moment,' said Vinter. ‘She's not exactly over the moon about it, but…' He shrugged. ‘She's pretty resilient, though – she'll be OK… eventually.'

‘Was it her first time in action? Had she ever used her weapon in anger before?'

Vinter shook his head. ‘Not according to her record, no.'

Ferreira seemed suddenly far away, in some other time and place. ‘They tell you that the first one is the worst, that after that, it gets easier.' He sighed. ‘But it doesn't, does it? And nor should it…' He broke off abruptly, as if he had said too much, then continued. ‘Keep an eye on her, Vinter, will you? We can't afford to lose her – not now.'

Vinter stared at him, trying to keep his face totally impassive.
Bloody hell – just when you think you've got him taped, he goes and surprises you… Is Ferreira a model commanding officer, showing concern about his subordinates, because it's in the military text books – or does he really care? Either way, he doesn't really deserve what's going to happen to him
…

The comms set on Ferreira's desk chimed; his hand snaked out to grab it, betraying his tension. ‘Ferreira here… What? Repeat…' His shoulders slumped tiredly, then he said, ‘Very well – I'll be there as soon as possible.' He replaced the set, shaking his head, then stood up slowly.

‘Someone's released raw sewage into the main water supply in Three Gamma,' he said, resignedly.

*****

Incident Five, or maybe Six, if you count Teixeira…
Ferreira looked up impatiently as Teymourian arrived, still buttoning his tunic, then said, ‘Very well, gentleman and lady, we have footage of the incident in the Social Area that occurred forty seven minutes ago. The reason I have summoned you here without an opportunity to study it in detail is because Major Vinter feels that this incident shows a significant development in the enemy's disruption campaign and I must say that I am inclined to agree with him. Major?'

Vinter nodded. ‘I'm not sure that watching the footage will be all that helpful at the moment – it still needs a good deal of cleaning up and editing to make sense – so I'll simply run through what we've managed to piece together. As far as we can determine–'

Yung-Sien raised his hand. ‘Who exactly is
we
?' The resentment in his voice was only too evident.

It was Ferreira who answered. ‘Major Vinter and myself. We've just spent over fifteen minutes running through the footage, and are thus able to give a full briefing, so can we get on with it?'

Despite the circumstances, Vinter found himself having to stifle a smile at Yung-Sien's discomfiture; he obviously had not expected to be put down so emphatically by his superior.

‘Continue, Major.'

‘Thank you, Colonel. The actual sleeper responsible for this incident was a Private Jens Matthias.' Vinter pressed a key on his comp and an ID photo of a man in his mid twenties appeared on the wallscreen. ‘Let me run you through the sequence of events.

‘Private Matthias and his friends Privates Houseman and Salgado arrive in Harry's Bar – sorry, the main Social Area – at 2046. They buy drinks at the bar, then take seats just
here
.' He pressed another key and a floor plan of the Social Area appeared on the screen, showing the general lay out of the bar; one of the tables was highlighted in red. ‘You'll notice that it's situated pretty much in the exact centre of the bar area. It's also perhaps relevant that the three of them apparently usually stayed at the bar when drinking together – but not this time.

‘Seventeen minutes later, at 2103, Matthias takes out two fragmentation grenades from his jacket pocket, throws one of them very precisely
onto
the bar and allows the other to detonate in the middle of his table. Matthias, Houseman and Salgado are killed instantly, but the shrapnel from that grenade rips through the bar in all directions. The one that has been lobbed onto the bar has a similar effect, killing, as it turned out, all the bar staff and everyone sitting on bar stools. One of the victims is almost cut in two by the blast and shrapnel, another is decapitated… and so on. A total of thirty-five dead, plus fifty-two suffering injuries ranging from superficial for those furthest away to life threatening or changing for those closer, but outside immediately lethal range. Or, to put it another way, approximately fifty per cent of those currently awake are now on the casualty list.'

Vinter paused, to allow the others to absorb the information, then went on, ‘OK, those are the bare facts but this is what we need to think about. The attack took place at 2103 on a Saturday night. Statistically speaking, that's during the hour when the bar is at its busiest throughout the week. Coincidence? I doubt it. The grenade that was lobbed onto the bar was almost perfectly placed, again, for maximum effect. While that could be explained by whatever triggered Matthias's attack also instigating the kind of Combat Conditioning that would enable him to do so with such precision, that doesn't explain where the grenades came from, does it? They didn't just
happen
to be there, did they? These men were off duty, remember.'

‘Oh crap…' murmured Sharma, seeing the implications.

‘Exactly. Matthias must have smuggled them into the bar. Which means he appropriated them, somehow, while he was on duty – at least five hours previously. He stole them, took them into the bar, waited until the bar was full, or as full as it was ever likely to be,
then
went into action. This wasn't a random attack – this was carefully planned and executed.'

Sharma was nodding slowly. ‘So Matthias was a sleeper who knew he was? He was given his orders and carried them out, even though he knew he would be committing suicide?'

Vinter nodded. ‘Combat Conditioning would ensure that he would, but this was a more calculated approach than we've seen so far. It shows that we've got at least two types of sleeper to contend with, probably three. One: the
kamikaze
, who simply runs amok and kills as many people as he can before inevitably being killed and who, basically, doesn't even know what he's doing, or if he does, can't do anything about it. Two: whoever polluted the water in Three Gamma. Simple enough to do, as it turns out – it might even have been done by simply pouring the sewage into the tank manually. The point is that whoever did it has not been caught and does not appear to have committed suicide afterwards – he or she could strike again. Three: Matthias. This involved careful planning and execution for maximum impact – from what we've seen on the footage, he was behaving perfectly normally right up to the moment he took out the grenades. Even after he'd thrown one, he just sat down again, waiting for the other to detonate less than a metre away. True, he ended up dead the same as the
kamikazes
, but had significantly more effect – he killed more people than all the previous incidents added together.'

‘So you're saying that these incidents are not entirely random?' asked Watanabe.

‘This one wasn't. I suspect Matthias was given an order to kill as many people as possible in a single area – it was probably quite specific about that – and to use fragmentation grenades. Even if he hadn't been activated until after PlanetFall, he would simply have selected a suitable area where a large number of people would gather and use the grenades there. A specific objective, but a non-specific context, in other words.'

Yung-Sien spoke next, his voice heavy with suspicion. ‘You seem to know a good deal about how this disruption campaign is being organised.'

Vinter smiled faintly. ‘That's because I probably
am
organising it – in a way. It's almost certainly their Vinter doing it. So, if I were in his shoes, that's what I would be doing. He'll have a list of their sleepers on board and what they might be able to achieve – that's how he's doing it. Matthias had access to fragmentation grenades, so he was chosen for this one.'

‘Yes, but what if their sleepers weren't actually awake at the moment?' asked Sharma.

‘Captain, I hate to break it to you, but, so far, all of the
armed
berserkers have belonged to New Dawn – so whoever is organising this on Stalker
knows
they're going to be awake right now, because you've woken up all of your side, haven't you?'