The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear (23 page)

“I was unthinkingly repeating a common saying in the Alliance,” Bradamont said.

“I’d like to hear all of it.”

“Very well.” Bradamont finished the sentence she had earlier broken off. “If I were a politician I would have known how to say things, but if I were a politician you wouldn’t be able to believe what I said.”

“You were embarrassed to say that?” Marphissa asked.

“To the president, yes!”

Iceni smiled. “Any president who can’t handle people speaking frankly around her isn’t cut out for the job. I assure you that the vast majority of people who live under or have lived under the Syndicate would agree with that saying.”

“They wouldn’t admit to it out loud,” Marphissa said. “Not if the Syndicate is still in charge where they are. But they all think it.”

“I’ll still watch my words,” Bradamont said with a relieved smile. “Out of respect.”

“Hmmph,” Iceni scoffed. “I’ll remind everyone that Granaile Imallye does not have any love or respect for me, and as a result is threatening this entire star system. Make the necessary arrangements for dividing the mobile forces and preparing them for these operations,” Iceni told Marphissa. “I want every warship going to Iwa to be at maximum combat capability. Captain Bradamont, I am again indebted to you for your assistance. You are authorized effective immediately to communicate directly with Kapitan Diaz and Kapitan Stein to discuss the defensive operations here. I will speak with General Drakon about his planned force so we will know how many of our troop transports to employ on this operation.”

Iceni saw the flicker of reaction in Bradamont’s eyes to her last statement, and knew why. Drakon would almost certainly assign Colonel Rogero to the task of taking the enigma base, meaning that Bradamont would be seeing her lover depart on another extremely risky mission. Iceni nodded silently to Bradamont in recognition of the burden that she and Rogero shared with Iceni and Drakon. Go they must, but some of those who went to Iwa would not come back.

THE
suite where Iceni lived, once designated by Syndicate laws and regulations as the Star System CEO Operations And Accommodations Suite and now simply called the President’s Suite, was one of the most heavily alarmed and protected places on the planet. The bedroom where Iceni slept in that suite was the most alarmed and protected place on the planet, with the possible exception of the bedroom in Drakon’s headquarters where he normally slept.

However, for a canny Syndicate CEO, even that level of security was not sufficient. After all, any alarm installed could be broken into by enemies, or the Syndicate Internal Security Service snakes, and rendered useless. Redundant and overlapping layers of alarms merely made the process of doing that more challenging. As the old inside joke went, there was a name for CEOs who underestimated the resourcefulness of their rivals, or the snakes, or embittered workers, and that name was “dead.”

And since her former close assistant Togo had gone missing, and apparently rogue, Iceni had been uncomfortably aware of how many codes and secrets he had been privy to. Even if he had supposedly not
known some of the access codes, he could have found out what they were from his position on Iceni’s staff.

So Iceni had acquired other alarms, rigged up independently of the installed systems, and set them up. They were among the highest tech alarms available on Midway.

She had also set up a few other alarms, using perhaps the oldest such systems in the book, reasoning that someone focused on defeating the sophisticated threats might overlook the simple ones. A metal tray leaned against one door, ready to fall with a clatter if the door opened a little. A breakable glass object, hard to acquire in these days of enduraglass and permaglass, teetered on a ledge above another door, certain to drop and smash if that door began to open. And scattered on the floor in front of every other possible access were small contact caps, toys that would explode with a loud snap under the slightest pressure, something which delighted children, drove parents to distraction, and might trip up anyone clever and skillful enough to penetrate every other alarm.

She had spent the last two nights at Drakon’s headquarters, enjoying the comfort of having someone so close without worrying about how that someone might use her or betray her. And with only about two weeks left before the expedition left for Iwa, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with Drakon, knowing that there was a chance it might be all the time they would have. But he was elsewhere on the planet tonight, inspecting one of his brigades, so Iceni slept alone tonight. She had paused before scattering the contact caps, tired and not feeling like the effort, but had forced herself to do it as a small voice of experience or paranoia warned her that during her absence someone might have been able to test the defenses of her living area.

The pop of one of the contact caps in the darkest hour of the night jolted Iceni awake. She rolled out of her bed on the far side from the door, the wall at her back, one hand grasping the weapon she always kept handy and the other hand slapping the emergency alarm pad above her.

She hit the floor on her knees, the bed between her and the door to her bedroom, her pistol lined up on that door. The blare of the alarm covered up any more sounds from outside, but activating it had also summoned many guards, granted access for the guards into her suite, and alerted the entire building.

Iceni waited, tense, her pistol centered on the door. She breathed slowly and carefully, trying to calm the pounding of her heart. Who could have made it past every obstacle and into her living area? Even if Morgan was still alive she shouldn’t have had access to enough inside information to be able to pierce the layers of security around Iceni’s quarters. Only one other name came to mind, and if it was Togo out there, and he was determined to get in here, then Iceni knew that she would need not only great accuracy but also skill to take him out before Togo could get to her.

Yet even while focused on the need to ensure she hit Togo with her first shot and every shot, Iceni could not help wondering what his goal was, what his purpose was, and why someone who had been so loyal to her would now be threatening her.

The sound of the alarm ceased, telling Iceni that her guards had entered her suite and were now advancing toward her bedroom. She listened intently, her hand growing sweaty as she gripped her pistol tightly and kept it aimed at the door.

The clatter of the metal tray could be heard outside, followed by the crash of breaking glass. So much for those improvised alarms. Now people would talk about them, and she would have to come up with something else unknown to anyone but her.

The comm pad next to Iceni’s bed lit up, showing the senior watch supervisor at the star system command center that was located near Iceni’s headquarters. “Madam President, your guards have searched the outer living area and found nothing. They are poised outside of your inner living area and can see your door. There is no threat apparent on
our sensors, but after you sounded the alarm a string of doors and accesses that should have immediately sealed instead remained open, and there were indications of movement near them.”

Iceni breathed out slowly, relaxing herself. “Full search. Nothing by remote, all eyes-on and hands-on. All rooms in this building, all doors and accesses. Find out how those open doors were hacked. I want to be absolutely certain that whoever got into my living area has not faked a retreat and is still hiding somewhere, waiting until things calm down to make another try.”

“I understand and will comply,” the supervisor said, saluting and beginning to issue the necessary orders.

Iceni slumped back against the wall of her bedroom, then realized that anyone who knew where she slept and that she would roll out of bed in this direction and have her back to that wall might be able to set a trap on the other side. She jerked herself away from the wall and moved in a crouch to another location in the bedroom, her weapon now aimed between the door and the area where she had previously been.

She settled herself comfortably, resting the pistol on one knee so it remained up and pointed in the right direction. The sort of search she had ordered would take considerable time. It was going to be a long night.

*   *   *

EVEN
when warships could zip across thousands of kilometers of space in seconds, it took a while to cover planetary distances when hindered by atmosphere. By the time General Drakon arrived at midmorning, Iceni was behind her desk and sipping hot tea. “You are all right, Gwen?” he asked, knowing that she might have concealed an unpleasant truth for the sake of political stability.

“I’m fine.” She offered him a seat, trying to act more casual than she felt. “I am also tired, and achy, and more than a little annoyed.”

“Annoyed.” Drakon, reassuring in his presence and his strength, sat down and smiled slightly. “I’m a little more than annoyed.”

“Colonel Malin’s suspicions must be correct,” Iceni said. “Only Togo could have gone undetected as far as that intruder did last night.”

“We can’t be certain it was him,” Drakon said. “I understand that you’ve ordered Malin to review your security systems and make some changes.”

Iceni nodded, taking a slow drink to steady her jumpy nerves. “The access codes had already been changed, of course, but they’re going to be changed again. I suspect all redundant versions of my security software are infected by worms that my intruder activated. My software specialists swear that the activations will leave footprints that will allow them to find and neutralize those worms.”

Drakon snorted with derision. “If there was one undetected set of worms in that software, there could be more.”

She nodded, feeling a flash of the old anger. “I want to punish someone, Artur. Order some supervisors to be shot for failing in their duties. I know that would be stupid, that if I get rid of trained, experienced personnel before I even know who if anyone has actually made a mistake, that I will be just weakening my own security instead of strengthening it.” Her voice trembled slightly with fury. “But the part of me that is still stuck in the Syndicate really wants to kill someone right now.”

“I’ll help.”

For some reason that matter-of-fact offer helped cool her rage. “Thank you.” Iceni sighed and took another drink. “You haven’t asked, but I am screening everyone in my building again to ensure none of them have turned traitor on me.”

“If they had,” Drakon pointed out, “they would have already bolted.”

“I know. But I still have to check out the possibility.”

“Malin will find anyone who let you down,” he said.

She gave him a quizzical look. “Why aren’t you angrier about this? I don’t want you to be. I need a stable anchor right now. But why aren’t you stomping around threatening to kill whoever threatened me?”

Drakon smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. It was the sort of smile
that gave Iceni a pleasant shiver up her back. “I am angry. But anger makes me more focused. It makes me want to ensure I make the right moves, that I get whoever is responsible, and not whoever makes a handy scapegoat.”

“That’s a nice talent,” Iceni approved. “I should have realized that about you before now. You’ve shown plenty of signs of it before this. No wonder you managed to survive the Syndicate. The more they screwed with you, the more focused you must have gotten.”

“That’s right.” He looked grim once more, then nodded upward. “Maybe it would be a good idea for you to take up residence aboard the
Midway
sooner rather than later. Not that I want you up in space instead of down here with me, but if you’re on that battleship it will be a lot harder for anyone to get to you.”

“It’s supposed to be impossible for anyone to get to me
here
,” Iceni said, her voice getting sharp again. “But I see your point. I’ll miss seeing you in person, but I can handle my presidential tasks from orbit, and it will make it easier to oversee the preparations for the expedition to Iwa if I am up there.” She bent a crooked smile at Drakon. “You tried to talk me out of going to Iwa, and now here you are urging me to get going. Is that what you do with all of your lovers?”

“No,” he said.

“I’m just teasing, Artur. To help calm myself. Bear with me.” Iceni thought about what it would take to move herself up to the battleship today, but then another thought intruded. “What if my intruder goes after you once I’m no longer available?”

“I’m hoping he or she does,” Drakon said, showing that smile again.

She wagged a finger at him. “Don’t underestimate the danger.”

“I’m not. Like you said, getting through your defenses to this point was impressive. But I have a few tricks even he, or she, might have trouble with.”

Iceni found herself smiling, feeling calmer in the face of Drakon’s
steady assurance. “Good. When I get back from Iwa, let’s make this relationship formal.”

“Limited time or open-ended?” Drakon asked.

“Open-ended, if you’re good with that.” She kept her voice casual, but felt tension inside as she waited for his answer.

“Yeah,” Drakon agreed. “I’m good with that. When you get back.”

“It’s a date.” After he had left to personally speak with Malin, Iceni sat at her desk for a while, pretending to work. It had been important not to hurry to make the commitment before she left, to not project any image to the citizens of appearing to fear whether or not she would return. She could tell that Artur had understood that. But it now left her worried whether, with her promise to handle that important task when she returned, she had just jinxed both of them.

*   *   *

AS
much as he disliked meetings, Drakon realized that occasionally there was no substitute for them. As long as whoever was in charge kept the discussion moving and worthwhile instead of meandering into endless blind alleys.

And this time his brigade commanders had asked for the meeting, which hopefully meant that someone had thought of something useful.

To Drakon’s surprise, it was Colonel Kai who led the discussion about plans for Iwa. But Kai soon provided the reasons for his role.

“After careful thought,” Kai said, as if he did not always think carefully before acting and speaking, “I believe that a certain tactic employed during the second and third decades of the war with the Alliance might give us insight into how the enigmas might defend their installation.”

Kai brought up a virtual window that was visible to not only Geary and Colonel Gozen, but also to the other two brigade commanders who like Kai were attending this briefing virtually. The relatively tiny distances involved on the surface of a planet meant that there were none of
the time delays that Drakon had heard bedeviled virtual conferences in space. “At the time,” Kai explained, “the Alliance was rebounding from initial setbacks and threatening to seize Syndicate installations in several star systems. Having bled out its own ground forces in a series of futile offensives, the Syndicate could not adequately defend those installations. Therefore, a policy of calibrated self-destruction was adopted.”

Drakon studied the new window and the images on it. “The installations were wired for self-destruct, but not so the whole place would blow at once.”

“Yes, sir,” Kai said. “As Alliance forces seized one portion of the installation, that portion was destroyed. When another portion was captured, it too was destroyed.”

“Along with any Syndicate ground forces or citizens left in those portions?” Colonel Safir asked in amazement. “That’s harsh even by Syndicate standards.”

“But it worked,” Kai said. “The Alliance realized what was happening after suffering serious casualties every time a newly captured or almost-captured area blew up around the victorious Alliance forces. The Alliance had to pause its offensives in various star systems in order to develop new attack methods and tactics.”

“But the Syndicate stopped using that tactic when its own ground forces were able to get back up to strength?” Drakon asked.