The Winter War (31 page)

Apparently the diplomatic
presence surprised Ollander as well. ‘Adjaxis and D’Jarnis? He
invited
diplomats
?’

Elroy shrugged, an expressive
gesture on the tall, long-limbed man. ‘I get the feeling Dowler is
putting on a show. He’s probably expecting support from D’Jarnis.’
He took the seat next to Ollander, his gaze shifting from her legs
as she crossed them to the door. Dowler was keeping them waiting,
which was not the best of ideas.

They did not have to wait much
longer. Dowler walked into the room wearing the kind of serious
expression only achieved by someone who had carefully practised it
in a mirror. Even so, Dowler was not that good at it and his eyes
were far too bright for the impression he was trying to give. Elroy
frowned. Clearly the weasely little man had discovered something he
thought was going to get him out of the mess he was in.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Dowler
said, bringing an end to the murmur of conversation in the room. He
continued walking until he was standing in front of the broad,
curved table his audience was sitting at. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I
was tasked with the administrative operation of our security
service after the outrageous assassination of its last head. Our
shipping continues to be attacked, the new FTL relay at Harriamon
was almost destroyed, and terrorists using high-technology
equipment have assaulted our facilities here on New Earth itself!
The FSA has been unable to track down the source of these attacks,
and I am here today to explain why.’

He lifted a tablet he was
holding and tapped it and the wall behind him darkened before
starting to display a collection of files in windows. The text
within the windows was gibberish, total nonsense, but there were a
lot of files.

‘What exactly are you showing
us, Dowler?’ Elroy asked. He was starting to lose whatever patience
he had left.

‘You asked me to find evidence,
Senator. These files are from Winter’s personal data stores. They
date back to periods before the recently deceased Winter took
office. Currently the contents of the files are unknown due to the
encryption employed to obfuscate the contents. Our best
cryptographers are attempting to decrypt them, unsuccessfully so
far, but they have been able to determine one key characteristic of
the cryptographic system employed. It is derived from algorithms
used during the war… by the Xinti.’

He let that sink in for a
second. ‘Some of these files have been identified as messages,
emails, from an unknown source. Currently the evidence is largely
circumstantial, but it would appear that Winter has been operating
as a Xinti agent.’

The silence in the room
continued until D’Jarnis spoke. ‘There must be further
investigation into this matter. Winter was, and always has been,
above reproach, trusted by all.’ Elroy looked across at the
lizard-like humanoid, wondering exactly how he thought he could get
away with that amount of deceit. ‘We must have absolute proof of
this before any action is taken.’ There was a rumble of agreement
from around the room, so he was going to get away with it.

‘Of course,’ Dowler agreed.
‘That work is continuing, but it is my current belief that the
Agency’s inability to discover the source of these attacks has come
from internal interference at a very high level.’

‘Then why did they kill her?’
Elroy asked. ‘Why attack her at the Islands facility?’

Dowler lifted his hand, a
gesture of placation, but it just annoyed Elroy more. ‘We don’t
know, Senator. We don’t
know
that Winter was a Xinti agent.
Perhaps she had a change of heart and they killed her before she
could reveal anything. She was assassinated, in front of this very
building, on her way to make an announcement.’

It was circumstantial, and
largely speculation, but it had a compelling aspect. Winter had
always been a mysterious figure, going back to the first of them.
Xenia Winter had moulded the Federation’s security services and
been a major player in the foundation of the Lorenti Federation
itself, but there were few records of where she had come from or
who she was. Her replacements had had their backgrounds hidden,
their lives faked, for security reasons, and each new Winter was
selected from a list compiled by the previous one. It would have
been a simple matter to ensure a progression of people devoted to
the same goal.

Elroy got to his feet. ‘Very
well, Dowler, you have more time. Get to the bottom of this.’
Turning, he stalked toward the door, sensing Ollander following
him. He waited outside the door for a second to allow her to catch
up. ‘What did you think of that?’ he asked as they started off
together.

‘He’s managed to piece together
a century-spanning conspiracy out of fragments of encrypted
data.’

‘Yes.’

‘The sop at the end suggesting
she was killed because she was about to reveal everything was
clever. Anyone who liked her will be mollified, but it doesn’t take
away from the basic concept.’

‘No.’

‘Of course, the unspoken
suggestion there was that the Xinti are behind the attacks, which
makes a degree of sense, given the technology, but it does seem to
play heavily into the Herosian view of things, which I find
interesting.’

Elroy glanced at her. ‘Diana, it
was a simple question, or so I thought.’

He noticed her lips twitch, and
was quite sure that she was letting him notice. ‘I don’t buy it. I
can almost believe that Winter was something other than what she
appeared to be, and I’m sure she had agendas of her own, everyone
does. I highly doubt she was some sort of Xinti spy.’

Elroy grunted. ‘Let’s hope this
investigation proves that then.’

‘You really think it will?’

‘No,’ he said, ‘I rather expect
it won’t. But only time will tell.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 18.8.527 FSC.

‘Officers from the Federal Security
Agency are requesting admittance,’ the apartment’s computer
announced. ‘Agent Darren Wilcox is making the request.’

Janna turned and looked toward
Sharissa. ‘Do you know him?’

‘Of him. He’s Internal
Security.’

‘Oh.’

‘Computer, allow them in.’
Sharissa got to her feet and walked around the sofa she had been
sitting on, then thought better and walked over to Janna. ‘I think
they’re going to take me into the office. I don’t know how long
I’ll be gone, but we’ve got nothing to worry about, I’ve done
nothing wrong.’

‘I know.’

Sharissa looked at her. Janna
knew,
but she was still worried. Rather than say anything,
Sharissa pulled her partner forward and kissed her, letting it
linger for as long as she could before turning to the agents
waiting in the doorway.

‘Agent Torrence,’ Wilcox said,
‘I am here to take you…’

‘Yeah, I figured this was coming
when Dowler started his witch hunt. Am I wearing cuffs for
this?’

There was a flicker of
expression from the handsome, slightly older-looking man in the
doorway; Sharissa thought it was sympathy. ‘Those are my
orders.’

Sharissa stepped forward,
holding out her arms. ‘Front or back,’ she asked.

19.8.527 FSC.

The news channels were throbbing with
the scandal. Every single one of them, along with the private
information aggregation sites and, especially, the various
conspiracy networks, was wall-to-wall with the breaking news.

Justine watched it
dispassionately at first, but with a growing sense of alarm. That
something would come out regarding Winter’s secret had been a
given, but it had not occurred that the suggestion would be made
that she was a Xinti spy. Of course, it made sense. It was an
effective way of blackening her name and probably fit some of the
few facts they had. The reports made mention of encrypted data
files and messages. She compiled all the reports for transmission,
even as she set about attempting to discover how the information
had been leaked.

It was later in the day when the
second batch of reports started coming out and Justine’s disquiet
grew. It came in various forms, but the basic element was the
suggestion that Winter had covered up Aneka Jansen’s nature because
she was a Xinti android. It further enhanced the idea that Winter
had been working as a Xinti agent, and it broke the secret around
what Aneka truly was.

Justine watched as Ambassador
D’Jarnis was interviewed regarding the matter, his outrage obvious.
‘Sons of bitches,’ she said to no one.

The Islands.

‘I’m assuming you’ve seen the news
reports?’ Dean Ajax looked like a worried man, more so given that
his head and shoulders were blown up to two metres in height by the
wall screen.

Elroy shook his head. ‘No, Dean
Ajax, I’ve spent the entire day with my head in a bag.’

‘There are questions being asked
by some of the board members. They know we did the analysis work on
Aneka when she was found, they know we had to know what she was,
and they want to know how we could employ her knowing what we
did.’

‘Tell them to direct any queries
to the FSA. Despite the fact that this information is out in the
open, it is still technically a secret and
you
are still
barred from talking about it. Until Dowler rescinds the security
level on Aneka’s status, you can’t discuss it with them. End of
story.’

Ajax nodded. ‘How did this
become public knowledge, Senator?’

‘An exceptionally good question,
and another one for the FSA. Goodnight, Dean.’ Elroy flicked his
finger over a tablet resting on the arm of his chair and Ajax’s
face vanished, sliding sideways to give more space for the other
window which was waiting, shrunk, at the side of the display wall.
‘Did you hear that?’ he asked.

Ollander was sitting on a couch
in her lounge dressed in a light Nusilk wrap which barely covered
her long legs. She was a significantly more pleasing sight than
Ajax, but Elroy could never help wondering what her motives were
whenever she did it.

‘I assumed you left the channel
open so that I would. I admit I was a little upset at not being
told about Jansen myself, but seeing D’Jarnis ranting on Channel
Seventeen made me realise why it was declared a secret.’

Elroy shrugged. ‘As I said to
Ajax, those who know the full truth are currently not allowed to
discuss it. I know from what Winter told me that Aneka herself was
becoming increasingly disaffected by having to keep it a
secret.’

‘I’m afraid I’ve barely met her.
We spoke briefly at the function they threw for her when she first
arrived here. I saw her when they came back from Negral, but we
never spoke.’

‘She’s quite a remarkable woman.
Intelligent, skilled, considerate, resourceful, and quite charming.
She even indulged me in an evening talking about Old Earth history,
which I’m sure bored her to death.’

‘Then I hope she isn’t going to
end up in a cage as D’Jarnis seemed to suggest she should.’
Ollander turned at a sound from somewhere behind her. The action
shifted her robe, revealing one breast, and she did not adjust it
when she turned back. ‘My partners are home and I promised them
some personal time tonight. If you’ll excuse me?’

‘Of course,’ Elroy said. ‘Enjoy
yourself. I need to take a shower anyway.’ She smiled, and the
screen went blank, and Elroy added, ‘A cold one.’

FSA Headquarters, 20.8.527 FSC.

Truelove squinted into the bright
lights. She was tired and annoyed, and it was insulting that the
people conducting the interrogation were asking her the same
questions again even though she knew their instruments were telling
them she was telling the truth. It was even more insulting that
they seemed to think she would not know what they were doing.

‘Yes, I was read into the Aneka
Jansen situation,’ she said in answer to their last question.

‘And what was your opinion of
that situation?’ The voice was male and calm, no, it was bored.
Truelove was fairly sure that the man did not really care what her
answer was.

‘I thought it was deplorable and
have attempted to assassinate Jansen fourteen times since I found
out.’

‘You’re lying, Miss
Truelove.’

‘It’s nice to know your toys are
working.’

‘Answer the question, Miss
Truelove.’

‘Why? Couldn’t you just replay
the recording from yesterday? You’re asking the same
questions.’

‘Just answer the question.’

‘No.’

‘You are refusing to answer the
questions I am asking you?’

‘If you’re unsure of your
equipment, get a telepath in here to verify what I’m saying. Until
then, I don’t have to answer you, I’ve told you everything I know,
and you can fuck off.’

‘Take her back to
containment.’

Truelove heard the man getting
up and saw something shifting behind the lights. She stood and
looked around at the guards closing in from her flanks. ‘Yeah, I
know the way.’

~~~

‘We’re trying to use traditional
interrogation techniques on people trained in using those
techniques,’ Wilcox told Dowler outside the interrogation room.
‘Truelove’s right, if you want to know the truth, you’re going to
have to get psychics in here. We have several on the IS team…’

‘Psychics are people, people can
be bought…’

‘Then why trust me?’ Wilcox did
not have a great deal of integrity. He had been selected to lead
the detail interrogating the suspects, and he had recognised that
that could very well lead him to higher rank. On the other hand, he
was getting sick and tired of being second-guessed by a
pencil-pushing moron with a fixation. ‘I’m starting to wonder
whether you want the truth, or convenient lies. If it’s the latter,
you can make them up without my help.’

Dowler glowered at him. ‘You’re
out of line, Agent.’

‘No, sir, I am required under
the rules of the Agency to point out when a superior officer is
making ill-considered decisions.’