The Winter War (37 page)

The collapsed matter of the
ship’s armour was masking the external electromagnetics, mostly,
but Aneka could still hear a faint whisper of orchestral music as
they sat in the brothel which was in a section near the outer
hull.

‘Isn’t that going to be a little
dangerous?’ Aneka asked. ‘The EM out there. This planet must have a
helluva magnetosphere.’

‘It makes detection practically
impossible,’ Winter replied, ‘but it won’t interfere with the
communications system I’m using. My stealth system is good, but
old-fashioned hiding is often a more reliable way to stay off the
radar. Once I have things settled I may move to a new location, but
for now being close to the problem is for the best.’ She was
currently a short, dark-skinned brunette: Number Four.

‘How long before we get the
update on the situation?’ Ella asked.

‘I’ve contacted the local
Justine. Bandwidth is a limiting factor, unfortunately. Around four
hours at the current rate.’

‘I hope everything’s okay down
there.’

‘Sensors are picking up no
unusual activity,’ Winter replied. ‘If anything has escalated while
we were out of contact, then it is political escalation. I don’t
think the Herosians are ready to do anything too drastic yet.’

‘They probably know that their
attack on you failed,’ Aneka said. ‘They’ve had no report back from
that gunship. They may anticipate you coming here.’

‘Possible, but they don’t know
how quickly, and they don’t know what I’ll do yet. Unless they
panic, which seems unlikely, any actions they take will be
covert.’

‘Like assassinating the head of
the FSA?’

‘Given the background
information I have on Mister Dowler that is one thing they won’t be
doing. I’m moderately sure that he’s working for them.’

‘You’re saying that the current
head of the FSA is a Herosian mole?’

‘No, I’m saying that it is a
distinct possibility. Eighty per cent given his income and
expenditure, his time on the Herosian borders, and his demonstrated
sympathies for Herosian viewpoints.’

‘That’s not good,’ Ella
said.

~~~

‘It seems that things are not quite as
bad as they seemed,’ Winter said. ‘Senator Elroy has been a busy
man. Among other things, while Dowler has been confirmed as the
permanent head of the Agency, Elaine Truelove has been made his
assistant with some considerable oversight.’

‘It’s not going to neutralise
him entirely,’ Aneka said, ‘but it should limit the harm he can
do.’

‘Quite.’ Winter gestured toward
the holographic display in the middle of the ops centre, and it
suddenly shifted to show a swirling array of screens, each one
showing a different video channel, all of them showing stories
about Aneka. ‘These are relatively old broadcasts. Aneka is now old
news since there is nothing new for the news channels to
broadcast.’

‘That’ll change as soon as we go
back,’ Ella pointed out. She tried vainly to watch the swiftly
moving displays, and then gave up.

‘It all seems broadly positive,’
Aneka commented as her overclocked brain slowed the movement to a
crawl. ‘Some negative… Iktaga?’

‘It’s the main Herosian news
channel,’ Ella supplied.

‘Ah, well that figures. It’s the
main negative viewpoint.’

‘And almost no one in Jenlay
space watches it, even in translated form,’ Winter said. ‘The
Herosians have made a request to have you extradited for their
“expert analysis,” but it was declined, firmly. I’m informed that a
draft arrest warrant was filled out by Dowler, but that it was
never filed. I suspect that Elaine persuaded him not to make a fool
of himself.’ She stood up, walking over to stare up at the displays
swirling in front of her. ‘If there is to be a trial, Aneka, it
will be a trial by public opinion. You are going to have to mount a
campaign for hearts and minds. If the public can be turned against
you, the Herosians may get their wish.’

Aneka slumped in her seat. ‘I
hate politics.’

‘You have the advantage at this
point. Play to your strengths, and the public’s weaknesses.’

‘Such as?’

‘Jenlay are suckers for a
beautiful woman,’ Ella said. ‘You need to be seen, and seen looking
good. And they love romance and tragedy. We play on our
relationship and your losses. Your family, Old Earth, a thousand
years lost in stasis.’

‘There is something of a
romantic nostalgia for the Navy,’ Winter added. ‘While we all know
that the military are largely paper tigers, the public actually
likes the idea that there are people out there defending them from
evil. Your actions on Harriamon and Odanari, cast in the right
light, have done wonders for your reputation. Play up your role as
the protector of your colleagues in the field, but try to be modest
about it.’

‘I’m going to hate this,’ Aneka
said, her tone resigned. ‘When do we start?’

‘We’ll take the remainder of the
day to plan our campaign,’ Winter told her. ‘We’ll infiltrate the
two of you back into society tomorrow morning. I’ll arrange to have
a few key press people aware of your arrival.’

Aneka put her head in her hands
and let out a deep sigh. ‘I’m
really
going to hate
this.’

Norden Forest, New Earth, 5.10.527
FSC.

The small spacecraft dropped silently
into a clearing among the trees, propelled by magic, as far as
Aneka could tell. Reactionless drives were magic even to the likes
of Abraham Wallace. He had indicated that he had no idea how they
worked, aside from that they might use some form of exotic matter.
Even given the small size of the shuttle, its engine was capable of
quite incredible acceleration without any form of thrust, and it
could operate in any direction. With the stealth field engaged
there was nothing to give the craft away. It was no wonder the
Agroa Gar had been able to operate around Old Earth without
detection.

Adding to the amazement was the
fact that the tiny craft had a fully functional, and quite fast,
warp drive. Justine was on another of the craft headed for Odanari
where she would then catch a passenger liner back to New Earth,
apparently an agent of the FSA returning from duty there. Range was
limited by the available life support, but it was still an
indication of the power of advanced technology that the small ship
could travel between stars.

With the ship on the ground and
the flight systems shut down, three service androids went out to
manhandle a folded up car out of the hold while Winter, in her
Number Seven body, gave final instructions.

‘You’ll be ambushed by press
outside the door of your apartment building,’ she told them. ‘Act
surprised. Aneka, make sure you look perfect.’

Aneka gave her a sour look. An
hour of careful consideration by Winter, Ella,
and
Justine
had ended with Aneka being dressed in a hip-hugging black
micro-skirt, a tight cropped T-shirt with cap sleeves, and high
heels. The outfit was meant to look casual and effortless, and to
show off plenty of flesh.

‘The cameras are going to love
you,’ Ella said.

‘You just need to drop some
comments about not wanting publicity and make for the door,’ Winter
went on. ‘You’ve been out of touch, haven’t seen any of the news
channels, and don’t know why everyone would be so interested in
you. If anyone lets slip that they know what you are, look
concerned and hurry inside. I expect you’ll get a visit from the
FSA fairly quickly, but the local Justine will have briefed Elaine
and Sharissa. Ella, your mother will be near your building and hear
the news. She should make it there before the agents do.’

‘This really is a military
campaign, isn’t it?’ Ella said.

Winter smiled. ‘In a manner of
speaking it is, yes. Your transport is ready. Good luck.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

The car, a sporty black model, had
driven them into the underground car park in their building where,
Aneka was surprised to learn, there was a parking space assigned to
them. As soon as they had removed their bags from the small trunk
it had folded itself into a large brick. Aneka still found the
trick a little disconcerting, but it did reduce the space needed to
store the vehicle.

The car park had no means of
getting to the apartments above without going outside and using the
normal door, which suited their purposes perfectly, of course. Even
knowing that the reporters would be waiting for them, faking
surprise was not really needed.

What seemed like a small horde
of men and women clutching microphones, backed up by others
pointing cameras, rushed toward the couple as they stepped out of
the lift on their level. Aneka looked longingly at the door they
were trying to get to, all the way across the bridge, and began to
push her way toward it.

‘Aneka!’

‘Miss Jansen, how do you feel
about the news?’

‘Miss Narrows, where have you
both been for the last month?’

‘Aneka, a few questions,
please.’

Aneka looked around the crowd.
‘Uh, we’ve been out of contact. Security issues. We just got back
and we really just want to be home.’

‘Then you don’t know that your
secret is out.’

‘You’ve been accused of being a
Xinti spy.’

‘A few words now…’

Al had been primed for comments
like that. The colour drained from Aneka’s face as her eyes
widened. ‘I… I’m not at liberty to discuss any of that,’ she said,
and began to move urgently toward the door of their apartment. Back
in her time, Aneka would have expected more resistance, but the
Jenlay press were more controlled, and more concerned about
individual privacy. Besides, she figured they had what they needed,
at least initially. If she said she could not talk about it, then
they just needed to wait for someone to officially tell her she
could.

Still, she was both pleased and
horrified when the door opened before they got to it and she saw
Dillon inside waving urgently for them to come through. He was a
huge man with a lot of well-formed muscle on a big frame. His hair,
which tended to look a little wild, normally softened his look, but
he had pulled it back into a tight ponytail. When he glowered at
the nearest reporters, they backed away to let Aneka and Ella
through. Katelyn, his partner, a slim, attractive woman with dusky
skin and cornrow hair, was waiting just inside, a look of concern
on her face.

Aneka started speaking as soon
as the door was closed. ‘Look, you two, I need to…’

Dillon reached down and took the
case from Aneka’s hand. ‘Upstairs,’ he said. ‘We can talk once
we’re in your place and you’ve both got drinks in your hands.’

‘I expect you’ll need them,’
Katelyn added, leading the way up the flight of stairs.

‘We saw that lot turning up
outside about half an hour ago,’ Dillon explained as they walked.
‘We figured someone had to have tipped them off that you were
coming home, so we thought we’d better prepare for a quick
entry.’

‘I don’t know what you’ve
heard,’ Katelyn went on. ‘All sorts of gopi has been hitting the
ventilation for weeks.’

Taking Dillon’s advice, Aneka
said nothing until the flat’s door was shut behind them.
‘Officially, we know nothing. Unofficially, we’re pretty well
briefed.’

‘We saw the news clip you were
in,’ Ella said.

‘I am
so
sorry for not
telling you sooner,’ Aneka said, putting as much feeling as she
could manage into it. ‘I really hated keeping it a secret. From
anyone, but especially from you.’

Dillon had dumped the case and
was busy finding glasses in the little kitchen. He gave a
dismissive wave of his hand. ‘We knew anyway,’ he said and Aneka
blinked at him.

‘Not the details,’ Katelyn
added. ‘I mean, we didn’t know exactly what they’d done to you, but
we knew you weren’t a Jenlay. Or a Human.’

‘You did?’ Ella almost
squeaked.

‘Well…’ Dillon said. ‘I mean,
she never gets tired, no matter what we do to her. She’s stronger
than I am. She runs miles and barely seems out of breath. And
no
one
shrugs off stunner hits, even someone used to stun
grenades.’

‘You didn’t say anything,’ Aneka
said. She took the glass Dillon handed her and drank some of the
contents, even if the alcohol was going to do nothing to her.

Dillon gave her a shrug and
walked over to hand Ella her glass. ‘It was obviously some sort of
big secret. We figured if you could have said something, then you
would have. When we found out what the big secret actually
was…
Well, then it was pretty obvious why you hadn’t been
allowed to tell people.’

Bemused, Aneka looked at
Katelyn. ‘But you don’t like robots. I’m basically a robot, you
know?’

‘The fuck you are,’ the girl
replied. Then she gave a little shrug. ‘Okay, yeah, if I’d known up
front what you were I’d have probably been scared stupid about it.
And then I’d never have got to know you. My loss. I
did
get
to know you before we figured anything out and if you’re just a
robot then I’m just a slab of meat.’

Resigning herself to having
worried needlessly, Aneka said, ‘I’m still sorry I couldn’t tell
you before you found out.’

‘So are we,’ Dillon replied,
grinning wolfishly. ‘Can you imagine what we could have got up to
if we’d known you were just about indestructible?’

~~~

Janna and Sharissa arrived barely a
quarter of an hour later, the former wrapping her daughter in a hug
a boa constrictor would have been proud of as soon as she got
through the door.

‘We just happened to be nearby
and my PDA is set to alert me of any news about you two,’ Sharissa
said. She was standing beside Aneka, watching her partner crushing
Ella. ‘We should probably rescue your girlfriend.’

‘If we do that, I’ll probably
get the same treatment,’ Aneka pointed out.