Infiltration

by A. K. DuBoff

  “No false rumors will come between us. Elusia and Mysar will soon be reunited with the Taran Empire, and a new era can begin.”

  Ellen took notes while he spoke. The messaging fit with her needs as perfectly as it would placate Joris’ critics.

  “Excellent, sir. I’ll get this drafted right away.”

  He nodded absently. “Thank you, Ellen. I’m glad to have you on the team.”

  That opinion wouldn’t last much longer.

  “Of course, Mr. President. I’m happy to be of service.”

  — — —

  “Are you sure you want to sit in on this?” Kaen asked Olvera.

  She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Are you honestly questioning whether the head of base security would want to skip an interrogation with someone suspected of leaking information?”

  “I see your point, Major,” Kaen conceded. “For the sake of transparency, have you faced security breaches like this before?”

  “Never three independent incidents at once. If past events have shown me anything, it’s that not all motivations are completely malicious.”

  “I doubt there’s a valid reason for anyone to leak that information.”

  Olvera gazed at him levelly. “Try to keep an open mind, sir. You have to understand the intentions in order to best understand why the leaks happened and how to prevent them in the future.”

  The colonel waited, as she looked like she wanted to say more.

  “Take, for instance, an incident some years back where a comm tech was recruited by an outside contact to relay classified transcripts.”

  “To what end?” Kaen questioned, his eyes narrowing.

  “Political agenda, like so many things are. The recipient wanted information about the inner workings of the Guard to use as sound bites for their campaign.”

  “That seems like an awful lot of trouble.”

  Olvera cracked a smile. “Well, it’s actually kind of funny how it went down.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a humorous situation.”

  “Oh, you’d think that… but it was the transcripts the comm tech got. It’s all connected to how she was ultimately caught.”

  Kaen studied her. “Okay, I’ll bite. What were the transcripts?”

  Olvera rubbed her hands together. “As you know, the internal communications system is a catch-all platform for official military orders and any personal business. As a culture, we don’t want to place higher value on personal or professional privacy, so it all gets the same level of encryption.”

  “Right.”

  “So, this new comm tech didn’t seem to realize that the tagging on communications gets stripped away during the encryption process—it’s part of the decoding that happens on the receiving end. She came across this message talking about a plan of attack. Five units were set to converge on a target codenamed ‘Red 7’. Now, I don’t know how familiar you are with Corsica, but the seventh planet in the system is red in color, commonly called ‘Roja VII’.”

  “Ah, all right,” Kaen acknowledged.

  “Anyway, the comm tech has been watching deployment orders for weeks, waiting for something juicy to come through. When she sees that ‘Red 7’ is listed as a target—presumably a planned attack against a civilian population—it’s the kind of sound bite this politician really needs to perfectly drive home their point. However, all of those dire war plans were really about making sure ol’ McGavin had a great birthday party in the commissary.”

  Kaen sighed.

  “It gets better! The comm tech can’t just sit back while such an unconscionable, brutal act toward civilians unfolds, so she freaks out. The attack is going to go down any minute, and no one is responding to her messages. She decides to track down the ranking general at the time, Haloway.”

  “Oh no…”

  “Oh yes! The general is, naturally, at the very party discussed in this woefully misinterpreted communication. The comm tech bursts into the mess hall shouting, ‘General! I demand you call off the attack on Roja VII!’ General Haloway looks back at the tech, understandably confused, and explains that there’s no planned attack on a peaceful world in the Empire. Comm tech insists that she’s seen the order and soon everyone will know about the Guard’s treachery.

  “At that very moment, Cindy—who was interning in the general’s office at the time—comes in with this layer cake and way more candles than the fire code allows. She tried to duck around the comm tech, but the tech managed to fling her arm at just the right angle to launch the whole flaming tower straight into the air.”

  “What a waste of perfectly good cake.”

  Olvera shook her head. “That’s the crazy thing! This cake must have gone a good half-meter in the air, but somehow the comm tech caught the bomaxed thing perfectly intact. Once it was safely on the table, the tech got grilled about what she was so upset about. When they realized that the comm tech had been conspiring with an outsider, Colonel Tanaka was ready to initiate court martial proceedings on the spot, but General Haloway was so amused by circumstances surrounding the incident that he decided to grant the comm tech a chance to set things right, given her otherwise exemplary service record.”

  “Wow,” Kaen breathed.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been there to see it myself.”

  “Who was the comm tech?”

  Olvera smiled. “Me.”

  “Seriously…?”

  “Disillusioned youth.” She shrugged. “I’d like to sit in on the interview and give you my best estimate of whether they’ll do it again. Discipline is your purview. Security is mine, and having a leak means I’ve failed. I need to earn my keep.”

  “I understand.” Kaen nodded. “I have to warn you, though, I don’t think we’ll have any cake.”

  “That’s a shame, but probably for the best.”

  Kaen chuckled. “Deanna, you are full of surprises.”

  The two officers met up with a pair of soldiers—not that Kaen would need any help handling their intended prisoner.

  He led the way to the holding cell where the first of their three perpetrators was being detained. Given the seriousness of the violations, Kaen decided it was best to start with the captain, especially since part of his role included consultations with Olvera’s security team.

  “Captain Ellis,” Kaen clasped his hands behind his back as he approached the cell, “we’d like to have a word with you.”

  “Colonel! What’s this about?” The captain ran up to the plexiglass.

  “We’ll have a private chat.” Kaen nodded to the two soldiers, and they opened the cell door.

  Ellis turned around and placed his hands behind his back so the armed escorts could cuff him. “There must be some mistake.”

  “We’ll see.”

  The two soldiers led Ellis to an interrogation room twelve meters down the hall and cuffed him to a bar welded onto the table. When he was secure, the colonel and the chief of security entered.

  “I apologize for the restraints, Captain Ellis, but the nature of our accusations requires a degree of caution,” Kaen said as he paced on the far side of the table.

  Olvera leaned against the wall next to the door with her arms crossed, gaze fixed on the captain.

  “Sir, I don’t know what you think I—”

  “You forwarded a deployment order to the Elusian government, did you not?” Kaen asked.

  Ellis took a slow breath. “Yes, I did.”

  “Care to enlighten us as to why?”

  The captain’s eyes shifted between Kaen and Olvera. “Those reasons aren’t important.”

  “That isn’t for you to decide!” Kaen snarled, slamming his hands on the tabletop. “Who were you working for?”

  “Okay, okay!” Ellis shrank back in his chair. “I don’t have any name, I swear it. I received a message three years ago while I was on my way home from leave—from a group advocating Elusian unification. I grew up on Elusia, as you’ve no doubt seen in my file, and
I’m sick of the petty arguments between Elusians and the Mysaran Coalition. They asked me to keep an eye on things in the Guard and let them know if there was ever something that might threaten the peace. I’ve only relayed four pieces of information in those three years. An offensive posture toward Mysar was something I couldn’t let slide.”

  “Captain,” Kaen halted his pacing and leaned forward on the table. “You shouldn’t have been looking in that folder in the first place.”

  “With all due respect, Colonel, it’s a public folder. As a member of the security team, it’s my duty to take a random sampling of documents from across the servers to make sure there are no malicious files.”

  “That excuse won’t cut it,” Olvera interjected. “Software takes care of that sampling.”

  “And I’m the person who makes sure the software is doing its job,” Ellis shot back. “Regardless, I didn’t hack into a folder where I wasn’t supposed to be. You can accuse me of transmitting content outside the Guard, but don’t tell me that I went digging somewhere unauthorized.”

  “Maybe so,” Kaen agreed. “However, I believe you know more about this mystery organization. Tell me.”

  The captive looked down at his bound hands. “I honestly don’t know much more than I’ve already said. But it might be worth noting what I don’t know.”

  Kaen slammed his palms on the table top. “Don’t give me that shite, Ellis! You’re a disgrace to the uniform, sharing the Guard’s secrets—”

  Ellis stiffened. “I know my career is probably over, so take the information or leave it. I tried to find the organization, but they’re ghosts! As far as I can tell, there is no organization doing the things that they’ve claimed to have done.”

  “Then why did you keep feeding them information?” Kaen demanded.

  “Because the first information I sent was acted upon in a way I agreed with, as were the others. It wasn’t until this most recent incident that things seemed… off.”

  “Deception always bites you in the ass,” Kaen grumbled.

  “Sir, you’re not listening. If this group isn’t actually part of the Elusian sphere, then who are they?”

  “You tell me, Captain.”

  “I wish I knew. But I can say that they seem to want peace with the Mysarans, and that sounds good to me.”

  “Except that you swore your allegiance to the Taran Empire.” Kaen stared down his subordinate. “Or have you turned against your oath?”

  “My dedication to the Empire will never waver. I’m just not sure that bullying others into joining us is the answer.”

  “You think we’re ‘bullying’ the Elusians and the Mysarans into rejoining the Empire?”

  Ellis shifted in his chair. “This arrangement has left the people divided. What choice do Elusians now have but to agree to the reunification terms? You’ve eliminated every other option unless they want to start a civil war.”

  Kaen perched on the edge of the table. “Captain, you’ve missed the entire point of the Taran Empire. When we look beyond our individual political boundaries, we become more. By demonstrating that your allegiance is greater to your home nation than to the Empire, you’ve told us that you don’t support that vision of unification.

  “And on a final note, the Guard doesn’t have anything to do with negotiations. That’s the politicians’ job. We fill a security role, or have you forgotten that, too?”

  “I support the Empire, even if you don’t believe me.”

  “You have your convictions, I’ll give you that.” Kaen rose from the table. “Unfortunately, those convictions don’t align with the integrity demanded of our Guard officers.”

  Ellis shook his head. “Then I want nothing more to do with this organization.”

  Kaen glared at the captive. “You turned against us! You made a conscious choice to leak classified information. I don’t care how you want to justify it—you didn’t uphold your duty to the Guard.”

  Olvera took a step forward toward the table. “You don’t believe you’ve done anything wrong, do you?”

  “I did what I had to do.”

  Kaen shook his head. “Ellis, your service record spoke of loyalty, but I think you were just good at hiding your dishonor. You’ll remain in custody until formal charges can be rendered, but rest assured, we won’t put you in a position again of having to decide who to give our secrets to.”

  The captain’s shoulders sagged as he looked away from the rage in the colonel’s eyes.

  Kaen stormed out of the room, followed by Olvera. He walked ten meters down the hall away from the two guards standing to either side of the interrogation room door.

  “Think he’s being honest?” Olvera asked.

  Kaen closed his eyes and took calming breaths. “Tell me your impression.”

  “I believe he thinks he’s being honest, at least. But something doesn’t feel right to me,” she started. “Claiming that he’s been feeding information to a phantom group was a bit of a stretch.”

  “Actually,” Kaen countered, “that was probably the truest statement of them all. It’s his motivations that don’t make sense. Not to sound like a recruiter ad, but people are fiercely loyal to the Guard’s mission—pursuit of the greater good. That’s why General Haloway forgave your indiscretion; you were trying to help people you thought were being unjustly harmed.”

  “But Ellis’ interests were in service to a specific nation.”

  “Exactly. People like that don’t make it into the Guard in the first place.”

  “Do you think he was faking it all along?”

  Kaen shook his head. “No. Without genuine commitment, a person would never have the motivation to make it through basic training, let alone eleven years of service. I think that chance encounter Ellis mentioned he had while on leave wasn’t just a chat. He was directed.”

  “You don’t mean… brainwashing?” Olvera frowned.

  “There’s precedent for it—you remember how things were during the Priesthood’s fall. The TSS gave us the all-clear for the Priesthood’s neurotoxin, but I won’t rule out any possibility in this investigation, not knowing who’s behind it. All I know is that man we spoke to wasn’t talking like a Guard officer.”

  “I guess we need to talk with the others and see if they’re acting the same way.”

  “Yes, we do. I’ll defer final judgment on wrongdoing until we know if they’ve been compromised. These expressed ideals might not be their own.”

  Olvera’s scowl deepened. “If they’ve been programmed to think and act in certain ways, then who else may not be themselves?”

  Kaen released a long breath. “I’m concerned what the answer to that question might be.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Kira exited Leon’s car outside her cottage. “Thanks for seizing that opportunity today. I think I’m so used to being covert that I’m blind to the ‘easy way’.”

  Leon closed the driver’s side door and leaned his forearms on the top of the car. “Nothing about this way will be easy, either. Don’t kid yourself.”

  “I’m not. They’ll be watching me even closer than you. At least this way, I won’t have to make up excuses to be there.”

  “Given the way that receptionist looked at you, I don’t think I would have a hard time explaining to her why I kept stopping by.” Kira snapped her mouth shut a moment too late to prevent her foot from entering. Shite! Did I just say that out loud?

  Leon bust out laughing.

  Kira’s cheeks burned.

  “I hope you’re not trying to reduce me just to my looks,” Leon said, his voice still filled with mirth.

  “That was inappropriate, sorry.” She turned away.

  “Kira…” He jogged around the car toward her and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. “We’ve known each other forever. You don’t need to explain.”

  “This isn’t a social visit. I should be treating you as a professional.”

  “Official Guard business or not, we’re still old friends. I’
m glad we can still joke around.”

  She softened. “You’re right. Present circumstances aside, you’re Lee.”

  “Oh, stars, no one’s called me that in years!” Leon exclaimed through a chuckle. “I always hated that nickname.”

  “But you let me get away with using it, anyway.”

  “Because I knew if I tried to get you to stop, you’d just turn it into sport. It was easier to find it endearing.” He slid his hand down her arm, and his fingers brushed against hers.

  Their eyes met.

  Kira drew a deep breath and stepped back toward her cottage. “I shouldn’t keep you from your evening. I might wander over to that gym you told me about.”

  “Nonsense. Have dinner with me. I’ll take you to the gym tomorrow.”

  “Leon…”

  “I insist. Besides, pretty sure those cupboards are completely bare. If you want to eat—and I know how you like your dinners—you’ll need to subsist off those of us who actually live here.” He cocked his head. “Whaddya say?”

  “All right, fine,” Kira yielded. Stars, I’m entirely too motivated by food. Not that the company was a deterrent…

  “Wow, that didn’t take much.”

  “Admittedly, you had me at ‘eat’.”

  He shook his head and laughed. “Kira, you’ve hardly changed a bit.”

  “That’s Captain Bit,” she jested. “Don’t forget that I can disarm you fifty different ways in two seconds flat. A fact I intend to demonstrate at the gym later.”

  “…You say to the person who you could control with a bat of your eyelashes when we were sixteen.”

  “Granted, that ‘you’ wasn’t you specifically.”

  “Relax, I’m just giving you a hard time.”

  Kira smiled. “What’s on the menu for tonight?”

  “I’ve been slow-roasting a pork tenderloin for the last eighteen hours, and I gathered greens from my garden. I just have to throw a loaf of bread in the oven, which was crafted from a sourdough starter passed down in my family for five generations.”