"What you're saying, I think," Toni interrupted what was clearly about to become much more of a technological lecture than Bleys wanted just now, "is that even if anyone traces calls to the safe house, they can't trace it back here."
"Oh, it could be done, I guess," Sarah said. "But not in any time frame I've been given to understand we have to worry7 about."
"Let's speak about this in more detail a little later," Toni said. "But for the moment we need to talk more about content than about systems."
"Do you want to ask us questions, or would you prefer our summary first?" Walker Freas asked. The unexpected aptitude the onetime mercenary7 had shown for intelligence collection activities had been very pleasing to Henry, Bleys remembered.
"Summary first, I think," Toni said, exchanging a glance with Bleys, who had already moved over to take a seat at one of the vacated desks, where he found already up and running a screen that accessed the ship's information storage. He entered the password needed to access the files from Others' headquarters that had been copied into the ship's computer before it left Association; and then looked up and nodded at Toni.
"We may ask questions as you go," Toni said to the two Soldiers.
"Of course," Walker Freas said. He turned and nodded to Sarah, who also sat down at a screen.
"Following your instructions," Walker Freas said now, "those of us who came in secretly on Favored of God set up covert surveillance on the Others' headquarters and its personnel, and two-person teams went out to surveil seven of the Others who primarily work elsewhere on the planet."
"Did you have information of some sort that led you to choose those seven?" Toni asked.
"No," Freas answered. "With nothing to go on, we simply chose seven at random."
"What did you find?"
"Up until your arrival, nothing untoward happened—except for one thing that didn't happen: our people couldn't locate one of the outlying seven Others."
"Which one?" Bleys asked.
"Stella Tanalingam," Walker Freas replied.
"Could she have been out on her route?"
"We don't think so," Walker said. "We had information on all the local Others' routes, of course, and our team followed along hers. As it happened, four of the other six outlying Others were also out on their routes, and the teams assigned to them had no trouble finding them."
"Could she have been on vacation, or ill, for instance?" Toni asked.
"Perhaps," the Soldier said. "But we don't think so, because there was another unexpected variation from pattern: her route was still being worked."
"Worked? You mean—" Toni began, but Bleys interrupted her.
"You mean someone else was out following up her normal contacts, don't you?" he said.
"Yes," Walker nodded. "Specifically, one of her staff members."
"You know that because it was someone listed in the table of organization you were given," Bleys said. "Which one?"
"Lester Parnell," Walker said. Bleys immediately called up the available information on that individual. He had thoroughly reviewed all such material already, but despite his retentive memory he took time to scan the file once more, while waving a hand for the summary to continue.
"In all other cases, the Others' staffs never acted on their own,"
Walker Freas said. "Generally the staff stays in the office, acting as liaison and so forth; if one of them goes out on a route, it's always in a position supporting the senior Other."
He fell silent, watching Bleys, who appeared intent over his screen. After a moment Toni spoke again.
"You've been telling us what you saw before our arrival," she said.
"Right," the Soldier said, and continued: "At what we now know was a short time after Burning Bush came out of its final shift, there was an explosion of activity in the headquarters here in Ceta City. None of it could be called suspicious, given the circumstances of your arrival. And within a short time, there was activity in all the outlying offices we were covering."
"All attributable to their seniors being instructed to come to Ceta City," Toni said.
Walker nodded.
"But in Stella Tanalingam's office?" Bleys asked, looking up now from his screen.
"Activity, yes," Walker said. "But no one went to Ceta City from that office. Rather, Parnell came back to the office immediately, and some sort of conference was held, involving two other members of the staff—and two persons unknown to us."
"There was no way to listen to that conference, or to any calls?" Bleys asked.
"No. Others' security is entirely too good to allow that. Perhaps we could have arranged something, with time, but—" "Never mind," Bleys said. "Go on."
"As I said, we only had two people on the scene," Walker said. "When the conference broke up, they made the decision to split up. Elizabeth Kalra followed Coleman Jones, another of the staff at that meeting, and Ken Anderson went off after one of the unknowns." He stopped.
"And?" Toni prompted him.
"Coleman Jones merely went home," Walker said, "and has cither stayed there or gone in to the office. Ken Anderson has not been heard from again."
CHAPTER 13
It was Bleys who finally interrupted the silence.
"Was there any unusual activity after we left the office here?" he asked.
"Not for some time, as far as we could tell—with one exception," Walker said.
"An exception arising after the bomb attack on our convoy," Bleys stated.
"Yes," Walker said; and Sarah nodded. "What happened?" Toni asked.
"Pallas Salvador was at home—it was night here when that attack occurred," Sarah said. "Our estimate is that no one called her with the news for several hours. When she got the news, she went to the office immediately."
"And during that intervening period, the staff—what?" Bleys asked.
"Two staff members who are normally off-duty at night came to the headquarters less than an hour after the attack," Walker said. "Gelica Costanza and Susan Perry. During the following twenty minutes three unknown persons arrived, and remained there for over an hour, leaving about twenty minutes before Pallas Salvador arrived."
"Descriptions?" Bleys asked.
"Better than that," Sarah Kochan said. "Pictures."
"Pictures?" Toni asked. "I thought even the most conventional security equipment prevented that kind of thing?"
"Anti-eavesdropping equipment works by inhibiting electronic circuitry," Sarah said. She smiled. "We took non-electronic pictures as they entered and left the building."
"How—" Toni began.
"Mechanical cameras," Bleys interrupted her. "They use some sort of non-electronic recording medium with a simple mechanical lens—we don't have time to get sidetracked on that: where are those pictures?"
"I'm sending them to your screen now," Sarah said.
"I sec," Bleys said after a moment. "Are these the same people who came to Parnell's office?"
"No."
"What descriptions do you have for those people?"
"A man and a woman," Walker Freas said. "Both estimated to be in their upper sixties in age. The man tall and muscular, with rosy white skin and graying brown hair, and the woman black-haired and brown-skinned, about six inches shorter than the man and unusually thin."
Toni, who had moved to look over Bleys' shoulder at the pictures from Ceta City while Walker gave the descriptions of the unphotographed people, looked up.
"There's a common denominator," she said.
"Yes," Bleys nodded. "They're all in the same age range."
"We noticed that, too," Walker Freas said. "And with only one exception it's the same age range as the staff members they conferred with. We don't think it could be a coincidence, but we don't have an explanation for it."
In the ensuing silence, Toni pointed out that tomorrow was the day the Others' leaders were scheduled to reconvene at the Ceta City headquarters.
"You're right," Bleys said. He paused to think for a moment.
"All right," Toni said.
A moment later the door annunciator chimed. At a nod from Bleys, Sarah Kochan touched a control, and the door opened to reveal Kaj Menowsky. Toni held up a hand before he could speak.
"Bleys?" she said. Her tone got his attention.
"You need to go with Kaj now and let him look you over," she said.
Bleys looked at her, then at Kaj in the doorway. After a moment he stood up.
"We need to make this fast," he said to the medician.
Kaj only nodded, and backed out of the doorway as Bleys began to stride toward it. Bleys, however, stopped, and turned half around.
"Find me some experienced researchers," he said to the room in general. "I mean experienced in negotiating libraries and databases. I'd prefer they were our own people, but we can use locals for the sake of speed, if we can maintain security." He turned away but continued speaking over his shoulder as he walked toward the door.
"I think Henry called in some of the outlying teams to augment the force that screened us after the bombing," Bleys said. "Is anyone still out watching the outlying offices?"
"Yes," Walker Freas said. "Henry sent a few of the people who were originally with you to take over that surveillance."
"Probably thinking they were known to the local authorities in the area around us," Toni said. "They wouldn't have been known in the surveillance areas."
"Call them all in," Bleys said, "except for the ones watching Lester Parnell. We're going to need the rest here."
"The meeting's been postponed," Toni said when Bleys returned to the lounge less than an hour later. "What did Kaj have to say?" "He said I'm fine."
"I'll check that with him later, you know."
"I knew that," Bleys said. "He wants to look you over, too, you know. In any case, he'll still tell you I'm fine, although he'll probably take longer than that to say it."
"And he thinks you should take a nap."
"How did you know that?"
"He always wants you to get more rest," she said, smiling. "I'll admit to being tired," he said. "I'll get a nap in a minute." "There's a bedroom right down the corridor," she pointed out. He nodded.
"Where is everybody?" he asked.
"In comms," she said, indicating the door that had been pointed out to him earlier. "I'm afraid the Soldiers don't run to research skills, so I've got them looking for suitable locals."
"Would any of our official party be likely to have such skills?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "But they're all still in Abbeyville, pretending you're holed up there; and I thought it'd be best not to risk exposing that ruse."
"You're right," he said.
"Why don't you tell me what you want researched," she said. "Then you can catch a nap while I get it all in motion?"
"We want historical researchers," he said, "but I'm still trying to work the problem in my own head.... Let me sleep on it, and I'll have it by the time we have people ready to work. Besides, you need sleep even more than I do."
Things were quiet aboard Favored of God that evening. In fact, Bleys thought, it was almost like being in space, except there were fewer people around. He had napped for nearly four hours before getting up to have a small meal, which he prepared for himself in the ship's kitchen. Toni was still asleep.
He wished he could look out from the ship now, to see space as they passed through it—to look out at the stars, as he always tried to do when out among them ... but then, it wasn't space he would see out there now. He could activate a sensor to watch the Cetan night sky from here in the lounge, but it would not be the same thing.
It was strange that he could feel so free, in a ship like this, when it was out among the stars, and yet feel so penned in—in the very same ship—when it was at rest on a planet's surface.
He had not really realized, until now, how much he had come to miss those visits with the stars. On his first interstellar trips with his mother he had gotten out from under the thumbs of the caretakers she set to watch him, by parking himself in the lounges of the various liners and watching the starscapes the vision screens presented.... Some of the better liners had even had wraparound effects that could make him feel as if he was floating in space without need for a ship. On later trips, when he was an adult traveling alone, solitary, that feeling of kinship with the stars had, if anything, grown stronger.
These years his trips were always made in the company of others—other people and other concerns... so many of both, he could never seem to find the solitariness necessary to recapture that feeling of kinship.
Would he ever be that alone again? It seemed strange even to him, that he, who had felt loneliness so keenly all his life, should miss being alone.
It did not seem likely he would ever again be in a position to travel by himself, unburdened by the presence of others who could demand his time and attention.
—Maybe not. He remembered now, suddenly, that many years ago Donal Graeme, who had come as close as anyone ever had to being the ruler—no, make that guardian—of the entire race, had still managed to be alone in a ship, on that last trip when he had vanished, as sometimes occurred when a phase-shift went wrong.
Did Graeme travel by himself because of some similar desire to be close with the stars? Maybe he ought to look into more details of the man's life.
And maybe he could learn to handle a ship and go off on trips by himself....
But then, he reminded himself, Graeme had been a Dorsai, an accomplished member of a people skilled in ship-handling. Still...
He shook his head. His mission was going to require all the lifetime he could manage to attain, and more besides.
A few hours later, Toni came into the lounge by way of the comms room.
"Henry's on the line," she said. "He wants to know if you have any new orders."
"He told us earlier that the Soldiers found no identification of any sort on the dead attackers around that bunker, but that they were going to try to analyze some of the clothing and equipment," Bleys said. "Did anything come of that?"
"The equipment and clothing are all locally produced," Toni said. "Henry's reluctant to use official channels to follow up the serial numbers on the weapons, because that might tip someone off on what we're doing."
"He's correct," Bleys said, "but I don't think it could hurt us, as long as the request seems to come from the Abbeyville consultate— it would be normal for us to be trying to follow up the attack."
"It's still daylight in Abbeyville," Toni said. "I'll have Henry forward the information through the staff there. Is there anything else?"
"Not at the moment," Bleys said, "but there'll certainly be something for him to do tomorrow—maybe we should get him prepared for that. But what are you doing up? I thought you were sleeping?"
"I was," she said, "but I left instructions for them to wake me when Henry called. I'll be going back to bed soon.... As for Henry, I'd suggest we don't tell him anything about tomorrow, just now. Anything we have to tell him won't be hurt by waiting until morning— keep in mind, Henry has probably had even less sleep than we have, these last few days."
"You're right," Bleys said. "I should have remembered that."
"We can all use some more sleep," Toni said.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. And he was, he realized, now that he had said it. Because sometimes his mind produced answers in his sleep.
"Don't let me sleep too long," he added, remembering that on those occasions when his mind had worked on a problem in his sleep, he had often slept for an inordinate length of time.
He stood up.
"How long is 'too long'?" Toni asked.
"Let's say—either when there's some unusual activity by the people we've been watching, or twelve hours." "All right," she nodded. "Are you coming to bed?"
"In a few minutes," she said. "Henry's waiting on the line; and I'd like to leave a few instructions with the duty people."
"All right," he said, and went through the door to the corridor. As Toni opened the door to the comms room, Bleys' head appeared in the other doorway again.
"Have there been any repercussions from all the bodies we left scattered in that field?" he asked.
"If you mean in the media, or in the form of any activity by our secret enemies—not that I've heard," she said. "Our diplomatic people informed the Solomonis that you managed to escape when your convoy was ambushed, and I'd guess they'll be embarrassed enough to keep the whole thing out of the media."
"Don't put out any feelers about it," he said. "But keep listening. Silence may lead our enemies to make a wrong move."
"I'll leave instructions on that, too."
He nodded, and vanished from sight again.
CHAPTER 14
Contrary to his own expectations, Bleys slept heavily and awoke early. Toni was not with him, and he wondered whether she might have chosen to sleep in another room; there were plenty available.
He lay in bed, half awake at best, cocooned in the force field that made up the sleeping surface. He had not turned on a light, but simply continued to lie there watching the simulated night sky to which the room's ceiling had been set. Turning his head to the right would have put his eyes on the time display that glowed in midair on that side of the bed, but he did not do that.
Part of him would have welcomed a longer time in the depths of unconsciousness, but he felt vaguely that further sleep would elude him. He would only drowse, tossing and turning; until, finally, he would rise to start his day feeling achey and unwell, his head thick and his emotional state depressed.
Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 Page 13