"The one person who did leave," Chandaram continued, "was Rhian Chu. Unaccompanied. She walked, she seems to like public transport." Of course she did, thought Sandy-more colour and movement to enjoy. Fresh air to smell and shop windows to look in along the way. And the other reason of course ... "We lost her after about fifteen minutes," Chandaram continued. A faint smile appeared at his lips for the first time. "We always lose her. You'll have to show me how you guys do that."
"I will," said Sandy. "Rhian's been getting a lot of jobs lately. She's a less recognisable courier for one thing, and she likes being loose in the city."
"And you haven't mentioned the person who actually did it," Ari said pointedly.
"The key suspect, Ariel," Chandaram replied, with a raised eyebrow in his direction. "I discount no possibilities. League activity both in the Embassy and connected to it has been intense of late, as you know. We can't rule out some involvement in the whole Kalaji affair."
Sandy frowned at him. "What the hell would they have to gain by setting the Fleet at our throats? They've wanted Federation power out of the hands of Earth for as long as the League's existed."
"Or maybe they simply wish to sow disharmony," Chandaram replied coolly. "A Federation civil war could finish the job they started, without costing them anything. Anyhow, it's not my job to speculate, only to join the dots."
"I think they're looking for Jane," said An, lips pursed as he gazed out at the lights with faint frustration. "It fits the search pattern." Chandaram's look was questioning. "I, um, had some of their seeker functions intercepted and analysed by some friends," Ari explained. Anita and Pushpa, Sandy was willing to bet that meant. "It's the kind of pattern that they'd use if ... well, I'll explain later."
"We found one of Kalaji's safehouses an hour back," Sandy added for Chandaram's benefit. "It'd been broken into ... maybe League codes were used, I couldn't be sure, they're better at disguising how they penetrate the databases now they know I'm around to analyse whatever you guys pick up. An thinks Ramoja was trying to find Kalaji just as we were."
"Maybe he did," said Chandaram. Nodding toward the Mananakorn towers.
"Or maybe he was just hoping to get Jane's whereabouts from him," An added. "If Kalaji was Jane's coordinator."
Chandaram shrugged. "And maybe he did that too." Find Kalaji, and wait for Jane to kill him, Sandy realised he meant. Thus finding Jane. Or would he?
"It's too easy to be a sniper in this city," Sandy disagreed. "Even GIs can't see sniper bullets. He wouldn't know where to look ..." She broke off, feeling suddenly cold. A red tinge descended upon her vision. Time slowed, and the dark landscape of sprawling city lights transformed to a mass of multispectrum colour and motionhighlighted traffic ...
"Sandy?" said Ari, recognising that look. Sandy stared at him, seeing only a humanoid, face-shaped blob of heat-colouring and fine textures. Blood thumping in his jugular as he became himself alarmed. Eyes darting in small, involuntary motions as minor muscles twitched -a most un-GI-like phenomenon, involuntary muscle spasms ... "Sandy, what's wrong?"
"Get off the roof," Sandy told him. "You too, Anil. Get off now. Don't hurry, just walk calmly."
An didn't question, but merely put a companionable hand on Chandaram's shoulder, and began walking. Sandy took up position on Chandaram's other side. From a distance, she hoped, it would look innocent enough. They walked to the upper entrance lobby, through the sliding doors that were being kept open for investigators, and inside. Only when they were down the stairs, and standing in the hallway of the eighth floor, did Sandy allow herself to feel safe. And furious.
"Goddamn fucking stupid," she muttered to herself, taking the pistol from her jacket pocket for the simple comfort of feeling its weight in her hand. "I should have thought."
"You ..." Ari looked puzzled. "You don't think ... ?"
"She's a goddamn ruthless bitch, An. We were standing right there, right where she'd have known we'd come to. And I just let us fucking stand there, in full view of any number of sniper-nests for several kilometres around ... Jesus!"
"That's a big risk," said Chandaram with a frown. "Even if she fires, we've got any number of airborne vehicles in the region ...even the mobile scanners can get some idea of trajectories on a moment's notice."
"I don't want to get into a chase with her, Anil." She stared at him from point-blank range. "No chases. She'll kill innocent people just to ward us off, I know her!"
"With all respect, you only met her once. You don't think you're maybe just mad at her?"
"Sure! Sure I'm fucking mad at her, I'm furious! And when she goes down, she'll go down in a nice, quiet little ambush somewhere. She won't know what hit her. That's the only way I'm prepared to do this because it's the only way that won't endanger countless innocent bystanders, do you get me?"
"Sure," said Chandaram, eyeing her cautiously. "I understand."
A bleep in Sandy's newly activated network receptor informed her of an incoming message. She held up a hand to forestall further conversation, indicating to her eardrum and taking several steps aside in the hall. "Kresnov," she said aloud.
"Hi, Cap," came a familiar, mild voice in her ear.
"Rhi," Sandy formulated silently. Depending upon the content of the conversation, she wasn't yet sure if she wanted Chandaram to know who she was talking to. "How's things?" An and Chandaram resumed conversation, in terse, low tones ... An insisting that Jane was the most likely culprit, and Chandaram agreeing, but refusing to rule out any possibilities. Sandy wished she could follow multiple conversations as easily as she could process multiple data-streams, but thanks to the vagaries of neurostructure, it didn't always work that way.
"Things are fine." Rhian certainly didn't sound very bothered by anything ... but then, with Rhian, that was as normal. "I suppose you know I went out from the Embassy? The CSA had several people following me ... or I assume they were CSA. "
"They were," said Sandy. "Where did you go?"
"I was given an errand to go and talk to some underground person. One of the old League network contacts here, one of the ones the CSA didn't catch yet. "
"Oh," said Sandy. Rhian's patience in getting to the point could test a less-patient person's nerves. "Was that an interesting errand?"
"No, actually. It was extremely boring. This person doesn't appear to be connected in any way to recent events. In fact, I can't see why I was sent on this trip at all." She paused. Sandy could feel it coming-she knew Rhian that well. "Which is why I didn't go on the trip. I followed Major Ramoja instead. "
"You tailed your superior?"
"Yes. "
"Um ... why?"
"Because he seemed to be going somewhere much more interesting, " said Rhian. "And because I suspected I was being sent on this other trip in order to keep me out of the way. I think Ramoja knows there's a limit on things where he can trust me, where Jane is concerned. So I guessed he must be going somewhere interesting, if he was trying to get rid of me. "
It was a very frank admission, even by Rhian's standards. Despite her faith in Rhian, Sandy couldn't help but feel her trepidation rising. "Where did Ramoja go, Rhi?"
"I don't know, I lost him." Sandy repressed a snort of exasperation. "But before I lost him, I got the distinct impression that he was heading toward Canas. "
Major Ramoja, the senior League intelligence officer on Callay, headed for Canas? Maybe he had an appointment ... but if so, would he have gone with so much covert sneaking around? No, if one of the bigwigs in Canas wanted to bring Ramoja over for one of the usual covert chit-chats, they'd have sent a car themselves, and not left anything up to Ramoja at all-after all, it was the Callayan bigwigs who would pay the political or purely popular price if news got out of such secret dealings with dastardly League GIs who should have remained safely contained within their embassy grounds.
"Cap," Rhian continued, in much the same unfazed, contemplative tone as before, "I heard that Enrico Kalaji was murdered just now?"
&nb
sp; "That's right," Sandy said cautiously.
"Well, I was thinking," said Rhian, "that maybe Jane's cleaning up after herself. I mean, Earth obviously planted certain people in Tanusha to help her with her mission. But if those people got caught, they'd spill everything ... and, I mean, you're looking for evidence right now, aren't you?"
"That's exactly right," Sandy agreed. Unwilling to interject anything else at this point, least she break Rhian's surprising momentum.
"So Kalaji was coordinating Jane, and now Kalaji's dead. But who was coordinating Kalaji?"
"No," said Sandy, "we've got his direct superior Samarang in custody, he's already confessed ... " and she stopped, realising where Rhian was going even before she interrupted.
"And who coordinated Samarang.?" said Rhian. "I mean, Secretary Grey didn't even need to be directly involved, did he? He could still prove useful in helping the CSA track everything back to Earth, simply because he's the only one who knew what Samarang, Kalaji and anyone else in the State Department was doing at all times, and how they operated. "
"Rhi, thank you very much. I'll be there as soon as possible. "
She disconnected, and turned back on Ari. An and Chandaram broke off their conversation, seeing her expression.
"Ari," she said, "we got a situation."
"Could you be a little more specific?" said the head of S-2 Security over the cruiser's speakers.
"That's all I can tell you at the present time," Sandy replied. "I'm recommending a red alert, but keep it low profile. No visible guard rotations, no shifting your regular schedule, nothing."
They were inbound now, toward Canas, in one of the low-altitude emergency lanes, speed nudging six hundred kilometres per hour as towers and suburbs fled by to the sides and below. Sandy had the Ranchu-15 assault weapon An kept for contingencies in her lap, frequency adjusted to her personal interface uplinks.
"It's kind of difficult to implement a red alert without it immediately becoming visible," retorted the S-2 chief. "If I knew what kind of threat you were talking about, it would make it easier for me to counter. "
Sandy threw a look at An, who dealt with bureaucrat-oriented security probably more often than she did, and had done so over a much longer period. Ari shrugged ... which meant he didn't think they were any more likely than any other unit to panic and fuck it up if she told them. Sandy's return look was darkly sardonic, and not entirely comforted. "Hello, Chief," she said after that pause, "my information includes the possibility of a high-designation GI in close infiltration position. The suspected target is the Secretary of State."
Now it was the S-2 chief's turn to pause before replying. Then, "Uh, thank you, Snowcat. Will ... uh, look forward to your arrival. "
"Roger that, our ETA is just over a minute. Don't do anything stupid, this one's very intelligent, do you understand me?"
"Copy, Snowcat. " The connection went dead. Sandy flipped the cruiser's dash screen onto the secure S-2 feed from Canas-it showed Secretary Grey's residence, complete with a multitude of automated and manned security posts and devices, all in real time. She touched the screen, widening the field of view to the near Canas neighbourhood, repressing her irritation that she could no longer use her uplinks with any degree of security. If this was Jane, and Jane knew she was coming ... well, the only thing that prevented Jane from using the killswitch codes was that she didn't know where Sandy was.
"I've got a good feed," said An from the driver's seat, eyes slightly unfocused as he concentrated upon the mental picture.
"Lucky you," muttered Sandy, trying to make out the limited, two-dimensional display upon the dash.
"The barrier elements look secure, I can't see any sign of branching." His eyes flicked briefly back to the cruiser's controls, as the CPU began to reduce velocity, the descent-path down to Canas curving away ahead. "I bet S-2 didn't see that coming. Every security agency in the city just started to think no one was targeting our senior figures any longer."
"Well, for a while there, they were right." Sandy tried holding the Ranchu in her left hand, and winced with irritation as the cast-bound fingers and thumb refused to properly grasp the handle. Well, so long as it didn't slow her loading magazines ... "What do you think about Grey? Wilful compliance, or basic stupidity?"
"I think the first implies the second, doesn't it?" Ari replied with heavy irony. "But I never had him pinned as that pro-Earth. Pathologically anti-League, maybe, but that's something else entire ..."
"What'll he do," Sandy asked calmly, "if the bullets start flying?"
"My best guess ..." which was what An knew she was asking for, "... would be simple survival. No tricks up that guy's sleeve, he's not smart enough."
"You can always underestimate a man."
"Yeah, ahem ..." Ari mock-cleared his throat, sarcastically, "... in this city, amongst politicians, I find the reverse is more usually true."
The descent brought them in toward a roadside transition zone just outside the tall, brick Canas perimeter wall. They landed between roadside trees under the watchful eye of the northern gate security post, then pulled out to rejoin the perimeter road's traffic as soon as Central allowed. The security post checked vehicle ID and scanned faces and irises at the gate, while the road and wall-implanted sensors swept the entire cruiser from all angles for anything suspicious. Then the metal gates swung aside, and they cruised onto a narrow, cobblestoned street between familiar, picturesque stone walls.
"Shit, how would she get in?" Sandy murmured, half to herself. Just leaping the walls was impossible-when they said all airspace above Canas was impenetrable without authorisation, that meant right down to millimetres above the perimeter walls, triple redundancy with three different kinds of detection technology.
"She had an inside source at the State Department," said An, "it's long been suspected they had more access to Canas security codes than they ought." The cruiser's suspension did not enjoy the cobbles-aircars were heavy, and not designed primarily for ground transportation anyway. An drove on manual between narrow walls, pulling aside once as an oncoming vehicle edged over to let them past. Picturesque creepers overgrew stone walls in the yellow wash of a streetlight. Then a little shop and a barrestaurant that Sandy recalled having enjoyed a nice meal and flamenco music at several weeks ago ... unexpectedly, she found herself missing her house, and her previous relatively peaceful, orderly evenings as a Canas resident. Then An followed a navcomp direction, up an even narrower street overhung by a ceiling of tree branches and bending all the way.
"Oh, this is fucking lovely," An muttered, leaning forward as he drove to peer ahead and upward in trepidation. "Blind corners, no other escape routes ... gee I love this neighbourhood, doesn't it just make you feel so secure?" An, Sandy knew, had a somewhat different perspective on Canas's picture-postcard charms than her.
"You just don't like any security you haven't organised yourself," she reprimanded him.
"I'd feel safer letting the Beetle shoot an apple off my head." "The Beetle" was CSA Assistant Director N'Darie, whom Ari did not get along with at all.
"It's so pretty, though."
"So's lightning." As if on cue, the sky above lit in a racing blue flash beyond the treetops. An bit back a curse in what Sandy reckoned would have been Hebrew, if he'd let it come out properly. Ari professed to being neither religious nor superstitious. Sandy repressed a smile.
Around a bend on the left, broad gates opened upon the cruiser's approach. An paused them at another checkpoint, where a pair of S-2 security checked IDs (and gazed curiously at Sandy, and her new brunette look) before waving them past. The drive was long through lush gardens, and ended in a circle about a central fountain, with a wide apron to allow large VIP vehicles to park and unload multiple passengers and security.
An parked the cruiser short of the apron, and they got out. Boots crunching on the driveway gravel, Sandy slowly scanned about as they walked, while Ari's gaze remained distant, focused on his network uplinks. The Secretary of St
ate's private residence was of course as much government facility as house-a grand mansion of stone and latticed windows, enveloped within a veritable jungle of lush, wet greenery. Sandy remained unsure about the foliage-the theory was that tight, enclosed spaces reduced the greater threat of long-range attack with high-powered weapons, and increased the risk to the theoretical attacker by forcing them to get close, right in where security, and lethal defences, were tightest. Against most attackers, Sandy reckoned the theory was sound. But there were some types of soldiers in the world, she knew from personal experience, who did their best work up tight and close. Flitting from shadow to shadow.
"I think maybe we need a jungle warfare specialist," Ari muttered at her side as they left the crunching gravel and strode up the paved path to an engraved wooden door.
The S-2 security chief-a squat, sturdy man named Sundaram- met them in the stone-paved hall. He looked nervous past his tough exterior, eyes darting with barely concealed anxiety. "What can you tell me?" he said with hushed earnestness, looking hard from Sandy to An. "I've tried to keep it quiet ... I've isolated Secretary Grey in his central office, it's the most defensible room in the building, we've cut down unnecessary movement and limited staff access. The perimeter is one hundred per cent tight and the yard-grid is all fully activated. I don't see how she could get through that way."
Sandy didn't see a way either, but she didn't say so. She didn't want anyone to get relaxed in any direction.
"My bet is," said An, "if she's here, she's already breached the perimeter ... she's got access codes and God-knows what else we don't know about. Can you track your staff? Do you know the whereabouts and identity of every person in the building and surrounds?"
Sundaram nodded shortly. "Yes, and I've had everyone doublechecked visually, no false IDs. I've got people quietly sweeping storage spaces and rechecking delivery manifests. It's possible she got in a while ago and is just lying quietly somewhere ..."
"Wait, wait, wait," said Sandy, holding up a hand. From the look in Sundaram's eyes, and the edgy looks on the faces of several of the S2s behind him, she thought she could see where this was going ... and it wasn't anywhere healthy. "Look, I think you've done a great job. Seriously. I know S-2 runs a tight ship, and with the measures you've put in place so far, I think you've got it all covered. We need to remain alert and ready, but let's not get carried away here. She's a GI. She's not a mythical spirit, she doesn't have supernatural powers, she's just a regular, run-of-the-mill GI like me. Okay?"
Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel Page 31