An adviser stepped in. “Well, he is admitting that what they’re planning to do, indeed what they have done, is illegal. So he’s conceded the moral high ground to us, we can work with that.”
“Really? How does it help? He’s just said that we’re right and he’s wrong, but he’s still going ahead with it, and smiling and sounding reasonable as he does so. Just being right is scant consolation. What can we do, in practical terms?”
“The buyout hasn’t gone through yet. We could block it,” offered another adviser.
“How do we do that?” said Cortes.
The adviser hesitated. “I’m not sure, sir, I’ll look into it. There must be a way to block the money at source.”
“Okay, let’s go with that, if we can. What else?”
“We can advise the shareholders not to settle. That would be another victory.”
“Goddammit! We don’t need moral victories! Are we all going to sit around here patting each other on the back telling each other how right we are and how we all did the right thing as we watch this son of a bitch steal a planet from us!?”
“It would lessen their legitimacy. We have to work with what we’ve got, Mr President. Little things like this will help us in the long run. We have a warship arriving there soon. That’s our ace, but we still have to work at these things. They will make a difference.”
Cortes let out a pent-up breath. “Okay, go ahead and advise the shareholders not to settle. Is there anything we can do to induce them?”
“Not really, sir. It would look like bribery. I would appeal to their civic duty and sense of patriotism. Anyone taking them up on the offer would be literally selling out to an opposing power. We can play up that aspect.”
“That’s good, go with that. What about a public campaign, you know, an advertising campaign? ‘Don’t Sell Out to Mars,’ or something like that?”
“It’s a risk, sir. If it backfired we could end up giving them even more legitimacy. I think targeting the shareholders and appealing to their sense of national duty would be the way to go.”
“Okay. You can take care of that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Anything else? So we’re going to advise shareholders to hold out, and we’re going to look into freezing Martian assets, right? Physically stop them from paying us off?”
“Yes, sir,” the adviser said. “If that’s possible we should definitely pursue that.”
“I want to be kept up-to-date on this. Any developments, any information should come through my office.”
“Yes, Mr President.”
“Anything else?”
-
“Okay then, that’s it.”
“My fellow Americans. You may have seen the recent stream by Charles Venkdt explaining how he is going to buy Venkdt Mars Corp from the parent company here on Earth without first consulting with that company. Venkdt acknowledges that this is illegal. It is. It would be theft on a grand scale. Mr Venkdt and his compatriots have already set up an illegitimate government on Mars, breaking many other laws. It can be seen from this that Mr Venkdt has no respect for the law and no respect for private property. He is planning to steal one of the jewels of our industrial crown, and the fact that he plans to give us a hefty tip afterwards is no consolation. There is no such thing as an honest thief, as there is no such thing as a legitimate Martian government.
“Our grand ship Ephialtes is heading to Mars, alone now that her sister, the tragic Otus, was cruelly taken from us, quite possibly at the hands of Martian agents. When Ephialtes arrives at Mars we will step up our negotiations with Mr Venkdt and his colleagues and we will seek to redress the grave injustice he is seeking to perpetrate against us.
“We have endured seven years of war and many of you have suffered hardships because of that. We have shown that we are a hardy people and that we will not back down when we know we are right. Venkdt and his cronies have no legitimacy on Mars and they cannot take from us what is ours.
“We will not stand for tyranny.
“When the US began the Martian adventure nearly two hundred years ago we took that journey for all mankind. We were seeking out a new providence, as always pushing ourselves against the very limits of what we were capable. We didn’t know then that Mars would grow into such an important outpost of our country, contributing more than four fifths of our energy supplies and becoming an important cornerstone of our economy.
“Mars is important to us now and it will be even more important in the future. Beyond Mars sits the asteroid belt, which is rich with minerals and other raw materials that will benefit us for many hundreds of years into the future. The asteroid belt is ripe for development and our Martian base is a very necessary way station. There is a bright future for Mars. The Martian people are at the very forefront of the human adventure. They will benefit enormously from the trade generated by the exploitation of the asteroid belt. The Martian people are our people. They are us; we are them.
“This current schism has been brought about wholly for the benefit of Charles Venkdt and no one else. I see a Mars united with the USAN growing in the future into a very prosperous region. One man stands in the way of that. That man, in a few short weeks, has already founded a military and built five powerfully armed missile bases. I ask you this: are those the actions of a man of peace? Are those the actions of a man who is confident that he is doing the right thing, and following, as he calls it, ‘natural justice’? Or are they the actions of a tyrant? Of someone who knows he is committing a great crime and will need to defend himself against those who would bring him to justice?
“Mars and the asteroid belt beyond are essential resources for the human race as we grow into the future. We absolutely cannot allow an armed fortress to stand between us and our manifest destiny. It is my sincerest hope that the people of Mars will see sense and come to the table to negotiate a resettlement of the Martian situation and the dismantling of the illegitimate Martian government. But I would ask you, my fellow Americans, to be prepared to fight for what is ours. The great Ephialtes will arrive in Martian orbit within weeks. If necessary, and with great reluctance, I will call on our service men and women to take back what is ours. Up to that point the people of Mars will be given every opportunity to rectify the grave mistake they have made.
“I would like to finish tonight by telling you that, even as we speak, we are making diplomatic approaches in an attempt to resolve this situation as quickly and as peaceably as possible. But as the last seven years have shown, the USAN will not be pushed around and we most certainly will not be bought off.
“Thank you.”
Acevedo had been asked to prepare a report by Andrews. She worked mainly from the telemetry data from Ephialtes, which was all normal. Ephialtes was travelling through space at unprecedented speed and was coping well. All the data tallied with that from the simulations. The worry was that the rogue software which destroyed Otus had been sophisticated enough to feed back false data to disguise its nefarious purpose. Acevedo had had a long conversation with Askel Lund. Lund had assured her that she was closely monitoring all systems and had put some rudimentary fail-safes in place. She had her own isolated system on Ephialtes and periodically would update all software on the ship. That was one line of defence. She had also implemented some sophisticated AIs which, she hoped, would monitor any other changes on the system. The rogue software had been extremely sophisticated. She could see that from what it had achieved. But it was impossible to know exactly how sophisticated it was. On Otus it had avoided detection successfully, but it was difficult to know if it would be able to react to being hunted down. She had so far managed to defeat it on Ephialtes, but would it or its creator be able to learn from their mistakes and strike again?
Acevedo was satisfied that Lund was on top of the situation regarding the software, but it seemed likely there was a saboteur on board Ephialtes. Maybe rogue software was not the only weapon in his or her armoury. Acevedo ran extensive background checks on everyo
ne who had been aboard the shuttle. They all seemed to check out. There were a handful of crew and twenty-six commanders. Every commander had been handpicked for the task and had seen combat in World War IV. It seemed unlikely that someone with such a background would be willing to attack a capital ship of the USAN. Extensive deep searches of all their backgrounds threw up nothing.
The slightest shred Acevedo had to go on was that two of the commanders had suffered brain injuries in combat. Commander Hayden Steiner and Commander Alan Meades had both suffered head injuries, but were fully recovered. Meades had been severely concussed and was released after seventy-two hours of observation. Steiner’s injury had been more serious, but even he had been cleared for duty within two months. Maybe the injuries could have affected their personalities or judgement? She knew she was clutching at straws.
She gave the report to Andrews, who in turn was going to hand it over to Cortes. In summary the report said that the mission was proceeding as planned and the ship was behaving as expected. Training was continuing in the IVRs and the commanders were all ready for combat. They had been drilled over and over on the missions for recapturing the essential Martian installations. Their morale was good and they were razor-sharp and ready to go.
The issue with a potential saboteur was in hand. There was a system in place to protect the ship from any errant software and Askel Lund was working together with Acevedo to try to find out how the rogue software had been introduced into the system and by whom. They were more than halfway to Mars and in a couple of weeks would begin the deceleration process.
White hated meeting in car parks. To him it smacked of cheap thrillers and low-budget spy films. He also didn’t like the way he felt boxed in, with limited escape routes. There were cameras, too, in car parks, but Sherman had assured him they had been taken out. He had his most trusted Secret Service agent double-check on that; he couldn’t take Sherman at his word.
When he arrived Sherman wasn’t there. He had to sit and wait in his car for five minutes, his anger growing from a low simmer to a controlled boil.
Sherman made no apology for arriving late. He opened the door to White’s sedan and slid into the rear passenger seat beside him. He didn’t even give a greeting. White waited for him to say hello or to explain what had happened. When it was clear that Sherman wasn’t going to start the conversation White spoke. “Tell me that wasn’t us.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Sherman.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, and I want you to tell me it was nothing to do with your man.”
“First of all, he or she is our man, and secondly, he or she was just following our instructions.”
White paused. He wanted to control the anger he felt. He didn’t want to let it get the better of him. “Our instructions were to delay and obstruct the mission.”
“I think Otus’ mission has been obstructed,” said Sherman.
“That wasn’t obstruction. It was outright murder, as you well know.”
Sherman looked out of the window. He wouldn’t make eye contact with White. “When you deal with these sorts of people subtlety inevitably has to go out of the window. I got you what you wanted. If you have cold feet now that’s your problem.”
White snorted. “It’s your problem Sherman. Your agent is out of control. Do you think they’re just going to let this one slip by? Tens of highly trained military personnel and billions of dollars of the most sophisticated military hardware ever known. They’re going to find out who did it and they’re going to trace it all the way back to you.”
Sherman had already considered this probability. He had been exceptionally careful to maintain distance between himself and his contacts so that should it come to this he would have plausible denial. There was no way he would be able to assure White of that. As far as White was concerned the only thing linking him to any of this was Sherman himself. Sherman had always thought of White as being something of a weakling, but he knew that in extremes people were capable of extraordinary acts. If White felt threatened enough, and he knew that the only thing connecting him to the attack on Otus was Sherman, what was there to stop him from breaking the link?
“If they get me they get you,” said Sherman. “But they’re not going to get me. You need to relax. I’ve told you before, I only use the very best. They’re not amateurs.”
“Not amateurs? Seems to me like they can’t even follow simple instructions.”
“Hey,” said Sherman, “you make a deal with the devil don’t be surprised if he comes around and bites you in the ass.”
“I didn’t make a deal with the devil, I made a deal with you and you screwed up.”
“I know you made a deal with me,” said Sherman, “I documented it extensively. In fact, the only thing that stops it being published on my site is the fact that I’m still alive. There are places, dates, times and very detailed notes about our conversations. All the times and places will, of course, tally with your diary and the electronic logs of your movements held by the Secret Service. But you needn’t worry. None of that stuff will ever go public. I log into my site every twelve hours and reset the auto publishing. So it will never go live, so long as I’m around to keep doing that.”
“You son of a bitch. You really think I’d have you killed? What sort of person do you think I am?”
Sherman shrugged. “I don’t know. The sort of person who would authorise an attack on his own military to further his political ends?”
White stared at him. “You know that isn’t true. I never asked for that, that is not what I wanted.”
“You say that now,” said Sherman. “There’s some very interesting stuff on my website that details exactly what you asked for and the lengths you ordered me to go to in order to achieve it. It’s unpublished as yet. Maybe one day you’ll get the chance to read it.”
“Your people screwed up. This is all on your head. All I asked for was interference, not this.”
“Was it? How are you going to prove that? Even just being in a position where you needed to prove it would mean you were screwed. You wanted to play tough guys. Well you did, and here’s where it got you. Deal with it.” Sherman angrily left the car, the sound of the slam slowly fading in White’s ears. White simply stared forward, mulling over his options. Sherman had told him that he was insulated, that there was no way anything could be linked back to him. White didn’t believe him, but he had no other option. He hated meeting in car parks; cameras everywhere and only one way out.
White spent the night with Zelman. He found it difficult to sleep, though for periods just listening to Madeline’s rising and falling breaths gave him some comfort. He had always known that with high office came great responsibilities, and during the war at many points he had been a part of meetings that lead directly to deaths on the battlefield. With modern fighting methods - drones and remote warfare - this seldom meant the deaths of USAN soldiers, but with the Commander Program it had happened. There had been other decisions which had led to civilian fatalities, deaths which may not have occurred had the decisions made in those meetings gone a different way. It wasn’t the first time that he had initiated something that had gone on to lead to losses of life.
It had always been abstract before. It had been a collegiate process, like being part of a firing squad. No one person would be able to claim the fatal shot was the result of them pulling the trigger. Each individual took a portion of the responsibility, and if they needed to they could tell themselves that it was the others who were responsible.
This was different.
There was scant consolation in telling himself that this was not his intention. Sherman had been right, to a degree, that when you go off-piste there are no rules anymore, and certainly no guarantees. He alone had initiated this action that had resulted in many deaths. The commanders who had died on Otus had volunteered to put their lives on the line fighting for the USAN and all it stood for and now, however unintentionally, he had se
nt them to their fate.
He felt guilty too about his own anxieties. He couldn’t be sure whether he was worried about being found out for his own sake, or whether he was worried that he was the last person who was in a position to put a brake on Cortes’ mad careening toward a new conflict. If he were taken out of the picture Cortes would have free rein, not only to attack the Martian colony but to continue his diminution of liberty at home.
Maybe, he told himself, it was necessary to destroy Otus. Maybe the only problem here was that Ephialtes hadn’t been taken down, too. After all, he was playing in a high-stakes game and the long-term goals maybe justified these sacrifices.
As he lay in bed staring at the ceiling these thoughts span around and around his head. He had no allies in the cabinet. He had no allies at all. As it stood, he was useful to Cortes as he could always be thrown to the public as the dove to Cortes’ hawk. He was the spoonful of sugar that would help the medicine go down. But his position was weak. Cortes’s popularity had grown with his successful conclusion of the war. White’s dovish position simply helped to placate the minority who were opposed.
He tried to remain calm. He thought maybe a good night’s sleep would help, but sleep would not come. He tried to step back and take an objective view of the situation he found himself in, and the situation his country found itself in. The president was extremely popular, so popular that the electorate was giving up its rights and freedoms without question. That troubled him deeply. But he was at the heart of government and in a position to fight back for the freedoms the country was initially founded upon. The situation he found himself in now was intolerable, but there was nothing he could do. Maybe Sherman was right and there was nothing to connect them with what their agent or agents had done. All he could do, he realised, was assume that was the case and carry on. He had high-level security clearance; maybe he could keep an eye on the investigation. Would that look suspicious? Probably not.
Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Page 35