There was a second task he needed to tackle too; what to do next? He had another hastily assembled team on this. The horse had already bolted but maybe he could distract attention from that by concentrating on what their options were. It seemed to him that they were quite limited. The Martians now owned most of the infrastructure on Mars and seemed to be doing well politically, too. Maybe he could play the legality card? What about collecting all the money that had been transferred and depositing it in a central place? Was there maybe some way to declare it illegal and confiscate it? It seemed unlikely. While it wasn’t legal to buy something without the would-be vendor’s consent, it equally was not illegal to give someone money for nothing. From a very strict legal point of view the shareholders still held valid shares and had merely been given an amount more than equal to those shares by someone with whom they had not agreed to do business. Maybe there was some way to just let them keep the money and the shares as a big screw you to Charles Venkdt?
At the New White House he made his way through security and up to the president’s office. On entering he found that Senator Peter Brennan and Audrey Andrews were already there. Farrell made his way to the sofas. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, these people just got free money. It doesn’t change a thing, legally,” said Brennan.
“Not the point,” said Cortes. “Think about how it looks. He would make us look like the bad guys, taking money for nothing, and him getting nothing in return.”
Brennan shook his head. “If some crank was to give away free money that’s down to him. Nothing we can do about it. I say we hold firm. Nothing has changed.”
Cortes was clearly annoyed. “What has changed is this; we look like fools, incompetent, impotent fools. We said we were going to freeze their assets. What happened to that?”
Farrell thought that getting in early and controlling the conversation would be a good strategy, rather than hiding from the wrath of the president. “If I could just cut in here, sir,” he said. “Cybersecurity is looking into that right now. It appears the Martians used some extremely sophisticated and hitherto unseen techniques to get those monies transferred across. It really is quite remarkable.”
“Quite remarkable,” echoed Cortes. “We’re the most powerful nation to have ever existed. Don’t we have software engineers capable of doing remarkable things?”
“Of course, Mr President. Perhaps I didn’t convey the extreme level sophistry that was required for this operation. It’s something quite unprecedented.”
Cortes snorted. “Well the precedent has been set now, and it’s made us look stupid. What are you doing about it?”
“Well,” said Farrell, “we’re looking at all our options. I have two teams who are going over it right now and we hope to have a report ready for you by the end of the day, sir.”
“Great,” said Cortes. “They’ve turned us over just how they said they would, but at least we’ll have a report by the end of the day.” Cortes shook his head disappointedly. “What does defence have?”
“Mr President, I can update you on the progress of Ephialtes. The mission is proceeding smoothly and as planned. We hope to have the ship in Martian orbit within ten days.”
“What about the missile platform?”
“We are prepared to take the platform out as soon as it’s in range. That’s a mission priority.”
“And we have the capability to do that?”
“I’ve been assured we have, Mr President?”
“Should that go disastrously wrong, can I have your assurance that you will be able to provide me with a ‘report by the end of the day’?”
Andrews was not quite sure how to respond to the president’s sarcasm. “Militarily it’s a straightforward operation, sir. We are not anticipating any difficulties.”
“Good,” said Cortes. “It’ll be nice for something to go right for a change.”
Cortes and Brennan drafted a statement to be given to the news media. The USAN rejected outright Venkdt’s buyout, which was not recognised in law. Shareholders of Venkdt, as far as the law was concerned, had been given a generous gift by Venkdt Mars Corp, but the status of their shares remained intact. The statement went on to mention the illegal manner in which the money had been transferred and hinted darkly at the nefarious means the Martians had used. It restated that Charles Venkdt’s Martian government had absolutely no legitimacy and was not recognised by the USAN, nor any other country on Earth.
The statement also touched on where the USAN saw the whole situation going. It was absolutely not acceptable for the Martian insurrection to stand. The strong hope was that an agreement, possibly generous to Martian requirements, could be brokered. But if that was not possible force would be used.
The statement mentioned Ephialtes by name, also giving its estimated time of arrival. As far as the USAN was concerned the clock was ticking down for the Martians.
Venkdt regarded Kostovich’s office almost as a separate land. He had been there before only rarely. On this day he knocked gingerly on the door before walking in. He noticed Kostovich was not at his desk. He wondered if he might be in a lab somewhere, but then as he walked further into the room he noticed the sofa to one side and the snoring Kostovich laid upon it.
He coughed, quietly at first then louder, but Kostovich did not stir. He tried tapping the desk. “Dan?” he called. It reminded him of waking Christina when she was a child. “Dan!” he called again, this time much louder, and Kostovich jumped up with a start.
“Jeez!” he said.
Venkdt couldn’t help but smile, though he felt slightly guilty at startling his star protégé. “I’m sorry, Dan,” he said, “I didn’t mean to wake you. Well, I did mean to wake you, just not quite like that.”
Kostovich had collected himself a little, and he sat up. “What is it, has something happened?” he said.
“No, no. Nothing like that,” said Venkdt. “I just wanted to drop by to thank you for everything you’ve done over the last few months. I heard about the money going through. Terrific stuff, really terrific. And all your help with the military kit and hardware, it’s all been really helpful, Dan. I just wanted to come by and thank you in person.”
Kostovich’s head was clearing now, but the words didn’t quite make sense to him. “Thank me for what? It’s just my job. I’m a Martian too, just like everyone else. I’m happy to do my bit for this project.”
“That’s good to hear, Dan, but I still want to thank you.”
“Well,” Kostovich shrugged, “thanks for your thanks.”
Venkdt looked around the office, noting small knick-knacks and action figures. “Listen, Dan,” he said. “This big ship they’re sending, Ephialtes. We have enough defences to block it, don’t we? I mean, in a chess-like sense?”
“Sure,” said Kostovich. “And we have the missile defences and field artillery, should they land any dropships on the surface.”
Venkdt winced. “I don’t like that kind of talk. Obviously, we’ll never let anything get that far anyway. What I want to know is that we have enough of a plausible defence to stop them using Ephialtes against us. We have that, don’t we?”
“I’d say we do.”
Venkdt thought. “If you were them, and you were coming at us with that big ship, is there anything you might do or need to do before you got here? You know, communications stuff or logistics or anything like that?”
Kostovich thought. “The ship is a self-contained unit. I’m guessing they have enough supplies for years. What they’re trying to do isn’t dissimilar to a medieval siege, except we’re never going to run out of food or resources. We have or can make anything we need right here. We could bear the siege indefinitely. In fact, the only thing they would be able to stop us doing would be exporting minerals back to Earth, and that’s exactly what they need us to be doing. So the siege actually works against their interests, rather than ours. It makes you wonder if they’ve thought it through, really.”<
br />
Venkdt nodded. “Unless they’re not planning on a siege.”
Kostovich picked up his meaning immediately. “I don’t think they would attack us. Public opinion wouldn’t bear it, and we have all the expertise and equipment necessary for extracting deuterium. All of that could be destroyed in a fight. However pissed off they are at us, they need to keep us onside. It wouldn’t make sense to do anything else.”
“Well, Dan, you can’t rely on people to always do the sensible thing. They’re nothing if not unpredictable.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Kostovich.
“If they were planning on landing a military force, what would be the first thing they’d do? And what could we do to stop them doing it?”
Kostovich had run some scenarios in his simulators, so he had the answer readily to hand. “Well, if I was sending a dropship carrier to a distant planet with the intent of landing drone squads on the surface, the first thing I would want to do would be to make sure the carrier itself was safe. If there were any off-planet defences I would have to take them out before I put my prized ship in orbit.”
Venkdt nodded.
C H A P T E R 2 5
Gainful Employment
There was something familiar but unfamiliar about the former USAN garrison on Mars when Bobby Karjalainen entered. The garrison had been built by the USAN but was now occupied by the Martian Security Service. The style of architecture and many of the fittings were familiar to Bobby from his time in military installations on Earth, but there was something slightly off about the personnel. It wasn’t just the uniforms, which were broadly similar to the USAN’s but subtly different, it was the way they carried themselves. On USAN Army installations on Earth they would have been berated for being sloppy. He wasn’t sure if what was going on here was that they were poorly trained or just doing things differently. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn’t the USAN Army, it was the Martian Security Service, and that was a different thing entirely.
He had made it through the checkpoint, presenting his identification to the guards and being patted down and scanned before being allowed to enter. They had called back to the main building for someone to come and escort him. The escort was a bright young woman who smiled politely and made small talk as they walked. As she led him to Foveaux’s office she asked him what he would be doing for the MSS. He answered honestly that he did not know.
He waited for a few minutes in an anteroom with Foveaux’s personal assistant until he was waved through. As he entered her office Foveaux rose to greet him with an outstretched hand which he shook firmly. “Please, take a seat,” she said.
“Nice place you have here,” said Bobby.
Foveaux nodded. “We’re working on it. Okay, let’s get straight to it.”
Bobby smiled. “Yes, let’s.”
Foveaux knew of Bobby by reputation and had read his service record. She had an idea that he might be trouble, but from what she had read it seemed likely the trouble would be worth it. She decided she would let the flirty undertone of that last remark pass. After all, at this point Bobby was still a civilian and a guest at her installation. If he decided to join them then maybe later on would be the time to try to rein him in. “You know all about the situation we’re in, of course. Everything here has changed. As I’m sure you’re aware the former USAN garrison, which was based here, was the de facto Martian police force. That job has now been taken over by us, and by us I mean the MSS, the Martian Security Service. I was formerly head of security at Venkdt Mars Corp and I was offered this position, Commissioner of the MSS, based on the work I had done there. My remit was and is to form the new security service and oversee its development into a dedicated Martian police force and a dedicated Martian military. It was originally thought that the two branches would grow apart organically over time. It was also assumed that the military branch would fulfil a mostly ceremonial role.” She paused. “However, we have been overtaken by events to some degree and it now seems that the military side of things is more pressing than we originally anticipated. Venkdt have been terrific in providing us with equipment. We have uniforms, armour and weapons. What we don’t have is the training and discipline necessary to use them.”
Bobby stirred in his seat. He had a good idea what might be coming next.
“That’s where you come in. I don’t need to tell you about your record in the military. It speaks for itself. You have something we don’t, and that makes you very valuable to us. What I would like to ask from you is that you join us on a senior military rank and oversee our training program. You’re the most qualified person on the planet for that role, and it would be a peach of a job. We would pretty much turn the whole thing over to you so you would be able to organise the training as you saw fit. You would be able to organise the entire military, using your personal experience and your knowledge of Martian needs. What do you say?”
Bobby shifted in his seat again. “First of all I have to say I’m very flattered that you would offer this to me. But the second thing I have to say is this. The military was supposed to be symbolic, sitting around polishing their brass and turning up for parades, right? Now you need them to be trained in a hurry. What’s that about?”
“There are certain things I can’t discuss. As a military man I’m sure you understand that. But you will have seen in the bulletins that the USAN is sending a dropship carrier to us. That is something no one anticipated. Well, another thing no one anticipated is that we will have military capability here waiting for them. Do you see?”
Bobby spoke slowly. “I think I see. The most powerful military force that has ever existed is sending a state-of-the-art attack ship, and you want to fight them off with a band of ex-security guards. And the only problem, as you see it, is that the ex-security guards need a bit of training?”
Foveaux was irritated by Bobby’s levity but she hid it. “It’s not quite like that,” she said. “We don’t really intend to fight anybody. But as a student of military tactics I’m sure you will know that it will give the USAN great pause if they think that we’re prepared to put up a fight. I guess you would call it a bluff, but any bluff worth a damn has to have some substance behind it. I’m not saying that we can mould a force capable of taking on the USAN. But what we do need is some credibility. Are you up for that?” She quickly rephrased the question, hoping to bait Bobby into a positive answer. “Are you capable of that?”
Bobby sat back in his chair and thought. He looked over Foveaux’s head and noticed the hole in the plasterwork. He nodded towards it. “What’s that?” he said.
Foveaux turned in her chair and looked at the damaged wall. “Bullet hole,” she said.
“Do you have many firefights in your office?” asked Bobby.
“I’ve only been here a few weeks,” said Foveaux. “There’s only been one so far.”
Bobby leaned around in his chair and scanned the wall behind him. There were no bullet holes there. “So you didn’t return fire?” he said.
“Of course I returned fire,” said Foveaux, “I just didn’t miss.”
Bobby nodded appreciatively and a smile broke across his face. “Sure, I’ll help you out,” he said. “When do I start?”
“Start Monday after next. Give us some time to find you an office, sort out the paper work,” said Foveaux.
“Terms and conditions?” said Bobby.
“Within reason you can write your own terms and conditions,” said Foveaux. “As I said to you before, we’re starting out from scratch. Essentially, you will be founding the Martian Army and it’s up to you how you do it.”
“So what would my title be?” said Bobby mischievously.
Foveaux thought. “I don’t know. It’s your army, so I guess that would be up to you.”
“Obergruppenführer?” suggested Bobby?
Foveaux frowned. “Are you going to be trouble, Bobby Karjalainen?”
“I hope so, ma’am.”
“Let’s be clear on this fr
om the beginning. I’m not ma’am, I’m sir. And though you will be in charge of the army, I’m still in charge of the MSS. When you start here with us, whatever you decide to call yourself, I will still be your superior officer. In answer to your question, no, obergruppenführer would not be an appropriate title for the chief of the Martian Army.”
Bobby grinned. “You know,” he said, “you look great when you’re angry.”
Foveaux smiled back at him thinly. “I’m not angry. And I’m not charmed by the cheeky, irreverent work-hard-play-hard type either. I’ve asked you here to do a job for us. It’s an important job and you’re more than qualified to do it. I’m glad you’ve accepted and I hope you will give the role your full attention and the dedication it requires.”
“I hope so too,” said Bobby, still smiling.
Foveaux took Bobby on a tour of the garrison. It wasn’t a particularly large building. Bobby asked many questions and stopped to chat with various personnel along the way. He asked about the organisational structure, which was weak and temporary, and he asked about equipment. He was shown the new kit that had been supplied by Venkdt. It was good stuff, certainly up to the job. Most of the personnel were keen. Bobby guessed they were fired up by the novelty of it all. A few weeks ago they had been security guards, probably staring at feeds from security cameras and patrolling warehouses at all hours of the night. Now, here they were in a military facility with shiny new kit, all pumped up at the idea they were the guardians of an entire planet.
Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Page 37