by S. H. Jucha
“If the Omnians are going to arrive and exit by the roof, this eliminates the Diamanté building as a possible site,” Bryce said, closing his portable monitoring station.
“Didn’t hold out much hope for this location,” Rafe rumbled. “Didn’t think we’d have a chance at the Diamanté home either. If they drop that shuttle inside the walls, then it’ll be too tough to get clear shots. More than likely, security will be all over us before then.”
“That leaves the last site,” Bryce commented, “which I’ve always preferred. It’s a public building, which means it gives us open access.”
“There’s only two ways into the building, and I can’t see the Omnians using the underground stations,” Rafe remarked. “That leaves the public entrance.”
“I’m not so sure,” Bryce said, pulling up a schematic on Confederation Hall. “Watching the Omnians arrive and depart tonight gave me an idea. If they have a preference for arriving by shuttle, they could set down in the central courtyard.
“And crush all that decorative foliage? I doubt it,” Rafe replied, with a harsh laugh.
“They don’t have to,” Bryce challenged. “Watch.” Then he replayed the spotter’s imagery of the roof.
The assassins had accessed a public building to get the height they needed to plant a spotter that had a view of the Diamanté roof. Rafe had thought it a waste of time, but Bryce had been adamant.
After the traveler landed and exited, Bryce expectantly regarded his partner.
“What? I don’t see it,” Rafe grumbled.
Bryce repeated the segment in slow motion. “I don’t know who’s the pilot, but he or she is good. The landing gear wasn’t extended. The ship floated above the roof, while the ramp dropped. The Omnians stepped aboard, and the pilot lifted, with the ramp still extended.”
“So you think the Omnians will choose the courtyard, and they’ll step off their traveler onto a walkway,” Rafe dubiously surmised.
“You said it before,” Bryce shot back. “Sometimes you have to play a hunch. That way, luck falls into your lap. Don’t you think it’s a little odd how the Omnians are moving around?”
“They’ve got the tech. Why not use it,” Rafe countered.
“It’s not just the grav-driven shuttles, SADEs, and such,” Bryce objected.
Rafe knew when Bryce was trying to drive a point home, and he was being obstinate. He ceased challenging his partner and thought through what was being laid out to him.
“I have to admit that the touchdown, or lack of it, spoke of a military approach,” Rafe admitted. “You don’t think they’re onto us?”
“Hard to say,” Bryce replied, “but I don’t think so. Otherwise, we’d see an all-out search for us, and the Omnians would stay up top in that huge ship of theirs. However, for some reason, they’re being careful.”
“Then we plan for a courtyard attack, and we wait for Daphne Lemoyne to contact us,” Rafe said, with an ugly chuckle.
It hadn’t taken much effort for the assassins to uncover the identity of their contact. A little more digging detailed the ousting of Daphne’s father from the Council. Finally, the history of ugly conflict between Alex Racine and Mahima Ganesh and her supporters, which included Darse Lemoyne, surfaced.
“Now we know the why,” Bryce had said, closing the public records monitor.
“Always good to know the motivations,” Rafe added. “Their itch to get rid of Alex Racine is real.”
Later in the evening, the House SADE updated Daphne’s calendar. Normally, she would ignore the change and simply follow the schedule the next day. However, with the assassins in play, she was ever diligent.
The revised calendar held a link to the Council’s agenda. With Daphne’s pulse quickening, she accessed the presentations list. Inserted in the mid-morning schedule was Alex Racine’s name, without a subject.
Immediately, Daphne sent the updated calendar to her personal escort. She had no doubt he would know what to do with the information.
Signaling the light off at her desk, Daphne rose and prepared for sleep. She gave a moment of thought to her escort. To ensure his loyalty, she’d taken him to her bed two annuals ago. However, the assassination of Alex Racine and others would bring a great deal of attention to the possible perpetrators. She considered the escort to be a potential threat, a weak link that could bring ruin down on her House.
The thought of eliminating the escort gave Daphne a brief twinge of regret. She’d grown fond of him. Then, with a sigh, she accepted reality. He presented too great a liability, and that would require an accident later.
Bryce and Rafe had just crawled into bed, when Bryce’s slate quietly hummed. He checked the message. Then he said, “Short sleep, partner. We’re on for tomorrow. The Omnians have an appointment with the Council at eleven hours Méridien time.”
“Good,” Rafe mumbled half asleep. “I want this job over and done, and then I want to get off this planet.”
In the morning, Bryce and Rafe checked out of their room. They took a grav car to a storage location. There they changed their outfits, checked their weapons, and strapped them on.
Afterward, they inspected each other’s appearance. They’d donned clothes to appear as business elites. The jackets were snug fits, except below the elbows. Current fashion had the sleeve material flaring from the elbow to just past the wrist.
Despite their New Terran statures, the outfits would make them innocuous in Confederation Hall, and the jackets’ loose lower sleeves nicely hid their weapons.
Strapped to each assassin’s right arm was a tiny missile. Its launch was powered by compressed gas. They were small, but they were lethal. The heads carried powerful explosives. The impact of a single missile would destroy a grav car, penetrate a fortified door, or eliminate five or six people.
Both Bryce and Rafe intended to target Alex, but they’d fire moments apart. The thinking was that one of the protectors would invariably sacrifice themselves. That allowed the second missile to strike the intended target. For the assassins, there was always the chance that the explosions’ concussive forces would eliminate all three targets.
When ready, Bryce and Rafe cleaned out the storage locations. Then Rafe sprayed the interior and the door with a substance to destroy DNA. Then they dumped everything else they’d brought to Méridien.
After the attack, speed was the assassins’ only hope of escape. They had to gain the waiting shuttle and make the liner before the authorities could mobilize. It was hoped the targets’ high profiles would stun the society and slow the response.
The pair climbed into a two-seat grav car, which Daphne had provided. It was unregistered and had been set up for manual control via the New Terrans’ slates.
“Ready?” Bryce asked.
“Let’s get it done,” Rafe replied. “After this, we’ll be famous, but we can’t ever publicly celebrate it. Terrible shame about that.”
“I think you should have said we’ll be infamous,” Bryce rejoined.
“I don’t care which it is,” Rafe shot back. “I just want to earn the credits and get off this planet safely.”
Bryce accessed his slate, located Confederation Hall on a navigation map, and tapped the building, which sent the location to the car’s controller.
After morning meal, Alex, Renée, and Julien boarded Franz’s shuttle. Behind them, Miranda and Z climbed the ramp, and Franz closed the ship.
Franz received a terse set of instructions from Z, and he acknowledged the message.
Dropping through the atmosphere, Franz headed for the broad gardens and steps that made the public entrance of Confederation Hall so attractive. That entrance was rarely used anymore. Nonetheless, the grounds were scrupulously maintained.
Franz’s approach gave the impression that he intended to land at the Hall’s drop point near the front. At the final moment, he rose above the building, decelerated, and halted the traveler over the central courtyard. Then he carefully lowered the ship until it hovered over th
e immaculate flowering shrubbery. The ramp was lowered as far as allowed.
Miranda and Z leapt onto a rock walkway, and they surveyed the gardens.
Méridiens and New Terrans in singles, in couples, and in small groups had been conversing and enjoying the beauty of their surroundings. Now, they regarded the traveler, interested in the inhabitants who were exiting the ship.
Had the SADEs checked for implants in the audience, several individuals might have stood out. Then again, their dress and composure would have indicated the typical blasé response to the sight of Omnians taking advantage of their advanced technology.
With nothing untoward standing out, Z signaled the leaders.
Julien jumped lightly from the ramp to the pathway. Then Alex followed and stopped to help Renée off the ramp.
Previously, the assassins had landed in an exterior Hall location reserved for grav cars. When they exited the vehicle, an automated system attempted to send a recovery ticket to the occupants before it stacked the vehicle. When no implants were detected, it sent the ticket to their slates.
The men crossed the elegant gardens and walked up the Hall’s generous steps. Inside, they followed Bryce’s schematic to locate the interior courtyard.
Joining the people wandering or sitting in the courtyard, Bryce and Rafe engaged in a casual business conversation that they’d rehearsed.
When Bryce and Rafe saw the shadow of the traveler slide across the courtyard, grins briefly lit their faces before they resumed the appearance of many around them — curious but not surprised.
The assassins’ attack positions weren’t optimal. The pilot had slid the ship closer to the main entrance doors than they had expected, and they casually walked toward the main doors, as the ship’s ramp dropped.
One of Z’s apps tracked people’s movements. Some individuals were headed indoors, and they were accessing the nearest doors, of which the courtyard had nine. Two New Terrans were walking along the far side of the gardens, and they occasionally glanced toward the ship.
Z marked them for Miranda, but she’d already selected them as deserving her attention.
Alex maintained a conference link with the SADEs. His connection with them was more intimate than any other human could achieve. In addition to comm, Alex rode some of the SADEs’ processes. He’d be aware of dangers at the same time the SADEs processed the sensor signals in their kernels. The only thing he couldn’t do was react as fast or with the strength that they could.
As Alex helped Renée down, his attention was drawn to the two men who Miranda and Z tracked. The New Terrans had stopped walking, and one of them raised a hand pointedly in the Omnians’ direction.
Z’s eye sensors zoomed, and he detected the nose of a small object within the flared cloth.
Suddenly, the SADEs faced a tiny missile streaking their way. Knowing the weapon targeted Alex, Z stepped into the missile’s path and took the impact in the chest. The explosion devastated his torso and hurled him several meters backward.
When the attacker launched his missile, Alex wrapped his arms around Renée and dove into the traveler’s interior.
Julien leapt neatly into the ship to land beside the pair.
Bryce saw the targets escape into the ship, which suited him just fine. He’d watched Rafe’s missile impact the male SADE, eliminating one protector. He swung his arm and angled his shot to deflect off the ship’s far interior bulkhead. The resulting explosion was intended to obliterate any humans near the ramp. If the assassins were lucky, they might get the SADE leader too.
Miranda had only a tick of time to record an emotional reaction to Z’s demise. Then a second missile was in the air.
Franz reacted to the attack and signaled the traveler’s controller to lift, but his actions wouldn’t be in time for the ship to clear the danger zone.
With the traveler only meters off the ground, Miranda perceived the attacker’s plan. She bent low and leapt, sending her massive body into the air to intersect the missile. As expected, her timing was perfect. The second missile exploded against her chest.
Alex’s vision recorded one of the most horrendous scenes he’d ever witnessed. He had a view of Miranda’s destroyed body sailing across his view and impacting the Hall’s wall.
Franz urgently sent the code word for under attack. Intending to run for the Freedom, he was taken by surprise when, without warning, his controller link was overridden. Alex was directing the ship.
The traveler’s upward motion stopped. There was a brief pause, and then it was descending.
Alex released control, and Franz brought the ship down to ground level. Both men searched via the ship’s sensors for the two attackers, but they’d fled the courtyard.
With the ship hovering and the rear ramp near Z, Alex jumped from the ship. He grabbed the remains of Z’s body under the arms and heaved. Despite his heavy-worlder muscles, he managed only half a meter before his grip failed.
Many Méridiens were frozen in terror by such a violent public attack. A few had fled to the safety of the building’s interior.
Three Méridiens and two New Terrans responded to Renée’s plea. They spread around Alex, and together the six men heaved Z’s body off the foliage that he’d crushed and loaded him onto the ramp.
Then Alex ran for Miranda. Pure anger surged through his mind at the sight of her crumpled body wedged against the wall and the ground.
The men straightened Miranda’s ruined body. Then they carried her to the ship.
The men assisted Alex to drag the SADEs into the ship’s interior. Before the men left, Alex sent,
On the anniversaries of the attack, those five men received various gifts from Alex. Some were simple — presents from the heart. Others shocked them by the extravagance. Alex never forgot them.
With Alex’s signal to lift, Franz directed the traveler skyward.
Already the protective screen of squadrons had dropped planetside, and the pilots searched the Hall’s ground for signs of the attackers.
Unknown to the Omnians, the assassins had taken a different direction. They’d descended many levels beneath the Hall, intent on using the underground transport system.
Gino connected to the escorts who accompanied him and his associates. In response, the escorts of Katrina, Bartosz, Emilio, Shannon, and his own raced from the Council Chamber anterooms toward the interior courtyard. They flooded the garden and the nearby corridors.
Contacting Méridiens, the escorts learned they were searching for two New Terrans, who had fired tiny projectiles hidden beneath the cloth on their arms.
The escorts found that, at the time of the attack, there’d been no Méridien SADEs in the courtyard. That there were no vid cams in the courtyard or anywhere in the Hall’s corridors was another impediment to the search. Early Leaders had decreed that the sensors were an invasion of their privacy.
Unfortunately, none of the New Terrans who were stopped proved to have any sort of weapon attachment up their sleeves.
Later the escorts found five individuals. The smears of SADE fluid on their clothing had marked them. From those men, the
escorts received clear images of the New Terran attackers, and they circulated them planetwide.
The Council had been dismissed, and Gino, with other Leaders, had made their way to the courtyard.
Standing near some flattened flowering bushes, Gino stared angrily at the section of wall that had been crushed by Miranda’s impact.
Detecting a specific bio ID, Gino turned to regard Daphne Lemoyne. She stared evenly at him.
An escort brought two of Alex’s helpers to talk to Gino.
“What of the Omnians?” Gino asked.
“We helped Alex load the SADEs,” the Méridien replied.
“They were totally destroyed,” the New Terran added.
“All of them?” Gino asked impatiently.
“Negative, Leader Diamanté,” the escort said. “Miranda and Z were hit. Julien was unharmed.”
Several New Terran expletives crossed Gino’s mind, but he kept his mouth closed. He was unbelievably grateful that the Omnian leaders had survived the ignominious attack, but few Méridiens knew Alex as he did.
The SADEs weren’t digital entities to Alex, as they were considered by many humans in the Confederation. They were his friends, and there were no closer individuals than Z and Miranda, except for Julien. He knew there would be severe repercussions for their deaths. The immediate question he had to deal with was whether Alex’s response would be targeted, or would his anger encompass the Confederation? The next question was who had perpetrated the heinous act?
25: Restoration
Franz landed aboard the city-ship, and a synchronized and rehearsed process took place.
The ship’s ramp dropped, and SADEs swarmed aboard. It was evident that the protectors’ kernels, which were housed in their chests, were obliterated.
“Both gone, Alex,” a SADE pronounced.
“Understood. Initiate transfer,” Alex said.
Then the SADEs removed the bodies of Z and Miranda.
Deep in the bowels of the Freedom lay the enormous databanks of the SADEs. The memory crystals housed copies of Omnia Bank’s accounts and financial activity. It now maintained copies of the Elvians’ data records. In addition to many other processes, it was the transfer site for SADEs, when they wished to move from one avatar to another.