“As for you, Captain, I have some news for you. The MPs did pick up Mr. Novak finally. He had gone to ground with some friends on base, and they just kept checking in on known associates until they found him.”
“That’s good news. So no one slipped away.”
“No, we got them all. And I want to thank you for digging into our little problem here and getting it straightened away.”
“Thank you, Ma’am. I’m not sure it’s all straightened out quite yet, however. This ‘incursion,’ if you will, – this intelligence failure –shouldn’t have gotten this far, and it came close to costing thousands of CSF lives, as well as the lives and infrastructure we’re sworn to protect. As it is, it cost us two destroyers and two CSF lives. I suspect there will be some personnel turnover in the command levels of the intelligence operation here before all the dust settles.”
“You’re right, Captain. Admiral Langford has already been notified his relief is on the way, somewhat early as I understand.”
Campbell nodded. No more than he had expected. You didn’t investigate who did what to allow that kind of failure to happen before you acted. You replaced the top people immediately and sorted out all the buttons later.
“And there are probably some procedures and methods that will have to be updated in light of the methods they used against us, as well, Ma’am. All that will come out of Sigurdsen eventually, once Intelligence Division headquarters staff has had a chance to look at it all.”
Rao nodded.
“I hope so, Captain. But our little mess here is cleaned up, thanks to you and Senior Chief Samples. I’d hoped you would pass on my appreciation to him as well.”
Rao said that with a twinkle in her eye.
“Well, I don’t know that I’ll be seeing him any time soon, Ma’am.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Captain. He always seems to show up when you need him. When I need him, anyway. That was a particularly nice piece of work he did here, and it has all the rats scurrying back into their holes.”
Campbell just nodded. Childers watched the byplay with some humor. It was only a Class 3 secure office, after all.
“And I do have a favor to ask of you, as well, Captain. Captain Karim has asked if you might help her collect the physical evidence, since you know where everything is, or at least have some ideas.”
“I’d be happy to help, Ma’am.”
“Thank you Captain,” Rao said. “With all you two have done already, I probably shouldn’t be asking for favors, but I’ll not be shy about asking for a little bit more of your time before you go on vacation.”
Campbell and Karim and her crew first went to the townhouse. Campbell pointed out the audio bugs one at a time. Karim’s crew photographed them in place, then recorded them being removed from the wall by the simple expedient of cutting a six-inch circle of wall board out of the wall. They were bagged as evidence.
Campbell also pointed out the video pickup in the lamp. The entire lamp was bagged as evidence.
The crew went to the next townhouse on either side, then the next, looking for the local re-transmitter. They found it in the third townhouse they checked by using a hand-held radio direction finder. The RDF unit zeroed in on the active transmission that was sending the boosted signals on to another station. It zeroed in on a clock radio in the bedroom of one of the townhouses. The clock radio was bagged as evidence.
Their next stop was Housekeeping. They went through the building looking for the receiver of the clock radio’s signal by searching for emissions from the local oscillator. They found the receiver in Vilis Schenk’s office.
They searched his office, as well as the furniture inventory area. In Vilis Schenk’s office, they found a stash of the small audio bugs and video pickups. In the furniture inventory area, they found two more lamps that had been modified with video pickups.
Everything they found in Housekeeping was bagged as evidence and they moved on to the Planetary Intelligence Headquarters. Once again, in his office and in the Class 2 secure workspace in the basement, Campbell pointed out the audio pickups and they cut out a circle of wall containing them.
Once all those transmitters were removed from the building, they went through the building scanning for more transmitters. Unsurprisingly, they found audio bugs in the office of Senior Captain Bjorn Laterza, the head of counter-intelligence, and in the office of Rear Admiral Sumit Langford, the planetary intelligence commander.
Langford watched them remove the audio bug from his wall with something approaching an expression of disgust on his face. When they showed him the bug from the backside of the wall board, snug in its little hole, he just shook his head.
“Captain Campbell, may I see you for a few minutes?” Langford asked.
Campbell looked at Karim, who nodded.
“That’s about it for us, Sir. All we have left to find is the local receiver, and we don’t need you for that. Thanks for the help,” she said.
“No problem, Captain,” Campbell said. Turning to Langford, he said, “Yes, Sir. Here in your office?”
“Now that it’s secure, yes, please, Captain.”
“Of course, Sir.”
Karim and her crew left, closing the door behind them.
“Have a seat, Captain.”
Campbell sat in one of the guest chairs facing the desk, and Langford sat down in his desk chair.
“Captain, I owe you both an apology and a thank you. An apology, because after we met six weeks back, I thought you were no more than a Sigurdsen poof. I realize now that was just a disguise. You already knew by that point we had an active espionage ring in operation here, didn’t you?”
“I had a strong suspicion, Sir,” Campbell said.
“Which is more than I had. That’s why I owe you a thank you, Captain. It’s one thing to screw up by the numbers, but it’s quite another to screw up by the numbers and get a lot of people, both CSF and civilians, killed, and have major loss of infrastructure to enemy action on top of it. That would have been a failure to perform the CSF’s prime mission. You saved me from being responsible for that, you and Captain Jessen, and I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome, Sir.”
Langford nodded.
“It won’t save my job, but at least I won’t be moved out with that hanging over me. So I have a piece of advice for you, Captain. Just like you, I swore oath to preserve and protect the Charter of the Commonwealth, and this time I was found wanting. This is a young man’s game, Captain. I grew too comfortable, too trusting of the people around me, not suspicious enough. It was us against those bad guys out there. I never expected to find the enemy down the hall.
“I should have hung it up a few years back. I have my twenty-four and more, and we have a nice little place on Jablonka, on the coast north of Commonwealth Center. I held on too long, and it could have seriously hurt the Commonwealth. Don’t make my mistake, Captain. When it’s your time, move on. Let the young people move up. Don’t hang on past your time.”
It was an incredible admission, and a generous one. Campbell was impressed, despite his earlier dismissal of Langford.
“Thank you, Sir. It’s good advice, and I’ll try to remember that.”
“Good,” Langford said.
Langford stood and Campbell followed suit.
“Just so you know, Captain, Admiral Birken has already sent word they are sending my relief out early, which is no more than I would expect. I in turn have passed on my retirement request, with mustering out on Jablonka. Amanda and I will finally be heading home.”
“Congratulations, Sir. I hope you enjoy your retirement.”
“I’ll enjoy it much more than I would have, with nightmares about the dead I let down. Thank you again, Captain.”
Campbell and Langford shook hands, and Campbell took his leave.
Langford had screwed up by the numbers, but he owned his mistake. He was an honorable man, and Campbell could respect that.
The tactical planning meeting took pl
ace in a Class 1 secure conference room in the basement of the Planetary Operations Headquarters. Attending were Admiral Mary Rao, Vice Admiral Vina Novotny, Rear Admiral Jan Childers, and the squadron and division commanders and tactical officers for all eight divisions of CSF warships stationed on Bliss, including Captain Tien Jessen.
Childers mostly sat and watched. They had all had training in the standard Fleet Book of Maneuvers. They all knew to have the combat elements remain outside of the inner envelope, where they could transition into hyperspace immediately. They all knew the usefulness of destroyers as pickets, and of leaving some of your power hidden in hyperspace.
“One thing we want to do differently this time is keep him coming in, as opposed to last time when Captain Jessen’s goal was to get him to balk and leave the system. How do we do that?” Novotny asked.
“One thing to do would be to have the destroyers accelerate toward him at two gravities. That will convince him they really are destroyers.”
Childers wasn’t sure who said that. It was one of the division tactical officers, she thought.
“We could also have a division or squadron of light cruisers run like crazy for the published system periphery,” Jessen said. “Sort of an ‘Oh, no, we need to respond right now!’ kind of thing.”
“And once he gets far enough in, once he’s committed, we can have a battleship squadron move into hyperspace and maneuver in behind him,” Rao said.
And then Captain Jessen threw the spanner in the works.
“We probably want to have them maneuver around in front of him, because once he sees ships transition to hyper well inside the published system periphery, I would expect he would know he’s in trouble, and flip ship. He’ll have all his guns pointed out-system to fend off the ships he would expect to come in from behind him. And if our ships come in behind him, they stand a good chance of being booby-trapped by the enemy commander’s second force. How do we respond to that second force?” Jessen asked.
There was general hubbub around the table as people commented on his question or tried to ask a question. Admiral Rao claimed the floor by the simple expedient of holding up her hand.
“Please explain, Captain,” she said.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Jessen said. “Our plans for the exercises are similar to our plans for the previous exercises, and we plan on showing the Duval commander a similar disposition of forces as we did on the earlier incursion. However, as the incursion unfolds, we plan on surprising them. I would expect the Duval commander to similarly show us a similar disposition of forces as on the initial incursion, and to similarly plan on surprising us. The simplest way to do that is with a second force, probably waiting in hyperspace a few light-seconds outside of the published system periphery, where they will be in a position to surprise any of our ships that might try to respond by using hyperspace to get in behind the initial incursion. After the initial incursion force flips ship, our responding ships will be caught between two enemy forces. So I wonder how we will respond to his second force.”
Into the stunned silence, Childers said, “That is a brilliant analysis, Captain.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” Jessen said. ”Oh, and as a side note, we’ll know he has a second force along if he brings any destroyers that hold back at the system periphery. Much like your action in Saarestik aboard the Nils Isacsson, Admiral Childers.”
“You’re thinking of the Epsley incursion, where they left a destroyer at the system periphery for signaling to the three heavy cruisers waiting in hyperspace.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Rao looked at Childers. Childers turned to her and gave her a barely perceptible nod.
“All right,” Rao said. “It’s clear this is one of the more likely possibilities we may face during the upcoming incursion. We will now work out plans for dealing with a potential second force. It seems to me there are two possibilities. First is that the second force transitions out of hyperspace in support of the first force. The second is that the second force transitions out of hyperspace in order to threaten us somewhere else in the system once we have committed our response to the first force. Discussion is open.”
“Given that, our response to the first force should probably use only the first division of each of our squadrons, Ma’am, leaving second division to respond elsewhere in the system as required.”
That was that division tactical officer again. Commander Pavel Nimsky. Another fellow to keep an eye on.
Departure
Having fulfilled Admiral Rao’s favor requests, Bill Campbell and Jan Childers were grabbing a late supper in the Officers Mess between the Planetary Operations Headquarters and the Planetary Intelligence Headquarters.
“So what do you think? We sleep tonight in the townhouse or on ship?” Childers asked.
“On ship? The launch is still here?” Campbell asked.
“Yes. I told them to grab some sleep and hang out a while. They need an hour’s warning to saddle up, but we can go up to the ship if you prefer that to the townhouse.”
“The townhouse with holes in the walls where they cut the bugs out as evidence? No, thanks.”
“The ship, then?” Childers asked.
“I’ve got a better idea. Why not sleep in the beach house tonight? Can the crew handle that?”
“They should be fresh. Let me ask.”
Childers sent a quick comm message, and got a quick response.
“They’re actually rested, fed, and ready to go. They said they figured something would be going on after supper.”
“Beach.”
Intelligence Division would still pick up the tab for the spendy beach resort. Campbell needed to be on Bliss for a while in case there was any retaliation from Duval, but he also needed to be well off base and out of circulation so the potential retaliation couldn’t target him. If there was a retaliation, he was the only direct-action operative in position to respond in kind.
After the long day and the two-hour flight, they were dead on their feet by the time they were finally checked in and driven to their beach house.
They woke up in a tangle of arms and legs wrapped in a blanket on the beach. Childers woke first, and just lay quietly in Campbell’s arms until he, too, stirred. He looked around in bewilderment at first, completely lost as to where he was. Childers kissed him.
“How the hell did we end up out here?” Campbell finally asked.
“It was your bright idea to go out and sit on the beach before bed, and I think we just fell asleep on the blanket.”
“How’d we get rolled up like a burrito?”
“It does get chilly here at night.” Childers looked down, then back at him. “Especially when you’re lying out on the beach naked. We must have just pulled the blanket around us.”
“It’s a nice place to wake up, though. I’d give it a ten for style points if nothing else.”
“I think the company makes it,” Childers said, and kissed him again. This one took longer.
Much longer.
They finally walked hand in hand up the beach to the beach house. They found their uniforms and other clothing in two heaps on the sofa in the living room. They hung everything up, took showers, and started unpacking to find something to wear to breakfast.
“Oh, hell with it. Why get dressed? Let’s just order breakfast on the lanai,” Campbell said.
“Works for me.”
“What a wonderful breakfast,” Campbell said with a sigh.
“The food here is top-notch. No doubt about it.”
“What’s your schedule now? Do you need to go back to the ship before departure?”
“No,” Childers said. “All the ships will be on skeleton crews while everybody takes planet leave before the transit to Hutan. I should go aboard a day or two before we leave, but no need until then. Unless something comes up. What about you?”
“Same thing. As long as the comm stays quiet, I’m good until we leave.”
“So we’ve got what? Ten days or so in par
adise? I can handle that.”
Wednesday morning, Deputy Chief Demyan Tsukuda of the Joy Police Department, the head of their Homicide Division, stopped by to see Admiral Rao.
“Good morning, Chief,” Rao said as they shook hands.
“Good morning, Ma’am. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
“No problem, Chief. What can I do for you?”
“Well, Ma’am,” Tsukuda said, “you may have heard that we had some excitement in the diplomatic district in Joy last Saturday.”
“Yes. A quadruple murder. Shocking.”
“Yes, Ma’am. The security coordinator of the Duval consulate and three members of his security team. It occurs to us that there may be some connection between those murders and the CSF base here on Bliss.”
“How so, Chief?” Rao asked.
“Well, Ma’am, maybe a month back, Senior Captain William Campbell came to see me. He was asking about the murder of a CSF officer, Commander Michael Chey, in the diplomatic district, after attending a party at the Duval consulate. I was wondering if this latest incident might be some sort of payback for Commander Chey.”
Rao typed at her terminal for a few seconds, and looked back up at Tsukuda.
“Our records show Captain Campbell as off-planet, on a ship in orbit, for eighteen days, returning to the base here yesterday morning. I met with him myself yesterday.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t suspect Captain Campbell, Ma’am. As I say, I’ve met him. I was wondering if it were someone else, acting on his information.”
“I can assure you, Chief,” Rao said, “no one under my command had any orders to carry out any sort of payback or anything of the sort that could have resulted in Saturday night’s events. Now, whether it was some sort of love triangle gone bad or something, I couldn’t say. But Saturday night’s murders weren’t committed under my authority.”
“Ah. Well, that’s that, then. And I doubt a love triangle would result in four murders of this sort. I’ve watched the security tapes and the whole thing took under a minute and ended with two shots to the head of each of the members of the security team. That looks like a professional hit to me.”
Campbell- The Problem With Bliss Page 15