Michael Williamson - When Diplomacy Fails…

A moment later an image scrolled on the screens.

Jason said, “Wow.”

Alex asked, “Wow.”

Jason pointed with a finger.

“This actually has her movements, all past, known future, and a grid. It has summaries of ranges and timeframes. I can’t think of any way to look at this except as intent to assassinate.”

Alex said, “Okay. Elke?”

“I concur. There’s no other way to consider it. This graph is drawn up as a predictive syllogism. When they fill in one of these boxes, they can move to be in the same place and get a free shot, and likely not even hurt us in the process.”

“Yeah, that would eliminate her and destroy us professionally. We’ve never lost one. But lose the wrong one…”

“Or,” Elke muttered, “if they miss her, they can try for us.”

“That depends. Do they want to embarrass us or kill us?”

“Some would go for either.”

Alex held up a hand, and said, “Captain Das, I need to politely evict you at this point. Elke, cut him an copy of the stick.”

Das said, “I really need to take the original.”

“I know you do, sir, but we need to cover our legal ass. I’m holding onto it. Do please file with your legal office. That will help track its existence, and then we can let you have it in a day or so.”

Das looked uncomfortable.

“I officially have to refuse your request, take it with me, and I’m afraid I can’t leave without it.” He looked sad, stubborn and irritated.

“I understand your position perfectly, sir,” Alex said. “Bart, carefully throw him out.” He clicked his phone. “Cady, Captain Das must be escorted off the premises. Gently.”

Das let Bart drag him to the door and shove him into the waiting arms of two of the Facilities detail.

Once it was closed and Bart sat back down, Elke and Jason both ran scans again, nodded, and continued.

Jason said, “The point is, this is clear evidence of a current lethal threat, in process, against our principal, at any event off this installation or not in a facility we control. Even on the latter, I’d be wary.”

“Yes. So we need to pull the plug.”

“Where? We can’t take her back to Earth. That’s obviously a nonstarter. She won’t hear it, and any threat will be ready for it. We can’t hide out until the election’s over.”

“Can we hide out until she can’t win?”

Shaman said, “That would mean entire days. We’d have to kidnap her. In which case, we face criminal charges ourselves, and of course, that would boost her popularity, in which case they’d want to arrange an Elke-sized accident for her.”

“So what options do we have? Face known threats? Admit we know about the threats and hope to evade them, with the added danger of them knowing our awareness?”

Aramis said, “I have a suggestion, but it’s extreme.”

“So are the circumstances. Go.”

“We take her, skip out, leave some hints, make some calls, and try to orchestrate everyone to dogpile. Once they’re all coming down on us, we take out the internal threats, evade the minor ones, and return here triumphantly.”

Jason said, “Hell, man, that gives her the election.” Is that what they had to do?

Bart said, “That is what her opponents are trying to stop.”

“True.”

Elke said, “It also exposes us to a lot of fire.”

Alex looked at her and replied, “If we pursue that tactic, you may of course use all the explosive you need.”

She smiled faintly. “Then I approve of it.”

Jason said, “Do we need to move now? Let’s get this clear.”

Alex pulled up a connection.

“Cady here.”

“Jace, Alex. Come down. We need advice and may need backup.”

“Arriving.”

She was at the door thirty seconds later.

Once it was closed, Alex said, “We’re discussing Plan E.” Evasion.

Jason said, “So, this Huble character is a friend of hers. He knows all her official movements, and he knows some of the campaign ones, but not the most random ones.”

“The random ones get nuisance attacks. The scheduled ones get more serious attacks.”

Cady said, “That is to be expected anyway.” She seated herself on the edge of a table.

“Yes, but these are significant attacks, escalating. They’re not massive enough to take her out, but are major enough to provoke a response from us.”

“Embarrassment?”

Alex said, “It fits. And Huble is a known bastard. This is not a surprise.”

“But he’s in her party,” Cady observed, and stared at her fingers.

“And she’s a questionable candidate-it’s very up in the air as to who might win, and she’s got a lot of baggage. But Cruk has little background. That means no dirt as well, and he’s photogenic and a good speaker, and has the incumbent edge.”

“You think they’re trying to off her to push him?”

“Sympathy vote. Remember Champion died in a ship crash a decade ago, and his son took the vote? Reginald, the son, was trailing by thirty points, but sympathy and a clean slate pushed him over the top.”

“So you think they’re deliberately looking for that?”

Aramis said, “It fits. She’s talking to a friend and relaying her movements, and they have that damned JessieM for fire correction once they’re close.”

Alex said, “I think they’re trying to either get a lucky kill or cause us to hurt her and ourselves politically.”

Jason said, “And they get to try to blame us if they set it up right, or at least decry our ‘incompetence.’ Or even eliminate us in the process, if they get lucky enough.”

Bart asked, “Do you think any of our past enemies are involved?”

Alex said, “Who knows? There are so many. None of them would mourn us. Would many of them invest money or time in it? Likely not. It’s bad for existing business. A couple of them are completely out of the field, too, and not players.”

Alex sighed.

Shaman spoke up. “The problem is, we aren’t investigators and have limited resources. We can’t depose anyone or go digging too deeply. So we’re doing this based on available raw intelligence and our own problem-solving ability. We’re good, but this is not our field. What we need to stick to is how urgent and significant we think a threat is, and go from there.”

That was a clear summation.

Jason said, “It’s clear the threats and tactics are escalating. It’s not a case of if they’ll reach critical, but when. We need to pull her out before then.” He stared at the screened charts, hoping for enlightenment.

Bart said, “I’d do so now. It registers as unholdable. What is the word?”

“Untenable,” Aramis said. “Whether or not we can, I agree we certainly should. I have my own reasons, of course.” His jaw clenched as he spoke.

Shaman asked, “What else can we tell, though? Who? Who have they hired?”

Jason said, “They’re increasingly good. My guess is they’re not amateurs, but are playing it. An obvious pro hit would be bad. An accident or faction split would be beneficial to the campaign.”

Aramis said, “Wait, there could be some interest in a faction, too.”

Alex nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think we have time to figure out all those connections. We should try, of course, but that’s secondary to the power behind it.”

“Still, they escalate until they succeed, and blame whichever group is nearest, most likely, most interested at that moment, had a previous interest, doesn’t really matter.”

Elke said, “They are going to try to take us out, too. They can either then play the ‘We’re all allies’ card or the ‘mercenary bastards had it coming’ card. Which means they’ll be better placed for any followup against her.”