Vincent Trigili - The Enemy of an Enemy

When he had finished his report I said, “On amore personal note, be careful. It seems that people who getinvolved with this end up having ‘accidents.’”

“Vydor, do you honestly think I got thisinformation for you by being careful? I will be fine. You had bestbe concerned with your own hide.” And with that he ended thetransmission.

I thought back to our first meeting, howtimid and foolish I was, but darn lucky. I had been working in thefield as an apprentice when my instructor was assigned to anemergency meeting. A call had come in for him …

“This is Cadet Vydor, the lieutenant is outright now …” Just then I lost the power of speech when a massivecat-like creature appeared before me. His bright orange fur, spikedhead, and massive claws were far more impressive than anything Ihad to offer.

“Where is he?” the creature demanded.

“Well, um, he was called to a meeting …”

He responded with a bone-chilling roar, and Istruggled to remind myself that it was only a holographic displayand he could not harm me. “Maybe I can help you?”

“YOU? Help me? HA!” he said.

“Well, why not? I have full access to hiscomputer …” That got his attention.

“Full? Hmmm … perhaps you can help me, butthen I would owe you and it’s bad enough being indebted tohim.”

Interesting, I thought. This must be one ofthe lieutenant’s informants, and if so it would be a good thing tohave him owing me. I moved to the lieutenant’s computer and said,“Well, it is your call of course, but it seems to me you would notbe calling here unless you needed something, and I might very wellbe able to find it for you.”

“What string are you going to attach to it,human?”

“That is not a question I can really answerwithout knowing the value of what I am looking up, but let’s justsay that someday I may be in need of information and then you willsupply it.”

He seemed to ponder that a bit beforereplying, “All right, that seems fair. Call up the records on …”This started me on a wild run through the computer banks until Ifound the information he wanted, and at the same time I stumbled onthe agreement that he had with the lieutenant.

As he was getting ready to end the call Istopped him, saying, “Look, the day will come when he cannot makegood on your agreement. When that day comes, find me. I can make ithappen.” I was mostly bluffing, but I could not pass up thisopportunity for an informant.

To that he simply nodded and broke theconnection. It was years later before he contacted me and told methat the lieutenant had lost his ability to fulfill the agreementand was calling in my promise. I had no idea at the time of hisvalue as an informant. I thought I knew, but I was greatlyunderestimating him.

Back then at that chance introduction I couldnot have known how great a find he was. As I sat there ponderingthe information he had given me, it occurred to me that my careerso far had been one lucky chance after another, almost as ifsomeone was orchestrating a huge play in which I was a helplesspuppet.

From Karathlathornka’s report I made abreakthrough in the problem of the Magi. It was not much, but itmight be the key we needed to start making headway. Often in thesecases a few small steps are made, then all of a sudden everythingfalls into place. I was still trying to make that happen but atleast I had enough to make a start.

In the Academy we were trained to look ateverything like a child’s picture puzzle. Every piece of data was anew clue to be assembled in order to reveal the complete picture. Inever worked this way; it was too simplistic for real intelligencework. Instead I saw everything as threads in a great tapestry inthat the data we collected were not discrete pieces, but ratherstrands of thread, and those threads were often knotted up.Untangling them and figuring out how to weave them into the biggertapestry would reveal the hidden truth. While working at thethreads, smaller patterns could be found that would eventually makeup the details in the bigger picture, and it appeared that I hadfound one of these smaller patterns.

I brought my report to the captain, but heinsisted on waiting until the senior staff was assembled. I did notknow if I was ready for this. If I was wrong this would reinforcetheir low opinion of me, but if I was right it could be theopportunity I needed to prove myself. It would be nice to leavethem with a good impression before I departed on my suicidemission.

When I entered the conference room and lookedaround, the atmosphere seemed more relaxed than it had beenrecently. I wondered if that was because they did not expectanything I had to say to be very shocking.

Zalith had his feet up on the table, Dr.Rannor was sitting on the table looking like he should be sipping adrink, and everyone generally seemed in a carefree mood. It feltmore like a social gathering at a friend’s house, at least as faras the others were concerned. I felt like I was about to face theworst exam of my life and had forgotten to study. I assembled mynotes and did my best to look as relaxed as they were, but withoutmuch success.

The door opened and everyone jumped toattention as the captain entered. His broad shoulders seemed tofill the great doorway as he passed through it, adding to the auraof power that he projected.

Soon everyone was seated and the captainsaid, “I asked Vydor to call this meeting because he has some newsfor us on the Magi situation. He has shared a little with mealready and I think we would all benefit from hearing hispresentation.” He paused and looked at everyone as to say, “Givethe kid a break,” then said, “Vydor, go ahead.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I paused, took a breathand told myself that these were my peers, not a review board. Ionly wished I could believe myself …

“I want to start with a review of what weknow, going back to the original transmission from Lieutenant Tom.This is because I think I have found a thread running through allthe events which gives us a clue to the puzzle of the Magi.

“When Zalith presented his report on Tom’smessage, he stated that he thought the message was tampered withbecause of the way Tom was acting. At the time I agreed with him.Tom, as we all knew, was a battle-hardened veteran and was actinglike a green soldier who had never faced battle. After thatmeeting, I studied the message to see if I could verify thattheory.

“It is fairly well-known that alltransmitters in the Empire have a code which they transmit toidentify themselves. What is not so well-known is that all militarytransmitters, like Tom’s, have a second coded message they transmitto prevent any possibility of interference. Based on my analysis ofthat data, there is no way that message was tampered with. It isexactly as it was when it left the transmitter. If there was anyfalsehood involved, Lieutenant Tom would have had to be involved.There is no reason to believe he would knowingly have taken part,so we can only take the message at face value.

“The next thing to look at is the target theMagi picked for their move: a colony deep within the Empire’ssecure borders researching biological warfare. At first it soundslike a great target, because it would be unexpected and yield somenice weapons, but not this colony. The last few reports on thecolony indicate that it is a complete failure. It has neverproduced a single new discovery in the seventy-five years it hasbeen in operation. What does not make sense is the colony’sclassification. It is rated in the highest level of biologicalwarfare research, which is why Dr. Rannor strongly warned usagainst landing. From what these reports say, that project shouldhave been abandoned and not classified so highly.”

I paused here. I wanted that to sink in abit. I had a lot more to say and I needed to gather my thoughts. Iwas sure they would soon start wondering about my informationsources. I did not officially have the security clearance to knowabout the reports I had just cited, never mind study them. Heck, Iwas not sure anyone in this room other than Dr. Rannor did.