“You manage to armor up that?” Kris asked.
He opened his white jacket. Someone had sewn sections of a spider-silk bodystocking into its lining. It might do some good there. Then again, it might not. And the wide expanse of white dress shirt covering his gut was likely backed up by nothing more impervious than his skivvy shirt.
The man is taking the risks he asked for, Kris reminded herself. Penny was next in a floor-length, soft orange taffeta gown. At her elbow was an unfashionably oversize purse.
“You monitoring the bugs tonight?” Jack asked.
“Someone’s got to cover for the chief. He’s outside with Captain DeVar and his hardcases.”
Jack frowned at Kris’s tight dress, then turned to Penny. “I hope you’ve got some extra artillery mixed in with your petticoats.”
“What kind of question is that to ask a young lady,” Penny quipped, then flipped up her wide skirts, showing two rows of bandoleers for grenades and spare magazines. “Especially when the poor girl is feeling like a pack mule.”
“Or a gunrunner,” the commander said with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, I forgot, this is your first trip out with our princess,” Jack said. “Early on it always looks hopeless. We’re all doomed. There’s no escaping.”
“And then it gets better,” the commander said, hopefully.
“No, it gets worse,” Penny said. “And worse, and worse.”
“And then we see daylight,” the commander drawled.
“Nope, that’s usually an oncoming train,” Kris deadpanned.
“But you must get out. You’re here, ruining what’s left of my digestion.”
“Hey, this guy has the right attitude,” Penny said.
“Kris, maybe you should keep him around,” Jack said.
“Abby, where are you going to be?” Kris said, turning back to her maid.
“In the Tac Center. Cara spent the afternoon there, with Gramma Ruth, hoping something might come in about Bronc. I can’t think of a better place for me.”
“Keep an eye on Gramma Ruth,” Kris said.
“Gosh, and I was feeling safer just having her nearby.”
And with that, they headed out to do their duty, assuming they could figure out what it was.
43
The limo was everything Kris expected, and quite a bit more. It had a bed! When the driver saw that Kris’s entourage included two couples and six hulking Marines in dress red and blues as well as two women marines in ball gowns, he made the bed disappear and jump seats appear.
There were sounds of sadness at the change, but Kris was careful not to note where that noise came from. There are some things an officer does not need to know.
Especially when the noise comes from her fellow officers.
Marine escorts pulled up ahead and behind the limo, adding to Kris’s security. The driver did not seem surprised when one of Kris’s Marines settled in on the seat next to him.
The drive to the National Gallery of the Arts took longer than Kris had expected. It was north of town, along the river in a park. The limo driver seemed to think his job included a running commentary on the local scene…or he figured to wreak some revenge on his passengers by boring them with trivia.
“Local soccer leagues use the sports fields as well as track and cross-country racings. We have an annual marathon that people come from light-years away to run in.”
Kris had a hard time buying that.
“On your right are the National Rose Gardens. We have every variation of rose in abundance.” And at that, the air in the limo took on a whiff of rose scent.
“And the Japanese Gardens to your left”—which directed Kris to a hilly affair—“are renown even on Yamato. Eden hired away Yamato’s most expensive gardener for several years to lay out the design and implement it.”
Leaving Kris to wonder if the most expensive was also the most respected. Rarely were they.
“Notice the fields of fire,” Jack whispered in Kris’s ear.
She nodded, the wide expanse of playing fields gave easy search of the approaches to the huge gray building ahead.
“The rose gardens?” Kris said.
“Fully under observation and easy to trim with automatic weapons fire,” Jack offered.
“Roses do have a propensity to grow back,” Penny offered.
And a poor rose harvest for a year or two was a small price to pay for the lives of your political elite.
Maybe Inspector Johnson was right. This was no place for “them” to “kill them all.”
So why didn’t that make Kris’s stomach feel better.
The limo entered a large expanse of crushed rock in front of the Gallery. A huge fountain filled the center of it. A group of horses and figures spewed water in all directions.
“This is an exact replica of a fountain on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles outside Paris on Earth,” the driver said. Which might explain the secretary’s mistake about their final goal. “The actual building is an expanded replica of the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Earth. The Gallery of the Arts here covers most of the ground and main floor.
“The floors above it are the official residence of the President of Eden.”
“All Eden?” Kris asked.
“Well, if you insist, the American nation on Eden. But it amounts to the same,” he said with unquestioning chauvinism.
Kris eyed the marble building. A ground floor. Stone steps leading up to the large portico in front of the main floor. There were at least two floors above that. Maybe a couple more, depending on how the roof was used.
Plenty of rooms to hide in if the upper floors were as divided up as the lower ones. But if they had guns and you had none, any running might only delay the inevitable.
But Kris did have guns and was ready for a fight.
Tonight looked to be interesting.
Jack handed her out of the limo onto the commander’s arm, then helped Penny. She took a moment to arrange the fall of her dress. The Marines and their ladies followed quickly.
Kris looked around. She saw men and women in formal evening dress. But nothing to get alarmed about.
There was no sign of the ambassador, but by now, he should be far to the head of the line. She joined the official procession and began to climb—in three-inch heels.
“Isn’t that the Longknife woman,” Grant von Schrader said from the west portico where he watched the arrival of future corpses.
Topaz had also been watching the arrivals, making catty comments on this or that dress. Now she focused on the column of what could only be soldiers being led by the woman in the tight red dress.
“So that is her? I’ve never seen her.”
“Yes, you can always tell by the uniforms around her. Only, usually it’s a Marine beside her. One of those in blue and red. Now she’s got someone in white and blue.”
“Guess my daughter’s rich employer can’t keep a man.”
“Speaking of your daughter, now might be a good time to get Cara out of wherever she’s run off to. Why don’t you call her now, and ask her to come home while you’re out? She could be asleep when you get in tonight.”
“Cara has a phone?” her grandmother said.
Grant gave her the number of the new unit.
Topaz made a show of considering Grant’s suggestion, but as she always did, she obeyed. She moved a distance away on the balcony and made the call. For a minute, Grant was treated to the discord of grandmother-granddaughter argument, but when Topaz rang off, she seemed pleased with herself.
“She is headed home. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Young girls need firm guidance,” Grant assured her. And notched off another requirement for tonight.
Another limo came to a stop. Another pair of sacrificial cattle dismounted. Grant added them to the list of obits that would not be on tomorrow’s news.
The list was filling in nicely.
44
Security at the top of the steps
was stiff…if you didn’t have a weapons permit. Kris presented hers and she and her Marines were ushered around the metal detectors and explosive sniffers. In the few minutes Kris watched, several other groups were similarly treated.
A lot of personal heat here.
Were some of these in on the plan?
Now that was an ugly thought.
Kris circulated quickly among the milling crowd. Here she shook a hand, there she accepted a quick kiss on the cheek. Few people waved her down, so she was able to move almost as rapidly as she wanted to.
Quickly, she made a recon of what she could only think of as tonight’s battlefield.
She didn’t much care for what she saw.
The security setup on the west portico guided her through wide doors into a huge rotunda. The place of honor in the center of that was an immense bronze sculpture that portrayed the first settlers setting foot on Eden.
Maybe it was accurate for the American Express team.
Two expansive halls went north and south off the rotunda. Both were expensively done in marble and lined with sculptures. Off of each hall, doors led into specific rooms with exhibits. Rooms two or three deep on both sides.
So people could be ambushed in small rooms or machine gunned in the two halls. Not a pretty picture either way.
“What’s the nano situation?” Kris asked Penny.
“Top of the line,” was the answer from Penny and Nelly.
“About half of them are scouts,” Nelly added. “The other half are hunter-killers.”
“Doesn’t sound like a good idea to launch our own,” Kris said. Both woman and computer agreed.
Kris finished her review of the south wing just as police in formal uniforms began to close it off to prepare for the arrival of government officials.
“I need to find a little girls room,” Kris said to one of them. The one she was pointed to had a long line in front.
“There’s two more on the ground floor. Hook a left at the bottom of the stairs.”
Kris shed most of her escort and it was just Jack and a Marine couple that took the stairs down.
And Kris hooked a right.
“You should have gone left,” Jack said.
“No, it’s right,” Kris said.
And they ran into a guard.
“May I help you?” It didn’t sound like he wanted to.
“I’m looking for the ladies’ room,” Kris said.
“It’s that away. You should have turned left off the stairs.”
“That’s what I told her,” Jack said.
“I hear that a lot,” the guard said.
Kris retreated with ill grace.
“What did you see?” Jack asked when they were out of the guard’s earshot.
“That the offices are not locked off or all that well guarded,” Kris said. “Also, did you see that guard?”
“No body armor and I doubt if he’s carrying more than a revolver or automatic.”
“Exactly. If he’s what Inspector Johnson is counting on to handle a serious assault with the weapons we found in the warehouse, there’s going to be lots of blood and guts on the floor but not an ounce of brain.”
Kris actually did make use of the ladies’ room.
She was just coming out when Nelly said, “Kris, you have a call coming in from Abby.”
“What’s happening?” Kris said.
“Cara’s gone.”
“Where’d she go?”
“That’s the problem, we don’t know. She got a call, which she took outside the Tac Center. When she came back in she said it was not from Bronc, but that she needed to go to the bathroom. That was fifteen minutes ago. She’s not in the bathroom and she’s nowhere in the embassy.”
“Have you tried to trace her phone?” Kris asked.
“Yep. She’s got it throttled. Twelve and already breaking the law. I suspect it’s the company she keeps.”
“She’s got good teachers,” Kris said. “Where do you think she headed?”
“I bet either her mom or grandmom told her to go home,” Abby said.
“Where she’ll be safe?” Kris asked.
That brought a long pause. “I wouldn’t bet an Earth penny on that,” Abby said.
“You think Cara’s included in the ‘kill them all,’ coverage,” Kris said, not really believing her own words.
“I’m thinking that tonight is supposed to be bigger than any of us can get our minds around.”
Kris let that hang in the air for a long moment. Apparently long enough for Abby to make up her mind.
“Kris, I’m headed down to Five Corners to pick up Cara.”
“Abby, I figured you to keep an eye on the place there, maybe lead some last desperate reaction team.”
“Gramma Ruth is doing a fine job of eyeballing this place. She’s enjoying using her commander’s commission.”
“What’s your reserve commission?” Kris asked. The last thing she expected was an answer. But now that things were getting interesting and deadly, any sort of answer from Abby would be enlightening.
“I hold a reserve first lieutenant’s commission in Wardhaven Army Intelligence.”
“Admiral Crossenshield made you a first lieutenant!”
“I started as a second louie,” Abby said. “Having survived chasing you around space, I got a promotion awhile back.”
Kris didn’t know which shocked her more. That Abby held a reserve commission…or that she’d admitted it. She was very worried about her niece. “You really want to get Cara back.”
“I haven’t been much use to her, my own flesh and blood. I will not let her down now.”
“Then you better go get her,” Kris said. Only after the order was given did she glance at Jack. He was smiling proudly, like maybe a papa does when his little hellion is showing signs of becoming a civilized human being.
“Gramma Ruth, here” came over the line. “I’m looking at a Marine sergeant that sure looks in need of going with Abby. Sergeant Bruce, isn’t it?” A “yes, ma’am” came in the background.
“Can you cover the center without him?” Kris asked, not at all happy asking the old woman to take on that responsibility.
“I don’t see a problem, Kris. And if things go south, I can always call them back. You do understand, Abby, I call and you come running no matter where you are.”
“Understood, Commander.”
Kris rang off and found a bench to sit down on.
“Abby holds a reserve commission,” she marveled. Jack was busy looking up and down the lower halls, the north a duplicate of the one above. The south offices. He nodded agreement.
“And our forces are getting scattered all to hell in a hand basket,” Kris growled.
“Somehow I don’t think that is by accident,” Jack said.
“These folks haven’t been dumb since that first shoot-out. Why should they start dumbing down now?” Kris sighed.
Chimes sounded upstairs.
“I suspect that either means dinner is served or the cattle are being lined up. Want to bet which?”
Jack offered Kris his arm and, with the Marine couple trailing them, they headed back the way they’d come.
Through the east-facing rear doors of the ground floor, Kris got a gorgeous view of a river reflecting back bloodred clouds on fire with the sunset.
Kris hoped that wasn’t a harbinger of things to come as she turned to ascend the stairs and do her part in what would happen next.
45
For once, the order of presentation put Kris nowhere near the head of the line.
Three visiting dignitaries from Geneva had the honor of first place, followed by several representatives of the Mandate from Heaven. After that, the pecking order seemed to fall by corporate wealth. Even there, several corporations ranked ahead of Nuu Enterprises on Eden.
It didn’t bother Kris a bit.
She spent the time getting to know the killing zone better.
Two floors above the main one had wide
balconies looking down on the halls. And men in dark glasses who regularly talked into their sleeves standing watch beside marble columns.
They didn’t look any more heavily armed than the fellow on the ground floor.
Clearly, Eden was making a try, but was totally out of their league.
Penny leaned close to Kris’s ear. “You think on Wardhaven your old man would have this many guards?”
Which was a good point. Kris mulled it over for a full second, then answered. “He’d have more if he knew a coup was in the works. And if I had any say-so in the matter.”
Jack chuckled dryly.
Commander Malhoney listened stoically through the entire exchange. He didn’t so much as twitch.
However, unless very pale was his normal skin coloring, he was more scared than he let on.
Kris reached the beginning of the reception line and began shaking hands with this senator or that senator’s spouse.
Kris smiled and shook hands or exchanged gentle hugs. Formal introductions went quickly. Nelly offered to back up the brief name and main political office with something more, but Kris declined.
The line was clearly paced to move fast. If there was to be any serious talking, it would be after the formal meet and greet.
Assuming the hostile assault team gave them a few spare moments.
NELLY, ARE YOU GETTING ANY JAMMING?
NO, KRIS. I WILL TELL YOU AS SOON AS I DO.
And Kris moved on to shake another hand.
“We don’t want to get a speeding ticket,” Abby pointed out. “Or wrap this car around a light post.”
Beside her, Sergeant Bruce didn’t noticeably slow down. He’d picked one of the rentals. Not the hottest, but a middling type that had a surprising amount under the hood.
And he was using all of it.
“You sure you know where the kid is headed?” he asked Abby.
“I’m pretty sure she’s headed home,” Abby said. Still, she activated a subroutine on her computer that she’d paid very good money for.
Everyone knew a phone could be located at any time by the authorities using the correct remote command. Many people paid good money for the illegal option that allowed them to eliminate that function. Abby had paid very good money for a bit of software that was supposed to get around that option.
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