by Hylton Smith
“I don’t – I’m flabbergasted. That’s why you called me Elle, isn’t it? That’s how it will always be now, I guess. I’ve waited for this promotion for so long, but I didn’t expect it to be tinged with sadness because you would be leaving our professional relationship.”
“That may not be the case if I accept Pierze’s offer. He’s concerned about me having knowledge which may put me in danger. So I must pass that on to you Elle, as it effectively means you have to be careful. He claims he can exercise better control of what I know, and therefore protect my family, if I’m in his loop on a need to know basis. He hasn’t told me much yet in case I decline the consultant role. It can be summarised by telling you he’ll pursue me to reveal where I got the information, about Pichler and the others. I’ll tell him the ‘truth’ as it was told to me – from Firenze. However, you must be aware that wherever you did get it from, he’s not far behind. Pichler is in danger and Pierze hasn’t said he would save him, he suggested that I did, which now falls to you. He expects more of this to follow. I’ve declared Konrad’s death as induced suicide. This should keep you here for a little while, but you’ll be recalled to update the brass, organise your department and convince the coroner. I’ll let you know of my decision before I speak to Pierze, and that’s all I can say right now, other than this investigation is likely to go into areas where you and I are short on experience. Good luck.” They embraced and as he departed she felt a second and more severe wrench at ‘losing’ Maxi Duarte.
*
The second Orient Lander had put down less than half a mile from the first and ominously, if looked at as two dots of a line to be extrapolated, projected directly to the SACRED installation. The ‘spies’ inside the complex had been instructed to take pictures with their sophisticated lenses, enlarge the images and send them on to Gretz before he made his next visit. They clearly showed an all-terrain vehicle transferring equipment and food supplies between the two habitat units. It then began assembly of a connecting ‘tunnel’. Further enlargement indicated that the vehicle was remotely controlled but night vigilance had counted twelve different suit numbers, although there could be more who had not yet ventured outside. It did have the look of a colonisation programme and wouldn’t have generated so much concern if it had been expanding tangentially to the SACRED complex.
*
When Pierze was called to an inner sanctum conference he knew he would be expected to deliver advice on the government position and strategy to deal with Gretz & Co. He wanted to keep his focus on SACRED, but most urgently the anarchist context of the deaths for which he now had links. He recognised this conference was a purely political manoeuvre on the part of the President’s aide to let the people know he was on top of any threat from Orient, but in reality wanting to avoid culpability for any escalation in tension. Reluctantly, he traded on keeping Gretz, Verdasco and Boniek aboard by pointing out the obvious. The government, corporate bodies and the youth of the Republic had willingly put all their eggs in the SACRED basket. “This was countenanced not only as endorsing the principle but actually selling off the bad debt of the half-hearted colonisation initiative and hardware. It was a decision with clear and present irreversibility. Until that status changes, by restoration of investment and ownership, we are stuck with the monopoly upon which we depend, and its vulnerability to any Orient agenda. I submit we must begin to correct this dependency. I know you will say we do not have the resource, but neither did Orient, yet it is happening before our eyes. It requires a political sea change and in the meantime I’ll begin to curb the strident unilateral attitude of the SACRED owners. The management of espionage in and about Orient will be intensified, but I’m afraid the current political placebo you are seeking to administer to the populous must come from the Foreign Office.” The President’s aide leaned and whispered something to Sanchez. It resulted in a comfort break. During this timeout Pierze was asked by the aide, Nelson Ortega, how he intended to shackle Gretz and friends.
“Your plan has merit, and in order for the President to endorse it we would need to be certain it wouldn’t conflict with any message from the Foreign Office, which we would sanction to be rolled out for public consumption.”
Pierze was delighted to respond with the caveat he had in mind. “I would not advise airing this detail in such a full cabinet, in which some ministers have also brought deputies. My intelligence people would expect me to protect their cover while infiltration is on-going. I can assure you that I have leverage to exercise on SACRED. You must rely on me to apply this delicately and responsibly. That is what I offer, and will be happy to be judged upon the result when the time comes. I doubt whether our friends in the Foreign Office will be so willing to put their heads on the block, and if you will forgive me saying so, that is your province not mine.”
Ortega’s cautious nodding was a good sign. On re-convening the President made it sound as if it was all his own idea, and that all bases were covered. This really meant he was in a position of maximum control to fire whoever screwed up, and therefore remain decisive, ergo popular. Pierze returned to his office a relieved man, although he knew there would come a time when the favour would be returned with interest by the Foreign Office. There was more good news – Duarte had agreed to sign up.
*
Butragueno had returned to Londonis and Manuel, having passed the paintings to his contact, was free to go back into Futureworld. The only factor holding him back was Pichler’s no-show at his hotel. He wasn’t about to arrive either. The chat at the stadium had him running scared. The symptoms of ‘blackout’ had intensified and the warning had inadvertently interrupted his cycle of addiction to the game. He had fled to Berlina, where he still had family and asked them to hide him in their basement for a while – until he gained enough composure to think straight. Manuel could wait no longer. He went in.
Konrad
He searched for Pichler, in his abode and at some known friends of his, without success. He was irritable that Prometheus had not made contact. This frustration kindled a desire to go to Central Security Human Resources and tell them to shred their rejection of his promotion application, as he was quitting. While sitting waiting to see someone on this personnel issue, he did receive a message from Prometheus. ‘Do not proceed with whatever you have in mind in this organisation. Meet me on the beach at Sitges; it is a short train journey from Barcelona. Just go there, I will find you’.
He was perplexed but complied. He began to feel it was a hoax as the beach was extremely densely populated and over twenty minutes had elapsed. He felt a tap on the shoulder. “Sorry about the delay. I wanted to make sure no character movements would indicate you were being followed. That’s why I chose this destination. What were you doing in Central Security?”
Konrad explained that it was for being repeatedly overlooked for promotion, and said he wanted to quit. He wished to provoke a predictable reaction. Prometheus had thought it was more serious than that. “I thought you were going to say something about me and what I had told you. In that case it’s not a problem we are now discussing, but an opportunity. I will arrange for you to pass the next interview. We should do it through the normal channels to avoid suspicion, but I will alter the result.”
“You can do that?”
“I can, but it does entail a small risk with such potentially transparent transactions, this one will be fine. I see you were looking for Pichler, did you speak with him on the outside?”
Konrad replied, stating he hadn’t shown up at his hotel as had been agreed. Prometheus said he had hidden in a tunnel in a city sewer system in Futureworld.
“He hasn’t moved for some time. His character will die soon.”
“Why don’t you talk to him?” Prometheus explained that would be dangerous.
“When I was asked to allow you to resume the character after your own death it was mandatory that I encrypted it further. This was to enable deflection of any rogue interrogation by other characters, and
it was requested by someone who didn’t want any chance of a slip up. I simply did what I was asked. It is hard to explain but I cannot use my character to interface directly with any other than yours. It would be risky, as you never know who you can trust. Even the person who asked for you to be allowed in through the back door did not explain why.”
Konrad hesitated then asked, “If I can’t find him outside and you can’t help him inside, you need to tell me exactly where he is.” Prometheus asked him to consider another possibility.
“If you offered him sanctuary and he didn’t accept, he may have thought you were affected. Did you give him details of your concern for his safety?”
Konrad thought back to the stadium. “No, not really, I just assured him that the others affected were in difficulty. I wanted to talk to him on the outside.”
“Good, we should avoid too much specific reference to items which may be highlighted in game searches. You may wish to consider he has gone underground outside, in order to deliberately allow his character to die. This would not make him completely safe, but would cut off further affectation from Futureworld, and perhaps help him in regaining true perspective. Unless he has been ‘attended to’ he can still contact you if he wants to. There is no new affected individual nominated as yet to continue the chain, but that will change. If he has fallen subject to elimination you will no doubt hear via the regular news reports.”
“What do I do about Central Security?”
“Go back and tell them you wish to re-apply for promotion. Leave the rest to me.”
Manuel
This time he did not feel too bad, a little light-headed but no memory lag. He got back to the hotel and looked up Prometheus. Apparently the myth claimed that he stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. He was considered to be a champion of mankind, and endowed with wily intelligence. There was no message at reception indicating Pichler had tried to make contact. He decided to travel to Sevilla, as he had agreed with Butragueno that there was nothing more to go on in the Brunatti case until the DNA results came back. She was to fly directly there once she had concluded her staff setup in Londonis.
*
When Pierze brought Duarte to his office it was on the pretext of merely signing his consultancy agreement. “I want you to begin a new thread of investigation. We are progressing as fast as we can on the existing one. The footage we have has been cross referenced with records, to confirm the unusual number of civil servants who have been injured or killed in some of these protests.”
Duarte said, “I’m listening.”
“There is a very much stronger correlation index than one would expect. For example, the ratio of these employees to overall population, or that which our profiling people would normally ascribe to the makeup of such mobs, is high. There is an exhaustive list, and I suggest you start close to home. If you can obtain evidence or testimony of near certainty that the deaths were not caused by anything which relates to brain damage, get me ten such local examples. We will then scan them and you may see for yourself what this tells us. I realise I will have to get the paperwork for exhumation, but you can smooth that path by telling parents or relatives we want to find out why their loved ones were apparently singled out.”
“You seem to be relying quite heavily on statistical profiling, yet you send a dyed-in-the-wool cynic of such hazy claims to investigate this humbug; which is being paraded as a science.” Pierze had anticipated this. “Precisely Duarte, if you are convinced when you return I will know the haze has been replaced by direct and traditional investigation.”
Chapter 17
The respective procurement and recruitment programmes of Verdasco and Boniek were each gathering pace. The elevator perimeter exclusion zone was extended from a radius of two miles to four. It involved compulsory purchase of some domestic properties of the workforce, but the price was so beneficial to them that there was competition to be on the list. Sophisticated radar tracking equipment, for several types of incursion, was being installed. Plans for anti-aircraft missile silos appeared like mushrooms after summer rain, and the final array of protection would be a new concept. Hundreds of personnel capture mines would be mapped out and armed. These devices operated on pressure switches which were linked to heat sensors, releasing multiple clouds of chloroform, effectively leaving the captive ready for collection. Boniek had hired a master mercenary who sent potential candidates to him for scrutiny. The vast majority were being harvested from the Borderlands between Eastern Iberian territory and Western Orient. They had suffered atrocities regularly as the terrain was claimed and reclaimed on innumerable occasions, and they always suffered occupation. They had no agenda, no allegiances, no morals, in other words perfect for Boniek.
*
Butragueno joined Manuel in Sevilla but once again they felt it prudent to be in separate hotels across the city. When she was updated with Prometheus’ hint that Pichler may have simply absconded, to allow his Futureworld character to die, she asked if the prediction had been accompanied by whoever was next on the list. She thought it was strange that his reply had been negative. “Manuel, I have my doubts as to whether I will find too much to go on here. I’ve been introduced to a similar set of minders as those I had in Barcelona. I think we might benefit from me doing a cursory check which makes the precinct happy, and then I apparently move on. You can skip in and out of your game and follow up the case here without the possibility of bumping heads with the precinct brass.”
“Where will you go?” She wanted to go to Firenze. “I may be able to tie up loose ends if Duarte is willing to keep me informed as to what Pierze gets from Leonid Tirishev. That would help me bypass the Firenze precinct while I await the DNA on Brunatti’s paintings. I can’t get rid of the feeling that Rossi is a key figure in this, a bit like Konrad.” They agreed, and she let the Sevilla precinct officers know that she was happy with the first round of checks, but let them stew on a possible return.
*
The Berlina Tribune front page on the TV screen caught Manuel’s eye as he exited his hotel room shower. He immediately turned up the volume. A headless corpse had been impaled on the lance of a mediaeval warrior, the figure being part of a group of statues depicting an Iberian repulsion of barbarian hordes. The news visuals panned back to give perspective of the entire scene. The body then appeared to be comparable to a potato on the end of the weapon; such was the size of the statue. The local police stated that they were not yet able to identify the individual male, and were completely confused as to how and when it had been manipulated into position without being seen. A couple of fire service vehicles were busy trying to get the torso off the lance without further mutilation. One journalist pounced on a slip by one of the fire crew at the scene. A banner had been stapled to the chest of the unfortunate victim. He had described the motif and part of a message before he was silenced and prised from the hungry reporters. Manuel somehow knew it would be Pichler, and suspected that the police in Berlina already knew, but were not prepared to divulge the identity too soon. Chaos seemed to have engulfed the city. The police were forced by many levels of authority to say more about the banner. The motif was described as a red hand with clenched fist opposed to a black hand in an open gesture. No one had apparently any knowledge of this belonging to an organisation, terrorist or otherwise. The words were described with caution, giving the impression that there was some censorship engaged. They were a mix of Iberian and Oriental script, and it was claimed that they approximated to the same thing – ‘The world was lost and now it is rediscovered’. This story, in Manuel’s experience would run and run. It was global in implication. Butragueno contacted Manuel as she had the same confidence that it was Pichler. “What do you intend to do?”
“I was going to go back into Futureworld to make sure this is not connected to our investigation. It also occurs to me that this will fall into Pierze’s lap. Do you think it’s worthwhile asking Duarte about it?”
“Yes, that makes sense, but he may not be in on this if there is no link with SACRED. Maybe he can still squeeze something out of Madrid.” Manuel said he would get back to her as soon as he could.
“By the way, your DNA results are back but not complete. There are only two individuals identified and they are both on police databases. Neither of them produced a match to the official records of Brunatti, but one is a perfect hit for Adrianna Rossi. My contact tells me that he can’t really conclude more without the real Brunatti’s body or verified DNA, but is equally adamant that the second person is highly likely to be the artist. I’ve thought about this and we can speculate of course, that Brunatti was a front for Rossi; or the charred body was that of the unknown artist; or that the artist is alive and Brunatti was consumed in the fire. The problem is lack of any hard evidence from the remains. I think it would be more fruitful to dig into Rossi’s connection to Barcelona and Leonid Tirishev.” Butragueno thanked him and agreed to start with Rossi again.
*
Gretz was back on the Moon and had, despite lingering concerns from the Iberian doves, brought a consignment of automatic weapons, RPG’s and some new electronic jamming equipment. His visit was to be short but thorough, and he revealed a surveillance bug in the form of a mole. It was disguised in neutral packing and he divulged its presence and operational codes to only one individual. “I require regular reports on their activities. I’m told that if you programme it to set off in the wrong direction boring down to circa two metres as default, it can then be programmed to reach coordinates between the two habitats without ever surfacing. It will alter course randomly to avoid extremely rocky layers. This, I am assured, will mimic gentle seismic activity – the kind we have genuinely observed from time to time, due to Earth’s fluctuating gravitational influence. This has been discussed many times on TV and Orient will know about it. Initialise it from inside the landing container where there is a preformed hatch to lower it to the drilling position without being seen.”
