Lechat hesitated and looked uncertainly in Celia’s direction. She returned an almost imperceptible nod. Lechat looked back at the screen. “Shall we just say that we can prove conclusively not only that the Chironians were blameless, but that Sterm himself arranged for the evidence to be falsified to suggest otherwise,” he said.
“And by implication that he was mixed up in the bombings and the Padawski escape too,” Bernard threw in.
The Chironians suddenly appeared intrigued. “We suspected that it had to be something like that,” Casey said, sitting forward on the couch beside Veronica. “But how can you prove it?”
An awkward silence hung over the room. Then Celia said, “Because I killed him. The rest was faked after I left the house. Only Sterm knew about his death.”
Murmurs of surprise came from the screen. In the living room, the Chironians were staring at Celia in amazement. Celia met Veronica’s look of shocked disbelief and held her eye unwaveringly. Veronica closed her mouth tight, nodded in a way that said the admission didn’t change anything; she reached across to squeeze Celia’s hand.
Lechat didn’t want to see Celia dragged through an ordeal again. He raised his arms to attract attention back to himself. “But don’t you see what it means,” he said. The voices on the screen and inside the room died away. “If that information was made public, it might be enough to cause Sterm’s remaining supporters to turn on him—apart from the few who were in on the scam. Surely if that happened he’d have to see that it was all over. He’s hanging on by the thread of a lie, and we possess proof of the truth that can cut that thread. That gives us an option to try before resorting to last, drastic measures. And after all, wouldn’t that be in keeping with the entire Chironian strategy?”
Kath looked apprehensively at Celia. Celia nodded in answer to the unvoiced question. “Yes, that’s the way I want it,” she said. Kath nodded and accepted the situation at that.
“Exactly what are you asking us to do?” Otto asked from the screen.
Lechat tossed up his hands and began pacing again. “Anything to publicize what we’ve said . . . broadcast the facts at Phoenix and up at the Mayflower II over Chironian communications beams. At least some of the population would hear it . . . the word would soon be spread. . . . I don’t know . . . whatever would bring word to the most people in the shortest time for greatest effect.”
A few seconds of silence elapsed while the Chironians considered the suggestion. Their expressions seemed to say it couldn’t do any harm, but it probably wouldn’t change very much. “Is the case strong enough to turn the whole Army round in a moment?” Kath asked doubtfully at last “We have no proof about Padawski and the bombings. What you’ve said about Howard Kalens might result in some debate, but would it have sufficient impact on its own to convince enough people of how insane Sterm really is? Now, if we could prove all the incidents, all at the same time—”
“And having to rely on the news trickling through from the outside wouldn’t help,” Adam pointed out. “There have been so many rumors already. It would be more likely to just fizzle out.”
“It’s an idea,” Bernard said, looking up at Lechat. “But it needs more of what Kath said—impact.”
“I agree, I agree,” Lechat told them. “But we only know what we know, and we can only do what we can do. Surely doing so is not going to make things any worse. Will you try it?”
Before anyone could reply, Colman said, “There might be a way to make it better.” Everyone looked at him. He swept his eyes around quickly. “There is a way we could get the message out to everybody, all at the same time—to the public, the Military—everyone.” He looked around again. The others waited. “Through the Communications Center up in the ship,” he said. “Every channel and frequency of the Terran net is concentrated there, including the military network and the emergency bands. We could broadcast from there on all of them simultaneously. You couldn’t make much more impact than that.” He sat back and looked around again to invite reactions.
Bernard was nodding but with evident reservations. “True,” he agreed. “But it’s up in the ship, not down here. And it must be strongly protected. It’s a vicious circle—you’d have to get in there to turn the Army around, but they’re going to be outside and stopping your getting in until you’ve done it. How can you break out of it?”
“And from what we’ve heard, their command structure is all a shambles anyway,” Adam commented. “Could a penetration operation like that be organized now?”
Colman had been expecting something like that. “I know one unit of the Army that could do it,” he said. “And they operate best when nobody’s trying to organize them.”
“Which one is that?” Leon asked from the screen, sounding dubious but also interested.
Colman grinned faintly and gestured across the room. “The same one that brought you Veronica and Celia.”
A gleam of hope had come into Lechat’s eyes. “Do you really think they might be able to pull something off?”
“If anyone could, they could,” Veronica said from across the room. “That bunch could clean out Fort Knox without anyone knowing.”
“She’s right,” Celia agreed simply.
Everybody looked at Colman again, this time with a new interest. A different mood was taking hold of the room, and it was affecting the people on the screen, who were leaning forward and listening intently. So far it was just an idea, but already it was beginning to hook all of them.
Bernard was rubbing his lip slowly as he thought about it. He caught Lechat’s eye and appeared worried. “The message would have to go out live from there,” he said slowly. “With active opposition around, you wouldn’t want to go risking complications with remote links into it.” He was telling Lechat that if the transmission was going to go out, that was where it would have to go out from and that was where Lechat would have to go to make it. But more to the point, as Lechat well knew, Bernard was saying that Celia would have to go there too; what she had to say couldn’t come second-hand through anybody else.
Lechat pursed his lips for a second, and then nodded curtly. “I’ll do it,” he said simply. He averted his eyes for a moment longer, and then looked across at Celia. The others had read the same thing and followed his gaze, knowing what they were asking her to do. Colman could see the torment in her eyes as she looked back at Lechat. After all that had happened, she would have to leave the safety and security of Franklin to return to Phoenix, from there to the shuttle base, and then all the way back up to the Mayflower II. There was no other way.
Celia was already prepared for it. She nodded. Nothing remained to be said. The room had become very quiet.
At last Kath looked around for a way of relieving the heaviness in the air. “How will you get them up to the ship?” she asked Colman.
“I’ll leave that to Sirocco,” he replied. “He’ll know more about the score at the base. We’ve had a unit there this evening, but they’re probably back by now.”
“How do you know he’ll go along with it?” Barbara asked.
“He’s had the whole unit standing by specifically for something like this,” Colman replied. “He’s waiting for news right now. That’s why I’m here.”
Celia had become very thoughtful in the last few seconds. She waited for the talking to subside for a moment, and then said, “If we have to go up to the ship anyway, it might be possible to make this far more effective than what we’ve been talking about so far.” She paused, but nobody interrupted. “I know where the people who have been arrested are being held. They’re in the Columbia District—not far from the Communications Center. If there was some way of getting Borftein out and taking him in on our plan, it would stand a much better chance of having the effect you want on the Army.” Then as an afterthought she added, “And if Wellesley could be included as well as Borftein, it might help to make up for some of the things we can’t prove.” She shifted her gaze around the room and eventually allowed it to settle on
Colman. “But I don’t know if something like that would be possible.”
“What do you think?” Bernard asked Colman after a short silence. “Could it be done?”
“I don’t know. It depends on the situation. Maybe. That’s something else we’ll have to leave to Sirocco to decide.”
Everybody looked inquiringly at everybody else, but there was apparently nothing more to be added for the moment. At last Colman rose to his feet. “Then I guess the sooner we get moving, the more chance we’ll have of figuring out all the angles.” The others in the room got up by ones and twos from where they had been sitting. Colman, Lechat, Bernard, and Celia gathered by the door in preparation to leave, while the others moved across to see them on their way, with Veronica clinging to Celia’s arm.
“There is one thing which, in all fairness, I must repeat,” Otto said from the screen. They turned and looked back at him. “We cannot alter our basic decision in any way. If Sterm becomes threatening, we will be forced to react. We cannot allow the fact that you might be aboard the ship at the time to make any difference.”
Lechat nodded. “That was already understood,” he replied grimly.
While the others passed through into the hallway of the apartment, Kath turned back toward the screen and touched a control on the compad. All of the views vanished except that of Leon, which expanded to fill the whole screen just as Thelma moved away out of the picture to leave him on his own. “We ought to commence evacuating the Kuan-yin,” Kath said. “It looks as if it could be dangerous up there very soon.”
“I had already come to that conclusion,” Leon replied. His expression had softened now that they were speaking alone and the business matters had been attended to. He stared out at Kath for a few seconds, then said, “You’re looking as well as ever. Are the children keeping fine too?”
“As ever,” Kath told him and smiled. “And yours, Lurch?”
Leon grinned. “Mischievous, but they’re fun.” He paused for a moment. “He seems to be a good man. You should be very happy until whenever. I hope nothing happens to them. They are all brave people. I admire them.”
“I hope so too,” Kath said with feeling. “I ought to go now and see them off. Take care, Leon.”
“You too.” The image vanished from the screen.
Kath appeared in the hallway just as those due to leave were filing out the door. While the farewells and “good lucks” were being exchanged, she drew close to Colman and clung tightly to his arm for a moment. “Come back,” she whispered.
He returned the squeeze reassuringly. “You’d better believe it.”
“I wish I felt as confident as you sound. It seems risky.”
“Not when you’ve got the best outfit that the Army ever produced on your side,” he told her.
“Oh, is that what it is? I never realized. You never told me you were with a special unit.”
“Classified information,” Colman murmured. Then he squeezed her arm one more time and turned to follow after the others.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Outside, dawn was creeping into the sky as Stanislau sat before a portable communications panel in one corner of the mess hall of the Omar Bradley Block, frowning at the mnemonics appearing on the screen and returning coded commands with intermittent movements of his fingers. Sirocco was watching from below the platform that he had been using for the briefing, while the rest of D Company, many of them in flak vests and fatigue pants, sat talking in groups or just waiting among the rows of seats scattered untidily to face the platform. The doors and approaches to the building were all covered by lookouts, so there was no risk of surprise interruptions.
Sirocco had devised a plan for getting the Company up to the ship and into the Communications Center, but it hinged on Stanislau’s being able to alter the orders posted for the day, which were derived from schedules held in one of the military logistics computers. Lechat, who was standing nearby with Celia and Colman, had called for a test-run to make sure that Stanislau could do it, since if that part of the scheme didn’t work none of the rest could. Sirocco had suspended the briefing to resolve the issue there and then.
Bernard was watching with interest over Stanislau’s shoulder. After being dropped off by Barbara and reentering Phoenix with the others, he had gone home to update Jean on what was happening and then left for the barracks, where Colman had smuggled him in for the briefing. It was just as well that he had; the scheme that Sirocco finally evolved required some familiarity with the Mayflower II’s electrical systems, and while Colman had been prepared to have a crack at that part of it, Bernard was the obvious choice. So Bernard was going up to the Mayflower II too. He would explain everything to Jean later, he decided.
Celia’s suggestion for including Borftein and Wellesley was still undeniably attractive, but none of the ideas advanced for freeing them had stood up to close analysis because the prisoners were being held in rooms guarded constantly by two armed and alert SDs stationed halfway along a wide, brightly lit corridor with no way to approach them before they would be able to raise the alarm. Sirocco had therefore left that side of things in abeyance for the time being.
Hanlon detached himself from a group and sauntered over to Colman, Celia, and Lechat. Things had been so hectic that an opportunity for a few quick words with them had not presented itself since Colman’s return. “Well, I see there’s no need to ask how things went on your side, Steve. I take it that Veronica’s in safe hands now.”
Colman nodded. “Her friends showed up, and she’s in Franklin. It all went fine.” He turned his head to Celia. “This is Bret. He got Veronica off the base.”
Celia managed a smile. Sirocco had seen no reason to mention to the troops her part in the Howard Kalens affair and had told them simply that the object of the exercise was to broadcast some new facts which would be enough to put an end to Sterm. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say,” she told Hanlon. “I’ll never be able to thank you both enough. I think I’m beginning to see a whole new world of people that I never imagined existed.”
“Ah, well, it’s not over yet,” Hanlon said. His eyes twinkled for a second as he remembered something else. “Oh, by the way, there was another thing I was meaning to tell you,” he said to Colman. “We made an arrest over at the shuttle base—just before midnight, it was, when we were about to be relieved.”
“Really? Who?” Colman asked.
“Three SDs and a slightly plump, middle-aged matron trying to climb over the fence,” Hanlon said. “The woman was stuck on the top and making quite a fuss. Now, what do you imagine they could have been trying to run away from?”
“I have no idea,” Colman said, grinning. Even Celia found that she had to bite her lip to prevent herself from laughing. “So what happened? Did you send them back up?”
Hanlon shook his head. “Ah, why be vindictive? We got her off and sent them all on their way. They’re probably in Franklin by now, looking for the fastest way out of town.”
At that moment Stanislau emitted a triumphant shout, and Bernard straightened up behind him to look across at Colman. “He’s done it!” Bernard exclaimed. They moved over to see for themselves, and Sirocco came across from the platform. The rest of the mess hall quieted down. The screen in front of Stanislau was showing the day’s duty roster for the entire infantry brigade.
“Is that just a copy file, or are you displaying the master schedule?” Lechat inquired.
“It’s the master,” Bernard said. “He’s got overwrite privileges too. I just watched him try it.”
“This looks like what we want, chief,” Stanislau said to Sirocco, and pointed to one of the entries. Sirocco leaned closer to peer at the screen.
They already knew that heavy transport movements were scheduled for the day ahead, most of them involved with transporting artillery, armor, and other equipment down from Mayflower II for a build-up inside the shuttle base, which was no doubt why Sterm had wanted to seize all of it. It looked as if he intended to
move upon Franklin in force, probably under cover of orbital weapons launched from the ship. With the coup in the Mayflower II now accomplished and the ship evidently considered secure, the SDs who had been concentrated there were being moved down to strengthen what was to become a fortified base for surface operations, and some regular units were being moved up to take over duties aloft. Stanislau had identified an order for C company to embark at 1800 hours that evening for transfer to the Mayflower II, which was just the kind of thing that Sirocco had been hoping for. Sirocco was willing to gamble that with a busy day ahead and lots to do, nobody would have time to question a late change in the orders.
“Let’s see you overwrite it,” Lechat said.
Stanislau touched in some commands, and immediately all references to C Company were replaced by references to D Company. Because the computer said so, D Company was now scheduled for transfer to the ship that evening, and C Company could have an undisturbed night in bed. Stanislau promptly reset the references to their original forms. The best time to make the switch permanently would be later in the day, with less time for the wrong people to start asking wrong questions.
Lechat nodded and seemed satisfied. “That gets us up there,” he said. “Now what about getting into the Communications Center?”
Stanislau entered more commands. A different table of information appeared on the screen. “SD guard details and timetable for posts inside the Columbia District tonight,” Stanislau said. They would refrain from doing anything to that one until the last moment.
“Good enough?” Sirocco asked, cocking an eyebrow at Lechat.
Lechat nodded. “It’s amazing,” he murmured.
“Well done, Stanislau,” Sirocco said. “Let’s hope that the repeat performance will be as good later today.”
“You can count on it, sir,” Stanislau said.
Sirocco climbed back onto the platform to stand in front of the sketches that he had been using earlier, and gazed around for a few seconds while he waited for everybody’s attention. “Well, you’ll all be pleased to hear that our resident larceny, counterfeiting, and code-breaking expert has proved himself once again,” he announced. “Phases one and four appear to be feasible, as we discussed.” To one side and below the platform, Stanislau turned with a broad, toothy grin and clasped his hands above his head to acknowledge the chorus of murmured applause and low whistles, rendered enthusiastically, but quietly enough not to attract undue attention to the block at that time of the morning.
Prisoners of Tomorrow Page 82
