Killswitch: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel (v1.1)

by Joel Shepherd

  "I knew their patterns," Sandy said quietly, gazing out at the view. "I helped write some of their patterns. It wasn't raw ability, it was knowledge and memory. If the League had trusted lower-des GIs enough to impart a bit more knowledge upon them, they'd be that much more effective. But then, maybe my defection proves that they're right not to."

  "Hang on," said Chandaram, "it's still a static sniper shot. Surely a lower-designation GI can hit a still target just as well as a higher-des?"

  "This is the eighth storey," said Sandy. "The target's on the twentyfifth. It's a rising trajectory, the windows were waist-height, that means there was no chance to hit the target sitting down. He'd have been standing, and with Kalaji being so jumpy, standing means moving, or pacing, more likely. The windows were reflective, the air's humid, and the shot had to be a head shot to make certain. Too many variables. The real difference between a high- and low-des GI is the ability to process multiple strands of information. The rest is minor—that's the big difference."

  "But Rhian Chu has the right designation?" Chandaram asked.

  "Rhian's not a sniper," said Sandy. Lying through her teeth as she said it. Ari would know. Chandaram wouldn't. She hoped. "She could do it, but it was never a specialty or preference, and her spatial processing isn't as good as mine. At this range, in the dark, she might miss. Ramoja's a perfectionist, he'd never have taken that chance with her. He'd do it himself." If the League had a cause to execute Enrico Kalaji, that was. Recent experience in these matters had taught all concerned never to rule anything out. To Chandaram's side, Ari's expression never altered. "And besides, we had a deal. If anything strange went down, she was going to contact me. She'd never have taken an order like this without telling me first."

  Chandaram looked at her curiously. Rhian, it occurred to Sandy, hadn't killed anyone for quite some time. Not since Dark Star, anyhow. As always with Rhian, it was difficult to know exactly how these things affected her. Possibly Rhian wasn't aware herself. Sandy suspected personally that that absence of death from her old friend's life had done wonders for her new growth and depth as a person. Death required justifications. Rationalisations of why it was all proper and necessary. Rationalisations that held a person back, forcing them to believe things that weren't necessarily true, for the sake of continued mental stability. She doubted, now, that Rhian could even do something like this, whatever her orders. Surely she would flinch. Surely she would ask questions, and wonder at the morality of what she was being ordered to do. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking, and Rhian's morality continued to revolve around the old soldiers' creed that all morality came from following orders, and nothing else mattered.

  Damn, she hated leaving Rhian in their hands. They could destroy her, or corrupt her irreparably. Force her to do something that her new, awakening conscience would punish her for, for the rest of her life. And if they hurt her, or otherwise damaged her with their Machiavellian bullshit ... well, Jane was not going to be the only high-des GI in Tanusha with cause to fear for her safety.

  "We've been monitoring the League Embassy around the clock," said Chandaram. "Ramoja hasn't left ... but then, he's snuck out before without us knowing, he might not have even been there in the first place."

  His expression remained curiously unreadable. Most senior CSA types tended to swagger. Particularly the Indians, who maintained the very cool, suave demeanour at large in that subculture at the timealong with breezy sports jackets, open-necked shirts, swept-back hair and glossy moustaches. Even Sandy's old buddy Naidu went for that Director of CSA Intelligence and more than a hundred years old, so it wasn't something sparkling new and Tanushan, evidently. Chandaram wore a plain, grey suit (none of the popular cream or even bananayellow that had come recently into style), displayed no showy silver chain beneath his open collar, and disdained even the moustache. To the best of Sandy's knowledge, he remained single at the age of fortyseven. Rumour had it that his last steady partner had left him two years ago, during the last major crisis, when he hadn't come home for a week without calling. Rumour also had it that he didn't sleep. Sandy didn't believe that. Even she had to sleep ... if just for a few hours.

  "The one person who did leave," Chandaram continued, "was Rhian Chu. Unaccompanied. She walked, she seems to like public transport." Of course she did, thought Sandy-more colour and movement to enjoy. Fresh air to smell and shop windows to look in along the way. And the other reason of course ... "We lost her after about fifteen minutes," Chandaram continued. A faint smile appeared at his lips for the first time. "We always lose her. You'll have to show me how you guys do that."

  "I will," said Sandy. "Rhian's been getting a lot of jobs lately. She's a less recognisable courier for one thing, and she likes being loose in the city."

  "And you haven't mentioned the person who actually did it," Ari said pointedly.

  "The key suspect, Ariel," Chandaram replied, with a raised eyebrow in his direction. "I discount no possibilities. League activity both in the Embassy and connected to it has been intense of late, as you know. We can't rule out some involvement in the whole Kalaji affair."

  Sandy frowned at him. "What the hell would they have to gain by setting the Fleet at our throats? They've wanted Federation power out of the hands of Earth for as long as the League's existed."

  "Or maybe they simply wish to sow disharmony," Chandaram replied coolly. "A Federation civil war could finish the job they started, without costing them anything. Anyhow, it's not my job to speculate, only to join the dots."

  "I think they're looking for Jane," said Ari, lips pursed as he gazed out at the lights with faint frustration. "It fits the search pattern." Chandaram's look was questioning. "I, um, had some of their seeker functions intercepted and analysed by some friends," Ari explained. Anita and Pushpa, Sandy was willing to bet that meant. "It's the kind of pattern that they'd use if ... well, I'll explain later."

  "We found one of Kalaji's safehouses an hour back," Sandy added for Chandaram's benefit. "It'd been broken into ... maybe League codes were used, I couldn't be sure, they're better at disguising how they penetrate the databases now they know I'm around to analyse whatever you guys pick up. Ari thinks Ramoja was trying to find Kalaji just as we were."

  "Maybe he did," said Chandaram. Nodding toward the Mananakorn towers.

  "Or maybe he was just hoping to get Jane's whereabouts from him," Ari added. "If Kalaji was Jane's coordinator."

  Chandaram shrugged. "And maybe he did that too." Find Kalaji, and wait for Jane to kill him, Sandy realised he meant. Thus finding Jane. Or would he?

  "It's too easy to be a sniper in this city," Sandy disagreed. "Even GIs can't see sniper bullets. He wouldn't know where to look ..." She broke off, feeling suddenly cold. A red tinge descended upon her vision. Time slowed, and the dark landscape of sprawling city lights transformed to a mass of multispectrum colour and motionhighlighted traffic ...

  "Sandy?" said Ari, recognising that look. Sandy stared at him, seeing only a humanoid, face-shaped blob of heat-colouring and fine textures. Blood thumping in his jugular as he became himself alarmed. Eyes darting in small, involuntary motions as minor muscles twitched—a most un-GI-like phenomenon, involuntary muscle spasms ... "Sandy, what's wrong?"

  "Get off the roof," Sandy told him. "You too, Anil. Get off now. Don't hurry, just walk calmly."

  Ari didn't question, but merely put a companionable hand on Chandaram's shoulder, and began walking. Sandy took up position on Chandaram's other side. From a distance, she hoped, it would look innocent enough. They walked to the upper entrance lobby, through the sliding doors that were being kept open for investigators, and inside. Only when they were down the stairs, and standing in the hallway of the eighth floor, did Sandy allow herself to feel safe. And furious.

  "Goddamn fucking stupid," she muttered to herself, taking the pistol from her jacket pocket for the simple comfort of feeling its weight in her hand. "I should have thought."

  "You ..." Ari looked puzzled. "You don't t
hink ... ?"

  "She's a goddamn ruthless bitch, Ari. We were standing right there, right where she'd have known we'd come to. And I just let us fucking stand there, in full view of any number of sniper-nests for several kilometres around ... Jesus!"

  "That's a big risk," said Chandaram with a frown. "Even if she fires, we've got any number of airborne vehicles in the region ...even the mobile scanners can get some idea of trajectories on a moment's notice."

  "I don't want to get into a chase with her, Anil." She stared at him from point-blank range. "No chases. She'll kill innocent people just to ward us off, I know her!"

  "With all respect, you only met her once. You don't think you're maybe just mad at her?"

  "Sure! Sure I'm fucking mad at her, I'm furious! And when she goes down, she'll go down in a nice, quiet little ambush somewhere. She won't know what hit her. That's the only way I'm prepared to do this because it's the only way that won't endanger countless innocent bystanders, do you get me?"

  "Sure," said Chandaram, eyeing her cautiously. "I understand."

  A bleep in Sandy's newly activated network receptor informed her of an incoming message. She held up a hand to forestall further conversation, indicating to her eardrum and taking several steps aside in the hall. "Kresnov," she said aloud.

  "Hi, Cap," came a familiar, mild voice in her ear.

  "Rhi," Sandy formulated silently. Depending upon the content of the conversation, she wasn't yet sure if she wanted Chandaram to know who she was talking to. "How's things?" Ari and Chandaram resumed conversation, in terse, low tones ... Ari insisting that Jane was the most likely culprit, and Chandaram agreeing, but refusing to rule out any possibilities. Sandy wished she could follow multiple conversations as easily as she could process multiple data-streams, but thanks to the vagaries of neurostructure, it didn't always work that way.

  "Things are fine." Rhian certainly didn't sound very bothered by anything ... but then, with Rhian, that was as normal. "I suppose you know I went out from the Embassy? The CSA had several people following me ... or I assume they were CSA. "

  "They were," said Sandy. "Where did you go?"

  "I was given an errand to go and talk to some underground person. One of the old League network contacts here, one of the ones the CSA didn't catch yet. "

  "Oh," said Sandy. Rhian's patience in getting to the point could test a less-patient person's nerves. "Was that an interesting errand?"

  "No, actually. It was extremely boring. This person doesn't appear to be connected in any way to recent events. In fact, I can't see why I was sent on this trip at all." She paused. Sandy could feel it coming-she knew Rhian that well. "Which is why I didn't go on the trip. I followed Major Ramoja instead. "

  "You tailed your superior?"

  "Yes. "

  "Um ... why?"

  "Because he seemed to be going somewhere much more interesting, " said Rhian. "And because I suspected I was being sent on this other trip in order to keep me out of the way. I think Ramoja knows there's a limit on things where he can trust me, where Jane is concerned. So I guessed he must be going somewhere interesting, if he was trying to get rid of me. "

  It was a very frank admission, even by Rhian's standards. Despite her faith in Rhian, Sandy couldn't help but feel her trepidation rising. "Where did Ramoja go, Rhi?"

  "I don't know, I lost him." Sandy repressed a snort of exasperation. "But before I lost him, I got the distinct impression that he was heading toward Canas. "

  Major Ramoja, the senior League intelligence officer on Callay, headed for Canas? Maybe he had an appointment ... but if so, would he have gone with so much covert sneaking around? No, if one of the bigwigs in Canas wanted to bring Ramoja over for one of the usual covert chit-chats, they'd have sent a car themselves, and not left anything up to Ramoja at all-after all, it was the Callayan bigwigs who would pay the political or purely popular price if news got out of such secret dealings with dastardly League GIs who should have remained safely contained within their embassy grounds.

  "Cap," Rhian continued, in much the same unfazed, contemplative tone as before, "I heard that Enrico Kalaji was murdered just now?"

  "That's right," Sandy said cautiously.

  "Well, I was thinking," said Rhian, "that maybe Jane's cleaning up after herself. I mean, Earth obviously planted certain people in Tanusha to help her with her mission. But if those people got caught, they'd spill everything ... and, I mean, you're looking for evidence right now, aren't you?"

  "That's exactly right," Sandy agreed. Unwilling to interject anything else at this point, least she break Rhian's surprising momentum.

  "So Kalaji was coordinating Jane, and now Kalaji's dead. But who was coordinating Kalaji?"

  "No," said Sandy, "we've got his direct superior Samarang in custody, he's already confessed ... " and she stopped, realising where Rhian was going even before she interrupted.

  "And who coordinated Samarang.?" said Rhian. "I mean, Secretary Grey didn't even need to be directly involved, did he? He could still prove useful in helping the CSA track everything back to Earth, simply because he's the only one who knew what Samarang, Kalaji and anyone else in the State Department was doing at all times, and how they operated. "

  "Rhi, thank you very much. I'll be there as soon as possible. "

  She disconnected, and turned back on Ari. Ari and Chandaram broke off their conversation, seeing her expression.

  "Ari," she said, "we got a situation."

  "Could you be a little more specific?" said the head of S-2 Security over the cruiser's speakers.

  "That's all I can tell you at the present time," Sandy replied. "I'm recommending a red alert, but keep it low profile. No visible guard rotations, no shifting your regular schedule, nothing."

  They were inbound now, toward Canas, in one of the low-altitude emergency lanes, speed nudging six hundred kilometres per hour as towers and suburbs fled by to the sides and below. Sandy had the Ranchu-15 assault weapon Ari kept for contingencies in her lap, frequency adjusted to her personal interface uplinks.

  "It's kind of difficult to implement a red alert without it immediately becoming visible," retorted the S-2 chief. "If I knew what kind of threat you were talking about, it would make it easier for me to counter. "

  Sandy threw a look at Ari, who dealt with bureaucrat-oriented security probably more often than she did, and had done so over a much longer period. Ari shrugged ... which meant he didn't think they were any more likely than any other unit to panic and fuck it up if she told them. Sandy's return look was darkly sardonic, and not entirely comforted. "Hello, Chief," she said after that pause, "my information includes the possibility of a high-designation GI in close infiltration position. The suspected target is the Secretary of State."

  Now it was the S-2 chief's turn to pause before replying. Then, "Uh, thank you, Snowcat. Will ... uh, look forward to your arrival. "

  "Roger that, our ETA is just over a minute. Don't do anything stupid, this one's very intelligent, do you understand me?"

  "Copy, Snowcat. " The connection went dead. Sandy flipped the cruiser's dash screen onto the secure S-2 feed from Canas-it showed Secretary Grey's residence, complete with a multitude of automated and manned security posts and devices, all in real time. She touched the screen, widening the field of view to the near Canas neighbourhood, repressing her irritation that she could no longer use her uplinks with any degree of security. If this was Jane, and Jane knew she was coming ... well, the only thing that prevented Jane from using the killswitch codes was that she didn't know where Sandy was.

  "I've got a good feed," said Ari from the driver's seat, eyes slightly unfocused as he concentrated upon the mental picture.

  "Lucky you," muttered Sandy, trying to make out the limited, two-dimensional display upon the dash.

  "The barrier elements look secure, I can't see any sign of branching." His eyes flicked briefly back to the cruiser's controls, as the CPU began to reduce velocity, the descent-path down to Canas curving a
way ahead. "I bet S-2 didn't see that coming. Every security agency in the city just started to think no one was targeting our senior figures any longer."

  "Well, for a while there, they were right." Sandy tried holding the Ranchu in her left hand, and winced with irritation as the cast-bound fingers and thumb refused to properly grasp the handle. Well, so long as it didn't slow her loading magazines ... "What do you think about Grey? Wilful compliance, or basic stupidity?"

  "I think the first implies the second, doesn't it?" Ari replied with heavy irony. "But I never had him pinned as that pro-Earth. Pathologically anti-League, maybe, but that's something else entire ..."

  "What'll he do," Sandy asked calmly, "if the bullets start flying?"

  "My best guess ..." which was what Ari knew she was asking for, "... would be simple survival. No tricks up that guy's sleeve, he's not smart enough."

  "You can always underestimate a man."

  "Yeah, ahem ..." Ari mock-cleared his throat, sarcastically, "... in this city, amongst politicians, I find the reverse is more usually true."

  The descent brought them in toward a roadside transition zone just outside the tall, brick Canas perimeter wall. They landed between roadside trees under the watchful eye of the northern gate security post, then pulled out to rejoin the perimeter road's traffic as soon as Central allowed. The security post checked vehicle ID and scanned faces and irises at the gate, while the road and wall-implanted sensors swept the entire cruiser from all angles for anything suspicious. Then the metal gates swung aside, and they cruised onto a narrow, cobblestoned street between familiar, picturesque stone walls.

  "Shit, how would she get in?" Sandy murmured, half to herself. Just leaping the walls was impossible-when they said all airspace above Canas was impenetrable without authorisation, that meant right down to millimetres above the perimeter walls, triple redundancy with three different kinds of detection technology.