Rao left.
Childers closed the distance to Campbell in several quick strides and threw her arms around him. As he held her, she spoke into his chest.
“I’ve been so worried about you. Those messages were scary.”
She pulled back and looked up at him.
“What’s going on?”
“Sit down. I need to tell you some things.”
They sat on the same side of the table, their chairs swiveled toward each other.
“There is an espionage ring here. We were right about that. It has close to a dozen members. They have infiltrated Intelligence Division, including the counter-intelligence and computer operations, Admiral Rao’s office, Housekeeping, and the Communications Center. My office is bugged. My terminal is bugged. Our townhouse is bugged. The Class 2 and Class 3 secure spaces in the Planetary Intelligence Headquarters are bugged. And they’ve murdered at least two people that I know of.”
“My God. And you know who they are?” Childers asked.
“I suspect who they are. I think I know. I don’t have enough evidence for convictions yet. In the meantime, they know who I am, and who you are. But I’ve been playing dumb the last two weeks. They may or may not suspect that I’m more than I seem.”
“So you can’t just arrest them?”
“Not yet,” Campbell said.
“But they might kill you?”
“Yes. Or you. Unlikely at the moment, but not impossible. More likely once I poke the hornet’s nest. But I’m very difficult to kill.”
Childers raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s been tried before,” Campbell said, shrugging.
Now both of Childers eyebrows went up, and her eyes grew large. Campbell took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
“Jan, there are some things I need to tell you. You never had a need to know, and you’ve been good about not asking. But I need to tell you a little bit about what I do for a living. And after Bliss, I would just as soon you forget it. But right now I need your help.”
“Well, you’re an intelligence analyst, right? You investigate things, like this spy ring. You use computers and the like and you figure out what’s going on.”
“Yes, I’m all that. But more than that, I’m what Intelligence Division calls a fixer.”
“A fixer?” Childers asked.
“Yes. A fixer. The industry term of art is direct-action operative. Once I do the analysis, once I figure out what’s going on, I do what I have to do to fix it. Whatever that is. Sometimes people get arrested. Sometimes people have fatal accidents. Sometimes it’s less subtle than an accident. But, whatever it takes, I fix it.”
“You kill people.”
“If that’s the best way to fix it, yes,” Campbell said. “Not unlike Bahay, for example.”
Several years back, Childers had gone down to Bahay and found and killed four locals who had beaten and raped one of her spacers. It had caused a major dust-up with the planetary commander, Admiral Serge Ludkin, not that Jan had cared.
“That was different,” Childers said.
“Yes. On Bahay, you had the moral authority to do what you did, but no actual authority. I have actual authority, from the Defense Minister, through the Chief of Naval Research, through the head of the Intelligence Division. Fix the problem.”
“But, Bill, you’re putting yourself out there hoping they attack you.”
“Yes,” Campbell said. “And on Bahay, did you hope the rapists left you alone when you staggered down that road in the dark at 03:00?”
Childers was too honest with herself not to answer truthfully.
“No. I wanted them to attack me so I had an excuse to kill them.”
Campbell shrugged, and Childers had to concede his point.
“And you’re going to fix Bliss?”
“Oh, yes,” Campbell said. “That’s part of my standing orders. I suspect, for example, that the Duval intelligence agent running all this out of the Duval consulate is going to have a major, and very public, misfortune. Durand will want to send a message.”
“And that’s part of your standing orders?”
“Once murder of CSF personnel is involved, yes. I have wide latitude to craft the best response and to carry it out. I may actually get orders back from Sigurdsen – I sent Durand my data and analysis a week ago – but I can’t possibly get an answer for another three weeks. In any case, I don’t expect them to differ much from what I would do on my own.”
“So how can I help?” Childers asked.
“First, I need you to do me a favor.”
Campbell pulled his courier bag over on the conference table, and pulled out a set of body armor.
“I need you to wear this whenever you’re at Bliss Fleet HQ.”
“What is it?”
“Reactive body armor,” Campbell said. “Absolutely the best Intelligence Division has. It’s made for people with a high likelihood of needing it.”
“I thought the best kit were all custom-made. You can’t just pull one off the rack and put it on.”
“This one was custom-made for you.”
Childers looked at him speculatively.
“How long have you been dragging that around with you? How long ago did you have that made?” Childers asked.
“Um, since before we left for Calumet. Six years, give or take. Authorized when we filed as listed companions.”
“And never a word.”
“You didn’t need to know about it until now. Now you do,” Campbell said.
“What about you?”
“I’m wearing mine. Have been since the trip in on Hannibal.”
“So I should put it on –“
“Now would be a good time, yes.”
Childers stripped down to bra and panties, and Campbell helped her get into the body armor. He instructed her as she put it on. It covered her torso, the major target for most shooters, like a high-necked dance leotard. It fit perfectly, of course. Regular sparring in Enshin will keep you trim.
“Nice fit,” Childers said.
“The armorers in Intelligence Division do a nice job. For the high-end stuff, anyway.”
Childers got re-dressed in her uniform. You couldn’t tell she was wearing the thin, flexible armor.
“So is that better?”
“Much better,” Campbell said. “Now I don’t have to worry about you quite so much. Second thing. While you’re on the planet, I think we should get off the base. Spend some time on vacation or something. Let the things I’ve started cooking simmer for a while. Spend some time at a high-end vacation resort or something.”
“Can we afford that?”
“No, but Intelligence Division is going to pay for it. We just need to be out of harm’s way for a while. Admiral Rao has been completely briefed, so she expects it. And I told my chaperone from the spy ring that we’re going to spend several days at a cabin in the mountains. We’re actually going to a beach resort instead.”
“Can you trust Admiral Rao?” Childers asked.
“Yes. The first really messy op I was on, Mary Rao was a captain, and I was a mere lieutenant. That was just before I met you. So Mary Rao and I have already been through one of these. She couldn’t be happier that I’m here.”
“And telling your chaperone one thing and doing another? Isn’t that suspicious?”
“No,” Campbell said. “Husband makes vacation plans. Wife comes home. New vacation plans. Happens all the time.”
Childers laughed.
“OK, so then what?”
“Well, I assume you will go up to the ship for a few days next weekend, then come back down and we’ll spend some more vacation time somewhere else. While you’re gone, I’ll stir the pot some more.”
“Yeah, I’ll probably want to review the first week’s exercises with Brian Dahl and work through what to do the second week. Like in the other systems.”
“Right,” Campbell said. “I expected that. Then you’re back on planet for a while an
d we have a second vacation. Then you go back up to the ship several days before you move out for your phase of the exercises. When you do, I’m going to go along, supposedly to spend the two weeks with you instead of being lonely and bored down here. But one Senior Chief Phil Samples is going to come down to the planet on the last shuttle.”
“Which will be you, in disguise.”
“Which will be me, in disguise.”
“And then you’re going to cause trouble.”
“Oh, yes,” Campbell said. “Lots of trouble. Senior Chief Samples may have to hightail it after that. Which could mean a combat-drop shuttle pick-up somewhere.”
“We help Samples escape?”
“No. You arrest him, and take him back to Sigurdsen for trial.”
“We don’t get back to Sigurdsen for almost a year,” Childers said.
“You can’t have everything.”
“OK, I have the gist of that plan. What else?”
“We can’t talk about any of this anywhere else at all. We can’t be seen to be meeting here in the Planetary Operations Headquarters, because we don’t want them wondering why we need a secure facility to talk or why we think other facilities aren’t secure. We need to arrive and leave separately any time we need to talk about any of this. Including today. How long is your shuttle down here?”
“Until I release it, actually,” Childers said. “I wasn’t sure what your plans were, and I have the admiral’s launch, not one of the big shuttles they need for transferring crew down for planet leave.”
“Perfect. I’d rather take that to our vacation spot, because the crew of the admiral’s launch is less likely to communicate anything about our actual whereabouts to anyone here in Bliss Fleet HQ.”
“So who leaves Planet Ops first?”
“Let me go first. I have to pick up my things at the townhouse, and yours are still on the shuttle. Admiral Rao is loaning me that car and driver for the morning, so give me half an hour head start. I’ll send the car back to pick you up and meet you at the shuttle pad.”
Campbell looked out the launch window through the morning rain at the sprawling Bliss Fleet HQ as they lifted off the pad and gained altitude. Two hundred thousand fleet personnel, and it took less than a dozen people to compromise it all. One could never stay on top of it.
I guess that’s what you call job security, he thought.
Paydirt
They were in an exclusive – a very exclusive – seaside resort several hundred miles from Joy. Or anywhere else, for that matter. A playground for the rich and famous who wanted to get away and not be bothered, the sort of place that didn’t publish its prices because, if you had to ask, you couldn’t afford it. Security people outnumbered guests by five to one, and it had a spotless reputation for privacy and security. The resort itself had miles of oceanfront beach, about five hundred yards of which were exclusively theirs.
“Oh, I could get used to this,” Childers said, sprawled nude on a chaise lounge in the speckled light filtering through the pergola.
“Gonna turn ground-pounder?” Campbell asked.
Childers laughed.
“No. Not yet, anyway. I figure I’ve got one more good space posting left.”
Campbell turned on his side to face her.
“Really? Just one?”
“When we finish this tour, I’ll have almost three years as a rear admiral, so vice admiral should be coming up. And vice admiral is still a space posting. After that, full admiral is a ground-pounder job.”
“Huh. I never thought you’d give it up. Space in your veins.”
“No, it’s just the way to get the job done. Kind of hard to serve in a line position in a space navy without being in space.”
“And no interest in staff positions.”
“Nope. It’s necessary – I appreciate good staffers, as you should know – but staff work’s not for me. I want to make the command decisions.”
“Mmm.” Campbell lay back on his chaise lounge. “So, any commands uppermost in your mind right now, Admiral?”
Childers gave him a sidelong glance.
“Just one, Captain.”
“My chaise or yours?”
Childers laughed.
On Thursday, in the launch on the way back to Bliss Fleet HQ, Campbell asked Childers about re-staging Admiral Rao’s exercises. The admiral’s launch from Patryk Mazur was secure enough to have that conversation.
“Did you look into the incursion that was made during Admiral Rao’s exercises?” Campbell asked.
“Yes,” Jan said. “I had a chance to talk with Tien Jessen in a video conference as our ships passed. Turning back that incursion was a near thing. He had a trick up his sleeve, though, and he pulled it out. Not without losing two destroyers, though. No spacers lost because of some pretty heroic efforts by the engine crew of the Elmhurst, but that was a near thing, too.”
“It was my impression if the same thing had happened after training on the Fleet Book of Maneuvers, it would have been a slam dunk.”
“Absolutely. One key part of the strategy is to keep your major combat elements outside the inner envelope, so they can respond in hyperspace anywhere within the system. You don’t want your patrols inside the hard system periphery where they’re days away from hyperspace capability.”
“So if Admiral Rao were to schedule a similar exercise for after we left – “
“The incoming force would get chewed up like doggy biscuits.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
Late in the afternoon, the shuttle touched down at Bliss Fleet HQ. Campbell got off and headed for the waiting ground car, carrying his bags. Once he was clear, the shuttle spooled up and headed for orbit.
“Did you have a good leave, Sir?” Acheson asked, taking his bags to stow in the trunk.
“Yes, Commander. Wonderful. Back to reality now, though.” Campbell sighed. “Back to spreadsheets.”
“To the office then, Sir?”
“No, it’s too late to really get into anything today. I want to drop my bags at the townhouse before I head over to the Officers Mess.”
“Yes, Sir.”
After supper, Campbell headed over to the Planetary Operations Headquarters. He was going to do something he had to be careful about. He’d been thinking about it while on leave with Jan, and it was probably time.
In addition to their work mail accounts, CSF personnel were allowed a personal mail account. While the work mail account was considered CSF property, the personal mail account was a perk of being in the CSF, but not CSF property. There were privacy protections on those mail accounts.
Campbell had already mapped the message flows of his suspects, along with everybody else on base. Now he was going to riffle through the message contents in their work and private mail accounts. For that, he again needed a sign-off at flag rank (senior captain or above) and probable cause. The issue was, again, did he have probable cause.
He entered immersive VR, called up the results from the correlation engine, and let it soak in. He tapped the nodes for John Schmitt, Vilis Schenk, and Susan Todaro. He let the highlight spread across the links to the other conspirators, until the web of his suspect conspiracy was lit up, then froze the view. He selected a two-dimensional representation and watched the visualization squirm and move into the two-d view.
He froze that view, and saved it as Exhibit A. He then had the visualizer prepare the paperwork for accessing the private mail accounts for every person in his web of suspects, applied his digital signature as both the requester and the flag approval, and attached Exhibit A. He saved all those documents in his archive, and copied them to a memory ship from his pocket, then put the memory chip back in his pocket.
Another memory chip contained the mail extraction and analysis software. He loaded it into his secure account, then engaged it over the webbed suspects from inside the visualizer.
The last thing Campbell did was send a secure mail to Admiral Rao.
FROM: 2C68B1
AB7218890C0483C993C600FDF4
TO: RAO
SUBJECT: EXERCISES
Best to achieve goals would be to finalize the deployment and schedule for the follow-on exercises Friday. Same deployment as last time, beginning seven weeks from right now.
Seven weeks from now left two weeks for the mail to Duval, one week to get the Duval fleet moving to Bliss and four weeks to get here. And it meant that, as long as Campbell held back for a week or so in doing anything to tip them off, a warning message to the Duval fleet would arrive in Duval after they left.
That done, Campbell headed for the townhouse and to bed.
Friday morning, Campbell was back in the gym. He did quite a bit of stretching this morning, after four days off, so he was loose enough to spar seriously without pulling a muscle or tightening up. He was getting his edge back after all that time on ship, and it felt good.
He puttered with spreadsheets in the afternoon, then knocked off early and went to the Planetary Operations Headquarters. He entered full-immersive VR and opened the visualizer.
The dataset he chose, though, was the extracted mail. One of the things that the extractor prepared was a concordance of all the mail messages. This was a list of all the words in the mails, with the frequency of occurrence. If he selected a word, it would show him a list of all the places it occurred.
Selecting a word would also show him graphically, within the web of his suspects, who used that word in a message, and which direction it went. The link from sender to receiver would glow brighter where it left the node of the sender, depending on how many times the word had been used in that direction.
He didn’t expect a treasure trove, and he didn’t get one. With professionals like Schmitt involved, they were likely using a message or chat system provided by a third-party outside vendor for anything sensitive. But he needed to check all the boxes. If they wanted to be less professional than he expected, that was OK.
Campbell scanned through the concordance. No occurrences of “exercises.” No occurrences of “Duval.” No occurrences of “consulate.” No communications at all between Schmitt and any of the people inside CSF.
Campbell- The Problem With Bliss Page 10
