K ris turned her back on the screen. She did not like her conversation with the chiefs of the senior clans, but it was the way things were in the Iteeche Empire. She would play their traditional games. Only this time, they would have a Longknife calling her own plays in this game.
"Nelly, please develop a cypher to be used only by you and your children."
"You think our net may be compromised, Kris?"
"I don't know, but I'm not going to risk it. I want to be able to at least know my conversations with my key staff won't be listened in on by someone I don’t want to hear from."
"It is done," Nelly said.
"Good, now, team, I need to put blocking forces in place. However, they cannot look like forces. Whatever we do, it can't look like an opening move in this Kabuki theater we're getting ourselves into tonight."
"Kabuki theater?" Admiral Tong asked. From the look on General Bruce's face, he was just as in the dark, though Chesty might be informing him at that moment.
"Kabuki theater was an art form from old Earth. The objective is to present it exactly the same way it had been performed over the last thousand years. No interpretation. No adaptation. The theater-goers judged the quality of the show on how close it was to the way grampa remembered it from the old days. It is always the same and never changes."
"And you think that the clans are about to conduct a singing presentation that has already been orchestrated and the ending is known?" Tong said.
"That is what I fear. The question is, how much innovation can we throw into tonight's production before the audience boos us off the stage?"
The Iteeche shook his head, which involved twisting from the waist for an Iteeche. "We sailors have done exactly as we were told for thousands of years. The clans have commanded, and we go, even to our deaths. Maybe it is time that we show the clans the power that we wield. Maybe by applying a bit of it to them."
"Thank you, Admiral. Since you command the most troops here, if you had balked, I would have folded my hand and left this poker table. Since you are willing to ante-up, I think we shall have a very fine game, tonight."
"Theater. Game. You humans have such an interesting way of talking about life and death."
"We refuse to give death it's due until it pries our lives from our cold, dead hands," Jack said, with a chuckle. "I thought the Iteeche knew that about us already."
"We forget it too often," Tong said, ruefully.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have a busy night ahead of us. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we get a tripwire force out there that will force the other side to fire first?"
Unfortunately, the question brought the conversation to a roaring halt. The civilians, Jacques, and Amanda, shrugged, and looked toward the uniformed people on Kris's staff.
Even Abby was nonplussed. "Baby ducks, you need an army to be a tripwire and get fired on. Admiral Tong, what kind of an army can we move around the Imperial Capital tonight?"
"None," he said, bluntly. "Any move by an armed group in uniform will be seen as the beginning of something and be fired upon, defensively, of course. Remember, there are clan lookouts strolling the streets around this palace. If they see a large group or even smaller groups of armored vehicles leave here, they will send runners and you can be sure the songs will say you attacked the Emperor."
Kris grunted agreement.
"If we deployed light infantry in civvies, could we pull that off?" General Bruce asked.
"They will have to take their weapons with them," the Iteeche admiral answered. "Remember, there are clan lookouts strolling the streets around this palace. If they see a large group or even smaller groups of men leaving here, they will send runners and you can be sure that our men will be stopped by one or more members of the clan constabulary. If the agent of safety is not happy with the answers he gets, he can haul them down to the nearest Imperial security office and have them searched. Strip searched, if necessary."
Admiral Tong fixed General Bruce with a four eyed stare. "What light infantry wants to deploy without their armor and weapons? How can they hide that gear from a strip search?"
"I withdraw that suggestion," Steve said.
The group was quiet for a long while after that, then Jack began talking.
"Light infantry, even if we could get it in place, would not be much of a solution to our problem. Infantry needs to be able to go to ground. Disappear into the terrain. I can't picture any of the local building managers wanting to have armed strong men waltz into their buildings and deploying anti-tank rockets and machine guns in the windows of their lower floors."
"And besides," General Bruce added, "we need a tripwire. A couple of light infantrymen standing at an unauthorized checkpoint will only be handcuffed, and hauled away by clan police. No shots fired."
"We need a show of force," Kris said thoughtfully, "that doesn't look like a show of force when we deploy it around town. Still, when the hostiles make their move, this force must look threatening enough to make them fire on them."
"Yeah," several of her staff said.
Kris paced around the room. She was not alone; several others were pacing off their frustration as they thought. Thank Smart MetalTM for her large space.
"It needs to look no more threatening than a baby's butt," Abby drawled, thinking out loud.
"But it needs to be as fearsome as a grizzly bear when the other guy's tanks begin to roll," her husband, General Bruce added.
Kris paced off the distance to the farthest wall, then turned, and paced off the distance again.
"Folks, I think I have an idea," she said.