“YOU CAN’T DO THIS,” Garth’s voice came through Brandon’s ear bud a bit garbled, but intelligible.
“Standard procedure,” Eldon said. “You can have your comm unit once we’re through with our discussions.”
“I’m not recording this. That would be unethical,” Garth said. “Do you know who you’re dealing with here?”
Brandon gave Jacobs a wink.
“You can’t hide arrogance,” Jacobs whispered.
The sound of chairs dragging across the floor and people settling into them came through his ear bud. No one else had spoken yet, but Brandon heard some huffing come through. He suspected that Garth wasn’t happy at all.
The range of the bug was short. He knew that guards would be outside the far door, but never heard anything through the bug that Larry carried until they were inside the room. It was hard to tell how many there were with all the shuffling around. He didn’t try to guess, either.
Garth spoke first. “What about my people? What have you done with them?”
“They are being held until this is decided,” Eldon said. “Why did you bring so many with you, anyway? This is supposed to be a friendly communication.”
“Council,” Garth said. “In case I need to discuss any details.”
“You use soldiers and guards as council?” Eldon said.
Garth cleared his throat. “And protection. They won’t let me out of the ship without bodyguards. IPF policy.”
“Explains things well enough for now,” Eldon said.
Everything on the other side of the door got quiet for a moment. “They staying?” Garth said about the others in the room.
“He’s a trainee,” Oliver said. The first words from Oliver came out a bit nervous to Brandon, who wished he could see Oliver’s face, watch his body language. But that wasn’t possible at the moment.
“And he’s here in case we need anything,” Eldon said.
“Well, I could tell he wasn’t a bodyguard,” Garth said. “Isn’t he a bit young to be a trainee?”
“Never too young to learn. This is a great opportunity for him,” Eldon said, obviously taking over the conversation on purpose. Was he as worried about Oliver’s reactions as Brandon?
So far, Larry kept his side of the deal by remaining silent in the presence of Garth.
“Let’s do this, then.” Garth’s hand must have slapped the table to get things rolling.
Brandon heard the smacking sound, and wished that Larry would have situated himself centrally, but from the sound of the voices and movements, that wasn’t true. The young man must have automatically taken a seat far from the others, polite rather than confident.
“We don’t need the others then, do we?” Garth said, obviously talking about the rest of the governmental board.
“Eventually,” Oliver said. “But my sign-off is official enough to proceed.”
“So, you are taking care of this,” Garth said, reiterating his prior concern.
This time Jacobs nudged Brandon to get his attention. “They’re a bit too familiar. Sounds like they’ve talked a few times before now. I don’t like it.”
“Proceed,” Oliver said.
“Good. Here’s what’s going on—and you’d better listen and react fast—I got word, just before landing, that James Stockwell is headed this way to stop this negotiation. I don’t know what’s up with him, but he can’t be trusted.” There was a slight pause. “Well, you’d better check on it now. Send your man here. If he’s coming, you’ve got to stop him. Cut him out of the air. Shoot him down.”
“Check to see if it’s true,” Oliver said.
A door opened and shut.
Brandon shrugged his shoulders to Jacobs’ questioning look. He keyed his communicator and said, “Any problems up there?”
“A few troop-carrier fighters. Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Palmer said.
“A James Stockwell with them?” Brandon asked.
“How’d you know?”
“Inside information,” Brandon said. “Out.” He nodded to Jacobs. “Should I go in and tell them?”
They both laughed as quietly as they could.
“Are you sure you want this kid in here?” Garth said again.
“Like I said…” Oliver didn’t finish the sentence.
“I’m your savior,” Garth said in a low, confident tone. “I hate to put it that way, but at this very moment the C-47 colony is in worse shape than ever and soon every pirate, criminal, and shark out there is going to come down to see what you have. You can’t possibly protect your planet from all that. Your people are in danger, grave danger if you don’t act quickly.”
The room fell silent for only a moment before Oliver said, “We are aware of that.”
“Good,” Killjoy said.
There was some ruffling of papers and zipping sounds from some sort of document holder.
“Paper?” Brandon questioned.
Jacobs nodded. “Paper to start. There are all sorts of secure systems for electronics document signing and approval, but they can all be digitized and faked. A handwritten signature is still the truest way to go. Besides, it’s old school.”
“Didn’t know that,” Brandon said.
Just then the door in the conference room opened and closed. “He’s right,” someone said. “Fighters have been spotted and apprehended.”
“Apprehended?” Garth yelled. “Shoot them down. You can’t trust them.”
“They’re landing now sir,” the man said.
“Fighters?” Eldon said.
The gopher said, “Gooeys, sir. They must have ground troops loaded with them. But they can pull aerial fighting maneuvers if they have to.”
Garth said, “Troops? I told you not to trust him. Not a word James says is true. It’s all about personal gain for him.”
“And you?” Oliver asked.
Brandon felt a pull on his chest when Oliver confronted Garth. He hadn’t expected that to happen and, as it sounded, neither did anyone else. The room fell completely silent for a long time. Brandon could only imagine the looks that were going back and forth at the table, the long stares. Eventually, Larry cleared his throat. Soon after that, Eldon said, “What’s going on here?”
A chair squeaked across the floor and Garth’s voice escalated, “We had a deal.”
Brandon turned to Jacobs with a shocked look on his face. “Oliver? He’s the leak?”
“A deal? What kind of deal?” Eldon sounded calm, but completely confused about the turn of events.
“Let’s hear it,” Oliver said. “What are you able to do? Really?” Another chair squealed across the floor. Once Oliver began to speak the sound of his voice faded in and out, indicating that he paced as he talked to Garth. “We know you were on a secure communications link while coming in. You must have been talking with James at that time.” Sound stopped again. Brandon didn’t hear Oliver breathing, but could imagine the man taking a deep breath in preparation for his next statement, which came out forcefully. “All this time you’re making statements like you’re our friend and all this time you’re sending fake Peace Coordinators, you’re trying to knock out supposed rebels from your own mother ship, and now you’re telling us that the fighters were someone else’s decision? It suddenly appears as though you aren’t in charge of anything up there. Well, we know better than to trust you.”
“Trying to knock out?” Garth said referring to Palmer’s cruiser.
“Palmer landed safely,” Oliver said.
“He’s offering up information,” Jacobs whispered. “They’re in this together. He’s allowing Garth to adjust his story.”
Brandon held up a hand to stop Jacobs from jabbering. “Just listen,” he said.
Garth laughed for a moment and when he stopped he said, “I don’t know about Palmer, she’s an independent, but we got notice that Jacobs was working on his own to destroy”—things got quiet for a moment and Brandon imagined Garth slyly looking around the room as though he had special information—“your findings, shall we say?”
“Everyone here, with us anyway, knows what’s down there,” Oliver said. “You can say the words.”
“Jacobs is a religious man and doesn’t believe in intelligent alien life forms. He was on a mission that we tried to stop,” Garth said. “He escaped with Palmer. I suspect she doesn’t know his true intentions or she wouldn’t have helped him. He’s a fanatic.”
“You tried to stop the mission by blowing up two soldiers?” Eldon said.
Garth huffed and said, “That wasn’t my idea. I just gave the order to stop them. Maybe Jacobs, or maybe James was in it with Jacobs. Those men could have been forced to swallow the explosives.”
“He’s fumbling,” Jacobs said. “I’d love to be involved with intelligent aliens. Fanatic, my ass.”
“That makes sense,” Oliver said.
“Are you shitting me?” Eldon was incensed. “Jacobs and James? Both?”
“Religious fanatics have grown exponentially violent and dangerous as more of the galaxy has been explored and found empty of intelligent life. It could be true that they want humans to remain as the chosen ones.” Oliver stopped for only a second. “Seriously, Eldon, can’t you see that?”
“Perhaps some, but to this extent?”
“We’re already under attack because of the aliens,” Oliver said. “We need the protection. We need the expertise that the IPF has for negotiations.” There was another short pause before Oliver added his final lines. “We need to be under protection to maintain our independence. And independence is the only way you’ll get to carry out your research. Eldon, you could lose everything you’ve done.”
Brandon shook his head. “Don’t do it, Eldon. Don’t believe them. Just wait a little longer.”
“What do you think they’re doing now?” Jacobs said.
Brandon shrugged his shoulders. The feel of the cuffs comforted him. “You?” he said.
Before Jacobs could answer, Eldon said, “I don’t like this, but I can’t lose this find. I just can’t lose it.”
More shuffling around the table indicated that Garth and Oliver were sitting again, after their confrontation. Brandon wanted to believe that the whole argument was real, but the idea that it was all put on for his and Jacob’s benefit nagged at him. He wondered if Eldon was in on it too.
“I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. This won’t take long,” Garth said. “All I need is a quick signature and I can put this through preliminary screening. We’ll do everything in our power to help you. We’ll start immediately.”
Brandon’s wrist communicator clicked and Palmer’s voice came on. He lifted the speaker near his ear. “Brandon, we’ve secured three multi-purpose fighters and their crews. That James Stockwell person you knew about claims to be the IPF’s Senior Peace Coordinator. He has an interesting story everyone might want to hear.”
“Bring him on. It can only make things more fun,” Brandon said.
“He’s on his way,” Palmer said. “I’m heading back into the sky.”
“There shouldn’t be any problems now,” Brandon said.
“I forgot to tell you,” she said.
Brandon waited for what felt like a long time before she added the clincher to her communication. “Earth Central has been spotted materializing from a wormhole. They’re several days from the IPF mother ship, but their cruisers are only a day at most if they send them out. We could have some interesting company.”
“Shit,” Jacobs said. “This complicates the issues at hand.”
“Sounds like Garth is trying to get them to sign now anyway,” Brandon said.
“Well, Big Boy, you’d better stop them don’t you think?” Jacobs smiled.
Brandon smiled back. “Roger that.” He reached to turn the doorknob on the conference room, but it didn’t rotate. “Locked?” he said. “Those sons-of-bitches.” With only the movement of his index finger and a twitch of his hand muscle, Brandon blew a hole in the door that took out the knob and all its guts. He slammed the door open. Debris spilled over the floor and onto an empty chair in front of him. “You aren’t signing anything,” Brandon said.
Garth leaped from his chair. “What the fuck.”
Oliver looked upset, but didn’t appear as disturbed as Garth. In fact, his expression looked more like relief, as though he wanted to be stopped.
Through the other door, two guards pulled a break-and-entry maneuver by throwing the door wide while standing aside until they could assess the situation.
Brandon knew exactly what they’d do and blasted a hole through the wall and halfway through the guard on the other side. The man collapsed across the entranceway to the conference room. “Step into the open,” Brandon said, his arm lifted toward where the other guard would be standing even though all he needed was a finger.
The guard stepped around and behind the fallen man. His eyes widened when he saw the cuffs, and he dropped his weapon without being asked.
“We may have a better way to go,” Brandon said. “EC just showed up on the scene.”
“Christ,” Garth said. He looked squarely at Oliver. “We had a deal.” He attempted to get the rest of the room’s attention. “He’s been feeding me information for months,” Garth said. Then he leaned in close to Oliver. “You won’t have a life here any longer, mister.”
Oliver held out his hands toward Eldon. “You can take me away. Call security,” he said to Larry.
“Why in hell would you do this? Now? After all this time?” Garth said.
“I don’t think I know exactly,” Oliver said. “But I’m doing it.” He held out his hands and shook them as he addressed Eldon. “For the betterment of the colony.”
Security ran into the room, but Brandon knew that they weren’t really trained security by the way they barged in all wide-eyed and confused. “What happened?” the first man said.
“A little redecorating,” Brandon said. “Take these three.” He looked at Eldon and brought his palms up in question.
“Put them into locked rooms,” Eldon said. “Separate ones. With guards.”
“Palmer has someone bringing Stockwell here, too. Should be soon,” Brandon said to Eldon. “So, who’s in charge of the negotiations now? Who’s the guy going to talk with?” Brandon had no doubt, if he ever had one, that C-47 wasn’t ready for the complexity of what was happening to them because of the aliens, and the more complicated things became, the more their inefficiencies and lack of training showed through. He hoped that Palmer was having a better time of it with the pilots.
Eldon turned toward Oliver, who answered the question. “Get the entire governmental board here. I’ll come clean about everything. This has to be done now. We can’t wait, not with Earth Central in the vicinity.
Eldon nodded in agreement.
“I’m sorry,” Oliver said while being escorted out of the room.
Brandon could see that there was still a lot of admiration between the two of them regardless how much and how often they disagreed. Some sort of professional respect they held to. He understood that.
Eldon addressed the security team warily, obvious that he couldn’t tell who to talk with, who was in charge.
“For God’s sake,” Brandon said. “You,” he pointed to the man who, to him, was plainly the leader. “Do as Oliver said. Get the board in here.” He glanced around. “And get more men to clean this up. We have a situation that needs action.” When the man didn’t jump, Brandon lunged at him and the man darted from the room.
Brandon began to give orders to have the doors and walls repaired, to find another conference room, and to get everyone in a room with Oliver before they talk with James Stockwell, the Senior Negotiator supposedly.
When the men who had arrived didn’t listen, Jacobs said, “You heard the man. Let’s go.”
The other men still looked confused until Eldon shook his head at them disappointedly. “Come on guys. Get on board here.”
“Sure, Boss,” one of them said.
Brandon looked at Eldon. “He works for you?”
“They all work for someone. He just happens to be one of mine.”
“You do need protection,” Brandon said. He took in the room and ushered Larry and Eldon outside.
“This way,” Eldon said, leading them down the corridor only a few rooms away.
Oliver already sat at a table with his hands clasped in front of him, a guard by his side.
Brandon allowed Eldon and Jacobs to enter the room first. He turned to Larry and stopped him from entering. “We don’t need a bug at this time, but I want you to stand by. First of all, let them know where to take this Stockwell guy.”
“They won’t listen to me,” Larry said.
Brandon checked with Eldon about that through a quizzical look.
“He’s right. There’s no real chain of command that easily puts him in charge of anyone. Not for the most part.”
“Great,” Brandon said. “The tower? Can they communicate with most places around here?”
“Most,” Eldon said.
Brandon called Palmer and explained the situation. “I want Larry to have full control, then I want a division of rank. I don’t give a shit how they do it, but they’d better have it done in less than half an hour. Can you relay that message?”
“Got it,” Palmer said.
“We have a communications room near the lab,” Eldon said.
“Too late,” Brandon motioned for Larry to carry on.
“If my timing is correct, we have about ten minutes before this IPF Senior Peach Coordinator shows up. So, spill it,” Brandon said after closing the door and sitting at the head of the table.
“It’s been months,” Oliver said. “Garth’s got that straight. We first met a few years ago.”
“The Colony Conference,” Eldon said.
Oliver nodded.
“There’s a Colony Conference?” Brandon asked.
“Several,” Oliver said. “We feared rumors were getting out. People ran on and off world a lot at that time. Deliveries, other conferences, trade, supplies. It’s not so cut and dry like everyone thinks.”
“Of course not,” Jacobs said.
“What the hell would you know?” Brandon said.
“I’ve been all over. I told you.” Jacobs turned to address Oliver. “What I want to know is why you kept this whole issue of being unsure about the aliens to yourselves. If you had let that information out to the rest of the colony there wouldn’t be such an excitement over the aliens. Then, they’d just be another life form,” Jacobs said. “It makes no sense.”
Brandon waited for the response. He was glad that Jacobs showed up. He looked at things differently.
“A lot of scientists flocked here because of the rumors. We knew there’d be trouble, but we needed the attention, too,” Oliver said.
“Oh,” Jacobs sat back in his chair. He looked more concerned.
“Oh, what?” Brandon wanted to know.
“This colony isn’t self-sufficient at all. It’s on the downfall. This lie is all they have to keep them going.” Jacobs lowered his head, then put his forearms on the table and leaned over them. When he brought his head up he asked, “How long did you have to survive?”
Oliver shook his head. “I knew Garth was a megalomaniac. I knew he’d rush here. I thought having an IPF Section tied to our independence would not only keep us safe after the rumors, but would give us more negotiation capabilities.”
“How many years?” Jacobs asked again.
“Six, seven,” Oliver said. “On the outside.”
“But if they are real,” Eldon said, “we really do need the protection.”
“Garth had no idea that he could have been screwed in the long run,” Jacobs said. “Your decision here could have saved them while causing C-47 to collapse.”
“We were going down either way,” Oliver said, more to Eldon than to anyone else.
“Unless the Mesoans are for real,” Eldon said. “That changes things.” He gave Jacobs a wanting look. “Well? Will you help us?”
“I don’t know if I can,” Jacobs said.