Simon and Mr Mac had used an amphibious microlight to get to Gruinard, all stealth materials and micro-jets. It sat bobbing on the swell just off the craggy northern flank of the island, requiring a short but bone-chilling swim. I was obliged to sit double with Mr Mac, wedged in behind him and shivering as Simon climbed into the pilot’s seat. “Got a mini-drone overhead,” Mr Mac said, holding up his smart. “Shows another squad sweeping the island from south to north.”
“Vargold’s being thorough,” I chattered.
“Let’s hope they didn’t think to bring any anti-aircraft stuff.” He raised his voice as Simon fired up the jets. “How’d he know where you were, anyway?”
“Wallace said he was a prisoner. Vargold probably gets an alert every time someone pays a visit.”
“You cut it pretty fine this time, Alex. Thirty seconds sooner and we’d have been out of position.”
“I had complete faith in your abilities.”
Simon completed his preflight and glanced over his shoulder. “Destination?”
I showed him a set of coordinates on my smart screen. “That’s out to sea,” he said, frowning.
“I have friends waiting.” I gave an annoyed grunt as Mr Mac shifted his weight. “Let’s go.”
We were in the air within the minute, skimming the surface at ten metres and throwing in the occasional jink to frustrate any optical tracking. The sky was fully dark by the time we reached the coordinates, Simon’s thermal imager picking up the tiny blinking spec of Tethys’s beacon. I placed a call to Phaedra. “Bring her up. We have a lot to talk about.”
“The whole world?” Phaedra squinted at me across the tactical display. “Seriously?”
“No,” I said. “Just this planet. The world’s a lot bigger than that now. It’s kind’ve the whole point.”
“How?”
“His shiny new interstellar space ark. Not sure of the details yet.”
“We need to call the UN. This just got way too big…”
“Uh, Phaedra, Erik,” one of the crew broke in, looking up from the main comms terminal. “Dunno if it’s relevant, but every news feed on the planet just went crazy. Something about an attempted assassination upside.”
“Play it,” I said, a hard knot of grim understanding forming in my gut. We forced his hand.
The tactical holo shimmered into the form of a CNN news anchor, face set in that earnest yet sombre mask they use when things really go to shit. “…reports from the Lorenzo City Primary Care facility confirm Mayor Arnaud is currently undergoing surgery. His condition is described as extremely serious and medics would not be drawn on his chances for survival. The Mayor’s name may not be familiar to many viewers but he’s a highly important figure in the orbiting community - a decorated war veteran, former police chief, and recently elected mayor of the most populace orbital habitat. More importantly, his attempted murder is being blamed on a Federal Security operative…”
A pause as the anchor put a finger to his ear-piece. “I’m told we now have footage of the event in question. Viewers are advised the content is graphic.”
The display shifted into a view of Arnaud at some ribbon cutting ceremony. One of the new Yang-side parks by the look of it. He was into the first few sentences of his speech when it happened, the view momentarily turned chaotic as whoever held the camera was jostled aside. Then screams and gunfire. The camera refocused, revealing Arnaud dangling as something large and hairy lifted him off the ground. Another of Vargold’s morphs, presumably not long out of corrective immersion. The view got shaky again as the gunfire intensified. The thing holding Arnaud had been about to close its jaws on his throat but the barrage of fire from the phalanx of bodyguards proved sufficient to shatter its skull.
The image froze on Arnaud’s prostrate form as the anchor’s voice-over resumed. “The mayor’s injuries are said to consist of compression trauma to the throat and multiple lacerations. Acting Lorenzo City Police Chief Sherrilynn Mordecai refused to comment on the assailant’s identity or motive, stating merely that the investigation is progressing at a very rapid pace. However, a spokesperson for the CAOS Central Governance Defence Ministry was quick to point out parallels with the murder of Astravista co-founder Craig Rybak at the hands of a man widely suspected of acting as an agent for UN Federal Security. Many commentators have also linked the assassination to the recent tragic demise of Chief Inspector Alexei McLeod, the Lorenzo City Detective who identified Rybak’s murderer. Inspector McLeod and several colleagues died in an as yet unexplained shuttle accident following the successful capture of notorious gangland figure…”
“Turn it off,” I said, punching Sherry’s personal ID into my smart.
“Hey,” Mr Mac said as the holo blinked off. “I didn’t get my mention. I’m notorious, apparently.”
I ignored him, watching the ‘message sent’ icon blinking and praying she saw some significance in my caller ID: Newface1.
She picked up after two full minutes, voice cautious. “Who is this?”
“Sherry…” I began.
“You fucking dick!”
I held the smart away, wincing at the volume.
“I knew you couldn’t be dead! I would’ve felt a whole lot better-”
“Listen! We don’t have time…”
“Fuck you! Is Joe there? I wanna swear at him too.”
I didn’t say anything for a second, hearing her anger leech away in a long sigh of realisation. “Joe’s gone,” I said. “Janet, Timor and Leyla are on Cerberus Station.”
“What the hell happened?”
“Vargold. It’s all him. Rybak, Joe, Arnaud. All of it.” I laid it out as quickly and clearly as I could, everything that happened from Rybak’s murder to my meeting with Wallace. “You have to call CAOS Military,” I said. “Get them to seize the Jason Alpha.”
“Don’t you get it, Alex? As far as anyone up here is concerned, Fed Sec just tried to assassinate the man most likely to win the next presidential election. Everything’s in uproar or lock-down. Central Governance just went into emergency session and every hab’s alert status has been set to red. It’s likely they’ll vote to suspend helium 3 shipments within twenty-four hours, and you can guess what the UN’s reaction to that will be. CAOS Military won’t shift a single missile turret away from Earth just now, that’s even if I could get through to someone with high enough authority to give the order.”
“You need to try. Yell as loud as you can, to anyone who’ll listen. I’ll be in touch when I know more.”
I shut down the smart, reluctance battling necessity as I stared at the screen. “Don’t suppose the Aquatic League has a space program?” I asked Erik.
He gave an apologetic shrug. “Sorry. Guess no one felt the need.”
“Nearest launch-port is in London,” Mr Mac said. “But we’d need to hijack a shuttle, and make it past the UN security patrols, all now on a war readiness footing.”
I sighed and punched in another ID from memory. “Guess we’ll have to think of something else.” The call was answered within five seconds, no greeting, just expectant silence. “Captain Alexei McLeod,” I said, knowing voice recognition would confirm my ID. “Grey Wolf.”
The ship’s approach became audible only when it got within fifty metres, and even then it was little more than a slight whine above the bluster of the sea. Its presence became more obvious when the engines raised spume from the waves as it slowed to a hover barely ten feet above the Tethys. I looked up to regard a swirling smear in the sky, formless and impossible to define. After a brief pause, the smear flickered and faded, revealing a matte black hull configured into a sleek and familiar shape. The design specs I brought back from Ceres. Guess they couldn’t resist it.
A square of light appeared in the underside of the black shape before a rope ladder unfurled its way onto the upper hull of the Tethys. “You should head back to Salacia,” I told Phaedra, reaching out to snare the ladder. “Get your authorities to make some calls…”
“Forget it,” she said, hefting her gear. “You need soldiers. We’re it. And this is our planet.”
I glanced over to see Mr Mac giving Simon a questioning look. The mercenary replied with an expressionless nod. “Looks like he’s got a sentimental bone or two, after all,” Mr Mac said, turning back to me, face guarded. “Doesn’t mean I do.”
I took a firmer hold of the ladder and began to climb. “Well, that’s a big surprise.”