‘Everything I know about defence systems says that they can’t malfunction in this way,’ Crissel said.
‘Yet it rather looks as if someone doesn’t want anyone coming or going from those habitats,’ Gaffney observed, reading the CTC report again.
‘And the other two?’ Baudry asked. ‘What about those?’
‘They’re isolationist,’ Dreyfus said. ‘New Seattle-Tacoma is a haven for people who want their brains plugged into abstraction and don’t care what happens to their physical bodies. Szlumper Oneill is a Voluntary Tyranny gone sour. Either way, neither’s going to see much in- or outgoing traffic on a given day.’
‘He’s right,’ Crissel said, favouring Dreyfus with a conciliatory nod. He turned to the still-waiting operative. ‘You’re still in contact with CTC?’ Without waiting for an answer or conferring with the other seniors, he continued, ‘Have them identify four unmanned cargo drones currently passing near the four habitats. Then put them on normal docking trajectories, just as if they were on scheduled approaches. If these were malfunctions, then someone inside may have had time to disable the anti-collision systems by now. If they weren’t, we’ll have confirmation that we’re not dealing with one-off incidents.’
‘There’ll be hell to pay,’ Gaffney said, shaking his head. ‘Whatever those cargo drones are hauling, someone owns it.’
‘Then I hope they have good insurance,’ Crissel replied tersely. ‘CTC has the right to requisition any civilian traffic moving inside the Glitter Band, manned or otherwise. Just because that clause hasn’t been invoked in a century or so doesn’t mean it isn’t still valid.’
‘I agree,’ Dreyfus said. ‘This is the logical course of action. If you were still allowing Jane her rightful authority, she’d agree to it as well.’
The operative coughed awkwardly. ‘I’ll get on to CTC immediately, sir.’
Crissel nodded. ‘Tell them not to hang around. I don’t want to have to wait hours before finding out what we’re looking at here.’
An icy silence endured for many seconds after the girl had left the room. It fell to Dreyfus to break it. ‘Let’s not kid ourselves,’ he said. ‘We know exactly what’s going to happen to those drones.’
‘We still need confirmation,’ Crissel said.
‘Agreed. But we also need to start thinking about what we do once the news comes in.’
‘Hypothesise for a moment,’ Baudry said, a quaver in her voice that she could not quite conceal. ‘Could we be dealing with a breakaway movement? Four states that wish to secede from the umbrella of Panoply and the Glitter Band?’
‘If they wanted to, they’d be free to do so,’ Dreyfus said. ‘The mechanism already exists, and it doesn’t require shooting down approaching ships.’
‘Maybe they don’t want to secede on our terms,’ Baudry said, in the manner of one advancing the suggestion for debating’s sake rather than out of any deep personal conviction that it was likely.
Crissel nodded patiently. ‘Maybe they don’t. But once you’ve decided to opt out of Panoply’s protection, out of the democratic apparatus, what do you gain from staying inside the Glitter Band anyway?’
‘Not much,’ Dreyfus said. ‘Which is why this can’t be an attempt at secession.’
‘A hostage situation?’ Baudry speculated. ‘Fits the facts so far, doesn’t it?’
‘For now,’ Dreyfus allowed.
‘But you don’t think that’s what we’re looking at.’
‘You don’t take hostages unless there’s something you want that you don’t already have.’
Crissel looked pleased with himself. ‘Everyone wants to be richer.’
‘Maybe they do,’ Dreyfus answered, ‘but there’s no way hostage-taking is going to achieve that for you.’
‘So they’re not trying to become richer,’ Baudry said. ‘That still leaves a universe of possibilities. Suppose someone doesn’t just want to opt out of our system of government, but dismantle it completely?’
Dreyfus shook his head. ‘Why would they want to? If someone wants to experiment with a different social model, they’re welcome to do so. All they have to do is recruit enough willing collaborators to set up a new state. Provided they let their citizens have the vote, they can even stay within the apparatus. That’s why we have freak shows like the Voluntary Tyrannies. Someone somewhere decided they wanted to live in that kind of place.’
‘But like you said, they have to abide by certain core principles. Maybe they find even those basic strictures too stifling. Perhaps they want to force a single political model on the entire Glitter Band. Ideological zealots, for instance: political or religious extremists who won’t rest until they force everyone else to see things their way.’
‘You might have something if we weren’t looking at four completely disparate communities. Thalia’s habitats have almost nothing in common with each other.’
‘All right,’ Baudry said, clearly wearying of debate. ‘If it isn’t about forcing through a political end, what is it about?’
Once again Dreyfus thought back to the things he had learned inside the Nerval-Lermontov rock, including the possibility that not everyone in the room could necessarily be trusted. He had wanted more time to evaluate his position, more time in which to bring at least one of the other seniors around to his side and use them as leverage to put Aumonier back into the saddle. But the news concerning the latest attacks had forced his hand sooner than he would have wished. He had to say something or he would be guilty of withholding vital data from his own organisation.
‘The prisoner told me something,’ he said, choosing his words with exquisite care, like a man picking his way through a minefield. ‘Obviously, I can’t be certain that she was telling the truth, or that her isolation hadn’t turned her insane. But all my instincts — all my old policeman’s instincts, you might say — told me she was on the level.’
‘Then perhaps you’d better tell us,’ Gaffney said.
‘Clepsydra believes that some group or organisation within the Glitter Band has obtained intelligence concerning a coming crisis. Something worse than what we’re facing now, even given the latest news.’
‘What kind of crisis?’ Baudry asked.
‘Something catastrophic. Something in the order of a collapse of the entire social matrix, if not the end of the Glitter Band itself.’
‘Preposterous,’ Crissel said.
Gaffney raised a restraining hand. ‘No. Let’s hear him out.’
‘Clepsydra believes that this group or organisation has devised a plan for averting whatever disaster they’ve seen coming, even if that means denying us our usual liberties.’
Baudry nodded in the general direction of the Solid Orrery. ‘And the blackout, the hostile actions we’ve just heard about?’
‘I think we could be seeing the start of a takeover bid.’
‘Voi,’ Baudry answered sharply. ‘You’re not serious. Surely you’re not serious.’
‘Makes perfect sense to me,’ Dreyfus said. ‘If we couldn’t be trusted to guarantee the future security of the Glitter Band, what would you do?’
‘But only four habitats… there are ten thousand more out there that are still ours!’
‘I think Thalia was the key,’ Dreyfus said. ‘Unwittingly, of course. Her code was contaminated. It must have been tampered with to open a security loophole that didn’t exist before. Thalia was
‘But she didn’t want to do that, I recall,’ said Baudry.
‘No,’ said Dreyfus. ‘She insisted on identifying four of the likely worst cases and running manual installations. That way she could correct errors in real-time, on the spot, and make sure no one was without their precious abstraction for more than a few minutes. Once she’d supervised those four installations, she could tweak the code to make sure the remaining ten thousand went without a hitch.’
‘But those habitats have been without abstraction for hours,’ Crissel said.
‘That isn’t Thalia’s fault. Her diligence didn’t cause this, Michael.
It prevented an even worse crisis. If Thalia had done the easy, obvious thing, we wouldn’t be looking at four habitats off abstraction, we’d be looking at ten thousand. The takeover would be complete. We’d have lost the Glitter Band.’
