Alex woke, wondering if there’d be any complaints about an almost fight in an almost bar. It seemed the lieutenant was wise enough to realize he didn’t want the attention. There would be propagating rumors, though, some positive, some negative. There was nothing to be done about that. Some personalities just clashed. Ripple Creek had press visibility and a certain amount of notoriety. That led to fallout.
He and Jason had an appointment with Captain Das, then Highland had another promotional run later.
The whole point of zones on base was to hinder infiltrations and threats. They signed out of State, who were finally taking such things seriously under Cady’s management, but the military side waved them in. It seemed to vary on which troops had the detail. Aerospace Force was by the book. Marines were firm but polite. Army varied by nationality. The more troubled nations took it seriously. America, China and Europe, less so. At least there weren’t any locals this far in. MilBu was resistant to suggestions from BuCulture.
Not being stopped and cleared made things faster, but he’d rather be delayed and secure. The drive was short, but his brain ran through a lot of comments in that time.
At the Operations Building, they were expected, and a sergeant led them straight into Das’s office.
“Gentlemen, good morning,” he said.
“Hello. Thanks for seeing us.”
Das didn’t mention the rec center, and he would have, so it was a nonissue officially. Good.
“You’re welcome. I’m hoping you can offer some input.”
Jason said, “What do you have?”
Das said, “Here’s the weapon. It contains four unfired cartridges. They’re old style, with metal cases.”
Jason took it and Alex let him. He was the expert. He opened the breech as a precaution, then started examining it.
“It’s a shame I can never keep these things for my collection,” Jason said as he turned the weapon in his hands, rubbing, manipulating. “They’re always so interesting. This is a century old, give or take, a Bridemore Pocket Lion, and someone has stippled the grip by hand, filled it and grooved it. Then it’s worn mostly smooth. The barrel’s been replaced, and it was an aftermarket job. Someone milled the outside themselves, and the rifling looks electrochemically etched after a pantographic stencil laid it out. Cheap, but not very durable compared to forge- rifling or beam cutting.” He seemed to finally notice Das’s grin, and finished with, “Sorry. You were saying?”
Das said, “That’s farther than we’d got, and I’ll add that information in, with thanks. We also found the empty cartridges. The interesting thing is there is no residue in the barrel to indicate bullets.”
Jason nodded slowly.
“They’d definitely leave debris in this material. So it was fired with blanks?”
“It was fired with sintered polymer alloy of some kind I don’t remember.” He flipped up his desk screen. “Here, ‘Duralon particle-cast densiform.’ It’s about half the mass of lead, which is more than enough to cycle the weapon, but it would fragment to dust within a meter from twist rate.”
Alex said, “So someone was instigating a riot for the purpose of getting police brutality involved.”
“Have you seen the alleged wounds? Quite a few are self-inflicted. The cops were not gentle, but they didn’t do some of the stuff we’ve seen. There are razor slashes, bruises, chemical burns and the latter two had to be done ahead of time. So some group of masochists showed up with the intent of getting roughed up.”
Alex said, “We have the twofold problem of protecting Ms. Highland and not reacting in a fashion that can cause bad publicity when any attack might be real. That could easily have been real bullets. The odds of a hit are remote like that, but obviously the threat of worse exists.”
Das said, “She refuses to allow us to scan the crowds. Cultural sensitivity issues to their religious beliefs.”
She also may be hiding further instigations for PR, but this probably wasn’t one, because it backfired if so, he thought. “It’s also not practical to search that many people when she wants a large crowd, and it would work against her stated policies, and the diplomatic issues. Of course, ideally she’d do everything only inside this compound surrounded by us. In the real world, however, she has to meet people.”
Das nodded back. “Well, I have to both investigate these, attempt to prevent them, and and try to get the locals to work with us. That’s more than a ‘both. ’ ”
“I appreciate the information, Captain. We’ll do our own digging.”
Back at their quarters, the team discussed the updates, with drinks and snacks at hand.
Jason said, “We have her admission of instigation action for PR purposes. She knows we disapprove. We’d also play along, but it’s better if we’re deniable. ‘Better’ from her point of view, of course. So that’s one element that won’t directly be a real threat, but could be infiltrated.” In front of him was a timeline and chart of events they’d dealt with.
Alex said, “There are just too many factions. It could be her own employees’ union. Unlikely, but possible. There are three factions here who could afford those pros, who apparently weren’t that pro. Skilled wannabes.”
Aramis said, “There are enough groups who outright hate her. Some of the religious factions have declared moral war based on her visible support of Cady, and the rumors of her being gay.”
Alex said, “Yes, and Cady knows the score and is holding up. She’s more of a pawn than we are.”
Elke said, “I would assume that the actual hostiles will try very hard to get into her confidences, and would find out about the staged attacks. They’ll try to use those as cover.”
“Yes,” Alex said. “Which is why I want Aramis to keep treating every threat like an invasion force and responding with violence. It will have a deterrent effect.”
The man grinned and said, “I cherish my role as a preemptive violence technician.” He grabbed a handful of cookies and started munching. He seemed to be recovering well.
Jason said, “Yeah, it keeps her safer and us safer. Nail any and all threats first, then ask questions if there’s anyone left.”
Bart said, “So we have friendly idiots, and unfriendly schemers who will make use of them. What about other groups?”
Shaman said, “I’ve seen some of this before. You must understand now you will never get inside information from the groups, especially as to how they ally. But, they will attack her so they can blame another group, or to claim credit and show their mettle. They’ll do so against her influence, or Earth’s influence, or because they don’t like some group she spoke with. That glove of hers was nauseating, but brilliant, I’m ashamed to say.” He slumped a bit and reached for his tea.
Elke said, “So any group who hates any other group might attack her for or against them.”
“If they think the cops will rough up their competition, yes. Then there are the gangs and their smuggling operations.” Alex sighed.
Aramis said, “Translation: no chart we can put together is going to help.”
“The idiotic thing,” Shaman said through tight lips with a tense face, “is that many of these groups had these same petty squabbles on Earth, and moved here to separate, but all moved here. Then they found the planet isn’t as conducive as they’d hoped, and are all stuck here in the temperate zone on one continent.”
“What is our approach, then?” Bart asked.
Jason said, “Attack all threats; try to coordinate with Das for intel from interrogations. If we can catch a live one without undue breakage, we ask the best questions we can then turn them in, undamaged, for the military to question further.”
“We can monitor residue,” Elke said. “Also, some of these incidents might take money. We can narrow down the focus on which groups would be willing to spend it, and have it available.”
“I want to follow up on her ‘dear friends’ and ‘former employees.’ They might have reason to hate her, or might be plants. Or just suborned, as happened with Caron and her servants.”
“That’s the ongoing problem in this business. We can keep someone safe locked in our dungeon with no contact. Beyond that, there are threats.”
Bart said, “I would also watch current events. Any large swings in the economy, or to any nations or groups, will affect her presence.”
“This is why BuState has its own security and its own intel.”
Aramis asked, “How is the intel from intelguy? Any good?”
“It’s not bad, but not great. I don’t know if that’s par for the course, par for him, incompetence, brilliance or
