the tambourines are on line. At that point, it can go. But if the tambourine line doesn't become operational we need to keep it here as part of that network.' Jones' next excuse: 'I don’t have enough staff for the main monitoring station in DC.' Brewer answered, 'You don’t need a main monitoring station in DC. Just keep it compartmentalized.' 'I’ve got a bunch of politicians who want it in D.C. And guess what, buddy, they control the financing for this thing.'
Knox said, 'For God’s sake, tough it out man and tell those politicians where to go stick it. Who’s in charge of Internal Security? Dante Jones or Evan Godfrey?'
Trevor held a hand aloft. When the cross talk subsided he said, 'Dante, finish up your end. Quick. I need Hoth’s ship out west. I don’t care how you do it, get it done.' Dante opened his mouth, paused, exhaled a quick burst of disgust, then shut his mouth. Trevor pushed things forward saying, 'Okay. California. We’re going to war. At least that’s how I’d bet.' Dante found his voice again: 'That’s it, just straight to war? Did you talk to them?'
'Yes, I talked to them. I made the same offer I made last month and the month before that. Now our troops are at their border. We’ve reached the tipping point.'
Lori used a soft, reserved voice, 'They don’t want to go through the runes? They refuse?'
Stanton ran a hand through what little hair he had left and observed, 'Now wait, isn’t there a log jam on going through those? Don’t we still have Hivvan and Duass prisoners?'
'We’ve got another three months, at least, to go before all the prisoners we have are through,' Dante, told them. 'We take them in small groups because I don’t have enough people to provide security for large groups. Probably another six or seven thousand sitting in prisons in Pennsylvania and Maryland.'
Trevor did not want to get bogged down by talk of the runes. Everyone at the table knew the two mystical pillars had been retrieved from the Arctic Circle by Jon Brewer almost five years ago, an action that had shut down the alien gateways while the runes themselves still offered a one-way ticket home for those same aliens.
The runes were not the issue. The Cooperative was.
'The people in charge over there have their heads so far up the Witiko’s asses they can’t see daylight. There’s no choice. I’ll issue an ultimatum and then we invade. Jon, break it down, what are we facing. The big picture, not the details.'
'We’ll be facing a combination of human and Witiko forces. The human groups have Witiko advisors and officers. We’re thinking about thirty combat-ready air superiority fighters and one small company of helicopter gunships, mainly Super Cobras.'
'On the ground?'
'Between twenty and twenty-five thousand troops broken up between garrisons and rapid deployment forces. The Cooperative’s ground forces have a strong center core of law enforcement and National Guard troops but they also have a nice chunk of raw recruits.'
Lori said, 'A lot like us.'
Jon defended, 'Yeah, well, we’ve been fighting for ten years now, we’ve got two academies, and good training programs. The ground troops in California haven’t been well trained and their equipment is getting old.'
'Of course,' Trevor told them. 'The Witiko don’t want the human armies becoming too strong. The fewer, the better. Less of a threat. Might just bite them in the ass now, though.'
Brewer continued, 'They don’t have a lot of heavy weapons or armor. Most of that was wiped out when they were fighting the Witiko. Bottom line is that the ground forces aren’t going to be a big deal. First Corp by itself could probably do the deal on the ground. Throw in Prescott’s Second Corp coming in from Arizona and we’ll be able to overwhelm them.'
Jon’s words spoke of an easy victory. His eyes told a different story as he glanced at Knox. The Director of Intelligence grasped another page in a stack of papers, coughed, and began his report.
'The Witiko have a dozen Stingray cruisers in their arsenal. We believe two of these are non-operational and are being farmed for spare parts. On the ground, the Witiko have small infantry units integrated into human battalions. They also get a kind of close air support from their Skytroops.'
He glanced around the room as if to ensure everyone heeded his next words.
'Skytroops are individual soldiers who use jet back packs. It sounds funny, but you won’t think it so when they launch an anti-tank or anti-air missile at you or drop a grenade on your head before disappearing behind a building. Most Skytroops are officers, are heavily armed and capable. There are reports of individual Skytroopers taking out Blackhawks and even attack choppers during the California war.'
Although Trevor already knew most of the details, he told Knox to, 'Go on.'
'The Witiko don’t need a lot of troops because they have a neat trick for recruiting.'
Jon Brewer took the proverbial ball and ran with it: 'When I think about it, Trevor, it reminds me of the Redcoat battle for Wilkes-Barre way back when. The Witiko can get animals to fight for them. Except, well, they’re a little more direct about it.'
As Jon spoke, Gordon slid a photograph across the table to Trevor. It showed a metal glove long enough to extend to the elbow of the wearer. A compartment-much like a miniature computer-had been built into the forearm while a silver sphere about the size of a golf ball rested on the back. Two small metal prongs projected outward from that sphere.
'We don’t know how,' Gordon said, 'but my sources are working on it. Once the fighting starts, I think we need to make it a priority to get a hold of one of these things because…'
Gordon’s voice faded from Trevor’s ears as a bout of lightheadedness hit. His mind left the room…and went to a place of tall glass and steel towers in cities adorned with fantastic art and magnificent landscaping all on the rim of wastelands littered with churning volcanoes spewing clouds of thick ash. A world with small oceans so dense with salt and minerals that life only lived in the farthest depths while vast lakes high in mountain plateaus poured fresh water to the lands below in gigantic waterfalls.
He saw herds of big but docile beasts of short fur and long necks stalked by armor-plated lions and roaches as big as dogs spitting acid to battle large, carnivorous jellyfish floating in the air.
He saw the picture of the Witiko device in his hand…and understood.
He must have faded out for more than a split second because Lori Brewer, Jon, and Dante hovered over him pleading to know if he were, ‘okay’ ‘all right’ and ‘get a doctor down here!’
'Um…guess I blanked out there, huh?'
'Yeah, man, you could say that,' the fear faded from Dante’s eyes but suspicion remained. 'What was that all about? You on something?'
Trevor shot Dante an angry look. Dante defused the situation with a ‘just kidding’ smile. After a moment, Trevor smiled back…then focused on the picture of the Witiko device.
'It’s a slaver. They calibrate it to specific animals, shoot the prongs into the target, then they can control those animals, to a degree.' 'Wow,' Jon gasped. 'Want to tell us how you know that?' Trevor smiled and told him, 'I just picked it up.' 'Not that shit again.'
Trevor ignored Dante. 'The Witiko map brain waves of certain animals, so they just can’t shoot these things into anything. They have to plan it out.'
Gordon said, 'Our intelligence indicates that the Witiko use some big insects the same way we use guard dogs.' Knox thought about that and rephrased, 'I mean, the way we used to use guard dogs before, well, before those guard dogs became Grenadiers.'
Trevor explained, 'It causes a considerable amount of pain to the subject animal. So much so that most of the time the Witiko put down the animal before releasing the slaver device. Animals released early tend to go nuts, sometimes turn on the Witiko handlers. So it’s a way for them to increase their fighting power but it has limits and dangers.'
Lori Brewer asked a disturbing question, 'Can it be used on humans?'
'I don’t think so. Humans and other sentient life have far too complex brain patters and personalities. It’s not like this thing thinks for the animal, more like it implants an urge. From what I can tell, the subjects don’t like being under this thing’s thumb. But it is effective.' Gordon turned to Omar and asked, 'We could use a means of blocking the signal.' 'Oh! What a wonderful idea you are having Mister Knox! I will go build something right now! Let me get my erector set!' Trevor kept things under control, 'Good idea but that will take some time. Jon, how do those Stingrays match up?'
'They’re dangerous. First, they have both missiles and a short-range energy weapon. It can do some damage,
