her out and tied her up. You need to alert the Colonel.”
“Dammit,” Ali hissed, pulling off his helmet and tossing it to the ground angrily. “I thought we’d have more time!”
“Shit happens, as my American friends say,” Ari said with a shrug. “Either she figured out that Lee was the biggest fish in this pond or her superiors grew impatient. Either way, I have bought us some time-she had not yet made the call for them to move in and make the arrests. But I would think that the GIS will send their forces eventually if they do not hear from her within a day or so. Do you have a way to get a secure message to Colonel Lee?”
“Of course,” Ali said impatiently. “There is an address… an anonymous account. I just leave him a coded message there and he can check it with any public terminal.”
“You need to get him to meet us somewhere remote and quiet,” Ari instructed. “We can take her there and determine how much she knows and how much time we have, then he can make a decision about our next move. And we need to do this now, before dawn, while we can still get her out of here unnoticed. And we need a vehicle that can meet us here, with a driver who can keep his mouth shut.”
“Um…” Ali dithered, beginning to be overwhelmed by the situation. “Ah… yes, let me contact the Colonel.” He pulled out his ‘link and gave it a net address, then recorded his message. “Chess aficionado seeks same, face to face game, on April 5 at three in the afternoon in the city park.” He looked up at Ari. “I just asked him to meet me at the old demolition bunkers in two hours. No one goes there anymore… they opened up a new range a year ago.”
“Good,” Ari clapped the man on the arm reassuringly. “Now get us a vehicle and let’s get out of here. I very much dislike standing out here in front of every satellite in orbit with her tied up on the ground in front of me.”
As Ali turned and stepped away to make the call to his driver, Ari glanced down at the woman he’d known as Alida. Her eyes opened for a split second, then winked at him before closing again. He fought back a smile.
The old demolition range was an eerie moonscape of craters, devoid of life or evidence of life other than the one dirt road leading into it and the abandoned bunker at its center. Buried in the dirt up to a series of narrow view slits on its front face, the lone entrance was in the rear, an open doorway shielded by a meter thick concrete wall that stood claustrophobic guard just 70 centimeters away.
The only light inside the bunker came from old, half-exhausted chemical ghostlights, so Ari and Captain Ali had brought in a pair of lanterns from the utility rover before the Guard Captain had sent his driver away with the vehicle, telling her to park at least a kilometer away and wait for his call. The lights were set up on either side of the bound and gagged Roza Kovach, who had abandoned her pretense of unconsciousness and was glaring angrily at the two of them with frightening earnestness.
“The Colonel should be here by now,” Ali fretted, pacing back and forth on the dirt-coated cement slab floor. “It has been nearly three hours. It will be dawn soon!”
Ari shook his head as he sat on the concrete bench built into the wall, watching Ali wear a rut in the floor. “For the love of God, relax,” he muttered. “I’m sure the Colonel had business of his own to take care of and this place
Inwardly, though, he was just as worried as Ali. This was their best shot at getting them both together away from the headquarters and away from prying eyes. If Lee got spooked and didn’t show up, it would make things much more difficult.
“Is that a vehicle?” Ali’s head whipped around. Without waiting for confirmation, he bolted up the short set of stairs and looked down the narrow dirt road. “There’s a rover coming up the road,” he called down to Ari. “I think it’s the Colonel. Yes, it is him… he has Captain Fillon with him and it looks like Major Sobawale.” Ari had heard their names before, but never met them… they were other participants in the conspiracy, also tasked with recruiting trainees. “That must be what took so long, getting them together without attracting attention.”
“If you ever leave the military, Captain Ali,” Ari commented dryly, “you should get a job as a sports announcer.”
Ari tried hard not to look at Roza-it was still hard not to think of her as Alida-as Colonel Lee stepped down the stairs with the other officers in tow. Captain Fillon was a tall, gangly man with fair skin and a dusting of red stubble on his shaven head, while Sobawale was short and muscular with the ebony skin of a native African. Both were dressed in their field utilities and wore sidearms, as did Colonel Lee. Lee frowned as he saw the woman sitting bound on the floor, looked between Ari and Captain Ali.
“So,” he said, “I see events have forced our hand.”
“We have hours,” Ari told him. “A day at most before the GIS moves in. The question is, do we run and hold up somewhere with the recruits we already have, or do we make a stand here?”
“If we battle them here,” Lee responded, shaking his head, “we take the chance of inviting a strike by the Marines before we are ready. Timing is everything.”
“Then we must run,” Ali said. “If we can find a secure place to marshal our forces, we can wait this out… they don’t have enough ships or men to arrest every officer in every armory in the colonies. As long as we can keep our forces in play, we can still do this.”
“You are more optimistic than I, Captain,” Major Sobawale shook his head morosely. “Without access to the trainees here, we can’t field a large enough force to seize Buenos Aires. We only have about a hundred right now that we can count on to come with us. Our entire force would be no more than three hundred troops.”
“But we can recruit more support from the local militias and police forces,” Fillon reminded him, sounding more optimistic than he looked: his long, horsey face seemed to have a perpetual frown. “They wouldn’t be much use against Fleet Marines, but they could keep the rabble in check while we face the stronger forces. And soon, it won’t matter-the Marines will have other things to worry about.”
“Sir,” Ari interjected, addressing Colonel Lee, “do you know how much longer we have before the orbital strike occurs and we can launch our operation?”
“I am not totally certain,” Lee admitted, looking as if he had bitten into something sour. “I have not heard from my allies in weeks now.”
“Is there a way you can contact them, sir? We can’t make a decision like this without knowing how long we have to hold out.”
“He’s right, Colonel,” Ali said with an eager nod. “If it is only days away, we could hold out here… perhaps take hostages.” He nodded at Roza as an example.
“I was given an address to use in an emergency,” the Colonel admitted with a reluctant nod. “This most certainly qualifies.”
Ari allowed himself a smile. “If that is the case, Colonel,” he said, “then there is something you need to hear, something that our ‘Lt. Hudec’ told me before I captured her.” He walked over to the woman and yanked her to her feet by her shoulders. “You should hear it from her own lips,” he explained, ripping away the tape from her mouth, then moving behind her, appearing to hold her arms secure.
Roza worked her jaw, regarding the Colonel with rage in her eyes.
“Tell him, woman!” Ari snapped, yanking on her wrists.
Roza took a deep breath, let part of it out. “Colonel Lee Jun-hwan,” she said formally, “I am Captain- Investigator Roza Kovach of the Guard Investigative Service, empowered by a personal warrant from General Kage, and I must inform you that you and everyone else in this room are under arrest. If you resist arrest, I am authorized to use lethal force.”
Lee stared at her for a moment, confusion and disbelief on his face, and then he started laughing. It was a high-pitched almost girlish giggle that seemed almost involuntary and he was quickly joined by Ali and the others. Ari chuckled appreciatively.
“That is it?” Lee demanded, still laughing. “That is what you had to say? Well, let me tell you, Investigator Gisela Katona or Roza Kovach or whatever your name really is… I most assuredly do resist arrest!” He looked around at the other officers. “What about you gentlemen? Do you wish to surrender or resist?”
“I think we will resist, sir,” Ali said, chortling.
Roza shrugged. “I tried,” she said.
