“Right.”
But the Vigilante Patriot proved amazingly elusive. As the war with the Alliance raged on – and the Alliance took the brunt of the hits in that war – the Alliance spies were systematically targeted and eliminated by the Vigilante.
“This isn’t good at all,” Carter grumbled over dinner at his house one night. “Whoever it is, he’s making us look like fools.”
“Nobody hates it worse than I do, Lee,” an irked Ashton replied, as Peterson and Ames watched and listened in concern. “I’m head of the investigators, one of the chief investigators, and it’s me and my people he’s eluding.”
“Don’t take it all on yourself, there, Nick,” Peterson said then. “Cally and I have been talking about it at the office, too. Some of the shit is going down in our jurisdiction, and The Team is as much at a loss as you and your Gang. It’s like there’s an insider feeding him information or something.”
“Could there be?” Ames asked.
“I can’t imagine any of The Team doing that, not intentionally, at least,” Peterson contended. “Not as long as this bunch has been together.”
“Offhand, I don’t see any of the Gang doing it, either,” Ashton countered, “though I admit I don’t know some of the newbies as well as I’d like.”
“I have to admit,” Carter said then, “Elliot has a mouth on him that I don’t much care for. And he seems to sort of approve of the Vigilante’s actions.”
“Well, let’s face it, Lee,” Peterson pointed out, “whoever the Vigilante is, he’s doing us a favor.”
“That’s not the way to do it though,” Carter protested, vehement. “The Vigilante is as much in the wrong as the spies. Hell, he’s more in the wrong; the spies are at least mostly doing it for the sake of patriotism to their own nations as anything.”
“So is the Vigilante, arguably,” Ames noted.
“Dammit, Nick, will you at least agree with me?!” Carter demanded, exasperated almost to the point of losing his temper.
“Yes and no, Lee,” Ashton said. “You know I agree that it’s illegal. But the girls make a good point. Illegal or not, the Vigilante is getting rid of some problem people for the Empire.”
“That is not what–” Carter began, turning red in the face.
“Let’s change the subject,” Maia suggested. “Cally, honey, where’d y’all stash the kiddies tonight?”
“Oh, Mom and Dad took ‘em to the zoo this afternoon,” Cally noted with a grin, “and wore them slap out. They were both already in bed, sound asleep, when we left.”
“Is little Leya getting around much yet?” Lee asked, eager, his previous bad temper evaporated as soon as Maia said ‘kiddies.’
“Some,” Nick said. “If you hold her hand, she does pretty well. Otherwise, she tends to hang on to the furniture when she can, and crawl when she can’t. But damn, can she move when she crawls. It’s like watching a puppy run.”
“Does her butt wiggle?” Maia asked with a laugh.
“No, but you’d sure think,” Cally giggled. “Paul, though, he’s almost six now, and he’s developing a certain protective instinct for Leya. He follows her around and watches after her as surely as any guard dog.”
“Looks like we have a litter of pups instead of children, Lee,” Nick snorted.
“That’ll change in time,” Lee laughed.
As the Alliance war churned swiftly on – and the Alliance nations grew weaker and weaker – their ability to replace dead intelligence operatives diminished significantly. So the Vigilante Patriot struck less often... but still struck.
“All right,” Carter said, in another joint meeting of the intelligence investigations team, which included the Investigations Divisions of both ICPD and IPD New Headquarters, as well as a few allies. “Enough is enough, ladies and gentlemen. Our military has beaten back the threat of the Alliance, certainly, but the various star nations still exist, and some of them are quite belligerent. If we want to have a hope of peace, of getting them to quiet down and leave us be for a change, we have to find and stop the Vigilante Patriot. As long as he keeps taking out their people, or those who have purportedly emigrated, those star nations will have cause to be annoyed, cause to keep up their attacks, cause to keep pummeling at our borders. And those borders have increased again; Estvia is now a Sector within the Sintaran Empire. Now, I want every mother’s child of you to get out there and go over Imperial City like a pissed-off chihuahua, looking for any sign of that Vigilante guy. I want him in custody. Soonest. Do I make myself clear?”
A murmur of agreement went up.
“I said, do I make myself clear?”
“Sir! Yes, sir!” came the loud, choral response.
“All right, then. GO!”
They went.
Imperial General Daggert had been part of that meeting, as he and his people were part of the team – as was Imperial Marine General Martin Kraus, also in attendance. Both men turned and nodded to their aides – General Hank Grant and Lieutenant General Kurt Leitner, both of whom were Imperial Guard officers, but Grant was on detached duty to Kraus – who nodded in reply, then both dropped from the VR channel.
Now Daggert turned to Carter, who was one of only six people left on the conference channel – Carter, Ashton, Quan, Peterson, Kraus, and Daggert himself. Dropping into familiarity, the Imperial General – the commander of all of the Imperial Guard, anywhere in the Empire – addressed the IPD Director.
“Lee, is there anything specific you want the Guard or the Marines to do?” he asked.
“Offhand, I don’t know of anything, Brian, Marty,” Carter told the two uniformed officers. “Maybe, Marty, you could put out some word in your intel community to try to figure out where this damned
