“Oh? What’s that? Wait, you don’t mean the consulate thing, do you? Taking that Urban woman into custody for interrogation?”
“The DP? Yes. How’d you know all that? I know Lee didn’t mention that much…”
“Oh, no big deal. Brian Daggert and I are old friends. We were shipboard together once, and I was the Navy’s liaison with the Marines aboard.”
“Oh, I get it now. Old boyfriend?”
“Um, well, what happens shipboard stays shipboard.”
Ashton laughed.
“All right, Annette, I’ll quit teasing you,” he told her.
“Thank the good Lord,” came the reply. “But no, I already know about that from Brian. He said to be ready by late Tuesday or more likely Wednesday, to allow a few things to play out that the Emperor has in work.”
“Ah okay. Well, that’s actually more info than I had; I haven’t seen the days come down yet.”
“Right. That’s kind of hush-hush, I think, for obvious reasons, but yeah. Why’s Lee not calling on this?”
“He took some medical leave. Teeth, you know.”
“Oh, right. So he left you in charge?”
“Looks like it,” Ashton said, taking a deep breath. “Quan is over at ICPD, doing Academy graduate interviews.”
“Gotcha. Hey, get used to it; a lot of us sector chiefs think you’re gonna be the next Director. And glad of it; you’re a good man, and a good, honest cop, Nick.”
“I try, Annette. I try hard.”
“And it shows, Nick. It shows. So, is there anything else you have for me?”
“No, as long as you know that the actions next week will have to be handled just so.”
“I know. Brian said that David Mercer would be sending me some people to help with… things.”
“Like interrogation and execution. Yup.”
“Okay, then I think we’re good, Nick.”
“Great. Talk soon, Annette. ‘Bye.”
“Later, Nick.”
And we’re on top of that, Ashton thought, as he disconnected the call.
Now Ashton sat in his office, studying the status reports that were coming in, including those from the teams that had picked up Kendig and Gerber. He paused, thinking over the interrogations, remembering the details, and trying to put together a mental picture of how all the communications worked, from the Democracy of Planets, to Carolina, to Sintar, and back. And suddenly it hit him.
Gerber said in his interrogation that they communicated at least once a week, sometimes only every four or five days, he thought. And the faked coded communiqué they sent would have been a little early in the timeframe–only five days after the last one – which would probably move the next communiqué up in time. He shook his head. Oh shit. We can’t wait. If we wait until Emperor Trajan sends out the warrants, she’ll know. And then she’ll warn the others, and they’ll all get away. And they had a ring of twelve spies, not counting Gerber. Could that mean even more frequent comm? Shit shit shit.
He started thinking fast. Annette said next Tuesday or Wednesday, most likely. No. That’s too late. Wednesday night – a minimum of four days, and it’s Friday morning already… She’ll be looking for a coded comm on Sunday! Monday at the latest!
He called Browning back.
“Director Browning.”
“Annette, it’s Nick again.”
“What’s up? You sound like something’s wrong.”
“It is. If we wait until next Tuesday or Wednesday to pick up Urban, then we’ll lose ‘em all.”
“What?! Explain!”
Ashton swiftly laid out the information gleaned in the interrogation of Gerber, and the timeframe under which the conspiracy was currently operating, and explained that the timeframe being planned by General Daggert and Emperor Trajan would not meet the expectation of a communication from Sintar not later than Monday.
“Oh shit,” Browning exclaimed. “But I don’t have an arrest warrant, or even an Imperial Marine contingent!”
“No, but we do have suspicion,” Ashton pointed out. “And that’s grounds for detainment and questioning, at least.”
“You do,” Browning retorted. “This is a ‘damned if we do, damned if we don’t’ situation, Nick. If I do like you want me to do, and it goes south, we could lose the entire group of conspirators who tried to kill the Emperor.”
“Yes… and if we don’t, we will lose the entire conspiracy who tried to kill him,” Ashton said, making a decision that would hang his ass out to dry if this went wrong. “But you won’t take the heat; the IPD overall director will. And right now, I’m the acting Director over IPD.”
“Are you ordering me to invade a foreign consulate and take someone into custody, Acting Director Ashton?” Browning asked, in a very quiet voice.
“Yes, Carolina Sector Director Browning, I am,” Ashton responded. And may God forgive me if I’m wrong, he thought, because Emperor Trajan probably won’t. And I won’t blame him.
Ashton popped an emergency message to Brigadier General Mercer, explaining the rationale for his decision, and requesting that he provide at least a small detachment of Imperial Marines to assist, then he and Browning entered a VR planning room and pulled up the blueprints for the DP consulate on Carolina, beginning to study them – if this was to work, then Urban had to be taken into custody not later than tomorrow… and they’d need to send a coded message through the network to the plutocrats, to boot.
A few minutes later, Mercer pinged him in Urgent mode. He answered the call in VR.
“Ashton.”
“What the hell, Nick?!” Mercer replied. “You can’t do this!”
“We have to do this, David. And I need as much help as you can give me, because we also need those network gurus of yours to ensure the plutocrats don’t get antsy.”
“Not to worry about that.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’ve interrogated the rest of the spy ring your people picked up
