Fawn grimaced. ‘That’s the one that hides you from cameras, right?’
Nava nodded. ‘I was taught it. I’m moderately sure that Maya was still around at the time. Even if she wasn’t, I’d imagine she can use it. You won’t see her on cameras.’
‘There are times when I hate magic. I’ll coordinate with security and get some extra people in. Maybe this is what Free Beherbergen are targeting.’
‘Maya’s not–’
‘We have some intelligence suggesting that the Redwings have been working with Free Beherbergen. If she’s here, she may be scouting for them. Or she could be after you, of course.’
‘Yes… But if she was after me, I think she’d have tried something by now. I’ll keep my eyes open for her.’
‘Let’s hope we can spot her before anything happens.’
Nava gave Fawn a look. ‘You know you just doomed us, right?’
235/8/15.
‘Is it just me, or is there more security around today?’ They were walking across a plaza outside the conference centre on their way in. Mitsuko’s question was aimed vaguely in the direction of Courtney, who was frowning.
Nava answered. ‘It’s not just you.’
‘There does seem to be a heightened ASF presence,’ Kyle said. ‘Maybe they heard something they haven’t made public.’
‘We could ask,’ Courtney said. ‘Somehow I doubt they’d tell us their reasons, however.’
‘I might be able to find out,’ Mitsuko said, ‘but I doubt it’s something to waste that kind of contact on. If we need to know, I’m sure they’ll tell us.’
Nava remained silent. If ‘they’ were keeping quiet about the reasons now, it seemed unlikely that they would say anything until it was too late to matter.
They had just made it through the doors of the building when Darius Miller spotted them and rapidly closed the distance. ‘Do you know why the ASF is out in such force?’ he asked without preamble.
‘Good morning to you too, Darius,’ Mitsuko said. ‘No, we’ve heard nothing. We’re assuming they have some intel they’re working on, but we don’t know what that might be.’
Darius frowned. ‘I asked, but they wouldn’t give me a straight answer.’
‘What did you expect?’ Courtney asked.
‘Well… Nothing, I guess. This isn’t making you nervous? They wouldn’t raise the alert level without a reason.’
‘Probably not. On the other hand, they’re professionals tasked with keeping us safe. I don’t see a reason to worry more than I usually do. Keep your eyes open. If you see anything suspicious, report it to the nearest ASF officer. Just like you would at any other time.’
Darius gave a weak, rather self-deprecating smile. ‘You’re right, of course. I suppose the events of the last few months have made me hypersensitive to trouble.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ Nava said, ‘unless it affects your performance negatively. Like Courtney said, keep your eyes open. There are a fair number of important people here who could be targets. We never did catch the assassin who attacked the school during the election…’
‘We never did get a good image of her either,’ Courtney said. ‘Short blonde hair with a peak at the top. Fit. Fairly attractive.’
‘I think I’d recognise her if I saw her again,’ Kyle said.
‘Yeah,’ Courtney conceded. ‘I guess I would too. But I doubt she’s going to turn up here. She was with the Redwing Faction, right? What would they want with a symposium like this? The people here aren’t that important.’
Nava shrugged. ‘Who knows, but the ASF obviously have information about something which could be trouble. No point in getting too excited about it. No point in ignoring it either.’
~~~
It began at midday. A truck with canvas sides drove onto the plaza outside the conference centre’s entrance and stopped. The driver made no move to get out of the cab and just seemed to be sitting there, waiting. The ASF officers on duty looked at each other and one of them, a second lieutenant, selected himself to go check on what the problem was.
He had taken two steps toward the truck when twin streams of high-velocity bullets began flying out through the canvas side of the vehicle. The lieutenant was peppered with eight-millimetre bullets, dying on the spot. The other officers, still at the top of the steps leading up to the building, took multiple hits as the machine guns swept across the building’s frontage.
The canvas was ripped open by a massive metal leg as the spider tank inside the truck pushed its way out and began to move toward the building. It had eight small turrets atop its bulky armoured body and three larger weapons mounted at the front. One of these blasted out three rounds as soon as the robot was clear of the vehicle, blowing a gaping hole in the entrance of the convention centre.
With surprising dexterity and speed, the tank began walking up the stairs to occupy the lobby.
~~~
The first Nava knew of the attack was when her ketcom signalled a loss of network connectivity. It was not unknown for networks to go down, but it was unusual. She was in a session discussing ‘novel applications of sorcery in everyday life,’ which had sounded like it might be interesting. It had just started and, so far, it seemed like her estimation was going to be right. And then the network went down.
A second later, the sound of explosions somewhere in the building put an end to her speculation on the failure and, incidentally, to the panel. Nava got to her feet and headed for the exit while those around her looked up in confusion and began to mumble questions no one had answers to.
~~~
In another theatre, Melissa frowned at her ketcom as the network indicator turned red. Networks did not fail, as far as she was concerned. She had never seen the indicator turn red. Yellow a couple of times when the signal got weak, but such regions were rare, even on Avorna.
‘The network’s gone–’ she began, addressing Rochester on her right. Then three rapid noises vibrated through the building and she stopped, looking around toward the door.
‘Was that…’ Rochester’s
