Accord of Mars (Accord Series Book 2) (8 page)

I
gagged
, trying to catch my breath. With an effort, I drew one ragged gasp through gritted teeth. It felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done, but that small bit of air was all the payoff I needed. My lungs were starving. I exhaled. The next breath was just a little bit easier.

I glanced around the room. There were so many people in there, and Choi would kill them all just to get his war going. I had no idea where the bomb might be, and only seconds left. I opened my mouth to shout, to warn people, but I could barely croak. There was no time. I couldn’t save these people. Guilt and panic warred in my head.

There might be enough time to save myself. I was willing to bet that Choi wasn’t the sort of person to sit on top of a bomb, even when he had the activation switch on his smartwatch. Too many things could go wrong. Choi might think he had my father’s measure, but I was pretty sure I had his number too. Like the story about the fox and the scorpion, treachery was in his nature - and he expected it of others, too. He’d plant the bomb as far from where he was sitting as possible.

I took one more wheezing breath and carefully tucked my pen away in a pocket. I was going to need that later. Then I grabbed the table with both hands. It was a heavy thing with a steel base and a thick hardwood top. I tried to lift it up - and couldn’t move it. I was too weak, shaken from Choi’s strike.

How many seconds left? I took the best breath I could, then exhaled hard as I tried one more time to shove the table forward. This time it tilted and came crashing down. The cups and silverware tumbled off the tabletop, smashing and clattering across the floor. All around the room conversation stopped as everyone looked at the source of the noise.

I ducked down behind the table and grabbed the base, shoving it back to brace against the corner. Then I reached down and tapped my smartwatch - three taps, three taps, three taps - SOS. The signal for Acres to come running to my rescue. I hoped he had the engine warm.

Then the world lit up.

The detonation must have knocked me out for a few moments. Even behind the table, the concussion had been like a hand slamming me against the floor. The first thing I became aware of was that someone was screaming. I opened my eyes. The room was dark. The lights were gone, replaced by the fitful flickering of scattered flames where things had caught fire in the blast. My face hurt on one side. I winced when I touched it. It felt like the worst sunburn ever, and I probably looked like hell.

I peeked up over the edge of the table. The room was filled with smoke, lit here and there by small flames. People were screaming and moaning in the mess. I had no idea how many had survived the explosion. I couldn’t imagine how anyone had. The wall above my makeshift shield was peppered with chunks of shrapnel. If I’d still been sitting in the chair when the explosion went off, it would have taken off my head.

Some of the sprinklers had survived, dousing fires and sending up jets of steam to further obfuscate the chaos in the room. Somehow I got my feet under me and staggered toward the doorway. Medical teams were rushing in, carrying aid bags and stretchers for the wounded and dead. One of them saw me and rushed to my side.

“This way, sir!” he said. He threw a blanket over my shoulders and held an oxygen mask to my face. Almost immediately I felt a little better from the extra oxygen. I hadn’t realized just how bad the air in here had become until I wasn’t breathing it anymore. He guided me as far as the front steps of the building where I was passed off to another emergency tech. Up and down the street, all I could see were ambulances waiting for the wounded.

Two EMTs came rushing out past me, carrying a stretcher. The woman lying there was still alive, her hands clenched around a chunk of metal protruding from her belly. Her face and arms were a mass of burns. I winced and looked away. If I’d been just a little faster, a little better, maybe I could have stopped Choi. He was so fast that I hadn’t had a prayer of holding him, though. My throat still hurt where his fingers had struck me.

“Sir! Sir, are you OK?” Another EMT was standing there in front of me. I was still dazed, and barely managed to nod in response. He put an arm around my shoulders and walked me over to one of the ambulances, where he hooked me back up with oxygen.

“Stay put,” he said. “I’ll be back to check you out.”

Then he was off again, rushing back into the UN building. Smoke was billowing out the front doors and half the windows on the lower three floors. Glass from shattered windows decorated the front lawn and the street beyond. My god, how many people had been caught in Choi’s games tonight?

My smartwatch beeped, and I held it up to my mouth. “Thomas here.”

“We’re on our way,” Acres said. “You in one piece?”

“Yeah,” I said. My whole body hurt. But I was a lot better off than most of the people I saw being carted past me. For each of them, I swore I was going to take Choi down.

The flash of thrusters caught my eye. Acres was bringing the courier ship down right in front of the damned UN building? Was he insane? There were air defenses. The military had to be on high alert right now. The ship was landing in the field across the street. I half ran, half staggered in that direction.

The ship settled down on lawn. All around me, medical air cars were touching down, disgorging EMS crews. The place was a madhouse. I doubted that anyone was able to track all the air traffic with so many emergency crews flying in and out around the building. They must have called out every crew for miles around to rush to the scene of the disaster.

I considered staying there to help, but I’d just be in the way. If I left, it would make it that much easier for Choi to try to pin the attack on Mars. After all, I’d been very visible at the event. If I mysteriously vanished afterward it might look bad. But I had a good sense that he’d charge me with the crime even if I stayed, and I didn’t have time to be a UN prisoner right now. I’d worked hard at not being a hostage. No sense in giving myself to him.

Besides, from space maybe I could do some damage to him. Give a little payback for all those people he’d hurt.

The ramp was lowering, a faint light showing from inside the ship. I bolted for it, racing for my getaway to the stars with everything I had. The sooner I was off this dust ball, the better. I’d had enough of Earth.

M
ars Station abuzz with activity
, and I was glad to be a part of it again. I needed to be out here where things were happening. Too much time sitting in George’s desk on the surface was going to drive me mad. So I’d returned to the station to manage things from there instead.

Work crews had managed to seal off the parts of the station damaged by the explosion. George’s offices were still a wreck, but mine were fine. Not that I was spending a lot of time there. My preferred spot was the control center. It was the hub of the station, and had enough communications and computer gear that I felt confident and connected.

Communications from Earth came at a about a thirty minute delay, thanks to the distance. I got the news about the bomb in the UN building about thirty-two minutes after it went off. I had my command center fully staffed about five minutes after that, men and women pulling down every bit of intel they could from the fragmented news blasts we were receiving. No one was claiming credit for the bomb, and no one was being blamed. I had a sense that would change shortly.

“Incoming priority message for you, sir.”

That was different. Mostly what we were sorting through were scraps of information gleaned from media broadcasts, which were sketchy and confused. A priority message meant someone of importance wanted to speak to me directly.

“Send it over to my screen,” I said.

My screen was half of the wall in front of me. Right now it showed video footage of the explosion. Not of the aftermath - this was actual footage of the detonation. Which told me a lot all by itself. If they already had video of the bomb going off playing across all the major networks, how had that been acquired so quickly?

The message appeared as a small box on my screen. I tapped the screen and my video froze, and then was replaced by a face I knew all too well.

“Admiral,” Choi’s recording said. “Or should I call you President now? You will note that while the United Nations did not support the idea of your taking that august post, we did not take action. Despite your warlike reputation, we hoped you would see the benefits of ongoing peace. Sadly, it seems we were mistaken.”

“We have reason to believe that this attack was made against the UN by Mars partisans, led by your son.”

The screen changed, and suddenly I was watching video of a party. I vaguely recognized the room and a few of the people. It was inside the main ballroom of the New York UN building. This must have been where the bomb went off, footage from before it detonated taken off a security camera. And there was Thomas, right in the middle of it. In Mars Navy dress. Where had he even gotten a dress uniform from? I smiled a little. It looked good in that room full of drab black outfits. It caught the eye and turned heads, precisely as I’d I intended when I designs it. I frowned, recognizing the man Thom was talking to. That was Perrault. I couldn’t see their faces very well, but from the body language it didn’t look like either of them were very happy.

What was Thomas doing there, of all places? My heart went into my throat. He must have been there when the bomb went off. Was he hurt? Was he even still alive?

Choi’s face reappeared on the screen. “The attack by your military forces against unarmed civilians is abhorrent. A state of war now exists between the United Nations of Earth and the government of Mars.”

“Stein, I would ask you to surrender, except I know you will not,” he said. “I will tender the same offer to your people, however. Lay down your arms, surrender to the United Nations armed forces, and you will be spared.”

The message clicked off and the screen went dark. Around the room, no one said a word. I looked at them all. Most of them were in their twenties. A few older faces, but mostly they were young and untried. And scared. Right now most of them were very afraid. Many of them had come here from Earth. Even for those born on Mars, having the UN declare war was like a living nightmare.

I needed to say something that would bolster their morale. Allay their fears. Except as far as they knew, he might be telling the truth. Maybe I really had sent my son as an assassin to kill Choi, they were thinking. I’d made no secret of the fact that I hated the man. Worse, that message had been sent in the clear. It had gone out to all of Mars, and every person on the station and the planet would hear about it in no time.

I wasn’t worried about revolution. I knew my people better than that. But morale was going to count for a lot, and he’d just done some damage.

“Another incoming message from Earth, sir.” It was the same young woman who’d picked up the last one. “Stein encryption on this one.”

“Put it on my screen, Lieutenant,” I said. I tapped it open, and what I saw brought a smile to my face immediately as Thomas’s face filled my screen.

“Dad,” he said. “By the time you hear this, I’m sure you’ll already know what went down in the UN building. And I’ll already be in orbit, getting ready to do something stupid. Don’t worry, as usual the reports of my death will be greatly exaggerated.”

Someone behind me snorted a half laugh. I quirked a little smile myself, even as worried as I was. Was Thomas building something of a reputation for himself among his peers?

“I’m sure they will break this encryption if they haven’t already, but this information is too important to not pass on,” Thomas said. “We acquired images of the space dock. They had at least sixteen ships there in some stage of construction, and that was a month ago. It might be worse now.”

“I hope you’re ready for whatever they have coming,” he said.

Sixteen ships was more than even my worst-case estimate. It would be a difficult fight, if all of them came at us at once.

“This other bit is important, too. Choi met with me. He thought his little anti-eavesdropping device would block any bugs, but everyone out here seems to be using the same damned device. It’s not as hard to foil as they’d like to think,” he said. He grinned and held up a pen. “I got audio of Choi confessing to the bombing. I’m attaching it to this message. Whatever story he wants to spin, he’s a spider. He slaughtered a hundred of his own people without batting an eye. He’ll do much worse to us. We have to stop him, Dad. No matter the cost.”

“I’m going to see if I can narrow the odds a little,” he said. “Wish me luck. Thom out.”

The screen went blank.

I whirled in place, stabbing a finger toward the tech who’d alerted me to the message. “Did that audio come through too?”

“Yes sir, patching it over to you now.”

The audio played. I listened to Choi coldly try to twist my son into joining him, and then confess to bombing his own people.

When it was over, I turned back to the men and women in the room. All of them were silent again. But now they looked alert. Determined. It would do.

“I want that audio sent out to every news network on Mars. Ship it back to any of the networks on Earth that will listen, too,” I growled. “Let them hear what the man leading them is really like.”

“Aye sir!”

“And get me telemetry on Thomas’s ship. We should be able to pick up something from the communications satellites orbiting Earth.”

“That data will be half an hour old.” That was Sergeant Mitchell, one of my older hands and a cool head in this crowd.

“I know,” I replied. “But old intel is better than no intel.”

“Aye, sir, getting it now,” he replied.

My screen showed new images, radar tracking of air traffic over Earth. Thomas’s ship was highlighted in green. He’d made it up into low orbit - thirty-two minutes ago - but he wasn’t pulling away. I saw why, too. Several fast fighters had punched up out of the atmosphere and were moving to cut him off. He was swinging around the planet, trying to keep the curve between himself and the fighters. But they were gaining on him.

Then he changed course suddenly, heading north toward the Arctic Circle. The fighters changed course to match. They’d intercept him in minutes.

“Damn it, Thom,” I muttered. He was heading right for the space dock. “Get out of there.”

New contacts lit up the screen. The fighters were firing missiles. Then the space station fired its own volley - a huge array of missiles for such a little target. There must have been scores of the things streaking through space toward the courier. Toward my son.

A moment later all the red dots showing the missiles converged on the green dot, and the green dot vanished.

“No!” I slammed my fist into my open palm, closed my eyes.

He was gone. My son was gone. It felt like a pit had opened up beneath my feet. I’d sent him to Earth. I’d shipped him off into that, and my orders had killed him. I wanted to rage, to scream, to break something. But I couldn’t do any of those things, not right now anyway. Somehow I reached for a sense of calm, for the mask I always wore to command others into death.

I struggled against tears for a few more agonizingly long moments before turning back to my crew. They all stared at me, horror warring with compassion and anger on their faces.

“Back to your duties, everyone. We still have a war to win.” And I had a man to kill. I found myself wishing I could already have my fingers around Choi’s neck.