The Enclave (The Verge) (17 page)

"At Braidon Hills?"  Robert Prockter actually smiled.  "He's just like his father.

"You approve of this idiocy?"  Kirk's astonishment was plain on his face.

"He would have disappointed me if he didn't at least try to go. Family is important on Junter Three Ambassador, whether you are Federation or Alliance.  You would do anything to protect your own."

"But now we
have been left with no Val Myran representative."

"Sara Val Myra is quite capable.  She knows just as much of the facts as Joshua does."

The Ambassador's scowl deepened and Richard thought that he could see the beginnings of another tirade.  Instead the frown was quickly smoothed away.  "I'll have my aide arrange a meeting with her."

"No need to send your aide anywhere.  Sara will be relocated to the
Adelaide
.  As Joshua's replacement she will be in as much danger as he was."  The Director turned to Richard.  "With your permission of course."

"Of course.  She is most welcome."  Richard smiled; he could not help but like the man.  "Please sit."  Richard gestured to a chair and waited for both the Director and the Ambassador to seat themselves before reclaiming his own chair.

"Let me get straight down to business," Prockter said as he scooted his chair up to the desk, his demeanor switched seamlessly from social to professional.

"Some unsettling facts have come to my attention and I find myself in the position of not being able to trust most of my own people."

Richard tried not to look startled at Prockter's statement.  This was not what he expected to hear from the Director's mouth.  Kirk's face was a blank slate, a total reversal of the frustration molded on it earlier.

"We have interrogated two of the JUF members who have regained consciousness." Prockter continued as if he had not noticed the sudden rapped attention now focused on hi
m.  "What they had to say was…unexpected."  The Director rubbed a knuckle across his chin.  "They eventually told us that they had Government help in planning the attack on Federation House.  New Holland Government help."

The comment struck home with Richard but even now he felt reserved about revealing what he discovered yesterday.

"What do you mean when you say 'New Holland Government’?"  Kirk's voice dropped into the professional tone that Richard remembered from the initial briefings on their way to Junter Three.

"It means exactly as it sounds.  They have implicated three members of the council in supplying resources to the JUF, both physical and in personnel.  They have also said that their people helped to construct the plan for this attack."

"Why would New Holland Councillors be involved in something like this?"  Richard found it hard to believe what he was hearing.

"The three men concerned are known to have sympathetic leanings towards the Alliance.  The SIO have had them under surveillance but, if this allegation turns out to be true, then either the SIO has failed to detect or even get a sniff of these activities, or there are people in the SIO covering for them."    

"Surely if there were any doubts in regards to their loyalty then they should have been stood down from office while an official investigation was conducted?"  Richard knew he was probably asking a silly question but he was a naval officer and he did not care for politics.

"Two of these men are personal friends of Adam Chandle
r, the First Councillor.  We have to tread carefully about how we handle this as Chandler would put a kabosh on anything we try to do as soon as he gets wind of it."  Prockter shifted forward in his seat, leaning his weight on his elbows.  "He would never have stood any Councillor down unless we had hard evidence - which we did not.  We cannot arrest a person just for thinking a deed, only if they do it.  Chandler would only have stood the bastards down if someone had caught them communicating directly with the Alliance.”

"The two JUF members must have given you convincing proof to have you here telling this to us," John said.

"Yes, they did.  Suffice it to say that I won't tell you what it is.  That will be kept to those I can trust within the SIO."

"What about the third person?  The one who is not Chandler's close friend?  Surely you could act against him?”  Richard asked.

Prockter shook his head.  "He is the reason I can't be sure of the Council.  He is the one who objected to granting asylum to the Val Myrans.  He is also Adam Chandler himself, our First Councillor."

Richard sat back in his chair, stunned.  But all Kirk uttered was "Shit."

"Why?" Richard eventually asked.

"Because he is now in power and doesn't want to lose it at the next election, making a deal with the Alliance would ensure he will keep it.  What the idiot doesn't realize is that once you let the Alliance in, they own you, lock, stock and barrel."  Prockter shook his head in disgust.

"The Australian Government will need to be told about this.  The Federation cannot have a cuckoo in its nest, and
if
Chandler is definitely involved in yesterday's attack on Federation House, then the chicken shit murdering prick needs to pay.  They will all need to pay."

"It sounds like Chandler is playing both sides off against the other.  He could then be the hero who comes along to pick up the pieces."  Richard rubbed a hand across his face.  He felt like a shot of Katherine's cheap brandy.  He then thought that now would be a good time to give up what he had discovered yesterday.

"Director, we discovered that our people were being shadowed while on shore leave.  I only found out about his when they tried to tail me."

"I wasn't told about this!" Kirk jerked forward, a trace of his earlier anger back in his voice.

"The skipper and I decided to keep it to ourselves until more evidence could be gathered."  Richard paused and the SIO Director arched an eyebrow, inviting him to continue.  The expected bluster from Kirk did not come.

"I managed to make them lose me.  I then followed them back to base.  At first I thought they were SIO, but these two men were 'inexperienced.'"

A smile fluttered briefly across Prockter's face but he made no comment on Richard's dig and that confirmed to the XO that the
Adelaide
was under SIO surveillance, though now it seemed for a different reason than mere paranoia. 

“Where did they lead you?” the Director finally asked.

“They made no effort to cover their direction, once they realized that they had lost me, they headed straight back to home base.  The New Holland Parliament.  They were welcomed through the restricted access entrance to the Senate Offices.”

“Would you recognize these men again?”

“Of course.”

Richard could now see an odd gleam in the Director’s eye and he recognized it.  Katherine had the same gleam in her eye this morning before boarding the
William Light
.

“Why tell us about your dirty laundry Director.”  Kirk placed a splayed hand on the table as he leaned in towards Prockter.  “What do you want of us?”

“I want the same thing that you do.”

“And what it that?”

Richard studied the Director; Kirk wanted the thing voiced aloud.

“I want to find out the truth of who was involved in the Federation House attack.  I want definite proof that the Alliance was involved.  I want to know if the JUF knew that these added ‘resources’ supplied by their government contacts were Alliance.  I want to find out how deep the Alliance hooks go.”  Prockter’s voice grew hard as he spoke and his body stiffened as if the man was about to hit someone.

Richard could see the man was angry.  And it was directed inwards at himself.  The man was pissed that the Alliance had managed to weasel in under his nose and perform an atrocity so spectacular that everyone in New Holland would know – Richard’s thoughts staggered to a halt as realization hit home.

“The bugger is trying to play all the parties off against each other,” he said aloud.  “This incident would be the perfect excuse to lobby for your removal from Office Director Prockter.  Chandler could then appoint someone more to his taste to the position.”

Prockter’s eyes drilled into him before his mouth let out a curse.  “Now that sounds more like the Chandler I know.”  Prockter snarled as he spoke, clearly showing what he thought of New Holland’s current leader.  “He’s always hated me.  I won’t pander to his whims.  It would be just like him to go along with this just to get rid of me and not think further ahead about the consequences of making deals with the Alliance.”

Kirk was still leaning towards Prockter but he was now looking at Richard.

“The New Holland Constitution was drawn up on the same basis as the original Australian Constitution.  They only differ in one area of Constitutional powers.  In the old Australian Constitution the Governor General, as a representative of the British Crown, had the power to dismiss a sitting Prime Minister if the circumstances were right.  The New Holland Constitution was drawn up giving these powers to the First Councillor; of course a sitting First would never stand themselves down and call a new election.  The First also has the power to take ultimate control of the Government in the case of a National Emergency.”  Kirk turned to look at Prockter.  “I think this may involve more than just removing you Robert.  I think Chandler will use this to take permanent control of the Government by declaring that a National Emergency exists due to the attack and I would not be surprised if his JUF supporting friends help him in this.”

Prockter slowly nodded in agreement.  “We have no proof but I would lay good odds in your favor that you’re right.”

“How long will it be before the Senate would declare a State of Emergency?” Richard asked.

Prockter shrugged.  “It will depend on how well the lobbying goes.  Chandler will not call a sitting to discuss the attack until he knows he’ll have enough votes to support a dictatorship.  It could be two more days, maybe three.  A lot of the Councillors had the ‘Fear of God’ struck into them when they heard of the attack.  If Chandler’s faction gets the count they need it will be because the councillors will vote on their gut reaction of wanting something done to stop this happening again.”

“We will need to discredit Chandler’s supporters,” Kirk said as he relaxed back in his chair.  Richard got the distinct impression that the Ambassador was not surprised; had expected this turn of events, which made him wonder what else the SID knew and was holding back.

“And I know how to do it.”  The Director’s eyes came to rest on Richard.  The XO knew that this was going to be a long day.

Chapter

Nineteen

The first shot ricocheted along the octagonal corridor and dissipated against Katherine’s Kinetic shielding.  Her shields flared blue briefly with the impact marking her out as a target in the dark corridor.

Even before her shields cleared Tom was returning fire.  And she could hear the echo of gunfire from Steve’s group in the left hand corridor.  Now things are starting to get interesting.  Katherine dropped into a crouch as Tom fell back behind the corner under a hail of gunfire.

“These people have more ammo than s
ense,” he muttered over the Tac Net.

“Just remember to grab some after we clear them out.  And I mean that for everyone,” she said firing a few more rounds before sliding back around the corner.

“Steve, what have you got?”

“We’ve run into a group guarding an entrance way.  Looks like a lift.”

              “Ours are in front of a stairwell.  I count four hostiles.”

“We have a head count of four as well.”

“Let’s go and clear this vermin out.”

“Check that.  Alpha Squad going in.”

“Okay boys,” Katherine said turning to the crouching men, all their backs hugging the wall.  “Let’s start cleaning.”  Both gave her a quick nod.  Her onboard sensors had already updated her HUD map.  The T Junction they had just come off of was the head of a large octangular ring of corridors with exits going to a stair and lifts with another door sitting on the internal wall at the rear of the floor.  Katherine recognized the layout, recognized it well enough to know not to go to the rear door.  Daniel would be located on the fourth level, the Guinea Pig level.  Daniel was right.  This is Yunga all over again.

Katherine darted forward, assault rifle up and firing down the corridor, Tom moved past her, lithe and deadly, his rifle ready as he took his position to lay down covering fire.  Then Joshua scrambled passed to take up his posi
tion opposite Tom.  The Val Myran skidded to a halt and then ducked back abruptly as gunfire slammed into the rock wall showering Joshua in particles of stone and dust.

Joshua straightened and returned
fire as Katherine sprinted passed him to what she knew was the enemy position.  Her rifle was up and firing and her Kinetic shields rippled and flashed as it absorbed enemy gunfire; hopefully they’ll hold out long enough to get through the barricade.

The four guards were taking cover behind two steel riot barriers and taking it in turns to hold their rifles up over the shielding long enough to fire a quick burst at the Adelaidians.