“I
do not know. I was apprehensive about the assignment from the moment General
Bain gave it to me. He was aware of my apprehension, but refused to assign
another officer. As you remember, in the car coming back from the operations
center, I had a similar reaction when discussing her presence with the
ambassador. It is not only her. It is the idea of her.”
“Well,
she definitely knew what you were going through,” I said. “That was obvious.
She knew and she was enjoying it. And when I see her tomorrow, I’m going to
find out exactly what the hell it is and make her stop it.”
“That
is not necessary, Mr. Welles,” Takeda said. “I believe I can overcome this
through the proper application of my meditative techniques.”
“I’m
not doing it for you,” I said. “She was trying to play games with me too.
And we both have a job to do here. We don’t need distractions.”
Takeda
stared at me for a moment, then bowed her head.
I
returned the bow. “So let’s put that aside for now. Before we went in to see
Heymann, you said that you needed to talk with me about
something.”
“Correct,”
she said. “This man Marc Shuster. What is your connection to
him?”
“We
were in the army together,” I said. “Pretty close, drifted apart after he
got out. Stayed in touch on and off before the war. He called a couple of
days ago, said he was going to be in town for business. Had lunch with him
yesterday.” I paused. “Turns out he was bullshitting me about his business,
but it may have been an elaborate prank. He had a fondness for that kind of
thing. Said he’d call later in the week to get together, so I should find
out what the story is then.”
“Would
you consider him a close friend?”
“Why?”
She
stared at me but said nothing.
I
shook my head. “Maybe twenty years ago we were close friends,” I said. “Now
he’s just an old friend that I didn’t keep up with. Why?”
“We
believe it to be a fact that Shuster is part of the element within the
vampire command structure that wants to kill Dr. Heymann.”
“Marc
is human.”
She
nodded. “And he probably works for one of the Area Governor’s Offices in the
mid-west. Area Six or perhaps Area One. We continue to check personnel
files, but it is difficult. He would not be in the files under his real
name.”
“You
know, Marc had a pendant,” I said. “Never saw one like it. It looked like it
had a hologram on the front. The letters GG. He said it was issued to him by
the Governor General’s Office.”
Takeda
took out her phone and dialed a number. “This is Takeda. Add the Governor
General’s Office to the Shuster data sweep.”
She
listened for a moment, then said, “Get clearance from General Bain. If he
has questions, have him contact me.” She hung up the phone.
“Where’s
your suspicion about Shuster coming from?”
Takeda
was silent.
“Brenner,”
I said. “He had a real interest in that funky credit card that Shuster left
behind. It meant something to him.”
Nothing.
She just stared at me.
“Come
on, Takeda,” I said. “If Shuster is involved, I need to know everything you
know. He’s human. He can operate day or night. If he’s gonna make a run at
me, I have to know what I’m up against.”
“Brenner
recognized the credit card,” she said. “The missing security code, the
company name, the mail drop in Minnesota.”
“How?”
“Because
Champion cards are standard issue to Special Collections
personnel.”
Chapter
Eleven
I
didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. First because it took me almost an
hour to get the whole story out of Takeda. And second, because if she was
right, keeping Konrad Heymann alive had just gotten a whole lot
harder.
Special
Collections personnel were hunters and assassins.
They
hunted Unbound vampires, those like Joshua without the blood connection between
bloodparent and bloodchild. If they were discovered, Special Collections was
called in to find and kill them.
They
hunted the human Resistance. Not so much the rank and file members, but the
leaders, the driving forces of resistance to the Vees. Often human operators
in Special Collections were used for that task, since they could more easily
infiltrate a Resistance cell and get close to the people in
charge.
And
they were used as assassins, to eliminate humans and Vees that were
considered obstructive to their handler’s objectives. Human targets were
usually tagged by Vees, Vee targets by humans. It made it easier to blame
Vees for the human deaths and the Resistance for the Vee deaths. There was
enough of that kind of murder, by Vees and by the Resistance, that a couple
of extra corpses wouldn’t stand out.
Each
of the seven administrative areas had a Special Collections detachment
attached to the local Area Governor’s Office. They generally operated in
teams of three or five, depending on the assignment. Mixed teams. One Vee,
two humans. Two humans, three Vees. It gave them flexibility. If a
detachment was short-handed, it was a high priority to fill the hole. Takeda
refused to say if Brenner had been transferred from Area One to Area Three
because of the ambassador’s visit or only because they were short on Special
Collections staff. But I figured he was here because of Heymann.
Shuster’s
American Express card had given him away to Brenner. Champion Cards, as
Takeda called them, were standard issue to Special Collections operatives in
the mid-west areas. Other areas apparently had their own special cards, but
she didn’t provide details.
On
the face of it, they were normal credit cards, even though they were missing
the security code. They could be used anywhere and the bills were paid
promptly by the area government. If they were compromised, they could be
cancelled, as Shuster had done, and the only trail would lead to a
commercial mail drop.
But
they had a second purpose. They served as an identification card of sorts
when needed. Every Special Collections operator knew the company names on
the special credit cards. Flashing one casually, while paying the check at a
restaurant for example, would identify you to another operator, even if he
or she didn’t know you.
Maybe
Shuster had thought I was more tightly connected to the Area Three
Governor’s Office than I am.
Because
Shuster had mentioned Omaha to me, and had used a card with a Minneapolis
mail drop, they were focusing their search in Areas Seven and One. The
Governor General’s Office pendant I’d seen around Shuster’s neck had led
Takeda to expand the search to his office as well.
The
problem, for me, was that they were looking for background information,
trying to follow the trail back to the Vees who had sent him on this
assignment. That was all well and good, but it didn’t help me protect
Heymann. Based on what Takeda told me, Special Collections agents were like
a bullet. Once they’d been fired at a target, there was no putting them back
into the gun.
And
if she was right, it wasn’t a single bullet. It was a volley.
I
might have an edge if he didn’t know he was blown. Takeda said they were
being very low key on what she called the data sweep. They didn’t want to
spook Shuster or the Vees he was working for. If he didn’t know that we knew
his secret, he might set up another meeting with me. He had to know I was
assigned to the ambassador’s security detail. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to
resist the opportunity to ask a few subtle questions.
I
had a few subtle questions of my own to ask him. Right before I put a bullet
in his head.
It
wasn’t going to be easy to keep Shuster and his team away from Heymann,
especially if the ambassador decided to go for a walk or a drive. I’d need
maximum effort from the Security Force troopers in B Company.
And
I had problems there as well.
I
went through the Second Street security checkpoints in my Jeep at about ten
after six the next morning and I was glad to see them give me the full
treatment. Since Shuster would have access to Security Force identification,
maybe even a Humvee or one of those big Ford SUVs they liked, we’d have to
tighten up the checkpoints even more. I'd track down Bristow, brief him,
and have him start working up the procedures.
But
I didn’t need to find Bristow. He found me, before I had even crossed the
street to the square. He had Martinez with him.
She
looked rough. Swollen, split lip, bruise on her cheek, the beginnings of a
black eye.
“Blanket
party,” Bristow said.
“My
office.” I started for the security trailer and they fell in behind
me.
Takeda
was still behind the desk, talking to the female Security Force officer I’d
seen in the outside office the night before. “I need the office,” I said
flatly.
She
looked past me, her eyes on Martinez. “Of course.”
Bristow
nodded to the woman. “Allison.”
“Sid,”
she said. “Nothing to report. All quiet.”
“Thanks.”
“This
is Captain Edwards,” Takeda said. “Commander, A Company. Captain, this is
Mr. Welles, my opposite number on the dayside deployment.”
“Mr.
Welles,” she said with a quick salute. She turned to Takeda. “I’ll see you
at the warehouse, Commander.”
Takeda
nodded. “Fifteen minutes.”
She
straightened the desk and stepped from behind it. “If you need me, call.
Otherwise, I’ll see you at twenty-one ten tonight.”
As
she started for the door, I said, “Miss Takeda.”
She
turned.
“How
far, exactly, does my authority extend with B Company?”
“As
far as you choose to take it, Mr. Welles.”
“And
if I need to replace personnel?”
She
glanced at Bristow. “Captain Bristow can make the arrangements. The
replacements will be on-site in less than an hour.”
“Good
enough,” I said. “Get some sleep.”
“I
intend to,” she said. “Captain, trooper.” She nodded at Bristow and
Martinez, then left the office.
“Shut
the door,” I said.
Bristow
closed the door and stepped into the corner. Martinez stood there. As I sat
down behind the desk, she saw something in my eyes and came to
attention.
“Sir,”
she said.
“What
happened, Martinez?”
“Nothing
that the trooper can’t handle, sir.”
I
shook my head slowly. “That’s not the answer to the question I asked,
trooper. And I believe I already told you to lose the third-person
bullshit.”
“Yes,
sir,” she said. “Sorry, sir.”
I
didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then asked, “Do I have to repeat my
question?”
“No,
sir,” she said. “Like the captain said, the platoon threw me a welcome-home
blanket party last night. It’s nothing, not a big deal. I can handle it on
my own.”
Blanket
parties were popular well before my time in the army. When the guys in the
barracks wanted to punish somebody or drive them out of the unit, they’d
wait until lights out, then throw a blanket over the victim and start
punching and kicking.
You
rarely see severe injuries from blanket parties. They’re done to send a
message, not to cripple. Somebody was sending a message to Martinez. Maybe
to me as well.
A
lot of people think I’m pretty calm and easy-going. Those people haven’t
seen me get angry.
“Who
was it?”
She
shook her head. “I don’t know, sir.”
“Who
was it?” I asked again.
“Sir,
it was dark. I can’t identify...”
“Martinez!”
I came to my feet.
She
stopped.
“Do
not fuck with me, trooper,” I said through my teeth. It was only partially
an act. I was beginning to get genuinely angry. “When I ask you a question,
you answer it, honestly. Otherwise I’ll have you returned to the Area
Operations Center. And you can be sure that you will spend the rest of your
fucking career inside that mountain.”
Her
eyes were wide, and she was trembling, just a little. I was impressed with
myself. Martinez was a tough girl.
“Sir,
the trooper...sir, I don’t want to rat out my friends.”
“Let
me explain something to you, Martinez. The people who did this are not your
friends. They are not your comrades. They are your enemies. They want to
drive you out of First Platoon. They don’t care about you.”
“Sir...”
I
dropped back into the chair. “But that’s only a small part of the problem I
have with this,” I said, interrupting her. “You are currently assigned as my
aide. As we discussed yesterday, you are my eyes, my ears and my voice. When
you act, you are acting as an extension of me, like a third arm. So when
someone splits your lip or blackens your eye, they are doing that to me as
well. I can’t allow that to happen.” I paused. “Who was it?”