The Fight for Peace (12 page)

“Thank you, ma’am,” Pyotr said, keeping his face straight despite the gleam in Menendez’s eye when she glanced toward Kirkpatrick. Key in hand, he faced his platoon.

“Well get to work,” Cori said into Pyotr’s uncertain silence as she looked down the barrel of her rifle. “I’m barely hitting the target and I think we have a bet to win.”

Chapter 13

THE LADY GREY

TRIAL AND ERROR

“I didn’t realize who she was until we were at her place,” Warrant Officer Makkonen stated.

Arinna had to concentrate very hard not to glance at Jared. “You did the correct thing by reporting the ... interaction, soldier,” Arinna said.

Jared coughed at her pause. Now she had to resist the urge to hit him too. Her eyes stung with held back tears even though she knew the officer was earnest, and this had the potential to be serious.

“Should I ... not see her again?” Makkonen asked.

“She wasn’t found guilty of any offense against the Guard or Prime Minister Vasquez,” Jared said. “You know what you can and can’t say. There is no rule against who you date when you are off duty.”

Jared spoke so smoothly that his quick sideways glance threw Arinna off guard. He would find a way to lecture her and Kristoffer Makkonen at the same time. She nearly pointed out there were rules, but let it go. That was her point, not the one she needed to make to the officer in front of her.

“Although if she does say or do anything out of the usual, please let us know,” Arinna continued, ignoring Jared.

“Of course,” Makkonen hesitated, ready to be dismissed, but hadn’t been given permission to do so yet. Now Arinna smiled.

“Did she say anything unusual?” Arinna asked.

“No, ma’am,” Makkonen said. “We didn’t discuss the Guard at all. She seemed uncomfortable that I was a soldier actually. Until the morning. She asked if things were quiet right now due to the peace negotiations and seemed surprised when it wasn’t either of you keeping an eye on things there. She asked what you both were doing.”

“Really? What did you say?” Jared asked, eyes bright though he leaned casually against his desk.

“That Captain Prescot was protecting Europe and that you had your own mission. I didn’t tell her what. When I questioned her on why she wanted to know, she said it was so that Parliament knew who to request updates from. I told her the contact was Chief Communications Officer Racée.”

“Good,” Arinna said to keep herself from snorting. “Keep our whereabouts to yourself. You’re dismissed.”

Jared sat on his desk as the door shut behind Makkonen. “I would have loved to have seen the look on Danielle’s face when Chris told her that.”

“I’m sure he was attempting to find a way to make the news sound a little less standoffish,” Arinna said with a laugh.

“Oh well, apparently you would know. I don’t have those sorts of conversations with Maureen,” Jared shot back.

The conversation threatened to shift to one that she felt was none of Jared’s business, or at least wasn’t anymore. Arinna pulled it back. “I can’t imagine it is random chance that Danielle le Marc would start an affair with a Guard officer. But whatever her reasons, it does make it easy to have her watched.”

Jared opened his mouth to speak, a spark in his green eyes. But he caught himself and sighed. Arinna hated that some of the teasing they gave each other was over, but it had to be. Even Jared could appreciate some things were serious.

“Yeah, not often opportunities like that fall in our lap. I doubt we’ll get a full confession out of her, but you never know,” Jared said. “How much longer do you need for your tests?”

“Antsy to get back to Argentina?”

“To the tiny platoon of Guard with one whole plane that won’t even hold all of them? Yeah, I’m a little anxious to get back and bring more weapons and arrange a better survey of the area.”

“Shit, now I want you to head back too,” Arinna said, pulling at the short locks that slipped through her fingers as she swept her hands through her hair. “I’ll keep using the back-up dactyls. Maybe the problem isn’t the lack of another operato
r—
”

“No, I’m staying for this. Derrick is fine. I talk to him every day. Kehm is monitoring the area and despite my worry nothing is going on. If we can get this to work, we have a plan B if things go wrong at the peace talks. We need that.”

“Then we’ll do it tomorrow,” Arinna said.

“I thought you were working on some calculation?”

“I am. But I can tweak it one way and then another all night. The shield doesn’t act in a way that any computer we have right now can model. It all comes down to field tests and it’ll go faster if we start running them so I can cross off what doesn’t work.”

“Sounds like a great day. Can’t wait. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going home to my wife.”

Arinna shook her head at Jared’s back as he left her in the hallway outside of his office, trying to ignore the fact she envied he had a place and family to go home to. The summer in Rhiol and the early fall with Derrick flashed through her mind before she could stop it. With a sigh, Arinna headed down to Command and another night spent staring at computer screens trying to solve a problem it said was unsolvable, and she would bet she could figure out if she had the time and resources. But she didn’t have years and only had Jared a few days. With any luck, she could trick the computer into doing something useful.

Arinna had chosen the remnants of a small town on the European side of the Wasteland as the test range. It was close enough to Prague that she could zip back and forth in the dactyl without issue. She was first and foremost the primary Commander for Europe. But she also needed a target she could try to blow up, if she ever got that far in the trials.

Despite some initial hope after a long night of simulation runs, by mid-morning Arinna was swearing. To her irritation Jared started to laugh.

“Did you sleep at all?” he asked, still chuckling.

“Shut up,” Arinna snapped and sighed. It wasn’t his fault she was tired and irritated. “Maybe if we align the two spare dactyl
s—
”

“Maybe if we take a break?” Jared interrupted.

Arinna was going to argue but stopped. “Meet you outside,” she said instead.

The configuration of dactyls she was trying at the moment put her and Jared’s within a few hundred feet and the two spare as mirror images on the other side of the town, each set with a transport plane. She and Jared met between theirs, both turning to look over the ruined city. Arinna immediately began rethinking potential placements of dactyls and transports.

“Now I know you are frustrated,” Jared said. “You didn’t even try to talk me out of a break.

Arinna sighed and dropped to an old stone wall. The day was cool, but not freezing, even for late January. The sun was out and felt warm on her face and she could swear she smelled soil unthawing.

“There are so many factors. We’ve overlapped the shields on three dactyls in a line in Tashkent, but the area we chose was fairly flat. To create a circle across uneven terrain and around something ... maybe it isn’t possible,” Arinna said as Jared sat beside her.

Jared was quiet, picking at blades of long grass growing between the stones. He chewed on a stem and gazed on the husk of a town. “That isn’t like you. You don’t give up on things. Anything,” he said a bit more forcefully, gaze tinged with mild anger. Arinna stared at the stones near her feet. “Heck, it took you how many years, but you managed to recreate, create, the shields. You can solve this too.”

Arinna leaned against the stones and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe you are giving me pep talks now.”

Jared snorted. “I wish I understood this enough to help. The techs who ran the trials before didn’t come up with anything?”

“They said this couldn’t be done,” she admitted. “About the same as what they said when I came back from having seen the shield created out of crossed power lines and a nearly destroyed station.”

Arinna sat up and surveyed the town again. To their left was the high point of a hill. They sat on a second ridge while across from them and to the right swept a lower valley and small stream. It was challenging. Maybe it was too challenging.

“We need to start over. Let’s put our dactyls nose to nose and see if we can even make a spheroid shield over both of them. If we can, we’ll back them up and see at what point it fails.”

“Then add a third at that point?” Jared asked. “That sounds like a plan.”

With the transport planes working at maximum capacity as generators, they could make a sphere over both dactyls at five hundred yards apart.

“I don’t know how strong this is,” Arinna said, her gaze on the crackling electric shield. It didn’t look stable, not like when the dactyls had been close. Then it had been transparent with only a hum that stood her hair on end to warn of the power surrounding them. Now the erratic fluctuations sparked anxiety.

“We could ask Kehm to send a bomb our way, but I’m not sure he’d do it,” Jared said.

“I’m afraid he might!” Arinna replied with a laugh.

“We can work on strength later. Let’s see what happens when we add a third plane.

Nothing happened. The shield completely failed.

“It isn’t stable,” Arinna said with a groan.

“The shield is designed to form around what it is protecting, right?”

“That would be the definition of a shield,” Arinna said.

“Well maybe we are adding too much force from the inside. A bubble can’t exist if the inside pressure is unequal to the outside.”

Arinna was happy the video display wasn’t on. She didn’t want Jared to know just how much he’d stunned her.

“But that won’t work,” Jared said before she could reply. “They form around the dactyls, not in front.”

“I thought you didn’t understand this stuff. Where it forms is just a programming function. Give me a couple of minutes,” she said, attention focused on the code scrolling across her dactyl monitor. Arinna asked Jared to move the other two dactyls and their accompanying transport planes while she worked. When she looked away from the screen half an hour later, Jared had programmed the four planes so that the empty two sat facing the others while hers and Jared’s were tail to tail across a small field.

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“Playing with millions of volts of electricity to create a shield that vaporizes anything that touches it? Sure,” Jared drawled.

It made her appreciate that running experiments where they were the guinea pigs probably wasn’t the healthiest of pastimes. Kehm was probably having seizures. But they were also the best at working together and getting out alive. Arinna hit the command for the four dactyls to generate a shield.

Electricity hissed around her plane, expanding outward to merge with those produced by the other three planes. She had to keep an eye on the two projecting the shields in front. But this time with a few quick adjustments instead of disintegrating and setting off warning lights, the shields merged and held.

“Shit.” Jared said quietly. “I can’t believe that worked. How big can we make this thing?”

With just the four, they couldn’t make it big enough to enclose the town, but they got close.

“Considering we have to use alternating pairs, I think with four more dactyls we could spread a shield around a city,” Arinna said with satisfaction that afternoon. 

“Yeah, but we only have ten, and we have two cities we are trying to surround,” Jared pointed out.

“True, but the shield technology is easier to produce than a dactyl. We can rig the transport planes with them, which means not putting our best weapons out of commission to generate the shields. Now that we know this is going to work, I’ll get the techs started.”

“Speaking of weapons, we need to figure out how to protect whatever we are using to generate the shields ... on opposite sides of the shield,” Jared said with a groan. “You don’t make this easy.”

Arinna laughed. “Hey, you don’t like it, you come up with a better idea!”

“I can think of one thing. We should try to blow the town up,” Jared said. “Just to make sure this shield works like the small ones.”

Arinna could hear the smile in his voice. “Tomorrow, and we’ll be the dactyls on the outside. Just in case.”

Chapter 14

PRIME MINISTER BYRAN VASQUEZ

CHANGE OF GUARD

“So why isn’t North America and any discussion of Isle Royale included in this?” Byran asked Sergi Novikovich. “The city is FLF controlled as well. Don’t you care if we want to blow up your compatriots?”

Sergi stared at him a moment, hand frozen mid-reach for a document. Finally he huffed a laugh. “I did not realize you knew about them. But of course, your spy in Irkrist would have told you.” Sergi paused, waiting for confirmation. Byran said nothing.

“The alliance with Isle Royale is complicated at the moment. Of course we do not wish you to go to war with them. But perhaps our treaty will ... make them reconsider their stance on a few items where we have had recent disagreements,” Sergi added.

“So you hope to use this peace treaty to coerce them into something,” Byran said dryly.

“In a sense, yes,” Sergi said with a laugh.

The other members of the FLF delegation glanced at each other, tense despite Sergi’s amusement. Byran tried not to react to the undercurrent in the room, sorting through the documents of agreements discussed over the previous weeks.

“So they are a sovereign power?” Byran asked casually. “I mean when it comes down to needing to draft a treaty, I will need to meet with them?”

Damir glared at Sergi before keeping him from answering. Instead, Damir spoke, “They have a separate government but despite any current differences they are FLF. We are the same organization.”

Byran smiled, happy to see he’d ruffled Damir. From everything Derrick said about the man, and what he’d intended to do to Derrick, bothering Damir always made Byran happy.

“I understand. In an emergency, say an external attack, you’d help them and they’d help you. The concept is understood, which is why we don’t need to outline it here,” Byran responded.

Sergi snorted at the glint of tight anger in Damir’s eyes. “You have everything you need to take back to your Parliament?” Sergi asked.

“Yes, I believe so. There will be a few points that are not as well received as others, but I will see what I can do. What will you do over this short break? It isn’t enough time to travel back to Crystal City, is it?” Byran asked.

Besides the Guard and FLF soldiers at positions around the perimeter of the chapel, Byran was alone with the FLF delegation. The final items for today’s session had ended nearly an hour ago, but the FLF had been chatty. The remainder of the European delegation had returned to their rooms to anxiously pack, happy to return to Prague even if only for a week. Byran had stayed though, organizing items and seeing what he could learn about the FLF. Despite everything they said, he still didn’t fully believe they were truly there for a peace treaty. But he’d found nothing to indicate another plan.

“We could drive home, but not back,” Ivan Petrovich said. “So we will stay here, sleep in, talk to family at home on the radio.”

Pyotr Grekov had confirmed Ivan was the man introduced to him as his cousin. It was another strange connection that Byran didn’t understand or was certain he believed. Too many doubts ran through his head. If he looked forward to a break from the peace negotiations, it was just to be away from second guessing everything spoken while weighing every word he said in response. That and to be warm again. A headache and near frostbite had plagued his life since this process began at the beginning of the month.

“You have to remember,” Sergi said. “I don’t need approval for what we’ve agreed to. My word and signature binds Irkirst to the agreement. There is no need for us to go back. Have a good trip, Prime Minister. We will see you in a week.”

Sergi offered his hand. Byran shook it and took his leave, Lieutenant Farrak Assad meeting him at the door. They walked shoulder to shoulder across the narrow band of frozen courtyard and slipped into the European wing of the dormitory.

“It is interesting, isn’t it, that Mr. Novikovich claims to rule Irkist but yet the FLF delegation refers to the government of their sister city Isle Royale as it is ruled by several people?” Farrak asked.

“You caught that too?” Byran asked. “I wish we could listen to their transmissions home.”

“Who says we won’t try?” Farrak asked. “I’m certainly going to recommend we find some way. We leave in an hour. Will that give you enough time, Prime Minister?”

“I’d be happy if we left now, assuming your plane has a heater?”

Farrak chuckled. “I’ll go warm it up, sir.”

Byran had agreed that Arinna should leave, but he’d missed her the moment she’d departed in her sleek plane. Lieutenant Assad who’d replaced her had been cool and distant to both Byran and the FLF delegation. But it had been Byran’s amusement at the sudden switch in Guard Commanders on site, and the FLF delegation’s lack of comment on it, that had broken through Farrak’s standoffishness.

Furtive glances cast toward Farrak all day had both of them chuckling as Farrak made certain Byran could call base and be patched through to Derrick. After that, a daily rehash of what Farrak had seen or Byran suspected became an evening occurrence. Farrak was sharp-eyed and suspicious along with a good mind. Adding to what Farrak saw with information from Derrick, and what Byran sensed by carefully chosen phrases or the timing of glances, helped them build a better profile of their enemies who wanted to be friends. Neither of them could confirm anything duplicitous, but neither trusted the FLF.

As the hour wound down, Byran walked to the exit facing the graveyard where the three Guard dactyls perched. Farrak waited at the door.

“Figured you’d be early. Go ahead and get settled. You can ride in the front with me, if you like. It’ll be tight in the back otherwise with seven,” Farrak said.

“We’re just taking the one plane back?”

“You think I trust the FLF enough to leave them here unattended? One platoon is staying along with the other two dactyls in case they need to leave. They’ll make sure the FLF keep to their side of the monastery and don’t plan any unwanted welcome surprises.”

Enveloping warmth and the release of weeks of tension had Byran dozing in the Captain’s chair despite the view and the nervousness usually inspired by flying. The arrival at the Guard base in Prague held no fanfare. Before leaving he considered locating Arinna, but finding nothing waiting for him except an escort to his carriage, Byran left reports, and even a friendly welcome, for other times. He wanted his family, his home, and his bed.

Cerilla met him at the door, though Santi was only a step behind. Isabella’s slow kiss reminded him of why he’d fallen for her, her lips lingering against his.

“We missed you,” Isabella whispered as she rested her head against his jaw.

“I missed you. But I smell disgusting and haven’t had a proper shower, or been warm, in near a month,” Byran said as he dropped his bags in the entrance hall to what had officially become the Prime Minister’s residence.

Isabella laughed, promising the kids a week with their father, but he caught a tenseness around her eye that made him hesitate before finding the hot shower he so deeply wanted. “There is something you need to tell me?” he asked.

“Nothing that can’t wait until you’re showered, warm, and fed,” she said, kissing him again.

There was a time he would have demanded to know what news bothered her. But age and too many emergencies that grew into long battles had taught him to be grateful of the good in his life and to ignore problems that could wait. He knew his friends were in one piece and that Europe wasn’t being attacked. Those were things he’d have heard about immediately. Anything else, Byran agreed with Isabella, could wait.

The hour was late and the kids were long since in bed when Byran finally felt ready to tackle whatever news Isabella had. When he asked about it, she pulled out a newspaper.

“The article there,” Isabella said, indicating one on the front page near the bottom.

“Cancelled elections an insult to European citizens?” Byran read. He skimmed the rest irritated by the exaggerations mixed with unpleasant facts. He looked for an author, but didn’t see one. “Whoever wrote it knows Parliament well to access attendance and voting records like that,” Byran said.

“It’s Danielle. I’m sure of it,” Isabella said. She pulled out a few other papers. “The articles are sent to the same contacts I used when we were trying to get the election proposal passed. She is using what we did this fall to injure your reputation.”

Byran laughed. If this was the worst emergency he faced after three weeks living in barely tolerable conditions with FLF soldiers as his neighbors, he might actually begin to believe peace were possible. However, Isabella did not look ready to give up her irritation. “We created an interest in elections. Are you sure the reporters are not continuing a story we started?”

“With references to voting records? Even you pointed out that those came from someone in Parliament.”

“So be it,” Byran said, dropping the paper to sweep his wife up in his arms. He kissed her when she tried to argue. It took another, one with more heat and desire to fully distract her. After that Byran didn’t care if someone called to say Europe was under attack. He wanted the next few hours with his wife.

Two days later, Byran felt more himself as he sat in Guard Command. He’d gone over the proposals of the peace treaty and then left the half-full session of Parliament to debate them with only the warning he needed decisions by the end of the week. The six other members of the European delegation were Senators. Byran trusted them to explain anything not clear.

Today he finally had a chance to meet with Arinna, although anything social wouldn’t be for a few hours when she came to dinner. For now it was an overview of what Lieutenant Assad had learned of the FLF to prepare Lieutenant Faronelli for her turn.

“Captain Vries is not joining us?” Byran asked when he realized all the chairs were taken and the Second Captain of the Guard was not present.

“Returning to Argentina. I’ll fill him in later,” Arinna said. “How was your rotation, Lieutenant?”

Farrak frowned as he sat straight-backed. “I don’t trust them. I agree with you and Captain Vries there. I, we,” he said with a glance to include Byran, “couldn’t find anything apparent, but ... something is off. I think they are planning something and stalling for time.”

That news chilled Byran, scratching away some of the comfort the last few days home had given him. “I hadn’t considered that. It might explain why they debate the smallest item for hours to suddenly give in the next day,” Byran admitted.

“Speaking of that, can we monitor their communications? Have we been?” Farrak asked.

Chief Communications Officer Kehm Racée had remained standing near the controls to the video links. Arinna glanced his way instead of answering. Kehm shrugged.

“I’m trying. They continue to use outdated equipment and switch bands frequently. I catch bits but not enough to understand what they are saying, assuming they don’t use code,” Kehm answered.

“Which I could see,” Farrak said. “They’d like something classic like that. Long range radio and an Enigma machine.”

“I don’t think they are only using outdated equipment,” Kehm said.

“Why?” Arinna asked when he didn’t continue.

“Again, like Lieutenant Assad says, nothing I can point at specifically, but our communications from the peace negotiations have had bands of static. We didn’t even have that during the war. But something is interfering with our satellite links.”

Arinna’s amused look at Farrak’s description of the FLF took on a serious edge at that. “How much of our communications are affected? Argentina ...?”

“Is fine. Occasional static but nothing like when it is coming from the negotiations,” Kehm answered.

“Do you think they are listening to us?” Byran asked, unnerved by the thought and what he’d discussed with Derrick. But he’d never seen indication that the FLF delegations knew what he’d discussed with his Secretary of Defense.

“No. Honestly, I’m not certain,” Kehm said, gaze jumping from Byran to his Commander. Arinna didn’t blink. “It is more like interference with the satellite link than actual interception. They might be testing something to scramble our communications in an emergency.”

“Shit.” Arinna said, sitting back in her chair as she squeezed the bridge of her nose. “You can’t talk at the same time anymore,” she said to Byran. “Actually that goes for us too,” she added to Gabriella. “I don’t want them to know when calls are scheduled, and I want the dactyls locked down at all times. Kehm, is there any way to sweep the monastery for equipment that might be causing his?”

“I’ll work on it,” Kehm promised.

“I’ll keep an eye on their soldiers,” Gabriella promised. “If we know when they are coming and going, we might be able to track the ones who disappear when we have scheduled talks.”

“Good point. So make it look like the traditional calls are still going out. But no information, just monitor who is missing and Kehm, see if you can find where the interference is coming from.”

“Hopefully you’ll be able to find out what they are doing,” Farrak said to Gabriella.

“If they are doing anything,” she replied. “I hear what you are saying, all of you. But you want me to go to report on what I see and form my own opinion. That is what I will do.”