The Winter War (27 page)

It was small, very small. Just
the very peak of an undersea mountain, maybe half a kilometre
across, with just enough flat ground on one side to land the
shuttle. The entire northern side was a hill of white rock with a
few scrubby trees and brushes decorating it. And there was a house
set into the cliff at the bottom of that.

Standing in the doorway of the
Plascrete building was a woman, tall, slim, attractive, of course,
with short black hair, clear blue eyes, and narrow, kind of cute,
features on a rounded face. There were even freckles visible across
her nose through her slight tan. She was dressed in a simple, black
mini-dress and kitten heels, and she stood with her ankles together
and her hands clasped in front of her.

‘Aneka Jansen and Ella Narrows,’
she said in a soft voice. ‘I am Justine Nivalis, please call me
Justine. I run this house for Winter. Please, come in and I’ll
explain the rules.’

‘There are rules?’ Ella
asked.

‘It’s a safe house,’ Aneka said.
‘There are going to be rules to make sure it stays safe.’

‘Precisely,’ Justine agreed. ‘I
don’t think you’ll find them too onerous, however.’

They walked in through the door
and she closed it behind them. Aneka heard locks engage. Inside was
a fairly large room, which indicated that the building had to
extend a fair way into the cliff. This room was a lounge with
several large comfortable-looking sofas around it. To their right
was an open doorway into a kitchen and ahead of them was a closed
door, which led further into the hill.

Justine indicated that they
should sit and waited for them to do so before she began speaking.
‘First, there are no long-range communication systems here. We are
“off the grid,” so to speak and we want to keep it that way. When
the danger is over, a ship will be sent to collect you. Until then
no one is going to know where you are.

‘Second, you can go outside
unless I indicate otherwise. If I say you need to stay in, there
is
a good reason for it. Please do as I ask. We have passive
sensor arrays on the hill monitoring for ships and satellites in
orbit any of which could be spying on the surface. There’s a
solarium with a pool in the back which can be used at any hour so
you may find that going outside is not necessary. Some people
prefer really fresh air to artificially fresh air, however. It is
possible to get up onto the hill. If you do, try to stay under
cover.’

She gave them a smile. ‘I’d ask
that you follow any security suggestions I make. There will be good
reason for them. Aside from that, you’re free to do as you wish.
The file servers here have an extensive list of films, music, and
literature. Aside from that, if you need anything, I am here to
service any requirement you may have.’

Ella looked at her and licked
her lips. ‘
Any
requirement?’ Aneka winced.

Justine, however, was not in the
least bit fazed. ‘Yes, Miss Narrows, but might I suggest we get you
settled in before I take my dress off?’

8.8.527 FSC.

The view from the top of the peak
behind the house was both spectacular and boring. They were
surrounded by calm ocean. There was little in the way of flat land
to the island; the hill fell into the sea on the other side from
the house. The ground between the sea and the house did a good
impression of being roughly flat, though Aneka knew you could land
an aircraft on it quite safely. There was little in the way of
cover anywhere on the island. Some scrub, a couple of stunted
trees, and that was about it. They were on a rock.

Aneka had left Ella in bed with
Justine to walk up the hill. The housekeeper had opened her eyes as
Aneka slipped out from under the sheets, nodded, and then closed
them again. Aneka was at least thirty per cent sure that the two
would be having sex again when she got down. She was not really
worried, nor did she care. They had had a good meal, Ella had got
fairly drunk, and then the sex had started. First it had been the
lounge, and then they had progressed through to the bedroom, ending
up falling into sleep huddled together. If it started again once
Ella woke up then that was fine. Of course, it was also possible
she would get down to find Justine feeding Ella painkillers.

Grinning, Aneka turned and
headed down the slope on the east side. Fifteen metres down she
came across a second set of sensors hidden under a bush which was
not really a bush.

‘More of the same sort as on the
other side,’ Al commented. ‘Phased array of sensor heads. Quite
capable of detecting objects in high orbit.’

‘No emissions at all?’

‘None. The sensors are connected
through to the house via shielded cables. Almost entirely
undetectable unless you know where you are looking.’

‘Hopefully we’ll see anything
that might come.’

‘Not if they have Xinti stealth
technology.’

‘Would that work in an
atmosphere?’

‘Slightly less effectively
against visual sensors, but it would be effective at stopping most
forms of detection.’

Aneka continued downward. ‘Let’s
hope they don’t come at us with one of those frigates.’

‘That assumes they even come.
This location is secret. I suspect it is one of those level-eight
secrets Truelove mentioned. Even the Agency does not know where it
is.’

‘First rule of being on the run,
Al: never assume your position is safe.’

High Yorkbridge, New Earth, 9.8.527
FSC.

The black car was armoured, heavily
armoured, and it carried in its passenger compartment a contingent
of seven Federal Security Agents in combat armour carrying both
side arms and rifles. It was the state of the art in protective
transport, staffed by experts in protection.

Unfortunately, it was in use
because Winter was making an entirely unplanned and unscheduled
trip to the central Administration building in Yorkbridge to give a
confidential briefing. There had been no time to do the normal
security sweeps the agents would have liked to have carried out.
The only advantage they had in a situation like this was that
would-be assassins had little time to plan their operation as
well.

Truelove looked more nervous
than Winter did. ‘The press have got wind of it. The site detail is
reporting cameras and reporters outside the building.’

Winter nodded. Truelove had
never really seen her look nervous now she thought about it. It was
always as though the woman thought she could survive anything. Or
that she did not care whether she survived. ‘It can’t be
helped.’

‘But the meeting was supposed to
be a secret.’

‘Yes. Equally, several of the
Representatives I’ll be briefing are, frankly, not trustworthy, and
they are publicity hounds. If they’re meeting with Winter they want
the world to know.’

‘You think that’s how the news
got out?’

‘I’m sure that the source could
be tracked back to a Representative’s office if we chose to look
for it.’

Truelove frowned at her. ‘That’s
rather evasive.’

Winter smiled. Her hand slipped
into her grey jacket and she took out a memory card. ‘Take this. If
I don’t tell you otherwise, in two days I want you to plug it into
a secure terminal and then leave the room. It’s encrypted, but you
don’t want to know what’s on it anyway.’

Taking the red plastic
rectangle, Truelove turned it in her fingers and then slipped it
into her bra. ‘You’re talking as though something is going to
happen.’

‘I’m quite sure
something
is going to happen, Elaine. Currently I’m not sure what it is.
There hasn’t been the time to… properly evaluate the possibilities.
Whatever happens, I trust you to do the right thing.’

The car came to a stop and four
of the guards filed out onto the concourse in front of the
Administration’s main office building in Yorkbridge, a huge,
towering Plascrete edifice. Winter was going to the very top.

Truelove started to follow, but
Winter put a hand on her arm. ‘You’re staying here. You go straight
back to the office. Put the Agency in full lockdown. When I’ve told
them what I’m going to tell them, we’re going to clean house.’ She
stepped out of the car, the three remaining men moving in behind
her, and started toward the doorway.

Truelove reached for the door,
pausing as Winter halted and looked back at her. The unassuming
blonde spy mistress smiled, and then her head exploded. Blood
sprayed out in a cone to her right, and the body stood there for
what seemed like minutes before beginning to fall. Truelove’s hand
closed convulsively around the door handle. She could not
understand, or react to, what she was seeing, even as the first of
the guards began to move, spinning and sighting around with his
rifle, looking for a shooter.

The sound, a sharp crack,
arrived a couple of seconds later, echoing between the buildings
and soon overwhelmed by the screams. Some part of Truelove’s brain,
which was functioning despite her shock, registered the fact that
the weapon had to be around a thousand metres away.

She yanked the door closed.
‘Drive!’

The car pulled away, tyres
screaming. She had been given an order. It was the last order
Winter, this Winter, was ever going to give, and Elaine Truelove
was going to make damn sure it was carried out.

Odanari.

Justine stretched. Ella watched her
stretch and licked her lips. Aneka rolled her eyes.

‘What?’ Ella asked, trying her
best to look innocent.

‘Let the woman have a day off,’
Aneka said, grinning.

Justine, lying out on a lounger
in the solarium wearing a small, but not minute, pair of bikini
briefs, smiled. ‘I don’t mind, Aneka. I’d prefer that we were all
relaxed, and Ella is clearly quite relaxed.’

‘Uh-huh. She goes off sex when
she’s nervous. It’s not often, but it happens.’

‘Negral,’ Ella said. ‘Before we
met the AIs anyway, and Old Earth after Yrimtan… I
needed
it
then, but I didn’t exactly
want
it.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘I still think a
day off would be good. Read a book or something.’

Ella sighed and lay back on her
own lounger. She was not wearing a stitch. ‘You’re probably right.
It’ll be better when we start again. And I have got a load of data
to read through. It’ll keep my mind busy.’

That was, of course, the main
problem with being in such an isolated location: boredom. Aneka was
reading trashy sci-fi novels, though
Kushiel’s Dart
was
turning out to be simultaneously less trashy, less sci-fi, and more
likely to have her suggesting that they could abstain the following
day. Ella was reading files from Aggy’s archives; it was a little
weird, but the girl actually enjoyed reading historical research
material. What Justine did to keep herself busy Aneka was not sure.
The woman did seem happy to indulge Ella’s urges, but Aneka was
starting to feel as though the redhead was taking advantage.

‘That sounds like a good idea,’
Aneka agreed, ‘but don’t you ever read fiction?’

Ella laughed. ‘You remember our
discussion about modern popular literature, don’t you? If you want
me to stop harassing Justine then the last thing I should do is
read that.’

‘I
really
don’t mind,’
Justine protested. ‘I’ve had much worse assignments than the two of
you, believe me. There was…’ She stopped. ‘I shouldn’t really
discuss them.’

‘Go on,’ Ella said, leaning
forward. ‘It’s not like we’re going to tell anyone.’

‘Well…’ Justine sat up, leaning
toward Ella and developing a conspiratorial grin. ‘Stephen
Teldarian was here for a few days…’

‘He knows where this place is?’
Aneka asked, her brow furrowing a little.

‘No,’ Justine replied. ‘He
doesn’t even know the planet he was on. Most people arrive here
with no idea where they are.’

‘Then how come we were
told?’

Justine shrugged. ‘You’d have to
ask Winter.’

‘She’s not here,’ Ella said.
‘Tell me about Teldarian.’

Justine grinned. ‘He was
charming and skilled, of course. Given his reputation that was to
be expected. It was just that he seemed to consider it a foregone
conclusion that I would sleep with him. I felt more like a fixture,
one of the household appliances he was employing for a purpose,
than a woman.’

‘He wasn’t like that with me,’
Aneka said, feeling an odd compulsion to defend the man.

‘You’re lucky. I think he could
be quite a nice man if he were more attentive. Socially. Physically
he was most attentive, but mentally… Anyway, Senator Elroy was here
for five days once. There was some assassin after him. It took him
four days to get around to asking me, even though he kept looking
at me like I was a sex android, and then I’d have got more out of
my vibrator.’

‘He opened up a bit to Aneka,’
Ella said. ‘About Old Earth history.’

‘Ah yes,’ Justine said. ‘As I
recall, Teldarian considers that one of his two hobbies. Perhaps
that’s why he liked Aneka so much.’

‘His other hobby being?’ Aneka
asked.

‘I’d have thought that was
obvious. Sex.’

‘I think that’s more of a
vocation for him.’ Aneka grinned. ‘Same with Ella.’

‘Hey!’ Ella squeaked. Then she
shrugged and added, ‘Well, no, you might be right.’

FSA Headquarters, Yorkbridge, 10.8.527
FSC.

Truelove lifted her head as the door of
the office opened. Two men in combat uniforms, with helmets and
carbines, stepped through and took up positions on either side of
the door. They were followed by a short man, slim, greying at the
temples, with watery, grey eyes. His dark grey suit was pressed
within an inch of its life. Two more men followed him into the
room, dressed and equipped just like the first two, but they walked
around him, taking up positions beside the locked inner door.

‘Agent Elaine Truelove,’ the man
said, ‘I am Administrator Marcus Dowler and I’ve been assigned as
interim head of the Federal Security Agency.’