A chirp from the Director’s desk distracted them from an awkward silence. Yorda slid the door aside, revealing a young Chinese man in sharp ultrablack slacks and an embroidered oriental vest over a scarlet silk shirt. His salute, crisp and precise, sent the slender plait sprouting from the back of his crew-cut head swinging across his back. “Esper-class psion rank nine, Gao Wenlong, reporting!” His narrow obsidian eyes flicked to each of the other three operatives, extending a tenuous mindlink as they returned the abbreviated salute. The three women ignored his psychic overture, but Jeremy quirked a smile.
It’s good to see you here, Wenlong, he thought.
Thanks, the telepath replied. What are we here for, anyway? He received a mild surge of curiosity and impatience from Jeremy, a hint that he ought to sit down and listen, which he did — to Yorda, admonishing him about being late, whereupon he sighed and insisted on mindlinking her. Their eyes locked for several seconds.
“Hmm,” the Director said when Wenlong broke contact, and elaborated no further. Instead, she rested her forearms on her desk, clasping her elbows, and regarded the four operatives seriously.
“We have a potentially serious situation on our hands,” she stated. “The Guado claim they have just signed an alliance treaty with the Covenant — as unlikely,” she held up a slim hand to forestall the inevitable exclamations of disbelief, “as unlikely as that sounds, that can only mean they’ve gone beyond merely vying for control of the Helikree territories and have begun to make preparations to take it by force. Our source has indicated that the Guado are transporting the signed treaty home, or at least a copy of it; apparently nobody’s told the Guado that that’s a tactical mistake of the first order, which gives us the perfect opportunity to nip this in the bud. As you’ve probably already surmised, this is extremely little to go by, so the UNT has requisitioned a preemptive move. Get on board and find out whether this document actually exists.”
“Can’t we just … ask?” Wenlong inquired, just to cover that base. The answer seemed rather obvious:
“Would you admit to an alliance with the Covenant?” Beat. “Neither did they. We doubt this treaty actually exists — the Covenant are next to impossible to negotiate with, but you also know how charming the Guado can be —”
“Obsequious,” Jeremy corrected.
“You said it, not I. But that being so, we have to acknowledge it’s within the realm of the possible that they’ve somehow succeeded in allying with the Covenant.”
“So, hypothetically speaking, if it did?” Jill wanted to know.
“Then you have to take it off their hands.”
Danae shifted in her chair. “Director,” she said carefully, “I understand the need to carry out this mission — heaven knows I like the idea of a Guado-Covenant alliance as little as anyone here — but, with respect, why us? I mean, for an operation of this kind, four seems a little …”
“Spare,” Jeremy put in, looking to Danae for confirmation. He was surprised not to get it.
Danae shook her head. “Much, I was going to say,” she finished, having been saved the trouble of tact by Jeremy’s blunt interjection. “I think a single person should have a better chance of infiltrating — what is this, a starship?” Yorda nodded. “… undetected. What do you mean, spare?”
“I just think there should be more of us,” Jeremy replied. “Not that I’m expecting trouble,” he grinned, “but in case there is, a bigger team is more likely to get out with all hands intact.”
Yorda nodded. “We did consider all that,” she pointed out, “and tried to reach a middle ground. You do realize that we had to consider our choice of operatives quite carefully for this mission.” Nods all around. “Then, before you go jumping to conclusions, perhaps you’d better listen to the rest of the briefing.” She chuckled to soften the sting of her words, and tapped a complicated sequence on her desk. The overhead lumes came up dimly as the panoramic window polarized to opaque, plunging the office into near-darkness pierced by the glow of a holoscreen rezzing above the desk. A lateral schematic of a ship appeared, along with numerous small explanatory text blocks and their accompanying leaders.
“A Watermark craft,” Jeremy remarked. There was a brief silence.
“Well, go on,” Yorda prompted.
“Oh. Uh, Watermark cargo craft, twenty-three hundred meters long, thirty-nine ventral decks and a dorsal cargo bay, crew of about a hundred fifty … um. Standard engine type yields point four sublight, fold radius of about five-k parsecs, last I heard anyway.”
“Nice,” Jill commented. “So?”
“The point,” Yorda said, “is that this is a known quantity, so there shouldn’t be any surprises getting in and out. The trouble is that, as Jeremy hinted, the Jabalat is rather a large volume to search. More people to spread out should reduce the search time. However, we estimate that more than four individuals poses an undesirable risk of discovery and capture.” Jill snorted. “We selected you specifically for this mission,” the Director went on, “precisely because we expect that even in the event you are discovered, you will be able to defend yourselves adequately and proceed with an extraction attempt.
“Now, our preliminary strategy is to have you stay in pairs; one will go to the main bridge and initiate a search there; the other will go to the rear auxiliary bridge and do the same.” Yorda indicated the relevant locations on the schematic as she spoke. “You will be looking for a physical object, fortunately, although they will almost certainly have it under electronic security.”
Jeremy, Danae and Wenlong breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m afraid there isn’t much in the way of objectives after that, other than to get out with your lives; but you are all clever, ingenious individuals, which makes you perfectly suited for this operation.”
“Thanks,” Wenlong said.
“So when do we leave?” asked Jeremy.
“Tuesday morning,” Yorda replied, smiling. “You will intercept the Jabalat just before it passes the Carai system.”
“And the other contract?”
“Hmm? Ah, team members for that assignment are still being selected,” Yorda said. “Assuming we get decent intelligence about where that Covenant ship is by now,” she added softly.
“Oh good,” Jill muttered. “So happy to know we got the easy assignment.”
“Good heavens no, you have the touchier assignment by far.”
“Really. Slip in, nab a document that may or may not exist, slip out, don’t get caught. Yeah, that’s so hard!”
“Harder than you think.” The Director sounded a touch disappointed.
“How so?”
Yorda gave Jill a long look, transferred it briefly to the other three operatives, sighed patiently. “The Covenant are already hostile.”
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