“Good news?” she asked.
“We found it and we’ve identified all its input gates. Moreover, Teague—and I bow before your genius, Teague—has coerced the power input main controller into accepting us—that is, Teague—as its new lord and master.”
“And what have you done?” Grace asked. “You’re looking far too smug to be a mere sidekick.”
“Indeed,” Rafe said. He puffed out his lips and raised an eyebrow. Grace laughed. “You wound me, Rector Vatta, indeed you do. To the core. However, because I am a sweet and generous soul…” Here Teague looked startled and Rafe glared at him. “When have I been less than sweet and gracious to you, Teague? What I was about to say… with Teague holding the controller at bay, I was able to induce a small power surge into one of the subsequent switches, and get into one—only one so far—of the server arrays. Those files are even now being sucked by the financial ansible, and apparently—but only apparently—being sent outsystem to a bleached recipient. Which would be me, if I were on Nexus, but I’m not and it isn’t. Moreover, though usually a large send would trip an alarm, it won’t now.”
“I suppose you’ve already read all of them?”
“No, only a few headers. Enough to know we will want to read them in detail later. Right now I’m just sucking them away before doing whatever you want done to the installation. It’s going to take awhile, even at max bandwidth, because the owners of this facility—not being utter fools—not only had quite competent security measures in place for intrusion, but anticipated that a slow outward bandwidth might be useful in preventing a faster loss.” He smiled at her, a smile of such limpid, innocent joy that she knew it was faked. “What would you like done with this facility later?”
“Blow it up,” Grace said. “In fact, why wait?”
“You don’t anticipate needing any of the data stored there?”
Grace considered. “It might be useful. But it might be more useful to have the opposition’s attention focused on their own problems, and not on Ky and the others.”
“They’re apt to react hastily and violently,” MacRobert put in.
“I know. I know, and it’s dangerous, but it’s dangerous either way. Throwing some confusion into their day—night—seems preferable to me. Though, since Rafe and Teague are not Slotter Key military personnel, I cannot order them to do so.”
“A couple of foreign hoodlums?” MacRobert considered. “Mischief makers? Foreign agents? I don’t think they’ll go for that. They know perfectly well Ky’s your niece and the military’s your responsibility; they know about your past as Vatta’s corporate spymaster. Even if they don’t have any hooks into your office at all, they’ll anticipate your involvement. It’s going to rebound onto Vatta no matter what.”
“It might. It probably will. When would be the ideal time to disrupt them?”
“Just as their mission starts,” MacRobert said. “Especially if that’s their communications link to their mission commander.”
“Would they communicate early?” Rafe asked. “I was thinking they’d have it all worked out to a certain point, and might not report until they’d arrived.”
“Depends how much fine control they want of their mercs. Would they trust them to run the op silently, or would they want to check up on them?”
“Remote surveillance,” Grace said. “They won’t transmit unless something goes badly wrong, but they will listen in.”
“Via that facility,” Teague said. “And the satellite they use.”
“Which we control,” Rafe said. He was watching his screen.
“There’s not a way to increase the bandwidth?” Grace asked.
“Not without their knowing it right away. Separate alarm on that little item; if I could get to the hardware I could do it, but I can’t do it from here, not with more than a sixty percent probability of success. And that’s not enough.”
“Right you are,” Grace said. “Mac, where are the transports? Still dark on base?”
“Yes. No lights around them, no sign they’re going to sneak out tonight. Of course there might not be, but yesterday sundown the vehicles were still parked nearby. No heat signatures of ground vehicles around them at all.”
“Let your suck run, Rafe, and see if you can get into another array. In the long run, you’re right—we want their data, enough to figure out who’s behind this.”
“When’s Stella due?” MacRobert asked. Grace looked over at the table. He was frowning at something on his own pad.
“Why?”
“There’s a news note from Cascadia. Four dead in mysterious and extremely discourteous assault in a respectable housing sector. A reminder to citizens to secure their quarters and report anything suspicious to the proctors. A reminder that discourtesy will not be tolerated and decorum must be maintained in all circumstances. Nothing from Vatta Enterprises, nothing from Stella.”
“You think that was Stella? Did you look at the arrival/departure screen?”
“Looking now… merging with news. The dateline for the assault story is three—no, four—days back. Vatta courier departed in regular service, whatever that means, the same day as the assault…”
Grace leaned forward. “Stella’s people would have informed us of her death or serious injury, I’m sure. Four dead and a courier departure suggests to me that she dealt with four discourteous persons and is on her way here.”
“I thought Stella was the gentle one,” Mac said, brows raised.
“Stella is quite capable.” Grace shook a finger at him. “She doesn’t like violence, or killing, but she also doesn’t like being hurt and wants to stay alive. I’m certain the deaths were necessary in this case. Evidently the Cascadians agree, though I swear I do not understand their obsession with manners.” She put her stack of files down. “I’m going to bed. I have an early meeting at the ministry tomorrow morning. Which of you lads is taking the watch?”
“I’ll take first,” Rafe said. “I want to see if I can niggle my way into another array and start sucking it dry. Teague, do you want to get some sleep now?”
“Sure.” Teague pushed himself up.
Next morning, when Grace appeared, a red-eyed Rafe reported that he had sucked three of the eight arrays dry. “I can’t do the others; I’m too fogged. Ky called and I gave her what we know up to now. They’ve left the main base; they got some vehicles moving. Not very fast, and she doesn’t know where the passage leads. Finally.” He yawned, shook his head. “Sorry. I’ve got to get some sleep. Teague will be here all day. I’ll wake him now. If you want to download the files I shipped up to safe storage, he can pull them for you.”
“Breakfast first?”
“No. I just need sleep.” He headed for the bedroom. Grace and Mac ate their breakfast in peace; Teague appeared as they were leaving for the workday.
“Shall I redirect files to your office?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “Send me a summary, if you find something juicy. I won’t be back until evening, unless there’s an emergency.”
She said goodbye to Mac at the door to her building and he headed off on whatever he had in mind for the day. Sometimes he explained his plans and sometimes he reappeared at lunch, or in the evening, bringing home new packets of useful information about this or that. “It’s less restful, but more fun, than running the security office at the Academy,” he said. “And I’m on my own. If I take a four-hour break in one of Port Major’s exotic brothels, nobody knows about it.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“Oh, yes. I’m the one who bugged the place; I know how to fox the bugs.”