Then something had gone wrong with the satellite software.
Li said, “No, sir, Fort Hood says that they’ve only been able to restore audio.”
“Good enough.”
IT Specialist DeFord said, “Sir, I tried to repair the visual component from this end, but there’s something wonky about the program… it’s like the code has been altered to block visual.”
Jason frowned and accepted a cup of coffee. “Altered? By the enemy?”
“No, sir, not hacked. Just rewritten at HQ, and in a way that won’t let me override it.”
That didn’t make sense, but Jason was no computer expert. “Audio will do.”
Li made the contact, requesting General Hahn. “One moment, Monterey Base,” said a disembodied voice. Jason had finished his coffee before another voice sounded. “Monterey Base, this is General William Strople, acting CO at Fort Hood and martial law commander in chief. Go ahead, Colonel Jenner.”
Startled, Jason said, “Sir? I was reporting to General Hahn.”
“General Hahn is gravely ill. Proceed, Colonel.”
Was this a New America hack of the satellite? Catastrophic, if so. Jason had never heard of a General Strople, although that proved nothing. He glanced at DeFord, who mouthed I don’t know. Jason said, “Request security protocol, sir.”
“Certainly. You are commended for your caution.”
They went through the classified oral exchanges until Jason was satisfied. He said, “Thank you, sir.”
“Begin your report.”
Colleen Hahn had had a definite format for briefings: one-sentence summaries followed by narration and Q&A. Jason stuck to it. “Three items to report. First, the Settlement of farmers on the Monterey coast was attacked by New America and survivors are now housed at Monterey Base. Second, one prisoner was captured and interrogated. Third, the spaceship Return remains safely in orbit.”
“What was learned from prisoner interrogation?”
“New America has captured Dr. Frank Philip Sugiyama and is holding him at Sierra Depot. They also have Sugiyama’s three children. One child has already been killed in an effort to force Sugiyama’s cooperation with retrieving the Q14 launch codes from the quantum computer. Unknown whether Sugiyama is now cooperating, or whether he is even able to retrieve the codes. Access protocol says no, and the computer will self-destruct if tampered with. But—well, this is a physicist with a mind equal to Albert Einstein’s.”
Silence. The dilemma was clear: Take out Sierra Depot with one of their three active Q14s, and you removed the possibility of New America’s gaining access to the codes for the other two. However, you also gave away the secret location of the Q14s, which would be clearly visible to New America’s ground radar. The nukes could be destroyed in their silos. If you did not take out Sierra Depot, and Sugiyama was able to get into the quantum computer and willing to cooperate with the enemy in order to save his children from torture, then New America had all three codes. It came down to trust in the quantum computer and lack of trust in Sugiyama. An impossible choice, given the lack of hard intel.
“Colonel Jenner, you are closer to the situation. What is your advice?”
Jason’s right hand, hidden on his lap, curled into a fist. Li shifted on his chair. Strople’s tone did not sound like a genuine request for additional information. Strople was covering his ass in case the situation went wrong. On the advice of Colonel Jenner, who had close knowledge of the factors involved… Generals Lassiter and Hahn would never have done this. Jason’s respect for Strople dropped a notch.
“Sir, it’s a difficult decision. But pre-Collapse classified materials are insistent on the integrity of the quantum computer’s protocols. The most likely scenario—not definite but most likely in my opinion—is that Sugiyama will be unable to crack the computer. He will try, from desperation, and it will self-destruct.”
And hopefully take out not only the physicist but also both his kids before they could be tortured. And destroy a bunch of New America fuckers as well.
Strople said, “So you suggest waiting to see how the situation develops.”
“Yes, sir. Maintaining both vigilance and readiness to shift strategy.”
“So ordered. What have you done with the prisoner?”
“Put him to hard labor.”
“At your discretion, Colonel.”
The disapproving tone meant Shoot the prisoner. Jason was not going to do that. He said only, “Yes, sir.”
The briefing continued. Jason explained that the Return was contaminated with RSA. He did his best to push from his mind the images of the two Sugiyama children still alive, a three-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, Louis and Amanda. Frankie was all chopped up…
When Jason finished talking, Strople said, “Thank you, Colonel. Anything more?”
“No, sir. Sir, is General Hahn expected to recover? May I ask the nature of her illness?”
“The prognosis is uncertain. She contracted RSA.”
Stunned, Jason said, “How—”
“That is all, Colonel.”
“Yes, sir.”
RSA victims, as Jason well knew, died within a few days. Colleen Hahn’s infection must be recent, and inexplicable. In order to contract RSA, she would have had to leave the HQ dome without an esuit, or been in a firefight or accident that tore her suit, or come in contact with someone already infected inside the dome—but then all of HQ would be contaminated. Surely Strople would have briefed Jason on any of those events? And DeFord had said that visual communication with HQ had been deliberately blocked. Jason met Li’s eyes and saw his own doubts mirrored.
On his wrister, he called up the file on General William Strople. There wasn’t one, but ten years ago there had been a Major William Strople on active duty. No other Stroples among the officer corps.
No one in the United States Army had been promoted since the Collapse.
What had gone on at Fort Hood during the three days of the “software glitch”?
Two days later, Zack watched a hunting party leave through Lab Dome’s tunnel airlock. He only saw them go because he happened to be coming out of the bird lab, headed to Enclave Dome to see if Caitlin felt any better. The child was sleeping more and more. Claire Patel still could find nothing wrong. She told Zack and Susan that sleeping a lot was good for recovery from any illness, something that Zack already knew. “You might as well take the day off,” Toni said to Zack. “It’s not like we’re making any progress here, and didn’t you say Susan had to be somewhere for some meeting?”
“Yes,” Zack said, wound down his work, and took the rare chance for a whole day away from the bird lab, where sparrows cheeped and shat and bred and were sacrificed to, so far, no avail whatsoever.
The soldiers of the hunting party carried rifles with scopes, belts of ammunition, larger weapons intended not for game but for encounters with the enemy. That was also why there were so many hunters: once, a lone man had been picked off by a New America sniper and his body not discovered for days, by which time there had been little left of him. As the wilderness had returned to California, so had its big predators. On the other hand, it was no longer difficult to find deer, rabbits, even bear. Zack loved venison stew, and so wasn’t it hypocritical of him to shudder inwardly at the young men and women laughing and joking as they prepared for bloody killing? It was hypocritical, yes, as well as specieist, or whatever the word had been when Zack had been young. Let me eat meat and wear leather but don’t let me see how it’s procured. The eternal dilemma of the nonvegetarian liberal.