*
The third Moon launch was announced by Orient, indicating that this programme had been in planning for years rather than months. All of the ground-based rockets had been launched and controlled from the remote outback in Sea Garden. Iberian intelligence reported that there had been regular and heavily guarded convoys from Osaka to the Antipodes over the last fifteen months. Aerial surveillance pictures had now been enlarged to give maximum resolution and the cargo was a reasonably good match for what was now on the Moon.
This caused Gretz, Verdasco and Boniek to conclude they were in this alone. Iberia’s posturing bordered on appeasement and they had to further increase their defences. Reluctantly the topic of nuclear warheads was broached. Gretz felt that Verdasco’s urging was misplaced, as did Boniek. Orient’s chosen lunar base being so close to SACRED had precluded a strike without causing collateral damage. “Think about it logically,” said Boniek, “they have little to lose – a few primitive habitat units, whereas we lose everything, and they know this.”
Gretz concurred. “And on Earth we cannot expect Iberia or Orient to stand by idly, while we build or purchase loaded silos. We are business people not a military junta. We should stick to commonly perceived defence deterrents, but advertise the degree of depth we have provided.” Verdasco conceded and in so doing shifted the discussion to vulnerability of each component in the system.
“We can handle the Moon for some time, unless Orient was prepared to despatch a warhead from Earth. Although that seems unlikely right now, we must continue to avoid complacency. Investment in intercept electronic counter-measures should be considered in future. The satellite ring is the weak link, as it is much more difficult to defend than to attack, however the elevator must present the most attractive target for them because it nullifies our supply line to the Moon. In the short to medium term we could only cover that by investing in ground rocketry now.”
The debate continued into the small hours and had not yet included a glaring weakness, to which they seemed oblivious. The summarised action was to continue to build up conventional defence armaments on the Moon, make the elevator complex the priority by trebling the mercenary presence, and reinforcement of the perimeter with a man-made circular moat. Crossing this water barrier would only be accessible by a drawbridge, operated from deep within the elevator structure, at a height of over three hundred metres. As well as the visual advantage of such sentinel capability, they would add a specific radar sweep facility. The cost of these plans was astronomic and reflected the cost of not executing them, being ultimately more expensive.
*
The triumvirate of Butragueno, Duarte and Manuel met at the latter’s hotel first, and then proceeded to an organised people’s festival as cover. Duarte had not expected to see Manuel, who broached the benefits of broader cooperation. “As this is my suggestion I feel obliged to give an example of exactly how we may lose ground if we fail to act. The full dynamics have not yet been realised according to my source and we’re already struggling to keep up. Duarte, please note that the names Rossi, Tirishev and Pichler came from this source, not from, but through Butragueno, and apparently you surprised Pierze when you mentioned them. I knew about Pichler going to ground, as I had implored him to stay with me. It was later that Pierze’s men lost him as they didn’t know the strike was imminent. Does this surprise you?”
“Some of it does, but carry on.”
Manuel suggested otherwise. “I think El may have a different slant to acquaint you with.”
Butragueno reminded Duarte that her information had come indirectly from the Brunatti checks in Barcelona. “Rossi was his girlfriend and he helped her to distribute instructions via paintings from his art studio under her false name. We have DNA back up for this.”
Manuel took the initiative again. “I have seven more names for you, but also something potentially more important to the wider picture. To me it seems irresponsible to keep working in separate compartments if we can have mutual benefit. In addition I have to update my sponsor and we may want to factor that in.”
Duarte immediately grasped the significance of the last remark. “Yes I see that is a necessity for you, and at the same time a pity that we have to share information with a potential suspect. Pierze however, has been talking of arranging a meeting with your sponsor, because of the ‘aggressive’ nature of Orient’s Moon programme. He’s trying to calm the waters in the cabinet. It could prove to be an opportune way to eliminate Gretz’ involvement, or discover more about the panic investment by him and his partners in the defence of SACRED. I’ll suggest this to him.”
Manuel shook his head and smiled. “No, no Duarte, this is not how it will work. We’ve told you quite a bit about what might happen next, but withheld further detail. You know, as we do, that Pierze has been pursuing the route of scanning brains of designated victims. This may tie up with information I have. If so, we could regain some lost ground, so I’ve been forewarned. There will be some acceleration in activity, and it has been impressed upon me that what is at stake is almost unimaginable. If Pierze wants to cooperate it has to be full and transparent otherwise we aren’t interested. In fact we need assurances before we’ll agree to a meeting. I’m due to brief my sponsor in forty eight hours.”
*
Duarte looked at Butragueno and sensed the same resolve. He also believed Manuel had managed to infiltrate some organisation in order to have such precise advance information. He was ahead of Pierze in all but technology. He worried about whether his new boss would see it that way. Pierze was actually more curious than Duarte had anticipated. “Seven more names. Do you believe this?”
“Well it’s the same source as last time. Even if I thought Manuel Salina wasn’t reliable I know that Butragueno is, and she stands by the authenticity. My leaning is that it’s bona-fide.” Pierze pursed his lips as if he was about to say something then sat down, swivelled his chair to gaze out of the window and remained so for over a minute.
“You say that they have the paintings.”
“I didn’t see them but I’m sure they have. If you…” Pierze’s internal gearbox resumed auto mode.
“It would be advantageous to know all they have to offer, before he goes back to his sponsor. It is quite irritating that we don’t know the identity. You say they are focussed on our brain scan research?”
Duarte quickly dismissed over-reliance on that. “They were quoting examples, they stressed it was full sharing or nothing. Ricardo, you and I have previously traded tit-bits and it worked in the particular circumstances. This is different, yet you haven’t asked me for an evaluation of the broad but irregular concept of the transparency they seek. I think they know you are in a weak position. I know it because you’ve got me killing time on civil servants’ deaths until you have more pertinent avenues for me to investigate. I’ve realised for some time you haven’t divulged certain detail you have on the brain tests to me, but I’m only a consultant and it suits me in my current situation. How would it be if they get there ahead of you and they are still too late to prevent this disaster? You will be in an awkward spot. They don’t know what the predicted disaster is but you profess confidence that you do.”
“You are fishing Duarte, and without bait.”
“No Ricardo, not fishing actually, I’m quitting.”
Panic flashed through Pierze’s eyes. “To work with them – I don’t think so.”
“No way, you got me to sign all sorts of declarations in the context of official secrets. I came out of retirement for the wrong reasons and I don’t want my name, albeit in a bit-part role, engraved on the list of failures headed by your good self.” He offered his earlier prepared letter of resignation and gestured to shake hands. “You see Ricardo you are more transparent than you think you are.”
The handshake was declined. “Very well, ask them to specify a safe venue and we can explore the situation. You can take this back.”
Duarte’s riposte was not forese
en. “No. You haven’t really been listening. You’ll meet with them and stall on how any such proposed cooperation should be mutually agreed, all the time hoping to tease just a little bit more out of them. They don’t need you. Iberia needs to know how to best combat the threat you’re presiding over, and Iberia will be your judge. I’ll pass the message on and attend the meeting, but my resignation gives a month’s notice and stands. In a month all could be lost. You told me yourself that a change in scale is anticipated but they knew that already.” Duarte left and contacted Butragueno to get back to him as soon as possible on a time and venue. “Can you ask Manuel to delay his update to Gretz by twenty-four hours?”
“Right, I’m on it.”
Chapter 19
Manuel had hired a car and arranged to pick up Butragueno, then meet the others at a service station on the outskirts of the city. They then drove to a scenic picnic area and settled at a table with only four seats. There was no one within earshot. Pierze felt obliged to state up front that no notes should be taken or any of the conversation recorded. The others didn’t have a problem with that. Manuel opened with a ‘demand’ for Pierze to begin. “We’ve leaked several bits of information to you already, some of which you knew of but thought nobody else did, and some which are completely new to you. If we’re to progress from here it’s your turn.”
Pierze struggled uncharacteristically to find his words. “You must appreciate that any means of sharing information is to remain strictly off the record. There can be no exclusions to this.”
Manuel’s facial expression was loaded with sarcasm and the response even more so. “Look Pierze, if you’ve come all the way out here to quote from your Central Security bible we can leave now. It’s bullshit – you know it is and in case you have forgotten, my father was your predecessor, so I also know it is. You have to deal with that, not us. It would help greatly if you didn’t burden any future cooperation with that tedium. The most pressing criterion we are both up against now is time, it is finite and this can’t become a rehearsal to see if you can trust us. It really is make your mind up time. I’m waiting to hear what you have discovered from the brain scans you have conducted and what you think it means, because I know something which may suggest you are on the wrong track.”
Pierze was taken slightly off guard and reacted badly. “If that is the case you owe me at least some verification of your source. As far I know it could be anyone, in Iberia or Orient. There are such people as double agents you know.”
Manuel rose from the table. “Ok, let’s go, this was a waste of time. You’re in for a big surprise Snr. Pierze, and not a pleasant one. In fact I can see your tenure being the shortest on record.”
Butragueno’s mind was in lock-jam, but fortunately Duarte was tuned into Manuel’s veiled implication. “Ricardo, I think what you’re facing is unavoidable. He has to update his sponsor and that alone, as you do not know who it is, can have all manner of influence on what happens next. That includes inadvertently showing your department in a very poor light. For example, what if he or she decided to publish the seven names Manuel has been given, through the newshounds? What he’s requesting from you is a show of good faith, with the possible benefit of his information being validated or proven to be wide of the mark.”
Pierze motioned for Manuel to sit down. “Very well. The scans from the deceased – Konrad and Rossi indicate something which we have suspected. The one on Tirishev gives clearer living proof that what we suspected is in fact correct. I have mentioned only to Duarte that some time ago one of our top scientists went missing. His work was related to directing external messages to the brain. It has a lot of potentially sinister uses as well as obvious benefits in healing or correcting mental illness. After exhaustive efforts to find him we got nowhere. Most of his research files were deleted and we assume copies went with him. So we are left to contemplate either abduction or him selling out. Before we began to think of who could be involved, it was important to evaluate what the technology might be used for. The protests against SACRED also started around this time and my previous department looked at these kind of trends carefully. We found a pattern of the same faces appearing in demonstrations all over the Republic. The second pattern showed they were dying not long after having risen to some position of authority in the protest structure. Whenever we could get a scan of one of the deceased it showed this strange signature. We eventually pieced the evidence together to link it to the work of our missing scientist. Then the picture changed with Konrad’s suicide. Until then the deaths were random in being accidental, or violent in being confronted by police, or homicide, drugs, alcohol poisoning etc. They also appeared to be random in terms of time or interval. We believe now that Konrad and perhaps a few others somehow cottoned on to this trend, and became a threat to whoever was orchestrating the operation. We still had a few names at that time simply because of our surveillance pictures. The process was modified to become one of induced suicide in a sequence. Going back to the research we have lost, it contained investigation into the use of neurogenic pulses to alter cerebral perception. This is the detail which has evaporated. However we have since repeated certain work and found a way to detect the signature of exposure to such pulses. There is not always the same behavioural response from the target, but the signature is undeniable. Some individuals have high resistance, others are affected immediately. Konrad was one of the resistant types, as was Rossi. We believe that was why they were targeted. Konrad’s frustration at not being able to get anyone to take this preposterous story seriously must have pushed him into using his own death to open the can of worms. Rossi was similar, she did not comply with the prescribed way of ending her life and that gave us the chance to apprehend Tirishev. You gave us Pichler and now we have run out of names. To summarise, there is a systematic process of manipulating designated people by mind control, in our midst. We know that it is in some way connected through SACRED, but maybe not just protestors. The demonstrations presented us with obvious candidates on TV. Recently we have begun to investigate a strange ratio of deaths to attendees, amongst civil servants at these demos. Duarte is assisting in a covert investigation, as we can’t be sure as to whether some of our staff could be affected. We have dismissed the Rojo-Negro Mano connection for reasons I can go into later. You do not have to convince me of how serious this could be, or become. I also do not have any more information on our missing scientist. He must be involved, and is a key means of halting the operation, as he will have been asked or forced to educate others, leading to an up-scaling point.”
It was more than any of the others had bargained for, and they could ascertain just how difficult this admission had been for Pierze. It was however a pivotal moment in their appreciation of what they could be up against. The reciprocation began in earnest. Butragueno detailed what they had found about Rossi’s link with a previous victim and the messages embedded in the paintings. “We have extracted the codes but are awaiting the decryptions.”
Pierze nodded enthusiastically and turned to hear Manuel’s revelations. The tip about looking at the brain stem was potentially very helpful and made him think about who could have given him this kind of detail. Manuel passed the diagram which he had re-created as accurately as memory would permit. Pierze wanted more clarification about the need for the three head sequence comparison. Manuel could only repeat what he had been told. “If you conduct your examination of the brain stem it will apparently make it clear. You have two in the sequence; presumably they will illustrate a possible connection, and if you can find either Sidibe or Pichler’s head it will serve as proof.”
It was Butragueno who halted the conversation. “If Konrad, Rossi and Pichler are main targets then both Sidibe and Tirishev are intermediaries. You have Tirishev in custody so surely there is something further to be learned from him. He doesn’t have to be dead to reveal the secret.” They all agreed it was worth a try and Manuel said he would propose this to his contact and see if it met with a positive
response. Pierze tried once more to elicit the identity of this source but was disappointed. Manuel explained why.
“There is something you aren’t going to believe Pierze, as it does stretch credibility, nevertheless it is a fact. My source, who I shall not name, for fear of them being detected, is in the SACRED game Futureworld.” He waited for a response before deciding whether to go further. Duarte began to mentally buffer this outrageous claim by joining a few dots from the first part of investigating Konrad’s video, and evidence in his deposit box.
Pierze was ahead of him and said, “Remember I said that Konrad’s resistance was very high. In addition we have always been puzzled about why so many protesters were often violently against the very thing which was causing their addiction. It is akin to a drug addict finding that their fix is free as opposed to unaffordable, and in unlimited supply. They must have realised they could only stop this if some Samaritan in the government shut down SACRED. You will note that I said SACRED, and not Futureworld. The game is their defence and cry for help. They wanted the game to be open, as the internet used to be, and the controlling side of the organisation nullified. Of course this runs counter to the ethos and founding cornerstone of the SACRED protocol. Rather than doubt the veracity of what you say Manuel, we must protect this conduit by any means we can. I have been trying to arrange a meeting with Sorin Gretz to discuss concerns that the President has, over his build-up of weaponry on Earth and the Moon. I will use this as an opportunity to broaden the agenda to see if I can learn more about how this game is controlled.”
Manuel digested the trade-off quickly. “I’m breaking a confidence in one sense but I believe it’s justified. Sorin Gretz sponsored me to conduct this investigation. He wants me to X-ray the SACRED structure as part of that brief. He doesn’t want any surprises to emerge about his own organisation, before he knows of them himself. I believe that he’s genuine in this respect. On the other hand my source says he cannot trust anyone in the organisation. The complication is that these two people are responsible for my participation with Konrad’s character. Gretz authorised it without telling Verdasco and Boniek, and Prometheus is the only one who could apparently handle the technical side of it. So, if you really want to protect the source and my participation, I would advise against tackling Gretz on anything other than the arms build-up at this time. It goes without saying that he mustn’t know of our conversation today.”