"I see . . . "
"Think about it. Why didn't we know that the Seppies had that big of an Army and Navy? Where did they get all that mecha and the carriers and the haulers? Either somebody in the government was asleep at the wheel, which is unforgivable, or they were in on it, which is even more unforgivable. And by God I'm gonna find out who." Moore had her now. "We are gonna find out who and fuckin' draw and quarter them, metaphorically speaking of course, on systemwide television."
"And . . . there is always an and or a but. You need something more from me than just me doing my job." Gail was sharp. Moore knew that she would be the right person for the job.
"I never thought of this until now, believe me or not I don't care, but all day long I've only thought of one thing and that was getting my family safe. But now that I've reflected on this for a few moments I want to make certain that this will not happen again in this country or at least it will not happen to us with our pants down and so unsuspecting."
"Mmhm. How will you do that, Senator?"
"That's the key you just said. Senator Alexander Moore from Mississippi can't do a diddly thing about it. But President Alexander Moore could." Moore stopped and stood looking Gail in the eye. "Make me president of the United States and I'll not let this happen again. And you can be an anchor, a White House spokesman, or whatever you want. The right ally in the press could do this. You can do this!"
The press, if they played it right, had the power to sway most anything they wanted. Moore was a good candidate. He had given years as a Marine and showed how powerful and selfless and caring he was on this horrible day on camera. Gail and Calvin had caught it all and America was about to see it. With the right spin he could take the White House in November by a landfall. The GOP would have no choice but to choose him as their candidate. He continued to stare Gail in the eye and didn't make another sound.
"Deal." Gail held up her hand and Moore shook it with a smile. "Now come with me and let's get started on your campaign." Gail opened the tool room office door and led the senator back out to the cameraman, who was standing around perplexed at the shots he was missing by having his camera off.
"So what was that about?" he muttered to his boss.
"Calvin, get the live feed ready. We're about to interview the senator," she replied.
What a day, hey, Abigail? Moore said to his AIC.
She's a good ally, sir.
I know.
Yes, sir. What a day. It has been a long one.
Sir? Your wife and daughter want to go home.
So do I, Abigail. So do I.
Chapter 28
5:01 PM Mars Tharsis Standard Time
". . . with this exclusive interview to go along with the footage you have just seen from the brave senator's exploits today on Mars, MNN correspondent Gail Fehrer has the senator live from the hangar deck of the crashed supercarrier the U.S.S. Margaret Thatcher, where a staging area has been set up to treat the hundreds of thousands of wounded. We go now live to the supercarrier. Gail?"
Elle pulled off her ski mask and threw it across her bed. She stood staring out the window as Mars got farther and farther away. Then she pulled her uniform off and slipped on a comfortable cotton non-designer dress—she never got to wear normal clothes anymore. Maybe some of that would change now that she would be out of the system and away from the deathly reach of the American CIA assassins. Maybe for a while she could rest and think. There was still much work to be done, but she wasn't going to think about that just now. Instead, she was going to walk around in her bare feet for a few minutes, pour herself a stiff drink, and put her feet up and think about how she was going to burn forever in Hell for what she had done. But burning in Hell would be a small price to pay for what she had accomplished today.
Elle listened to the MNN interview with her old acquaintance and was proud of the Marine turned politician for what he had done with the situation he had been thrust into. He had been caught up in the revolution, but then again she hoped all of America would be. But Major Moore, of course that was now Senator Moore, had not taken the day lying in a hole and sniveling like a typical politician. Moore fought. He fought to protect his family and the things that were dear to him. Ahmi had always liked those qualities in the Marine when she had kept him in her camp. And he was smart too. Now he was using the momentum of this day to change his status from a political nobody to an American hero. Everybody liked a hero. Moore might just be useful someday after all. Elle was happy about that.
"All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for hyperspace in thirty seconds." The bosun's pipe and the intercom startled her and annoyed her a bit as it cut into the interview. She would have to get a replay of all of it once they dropped out of hyperspace in a month.
Elle stretched her body left and right and twisted her chin from shoulder to shoulder listening to the creaking and popping in her neck and back as she looked at Mars, where she had been born, where she had grown up, where she had raised her first kitty, where she had fallen in and out of love for the first time, where she had gone to college and become a software developer, where she had started her software company that had become a multi-billion-dollar corporation, where she had had children, where she had run for mayor of Little Tharsis for the first time, and where she had learned to kill. Mars was a part of her very being and now it would be gone to her for a long time.
"Meow."
"Ah, Socks. Now come here," Elle called to her AIK. The artificial cat nuzzled up to her shins and purred. Unless it was analyzed with QM sensors or it was torn apart and examined, it was indiscernible from a real kitty cat. Elle picked up the AIK and gently stroked the robotic pet's fur.
The planet jumped way off into space and vanished as a single point as the whirlpool of converging purples and blues opened up around the ship. The ship jumped through the hyperspace opening into the conduit and normal space was behind them. It would be a month when they dropped out of hyperspace a light-year away in the Oort Cloud before they saw normal space. Then a few minutes after that she would lead the ships through the quantum membrane teleportation portal there and the Free People of America would see their new home on the largest moon of the gas-giant fourth planet from the star Tau Ceti. Had her spies within America not discovered the QMT above-top-secret research program and brought the details of it to her the day would not have been possible. There was no way that that many of the Free People could escape the system at once and to go beyond the reach of the Americans. To her knowledge the American scientists had not figured out how to use the technology yet. Hers had. With hyperspace, Tau Ceti was a year's travel from Sol, but with QMT it was a few seconds. This allowed her people a year at least to prepare for any retaliation.
"Raow." Socks looked up at her.
"It's good to see you too, kitty. Your brothers and sisters did very well for Mommy today." Elle caressed her pet and then set it down. Her kittens were perfect unsuspecting electronic warfare transceivers that nobody had ever suspected were wandering through the cities of the United States of America collecting computer signatures and jamming and downloading viruses—sleeper viruses—across the Sol System. "Good kitties." She allowed herself to grin only for a short time. As successful as the Exodus had been it was still horrendous and terrible and made her question it all, but her resolve couldn't waver now.