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Drakon rubbed his chin. “That’s possible. We assumed the plan was to unseat Iceni, to create chaos on this world. But it could have been aimed at forcing her to make the moves she did, which greatly strengthened her position. And you’re right that no attempt was made on her life.”

“Like tempering metal,” Gozen said. “Somebody believed in President Iceni a whole lot, and doesn’t believe in you. And from the sound of things, the next plan involves killing you. Why haven’t they tried already?”

“They have.” Drakon smiled briefly and without humor. “I have very effective bodyguards and assistants.”

“Had, sir, in one case. I’m not bad at doing my job, but everybody tells me that Colonel Morgan was in a class by herself.”

“She was unique,” Drakon agreed heavily. “And you’re right about her being a very effective bodyguard. I’ll miss… that. Thank you, Colonel Gozen. Keep your eyes open and your weapon armed.” He got up. “As long as you’re here, do you want any snacks?”

“No, sir,” Gozen said, standing as well. “I only ever tasted one thing that was worse than a Syndicate food bar.”

“You found something worse than a Syndicate food bar?”

“Yes, sir. We captured some Alliance rations. Most of it was pretty good, but they had these bars. Danaka Yoruk. The name is engraved on my guts.” She shuddered at the memory. “They must feed those rations to Alliance workers to punish them.”

Drakon grinned. “What did you do with them?”

“Some snakes stopped by and demanded the best of the captured rations, so we gave them all the Yoruk bars.” Gozen shrugged. “Either the Alliance killed those snakes later on, or the snakes ate the Yoruk bars and died from that, because we never saw them again.”

Drakon’s laugh was cut short by the blare of the Priority One Alarm.

“Headquarters complex has been penetrated by a hostile force!” a voice boomed on the general announcing system loudly enough to be heard over the wail of the alarm. “Composition unknown! Headquarters complex has be—”

The voice cut off, but neither Drakon nor Gozen were listening to it any longer. They had both bolted from the break room into the corridor, where the two soldiers that Drakon had told to stand watch were crouching, staring in opposite directions along the hallway. “Where’s your armory?” Drakon demanded.

“Down there, sir,” one soldier said, pointing to the left.

“Let’s get to it.” Drakon and Gozen both had their sidearms out, and as the small group hastened down the corridor they watched ahead and behind.

The alarm cut off.

“All clear,” a voice announced. “False alarm.”

“They’ve gotten into the base operating system,” Drakon told Gozen, his weapon up and sweeping the corridor before them. “If that was an all clear sent by my people they would have also reported that Colonel Oskar was in the command center.”

“There’s no Colonel Oskar in this unit,” Gozen said, keeping her weapon and her eyes on the hallway behind them.

“Exactly. That’s our verify code.” They rounded a corner and found a hallway where a half-dozen soldiers in battle armor were already in position around the door to the local armory. Weapons swung their way as the soldiers spotted their movement.

“Hey,” one of the soldiers with Drakon yelled, holding his hands high and open to show they were empty. “It’s me, Taney. We got the general with us.”

“Get inside our perimeter!” one of the soldiers ordered. A gap opened in their ranks, and Drakon, Gozen, and the two soldiers ran through it and into the armory.

Inside, a score of other soldiers were hastily donning battle armor and unracking weapons. One of them paused to salute Drakon. “Lieutenant Develier. What’s going on, General?”

“What reports do you have?” Drakon demanded, eyeing the available suits of armor. “What’s going on?”

“Our armor is reporting multiple hostile software intrusion attempts,” the lieutenant replied. “Communications are being jammed. We have line of sight only. No remote data is being relayed.”

“Somebody must have gotten access to the primary combat systems and infected them,” Gozen said as she shrugged her way into a suit of battle armor. Fortunately, the soldiers already here hadn’t taken one that was a decent fit on her. “Got to be special forces.”

“Or vipers,” Drakon said, naming the elite and vicious fighting component of the Syndicate Internal Security Service. “They must be using stealth gear with some new twists that got past our sensors.”

Gozen sealed her armor and watched her heads-up-display come to life on her armor’s face shield. There should have been a tactical picture showing what was going on everywhere inside the headquarters complex, but instead the information shown only covered what could be seen by the soldiers in the hallway outside the armory. Bright red warning signs pulsed to signify jamming and software intrusion attempts. “Do we hold here or go looking for trouble, General?”

“What do you think their target is?” Drakon asked in reply, hefting the rifle he had just activated.

“There’s only one thing here that can’t be replaced, sir,” Gozen said. “One person, rather.”

“You’re probably right.” Drakon didn’t sound upset by that, merely acknowledging that he agreed. “Which means my best course of action might be to fort up here. Except for the fact that the attackers gained access to our command software to jam it, which means they could have also spotted that I was in the break room when the attack began.”

“So they know you’re probably here.”

“Yes.” Drakon paused as he thought. “Our biggest problem is that we don’t know where the enemy is and can’t spot them if they’re in stealth gear that can hide from our armor’s sensors.”

“Yes, sir,” Gozen said. “And if we go running around in this building with the links out, someone on our side might take a shot at us, not knowing we’re friendlies.”

“So we dig in here. But not all of us.” Drakon gestured to Lieutenant Develier. “Send out a few soldiers to try to reach the command center and notify them where we are. We’ve got twenty-three soldiers here. Send out five of them.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll send out my best!”

“Not all of them your best.” Drakon continued while Gozen puzzled over why he would say that. “Who’s the biggest goof-off in your unit?” he asked the lieutenant. “That’s here now?”

“Uh… that would be Private Pogue, General.”

“Make one of the five Private Pogue. Someone who makes a career out of avoiding work is most likely to know how to get around this headquarters without being noticed. Colonel Gozen, get out in the corridor and command the forces there. I’ll hold just inside the doorway and try to exercise overall command of the defense forces.”

She caught the self-mockery in Drakon’s voice and grinned. He was doing the right thing, though. If the attackers would be coming after him, he shouldn’t be presenting himself as a target in a hallway without shields or barricades.

Gozen stepped out into the hallway and pointed both ways down the corridor outside the armory. “You heard the general, Lieutenant Develier. We’re very likely dealing with the latest stealth tech, which might be too good for our armor’s sensors to spot. Get some smoke down so you can see them coming and renew it as needed. I want that smoke kept dense enough to reveal movement.”