Chapter Eleven
The suite where Iceni lived, once designated by Syndicate laws and regulations as the Star System CEO Operations And Accommodations Suite and now simply called the President’s Suite, was one of the most heavily alarmed and protected places on the planet. The bedroom where Iceni slept in that suite was the most alarmed and protected place on the planet, with the possible exception of the bedroom in Drakon’s headquarters where he normally slept.
However, for a canny Syndicate CEO, even that level of security was not sufficient. After all, any alarm installed could be broken into by enemies, or the Syndicate Internal Security Service snakes, and rendered useless. Redundant and overlapping layers of alarms merely made the process of doing that more challenging. As the old inside joke went, there was a name for CEOs who underestimated the resourcefulness of their rivals, or the snakes, or embittered workers, and that name was “dead.”
And since her former close assistant Togo had gone missing, and apparently rogue, Iceni had been uncomfortably aware of how many codes and secrets he had been privy to. Even if he had supposedly not known some of the access codes, he could have found out what they were from his position on Iceni’s staff.
So Iceni had acquired other alarms, rigged up independently of the installed systems, and set them up. They were among the highest tech alarms available on Midway.
She had also set up a few other alarms, using perhaps the oldest such systems in the book, reasoning that someone focused on defeating the sophisticated threats might overlook the simple ones. A metal tray leaned against one door, ready to fall with a clatter if the door opened a little. A breakable glass object, hard to acquire in these days of enduraglass and permaglass, teetered on a ledge above another door, certain to drop and smash if that door began to open. And scattered on the floor in front of every other possible access were small contact caps, toys that would explode with a loud snap under the slightest pressure, something which delighted children, drove parents to distraction, and might trip up anyone clever and skillful enough to penetrate every other alarm.
She had spent the last two nights at Drakon’s headquarters, enjoying the comfort of having someone so close without worrying about how that someone might use her or betray her. And with only about two weeks left before the expedition left for Iwa, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with Drakon, knowing that there was a chance it might be all the time they would have. But he was elsewhere on the planet tonight, inspecting one of his brigades, so Iceni slept alone tonight. She had paused before scattering the contact caps, tired and not feeling like the effort, but had forced herself to do it as a small voice of experience or paranoia warned her that during her absence someone might have been able to test the defenses of her living area.
The pop of one of the contact caps in the darkest hour of the night jolted Iceni awake. She rolled out of her bed on the far side from the door, the wall at her back, one hand grasping the weapon she always kept handy and the other hand slapping the emergency alarm pad above her.
She hit the floor on her knees, the bed between her and the door to her bedroom, her pistol lined up on that door. The blare of the alarm covered up any more sounds from outside, but activating it had also summoned many guards, granted access for the guards into her suite, and alerted the entire building.
Iceni waited, tense, her pistol centered on the door. She breathed slowly and carefully, trying to calm the pounding of her heart. Who could have made it past every obstacle and into her living area? Even if Morgan was still alive she shouldn’t have had access to enough inside information to be able to pierce the layers of security around Iceni’s quarters. Only one other name came to mind, and if it was Togo out there, and he was determined to get in here, then Iceni knew that she would need not only great accuracy but also skill to take him out before Togo could get to her.
Yet even while focused on the need to ensure she hit Togo with her first shot and every shot, Iceni could not help wondering what his goal was, what his purpose was, and why someone who had been so loyal to her would now be threatening her.
The sound of the alarm ceased, telling Iceni that her guards had entered her suite and were now advancing toward her bedroom. She listened intently, her hand growing sweaty as she gripped her pistol tightly and kept it aimed at the door.
The clatter of the metal tray could be heard outside, followed by the crash of breaking glass. So much for those improvised alarms. Now people would talk about them, and she would have to come up with something else unknown to anyone but her.
The comm pad next to Iceni’s bed lit up, showing the senior watch supervisor at the star system command center that was located near Iceni’s headquarters. “Madam President, your guards have searched the outer living area and found nothing. They are poised outside of your inner living area and can see your door. There is no threat apparent on our sensors, but after you sounded the alarm a string of doors and accesses that should have immediately sealed instead remained open, and there were indications of movement near them.”
Iceni breathed out slowly, relaxing herself. “Full search. Nothing by remote, all eyes-on and hands-on. All rooms in this building, all doors and accesses. Find out how those open doors were hacked. I want to be absolutely certain that whoever got into my living area has not faked a retreat and is still hiding somewhere, waiting until things calm down to make another try.”
“I understand and will comply,” the supervisor said, saluting and beginning to issue the necessary orders.
Iceni slumped back against the wall of her bedroom, then realized that anyone who knew where she slept and that she would roll out of bed in this direction and have her back to that wall might be able to set a trap on the other side. She jerked herself away from the wall and moved in a crouch to another location in the bedroom, her weapon now aimed between the door and the area where she had previously been.
She settled herself comfortably, resting the pistol on one knee so it remained up and pointed in the right direction. The sort of search she had ordered would take considerable time. It was going to be a long night.
Even when warships could zip across thousands of kilometers of space in seconds, it took a while to cover planetary distances when hindered by atmosphere. By the time General Drakon arrived at midmorning, Iceni was behind her desk and sipping hot tea. “You are all right, Gwen?” he asked, knowing that she might have concealed an unpleasant truth for the sake of political stability.
“I’m fine.” She offered him a seat, trying to act more casual than she felt. “I am also tired, and achy, and more than a little annoyed.”
“Annoyed.” Drakon, reassuring in his presence and his strength, sat down and smiled slightly. “I’m a little more than annoyed.”
“Colonel Malin’s suspicions must be correct,” Iceni said. “Only Togo could have gone undetected as far as that intruder did last night.”
“We can’t be certain it was him,” Drakon said. “I understand that you’ve ordered Malin to review your security systems and make some changes.”
Iceni nodded, taking a slow drink to steady her jumpy nerves. “The access codes had already been changed, of course, but they’re going to be changed again. I suspect all redundant versions of my security software are infected by worms that my intruder activated. My software specialists swear that the activations will leave footprints that will allow them to find and neutralize those worms.”