He waited, weapon ready. He could call the command center on the survival suit’s comm, but if the intruder was half as good as Drakon expected that would tip him off, and Drakon was pretty sure whoever was coming was a him.
The outer door to his office opened. It had been locked, sealed with his personal physical characteristics, and alarmed in multiple ways. But he could see it open noiselessly, and as easily as a simple sliding partition.
Drakon didn’t see anyone entering, though. That was not a good thing.
His shot was aimed at the fire sensor in the ceiling. It went off with a wail and misters began filling the room with water which outlined the shape of someone in stealth armor.
That someone was already turning toward where Drakon had fired. Shots tore through the mist as Drakon fired rapidly at the revealed figure, and as that figure moved with incredible speed to fire back.
Drakon had already flung himself to one side, behind a substantial chair that bore substantial hidden armor under its comfy exterior. The assassin’s shots tore into the chair, but none penetrated.
Other alarms were sounding now in the headquarters complex. On-call guards would be racing toward Drakon’s office, and other guards taking up positions to seal off every possible way into and out of the complex. “The attacker is wearing a stealth suit,” Drakon sent to his command center, abandoning comm silence now that all hell had broken out. “He is in my outer office. Be aware that there are atmospheric contaminates in this area.”
The shots aimed at Drakon ceased. He launched himself across the office toward another chair, catching out of the corner of his eye a glimpse of something flying in a low arc toward where he had been sheltered. Drakon rolled behind the second chair to put it between him and the first chair a bare second before a thunderclap and a flash of light marked the grenade’s detonation.
He rose fast, weapon lined up, but there was no longer any shape visible in the water mist. “Intruder has left my office. Flood hallways and rooms with smoke and find him!”
“I understand and will comply,” the duty officer responded. “Sir, what are our engagement parameters?”
“Shoot to kill. If you don’t, the intruder will. I want him neutralized.”
Squads of soldiers were racing into position, some of them cautiously checking the area just outside Drakon’s office and then the office itself. Drakon changed into his own battle armor, monitoring developments throughout his headquarters.
“The intruder is definitely no longer in your office or anywhere nearby,” the lieutenant in charge of the nearest unit reported to Drakon.
Togo must be running, trying to get clear to fight another day. Drakon checked his display, seeing that every access that could be used by someone wearing stealth armor was physically blocked by soldiers. It should only be a matter of time before they ran Togo to ground, and then—
“General, we have locked doors and escape hatches opening in a line leading out of the complex,” the duty officer reported. “Another worm is overriding our security software. We’ll kill that worm, but in the meantime the opened doors are being blocked by our soldiers.”
It was too obvious. “He’s not going out that way. It’s a diversion.”
“Yes, sir! We’re maintaining security everywhere while more soldiers are activated to conduct wall-to-wall searches.”
But as time wore on no one reported any contact with the intruder. Drakon watched the progress of the search with growing impatience. He was missing something. He had to be. What was it? After Gozen’s late-night visitor, every wall, ceiling, and floor had been painstakingly swept to ensure that any hidden ways into or out of the complex were found and sealed so completely that using them again would require major excavation work.
Gozen called him from the command center. “Sir, I’ve ordered an inventory of battle armor in our armories.”
“Why?” Drakon asked.
“Just a hunch, General.”
Half an hour later, as the search was grinding to a halt without results, Gozen called again. “Sir, we’ve got an extra set of armor. Full stealth. With some very recent damage to it.”
Realizing what that must mean, Drakon took a moment to rap his fist against the side of his own head. “The intruder got to an armory, removed his own armor, then left through some series of accesses just big enough for a person not wearing armor.”
“Or mingled with soldiers who hadn’t armored up yet,” Gozen agreed. “I’ve got our people searching for human-sized accesses that should be sealed but aren’t.”
Drakon confirmed that the air inside his living quarters was safe again and pulled off the survival suit with quick, angry movements. Not only had Togo, because it must have been Togo, nearly succeeded in killing him, but Togo had then escaped despite everything thrown up to stop him.
They found the intruder’s escape route eventually. A series of vents and ducts that were barely big enough for someone to have slid through, their governing mechanisms and status sensors all hacked.
“He’s real good,” Gozen commented, then noticed the glower from Drakon in response. “In a bad way, I mean.”
Drakon blew out an angry breath and made a fist, relaxed it, then tightened it again as he looked at his hand. “I underestimated him, even though I was warned not to. How long was he planning to go rogue on President Iceni? There is no telling how many worms and other malware he planted in how many systems, and how many other plans he has already done all the preparations for.”
“He did fail, though.”
“Not on account of me, Colonel,” Drakon admitted.
“But… what alerted you, sir?” Gozen asked.
Drakon tapped his comm unit. “I got a call that woke me up, then the canary routine in my comm reported something bad in the air.”
“Yes, sir. An incapacitating agent. I am raising hell with our security folks to explain how someone was able to introduce that into your living area without setting off a million alarms.” Gozen looked puzzled. “Why not just use a lethal agent if he wanted to kill you?”
“Because,” Drakon said heavily, “he wants to kill me. Not by remote means or by using some agent, but by lining up a weapon on me and firing it himself.” He paused. “But I am increasingly accepting your suggestion that Togo does not mean harm to President Iceni. He wants me out of the way and her completely in charge. I don’t know what he intended when he broke into her living quarters, but there was no incapacitating agent used that time.”
“Maybe he was going to explain to her what he was doing,” Gozen said. “Maybe he was planning on getting to her in a way that no one else would know he had been there, so he could sit down and monologue to the president about his reasons and everything.”
“I suppose that’s possible,” Drakon said. “If Togo does consider himself still loyal to President Iceni, it must bother him that she considers him a dangerous traitor. But that sort of why-I-am-doing-this talk usually only happens in stories, not in real life. Usually all anyone can do is guess at the motivation behind acts by others, because someone willing to do what Togo is doing is also very willing to lie even to himself as to why he’s doing it.”
“We’ll get him, sir,” Gozen vowed. “Who was it that called, by the way? Good timing on that.”
“That’s because it was a deliberate warning,” Drakon said. “The call was from Colonel Morgan. She is indeed also after Togo and must have spotted him entering this headquarters and guessed his target.”