I need time to think. Togo’s solution will give me that time, but I will think.
She looked across the table at Drakon. Did his eyes mirror the same dissatisfaction? Or was she imagining that? “Let’s do it,” Iceni said, and no one objected.
As he reentered his headquarters complex, Drakon felt himself relaxing for the first time in a very long time. It had been a hard day, but he had done it. He and Iceni had done it.
He had learned a bit more about her, too. Unless Iceni was an excellent actress, she had been genuinely rattled by the losses suffered in the mobile forces engagement. That was reassuring. Leaders who simply wrote off human losses as the cost of doing business were also, in Drakon’s experience, fully capable of writing off allies in the same way.
He still hadn’t decided whether to contact her again later, just the two of them, to explain about the four snake sentries and their families who were being given new identities and new homes. It didn’t seem likely that Iceni would demand their blood, but you never knew. The alternative was sticking them on the same transport as the other snake families, but how would those four snakes explain their survival when all the rest of their comrades were dead? No, that would be a betrayal of his promise to them. Without their aid, he couldn’t have gotten to that main surveillance node. He paid his debts.
Which also meant he owed Iceni, but it would be best not to make that too clear in case she saw an acknowledgment of debt as a sign of dependency.
Malin’s comm unit buzzed urgently. Malin consulted it, his face losing emotion as he read. “General.”
So much for relaxation. “What is it?”
“We’ll have to modify what we told President Iceni regarding your control of all important off-planet facilities.”
Chapter Six
“Who and where?” Drakon asked.
“Colonel Dun.”
Drakon glanced upward without thinking, even though he was inside a building and couldn’t have actually seen the main orbiting facility for this world even if it had been nighttime. “What’s she doing? The last report we had from her said that the snakes on that station had all been neutralized, she had firm control, and she accepted my authority.”
“I’m afraid that Colonel Dun’s firm control may now be the problem. I passed on some of your earlier instructions and just received a reply. Instead of indicating that she would carry out those orders, Colonel Dun said, ‘I will consider my options.’”
“Her options?” Dun wasn’t one of the subordinates Drakon had brought to Midway. She had come from another place, for a reason he didn’t know. “Remind me why Dun was still in command of that facility instead of someone we knew we could trust.”
Morgan shrugged. “She had ties to the snakes. She was giving reports to them though supposedly only under duress. That’s why she wasn’t part of our planning. And trying to ease Dun out of command of the station couldn’t be done without attracting a lot of attention and raising warning flags with the ISS. Of course, Dun could have been assassinated, opening a way for us to get someone better up there, but no one else wanted to pursue that option.”
“Maybe I should have let you do that.” Drakon walked into his office, Morgan and Malin following. This isn’t their fault, he told himself. The ISS had plenty of experience with spotting excessively ambitious CEOs who were maneuvering too many followers into too many critical positions. Moving against Dun would have been too obvious.
Morgan stopped just inside the doorway, leaning against one wall with her arms crossed. “Dun is smart enough to know what kind of leverage control of that station gives her. She can threaten to drop large, heavy objects on this planet and do what the snakes didn’t manage to accomplish. She’s also stupid enough to try blackmailing you.”
“I agree with Colonel Morgan’s assessment as to Colonel Dun’s smarts and Colonel Dun’s stupidity,” Malin said.
Drakon brought up data on the facility Dun controlled, seeing bad news that confirmed what he remembered. The orbiting facility contained extensive manufacturing plants, fed by ore brought in from asteroids, and those stockpiles of ore would make simple, impossible to stop, and horribly destructive bombs if just dropped onto the planet from orbit. The soldiers under Dun’s command were up there to ensure no rebellious crazies did that, but now Dun herself was the rebellious crazy. He imagined the impacts of tons of ore falling from orbit. As Morgan said, the devastation would easily equal that of the nukes the snakes had sought to detonate. “Options? Can we get to her soldiers? Get them to turn on her?”
“They’d all have to turn at once,” Morgan replied. “If half turned, and the other half didn’t, that gives someone plenty of time to drop rocks. I don’t think that option has much chance of success.”
“I suggest we talk to her,” Malin said. “She’ll make demands. Keep talking, give in on a few, small things, while we plan and execute an operation to take her out.”
Morgan grinned. “Even idiots get it right sometimes.”
“Neither of you think that Dun herself can be co-opted? Turned into a loyal subordinate?” Drakon asked.
Malin shook his head.
Morgan laughed. “Dun will be safe when she’s dead.”
“Then I’ll talk to her, make her think that I’m willing to play along. Meanwhile, you two get started on a plan to take that station. I need a good one, and I need it fast. First priority, ensure nothing gets dropped from that facility onto the planet. Second priority, remove Colonel Dun on a permanent basis. Oh, one other thing. Check the snake files we captured and see if any of the intact ones provide the reason why Dun got exiled here.”
“Why does that matter?” Morgan asked.
“I won’t know if it does matter until I know the reason. See if you can find it, and get that plan done.”
Malin looked resigned, and Morgan rolled her eyes, but they went off together. Despite their mutual antagonism, Morgan and Malin could work well together when it came to producing plans. Drakon had never been able to figure that out, wondering if it was the product of some bizarre love-hate relationship, even though the idea of Morgan and Malin hooking up seemed to be not just impossible but also somehow indecent.
His first look at Colonel Dun when his call to her went through didn’t cause Drakon to second-guess his decision.
Dun sat at ease, smiling like a cat that had just cleaned out a fish tank. “Congratulations, Artur,” she began.
Using his first name meant that Dun intended treating this as a conversation among equals. But since he had no means at hand to slap her down, he would have to live with that attitude for a little while. “What’s this I hear about you giving Colonel Malin a hard time… Sira?”
Dun grinned a little wider. “I see no need to submit to an inferior position in this new setup. Not when I’m literally looking down on you.”
“You’re not looking down at the mobile forces controlled by President Iceni.”
“President? Interesting. You’re right. But if those mobile forces try anything, I’ll see it long enough before it gets here that I can launch a doomsday barrage. And if I see anybody suspicious coming close, I’ll do the same thing. I assume you’d like to avoid that.”
“What is you’re looking for?” Drakon asked.
“It looks like you and Iceni are planning to run things as a pair. I want that to become a triumvirate.”
You just made a big mistake by giving me the perfect excuse to stall. Maybe a fatal mistake. Outwardly, Drakon made a noncommittal shrug. “I can’t decide that alone. I need to talk to Iceni.”