Page 30 of Infiltration

“Book the room and I’ll be there. Thank you, sir.”

Selt tapped the remote control he held, and the ‘bot unsealed the package. There was no audio from the kaboom room, but the explosion was obvious. The box jumped and shredded, and the ‘bot jerked as its spindly arms flew off. One embedded itself in the wall.

“Crude but nasty,” Selt commented when Kuran changed the view to show the shattered interior of the box. Most of the twisted components had blackened. Some of it glowed to show the remaining heat of the small plasma nugget inside.

“My biggest worry is what the next one will look like. I have no doubt better constructed threats are on the way.” Kuran turned off the monitor before the evidence of what might have happened to Stacy could feed his already precarious temper.

“I’m impressed by how well the governor took it in stride. Or does she not realize how ugly rebels brainwashed to a political cause can turn?”

“She knows.” Kuran felt a surge of pride at Stacy’s will and strength. The growing threats, problems stemming from the influx of Earthers moving to their new planet, Blythe Nelson’s provoking reports detailing facts, lies, and rumors about Stacy and Kuran’s clan…she coped with a dignity and grace that left the Nobek in awe.

He hated her being exposed to the dangers she was, but it was part and parcel of her position. She dared the Earthtiques to attack her for living her life and leading her people. They were doing so more often. Thanks to her upcoming election campaign poised to go into full swing, it would only get worse. Stacy refused to back down.

Kuran couldn’t ask her to do otherwise. If she hid from those determined to return Earth to its former fanatical path, if she bowed to the least of their demands just to lessen their acts of violence, she wouldn’t be the woman she was or the leader Earth II required.

Which meant Kuran had better be the Nobek she needed.

He checked his handheld’s feed. It showed her working in her office. The nanospies Admiral Piras had assigned to Kuran were working well where he’d deployed them. Though he or a phased member of his team was always near Stacy nowadays, he found some relief in being able to check on her at a moment’s notice.

He still had a few of the miniscule robotic spies to plant, thanks to the delay of the explosive. He hoped Selt was as able a fighter as he looked and a fight room would be available that night. He desperately needed to blow off steam.

“Send the next ‘bot in to blast the package into smaller bits to make sure it’s nullified. Then we’ll cart the mess to the lab and let them tell us they found no useful evidence.”

“No offense, sir, but this gig sucks. I mean, I’m glad to do my part to keep the governor safe, but this…” Selt brought the vid to the blast chamber up again on wide view and gestured at it. Another ‘bot rolled in on its treads and shoved its disabled fellow out of the way. “Even if we had an enemy to confront and kick the shit out of, it would be an Earther. Not many of them are worth clenching my fists for.”

“You aren’t telling me any secrets. In the end, it’s a paycheck.”

They watched silently as the ‘bot set the charge, grabbed the other ‘bot, and dragged it from the room. The second explosion was less interesting than the first.

* * * *

It was late afternoon by the time Kuran returned to his office. He’d finally completed the tasks he’d set for himself before the bomb had thrown his day into chaos. It gave him a little satisfaction to have caught up.

Damned little, if he were to be honest about it.

As suspected, the lab found nothing to tie the explosive to the known Earthtiques. The components were run-of-the-mill items, with the exception of the small ball of plasma, which had probably been bought on the black market. No doubt it had been transported at some point in the last year among the thousands of shipments Earth had accepted as it readied to open its proverbial doors.

As Selt had so succinctly put it, it sucked.

Kuran checked on the nanospy he’d planted on Blythe Nelson. She was in her office cubicle at the moment, as she was whenever he’d peeked in on her. As usual, she was intent on researching on her computer.

Her job sucked too, from what he could tell. She spent most of her time digging through documents rather than chasing people around or meeting unscrupulous types, as he’d hoped. She even ate meals at her desk.

I should have Selt shadow her, just to show him guarding Stacy isn’t so bad. He’d slam his head through a wall before lunch if he had to stay in Nelson’s office doing nothing but watching her on the computer.

Kuran had placed a trace program on Blythe’s computer, com, and handheld. It not only enabled him to monitor her communications, but the sites and documents she perused. He’d given the coms she’d made and messages she’d sent cursory glances only, verifying she wasn’t talking to anyone of interest. She preferred texts to vids or speaking one-on-one to her supervisory and the news agency’s librarian. The majority of her interactions seemed to consist of begging for a bigger expense account and looking up laws and old news stories from the original Earth and its colonies.

Kuran checked the time and sighed to note he had another couple of hours until he and Selt would attempt to beat the hell out of each other. He checked Stacy’s office feed. She was also busy on her computer, working on the state-of-the-planet speech she was slated to give in a couple of weeks.

Nothing to keep him from doing his job as a spy, in other words. Kuran sighed and tapped on his computer to access what kept Blythe glued to her computer.

A list of files filled his screen, each titled with the name of a legislator or notable. Kuran scanned them, his brow wrinkling. More Earthtique councilmen were listed than their liberal counterparts, but there were files on Stacy, his own clan, Ken Bryant, and Admiral Piras.

His brow rose. He clicked the admiral’s file, which consisted of two still images. One was on the space station orbiting Earth II, and it showed a corridor. Several Kalquorians were pictured, all in the act of going somewhere.

The second image was a closeup of the corner of the first, blown up to show the face of a man whose head was turned almost to profile. His hair had swung, as if he’d been in the act of looking to the side, so most of his features were lost behind it.

Kuran recognized it was Piras, but only because he’d been around the man enough to identify certain details of his visage. The shape of his nose and the visible eye were familiar.

---