Ecdysis by Bill Patterson

Author:Bill Patterson [Patterson, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PMOArgus Press
Published: 2020-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

Rising Pressure

GV HQ, Southern Nevada, September 9, 2182, 1745 GMT

The third time they tried to use an anti-tank rocket on his limo, Miles was ready to concede the obvious: the game had moved to a higher level. He wandered down to Geoff Conklin's area, Space Operations.

Miles loved it down here. He was so enamored with the idea of traveling in space that he had to force himself to stay away. Geoff understood, and invited him down for a monthly briefing and walk-around.

This time, though, was different. Word had spread of the new, drone-targeted missiles, and how Miles had escaped purely by driver excellence.

What the staff didn't know was that both men would have died without Teg's fields. The fields vented the explosion sideways instead of straight ahead. Active jamming and other electronic countermeasures ensured that no video of the attack reached the outside world.

And now, it's war, thought Miles. Random high-intensity EMF pulses ruined drones and caused the occasional uncommanded munition launches. Nighttime raids of emplacement teams netted men without chips or juveniles too young to know what they were doing. The methods and lethality went far beyond the usual commercial espionage rules. And that meant an alliance between the BackToNature group and the KeepSpacePure fanatics.

Beck Jumiah. It had to be. Miles already had Security working on Jumiah's past. Somewhere, there had to be a lever that he could use to close down the fanatic. Money clearly didn't interest him beyond what he needed to run his organization. Power? Miles had no interest in giving him any more power. It was something to ponder.

“Ah, Geoff. Sorry for showing up unannounced. Can we talk somewhere?” Miles rolled his eyes, compressed his lips and wiggled his ears.

Geoff gave him a slow blink. “I think there's a vacant spot around here.”

Geoff led him into his office, then out a back door, down a seldom used fire escape, and into a filing room. “I sweep this personally. I have a tape running for Security's mikes, but they don't have a video tap in here—no reason to. What's on your mind?”

Miles chuckled quietly. “I'm not sure if I should be annoyed or not at you evading Security. Still, I bet you have your reasons. Here's the deal. We need to start moving up the launch to the Perseus. I want Teg and everyone who knows anything about the fields out of reach of the maniacs trying to blow us up.”

“Have you discussed this with him?” asked Geoff. “Wait, never mind, sorry I asked that.”

“No, it's a fair question. No, I have not. I will not until just before we're ready to launch. Operations Security, doncha know.”

“I'll need to plan on number of people, and life support systems.”

“Everyone's going to live in their suit, and it's going to be less than one day to get there,” said Miles.

“The automatic lasers,” said Geoff, peering closely at Miles. “How are you going to turn them off?”

Miles smiled. “OpSec, Geoff. I've got it covered. Just get us there. Oh, and definitely use a workshop vessel, gutted, but with the field generators in place.

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