Invisible Sun by Charles Stross

Author:Charles Stross [Stross, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250807106
Google: bweTzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2022-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

Off the Rails

MARACAIBO COMMONWEALTH AIR BASE, TIME LINE THREE, AUGUST 2020

Olga first learned of the developing emergency the next morning. She’d stayed in visiting officers’ quarters overnight at Maracaibo: the courier jet she’d been flown in on was undergoing maintenance in preparation for its return to New London. After a brief evening call to Miriam’s office (to send word of the successful launch, and to reassure Brilliana that her husband was safe and in one piece), she retired early.

The next morning she rose shamefully late and ate a light breakfast in her room. Then she summoned Jack to take her to the base administrative complex. Anders would have been up for a couple of hours now, and she wanted an update on Juggernaut before catching her flight north.

It had just turned eleven o’clock when she wheeled in the front door. She realized that something was wrong immediately. The lobby was half-filled by a posse of officers swarming around the base CO, buzzing like hornets whose nest that had been hit with a stick. Anders was talking on the handset of a bulky military cellular data link, a brief-case sized radiophone carried by a communications officer. He paused and glanced at her: “ah, Director, I was on my way to see you.” He looked tense.

“Has something happened to Juggernaut?” She demanded.

Anders shook his head and held the handset tighter. “Keep me informed,” he said curtly, then handed it back to its owner. He turned eyes that suddenly seemed a decade older on Olga. “Juggernaut is fine. Ma’am, I think we should talk in private.”

“What’s happening?”

“Ears-only,” Anders grunted. Then, in a move that chilled Olga to the core, he released the catch on his holster. “Follow me,” he said, marching past the front desk, deep into the maze of security offices.

Behind her, Olga felt her bodyguard Jack go alert. “Did you see that, boss?”

“Yes. Let’s do as the nice man says.” Olga slipped her right hand under her rug and touched the pistol sandwiched between the seat cushion and the side-panel of her wheelchair. The MS attack she was recovering from had left her feeling particularly drained, and she doubted she had the strength to aim it accurately. Anders had turned his back on her, clearly not seeing her as a threat. But something had put him badly on edge and stirred up his staff. As Jack wheeled her along in his wake, she saw the General pause repeatedly to issue orders that sent his staff off in all directions. From the way they made haste—and the two guards she spotted, submachine guns shouldered, suddenly go alert for threats—something really bad had happened.

General Anders swept through areas where the usual mundane bustle of administrative business had been replaced by a febrile tension. There was a quiet undercurrent of whispered conversations, and Olga noticed furtive looks directed her way. Finally, after a whispered exchange with a messenger, Anders diverted into the admin block mess hall. “With me,” he told her, then made eye contact with Jack.

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