Island of Light by Timothy S. Johnston

Author:Timothy S. Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Published: 2022-09-26T16:44:03+00:00

Part Five: Conquer and Command

Chapter Twenty

The meeting with the three French mayors had absolutely stunned everyone in that cabin, including my own people. I’d kept them in the dark, not really explaining how I was going to do it, or even offering my reasoning behind our recent activities. All they had known was my ultimate goal: to rescue our people from USSF HQ.

But now they knew.

And the plan horrified them.

They didn’t think we could do it. Last time we’d infiltrated a warsub, it had taken weeks of preparation and the support of the USSF. We’d had uniforms, training, and research backing us up. A team of people outside the dreadnought as well as in.

But this time, we had none of that. No task force coordinating a fleet of attack boats. No uniforms, no knowledge of German or the GSF.

But there was something vastly different about this mission.

We weren’t going to infiltrate a sub, blend in to sabotage it, then escape.

No. We were going in guns blazing, and we were going to take control of the command center to pilot the vessel southward.

To lead a phantom German attack against the USSF, and hopefully start a war between the two countries.

The two French mayors agreed to join with us in an economic and military partnership. After the news of the German spying, they’d barely needed a push to convince them. They were French, after all, and respected freedom above all else. They knew the path before them was dangerous, but they’d pledged, on the spot, to join Oceania.

We’d grinned like children, celebrating for a brief moment, before promising to work out the details later.

Then I’d asked for a favor.

I turned to Piette. “I want you to wait for a few hours, until Vivienne and Isabelle are back at their cities. Then contact them via comm.”

“And say what?” The request clearly perplexed him.

“Tell them that I was in your city before leaving to New Berlin. Warn the mayors that I might stop at their cities first. Tell them I was talking about independence, and you’re concerned about it.” I turned to the mayors of Conshelf Alpha and Beta. “And you two can act angry and annoyed at this news. Pretend that you don’t want anything to do with me.”

Piette gasped. “But Mac, that’s exactly what we want to keep hidden from the world’s superpowers.”

“Unless the information is useful, Francois. And this is very, very useful to me.”

—••—

Five minutes later, my people and I had left the meeting chamber. The feeling of joy was hard to suppress, but we tried hard to keep our faces from showing excitement.

“It’s why you sank the Mörder Class boat south of Florida, right?” Johnny asked. We were marching back to SC-1, weaving our way among the French undersea colonists. Some of them recognized me, and waved as I passed.

I tried as best as I could to acknowledge them all, though I realized that I was supposed to be under house arrest in Trieste.

Inwardly, I shrugged. I didn’t care anymore.

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