Mechwarrior - Dark Age 13 - The Scorpion Jar by The Scorpion Jar

Author:The Scorpion Jar
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-04-12T23:04:30+00:00

Heather didn’t have to look for Duncan when she left Mandela’s office. He pounced when he saw her.

“We’re up to three bomb threats in the Hall of Government today,” he said. “Would you like to know who sent them?”

“No.”

“I should tell you a mysterious package was found on the eighth floor.”

“A bomb?”

“No. A misplaced data screen.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“To keep—”

“—me informed. Fine. How did your conversation with the receptionist go?”

Duncan’s eyes brightened. “Oh, right! Interesting!”

Heather fervently wished Duncan had learned something besides the woman’s phone number.

“It turns out she’s new here. She’d been working for a Senator for a while, but just got transferred out.”

“Okay.”

“She says she got transferred because she caught her boss sneaking a rendezvous with some guy from the diplomatic corps.”

“Sex?”

“Maybe. But something else, too,” Duncan said, attempting an air of careful sophistication. “Getting transferred doesn’t do anything, really, to keep her from talking. She’s free to spread rumors about them as much as she wants, like she did with me. But what she can’t do anymore is watch them. If they’re up to something else, she’s not in position anymore to find out what it is.”

“That’s good thinking,” Heather said, trying not to sound surprised. “Did she happen to mention any names?”

Duncan smiled. “She certainly did.”

35

St. Croix Office Equipment Warehouse, Geneva

Terra, Prefecture X

13 December 3134

At night, the warehouse compound of St. Croix Office Equipment and Consumables, located in Geneva’s industrial outer ring, resembled nothing so much as a large, empty shoebox. The site scarcely looked the same as the busy commercial depot that by day received and sent out crates and pallets of manufactured goods—desks, chairs, computers, short-run printing and binding equipment, cleaning equipment and supplies, and reams and reams of paper.

Geneva was the home of the largest bureaucracy in The Republic of the Sphere, and the city’s appetite for office supplies was insatiable. This particular St. Croix warehouse was only one of dozens of such ugly rectangular buildings located out of sight of the elegant and historic city center, but conveniently close to the main transit arteries required for making deliveries.

This last fact prompted the Kittery Renaissance leader, Cullen Roi, to settle on the warehouses of the St. Croix chain as the target for tonight’s work.

Cullen Roi had sent Hansel to supervise the job. Norah would have liked to come as well, but Cullen knew that she couldn’t be trusted with this kind of mission. She was an excellent agent provocateur, one of the best at stirring up trouble and being long gone by the time it came to a head, but she was neither patient nor quiet.

Hansel, on the other hand, was a realist, completely lacking in vanity. His focus was on getting the job done well and quickly, and getting out. Speed was of the essence, since Hansel had several stops to make before the night was over.

Hansel steered a delivery truck up to the warehouse compound’s security gate. The truck was a massive tandem special, two containers in line; the false St.

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