Ambassador 12: The Unfolding Army by Patty Jansen

Author:Patty Jansen [Jansen, Patty]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Twenty

But before I could leave the room, there was a clang at the end of the corridor and the sound of heavy booted footsteps in the hallway.

The members of my team looked at each other. I gestured It’s OK. Relax. But Sheydu didn’t seem to think so. She made a couple of quick gestures to the team. Prepare, Caution and a few I didn’t catch.

Deyu unplugged and gathered up her hub and shoved it in her pack.

Reida shut down his work and put his screens away.

“What about the others?” Nicha asked.

He was referring to the rest of the team who had gone into the other dorm to catch up on sleep.

“I’ll check.” Sheydu got up from her bunk and went into the corridor. All of a sudden, everyone was frantically scrambling to get their things together, and I wasn’t sure what had triggered it.

A moment later, Sheydu came back walking backwards into the room, facing a large and heavily armed man. Several others remained in the doorway. I could only see two of them, but could hear the voices of at least two others.

The man held a weapon in the crook of his arm, pointed at the ground. His reflective visor and body armour made for an intimidating picture, and for all of Sheydu’s bluster, she had enough experience that she would never seek violence where she could avoid it.

He and his two fellows wore the Special Forces badge on their chest.

“What is this about? Is anything the matter?” I asked.

“There was a disturbance in this room,” one man said, his voice with a curious accent.

“Not that I know,” I said. “We were in here talking and resting, and waiting for the meeting to continu—”

“An electronic disturbance.”

Oh. He was talking about Reida’s jamming buzzer. They didn’t like it that they couldn’t listen into what we said.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“He does.” He turned to Reida, who retreated on the bottom bunk, a reaction that painfully reminded me of the shy and skittish youth Reida used to be. It made me angry to see it, actually.

I said to the man’s back, “He can’t understand you, so can you please address me?”

I faced him in the middle of the room. He was half a head taller than me. Deep inside his helmet, his eyes were brown.

“He’s been messing with our systems.”

“We were given access to communication lines. I’m sorry if in the process my people affected systems they shouldn’t have touched, but they are not familiar with the equipment and protocols, and no one was available to help them.”

He sniffed. “We have orders to search this room.”

“Why? Who issued that order? We’re a delegation from gamra. If you want us to show you our equipment, you only need to ask.”

“I’m not here to debate our orders.”

“This is not acceptable. We’re here by invitation of Nations of Earth.”

Was MacArthur aware that this was happening? Did he perhaps agree with this action, trying to intimidate us into… what exactly?

“Excuse me, I’m going to check this with MacArthur.

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