Infiltrate (Silver Cane Chronicles Book 3) Read online

  Infiltrate

  Silver Cane Chronicles, Book 3

  James David Victor

  Fairfield Publishing

  Copyright © 2017 Fairfield Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Thank You

  Free Story

  Preview: Discovery

  Chapter 1

  Silver Cane stood on a high balcony of an outer building of Gov Central, looking out from the seat of government to the district beyond. An off-shore breeze blew gently out over the Shoal; a warm and scented breeze, flavored by the tropical herbs that grew in abundance over the rich countryside that surrounded Gov Central. That breeze brought with it the sounds of the district that lay beyond, the distant sound of a population in chaos.

  An explosion punctuated the distant murmur of turmoil. Silver reckoned it was the third since she had been standing here looking out to the distant commotion. A fireball rose into the sky, smoke drifting lazily on the warm breeze.

  The virtual reality servers covering the planets of Pepper and Frost had been inactive for less than twenty-four hours before the first incidents of unrest were reported. Now after sixty hours, civilization had descended into utter chaos.

  The riots were erupting in district after district, settlement after settlement. Already there were more areas in violent uproar than Silver had agents to deploy. Even if she had a full complement of agents at her disposal they were not a riot control force. They had a range of skills—and duties—but they were not responsible for restoring civil order. The system was on the brink of utter disorder and she had barely enough personnel to bring the district just beyond the walls of Gov Central to order.

  Riots had broken out in all populated areas where the VR network had failed. No district or settlement had remained calm for more than twenty-four hours. There had been a brief lull in the violence for a few hours but now the riots were prolonged and sustained. They showed no signs of abating.

  Silver’s personal artificial intelligence brought news that Silver had feared.

  “The main VR hub for the outer system has been attacked. A personal cruiser packed with explosives collided with the facility. The destruction was total.”

  Leaning on the hand rail and looking to the district in the dim evening light Silver heard the unmistakable buzz of blazer discharges. The sound sent a shiver down her spine. People were dying out there.

  “Thank you, Arty,” Silver said. She pushed herself off the railing and headed back into the building. The entire system was now cut off from VR. If these newly “liberated” areas followed the same pattern as all the others then Silver knew there would only be one day before the entire population of the system would be in turmoil. Billions of lives would be thrown into frightening and violent disorder. There would be utter chaos. There was little that Silver could do. There was only one thing that would give her any chance of subduing the population. She had resisted so far. She was out of options. She was out of time.

  “Arty,” Silver said stepping into an elevator. “Contact the Defender’s AI. I need to speak with Admiral Blake.”

  Admiral Dawson Blake appeared on the large holostage in police HQ. He was sitting in a large armchair in a spacious and comfortable office aboard the Defender.

  Silver had never met the admiral in person, but since taking over as chief of the police service she had had cause to speak with him almost a dozen times, all of them in holocall and most of them in the last sixty hours since the VR servers started going off line.

  Blake’s official office was here in Gov Central along with all other service chiefs. It should have been possible for Silver to visit the admiral in person. However, the admiral also had an office aboard the military flag ship, the Defender. Admiral Blake chose to spend most of his time on board his ship. It was an unofficial arrangement but it was accepted by the civilian government and other service chiefs. If anyone needed to contact Admiral Dawson Blake, they knew they could find him on the Defender.

  Silver was a service chief just as Blake was, they were both of equal standing. However, the police service was much smaller than the military, even when it was at full strength. Now with only a handful of active personnel, Silver’s police service was the least well manned service in the system. She had always found the admiral to be polite, though, and never condescending. Blake never let her feel that she was anything other than a vital and respected service chief.

  Leaning on the holostage and presenting a confidence Silver felt might be misplaced, she looked Admiral Blake in the eye. Blake was completely relaxed. He was the chief of the military, responsible for the Defender, a fleet of destroyers, dozens of military asteroid installations and thousands of active personnel. He was at ease with his responsibilities and his power.

  Silver was comfortable approaching Blake. She was, however, uncomfortable with the request she was bringing to him now.

  “I can see no other way to restore the population to order, Admiral,” Silver said.

  Blake stood up from his large leather armchair and walked to his desk. He pulled open a drawer and took out a cigar. “What about restoring VR?” Blake asked.

  “The engineering teams working on the VR network report that it could be weeks before we have a stable VR network. Half the population could be dead by then if we don’t intervene. The system is ripping itself apart.”

  “Using military personnel to police the population is achievable. But they will hate us both for it.” Blake puffed on the cigar. The end glowed and the cigar gave up a cloud of smoke that drifted around the admiral’s office.

  “They have to be alive to hate us,” Silver said. “The more people who are around to hate us after all this then the better we did our jobs.”

  Blake puffed and smiled as he dropped into the chair behind his desk. “It’s a reasonable request, Chief. I am content to agree to it. You just need to get the office of the president to agree. Send me that authorization and a detachment of my Marines will be at your disposal.”

  “Thank you, Admiral,” Silver said, a strong hint of relief in her voice. “I’m sending a request to the office of the president now.”

  “I’m dispatching the destroyer Tenacity to Pepper and the destroyer Rose to Frost immediately. They will be ready for your orders as soon as you get authorization for your service to use military assets.”

  “Thank you again,” Silver said. She opened the system view on the holostage and called up the locations of the two destroyers.

  “Don’t be too happy, Chief,” Blake stood up from behind his desk and walked back to the large armchair. “The population is not in a very forgiving mood at present. They will hate you for this, and they will remember what you did.”

  Silver nodded. “You have my thanks all the same. Thank you, Admiral.”

  Blake smiled and nodded. His image flickered away as he ended the call.

  The holostage showed the destroyers heading toward their target planets. Silver called up information on the Marine compliment and capabilities of the destroyers. A small set of text appeared on the holoimage next to the destroyers. Each had a Marine compliment of forty-nine. The number was di
vided between four squads of twelve and one squad commander.

  Silver was responsible for a population of billions scattered over hundreds of districts and settlements. How could ninety-eight Marines bring the system back to order? She would need thousands of personnel, all trained in riot dispersal and control.

  “Response from the office of the president, Sil,” Arty interrupted Silver’s thoughts. “You are authorized to deploy military personnel as a temporary addition to your service for a limited period to cover the current outbreak of civil unrest.”

  “It’s not enough, Arty.” Silver called up an arrival time for each of the destroyers. They would be in orbit above their designated planets in just a few hours.

  “You have enough. The destroyers have non lethal weapons in their inventory. You will be able to quell the unrest in one area and then move to the next.”

  “It will take days. Maybe weeks. That’s too long.” With her newly granted authority to use military assets Silver was able to access the inventories listed aboard each destroyer. Silver opened a list of non-lethal weapons and displayed it on the holostage.

  The list of non-lethal ordinance aboard each destroyer was impressive. The designation codes meant nothing to Silver and she had to call up the brief description for each one. Each device and weapon presented a different way of dealing with the riots. She could deploy a bomb that exploded harmlessly and released a virus that spread with surprising rapidity and rendered unconscious everyone who became infected with it. Another released a gas that set into a hard foam on contact with humans, incarcerating any being in a personal prison cell. There were concussion bombs, concussion pulse cannon, concussion rays. There were dozens of ways to send a person quickly, and painlessly, to sleep. She needed a system that would affect everyone without danger of leaving anyone vulnerable to those who were yet to be rendered unconscious.

  Silver would have to formulate her plan quickly and put it into effect the moment the destroyer Tenacity showed up at Pepper. Silver would lead her forty-nine Marines against this planet wide riot and bring it under control. There was no question about whether she would succeed, just a question of how, and how quickly.

  “Arty, send a message to agent Zinc.” Silver deactivated her holostage and walked toward the office exit. “Tell him to get to Frost. I want him to lead the operation there.”

  Silver headed out of the office and turned along the neat corridor toward her rest lounge. A robed civil servant moved aside as Silver stumbled tiredly forward. “I don’t know how we are going to end this rioting,” Silver said to Arty. “I’ll tell Zinc just as soon as I know myself.”

  “Would you like me to tell him that?” Arty asked.

  “Yes, tell him the chief doesn’t know what she’s doing, and her best advisor is a computer generated voice in her head.” Silver slowed her pace. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. “Sorry, Art,” she said. “Sarcasm is not helpful.”

  “I’ll tell him you will contact him with a tactical update as soon as he arrives at Frost.”

  “Thank you. Don’t bother me while I’m resting.” Silver walked into her lounge and fell face first onto her comfortable sofa. “I don’t want you disturbing the first sleep I’ve had in a week.”

  “You were last asleep thirty-seven hours ago, Sil,” Arty said.

  “Shut up,” Silver said and then fell swiftly into a light and dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 2

  Silver woke with a voice in her head. It was not Arty. She might not have been as surprised as she was if Arty had woken her. It took her a moment to identify the voice. A private message was being relayed directly to her neural processor. Whoever was sending it was knowledgeable enough of police service security to be able to circumvent it. The voice belonged to someone clever enough to find a way to contact Silver directly. Whoever it was had gone to a great deal of trouble to communicate with her in this way. They needed a really good reason to go to all this trouble and take such a risk. They needed a really good reason for disturbing her sleep. At last Silver recognized the voice.

  “Agent Carbon?” Silver said, waking from her short and inadequate sleep. “You are recorded as missing. I didn’t think I’d hear from you again.”

  “Hope I didn’t surprise you, or catch you at an awkward moment. I have information.”

  Silver rolled off the comfortable sofa. She stepped over to her coffee machine and poured a mug. The coffee was tepid, the machine was not keeping it hot enough. Silver knew it would take one call to engineering and a drone would be there in moments to replace the machine. She didn’t have time even for that simple task. “What is it that is important enough to bring agent Carbon back from the dead?”

  “I arrived at the re-education facility holding the terrorist Coris moments before the explosion that destroyed it. I knew I had an opportunity to disappear. I wanted to contact you but I made a decision to hide. I didn’t want to break cover until I had something for you, Chief.”

  Sipping her lukewarm coffee Silver nodded. Carbon was good. He was thorough and professional. It was not unusual for him to take an investigation and go quiet until he had revealed the truth. It had been infuriating for the last chief. Silver was pleased to hear that she had another experienced agent to call on, but it would be infuriating for her too if Carbon decided to stay undercover. Every agent was needed right now.

  “It’s good to hear from you, Carbon. What do you have for me?”

  “The identity of the person who planted the bomb at Coris’ re-education facility.”

  The mug stopped at Silver’s lips. She was awake now. “Who?” She asked.

  “Agent Neon.”

  Of all the people who could have planted the bomb that killed the terrorist Coris, Silver did not expect to hear the name Neon. Agent Neon had been a hopeless trainee. Silver had not rated him at all. One failed VR training simulation after another and Silver had felt she knew enough about the man to know he was never going to be a capable agent. Carbon had to be wrong.

  And now here was another surprise. Silver did not expect herself to think that Carbon could be wrong. Carbon was the most effective investigator in the entire police service. He was well known within the service for his ability to work out the trickiest problem. He did it by taking his time and analyzing every detail. No clue was too inconsequential, no lead to trivial. He was slow, but he was also one of the best.

  Silver did not doubt that Carbon had broken his cover to report on something he was certain of. He had taken a great deal of effort to use the destruction of the re-education facility to fake his death. He had gone to a great deal of trouble to stay out of sight this whole time, and to conduct his investigation.

  Silver had to hear him out.

  “Do you have evidence of this?” Silver took another sip of the coffee.

  “Yes. Naturally. The evidence is sparse. The conspirators covered their tracks well.”

  “But not well enough for Agent Carbon?” Silver suggested.

  “Indeed not. Neon is a mole. He was placed in the service to act against us.”

  Silver considered the theory. Neon was useless, or had at least made himself appear so. Someone had instated him as an agent and sent him to interview Coris. Could it have been a clandestine assignment to destroy Coris, the one man who might have been able to expose more of the terrorist conspiracy to bring the system into chaos?

  It would be a first if Carbon was wrong. Silver left her rest lounge and made her way to her office. Two robed civil servants were entering Silver’s main office up ahead.

  “I want you to come in, Carbon. We need all hands on deck. These riots...” Silver was cut off mid-sentence by Carbon.

  “I can’t break cover now. I’ve also been investigating strange gravitational anomalies in the outer system. I now believe they are connected with Coris, and Neon, and whoever is attacking the VR network. There is a pattern between the sudden gravity field spikes in that area and the detonations. I’ll report back whe
n I have more. Find Neon, Chief. He is dangerous.”

  Silver walked into the office and stepped up to the holostage. She called up the locations of all her Agents. They were deployed across the system in a hopeless attempt to deal with the riots. The presence of an agent might have been enough to stop a developing incident of civil unrest in its tracks. Now, with the riots spreading out of control there was little her agents could do. She would have to rely on the military to quell the population.

  She put out a call to all agents and one by one, their images displayed on the holostage. Silver paid particular attention to the holoimage of agent Neon. She didn’t want to let him know he was under suspicion for a bomb attack. As far as Carbon was concerned he was guilty. It was almost enough to convince Silver.

  “Agents. I have secured the authority to deploy Marines to the streets and bring this unrest under control. Agent Zinc,” Silver looked at the young rookie, “are you at Frost yet?”

  Agent Zinc’s face displayed his determination to succeed. “Approaching Frost now, Chief. The destroyer Rose is approaching too. We will be ready for your orders soon.”

  Silver nodded at the report. Zinc was as eager as he was capable. “All other agents. I want everyone to refocus their efforts on these bomb attacks. We are stretched thin but the bombers have been detonating devices with such regularity that they must be leaving a trail. Find that trail and follow it. Find these terrorists before they destroy our entire system.”

  The agents all responded their readiness to take up the investigation with renewed energy. Silver dismissed them all except Neon.

  “Agent Neon. I need support here at police HQ.” Silver watched the image of Neon for any hint of his treachery. He appeared his usual, ineffective self.