"Yes Madam Vice President," Woolsey agreed, "I think I have found exactly what I was looking for." He was talking from Cydonia over a secured line via Okinawa base and the Pentagon. "I can't say too much in case I tip my hand but give me a little time and I am sure I can get the proof we need to shut these cowboys down."
"I'll look forward to hearing from you then" Weir replied. "In the mean time be careful." He hung up and allowed himself a self –congratulatory smile. The Nemesis file had proved a gold mine of information about misappropriation, inside dealing and illegal corporate actions that would bust this bunch of savages and put them firmly back under the control of more responsible men.
The door opened, it was Nabiki, in uniform, and with a hard expression. "I tried to warn you," she said regretfully. Then she stepped aside and two heavies stepped in and reached for him. At that moment he knew he was in over his head. A cold heavy feeling settled in his gut. He had always known this was a possibility but somehow he never believed it would actually happen.
"Ranma tried too," she continued as the men cuffed his hands, "but you weren't even going to ask for an explanation." She stepped aside as the goons lifted him from the room. "You were just going to hand our secrets over to an outsider. I really misjudged you." Behind him the door slammed, sealing her in with his files.
-
-
Ranma, Nabiki, Laura, her husband and Gos were all sat in Nabiki's office looking at the pile of papers taken from the envoy on a screen watching were the faces of the Okinawa command. Every face held an identical hard expression.
"This is it isn't it?" Gos asked. "The moment we choose." Now he had everyone's attention. "On one path we give up the secret, let him destroy the agency and do our best to work in the new system." There were plenty of emphatic negatives forcefully whispered. "On the other hand we turn against the organisation that spawned us, against the nearest thing our world has to a unified government."
"Whether it is nobler to suffer the slings and arrows" Laura's husband quoted.
"What he said" added Jack.
"This sucks" said Laura, punching a vibro-knife into the desk.
"There has to be another way!" Sam said over the phone.
"We just can't kill our way out of this one" Gos said, "and the truth is his mind is strong enough that anything we did would break far too soon to be any use."
"I really thought he was better than this" Nabiki said regretfully. Suddenly she was aware of Ranma's intense, thoughtful stare. She looked back and when Gos started to talk he hushed him. "What is it Ranma," she whispered, "have you got something?" Finally he relaxed.
"Nah, wouldn't work" he said, she slapped his arm.
"Tell me hero," she told him "Maybe I can make it work." He looked at her for a moment then relented.
"Its fairly simple," he started, "the thing is you aren't usually wrong about people, so if you say he's smart enough to see it from our view then we could try telling him it."
"And then what?" Laura interrupted Scottish accent all the more pronounced because of her ire, "We, in classic evil overlord style, tell him our master plans and then what?"
"He comes round or" Ranma replied quietly, "or I make sure he can't talk." Nabiki considered it for a moment.
"Not good enough," Sam said. "If he suddenly goes quiet now Earthside is bound to realise something is fishy."
"Tell them too?" Ranma queried.
"Why not just take out an add' on the news" Laura complained. "We Cannot Trust them!" she said emphatically.
"Hayes" Nabiki said, getting everyone's attention. "We tell Hayes, and then let the cards fall as they may."
"Why would he be any better?" Laura demanded.
"Because he was a soldier, because he is smart and because we have no choice" Nabiki answered, frustration showing.
"We go it alone," Laura argued, "Screw them. We don't need a single one!"
"And then what" added her husband quietly. "When they try and shut us down we fight back. When they object we threaten them with annihilation?"
"Yes dammit," Laura retorted "whatever it takes!"
"You ready to launch a coup for Earth?" he asked generally. There were a few headshakes but Ranma remained still. Laura leapt on this.
"Ranma, you can't be serious with this," she pleaded, "Tell them!"
"I'm sorry Nabs," Ranma replied, "Laura does have a point." The woman in question nodded. "Even if we did sort it this time what about next time? What if the Africans want to know? How many more Armand's does it take?" There was silence.
"Ranma we have to try" Nabiki said quietly, "we can worry about next time afterwards. But right now this makes sense." She added sadly.
"And if it does go wrong then we can blow them all to hell!" Laura's husband offered.
"We'll need to give them psi-protection" Gos blurted, suddenly everyone was looking at him. "Even if this works we'll have to watch them for ever more just in case an Ethereal agent tries to steal them and steals us too!"
"Then we'll do it!" Nabiki decided. "But I want a plan B from you three" she said pointing at the three front-line agents" then she trned to the screen "and you can find plan C"
"What's plan C" asked Jack.
"You tell me" Nabiki told him.
-
-
Richard Woolsey Phd was sat in the empty cell they had put him in, naked and very afraid. When they had first taken him he was determined to bear up and not give them the satisfaction but the hours had gone by and now all he wanted was to get out of this alive. It wasn't that he was scared of anything in particular but there was something about this cell that seemed to ooze fear straight into his brain.
When the door opened he was ready to beg for his life. Instead the guard handed him a grey jumpsuit and helped him get into it. He even gave him a bottle of water to drink. "Sorry about that doc," the man said apparently sincere, "That room gives me the creeps just standing outside it."
"Why, what's the room for?" Richard asked.
"We haven't ever used it before," the man replied "But the aliens used to keep 'projects' there.
"Projects?" the envoy asked, desperate for more conversation.
"The aliens don't kill you straight away if they can help it. They have this fetish for surgery, for pain. One of the docs even says that some of them feed off pain and misery. That room is where there kept subjects between sessions."
"Subjects?" Richard asked, sweating for no reason at all.
"Mostly animals" the guard replied "but only mostly."
"Were they really that bad?" Richard asked.
"They ARE really that bad and worse doc" the man replied. "Don't be fooled into thinking that they are gone for good, or that there aren't billions of them out there ready to throw you in working rooms like that." The doctor was shivering now. "Look if you can walk Colonel Saotome wants to see you."
"Which one?" Richard asked.
"Nobody calls Ranma by his rank," the guard replied, "he doesn't like it very much."
"Oh" Richard replied and was led away to a meeting that would change his universe.
-
The Room was brightly lit and had a Mars view through a small window. It had a large table-like construction in the middle, chairs and a tall tube with a floating ball in it. It also contained Saotome Nabiki and a stack of papers.
As he walked in Richard was aware that he was still scared. It showed in his shuffling gait and his pale face, and he was sure it would show in his voice.
Nabiki for her part was stunned by his appearance, a few shot hours in a cell and the man looked twenty years older and more than a little crazy. For a moment she considered abandoning the whole plan but the die was cast now and everyone just had to wait and see how it panned out. She also made a note to have psi-ops check the cell out again.
"Doctor Woolsey" she began, waving a hand to offer him a seat, "we have come up with an alternative to your death."
He took the seat gratefully, feeling very old and unsteady. The tone of her voice was not apologetic, dashing his most ferverent hope. But it sounded very much like she was offering something else. Then he twigged it, she was trying to turn him! Damn her to hell but there was no way he would turn, screw the cell, screw the fear he was a man and he would die like one!
"I will never help you" he hissed, straightening his back. "I am a man of principle and I find what you are doing here utterly repugnant!" If he had been a man for dramatics he would have spat.
"I am afraid once again you judge us before hearing a word we have to say" Nabiki lamented with real remorse. "That is practically the only thing that will persuade me not to try to save this situation."
"Ha" he sneered, "I think it's a little late for that! When the UN hears you will be cut off. By kidnapping me you have dammed your whole organisation!"
"Really?" she asked, handing him a folder. He was intrigued enough to open it. Inside it held details of a company called Megapoll. He had heard of them of course, another one of the high risers using breakthrough technology to make better manufactures. It took a few seconds to make the connection. The break-through technology was alien based, and the company a front. He looked up at Nabiki who handed him another file. This one was even worse, it was O'Neil Cybersystems, and they had blown almost all their competition out of the water with an amazing new way of doing computers. Most of America had at least one of their products in their home and their reach extended to the four corners of the globe. Here in black and white was the proof that it too was a front for this rogue organisation.
"Okay" he said with a slight quaver. "I'm scared, what does this mean?" Nabiki didn't answer, instead she just dropped a dozen more files onto the stack in front of him. He sorted through them. He quickly realised he didn't recognise all the names but those he did concerned him even more. All were major players in the advanced technology markets, ranging from pharmaceuticals to transportation, from psychology texts that were rewriting the books to mining companies. A shiver ran down his spine.
"Is this all?" he asked. She shook her head, his hands clenched on the desk. "What are you going to do?"
"That all depends on you," she answered. "My friends and I met a few hours ago and we decided to take a risk," she explained taking a seat. "We are going to let you in on the secret."
"What secret?" he asked, intrigued.
"All of it" she replied ominously. Then she turned her seat and pointed to the tube. "This is what the aliens use for entertainment. It is capable not only of true three dimensional rendering but can actually project the emotions shown on the screen. Fortunately we won't be switching that bit on."
"What are you going to show me?" he asked, trepidation returning.
"Alien mission logs" she replied, switching it on. "And then Surgical logs, and then projected achievements."
As the machine hummed into life the cold feeling in his belly returned. He was soon to be glad he had nothing in his stomach.