Attempt
"Welcome to Nasa's Eighty-fourth anniversary" Teddy said from the podium. "On the first of October Nineteen Fifty Eight NASA became operational. Since that historic day this agency has fulfilled the promise of humanity by exploring the cosmos we find ourselves in. Today we celebrate that historic moment, the moment when humanity thought beyond the bounds of Earth, the moment when we dedicated ourselves to the promise of science, the moment we turned our back on the baseless superstitions of the past, and looked out into the heavens with unclouded eyes."
Mark looked out at the crowd in the main gallery. He recognized many of the faces in the front of the audience, and he chuckled to himself. How in hell did I wind up here? Got the love of my life next to me, presidents and prime ministers out there that are friends of ours, and two of the best agents Interpol ever had in the audience watching our back. Life is weird.
The first twenty tables held the VIPs from around the world, the back half of the grand gallery held the general public. The celebration dinner was an open affair, anyone could buy a ticket. That said the tickets were two thousand dollars each for the cheap seats.
Annie had gone all in though. The food was catered by five of the finest restaurants in Houston, the decor in the grand gallery had been augmented with special artifacts from NASA's past, and along with the spectacular food, a basketball sized replica in ice of the Moon or Mars sat as the centerpiece of each table. Every living astronaut was there in the first twenty tables, their seat and target government official assigned by Annie.
All five thousand tickets had sold in two days.
Mark, Mindy, Annie, and Roberta were sat at one of the front row tables that were on a slightly raised platform. Annie wanted them to be seen in the back. A few tables away Beth and Chris Beck chatted with the Speaker of the House, at the next table the Vogels entertained the Prime Minister of Germany, Teddy was now schmoozing the majority leader of the Senate, and Mark sat across from the Australian Prime Minister. He and Mindy had been charged with getting the Aussies to anti into the Martian effort. It was turning out to be easier than he had thought.
"So, Mister Prime Minister I…"
"Please, Mark, call me Arthur," the prime minister of Australia said.
Mark snickered. "Okay, Arthur, Australia should be involved, really involved. You folks are pretty familiar with life in a desolate desert," he said with a smile, and the prime minister laughed. "So we'd like you on board, so to speak. The Kore should have representatives of as many nations as we can manage, and you're one of the major players on Earth, so you should be in on Mars."
Arthur Madigan chuckled. "Mrs. Montrose has been saying much the same thing to us. Besides the prestige of participation what else would our investment bring us?"
"Knowledge," Mark said. "You would be helping the whole of humanity learn more about this planet and the rest of the universe. And with your special knowledge of desert environments I think the Australian astronauts would be invaluable.
"We have been talking about it in the assembly," Arthur said. "The money would have to come from our military budget, and that's a difficult subject to broach. They want more fighter aircraft, vehicles, and ships. Spending all that money sending a person or two to Mars is a waste according to them."
"I understand the refugee crisis is an issue," Mark said. "South-east Asia is drowning. One meter of sea level rise since the turn of the century has done them no favors, but if we learn more about what happened at Mars maybe well gain some insight into how to correct what we've done here."
"I will pursue it," Arthur said. "I think the people will be on my side."
"Wait till they see the completed greenhouses," Annie said. "Just over a year from now the Ares Five crew will be at Mars, and the real work will begin. Mr. Prime Minister, Mark proved we can live there. It's our duty to the future to go back and stay. When we reach beyond our planet we fulfill our purpose. No matter what belief system a person holds, gaining knowledge is the highest virtue, and we are dedicated to learning all we can."
"A very persuasive argument, Ms. Montrose," Arthur said. "I'll use on the Assembly."
"Thank you," Annie said and sighed. "No rest for the wicked though." She rose from her chair. "Got more MC duties."
(*)
James Allan Myer believed. He believed that God was on his side. He believed in the infallibility of scripture, and he believed the Earth was a nice three layer cake with hell below, the flat plain of the Earth in the middle, and the heavens above. These people had defiled God's perfection with their machines and lies. The artificial star they had placed was an abomination and would be destroyed in time, but first he would strike at their heart. The whole of this satanic organization was built on the lie that humans could violate the heavens and God's domain, and James would rain down the righteous vengeance God demanded on them.
The Jezebel, the unrepentant daughter of Eve, was mounting the stage to speak with her forked tongue, and James moved forward through the maze of tables toward the stage. He never took his eyes off Annie as he slowly made his way toward her. When he was a scant fifty feet away he pulled the plastic gun he had printed from his pocket. It held the two bullets in a derringer style arrangement, and it would only work once, but that was all James needed it to do. He practiced with several he had printed and was sure of his aim at this short distance. The Jezebel would die, now.
He whipped his arm up. "Gun!" A French accented woman's voice yelled as the pistol cleared his pocket, and he took quick aim. Just before James pulled the trigger something heavy and hard impacted the side of his head.
(*)
Janice Perrin was the youngest agent ever commissioned at Interpol. They had plucked her from a special forces training class for the French army when she was only seventeen. Her perfect scores on the math, science and history potions of the entrance exams for the Université Paris Dauphine had got their attention, her inability to lose at hand to hand combat, and her gymnastic abilities clinched the deal. The fact that she was astonishingly beautiful was just a pleasant bonus.
Eighteen years later she was surveying the crowd at NASA's anniversary.
Several of the dignitaries had their own security with them, and Janice smirked at some of the more obvious goons. Vous avez le cervau d'un sandwich au fromage she thought, looking at the pile of meat surrounding the Russian Ambassador. Stupide! She had analyzed the occupants of the VIP section and found no indications of a threat from that direction, so her attention was focused on the attendees from the general public.
Most of the faces that were turned toward Mark and Mindy had expressions of adoration on them and Janice relegated them to a lesser threat status in her mind. Her partner, Hannah Smyth was easily picked out of the crowd she towered over. At six foot three, with a models face and a body builder's physique, she cut an impressive figure. Hannah sat in the second row of tables with Stan near the Swiss ambassador, their cover identity being a rich Internet entrepreneur and his wife. Pierre was on Janice's left, and she was there as his date. The French ambassador knew of Pierre, but he had no idea who and what Janice Perrin was.
The dinner had been served and mostly eaten when Annie rose to speak at the podium. As the crowd turned their attention to Annie, Janice turned her attention to the crowd. In her analytical way she scanned the smiling faces, and one triggered a major alarm in her head. Where almost everyone else was wearing a smile, his face held barely concealed rage. She folded her napkin, the signal alerting Hannah. Pierre felt her tense, and he turned to her just as she leapt to her feet and yelled, "Gun!"
(*)
Mark felt Annie pat his shoulder as she passed on her way to the podium. Go get 'em girl, he thought. Annie's speech tonight was all about the promise of the future and what NASA, CNSA, ESA and all the other space agencies could do when they pulled together for a common goal. She had run it by Mark earlier in the day because he was the example she intended to use, and she would call on him to rise at an important moment. Mindy patted his hand and smiled as their friend mounted the dais.
Annie placed her speech on the podium and Janice's voice rang out. "Gun!"
Mark turned just in time to see Janice throw a dinner plate like a Frisbee at a man standing between two tables. It hit him in the side of the head just as he fired. Later analysis of the video files of the evening revealed that the plate impacted into the side of his head eighteen milliseconds before he fired. The gun was deflected by two degrees from the impact, and the bullet that left it hit Annie in the upper chest passing through her left lung and lodging against a rib. The analysts deduced that un-deflected the bullet would have passed neatly through her heart.
Janice was already in motion toward the attacker and Pierre was right behind her. Hannah had thrown her chair behind her and was racing toward the man as well, Stan at her back. Ethan Thomas beat them all there. He delivered three heavy punches in a row to the side of the struggling man's head, and James went limp.
"CIA!" Ethan stated loudly over the screams and shouts.
Roberta was screaming Annie's name as she skidded to a stop on her knees next to Annie, a pool of blood formed under her. Chris Beck was right behind her.
"Move, Roberta," he said firmly. "Annie, ANNIE!" he shouted.
Re-emerging from the shock, Annie looked up at him. "What the fuck, Chris. She choked out along with an unhealthy amount of blood.
"You've been shot," Chris said. "I'm, going to plug the hole, and it's going to hurt." Without warning he shoved his finger in the bullet wound. Annie screamed.
Across the room Ethan Thomas was hefting James over his shoulder. He looked directly at the security chief that had just ran up to them. "CIA. My friends and I are going to have a chat with the asshole." Without another word he walked away toward the restrooms, Janice, Pierre, Stan, and Hannah following him.
Mark and Mindy forced their way through the mob around Chris, Roberta, and Annie. Roberta was sobbing and holding Annie's hand, Chris was concentrating and gently probing with the end of his finger trying to find the bleeder, and Annie was looking up at them all with wild panicked eyes. Mindy knelt next to her and took her other hand.
"The ambulance is almost here, Annie," she said. "Hang on, Chris has got you."
"The ambulance will pull up out front," Mark said. He grabbed one of the rectangular tables and upended it. Flipping it over he folded the legs, then he flipped it back upright. "Chris, you and Annie are going on this. ARES, TO ME!" he shouted, and every Ares crew member, past, present, and future ran to him. "Slide Annie on," he said indicating the table. "You too, Chris."
They quickly slid Annie on to the table and Chris crawled on as they did, never letting pressure off the artery he had compressed to stop the massive bleeding.
"Up they go!" Mark ordered, and every Ares member that could get a hold on the table lifted it off the ground. "Lobby," Mark ordered and they sped off at a quick march.
(*)
In the bathroom things were going very poorly for James Myer.
"Wake up, fuckwad," Ethan yelled as he slapped James hard.
"Did I kill her, did I silence the Jezebel?" James asked as he came back to consciousness. Hannah and Stan had him in a hammer lock hold.
"You'd better fucking hope not," Ethan said in a deadly voice.
"I want my lawyer!" James shouted. "I have rights!" The laughter from the five other people in the room shocked him.
"Allow me, Ezan," Janice's sweet voice said, and she stepped into James's field of view. "You are very mistaken about your situation. Allow me to correct you mizasumptions. We are not zee police, we are spies. Ezan here is CIA, Stan is Russian. 'Annah and I are freelance, and you are fucked." She pulled a small black leather roll from her purse.
"Janice?" Pierre said worriedly.
"I won't kill him," she said with a smile and then turned to James. "Yet." She unrolled the leather sheet to reveal more than two dozen small shiny implements and vials. She picked one that resembled a tiny spoon. "Zer are many points on zee human body one can do small amounts of damage to and cause tremendous pain. Are you aware of zis?"
"What… I… What are you? AAAHHHHH!" Janice scooped his left nipple from his chest in one swift motion. She flicked the small piece of flesh over her shoulder and pulled a small vile of white powder from the roll. "Boric acid," she said by way of explanation. She calmly poured a measure into the spoon and applied it to where his nipple had been. Outside in the hall they all heard the scream.
Janice smiled, looking like a kindly nurse. "Tell me everyzing," she said in a voice completely devoid of emotion.
(*)
Vous avez le cervau d'un sandwich au fromage - You have the brain of a cheese sandwich