Nexus

44 FINDINGS

Aboard the Boca Raton, an icon on a screen turned yellow, began to flash for attention. Jane Kim tapped the icon, expanded the alert. One of the spiders at target 67. A possible match. There. That face. Kaden Lane, in monk's robes, shaven head, a bandage across his face. And across from him, Professor Somdet Phra Ananda, personal friend of the King of Thailand.

Kim paged Nichols in his stateroom. He would want to see this.

While she waited, she turned her attention to the other spiders at target 67. If Lane was there, Cataranes might be there too. She updated the target profile for Cataranes to include the possibility of a shaven head, bandages, and monk's robes, and redirected all of them towards finding Primary Target Beta. Find Blackbird.

Two and a half hours later, they did. She was still alive.

Becker answered the phone at 4.13am Sunday morning, DC time. Sunday afternoon in Thailand. The Boca Raton. They'd found Lane and Cataranes. Monastery. Undefended. Within range of retrieval. The data was spooling to his slate now.

"Get the ball rolling," he told Nichols.

"Do we have clearance to launch?"

"You will in four hours."

White House, National Security Advisor's Office

"This operation was a complete clusterfuck, was it not?" Senator Barbara Engels asked. "And now you want to follow it up with an armed invasion? This is crazy."

Becker wanted to rub his temples. The senator's voice made his head hurt. The meeting had stretched on for more than an hour already, going round and round on the same topics.

"Thank you, Barbara," National Security Advisor Carolyn Pryce said. "We appreciate the input of the oversight committee."

The senator shook her head. "You're looking at a lot more than input here. If this blows up in our faces, you're going to see hearings in my committee. Hearings during an election year. Does that register with you? You people are off the deep end."

Secretary of State Abrams nodded his head in support. "I agree with Senator Engels. We can't further provoke the Thai."

"They're harboring a criminal," said Becker's superior, ERD Director Joe Duran. "A possibly posthuman being who's coerced and abducted our agents, used them to kill our men. We have to go in."

Duran's boss, Homeland Security Secretary Langston Hughes, nodded his approval.

Pryce turned to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Stanley McWilliams had been largely silent throughout the meeting, studying the details of the plan that Becker had sent him on his slate. "Admiral McWilliams? What's your view on this?"

The silver-haired admiral looked up from his slate, met Pryce's eyes, held them steadily. "This mission is a crock of shit."

Becker felt himself bristle. People around the table straightened themselves in surprise. Becker opened his mouth to reply.

Pryce held her raised palm out towards him, her eyes still on McWilliams. The reply died on Becker's lips.

"Go on, Admiral."

"First, we shouldn't have launched those recon drones last night. We have a chain of command for a reason." His eyes flickered over Becker and then Maximilian Barnes.

I've made an enemy, Becker realized. Going around him and his people pissed him off.

"Second, this mission looks good on a slate, but no plan survives contact with the enemy. Everything has to go perfectly for us to get in and out without being detected. That's possible, but unlikely. If anything goes sideways at all, we'll be caught invading an undefended, civilian, holy site in a nominally allied country. And for what?" He slid his slate across the table, a picture of Kaden Lane on it. "For bullshit. It's not worth it."

Everyone started talking at once.

Pryce held her hand up. "Quiet."

The noise stopped as quickly as it had begun.

She gestured to Becker. "This is your plan, Deputy Director. What do you say to the admiral's objections?"

Becker took a breath, tried to project calm.

"Admiral McWilliams is correct that this could go sideways. My commitment to you, Admiral, is that at the first hint that there's any chance of discovery of the mission, we'll abort it. What I weigh against the risks are the national security value of understanding the methods the Chinese have for coercion, the importance of keeping fourth-gen enhancements and Nexus 5 off the streets, and my personal passion for getting a loyal agent home in one piece. I'd think you'd understand that."

"I'd be touched if you showed half as much passion for the civil rights of ordinary Americans," McWilliams drawled back.

Becker flushed.

That prick.

People started talking at once, stumbling all over each other. CIA Director Alan Keyes threw up a hand in exasperation. Senator Engels chuckled in amusement. Maximilian Barnes just leaned back and watched it all, impassive.

"Quiet!" Pryce slammed her hand on the table this time.

Silence returned at once.

"Admiral McWilliams," she said. "Remember where you are, and keep your personal opinions contained."

She slowly scanned the room, as if daring anyone to make a sound. No one did.

"The President has made the elimination of transhuman and posthuman threats one of his top national security policies," Pryce said. "We serve to implement those policies. At the same time, we do not want to be seen as taking unauthorized military action inside Thailand. Given that, I'm going to recommend to the President that we move forward with this operation, under very specific conditions."

She lifted an elegantly manicured hand, locked eyes with Becker, counted off her conditions on dark-skinned fingers.

"First, no action against Su-Yong Shu unless you can provide concrete evidence of direct action by her against American forces and in violation of Copenhagen. Everything you have here is circumstantial. Get proof, and you'll have your clearance to go after her."

Becker nodded.

"Second, only stealthed equipment and only then under the cover of night. Third, no civilian casualties. Not a single one. You load non-lethal rounds and you only switch to lethal if there are no civilians anywhere in the area and you're returning lethal fire from your missing agents or another combatant. Fourth, absolutely zero, and I mean zero evidence of US involvement. This will not become an international incident, and this will not become an issue in the US this November. If there is even the slightest chance of detection, you abort immediately."

Becker nodded again. He didn't trust himself to speak.

Pryce scanned the room, looking each of them in the eye. ERD Enforcement Division Deputy Director Becker, Secretary of Homeland Security Hughes, ERD Director Duran, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Keyes, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs McWilliams, Secretary of State Abrams, Senate Oversight Committee Chairwoman Engels, Special Policy Advisor Maximilian Barnes.

"Are we all clear on this?"

McWilliams snorted. Barnes watched the room silently. Everyone else nodded, voiced their assent.

"Good," Pryce said. "I brief the President in less than an hour. Admiral McWilliams, you're welcome to accompany me and present the case against this mission. I'll let all of you know the President's decision immediately thereafter. Good day, gentlemen. Good day, Senator."