The Trojan Horse

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Washington DC

USA, Day 72

“Not bad,” General Thomas mused. “Not bad at all.”

The Colonel didn’t disagree. Every pinprick on the map represented a strike against the alien-backed puppet government, or its troops. Not every pinprick had been directly ordered by the resistance, but anyone looking at the map from the other side wouldn’t know that. They would have an impression of a vast resistance force, armed to the teeth and striking at the enemy wherever and whenever it could. And large parts of the country had already slipped out of federal control. The feds just weren’t safe anywhere unless they were surrounded by armed guards at all times.

His lips twitched. Once, back when all the survivalists had had to worry about was the federal government, the Colonel had studied a concept called Leaderless Resistance. It had suggested that individual insurgents — or small cells of insurgents — could, by operating independently of each other, keep the enemy off-balance and eventually bring it down. There would be no links between the resistance cells, ensuring that the destruction of one cell didn’t spell disaster for the other cells. It hadn’t worked out in practice for the Islamist scum who had tried to use it against America and Europe, but then they’d strongly overestimated their level of public support. Their war had been doomed long before the Galactics arrived to turn the world upside down.

But now… most of America was up in arms against the aliens. The resistance couldn’t hope to coordinate them all, but it didn’t have to, not when they were all attacking the right targets. Most of the resistance would have gotten the message by now; leave the Snakes themselves alone and concentrate on their collaborators. Willing or blackmailed — or brainwashed into becoming pod people — they would be targeted everywhere. The aliens would be forced to either write off large numbers of collaborators or place their own forces on the ground to defend them from their outraged fellow countrymen. And the resistance had been careful to give the impression that alien military units would be left strictly alone.

The Colonel looked back down at the map and shivered. It didn’t matter if he wanted to admit it or not, but the aliens had a number of advantages, particularly the pod people. They tipped the balance in their favour, leaving him wondering why the aliens didn’t simply convert every human in the detention camps and put them on the streets. The pod people were expendable, weren’t they? Or maybe not; there were definite signs that the process wasn’t perfect, and pod people often acted inhuman. If they ever perfected the process, to the point where they could create pod people who were utterly indistinguishable from normal humans, the resistance was doomed. And the handful of collaborators who were passing information to the resistance would be turned into double agents, without any of their handlers having the slightest idea that something had gone wrong.

“We’ve hit most of the easy targets,” the General mused. Actually, they’d expended their supplies recklessly, striking at every collaborator outpost they could find. They’d taken out roadblocks, police stations and even struck at a handful of detention centres. It was a pity that they didn’t dare trust anyone who had been in alien hands, even for little more than a few hours, but the newly-freed prisoners would be able to raise havoc without any connection to the resistance. They certainly couldn’t go home again. “They’re going to lose control quite badly unless they start using their own units.”

“Or units from the other side of the world,” the Colonel said. Once, before the shit had really hit the fan, he’d wondered why the aliens had intervened in Africa. Sure, everyone had believed that the Galactic Federation would lead them to a land of milk and honey, but their intervention had seemed pointless. It didn’t look that way now. The aliens had started to deploy human military units they’d armed and trained from Africa, after they’d smashed the dictators, religious fanatics and tribal leaders who had been soaking the continent in blood. It was a neat solution to their problem — and it made it difficult for the resistance to make contact with the newcomers. They simply didn’t speak the same language. “But we can go after them anyway.”

The General nodded. “We should be able to find contacts among them,” he agreed. “Unless they’ve all been brainwashed, or turned into unwitting spies.”

“True,” the Colonel said. “Thank God for Gillian.”

The aliens hadn’t been sitting on their inhuman asses, he knew. They’d been deploying their surveillance technology — and a great deal of stolen human technology — to hunt down and destroy the resistance. Even with the detectors that the NSA had developed before the aliens had revealed their true nature, they’d succeeded in tracking a number of resistance cells back to their safe houses — and then attacking in hopes of taking the fighters alive. The Colonel had had to order several bases abandoned because the aliens had taken people who might have been forced to betray them — leaving a set of IEDs behind in the hopes of nailing a handful of collaborators. And several teams had vanished without a trace. The Colonel could only conclude that they had been wiped out or captured to the last man.

Given time, the aliens would almost certainly win. The plan — the one they’d developed — would give them their only shot at victory, but if the aliens realised in time… they were doomed. And humanity’s freedom would become a thing of the past.

“All we can do is maintain the pressure and wait,” the General said. He looked down at the map, considering possible targets. “The aliens have been bivouacking the newcomers here, here and here. I think we should remind them that it’s against the Constitution to quarter troops on civilians.”

They shared a long grin. The alien collaborators would be in for a nasty shock.

President Patrick Hollinger — the real President, as far as Toby was concerned — was no better than he had been just after Tehran. He had been hooked up to a number of life support machines — all human technology — which were keeping him in a medical coma while he fought for life. The sound of harsh breathing echoed through the room, sending a chill down Toby’s spine. He’d hoped that the President would recover, although he suspected that it would merely sign his death warrant once McGreevy realised that her position was under threat. Toby wasn’t even sure why she’d ordered the President to be kept in the White House, unless it was to ensure that the aliens wouldn’t have a chance to brainwash him. If they did — and succeeded — McGreevy’s use as a puppet would come to an abrupt end.

Toby stepped away from the President and studied the medical monitor positioned by the side of the bed. It was almost impossible for him to read it; as far as he could tell, the President was stable, but showing no signs of recovery. The new team of doctors might well have been maintaining the coma just to keep the President out of play, yet there was nothing Toby could do about it. His only contribution to the President’s safety had been assigning four of the most trusted Secret Service agents to guard the President, night and day. Two of them had medical training. They’d be able to detect — he hoped — any attempt to murder the President in his bed.

He shook his head as he walked out of the door. They still didn’t know what had happened to cause the President to collapse. It was easy to blame it on the stress of his office, but Toby wondered if the aliens hadn’t done something to him. He’d read all the reports from the CIA agents interrogating the defector and they’d all agreed that the aliens didn’t seem to be really aware of the capabilities of their own technology. Or, perhaps, the High Lord did know and was keeping a few things to himself. It would be easy to infect the President with some nanotechnology that would make him collapse at the right time, allowing McGreevy to slip into the Presidency. Given time, they could create the ultimate national security state, with everyone carrying nanotech implants that would monitor their every move — and perhaps even read their thoughts. Some of the possibilities the analysts had raised were terrifying. The aliens might even be able to create a swarm of nanites that would rage over the Earth and turn everyone into a pod person. And that would truly be the end.

But they seemed not to be aware of the possibilities, or perhaps they were scared — too — by the possible outcomes. Maybe they’d wind up creating a hive mind that would take over even the aristocracy and eventually build massive cube-shaped starships that would assimilate the rest of the galaxy. The thought made him smile, even though the prospect was horrifying. Resistance really would be futile. But then, the Borg had been defeated by a Frenchman and a woman who talked out of her nostrils.

He glanced up as one of the President’s personal guard stuck his head into the room. “Mr. Sanderson, the President requests your immediate presence,” he said. If he was aware of the glowering Secret Service agents — and the disparity between their training and his — he showed no sign of it. Perhaps he was too stupid to know. “She’s waiting for you.”

Toby nodded. McGreevy’s paranoia had been rising ever since the first attacks. She’d had the Secret Service replaced with her own people, fired or arrested half of the Cabinet and insisted on everyone who entered her presence being thoroughly searched before they were allowed into the Oval Office. She hadn’t started screaming for beheadings and mass reprisals yet, but Toby was sure that it was just a matter of time. McGreevy controlled only a tiny fraction of the country now, whatever title she held. The aliens, their pod people and the resistance controlled the rest. And McGreevy was almost certainly coming to the end of her usefulness to the aliens.

“I’m on my way,” he said. He exchanged a long look with the lead Secret Service agent, and then headed out of the room. “Did she give a reason?”

“No, sir,” the guard said. “She just demanded your presence.”

Toby kept his face expressionless as they walked up the stairs. Every corner seemed to have an armed guard who checked their ID cards before waving them on to the next guard. Toby had been in the White House when Marines had been used to secure the building, but that hadn’t been anything like as scary as having several different groups of armed men in the building, each one watching the others for signs of disloyalty. All it needed was for someone to cough out of turn and there would be a bloodbath. The guards at the entrance to the Oval Office inspected their ID cards before starting a strip search. Toby had once joked that someone had better buy him dinner and flowers afterwards, but they hadn’t seen the funny side. They all knew that their lives depended upon keeping McGreevy alive and in power.

The White House staff had rapidly grown to resent the newcomers, but what could they do about it? They knew that any attempt to leave would be counted as a sign of disloyalty, while their families were being held as hostages in the detention camps. So they continued to serve the President, while enduring the gropes of her unprofessional guards and the constant feeling of living near a wild animal, one that might lash out at any moment. The White House, the very symbol of American government, was becoming a nightmare. Toby would almost have preferred to see a giant flying saucer blasting the White House to smithereens with a massive ray gun. At least then it would have been destroyed quickly, instead of a slow decay into disgrace. How long would it be before the White House took on the same air as the Kremlin?

His skin was crawling by the time he was pushed into the Oval Office. McGreevy was sitting at the President’s desk, looking down at one of the reports she’d ordered from what remained of the government bureaucracy. She looked terrible, as if she hadn’t been eating or sleeping in several days. Toby wondered just how badly her paranoia was tearing her apart. She hadn’t exactly ordered a food taster to start tasting her meals before she ate, but he had a feeling that it was only a matter of time. A smell from a side table announced the presence of a small buffet, brought up by the staff and left untouched by the President. Toby felt a cold flicker of anger. Out on the streets, ordinary Americans who had never known hunger were starving now, while the President refused food that could have saved their lives. He would have bet good money that the staff hadn’t been allowed to pass the food to their own families, or even people from the streets.

“I am surrounded by traitors,” McGreevy mumbled. Toby wasn’t sure if she was speaking to him, or merely mumbling to herself. “They have lost control over the country.”

She looked up, with disconcerting speed. “The Governor of Kansas has been assassinated,” she said, sharply. “His successor has declared his intention to terminate all links with the federal government and arrest all federal agents within the state. I will not stand for it.”

Toby winced, inwardly. These days, federal agents were even less popular than radical fundamentalists from what was left of the Middle East. Local police forces were refusing to cooperate, while the population took pot-shots at them at every opportunity. The previous Governor of Kansas had been under massive pressure even before someone had popped a cap in his ass; his successor would know better than to cooperate with McGreevy — and the aliens — openly. It probably wouldn’t last — the aliens could take him and his government out with ease — but it would send shockwaves running through the entire country. The ties that bound America together were fraying.

“I have ordered the military to advance into Kansas and place the state under martial law,” McGreevy added. “They will punish anyone who dares resist…”

Toby wondered if she believed that it would actually happen. He doubted that what remained of the military would be willing or capable of invading Kansas, or any other state for that matter. McGreevy simply didn’t control enough to even threaten the state, at least not without the aliens backing her up. He studied her carefully, wondering if she’d finally tipped over into madness. How long would it be before she ordered him killed, merely for having served the previous President?

“They tried to kill me,” McGreevy said. “They tried to assassinate their President. Can you imagine that? How fallen must a man be before he tries to assassinate the President?”

Toby shrugged. McGreevy’s White House was surrounded by armed guards and the surrounding areas of Washington had been evacuated, the population moved to detention camps just to ensure that McGreevy was safe. He allowed himself a slight smirk at the thought of all those lobbyists serving time in a camp, before shivering at her tone. She was definitely heading into madness, and then… the President could do less to make things better than most people believed, but it was easy to make things worse.

“Your safety must be our first priority,” Toby said. He spoke in a smooth voice, one he privately considered his ass-kissing voice. The real President wouldn’t have been fooled, but McGreevy accepted it as her due. Besides, without her, Toby had no position in Washington. She would believe that he would be loyal, if only because he had nowhere else to go. “The White House is no longer safe.”

McGreevy looked up, but she didn’t bother to dispute his claim. “The attacks launched over the past week by the terrorists have all had one thing in common,” Toby continued. “They have all been mounted against humans, not the aliens. The troops deployed by the Galactic Federation” — he had no idea if McGreevy still believed in the Federation — “have not been attacked. Anywhere guarded by their men has been left utterly untouched. You would be safest on one of the bases they guard, at least until the situation is back under control.”

“True,” McGreevy agreed. “But I don’t want to give the impression that I am running away from the terrorists.”

Toby was mildly surprised. He’d expected her to leap at the offer. “We don’t want them to think that they have you buttoned into the White House,” he pointed out. “How about a state visit to Andrews Air Force Base? Once there, you could board Air Force One and remain aloft until the country was secure…”

Air Force One — or at least one of the several aircraft decked out as Air Force One — had been brought down by the aliens, but McGreevy knew that she was worth more to them alive. Or so she hoped, Toby suspected. How far had she gone into madness? There was no way to know.

“An excellent idea,” McGreevy agreed, finally. “I shall depart once I have seen the Cabinet.”

“It will take several hours to set up the security needed for your safety,” Toby pointed out. “I suggest that you go tomorrow, once everything is in place.”

“See to it,” McGreevy ordered.

Toby left the Oval Office, endured the search and headed down to his own office. If everything went according to plan, the resistance would have their shot at the aliens — and McGreevy as well. And if the aliens had managed to crack the codes the resistance was using, or if they’d managed to get a bug into one of the resistance bases, they were doomed.

He shivered. They were staking everything on one throw of the dice.