Authors: Peter Grant
“These are in order,” Gottschalk agreed as the men wheeled the card out again. “If you also have the Great Seal of Laredo with you, to authenticate your office as the new President Pro Tem of Laredo’s Government-in-Exile, we can proceed.”
“I do.” Dave produced the Seal from the attaché case he’d brought with him.
“Excellent! What are your instructions concerning your planetary account?”
“I see no reason to transfer the funds anywhere else. The Handelsbank has looked after them safely for several years, which we appreciate. However, we’re going to be doing a great deal of space travel over the next few years. I’d appreciate your advice on how best to arrange access to our funds from other planets whilst preserving security. I also want to set up an operating account for everyday expenses, separate from our reserve account. I’ll need two certified drafts, the first payable in Lancastrian Commonwealth credits to a Mr. Manuel Espada for five per cent of the current balance of our account, the second payable to the United Planets for twenty-five million Neue Helvetica francs. I need to withdraw more funds in the form of cash and prepaid debit chips. I want to cancel all our existing bearer bank keys and have new ones issued of a different type, so the old cards can’t be used by anyone else. Finally, I need your advice on valuing and selling a number of large and very high quality uncut diamonds that I’ve brought from Laredo. The proceeds will be deposited in our account. I’m told they should fetch several hundred million Neue Helvetica francs.”
Gottschalk was smiling. Dave imagined he could hear old-fashioned cash register chimes in his head as he contemplated the fees that the Handelsbank would earn from all those transactions. “I’ll introduce you to one of our banking specialists, who’ll be delighted to take care of all your needs, and I’ll start researching the names of trustworthy diamond brokers. With an account balance currently in excess of six hundred million Neue Helvetica francs, and more to come from the sale of your diamonds, you certainly count among our more valued clients. Where shall we – ”
His secretary interrupted, opening the door and looking inside. He frowned angrily at her. “I gave orders that we were not to be disturbed!”
“Yes, Herr Gottschalk, but after the Vice-President of Laredo was shot this morning, journalists besieged the Bactrian Consulate. Something’s happening there! It’s on Channel 5!”
“What?” The executive clapped his hands sharply. “Open Channel 5!”
A holovid display sprang to life on a cabinet against the far wall. It showed a two-story building on a commercial street, flanked by shops. Thick green smoke was billowing from the open front door, and several figures were coughing and spluttering on the sidewalk outside. As they watched another man stumbled blindly through the door, gray suit stained with green, eyes streaming uncontrollably. Despite his screwed-up face, he was clearly recognizable as Ambassador McNairy. A news reporter was babbling excitedly in German, which neither Dave nor Tamsin understood; but they didn’t need to under the circumstances.
“Got
you, you bastard!” Dave exclaimed in savage glee.
“What do you mean?” the banker demanded.
“I chose my words very carefully this morning when I described the suitcase that was stolen. Everything I said about it was true, but designed to make listeners believe that the evidence we brought from Laredo was still in it. It wasn’t. We took it out last night, and substituted a few folded blankets and towels to make it feel heavy. One of my team bought a super-pressurized security cartridge on New Brisbane to help secure our belongings. Do you know them?”
“Of course – we use them as well. They emit a dense impenetrable smoke, enough to fill several rooms very quickly, which carries teargas and pepper spray elements in suspension and will also stain everything it touches. It can’t be washed off by conventional means.”
“That’s right. Ours went even further. It had DNA markers suspended in the smoke, to attach themselves to every surface it touched. We have the invoice for the purchase of the cartridge. It lists its DNA code, so the markers can be identified. We rigged it inside the case, set to go off if the lock was forced without a disarming code being entered on the cartridge’s remote. If that’s the source of the smoke in the Bactrian Consulate, it’ll demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that they were connected to this morning’s tragedy. The fact that our former Ambassador to the UP has been caught on camera coming out of the enemy’s consulate also proves I was right to be suspicious of him.” Inwardly Dave vowed to arrange a very nasty surprise for McNairy as soon as possible.
“That’s outstanding!” The man’s pleasure and excitement were clearly unfeigned as he reached for a comm unit. “With your permission, Major, I’d like to tip off an independent journalist, a personal friend of my wife’s. Her name’s Gretchen Griessel. She’s very well-known and highly regarded. I’ll advise her to take swabs from the wall of the Consulate, and perhaps from some of the railings and trees outside it. If the swabs match up with the DNA markers your cartridge used, not only will she have a scoop for the morning news, but you’ll get all the publicity you could wish to implicate your enemies in the murder of Vice-President Johns.”
“Thank you, Herr Gottschalk. Please do that before we continue.”
The banker made the call, speaking in rapid German to someone on the other end. He looked at Dave as he said, “Gretchen will have swabs taken at once, and have them analyzed this evening at a laboratory she’s used before. They’ll do a rush job for her. She asks whether she can get details of the DNA marker code from you.”
“Of course. She can contact me at our hotel this evening. I’ll set up a press conference tomorrow to discuss this morning’s events and anything she learns, and to make certain announcements. If you vouch for her competence and discretion, and if she can guarantee it’ll get into major news media, I’m willing to give her an exclusive interview.”
“Thank you.” Gottschalk began talking in German into the comm unit once more.
“It’s a good thing we brought our own publicist with us,” Tamsin observed in a low voice. “She can advise us on how to handle all this.”
“You’re right. The fact that she’s Manuel’s sister makes me a lot more comfortable working with her. With a brother as competent as he is, I’m hoping it runs in the family.”
“You and me both!”
May 17th 2850 GSC
NEUE HELVETICA
The team assembled next morning for a shared breakfast. They didn’t dare use the dining-room after the barrage of publicity following the previous day’s events, because journalists were waiting in hordes to swamp them with questions. Instead, the hotel offered to cater their meal in a room at its business center. Waiters set up a buffet on side tables, and everyone helped themselves as Manuel scanned the room with an instrument he guaranteed would detect any listening devices. Finding none, he locked the door behind the waiters, took a plate of food for himself, and joined the others at the table. For a few minutes there was silence as everyone ate and drank.
At last Dave came to his feet. “There’s a lot to tell you,” he began. “Tamsin and I haven’t slept all night – we’re living on stim-tabs at the moment. Let’s start with current developments, then go on to our plans for the foreseeable future.
“Gretchen Griessel spent two hours with us last night. She’s a very influential Neue Helvetica journalist – we checked her background – and comes highly recommended. We gave her an exclusive interview on the situation on Laredo, our escape, the death of Vice-President Johns, and a brief glimpse of our plans for the future. She’ll be doing a series of articles about all of us, and we’re going to give her priority access to our archives. Elisabeta,” and he nodded at the publicist, “sat in on the interview, and she’ll act as our liaison with Gretchen. In fact, I’m pleased to inform you that she’s accepted a permanent position with us as our press secretary.” The others grinned. Manuel’s sister had become popular among them on the journey here, and she and Captain Deacon had been seen together more and more often.
“Her work is certainly going to kick off with a bang. We have a news conference scheduled at noon. Where only half a dozen journalists were present yesterday, because Laredo was so insignificant no-one bothered about it, Gretchen tells us we can expect several hundred today – so many, in fact, that the Handelsbank has offered us the use of their auditorium. It can seat a thousand, and has all the facilities a major news conference will need. I’ve accepted their offer on her advice, and Elisabeta is working with their staff to set it up. It’ll be good practice for dealing with this sort of thing in future. I’m going to use the conference to blast Bactria, blame them for the murder of Vice-President Johns, and appeal for interplanetary aid and assistance for our mission. I’m going to make hay while the sun shines, in publicity terms.
“You’ll notice I’ll be wearing a civilian suit at the conference. That’s because yesterday I was the Commanding Officer of a detachment of the Laredo Army, arriving here on official business. Today I’m the President Pro Tem of the Government-in-Exile of the Republic of Laredo. That’s a totally different job, and I’m going to dress accordingly. Over the next few days we’ll all be fitted for suits and transition to civilian clothing while we’re on Neue Helvetica. However, don’t throw your uniforms away. We’ll all need them again.”
He began to pace up and down behind the table as he spoke. “Gretchen provided a lot of background information that was new to Tamsin and I, and pointed us to several information resources that we spent all night studying. Briefly, here’s what I have in mind. You all remember what General Allred’s wife asked me to do with our archives, right?” Everyone nodded. He’d briefed them about it during their journey from Laredo to New Brisbane. “We’re going to honor her request, and make copies of all our data available to Commonwealth University. We probably won’t be able to go there, but if they’re interested enough – Gretchen says she thinks they’ll jump at it – they’ll send a team to work with us wherever we are. Some of them can help us get over our own stresses, while others discuss questions arising out of the archive and add our recollections to the record. Gretchen is also very interested in writing the book Gloria Allred had in mind. She can bring in an award-winning documentary maker to work with her on a movie to go with it, so that both can be released together. If she proves herself on our behalf over the next few weeks, I see no reason not to give her the larger job as well.”
“If this story becomes as big as I think it will, it’ll make her an even bigger interplanetary news star – not to mention a lot of money,” Elisabeta observed. “She’s not just offering out of the goodness of her heart.”
“That’s OK. It’ll motivate her to work harder. Our success will mean her success, and vice versa.” The others rumbled their agreement. “I’ll insist that we share in the royalties, though.”
Dave paused to take a mouthful of coffee. “Any team from Commonwealth U. is going to have to work around our other activities, because we’re going to be very busy indeed. The murder of Vice-President Johns looks like it’ll blow the lid right off our war with Bactria. Gretchen says it’s bound to give an almighty great kick in the behind to the United Planets to take seriously Laredo’s call for an investigation, particularly since our funds to pay the initial fees have just been unlocked. I drew a bank draft for them yesterday. She says Neue Helvetica will almost certainly support our call, because its government will be furious at having an assassination take place on its soil. It’ll be the first major planet to line up with us, which may help to persuade many others to follow its example.
“She told us that in the absence of direct evidence, the authorities would probably have preferred to portray this as a murder committed during the course of an armed robbery, rather than an assassination – criminal rather than political, in other words. However, we’ve proved conclusively through DNA swabs that our stolen evidence suitcase was opened inside the Bactrian Consulate. Gretchen’s special report this morning blows that wide open. It means this incident can’t be written off as a simple crime. She says that for a start, the entire Bactrian consulate staff is likely to be declared
persona non grata
. Sergeant Higgs, we owe you
big-time
for your suggestion to use that security cartridge. It’s put enormous leverage into our hands, and I intend to make full use of it.”
Higgs flushed as others called their approval or reached over to clap him on the shoulder. “Thank you, Sir. What’s going to happen to our former Ambassador?”
“I’m going to bring criminal and civil charges against him for the theft of the money from Vice-President Johns’ account, because he was fired and lost the right to access it half an hour before he did so. I think we can make that stick, and since he also lost his diplomatic immunity half an hour before the crime, I hope he’ll be convicted and jailed under local law. I’m personally sure he knew in advance about a plot to steal the suitcase, if not to murder the Vice-President, but we can’t charge him with that without direct evidence. The fact that he ducked early is circumstantial evidence, not enough to convict him.”
“Permission to gut him like a fish, please, Sir?” The others growled their angry agreement.
“Yesterday afternoon I’d have said ‘Yes’ without a second thought, but after thinking about it I’m afraid we have to stay strictly within the law in everything we do on Neue Helvetica. We’ve gained enormous public sympathy since the murder as the ‘good guys’ in this fight, but if we break the law ourselves that’ll change overnight. We’ll be dismissed as nothing more than a gang of thugs who got into a fight with another gang. We daren’t take that chance.”
Higgs nodded reluctantly. “I guess not, Sir. If he does hard time, maybe we can arrange a really nasty cellmate for him.” His comment drew a grim, angry, bitter laugh from around the table.
Captain Deacon remarked, his voice baffled, “What I can’t get my head around is why the Bactrian Consulate did something so stupid.
Surely
they could see they’d harm their own cause, rather than help it, by murdering the Vice-President in public like that?”