He stood before the quorum in the sparsely furnished room, loosely at ease and staring at a fixed point above their heads. He couldn’t bear to look any of them in the eye.
The black metal tables and chairs, padded in black leatherette, absorbed all the light and sound in the room, so that even under the fluorescent glare the lighting seemed subdued, and the multihues of the one-piece uniforms worn by the eight quorum members in front of him seemed to be as muted as the mood evinced by his entrance.
“You don’t look happy, Al,” said one of the women on the quorum. She leaned forward in her chair, her long, fine blond hair falling over her forehead. “So I take it that it’s not good news.”
Jorgensen sighed. “I’ve failed. Maybe you should appoint a replacement taking effect immediately.”
“That would be impossible, and you know that,” she replied, but with a tone of sympathy in her voice rather than reproach. “Is it really that bad?”
“Maybe worse,” Jorgensen said, bringing his gaze down from the fixed point so that he could look her in the eye. “I’ve fucked up big style, Eve. When it came to it, I just wasn’t up to the task. And it’s put us all in danger.”
Eve Goulden—head of the quorum by virtue of it being her turn, and a comp tech who had a friendly relationship with Jorgensen—shook her head gently. “What’s the situation, Al? Put us in the picture and let us be the judge of what’s going on.”
So he outlined all that had occurred since the Gate tribe and their allies had entered the compound, not flinching from a single detail, including the massacre of his sec force in front of the building, and the fact that the sec-vid cameras had been shot out so that there was now no way of knowing what the invaders were doing until they—perhaps—came in range of a camera secreted in one of the myriad corridors.
“Of course, that assumes that they proceed in such a fashion and don’t know exactly where they’re heading.”
“Which would be?” Goulden questioned.
Jorgensen shrugged. “The elevators and shafts down into the redoubt. I’ve given up thinking that they know nothing, and maybe should just think that they know everything. Shit, at least that way there’s less chance of them taking me by surprise. You know what I’m saying?”
“It’s a fair point, I guess,” Goulden mused. “But why the hell would they know about the redoubt?”
“Come on, they’ve been heading in a direct line for us. They knew what they were doing when they were in the compound. I’m certain my attempts to direct them just played right into their hands. And the way they spotted the sec cameras and shot them out when they got in here? No, I can’t believe that’s all just blind luck. They knew what they were doing. And I reckon they may just have been heading for us.”
Goulden looked at the other members of the quorum. “This is worrying, people. We’ve been working away without figuring on anyone out there knowing we’re here, let alone wanting to come after us.”
“But why would they? What possible use could we be to them as they are?” asked one of the male quorum members.
It was Jorgensen, shrugging, who answered. “Equipment, stores—it’s all hard currency out there these days. We’re relatively sheltered here, but I’ve heard tales of other skirmishes. Could be they got wind of us from one of those trading parties that have passed by, maybe put two and two together and come up with the magic number. Sure as shit they aren’t stupid, right?” he added with an edge of bitterness.
Goulden took in her fellow quorum members with a sweeping glance. “Well, if worse comes to worst, then we move on. Right?” She waited until they had all nodded their agreement—a couple of them with some reluctance. “Good,” she said finally. “The way I see it is that we don’t really have much of an option. But our best hope is to make sure that it actually doesn’t come to that.”
“How do we do that?” Jorgensen asked her helplessly.