Cade was listening, but he couldn’t relate any motive to what he was hearing. The story the two ISS agents had given when they came to the house seemed straightforward enough. He shook his head uncomprehendingly. “But why? Farden was pushing bills that would open up big markets for cheap minerals that the Hyadeans are pulling out of Bolivia, right? Now, okay, sure, I can see how that might drop the bottom out of a lot of industries here that have seen their day, and make him unpopular with a lot of people. That would make him a natural target for an outfit like CounterAction, that looks for popular support. But why should somebody like Toddrel care? He’s not a titanium miner who got let go last year with no place to go.”
“You’re buying the standard line that they put out,” Marie told him. “Simple. Easy logic. Gives us an instant Enemy of the People to hate.”
“Well . . . what other line is there?” Cade invited.
“Farden had enemies within the Terran Globalist elite. He was working with other interests—I suspect British, but I’m not sure—who were being paid by South American land agencies and development investors to expand the Bolivian extraction operations. That earns the Hyadeans the foreign currency they need for their land deals, and in recycling it everyone in the loop gets rich.”
Cade still couldn’t quite buy it. “But that still doesn’t explain why Toddrel should want to get rid of Farden. I mean, isn’t he in the loop too?”
“It’s a different loop,” Marie answered. “Farden’s scheme is undercutting a lot of U.S.-capitalized mining, which makes it too radical for some people. Toddrel is part of a more cautious approach to cashing in on the Hyadean economic system by marketing Terran creative skills, which sell at a huge margin on the alien worlds. That means selling out middle-class professionals instead, which doesn’t create powerful enemies. Also, you’re not giving foreign governments a green light to rush into handing over big chunks of this planet, which not everyone is happy about.” She waved her fork by way of conclusion. “Hence, eliminating Farden was convenient for a lot of people you don’t find at Washington protest rallies. If you can do it and discredit the opposition at the same time, then so much the better.”
Cade nodded reluctantly. It was starting to make sense now. “How come you know so much about all this?” he asked curiously.
“Oh, come on Roland. You know that reading between lines and finding sources that I believe has always been my thing.”
“Yes, right. Let’s not get into that. . . .” Cade picked up his glass and drank. “So what about General Meakes? The version I heard was that he wanted to beef up our defense capability by introducing more Hyadean weapons and methods, which countries like the AANS didn’t want to see happen. So they spread the story that he was going to put our military under alien control, and that made him unpopular enough for CounterAction to target. What’s your take on that?”
“From what I’ve heard, Meakes was sincere,” Marie replied. “He genuinely wanted a stronger capability. But that was so the U.S. could run its own security operations independently. But the same people who didn’t want Farden bankrupting Western industrial interests want an expanded Hyadean military presence here to protect their investments, with our own forces maybe eventually under their command.”
Cade was astounded. “You’re kidding!”
“I wish I was. The joke is that what they’re pushing for is exactly what Meakes was accused of, but which in reality he was obstructing. So they had reason to want to get rid of him too.” Marie looked across. Cade had no more questions for the moment, but sat absorbing what he had heard.
“So that’s what you need to know,” Marie told him. “If I don’t come out of this for some reason, get it to the right people in the organization.” She finished her toast, thought for a moment longer, and then added, almost as an afterthought, “Unless you still don’t want any part of it, of course.”
After half an hour of brooding, shuffling restlessly around in the cramped confines of the camper, and saying little, Cade sat down opposite Marie as she sat staring through a window at the tree-covered slopes rising beyond the end of the field. “It’s not enough,” he declared. “Yes, we need to get this information to the right people in your organization. But it has to go further than that. It has to get to the Hyadeans too—the right ones. They need to know what kind of people their government is collaborating with. Because they don’t question things, they’d be easy to take advantage of. But that would make them all the more appalled if they knew the truth. Maybe I have spent a lot of the last few years staying out of things that matter, but one thing it’s done is put me on more than just speaking terms with a few who would be ideal to start with. One in particular that I’m thinking of is very close to Dee. Do you remember her?”