Amalfi Echo (10 page)

Tessa was
packing a Revenge of the Gorgons
ubit
assault rifle because
it looked scary. She felt that it was unlikely they were regular
visitors at the Revenge of the Gorgons website and would recognise
the weapon. She definitely did not want to kill anyone here so if
she got into a situation where she had to scare them with weaponry
she thought the President and his security personnel would not feel
shock and awe if she waved a small ornament at them. Happily, the
ship had ensured that the
ubit
rifle was fully functional.
She did not want to deploy the jellyfish. They were deadly killing
machines on a hair trigger. In the confined space of the
President’s bedroom and surrounding rooms, that could quickly lead
to tragedy.

The President
and the First Lady, did, of course, immediately recognise Marion
and Tessa. In the subdued lighting of the bedroom, they were
nightmare figures come visiting. Both the President and the First
Lady looked away, a sad realisation stealing over them that they
were about to die.

Marion said,
“Forget the alarms. They have been neutralised.”

Tessa moved
away to cover the doorways. She scanned the surrounding rooms,
supplementing the feed from the ship. All quiet. This was a
scenario they had run many times. Tessa knew how every person
currently in the White House was likely to be spending the next few
minutes and how they would react if things went bad.

“Mr. President,
First Lady,” Marion said. “No one is pointing a gun at you. Believe
me when I say we are not going to harm you tonight. You are not
hostages and we will be gone in a few minutes.” Through the link
she said to Tessa, “
Bring up the scans
.”

Tessa made the
scans of the surrounding rooms visible. They hung in the air in
vivid colour and 3-D. On its own it was an impressive display of
technology. The President got the point. And, like all politicians,
he lived in the moment. As they were still alive he found his voice
and said, “What do you want?”

Marion said,
“As you can see, we know the locations of all of your security
staff and if they do decide to storm this room they will get
nowhere near it before Tessa kills them. She likes blowing holes in
stuff.”

“Okay, we’re
impressed. Get to the point.”

Marion did. She
said, “Mr. President, your tenure is drawing to a close. You are
unable to pass legislation of your choosing. There are questions
surrounding your acquisition of office. There is even talk of
impeachment.” He was a lame duck President but Marion made sure she
did not use those words to his face. “It doesn’t have to be like
that. Some very powerful resources on our ship tell me that under
certain circumstances not only could you go out in style but you
could even seek re-election with some chance of winning.”

The President
said nothing. Cynical disbelief on his face. Marion created an
office chair and sat down, drawing an exclamation from the First
Lady. It was the first time she had uttered a sound. Reinforcing
the point, Marion created newsreels of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In a more conversational tone she said, “An incumbent President has
a big advantage when our nation is threatened with
destruction—.”

“These…Gorgons.
Is this what you are referring to?”

He might not
have been to Harvard but he did have a certain shrewdness and knew
how to keep an eye on the pulse of the people. Tessa wondered if
she should have chosen some other weapon. Like the slimy, spitty
weapon from the equally spitty, slimy aliens in the ship’s
database.

“The bugs,
yes,” Marion said. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe in them
or not. There are many Americans who are now uncertain. The numbers
who do believe are growing daily. Main Street is becoming afraid
and you’re not giving them any reason to turn to you for answers. I
believe many Americans would see the sense, at this time, to take
some steps towards a better defensive posture for the nation. A few
precautionary measures. Where’s the harm in that?”

Marion was
careful not to talk about her ambush plan or nuclear weapons.
Ordinary people did not discuss the disposition of the United
States nuclear arsenal with the President. At least, not yet. Nor
did she press the President for an answer, not wanting to lock him
into a refusal. Marion decided to quit while they were ahead.
Warning Tessa through the link, she primed the shuttle. As the two
of them withdrew, she said, “Good evening, Mr. President, First
Lady.”

Marion’s timing
had been impeccable. The President of Russia, Sergei Anokhin, was
also turning in for the night. Marion did not make the mistake of
trying to coddle the ex-KGB officer. Instead, she presented herself
as tough but pragmatic. If Anokhin was surprised at her fluent
Russian he did not show it, expecting, no doubt, to be dazzled by
technology. Nor was he impressed by the
ubit
assault rifle,
giving it hardly a glance, his face impassive. Maybe he knew about
the Gorgons too, Tessa thought. She resolved to change to the
slimy, spitty weapon at the first opportunity, although she did
need more training on it.

Marion gave a
detailed presentation of the exact disposition of the Russian
forces including each and every one of the Russian nuclear weapons.
Anokhin managed not to look impressed. He did become thoughtful,
his expression hooded and Marion decided to move on and made
similar suggestions about rallying the people, this time using
animations of the siege of Stalingrad.

A week later,
the Presidents’ tour was finished. Marion went back to her studies.
Tessa also went back to school. Digby, well, relaxed mostly but
that was a surprise to neither Marion nor Tessa. No one did
relaxing like Digby. He did present a small concert in his music
room which Marion and Tessa had to admit was a very pleasant way to
spend an afternoon.

Various leaders
around the world bolstered border defences, moved a few troops
around and reviewed overseas deployments, curtailing them where
they easily could. This was presented as, “In these uncertain
times…” The Russians accelerated a program, already existing, that
was investigating better ways of destroying satellites in orbit
around Earth. They felt no need to mention this anywhere.

President
Newman did nothing. He was, after all, a lame duck President
waiting for the end. If the other world leaders had been impressed
by the tour, they hid it well. Lacking direction from their
governments, most people went about their business, adding yet
another stress to daily life. Gyms and the self-help industry in
general, added Gorgon stress programs to their repertoire and these
proved to be very popular.

Tessa stayed
closely in touch with her fan base. They all loved the slimy,
spitty weapon and enjoyed demonstrations of blowing holes in
stuff.

-oOo-

Two weeks
later, which was six months subjective time, Tessa, with Jazmine in
close support, dropped in to help a team of U.S. Navy SEALs trapped
by Islamic extremists while trying to extract American oil workers
from the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Tessa no longer used the shuttle,
having now conducted many small field operations from a variety of
alien attack craft.

The few SEALs
still alive had withdrawn to the roof of a 10 storey building to
make a final stand. Below, in the streets and in the surrounding
buildings, were thousands of militants, already firing their
weapons in the air in triumph at the American prize that was about
to be theirs. The Americans watched helplessly through satellite
feeds. Extraction had become impossible.

Tessa arrived
in the street below. Jazmine could simply have taken the Navy men
from the top of the building but that was not the point of the
exercise. Like whispering death, Tessa cleared the surrounding
streets and buildings.

Prior to
exiting to the roof of the 10 storey building Tessa holstered the
jellyfish because she was not prepared to designate the American
military personnel as friendly. Out on the roof, the remnants of
the SEALs team stared at her warily.

“There are two
trucks down below,” Tessa said. She tossed a map scan into the air
where it hung in front of them, a green light winking at a
location. “That’s your alternate,” she said, gesturing at the
extraction point. They knew the location. Apart from the 3-D, the
map was a copy of the one in their heads from the briefing. “I’ll
make sure you get safely to that location.”

The SEALs team
scrambled onto the trucks and Tessa laid down a hurricane of
covering fire, directing both Jazmine and the heavy weapons of the
ship. Towards the edge of town they came to a T intersection. Tessa
unlimbered the Amalfi rifle, to which she had graduated several
weeks before and, in one smooth movement, targeted the buildings in
front and fired. Eight city blocks, covering a square kilometre,
vanished in dust and debris.

It was, as they
say, an excess of fire power.

Strangely, it
was also largely soundless. The weapon pushed, or sucked, the
tremendous noise of the buildings exploding, away ahead somewhere.
This was no accident. It was a feature of the weapon designed to
protect an Amalfi soldier from the concussion.

The firing from
the remaining buildings either side of the street died away as the
militants withdrew. They too watched television and were
realists—the Americans were denied to them today. Some believed
that the Gorgons had already begun their attack and were taking the
Americans prisoner. They did not want to suffer the same fate.

The SEALs team
were looking at the jewelled stone in the middle of the emptiness
that was the Amalfi rifle and partly described by her twisted
hands. One of them yelled, “Why is it invisible?”

Tessa answered
without taking her attention from the scans and targeting program.
She jabbed at her eyes. “Amalfi eyes.” At his blank look, Tessa
said, “I can see it. You can’t because you have human eyes.” She
went back to the task in hand. Behind her back, or at least, so
they thought, another SEAL pointed to Tessa and mouthed,
“
Alien
.”

The first man
flung a questioning glance at Tessa. “Are we glad she’s on our
side?”

“Hey, Tessa,”
the dude of the group yelled. “Are you still an American?”

Tessa stayed
focused on the scans and targeting. She deployed a jellyfish over
the dude, heavily dampening its reactions. Without looking around,
she yelled, “Don’t, ever, ever, ask me that again.” She quickly
holstered the jellyfish before it reacted to the emotion of her
response. The SEAL swallowed, flicking his eyes at the others, his
look saying, “
We don’t get paid enough for this shit
.”

They made the
extraction point without further trouble. The Navy men swung aboard
the helicopters which lifted away. Jazmine swallowed Tessa with a
silvery tongue. The craft of mercury escorted the helicopters out
to sea.

Tessa helped
out an SAS black ops operation in the Libyan Desert against a
militant extremists’ camp. Jordanian special forces in Syria.
Russian special forces in Chechnya. None of the governments
involved had any choice in this and, as the operations were secret
anyway, they said nothing, unsure where this was heading.

“Where
is
it headed?” Digby asked, sharing an enormous fruit frappe
with Tessa. There was no need for them to share, it just seemed a
nice thing to do as Tessa was home from the wars and all that.
Tessa didn’t object. They tucked, companionably, into the frappe.
They both knew that Digby was not asking about Tessa’s operations
as such because, on that path, all was progressing to plan.

“We’ve got a
real problem, Digby,” Marion said.

“Yes. That is
why I asked,” Digby said patiently. He took another mouthful of
frappe. “Mmm. This is so good.” Tessa shook her head sorrowfully.
Digby’s enthusiasm for eating nice stuff and doing nice things, and
just all-round having a nice time was either extremely irritating,
or infectiously uplifting, depending on her mood. Right now she let
it roll over her without comment. She too had picked up on Marion’s
increasing tension and focused on that.

Not wanting to
be left out, Marion created a spoon and also tucked into the
frappe. In between mouthfuls, she used the spoon to jab at the air
as she made her points. “Going directly to the people is full of
risks. If we get them on side, they’ll naturally begin to take on
board the message about the bugs. Even if they don’t believe it
completely, it could cause them to demand that their
governments…‘do something.’ None of the governments of the world
have formulated any clear policy response. The result will probably
be riots. Seriously, they may completely lose control and the
planet slips into chaos and anarchy.”

“You hadn’t
anticipated this?” Digby said.

“Early on, that
scenario was only one of the many possible. Even for the learning
programs, there were too many variables. Down the track, we’re
getting a clearer picture of the way events are moving. There are
now an awful lot of people in the world who are primed for a
broadcast from me. Trouble is, every speech I write, the scenarios
end in disaster.” Marion carefully placed her spoon on the table
and sighed heavily. “What I want, may not even be doable and I may
have to face that fact.”

“You can’t give
up,” Tessa said, matter-of-factly. “The bugs are not going to
conveniently stop and decide to go somewhere else.”

“Do you think I
don’t know that?” Marion said.

“Okay, okay,”
Tessa said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ve run the
scenarios many times. It doesn’t matter which way I run it, all the
scenarios end the same. They do nothing to help themselves and they
all die.”

“Digby could
have easily made the learning programs give that answer,” Tessa
said, gazing sceptically at Digby.