Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike (19 page)

It was thought that nothing that came through
the gate could become a threat to the station.  First, because all of the holes
were oriented so that any ships coming through would not be on a line to the
station.  They would have to reorient, decelerate, and then head for the
Donut
. 
And in that time the defense fleet would be able to take them under fire.  And
second due to the distance.  It would take hours for a missile to reach the
station from any of those gates, and any beam weapons would be so attenuated as
to be ineffectual before they reached their target.

“After what happened to their primary dock in
orbit, they refuse to even discuss having a gate on their planet,” said
Samantha.  “And considering the size of the bombs the Cacas brought through, I
really can’t blame them.  That thing would have killed everyone on a small
continent.

“And that brings up the next point,” said
Samantha, looking straight at Archduke Marconi.  “And the reason we asked you
to be here, your Grace.”

Marconi’s ears perked up and he raised an
eyebrow.

“You are a member of the Lord’s oversight
committee on Intelligence, your Grace,” said Samantha.  “And we have a security
matter that needs to be broached to at least one member of that committee.”

“I’m all ears, Regent,” said Marconi.  “And I
assume this is something you don’t want discussed in front of the entire
Committee?”

“We would prefer that, yes.  And I would like
your word that what you hear here will not go any further.  This may compromise
an operation that is vital to the war effort.”

“With that said, how could I refuse, since my
curiosity has now gotten the better of me.”

“There are Caca intelligence agents in the
Empire,” said Samantha.

“That would not surprise me in the least,” said
the Archduke with a laugh.  “And are the shape shifters their agents?”

“As far as we know, no.  But there are other
agents, members of their intelligence apparatus that are operating within the
Empire, that we are well aware of.  In fact, we know where several of these
operatives are, at least as far as the planet or star system is concerned.  And
we are feeding them information.”

Marconi sat up straight in his chair as the
last words left Samantha’s mouth.  “We’re feeding them information?  Whose idea
was that?”  He stood up and stared at the Regent.

“Actually,” said Samantha, holding out a hand
to motion the man back into his seat.  “It was the idea of their spymaster.  It
turns out that his species is tired of being the slaves of the Cacas.  They
want their freedom, and they see us as their best chance of getting it.  On
their recommendation, we have been feeding them false information, while they
have been giving us the straight goods on their masters’ dispositions and
plans.”

“And you’re sure this information is legit?”
asked the Archduke, his eyes narrowing.

“We can’t tell if everything is correct,” said
von Hausser Schmidt.  “Some of the long range stuff they  have given us has not
come to pass.  And there is the problem of the transmission of information,
both ways.  But what they have told us has recently been backed up by what we
have seen.  I agreed with the Emperor that this was a resource we needed to
cultivate.  They are in the Empire anyway, spying, gathering information.  We
really had nothing to lose by giving them data they knew was disinformation.”

“Well, your Grace,” asked Samantha, “what do
you think?”

“Like, as you said, a resource we need to
cultivate,” said the Archduke, nodding his head.  “And you have my approval as
a member of the Intelligence Oversight Committee to proceed.  Though I’m sure
my other committee members might raise holy hell to find out this had been
approved behind their backs.  But, as I heard said in the Fleet, it’s better to
ask forgiveness than permission.  And you definitely have my forgiveness on
this one.”

“So happy to hear that, your Grace,” said
Samantha with a smile. 
Now we won’t have to make you disappear
, she
thought as the smile widened across her face. 
Not that we would ever really
do such a thing, but there’s no law against wishful thinking.

*    
*     *

“We have a go, Director,” came the voice of the
Regent, Samantha Ogden Lee, over the secure com.

Good thing
, thought Ekaterina Sergiov, the
Director of the Imperial Intelligence Agency, the IIA. 
Since we already
sent the information up the line.
  “That’s great news, ma’am,” the Chief
Spy of the Empire told her surrogate boss, the one who ran the show when the
Emperor was not in the loop.  “So Marconi got on-board?”

“So it seems,” said the Regent.  “I believe
he’s had a complete change of heart.  But I’ve learned over the short period of
time I’ve been in this position not to trust anyone too much.”

Something I learned years ago
, thought Ekaterina.

“What did you send our friends?” asked the
Regent.

“We exaggerated the damage to the
Donut
,”
said Sergiov, remembering the report she had approved.  The Agent in Charge had
wanted the Cacas to get the story that the station had been destroyed, but
there were too many people in the Empire who knew that wasn’t true, and it was
bound to leak.  “According to the information they were given, the station will
be out of operation for the next three months.”

“That should give the Cacas some hope,” said
Lee, smiling in the holo.  “And probably cause some alterations in their
plans.”

Though I’m not sure that such an alteration
would benefit us
,
thought Sergiov, nodding. 
But I’m just the spy, not the policy maker.

“What else?”

“We fudged the casualty figures from
Congreeve,” stated the spy.  “We inflated them to the point where it looks like
we took double the losses we really did.  And the expected reinforcements from
our allies have not arrived.  We were able to add information about Elysium
going on a witch hunt of their own people, and that causing a delay in their
expeditionary force arriving in our space.”

“That should lead to some over optimistic
thinking among their strategists,” said the Regent.  “Just what we needed.”

“We also gave them the other information,
Regent,” continued Sergiov, grimacing at the thought of what she was about to
say.

“Other information?”

“You know, the straight intel we had to put in
with the disinformation.”

“Oh,” said Lee, the expression on her face
falling.  “And that was really necessary?”

“It was, Madam Regent,” said Sergiov, still
feeling dirty from what she had had to do, feeling the betrayal of her own
Empire.  For the disinformation to be believed, some real information had to be
sent up the line as well.  Real information, the kind that led to people being
killed. 
Just like Coventry, on the home world, in the Second World War
,
thought Ekaterina, like many in the government an amateur historian. 
And I
don’t think Churchill felt any better than I do.  Those poor people.

“And what have our friends sent our way,” said
the Regent, looking very uncomfortable with the whole concept of having to
betray some of her own to gain advantage.

Welcome to my world, Samantha
, thought Ekaterina, as
she called up the document they had received from the Maurid spymaster.  “You
understand that our man does not have access to all of their intel,” she told
the Regent.  “Like us, they compartmentalize their information on a need to
know basis.  So, he was able to get us what he could.”

“And you’re sure of the veracity of this
intel?”

“As sure as I can be of any intel.  Most times
it’s impossible to really tell how accurate intel is until it has come to
pass.  But it seems to match with what we already know, within the constraints
of time.”

And that is really a major problem with trying
to run an Imperial intelligence service.  All the information we receive is
weeks old.  The wormhole system might help, some, but we have to pretend that
the information we get is still creeping along at interstellar speeds.

“And your evaluation of this intel?”

“We’ve got some serious problems coming up the
pike, ma’am,” said Sergiov, wishing for the moment that she did not know all
the things she did.  “I’m not sure what you people are going to do about it,
but I’m glad it’s not something I have to make decisions about.  My job is just
to get you the intel, then depend on you and the Emperor to make what you can
of it.”

“And sometimes I wish that I didn’t have this
burden placed on my shoulders,” said Samantha, a sad expression on her face. 
“It was so much easier just being the com officer on a battle cruiser.”

“Just as it was so much easier being a field
agent,” said Ekaterina, smiling. 
For all the gut wrenching fear involved,
at least the decisions were easier.

“Let me know if anything else of importance
comes through,” said Lee, her face firming into a look of determination.  “I
may not like everything you have to tell me.  But I am well aware of the
importance and utility of you and your organization.  Lee out.”

The com died, leaving the Chief Spy with her
own thoughts for a moment.  They were not the kind of thoughts that she liked. 
Only one way to handle that
, she thought, calling up the organizational
chart of her fiefdom, losing herself in the day to day work that was the
majority of her job.  Soon her mind was wrestling with a way to use her limited
manpower to cover unlimited possibilities.  And she didn’t have time to think
about the hopelessness or their situation.

*    
*     *

“OK,” said Countess Zhee, looking at the other
members of her committee, that of the Lords’ Military Appropriations and
Contracts.  While it was true that all funding bills originated in Commons, the
actual contracting of services, who would get that money and what they would do
with it, was the purview of the Lords.  “It’s decided.  The money that was
going to the Gryphon conversion project could be much better spent putting more
human crewed ships into space.”

The show of hands was almost unanimous, all
members of the committee being human, and all holding beliefs that humans
should retain supremacy in the Empire.  Not that aliens weren’t important.  In
fact, most of them had from thousands to millions of aliens living in the areas
that they were responsible for.  In Zhees case, a region of New Hanou, in Duke
von Schlieffen’s, an entire continent of New Dresden.  They were important, in
the minds of the nobles, for their work ethic and desire to get ahead in human
dominated society.  But, as far as these elites were concerned, the Fleet
should only be comprised of human operated warships.

Damn Augustine and the other Emperor’s before
him for giving the Phlistarans and Malticorans their own ships,
thought Zhee.  The
Gryphons also had some ships of their own, and maybe three hundred vessels in
the Fleet were manned by totally alien crews.  Most were smaller units, though
there were more than a score of battleships in that mix as well.  The
appropriations bill had called for funding conversions of another ten battleships
to Gryphon crews, making the vessels something that they would find comfortable
as far as living quarters, food services, medical bays, etc.  The shipyard was
already in a Gryphon system, owned by the family of the current Minister of
Commerce and Industry, Lord H’rressitor.  Zhee thought there was some
favoritism going on with the contracts, not even considering that every
military shipyard in the Empire was now operating at full capacity.

“What about the funding of Gryphon ground
combat equipment?” asked Duke von Schlieffen, nodding to the next contract on
the holo.  “Do you want to cut funding for them as well, Countess?”

“I see no reason to not fully fund some more
divisions of the aliens for the Imperial Army,” said the Countess with a
sneer.  “After all, they really can’t do much more than fight wherever the
fleet delivers them.  And each Gryphon in battle armor frees a human to
continue producing at home.”

“I agree,” said Count Warshawski, nodding at
the holo.  “Lord knows, I’ve lost enough people to the damned Army recruiter
since this unpleasantness began.  We brought civilization to the aliens.  Let
them die to defend it.”

“But not in the Fleet,” said Zhee, looking from
face to face.

“No,” agreed the Duke.  “Not in the Fleet. 
That, as the Count calls it, unpleasantness, that happened to the Brakakak
should teach us not to arm our minority populations with ships capable of
killing all life on a planet.  No telling what they’re going to do if they get
their hands on that kind of power, and the war ends.”  Missing was the unspoken
part of that statement, but everyone in the room thought the outcome of the war
was a foregone conclusion.  After all, humanity had never lost a war.  So why
would they start the second millennia of the Empire’s existence by losing one
now.

“So that bill is passed to the Lords,” said
Zhee, who headed the committee.  “With our recommendation for a positive
vote.”  The first bill, the one authorizing conversion of ships for alien use,
would never see the light of day.  As far as the Lords were concerned, it had
never existed.