Red Angel: Book II: Raiders (Red Angel Series 2) (20 page)

"Yes, Captain, it is. They've been attacked four times on UAS cruisers. Last time their two security guards were killed. They’re worth two million credits dead."

"The raiders must really fear you." He stared at us like he had never seen us before. "Can you tell me what the message says and your plans?"

"They plan another raid on Zuno Pharmaceutical."

"Then we can destroy another cruiser." He grinned with obvious excitement at the thought he could be involved.

I wanted to scream,
fifty-two died to get that last raider, and we were lucky.
But what good would it do? They considered that part of their profession, and it was, but I couldn't help but feel the loss and all the lives it impacted. I forced myself to speak calmly. "No. Not this time. Even if we do run across it by accident, we'll pretend we didn't."

"You can't. I'm not letting a raider—" Aguilar's voice was loud and angry. He stopped midsentence when Kris stood with her P1A badge in her hand.

"That's an order, Captain, not a request. We want those raiders worse than you do, but engaging the one that comes could cause us to lose the pack that's operating in the UAS."

"We need to send a message to Stauffer and Rawls, letting them know what we intend to do," I said, thinking the conversation was over.

"I'm going to contact Naval operations. We don't let the enemy—"

"No you won't. Captain, I'm ordering you not to contact anyone concerning our plans. Ignoring my order will end your naval career and may result in prison time. So hate us if you want, but don't jeopardize your career by ignoring a legal order." Kris held his glare.

After a long silence, he turned and stalked out of the room.

"Anna, let's get that memo to Stauffer and Rawls. I agree with you, but maybe Rawls or Lultrel or Bell won’t."

I laughed mentally. If I understood P1A authority, the UAS committee authorized it and Bell couldn't overrule it. Of course, our careers would be finished afterward. Getting Rawls and whoever to at least agree would be wise.

I sent the message to Kris's tablet.

She nodded as she read. "Good, send it."

I made my way to the Bridge and under Aguilar's stony stare was granted access to the Comm panel. Feeling paranoid, I ran the message through crazy numbers before sending it, which converted it into a jumbled string of upper and lower case letters and numbers. I knew Stauffer had the software to decipher it and that no one else would be able to read it. Two million credits was a powerful incentive.

Over the next three nights, the Bacchus conducted the routine nightly surveillances, and I wondered what Aguilar would do if he did happen to run across a raider's ship. I didn't blame him for wanting to destroy an invading raider, but the hostility toward Kris and me seemed unwarranted. We also wanted to capture or destroy the raiders—all of them. Maybe it was taking orders from women or from Lieutenant Commanders, or both. Consequently, we spent most of our time in our rooms except to eat and search the WavCom.

The next day, we received a crazy numbers coded message from Stauffer.

To: Lieutenant Commander Sinclair and Lieutenant Commander Paulus

Your plan is approved by Admiral Bell. Keep us advised.

From: Commodore Stauffer

"Wow," Kris said while looking at her tablet. "Talk about pressure."

"What do you mean?" I asked, thinking Bell's approval a good thing.

"If we screw it up or something goes wrong and we disappoint Stauffer, that’s one thing. If we disappoint Bell ..." She left the consequences hanging.

"It would give you plenty of time to look for a husband and to have kids." I managed not to smile.

She laughed. "My
today
sister. You're right, let’s focus on what we need to do today and forget about all the things that could go wrong." She walked over to Pannell, who was standing next to the entrance hatch. "Colonel, I think we’ll need you and the Bacchus's marine commander and ... Captain Aguilar, you should also attend so you’ll know what’s going on and be able to help develop the plan," Kris said.

I thought it an example of Adult Speak—getting the captain involved.

An hour later, Kris and I sat in the conference room with Pannell, Aguilar and his XO, Commander Sprigg, Colonel Ruiz and his gunny, Guzman.

Kris stood. "The raiders are going to make another attempt to rob Zuno Pharmaceutical. We hoped we convinced them we found their ship by accident. Apparently, we did, since they intend to try again. Why not try finding their ship by accident again? Because we believe they would deduce we had broken their coded messages and methodology. That would just cause them to invent another system, and it could be years and many raids before we discovered their base of operations. Instead, we propose ignoring the cruiser but stopping the raid on Zuno Pharmaceutical."

"Won't that also alert the raiders that you understand their system?" Aguilar asked, obviously still reluctant to let the raider cruiser get away.

"There's a risk, but we think it small, since there are many ways that information could have been attained. We understand our approach is controversial, so we pushed it up the chain of command. It's a go with Admiral Bell's approval." Kris stopped to let the side conversations quit. "We would like your help in developing a plan. Here's what needs to be accomplished. First, Commander Paulus and I need to get into Zuno Pharmaceutical unseen and make contact with the person in charge. Then we need to collect all personal communication equipment including those at their homes and examine it. That will enable us to determine the leak. We'll remove that person and set up marine security to engage the raiders when they attempt the robbery."

"Do we know when they’ll attempt the robbery?" Colonel Ruiz asked, a predatory look in his eyes.

"The Master Puzzle publication for this month's edition is tomorrow. Because of our patrols, they have left the date of the raid open—anytime within ten days after the publication date."

"So," Pannell said, "the first order of business is to get you and Commander Paulus into Zuno Pharmaceutical without being noticed …"

The discussions lasted most of the day as various ideas were discussed, and then tentative schedules, manpower, and timing were arranged.

Using his P1A authority, Pannell got the New Zheng Government to arrange a meeting with Mr. Schmidt, the Director of Zuno Pharmaceutical. Dressed in civilian pantsuits and accompanied by Pannell also in a suit, we entered the lobby of the sprawling two-story brown-cement building. The lobby was open to the second level ceiling's large skylights, which gave the area an outdoor feeling. A semi-circular white-marble counter sat in the middle of the room only a short distance from the entrance. A young woman and an armed security guard stood behind the counter.

"May I help you?" the young woman asked, her voice eager and cheerful.

"Yes, I'm Mr. Clarkson. My colleagues and I have an appointment with Mr. Schmidt," Pannell said, drawing the attention to him.

She turned to her monitor and tapped it a few times and then smiled. "Yes, sir. If you would please wear these visitor badges at all times." She handed Pannell three badges. "The escalator to your right will take you to the second floor, where Mr. Schmidt’s secretary is waiting to escort you to his office." She smiled and pointed to the right side of the lobby.

The guard scanned each of us as we passed.

The escalator made a semi-circle from the middle right of the lobby to the second floor landing at the back of the lobby and then continued round and back down on the left side. The landing was actually two separate platforms for getting off and getting on.

At the top, a young man waited. "Good morning, Mr. Clarkson, ladies. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to Mr. Schmidt."

We followed him down a long hallway with what looked like large office areas to the left and right. At the end, we were led into a circular room with three secretaries and behind them three doors.

"Mary, this is Mr. Clarkson and his colleagues."

"Mr. Schmidt's ready to see you." She rose and opened the door into a spacious office. The back wall was floor to ceiling glass, which looked toward a heavily treed manicured lawn.

A tall gray-haired man rose and came walking around his glass-topped desk, which looked to be a complex monitor, judging from what I could see of the top.

"Mr. Clarkson, ladies, welcome to Zuno Pharmaceutical. Representative Soto indicated you had urgent business that concerns my company. I'm intrigued."

"Mr. Schmidt, I'm Lieutenant Commander Sinclair and my partner is Lieutenant Commander Paulus. We're operating with P1A authority. I don't know if you’ve heard about the raids on Eastar, Stone Ring, or Holy Star?"

"Yes, the robbery of the Art Gallery on Eastar."

"The robberies are being conducted by raiders from one of the other alliances. We've information that Zuno Pharmaceutical will be next."

"I heard they killed all the guards, six or eight I believe."

"Yes, they've never left anyone alive. We believe they're military or ex-military, well armed and informed, and thorough."

"Well informed?"

"Yes, employees provide the information they need to retrieve the highest valued product and be gone within an hour."

"I can't believe—"

"How much is your current inventory worth?"

Schmidt returned to his desk and tapped on it in several places before answering. "In total our finished products are worth in the neighborhood of six hundred million, but it would take a day and a couple of trucks—"

"What could they collect and move in two hours?" Kris interrupted.

Schmidt returned to his desktop, but this time he was there for a long while.

"Four hundred million." He shook his head in disbelief.

"So giving someone ten million for the information is an excellent deal for both the employee and the raiders," Kris said.

Schmidt sat, his eyes wide and face pale in shock. "When?"

"We don't know exactly, but within a week or so. What we need to do now is to identify the person who gave the raiders the information. We want you to sit and think about what you just did to identify those products worth four hundred million and then think about who would have access to that information."

Schmidt had coffee brought in and then spent the next hour deciding the records that would provide the information and then who had the authority to access those files. When he finally looked up he looked tired. "I have five names, but I can't believe any of them would ... betray the company."

"It'll be easy to prove. Are all five individuals at work today?" Kris asked. When Schmidt nodded, she continued. "Set up a meeting with them in your conference room. Say Representative Soto has informed you of some new requirements under consideration that may impact the company."

Schmidt immediately typed on the desktop for several minutes, arranging the meeting. Finally, he looked up. "It's set, in an hour."

"Now we need home addresses for you and the five individuals."

Schmidt looked up in shock and I could feel anger, but it quickly left and he nodded in understanding.

"We need to keep the real reason a secret," I said. "So I'm going to say that some software hackers have inserted malware into several major companies’ systems, as our excuse for examining their equipment."

Three women and two men were waiting when we entered the conference room an hour later.

"This is Mr. Clarkson and his associates, Miss Katlin and Miss Anders," he said, nodding to each of us in turn. "My staff includes Mrs. Tarcell, who is in charge of drug development, Mr. Peters, who is in charge of drug production, Mrs. Lopez, who is in charge of scheduling, Mr. Watts, who is in charge of operations, and Miss Becker, who is the director of our data systems," he said, going around the table from left to right. "I'll let Mr. Clarkson explain why they're here."

"Thank you, Mr. Schmidt. I apologize for the secrecy, but the problem potentially impacts every major industry in the UAS," Pannell said, then looked to Kris. "I'll let Katlin give you the details.

"Thank you, Mr. Clarkson." Kris stepped forward and I could feel her amusement. "Some very clever people have developed malware to infiltrate a company's systems and over time build a profile of the company's assets, schedules, and security. They've successfully used this information to subsequently rob the company—"

"That's impossible. I would know if malware had infected our system. Besides, it's a closed system, so it would be impossible for them to get their malware on it," Miss. Lopez said, shaking her head. She was a large middle-aged woman, and her bulldog expression said that was the end of the discussion.