Read Online [The Fear Saga 01] - Fear the Sky (2014) by Stephen Moss - Free Book Online Page B

driven several inches into the soil by the force of the impact. Maintaining his balance with aplomb, he wrenched his feet from the soil one by one, with an audible squelch, and returned to his waiting black bag. Replacing the device in its cubbyhole, he lifted the black bag out of the military duffle it had been hidden in.
    Though it was far from safe to leave the large subspace relay here, there was no way he could get such an ominous object past the base security he was about to face. So after extracting some of the more innocent looking tools and communications devices from the bag and placing them in his military duffle, he carried the heavy black object a few meters off the road into the muddy swamp of rice paddies that spread out over the surrounding countryside.
    No amount of time in the water would harm or even mark the object, but it would not just sit in the shallow water to be potentially found by the feet of a field worker. As soon as it felt the muddy bottom the object started to bury itself, its sheath morphing in waves to move the mud around it outward and then back in over it, making it disappear slowly but steadily beneath the surface.
    It eventually came to rest a meter down into the mud, far from curious eyes…or feet, as Pei climbed out of the paddy, gathered his now almost empty military duffle bag and starting to walk down the road.
    While Pei’s own internal subspace tweeter could receive signals directly from the overhead satellite, it had not been possible to put a ‘hammer’ inside a human analog large enough to send signals much farther than a few miles. It was for this reason Leong-Lam and his seven colleagues had been given the larger, more powerful tweeters to relay signals to the hub satellites orbiting above them.
    It was an inconvenience to have such a large piece of equipment with them, but one that could not be avoided. Unfortunately the larger tweeters’ size also meant that the Agents would often have to leave their relays behind when entering secure areas, but this was also unavoidable.
    As Leong-Lam walked away, he left no marker, nor did he worry about the safety of the device. His subspace tweeter relay would be watched over night and day by a far more powerful guardian in orbit, ready to bring to bear a host of unpleasant defensive weapons if the buried relay were somehow discovered by an unfortunate field hand.

Chapter 9: Mr. Precedent

    Except, perhaps, for the few people who work there every day, it really never gets old driving up to the White House. Pulling up the rear driveway to the parking lot after passing the security gate, Laurie found she could easily recall the giddy excitement she had felt the first time she came here.
    It was just such a cool building, you would have to be half dead not to think so, and it wasn’t a dose of patriotism that was driving her. She had seen several seats of government around the world, not least of which the ex-viceroy’s palace in New Delhi, which now housed the entire Indian executive branch, such was its size and grandeur.
    It was simply the surging power that emanated from places like this. That, and the fact that she was a part of that power.
    Flashing her pass at the waiting Secret Service detail, she walked past them into the building proper and turned left along the row of offices leading to the West Wing. She had called Jim Hacker ahead of time and paraphrased what she intended to talk about. She was not foolish enough not to notify General Pickler that she was doing it either; he was not an enemy to be made if it could be avoided, and he was duly waiting when she arrived, his face passive.
    She nodded at the somewhat familiar receptionist, then took a wild stab at her name, “Margaret, can you tell Mr…”
    “He already knows you’re here, Dr. West,” the receptionist smiled at hearing her own name, “he will be with you shortly.”
    Laurie quietly congratulated herself on successfully buttering up the receptionist,