The Getesaph were talking, but Ryan hadn't turned up the sound. “They gave us a story about using the ’scope to watch the shuttles. To make sure everything was going to and coming from where it was supposed to.” Reasonable, thought Keale. Dedelphi paranoia made him look positively lackadaisical.
“They showed me the ’scope.” The video jumped straight to a close-up look at the telescope and its turret and cables running off its sides like black vines. “I asked a few questions and left, and took this recording to Jasper over in comm tech.”
Ryan appeared again. “She ran the scraps together, looked at the angle, and the fact that the place was well manned, personed, whatever, on a day when there aren't any flights planned, and came up with another possible use.” Ryan took a deep breath. “It seems that ’scope is in the exact right place for getting the backscatter of communications transmissions off the clouds.”
The sentence sank into Keale's mind and translated itself. “They've tapped our communications?”
“Yes, sir.”
Grim satisfaction flowed through Keale. “All right, knot up what you've got and get it to me. I'm going to wake up Veep Brador, and then I'm going to wake up the Sisters-Chosen-to-Lead and—”
“Sir?” interrupted Ryan. “That's not the real problem. The real problem is that Jasper's team also figured out why Hagopian was looking at the passenger manifest.”
Keale froze. “Go on.”
“Jasper's team has also been going through the port tapes, listening to conversations, watching personnel registration, matching faces with names and movements.” Ryan ran a hand through his hair, making yet more of it stand on end. “What she found was that the names people were calling each other in the hallways and with their families did not always match the names they entered for the register.”
“Who have we got up there?” asked Keale softly.
“Jasper thinks it's a boatload of soldiers.”
Any satisfaction Keale felt drained down to the soles of his feet. “Oh, Christ,” he whispered. His mind reeled and righted itself. “All right, Ryan, this is an emergency order. The Hundred Isles and t'Aori peninsula are to be evacuated of all Human personnel. Immediately.”
“Wh—”
“Because whatever the Getesaph are doing up there, it's going to be aimed at the t'Therians, and if the t'Therians get wind of it, they'll attack the Getesaph and all hell's going to break loose like nothing we've ever seen. Get our people out of there. Now.”
“Yes, sir.” He still hesitated. “What about Nussbaumer and Hagopian?”
Keale shook his head. “We're going to have to put the planes on evac duty. Everybody should keep an eye out for them, but evacuation of the outposts and ports is now top priority.”
For a moment Ryan forgot his title. “Brador's going to chew your ass off and spit it out.”
“It's my ass,” said Keale dismissively. “Get going. I've got to get hold of Captain Esmaraude.”
“Yes, sir.” Ryan cut his thread and the screen blanked out.
“Room voice, emergency call to Captain Elisabeth Esmaraude aboard the Ur. Security override all other communications and secure the thread.” Haul her out of bed, voice. She's the one in real trouble.
“Completing request.”
Keale couldn't sit still. He got up and paced back and forth in front of the terminal. Come on, Esmo. Come on. The carpet felt soft and warm under his callused feet. His hands started to ache from how tightly his fists clenched.
The evacuation was going to cause a scene down there. Maybe not panic, but one hell of a general confusion, especially in the Getesaph port where everyone was sitting around waiting for something to happen. Ryan was right. Brador was going to have his ass over this. Which was why he was waiting to call Brador last. He had to get everything else in motion. Then, he'd find a way to explain to a veep whose own ass depended on schedules and calm that if they didn't create a little Holy Hell now, it was going to get a lot worse later. People, Human and Dedelphi, were going to get killed.
By evacuating, they would give the Dedelphi a taste of the only real threat Bioverse had stated it was willing to use. The Dedelphi weren't behaving, so the Humans were leaving. It might actually do some good.
Finally, the screen lit up. Esmo, wrapped in a thick, patchwork robe, was in the act of sitting down and shoving her spectacles into place over her temple connections.
“What's happened?” she asked.
“We've got a boatload of soldiers up there with you, Esmo.”
Her jaw worked itself back and forth. “Kaye, we've searched the place. We've had health and safety teams in there every day. We've—”