Chapter Thirty-One: Strategies

Twelve hours had passed since Carlisle’s team had left to try and recapture Sarah and so far Celeste was still under observation and in the dark. Jason, for his part, saw no reason to continue command until the planned leaving and was indulging himself in civilian life.

‘Jason’ came Claire’s voice from behind him. Jason was aiming to pocket his last ball in his game of pool and Nathan.

‘What? I can’t enjoy my own down time?’ Jason said as he shot his last ball into the pocket, moving on to the eight.

‘I’m not saying that, but there are far more important things to be doing’ Claire told him.

‘I doubt that, for the time being anyway’ Jason said. ‘Centre right’ he added to Nathan.

‘Even I told you I’m done with the job you gave me?’ Claire asked.

‘Oh yeah? Which one is that?’ Jason enquired.

‘The one I’ve been looking into for a while now’ Claire answered. Jason misfired, sending the cue ball past the eight and into the rail.

‘Remind me to give you a rematch’ Jason said, putting down his cue and walking to the front office which had been converted into Claire’s lab over time and sat down in a chair.

‘So you found the spy’ Jason said.

‘I think so. Your dad did a very good job of hiding his work. He’s obviously dabbled in Intelligence during his time’ Claire said, handing him the last sheet of paper from the envelope.

‘What am I looking at?’ Jason asked.

‘What anyone else would see, a normal form. But it’s encoded. Your dad used a measure called steganography to hide what he knew, and he did it very well. Everything he knew is there, in the form of a full stop’ Claire told him.

‘A full stop?’ Jason  asked.

‘Yes. I’ve expanded it and it’s hand-written in his shorthand. It goes on for pages and pages’ Claire told him.

‘I assume this is going somewhere’ Jason said.

‘It’s complex, but three letters are after three symbols. They appear more than once’ Claire brought the image on the screen. Three interlocked circles. Jason understood it at once but to anyone else in the military they would never figure it out because it wasn’t a military symbol. Jason knew instantly that what followed would be key. There was only one reason his father would use unregistered symbols: he wanted no one but Jason to know.

‘The letters that followed the symbols were P, O and H,’ Claire continued. ‘So I searched the through the database. No one had those initials but I did find three different military operations that were running during Saudi Arabia. Phoenix, Oyster and Hamster. Strangely enough, they all have one person in common’

‘Who’s that?’ Jason asked.

‘Our missing Lieutenant’ Claire answered.

‘Williams?’

‘The operations were all key points during the war for him. Phoenix was the operation where he was captured by Nexus forces. It was an assassination that went wrong’ Claire told him.

‘Williams was captured. That doesn’t mean he’s a spy’ Jason said.

‘You doubt the evidence I’m about to give you?’ Claire asked.

‘You’ve given me one piece of information and I want to damn sure before we start pointing fingers again’ Jason said.

‘Then listen to me. Oyster was a raid on a small fishing village where he was being held. Williams was found by military forces but later recaptured by Nexus soldiers. The mission ultimately failed. As for Hamster, that was a recon mission that he mysteriously turned up in, claiming he’d escaped while being transported to an Arabian prison’  Claire told him.

‘Do you believe that?’ Jason asked her. He himself didn’t. In all wars in human history there are stories about soldiers who are captured and change sides.

‘If it’s false, the Nexus did a good job. They killed more than forty of their own soldiers trying to get him back’ Claire said.

‘Of course they did. The military wouldn’t blink if he came back after killing forty Nexus soldiers, solo’ Jason said.

‘Well, eight months after he arrived back here, information started being leaked to the Nexus,’ Claire said. ‘But not solid proof’ she added.

‘And yet it makes sense’ Jason said.

‘Why?’

Jason sighed. ‘When Sarah died, you asked me what I saw. I saw Celeste on Scarborough beach, walking into the water’

‘Why didn’t you-’

‘I’m not finished,’ Jason said, holding up a hand. ‘I also saw my dad. He was about to tell me who the spy was before I woke up, but he did manage to tell me that the last page would prove it to me. That’s why it makes sense to me’

‘It was just a dream Jason’ Claire said.

‘Was it?’ Jason asked. ‘Me seeing Celeste at the beach and then a few hours she goes there and tries to kill herself? It’s too much of a coincidence Claire’

‘What do you want to do then?’ Claire asked him. Jason thought it through. The right thing to do was to tell everyone, but things had changed. Jason made his decision.

‘Nothing’ he answered simply.

‘You can’t not tell them’ Claire said, sounding almost insulted that her work wasn’t going to be used.

‘I can and will. If things were different, I’d tell them, but I killed an innocent man. As far as they’re concerned, the spy has been dealt with and in a sense it has. Wherever Williams is, he’s in no position to collect intel on us. Besides anything else, being this close to the assault on the ship they don’t need to doubt they’re leadership’ Jason said.

‘You’re going to lie to them?’ Claire asked.

‘I’m not going to tell them anything. Carlisle and his team are due back in twenty-four hours. If I have to tell them, I will. But not yet’ Jason explained.

‘So you ask me to do all of this and then let it go to waste?’ Claire replied angrily.

‘What would you do? Earth rests on us getting to that ship. If we fail, game over. Humanity is done here. Do you not get that?’ Jason asked.

‘Yeah, I get it, but I won’t follow a liar into battle. Nor will anyone else’ Claire told him viciously.

‘Once they understand what is at stake… if we pull this off, the benefits will be repaid to humanity and hundredfold, maybe a thousandfold’ Jason said. He could sense Claire was going to blow everything, he couldn’t let that happen.

‘We go to Uluru and we’re walking into a trap. You know that, I know that, we all know that. More importantly, the Tallentiri know that. You heard Sarah, they’re psychics’ Claire told him.

‘I have a plan to deal with the Tallentiri’ Jason said.

‘Were you going to fill me in on it?’ Claire said.

‘They’re insects. Large, alien insects, but insects all the same. I’ve asked Emilia and a few of the science people still with us to make the most powerful insecticide they can, and a lot of it. When we get there, we’re going to fly a plane over the largest group of Tallentiri present and release it. We’ll also rig the life support on the ship with it. Every room except the bridge will be affected. If it comes to it, we’ll lock ourselves in and outlast them’ Jason said.

‘That plan… do you think it will work?’ Claire asked.

‘The Tallentiri will have come up with a strategy for every possible scenario we could throw at them. This plan, I’m hoping, is so far outside the box, it won’t have registered, even if they’re psychic. Also, they see the ship as a weapon to use against us. They won’t be expecting it the other way around’ Jason told her.

‘A lot of it relies on chance’ Claire said.

‘The whole thing relies on chance, which is why I doubt they’ll have prepared against it,’ Jason replied. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a rematch to win’