| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Missing Something? |
| Date: | Fri, 24 Oct 1997 23:16:35 +0100 |
>>>>>[TO: All SIGA Staff
We're throwing this one open, because we're more than slightly stuck.
Anyone got any ideas?
+++++begin trideo
A smallish room, with its walls painted institutional yellow (that shade
that starts out as "cheery sunflower" and within weeks has turned into
"urine") and several industrial tables and plastic chairs. It looks like
a prison canteen, except for the vending machines (good ones and well
stocked). Next to them is a passable imitation of a lion's head, mouth
agape. The view is Lynch's, as he sits at one of the well-worn tables:
Lilith, Karlsbruhn and Toad with him.
A good-looking woman in jeans and a check workshirt - even the civilians
seem to be casual in SIGA's single sub-corridor of the Pentagon - walks
in, stops when she sees the quartet at the table.
"Oh, man, you guys have to watch this, don't you?" she says with amused
regret.
"Yeah, Elizabeth, we gotta." Toad chuckles. "Go on. Stick your head in
Mr Snappy."
"This is _so_ undignified." Elizabeth walks over to the lion, and
crouches and twists so she can stick her head in its mouth.
"Stop sniggering!" she calls, her voice muffled. "I've been doing this
every two or three days for a year, you should be used to it by now!"
The lion gives an electronic roar and its eyes flash green, then a
recorded voice says "Charge disarmed. Your head won't blow up for
another three days, Byrnes."
Pulling her head out of the lion's mouth, Byrnes gets a cup of coffee
before joining the group. "Seventy-one hours, fifty-nine minutes and
forty seconds, and counting. So, what's up?"
"Royce Park. And enough weapons for a mechanised division, delivered to
somewhere hot and sandy, that disappeared without trace and doesn't show
on any recon imagery we can get our hands on. Two problems. No answers."
Lynch replies.
"Enough tanks, APCs and artillery to outfit ten thousand men, and NRO
can't find it?" Byrnes sits down. "Mind you, how hard are they trying?"
"We asked Sorenson." Toad replied. "The Walrus put a team on it. He's
smart enough to know how much of a mess that hardware could cause."
"Any trace on who bought it?"
"Nope. We know the ship, we know it started from Danzig, not too much
more beyond that. Come to the office, we'll get you the file. And if
Sorensen can't find that many armoured fighting vehicles, they're well
hidden." Lynch shakes his head. "How about you, what are you working
on?"
Byrnes shakes her head. "Some raid on a mining company. We got slipped
the details by the infiltrator."
"Static. Angela Morgan? That was Hawker Mining, right?" Lynch asks.
"Yep. Looks like a commercial job, not our problem. Just adjusting the
profitability figures for three niobium mines in Yemen downwards. Some
exec scamming, is my and Price's guess."
"He'd know." Karlsbruhn snorts.
"Yeah, yeah." Byrnes, like Price a convicted criminal, throws her empty
paper cup at Karlsbruhn.
Lynch sits upright. "Wait one. Our arms shipment went to somewhere hot,
sandy, with Arabic-speaking locals on the coast. Yemen fits."
"Connect the dots! I _like_ this game." Lilith leans forward. "Okay. The
Farmer lands a huge arms shipment in the Yemen. It's fairly unstable,
weak government dealing with a couple of insurgencies. Bad enough that
Hawker's got three platoons of Sasha's troops covering. That sort of
force would let you take over easily. Then, you own the country, you've
got muscle, squeeze a little."
"Or push on Oman?" Lynch suggests. "Oil, natural gas, lots of goodies.
Not that well defended, though, not against a full mech division if you
handled it right."
"Maybe. Point is, Yemen's a good place to work with a force like that.
Enough of a mess that you could do damn near anything without anyone
noticing, some nice valuable mineral resources, some vulnerable
neighbours." Lilith finishes her coffee, raises an eyebrow at Toad, who
snorts and moves off to get another round.
"So, what has this got to do with Hawker?" asks Byrnes.
"Nothing, it just made me think of Yemen." Lilith replies. "Could care
less about some scamming exec."
"Wasn't it Harrow who hired for that job?" asks Toad as he sets the
coffee down. There is a long silence.
"Fuck." Lilith says softly.
"Yeah." Lynch replies. "Most likely the Farmer's just scamming. That
shipment cost... what, a hundred, two hundred million? About what Wild
Rose set him back. I might head out there anyway, check on Sasha's guys
and ask around a little."
"Right." Lilith relaxes a little. "Still, Sorensen hasn't found anything
yet. I'll ask him to check the Yemen, though, see if he's been over it
yet."
+++++end video
Well, people, we've gone from no idea to a half-baked theory. So anyone
with anything better, let's hear it. Otherwise, let's check it, at least
it'll rule out one possible.]<<<<<
-- LCdr R E Tarkington <Furry:Fighting:Felines/Rule-The-Skies>
Assistant Dogsbody
Strategic Intelligence Gathering Agency
