Patricians: Power Politics (2 of 9)

Chapter 15: Under Pressure

Screens reported that there was no contact from Ivan's operatives, who had been planted inside of Muse. Every single inserted agent's communications had gone dark over the last several hours. Not even the neural implants were responding to pings. Ivan could feel the tension sinking into his muscles. Intuition whispered that something wasn't right. Pacing back and forth, Ivan couldn't decide what he was feeling, or what those feelings were trying to say. There was too much information pouring across the multiple screens and holoemitters in the Command Center for one person to go over, but somewhere in the data there was something not right. Ivan could feel that truth in every fibre of his being and couldn't silence his doubt.

Working with a team of operators, Alexei struggled to find any trace of the operatives. No one just disappears, the man thought, but every single agent had vanished from Romanov's system. Alexei noticed the system was running slow. Something was interfering with computer processing, but everything checked out fine. Programmers swept the entire system for any sign of malware. Not a single problem was found.

"Sir, I can't find anything wrong. The system seems bogged down, but there's nothing doing it. I've sent technicians to the core to see if there is some kind of malfunction. Perhaps this is just a glitch within our system and our agents are fine." Alexei tried to be optimistic despite what his instincts were telling him.

"No, Alexei, this is not some glitch. I don't know what's happening, but something is wrong." Ivan moved to the console and set the grounds on high alert. Video footage showed guards sweeping the compound, but nothing seemed abnormal. Accessing the tunnel video feed and drone sweeps, Alexei didn't spot anything there either. The compound was secure, by every account.

Guards stood watch on the catwalks overhead. The Red Guard was a small, elite unit drawn from the Russian military, and fifty men from that group always stood guard for Ivan. Ten from the Red Guard patrolled the catwalks, two teams of six stood guard just outside the entrance to the command post from the tunnels, and the remaining guards were placed around the Command Center. Ivan always felt comfortable in the Command Center. Deep underground, the command bunker should have been the safest place. A voice inside Ivan was eating at him, robbing him of the safety he felt, and the walls seemed to press in tight.

One of the agent's neural implants went online. Accessing the implant, Alexei tried to triangulate the position of the agent, but was unable to discern the exact location. Something seemed to be blocking the signal. Alexei tried to break through the interference. After a few moments of work, the signal strength increased and the interference no longer prevented direct communication. Turning back, Alexei looked to his boss.

"Sir, one of our agent's neural implants just went online. I can patch a direct communication line to the agent now."

Nodding in approval, Ivan watched and waited for communication to be established. Interference made the communication almost impossible, but Alexei managed to cut through enough of it to establish a link. Video feed showed only static on the screen. Whatever was interfering with the communication seemed to be adapting, forcing Alexei to struggle to maintain a connection.

The computer systems compensated for the static by boosting signal strength. Accessing the agent's neural implant, Alexei managed to boost the signal strength further. Overpowering the interference, the implant managed to sync with the communication. Static gave way and an image began to form. At first, it was nothing more than a silhouette of a person. Alexei wasn't sure how much stronger he could get the signal, but continued to fight against the interference. The image cleared. Standing there on the Romanov screen was the image of none other than Henry Williams, staring at Ivan with his cybernetic eyes.