The Mech Touch

"...So that's it?" Ves furrowed his brows as he visited Calabast's underground again. "The only useful and relevant intelligence that we have managed to gain are a bunch of non-critical messages from the comm of a general who happened to be committing adultery!"

Calabast smirked as she sat behind her desk while stroking Lucky behind the ears. "That is not all. Your cat also managed to record the exchange of words between the general and the wife of a business executive of a major company."

Ves took another glance at the text log of that 'conversation'. He had no desire to listen to the audio that Lucky managed to pick up with his ears.

"I don't know about you, but the only information that I am getting out of this exchange of words are claims that the general satisfies his lover a lot better than the husband of the woman in question!"

The spymaster shook her head in disappointment. "That is true, but you are not examining them deep enough. Let me select a handful of excerpts that happen to provide us with vital clues."

She pointed her arm and caused the projected text log to magnify and highlight a few sentences spoken by the general of Davute's armed forces and his lover.

[...Enjoy this moment, babe… because I won't be coming back in the following weeks…]

[Why? … You always come in time…]

[...Extra shifts…]

Ves crossed his arms. "What's so special about this? It is not unusual to work overtime to guarantee the security of the founding ceremony and the festival that follows."

"That is true, but we have looked up the gentleman in question. General Declan Urillian is not in charge of one of the many mech units that are tasked with guarding and securing this planet and star system. He is actually in charge of a military department that is responsible for studying Karlach's territories, identifying targets of high strategic value and military planning. He is responsible for helping Davute's military forces strike the right targets."

"Okay… I see why that might be important, Calabast." Ves said as he thought about it more. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything, though."

"That is true. On its own, this does not constitute proof that anything further is happening, but that is why we tried to combine it with other notable intelligence. Take the man's schedule for example."

The woman projected a calendar that showed the man's itinerary for two different weeks.

In the week before the founding ceremony, the general scheduled plenty of meetings and events. The man not only held regular meetings with other public officials, but also maintained an active social life.

Absolutely nothing about this looked out of place for a man of this position.

It was the agenda after the founding ceremony that looked odd.

Aside from obligatory work-related meetings that had been scheduled in advance, the calendar showed that the general did not intend to catch up with any friends and acquaintances!

This not only persisted during the week-long festival that should be the perfect time to deepen relationships with other people, but also the month that followed!

"Okay…" Ves slowly said. "This shows that the general anticipates that he will be incredibly busy, but that matches what he has already said to his lover."

"It is different. The man's agenda contextualizes his words. His verbal statements in the meantime also clarifies the noticeable absence of meetings planned after the date of the founding ceremony. Let me show you a third clue. This is taken from a brief exchange of text messages between the general and a military advisor that is working directly under Prospective President Yenames Clive."

The projection changed to show an excerpt of the log of the messages transmitted over two months ago, making it rather old and easily overlooked.

[Amiyan Metal Trading is playing hardball again. I wish I could pull out my service firearm and shoot that sniveling **** between the eyes.]

[Amiyan?]

[I do not know what Y is thinking when he thinks he can turn Amiyan into a serious investor.]

[I remember now. Amiyan's seats have recently been reassigned to block E.]

[Ok.]

This exchange of messages looked rather strange to Ves. By itself, it did not seem suspicious, but if Calabast found it important enough to direct his attention to it, then there might be more to the story than he realized.

"What am I looking at?" He asked.

"From what I have gathered, Amiyan Metal Trading is a large resource wholesaler." Calabast explained. "It is a large company that is expanding rapidly throughout the Red Ocean. It has established branch offices in both Davute and Karlach and does not see the need to pick one over the other."

"I see. That must be frustrating to President Yenames Clive."

Calabast nodded. "It is the latter sentences that peak my interest. 'Block E' can only refer to the seating arrangement of the founding ceremony. Block A is where the representatives of the founders and main investors of Davute are seated. Its security is exceptionally high as it will be covered by an ace mech at all times, likely the Indemeon piloted by Saint Yorvick Clive."

"That makes a lot of sense." Ves remarked. "The biggest bosses of Davute have all gathered in the same place, so it deserves full-time protection from the most defensive ace mech in the colonial state. Where are we seated, by the way?"

"We have been assigned to Block L."

"Does that make us more or less important?" Ves scratched his head.

"Neither. All of the other invited parties have been randomly assigned to the remaining seating blocks. The Glory Seekers are assigned to Block B, the Boojay Family are in Block G, the Cross Clan is in Block M and the Adelaide Third Fleet is in Block R."

That was a pretty random spread. Ves found it rather disappointing that he wouldn't get to sit near his close allies.

"Ves."

"Yes?"

"Think back on the earlier exchange of words that took place two months ago. When the military advisor informed the general that Amiyan's representatives in Davute had been reassigned to Block E, the latter replied with 'Ok' before they stopped sending messages entirely."

"So?"

Calabast leaned forward. "This implies a number of possibilities. First, Block E is special. Second, transferring the representatives of Amiyan Metal Trading to this Block satisfies the general who was previously upset with this resource wholesaler. The conclusion that we can draw from this is that Block E may turn into a site of misfortune when the founding ceremony finally commences."

Ves slowly frowned. "Wait a second… are you telling me that Davute intends to kill everyone assigned to Block E?!"

"It is unclear who will commit such a possible attack and who is responsible for it in any fashion. At the very least, the messages suggest that the general and the military advisor know more than 'Y', which likely stands for President Ynames Clive. This implies that the president is ignorant of this development, but that the people who are supposedly under him are working behind his back."

This was starting to get murkier and murkier. Though Ves found Calabast's guesses to be rather far-fetched and difficult to believe, it still showed that the colonial government was anything but squeaky clean behind the scenes.

To think that Calabast managed to derive all of this out of a few pieces of scattered information!

"I don't really understand what is going on." Ves said.

"Let me give you a fourth clue. This is the personal stock portfolio of the general. Note a series of transfers that he made more than three years ago."

The next projected image showed a list of stock purchases and sales. It looked pretty normal to Ves.

"I see he bought and sold a bunch of stocks at that time period. At most, he is engaging in insider trading."

"That is true, but that is not the entire story, Ves. Of the stocks that the general over the span of a couple of months, two of them happen to be companies whose guests have been assigned to Block E. It indicates that the general has received privileged information that told him that these companies will drop in value in the future. However, the strangest part is that both BTR Trust and Ulliver Med have benefited substantially from the boom in Davute. Their stock prices have increased by 15 and 27 percent respectively over the next three years."

"That… could either be a giant coincidence or it could not…"

The spymaster lifted Lucky up and placed him on the top of her desk.

"Meow!"

"Imagine this scenario. You are a stakeholder that is involved in founding a colonial state, but you are not quite satisfied with its state. The man in charge of leading it is so engaged in fostering a business-friendly environment and making as many allies as possible that he is neglecting to unite all of these parties and giving them a more powerful motivation to wage war against Karlach than profit. What can you do that can address these apparent problems?"

The answer was fairly obvious to Ves now that Calabast had led him on like this. "You attack! Striking some of the groups attending the founding ceremony is a great opportunity to do so. So many important figures will come out at once, making it easy to threaten them all. Once this tragedy is over, they will most likely develop a lot of personal hatred against Karlach for committing this attack!"

"Exactly, Ves. The most insidious part about this scheme is that both sides stand to gain from letting a tragedy happen. We all know that Karlach definitely wants to ruin the party. Not only will it be able to showcase its strength and paint Davute as weak, the rival state can also weaken or eliminate figures and groups that are important to Davute's national strength. Yet as long as Davute is willing to pay this price, it can stand to gain just as much if not more! By galvanizing all of the investors and business partners into a united front against the attackers, the colonial government will ensure that it has the support to wage a long and brutal war!"

Ves almost couldn't believe what he heard!

"Wait, that is messed up! Won't Karlach refuse to play along if it just ends up benefiting Davute more?"

"That is anything but certain. It depends on how well Davute is able to contain and direct the damage. I believe this is a game that is being played by certain elements of both sides. The masterminds don't even need to clearly communicate their plans to each other. The only action that Davute needs to take in order to let this attack happen is to leave a deliberate hole in the security arrangements. Just a small vulnerability is enough to enable a highly sophisticated enemy to launch a painful attack!"

As Ves thought back on all of the clues that Calabast mentioned beforehand, it all started to tie into a horrible conspiracy.

The key was the seating blocks of the founding ceremony. Certain people may have already marked them for death without anyone outside of this small cabal knowing the truth.

A lot of different groups were mixed together in those blocks, making it harder to identify any clear patterns.

Ves realized that it would make it more difficult to figure out if a potential decapitation strike sought to eliminate a specific group!

It also deflected suspicion away from the colonial government!

"Wait wait wait!" Ves said in a panicked tone. "If a group of Davutans is hatching a conspiracy to allow the Karlachs to commit a horrible attack, how the hell can they keep it a secret from the honorable ace pilots who regularly patrol the Government District and monitor everyone's loyalty? It's impossible to fool those sensitive Saints for long given that one of them almost managed to catch Lucky."

"Isn't it obvious, Ves?" Calabast smirked at him. "The ace pilots may be involved in the conspiracy. As long as the justification is good enough, they can tolerate all kinds of misdeeds."

"What?!"

It was hard for Ves to imagine that these honorable and principled ace pilots would deliberately cooperate with a plot to allow an enemy force to attack the subjects that were under their protection!

"From what we know of strong loyalties who had been brought up by their respective groups, people such as Saint Yorvick Clive are not fighting for justice, peace or President Yenames Clive's policies. They all answer to the leaders of the main organizations that reside in the old galaxy. If those distant elders want to use a Karlach terror strike as a motivating force, then they have most definitely instructed their ace pilots to stay quiet about the conspirators!"

As Ves mapped out this scenario in his mind, he could see how the ace pilots could still retain their honor by knowing nothing about the specifics of the enemy plan.

Once an incident occurred, the ace pilots could all move into action and earnestly neutralize the threats without holding back.

This was because if the Karlachs had prepared their attacks correctly, they should have already completed their attacks on the occupants of the vulnerable seating blocks!