"There's a reckoning at the end of this and when that happens, when we get Rowe held to account the last thing we're going to want is Henry Cole exercising any authority over the Rokkenjiman military." Liosa said "Use him as a confidant, use him as an advisor do not put him on the board because that gives Rowe a shield when we get to the reckoning."
"More immediate concerns." Emerson said "Rion?"
"Remember that I said there was a move that was going to bring the main threat into play? This is it." Rion said "You start a war with Kusan and you make Rowe bulletproof, he becomes the person who rescued Sophia Anselmo and at the same time he brings the true threat to Rokkenjima's shores. We'll ignore for now that he's doing a Palpatine and that Ri Chŏng-jun has likely been sponsored by Rowe to execute that coup."
"Countermove?" Emerson asked
"How long does it take you to get the Diet back from their recess?" Rion asked
"Twenty four hours to get everyone back to the capital." Emerson said "Add in the debate, the vote... about forty eight hours before Rowe gets his war."
"Can you guarantee me that forty eight hours?" Rion said "No retaliatory strikes, no offensive action?"
Emerson looked at Asuna, it was going to be tricky, the public would be baying for blood, they'd be demanding action. "Yes but we can't guarantee a second more than that." he said
"Ok here's what we do." Rion said "Standard procedure is that Rowe is going to want a meeting to discuss the military response, that's likely coming the minute you recall the Diet." she looked at Asuna "You're going to agree to that but it's not you he's going to meet, it's going to be me. You're going to need to give me the authority to arrest him. At the same time as Rowe's here Kado will take his INIS agents, bust into IHC and shut the place down, he'll arrest every member of the SIS."
"On what charges?" Liosa asked
"At this point conspiracy to commit criminal damage." Rion said "That gets Rowe off the board and we can continue to gather evidence on what we suspect in the meantime. Split the SIS agents up, apply pressure and see who rolls on Rowe."
"And he's not running the show while this builds to the crescendo." Emerson said
"Which will be the Youth Diet." Rion said
The Marble Palace's Round Table Room was once again full of the various people who needed to know what was going on. The video conference line to Commonwealth House was being used so Peter could participate and somewhere in the skies heading south from Seaforth Serenity was listening on the phone, she could have used Fox One's videoconferencing but in this instance wasn't due to the fact that she was also ferrying Evanthe home, Euphy was doing her best to help the situation by trying to keep Evanthe occupied with of all things picking out Serenity's outfit for the Youth Diet.
"Ok talk to me." Peter said "Do we know where she is?"
"She's at a prison in Kaesong." Sally Barkley, the head of Achkaerinese Intelligence, said
"And we know this how?" Peter asked
"Because when it comes to CP we take our job very seriously." it was Rion's voice over a phone line "Long story short each of the Anselmo's has in their possession something fitted with a tracking device. In Sophia's case it's a charm bracelet."
"I got her a charm bracelet when she turned twenty one..." Peter said
"Yes you've been quite helpful in this regard." Rion said "We don't know 100% that she's still wearing the bracelet but we did observe the signal moving from Posan to Kaesong. So Sophia's there."
Adam Sheppard, the Minister of Defence, looked up "General Starling what are you proposing?" he was addressing
Lassis Starling the commander of the Achkaerin Special Forces.
"We go and get her." Lassie said "Special Forces insert across the border from the Vax region, we send in a support troop as well, to cover the exit route."
"On foot?" Adam asked
"Only way we're doing this." Lassie said
"That's one hell of a tab." Adam said "That's close to a hundred and fifty kilometre round trip."
"So we're talking about a prison break?" Peter asked
"Yes." Lassie said
"What do we do when Kusan figures out it was us?" Peter asked
"They don't need to figure that out to guess it or level an accusation." Adam said
"We do it like we did the Cecelia rescue." Rion said "We use Ri Sang-Hee's presence to provide us with cover. We make the op a deniable job, we make it look like it's a backlash. We do this right Kusan will collapse in on itself."
"You're asking what I think you're asking aren't you?" Peter said
"Yep." Rion said
"We'll need the Senate's sign off." Adam said
"We do a veiled seven."
Elena Brooke said
"What's a veiled seven?" Nettie asked
"It's a method of how we get the Senate's sign off on military action when we don't want to advertise that we're doing it." Elena said "It's what we did when the Cult of Helus Genocide happened."
"How's it work?" Nettie asked
"First we put something up on the business that's going to probably take all day and is serious enough that the whole Senate will likely be there. In this case Troyes, we'll table a motion to do with it, in effect that's the veil" Elena said "While that's going on, I take the proposed military action matter to the various party leaderships behind the scenes, they brief their members and then there's a rolling vote through the day, at the end of business we tally the vote in the presence of specially appointed attestors who along with myself and the Speaker sign as to the validity of the vote."
"We have forty eight hours." Peter said "That takes up tomorrow's business in the Senate."
"I'll have the troops prepped and ready to go the moment we get word." Lassie said
"Do it." Serenity's voice finally came through the line "Elena you call me with the vote outcome once the process is done, General Starling you get me the details of what you're proposing to do. If the Senate agrees you'll get the go as soon as possible." she took a breath "Rion?"
"Yes?" Rion asked
"This only gets you check it doesn't get mate." Serenity said
"I know but it's mate in three." Rion said
In Jenka-Jenkinson the Imperial Ryusei had touched down ahead of the return flight the following day. The chosen pilots for this part of the operation were
Eloise Lloyd and
Ethan Rodriguez, the pair usually operated cargo aircraft for the Achkaerinese military, but here they were not in their military uniforms but wearing the outfits worn by the Imperial Ryusei crews, getting measured for them had been an experience.
"Ok powering down." Eloise said going through the procedure to shut off the power to the aircraft.
"Things we never thought we'd fly." Ethan said
"It's up there." Eloise said "Never thought I'd fly as basically a commercial pilot."
"First time for everything." Ethan said "Bunch of teenagers aboard tomorrow and then we have to fly them back."
"And we're taking the scenic route." Eloise said