(Pellin is a major force in the Inner Worlds Council books. This is just a peak at a busy day.)
Reports defined President Pellin's world; reading them, writing them, and hearing them. Occasionally, he read his own statements to the Assembly, just to make certain they remembered who was in charge of things.
Today's reports didn't cover the critical problem that he'd placed in the hands of Inner World Council Security. The fear of a new weapon and falling into the hands of the wrong people --
No, he didn't cover that trouble in the briefing. Instead, he gave good news about plights averted, reported dangerous flooding in the Tempest backlands -- nothing new there -- and welcomed the new delegation from Paradise. They all wore pale blue and green and might as well have been cloned. He would never be able to tell them apart and hoped that Fabroni came up with an answer so he could tag each one. Sometimes he thought the people from Paradise did this sort of thing on purpose.
The report went well. Pellin answered a few questions afterward. The Ambassador from Astrakhan was hostile, but he didn't get as rude as he had been in their private meeting.
The usual crowd tried to talk to him between the Great Hall and his office. Pellin stayed polite despite a growing headache. A pod of teens from Terra Nova waited in the office; Pellin spent an hour with them, listening to the award-winning report that had brought them here -- actually quite good -- and talking with them afterward. There were a few who would become politicians, without a doubt.
Then they were gone, and he could sit down at the desk, glance over a few more reports --
The door opened. Fabroni looked in, worry on his face. "Epona is on her way to see you. I'll keep the office cleared."
He left without saying more -- so either he didn't know, or this was so bad he didn't want to be the one who to tell him. Considering the problem with the Alrand Institute, their prototype weapon, and the mercenaries who took over their supposedly hidden labs -- yeah, this could be all kinds of trouble.
It wasn't what he had expected.
Epona, the head of Inner Worlds Council Security, came in and stopped a few steps from the desk. "We lost Devlin."
His heart pounded. "Oh dear God --"
"Oh -- oh, no. Not dead. I don't think so. Lost. We can't find her."
Pellin took a couple deep breaths and leaned back in his chair. "Damn. You know, I'm not certain that's any better."
Epona nodded and finally threw herself into one of the chairs by the desk. Fabroni came in with tea and closed the door behind him. He heard the news and frowned as he sat down, but said nothing.
"I was going to put her and her team on the Alrand problem," Epona admitted. "Aldebaran could wait. That's when I found out that she hadn't sent a message of any sort in months. Granted, Devlin isn't always good at reporting in, but someone should have mentioned how long it had been. I'm trying to figure out if it was intentional or just a case where one handler didn't think to mention the time span to the next one who took over."
Pellin nodded. "It could be that she's just working. And her team?"
"Dancer and Cha," Epona said. "No word from either of them. I made discreet contact with the Science Board. They haven't heard from Cha, either though he'd been filing interesting reports on the local drug that's such a problem on Astrakhan."
"Both of them dropping out of sight does seem like a problem. And what will we do about Alrand?"
"I'm going to send Kim's Team in," she said. "They're a good Gold Card team that's been together for a while. I'd already been looking at them. And I'm sending Delphian with them."
"Have you decided that he's not actually crazy, or is that just no longer relevant?" Fabroni dared to ask.
"No longer relevant," she admitted and then shrugged. "But I'm not so sure Delphian is crazy anyway. Too many accidents aimed at him. I'm going to get him introduced to Kim -- and probably Allie since she'll be the problem. If the woman could just control that attitude of hers, she'd probably have a gold card of her own by now."
"And what are you going to do about Devlin?"
"I'm looking at who is available, but I'm leaning toward Mossi. He's close, he's good, and he's worked with Devlin. No matter who I decide on, I want a military craft to transport them within a world of Astrakhan -- the fastest trip we can get."
Pellin nodded, and Fabroni was already checking his pocketcomp. "Where is Mossi now?" he asked.
"Terra Nova, so close to us, but far from where I want him to be. I keep hoping for another agent closer, but there's no one so far that I'd put on a case that maybe Devlin couldn't handle."
"Alrand," Pellin said with a shake of his head. "Devlin missing is bad enough -- but Alrand in the hands of people who could use that weapon anywhere. I understand that a cannon version could destroy an entire ship?"
"That's what I heard. One shot. And it could do massive damage to landmasses, too," Epona added. Of all the people at the Mars HQ, she was the only one who knew the depth of most of the problems. "I'll go see who I can round up for the Devlin problem. I'm probably going with Mossi, though. And I'll get Kim and his people moving. Damn mess."
She stood and walked out again, clearly too much on her mind. Fabroni followed her.
Pellin placed a call to earth and tried to contact Keri Ibn Karim -- a psi and a friend to Devlin and her companions. He was not around, and Pellin hoped he was already working on the Devlin problem.
And Pellin? He went back to reading reports...
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