33 The break
As 0800 approached, Maeve entered the small com booth that had been set up. She turned to Pru. “It just hit me. If he has that kind of com spoofing and frequency switching, he may be checking us. Hold on” and ducked out of the room.
Maeve went to the NCO who ran the com. “If anyone queries the location of this com, what will they get?”
“The ID of this field unit,” she replied.
“Can you change it to the same one we were using at Headquarters?”
“Sure, but it’s against regulations.”
“Do it; then ask Xing to okay it.”
“Right.”
When she returned to the room, Pru said, “That went well.”
“When you’ve been a sergeant major as long as I have, you learn how to communicate. Anyway, Xing’s got these people clued in. We can do just about anything we want. He’ll know about it before we do, anyway. Good man – for a man.”
Maeve watched the clock count up to 0800 and keyed the com. “Good morning Elik, this is Merve. Thank Al’lah I am well. Ins’al’lah, you are well this morning too. How are our hostages today? Any illness? Any problems?”
Pru heard the usual truculent response, and went to find Lia. “Maeve is on line with Elik. When will the eye be in position to scan?”
“Xing’s on it already. We have an eye about a foot across at an altitude of 5,000 meters. That’s pretty hard to spot visually.”
“What about spotting it electronically?”
“Xing said he was going for passive scans. After all, we’re listening for Elik, not trying to contact him.”
In only a few minutes, Xing appeared. “We’ve got it,” he said with a grin. “He’s in there. He’s switching frequencies every 500 milliseconds. And, he’s using both OSG and civilian frequencies. It’s definitely military-grade equipment.”
“The camouflage field certainly is,” Lia said. She turned to her com and the com NCO’s face appeared. “Yes, sir.”
“Patch me into the conversation Sgt Major O’Leary is having, please. Monitor only.” She turned to Pru. “This is bothering me. I’ve had a hunch for some time, and I can’t place it.”
The com display changed to show the monitored conversation. Maeve’s voice came through.
“…can you manage to separate the holdings of Uighur and Han businesses? Many of them are jointly owned.”
Baltar’s voice responded, “You will have to convince me that you are doing this.”
“Are you saying that you are willing to keep the hostages safe while this is being worked out?”
“The hostages will die on the last day of the month. That is not negotiable.”
“Then you will have to accept that we will find a way to make such a division.”
“I don’t have to accept anything.”
“Are you, then, not bargaining in good faith? Is this how a good Muslim deals? How can you say that?”
“I have 30 hostages. I will kill them…”
Lia shut off the com. She put her head in her hands and sat for several moments without a word. Then, she looked up at Pru.
“I know that voice, Pru.” She shook her head. “I’ve known him for years; I’m positive.” She was shaken; her face pale; there was moisture in her eyes. “The bastard!” She slapped the desk with her open palm.
Pru sat down next to Lia and took her hand. “Who is it, Lia?”
“General Lao. Lao Te-jao. I knew him when I first got promoted to field rank. He was smart, very smart. But OSG threw him out because he was so bigoted.”
“That’s new,” Pru muttered under her breath.
“No, Pru, it’s not.” Lia smiled weakly at her friend. “OSG’s been weeding out people like that ever since I enlisted. We can’t afford them. Some slip by, and that’s how he got to be a General before he got caught.”
“And just what form does his bigotry take?” Pru asked.
“You won’t believe it,” Lia shook her head. “He hates Uighurs. He hates Muslims. He’s so bad I can’t imagine him reaching flag rank, but he did. They threw him out about two years ago – you know, full pension and all that. He’d been passed over twice, and that’s the way they got rid of him. But, I think he knew. Maybe he didn’t care.”
Pru thought for a moment. “Okay. That means both the Baltar and the Batuk CIDs are fake. That’s something we’ll have to take up with the civil authorities: it’s supposed to be impossible to fake IDs. It also means he’s falsely using someone else’s IDs. He’s kidnapped 30 people, unless those are people who are his supporters.”
She looked at Xing. “Can you get a deeper trace into the IDs of the hostages? Have we investigated them fully? Are they innocents?”
“I’ll look into it. I believe a team at HQ has been researching them.” He opened a channel on his com and began talking to someone.
Turning to Lia, Pru said, “We can’t do anything about this now, Lia. I know you feel as though the service has lost face, and I feel your distress. But it isn’t your fault, nor the service’s. He’s done this as a civilian.
“Now, we need to get in there and get everyone out in one piece. I’m going back and relieve Maeve and keep him going for a while until we can logically break the contact. Then, Maeve and I are going out to the site. I’ll need backup, but we’re going to do a recon.”
“Pru, I’ve got people who can do that.”
“Lia, I know you do, and you can get me a team of your best scouts as backup. But this is one I have to do myself. We’re at the point where my decisions are going to put people’s lives on the line and since I can have it, I want to have the information from my own eyes.”