[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I try to post new chapters about every two weeks, but there will sometimes be short stories and vignettes if I don’t have a new chapter ready. The next chapter is planned for the week of October 23rd.]

Previous: Chapter 39

Three days ago…

Plutocrat listened while his deputy, Feng, explained the latest discovery.

“…and then we found this–from the Russian asset markets.”

“Black Swan has been playing the copycat investors like a violin.” Plutocrat scanned the relevant graphs and summaries on the monitors and frowned. "But that doesn’t look right.“

"The projections group thinks she’s preparing some kind of swap move. They don’t know when, but they think she’ll leverage the tension to extract–”

“No,” said Plutocrat. "Forget most of it–we can’t tell who’s who with any certainty. Look at this set: Heavy on outmoded industrial and petrochemical assets. They look like a long term bargain gamble. But that makes no sense for any of her money-making strategies.“

Feng frowned in return. "Part of some planned deal with the government?”

“The present one? I think not. Edward?”

“Yes?” came the precise voice of Plutocrat’s UPPfone assistant from the speakers.

“Summarize all recent, reliable, public information on attempted Russian government or oligarch actions against Black Swan.”

“Nothing since the initial speculation that an official policy change was being considered.”

“Nothing? That’s unusual. Anything non-public you can tell me?”

“Privacy block. Insider trading liability block. Security block.”

“Hmph.” Plutocrat stroked his mustache. "The Volunteer is gone, Flicker and Doc Future are busy, and the EDU is embroiled with the Americans and the Grs'thnk. And the Russians have to be frustrated with Black Swan’s countermeasures. They should be at least trying to see if they can get away with something.“

He called up another graph and considered, then felt a slow chill spread down his spine. "No. No, they must be. We aren’t hearing about it because Black Swan doesn’t want us to. She’s already written off those assets. This isn’t about making money. Not at all. They’re bait.”

Feng looked incredulous. "Eight hundred million dollars worth of bait? Why would she need so much?“

"To keep people from realizing it is bait. And trying to guess her method or timing is a fool’s game.”

“Edward, is anyone on my owed favors list currently in Russia?”

“No.”

“Good. Inform me if that changes. Feng, tell all divisions to steer clear of anything exposed to Russian political volatility. And prepare for a new wave of crisis overshoot reactions.”

“Yes, sir. Anything else?”

Plutocrat drummed his fingers on the handle of his cane. "Yes. I’ll want a consequence analysis of a nuclear strike against Black Swan. I believe her recent loitering spots are in range of the Russian ABM sites around Moscow.“

"Surely she wouldn’t let one hit?”

“This is Black Swan, my boy. I can follow the music when she makes money. For anything else, ‘surely she wouldn’t’ is not a safe thing to say,” said Plutocrat. "Not at all.“

*****

Two days ago…

Ambassador-at-large Wilson entered Director Reinhart’s office and stopped in front of the desk.

"It’s done,” he said. "All the notices have been delivered, acknowledged, and witnessed by the Auditors. The monitoring terms of the local law and custom violation complaint against Black Swan by the government of the Russian Federation under the EDU transition law framework take effect in two hours.“

She looked up briefly from the screens and nodded. "Thank you, Wilson. Their president is making a speech about it now. It will probably save some lives someday.”

“If you had let me clarify the EDU warning–”

“Anything you might add to DASI’s statement would just be denounced as another violation of sovereignty. This will establish several important precedents, and the Grs'thnk warning was quite well translated. I’m sure some of their diplomats understood and are keeping quiet or being ignored. Black Swan will escalate to a level two trade conflict and handle it without any official aid or intervention by the EDU. The Russians still see her as someone who makes diplomatic protests and gives out parking tickets. They’ve already attempted to assassinate two of her employees. Two of her Russian employees.”

“So how will the speech save lives?” asked Wilson, his mouth suddenly dry.

“Because it’s going to become famous. Kleptocrats will be scrambling to find any way to evade the EDU framework, and might be tempted to file a local custom complaint. Any competent advisor will remind them of what happened in Russia.”

*****

Yesterday…

Sam switched her display from a summary of the Grs'thnk refugee enclave construction in Greenland, which was progressing nicely, to the global UPPfone usage map. She frowned.

“DASI?”

“Yes?”

“What’s going on in Russia? Is this something to do with their law and custom complaint?”

“Yes. I sent public safety warnings to UPPfone users in a number of areas, according to standard protocols.”

“That’s not really an answer. Why?”

“Information access is currently restricted, due to a temporary delay request filed by Black Swan and approved by the Auditors.”

“My access is restricted, too?”

“For now. You are not at risk, and no action on your part is required.”

“Um. So when will that be lifted?”

“That is also restricted. However, I can tell you that Black Swan still has a flight livestream scheduled for tomorrow.”

*****

Today.

The general paused his rant while his aide attempted to contact the Defense Ministry on the secure land line again, but the atmosphere in the control bunker was still tense.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said the aide. "They repeated that no one with authority is available.“

"Enough!” said the general. He was furious, his face a dangerous shade of purple.

He turned to the battery commander. "Target is still acquired?“

The battery commander licked his lips. "Yes. But…”

“Then launch. My authority.”

He glanced at the general’s guards. They looked back. Their weapons weren’t pointed directly at him, but that could change very quickly.

“Given the known defenses of the target,” he said carefully, "I cannot guarantee a hit.“

"I cannot guarantee your life if you don’t launch in sixty seconds!”

“Sir.” He put his key in the required slot and turned it, then turned to the launch tech. "Launch one.“

The general assumed that the nuclear-tipped anti-ballistic missile would destroy Black Swan. The battery commander expected her to shoot it down. The launch tech thought she would dodge. The old maintenance sergeant, who was a pessimist and knew what the inspection reports for the last decade were worth, figured the ABM would probably malfunction in some way.

None of them were right.

*****

Black Swan hovered in the stratosphere over a sparsely populated area well north of Moscow. A small camera drone let her transmit her picture to watchers all over the world.

She smiled. "Looks like you will get to see something special today.”

She spread her wings wide, and they unfolded, and unfolded, and unfolded. Soon they were a vast fine mesh. At the same time, the outlines of her body darkened and blurred, as she strengthened her inner force field and turned on the outer one.

Beamed power poured down from EDU ships in orbit, supplementing her personal fusion plant. The ships had been duly leased and paid for in advance, all carefully documented for the watching Auditors.

Xelian force fields had been designed for use by large warships in space. They were power hogs, they disrupted any intersecting solid matter, and they caused drag when moving through air at any significant speed.

Black Swan was nowhere near the ground, had plenty of power, and wasn’t currently trying to move.

“I’m afraid selfies will end now, and there will be a brief interruption in the audio,” she said. "But don’t worry. I’ll be back.“

The missile reached its target. There was a great flash, and Black Swan turned white.

*****

"More damned notice would have been nice!” said Doc. He looked up from his handcomp to glare at Stella.

“You asked if I would handle any Earth-based political problems that would otherwise be relevant to you, in addition to my obligations as Director of the EDU, while you concentrated on portal physics. I agreed, and did, in consultation with Jumping Spider. Your objection now is a symptom of one of the problems I wished to discuss tonight. And if you really wanted to know, you could have set better interrupt filters for DASI.”

“Better filters?! Do you know which interrupt we’re likely to get any–”

“Priority interrupt,” said DASI. "Detonation of a nuclear weapon.“

Nightmare memories screamed at him. Doc took a moment to place his handcomp carefully on the table in front of him, then closed his eyes. "Target. User. Casualties. Chance of nuclear response or escalation.”

“Black Swan. Russia. Zero. Negligible.”

Doc opened his eyes again. Stella was watching him, her face expressionless.

“Negligible,” he repeated. "Really.“

"Yes,” said DASI. "Also, Jumping Spider wishes to monologue informatively. She is outside the door right now.“

Doc waved a hand. "Let her in.” He glanced at Stella. "Unless you have an objection.“

"I do not. She is well rested and cheerful, and I am neither. She can explain.”

Doc stared at the bowl Jumping Spider was holding out.

“What?” she said. "You don’t want any popcorn? Next thing you know, you’ll tell me you don’t want to watch Black Swan livestreaming while she disables the rest of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces.“

"No thank you. Just tell me what happened, please.”

Jumping Spider shook her head, then turned to Stella. "He’s really gotten to be a wet blanket, hasn’t he? My condolences.“

"We’re both tired,” said Stella.

“Ah,” said Jumping Spider. "I’ll be brief, then.“ She put the popcorn bowl on the table and flopped into one of the chairs.

"You up on the local custom rule?” she asked Doc.

“I am now. Didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to invoke it without reading the usage precedents for the Grs'thnk law it was based on.”

“Someone was going to make that mistake; Black Swan just made sure it was Russia. Which let her cripple a god as a bonus.”

“Cripple a god?”

“Atom-bomb the Destroyer. Still has quite a few followers. But now, people are going to figure out that a national nuclear arsenal isn’t something you can use or credibly threaten to use anymore. Nukes can’t kill her, so they’re a liability; a vulnerable bit of national prestige that Black Swan can take away humiliatingly whenever she wants, without–and this is important–hurting the rest of a country.”

“Ah. She’ll leave the subs and bombers alone for now?”

“Yup. That makes sure their new government still has something to worry about losing while everyone adjusts. And it keeps China and the US from getting too giddy in the meantime.”

“Reasonable. But I still want to know how she managed to get them to invoke a rule that gave her access to any local political dispute resolution tactics in living memory. Which meant Stalin.”

Jumping Spider grinned. "Oh, there were lots of nuances. She has to have been planning this from the beginning, shaping greed and overconfidence. But personally delivering the satellite parking ticket to the US IC was the masterstroke. Made them underestimate her just enough.“

"I see. How many dead?”

“Don’t know yet. I’d guess dozens or hundreds. Not thousands. Quite a few people are hiding, or have just disappeared. And there appears to have been a major dispute between civil and military intelligence over who was couping who; Lubyanka is still on fire. But the deaths will likely include the most powerful dozen or so in the government and every Russian billionaire.”

“Civil war?”

“Oh no. At least not soon. The deputy assistant foreign minister is calling for calm, and most everyone still alive will eventually find out things aren’t nearly as bad as they could have been. But I’ve become psychic! There have only been hints so far, but I’ll bet I can tell you how the top five died.”

“Oh?”

Jumping spider held up her hand and ticked off fingers one-by-one.

First finger. "Ricin poisoning.“

Second finger. "Thallium poisoning.”

Third finger. "Polonium-210 poisoning.“

Little finger. "Warfarin poisoning.”

Thumb. "And just to make everything crystal clear… An ice-axe to the head.“

Doc looked down. "According to custom.”

“According to custom.” Jumping Spider grinned. "So, smartest man in the world. Designer of the mind that became Black Swan. You wanna bet?“

"No bet,” he said softly.



Next: Chapter 41

