Frasier stared me in the eye. “You’re serious.”

“Absolutely. Agni is perfectly fine with soldiers and ultras collaborating.”

“She told you this. In person.”

“Thrice.”

“Thrice?”

“Once at Brahampton. Once at my house. Once at my workshop.”

Frasier massaged his temple. “So you’re saying she’s merely misunderstood.”

“Yes.”

“And the fact that she killed a hundred thousand soldiers and their dependents?”

“She did it to protect their victims. Look, why would she lie?”

“I have no idea. It doesn’t explain why she never came clean about her actions, though.”

“Would anyone have believed her? Besides, didn’t you tell me that the Indians kicked her out of their country and she’s been a stateless terrorist for the last ten years?”

“Yes. And she’s how old?”

”Er… didn’t ask, but she looked to be in her mid to late twenties.”

“Under thirty?”

“... yeah?”

“Which means that she was a minor at Delhi. And at Rawalpindi.”

“Uh… crap, yes. Does that help?”

“Not at all. It just makes a complicated legal situation more complicated.”

“Why? Is there a difference if an ultra is underage?”

Frasier shot Belessar a sharp look. “Without divulging any information that would help identify a specific ultra, I can confirm that SURGE requires confirmation that all ultras taking part in an alien action are of the age of majority.”

Uh-oh.

“Don’t tell me anything that would make it easier to identify a particular ultra, please.”

Don’t ask, don’t tell it was. “Agni was quite insistent that she doesn’t care about military affiliations. How does this complicate things?”

“It’s politics. You want her there for London, don’t you?”

“She would be helpful.”

“And no-one will work with her if they know who she is.”

“Why not? We could simply announce the reasons she fought. Fighting human trafficking isn’t something to be ashamed of.”

“Except that we’d be labelling the Pakistani military as human traffickers.”

“... okay, so it’s a trade-off between how many troops they send versus having Agni?”

“They don’t send any troops.”

“.... Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem, Belessar, is politics. Right now, we’ve managed to get most of the nations of South-East Asia to cooperate and send troop contingents to London. North Pakistan doesn’t send any troops, but India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh do. Which they can, because the North Pak troops don’t stir up trouble on their border during aliens attacks - or the period leading up to them.” Frasier pulled up a map on his screen. “This border here, between India and North Pakistan? It’s a territorial dispute going back a century and a half, and over two hundred thousand troops are positioned to defend this border all year round - that’s bigger than the entire armies of most nations. If North Pakistan starts sabre-rattling, the Indians can triple the troop deployment on that border within forty-eight hours - and they end up doing so at least once a year.”

“Oh… but is the North Pakistani army actually a match for the Indian troops?”

“Never has been, but that’s not the point. If the North Pak troops ramp up operations enough, the Chinese start sending their own troops to the border. Two hundred thousand Indian troops are enough to hold out against a Pakistani advance - the tripling is to defend against any incursions by China.”

“.... They do this every year?”

“Not every year, but often enough. The trouble is, if North Pakistan gets offended by something in international forums - or has a local political crisis, or a bad harvest, or runaway inflation - they start talking about invading India and cause a great deal of irritation. Whenever that happens, Indian troops get pulled out of international commitments and pulled back to their country’s defence.”

“International commitments like London, you mean?”

“Exactly.”

“How many troops are the Indians contributing?”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand. All English-speaking and at least thirty percent speak other South-East Asian languages, which is why they also provide the highest number of liaison officers across different militaries. Remove the Indian contingent and you might as well send back another forty thousand Bangladeshis and thirty thousand Sri Lankans. That’s almost a third of the total troops deployed.”

“Wait, how many troops are the Chinese sending?”

“The Chinese don’t send troops to SURGE.”

“Uh … why not? What happens if they’re attacked?”

Frasier smiled bitterly. “For some reason, no Chinese city has been attacked in the last fifteen years. They withdrew from all anti-alien defence commitments in 2070, after the break-up of Pakistan, and they’ve steadfastly refused to allow SURGE operations in China.”

“Why?”

“SURGE had concerns about how they were treating their ultrahumans, and the Chinese took offence.”

“Wait, what concerns?”

“After Duraid’s death, the Chinese passed new laws on ultrahuman activity. They already required all ultrahumans to register with the state - which was blatantly against the Codices - but they started enforcing it rigorously after that. Then word got out that ultras were being mind-controlled by Masters on the orders of the Chinese government.”

“The Chinese ordered Masters to mind-control other ultras?”

“Exactly. They enforced a strict hierarchy - every ultra was enslaved by a specific Master, with only the government knowing which ultra was controlled by which Master and where. The Masters, in turn, were kept under control by ordinary soldiers with Mindshields who would execute a Master if he disregarded the orders of the government. And to make matters even better, the Master’s family would be killed if he rebelled.”

“Aren’t Mindshields expensive?”

“Very, which is why the Chinese have a whole army of inventors making them. Whatever the case, if you’re an ultra in China, you serve the government.”

“That’s got to be a violation of the CJM.”

“It is, in letter and in spirit. SURGE took some time to figure it out, but since then the Chinese have been sanctioned, censured and criticized by virtually every civilized government. Given the situation, however, words are the only weapon we can use.”

“That doesn’t explain why the Chinese don’t have alien attacks on their territory.”

“According to the Chinese, this shows the superiority of their system of government.”

“But… the Hierarchy doesn't care about systems of government.”

“Well, until this year nobody had any idea what the Hierarchy’s motives were. So one guess was as good as another. Now?”

“We could ask Sarvenimazarus why they don’t attack China…”

“Already asked. He claims to have no idea on the reasons or logic for target selection.”

“... do you believe him?”

“Aisindrahas doesn’t have a clue either, so we’re stuck. Who knows? Maybe you’ll take a higher-ranking prisoner in London.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“All things considered? We’re better off if Agni doesn’t come. One extra ultra with a spotty track record versus over three hundred thousand soldiers? Not to mention that a lot of other militaries will take persuading to serve alongside her, even if this information is made public.”

“Why?”

“Because, Belessar, whatever the sins of Duraid’s troops, she had no right to kill their families.”

I sighed. “It’s water under the bridge. What we need to think of is how to handle the upcoming attack….”

“Agni can’t be a part of it. Trust me, Belessar…. don’t push for this. Please.”

“Can we at least look at her ideas? That we’re going to be hit by something new?”

“We can consider those ideas if you front them, but I agree, she’s got a point. It’s something that we’re looking into …. very quietly.”

“Any ideas what it might be?”

“You mentioned that this one is a scion of the Guthnar clan, right? They’ve lost two scions in two attacks. The current theory is that the Guthnar clan will strike in force at London.”

“In force meaning?”

“A massed assault with their full resources. Possibly a deployment force of tens of thousands of Raptors, with allies from other races. We see that as the most likely scenario.”

“And we’re prepared for it?”

“As much as we can be. We’ve been working on a new model of weapon to use against the aliens as well, something more effective than the M22. We also have thousands of tanks and aircraft ready to defend London.”

“I was concerned about the possibility of something - stronger. A Greater Carnotaur or an Archon.”

“So are we. Unfortunately, we have zero effective information about Archons or how to fight them. According to Sarvenimazarus, no-one’s been able to kill an Archon in battle.”

“Since how long?”

“Since ever. Literally, they’ve never had an Archon die.”

“Ouch. What about a Greater Carnotaur?”

“The hypothetical species that you believe exists and is stronger than the ones we see deployed so far? We considered that. We’re forecasting a larger version of the standard Carnotaur, maybe fifty per cent bigger. Do you anticipate the health points will scale in proportion?”

“Maybe a little less proportionate, but that’s still a million and a half HP. How do we break past that?”

“We have weapons that can hit it. Cruise missiles, specifically.”

“Can they do enough damage?”

“I’m not entirely sold on your damage calculations, but yes, we have missiles which can deliver up to a hundred and fifty kilos of high explosives. That should be enough to take out even a Carnotaur. The challenge we’ve always faced before is that we don’t know where the aliens are going to hit, so unless we’re lucky and the Carnotaur is deployed right next to a missile base, we’re always out of position.” Frasier grinned like a shark. “Not this time. Portable and air-launched missiles will be ready to deploy from bases in and around London, and we have a network of surveillance drones to help them hit their target. Even a Carnotaur isn’t going to be a challenge. And if an Archon does show up, we’ll have the opportunity to test their indestructibility.”

“That’s reassuring. Where do you want me?”

“In the middle of the defence of course.”

“Good, because I have about thirty people to bring along.”

Frasier frowned. “Nanocloud I can understand, but who are the others? How many siblings do you actually have?”

“It’s Phoenix Company.”

“The… Belessar, they aren’t soldiers.”

“Neither were the Grunters, and they did well in Grumman’s armour. This time, I’m having Phoenix Company kitted out in the best nanofibre weave I can give them and the best weapons I can make.”

“.... How effective do you think they’ll be?”

“Depends on how much training they get, actually. The suits are the same design as I wore to take out the Grunters. One unpowered suit of mine versus sixteen Grunters, and I survived.”

Frasier glanced up and down my Boar Armor. “Any chance you can make more of the powered type of suits?”

“Unfortunately, not yet. I’ve got the one suit I’m wearing now for infantry ops and the Greyhound Armor, which I’ll be using for London.”

“Will anyone else be using this one in London?”

“Actually, the powered suits need to be locked to a specific user. I’m the only one who can use them.”

“Makes sense. Most powered armor requires careful calibration and fits only the inventor who made them.” Frasier shrugged. “It’s the main reason powered armor hasn’t been particularly useful for our own soldiers. Still, if you do have any suggestions, there are those who would appreciate the ideas.”

“Happy to help. Can I count on Phoenix Company getting some space to practice and train here, then?”

“.... fine, I’ll clear it with HQ. You’re sure they’ll deploy, right? If we give them training and they don’t show up for London, it’s my ass on the line.”

“They’ll show.” As, I silently vowed, would Agni.

After all, in nanofibre weave armour, all of the Phoenixes looked the same.