Fallout
“We have an opportunity.”
Though his voice was soft and his face blank, Peter’s eyes glowed fever-bright. Gathered around him in a rough circle, the team had to lean in to listen.
“Go on,” Yuri said.
“Finn broke. He disclosed the names and address of key individuals in his circles. Seeker operatives, representatives from the New Gods, freelancers who conduct wet work for the Seekers.”
Yuri looked over Peter’s shoulder. Where there was once a man strapped to a diabolical construct, there was now only empty space. Sometime in the night—or early morning—Gregory’s men and the Technician had carried Finn away to his final destination.
“What’s this opportunity?” James asked.
“To drive a wedge between the New Gods.”
Yuri figured as much. He had his own ideas to do that. But he wanted to know what Peter and the others thought.
“How do you plan to do that?” Kayla asked.
“The media reports that unidentified assailants broke into an apartment at the Hex, killed one resident, and kidnapped the other. The police do not—yet—know that Finn was a Seeker. We can reach out to the representatives of the other New Gods with a proposal.
“The Seekers have determined that mercenaries in the employ of their rivals were responsible for the raid. They abducted one of the key personnel responsible for arranging a possible partnership. The Seekers will be favorably predisposed towards the party that can recover their missing man and avenge this insult.”
James smiled. “I like the way you think.”
“For the gods who despise the Singularity Network, we will tell them that the Singularity Network contracted the mercenaries. For those who hate the Void Collective, we will them that the mercenaries were working for them instead.”
“The VC aren’t officially at war with anyone,” James said.
“No, but they will not be eager to see any of the other New Gods form alliances with each other either. We will also tell our targets that the VC and the Sinners are planning to ally with each other. By reflecting the fears of the target back at them, they will believe us. They have no choice but to assume the worst.”
Kayla crossed her arms. “The Seekers can disavow this plot. They can claim that someone else sent the message.”
Peter smiled, eyes and teeth flashing like daggers.
“Finn’s operation was highly compartmentalized. Only a handful of Seekers at the top of the hierarchy are aware of his mission to influence the other gods, as part of the overall strategy to secure an alliance with the winning side. They granted him a huge amount of operational leeway. It would not be out of the question for him to have appointed a deputy to take over in the event of an unfortunate occurrence.”
“That’s thin. Such a ‘deputy’ would be known to the higher-ups. We can’t get away with impersonating a man who doesn’t exist. Not for long.”
“Which is why I’ve handed Finn over to Joshua Gregory. Perhaps Finn could be… persuaded to cooperate with us. To convince his superiors that he’s still alive and free, only in hiding.”
“Don’t count on it,” Yuri warned. “The Seekers will assume that he’s been compromised, along with everything he was working on.”
Peter nodded. “True, but even if they learn about our plot, they wouldn’t be likely to stop it. After all, they stand to benefit the most.”
“The Seekers are as paranoid as the other gods, if not more,” Zen said. “Even though they benefit from it, they’ll know there’s a catch. They’ll run their own investigation. They may even disavow it altogether, and claim that it is an attempt to manipulate all the other gods into a war.”
“If the plot fails, we lose nothing. We have more targets and more leads we can exploit. And we only need just one of the New Gods to act. Just one. When they strike the VC or the Sinners, their targets will feel compelled to retaliate. After that, the Seekers won’t be able to regain control of the situation.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game here,” Karim said.
“No more dangerous that challenging the New Gods directly, like what you are doing now.”
Yuri shook his head. “I don’t think this strategy is worth it. One wrong move and the whole city will burn.”
“Is Babylon worth saving?”
A chill fell across the room. The pit of Yuri’s stomach trembled. He always had a sense that Peter never think the way that most people did. Here was proof undeniable.
“There are still plenty of good people here. Innocent people who just want to live their lives in peace. That’s who we’re fighting for. Bringing them harm is not part of our mission,” Yuri said.
“Very well. Shall we add a caveat to the proposal that requires the factions to minimize collateral damage?”
“There will be collateral damage, regardless.”
“Yes, but only among your enemies.”
“They’re civilians.”
Peter shook his head.
“The New Gods make no distinction between soldier and civilian. They have this one thing in common. Their soldiers do the fighting for them, and their lay followers provide the funds and materiel to support the soldiers. Any Elect may be drafted by his god to become a soldier, and he will have no choice. The god will take control of his mind and force him to take up arms. You of all people should know that.”
“Civilians have nothing to do with this. Most of them sign up just to get a job, to be part of a community, to conform to social pressure. They aren’t part of the shadow wars between the gods.”
“Not directly, no. But through their tithes they pay for troops and weapons, through their businesses they support the soldiers, through their evangelism they recruit more believers and more combatants. They are all lawful targets.”
Yuri shook his head.
“No. Not for me. Not for us. The only way we are going to do this is if we can limit the damage to the soldiers of the New Gods, and only their soldiers.”
“Do you have a list of names we can give the New Gods?” Kayla asked. “The names of soldiers, spies, Speakers, and other Elect that might plausibly have a hand in a raid?”
Peter stroked his chin and turned to Zen. Zen nodded.
“That we do,” Zen said. “The support cadre have been putting together network diagrams based on the intel we’ve been feeding them.”
“Then we add those names to the proposal. We tell the New Gods that the Seekers have a list of suspects that might be responsible for the raid. We get the New Gods to focus their attentions on them.”
“Then the question is, why won’t the Seekers go after the suspects themselves?” Karim asked.
The team pondered that question in silence. Try as he might, Yuri could find no possible answer.
“I have an idea,” Peter said.
“Let’s hear it,” Yuri said.
“The New Gods use Dark Web forums and decentralized apps to contract out their wet work. I could approach my old Dark Web contacts and the reps of the New Gods with a proposal. I tell them that I know Finn’s true identity and affiliation. The Seekers will be very pleased to avenge his abduction. I would be willing to sell them a list of suspects who might have organized the mission.”
Zen shook his head. “Did you say ‘sell’?”
“I am assuming great risk. The reward must be commensurate.”
“Up to your old tricks again?”
“It was how I built my reputation.”
“The world thinks you’re dead.”
“I will present myself as my successor. I will drop just enough details to make it believable.”
“Your security had better be bulletproof.”
“Of course.”
Peter actually sounded offended at that suggestion.
“The Seekers would be less likely to learn about this proposal if we approach the reps one-to-one,” Kayla mused.
“I can also sell the same list of names to the Seekers,” Peter said.
“All this increases the possibility that every faction will trip over every other faction,” Karim said.
“The more confusion, the better.”
“Not all of those factions get along. They’re likely to shoot it out with each other than to cooperate.”
“Which reduces the risk of an alliance forming between them.”
“And increases the risk of collateral damage,” Yuri said.
“There is always the risk of collateral damage. Don’t you use the rule of proportionality?” Peter asked.
The military use of force was governed by a trifecta of principles. Military necessity, distinction and proportionality. By targeting the operatives of the New Gods, and only those operatives, this plot satisfied the first two rules. But the last…
Any harm caused to civilians or civilian property had to be proportional to the nature of the target. Excessive harm was a violation of the laws of war.
In law enforcement, the rule was zero or at least minimal collateral damage. But this wasn’t law enforcement anymore.
“Any collateral damage will be on the New Gods, not us,” Peter said.
“You know that they don’t care about such concerns,” Will said.
The Pantheon sent two avatars and a demi-platoon of soldiers to wipe out the Church District in Riveria simply to kill Yuri Yamamoto and the rest of the detail protecting the neighborhood. Why wouldn’t the New Gods do the same?
“Stipulate that the Seekers want their man back,” Yuri said. “The New Gods can’t resort to just blowing up the neighborhood. They need to capture those suspects and interrogate them so they can rescue Finn. They will have to adopt a more surgical approach.”
“Very well,” Peter said.
“Are we going ahead with this?” Kayla asked.
“We could always work our way down that same list of suspects, plus the Seekers Finn gave up,” Zen said.
“We could, but that’s more risk to ourselves. We don’t have the capacity to challenge the New Gods head-on.” Yuri sighed. “Let’s do this.”
“A wise choice,” Peter said.
“I sure hope you know what you’re doing,” Kayla said.
He did, unfortunately. Even with this restriction, he knew he’d just damned who knew how many noncombatants. The New Gods had no compunctions going after the friends and families of their enemies. Everyone affiliated with the suspects would be at risk. And the New Gods had methods of interrogation that made Special Interrogation look like a friendly chat over a cup of coffee. All he’d done with this was simply reduce the risk that innocent bystanders would be caught in the crossfire.
“One last thing,” Yuri said. “Don’t list small fry. Just the ones at the top of the hierarchy. The Speakers and the shot-callers.”
Such people would never have risen to their positions without the backing of their community. They would themselves be surrounded by ranking members of their factions, who in turn could not have climbed the hierarchy without staining their hands.
And yet…
The New Gods had no rules against targeting children. Or non-believers. Or innocents.
Would the deed take them closer to the goal? How many innocents would be harmed along the way? These were the questions Yuri had to answer. He knew that his team would stay their hands from the innocent, but striking high value targets wouldn’t prevent the New Gods from allying with each other. It might do the opposite instead, driving them to band together a common foe. They’d done the same before. False flag attacks would only go so far: no one on the team had the supertech or occult powers the New Gods granted to their followers, and their absence would be undeniable proof that the STS was once again back in town.
Yuri saw no other option than this.
“If that’s everything, I’ll set things up,” Peter said.
Yuri nodded mutely.
“What do we do?” James asked.
“Prepare for the fallout,” Yuri said.
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