فصل 15

15

The Edison

It had been more than thirty hours since Hatch had slept, and after he hung up with Secretary Lorenzana, he went to his quarters, leaving strict instruction to be disturbed only in the case of a dire emergency. That call came almost twelve hours later from EGG Amon.

“Admiral-General, we have a crisis developing.” “What kind of crisis?”

“The natives are restless,” Amon said. “They are preparing to attack.” “Our island?”

“Not yet. It’s best I show you. I’m in the war room.” “I’ll be right there,” Hatch said. He climbed out of bed, poured a glass of Scotch, and then walked down the corridor to where EGG Amon was waiting outside the door. “What is going on?” “We have footage, sir,” Amon said. He walked with Hatch to the side of the room covered with monitors. A third of the monitors were static.

“Why don’t we have images on Ares or Demeter?” “The cameras have been destroyed, sir. But we picked up this footage before they were taken out.” Amon turned to the technician. “Roll Ares videos six and seven.” “Yes, sir.”

One of the screens showed the Vaitupu dock with the ES Regulator approaching. Suddenly men appeared over the side of the ship, pointing guns at the Elgen. “Who is that?” Hatch asked.

“Tuvaluans. Keep watching.” The dockworkers tied up the ship. Then one of the dockside doors opened and a host of Elgen guard ran out.

“Our men?”

“No. They’re Tuvaluans wearing our uniforms.” Just then Enele walked out of the boat.

“Who is that?” Hatch asked.

“That’s Enele Saluni. He’s the grandson of Prime Monkey Saluni.” Just then one of the soldiers pointed a gun at the camera and blew it out. The video went static. The other video was from inside the dock building. Men began walking inside. They pulled a map from the wall. Saluni pointed toward the camera, and one of the men walked over and shot it out as well.

“That’s enough,” Amon said. He turned to Hatch. “Saluni appears to be leading them. We’ve lost all contact with Vaitupu. I mean Ares.” “Where did Saluni come from?”

“He was imprisoned on Hades.”

“So he survived.”

“He survived and appears to be leading a revolt.” “Where are our soldiers on Vaitupu?”

“There’s no open communication. It would appear that the Tuvaluans have overthrown the island.” “Where did they get the boats?”

“We’ve identified the boats as the Regulator, the Pulse, the Proton, and the Neutron. They’re agricultural ships from Demeter.” “Have you contacted Demeter?”

“Demeter are these screens right here,” Amon said, pointing at more static screens. “Same story. Cameras out, no one’s home.” “How many soldiers does Saluni have?”

“We have no way of knowing how many he took from Hades, but there were a little more than five hundred workers on Demeter. There were limited arms on Demeter, so I’m guessing that he took the people, then commandeered the boats and sailed to Ares for more weapons. If he’s gotten into the Ares armory, they’ll be completely armed.” “Where is he now?”

“We don’t know. We expect that he is preparing to sail here.” Hatch turned white. “Where are our soldiers?” “They’re coming sir. We expect two hundred by midnight.” “Initiate a curfew. Any Funafuti resident seen outside their homes after dark will be shot on sight. Set up patrols on all landing sites. If they try to dock, we’ll blow it up.” “We don’t need to, Admiral-General,” Amon said. “We still have the Edison. She’s undermanned but still fully operational.” Hatch’s demeanor changed from anger to delight. He laughed. “Of course, the Edison. EGG, this is excellent, excellent news. Here I’ve been worried about the natives rising up against us, and Saluni has done us the greatest possible service: he’s gathered all our enemies together and put them all on indefensible, lumbering, unarmed cattle boats. He might as well have sailed his rebels here in coffins. They’ll be easy targets for our battle cruiser. We’ll blow them out of the water long before they reach our island. We just have to make sure they never reach our island. How are our surveillance drones?” “Operational.”

“Perfect. Send them out. Order the Edison to prepare to sail. Find the Tuvaluan rebels, then alert me.” Hatch turned to go.

“Yes, Admiral-General. Where are you going, sir?” “I’m going back to bed, EGG. Finally I can sleep easy. Vey’s dead. We’ll bury Saluni and his revolution in the sea, and soon I’ll have the Joule, Welch, and the Glows back in hand. Everything is going our way. I’ll see you in the morning.” “Good night, sir. Sleep well.”

Hatch smiled. “You can be certain I will, EGG. You can be certain I will.”