Fear the Future (The Fear Saga Book 3) by Stephen Moss Read Free Book Online Page A

everyone knew it had happened, but it was an unpleasant reality they would all rather leave undiscussed.
    But she was not here to bandy words with them or to ignore the fundamental issues at hand; that dance was for the politicians. She was here to see to it that no more of those close to her came to harm, a task she intended to execute with extreme prejudice, if necessary.
    Most around the table represented the reluctant nations that had already pledged to support TASC’s new independence, if only tentatively, for now. Few doubted that most of the world would eventually follow suit, but only if they didn’t find a way to bring the rogue TASC leader to heel in the meantime, or remove him from his post altogether.
    And there lay the crux of this issue, for Ayala knew of at least three aborted attempts to infiltrate her ranks by foreign agents, and had seen signs of several other plots. Neal had made many enemies in the last few weeks, and though few openly opposed him, their agents were hard at work, and there was no way she was going to leave him exposed for even a second, not again, not ever.
    “My fellow security heads, my needs are simple; if, admittedly, unorthodox. But they are also nonnegotiable. If our requirements cannot be met, we will simply have to hold the meeting elsewhere. At a location we control, or the meeting will not occur at all.”
    Many went to speak at once but she held up her hands and said next, “Please, let me finish. While I understand your valid and quite understandable reluctance to grant an armed military craft access to such delicate airspace,” she nodded respectfully to the police chief who had first expressed his qualms at such an anathema, “I think we can all agree that events over the last few weeks have proven that, were TASC to desire any of the good citizens of New York City harm, something we most certainly do not, then we would not use a StratoJet to inflict it.”
    It was not a threat, but it carried the weight of one. Mention of the Skalm would have been as uncouth as pointing out that she represented a state whose very legality was only being accepted out of necessity, as she just had a moment before, but she refrained from stating the obvious this time.
    Her point was made. Everyone in this room was privy to the truth behind the explosion in Beijing, and some were even aware of the real cause of the death of the former Russian Premier. It was the reason their nations were all both conspiring against TASC and complying with it at the same time.
    “Let us view this as we would, say, the Queen of England visiting a former territory for the first time. Her security would be considered the sole purview of her Royal Guard, who would, without doubt, remain armed at all times. I propose that we follow the same edict here.”
    She looked at each of them in turn, pausing notably to lock eyes with the Israeli, the CIA Chief Peter Cusick, and finally the New York police chief.
    “That said, I can offer some measure of compensation in return for your understanding here, in the form of a shipment of battleskins, of the kind you are all no doubt aware my Spezialists are equipped with, for use in your own security details during the conference, and then afterward however you see fit.”
    The room went quiet, each considering this surprising offer for a moment.
    Many of them had had some measure of access to the battleskins in the past, most notably Peter, who still relied on the twenty or so older versions of the suits he had at his disposal to conduct a plethora of vital missions his organization had going on around the country at any moment. The Secret Service had a good deal more, as did a special branch within the FBI, but there were at most a hundred of the suits left in the US, and that was more than most countries could claim.
    “I can guarantee twenty of the suits to any of your nation’s security forces before the upcoming meeting,” said Ayala magnanimously, “and a further