Virtues of War by Bennett R. Coles Read Free Book Online Page A

blackening their cities with ribbons of crushed rock and poison was just one of the many mysteries to him. An ubiquitous feature few Earthlings ever noticed, to Kete the paved street was one of the most obvious symbols of this culture’s ignorant worship of tradition over reality, of pride over prudence.
    The common Centauri opinion was that there were Terrans actively trying to destroy the Earth, but he’d spent enough time on this world now to know that most Terrans didn’t give it much thought beyond what the State told them to think.
    He ascended the outside stairs to the second floor and palm-swiped his lock. His landlord had been surprised when Kete didn’t want the usual optical security system, but Kete quickly explained that he was an optically augmented journalist. That had satisfied any objections. Terrans, he knew, generally didn’t ask too many questions if you could make your first answer both plausible and slightly exotic.
    His apartment was furnished with all the style expected of a man of Kit Moro’s wealth, though there was nothing on display that could be called a personal item. As Kete sat down and unlocked the shielded case kept snug underneath the opaque desk table, he felt a moment of pity for Terrans and their requirement to store their memories on external devices.
    Still, as a home base this apartment was more than adequate, and it was an excellent place to hide in plain sight. He hoped the other agents were comfortable as well. Eventually, though, he would need to find a more suitable location for the endgame. He had enough respect for the Terran counter-intelligence services, and particularly their ultra-secret Astral Special Forces, to know that complacency on this mission would mean a quick death.
    He checked for messages, and only one waited for him, a cryptic verse from his colleague, Valeria Moretti. He smiled, immediately understanding the hidden meaning of her poem. The portable jump gate had been delivered to the drop point. He marveled at her ability to add her own form of low-grade code, in rhyming couplets no less, to the already impenetrable Centauri security systems.
    He wasn’t sure how he felt about the mission that portable jump gate would support, though. Jump gates were massive, deep-space constructs funded by major government projects—and now Centauria expected him to just create a new one? That mission was thankfully still weeks away. He needed to get some clarity on it.
    As he started the upload of this evening’s espionage to the Centauri datalink, he summoned images of Rupa and their daughters from the mountain vacation they had taken last year. The girls’ shining faces as they played in snow for the first time was a sight that would forever bring a smile to his face. Rupa had been more content to stand on the path, bundled in her long coat and heavy boots, but even she had joined in the inevitable snowball fight. What an arm she’d had! Kete could still almost feel the icy meltwater trickling down the back of his coat.
    A sudden mental silence alerted him to the fact that the upload was complete. He resealed the case and purged his own storage net. If he was ever discovered, it was wise not to give the Terrans any idea of what he’d been accumulating. For all their society’s backwardness regarding implants, Terran intelligence forces were remarkably adept at deconstructing even a well-defended Centauri mind.
    He leaned back in the only comfortable chair in the apartment, and sighed. It had been an exhausting day capping a string of exhausting days. When he’d been called to become Chuck Merriman’s cameraman, it had hardly been a surprise. It seemed the previous cameraman had “stopped returning calls,” and was nowhere to be found.
    Tonight’s gala had been the first big test of his synthetically augmented identity chip, and the fact that Kete was still free and alive spoke to the effectiveness of his efforts.
    Images of Rupa and the girls still played