The chief of counter-Kindred operations showed up an hour later. Rachner Thract was very new to his job, a young cobber and a Tiefer immigrant. It was strange to see someone with such a combination in that post. He seemed bright enough, but more bookish than deadly. Maybe that was okay; God knew they needed people who really understood the Kindred. How could traditional values go so wrong? In the Great War, the Kindred had been minor schismatics within the Tiefer empire, and secret supporters of the Accord. But Victory Smith thought they would be the next great threat—or maybe she just followed her general suspicion of trads.
Thract laid his rain cape on the coatrack and undid the pannier he carried. He set the documents down in front of his boss. "The Kindred are up to their shoulders in this one, General."
"Why am I not surprised?" said Smith. Unnerby knew how tired she must be, but she seemed fresh, almost the usual Victory Smith. Almost. She was as calm, as courteous as at any staff meeting. Her questions were as clever as always. But Unnerby saw a difference, a faint distraction. It didn't come across as anxiety; it was more like the General's mind was somewhere else, contemplating. "Nevertheless, Kindred involvement was only a low probability this morning. What has changed, Rachner?"
"Two interviews and two autopsies. The cobbers who were killed had been through plenty of physical training, and it doesn't look like athletics; there were old nicks in their chitin, even a patched bullet hole."
Victory shrugged. "It's been clear this was a professional job. We know there are domestic threats, trad fringe groups. They might hire competent operators."
"They might, but this was the Kindred, not the local trads."
"There's hard evidence?" asked Unnerby, relieved and a little ashamed by the feeling.
"Um." Thract seemed to consider the questioner as much as the question. The cobber couldn't quite decide where Unnerby—a civilian addressed as "Sergeant"—might fit in the chain of command.Get used to it,sonny. "The Kindred make a big thing of their religious roots; but before now, they've been careful about interfering with us domestically. Covert funding of local trad groups was about their limit. But...they blew it today. These were Kindred professionals. They went to great trouble to be untraceable, but they didn't count on our forensic labs. Actually, it's a test one of your husband's students invented. See, the ratio of pollen types in the breathing passages of both corpses is foreign; I can even tell you which Kindred base they launched from. These two hadn't been in-country for more than fifteen days."
Smith nodded. "If it had been longer, the pollen would be gone?"
"Right, captured by their immune system and flushed, the techs say. But even so, we still would have figured most of this out. You see, the other side had a lot more bad luck today than we did. They left behind two living witnesses... ." Thract hesitated, obviously remembering that this wasnot an ordinary ops meeting, that for Smith the usual definition of operational success might count as catastrophic failure.
The General didn't seem to notice. "Yes, the couple. The ones who brought their children to the museum."
"Yes, ma'am. And they are half the reason why this thing blew up in the enemy's face. Colonel Underville"—the domestic ops chief—"has had people talking to them all afternoon; they are desperately anxious to help. You've already heard what she got from them right away, how one of your sons brought down an exhibit and killed two of the kidnappers."
"And that all the children were taken alive."
"Right. But Underville has learned more. We're almost sure now.... The kidnappers intended to steal all your children. When they saw the Suabismes' little ones, they assumed those were yours. There just aren't that many oophases in the world, even now. They naturally assumed the Suabismes wereour security people."
God in the good cold earth.Unnerby gazed out the narrow windows. There was a little more light than before, but now it was the actinic ultras of security lamps. The wind was steadily picking up, driving sparkling droplets across the windows, and bending the ferns back and forth. There was supposed to be a lightning storm tonight.
So the Kindred screwed up because they had too high an opinion of Accord security. Naturally, they assumed thatsomeone would be with the children.
