As well, Min has another, more recent, reason to feel stunned. Her fellow UMCP director Godsen Frik has been killed from the explosion of another kaze that came to his office, twenty minutes earlier.
She was Min Donner, director, UMCP Enforcement Division. Her domain included UMCPHQ Security. She couldn't blame herself if a kaze got into the Members' wing of the GCES complex; but there was no one else to hold accountable for Godsen's murder.
And how many more of them were on station? Who or what would they destroy next?
Her people had already reconstructed the attack as well as they could. Godsen's secretary had been injured by flying debris, but she remained alive--still conscious. She'd been able to tell Min's Chief of Security that a communications tech had come to her and asked to see the PR director. The request was an odd one, so she'd checked both his id tag and his communications credentials. Both had looked good. More to the point, both had passed routine verification by the Security computer. So she'd chimed Godsen. The PR director had told her to admit the tech.
Five seconds after the door closed, the kaze had set himself off.
She did her job, the Chief of Security reported. Can't blame her.
I don't, Min snapped. I don't even blame you. I just want to know how it happened.
I want to know if it's going to happen again.
Her Chief of Security explained the kaze got onboard UMCPHQ because he had been subject of routine verification, involving checking the information (on identification, recent pass codes, recent orders) on his CMOS chip, and not subject to a full background check, which would have shown that no one was recorded as having put the information on the kaze's chip, and that the kaze had no record of existence.
Min demands to know why they aren't doing full background checks on EVERYBODY that sets foot aboard that space station, and the embarrassed Chief admits it's because he didn't think of it. Full background checks are done for everyone who comes aboard the station unless they come from GCES headquarters at Suka Bator on Earth, where it is assumed the travelers from there have already been fully checked out. Min eases up on criticizing her Chief to note that someone in GCES Security probably failed them and may have traitors among their ranks.
Min is now wondering just HOW MANY kazes have already gotten aboard the station. The Chief, while no doubt worried about that also, has an added concern.
Min's angry because she's in pain from the kaze blast that was aimed at Captain Vertigus, she's fuming because she should have seen the need for full background checks to be implemented after that first kaze incident, and she's mad at herself because deep down she is glad that Godsen is dead. She feels that Goden did unfathomable harm to the UMCP by being more loyal to the Dragon than to Warden Dios.Director, the Chief said hesitantly, I don't understand. If whoever did this has the resources to make kazes and equip them with legitimate id and send them here, why waste all that on Protocol? Why bother? What's so important about Godsen Frik? Why not you, or Director Dios? Why not Center, or Communications, or Data Storage--why not something vital, something that would really damage us?
Min had no idea. Unlike Captain Vertigus, Godsen would have done everything in his power to oppose a Bill of Severance.
What was Godsen doing? she asked.
He had a call from Holt Fasner about ten minutes before the kaze hit. That's all I know.
The Dragon, she thought bleakly. Gosden's mentor and nemesis. How had the PR director failed to understand that dragons always devoured their servants?
Everyone in UMCPHQ would be devoured if they didn't start defending their own better than this.
Chief, I want you to--
Trying to recover some of his self-esteem, the Chief of Security interrupted her.
I know. Full background on everyone who's arrived by shuttle, starting with the past twenty-four hours and working backward for at least a month. My people are already running it. And from now on no shuttle gets within twenty thousand k until we have full background on everyone aboard. Nobody gets into any sensitive part of the station without being absolutely checked.
It wasn't enough, but it would have to do. Min was too angry to say anything else, so she sent him back to work.
Min's self-anger is strong enough that she would gladly vent it by pursuing the kaze investigation with everything she has.
But, she can't, because she has orders.
Orders from Warden on her desk that mandate that she leave UMCPHQ for an indefinite period of time as soon as possible, effectively barring her from participating in the kaze investigation. And she has no idea why Warden is doing this.
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