Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three: Sharing the News (Patreon)

We played the video again for Agni.

Then we did another round of Mindspeech in front of her.

“It’s flimsy evidence,” the supervillainess muttered. “Collected by illegal surveillance, based on conjecture and totally unverifiable by anyone else.”

“But do you believe us?”

“Oh, absolutely. This explains an incredible amount of things about the Hierarchy.”

“Like…”

“Like the purpose of the attacks, of course. Don’t you get it? If the aliens have the ability to modify agents to look like humans - then they need a way to slip those agents in. Replace people of importance and influence, in positions of power. During the chaos of a raid.” She laughed mirthlessly. “All those times we thought we drove the aliens away… they just finished their mission and left.”

“We’ve beaten the aliens many times.”

“No, Andrew, you don’t understand. We’ve never really beaten them.” She gestured at the screen. “Victory happens when you stop the enemy from achieving his objective. If the objective of the raids was to insert their agents… we’ve never stopped them. We’ve always lost, and sometimes the collateral damage was lower. That’s all.”

“Maybe London was a victory, at least?”

“To what end? Andrew, did you even know those things existed? The aliens you took prisoner, the ones you interrogated - did they talk about a shapeshifting species?”

“They didn’t.”

“Do you think these are the famous Archons? Shapeshifters?”

“Doesn’t really fit with the invincible flying engines of destruction, so no. Sarvenimazarus didn’t talk about the Rakturai either. It could be he didn’t know…”

“I very much doubt that. People who’ve never been to Australia still know it exists. And shapeshifters… This is how the Hierarchy’s planning to take over our world, then. Why invade and risk millions of casualties when you can create a state of fear, force people to have faith in their political leaders, and then quietly replace them with your own agents?”

“We knew they knew our language,” observed Paul. “We knew they had more than just the species we’d seen. How did we not guess this?”

“London taught us the Hierarchy is stronger than we’ve seen, has species we don’t know of. Tonight showed us they may have other hidden daggers.”

“The assassination of Sarvenimazarus,” Anne said. “They sent a strike team to hit Gragareth station while we were fighting at London. They didn’t know what he’d said, and they wanted to silence him before… things went wrong.”

“If that’s the case, then what will they do with the third Scion?” A thought struck me. “Wait… he surrendered. Before he collapsed. Why?”

“To see what we knew,” Agni said, softly. “To test our information - and to mislead us into a path of the Hierarchy’s choosing.”

“We have to contact Pemberley. Now.”

“No. You have zero evidence. For all you know, she could be compromised.”

“Is it even possible to shapeshift that perfectly?” asked Paul.

“There’s a girl from India called Shadow. I met her at the convention. She can take on the form of anybody - a perfect copy. Can even alter her shape and size to match.”

“That doesn’t mean there’s an alien species that can do that…”

“Powers come from the Liraens, right? Each species gets copies of the original powers created by the Liraens, and then figures out what power suits it best. If a human can get the power to shapeshift….”

“.... then sometime in the past, the Liraens probably gave this power to another species, who found it suited them perfectly and joined the Hierarchy with it.”

“And we may have operatives from that species on our planet.”

“A hell of a big leap from two people staring at each other on video….”

“It’s the only way these things break, Paul,” Agni said. “To catch shapeshifters, you watch for the inconsistencies. The changes in behaviour. The unusual and strange.”

“How weird is it that I don’t know a single inventor who specializes in detection and unmasking technology?”

“Because we never had reasons to suspect the aliens of spying, before. And so politicians, inventors and the military focused on the bigger, better weapons. Instead of figuring out where the real war was being fought. You may have senators and congressmen who’ve been replaced, too.”

“Pushing the aliens’ secret agenda,” added Anne.

I remembered a not-insignificant detail. “The Q-phase blast effect.”

“The thing that put me in a coma?”

“You were just outside Aldiss’ office when the raid started. The aliens probably use it as a non-lethal weapon to knock out bystanders.”

“Or, more likely, they need to take the target alive to ensure he or she can be copied,” pointed out Agni. “Knock out the target, have the shapeshifter sample them, then switch them. Take the original back.”

“So that means… the real Aldiss could be alive somewhere, a prisoner of the aliens.”

“Quite. And if the fake runs into a situation where he doesn’t know what to do, the Hierarchy controllers quiz the real one and get answers. Wouldn’t fool a close relative, but for the ‘just friends’ category, there’s no reason it couldn’t work.”

“What if the target’s married?”

“What makes you think they can’t insert two shapeshifters as a team? Or four, or six?”

Anne winced. “There could be entire neighbourhoods just full of aliens masquerading as humans…”

“Let’s rein in the conspiracy theories for a bit,” said Paul. “Obviously, not everybody’s an alien, or they wouldn’t need to run raids any more. Some significant political figures may be, we don’t know who. Okay. Who do we know who definitely isn’t an alien?”

“General Windsor?” I hazarded.

“He’d be a target for replacement for sure,” Agni pointed out.

“I’ve Observed him a dozen times. He doesn’t show as Faction: Hidden, he shows as Faction: British Army.”

“And you’re sure that’s a foolproof method? How do you know Observe can’t be fooled?”

“Good point…”

“Pemberley,” Anne said. “She’s human.”

“And your evidence for that is?”

Anne bit her lip. “She cried for Avi Goldman. An alien spy wouldn’t cry. Wouldn’t love.”

“Molly Pemberley was… she was involved with Avi Goldman?”

“Her son is his.”

Agni shook her head ruefully. “Avi, you old dog…. Fine, I agree she’s probably not compromised. She hasn’t been near a raid since London, after all.”

“Neither has Windsor. If they were human then, they’re human now.”

“Then let’s tell them,” suggested Paul. “And maybe we can get Double-oh-seven on the case or something.”

“Double-oh-seven? Seriously, dad?”

“They did trace out Maria’s whole family tree in days. Frankly, I’d like to shake the hand of the agent who made that happen. Failing that, I’m going to keep calling him 007.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward Windsor’s new office was dominated by a massive portrait of his grandfather.

The general leaned back in his chair with a smile. “Belessar. Always a pleasure to meet you.”

“Sorry for the urgent request.”

“When the man who predicted London says something is urgent, I’d better take it seriously. What can I do for you?”

I took a deep breath. “Are you certain this office isn’t bugged?”

“Considering my job, it had better not be. MI5 agents sweep it every morning with normal and inventech sensors, and the janitor has a higher security clearance than most ministers.”

“I learnt something recently that could be very … sensitive.”

“Out with it, man.”

“The Hierarchy has shapeshifters.”

For a moment, the general was silent, as if processing the news. Then he swore. “Bloody hell.”

“They can pass for human, speak fluently, and replace existing people. I’ve identified two in Tanisport.”

“Two just in Tanisport, eh? I shudder to think at the number in London, then. Do you have any way to identify them?”

“Not reliably. I have some video, though.”

The general sat patiently as I explained the story - how an informant had tipped me off to Aldiss’ changed behaviour, the surveillance videos, Mindspeech, the inventech device, and the suspected substitution via a Q-phase blast effect. At the end, he summed up the whole thing in one word: “Flimsy.”

“It’s all we have.”

“Oh, I believe you. Given your track record, I’d be a fool not to. The trouble is, you can’t convince anyone with just this.”

“That’s why we need help. An investigation.”

“Is that why you asked Pemberley to influence MI6 to investigate Aldiss?”

“Truthfully, I just suspected Grunter involvement then, not aliens.”

“Well, you got your investigation. I’m going to have the best agents we can find on this, and maybe we’ll turn up something I can actually show the public.”

“Thank you. We were hoping 007 could come up with something...”

“.... Double-oh-seven?” Windsor smiled.

“Your agents who cracked the Esperanza puzzle. Agni and I both owe them a debt of gratitude, and they probably saved London as a side-effect. We’ve taken to calling them 007.”

“She’ll be flattered to know that, I’m sure. I’ll pass on your thanks."