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by Edward Lipsett, November 14th 2000
"So what's the emergency?" asked the seated man, gold teeth flashing in the lights from the terminal. He didn't even sound especially interested, but from experience Sean knew his searing vitality was waiting, leashed, ready to demand explanations.
"Yes, Mr. Lepus," said Sean Gresham, hurrying to supply the answer before the man in front of him had to ask directly. "If you'll refer to the terminal, sir, you'll be able to access the pertinent data.
"As you know, we were extremely fortunate to have a trained observer on the scene two years ago when the Delta Green team found that manuscript. The details can be accessed from the menu in the upper right corner of your terminal.
"Lee Burroughs was the only survivor of what seems to have been the usual sort of Delta Green operation - extremely messy, dangerous, and successful only by the slimmest of margins. We still don't know exactly what happened, but apparently he is hosting some sort of entity, probably energy-based rather than physical penetration."
Sean punched a few keys on his own terminal.
"What you have been watching is a realtime video feed from a Delta Green 'rest house,' where they are apparently putting him back together."
"How can we get live video from a DG site without them twigging?"
"It's a quite advanced membrane-type photosensor, with a monofilament optical fiber connector running out to a tightbeam microwave transmitter several hundred yards from the building. It was quite difficult getting it installed, but once it was placed it just looks like a shiny spot on the wall. And since it runs off ambient light, with no EMI, the chances of Delta Green detecting it are close to none. The technology is a spin-off from the sensors used in the Grey control panel, with..."
"Sean. I am not a technician," smiled Lepus. "I believe you. Get on with it."
"Sorry, sir. Anyway, after that incident two years ago, we decided that a known Delta Green medical care facility was too good to pass up, and we webbed it thoroughly. This morning our watcher program alerted me to a change in procedure... this female visitor."
"Can't we hear what they're saying?"
"Sorry, sir. So far it hasn't been possible to make an audio transducer that won't be noticed. Our lipreader is inputting the audio now, however. The full script is being updated online, or you can just select Insert Audio and click replay for a synched version."
"Lipreader? Not a machine?"
"Uh, well, the expert system for lipreading still has a lot of problems, sir. The 0.73 beta version we're running now, however, achieved a 68% match by phoneme count, and a 87% match by intelligence content with the lipreader, which makes it a bit hard to understand but quite good. For a machine."
"For a machine," echoed Lepus, smiling again. He stroked the knuckles of his left hand absent-mindedly.
"Sean, I think we'd better ratchet this up a notch. Put a strike team on alert, full kill-and-burn authorization. I want transport available for them on a 24-hour basis, and I want full intelligence assets to follow this Burroughs and the woman - or is it a man? - as things develop. I'm going to run this op myself."
Watching the screen, with the proofreader's script scrolling across the bottom window, Adolph pointed at the phone icon, and clicked a number.
"Zhen-Yue? Lepus. Are you and Ralphie free tomorrow?"
On the terminal, the video window showed a round, Asian face. A woman's face, almond eyes framed by pitch-black hair.
"Of course. When and where?"
"I'll call later. Pick up two week's worth of dog food for Ralphie... he's not going to bite me again, is he?"
"Hardly. If you'll recall, you were covered with blood at the time... even Dobermans lose it under that kind of pressure..."
"Point. Later, Chaste Moon."
He clicked off, and turned his attention back to the video.
"Sean... let's keep this between us for a while, shall we? I don't think Gavin needs to see this right yet..."
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