Free Convergence by Alex Albrinck

The Aliomenti were likely to make the reasonable assumption that the Alliance would bring to Headquarters Island weapons for a physical fight. They’d thus have no reason to worry about an electronic form of warfare.
    He checked his messages on the tablet and noted with concern the lack of communication from Ashley. He wondered if she’d hit a snag causing a delay… or worse. Will frowned. It wasn’t specifically necessary to wait for her to finish her task to unleash the first visible phase of the invasion, but moving on before her confirmation would waste a glorious opportunity to crush the financial empire of the Aliomenti.
    He opted to wait a few more minutes to give her a chance. Ashley wouldn’t fail.
    Another message popped up as he watched. Will read it and cursed quietly, a sound easily detected by the sensitive microphone he wore.
    “Something wrong?” Hope, somewhere on the other side of the Plaza, had detected the deep concern in his tone.
    He nodded, a gesture no one could see. “Very much so. Message from the Cavern. They’ve detected a fleet of armed submarines sitting outside the Cavern, poised and ready to attack.”

IX
    Ashley felt like all the air had left her lungs. She had the presence of mind to order her nanoskeleton to lift off the floor and avoid any collisions with the woman behind her, twisting around so she faced down. Ashley held her breath and watched as the woman walked.
    She thought the woman paused for a fraction of a second as she moved, just before reaching the spot Ashley had occupied seconds earlier, and she realized that her rapid ascent would stir up a light breeze. But in an environment like this, with cooling fans running at all times, it was easy to explain that sensation away.
    The woman walked below Ashley and toward the operations desk. “Bernard? Is that you?”
    Ashley exhaled slowly, keeping her breathing inaudible. The woman hadn’t seen or heard Ashley. She’d merely heard her colleague, Bernard, enter the data center room.
    “Yes, it’s me, Juliette.” She heard the joy in his voice, and couldn’t stop the bemused smile on her face. A potential romance in the server room?
    “That’s good. I thought I heard… something else.” Juliette reached Bernard at the operations desk, and her voice descended to a whisper.
    Ashley shuddered. Perhaps she hadn’t gone unnoticed after all. She felt a silent vibration in the pack at her waist and ignored it. That would be Will, checking in with her. Ashley dared not respond, not until she better understood what Juliette noticed. The woman claimed she’d “heard something,” and Ashley wondered if the pause and inflection in her tone meant she’d “heard” Ashley’s Energy, despite all the efforts at Shielding. At this point, until the two workers dismissed their concerns, Ashley felt uncomfortable removing anything from the pouch and continuing forward with her task. Important as it was, she couldn’t be caught now, before she’d done her job.
    She waited.
    Juliette finally left five minutes later. Bernard walked her to the elevator doors. Ashley could hear the giggling as the pair conversed and feel the interest between the two IT workers. She rolled her eyes. They needed to reschedule their flirting for some other time. The invasion was now off schedule.
    The elevator doors finally closed behind Juliette. Bernard watched, his face etched with longing for the woman just departed. He sighed, turned, and moved back to the operations desk. Within seconds, he was immersed in his work, and Ashley’s sensitive hearing detected the sounds of keystrokes.
    Finally. Time to move.
    She checked her hand to ensure she still held the Interceptor and hadn’t crushed it in the excitement just passed. It was there, and a quick check revealed that the device remained operational. She floated back down to the ground behind the equipment rack and attached the device to the network port on the rear of the server. Though it was