Free Amalfi Echo by John Zanetti Page B

you.”
    “We’ll run
Tessa’s side as a training exercise in restraint. It’s not always
about killing everything in sight,” Digby said.
    For the next
two hours the three of them worked through the animations of how
each of the world’s leaders would be accessed and then hit the
bubbly tub.
    Before they
left Mars, Marion said, “I’m still looking for a way to sharpen
Tessa’s online presence. If either of you can think of
anything…”
    And then, in
the way these things happen sometimes, the ideal opportunity
presented itself.
    -oOo-
    The library
block at Delaware Montessori High was surrounded by an FBI response
team and supporting them, state troopers and the local police.
Inside the block, 22 high school students had been fitted with
explosive vests by the members of a previously unknown American
jihadist group. The students had been arranged in two rows on
library seats in front of the issuing desk. Behind them on the
wall, the jihadists had hung sheets painted with slogans and
symbols of Islamic Unity. They had painted the terrified faces of
the students with similar slogans. Several of the older boys’ faces
were bloodied from a futile attempt at resistance. Two lay
sprawled, dead, on the carpeted floor.
    Outside, the
FBI negotiators were sickeningly aware that their skills would be
wasted today. The terrorists had made their demands known through
webcams set up in the library. They wanted the release of a number
of Islamic extremists held in American prisons, however, frantic
intelligence analysis had revealed strong links between this
American group and the Islamic extremists in the Algerian desert
fortress. The best guess of the FBI analysts was that the demands
meant nothing. This was payback time. The students were going to
die anyway.
    Unfortunately,
this did not mean that the assembled forces outside the school
could storm the block and save whomever they could because this was
not something that could be explained to the parents or to the
wider community.
    The FBI team
began the negotiation process feeling an utter sense of
futility.
    -oOo-
    Tessa was angry
at Marion. “How can you even think like that?” Tessa waved her arm
at the screen. “Look at them! They’re not, ‘an opportunity.’” Words
failed her. She screamed in disgust and paced up and down, arms
folded.
    “Calm down,”
Digby said. “I won’t let you go in unless you can get yourself into
a better frame of mind.”
    “Oh. I should
have guessed. You’re on her side of course. You all make me
freaking sick.”
    “You want to be
an Amalfi warrior? Start acting like one,” Digby said coldly.
    That got
through. Tessa took a deep breath, shut up and began pre-op
meditation exercises to bring her feelings under control.
    They were very
short of time. The ship’s analysis agreed with the FBI’s and was
based on a lot more information. Today, the ship would not be
running simulations. The learning programs created the briefing
room. An animation of the proposed plan unfolded around Tessa who
was, by now, fully kitted. The actual attack was
straightforward—nothing she hadn’t done before. The ticklish bit
was the explosive vests and other explosives the extremists had
rigged at the windows and doors which could be triggered by
wireless deadfalls held by four, widely separated, terrorists. As
fast as she was, she would not be able to neutralise the triggering
devices as well as kill the terrorists before the explosives were
triggered. Fortunately, the terrorists’ use of wireless technology
for the triggers would now work against them because it made it
easy for the ship to assume control of the network and shut it
down.
    Also in support
would be Digby in Jazmine, however Digby neglected to mention to
Tessa that his role was to monitor the FBI and other police forces.
If they made a move on her, he would kill them without
hesitation.
    And the whole
operation, slightly delayed, would go out to the entire world
through the