Planning our Assault Commander James Jeffries stood up and waved me over to the monitors where he laid out the entire situation for me. "It looks like I'm going to have to trust you. Here's where we think the other forces are stationed. This is the freighter. We've tried scanning it with imaging radar but the interior is well shielded. We've pulled up the original blueprints but we suspect the ship has been gutted and repurposed. Over here we've compiled a set of transmissions we've received from the boat. Most are encrypted. Apparently she has a network of people operating out there. We've been tracing them, but no progress yet." I scanned through all the intelligence he provided me. It wasn't anything I hadn't already been aware of. Carrie making threats and warnings to not approach the ship, and a bit of bragging about her mighty power. "Getting onto the boat isn't going to be a problem," I began. "Sabotaging the Singularity Matrix, a little harder, especially without destroying the planet.. Escaping with our lives, well, we'll do our best. We're going to have to give them an offer, though. We need something they can't refuse. Something big. I'm sure a lot of countries are negotiating with her." "We don't respond to terrorism, but in this case, England is prepared to sacrifice whatever we can to end this threat," he responded. "We've seen what she can do and we're understand the threat." "Oh really?" I sat down and bit my lip a little bit. "We're talking billions of dollars here. How is the Bank of England doing nowadays? I don't really think that's enough. Think about what England could do with this power. You need to be prepared to offer something of real value. Say...I think if you offered Carrie Park the Queenship that might make a difference." The man jumped to his feet, practically spitting out the words. "What? Preposterous! Make her the Queen of England? Over my bloody dead body. Unacceptable." I raised my hand for emphasis. "Imagine how powerful England would be controlling the Matrix. Your economy would thrive with all the free energy. No enemy would dare attack you. Think about how you could use this out on the battlefield. One zap and your enemy is defeated. The British Empire rises once again. You could control your own destiny. You get me on that ship, and I can make it all happen." "And what about China? What's your angle here? I'm sure you're not saying this out of any love for England." "Let me worry about China," I answered. "Our main concern right now is to get this madwomen as far away from our mainland as possible. We're not in a position to negotiate right now. We have too much internal turmoil once this plot was revealed. We'll deal with her in our own time. I feel since you have the people most familiar with the project, you have the best opportunity here." The Commander rubbed his chin for a moment. "I need to contact Command for authorization. I don't think they're willing to abdicate the crown, no matter what the benefit. Meanwhile, I suggest you begin organizing your assault. We can provide you any resources you need." "I only require Officers Nguyen and Portman. Oh, and Alex of course. The only material I require is a boat and some rope, and I'll provide you a list of other supplies. Do you have a way to contact Park? We need to set this up properly." I left to debrief Alex and type all this up. We've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. It seems to me that Park will be making a move at any moment. Posted: Saturday, November 15, 2008 @ 2:11 PM