The irony was that the only way he would know if the Americans had launched would be because the AI satellites would tell him. So he sat and he listened. He listened to reports and information that the AI and his fellow Agents were supplying while they were within range of the now broken chain of satellites around the planet. He listened to Lana’s accusations of treason as she documented them formally. She was now accusing Shahim as well, which was interesting, but she was also accusing Mikhail of being an accomplice. Oh dear, that was nearly half the group, and Mikhail was from an Empire that was, historically, one of Princess Lamati’s greatest allies. But then, John thought, so was Lord Mantil, the personality that possessed the body of Agent Shahim Al Khazar.

John sympathized with Lana with a smile. I guess you just can’t find good help these days, how will the universe’s genocidal maniacs survive, he thought.

While waiting for confirmation of a launch from the US, John also listened to the latest reports from Agent Preeti Parikh as she made her way through Pakistan toward the last place Agent Shahim had been spotted. John frowned a little at the thought. That should be interesting. He had little against Agent Preeti, but she was one of them and he did not spare her too much pity as he thought about what she was walking into. That said, he had faced a surprised Agent once before, and while that element of surprise had been enough to clench victory for him, it had still been a far closer fight than he would have liked.

* * *

Fires still burned in the remnants of Peshawar Army Base as Preeti Parikh drove up. She had ‘borrowed’ a Pakistani officer’s uniform and now she walked through the base with a flashlight, searching for her missing colleague. She answered questions and shouts from the other soldiers patrolling the base in perfect Iranian, which was, interestingly, the most common language in western Pakistan. She was carefully making her way closer and closer to the bunkers and silos in the northern part of the base. They were the last place that Shahim had been seen, but they were also under incredibly heavy guard, and she was having to navigate through the maze of tank groups, machine-gun emplacements, and artillery teams that now surrounded them. After several laps walking in ever decreasing circles around the silos, she had finally made her way to the inner cordon. This was the innermost perimeter around the silos, and there was no way she could just walk passed it. Searching her databases, she came up with a name.