Soul Bound

1          Soul Bound

1.2        Taking Control

1.2.5      An Idiosyncratic Interlude

1.2.5.11   Opaque lies

Bahrudin grinned wolfishly: "When a buzzing mirror is detected being close or nosy enough to trigger an alert, most of our planned response fully automated. Brigid has stationed a group of drones near this meadow and in several other spots spaced around the edge of the Enchanted Forest. They look the same as the sports drones we're practicing with today, but they have some additional stealth communication equipment which allows Brigid's expert systems to control them remotely without revealing that fact. They only have the standard sport drone scanners but Brigid say she can use a pair of them in active scanning mode to make a three dimensional model of the intruder and the sensors on or inside it, that's detailed enough to estimate their capability - provided they get in range. Normally getting that close would appear suspicious so we plan to disguise this by mimicking an amateur team holding a practice, complete with broadcast simulated team chatter, and picking a game and formation that would naturally result in two of the competing drones moving and actively using their scanners in the way we need."

Sneaky and involving complex calculations - it was just the sort of thing Alderney and Wellington might come up with, if they'd worked on a plan together. She smiled.

Nadine: “What does that leave, if anything, for the human DDF members to do?”

Bahrudin: “Establish the myth. If someone questioned a random village resident about the unusual amount of drone activity, we want them to reply with confidence: ‘Oh, that’s just the lads practising their drone flying. They’re mad keen on it, hold team practices at all sorts of times to get used to different light conditions. They’re just bunking off, if you ask me; it’s an excuse to go drinking.’”

Nadine: “So, basically, talk about it, and be seen wearing their headgear from time to time, thus Brigid making it memorable?”

Bahrudin: “Exactly. There’s no such thing as a fool-proof plan, but always keep plans as simple as you can make them while still being effective. You want people to be able to remember and follow them, even when their brains are under lots of stress.”

She could hear the cadence in his voice, and imagine him delivering the same lines to each batch of green lieutenants.

Nadine: “What about poison apples? How are we doing on coming up with a plan to stop them learning anything that will increase how suspicious we seem to Wicked?”

Bahrudin: “Not well. There are two main problems.”

Bahrudin: “Firstly, if a poison apple has a voice recorder in their pocket, they’re going to know they’re being lied to when they ask about singers or Soul Bound players and we try telling them that you don’t sing well or that nobody in the village plays Soul Bound.”

Bahrudin: “Secondly, if we have to try to sneak into place a person primed with the answers we want given, every time an unidentified visitor appears, that’s going to be a large burden.”

Nadine thought back to the encounter with Scaramouche, and the way he had hidden a big lie behind a smaller one. She grinned.

Nadine: “Devices might be able to tell someone is lying, but they can’t tell what the lie is. How about we have the person talking with the poison apple brag that I’m the best singer in Bosnia and that the spy should spend lots of money here, and then have it turn out that I’m mediocre and using autotune? Have them brag that the village contains a fantastic Soul Bound player, someone really high level with great equipment for sale, and then lead them to someone with a level 23 character in the Slavic Dominion who is trying to flog Journeyman-level swords with pretty embedded gems.”

Bahrudin: “Hmm, that could work.”

Daris opened an eye, from where he’d been pretending to be asleep.

Daris: “I could tell my kids I’d heard word that a tax-collection agent might be going to make a covert visit to the village, and not to answer questions about anything that might involve off-the-books earnings. They’d have the rumour spread within the day and then everybody would be lying to the spy about different things.”

Bahrudin grinned, and spoke in a sententious tone: “Tax collectors have never been popular.”

Nadine: “You are both terrible; I love it. If we can identify a poison apple and let people know he’s the suspected tax agent, everybody will tell him ‘no one in this village is evading taxes’ - it will explain why everyone is lying, and give a plausible reason for it. I’ll practice singing badly this evening.”

Daris turned to look at the screen, which hastily flashed back to showing the game again.

Harun had chosen the offensive dog, Tarik was in a logistic wasp and Muhamed had predictably picked a stealthy focus. On the other team, Jasic was also in a dog, while David was in a surveillance roach and Vedad had gone for logistics. She thought Vedad would have picked a dog too, but this time he seemed to be concentrating on supporting and directing his teammates rather than going for personal glory and being out in front.

Nadine: “Daris, who do you think is the best flyer?”

Daris was about to answer when a dark silhouette, with a wingspan wider than she was tall, shot sideways across the pasture at nearly 300 km/h, snatching up Harun’s drone in its talons and flapping away to land on a tall tree. Its approach had been utterly silent, but now it raised its head and opened its weapon-like beak to let out a prolonged descending screech of triumph; its dark brown feathers shone beautifully in the late afternoon light.

Daris replied, without a blink: “No question. The golden eagle.”

Bahrudin: “If we want to win, we must all dare to be eagles.”