Secret part 7

Carbine dragged Throttle off to one side and though neither of the two were quite shouting at each other they were audible despite the wall.

"I am not happy about you keeping that secret from me. It would have helped when I made my plans."

"It was not my secret to tell and quite frankly you'd have let someone else know. Cells only work by being secret and small."

"You didn't trust me?"

Throttle was careful not to sigh. "You’re the Mars Army's chief commander and you go on dangerous solo missions. You'd have to tell someone about Charley if you'd known about her. She's a useful resource. And despite the good job you've done in rooting them out, you know there are still too many highly placed spies in the Mars Army. You know that as well as I do."

"I bet you told your squad."

"No, I didn't even tell them." At this Vinnie and Modo pop their heads round the door, and agree with throttle. "He didn't even tell us, his bros, how lax is that?"

"This is a private discussion, you two." Throttle rounded on them. "And Charley, I know you're listening as well. You're just not going to get caught as easily as my bros. Come in and stay silent or go out because I think Carbine will want to ask you questions."

"You're right, but don't think this gets you of trouble."

Charley slides into the room, Throttle and Carbine have obviously got most of it thrashed out. She gets a quick tail hug from Vinnie, and she smiles before turning a withering glare upon him. This time though Vinnie reacts differently to usual and gives her another squeeze before departing. He's happier than he's ever been.

Carbine turns to Charley. “Next question. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell anyone. Not even Throttle. He worked it out from the clues we left. Limburger had also worked it out, but fortunately he'd annoyed his boss on Mars."

"Dominic Stilton. Yes, the eternally divided Plutarkians. You've played them against each other very well. But Limburger is the cleverest in many ways, and as slippery as an eel."

"Do you smell something?" Vinnie asked. "Something sickly sweet."

The mice all look at each other as they also detect the odour. Charley is for the moment clueless. Only Plutarkians stink that much and only one kind has that sort of smell: - a smell which creeps up on you and assaults you savagely from behind. They nod to each other. This was definitely the work of Plutarkian Special forces.

"What's that horrible smell?" Charley asks, finally detecting the smell, which she hadn't done until now.

"Definitely Plutarkian Special forces. The smell is normally strong enough for humans to detect. But this means we have a real problem. Plutark has finally realised how dangerous Earth is."

Carbine thinks to herself. "And now, so am I. They’re willing to be our allies, for now anyway, but they combine warrior skills better than ours with Plutark's insatiable greed. Once Plutark has gone and if they complete their fleet..."

The mice looked around carefully. The Charges were standard demolition charges, easily acquired on the Earth black Market. Only the Planet Plunderers would have done this much research, and submerged their ego's enough to keep plausible deniability. They were also slipperier than eels. Once the bombs had been defused the group set up to talk.

"No proof that it's Limburger. We've made too many enemies here; several criminal gangs don't like us either. And there are the unaccounted Plutarkians, such as Gutama Gouda and Romana Parmesana."

"Romana was caught when she tried to return to Jack MacCyber."

"Why on earth would she do such a thing? Her actions were a complete betrayal of his trust."

"You're all forgetting two things. We knew where the Plutarkians were, and" then Charley smiled. "If Asphalt Jack was a Plutarkian, how would he have taken the betrayal?"

The mice groan at their realisation. For Plutarkians betrayal was a way of life, and if Jack was a Plutarkian male, he'd have schemed to get his own back, but her actions would not have been the terrible betrayal of trust that they were to Jack, just a fact of life.

"Gouda? Who's he?" Carbine asks. She'd always though he was false information, but if her friends had met him, he probably did exist.

"He's one of the Plutarkian's on Earth. We can't find him in any city, construction or mining firm. He's not in any traditional Plutark. But he's supposed to be one of the biggest bosses on Earth."

"I always thought he was false info." Carbine stated. "He works the town of Ecnetsixenon; or reversed, Non-existence. So how come he's so successful?"

Charlie slaps her head. "I'm an idiot. Some of Plutarks stealing technology can be reengineered into environmental clean up tools. And if his tech is slightly more efficient than he reports... Green Global. I' just couldn't put it together. Cognitive dissonance. I knew Gutama Gouda was the CEO, but just couldn't believe he was the Plutarkian."

"Why not?"

"I used to have a human friend named William Wensleydale. And yes, he is human!"

"Lieutenant Wensleydale reporting," comes a clipped British accent. "Luckily we were on rotation at HQ. So you've got us, and faster than you expected. And already in your uniform. Lootenant Davidson? Thing's are worse than I expected."

"Relax William. These are my friends. They'll probably mob you lot once you're in uniform."

"Carbine, Regular army, and probably best placed there, though the guys are disappointed she isn't Special Forces. Throttle, Modo and Vinnie here are Martian Special Forces, and no surnames for any of them. Just don't have them."

"Looks like you’re in charge, General Carbine." Lieutenant Wensleydale stated.

"Why me?"

"Three rank equivalents. Leftenant Wensleydale, would normally have seniority, but I've got a better grasp of the situation. More importantly we're going to need to restrain the bros, for I have A Plan." Charley pointed out.

The assembled soldiers can hear the capital letters of the last two words.