With characteristic military precision, Jim Sunto arrived right on time. The armed guards that protected Wyles’s house let Sunto pass; they were, after all, employees of Sunto’s company. Wyles had made a sizable investment in Ganlu Solutions International during its early days and become its first major client. GSI provided security for all of Anorco’s offshore mining operations as well as a personal security detail for Wyles himself.
Wyles stood to meet his guest. “Jim, it’s good to see you. Thanks for coming out to my place. I thought it would be best to have this conversation in a private setting where we won’t be overheard.” He motioned the ex-Angel into a chair. “What’ll you have to drink?”
“A spot of whiskey, if you’ve got any northern brands,” Sunto said.
“Of course I do,” Wyles said, pulling out a bottle from one of his favorite distilleries in Cape Glosset on the shore of Whitting Bay. “After all this time here, you haven’t converted to hoji?”
Sunto took the glass that Wyles offered and sipped appreciatively. “I suppose that makes me a failed repatriate. What’s on your mind, Art?” Sunto was that kind of person, always straight to the point. “There hasn’t been much trouble lately. Sabotage attempts have fallen off dramatically.” Since the Janloon bombing, the Green Bone clans had been too busy suppressing anti-clan elements to keep up their attacks on Anorco assets and facilities.
Wyles waved the issue away as he poured a glass for himself. “Those sword-wielding clan thugs are a local problem.” He settled himself into the leather armchair across from his visitor. “The spread of Ygutanian influence and the blasphemy of Deliverantism, on the other hand—that’s a global threat.”
“Seer forbid the lies of the unTruthful,” Sunto said firmly.
“May we all see and bear the Truth,” Wyles added. Both men lifted the Dawn of Icana pendants hanging around their necks and touched them to their lips. Devout Truthbearers understood that the Slow War with Ygutan was not only an economic or military conflict, but a spiritual one. The Deliverantists, led by the Ygutanian religious order of the Protecks, sent missionaries all over the world to preach their religion of austerity, claiming that the known Truth was incomplete and would be revealed by Ygut visionaries, among other heretical beliefs.
The missionaries did not travel alone. According to information obtained by ROE military intelligence, nekolva agents advanced their nation’s unTruthful agenda far beyond its borders. The specially trained, bioenergetic jade-enhanced agents spied for their masters in Dramsk, carried out assassinations, and supported and supplied pro-Ygutanian uprisings.
Wyles said to Sunto, “I’ve been having some very interesting discussions with officials in the War Department. What do you know about Operation Firebreak?”
Sunto’s eyebrows rose. He sat back and crossed his arms. “Only rumors that I heard on my way out of the Angels,” he said slowly. “Supposedly, it was a secret program approved by Premier Galtz during the Oortokon War to combat Ygutanian expansion wherever it occurred in the world.”
Wyles chuckled. “At this point, it seems to be the most well-known secret in the military. Operation Firebreak initiated covert operations in places as far apart as north Tun, Krenia, and Sutaq, partnering with local allies to repel Deliverantism and Ygutanian influence.”
Sunto nodded, arms still crossed. “What does this have to do with us?”
Wyles smiled. He liked Jim Sunto. He knew some people in the top brass of the ROE Navy and in the halls of the National Assembly who would never fully trust or accept Sunto because of his Kekonese ancestry, but they were racists. Wyles believed that devotion to the Truth superseded everything, including the color of a person’s skin and the blood in his veins.
Wyles said, “Premier Roburg is cutting funding and resources for Operation Firebreak.”
An immensely disappointing decision for the ROE military and the Church of One Truth, but an unsurprising one. Bad press over the rates of mental illness and drug addiction among Oortokon War veterans had caused the government to scale back its emphasis on equipping soldiers with jade and training them in IBJCS. Given the economic downturn, voters were opposed to the idea of committing to more overseas wars, and the National Assembly was pressuring Roburg’s administration to bring troops home. “As you can imagine,” Wyles added, swirling the glass of whiskey under his nose and looking none too concerned, “this puts the War Department in a conundrum.”