After my short information exchange with Nuan, I was preparing to leave the embassy to travel to Turkey; when suddenly, Ling came up running around, looking for me.
"Commander! Commander Kagan!" he yelled. "Did anyone see Commander?"
"I'm here!" I shouted. He saw me and came by.
"Commander, someone wishes to speak with you." he said. I hastily walked to the comms station in the embassy.
"This is Commander Kagan, chief of security in the People's Republ-"
"Yeah, I know." this was... This sound was familiar, but I couldn't quite recognise it. "Listen..."
"Before we start, who am I talking to? And where are you contacting me from?"
There was almost no transmission delay to and from my contact and the embassy; which meant that whoever I was talking to was either on Earth, or somewhere pretty close to Earth... like Luna.
"This is Director Chisomo. I am talking from a diplomatic convoy enroute to Turkey. We are planning to reinitiate diplomatic relations with those who left the Federation... at least for now." he said. "Anyway, there is an important message for you."
"I am listening." I said.
"A former Navy member... Rear Admiral Tachibana just made contact with us." he said.
"Tachibana!?"
"He is undercover inside a Mars Freedom Front group which apparently fled to Earth a while ago." he said. "He says that the MFF has some sort of agreement with the Federation."
"This..." I said. "This confirms the results of our last espionage operations."
"Espionage?" the director was confused. "Well, in any case, he stated his concerns for the well-being of the embassy. He thinks that MFF has plans to undermine the Republic's efforts for-"
"Director, thank you, that's enough. I need to go." I immediately closed the channel.
So... That was it! MFF has probably contacted Eren as Republic citizens, for the secret task of performing counter-intelligence operations for the Federation. Poor Eren could not possibly know he was conversing with traitors... All our secrets could be out in the open right now.
If it wasn't for Tachibana, our mission here could end very quickly. It was incredible how resourceful he could be. Even after I failed to rescue him from the shuttle to Earth, he have managed to remain undercover and keep spying on the group.
I ran into Nuan's room in the embassy. She was in front of a screen, reading the data fragment I've given her.
"Commander, this is... If this isn't enough to convince the Alliance, I don't know what else would be." she said.
"Nuan, listen." I said. "You may be in danger. I have to take care of the security during your next meeting with the Allied diplomats."
"What is going on?" she asked.
"The Mars Freedom Front is aware of what we are doing. They are working with the Federation, and this is not just a theory. It is the truth. You are in danger." I said.
Nuan went silent for a minute before talking again.
"Maybe we should notify the ministry before the meeting. If something bad happens, they will know what happened." she suggested.
I had to agree with this gloomy thought, with a simple nod.
"Please be there with me, Commander. I hope we can both see the terror in the eyes of those politicians." Nuan said.
"Of course." I said and got out of the room.
I went outside the building, searching for Mr. Ling. I found him near the main exit.
"Mr. Ling, please lock all the enterances to the embassy. Allow no guests nor press members. And unless the president of some country comes to the door in person, allow no one in." I instructed him.
"What is going on? Isn't this going a bit too far?" he asked.
"Just DO!" I shouted.
"Aye, sir." he said and walked to guide the police teams under his command.
- - - - -
Nothing of importance happened until the next meeting. Nuan and a few other Republic personnel prepared to meet with the Allied diplomats. I accompanied them on their way to Zhongnanhai. Guarding the imperial gardens was certainly not my duty, but I had a feeling that something was going to happen.
I walked around the premier's office for a while before the talks officially started. Then, I got inside the large hall where the talks was happening.
Nuan was the third person to talk, just after the Premier of China and the Prime Minister of India (who was attending with the help of tele-presence technologies).
As she was talking, I was looking around carefully.
"...as you know, and today, I wish to present you the evidence. This text was intercepted from the Federation's well known Deep Space Network systems."
Nuan's speech was causing lots of chatter among the politicians in the room. The Alliance was certainly not going to be happy; however, they would have no chance but to ally with us in the end.
And someone else would not be happy as well... The Federation itself.
Suddenly, a loud noise came from all around the room. Everyone ducked to take cover. The Chinese police had barged into the room and started firing.
Nuan was clueless. I ran up to her and jumped to push her away from the action zone. She fell down, and I fell on top of her.
"Threat eliminated!"
In just a few seconds, the gunfire stopped. Someone was moaning in pain.
I took a look at Nuan.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She was horrified. Tears were flowing down her eyes. She couldn't answer. I did instead.
"You look okay." I said.
"What was that just now?" she said.
I got off of her and looked around. The Chinese police was examining the person they have just shot a few hundred times. A medic team was...
"Oh no..."
A medic team was trying to help the Premier of China, who has been shot by (most probably) a stray projectile on his shoulder. He had suffered minor injuries during the very short shootout.
Nuan came back to her senses and got up to look around.
"This is going to make the news for the entire month." she said. I left Nuan there and went to talk to the police.
"This is Commander Kagan of the Republic's embassy to the Alliance. What is going on?" I asked.
"Sir, most probably an assassination attempt. We simply detected the unauthorized weapon and stopped the threat." an officer said.
The police was still in some rush, so I couldn't keep talking to them.
The Premier of China was back on his feet.
"Listen to me, allies." he said. "The Republic has been trying to prove their point for years... and today... I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. Times change, so does minds and ideas; and I would be more than happy to admit our mistakes as the long-standing state of China. I say... that we should try a new approach to... to... not repeat the same mistakes our ancestors did with the global warming!"
The Premier stopped to cough. Someone used this opportunity to speak.
"With utmost respect, Premier; we can not let personal feelings get in the way of logical thinking." an Indian diplomat said.
"Mister, the meeting is already over! Those are all out of record, you know that?" shouted a Chinese politician. "We have to delay the meeting until we are sure that the security-"
"Time is working for the Federation, friend. All they are doing is gaining more time as we do this nonsense." an Irani diplomat said. "I say, we can get this over with right now."
No one was caring about the way they were speaking anymore. It had quickly turned into a chaotic discussion environment.
A police officer peeked into the room.
"For security reasons, we will have to get everyone out, majesty." he said.
"NO!" the Premier yelled in anger as medics were trying to calm him down. "We need to come to conclusions in this discussion, and we have to do it now!"
The heated discussion was going to last for hours in that messy hall.