That seemed to be the cue the room had been waiting for. The next forty minutes passed in a blaze of points and counterpoints, with the senator?s advisors arguing the finer aspects of spin while his security heads protested any attempts to categorize their handling of the campaign to date as ?lax? or ?insufficient.? Shaun and I sat and listened. We were there as observers, not participants, and after the argument had a little time to develop, it seemed as if most of the room forgot we were there at all. One camp held that they needed to minimize media coverage of the attack, make the requisite statements of increased vigilance, and move on. The other camp held that full openness was the only way to get through an incident of this magnitude without taking damage from other political quarters. Both camps had to admit that the reports released on our site the night before were impacting their opinions, although neither seemed aware of exactly how much traffic those reports had drawn. I opted not to inform them. Observing the political process without interfering with it is sometimes more entertaining than it sounds.
One of the senator?s advisors was beginning a rant on the evils of the modern media when my ear cuff beeped. I rose, moving to the back of the room before I answered. ?Georgia here.?
?Georgia, it?s Buffy. Can you patch me to the speakerphone??
I paused. She sounded harried. More than that, she sounded openly nervous. Not frightened, which meant she probably wasn?t being harassed by zombies or rival bloggers, but nervous. ?Sure, Buff. Give me a second.? I strode back to the table and leaned across two of the arguing aides to grab the speaker phone. They squawked protests, but I ignored them, yanking off my ear cuff and snapping it into the transmission jack at the base of the phone.
?Miss Mason?? inquired the senator, eyebrows rising.
?Sorry, this is important.? I hit the Receive button.
?? testing, testing,? said Buffy?s voice, crackling slightly through the speaker. ?Am I live??
?We can hear you, Miss Meissonier,? said the senator. ?May I ask what was so important that it required breaking in on our conference??
Chuck Wong spoke next; apparently, ours wasn?t the only end on speakerphone. ?We?re at the perimeter fence, sir, and it seemed important that we call you as quickly as possible.?
?What?s going on out there, Chuck? No more zombies, I hope??
?No, sir?not so far. It?s the screamer.?
?The one that failed??
?Yes, sir. It didn?t fail because of anything my team did.? Chuck didn?t keep the relief out of his tone, and I couldn?t blame him. Carelessness can be a federal offense when it applies to antizombie devices. No one has managed to successfully charge a security technician with manslaughter?yet?but the cases come up almost every year. ?The wires were cut.?
The senator froze. ?Cut??
?The screamer shows detection of the zombies we saw last night, sir. The connection that should have set off the perimeter alarms wasn?t made because those wires had been cut before the alarm was sounded.?
?Whoever did it did a pretty good job,? Buffy said. ?All the damage is inside the boxes. Nothing visible until you crack the case, and even then you have to dig around before you find the breaks.?
The senator sagged backward, paling. ?Are you telling me this was sabotage??
?Well, sir,? said Chuck, ?none of my men would have cut the wires on a screamer protecting the convoy that they were inside. There?s just no reason for it.?
?I see. Finish your sweep and report back, Chuck. Miss Meissonier, thank you for calling. Please, call again if you need anything further.?
?Roger. Georgia, we?re on server four.?
?Noted. Signing off now.? I leaned over and cut the connection before pulling my ear cuff out of the jack and sliding it back onto my ear. Only when this was done did I glance back up at Senator Ryman.
The senator looked like a man who?d been hit, hard and unexpectedly, from behind. He met my gaze, despite the alien appearance of my contacts, and gave a small, tightly controlled shake of his head. Please, that gesture said, not right now.
I nodded, taking Shaun?s arm. ?Senator, if you don?t mind, my brother and I should be getting to work. We?re a bit behind after last night.?
Shaun blinked at me. ?What??
?Of course.? The senator smiled, not bothering to conceal his relief. ?Miss Mason, Mr. Mason, thank you for your time. I?ll have someone notify you before we?re ready to check out and move on.?
?Thank you,? I said, and left the room, hauling the still-bewildered Shaun along in my wake. The boardroom door swung closed behind us.
Shaun yanked his arm out of my hand, subjecting me to a sharp sidelong gaze. ?Want to tell me what that was all about??