Instructions

What followed was not so much a mission briefing but a series of pronouncements from the little computer.

"You have both been granted code word access to ELECTRIC RAVEN, and may not discuss information under this classification with anyone except…" the President, the Secretary of Defense or the Navy, or the Director of Alliance Intelligence, until told otherwise.

We were being transferred to a new, currently-empty command chain. I was in charge until someone more senior was brought in.

We had orders to report to the Yucca Storage Depot, in southwestern North America, as soon as possible. This at least made sense to me; it was one of the inactive sites OSA was supposed to hold in reserve.

Someone with appropriate clearance was required to be handcuffed to the expert system at all times. Boris and I would have to trade off to sleep, which meant another shift switch on top of the 8-hour timezone change.

Lastly, a plane from Scampton Air Station was already on the way to pick us up, with fighter escort.