Team Omega by Christopher G. Nuttall Page B

“It's still being rebroadcast on CNN and Fox News.  As you can see...”
     
    He tapped the remote and the main screen came to life, replaying Hope’s message to the world.  Chester listened carefully as the superhuman—still clad in the golden outfit he’d worn when he’d been part of the SDI—spoke, outlining what they’d done in the Congo and what they intended to do in the future.  They wanted emergency shipments of food, medical supplies and equipment—and ordered all nearby nations to inter refugees from any of the factions who found themselves in their territory.  There were no threats attached to the message, but after what they’d done to the Congo he doubted that anyone would try to stand up to them.
     
    “They’ve been allowing reporters to roam freely through the capital city,” Stillwell explained.  “They’ve taken pictures of everything, from the heads of the factions stuck up on poles where the palace used to be to the people thronging the streets and cheering the superhumans.  Most of the local police force has been eliminated or taken off somewhere; the mutants are providing the only real policing in the city.  I think they’re already running short of manpower.”
     
    “You can count on it,” General Kratman said, flatly.  “Taking territory is one thing, holding it is quite another.  I think the remains of the factions will start to reform underground.”
     
    “They have made a public offer to all mutants; they will be allowed to live freely in the Congo if they help keep the peace long enough for a new government to be formed,” Stillwell said.  “I suspect that they may also be able to convince other superhumans to join them...”
     
    The President held up a hand.  “That isn't the issue at the moment,” he said, coldly.  “The issue is what—if anything—we do about it?”
     
    Jack Marlowe, the Director of the CIA, had his own question.  “And why were we caught by surprise?”
     
    Chester and General Kratman exchanged glances.  “Our intelligence within the Saviours has never been good,” Chester admitted.  Keeping an eye on the capes was a responsibility shared between Team Omega and the SDI.  At least they managed to work together better than the FBI and CIA.  “Unless we managed to turn one of the superhumans themselves, we would have to rely on second-hand information and innuendo.  Matters are more complicated with the Saviours as one of them—the Redeemer—is a Level X superhuman with telepathic powers.  She would sniff out any spy we sent before he could make his first report.
     
    “We do have some allies within the mutant community, but as a rule they're generally not very willing to help us,” he added.  The Federal Government had been reluctant to uphold the civil rights of mutants when there was so much fear surrounding them.  It wasn't particularly fair—few mutants rated more than Level 2—but fear and hatred had never been fair, or logical.  Besides, it was safer to pick on mutants than superhumans like Hope.  “And again, any of them who had been summoned to join the operation would have been scanned.  They would have isolated or rejected any spy.”
     
    “Telepaths make life so much harder,” Marlowe agreed, reluctantly.  The CIA was still reeling from losing a network of operatives in China after the Chinese had used telepaths to root them out and execute them on live television.  “So...what do we do about it?”
     
    General Kratman spoke into the silence.  “You know as well as I do that superhumans have been developing a...racial identity of their own,” he said.  “They’ve moved from being government agents and operatives to actually operating as independent agents—superheroes, in other words.  And now they have stepped completely out of line and taken out an independent state.  We have to assume that this will lead to further acts against rogue states—or, worse, against the more developed