We're suddenly back outside, where an Apparatus agent disguised as a Fleet orderly is exiting the stadium followed by a smiling and shirtless Jettero Heller. Despite the packed arena from last chapter, there is no mention of anyone else in the area. No spectators are streaming from the stadium, no camera crews are jockeying for position for the best shots of the star athletes, no fans are mobbing the players for an autograph. It could be that Heller decided to wait a few hours for everyone else to go home before following the "messenger" out, except it's mentioned that he's still sweaty from the game he just forfeited. So everyone else just ceased to exist except for Heller and the Apparatus mob.
Once the fake courier and Heller are clear of the doors, Hisst sidles over to block it so that nobody inside can see what's about to happen outside. There's no mention of this casting a shadow out onto the walkway leading from the stadium, so we can conclude that its exterior is both well-lit while also retaining enough pools of blackness for espionage specialists to hide in.
I should really stop nitpicking, this is relatively minor stuff compared to what happens later.
Gris immediately starts to worry because the fake courier is walking all wrong for a seasoned spaceman, "not sidling along with the easy float that stamps the people of the Fleet." Yes, if you spend enough time in low-gravity conditions you can float around back planetside, apparently. Also, the seasoned intelligence operative is wearing his badge upside down. And even Gris - wherever he's narrating from - is able to detect rustles in the bushes and the click of a weapon's bolt being drawn.
These are elite agents of a feared, covert branch of Voltar's government, mind you. Our very dangerous and totally threatening villains. An alien SS that owes its very existence to fear and subterfuge.
Well, just as Gris wonders if Heller was able to hear that too, our hero explodes into action, knocking the faux messenger to the ground. The agent shows us how Knife Section gets its name by quickly drawing a ten-inch dagger from the back of his neck, which seems like a terrible place to try to conceal a weapon. Heller disarms his foe with a bone-breaking kick to the hand, but then five more Apparatus thugs jump out of the bushes with electrified whips.
Is it me, or does an electrified whip sound like a terrible idea for a weapon? You'd do better with a cattle prod, much less likely to zap yourself or the guy next to you.
The zappy whips entangle Heller's arms and legs, which would be the end of a lesser man, but dammit if Heller isn't so awesome that he's able to wriggle around to face the door despite it all. It's only after Hisst stabs him in the shoulder with a "deadly" paralyzing dagger that Heller goes down. Then the Apparatus guys quickly wrap him in a black blanket and hustle him away from the scene. There was not a single witness.
So Heller is sent for the Apparatus fortress of Spiteos, bound for an electrified wire cage in its deepest depths with no outside contact, so that for all intents and purposes he doesn't exist. Meanwhile Gris takes a ride in Lombar Hisst's undoubtedly extremely stealthy tank, and listens to his boss berate him a little more for screwing up so that this all had to happen. They set off for the rest of the night's business - tracking down the original of a certain report.
Except they can't find it. For the next three days and nights the Apparatus agents are breaking into government buildings, rummaging through files, and changing in and out of various disguises, all to no avail. In the end Hisst is forced to conclude that the document was sent straight to the Grand Council or possibly the Emperor himself. So he assigns Gris to go to the next council meeting, while Hisst readies the proper blackmail photos concerning the Lord of the Exterior.
It's only then that Gris musters up the courage to ask his boss what the hell is going on. Hisst rants that Gris let a Patrol Service report concerning world Blito-P3 aka "Earth" get through, which could convince the council that the Invasion Timetable is upset, which will in turn screw up the Coordinated Information Apparatus' own secret timetables for its schemes.
So there's our basic plot - the Apparatus has an interest in Earth it wants to keep secret from the rest of the Voltar government. I can assure you, their sinister plan is as underwhelming as it is stupid.
Back to Chapter Four
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