CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“You realize of course,” McKell was saying from one of the fold-down seats as I walked into the Ruth’s dayroom, “that absolutely none of that should have worked.”
“What shouldn’t have worked?” I asked, heading toward Selene and the foldout couch as I ran a critical eye over McKell’s face. He’d gotten rid of the Algernon Niles prosthetics hours ago, but his skin was still red and blotchy in places.
“Your plan to get Draelon and Surn to cooperate and then trap them inside Castor,” he said. “By all rights one of them should have shot the other right there in the lecture hall and then tortured Gemini’s location out of you.”
“Or they should have been careful enough to send in surrogates instead of going in themselves,” Ixil added from the fold-down seat beside McKell. At his feet, Pix and Pax were curled up on the deck, enthusiastically demolishing a pair of nut bars.
“You underestimate the power of ego,” I said, sitting down beside Selene. “As my father used to say, Ego, greed, and stubbornness are ninety percent of the levers you’ll ever need. Surn was hell-bent on staking a psychological claim by taking the first trip to Castor, and Draelon was equally determined not to take a back seat to anyone, especially a Patth.”
“And of course, neither trusted the other,” Selene said. “That was why they both wanted to take as many guards across to Castor as they could.”
“Which helped clear some of the guns out of Pollux,” I said. “And yes, they certainly would have killed us as soon as they’d secured the portal. But I figured they’d want to take a ride first.” I spread my hands. “Actually, given the personalities involved, I’d say there was no possible way it couldn’t have succeeded.”
“I do so appreciate confidence in a person,” Ixil said dryly. “I trust all the Ruth’s systems read out to your satisfaction?”
“Yes, everything looks good,” I confirmed. Ostensibly, I’d just been on the bridge to confirm that the Malfatti City Spaceport fuelers were on the job, but of course I’d also taken the opportunity to run a quick diagnostic. “Thanks for getting the glitterpaint scrubbed and flying it here, by the way. Hitchhiking back to Popanilla would have been tricky.”
“Not a problem,” Ixil said. “Freeing it from impound was faster than waiting for the admiral to find me other transportation. And after everything you’ve done, you certainly deserved to get your ship back.”
“I appreciate it,” I said. “Does this newfound gratitude translate into additional money?”
“That will require additional conversations,” McKell said. “But I’m sure the admiral will at least spring for the two bioprobes you asked for.” His eyes flicked down to my left elbow. “And a new arm, of course,” he added.
“Thanks,” I said, looking down at my stump. The note Ixil had left inside Castor had convinced Draelon and Surn that neither had betrayed the other, circumventing the seven-way shoot-out and mass slaughter I’d been half expecting from them. That hadn’t prevented them from venting their fury on my artificial arm, of course, which they very much had.
“Until then, we’re paying for this fuel load, plus you’ve got those bank checks from Draelon and Surn to tide you over,” McKell continued.
Beside me, Selene stirred. “Tera is here.”
“We’re in the dayroom, Tera,” McKell called toward the hatchway.
A minute later, Tera appeared. “Hello, everyone,” she said. She looked tired, but there was a definite air of satisfaction about her. “Jordan, you look almost human again.”
“Thank you,” McKell said dryly as he stood up and gestured her to his seat. “How’s the excavation going?”
“All finished,” she said, dropping gratefully onto the fold-down and nodding silent thanks as McKell took up a standing position beside her. “By sunrise this morning Pollux was on its way to the traditional undisclosed location.”
“Did you really get permission that quickly?” Selene asked, her pupils showing surprise.
“Hardly,” Tera said. “As Gregory’s father probably used to say, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”
“Actually, what he used to say was You don’t need forgiveness or permission if you can convince them someone else did it,” I corrected her. “Don’t suppose that really applies in this case.”
Though now that I thought about it, that saying might indeed come into play. Possibly very soon. “I assume the Patth are furious?”
“Strangely enough, we haven’t heard a peep out of them,” Tera said. “Must be some interesting goings-on in their government right now.”
I felt my throat tighten. In their government, or somewhere else entirely.
Yes. My father’s saying was definitely going to apply.
“Actually, all the heat we’re getting is coming from the Malfatti City Historical Preservation Department,” she continued. “They’re furious that we’ve demolished one of the Erymant Temple’s most interesting structures.”
“A structure no one could actually enter,” Ixil pointed out.
“Because as we now know it was mostly full of Pollux,” Tera said, nodding. “But it was beautiful and historically significant, et cetera, et cetera, and they’re still furious.”
“Luckily, cash on the counter is amazingly good at soothing such righteous indignation,” McKell said. “I trust the admiral gave you an adequate budget to work with?”
“So far, yes,” Tera said. “It helps that the main Fidelio government really doesn’t care all that much, given their current preoccupation with having a major criminal boss found and detained on their soil. I have the sense they’re not sure whether they’re more pleased or more embarrassed.”
“Speaking of Draelon, any idea what happened to Floyd and his fellow enforcers?” McKell asked. “Between dealing with ISLE and trying not to get run over at the speed Nask was getting Surn off-planet, I lost track of them.”
“Oh, they’re long gone,” I said absently, my thoughts on other matters. If I said something now, maybe there was still a chance . . . ?
No. There was no chance. There had never been a chance. “He told me they were probably going to Huihuang to join up with Gaheen and his branch of the organization.”
“Wonderful,” Tera murmured. “Like the old hydra myth: cut off one head and two more grow back.”
“This might not be so bad,” Selene said. “As Gregory told you earlier, Gaheen was using the drug from our sporete for Najiki medical purposes, not as a Narchner street drug. He may be trying to move his part of the organization into a more legitimate business.”
“Or is waiting until later to exploit the Narchners,” Ixil pointed out.
“I guess we’ll find out,” I said. “But after Floyd talked down the crew Draelon had left at his vans I figured we owed them at least a quiet exit.”
“Speaking of exits, what happened on Brandywine?” Ixil asked. “The Ruth and I were in transit at the time and I never heard the final report.”
“It went about the way everyone expected,” Tera said grimly. “The Expediters who raided Draelon’s factory killed everyone guarding the place and then burned it to the ground.”
“The Patth pilot was in pretty bad shape,” McKell added. “I gather Draelon’s people had been doing a lot of work trying to get the implants out without destroying them. But from what the admiral said it looks like he’ll make it.”
“That’s what Nask said, too,” I confirmed.
“Nask said?” Tera asked, frowning. “You talked to him?”
“He sent me a message,” I said. “During our restaurant meeting I told him I cared as much about resolving that issue as he did. I guess he decided to take me at my word.”
“I thought you didn’t like him,” McKell said.
“I don’t,” I said. “What does disliking Nask have to do with hating kidnappers and torture?”
“Point,” McKell conceded. “So how exactly did you know he was looking for a missing pilot?”
“Simple deduction,” I said, feeling the growing tension of knowing we were standing on the edge of disaster while recognizing there was still nothing anyone could do to stop it. “Tera, you said Pollux was on its way back to Icarus?”
“Yes.”
“And all the work crews and guards have gone with it?”
“Everyone’s gone except me,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Why?”
“Just wondering,” I said. So it could be any time now. “We start with two facts: McKell and Ixil had a highly classified job on Brandywine, and Selene had smelled a Patth in Draelon’s factory. The logical lineup was that you were shadowing Nask and Nask was hunting a missing Patth—”
“Hold it,” Tera interrupted. “Back up a step. What made you think Jordan and Ixil were following Nask?”
“Because sometimes McKell is just a little too good at his job,” I said. “For his first in-the-flesh appearance as Bounty Hunter Algernon Niles he changed everything about himself, from his face and his voice to his gait and his stance. Even the shape of his ears and the pattern of his beard hairs were different.”
“Those last two were the admiral’s idea,” McKell said, rubbing his cheek gingerly.
“Which makes the admiral smarter than most people,” I said. “See, there’s no need to go to all that effort to hide your identity from other humans. We know how humans recognize each other—eyes, facial shape, lips, voice. The only reason to change everything is if you’re hiding from aliens.”
“Because we don’t necessarily know what cues they use to distinguish one human from another,” McKell said, nodding as he finally got it.
“Exactly,” I said. “And the only alien I know who’s worth a Jordan McKell stalking and who would instantly recognize you on sight . . . ?”
“Nask,” McKell said ruefully.
“Nask,” I agreed. “Actually, he more or less confirmed it at our restaurant meeting. I’d given him just two days to meet me on Fidelio, and he had no problem making that appointment. Granted, there are other systems within range of a Talariac drive besides Brandywine, but adding in your presence there made the conclusion solid enough for me to put some weight on it.”
“Nicely reasoned,” McKell said. He scowled. “He could have told me, you know.”
“He could also have told us where he’s spirited Dent off to,” Tera said, her eyes flashing a little. Clearly, she wasn’t any happier than McKell at having been left out of that particular loop. “You should know by now the admiral likes to keep a few secrets up his sleeves.” She pulled out her phone, frowned at the display, and held it to her ear. “Tera.”
I braced myself. This was probably it.
It was. Five seconds later her face went rigid. “Where?” she asked sharply. “Do we have . . . ? What about Fidelio Patrol? Can they—? No, no, absolutely not. It absolutely wasn’t us . . . because I just said it wasn’t. Where—?” She broke off, and for another handful of seconds listened in silence. Then, she seemed to slump a little in her seat. “I understand. Thank you.”
“What’s happened?” McKell demanded as she lowered the phone. His back was stiff, his hand gripping his holstered plasmic. “Pollux?”
“No,” Tera said quietly. “No, it was—” She paused and took a deep breath. “I was just informed that a large structure on the eastern edge of the Erymant Temple grounds was just blasted to rubble.” Her eyes turned onto me. “And a large object that appeared through the smoke to be a double sphere was pulled out of the ground by four heavy lifters.”
“The hell?” McKell bit out, hauling out his own phone as he headed for the hatch.
“Don’t bother,” Tera called after him. “The lifters are already clear of the atmosphere. It’ll be in hyperspace in six minutes.”
“We can still—”
“No, we can’t,” Tera said bitterly. “It’s over. Leave it. It’s over.”
Reluctantly, McKell stopped in the dayroom hatchway and turned back to face the rest of us. His expression, I noted uneasily, was a mix of disbelief and growing anger. “How in hell did anyone—?” He broke off, turning suddenly toward me. “There were two of them hidden in Erymant?”
“So it seems,” Tera said, her eyes going hard as she also shifted her gaze to me. “I notice, Roarke, that you don’t seem surprised. How long have you known?”
“I’ve never actually known,” I told her, forcing myself to meet the glares trying their best to pin me to my seat. “There were indications that there was another portal on Fidelio, that’s all.”
“What indications?” Ixil asked. Of the three of them he seemed the least furious. Or maybe I just wasn’t as good at reading Kalixiri expressions.
“Nask abandoning his hunt for the missing Patth pilot to come talk to me instead of sending an Expediter or other representative,” I said. “Nask not making any moves against me after our conversation. The Patth in general not raising a fuss about you digging Pollux out of the temple and letting it go without trying to interfere.”
I felt my stomach tighten with the memory. “And Nask looking around Pollux’s receiver module before heading to call Brandywine about the pilot. At the time I thought he was wondering if he should try to take it. Now, I realize he was just memorizing the view so he’d be able to tell later if there were any differences between it and the one they’d already found.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tera demanded, her voice low and dark. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Like what?” I retorted. “I thought there might be a portal on Fidelio, but I had no idea where it might be. Were you going to patrol the whole planet? Demand the government chase the Patth off and never let them back?”
“You must have suspected it was part of the Erymant Temple complex,” McKell said. He was still angry, but I could sense that some of the surge of emotion was fading. Slowly, reluctantly, he was coming to the same conclusion I already had, that there had been nothing anyone could have done to stop it. “We could have cordoned off the place.”
“For how long?” I asked. “The thing had gone undetected for decades, and that wasn’t likely to change any time soon. The Patth would have just sat back and waited until Fidelio got tired or bored with the fuss and kicked you out.”
“We have Selene,” Tera said tartly. But she, too, seemed to be heading toward unenthusiastic acceptance.
“No,” I said. “The exposed part of Pollux’s hull had already contaminated the whole area. She would never have been able to pick out the other portal’s scent from the background.”
McKell muttered another curse. “You still should have told us.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But bear in mind one other thing. Nask knew all about Pollux. He’d been inside, knew where the entrance was, and in the hours while we were processing Draelon and watching the Iykams haul Surn aboard Nask’s ship there was ample time for him to have sent someone to sabotage it. But he didn’t.”
McKell snorted. “What, he’s suddenly decided to be a sportsman about all this?”
“Or he decided he owed us for finding his missing pilot,” I said. “Take your pick.”
For a moment McKell, Tera, and Ixil all looked at each other. I waited, feeling the tension in the room slowly fading away. “You still should have said something,” McKell said.
“Next time,” I promised. “Okay, so we ended up with a draw. Let’s take what we got and move on. Now that we know what Shiroyama Island was for, we should have a better shot at figuring out where the other end of Nask’s Gemini is.”
“I thought Shiroyama was the scene of a battle,” Tera said, frowning.
“Actually, it’s more the aftermath of one,” I said, gesturing to Selene. “Selene’s been doing some research, and she came up with a couple of interesting facts.”
“There have been a number of alien bodies found over the years,” Selene said, sounding a little uncertain. Maybe McKell and the others weren’t quite as over their anger as I’d thought. “Along with many military-style armbands. But there’s only one species of alien, not the two or more you’d expect if there’d been a major battle.”
“Maybe the winning side went in and removed their fallen,” McKell said. “Or maybe it was a civil war.”
“No,” Selene said. “Because despite all the soldiers who supposedly died there, no one’s ever found any weapons. Or armor, or communications systems, or any of the other things armies use.”
There was a pause as that sank in. Then Ixil stirred. “It was a prisoner-of-war camp,” he said quietly.
“That’s what we think,” I said, nodding. “With Erymant the site of the military base and tribunal that decided the cases and sent them there.”
“But why two Gemini portals?” Tera asked. “Two different camps? Officers and enlisted?”
“Or ordinary soldiers and war criminals,” I said. “Or people who were expected to behave themselves and people who weren’t. All I know is that if you want to send prisoners somewhere you want them bottlenecked so there’s only one exit.”
“Unless Shiroyama was the only camp,” McKell said, his face gone suddenly grim. “Unless Nask’s new portal was how they funneled prisoners from multiple worlds into Erymant for processing.”
Tera shot a look at me, then looked back at McKell. “Are you saying Nask could actually have uncovered another Icarus?”
“I’m saying we need to get some pictures of the heist as fast as we can,” McKell said. “Someone has to have something. We know Geminis are significantly smaller—if we can get a handle on the dimensions, we may be able to tell what it is he just made off with.”
“We need to get this to the admiral right away,” Tera said, standing up.
“Agreed,” McKell said. “Ixil, you stay here and get the Ruth ready to fly—right now it’s our fastest way off Fidelio. Tera and I are heading to the StarrComm center. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Together they disappeared out the hatchway and headed aft. “You heard him, Gregory,” Ixil said, getting to his feet. “Let’s see how the fueling is going.”
“It’s not done,” I told him. “I can still hear the pumps.”
“We can at least begin the checklist,” he said, crossing the dayroom toward the hatchway.
“In a minute,” I said, making no effort to stand up. “First, we need to talk.”
“Can it wait?”
“It could,” I said. “But it’s not going to.”
Reluctantly, he came to a halt. “What’s it about?”
“Selene and me,” I said. “If we’re going to keep getting tangled up in Icarus business, we need to have all the pieces. All of them. And we need to get them the same time you do.”
“I understand your concerns,” Ixil said. “But you’re still on probation.”
“Then get us off probation,” I said. “This isn’t a matter of ego or of feeling like we’re stuck at the children’s table, Ixil. We were hired to find you new portals. Now, instead, we’ve been dropped headfirst into a pit with one group who wants us dead and another group who wants to take over the Spiral. Without timely information we’re sitting ducks; and I submit that we’re way too valuable to be wasted as cannon fodder.” I ran out of breath and stopped.
“You make some valid points,” Ixil said, a bit grudgingly. “And I can certainly speak to the admiral on your behalf.” He held up a warning finger. “Just be sure you understand what you’re asking. If the admiral agrees to bring you in, you’ll be routinely thrown into missions like this. When things are quiet enough you might be able to continue searching for new portals. But you could be recalled to action on a moment’s notice.”
He looked at Selene. “Or at least you could. Given Selene’s unique abilities and value, the admiral may choose to pair her with a different partner for the portal searches.”
Beside me, Selene stirred. “No,” she said quietly. “I stay with Gregory.”
“You may not have a choice,” Ixil warned.
She straightened up, determination in her pupils. “Of course I have a choice. I stay with Gregory.”
Ixil looked like he wanted to say something, hesitated. “I’ll speak to the admiral,” he said instead.
“Good,” I said, listening closely. The pumps had stopped. “Sounds like the fueling is finished. Go ahead and start the checklist—I’ll meet you there in a minute.”
Ixil nodded and snapped his fingers twice. Abandoning their snack, Pix and Pax scampered across the dayroom, climbed up his boots, trousers, and shirt and settled themselves on his shoulders. Patting each one on the head, he disappeared out into the corridor.
“He’s right, you know,” I said to Selene. “I can handle the nasty stuff by myself. There’s no reason you have to come along.”
“Of course I do,” she said, a knowing look in her pupils. “Now, are you going to tell me what that was really about?”
I craned my neck. Ixil and his outriders should be comfortably out of earshot by now. “The sound you hear is me jumping backward from a couple of bad conclusions I jumped to earlier,” I told her, lowering my voice. “The restaurant conversation I had with Nask. Remember me telling you Conciliator Yyng had the Patth portal-hunting mandate?”
“Yes.”
“I was wrong,” I said. “Nask said himself that Yyng’s mandate shouldn’t have brought violence. My guess now is that it was something wholly innocuous, like monitoring the StarrComm systems in that area or something. Whatever it was, he somehow tagged Dr. Riley, probably purely by accident, realized he worked with Icarus, and decided to follow up on him.”
“Couldn’t he have then asked the Director General for the portal mandate?”
“He could have,” I said. “But if he did, he didn’t get it, Remember, he tackled Riley with just two Iykams, which I gather are a conciliator’s usual quota. If he’d had the portal mandate he would surely have brought a lot more to the party. Yyng playing his cards under the table also meshes with Dent’s question about why the Patth didn’t raid Popanilla after Yyng’s death. They didn’t come running because Yyng hadn’t told anyone what he was doing.”
“Except Surn.”
“Right,” I agreed. “I’m guessing Yyng brought him in under the assumption that a sub-director had a better shot at getting the Director General’s attention than a conciliator once he was ready to make his pitch for the mandate. But even there he was cagey about what he was sharing, and Dent got to him before he could feed Surn enough information to pinpoint Castor. At that point, the whole thing died on the vine.”
“Until Surn picked up on Dent’s search for you and Icarus.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“All right,” Selene said, her pupils now showing puzzlement. “But I don’t see how this helps us.”
“It helps us,” I said quietly, “because if Yyng didn’t have the portal mandate, who did?”
Her pupils went suddenly wide. “Nask?”
“Has to be,” I said. “You saw how fast he got their portal out of Erymant and off Fidelio. There was barely enough time to pull together the necessary people and equipment, not to mention those heavy lifters and whatever supersized freighter they’re probably going to stash it in. There’s simply no way he could have also gone through the process of getting the mandate swapped over to him.”
“But then—” She broke off, looking confused.
“Exactly,” I said quietly. “But then what was he doing on Brandywine looking for a missing pilot? It sounded like a sub-director only gets one mandate at a time. Even if sometimes they get two, the Director General certainly wouldn’t want to sidetrack someone away from portal-hunting duty.”
“Or sidetrack him from the hunt for a kidnapped pilot.” She turned to look across the dayroom. “Nask’s hunt for the pilot wasn’t business. It was personal.”
“That’s the only conclusion that makes sense,” I agreed soberly. “The pilot was a friend, or a relative, or the friend or relative of someone close to him. That’s why he only had the three Iykams when he met me at the restaurant—he was off his mandate and didn’t dare call attention to himself by requisitioning more to bring with him.”
“But once he was on Fidelio, he didn’t have to worry about his Iykams killing those thugs outside after your meeting,” Selene said. “He could argue that with a known portal here he was within his mandate to look in on it.”
“Especially since they apparently hadn’t yet figured out how to extract it without bringing all sorts of grief down on themselves,” I said. “Icarus moving on Pollux was the perfect cover. As my father used to say . . . ?”
“You don’t need forgiveness or permission if you can convince them someone else did it,” she murmured.
“Exactly,” I said. “The point is that we know something about Nask that no one else does. We can either keep it to ourselves and hope he’ll cut us some slack in any future encounters, or let him know we know and use it as a lever. Either way, we have a handle on him that no one else in Icarus does.”
“Or even knows about,” she said, nodding. “But in order to fully exploit it, we need access to more of their resources and intel.”
“Exactly,” I said. “So. You still in?”
“Of course,” she said. “I’m sure your father used to say something about situations like this.”
“Probably something like, Never join a noble cause unless large payments or self-preservation are included.”
“Very deep,” she said. “I assume we’re going for self-preservation, since I don’t see much money coming our way.”
“Self-preservation it is,” I said, standing up and offering her my single hand. “Let’s go see if Ixil’s messed up anything yet.”
Of course there was something else my father used to say, I remembered as we headed into the corridor: Never assume the other guy knows what he’s doing.
I could only hope that in this case the other guy wasn’t me.
The End