The Feeding of Sorrows

by Rob Howell

  “The Queen Elizabeth’s Own Foresters have been attacked multiple times. What didn’t you include that in your report on Cimaron 283133-6A? Who wants to eliminate the Foresters? Why did you send your nephew to join them?” I included my room number.

  While I waited, I sent out a few queries to maintain my cover ID, but my heart wasn’t in it. Either Tlanit would talk to me and do so fairly quickly, or I’d be detained before dinner.

  My answer was a hard knock on the door. I opened it to find three GenSha wearing tactical armor, carrying sidearms, and glaring down at me.

  “Rick Blaine?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come,” one said in a heavy accent.

  I nodded, and they formed up around me. I sighed with relief when the leader punched the penthouse button on the elevator. They escorted me to Tlanit’s door, opened it, and shooed me inside.

  Tlanit was waiting for me. “Rick Blaine?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He waved at a Cochkala-sized couch. “Please sit. Would you like some refreshment?”

  “No, thank you,” I answered as I sat.

  “You, I think, know too much.” He poured himself a beverage and sat.

  “I know the wrong amount. I know enough to know I don’t know enough. If I knew more, I could protect myself. If I knew less, I wouldn’t be a danger to anyone. As it is, I have to take risks, like contacting you directly.”

  Tlanit’s tail twitched. “That is a better assessment. Now, what should I do with you?”

  “Your guards could easily dispense with me.”

  “That is one answer, no doubt.” He twitched his tail, then pointed the tip at me. “But my job is to find the best answer in every situation in a galaxy that almost never has good answers.”

  “Dispensing with me would certainly not be my choice for best answer.”

  He bared his teeth. “No, no it wouldn’t. It’s also fairly permanent, and I like to keep my options open.”

  “That’s wise. Is that wisdom the reason for why you became a Peacemaker? You clearly did well as a trader in the Wathayat.”

  His tail circled idly as he stared at me. “Few know that. You’re making yourself more dispensable.”

  “It’s easy enough to discover.”

  “If you know where to look. You clearly do.”

  “Your job is to find the best answer in bad situations. People like you employ my company to discover things that help them find better answers. My boss says I’m the best he has.”

  “If you’re not his best, you’re capable.”

  “I think so. And here’s why I care.” I described the attack in Houston. “I think you care, too, because of the events on Cimaron 283133-6A.”

  “Even if you’re right, I’m a Peacemaker. My hands are tied.”

  “To an extent.”

  “Yes.” He flicked his tail irritably.

  “Is that why you sent your nephew and gave the Foresters new CASPers?”

  His tail circled as he thought about how to best answer the question. “It was a factor,” he admitted.

  “I suppose you know someone destroyed your gift to the Foresters, right?”

  “No, I didn’t.” His tail stood straight up. “What happened?”

  I described what I knew of the convoy ambush.

  “I’ve not seen or heard any hint of this,” he snarled.

  “Binnig has done everything they can to hush it up, and you’re many light-years from Earth. It’s not surprising.”

  “Perhaps.” His tail twitched.

  “It’s another attack on the Foresters.”

  “Yes.” His tail drooped ever so slightly. “I’ve learned a good deal about them since dispatching their officer through an airlock.”

  “That left a bad taste in your mouth.”

  “I wouldn’t be speaking to you otherwise.”

  I grinned. “I hear that often.”

  “I’ve no doubt. The question remains, what do we do now?”

  “You could start by telling me what you left out of the report from Cimaron 283133-6A.”

  “What makes you think I omitted something?”

  “I’ve been through it backward and forward, and there’s always one thing in particular missing.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Why that colony got annihilated. I don’t know how much the Sidar value the lives of individual members, but I cannot believe they would allow a massacre without perceiving some sort of gain. Yet, it seems they let the Zuparti and the Foresters do just that. Did they discover a new source of F11?”

  Tlanit’s tail swished slowly in a circle. “They didn’t find F11.”

  “So, it was red diamonds.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ve been working with Edmonds. I’ve seen some of what you’ve sent him. I discovered some interesting purchases by the Cartography Guild and certain Sidar and Zuparti enterprises.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “You arranged the current situation in the Cimaron 283133 system.”

  “Yes.” He leaned back, tail flicking back and forth. “There was no way to prevent the Sidar and Zuparti from getting access to the red diamonds. I ensured the Cartography Guild would remain so they wouldn’t have sole access to that treasure.”

  “Yes.”

  “It is unlikely that situation will remain without conflict very long.”

  “Agreed, it’s inherently unstable. The Cartography Guild has been smart about their purchases, but the Sidar and the Zuparti haven’t.”

  “Fools.”

  “Absolutely,” I agreed. “They’ve reduced the commodity value, costing everyone. I suspect there are members of the Cartography Guild who aren’t pleased.”

  “I cannot confirm that.” Tlanit’s tail swished quickly. “But some things have been brought to my attention.”

  “That explains why you’ve been so heavily involved in Zuparti cases lately.”

  “That could be a reason, yes.”

  I leaned back. “I’m still missing some breadcrumbs.”

  “Breadcrumbs?”

  “It’s a reference to an ancient Human myth about leaving bits of food along a path to guide one out of danger.”

  “That seems problematical.”

  “It’s often that way in the myth, too. However, it’s a metaphor Humans understand.”

  “So, you think following those breadcrumbs will help you understand why someone is targeting the Foresters?”

  “I can’t imagine the events on Cimaron 283133-6A and Peninnah aren’t related.”

  “It seems likely.”

  “Why did the Zuparti hire them on Six-Alfa? There are less expensive units that specialize in garrison work.”

  “That is a good question, isn’t it?” Tlanit pondered for a moment. “Here’s another bit of food to guide you. I assume you’ve looked into the past history of the Foresters?”

  “I have.”

  “So did I. It’s one reason Lieutenant MacKenzie’s interpretation of the events on Cimaron 283133-6A was so convincing. They have never committed any similar sort of infraction. However, I’m certain something is out of place. Something in that history has been omitted or added, much like in my report.”

  “Or twisted.”

  “Yes.” His tail bobbed.

  I leaned forward. “If something in their record has been altered, the Merc Guild has to be involved. Unless you can think of another source that might manipulate merc records.”

  “No other Galactic source could manipulate Human records so thoroughly. It might be possible on Earth, I suppose.”

  “I’ll check, but it would be harder than you think. If it’s the Merc Guild, that means Peepo the Veetanho. What do you know about her?”

  Tlanit’s tail stopped. “Ah, Peepo. She isn’t someone I have dealt with in an official capacity.”

  “She’s the one who brokered the contract for Cimaron 283133-6A.”

  “Peepo’s been involved wi
th nearly every Human merc contract, including the one for Cimaron 283133-6A, so that’s not terribly surprising. I read through that contract in the process of making my decision. It seemed normal for such a contract.”

  “It seemed that way to me too.” I stared at him for a while. “But you’re wondering about something else, aren’t you?”

  “Humans entered the galaxy like a whirlwind. It was turbulent before you came into the Union, but we have seen a spike in incidents since your arrival. Given what I saw on 283133-6A, I don’t believe humanity is entirely at fault for that spike.”

  He refilled his cup before continuing, “Peepo has been a part of nearly all Human merc contracts, and so the vast majority of incidents concerning Human mercenaries that come before my guild involve her to some degree.”

  “That’s an obvious correlation.”

  “Yes. I wonder if those things aren’t mere correlations.”

  “It’s the kind of thing that takes time to research.”

  “Peacemakers are well trained in research. However, we’re also busy. Especially during turbulent times.”

  “So you’re pointing me toward Peepo.”

  Tlanit’s tail bobbed. “Yes, though you already wondered about her.”

  “You said that something seemed wrong with the Foresters’ record. You didn’t give me specifics, but something triggered your instincts. That’s how I feel about Peepo.” I leaned back. “I was a merc once. My company dealt with her many times.”

  Tlanit’s tail swirled. “By sending me a message, you showed some moderate ability to infiltrate computer networks.”

  “Thank you.”

  He closed his eyes for a long moment. I assumed he was communicating via some sort of pinplant. “I’ll be on this planet for four more standard Human days. I wish you happy hunting within my personal database.”

  I got up to leave.

  “Don’t contact me again.” He twitched his tail lightly. “Unless you figure out a way to do so securely.”

  “As you wish.”

  He escorted me to the door and opened it. The GenSha guards still loomed.

  “One last thing, Human.”

  “Yes?” I turned back.

  “You’re now involved in a Peacemaker investigation. I forbid you to speak about this investigation to any sentient being within the Galactic Union. That includes informing anyone about anything we discussed today. Should you fail, all Peacemakers shall know and take appropriate action.”

  “Yes, Peacemaker,” I answered.

  Damn, it’s good to have smart allies, even if they were only allies for the moment.

  The GenSha escorted me back to my room, still looking at me suspiciously. However, they left me alone for the next three days.

  I did make a sale on the GenSha planet. A small one, just to test the waters. Elite Training might have been a front, but the vast majority of its employees were skilled and conscientious even if they didn’t know about my side of the firm. I had to generate enough sales to justify my position and maintain my identity.

  Once I got into Tlanit’s system, it took me about ten seconds to realize he had effectively secured most of his data. I could’ve broken through that security, but not without his knowing.

  I don’t think I want to get on his bad side.

  The first thing I did was to copy, bit by bit, the directory he had made available onto my sweeper. Then, I duplicated that directory on my sweeper to make sure I had a clean copy of the raw data for our techs.

  When I saw what was there, I patted myself on the back for my caution. The information was priceless. Even if Bullitt hadn’t gotten a fat contract from Binnig, he would’ve counted the data fair trade for my salary.

  He would certainly pay for years for analysts to correlate and sort the puzzle pieces.

  Tlanit had included all of the Peacemaker bulletins since humanity joined the Galactic Union. These bulletins, the Barracks Forward Readiness Reports, included news and notes from across the galaxy. Most of what was in the “Biffers” was publicly available on the GalNet, but there were always clues hidden in the information, and the way it was presented. I spent a couple of days looking for tidbits related to the Foresters and the Zuul in those Biffers.

  The real treasure Tlanit wanted me to find was a hidden subdirectory with several security triggers. If there was anything else on this side of his firewall that had more security, I wasn’t smart enough to find it.

  The subdirectory held three items. I already had item one, the letter from Tlanit to Edmonds.

  Item two worried me. It was Tlanit’s notes on the Foresters. It included Peacemaker and Galactic Union bureaucratic notes and a complete copy of everything on the Foresters’ computers. I went through the data, comparing it to what I had lifted when I visited Edmonds in his office. It matched, almost too well.

  Tlanit has impressive sources.

  Unless there was some way to remotely access the Foresters’ data, someone had to carry that data out of their buildings.

  Either someone like me or a mole.

  I searched for network metadata, but he had stripped most of it. The rest he had encrypted, and it would take the tech guys to break it. He made sure I wouldn’t know where it came from, but he wanted me to know how much he knew about the Foresters.

  After prowling through the data for a couple of hours without learning anything new, I turned to the third item.

  This was the bombshell. It was a video of a Zuul unit being mowed down by a unit of CASPer Mk 6s emblazoned with the Foresters’ badge. The location of the massacre seemed fairly obvious given the size and type of the trees in the background.

  The Foresters slaughtered captive prisoners on Maquon? When the hell did they do that and why didn’t everyone know?

  I looked through every conflict between the Zuul and the Foresters on file with the Merc Guild. I searched through Tlanit’s data for any other time the two had had opposing contracts. The Foresters had only fought the Zuul on Cimaron 283133-6A, Peninnah, and Maquon.

  There was no evidence in the official database that the Foresters had casually killed mercs who had surrendered to them. Not once. Not against any species.

  Yet here was video proof the Foresters had done just that.

  I checked the footage for editing. Bullitt had forensic techs who specialized in tearing video files apart bit by bit. They might find something, but I could not. There was no evidence the file had been edited. The time stamps synced. There was no hidden data embedded in the file. The electronic watermarks proved it was Merc Guild footage.

  Damn! The Foresters faced the Tahrietha Trackers on Maquon. That was when the remains of that unit were folded into the Stalkers. They really didn’t come home and that’s a damn good reason for the Zuul to hate the Foresters.

  Yet it still didn’t make sense. The Foresters seemed completely surprised by the campaign against them. If his troopers had massacred anyone, Edmonds would have reached out to make reparations. I looked for any such communication from him to the Zuul commanders, but there were almost no communications between any Human and Zuul units.

  There’d’ve been rumors. Some grunt would’ve told the story over a beer in a place like the Lyon’s Den.

  It was possible, I conceded, that I hadn’t heard that rumor, but neither the Lyon nor Bullitt had mentioned something like that. If they had had any inkling, they would never have helped Edmonds. It had to be one of those devious and indirect attacks Tlanit mentioned in his letter.

  I drummed my fingers on the table for a while, contemplating exactly how I’d execute such a scheme. It wouldn’t be difficult, if you had the resources. Creating a video that would withstand moderate forensic analysis and making a unit disappear wasn’t easy, but dozens of entities had sufficient resources.

  It was doable.

  I had too many questions, and I knew I’d want to talk to Tlanit again. I didn’t know if I could find a secure way to reach him, but I left a file giving him a secure way to r
each me. Then I grabbed the first shuttle to the African Queen.

  “How’d it go?” asked Captain Allnut once I was aboard.

  “Get us back to Earth as quickly as possible. I need a night at the Lyon’s Den.”

  “Don’t we all.” She laughed, and clicked her comm. “XO, give me 1.5 Gs.”

  I hoped that was fast enough.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 16 – Rick Blaine

  Foresters House

  469 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario

  There was a Tim Horton’s on every corner in Toronto, not to mention kiosks in every major building. For all I knew, it was Canadian law to have one on every streetcorner in the entire country. I had visited several in Owen Sound, too, while I tested the Foresters’ electronic security there.

  The one I currently occupied had the advantage of sitting within sight of the Foresters’ House on Jarvis. I ate a butter tart with raisins as I casually pried into every emission coming out of the building.

  As of yet, I hadn’t been able to get into any of their systems, but I was willing to get another tart and try again.

  I’ve had worse ideas, so I implemented it. I even got a box of TimBits to go. By the time I finished the second tart, I had to admit that the Peacemakers probably didn’t get the Foresters’ data through a lack of security.

  It was probably a human leak.

  I sighed and went to their office.

  “Good morning, Corporal Stanley. I come bearing gifts.” I set the box of TimBits on his desk.

  “Thank you, sir.” He got up and leaned through the office door. “Mr. Blaine is here, Master Warrant Officer.”

  “Send him in.”

  I entered, sat down, and went through the usual security procedures. There were always useful questions to ask. I had time to do a deeper scan of the Foresters’ computers. I was looking for any hint of the massacre on Maquon. I also pulled any records about their time on Maquon to see what I could find. I probably duplicated all the searches I had made on previous visits, but it never hurt to look.

  When I leaned back, Russell asked, “What have you found out?”

  “About the Binnig attack? Not much. We have some suspicions, but nothing conclusive yet.”