by Rexx Deane
Wolfram interrupted his study. ‘Sebastian, now that we are back in network range, would you like me to search for evidence of Gladrin’s abducted family?’
He nodded without looking away from the console. ‘That would be useful, thanks.’
‘I only suggest it now, as I will be unavailable for several hours while I search.’
‘That’s fine. I’ll leave you with Aryx. If you’re still searching when we get back, you can get me on my wristcom if anything turns up.’
‘Very well.’ The cube’s lights began flashing.
‘I really quite like him,’ Aryx said.
Sebastian laughed. ‘I bet you wouldn’t say that if he was listening.’
Aryx smirked. ‘Probably not – I’d never hear the end of it, either.’
Sebastian turned his attention back to the logs. After a few minutes he was satisfied they contained nothing incriminating. Time to check in. ‘Computer, call SpecOps Agent Gladrin.’
Moments later, Gladrin’s sombre face appeared on the screen. ‘Hello, Agent Thorsson. How goes the investigation?’
‘We are on our way back from tracking down the manufacturers of the faulty fire protection sensor. It appears the lab was fitted with one sourced from a “bad batch”.’ His stomach turned as he said it.
‘I see … And what caused the damage to your ship recorded in the repair logs?’
His heart fluttered. He had to think on his feet. ‘We tracked down the source of one of the components, and it turned out to be a mining colony in an asteroid belt. We had an incident with a spacefaring rock, which left us with a damaged thruster manifold and several disrupted conduits that caused the escape pod to eject. It also damaged our communications array. We had to stop at Kimberley depot to repair it before heading home.’
‘I see, well that explains your lack of communication. Unfortunate that something as expensive as an escape pod should get lost, though. Part of that will have to come out of your insurance, I’m afraid.’ Gladrin’s frown was a little too convincing.
Sebastian grimaced. ‘Sorry, Sir. I’ll try to be more careful in future.’ It would still be a considerable price to pay when his insurance went up, even on his newly inflated wages, but at least he didn’t have to worry about Erik’s school fees for the time being.
‘And what of the scientist working in the laboratory? My records indicate he had connections with the Independent Terran Front.’
‘I haven’t been able to verify that, Sir.’
‘EarthSec have insisted on increased station security regardless – you know how they are. They see his potential connection with terrorists to be more than coincidental, and still believe the explosion may be down to an attack. I tried to get them to hold off acting on that assumption but, even with your evidence, I do not believe I could change their minds. They have decided to assign Karan Tallin as Trevarian’s security detail on the station for as long as he is your engineering consultant.
‘Also, there is a Bronadi security officer, Deruno, coming aboard in a couple of weeks. For some reason the embassy requested his transfer from Kimberley depot – perhaps you made an impression? In light of the security escalation and his considerable munitions experience, security accepted the transfer request.’
Sebastian glanced at Aryx, who nodded enthusiastically. He found himself agreeing with his mood: it would be a change to work with one of the other races – he’d found Bronadi in general to be a little gruff and direct, but likeable.
Gladrin continued. ‘I can imagine you’ve had a rough few days, so we’ll leave the formalities for now. I would like to have a meeting with you later, however.’
‘I’ll let you know when we arrive. We’re only an hour away. Once I’ve settled in, I’ll give you a call.’
‘Very well, I’ll see you then. Gladrin out.’ The comms went blank.
He let out a slow breath and collapsed in his seat.
‘That went well,’ Aryx said. ‘For someone with such professional integrity, I didn’t realise you were so good at lying.’
Sebastian glared at him, pulled the hood off the N-suit, and threw it at him.
***
The ship docked smoothly with Tenebrae and within minutes was waiting in the queue for the central hub. Sebastian was glad to be back under the purple cloak of the nebula once again after so many hours of spaceflight. To be home.
He got up and made his way to the ladder. ‘Are you alright to take the ship on to the repair bay?’
‘Yeah,’ Aryx said. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I need to check in at the office, and this suit needs a clean – it’s disgusting.’ He glanced at the cube. The lights were no longer flashing. ‘Wolfram?’
‘Yes?’
‘You’ve finished? You’re quiet.’
‘I have completed my searches.’
Aryx drummed the console with a finger. ‘And?’
‘It would appear that Gladrin’s family has disappeared.’
‘We know that,’ Sebastian said. ‘They were kidnapped and are being held hostage by the ITF.’
‘That is not what I mean. Their records have been deleted.’
‘By whom? Gladrin?’
‘No. The clearance required to delete information from the Galactic societal database would be of the highest security level.’
Aryx slowly shook his head. ‘It’s unbelievable. For someone to delete social records it would take a government level clearance—’
‘—and only then for reasons of cultural security,’ Sebastian said. ‘And you’re right, it would have to be someone very high up. My father told me years ago that Witness Protection would sometimes delete records and issue new identities when people were at risk from criminal organisations. I don’t understand how they would even know about Gladrin’s family if he hadn’t reported their abduction to EarthSec. But … if they were under witness protection, why would the ITF claim to be holding them?’
Aryx leaned forwards in his seat. ‘What are you thinking?’
Sebastian’s mind worked overtime while he paced back and forth. ‘Why would terrorists claim to have his family if they didn’t?’ He stopped pacing and stared out of the cockpit window; the pieces were beginning to fall into place. ‘If the ITF had agents working in Witness Protection, it might make sense to place Gladrin’s family with them, rather than keeping guards and security on them all the time and risking their escape. They could have been convinced not to contact Gladrin for their own safety, or they could have been placed somewhere away from any possibility of contact with him. Without contacts in Witness Protection, Gladrin wouldn’t be able to find out anything.’
‘Wouldn’t he know his family’s records had been deleted?’
‘Maybe it hasn’t occurred to him to look, or he was too scared to investigate?’
‘So, what do we do?’
‘To be honest, I have no idea, but if all this stuff with the ITF goes further than we think, we have to be careful, especially if it involves people in government agencies.’
‘That’s it, then!’ Aryx folded his arms defiantly. ‘I’m not submitting my patent if there’s any chance the design might get passed from the government to the terrorists.’
Sebastian patted him on the shoulder and sat down beside him. ‘It’s your call. I’ll admit it’s scary. On the upside, it means Gladrin’s family are probably safe for now.’
‘You should inform him,’ Wolfram said. ‘He will certainly be relieved by the news.’
‘Can you access the information on his family’s reassignment?’ Aryx asked.
‘No. Those records are sealed and held in a datacentre on Earth with no connection to external sources.’
‘Bugger. Is there any way to check for records in the society database that were created after they went missing?’
‘That wouldn’t help either,’ Sebastian said. ‘The identity records will be added with a backdated creation timestamp and made to look genuine by hashing the encryption
with those dates.’
Aryx shrugged. ‘It was worth a shot.’
‘Good idea, though.’ Sebastian stood up again and made his way to the ladder. The ship had come to a standstill in the hub docking bay. ‘I have to go. The sooner I see Gladrin, the better.’
‘See you tomorrow, then? We’ll go for a proper drink.’
‘Definitely. Once I’ve got to the bottom of these dreams. I need some uninterrupted downtime!’ He continued down the ladder and left the ship.
***
Sebastian took the lift terminals to the security department. The view from the windows into the atrium showed no sign of the damage incurred by the tsunami, and the chatter in the department had calmed down to a normal level. He was met with prolonged stares as he walked past his colleagues’ desks on the way to his office.
He arrived to find the evidence crate gone – probably disposed of by Gladrin – and started skimming through the job list. Work had been stacking up; the other teams hadn’t been able to cope with some of the more complex coding tasks they’d been assigned.
A knock from behind made him jump and he spun around in his chair. His supervisor, Eleanor Bannik, stuck her head through the door. Oh Gods. He wanted to crawl under the desk.
‘Sebastian, do you have a minute?’ There had to be something wrong: she never called him by his first name.
He wanted to say no, but couldn’t think of an adequate excuse not to talk to the woman. ‘Um sure. Please, come in.’
She stepped around the door, pushed her back against it, then closed the privacy blinds. What was she doing?
‘I know you don’t like me, Sebastian, and I may come across as a stone-cold bitch sometimes, but that’s part of my job. I can’t say I enjoy having to act like that, but such is life.’ She pulled over the spare chair and sat down next to him. ‘I’ve been following your progress since the explosion and have tried to catch up with you on several occasions, but you seem to have been rather busy off-station.’
‘Tell me about it.’
She brought the chair closer and whispered, ‘Do you know why I put your name forward to SpecOps?’
He slowly shook his head. ‘Something to do with my personality, like Gladrin said?’
‘Partly. I’ve suspected that something was up with him for a while. Whenever he was on the station, he was cagier than the other SpecOps agents I’d met, but I didn’t know if it was because of his status or not, so I did some checking and found out he was receiving large sums of money. Money that didn’t come from SpecOps.’
Sebastian narrowed his eyes. How much did she know? Could she be trusted with the truth? He stared at her and she squinted back; her eyes looked normal. Perhaps she could.
‘I thought you might pick up on anything “off” about him. You seem quite perceptive, so I put your name down in the hope that you could get close to him, find something out. I need to know whether he’s a security risk.’
He closely watched the lines of her face as she spoke. No twitches, no high veins: her story seemed too revealing to be subterfuge. ‘He’s not a risk.’
The fine creases of her face smoothed, almost imperceptibly – a change impossible to fake.
‘He believes the ITF have his family captive. They’ve been using him to tap SpecOps resources to research weapons technology. The explosion was an accident caused by someone whose research he was funding. Initially the research was altruistic and had what I’d consider virtuous benefits, but unfortunately the ITF’s involvement twisted it.’ He didn’t see a need to bring magic into the already complex picture. ‘After I presented the evidence to him, he captured my family to coerce me into compliance with the ITF, but I managed to free them and got the truth out of him.’
She drew in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. ‘I see. I never thought he’d stoop so low, but that certainly explains his behaviour. I assume you’ve been able to corroborate his story?’
‘I just uncovered evidence that indicates his family may not actually be held by the ITF directly, but may have been reassigned by agents they have in Witness Protection. I’m going to tell him when I see him.’
She leaned back in the chair. ‘So where do we go from here?’
‘I already agreed to play along with the ITF’s demands, within reason, until we find out where his family is.’
‘Hmm. I’m not entirely sure that’s the right thing to do, but I’ll leave you to it. If it goes that high in the ranks, I’d be better off having plausible deniability and not knowing the full story. Not because I want to protect myself – I simply don’t want to give them any more leverage against you than they might already have. That said, if you get in too deep, I’ll be there for you.’ She stood, moved towards the door, and opened it slightly. ‘Oh, and I heard about your antics on Sollers Hope … You know, I had to pull quite a few strings to put in a map-change request with AstroTerra just to keep the mayor quiet.’
‘Thank you.’ He smiled.
Her eyes creased, and she laughed. ‘Just remember, when we’re around anyone else, I’m a stone-cold bitch!’
He saluted. ‘Yes ma’am!’ The Ice Queen had finally melted.
She looked through the door before stepping out. ‘Now, go and have your damned meeting!’ she shouted, slamming it behind her. Gods, you wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
Sebastian turned back to his desk and composed a message instructing Gladrin to meet him in two hours by the fountain in the atrium’s mall. Another knock at the door caused him to jerk his head around and something twanged painfully. Anyone would think this place was the docking hub.
‘Come in.’
Karan stuck her head through the door. Somehow, she managed to look bright and bubbly, despite her hair and civilian clothes being plastered with sweat. He baulked at the thought of the conversation about to ensue, but he couldn’t avoid his friends forever.
‘How’s it going?’ she asked.
‘You really don’t want to know.’
She pulled the chair over, turned it around, and sat astride it with her arms draped over the back. ‘Oh, I really do.’
‘I don’t have time to go over it all now. I’ve got to get my suit cleaned, and I have to meet Gladrin.’ He pressed the send key on the terminal and deactivated the display.
‘I’ll walk with you.’ Obviously, there was no escaping her.
He rubbed his neck and felt it twinge. He had to get rid of the knot before it got worse and seized him up completely. ‘Sod it – I’m going to the spa afterwards. Come on.’
As they left the office and made their way to the changing room, Sebastian caught several sheepish glances from his co-workers.
If only they knew.
Chapter 47
The changing room was empty when they arrived. Karan stripped off her sodden clothes and stepped into one of the shower cubicles.
‘So, is this case of yours all wrapped up now?’
Sebastian spoke with his back to her. It was uncomfortable watching his friend while she showered. ‘I suppose so, apart from having to track down Gladrin’s family.’ It was a relief to finally be able to tell her something about what had been going on, and he didn’t have an excuse to keep her out of the loop if she was going to be working as Aryx’s protection.
‘I can’t say I like the idea of these demon things of yours having agents in the government. It’s downright freaky, if you ask me.’
‘It’s more of a guess, really.’ He changed into his casual clothes and put the N-suit in the locker for cleaning. ‘And I agree – it’s horrible. I don’t know who to trust now.’
‘Well, I’m sure you’ll root them out eventually.’
‘Me? Government stuff has nothing to do with me!’
‘Rubbish.’ She stepped out of the shower and began drying herself. ‘If you’ve discovered a conspiracy, you’re the ideal one to investigate it.’
He grumbled.
‘You know I’m right, and if we’ve got to work together, you know
I’ll just keep on at you about it. I’m sure Aryx will agree.’
He put his hands up. ‘Fine! For Gods’ sakes.’ His sanity wouldn’t stand them both hounding him.
Karan rubbed her hair with a towel. ‘I’ll be glad to get out of the office for something other than arrests or chasing down handbag snatchers, even if it is only guard duty. You know I almost considered a career change?’
‘Was that why you were so nosy when I got the SpecOps job?’
‘Yeah, but I’m really happy for you. I don’t think I could have handled all that detective stuff. Nice you got to meet the Folians, though.’ She finished pulling on her uniform and patted her hips. ‘Bugger, I’ve left my belt in my apartment! I’ll have to go and get it, or I’ll be late for my shift.’ She darted out of the doorway and immediately stuck her head back around the corner. ‘And you, get in that spa ASAP – you look like crap.’
‘Thanks.’ He laughed. ‘See you tomorrow.’ He was about to wave, but she’d already gone. As he pulled on his socks and shoes, his neck twinged again. The spa called his name.
The gym and baths were empty when he arrived. In fact, with everything being quieter, one had to wonder whether the tsunami had put visitors off the station altogether. He quickly changed into a pair of trunks and walked up the steps leading towards the brown, bubbling sludge of the Antari mud bath. It was always nice to relax there first, then clean up and sit in the jet-spa; he loved the feeling of his skin afterwards. It was also one of Aryx’s favourite ways to relax, and it was he who had introduced Sebastian to the little ritual.
He stepped down into the plopping, burbling liquid, sinking up to his neck, and shuffled around to one of the submerged seats on the opposite side. He lay back and rested his head on the padded surround. The mud was warm and soothing; the earthy scent instantly reminded him of Achene. The heat and sensation of weightlessness overcame him and he slowly lost his grip on the here and now, and drifted into a deep slumber.