Kris Longknife Stalwart

by Mike Shepherd

  "Then why was the other guy running just blocks from the explosion?"

  Now the Iteeche did scowl. "That is a question you must ask him. He was supposed to have met me several more blocks out, then he called me to meet him way too close to the bombing. I should have just left him like a fish gasping for water on land as the tide goes out.”

  Kris had Nelly search for information on the clans this prisoner had implicated.

  "The other prisoner has named the same clans," she told Kris.

  "Good, now, why did this other nutcase go back in?"

  "The sergeant already asked him."

  "Show me."

  The holograph again showed the sergeant and the prisoner seated. Now they were across the table, and the bomber was refilling his whiskey glass. From the low level of whiskey in the jug he had likely drunk it dry at least twice. Maybe more.

  "I'm sorry, but I don't get it," the sergeant said. "You said you had a timer on the explosives. If I'd set a bomb, I'd have been halfway to the next star when it went off. Why were you only a few blocks away, on street level, and not a whole lot of blocks away running up the sewer drains?"

  The Iteeche took a long pull on his glass, just about emptying it. Then he let out a deep sigh. "My boss's boss told me that they weren't sure the timer would go off on time, so they rigged a backup. If I pushed a button, I could blow up the building, but I'd need to be above ground to do it."

  The guy finished his drink, then refilled it again. "The time came and went, and nothing happened. I used the tunnels to get back inside your security cordon, then slipped up to the surface and ducked out to get a good line of sight to the building."

  He took another drink.

  "It blew just as I was about to push the button. It just blew! Late, but it blew. With all the smoke, dirt, and dust spewing out of the access to the tunnels, I panicked and ran. I figured that if I was caught, I could bite my tooth and die with glory for the cause."

  Another long drink.

  "But you jammed that metal cage in my mouth and I couldn't close my teeth!” he shouted. "So, you caught us both, and I've lost my chance to be a clan lordling and I have to start all over again in the Navy. The Navy of all places. Only the leftovers from Choosing are in the Navy."

  "I think you may find that not to be the case," the Marine sergeant said.

  The Iteeche snorted. "So, when do I get started in the Navy?" He made it a four-letter word.

  "First, you might want to sleep off all the whiskey you've drunk. Second, we'll just have to wait to see how the intelligence you've given us develops.”

  "Oh," the Iteeche said, and reached for his bottle. He watched, eyes growing wide, as it drained before him.

  "Don't you think you've had enough?" the sergeant said.

  "I don't know if I'll ever have enough," the Iteeche said, then rolled out of his chair and sprawled across the deck on his back.

  "Nelly, give me a view of the sergeant's prisoner's cell."

  He, also, was sprawled on his back, snoring.

  "Nelly, we don't want him to choke to death on his own vomit. I might need to use him again. Roll him over on his stomach and get his bunk under him. Let his head half-hang off the side."

  "You care this much about this . . . traitor?" Admiral Tong snapped.

  "I may need him to tell us more. So, yes, I will keep him alive, and I strongly suspect that when he's in your command, you do the same. The next time I need to break a prisoner and get him talking, I may have him or his associate over there talk to them. If people can trust you, they'll talk. If the word gets around that people vanish, they don't talk."

  "But you intend to make them disappear into my fleet?"

  "Yes, but I don't have to tell anyone that. I could tell the clan lords we're likely to be talking to tomorrow that I'm shipping them off to do time at a Human prison."

  "Oh."

  "Yep. Keep your options open."

  "And your opposition confused," the Iteeche admiral added.

  "You got it. Now. What Iteeche clan chiefs do we talk to first and how do I swoop in and take a whole lot of Iteeche into detention without causing me any more trouble?" Kris mused.

  42

  Kris expanded her small number of confidants seated around her table. At the moment, that was exactly one. She added a stool at her conference table for Larry, Balan's Planetary Overlord.

  "I have some confessions I'd like to share with you," Kris said, and let him view holographs of the two Iteeche bombers spilling their guts.

  When the show ended, the Overlord was livid. "I will arrest that one's supervisor immediately. We can have both of them immediately offer a Most Sincere and Very Complete Apology to the Emperor at the same time. I'd arrest the other supervisor, but he is on a Battleship of State and, I assume, under your jurisdiction. Still, we can have all four of their apologies on the media before sunset."

  "I would prefer not to," Kris said.

  "You want the apologies sooner?" the Planetary Overlord asked.

  "Actually, I have made arrangements for these two bombers to disappear as soon as we resolve this matter."

  "You cannot let treason prosper!" said the Planetary Overlord, interrupting Kris.

  "I assure you, this treason will not prosper," Kris cut right back in. "However, I want the real traitors, not the poor fools they set up to take the fall."

  "Fall?"

  "Pardon me, poor translation. I want an apology from the members of the clans higher up the food chain. These are small fish. There are bigger fish above these two. Then there is the biggest fish that ordered all this. That is the apology I want filmed and broadcast to the winds."

  The Planetary Overlord eyed Kris as if she had two heads.

  Admiral Tong broke in with an explanation. "Do you cut the finger, then the hands, then the arms off of an octopus?" he asked the other Iteeche.

  FINGERS, HANDS? Kris asked Nelly.

  OUR TRANSLATIONS ARE FAILING IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. HUMAN WORDS DO NOT FIT HANDS AND FINGERS. SIMILARLY, OCTOPUS DOESN'T QUITE FIT THE CREATURE. OKAY?

  THANKS, NELLY.

  Meanwhile, the admiral was still talking.

  "I have seen a picture of how the Humans think of fish hunting. A small fish swims along placidly. Behind it is a big fish, ready to swallow it down. A bigger fish follows it, mouth open. Behind all of them is the biggest fish, ready to snap them up. My Most Eminent Admiral considers these bombers just small fish, following orders."

  Larry eyed the Iteeche admiral askance. He still was not getting the picture.

  "She wants to reel in the big fish behind those that gave them the orders. Once she gets that fish talking, she can drop a hook into the water to snag the bigger fish who is the only one who can tell us who the biggest fish is. That is the fish our Human Commander of the Imperial Combined Fleets wants to see make that apology. Oh, and she has an idea for making that apology most painful and very long."

  "How?"

  So, the Iteeche admiral told the Planetary Overlord of Kris's idea for skipping the snake-biting part of the ritual and using a syringe to measure out exactly how much venom was needed for a long, excruciating death.

  "Do not mistake the canny way our admiral hunts. I would never want to be the one she pursues."

  "Hmm," Larry said, thinking long and hard on what he'd just been told. Then he turned to Kris.

  "So, how would you Humans go about reeling in the fish you are after?"

  "I would cast a broad net, take them all into custody, then interrogate them one at a time. I'd let my commander, here," Kris said, giving Megan a well-deserved wave of approval, "talk to them one at a time. As we get each one's confession, we find out who ordered the bombings. Then we talk to them. We do this as often as we have to until we get to the top."

  "You would go after a clan lord?"

  "Who is most guilty of the crime, the one who sets the timer, or the one that ordered the entire operation? Who will profit most from the bombings, the little fis
h, or the biggest fish at the top?"

  The two Iteeche exchanged glances, then began to talk quickly to each other. Nelly wisely did not translate their conversation. At least, not out loud.

  "KRIS, IT IS JUST DAWNING ON THE PLANETARY OVERLORD HOW OFTEN THEY HAVE PROMPTLY EXECUTED THE LITTLE FISH AND NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF PURSUING THE CLAN LORD BEHIND IT ALL. I THINK LARRY IS SHAKEN BY THE REALIZATION OF HOW THE ITEECHE WAY SHIELDED THE REAL CRIMINAL.

  SO, NELLY, IT LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER FISH IS DISCOVERING WATER.

  DISCOVERING WATER AND THE FISHBOWL THEY SWIM IN. I SUSPECT THERE WILL BE SOME SERIOUS EFFORTS TO BREAK THE GLASS.

  I FEEL LIKE THE SNAKE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN HANDING OUT FREE APPLES LEFT AND RIGHT.

  KRIS, ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? TO BREAK THE GLASS? TO HAVE THE ITEECHE FREE THEMSELVES OF THE CONSTRAINTS THEIR SYSTEM HAS CONFINED THEM TO?

  YES, NELLY, BUT IF YOU SHATTER THE FISHBOWL, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FISH? THEY END UP FLOUNDERING AROUND ON THE FLOOR, GASPING FOR BREATH.

  YES, KRIS, BUT WHAT IF THE FISHBOWL IS BROKEN OVER THE OCEAN? WHAT IF THEIR EYES ARE OPENED AND THEY DISCOVER THE ENTIRE SEA TO SWIM IN?

  AREN'T YOU BEING A BIT OF AN OPTIMIST, NELLY?

  I WORK FOR A LONGKNIFE. IT'S EASY TO BE AN OPTIMIST WHEN YOU EXPECT MIRACLES.

  THANK YOU, NELLY, FOR THAT VOTE OF CONFIDENCE.

  YOU'RE WELCOME. THEY ARE FINISHING UP.

  The voice in Kris's head fell silent.

  "What would a Human who hunted the biggest fish do now?” the Planetary Overlord asked.

  "I would dispatch my police officers and soldiers to make the arrests, but I'd wait until two hours after midnight, when everyone is asleep. Then I would swoop down, capture them, haul them off to solitary cells so they couldn't concoct a story to confuse me. Then I'd start working my way up the food chain. I don't know if Admiral Tong has told you, but I'd offer lesser penalties if they talk, an excruciating death if they didn't."

  "How do you keep them from taking the honorable way out?"

  Kris smiled. A moment later, a dental dam appeared on the table. "I make sure we jam this into their mouths before they know what's happening," she said, tossing the device over to him.

  The Planetary Overlord looked at the object. Admiral Tong then held it up and slipped it between his beaks and into his mouth. He had to pull it out before he could say, "No one will bite a tooth with this jammed in their mouth."

  "Very good," Larry said.

  Over the next hour, they worked out the logistics of an operation. This would be an all Iteeche drill, with Iteeche arresting Iteeche.

  As the day wore on, several more battalions of Marines would go down the beanstalk to reinforce troops around the bombed area. People were coming back and traffic was horrible. There were also needs for security to assure that no one got into the wrong apartment.

  That would keep the Iteeche Marines busy for the daylight hours.

  Platoons of Iteeche Marine MPs would also be mixed in with the line beasts. They would lead the assault on the clan headquarters along with the police of the Planetary Overlord.

  However, no one would get any orders before midnight. Indeed, Nelly intended to guide the lead arresting vehicles while more followed, unaware of where they were going. Not one Iteeche would know what they were doing until the trap was closed. Then and only then would the raiders open their order and discover that they were to arrest every Iteeche on the top three floors of a luxury high rise.

  This sept wasn't large enough to have a palace, so they had to settle for the upper floors of a very nice high rise. To save money, most of their minions were housed in less pricy quarters several blocks away. They included the supervisor who had passed along the orders to the bomber. He'd skipped over two layers of minor supervisors to go direct to the bomber.

  Kris guessed that was meant to reduce the chances of a leak. Now it improved the chances of getting the top Iteeche.

  The raid on the Battleship of State that housed the sept of the first bomber would be more complex. Clearly, everyone in that sept had to be snapped up.

  However, there was the matter of the minor clan chief. Was he involved in this project? If he was, how many of his people were? A major potential problem was that this sept was riding in the lead Battleship of State.

  This ship housed a third of the Iteeche who would rule the first planet.

  That raised a very serious question. Had the frustrated Planetary Overlord-to-be been a part of this scheme? Should they snatch Sam at the same time as the others? How do you hold a Planetary Overlord while you decide he's a mass murder?

  That was a very thorny problem. It likely came with plenty of poison dripping from every spine and barb.

  43

  Kris held this secret in a very small circle of confidants. However, there was no way for her to keep the guessing game in the rumor mill from churning out crazy ideas.

  Some, of course, were very close to the truth.

  The word that the two bombers had been captured and failed to suicide got out.

  Jack suggested that they had enough mangled and unrecognizable Iteeche bodies on hand that a pair of unrecognizable corpses could be "identified" as the bombers

  So, they produced two badly burned bodies and created the first media circus ever to occur in the Iteeche Empire. They even left the mouths hanging open so the camera could see where they'd each crushed a suicide tooth.

  Unfortunately, someone around the initial arrest reported they were alive.

  Larry had several people, from middle clan rank to clanless, report all sorts of places where the bodies had been found. Some insisted there had been no explosion, others insisted there had.

  Who was it who said that the truth needed a bodyguard of lies? Kris provided this truth with an army of lies.

  Meanwhile, Admiral Tong and his undercover agents kept the Battleships of State under close observation. Several of the cooks from the battleships went ashore to buy fresh fish and vegetation with their own bearers. Those from the Battleship of State they were interested in quickly were replaced by undercover agents and slipped into the kitchens aboard. From there, they spread out, taking food to different dining rooms. That quickly gave them a map of who was billeted where. That map was quickly passed ashore to the select group planning the invasion of that Battleship of State.

  The rumor mill continued to churn. With the cooks and helpers aboard, Kris and Admiral Tong heard plenty of new stories. The flood of guesses was like a tsunami, slamming through the ship and washing away the truth.

  Several minor officials from quite a few septs did their best to slip off the ship. Many of them attached themselves to a line of carriers following one of the replacement cooks ashore to get more delicacies.

  No sooner did they slip away from the line and head for the space elevator than MPs in plain clothes picked them up and hauled them off to a solitary cell on the Princess Royal.

  It took little pressure to get them talking. They were terrified to start with and only wanted to assure their Iteeche interrogator that they had nothing to do with the bombings. They'd only heard about it after the fact.

  Unfortunately, most of their stories were hearsay, and all from different storytellers. However, a few central themes began to take shape.

  Most of them agreed that the identified clan was involved, "but not me," was quick on the lips of those who shared the same sept with the bombers or just the middling clan relationship. That tightened the noose around that clan lord.

  There were reports of the clan chief dining with the future Planetary Overlord, but those were mostly fifth- or sixth-hand. At least they were until a clerk in the office of the Clan Chief tried to run. It didn't take long for him to verify that supper with the Planetary Overlord had been on the Clan Chief's schedule the day they docked.

  "Really, I have no idea what they talked about," he insisted. "No one tells me anything about what goes on in clan meetings. I know nothing."

  Megan sat in on this int
errogation, her back against the wall, listening and not interfering. The questioning had been returned to the interrogators. Kris didn't want any Iteeche to fell supplanted.

  However, it seemed that the several of the official inquisitors hated how easily they were getting people to talk. A few had continued the standard Iteeche torture that was included with any talk with the police. After a few minor parts of the story fell from the beaks of black and blue Iteeche, Megan began to sit in on the interrogations.

  Megan notified Kris when the Iteeche MPs were finished with this slight fellow. She stepped away from the wall and circled the clerk where he stood, his feet chained to the floor in an otherwise bare room.

  "Tell me," she said, tossing on the table in front of the Iteeche what passed for a delicious candy bar. "When was this dinner meeting scheduled?"

  "A couple of hours before we docked," the Iteeche clerk immediately stammered out, his eyes focused on the sweet.

  "How many hours before?"

  "I don't remember for sure. Three or four hours."

  Kris scowled at the holograph of the interrogation. This minor bureaucrat could not know when the Planetary Overlord of Balan chose to offer to surrender, so he would not understand how important the timing was.

  As Kris turned back to the holograph, her key staff for this operation was watching with her.

  "Who asked for the meeting?" Megan asked.

  The Iteeche looked up from eyeing the food on the floor and named a clan lord from yet another minor sept in a different clan.

  Kris's scowl grew deeper. Yet another clan to add to the raid. However, that clan lord could easily be the cutout between the pissed off future Planetary Overlord and the clan that did his bidding.

  This was getting very interesting.

  The questioning continued, with Kris trying to wean the MPs of their rough manhandling of the Iteeche in their charge. They grumbled, but got less heavy-handed as the day wore on. Despite the lighter hand, the minor clan lordlings in their custody continued to sing like birds.

  Their talkative questioning added little to what Kris knew, but added layers of detail to the picture. This only whetted her appetite for a talk with the clan lords that had their fingers in this pie.