Brandon just nodded.
Chapter 18
“I’m Peter Prescott, assistant to Director of Homeland Security John Brandon,” the man on the screen announced.
“Hang on,” April said, splitting her screen and running a search on the name and title.
“OK, I see you online. Nice picture on the department site too. What do you want?”
“I’d like to arrange the transfer you publicly offered of Mr. Hall in exchange for the operative you are holding.”
“What’s to arrange?” April asked. “Put Irwin on a plane headed to any free country and I’ll make sure your guy is on the next scheduled shuttle to ISSII. For that matter, Irwin is a big boy. Turn him loose at any airport and he has credit to buy his own ticket anywhere he wants to go. That’s also why I’m not asking you to show me your authority. It doesn’t matter what you say, only what you do.”
“Surely there are other conditions,” Prescott said. “We certainly would like to have some guarantees you won’t turn this trade into a public spectacle.”
“It’s kind of late for that, I mean, how much more of a spectacular can I make than an orbital bombardment?” April asked him.
“Your statements and the tone of them in your communications are of as much or more concern to us than the physical damages that have occurred.”
“Ahhh, OK. We think differently. You don’t want me to keep talking about it and embarrassing you after you give him back,” April figured out. “I have a life. I’m not interested in spending my time tormenting you once I have what I want. You may have even noticed my statements before each strike have been progressively shorter. Once I have Irwin free I won’t keep harping on it, I assure you.”
“Can you say the same for Mr. Hall?”
“How can I speak for him? Irwin does business with me but he isn’t my employee. Truth is, we don’t really socialize, though I’d count him a friend. Perhaps you should ask him if he’s willing to be muzzled to be released. One thing I’m sure of, if he agrees he’ll keep his word. But don’t be surprised if he’d rather sit and contemplate his navel than give you the satisfaction of yielding. Don’t mistake how quiet he is for a lack of character. Whatever story you wish to tell your public to excuse releasing him doesn’t concern me.”
Prescott stared at her. He’d asked the jailers if the banker was really still fit physically and mentally to be returned because he didn’t want his own people to trap him in a very public fraud. They’d told him just like April had, how hard and centered the man was. He still felt a disclaimer was prudent.
“I was assured he is healthy. I asked so I wouldn’t be seen as bargaining in bad faith. I can’t say he may not be traumatized. I certainly might be.”
“Send him back with all his limbs and digits and I won’t argue about his mental state,” April said. “After all, your assassin didn’t have an easy time of it here. We’ve kept him sedated so long you’re going to have to detox him. You might also make sure he doesn’t have a suicide impulse triggered that letting him return to normal will activate. That’s on you if you lose him by stupidity or on purpose.”
When Prescott didn’t react well past the signal lag April grew worried.
“What else?” Her face got hard. “You aren’t holding out for a ransom or something are you? Be happy I didn’t demand you reaffirm our old treaty. I won’t do that because bluntly, your word means nothing to me. You people have lied and lied to me too many times to fool me again. Just because I’m speaking politely doesn’t mean I don’t hate your guts, Earthie. Just push me to find out how much.”
This woman was dangerous, Prescott realized. He needed to speak quickly because just his brief silence had been misconstrued. He shook his head no to signal he’d respond and picked his words carefully.
“No, I believe I accomplished all I can. We have no further…” he caught himself before he said demands. That was probably not a good word to use, “requests. I’ll tell the Director the terms of the exchange. It should happen quickly. How do you want it reported to you?” Prescott asked.
“Give Irwin his phone back, or a new one. I’ll believe him when he tells me he is free and I can drop some security to meet him. He’s going to accept that gift from me until he’s back home or I’ll wash my hands of the whole matter and write him off as terminally stupid,” April said.
That jolted Prescott more than anything she’d said before. He couldn’t imagine what tangent this woman might take. What diplomat would threaten the person she was working to release in her next breath?”
“That, of course, is between you,” Prescott agreed. “I’ll go set it in motion right now.”
April just nodded and didn’t waste a goodbye on him before stabbing disconnect.
Prescott let out a long sigh of relief that he made it through this emotional minefield. It took a few moments to regain his composure before he called his boss.
* * *
“You are being released,” a strange man informed Irwin on his cell monitor.
Irwin had been singing an old musical he remembered from his childhood. He suspected he’d made up some of the lyrics to fill gaps in his memory. That didn’t dim his enjoyment of it at all. He’d sung it this way so many times now he probably couldn’t relearn the right words again. He finished that measure and stopped.
“Oh well, I believe it will be tacos for lunch again,” Irwin said, “so no great loss.”
Prescott still wasn’t sure this was a sane and stable individual.
“Don’t you want to know where?” Prescott asked.
“Do I have a choice?” Irwin asked. “I was on my way to Belgium if that’s an option.”
“No, France was willing to accept you after all the public… fuss. So there you go.” He hadn’t identified himself and Irwin seemed uninterested in that too.
“That will do nicely. I don’t have much packing to do,” Irwin said with a gesture around the cell. “So…”
“The guards are coming to escort you out. It’ll be just a few minutes and they’ll take you to Out Processing. For your belongings,” Prescott said.
Irwin laughed. “The bureaucratic mind is an amazing thing. After kidnapping me and forcing me here, it still has to show it is in control and will decide exactly how I must leave. I suppose they will cuff me to make sure I don’t escape on the way to my release?”
“Undoubtedly. I’m sure it’s a rule of the facility for handling prisoners. Officially, you are being expelled, so it’s not like a release after exoneration. My name is tied to you since I was tasked with this mess. I didn’t volunteer. I have an interest in seeing you safely on that plane so I can say that successfully terminated my involvement.”
“I can’t fault you there,” Irwin agreed. “I could cause you untold harm if I were vindictive and decided to escape on the way to the airport.”
“How so?” Prescott asked, puzzled.
“If as I suspect, you’ve been dealing with Miss Lewis, picture how likely she would be to believe you’d innocently lost me on the way to fulfilling whatever bargain you’ve made.”
Prescott could picture that, given the undercurrent of his last conversation with April. Irwin had a smug smile that said he knew the value of his life now and what it could buy. He didn’t think Irwin was suicidal, but he’d tell the guards to treat him that way and make sure they used those cuffs and hobbles. He couldn’t see why Irwin would be angry enough to trade his life for a few million Earthies. He didn’t think he’d been tortured. But the fact the man thought of the possibility and how to do it so easily was enough to scare him spitless.
* * *
Even Barak, the youngest of their crew, thought Laja looked awfully young as a first impression. She didn’t say a lot right away or assume things like how they would want to be addressed. She asked several intelligent things, the first being if she would have any duties at all or just observe. The thing that impressed both Deloris and Barak was nothing she actually did or said. Nothin
g that she was aware of at all. It was simply that she showed up in a top of the line moon suit with her name printed in faded vacuum marker and visibly worn. Rubbed and scratched and stained from long hours of use.
When they got clearance from Central Traffic Control and plainly stated they intended to leave controlled lunar space and make a transition to Ceres, Laja’s eyebrows went up, but she stayed silent. Heather obviously hadn’t mentioned the changed policy of not hiding the drive capabilities to her.
The transition did get a “Wow” out of her, because the Moon was visible out their ports and just vanished when they jumped. The arrival wasn’t nearly as spectacular just being a starfield and Deloris explained they had a long burn to make to match velocity with the minor planet.
“Do you guys have any objection to me running a public eye?” Laja asked, tapping the dome of a lens on her shoulder.
“Not as long as you don’t publish me belching or Barak picking his nose,” Deloris said.
“No problem, I’d never show crew in an unfavorable light,” Laja assured them.
“April always runs a cam,” Barak said. “I bet she has years of video. I know she has almost every hour of her time when she visited Earth.”
“My mom encourages the whole family to do it,” Laja said. “She figures if somebody is stupid and kills themselves the video will be a powerful lesson not to do the same. And if it wasn’t their fault it can still help avoid the problem for somebody else.”
“She’s right,” Barak said. “When Deloris and I went on the first snowball mission our suit cameras saved our butts. The whole mission was a study in what not to do. I was working outside rigging engines and lines under this fellow Harold Hanson. He kept ignoring basic safety directives such as unclipping from safety lines. When we came in from working the ice clung to our boots and it had enough volatiles to stink, so he had a habit of kicking one of the safety line posts to knock the ice off before going in the lock.”
“Kicking? With his suit boots? This isn’t going to end well,” Laja said.
Deloris returned to the seat by them with coffee for everyone. “It’s Heather’s own coffee as a crew gift when she sent us off, cool enough to drink without burning your mouth.”
Laja took a moment to savor it. “I had some of this when we went begging for business and for my job. I didn’t expect to have it again much less so soon. Mom buys instant coffee, some German stuff, Tchibo, but it never compares to real bean coffee.”
“The Three have been taking care of us in little ways,” Deloris said, “little luxuries and Kurt and Alice are on leave now to Home. We hope we made a good choice working for them and it will pay off very well in time.”
“I’d work for room and board and a chance to fly starships,” Laja said, “but you don’t have to relay that to them. If I can get paid too…” She made an expansive gesture that wasn’t very clear except to imply that was overwhelming. “So, do continue. How long did it take this idiot to kill himself?” she asked Barak.
“Two weeks, fortunately not until we had the motors set and the supply and control lines iced in. He kicked the ice off one last time with his safety line off and the pressure boot flange fractured and blew off.”
Laja stared horrified. “Did you ever recover the body?”
“Nope. He propelled himself out of sight.” Barak made a WOOOSH sound and a sweeping gesture. “All we recovered was his pressure boot with the cracked flange.
Laja sipped her coffee and frowned. She was obviously thinking so furiously Barak and Deloris let her digest the story before saying more.
“I get the hazard and failure part of it,” Laja said, “but I’m trying to see how this story ties into your needing your camera recordings.”
“Oh, that’s because the XO and the Captain tried to frame me for killing him. The fact I was keeping my own recordings was important. They claimed the suit recordings were lost. Indeed, they implied I might have done that to cover up my crime. I was even confined to quarters by the XO for a while,” Barak said.
“But not by the Captain?” Laja said, looking even more confused.
“The acting Captain,” Barak allowed. “The Captain was incapacitated after we had a fire aboard and we couldn’t find him. The bridge was locked and no watch set. The XO gave me a hearing on the accusation during that time when she was doing emergency medical work on the Captain.”
“Nobody on the bridge is crazy, and that wouldn’t have been your duty for sure. It’s hard to imagine letting things get that messed up. You must have been cleared then or when you returned because you’re still a rated spacer,” Laja decided.
“Not really. It never came up again. The XO sent me off under cabin arrest, but the Captain regained consciousness and informed her he wasn’t going to take the blame for Hanson’s death and he’d see she’d never fly again. She took him at his word and killed him.”
“Your XO killed your Captain?” Laja asked, mouth not quite able to close.
Both Barak and Deloris nodded yes.
“Didn’t you find it difficult to serve under her to bring the ship back?”
“Thankfully, she solved that dilemma for us by taking an EV without remembering to put a suit on,” Deloris said. “She very politely left a suicide note too. Other than the fact nobody was left who knew how to fly the damn thing, it greatly simplified everything. It did leave us a bit short-handed, however.”
“Why haven’t I heard about this?” Laja asked.
“Nobody involved would really benefit from it being made public,” Barak said. “It didn’t cover the accrediting body or the owners with glory. We didn’t want to advertise it since you know how people are. A great many would always wonder if things could go so bad and we were really faultless. There were mistakes made after that too, when the owners didn’t make adjustments to our required duties even though half the crew was gone. It’s a wonder we didn’t lose the ship after, just from that mistake.”
“It must be a lot more complicated than that,” Laja decided.
“Oh my, yes. That’s just the highlights. But it’s enough of the story for you to be aware we’ve been on a very difficult cruise. Alice was part of that expedition. We all got treated very well as far as professional credentials and advancement for bringing the ship home. Unfortunately, we didn’t make much money, but then we were lucky to be alive and much, much more experienced. We’re still applying the lessons we learned to try to develop better recruiting methods for Jeff.”
Laja looked at both of them wondering how they could be so dispassionate about describing a voyage like that. There was no angry cursing or raised voices.
“After such a horror story you aren’t going to be very trusting, and you will be very picky and cautious about crewing with anybody you don’t know thoroughly, like me.”
“She figures stuff out pretty fast,” Deloris told Barak.
* * *
The last person April expected to call her was Irwin. He was sitting in a small aircraft using a standard seatback phone camera. He didn’t look unhealthy or particularly stressed.
“Nobody told me you were released,” April said, surprised. “What’s wrong with these people? I made a bargain to release their guy when you were let go. You’d think they’d be clamoring for me to keep my end of the deal. They better not claim I didn’t.”
“You took a hostage?” Irwin asked. “I have no idea what’s been going on. Nobody will tell me anything. This is the first free access to a phone I’ve been allowed since being arrested. When I asked if the phone was active and could I use it the attendant smiled and said nobody ordered him to deactivate it or keep me from using it. That seemed to amuse him. I was just about to ask if it was you who got me sprung as my first question. They said you were warring with them but never told me any details.”
“I’ve been… encouraging them to let you go,” April admitted. “With help, but better not to discuss it in detail on open com. I didn’t take a hostage. The CIA delivered one
on a platter by activating a sleeper agent on Home to assassinate me.”
“Well don’t rush to release him just yet. I’m in a State Department biz jet somewhere over the Atlantic. At least that’s who the attendant said he works for when I asked. He’s in civilian clothes. They claim France has agreed to accept me, but after I disconnect they could make a U-turn, or push me out the hatch over the Azores.”
“Then France should have called me,” April insisted. “Somebody should have called me.”
“They may be afraid you will have cameras and news crews there when we land and use the occasion as propaganda to further sully their reputation,” Irwin said.
“You’re right. It would have never occurred to me they have any sort of a reputation to protect,” April admitted. “I need to talk to the French and make sure how they are going to receive you. I’ll make sure you are going to have their best security, and arrange for some serious protection to join them as soon as possible to supplement or replace them. Before I go is there anything else you need? Did they return your belongings? Do you need anything brought from Home?”
“Why do I need any security now?” Irwin insisted. “They’re letting me go. It would hardly make sense to turn about and snatch me again.”
“They wanted me to assure them I wouldn’t keep making a public spectacle of our dispute,” April said. “I agreed, but when they asked the same for you I told them I really have no handle on you to make such a guarantee. They may regard you as a potential liability. I doubt they’d snatch you again but they might silence you. Of course, if you wish to bet on their benevolence and sense of fair play I can wash my hands of the matter and let you arrange whatever you wish in France. If they dump you on the tarmac and take back off you at least have some cards or funds I assume?”
“As a matter of fact, I did have my wallet returned to me. I have my own bank’s taster card and my cafeteria card for photo ID.”
All in Good Time Page 29