by Diane Duane
"Mr. Kharls, please," he said, "or Lorand. It's much preferable for you to damn me by my first name, if damn me you must."
"Lorand," Elinke said, "you have to realize what you're asking of me. If you-"
"Captain," he said, "you're mistaking this situation for one in which you have some flexibility. It is not like that. If I must transfer my business to another ship, well enough, but it's your career that will suffer, not mine. Obviously I would have to report any such little difficulty. I must suggest that any captain of a ship of this size caught disobeying a direct order from a Concord Administrator would find difficulty commanding anything larger than a system debris scoop in the future."
Elinke sat there with her mouth stretched in a tight thin line for a moment. Then she said, "Sir, my obedience to orders is not in question here. But I also have a responsibility to point out to those with whom I work, when necessary, that they are in error, or about to make serious mistakes." The man across the table gave her a look that would have been funny on anyone of less power. The problem was that Lorand Kharls was about as powerful a being as one was likely to run into in these spaces. Even so, Elinke would have liked him under other circumstances. He was not a handsome man, but he was good looking in a big, broad, stony sort of way. You would swear that he had been hewn out of some kind of granite in roughly rectangular chunks, from which an absent-minded sculptor had smoothed off the corners as an afterthought. Little eyes, close-set, intelligent, looked out at you from above an easy smile, and Kharls wore his baldness with the air of a man who thought that there were more important issues than hair. The overall effect was of saturninity, someone who enjoyed life's pleasures but could put them aside in a second when work required. The sense of a submerged strength, very hard, very cold, yet always held in reserve, was there and could not be ignored by anyone with a brain. Equally present was the sense of a man who would walk straight over you and never regret it if you got between him and something he wanted. It was, of course, Elinke's business as a commander to find out exactly how much attention she had to pay to the ranking passengers, diplomats, and dignitaries whom she sometimes carried in the course of work. It was very annoying to find one whom she could not flatter, blather, confuse, or sideline just enough for her to honor both her conscience's demands and his. It looked like this was one of them.
Why him? she thought, furious, but doing her best to cover it up.
"Well, Captain," Kharls said, "it's kind of you to be concerned for me. Maybe you would spell out the sources of your concern in slightly broader terms."
To most people, this would have been a warning, and Elinke knew it. Nonetheless she said, "Sir, you are relatively new in these spaces and will perhaps have missed some of the finer detail concerning matters at Thalaassa."
There. If he wanted to be insulting so could she. Elinke was therefore both very moved and seriously annoyed when Kharls's face went quite sad, and the set of it told Elinke that the sorrow was genuine. "As regards your partner, Captain, of course I heard," he said. " 'Tragic' is a word that diplomats overuse for such circumstances, and not nearly strong enough most of the time. Having lost a partner in similar circumstances, all I can say is that the Concord often asks much too much of many of us." She shut her mouth.
Outmaneuvered. Oh, you slick old brute.
"Still," Kharls said, "those of us with the strength must continue to do our duty as best we can. So let's get on with it and see what can be redeemed from the horrible mess that ensued after the destruction of the Falada shuttle."
"Redemption is always welcome," Elinke replied, "but I question whether that word and the name Gabriel Connor should properly appear in the same sentence."
"That won't be our judgment to make," Kharls said, "and possibly not that of the next generation either. Nonetheless, there are still some loose ends hanging about the investigation."
"The trial certainly should have made Star Force's position clear," Elinke said. "I wonder that you would question it."
"My business is questioning things," said Kharls easily, "which is probably why you're so annoyed with me, especially when you have your mind made up." She said nothing.
"Far be it from me to confuse you with further facts," said Kharls, "unless you are already in possession of all of them."
She said nothing again.
"So," Kharls said, "let's say there are still some aspects of this situation that require inspection. Captain, I am going to require you to follow my orders or be reassigned, but that doesn't mean I intend to keep you in the dark. That would be rude. For one thing, take the trial itself. Why did Star Force relinquish the right of Connor's trial to Phorcys?"
Elinke looked at him with some surprise. "They had to. It happened in atmosphere-"
"Yes, that well-known truism. Except if Star Force really wanted to try Gabriel Connor itself, it would have fought a little harder over the prospect, don't you think? That fight could have gone on for months.
You know how the legal process is, even now. How long did it take the Adjudicator General to come back with a decision on the venue?"
"Well, about an hour-"
"The Adjudicator General couldn't-well, there are a lot of things she couldn't do in an hour. Never mind. Does the speed with which that decision came through suggest anything to you? Just play with that thought for a while. Second, what about Jacob Ricel?" "He's dead," Elinke said rather bleakly. "Unfortunately."
"Yes, and when there were so many people who wanted to talk to him.. .theoretically, at least. An interesting problem, that last one with his e-suit. All kinds of people could have gotten at it. It suggests something about e-suit maintenance security on board Concord vessels, or on your last command, anyway."
Elinke held quite still and concentrated on not breaking out in a sweat.
"In any case," said Kharls, "there was Connor claiming under oath and not under it that Ricel was Intelligence of some kind or another, and there was Ricel denying that he was, and there you were denying it as well."
"Administrator," Elinke said, getting annoyed now, "you know perfectly well how Intelligence assets are assigned and identified to Concord commanders. We must know who they are, but sometimes we are required not to approach them with this information, for reasons that Intelligence finds good and proper." "Which we lesser beings cannot understand, yes, I know. It annoys me too."
"In Ricel's case, no such identification was ever made to me by Intelligence. This leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities, one of which is that Intel has begun submerging assets in our commands and not telling us-an action that would be very much against the thread of Concord law in these matters, as I understand it."
"Yes," Kharls said, "it would, wouldn't it?"
Elinke got up and walked around, trying to calm herself a little, trying to look at her mother's oil paintings on the walls, those seascapes that she ordinarily found so soothing, which were doing nothing for her at all at the moment. The very thought that they might be submerging assets and not informing her ... "The other possibility is that Ricel was telling the truth when they questioned him-that he was not Intelligence, no matter what Connor said-and that Connor was lying to try to save his own skin. That possibility was the one that the prosecution favored at the trial."
"Partly because the other one seemed too far-fetched," Kharls suggested.
"Yes," Elinke admitted, a little reluctantly, because she thought she could see where this might be leading.
"However, Captain, you've missed a possibility ... as did everyone else at the trial, whether accidentally or on purpose." "And that would be?"
Kharls leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. "That Ricel was Intelligence, but not ours"
Elinke paused for a moment, then shook her head. "That would be very convenient for Connor, if it were true."
"And what if it were?"
"You would have to work at it to convince me," Elinke said. "It's multiplying conclusions in a way that would have made old Occ
am whirl in his grave. Why reach so far for a conclusion when there are more convenient ones that don't require the stretch?" "Because it might be true," Kharls said mildly. She could think of nothing to say to that.
"If it were the truth," said Kharls, "it would be worth discovering, surely, whether you like it personally or not."
Elinke looked at the table and said nothing.
"But we'll leave that for the moment," said Kharls. "It doesn't matter whether you like the way this line of reasoning is tending. I intend to investigate various aspects of the Falada disaster and of the Connor trial as incidental to the disaster. One more question for you, Captain. Why did those two planets come to terms so quickly? Don't tell me about the ambassador's plans. I know what they were, close enough. It still happened too fast. Even she was surprised."
Elinke blinked. That was information that not many people would have had, and she found herself wondering how Kharls had come by it.
"Yes," he said. "It comes time to continue in the direction that Delvecchio would have, if she could have- not that she could have remained in this system very long. She knew that, but long enough to put some people in place to ask awkward questions. This I intend to do, and one of them will be Connor." At that Elinke's eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't have thought you would stoop to using a traitor," she said. "Oh, I wouldn't," Kharls said, "but it's so hard to find out what makes a traitor. Usually they don't consider themselves such. The judgment is almost always external. And myself, I haven't made my judgments. Though of course you have."
Elinke held herself very still and quiet, for there was something obscurely threatening about the way the man was looking at her.
"Captain Dareyev," said Kharls, "my job is justice. You know that. Justice is not always done in one sweep of the broom. Sometimes it takes two or three strokes, or five, or ten, to get it done right, though I try to make as quick a job of it as I can. Believe me, if after I have gathered the evidence I seek, I find that Gabriel Connor was actively involved in the deaths of the ambassador and your partner and the others, I guarantee you that he will not long enjoy sunlight or starlight or anything else. In the meantime I have other business here as well, which I will be attending to in due course. This is a busy system, and there's a lot here that needs the occasional careful eye turned on it while people think I'm occupied with other things."
He sat back. "Grith," he said. "And particularly the sesheyans' status here."
"It's stable, surely," Elinke said. "That was what the Mahdra settlement was all about."
"It will certainly be stable while we're hanging here," Kharls replied dryly. "My concern at the moment is for the periods when our collective back is turned, so to speak. VoidCorp is still looking for ways to overturn Mahdra. As far as they're concerned, it's a direct challenge to their power as a company. In VoidCorp's case, specifically, there is nothing more dangerous.
Their stellar nation status is secondary to them, and they esteem it less than you might suspect. Their main concern in the world is to dominate the market. Completely. They believe they own the sesheyans- from the de facto point of view, they do, however repellent it may be to us to admit the fact-and any free colony of sesheyans is abominable to them. That there should be a huge one here, sitting right under their noses in a system where the Company already has such extensive holdings and business interests, is an ongoing threat that is impossible for them to ignore."
"But they have been ignoring it," Elinke said, "or at least if they haven't, they've been keeping very quiet about it."
"Therein lies their only hope," Kharls said, "at least as regards overt action. Covertly there is a fair amount of harassment of Grith-based sesheyan interests: market restriction, shady business practices on the small scale. On the small scale, the Concord has seen fit to ignore that kind of thing. No use taking out the cannon to shoot the gnats. At the same time, it has been entirely too long since VoidCorp has attempted something against Grith, and specifically against the Council of Tribes, which hasn't been more overt. This does not reassure me, nor does it suggest that the Company is getting tired of fighting this particular battle."
"You're suggesting that they're about to try something new?"
Kharls nodded. "The Concord has been putting a lot of subtle economic and political pressure on VoidCorp along many fronts in an effort to get them to back off a little in their demands regarding the sesheyan species in general-and the sesheyans on Grith in particular. There's been no movement, not even the kind of token movement that a negotiator might make to convince the other side that something is beginning to happen when it's not really. The suggestion is that not only is VoidCorp's position hardening but that they may be considering some action to consolidate their position regarding the sesheyans-and not at all to the sesheyans' advantage, or the advantage of anyone else who may be standing in the vicinity. They won't care about that. As far as VoidCorp is concerned, 'free' sesheyans are a bad example to all the rest of the Company's Employees, an example that I think from their point of view can't be tolerated any longer."
"If VoidCorp is contemplating some kind of move against Grith," Elinke said, "they have to realize what kind of trouble this would stir up for them with the Concord-"
Kharls shook his head. "It would take a long time for that consequence to follow," he said. "Meantime, they would have done whatever it is they're planning to do. My concern is to find out what they have in mind-for something is going on here- and stop it before it happens. They must understand that, as big as the Verge is, it is not unpoliceable, and they will not be allowed to have their own way by acting against the rule of Concord law and then taking the consequences later. They are going to start learning that, at least in the larger matters, it is impossible for them to act against Concord law. Period. Let alone, to do it with impunity."
Now it was Elinke's turn to sit back and fold her arms. The man talked a good fight, that was true, but could he actually produce the result? Then again, Concord Administrators were chosen not only for their sense of justice and their cleverness in producing it, but for a certain innate ruthlessness, a whole suite of emotional tendencies that made them difficult if not impossible to stop. Though we'll see about that, she thought.
"It's a big goal, Administrator. Audacious."
He smiled slightly, in a way that suggested he knew perfectly well what she meant. "Well, what good are small goals?" he asked. "Aim at the sun, and you're more likely to hit it than if you aim into the bushes. But, Captain, I need your help in this. I can understand that my position here, and my intentions here, do not make you happy. At the same time, we both have work to do that overrules or outranks our personal feelings in the matter. I am concerned about Grith and the sesheyans here. I will do whatever I must to preserve their lives and the peace that reigns here at the moment, however rocky and cracked a thing it looks to be.
"Matters here are not going to stay as quiet as they have for very much longer. My presence here-our presence here, for you are part of this too-will start to stir things up. One Concord ship just left, and people were beginning to relax. Now here comes another one, and ..." He shook one hand gently in the air, mimicking the motion of something liquid in a container. "The ripples begin to spread, and it will be very interesting to see what starts to come to the surface." "Are you expecting 'shooting' to break out?" Elinke asked, rather cautiously.
"Why, Captain, what a restrained way to put it. I am, but I'm not at all sure what form the shooting will take, or who'll be doing it, or from what quarter. Almost all parties involved in this 'discussion' are entirely too used to acting through intermediaries. I expect to take some weeks more of analysis here before I'm certain, unless the situation is even more volatile than I expect, in which case we may have to move very fast indeed. Make sure your marines are in their best form, because they'll need to be. When the pressure builds high enough and this situation blows, it will blow sky high." He smiled slightly. "So, Captain, is there anything else we need to cover?"
"Only one thing," Elinke said. "Administrator, if you bring that man aboard my ship-well, be warned. This is Concord territory, and I will confine him and hold him for transfer to a Concord jurisdiction for trial. A proper trial."
"Captain," said Kharls, unfolding his arms and stretching, "if you attempt that, I will try him right there with whatever data I have at that point, and then I'll try you. Don't be sure you would come out any better than he might." Elinke swallowed.
Kharls stood up. "Anything else?" he inquired amiably.
She shook her head slowly. "No, Administrator," she said, "I think that about covers the ground for the moment."
"Good. Then let's go up to the bridge and look at some stops we'll be making in the next few days." He led the way out, and Elinke went after him. For the moment, she thought, but not for very much longer, if I can help it.
Chapter Eleven
SCHMITTERUNGS PRESENCE was indeed causing the ripples to spread. The system Grids were full of pictures of her, and there was speculation all over the planetary media as to what her presence might mean. There was some attention, too, to the sudden reassignment of Captain Elinke Dareyev to duties so close to a system where she had previously suffered tragedy. It was well known that Star Force was normally generous with leave for officers who had lost a family member or partner. Much speculation went on about this and other matters.
"I tell you, he's here," the voice said down the shielded line. It was expensive to make Grid contacts secure over long distances, but it could be done if you paid enough for it. In this particular case, money was not even slightly an object. "Well, that's hardly our problem."