“I’m being paid very well to represent someone I have enormous respect for,” Tellumn said tensely. “Don’t mistake my professionalism for forgiveness or acceptance of you invading my home and threatening my family.”
“Fair enough,” Jason said in a flat voice. “Just so we’re all clear, don’t mistake our calm demeanor for passiveness or weakened resolve. It would be ... unfortunate ... should someone in your household make a foolish decision during the course of this operation.” Tellumn stared at Jason, his eyes blinking rapidly.
“I believe we understand each other, Captain. These are your rooms. I will wake you in the morning.”
“What was that all about?” Doc asked once Tellumn had retreated back down the stairs.
“Just a hunch,” Jason said. “His wife had recovered from her shock and from the looks I was getting at dinner I’m certain she has every intention of calling the authorities once we’re all asleep.”
“Too bad I won’t be sleeping all night,” Crusher said. He then looked at Doc, “and neither will you.”
“Me?”
“The captain is the only mission-essential team member right now,” Crusher explained. “That means I’m taking first watch and will be waking you up in a few hours for your shift.” Doc grumbled loudly as he went into one of the guest rooms and flopped down on the bed. Jason was chuckling softly as he pulled his com unit out.
“Kage, you awake?” he asked quietly.
“Breathlessly awaiting word from you guys,” Kage answered. “How’s it going?”
“About like we expected.”
“That bad?”
“Keep scanning all of Aracoria’s law enforcement com channels,” Jason said, ignoring the barb. “One of our hosts may do something stupid and alert the authorities that we’re here. I’d like a head start if that happens.”
“You got it, Captain,” Kage said. “I’ll be scanning all night. Out.” Jason slipped the unit back into his pocket.
“I guess that’s about as secure as we’re going to get,” he said to Crusher as he handed the big warrior the blaster he’d been carrying. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Captain.”
*****
“How does he look?” Tellumn asked the others in the room as Jason walked out dressed in a fashionable, yet modest, business suit that was currently popular on Aracoria. Fashionable though it may have been, he had to admit it looked like a dress with a poncho over it. Crusher stood stoically for a few seconds before a snort slipped out, then a giggle, and soon he had erupted into full-force laughter while actually pointing at Jason as he did.
“He looks very striking,” Tellumn’s wife, Keetra, said forcefully. Apparently during the night Tellumn had talked to his wife as she seemed more disposed to being friendly to her “guests”.
“More importantly, he’ll fit in,” Doc said, looking Jason over with a critical eye. Jason knew Doc would be eminently more suited for this task, but he had to talk to Crisstof himself. Doc hadn’t had a lot of direct interaction with the man and there were some subtleties of body language the highly-educated geneticist might miss.
“Can we just get going with this?” he pleaded, wanting to be away from his still-laughing friend.
“The vehicle will be here shortly to pick us up,” Tellumn assured him. “You remember our plan?”
“Of course,” Jason said. “It’s not especially intricate. By the way, why aren’t you wearing one of these?”
“I’m over seventy-three cycles old,” the lawyer explained. “I would look utterly absurd in such a garment, just as you’d look ridiculous in clothes like I’m wearing.”
“Yeah, Captain,” Crusher said between chortles. “You don’t want to look ridiculous. Can we get a picture of this?” he asked Doc.
“Already did.”
“I’ll be downstairs,” Jason said and walked out of the room with his head held high and his skirt bunched in his hands so he didn’t trip on it.
The same aircar that had dropped Tellumn off the evening before arrived at precisely the designated time and sat humming in front of the home.
“Let’s be about our business,” the lawyer said in a no-nonsense tone before leading Jason down the walk. Good. He’s taking this as seriously as he needs to be.
The drive into the city where the ConFed detention facility was went quickly. As soon as they exited the residential area the aircar climbed up to a few thousand feet and entered a faster traffic lane. Looking down, Jason could hardly believe that the planet was basically an uninhabitable lump of rock that had been transformed into a veritable paradise by sheer force of will, technology, and an obscene amount of wealth.
“It’s something special, isn’t it?” Tellumn broke into his reverie. “Oh there are certainly more beautiful natural worlds, but when you think that this is basically an artificial construct on a planetary scale it boggles the mind. I still think about it and I’ve lived here for more than ten years.”
“So why do you live here? Just to take high-profile cases?”
“No. If you’ll remember I mentioned I’ve worked for Crisstof Dalton for some time,” Tellumn said quietly. “I’m his advocate here on Aracoria. I keep him apprised of decisions coming off of this world and, when needs be, interject on his behalf. It was actually just a stroke of luck that put him in this detention facility.”
“So you say,” Jason said, “but in my experience there’s no such thing as coincidence. Or luck.”
They flew on in silence until the vehicle slowed and began a spiraling descent towards a landing area that was surrounded by tall, stout fences and littered with armed guards. When they touched down, Tellumn climbed out first and turned, making a show of looking impatient as Jason clumsily gathered his files and other belongings and hurried out of the car as well. He looked sheepishly at the ground as Tellumn glared at him before turning and marching towards the sally port that looked to be the first layer of security to gain entry into the facility. They were no more than ten meters away from the car when it lifted off and sped away.
“New assistant, Tellumn?” one of the guards asked.
“Not for long if he doesn’t pick up the pace,” Tellumn shot back in convincing irritation. “Let’s move!” he snapped at Jason, who dutifully hung his head and shuffled faster after his “employer”.
The security checkpoint had an archway with a glossy black inner surface and two more armed guards on the other side of it. Tellumn stepped under it and waited as the black surface began to pulse a bright blue. A few seconds later the guards waved him through and motioned for Jason to take his place. This time the scan cycle ran twice and the guard looked questioningly at him.
“What species are you?” it demanded. Jason assumed a panicked expression and looked dumbly at Tellumn.
“We’re not sure,” the lawyer said smoothly. “He was orphaned on a fringe world. He’s part of a retraining program. Is there a problem?”
“He’s loaded with bio-enhancements and a highly sophisticated neural implant,” the guard said as he looked over the display. Damn! That’s one badass scanner.
“Yes, well he suffered from multiple degenerative conditions as a child as well as malnutrition and a host of nasty parasites,” Tellumn lied smoothly. “The implants basically keep him ambulatory and functional, although between you and me he’s a bit slow even with the neural implant.”
“Yeah, I can see what you mean,” the guard said, looking at Jason’s blank stare. “Well, it’s nothing that flags as dangerous so just sign him in and make sure he doesn’t wander off.”
“Of course, sir. Have a good day, all of you. Come on!” Tellumn exclaimed at Jason, who was still standing dumbly under the scanner and staring at the ceiling. At the spoken command he shuffled after Tellumn and didn’t give the guards a second glance as they made cruel jokes at his expense.
They walked through four more security checkpoints before being led into a well-appointed room with a table and two chairs on either si
de. Jason and Tellumn made a show of turning on data pads and spreading out hardcopy files before settling in to wait. They didn’t have to sit for too long before the far door clanged open and two burly guards led a bound Crisstof Dalton into the room. While the guards were removing his restraints he looked up and saw Jason. His only reaction was to roll his eyes before sitting in one of the chairs opposite the two.
“Hello Mr. Allute,” Crisstof said. Although he was gaunt and even more pale than usual, his voice was still strong and vibrant. “New assistant?”
“Indeed he is, Mr. Dalton,” Tellumn said. “He does adequately, although he’s quite thick-witted at times.”
“I can only imagine,” Crisstof said, looking Jason in the eye. “So, what news do you have for me?”
“Just more procedural documents for the preliminary hearings. If you’d look these over and annotate them as you see fit,” the lawyer said as he slid a stack of files across the table with a stylus on top of them. The two reviewed documents for the better part of two hours and more or less ignored Jason the entire time. Just as he was beginning to regret the risk he’d taken for what seemed to be a colossal waste of time, Crisstof slid him a thin stack of files to put away. He held onto them for a split second too long, prompting Jason to take a closer look at them.
There! In tiny letters between the lines of typed characters were three words.
Find. Diligent. Safe.
The words were written in English, a language both he and Kellea had taken a crash course in when Earth had been attacked by the A’arcooni fleet and Deetz. Afterwards it served as a good coded language since the odds were astronomically large that anyone else would know it. But the words on the page made no sense, surely Crisstof had to know the Diligent had been heavily damaged and then impounded. Finding it safe would be not only impossible, but pointless. One frigate against the ConFed Fleet? He slipped the sheets into the appropriate folder and mulled over the message some more. Either the old man wrote it down wrong or he’s going insane in this place.
“Well, I think that concludes our business, Mr. Dalton,” Tellumn’s voice snapped Jason’s attention back as Crisstof rose from his seat.
“Always a pleasure, Mr. Allute,” he said. As he rose he caught Jason’s eye. The question was there as plain as if he’d said it aloud. Jason looked down at the table and then bobbed his head twice in the affirmative. Yes, we found her ... and she’s safe. For now. “And thank you as well,” Crisstof directed the words to him, his voice thick. “Maybe next time I’ll get to learn your name.” Jason just stared at him with a slack jaw and a blank expression as the guards put Crisstof’s restraints back on and led him out of the room.
“Clean this up,” Tellumn said sharply. “I’ll be in the corridor just outside.” Jason quickly gathered all the files and data pads and stuffed them into the attaché case he’d carried into the facility. He took a quick look around the room. Although he couldn’t see any obvious recording devices, he knew the entire meeting was likely captured from multiple angles and would be analyzed later. He just hoped his act had been convincing and nobody would suspect him and Crisstof of colluding.
“It’s about time,” Tellumn snapped as he exited the room. “This way. The transport will be here shortly.” The walk out of the facility was much quicker since they were able to bypass all but the last security checkpoint. Once the guards confirmed that they were neither taking nor leaving anything, they were free to walk out to the vehicle that was already sitting on the landing pad.
Once airborne, Tellumn settled back into his seat and closed his eyes, so Jason occupied himself by staring out over the landscape and pondering Crisstof’s cryptic message. Find. Diligent. Safe. Three distinct words spaced evenly apart. Crisstof knew enough about English syntax to realize that these would likely be read as a sentence despite the odd capitalization. He shook his head in disgust as the aircar descended into the residential area and glided the rest of the way to the Allute residence.
The pair climbed wearily out of the vehicle and trudged up to the house. The tension of the covert operation had exhausted them both, but the shock they would find inside would startle them both. As they approached the door a child’s scream could be clearly heard. With a curse Tellumn grabbed the handle and barged into his house, ready for anything.
“My turn! You said I was next!” his oldest child was yelling as the younger sibling, who was also squealing, was being “flown” around the room by an enormous Galvetic warrior. Crusher was even making engine sounds as he carried the child around the room over his head. Doc and Keetra were sitting in the kitchen trying to ignore the racket and looked up when the pair walked in.
“Your father is home!” Keetra practically screamed to get their attention. Crusher glanced over and then set the younger child down to the pair could greet Tellumn.
“Oh, hi, Captain,” Crusher said.
“Did you find out anything?” Doc asked. “Did you get to see him?”
“Yes, I saw him,” Jason confirmed. “Couldn’t really talk though. Let me change out of my pretty dress and we can get going. I’m going to put this in your office, Tellumn.”
“Of course, Jason. Thank you.” While the lawyer was distracted by his children and wife, Jason carried the case into the den/office and set it on the desk. He then reached in and slid out the page that Crisstof had written on from where he had placed it on top of the stack. He crumpled it up tightly and hid it in his closed hand.
“I’ll be back,” he said to everyone as he went upstairs to change back into his own clothes. He felt immensely better after putting his own clothes back on and, after stuffing the document into one of his cargo pockets, went back downstairs. “Tellumn, I can’t thank you enough for your understanding and your help. We’ll be leaving you now, I apologize for the intrusion.” The lawyer looked slightly crestfallen.
“I had thought we would discuss your impressions of your meeting here,” he said.
“You’ve earned our trust, but you seem like a man who likes to keep his affairs on the legal side of things,” Jason said. “This is something you probably don’t want to be a part of, but rest assured we will be leaving this planet and there will be nothing done that could possibly implicate you or put your family at risk.” Tellumn seemed to waffle as he looked simultaneously relieved they would be leaving and wildly curious about what he had found out.
“It may be for the best then, as you say, Captain,” he finally conceded. “I will do nothing that puts my family in danger.” Jason just nodded.
“You guys ready?” As they moved to the door Tellumn gathered his family to him and watched them leave without so much as a goodbye. “Let’s get a move on,” Jason said once they were outside. “I’d rather our new friend not get any second thoughts about letting us just walk away.”
“You think he’d turn us in?” Doc asked in surprise.
“Have you ever met a lawyer you could trust?” Crusher asked rhetorically.
“If not him, then his wife may certainly have a change of heart,” Jason said.
“She wouldn’t do that,” Doc said with a bit too much force. His companions just looked at him for a moment, and then knowingly at each other. Apparently Doc was doing more than making idle conversation while sitting with her. Maybe it’s a good thing we’re leaving as soon as we are, Jason chuckled to himself.
It took them about an hour of walking before they reached an area where they could call for a pickup from a shuttle. They rode back to the spaceport in silence as Crusher looked bored and his companions appeared to be deep in thought.
Chapter 14
“We’re cleared for departure, Captain,” Kage said as the Phoenix completed another lap around Aracoria while waiting for Orbital Control to clear them to break orbit.
“About damn time,” Jason grumbled as he ran the power up on the main drive and swung the gunship away from the planet. He made a direct line for their mesh-out point and allowed the computer to fly them to the coor
dinates Kage entered into the nav system. He sat back and waited the forty-five minutes or so it took them to traverse the system until they were well enough away from the Aracoria’s gravity well, and the heavy space traffic, before engaging the slip drive and sending them streaking away. He had no particular destination in mind, but experience told him that once they did something even remotely illegal, especially on a ConFed enclave, it was best to scoot first and think later.
“So are you going to keep me waiting or are you going to cough up what you found out?” Kellea asked. He opened his mouth to return fire with a sarcastic quip he had queued up in anticipation of her question, took one look at her face, and thought better of it.
“Let’s adjourn to the galley and we’ll go over what I found out, scant as it is,” he said.
“So you didn’t really get to talk to him that much, did you?” Twingo asked after Jason finished relaying his meeting with Crisstof.
“No. I simply couldn’t risk it, even with Tellumn appearing to be on board,” Jason answered. “We all know that room was being monitored from every angle and in every spectrum imaginable. All I would have accomplished was to get myself captured and Crisstof hooked up to an interrogation machine. Our main advantage right now is that they have no idea who we are or that we’re actively operating.”
“Oh, they may not know exactly who we are but they know that someone is working in the background,” Crusher disagreed. “Even with you scrambling that agent’s brains with a stunner, the escape from Camderan-2 was fairly high-visibility. Actually, now that I think about it, we really suck at covert ops.”
“I’ve been saying that for a while,” Kellea offered.
“Be that as it may,” Jason continued, “we still have no traceable ties to Crisstof’s organization. We’re still a wildcard. Now ... how do we leverage that?”
“With the wealth of intel you gathered? There’s a universe of possibilities,” Twingo said sarcastically.
“Oh!” Jason said, ignoring him. “I can’t believe I forgot about this. Crisstof passed me this during the meet.” He reached into his cargo pocket and pulled out the wadded-up sheet. He carefully opened it up and smoothed it out before laying it on the table.
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