by MJ Blehart
“Scrubbing the comm archive is no simple feat,” Onima said.
“But not impossible?” Jace asked.
Onima sighed. “No, not impossible. I think Feroz is about the only person aboard the Aquila who might have the skill to do that. Let’s do another check of all the data we have here, the roster, assignments, placement, and make sure nothing is out of place. I don’t care how good they are—the mole must be here somewhere.”
Jace, Kara, and Onima once more began to sweep through all the data. They were at it for quite some time, and only ceased when Captain Barr came into the observation lounge.
He had coffee, more water, and more ration bars. “Sorry about that,” he said. “Getting any other foodstuffs might arouse suspicion.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Onima gestured to the terminals. “You’re sure this is all the ship’s data?”
“No,” Barr admitted, but then added, “Except it’s the last month’s worth. I can get you more, but if what you want isn’t here, I suspect nothing will be visible beyond this sweep.”
“That’s sound logic,” Onima said, pouring herself some coffee. “Thank you again, Martin. We’ll let you know how we will proceed from here.”
“Very good, Marshal Gwok,” he said. Once more he left them to it.
Onima sighed. “I think there are three possibilities we are faced with here. The first is that the mole is not, in fact, on this ship. But that’s highly unlikely. The second is that Yael is the mole and is using the shuttle’s comms to send signals.”
“Not possible,” Jace said. He pulled a thread of data. “These are shuttle-related comms. There is nothing out of the ordinary here. And unless she’s a well-trained communications expert or spy, after looking at her profile on the roster, I don’t think she is capable of this sort of data cleanse.”
“I think your trust in Special Agent Amber is well placed,” Kara added before pulling up data of her own. “FYI, she commed Barr an hour ago to let him know we’d not checked in. She found the van where we left it but was concerned about us. She asked if he’d heard from us, and he told her no.”
Onima grimaced. “I hate leaving her in the cold like this.”
“Maybe it’s time to turn the heat back on,” Jace remarked.
“What do you mean?” asked Kara.
“The third possibility you haven’t gotten to yet is that the mole is here—but is far better hidden than we could have guessed,” Jace said. “And I believe that’s the most likely possibility.”
Onima shook her head. “I thoroughly dislike this notion, but it fits. Still leaves everybody a potential suspect. But we can’t hide here forever. That won’t do us or the investigation any good.”
“Time to return?” asked Kara.
An idea had occurred to Jace. “Only Captain Barr knows we’re here. Likely there is no record of our entering the ship—unless opening hatches creates a record—which, while probable, is so low-level that it wouldn’t attract attention in and of itself.”
“Right,” Onima said. “What’s your point?”
“Maybe we can make our return known while also offering up bait to keep the mole off guard, maybe even open them to make a mistake.”
“What are you thinking?” asked Kara.
Jace explained his idea. Neither Kara nor Onima loved his plan, but neither had a better idea to act on.
21
Onima stood in the combat information center behind the bridge. She looked around at the crew of the Aquila, but nobody paid her anymore mind than they normally did.
Captain Barr joined her. “Everything is ready,” he said.
“Thank you, Captain,” Onima replied. She took a deep breath and let it out. Then she tapped the screen in front of her. A tone sounded across the starship’s public address system. “Attention, all crew and CBI agents aboard the Aquila. This is Marshal Onima Gwok. I just need to share some important information and prevent any rumors from going around about what is going on.”
She paused. “As the CBI operatives know, we have been pursuing a particularly complicated case that began on Planet Raven. This has led us across a wide swath of space and taken us down many unexpected paths. However, throughout the investigation, we have encountered an unusual number of coincidental problems. This, in turn, led me to begin a secondary investigation into the possibility that we had a mole in our organization.
“After a particularly life-threatening incident during our most recent planetary visit, I have identified and captured the suspected mole. While it is highly unorthodox to address the entire ship’s crew like this, I wanted to clarify before there might be any misunderstandings. Deputy Marshal Kara Martinez, at this time, has been apprehended for suspected counterintelligence operations.
“I apologize for this unusual address, but I have worked with most of you a long time now, and I trust each and every one of you. It was important to me that I should reiterate that. Thank you for your continued service. Marshal Gwok out.”
Onima stepped away from the terminal. She looked around at the crew on the bridge. Many had turned to look her way. But now they were returning to their stations, carrying on with business as usual.
“Please reach out to Special Agent Amber, Captain,” Onima said. “Tell her to return to the ship and let her know I will explain everything in person when she gets back.”
“Will do, Marshal,” Barr said.
Onima nodded at him, then departed from the bridge.
In the corridor outside, Jace was awaiting her. “Nice work,” he told her.
“What do you think will happen now?” Onima asked.
“Hopefully now that the ‘mole’ has been revealed and captured, the real culprit will get sloppy, figuring they’re safe.”
“It’s a longshot.”
Jace shrugged. “They’re very, very good. Flushing them out is not going to be easy. And yeah, I’ll openly admit that this idea might not work at all.”
Onima tapped the control for the lift. “It’s the best plan we have at the moment. Let’s go to the next phase.”
The lift arrived, and they entered. Neither spoke all the way to the MBCC.
While heads turned as they walked into the command center, there was nothing much out of the ordinary about it. The duo made their way to Feroz’s station, where Dr. Patel was already in conversation with him.
“...shocked,” Dr. Patel was saying to Feroz as they reached them. “She seemed like such a good person!”
“You’re talking about Kara, I see,” Onima said.
“Welcome back, Marshal Gwok,” Dr. Patel said. “Jace.” She paused, looking at them a moment. “You look terrible.”
“Getting back here was not easy,” Onima said.
“Which is an understatement,” Jace added.
“What happened?” Feroz asked.
“We went to see Mr. Bettani, as you know,” Onima began. “He was not home, which you also know. So, we proceeded to his office to catch up with him. Of course, he denied any knowledge of a virus impacting clones or a conspiracy to overthrow the AECC. Still, it was obvious he was getting increasingly uncomfortable, and he asked us to leave.”
Onima took a deep breath. She hated lying, but she, Jace, and Kara had all agreed to this story. “It was then that Kara betrayed us. She started talking about a certain, high-placed CBI asset in a way she should not have been able to, as well as other information I didn’t think she was privy to. Bettani showed us his hand, and some of our friends in the armored shells showed up.”
“Really?” Dr. Patel asked. “Were you at a Gray and Chuang office?”
“No,” Jace replied, “which made it all the more suspect.”
“Deputy Marshal Martinez undoubtedly informed them we would be there,” Onima said. “Kara continued to converse with Bettani, who only didn’t kill us right then and there because he didn’t want to make a mess or bring down more CBI agents to him. He instructed his armor-shelled thugs to take us somewhere to make our deaths look like an accide
nt in the course of our investigation.”
“Either they planned ahead, or they have done this sort of thing before,” Feroz said.
Jace shook his head. “There was no way to tell. But then Bettani turned on Kara, and she was cuffed and escorted out too. We were taken via a private entrance down to an underground chamber and hovervan.”
“Then things got interesting,” Onima said. She relayed the story of how Kara had freed herself and helped free Jace and Onima, too. But after that, she again abandoned the reality of what had happened. “Kara attempted to run, even though she’d helped us get free. But Jace tackled her, and we brought her with us back to the ship.”
“What about Special Agent Amber?” asked Dr. Patel.
“Even though we’d escaped, we couldn’t be sure we were not still under observation,” Onima said. “Also, I wanted to question Kara and see if she was acting alone. So, we came up with a way to get ourselves back to the ship without letting Bettani know we had escaped, nor tipping off any associates, if she has any, that Kara had been found out and was under arrest.”
“That’s insane,” said Dr. Patel. “Why didn’t you send for me or one of the corpsmen when you got back?”
“Our injuries are far more annoying than life-threatening,” Onima said.
“Also,” Jace added, “we didn’t want to let anyone besides Captain Barr know we were here. Not until Onima and I could go over a whole bunch of data so we could confirm Kara was working alone.”
“That makes sense,” said Dr. Patel. “Still, I would really like the two of you to come to the medical bay so I can check you over.”
“Soon,” Onima assured her. “We needed to be sure Kara was working independently. The last thing we wanted to do was endanger anyone else.”
“It makes sense,” Feroz said. “Given that she is the most recent addition to the team, you would think she’d have been less obvious about it.”
“Visiting Mr. Bettani, I think, tipped her hand,” Jace remarked.
“No doubt Bettani is aware we escaped,” Onima said, “and will realize we are no longer in Jacobastad. It likely won’t be long before he realizes we’re not on Aarde at all anymore.”
“Right,” agreed Feroz. “What now?”
“I need you to track him, Feroz,” Onima said.
“Want me to see if he’s arranging to leave Aarde as well, and where he plans to go?” asked Feroz.
“Yes. Also, please do some more cross-referencing with the list we got from Ms. Varma. I want to see if we can make connections between Bettani and any other former NEEA officials out there, as well as any CBI directors. Let’s also start cross-referencing the other Gray and Chuang directors with Bettani and see if they might connect to other former NEEA and NECC officials.”
Feroz whistled. “Not going to be quick.”
“No,” Onima agreed. “Jace and I are going to see if we can get more information out of Deputy Martinez.” She focused on Dr. Patel. “Maira, do you have anything we can use to persuade Kara to be more talkative?”
“Possibly,” Dr. Patel said, “but that’s not my area of expertise. Still, I have—”
Her comm beeped, interrupting her. She raised a hand to pause her conversation with Onima and said, “Yes, Corpsman?”
She listened a moment, not using a speaker, then nodded. “I’ll be right there.”
Dr. Patel returned her attention to Onima. “Sorry. Incoming transmission from Vuk. Let me go take this and see if there’s something of interest.”
“Of course,” Onima said.
Dr. Patel marched off, all business.
Onima was not suspicious of Dr. Patel. However, Captain Barr was more closely monitoring all comm signals to and from CBI operatives on the ship. He would be tracing where all signals were coming from and going to. If this was not, as Maira claimed, a comm from Vuk, they’d know.
Onima caught Jace’s eye. She appreciated that he didn’t follow Dr. Patel. There was no point in letting anyone know that Kara was a scapegoat to draw out the true mole.
Jace had been ordered to examine everyone in the MBCC during this conversation, leveraging the same situational awareness skills any good infantry soldier possessed. If anything out of place was happening - or anyone appeared to be listening to the conversation at Feroz’s station with interest - Jace would catch it.
“What’s the order of priority for me?” Feroz asked.
“Locate Mr. Bettani,” Onima said. “I might assign a team to track him, if we can. I suspect, however, that with the wide network of underground tunnels we found in use throughout much of Jacobastad, he will have disappeared already. We need to get a look at outbound traffic, public and private, to see if we can find him.”
“I can put a couple agents on this too,” Feroz suggested.
“That’s a good idea,” Onima said. She would, of course, double-check anyone’s work, since she had no idea who the mole was. It could be anyone. “Jace and I will assist you once we have a chance to talk more with Kara about who she is working for and why they are interfering with my investigation.”
“I can’t believe I am living in the middle of a conspiracy,” Jace remarked.
“Yours has been a truly unique experience, Jace,” Feroz said. “Made my life more interesting, that’s for sure.”
Onima’s comm beeped.
It was Dr. Patel. “Onima, would you and Jace come to the medical bay?” she asked. “I would like to continue the conversation we started, but also treat your injuries.”
A text message accompanied Dr. Patel’s signal: Information from Vuk is unexpected. Come discuss privately. Now.
“Yes, Doctor,” Onima said, “we’ll be right there.”
She looked again to Feroz. “Please get started and find Bettani.” She turned. “Jace, let’s go to the medical bay.”
22
Jace had not received any sort of medical treatment in a decade.
During the war, corpsmen and various medical practitioners had seen to the clones when they were injured. Just like non-clones, they were treated for broken bones, plasma bolt wounds, and other combat-related trauma.
After the war, when clones had been all but abandoned, doctors and various other medical practitioners tended not to offer clones treatment. In some places, fines were even levied if clones received care.
Clones Remembered was not the only group that cared about clone welfare across the galaxy. But these groups were NGOs, either poorly or privately funded, and given how many clones were still alive post-war, they could only do so much.
Overall, clones didn’t get sick. But they could still get hurt, beaten, injured while performing a job, and so on. While Jace and his roommates had possessed a basic medical kit, much beyond that was almost impossible to come across.
The Aquila’s medical bay was state of the art. It included bruise-healing machines, muscle-reconstruction devices, bone-repair and reconstruction tools, and other advanced tech.
Five years ago, Jace had dislocated his left shoulder while crawling through an underground space alongside a trio of drones. At one point, the drones had crowded him into a bend, and in the process of working around them, he had dislocated his shoulder.
Jace had slammed it back into place but damaged the rotator cuff and torn some muscle. Ever since that time, Jace had experienced pain in the shoulder almost constantly. While it would sometimes lessen to nearly nonexistence, there were days it was nearly incapacitating.
Now, five years later, he was only just learning the full extent of the damage. In a matter of five minutes, the pain he’d lived with for five years was gone—and would be gone for good. Dr. Patel had employed her medical bay’s tech to scan and then heal Jace’s recent bruises, as well as the old injury.
That, of course, had not been all Dr. Patel had wanted with Jace and Onima. That was a much more complex and distressing problem.
Both Jace and Onima had been cautious about visiting Dr. Patel’s medical bay, given they didn’
t know who the real mole was. But their caution and concern proved unfounded for multiple reasons.
After Dr. Patel treated their injuries, Jace and Onima walked back into the MBCC. They made their way to Feroz to learn what he’d found since they’d left half an hour prior.
Feroz was in his usual spot at his station, multiple holographic monitors around him while he tapped at screens before him, looking at and moving around various data.
“Anything yet?” Onima asked.
Feroz shook his head. “No. You’re right, though. I think Mr. Bettani has gone to ground. He is nowhere to be found. He has not visited any of his homes.”