Radko moved the blaster threateningly up to EightFields’s throat. “Tell us about the report.”
“Go ahead, shoot me.”
“I wouldn’t shoot you dead. Just enough to cause you so much pain you’ll want to tell me.”
“Go ahead. I’m used to pain.”
It sounded like the truth.
Chaudry made a sound that might have been shock. “Do you like pain?”
“Of course not. But I’ve been beaten before. Starved. Burned. Shot.” He looked at Radko as he said that.
“I’m happy to shoot you, too,” Radko said.
“Of course you are.”
“If someone treated you so badly, why didn’t you report them?” Chaudry asked.
“Why would you care?” and there was bitter truth in the words.
“If you allow yourself to be a victim,” Han said. “You will always be a victim.” He seemed to have forgotten he was part of this mission and reverted back to the policeman he would have been on Lancia. Radko thought he might have been good at his job.
What had Vega given her as a team?
Linesmen. Who didn’t always make the best soldiers, but they were damned good at what they could do.
“I don’t care how much you were bullied,” Radko said. “And you don’t either,” to Han and Chaudry. “We’re here to do a job. Let’s do it. Now,” to EightFields. “Tell me about this report before I shoot someone in frustration.”
EightFields laughed. “I wish I’d never seen that report.” He sobered quickly, then looked at them speculatively. “But you were buying it, weren’t you?”
There wasn’t any point denying it, and if he’d been jumping at Redmond soldiers earlier, it was probably even beneficial. “Yes. Did you keep a copy?”
“I didn’t even know what it was. It was just a comms Adam was fussing about.” He took a deep breath. “I have to explain some history; otherwise, you’ll think I’m crazy.”
Radko looked at van Heel. “Are we okay with pursuit?”
“So far.”
She was after Adam. She didn’t really care about the report Daniel had sold to OneLane, but if they could relax him by letting him talk, maybe he’d let slip where his brother was. Provided they didn’t run out of time.
“Go on,” Radko said.
“Thank you.” He settled into his seat, lance straight, like a soldier. “I hate Adam. I always have.” She heard the truth of it in his voice and suspected that Adam might be the source of the pain EightFields had been speaking about earlier. “He made my life a misery when I was a boy. That’s why I joined the fleet. To learn how to fight.”
If he was trying for sympathy, he was certainly getting it from Chaudry. Radko couldn’t read Han’s face. Van Heel looked skeptical.
“I’m doing okay, actually. I was up for team leader.” He stopped and took three quick, shallow breaths. “I hated Adam so much that when I was about fifteen, I spent three months following him around, trying to find something I could use against him.”
Radko hoped this story was going somewhere.
“Back then, Adam was spending more than his allowance. Than both our allowances combined. He stole one of Mother’s necklaces—Radiance of the Night, it was called—and took it down to Callista’s shop. I followed him there.”
Named necklaces were priceless.
EightFields’s voice turned reverential. “Have you seen Callista? Isn’t she something? She was my first crush. I kept going back though I had no money to buy anything. I must have spent my whole youth in that shop. I propositioned her once.”
Radko raised an eyebrow.
“She turned me down. You remind me of her, actually. Ice queen.”
“Thank you.”
“I think she liked that I liked her. Adam visited occasionally. I was there often enough. I saw him go out the back. I used to ask her what he wanted, but she told me to mind my own business.”
“So you tried to impress her by selling stolen goods?”
EightFields shook his head. “Adam came home to attend a function. Two hours before we were due to leave, a captain arrives with a full team as an honor guard. He wants Adam to finish something because they were about to get a twelve, and they—” He stopped, and stepped back. “What?”
Radko hadn’t moved. At least, she hadn’t thought she had. “A twelve?” The chase had suddenly become personal. Her pulse pounded from the instant adrenaline rush.
“I don’t know what it is, either. But Adam and the captain were excited about it. There was this massive fuss as they signed over the comms, like it was the most precious thing ever.”
“Did Adam talk about it?”
“To me? Of course not. But he boasted about how important the work was, and it took a whole team to deliver it. Adam invited the captain to stay for a drink.” EightFields paused, took a deep breath.
“I was up for promotion. Team leader. The captain mentioned it. Adam—” EightFields swallowed. “I turn up at work next day to start team-leader training and find I’m out of the program. That I’m unfit to be in charge of people. It’s signed by the captain from the night before.”
“So you decided to get your own back?”
“Not then. They placed me on special leave because no one knew what to do with me. My old position had already been filled. So I go home, and what should I see when I walk inside, but Adam’s precious comms on the table. And no one around.” He scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms. “That’s when I took it. I went straight around to Callista’s shop.”
“Didn’t you think you’d get caught?” Radko asked.
“I had proof he’d stolen the necklace. If they traced the comms, I’d show them the proof about the necklace and say Adam had a history of selling things off.” His mouth twisted down. “I didn’t think it through. I was angry. There was this massive fuss about the missing comms, but they assumed I’d been at work all day. I was ignored.”
“And you’ve been jumping at Redmond soldiers ever since?”
He nodded.
And no wonder. “What else did they say when they delivered the comms?” Radko asked.
“They didn’t say anything. Except about how important and confidential it was. And how time was so short.”
She thought he was telling the truth. “And Adam. Where is he?”
He shook his head and raised his hands when she instinctively raised her blaster. “I truly don’t know. It’s supposed to be secret.”
Han stepped forward to stand beside Radko. “We’ve spent all this time hearing your story, and you haven’t got anything for us. Not even a report.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I can guess where Adam is. If you’ll listen before you shoot me.”
“Talk faster, then,” Han said.
“Adam was late.” EightFields rushed the words out. “This function we both had to attend. It was a major event. Everyone in the Founding Families had to attend. You disgrace your family if you don’t. We never miss it. But Adam nearly did this year. Because his lab was under lockdown.”
If a lab was under lockdown, it was usually for security reasons or because something viral had gotten out of hand. Either way, the company wasn’t going to publicize it. “We need more than that,” Radko said.
“But Adam is also a name-dropper.” EightFields watched Radko’s blaster warily. “When he dines with someone important, you know about it. And he dined with the Factor of the Lesser Gods three times in the two weeks before he came home.” He paused expectantly.
“Connect it for us,” Radko said. “The Factor of the Lesser Gods isn’t from Redmond.” In fact, he was supposed to be turning against Redmond by marrying Michelle.
“The lockdown,” EightFields said. “They had a lockdown at the Factor’s palace on Aeolus. It made the news. The Factor had some importa
nt visitor. So important they locked down the whole palace and the streets surrounding it. No one could get in or out for two days. Timewise, it matches perfectly.”
Van Heel ran checks. “TwoPaths does have a lab there. Although it’s listed more as a store nowadays. It is close to the palace. Right against the walls, actually.”
“Yes, but why put a comilitary operation on a world that’s not your own? And why leave it there if the two worlds are close to being enemies right now?”
“Maybe that’s what the twelve is about?” Han suggested. “Their plans to move.”
Radko shook her head. “That’s something different.” She watched EightFields carefully. She thought he was telling the truth. Otherwise, he was an accomplished liar. “Anything else you want to tell us?”
“No.”
She looked at the others. Han shook his head. Chaudry didn’t respond. Van Heel shrugged.
“Take us down somewhere safe,” Radko ordered van Heel. “We’ll drop him off.”
TEN
EAN LAMBERT
ADMIRAL ORSAYA WAS delighted to be officially placed in charge of security for linesmen. She came out personally to reassure Ean he was in safe hands.
“I know that.” Ean was on Confluence Station. The lines would look after him.
A pleased hum echoed through the station lines. “We’ll look after you well.”
“Thank you. I know you will.”
Sale was less happy. “We’re perfectly capable of looking after you. This business with Radko had better not take long.”
Vega had called Sale as Ean had arrived back on Confluence Station, told her about Orsaya, then asked her to come in to the Lancastrian Princess after she finished work that day. Ean eavesdropped unashamedly on the call. Sale had just clicked off when Ean and Bhaksir rejoined them. Bhaksir had shrugged, and Sale had looked at her comms but hadn’t asked anything else.
“You’re coming out to the Confluence with us today, Ean.” Sale looked at Orsaya, who’d smiled, and said nothing.
It had been a long night. Ean tried to doze while Sale and Bhaksir talked quietly off to one side, and everyone else pretended things were fine.
“No idea,” Bhaksir said. “But everyone on board the Lancastrian Princess is on edge. Vega nearly bit my head off when I asked. It doesn’t help that it’s happened at the same time as this business with the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. That’s all anyone’s talking about on ship.”
“I imagine not.” Sale glanced over at Ean. He thought she was going to come and talk to him after that, so he looked away.
* * *
THE Confluence welcomed them. It was the only thing that seemed happy today.
“We’ll have crew for you soon,” Ean said.
“Crew is good. Lonely.”
Ean knew that as well as the ships did. “I know. We’re doing what we can.” He was trying hard not to promise something he couldn’t deliver, but if the New Alliance didn’t make up its mind soon, he was going to assign linesmen himself.
“We choose, too.”
He hoped he hadn’t committed to choosing linesmen without the council’s agreement. “I’m going for a walk,” he told Sale. He needed to distract himself and the ship.
Bhaksir looked at Ru Li and Hana.
“On it,” Ru Li said, and the two of them trailed after Ean.
“You realize,” Ru Li said to Hana, “Bhaksir never made Radko take anyone with her. That means she thinks we’re half the person Radko is.”
“You are half the person Radko is,” Ean said.
“Oh, that’s mean, Ean. Especially when I know you really mean it.”
He had meant it. Ean bit his lip. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.” Don’t compound your mistakes, Radko would say. Or would that be Sale? He took a deep breath. “You know what I mean.”
Luckily for him, they did.
He stopped at one of the large crew rooms. On board the Confluence, there were always things to do. Except he couldn’t think straight today.
Protection. That would be a good start. Ean and the ships had to be able to protect their people. Like he had before, with Radko, throwing the enemy across the room but a controlled throwing.
“I’m going to practice with line eight,” he told the ship.
“Practice?”
What had the aliens done when they wanted to practice? Or were the lines so natural to them they didn’t need to? He searched for another word to explain. “Work with,” he said finally. “Ru Li, Hana, you need to stay behind me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Working with line eight.”
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Hana said, as they both moved in behind him. “Isn’t line eight the one that throws people around?”
“That’s why I have to learn to use it.”
How did you work with something you couldn’t see, you could only hear? You listened to them. And you tried to explain what you were doing because though you heard music, the general consensus seemed to be that it wasn’t just music, it was your thoughts that conveyed the message.
“I want to build a field to protect us.”
It built a field all right. Ean recognized the tune. The protective green field that surrounded the ship and when anything came within 9.7 kilometers of it, spread out, annihilating anything within two hundred kilometers.
“No. Not that one.”
On the bridge, Sale grabbed her comms. “Ean. Whatever you did, don’t. Turn it off.”
Sale wasn’t a linesman, but she was a good ship person. Especially on the Confluence, which she and her team knew better than anyone else alive, except Ean.
The green field died. Cut off instantly.
“It’s off.” Ean waited for his heart to stop racing. Thank goodness Abram insisted no vehicle ever went within two hundred kilometers of any of the alien ships without permission.
“What did he do?” Hana asked Ru Li.
Ru Li gave an elaborate, exaggerated shrug.
How did Ean explain to the ship what he wanted? Then, last time he had used eight that way, it had been on the Gruen, which was a different ship in a different fleet. Maybe only human ships did it. Maybe it was their equivalent of the green shield. Maybe it was the only thing they could do, for they didn’t have the equipment to produce the other.
No. That couldn’t be it. Both times, the ship had been protecting individual people.
“I was on the Gruen, and someone fired at Radko. And we—I—knew he was going to kill her. So line eight made a protective field on the ship and stopped the other man’s weapon.”
He still hadn’t made himself understood to line eight by the time they left to go home.
* * *
ABRAM waited for him on Confluence Station.
“Wouldn’t it be smarter for us to go to the Lancastrian Princess?” Ean asked, as they settled in with tea in Ean’s quarters. Michelle liked it when Abram came back to her ship, and so did the crew. “Sattur Dow isn’t there yet, and we’d know long before he arrived that he was coming.”
Abram made a face that could have been a grimace. “Both Michelle and Vega feel it is better for me to spend less time on the Lancastrian Princess for the moment.”
That was like kicking Michelle herself off the ship. It was Abram’s home as much as it was hers. Or it had been. “Sometimes, I don’t like change much.”
“Change is inevitable,” Abram said. “You go with the changes as they come, try to control them.”
Abram and Michelle were both masters at controlling change and making it suit them.
“Do you ever regret becoming an admiral? Do you ever think that if you had to do it again you’d say no, and stay in your old job?”
He didn’t have to hear Abram’s reply to know the answer—the lines told him the truth.
>
Abram sidestepped the question anyway. “Have you met the other Lancastrian admirals, Ean? I can’t think of one I’d like to see in Alien Affairs. Lancia’s reputation is not undeserved. We have been too long in power. When we want something, we go out and get it, without thought to the consequences.”
“But you think of the consequences.”
“I think of the future, Ean. That is all.” There was a strong sound of Michelle in the lines now. “I want Lancia to have a future.”
He wanted it for Michelle.
“Emperor Yu is right to accuse me of controlling access to Haladea III. I do. Because I believe that is best for Lancia’s future. I might be wrong. There are plenty of people who believe what they are doing is right, when it isn’t.”
“You are not wrong. And keeping you off the Lancastrian Princess is crazy.”
“Michelle has her reasons. And I trust Michelle implicitly. If she thinks there’s a problem, there’s a problem.”
What sort of problem would Michelle be worried about? It was Yu who had accused Abram of working against him, not Sattur Dow. Was Michelle expecting Dow to act as proxy for Yu? Or was there something more?
“What does Lancia do to traitors, Abram?”
Abram grimaced. “Treason has to be proven first.”
That didn’t answer the question. Ean waited.
“But that’s not what I came here to talk about.”
Of course it wasn’t. Did Abram ever pay social visits?
Abram blew out his breath. “We’re going to sing another ship into the Eleven fleet.”
“Into?” Ean asked, just to be sure. They asked him to sing the ships out, which he couldn’t. Not in.
“We are looking for the aliens.”
Abram believed that if they didn’t find the aliens, the aliens would find them one day. It was better, in Abram’s opinion, that humans were the ones who did the finding. It gave them more control. Furthermore, Abram believed that Kari Wang’s jump into alien space would have triggered an alert, somewhere. Ean had told the ship to go somewhere safe. Safe for an eleven ship was likely to be close to its alien home, in a sector with other alien line ships.
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