The Vanished Seas (Major Bhaajan series Book 3)

by Catherine Asaro

  “Do you recognize either name?” Lavinda asked her sister. “Maybe she is an operative.”

  “I’ve never heard of the woman,” Vaj said. “That isn’t saying much, though. I don’t know the names of every covert operative.”

  “I’ve no idea who she is,” I said. “Just that she’s been following me since I started working on this case.”

  Lavinda turned to me with a scowl. “She’s the one you jumped in the park.”

  Well, yah. Although that action had served its purpose, it wasn’t one of my finer moments. “I was trying to find out more about her. I figured she’d answer the police if I pushed it.”

  Vaj studied me. “How did you find the rest of this information?”

  I just looked at them. The general knew I couldn’t reveal my sources, or those sources would never trust me again. Instead I asked, “Are you a member of the High Mesh?”

  She spoke bluntly. “No, I am not.”

  Of course she could be lying, but my intuition said no. “It’s the House of Vibarr. They’re the driver behind this Mesh.”

  “Vibarr?” Lavinda looked as if she wondered what drug I’d taken. “Whatever for?”

  Vaj reacted differently than her sister. She turned and walked away, back to the window, where she stood staring at the mountains. Lavinda and I waited.

  After a moment, the general turned to us. “It would explain a lot.”

  I could use some of that explanation. “How long have you known about the Mesh?”

  “I never said we knew anything about them,” Vaj said.

  I waited. I could do that silence game, too.

  Vaj came back to us. “You don’t have the clearance to know more.”

  “She needs the clearance,” Lavinda said. “She just told us more about the Mesh than we’ve managed to find out in the past year.”

  The past year? “Why didn’t you tell me about them?” When neither of them answered, I let out a frustrated breath. “I need to know.”

  Lavinda and Vaj regarded each other with one of their looks, the kind only they understood. Maybe they were communicating via their EIs or maybe by thought. Sisters shared a closer bond than most empaths even if only one of them was a strong psion. The only outward sign they were interacting came when Vaj nodded to her sister.

  Lavinda turned to me. “We didn’t say anything because we didn’t know either Mara Quida or Chiaru Starchild were involved.” When she mentioned Chiaru, her eyelid twitched, a subtle response I would have missed if I hadn’t been so alert. That Chiaru’s involvement bothered her told me a lot of what they thought of the High Mesh, none of it good.

  “So when you asked me to investigate the disappearances,” I said, “you didn’t know you were asking me to investigate the High Mesh.”

  “That is correct,” the general said. “We wanted your insight on the behavior of the people at the gala to help us judge how the Metropoli deal was going to affect the Cries economy.” She considered me. “I understand now why you’ve been so terse with your reports. We haven’t sent anyone to assassinate you, Major.”

  “If that’s true,” I said, “then you have a security problem at the palace or on your staff. Someone is working against you.”

  Vaj gave me an appraising stare. “And you know that how?”

  Careful, Max thought.

  I will, I answered. Don’t talk to me here, though. I don’t know what they can pick up. It was an odd idea, that in the presence of the Imperialate’s elite cyber-enhanced warriors, even my thoughts might not be private. “Three people associated with the High Mesh met at the Vanished Sea starships yesterday, Bessel, Sav Halin, and Detective Talon. Did they have clearance?”

  “No,” Vaj said. “How do you know they met there? You don’t have clearance, either.”

  I breathed evenly, trying to steady my pulse. “I circumvented the monitors using my shroud, my experience as a cyber expert, and my familiarity with Majda security.”

  A sense of doom came from Max. He didn’t have to say anything: You just screwed yourself felt the same regardless of whether or not he actually spoke the words.

  The general frowned. “Major, your talent at going places where you shouldn’t be seems to have no limits.”

  Lavinda looked more puzzled than annoyed. “Why were you all out there?”

  “I was following them,” I said. “They were waiting for Daan Bialo, but he never showed up. I couldn’t hear everything they said, but I did catch the name Vibarr.”

  Vaj tapped her gauntlet comm. A woman’s voice came into the air. “Lieutenant Ko here.”

  “Lieutenant, check the security records for the Vanished Sea starships,” Vaj said. “Look at everything for the past two tendays. Let me know if you find any breaches. And I need any records you can find on a man named Bessel employed by Lukas Quida.”

  “Right away, ma’am. Also, we received the files from Major Bhaajan’s beetle. The flyer that picked up Sav Halin is a Majda vehicle. According to the schedule, it never left the palace that day.”

  “Understood. Over and—” Vaj stopped when I lifted my hand. “Hold, Lieutenant.” She tapped off the transmit panel on her comm. “Yes, Major?”

  “Can you have her look up Ti Callen and Tandem Walkerdale?”

  Vaj transmitted the request to her lieutenant and signed out.

  “Tandem Walkerdale.” Lavinda spoke wryly. “What the blazes is she in tandem with?”

  I gave a startled laugh. “I wondered that, too.”

  “I once knew an officer named High-Low.” Vaj actually smiled. “I never did figure out the history of that one.”

  Max sent me a sense of astonishment. I understood. It was the first time I’d ever seen Vaj Majda make a comment unconnected to business, let alone smile while she did it.

  “This much I can say,” Lavinda told me. “None of the three people you saw at the Vanished Sea starships are, to our knowledge, in the High Mesh.”

  “I’m almost certain Bessel is a member,” I said. “Sav Halin and Detective Talon are probably just working for them.”

  “I’m still missing something here,” Vaj said. “I see no motive for Sav Halin to kill you. No one attacked any of the other investigators.”

  I said nothing.

  “It’s the Undercity, isn’t it?” Lavinda asked. “You’re the only investigator with ties there.”

  “I have to ask you to trust me,” I said.

  Vaj crossed her arms. “This is a pattern with you, Major. You want us to trust your questionable methods without telling us anything.”

  I met her cold gaze. “You’ve asked me to trust you, that you aren’t involved in the attempts on my life. I ask this in return.”

  “I don’t bargain with—” She stopped as Lavinda laid her hand on her arm.

  “Vaj, the bargain is fair.” Lavinda glanced at me. “A trade, your trust for our trust.”

  Ah. A bargain. She was learning to understand the Undercity. It was a small step, but it meant a lot coming from a member of the royal family so high above the Undercity, she would have been in the clouds if Raylicon had any.

  “It’s a fair bargain,” I said.

  Vaj considered her sister, then turned to me. “I’d like you to work with our staff to block whatever hole allowed you, and apparently three other people, to break security at the starships.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I couldn’t tell her no. Saying, Excuse me, I need to be able to break your security to do my job would go over about as well as a plutonium balloon. “It’s more serious than a backdoor in your mesh. You also have a mole on the inside working against you.”

  Neither of them looked surprised. Lavinda said, “We’re aware of the problem.”

  Feigning innocence, I asked, “What happened?”

  Lavinda and Vaj did The Look again. Then Vaj said, “Someone broke into the palace security mesh. We don’t know who or why.” She regarded me with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “You are on the list of suspects.”
r />   “It isn’t me you need to worry about.” That was true. Of course it was also true I committed the break-in. “Someone is working against you with the High Mesh. She’s probably the one who picked up Halin. It has to be someone familiar enough with your security to hide that she took a flyer.” Halin had also betrayed their trust, given that she worked for them in secret, but I couldn’t say that without revealing I was privy to information I had no business knowing. In any case, it couldn’t only be Halin. Someone had picked her up in a flyer that supposedly never left the palace.

  Vaj considered me. “Do you have any idea how the House of Vibarr might be involved?”

  “I wondered about Bessel’s background. He has traces of an Iotic accent.” I spoke with care. “Is it possible the Vibarrs plan to move against your House? They’re an aggressive player on the financial markets, and Majda must be their greatest competition.”

  Vaj snorted. “Competition suggests they have achieved enough to be worthy opponents.”

  Lavinda gave her sister an annoyed look. To me, she said, “They do challenge us.”

  I waited, but she said no more. Vaj had turned back into an unreadable monolith. If they had dealings with the Vibarrs, they weren’t going to tell me.

  “General Majda,” I said. “It might be a good idea for you to have an additional bodyguard.” She needed someone she could trust. I thought about Randall. “Perhaps Captain Miyashiro.”

  Vaj gave me a look that suggested I had pudding for a brain. Yes, I knew the idea of a man protecting the General of the Pharaoh’s Army probably offended her conception of the universe, but Randall wouldn’t have become the master tykado instructor for the most prestigious police force on the planet if she didn’t trust his judgment.

  Vaj glanced at Lavinda, who looked poised to argue with her. Then, incredibly, Vaj actually smiled. Gods. Twice in fifteen minutes. I was surprised the planet didn’t stop in its orbit.

  “I’ve given you enough opportunities to scold me for underestimating the fairer sex,” Vaj told her sister. “I’ll refrain from providing you another.”

  “A wise choice,” Lavinda said. “Miyashiro would be an excellent bodyguard.”

  For a moment I saw them simply as two sisters who, despite their differences, enjoyed each other’s company. It was a side of the Majdas I’d never even imagined existed, let alone witnessed.

  Vaj spoke to me. “This investigation has expanded beyond what we expected.”

  No shit. “Do you want me to continue?”

  “Yes, that would be good.” Her expression remained noncommittal. She acted as if this was business as usual, but I knew them well enough after two years to see beyond that mask.

  “To do my job,” I said. “I need all the information you’ve gathered on the High Mesh.”

  To my surprise, Vaj didn’t go silent. Instead she said, “Less than what you’ve found, actually. We know it exists, and that they seek to undermine current power structures through the development of rogue technologies. What exactly that means, we don’t yet know.”

  Lavinda spoke. “We discussed it with the First Councilor at the last Assembly session on Parthonia. She has asked for more details.”

  The Assembly—as in the democratically elected ruling body of the Skolian Imperialate? “You’re talking about the leader of the government.”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Vaj focused even more intently on me. “Is that a problem?”

  “I just hadn’t realized it extended beyond Raylicon. The only person who isn’t from Cries is Tandem Walkerdale. She came here from Metropoli.”

  “The Scorpio deal with Metropoli is substantial,” Vaj said. “After they announced it, their stock value soared.” She sounded quite satisfied with that result.

  “I haven’t found any link between the Metropoli deal and the High Mesh,” I said. “I’m not sure the Mesh even knows what the hell they’re doing.”

  Lavinda regarded me curiously. “What do you mean?”

  I hesitated. “I’ve wondered if they’re manipulating quantum stasis technology.”

  Vaj came to attention as if I’d said someone had threatened war. “You think they’re building ships for combat?”

  “No, not at all. I meant using quasis technology on a planet.”

  “To what purpose?” Vaj asked, incredulous.

  “I don’t know.” I described what Max had found about the time glitch, except I implied it involved the crystal sphere at the Quida mansion. I said nothing about the Undercity or the explosion in the tunnel. “If they did try something,” I finished, “it backfired spectacularly.”

  Vaj lifted her gauntlet to tap her comm. “I’ll have our people look into it.”

  “No, wait!” I took a breath. “The moment we send people to investigate, we show our hand. Right now, the High Mesh doesn’t realize I know about them.” Except for Daan Bialo. I doubted he would break my cover; it would get him kicked out of the Mesh, and he thought he’d blackmailed me into silence. “If they think Majda knows, they’ll panic. It will drive them underground. They’ll also try to remove anyone they fear can do them damage.” Like me, their number one irritant.

  “We’ll be covert,” Vaj said.

  Lavinda tilted her head toward me. “This is exactly what we hire her to do.”

  Vaj lowered her arm. “Very well, Major. Continue your work. You have our resources at your disposal.”

  Those “resources” were no small offer. “Understood.”

  “Good.” Vaj had a look I recognized, the one that said You’re dismissed. “We’ll have one of our pilots take you back to the city.”

  I bowed to her. “Thank you, General.”

  After Vaj left, Lavinda walked with me through the palace, headed for the landing pad on the roof. She asked, “Do you have any idea who the mole might be on the Majda staff?”

  I wished I did. “So far, no leads.”

  She watched me with one of those appraising stares that saw too much. “I’m the one in charge of the investigation about who broke into the palace security web a few days ago.”

  “Have you found anything?” I asked, all innocence.

  She spoke quietly. “Major, no one in my family is trying to kill you.”

  Damn. Why would she tell me that in the context of the palace break-in? “Of course.”

  “I need you to work with our security people to fix the security holes in our palace system. Can you come back tomorrow morning, eighth hour?”

  I didn’t dare ask why she wanted my help. “Yes, certainly. I’ll help catch your cracker.”

  “Hacker,” she murmured.

  Why would she specify that difference? A cracker broke into systems where they shouldn’t be, either with malicious intent or else the way I’d done it, to exploit the network for their own use. A hacker had similar skills or even more advanced abilities, but they didn’t break into systems, they sought to further knowledge.

  “I’ll do my best,” I said.

  “See that you do.”

  She knows you’re the one who broke in, Max thought.

  Be quiet, yah? I thought. We’ll talk later. Surely she couldn’t know. If she did, she’d have me arrested. The only other option was that she trusted me enough to let it go, which seemed impossible. Her formidable sister would certainly never allow anyone to breach their stronghold.

  For now, I could only sweat bullets, wondering if and when they’d find out what I’d done.

  The pilot didn’t talk as she flew me back to the city. I sat in a passenger seat, watching the mountains. Shifting my weight, I tried to get comfortable. The flyer that had brought me to the palace had smelled fresh and clean. This one had an unpleasant scent, a lightly pungent smell. Odd. The Majdas were usually scrupulous about their aircraft.

  I spoke to the pilot. “Do you smell something?”

  She didn’t answer. I rubbed my eyes. So tired—

  “Hey!” I pulled off my safety harness and stepped to the pilot’s chair. “I sme
ll gas.”

  No response. Leaning over her seat, I shook her shoulder. Her head lolled to the side. Damn, she’d passed out. The musty smell intensified in the cockpit, and my vision swam. I shook her again, trying to keep my balance as the flyer swerved. My legs buckled and I dropped to kneel on the deck. Dizziness swept over me.

  “Max, release the oxygen masks!” I said.

  “I can’t,” he said. “The system is locked.”

  “Well, fuck.” I struggled to my feet and clawed at the overhead compartment that stored oxygen. Swaying, I clutched the handle on a bin next to my shoulder, trying to keep my balance.

  The flyer lurched, losing altitude. Can you fly this thing? I thought, holding my breath. I scraped at the oxygen compartment. We’re going down.

  I’m trying to reach its onboard system, but it’s locked up too. And you are about to pass out.

  It would be so easy to collapse to the deck. Toggle combat mode.

  Toggled.

  The pungent smell intensified and my fingers tingled. No time for delicacy; I tore the cover off the compartment, ripping it from the ceiling. A blue mask dropped out, and I clamped it over my face. With a gasp, I inhaled the pure oxygen. For a moment, I just breathed. When my head cleared, I leaned into the cockpit. Grabbing the pilot, I pulled off my mask and clamped it over her face.

  “Come on,” I muttered. “Wake up. I don’t know how to fly this thing.”

  The comm crackled with a man’s voice. “Flyer M47, this is the Cries Transit Authority. What the hell are you doing? You’re on a collision course with the City Arts Tower. Pull off!”

  I looked out the forward window. The City Arts Tower rose in front of us, a soaring needle of mirrored glass that reflected the sky in luminous blue panels.

  We would hit it within moments.

  CHAPTER XV

  NIGHT STALKERS

  I spoke fast. “I’m a passenger. A gas was released in the flyer. Pilot passed out. I’m on oxygen.”

  “You have to pull off,” the man said. “Now!”

  I dropped in the copilot’s seat. “How?”

  “Your system is blocked,” he said. “I can’t access it from here. Find a blue panel the size of your thumb to the right of the pilot’s screen. Push it.”