"Torres here."
"What's the status with Williams? Any fix on him yet?"
"Negative, we're still searching, but we haven't found anything yet. Um, we have had an encounter with the competition."
"Commander Wallace?"
"His aide, that Lieutenant Khatib."
"Keep looking, Torres," Garibaldi said grimly.
He shut down his console and got to his feet. A few moments later he was in the lockup, confronting Nick Patinos. "Look," he said urgently, "maybe you know something I don't, maybe you have reason to know that Val Williams is safe in hiding on Luna Colony and everything's fine. But security hasn't found him yet, and I'm starting to think about what happened to the last missing person we found on this station. At least, we found a piece of him. That's all that was left. One piece of him.
"So unless you're sure, Nick, unless you're very sure that Williams is safe and sound someplace where neither Wallace nor I can get at him, I strongly suggest you tell me where you think he is. Or the name of someone else who knows. Unless you'd rather see him melted down to sludge in the recycling system and coming back as breakfast in the mess hall. Because if I don't find him, I'm afraid someone else is going to. And if he does, I don't think anyone will ever see him again."
Nick paled. "I can't tell you that, Mike," he said finally, but it was obviously hard.
Garibaldi's jaw tightened. "If that's the way you want it. Your choice. I thought maybe you might have figured out the difference by now between me and that bastard Wallace"
"Dammit ..."
"Your choice."
"All right!" Nick held his head in his hands. Then he looked up at Garibaldi. "His real name is Nagy. Josef Nagy. He might try to get off the station using his own ID."
Garibaldi frowned. "What else?"
"That's it, Mike. All I know."
"The truth?"
Eyes met. "The truth."
Garibaldi nodded, toggled on his link. "Torres, this is Garibaldi" Then he stopped himself, remembering Wallace, the possibility of a bug in communications. This was one name he couldn't afford to leak to the opposition. "I have some information for you. Hold on." He was going to have to run it down to her himself.
He looked at Nick. "You'd better hope we find him first."
CHAPTER 22
"Distress call coming in, Commander!"
"Get the coordinates, Alpha Two!" Ivanova ordered Mokena, picking up the call.
The signal came through unevenly. "... raiders . . . We're under attack! . . . help! Is anyone out there?"
Ivanova immediately transmitted, "Vessel under attack, this is Earthforce Commander Susan Ivanova. Give me your location."
"Earthforce? Is it Earthforce out there? We need help! Raiders attacking!"
"They must be having communications problems," Ivanova sent to Alpha Two. "Did you get that? Can you get a fix on them?" But what ship was it? They were out here to meet and escort the Duster, another ore carrier out of Marsport, but it wasn't scheduled to come through the jump gate for another hour.
To the ship under attack she sent again, "This is Earthforce. We're trying to help you! Transmit your coordinates!"
"I've got it, Alpha Leader! Coordinates Red 477 by 36 by 10."
"Heading to Red 36," she ordered her patrol. "Keep formation. Thrusters on max burn. We've got raiders out there. Be ready to open fire on my orders."
With a surge of power from her engines, Ivanova's Starfury shot forward, changing course for the location of the endangered ship. The ready indicators for her weapons array glowed red. As one, the other fighters in the patrol turned with her, maintaining the formation.
After a moment, she established clear communication with the ship and asked for their ID.
"This is Earth transport Cyrus Mac, out of Luna. We've got raiders on our tail! How soon can you get here, Earthforce?"
"We're on our way, Cyrus Mac! I estimate eighteen minutes. How many raiders? Can you hold them off? Is your ship crippled? Are you having communications problems?"
"Four ... no, five of them! They're closing in fast! They're almost in range. Hurry, Earthforce, or we may not make it!"
Ivanova swore under her breath. She wondered if the raiders had made a mistake, pouncing on a ship that had come through the jump gate ahead of the Duster. Just how accurate was their information?
Or was this a diversion?
"Alpha Wing, stay alert!" she warned her patrol. "This could be another trick."
But the pilot or communications officer, whoever was transmitting from the Cyrus Mac, seemed on the verge of panic now. "They're firing! They're . . . we're hit! Earthforce, we're hit!"
With a firm grip on her fighter's controls, silently cursing the raiders, Ivanova pressed for more power, but the Starfury was already burning at the maximum. Damn! It was going to happen again. She knew it. They were going to be too late again. She hated this helplessness, knowing that only a few minutes could make the difference between saving a ship or losing it, and there was no way to get there any sooner.
Alpha Two reported, "Alpha Leader, we've lost communications with the transport."
But she'd already heard the channel go to background static. Damn!
They could only keep going, in the hope there might be something left to save. In a few more minutes Ivanova picked up the image of the transport on her tactical screen. No raiders. They must have picked up the Starfuries on the way. "I've got the ship," she said. "Alpha Two, check the transport. The rest of you, wide scan, see if you can pick up the raiders."
"No sign of life, Commander," Alpha Two reported. "That ship is dead."
As the patrol came closer, the image of the transport clarified. Ivanova swore again. Wreckage. Crumpled, blasted, twisted metal. No sign of life, no survivors.
"Commander, I've picked up the raiders!" came a transmission from Alpha Six. "Heading 120 by 19."
Automatically, Ivanova started to give the order for pursuit. No, wait. Heading 120 by 19 was away from the jump point. This was another diversion. She was sure of it. Again, she scanned the wreckage of the dead ship. Dead and cold. It radiated no more warmth than the dark, empty space surrounding it. No telling how long it had been drifting here lifelessdays or months or maybe years. But it had been a lot longer than ten minutes.
"No pursuit," she ordered her patrol. "This is Alpha Leader, I repeat, no pursuit. It's another trick. This wreck is cold. We're heading back to the jump point."
After marking the wreck with a beacon for the salvage team, she spun her ship, and the Starfuries reversed direction, re-formed, and followed their commander toward the rendezvous with the Duster.
They knew we were going to be here, Ivanova thought to herself. The raiders had their diversion planned in advance, knowing exactly when we'd show up. It sure looked like their information was up-to-date.
Only the deception hadn't worked, and now it was too late for the raiders, for a change. But that was enough to give Ivanova an idea. The raiders weren't the only ones who could set a trap. "Alpha Two," she sent, "this is Alpha Leader. Proceed to the vicinity of the jump gate with Four and Five and meet up with the Duster. Alpha Three and Six, you stay with me."
If this went the way she planned, then the raiders lurking near the jump point, ready to pounce on the Duster, would think their deception had worked, that Ivanova had split the patrol and sent half the Starfuries off in pursuit of the attackers of the dead Cyrus Mac. She hoped it would make them overconfident. She hoped she was right.
She was using the jump gate itself as a shield, coming around it from the other direction, hoping the residual tachyon emissions would mask the presence of her fighters on the raider's tactical displays. She kept a channel open to Alpha Two, but they maintained radio silence in case the raiders were monitoring their communications lines. So she heard: "I've spotted them, Alpha Two. Raider ships! Must be, nine ... ten of them!"
"Any sign of the transport yet?"
"Negative, Alpha Two."
Ten of the raider ships against three Starfuries. The odds just barely favored the raiders. But Ivanova was about to change that. She led the rest of Alpha Wing into the fight from around the other side of the jump gate, coming in from the rear of the raiders, trapping the pirates between them. She and the two fighters on her wings each took out one of the raiders before they had time to react to the sudden appearance of another enemy attacking, and now the odds that had prevailed just a few minutes ago were reversed. One-on-one, the Starfuries had the decisive edge.
The dogfight was a fast, furious action. It took quick reflexes and a cool head to be a fighter pilot. Both sides had computer-assisted targeting, but even so, with twelve ships involved in the fight, there was always a chance for one to get flamed by friendly fire.
Several of the raiders spun around and tried to flee the action, but those were shot down almost instantly. The rest, seeing what chance they had, formed up and tried to defend themselves. A couple of them were good, Ivanova noted with that part of her brain that always remained cool and detached in a firefight.
But the rest of her was fully engaged in the combat mode. "On your tail, Four!" she shouted, and the raider ship fired, but Alpha Two took it out before it could take another shot. Alpha Six, on her wing, blasted another raider coming in from above. Space around them was filled with incandescent metallic gases and flying, glowing shards.
Then Ivanova saw two more of the raiders converging on Alpha Two. Alpha Four, his wingman, was engaged with another of the enemy, but Six fired, got in a strike that sent one ship spinning away. Two's weapons were still operational and he got in a shot that finished the raider off. But it was his last. The second raider, coming in on his other side, turned the Starfury into a glowing ball of death only seconds later.
Ivanova saw her wingman's ship explode, saw him die, and rage boiled up in her throat, a scream she couldn't release. She bore down on the raider with her weapons burning hot, fully charged. Six followed after to back her up, but Ivanova sent through clenched teeth, "He's mine!"
The raider fled, with nothing but black space ahead of him and Ivanova on his tail like divine vengeance. No matter which way he turned, twisted, ran, he couldn't shake her. The Starfury's thrusters were burning at max, closing the distance, and Ivanova counted down the seconds he had left to live. Her tactical display showed him in range, she locked on the target, fired, and scored a direct hit on the raider's right wing. Superheated plasma fused the discharge tubes, the wing buckled, crumpled, and the ship went spinning crazily, out of control.
"Got him!" Ivanova exulted in a fierce whisper, diving after her prey, heading in for the kill.
She had him in her sights again, her weapons locked on, her hand closed on the firing control, when she suddenly heard the signal for surrender coming from the raider's ship. "Eat plasma, you bastard!" she shouted back, and fired. But at the very last instant, she pulled her aim and the shot only grazed the tip of his other wing as she went streaking past, so close she had a clear sight of the ruined ship on visual. One wing was gone, the other twisted and half-melted away. It was completely helpless, unable to move under its own power or fire its weapons. Only the cockpit looked as if it might be intact. Maybe.
Ivanova circled back in a tight loop, cutting power to her thrusters. In the distance, Alpha Six had turned back to the fight, now that Ivanova had taken care of the enemy. She scanned the raider. The cockpit wasn't quite intact, after all. Atmosphere was boiling out of a crack. But there were life signs. The bastard was still alive. Still sending the surrender code. Damn!
Her guns were still hot. She wanted to fire. She wanted, very simply, to kill the bastard, to blast him into superheated steam. For vengeance, for the sake of all the dead ships, for the Cassini, for the cold wreck still drifting out there with the salvage beacon on it. And most of all for Lieutenant Gordon Mokena, her wingman. For the sake of Alpha Two.
There were no witnesses. No one would ever know.
She circled back again, almost drifting now, the damage to the raider ship stark and violent ahead of her. Scan showed the cockpit atmosphere almost dissipated, and as it came into view, she could see the raider himself, suited and helmeted. She wondered how much oxygen he had, how long he'd last if she fired up her engines, took off, and left him there alone to die.
But the surrender signal was still going. Then the raider opened his comm channel. "Well, Earthforce, what's it going to be?"
Ivanova swore again to herself and opened the channel. When she spoke, her voice was crisp, as if she were handling routine traffic in the Observation Dome back on Babylon 5. "This is Commander Susan Ivanova. You have five seconds to say why I shouldn't melt down what's left of your ship with you inside it."
"How about Earthforce regs, Commander? Like the one about not firing on a disarmed enemy who wants to surrender?"
"Those are the Articles of War. They apply to an honorable enemy, not a glob of scum like you." But she already knew she wasn't going to do it. Maybe no one would ever knowbut she would, and she'd never forget it, either.
But she did, for her own satisfaction and to make sure all his weapons really were disabled, put one more shot on her lowest power setting through the remaining half of the wing. The wreck of the raider's ship lurched and spun in reaction, and over her comm channel Ivanova could hear his choked-off curse, then the gasping intake of his breath as he realized he was still alive.
"Hey . . . Commander. Look. Maybe we can make ... a deal?"
Though Ivanova had no intention of firing again, she paused before answering. "What kind of a deal?"
A shaken laugh. "Hell, any kind of deal you want, Earthforce! You want to know where our base is?"
Contemptuously, "You'd sell out your own side?"
"Hey, like you say, I'm scum. They're all scum. What difference does it make to you, one piece of scum more or less?" And when Ivanova didn't answer, "So c'mon, what do you say, Earthforce?"
The tone of his voice was almost enough to make her regret her decision not to shoot. But this was an opportunity she hadn't looked for. Slowly, she replied, "That'll do for a start. Then I want to know where you get your information about the transport schedules. How you know what ships are going to be coming through the jump gate and what they're carrying. Where the information originates, how you receive it, how the targets are pickedall of it."
A pause. "You don't think small, do you, Earthforce?"
"Well, c'mon," she mocked him, "what'll it be?"
He exhaled in resignation. "So what do you want to know first?"
CHAPTER 23
The first thing Garibaldi did after leaving Nick in the lockup was make sure the rest of security was notified about Josef Nagy's real identity. But he was interrupted by a call from Mars.
It was his security major from Earthdome, and her expression was very stiff, even grave. "Mr. Garibaldi, in response to the request that you made, I'm afraid the answer is 'No.' "
"Just like that, so fast? Just 'No'?"
"I relayed your request up to the highest levels. The information you want is restricted to the highest levels."
"By 'the highest levels' you mean ..."
"The very highest levels. I'm sorry, Mr. Garibaldi."
Even the fact that the Joint Chiefs office itself had disapproved his request was classified. Garibaldi shook his head in disbelief. Maybe something was going on he had no idea about.
"I'd like to ask one more question, if I can?"
"Of course. If the information isn't classified," she replied with a faint return of her smile.
Garibaldi sighed. She had a sense of humor, his major on Mars. "I'd like any information you have on a Josef Nagy. May have been involved in the Free Mars movement. Age, oh, between twenty-five and thirty." He played a hunch. "He may have worked in the mining industry."
Out of his view, she checked her records. "Yes, we have a file on a Josef Nagy. Wanted on suspicion o
f membership in a terrorist group, wanted for sabotage, wanted for conspiracy to commit treason. Is this Nagy on Babylon 5?"
"We have no record of him on the station," Garibaldi didn't quite lie. That was according to the rules of this game. "His name was brought up in the course of an investigation into another matter. I figured I ought to check it out. Of course, without the file, I have no way of knowing if it's the same Josef Nagy. I don't have ID on him, just the name."
"I'll send you the file right away."
"Then this one isn't classified?"
She smiled. "As head security officer on Babylon 5, your clearance is sufficient. Is there any other way I can help you, Mr. Garibaldi?"
"No, that's it for today. Maybe we can talk again sometime, though. Thank you, Major."
The screen blanked to the BABCOM logo. A few moments later, the computer notified him, "Data file arriving, transmitted from Earthdome on Mars. The file is restricted, please input password."
He tapped out "bastard" on the keys of his console, having changed all his passwords since Wallace released the station's files.
"Access granted."
Immediately a man's image appeared on his data screen. It was Williams. That is, Williams was Nagy, all right, although the longer hair and mustache he'd worn on Mars made him look younger than the bitter, suspicious worker Garibaldi had interviewed in the machine shop.
He scrolled down the rest of the information and exclaimed aloud, "Yes!" A year ago, Nagy had been employed by AreTech Consolidated Mines as a data analyst. During last year's insurrection on Mars, there'd been a system crash which wiped out a number of the company's personnel records. Nagy was a prime suspect. An alert had gone out for his arrest, but he remained missing.
Garibaldi switched from Nagy's file to the list of scheduled departures from the station. The passenger liner Heinlein was scheduled to depart, but that was too obvious. He knew Torres would check it out, of course, anyway. Also departing: the Minbari ambassador. A Narn cargo ship. The Redstone 4, a supply transport heading back to Earth by way of Mars and Luna. The name struck him, made him think of Mars. He called up more data on the transport and hit it immediately. Red Stone Shipping, Inc. And the pilot, Edwin Cooper from Mars Colony.
Babylon 5 02 - Accusations (Tilton, Lois) Page 17