The Burning Crown (Stone Blade Book 4)

by James Matt Cox

  "So. You think us defenseless?"

  Micah noted the other three men when they entered but, per Outremin's example, paid them no heed.

  "Who is this, Outremin?" The man Micah named Speaker strode into the room to face him.

  "A treasure," replied Outremin, "A treasure for House Varl and a bane for our enemies, Signor Kenjai, and one you'd do well not to upset."

  "He is strange," said Kenjai, "I do not like strange."

  The man spoke with a vaguely familiar clipped accent that Micah didn't recognize. Yet.

  "Duly noted," said Outremin with apparent boredom, "You may go, Stone. If you go to the rec room do not kill anyone. In fact, do not kill anyone here."

  "Yes sir."

  Micah walked past Kenjai as though he didn't exist, which visibly infuriated him. Micah wanted desperately to stay but Outremin made the dismissal clear.

  ***

  Though Micah ached to explore the installation he headed to the rec room instead. Kenjai's accent still nagged him but he simply couldn't recall it. The location of the system also troubled him. If he could identify Kenjai that might give a hint to the location and if he identified the location it might give information on Kenjai. Micah mentally grumbled some profanity and concentrated on what he could observe.

  The rec room was smaller than it seemed. Careful lighting and strategically-placed mirrors made it feel larger, as did the furniture and its placement. Micah tried to identify some of the plants around the room but they gave no clues either.

  A bar stretched the length of one wall. Several men sat there, drinking and exchanging friendly words with the barkeep. The room itself was about a quarter filled so Micah ordered chog and nibblers and turned his attention to the other patrons.

  Though the men and women sat in cliques of two to four, Micah separated them into two overall groups immediately. The first sat relaxed as they ate, drank and chatted. From what Micah overheard they all came from the Crown worlds. He classified them as ordinary workers, the ones who ran the machinery that ran the installation.

  The second group might as well have worn uniforms, so loudly did their behavior shout 'military' to Micah! They sat at ease but far from relaxed. They kept careful observation of everything around them and sat with a posture of readiness. Soldiers, thought Micah, and soldiers not completely certain of their environment. He turned his attention to his food and observed more carefully.

  After a few minutes Micah ordered another chog and a meal to accompany it. When it arrived he took it to an isolated table near one with four of the soldiers. After they observed and dismissed him he concentrated on hearing what he could. He didn't know what they discussed but they all spoke with Kenjai's accent.

  ***

  Karr and Blue sat in silence and stared at the chart they'd just completed.

  "Rather different, for truth," said Blue finally.

  "Indeed. If we assume the rumors of censure are true, then who stands to profit the most?"

  "Varl, of course." Blue lit a 'stick and sipped cold chog. "Binkor-Sud and its allies aren't in direct line but they will certainly take advantage of the situation. Likewise Snughblak and its friends."

  "Binkor-Sud will only be there for the gain," said Karr, "That makes them allies of convenience at best."

  "Truth," replied Blue, "but allies still. Question: from whence come the profits? Varl's reward is, as always, destruction of Brightcrown but the others will want tangible returns."

  Karr jacked into the net, applied serious encryption and authenticated with his House credentials. At his request Blue did likewise. Between them they had access to data well beyond ordinary levels.

  "These figures are conjectural," said Karr absently, "and based on what House Edders knows for certain happened. We also have the Brightcrown data and I'll rate that as actual, too."

  "That plus what we can actually track," said Blue, "Given McReely agents, it's going to be frosted close to perfect."

  Karr grinned at this. No one slipped much data concerning trade past House McReely!

  "Bloody," said Karr, "This won't be quick."

  "But well worth the time," replied Blue, "Let's concentrate only on shipments to, from or through Faircoast and see what accumulates and where."

  While that ran, Blue examined the data from Varl, with specific attention to suspected or verified sewer-swishes. Karr, on a low-probability tangent, concentrated on Fallstar Lines and several other companies owing large debts to Binkor-Sud. Before long, Blue detected the beginnings of a pattern.

  "I have disparities," she said, "Look at these incidents. Calculated value for the items versus actual value. Depreciating the standard rates for loss-recovery plus value added for salvage sales still doesn't sum up."

  Karr took a moment to refocus his brain and checked her work.

  "That is ruddy strange," he said, "They should be turning more than a token profit and they're not. Flames. That's barely enough to justify the paperwork!"

  "I concur. Profit is the point of sewer-swishing," she said, "But apparently it isn't."

  Karr checked the tax and tariff reports.

  "You're right, m'lady. I'm not finding any tax advantage here. But didn't we already assume they're not after the tax cheat?"

  "We did, but we also assumed some profit advantage. This is solid confirmation that they're not evading tax or tariff, which emphasizes the second assumption."

  "Slib," said Karr, "Let's reset to zero. The loss-recovery process loses value for the 'loss' party, which they should use as a tax write-off. That is the point of legal loss-recovery but these stapes aren't doing that. Even when they do, they don't make much profit by it. Can we track the parties purchasing the merchandise?"

  "Done that, dear one. In most cases the goods written off are purchased at a deep discount by one of the loser's allied Houses. That's the 'recovery' part of the equation. Again, they're not taking advantage of the tax credits for losing or recovering it. Not enough to show any significant profit." Blue wrinkled her face. "Anything on Fallstar etc?"

  "Exactly what we suspected, m'lady. Almost sixty-four percent of the swishes involve at least one party with heavy debt to Binkor-Sud or one of its allies."

  Blue smiled suddenly, then she smiled wider.

  "I have a thought, Sir Knight! Let us isolate exactly those incidents. Postulate, just for the moment, that the rest are simple accidents. Check those correlations."

  While Blue did so, Karr ran the same criteria against companies not perilously in debt, to Binkor-Sud or otherwise.

  "Heh!" Karr finished first. "There it is. That's the pattern! These numbers fit the loss-recovery model at nine-nine-nine out to four sigmas!"

  "And these absolutely do not." Blue put her numbers up against Karr's. "That's solid proof of it! Now that we have it, what exactly do we have?"

  Karr's face fell as he thought. "For truth? Not much more than when we started. Burnit!"

  "Phase down, Sir Many-Titles. Help me check the merchandise they wrote off."

  Just over thirty minutes later Blue admitted defeat.

  "Hell's frost! Nothing there. Nothing over a milli off the beam. Feces!"

  "It's there, m'lady, we simply haven't found it yet. I know it. I can smell it!"

  Karr's terminal beeped. The long-running correlates finally finished. After a cursory examination he archived the data and shook his head. Squelch.

  Chapter 8. Crime Behind Crime

  Thompson sat and smiled and tried mightily not to fidget or to look guilty. He and Kidwell sat in the office of one W. Irving Podwell, CEO and co-founder of Lithigrove Contractors, Ltd., RRC. Of the three Crown companies holding a contract with Lanniver, Lithigrove was the largest. It was also the source of all the defective parts from the Star Crown worlds.

  "Thank you again for agreeing to meet us," said Kidwell.

  "A pleasure, Signora Kittley," said Podwell, "We here at Lithigrove are always interested in increasing our business. Who did you say you represente
d again?"

  Kidwell smiled. "My investors do wish to remain anonymous, sirra. As of now their alliance is very sensitive. Surely you understand that."

  Podwell nodded. "Surely I do, my lady. Did you say someone recommended us?"

  "Yes, Master Podwell." Kidwell let her eyes flick briefly to a Lanniver Industries placard. "One of our partners has close professional contacts with a very prominent League corporation."

  "I understand," said Podwell, "So how may I help you?"

  Thompson didn't know how Kidwell managed to swing an appointment. Nor did he know of any investor or alliance of them. She spoke exactly as though she represented a very large company, even Thompson believed that, and had he not known better he'd have sworn her genuine. She made the transformation somewhere between exiting their hover and entering the building. She gave him instructions to keep his mini-holocaster focused on Podwell, not an easy task with the thing concealed in his case. He suspected she assigned him that to keep him busy after his steadfast refusal to allow her to meet Podwell alone. He regretted that now!

  "... so you see," continued Podwell, "even though Lanniver is by far our largest customer we are most willing to accept other contracts. We cannot have a conflict of interest, of course, but certainly any such can be handled... appropriately. In fact more than one of our own Great Houses purchase equipment from us and that includes the Great House of Varl. That is quite the accomplishment!"

  "I... see," said Kidwell.

  "Ahh. Please allow me to explain, then." Podwell's smile turned just a milli smug. "You must understand, Signora Kittley, we of the Star Crown worlds are governed by our Houses Great and Noble. The House most closely associated with Lithigrove is the Great and Noble House of Brightcrown and they and the Great House of Varl are, shall we say, not on the friendliest of terms. But since we are also associated with many other Greater and Lesser Houses, Lithigrove can operate with absolute neutrality toward them all and with equal protection by each.

  "Think of things this way. Are you familiar with the Unity of Triumph? Yes? Excellent! Although the Unity does not, as a rule, like to trade beyond themselves, once a Unity trader gives his word he will stand by it and sacrifice anything he must in order to keep it. Even if he gives it to a sworn blood-enemy unknowingly he will keep it.

  "Although we here at Lithigrove are not so xenophobic or antisocial," grinned Podwell, "We still pride ourselves on the standards we set."

  Kidwell smiled at this. "I notice you are Guild certified." She pointed to a certificate on the wall. "Is that true of your subcontractors as well?"

  "No, m'lady. Some of our subsidiaries are Guild certified but not all. But, as you noted, Lithigrove itself is and we insist on meeting or exceeding those standards with all of our merchandise."

  "Of course," said Kidwell, "I was merely curious. Our partners have had dealings with the Guild and without it. They are impressed with the standards but not the... occasional cost. Since we are dealing with a large sum of money certain... considerations... must be met. The Guild does, after all, deal with corruption quite severely. We want to ensure that matters are handled... properly. To my thinking, and that of my superior, it is best to... work out such details... from the very beginning."

  "I understand." Podwell's smile turned oily. "All of our subsidiaries have offices here. I mean in this building. Perhaps you would like to meet them? That way you can reassure your partners of their... ethics and integrity."

  "That would be wonderful," she smiled, "Most... satisfactory."

  As they left Podwell's office, Thompson had no problem reading her satisfaction with that.

  ***

  "What now, most pleasant of personalities," asked Thompson.

  The two of them sat on a shaded patio outside an expensive motel at which they now had a room. A room, a garble on the table and, apparently, not a care in the universe. Almost every Lithigrove subcontractor took ten to twenty minutes to talk to Kidwell. She stayed with her story but changed her manner slightly each time. All of them showed interest in expanding their business to include her fictitious company but by Thompson they hadn't discovered anything more than good business sense.

  "We wait for the seeds I planted to take root and grow," she said simply.

  "Seeds?"

  "Seeds, my dear. By now at least seven subcontractors plus Podwell himself are burning up LINC time to check out our company."

  "Flames! We'll be arrested!"

  "Blather."

  "Truth! Vera, you said we were advance scouts or negotiators for some fictitious company with considerable financial resources and willingness to spend them! A company interested in doing business with them. If that isn't fraud, criminal misconduct and several other illegal things, I don't know what is!"

  Kidwell took a moment to enjoy his agitation.

  "For truth, Cap'n John, I would have to agree with you if in fact I did say we were any such. Technically speaking, though, it's not against any law to imply that we're scouting out business partners and that's all I did. Plus I didn't really give them much to trace, now did I?"

  Thompson stared at her, stunned at this.

  "No, but they're well-connected here! At least one of those stapes will have the resources to find out anything they want. If nothing else they'll arrest us for wasting their time!"

  "But why waste their time on it," asked Kidwell, "If we're no more than that."

  Thompson's face twitched as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Kidwell watched as he tried to find an argument.

  "Slib," she finally said, "What if I said we were representatives of a company? Not one of interstellar magnitude but one with the potential to become so. One whose ground-floor partners would be poised to make several fortunes once the company surged."

  Thompson rubbed his eyes, then his temples. He sighed and drained his tea, obviously wanting something stronger.

  "Are we?"

  "We are," she replied, "Technically speaking I am but I can explain you as a personal assistant."

  He sighed hard. "Explain, please."

  "Hrm. Not long ago an... associate... of mine opened a small business. His primary interest was a commodity other than profit but he still managed to make plenty of that. Its existence is useful in more than one way so he's continuing it. It's under hired management so he doesn't have to run it personally and, since he is a citizen of the League, it is registered. Since I was... involved... with the situation that caused its existence I'm a partner in it. So are Micah and Charlie. So, you see, we do represent an actual company."

  "Rmph. What is it you're not telling me?"

  "How about 'You look really dashing when you're concerned.' Will that work?"

  "Not even on League Day. Are you saying it's just a trip through a parking orbit for you to start new companies for arbitrary reasons, just because it's convenient?"

  She grinned. "John, trust me on this. It was convenient, no blather, but primarily as a source of information. It's set up as a paper-trading company and we have... access... to enough paper to keep it running. It's a perfectly legitimate business operating under perfectly legal conditions. It's domiciled within the League but has three offices outside it."

  "Flames! That's potentially worse. Four locations? They'll laugh us all the way to jail!"

  "No blather, they won't. Once they discover the locations they'll be slavering for us."

  Thompson shook his head and ordered more tea.

  ***

  "Varl!"

  Blue jumped when Karr said it, then looked at him in annoyance.

  "It has to be Varl, Lacy." Karr powered up his terminal but didn't enter anything. "I know it may seem like tunnel vision but that's the only thing that fits."

  "It is tunnel vision, Piotr, no question there. But... That doesn't automatically make it wrong. There are too many things pointing to it being right. No blather there. We just don't know what they are. Yet."

  "But what if we are wrong?"

  "We're not," sai
d Blue emphatically, "We are not wrong, Sir Knight-of-Many-Titles! We simply haven't found the right places to look. That or we're looking at the right things the wrong way." She called up some data on her terminal. "For truth, what if all this sewer-swishing is nothing more than that? Consider it." Blue fell silent as she did just that. Then inspiration crawled across her face. "We know Varl is always looking to bring Brightcrown down. Every person - every child! - in Crown space knows that. Varl doesn't even bother trying to hide it. But... But! They know that if they try something then we, or someone like us, will be looking for it!"

  Karr nodded as her thought took hold of him.

  "Now," she continued, "if you don't want something found, how do you hide it? Especially if it's something blatantly illegal that breaks every Crown law imaginable. How would you hide something like that?"

  "Behind something else illegal," said Karr with dawning realization. He took her hand and kissed it in a most formal and proper fashion.

  "Exactly, m'dear," she said, squeezing his hand before he let go, "Give the lookers something to find! Make it obvious, but not too obvious. Make it illegal, but not too much so. Illegal enough to bring a fine or some minor embarrassment, but so minor that anyone trying to make a Moot indictment of it will be laughed off the planet!"

  "Indeed so! You, my lady, are as brilliant as you are beautiful."

  "So where does that leave us now?"

  Karr winked. "Back at the start yet again, but with a treasure of knowledge on what not to find!"

  ***

  Worthington listened raptly as Karr, with occasional words from Blue, explained their findings.

  "That's a bally rough theory, Sir Karr," he said, "You'll have hades' own time proving it. If it can be proved. As yet you've no idea on the massive crimes being hidden."

  "Aye, Sir Allan," said Karr, "That is why we brought this to you."

  "Halm's beard, my boy," said Worthington, "I've no idea how I can assist you!"