Calculated Risk

by K. S. Ferguson

  "She's guilty of something." Kama tapped a forefinger on her lips. "She ran like a scared rabbit after you mentioned immunity from prosecution."

  He picked up his ball and bounced it against the tabletop. "Yes, but guilty of what? Nothing in the business records implicates her in the fraud, so it's not like we have proof of wrongdoing. Unless she's really the top man, she ought to be eager to come forward given a promise of immunity. It's too bad we don't have financial data on our suspects, but we don't have enough evidence to request a warrant."

  The financials! She'd forgotten about them. But what would McTavish do when he saw them? A chill coursed through her. That data stepped over the invisible line into 'provably illegal.' If he reported her, she'd get a minimum twenty year sentence. If anyone found out he knew she had the records and he hadn't reported her, they'd both go down.

  She held her breath, flexed her hands, and Levine's bank records appeared on the vid screen.

  He glanced at the screen, then stared and went very still. Tension burned in her shoulders while she waited for his next move. He said nothing, just rolled his ball in his palms and stared unseeing into space.

  "Maybe you want to go for a coffee refill," she offered, her voice cracking. He'd have deniability if he did.

  He snapped back to awareness and scrutinized her. The room seemed to spin and fade, his intense blue eyes all that remained of the physical world. After an eternity, he turned those beacons away from her and squinted at the screen. "Bump the font size up."

  She did as he asked, her shoulders loosening, and then began scrolling through the data. Like any smart embezzler, Levine's bank account showed no unusual activity. Most of his credits were shunted to his ex-wife. He'd laundered the embezzled funds by other means, and she'd start tracing those in the morning.

  Miss Patty received regular payments from R. S. Steele, Independent Mining's nearest competitor in this sector of the asteroid belt, most probably in exchange for some kind of business information about Independent Mining's activities, Kama guessed. No wonder Steele keep beating Independent Mining to the best asteroids. Her mouth went dry. A company like Steele, already conducting espionage, wouldn't hesitate to buy the Oasis document.

  Roshal owed money everywhere, including over 45,000 credits to two separate banks for loans he'd taken out. Perhaps that was why he'd agreed to take McTavish to the EcoMech ship despite the problems it could cause him on the station. What was he doing with all the money?

  And Browning had his salary delivered to the station in a cash chip, a good indicator he was spending his wages on something illegal, although they had no indication of what. Interestingly, a month earlier, he'd paid five thousand credits to a med station in Earth orbit. She wondered what medical condition would warrant that kind of expensive care and not disqualify him for employment in space.

  Worn out, Kama stripped off her gloves and tossed them on the table. She pulled off her boots, dug a ration bar from McTavish's sack, and slumped back, putting her stocking feet on the coffee table. McTavish placed his bare feet beside hers.

  She waved her ration bar at him. "Want one?"

  "No thanks." He looked like she'd offered him snake venom.

  "Now we know why Miss Patty has a bad case of the guilts," she said, tearing open the ration bar and taking a bite. "And there's something fishy about Browning spending a wad at a med station. I can't imagine allergy treatment is all that expensive."

  "But no smoking gun of embezzled funds." He slipped the ball in his pocket and passed a hand through his unruly hair.

  "Too bad your ball isn't crystal instead of rubber."

  A tired smile curved his lips, and he rubbed bloodshot eyes. "Maybe we need to try a new approach, but I'm too exhausted to think of one."

  "I bet if I suggested we have mad passionate sex here on the couch, you'd find you're a lot less exhausted than you think," she said.

  He jerked to an upright position, and his eyes widened.

  She chuckled. "See, it works every time."

  He laughed and slumped back beside her. "Unfortunately, it's not my brain you're waking up."

  "Pity, especially since you're in no condition for that kind of activity." Not that it mattered. She and McTavish had no future. A little pang of sadness shot through her.

  "At least we had dinner together," he said, deadpan, but his eyes danced with amusement.

  Kama glared at him in mock anger. "Focus. We have a killer to catch."

  "Trying." He held up his hands in surrender.

  "What's the connection between all the brouhaha here on the station and Goldman's blackmail?" she asked.

  "If the financial reports that Galaxy supplied to EcoMech had been accurate, then Leon would have looked like a fool for buying the place. He's avoided that by laying the decision to purchase at my father's doorstep, so if the plan was to force Leon out, he's already foiled it."

  "Oh, McTavish, tell me you didn't take that beating to rescue your toxic father." She took his hand in hers. It was as bruised and battered as the rest of him.

  He closed his eyes and continued, doggedly remaining on task. "But the reports Galaxy had weren't accurate. The station is better positioned than they knew. If Leon's blackmailer wanted to replace him at EcoMech, what better way to start the new job than to turn around Leon's failure? To do that, they'd have to control the embezzlement, or at least be aware of it so they could blow the whistle at the appropriate moment."

  Kama tensed.

  McTavish slit his eyes open and looked at her. "What?"

  "We read it all wrong." She sat up, letting his hand go. "There's a takeover in progress already. We just didn't realize it. We didn't understand the relationship."

  He frowned at her. "What takeover? What relationship?"

  "Did Amaya want to marry Leon?" she asked, excitement spurring her forward.

  He stiffened. "What's this got to do with the station?"

  "You said all the marriages were arranged. Did Amaya want to marry Leon and play the trophy wife, or did she want something else?" She saw pain in his eyes but pressed on. "Amaya's been buying up EcoMech stock. Not directly, but through layers of holding companies that aren't easily linked to her. We thought it was some kind of stealth power play on the Goldmans' part to gain more control of the company without attracting attention. If the public knew they were buying up stock, share prices would climb. But it's all been hidden in normal day-to-day buying and selling through several shell companies, so no one's noticed. And the money must be coming from the embezzlement. That's why we can't trace it."

  "We?" His voice held a sharp edge.

  Kama turned away and tidied her gear, loading it back in her bag. She should have kept quiet, sent a message to Samir instead of blurting to McTavish. Some secrets were too important to share. The depth of snooping she'd just hinted at was a thousand times worse than hacking the banks.

  He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. She saw the anguish she'd stirred up and regretted causing it, but she also saw strength and determination.

  He took her hands in his, his grip gentle but firm. "I need your help. I need you to trust me. Don't tell me more than I need to know, but tell me what you're talking about. Please, help me."

  Kama thought about Levine's body floating in the hydroponic vat, and then about the millions of crippled and poverty-stricken humans huddled on Earth. If Oasis' plans leaked because she helped McTavish, those poor masses would be doomed, caught in the trap of economic slavery for the rest of their joyless lives. But if Oasis partnered with EcoMech and EcoMech management proved unstable, then Oasis' plans might also fail.

  So much pressure, so many unknowns; who could be trusted, who couldn't. Her insides twisted in knots. She stared at his hands, battered and bruised, and she had her answer. Battered and bruised in defense of others. She took a deep breath.

  "Oasis has made a technology breakthrough that will change human society across the galaxy. But it's of such a scale that we need pa
rtners with deep pockets to develop it with us. We've been researching potential corporate candidates to determine their suitability. That's how we uncovered the information about Amaya buying up EcoMech stock. We never considered that she might be working without Leon's and Aaron Goldman's knowledge. It's clear there's no love lost between Amaya and Leon, but we thought their common interest in EcoMech would keep them together. We may have been wrong."

  McTavish let go of her hands and rose to pace the room. The ball came out of his pocket, and he bounced it with each step, oblivious to everything around him. After several minutes, he stopped in front of her.

  "Tell me more about the money."

  "It's not coming from any of the Goldmans' bank accounts. The holding companies get cash infusions, and then that's used to buy stock."

  "How much?"

  "A hundred million and climbing."

  "Shares or credits?"

  "Credits."

  McTavish resumed his pacing, the ball now striking the floor in double time. "It's too much for the station and not enough for a takeover. So what's she up to?"

  "Too much, not enough?" Kama made a grab and caught his ball.

  "The embezzlement and buyout haven't netted more than twenty million in the three years Levine's been here, which is a lot less than what she's spent. And a hundred million credits won't buy enough additional shares of EcoMech stock to give her control." His brows drew down. "Unless she has other shareholders to back her. I wonder whether Leon's search for the blackmailer included an investigation of Amaya. God knows she must have some dirt on him."

  He paced again, hands raking his hair. "No, no, it still doesn't add up. Amaya wasn't on the station to kill Levine, and the whole employee buyout blew the embezzlement scam wide open."

  "Maybe the accomplice and Levine got greedy and decided to freelance? Maybe Amaya didn't know about the buyout swindle?"

  McTavish dropped onto the couch. "Too many questions. I need to run this by Leon. We're assuming that he doesn't know about Amaya's stock grab, but he's so paranoid, not much gets past him."

  "If Amaya is part of this, she'll never come to justice, nor will the accomplice," Kama said, her voice flat. She wondered if she'd made a mistake trusting McTavish to help her find the killer and recover the Oasis contract. After all, these people were his family.

  He took her hand in both of his. "I promise you that I'll do everything I can to see that the killer is convicted in a court of law and that Oasis' secret is kept."

  The question she'd wrestled with since she'd found Levine's body tingled on her tongue; she had to ask it. "And if those two things are mutually exclusive?"

  Chapter 15

  Rafe reached through a fog of fatigue and a blinding headache to his beeping nanocom on the bedside table. It read 6 a.m. He fumbled it into silence and rolled to look at Kama on the other side of the bed, happy to see she'd slept through the alarm. What a sight she was, curled in a ball under the blanket like a slumbering angel, albeit an avenging angel who scared the daylights out of him.

  After a ferocious argument in which each of them insisted they'd be the one to sleep on the uncomfortable couch while the other took the bed, they'd finally compromised by agreeing to share the bed, each on their own side, with a no-man's land between them. He wanted to strip off her blanket and her coveralls and ravish her body, but that desire warred with another: to run like hell, frightened by the depth of his loneliness and his need for her.

  Focus. Leon would know by now about the infirmary explosion, courtesy of Greg. He would also know that his security cruisers weren't coming, assuming Kama had really delayed them. He didn't doubt her ability to arrange such a feat; in all his years of security work, he'd only once gone up against a hacker with half her skill, and that one got away.

  He'd always been suspicious of Oasis. They were a bit too 'big brother' to be trusted, but he'd never guessed at their reach before seeing her in action. Shutting down jump gates at five minutes' notice? That meant having either agents or perhaps a software virus standing ready for such a contingency. Who thought about doing those kinds of things? His only answer was terrorist organizations, and that scared him worse than sharing a bed with Kama.

  He sat up and shoved his sockless feet into his running shoes. He thought about brewing coffee, but dismissed the idea. It might wake her.

  In the corridor, he didn't go far before he encountered other station inhabitants. Some greeted him with a curt nod, others with open welcome. He responded in kind, all the while remembering that he had a target painted on his back, and he wasn't sure why. Was the killer simply trying for maximum chaos while Levine's corpse rotted in hydroponics, or had he done something to attract the killer's attentions? Surely asking for a table wasn't a capital offense?

  He found the com center after a couple of wrong turns and asked the tech to contact the EcoMech ship. When his brother-in-law appeared on the vid screen, Rafe didn't think his face looked much better than his own reflection in the mirror had. Certainly Leon wasn't any better rested.

  "Well, McTavish, I understand you've become a popular guy on the station. Do you have anything to report?"

  "I need more time, and I'd like to have a private discussion with you as soon as possible."

  Leon sat straighter, his alertness sharpening. "I can't hang around out here forever. I have a company to run. I'm coming aboard the station this morning, and I expect you to smooth the way. I'd like to address all the miners, and when I'm done with them, we'll chat."

  "I recommend against that. The station still isn't safe. You'll be a sitting duck with the yacht docked here, and you have your family's safety to think about." Rafe glanced at the com tech, aware that everything he said would be spread through the station minutes after he left the room.

  "Then we won't dock. I'll come over in a runabout."

  "With a bunch of security goons? You won't be welcome here."

  "The cruisers have been delayed. They won't arrive until late this afternoon. I'll bring six crew members with me for escort. The miners can't possibly object to a group of harmless crewmen."

  There it was: validation that Kama shut down the jump gate. A chill wiggled up his spine, and he shifted in the chair. Now wasn't the time to think about the Oasis technician.

  With his comments about a bunch of harmless crewmen, Leon was sending assurance that he'd be far from helpless. Every man serving on the EcoMech yacht had special forces training. They were probably better fighters and more reliable than the rent-a-cops on the cruisers. If he couldn't convince the lunatic CEO to stay away, he'd have a private word with the escorts, alert them to the danger they faced.

  "All right, I'll set up a meeting for ten."

  "Make it eight. Time is money, McTavish." Leon cut the connection.

  Pain throbbed behind his eyes, and marched with jack-boots down his neck. Great, just ninety minutes to get the miners together. Could Browning assemble everyone that fast? On reflection, maybe it was better to organize the meeting quickly, before the killer had time to think up a deadly plan to use against his brother-in-law. Worry multiplied like rabbits, driving him to his feet. He'd better get moving.

  "Any idea where I can find Ed Browning this morning?" Rafe asked the com tech.

  "I think he went to check on Warner."

  Rafe trudged through the station, occasionally stopping a miner to ask for directions. He wished he'd had more chance to study the blueprints before they'd been destroyed in the infirmary. He felt naked and exposed already. Adding 'lost' to the list didn't bolster his confidence.

  Outside the conference room, the stench of bodily fluids and charred flesh rode the air like smoke in a forest fire. Inside, Browning and Janice conferred in one corner while the medic hung a fresh bag of fluids for Warner. Janice had dark rings under her eyes and the posture of someone too long on duty. Browning broke off the discussion to join Rafe at Warner's side. Janice approached from the opposite side of the table.

  "How's he doin
g, doctor?" Rafe asked.

  "It's Janice now, Mr. McTavish. He made it through the night. He should be ready for transport by this afternoon if his condition doesn't worsen." She eyed him up and down. "I hear you were the one who pulled him out. Maybe I should take a look at those burns on your hands."

  "I'm fine," Rafe replied. "It looks worse than it is."

  "Liar," Kama called from the doorway.

  She sauntered over to join Janice, and Rafe's heart sped up. He became aware, too late, that he was grinning like the village idiot and wrenched his attention back to Janice, who watched him with an amused expression.

  "You two a matched set?" Janice asked.

  "Nah," Kama said, her nonchalance belied by the spark of challenge in her eyes. "I'm his minder. He can't be trusted out on his own."

  The doctor and the smelter supervisor exchanged a look, like they shared some private joke, most probably at Rafe's expense, and internally, he squirmed.

  Kama glowered at them both. "What's the plan for Warner?"

  "If he's stable, Swede will run him to the jump gate hospital late this afternoon," Browning said. "The medic will ride along to monitor him."

  Rafe thought he saw a shadow of satisfaction cross her face. He turned to the smelter supervisor. "Ed, Mr. Goldman would like to address everyone on the station this morning at eight."

  "He still planning on landing a bunch of mercs?"

  "He'll bring six crew members with him as an escort, and come in on a runabout," Rafe said.

  "Since he owns the place, I suppose we're stuck with him, but I'm not taking responsibility for anything that happens. Hell, I don't even know if I have a job here anymore."

  Browning stalked out to arrange the meeting.

  "So what'd you do to Todd and Rodriguez that they wanted you dead?" Janice said.

  "Nothing," Kama snapped, folding her arms and frowning. "He's had the shit kicked out of him for no reason whatsoever, and he doesn't deserve it."

  Rafe glowed. He may have arrived with no friends, but he had a fearsome ally now. They'd take the killer down together, and he'd make sure the Oasis document was safe. He owed her that.