Calculated Risk

by K. S. Ferguson

  "I'm sorry to report that Mr. Levine was not onboard." Leon waited while the voices of the men rose in surprise and anger and fell again. "I have reason to believe that Mr. Levine never left the station, that he is still here, hiding."

  The noise level climbed, and Browning waved it down. "Mr. Goldman, we searched the station from top to bottom when Levine first went missing, and we didn't find him. What makes you think he's still here?"

  "Someone set off a bomb in the infirmary last night. I believe that Mr. Levine was behind that action. In fact, I believe that so strongly that I'm going to give every one of you the day off with pay so you can search the station again." The men groaned and rolled their eyes. "And to see that you're properly motivated, I'm offering a one million credit reward to the man or men who bring me Mr. Levine unharmed."

  The roar of the crowd was as deafening as a rocket launch. Leon raised his hands and, gradually, the men quieted.

  "I want to be absolutely sure no stone is left unturned, no nook or cranny left uninspected. You'll search in pairs, and you'll report in to me about where you've searched as you complete an area. You'll find me in the administrative offices."

  With that, Leon stalked from the bay, his security detail scrambling to deploy around him. The miners streamed out in a rush, jostling and shouting as they stampeded through the corridors. When they'd passed, Leon ordered Browning to direct him to the admin section. In a few minutes, they'd reached Levine's office. Cookie and one of the crewmen went inside, while the others spread out in the corridor.

  Leon turned to the three managers and waved at Levine's workstation. "Get me the station schematics on screen."

  After some hesitation, Miss Patty sat at Levine's desk and accessed the terminal. Her hands shook. When she'd brought up the station plans on the monitor, she popped off Levine's chair like a Jack-in-the-box.

  "Can I bring you anything, Mr. Goldman? Some coffee?" she offered. He nodded, and she hurried away.

  "McTavish, you stay. Everyone else out," Leon commanded. "And close the door."

  Leon took a seat behind the desk, and Rafe pulled up a visitor's chair, grateful to sit down. The CEO rocked back, his bulk dwarfing the desk chair, his stubby fingers beating a tattoo on the edge of the desk. His eyes drilled into Rafe.

  "What have you got?"

  "I need the files from your investigation. I can't work in the dark."

  "You just tell me what you've found, and I'll be the judge of whether your information is relevant. What have you learned about Levine? Do you have any proof of an accomplice?"

  Rafe checked his rising temper and kept his voice level. "Two men died in the attack last night, and a third man, who is in no way involved in anything, hangs by a thread. The sooner we sort out what's going on, the better off everyone will be."

  Leon sat straighter. "Greg didn't tell me about any fatalities."

  "He didn't know. I found the bodies after we returned from Maltraw's."

  "Who were they?"

  "Todd and Rodriguez, two prospectors. They delivered the bomb to the infirmary." Rafe saw the dismembered bodies in his mind and shivered.

  "You think they were Levine's accomplices?"

  "No, I think they were sacrificed to draw suspicion away from the person who really planned the bombing. Leon, we're not dealing with just blackmail anymore. The bombing was premeditated murder, and the bomber didn't care whether innocent people died in the blast. That kind of callous disregard for human life puts everyone on this station in jeopardy."

  "But why did Levine try to kill you?" Leon said.

  "Possibly because I was going through the business records. Maybe there's a clue to where the money's gone, or something that identifies who Levine worked with. I don't honestly know. I didn't see anything there that would be immediately useful, but maybe I missed something. Maybe our mad bomber thought that the embezzlement against Galaxy hadn't been detected yet and wanted to delay discovery. No one on the station knows about the embezzlement. They're aware only of the buyout fraud."

  Leon rocked back in the chair again. "I can think of an alternative reason to kill you that directly relates to the blackmail."

  "What?"

  "Your mother's trust fund. It controls nearly thirty percent of EcoMech's shares, and you have complete control. If those shares fell into hands other than yours, the Goldman family shares wouldn't be sufficient to prevent a take-over."

  Rafe frowned. "You and your father have enough allies on the board to stave off a takeover even if the Madison Trust shares were sold."

  "You've never taken Security Partners public, so you don't have the experience of dealing with shareholders. Business allies stay that way only as long as you serve their greed. They'd shift their allegiance to Satan himself if they'd get larger dividends."

  "But why come after me now?"

  "Because in the past, you've kept your distance, haven't voted your shares in any elections, been indifferent to whether EcoMech succeeded or failed. But suddenly you're here with me, poking your nose into places where you're not wanted. If the objective is to oust me and you're seen helping me, you become a threat, a roadblock to be removed."

  Rafe raked his fingers through his hair, taking in this disturbing new perspective. It seemed surreal. But it gave him an opening. "Leon, are you buying up additional shares of EcoMech stock as a countermeasure to this blackmail?"

  The CEO's eyes narrowed. "Why do you ask?"

  Rafe shrugged and pretended indifference. "If I were in your position, I would, maybe in my wife's name—or perhaps through holding companies to keep the purchases quiet and prevent the price from rising."

  "No, I haven't been making stock purchases." He laughed ruefully. "Amaya's been 'diversifying our portfolio' by purchasing old paintings. Bunch of rubbish as far as I can see, but as long as they hold their value and keep her quiet, I don't care whether we have the cash or the canvases."

  A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Miss Patty came in carrying a tray with a pot and cups. A plate of blueberry muffins, sugar packets, and a tiny carafe of cream filled the remainder of the tray. The wonderful smell of coffee overwhelmed the stale, moist odor of the station air. Rafe wanted to grab the pot and toss the entire thing down his throat. Behind Miss Patty, a pair of miners waited for Leon's permission to enter.

  "Anything else, McTavish?" Leon asked, waving Miss Patty to put the tray on the desk.

  "I need those files, Leon."

  "You're not getting them." Leon poured a cup of coffee and waved the two miners in. "Now, I have a search to conduct."

  Rafe left the office right behind Miss Patty, who continued down the corridor, moving quickly. Roshal was nowhere to be seen. Off searching the station, no doubt. For someone with his proclivity for gambling, the million credit reward was a jackpot worth betting on. Unless he was Levine's accomplice. Then he might be building his next bomb.

  Browning stamped back and forth not far from the office, running his hand over his face and looking like he wanted to hit something.

  "I have a question for you," the smelter supervisor said. "What the hell am I supposed to be doing? That asshole won't even speak to me." Browning glared toward the office. Two more miners brushed by, reporting in to Leon.

  "He's a jerk. Ignore him," Rafe replied without thinking.

  Browning looked askance. "I thought you were the peacemaker, the glib guy who always had the appropriate words to hand."

  Rafe gave him a half smile and hurried away. He needed to get to Kama, tell her what he planned to do next.

  The search was the most disorganized and inefficient he'd seen. Men rushed everywhere occasionally muscling one another out of the way to be first into a room that had probably already been searched by half a dozen others. Spacesuits had been pulled from storage closets and tossed on the floor. Any bin large enough to contain Levine had been emptied, leaving mounds of equipment piled on tables and chairs. He heard men crawling in the ventilation ducts and wondere
d how long Leon would let the search continue.

  When Rafe reached hydroponics, he found Kama standing by a large vat of gelatinous red liquid. She flashed her work light into the space behind the vat and waved off a couple of miners, then moved along to shine the light around another vat. Rafe saw wet splashes of red hydroponic fluid around the cuffs and up the sleeves of her coveralls.

  "McTavish!" she hissed. "You're supposed to be keeping an eye on Goldman."

  "How'd you get all that fluid on you?" he asked, keeping his voice down. Every little sound seemed to reverberate through the area.

  She glanced around to be sure they were alone. "He's turned into a floater. I had to weigh him down. Did you talk to Goldman?"

  Rafe wondered briefly what she'd used to sink the body but decided he didn't want to know. He kept underestimating her ingenuity and perseverance, and chided himself for it.

  "Leon has no idea Amaya's buying stock. She fed him a line of bull about buying Old Masters. He did have a suggestion for why someone on the station might try to kill me that I hadn't thought of."

  "You don't look very happy about it."

  "He thinks by coming here with him, the blackmailer has assumed that I've got his back. If I throw the voting shares I control in with the Goldmans', Leon becomes invincible."

  "And that would quash any plans Amaya has for a takeover," Kama said. "I'm glad I don't have your family."

  Four miners entered in a noisy hurry and rummaged through the area. Two more entered from the opposite direction, saw the crowd, and turned away.

  "Leon won't give me access to his information, and I couldn't ask him directly whether he'd included her in his investigations without revealing that we suspect her. I don't suppose you have access to his and Amaya's personal files?"

  She lifted an eyebrow. "What, you think we've hacked everyone in the galaxy?"

  He held his hands up in surrender. "Just asking."

  She sniffed dismissively. "We haven't been able to breach the EcoMech corporate firewall, and EcoMech rarely hires our techs. We'll succeed eventually, but not today."

  "Ah." He noticed that he was no longer amazed by her startling—and illegal—responses. "I suspect that the files are also encrypted. They'd take time to break, and time's something we haven't got."

  "Well…" Kama said, "if I can get a bot onto their network, I can trap their passwords, as well as steal a copy of the files. Then we don't have to crack encryption. Do you have access?"

  "No, not to corporate. I'm relaying from outside their firewall when I use my nanocom on the ship."

  He reached in his pocket for his ball, found it empty. Where had he left it this time? Kama produced it from her own pocket with a flourish that made him blush. Did she know him that well already? He bounced it on the deck while he considered options. More miners traipsed through, but he ignored them. She pretended to search around the vats again. When the men left, she rejoined him.

  "I'm going to the EcoMech ship to talk to Amaya. If she's behind this, maybe I can convince her to give up the accomplice in exchange for not telling Leon she's behind the blackmail."

  "But—" Kama looked decidedly unhappy.

  "I know, not the ideal resolution. I don't believe Amaya would be a party to murder. I think your guess that Levine and his accomplice started to freelance with the mine buyout scam is correct, and the accomplice is murdering to cover the tracks. If we can get the killer and find your contract, it'll be better than getting nothing, which is what we have at the moment."

  He raked his hands through his hair, not liking where his thoughts were going. "I think we should hedge our bets, in case Amaya doesn't cooperate. Give me that bot of yours."

  "How will you get it on the network?" she asked.

  Rafe felt queasy, but he saw no alternative. "Greg must have an EcoMech corporate account. I'll ask him to upload it."

  Surprise crossed Kama's face before she hid it. She knelt on the floor, spread a square of metallic cloth on her bag, and pulled on her gloves. Her fingers flexed, and a line of text appeared on the cloth. Her hands waved and flicked. She looked like she was conjuring magic by drawing runes in the air, and huge blocks of computer code streamed by in a blur. In a few minutes, she slipped a stick drive in the port of her nanocom, made a few simple movements with one hand, and then handed the stick drive to him.

  "There's your bot. You're sure you want to do this?" she asked.

  "No, I'm not," Rafe replied, the thought of asking Greg to engage in criminal activity weighing like a dark shroud on his soul. "You'd better go sit on Leon while I'm gone."

  She glared, slit-eyed. "I don't do lap dances, so how am I supposed to explain why I suddenly have to be in the office?"

  Rafe grinned. "If you can take down a jump gate, I'm confident you can break that terminal he's using."

  Rafe made for the runabout bay. He bumped into Swede on the way and persuaded the big, blond miner to be his pilot. The man seemed thrilled to give up the search for Levine.

  Fifteen minutes later, they'd docked with the EcoMech ship. Swede remained behind in the runabout. Captain Benson greeted him at the airlock and agreed to have someone bring first a mug of coffee, and then Amaya Goldman to the lounge.

  He seated himself in Leon's favorite corner chair and sipped the coffee while he rehearsed what he would say. His hands shook, and the hot liquid didn't sit well in his stomach. He'd avoided Amaya for fourteen years, and would gladly have gone the rest of his life without confronting her. He knew he wouldn't find forgiveness. He just hoped she'd confess quickly and bring an end to the hunt for Levine's killer before more lives were lost. If she did, he could skip loading Kama's bot on the EcoMech network and making Greg party to corporate espionage.

  The lounge door opened, and Amaya stood silhouetted by the bright corridor light. When she'd located him, she closed the door and crossed the lounge to stand before his chair. She seemed unsteady, and Rafe wondered if she'd been drinking. She looked gray and doughy.

  He scrambled to his feet.

  "Amaya, thank you for seeing me. Please sit down." He gestured to a nearby chair, hand trembling.

  "You murdered my sister, and now you ask me to sit with you."

  "I'm very sorry for the loss of Youko. I feel responsible, like I should have done more, been more cognizant of her state of mind." His heart thumped in his chest, and he struggled not to slide into the nightmare flashback of Youko's death. "But I didn't kill my wife. She committed suicide."

  "She may have been legally married to you, but she was never your wife. She wouldn't allow you to touch her." Amaya's flat, dead eyes squinted, and her hand fumbled for a chair. She lowered herself to the seat with caution.

  Her words struck like a hot knife plunged into his heart. Rafe took his own chair. "We all suffered from the folly of our fathers. We all had dreams crushed by their craving for a business empire to be passed on through the generations."

  "You selfish, small-minded little man. I married Leon and sacrificed my future to fulfill my father's commitment so Youko wouldn't have to. Miguel set her free. Her spirit soared on wings of happiness. She would have her dream to be a model, to live her own life, find her true love." Her voice shook, harsh with bitterness. "And you burned those dreams to ash. You made my sacrifice meaningless.

  "What dreams have you lost, Rafael McTavish? What sacrifice did you make? You shrugged off your familial obligations and enjoyed the freedom denied to the rest of us."

  The depth of her hatred startled him. He'd known nothing of her feelings, how his attempt to honor his father's commitment had nullified the purpose for which she lived. A tsunami of guilt flooded through him.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't realize… Like you, I tried to do as my father asked—"

  "Your father never asked you to marry my sister. You took it upon yourself to propose, against his wishes."

  "I wanted to please him," he stammered, short of breath.

  "He despises you. You'll never please him."
<
br />   Rafe gripped the arms of the chair, the truth in her words flaying his soul. He gave up any hope of reconciling with her.

  "Did you know that two miners are dead and a third in critical condition as a result of a bomb?"

  "What do you want from me?"

  "Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to maneuver Leon into buying this station. The purchase makes sense only if he's supposed to fail, to be disgraced and weakened so that he can be replaced."

  "Aaron was a blind fool to make him CEO. My husband likes to boast about his power, likes to make employees cringe while he bullies them, but he takes little interest in understanding the complexities of running EcoMech." Her voice rose in pitch. "My son will have nothing to inherit if something isn't done soon."

  Rafe wished he'd thought to turn up the lights. Amaya's face was half hidden in darkness, making it difficult to read.

  "I remember when we were kids, you were always the one studying business courses, reading the latest management journals, following the markets while the rest of us talked about becoming pilots and engineers and vintners. Is it time for your ascendance?"

  She sat immobile, watching him. "You've never taken the least interest in what happened at EcoMech."

  "And I still don't," Rafe said with heartfelt sincerity.

  "Perhaps if you had, EcoMech wouldn't totter on the brink of insolvency. But you ran from your responsibility to the company as well as to your family."

  He ignored her dig, and pushed on, desperate to be out of her presence. "I know you've been quietly buying stock without his knowledge. I think you're behind his blackmail, using it as a tool to weaken him before you make your move. It all adds up to a takeover. Have you decided to replace him, Amaya?"

  He waited for her to respond. When she didn't, he continued. "You're just as deserving of the CEO position as Leon, and in truth, you'd probably do a better job. I wouldn't stand against you if you sought the position."