She pulled a silk handkerchief from her pocket and coughed into it. "If you're uninterested in EcoMech, why do you care what happens here?"
"The killing has to stop. I don't believe you're involved in the deaths. You're not a ruthless murderer willing to take out innocent bystanders. I think your agents on the station have gone rogue. I need their names."
"But you already know the station manager is behind the fraud."
"Levine is dead, killed by an accomplice who's been helping him in the scams. That same accomplice planted the bomb that killed the other two miners. I want the name of that person. If you'll tell me who worked with Levine, I'll say nothing to Leon." Rafe took a deep breath. He'd put his cards on the table. All he could do was wait.
Amaya rose and tottered to the bar. She pulled out a bottle of water and drank half in careful sips before leaving the remainder and coming to stand in front of him.
"You're very clever, Rafael, just like Leon. But I don't know who helped Levine. I dealt only with him and didn't know he had a partner or anything about the buyout swindle. I, too, was duped." She regained her chair. "You're sure Leon doesn't connect me to his blackmail?"
Rafe's heart sank. He wanted this nightmare to be over. "That's not my impression."
"What will you do now?"
"Go back to the station and keep looking for the killer."
"Will you tell my husband about my plans?" she asked.
"Honestly, I don't care what happens to EcoMech, as long as my father isn't caught in the crossfire. If you agree not to tell Leon that Levine's dead, I'll say nothing about your activities." He rose. "Thank you for seeing me. I know it's long overdue, but please accept my sympathies on the loss of your sister."
He crossed the lounge and exited into the corridor, rolling the ball in his palms, every muscle in his body aching. Did he believe Amaya? She'd seemed willing enough to admit to blackmailing Leon, so she didn't fear prosecution. She couldn't reveal the accomplice's name without implicating herself in the murders, assuming that she knew it. If, as she said, she'd been duped by Levine and his accomplice, she probably hadn't heard about the Oasis contract. That should make Kama happy. He couldn't sort the truth from the lies, he realized. He couldn't trust Amaya.
Rafe rapped on Greg's cabin door. After a long wait, the boy answered.
"Uncle Rafe! Is Mr. Goldman back, too?" He gave an apprehensive glance down the corridor.
Rafe slithered past him and shut the door. "I need your help with something."
Greg backed across the cabin and refused to meet his eyes. "I'm not sure I can work for you anymore, Uncle Rafe."
Puzzled, Rafe wondered whether the boy was still angry about being sent back to the ship, or whether Leon had said something to poison Greg against him. Or had he overheard Amaya refer to him as a murderer? All his reasons for avoiding his family came rushing back, but he needed help getting the bot on the EcoMech network.
"I'm sorry if I got you in more trouble with Leon by keeping you on the station."
Greg's face flushed. "It isn't Mr. Goldman. Mom found out what's been happening here. She's really pissed. She said you have a brain disorder, and I shouldn’t trust your judgment, that you'd get me killed. She said I couldn't hang around with you anymore.
"Is that true? Do you really have a brain disorder? Because I don't see how you could do so well and all if you were crazy. I think she just doesn't want me around you because then maybe I might leave EcoMech, too."
Rafe's face heated. So Shannon's maternal instincts had kicked in, and she'd warned Greg off. Did she say he was some demented madman?
"I do have a brain problem. I'm easily distracted, I fidget a lot, and I tend to act without thinking about consequences. It's a condition called ADHD."
He sat on Greg's bunk and motioned the boy to join him. "Your mother's worried that I'll make an impulsive decision, which might put you in harm's way. From her perspective, her fears are justified. I did a lot of stupid, dangerous stuff when I was a bit younger than you."
"Is that why you're in the security business? Because you're addicted to the adrenaline rush?"
Rafe gave a rueful laugh. "Soldiers addicted to adrenaline are soldiers who die young. I never wanted to be a hero. But I believe society should provide safety and justice for everyone, and that's why I'm in the security business."
Greg frowned. "So you're not crazy? But if you're brain damaged, how did you become so successful?"
"I pulled one dangerous stunt too many, and as punishment for my delinquency, I ended up on a garraweed burn crew for six months with your dad as my crew boss. He taught me that being ADHD was no excuse for anything. I had to learn to compensate for my deficits, and eventually I did." Rafe smiled at the memory of tall, quiet Ben Nighthorse, a fair man with endless patience and an iron determination to set him on the right track.
"Wow! I feel sorry for you. I hate working for my dad."
"I hope one day you realize how lucky you are to have him. Without his intervention, I'd probably be dead by now."
Greg considered for a moment. "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to give me your EcoMech credentials, and then I want you to leave the cabin for a minute."
Greg's eyes got round. "Are you hacking into EcoMech?"
"It's better if you don't know. If anyone ever asks, you can say you had no part in it."
"But I will have a part in it if I give you my credentials." Greg wiped his palms on his trouser legs and frowned at the floor. "Is this what Mom meant by impaired judgment?"
Rafe snorted. "Maybe it is. I'm sorry, Greg, I shouldn't have asked."
Feeling defeated on all fronts and wondering what he'd do next, he walked to the door. Greg shuffled behind.
"Uncle Rafe, why do you need to hack the EcoMech network?"
"Levine's dead. Kama found his body hidden in hydroponics. Two more crewmen were killed in the infirmary blast last night. Leon and Amaya are neck-deep in the fraud that's been going on at the station, but they won't share their information with me. I'd hoped that what they know might help me find the killer before anyone else gets hurt. I have some software that can retrieve their files if I can get it on the network, but it's totally illegal. If I get caught, I'll do hard time. That's why I'd want you to deny involvement."
"But if it's illegal…" Greg's brows pulled down, and he jammed his hands in his pockets.
"Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to do the right thing," Rafe said, running a hand over the back of his neck and wishing things weren't so complicated. "It seems to me that keeping anyone else from harm is worth the risk of getting caught pilfering the Goldmans' files, but I can make that decision only for myself. I can't make it for you."
Rafe reached for the door, but Greg put up a hand to block him. "After Mom did her rant about you, Dad gave me some of that mystic Native American advice of his. He said, 'If Rafe asks for help, listen to his heart, and then you'll know what to do.'"
Rafe laughed. "He used to tell me that stuff, too. I had to grow up a lot before I figured out what most of it meant."
"Yeah, I never understand it." Greg grinned. Then the grin faded. "But maybe I get it this time. I'm not a very good liar. If anyone asks what I knew, I'd have to tell them everything, so there's no point in you trying to protect me. You may as well let me upload the software."
Rafe's conscience nudged him, wondering whether he was unfairly trading on the boy's worship of him. He hoped that if things went sideways, Greg's membership in the EcoMech founding families would protect his nephew. He drew the stick drive from his pocket and handed it to Greg.
"Log on, access the stick, and then start the file."
Greg took the stick drive and plugged it into the port on his nanocom. "Hey, do you think if we get caught they'll let us share the same cell?"
Rafe gave the boy a disparaging look and opened the door. Once he got back, he'd see what the files from Leon and Amaya held, and maybe he'd finally catch a break.
In a minute, he was in the runabout headed for the station, enveloped in a black cloud of doubt and depression.
Chapter 16
Kama unzipped her coveralls enough to give a modest look at her cleavage and waited for the shouting. On cue, she heard Leon roar. She smiled briefly, and then put on her serious, helpful-technician face before hustling down the corridor toward the admin office. One of Goldman's guards stepped into her path, but another closer to the door flagged her on. Goldman stood at Levine's desk scowling down at the monitor.
"What the fuck's wrong with this terminal?" he growled.
Two miners waiting by the door backed out, leery of the CEO's tone. Kama breezed past them to stand beside Leon. It took all her will power not to punch him in the gut. She hadn't forgiven him for his abandonment of McTavish in the airlock and wanted to get even more than anything in the galaxy.
The monitor intermittently turned to static before clearing to display the station schematics. Leon shifted his gaze from the recalcitrant monitor to Kama, and his unpleasant expression softened.
"Who're you?" he asked, voice rude and demanding.
"Kamala Bhatia, Oasis technician."
She pursed her lips and stared at the monitor as though she were trying to suss out its aberrant behavior. Her little disrupter program had been written in haste, without testing, but it seemed to be working admirably. She wished she'd thought to ask McTavish what Goldman knew about computers; she didn't want to set off his BS detector when she explained what was 'wrong' with the terminal.
"Oh, yeah, McTavish mentioned you." Goldman leered. "He didn't tell me you were pretty. Must of been keeping that to himself."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Kama showed more teeth in her smile than she ought to, but Goldman didn't seem to notice. His eyes ventured no higher than her cleavage. The depth of her hatred grew, and the hackles rose on the back of her neck.
"You can call me Leon. Here, have one of these muffins," he said, sliding the half empty plate across the desk and edging so close that their shoulders brushed. "They're pretty good."
Would someone who set off a bomb to kill McTavish think to poison Goldman? Kama decided to pass on the muffins, just in case.
"I think we're having some network interference. Maybe a cable got damaged by the infirmary explosion."
"Cable?" Leon asked. "I thought these things ran on a light beam network."
Oops. He knows more than I gave him credit for. "If the explosion damaged the shielding on a power cable, it could be leaking EM interference and disrupting the light network."
"Oh, yeah, I see what you mean," he replied.
Kama smothered a laugh. He didn't have a clue what she'd just said, which was a good thing, since it was utter nonsense. She slipped around him and crossed to Miss Patty's desk, then sat down and started the terminal. Leon sauntered over and stood behind her. The terminal frizzed and pulsed in time with the one on Levine's desk.
"Yep, seems to be a network disruption. I'll see if I can isolate its location."
She tapped away on the keyboard, opening the business server's I/O performance logs.
Leon leaned over her shoulder and placed a hand on the desk, perfectly positioned to get a look down her coveralls. She gritted her teeth and scrolled through the logs as though they would tell her what the problem was. She felt Goldman's hot breath on her ear and fought to keep herself in the chair while she silently cursed McTavish for putting her in this position.
"It'll be lunchtime soon. Would you care to dine with me?"
Kama remembered McTavish's proposal for a meal when they'd first met. What was with these corporate types? Did they think every woman was a cheap date? Feed them and they'd fall into bed with you?
But McTavish wasn't a corporate type, she reminded herself, and dinner with him had proved more entertaining than she'd thought possible. She stifled a grin.
"Oh, thanks ever so much, Mr. Goldman, but I brought my lunch with me, and I wouldn't want to abandon my post until I have this issue traced and fixed."
"You think it will be long?"
Leon brushed a loose strand of hair back from her face. She considered biting his finger and wished she'd slapped on a dash of eau du road kill before she came in. Too late now.
"Mr. McTavish mentioned that you had your family with you on this trip."
Leon grunted agreement. "My wife and son are on the corporate yacht. But my wife isn't feeling well. She's had health issues ever since her volunteer service. She worked on jump ships in the days before they realized the dangers of jump field exposure."
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. It must be hard for you to see her ill all the time." Maybe if she could keep him on the subject of his family, he'd behave, but she doubted it. He was a lecherous cad.
"Yes, it is hard. Of course I want to be loyal to her, but a man has his needs, too. You understand that, don't you, Miss Bhatia?"
Goldman placed a hand on her shoulder.
The conversation seemed to be plummeting downhill into territory Kama preferred to avoid, and revulsion tightened her muscles. Could she roll the desk chair over his foot? Back it into his groin? Would he kick her out of the office if she did?
"I love children," she said, trying to turn the conversation to safer ground. "Tell me about your son. What's he like?"
Goldman straightened. "Gabe's a chip off the ol' block. He's smart, handsome, well-mannered; everything you could want in a kid. When he gets a little older, he'll be a real heartbreaker. The girls won't be able to keep their hands off him."
Kama glanced up at him, surprised to see him gazing at his nanocom instead of her. Who would have thought?
"That's him," Goldman said, thrusting the nanocom in front of her and flipping through a series of photos. "You know, I came home the other day, and he showed me a robot he'd built himself. It fetched my slippers. Yeah, he's going far, lots farther than me. He's going to open new worlds, not get stuck behind a desk all his life."
"You don't want him to follow in your footsteps at EcoMech?" she asked, puzzled. Weren't the founding families all about dynasty building?
"Sure, some day, but before he does, he needs to sow his wild oats, have some excitement and adventure in his life. When he's older, he can settle down and take over the company." Goldman spoke with adoration. "After all, I'll be running EcoMech for a long time yet. Hey, you want to see some poetry he wrote? It's pretty good."
Kama waited while he brought the text up on the nanocom. She had little appreciation for poetry, but at least what Gabe had written managed to rhyme. She tried to display some enthusiasm, but it didn't matter; Goldman was enthralled with his son and paid no attention to her.
She marveled at the depth of the CEO's feelings. She'd never thought about corporate types being fathers who loved their sons. She reminded herself that Goldman had shared the same horrible upbringing that McTavish described. Brainwashing? Clearly he wanted his son's childhood to be far different from what he'd experienced, and she admired him for it, something she'd never thought she'd feel for a man like Goldman.
"Hey, you know about electronics," Goldman said. "I worry that somebody might try to snatch Gabe, so I want to get a tracking chip implanted. Not just one of those things they put right under your skin. Those are too easily removed. I want a deep plant chip, one that broadcasts long range. But I worry about side effects, you know? I've heard that the chips can corrode, and that it might not be good to expose him to the energy waves they put out. Don't want to stunt his growth, if you get my meaning. What do you think of those chips?"
"Not a lot of long-term data on health effects yet. The stronger ones have only been on the market for about five years. Occasionally they migrate after implantation and end up somewhere they shouldn't be, but—"
Kama eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. She knew how to identify Levine's killer.
"Excuse me, Mr. Goldman. I think I've figured out where the cable problem lies. I'll just go along and check
it. Your terminal should settle down in a few minutes."
She rushed past Goldman and into the corridor. As she jogged toward the runabout bay, she punched a few commands into her nanocom to cancel the disruptor program and noticed that her bot had already started relaying files from the EcoMech network. So McTavish had gotten Greg to upload it. That surprised her. He seemed like such a law and order kind of guy. Well, she'd sort through them later. Right now, she needed to find McTavish.
She'd nearly paced a trench in the floor outside the runabout bay by the time he returned. As soon as he emerged, she grabbed his arm and dragged him down the corridor to a deserted airlock. She pulled him inside and shut the hatch.
"What did Amaya say?" she asked, bouncing from foot to foot.
McTavish shook his head, weariness slumping his shoulders. "She said she had contact only with Levine. She doesn't know who the accomplice is. You were right. She didn't know about the buyout scam. It was something Levine put together on the side."
Kama smiled broadly. "I've figured out how to trap the killer."
McTavish stared, open mouthed. "When did you figure this out?"
"It was something Goldman said. He was talking about getting a tracking chip for his son. A few years back, it was possible to get chips that could not only be used for ID and for tracking, but also to store and access other important data like bank records."
"What's that have to do with trapping the killer?"
"We'll put it around the station that Levine had one of those chips, and we'll say that I'm putting together a tracking device that will pick it up. We can suggest that he may have kept his accounting records for the buyout scam there, which is why we couldn't find them on the station computer system. The killer will have to go after the body to be sure that there isn't any incriminating evidence on the chip. All we have to do is wait in hydroponics to see who shows up."
"Brilliant!" McTavish grinned at her. "We'll have to wait for Leon to give up his search and leave. As soon as he does, I'll make the announcement. I should have brought a weapon back with me. Maybe I can get something from Cookie."
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