Tag nodded, but then caught himself. “Well, that isn’t entirely true, is it? There are also the Imoogi.”
Governor Burton sighed heavily. “Very early on, before the SRE officially arrived, the Imoogi showed up.”
“I thought they were indigenous.”
“They were,” Burton said. “I mean, they are. But they’re a completely aquatic race. We didn’t realize they were here until they surfaced one day and made contact with us. I believe theirs is more or less a democratic society, and I spoke to their version of a Prime Minister once. We made peace with them. Made up a treaty and everything. They had once traveled the stars, he told me. While they found the idea of space travel alluring, the danger of dealing with other races had convinced them the stars weren’t where they belonged. They worship, no surprise, a water deity, and their central tenet is being satisfied with your life as it is. It wasn’t hard to convince them to retreat into Orthod’s waters once we had assured them they were safe from us. That was the first and last time I saw any of the Imoogi.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t try to throw you off when they found you all on their planet,” Tag said.
“I was just as surprised,” Burton said. “They didn’t say much about it, but they did imply they had a similar deal set up with the, uh, investors on the other side of Orthod. I would be willing to bet there had been some kind of conflict there that convinced them they shouldn’t mess with humans. But I never asked, and the Imoogi have left us alone since.”
“This is helpful,” Tag said. “I’ll have my anthropologist see what he can dig up, but in the meantime, I have to ask: Do you think the Imoogi are responsible for the disappearance of your missing colonists?”
“You might ask Cho about that. His marines have a tendency to run a little wild. That’s unusual, if you ask me. Other platoons before his have been much more disciplined. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were responsible.” She shuddered. Tag didn’t think it was acting. “With the accusations they’ve been throwing around, I think they abducted our colonists for revenge.”
“I see,” Tag said. “But he’s said nothing about having captives.”
“That’s right. He has threatened us before, though. Said, and I quote, ‘Accidents happen on the frontier.’”
Tag nodded and made a note. “What do you think happened to his marines?”
Burton’s face froze once more into a mask. With all the weariness in it, the openness that had been there before seemed to have evaporated. “I don’t know.”
“Is it possible some of the colonists really did have something to do with it?”
“Possible? I suppose anything is possible. But my people wouldn’t abduct anyone. And if they had, I would know about it.”
Tag wanted to press her further, but he could sense that this line of questioning had cooled her willingness to exchange information. Besides, a conversation with Cho was long overdue. He needed a break to collect himself for his next interview. He hadn’t realized just how mentally exhausting this would be.
Next time, he thought, Sofia gets to play the diplomat.
“Well,” Tag said, making a show of looking at his wrist terminal. “I do appreciate your time, and I’m sure you have matters to attend to in town. I’ll want to meet again tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Burton said, standing. She gave him a vapid smile. “It was a pleasure.”
She left, shutting the door behind her. Lucky jolted upright, woken by the sound of the door hitting the frame. Tag scratched under the Rizzar’s chin.
“We certainly have our work cut out for us, don’t we, girl?”
She mewled in agreement.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Cho sauntered into the conference room. Lucky bristled at the sight of him, but her growling settled as he approached the table. After she had thrown herself into the fray during the fight on the Montenegro, he wouldn’t take the creature for granted ever again. She had seen the threat of violence before anyone else in that room, and Tag couldn’t ignore her reactions toward people now. He kept one eye on the Rizzar until she closed her eyes again. It took a second before her breathing returned to the lazy, deep rhythm of slumber.
“I know why you keep her around,” Cho said, pulling out the seat across from Tag. He dropped into it.
Tag stiffened. “You do?” If news of the assassination attempt—and his role in preventing it—had reached Orthod, it could ruin Tag’s efforts to dig out the collaborators’ secrets here.
“Of course.” The big marine offered the back of his hand to Lucky. She opened one eye and sniffed his hand. A forked tongue whipped out of her mouth and traced up to the marine’s wrist. With a slight grin, Cho patted Lucky’s head, and she closed her eyes in contentment. “I was stationed on Epsilon-Gamma-Four back when I was a private. It was my first deployment. There was an SRE colony there, too, a few decades older than the Principality. I saw a couple of kids picking on this dog, hitting it with sticks.” The marine’s cheeks flushed red, and his eyes fixed on the wall, staring at a point only he could see. “Sergeant let me keep the pup in the barracks as long as I fed it scraps from my own meals and nothing else. Dog, we named him. Real creative, I know.”
He laughed to himself. “But I was a private. Creativity wasn’t one of my responsibilities. Anyway, the damn thing wouldn’t leave my side. Grew up to be a real big son of a bitch. Even followed me on runs and tried to do our calisthenics with us. Became something of the platoon’s mascot.”
Cho reached down to pat Lucky’s head again.
“Just looking at her, I can tell she ain’t no ordinary pet, is she? There’s something special about the bond of an animal and someone who rescued ‘em, whether it’s from a station shelter or whatever. I can see it in her eyes. The way she seems to trust only you.”
“Uh, yeah,” Tag said. “You hit the nail on the head on that one.” He didn’t want their conversation to stray too far in that direction. Trying to explain how he had rescued Lucky would only invite more questions about Tag’s background and his actual purpose here. “But I’m afraid we don’t have time to talk about pets, and we don’t need to inflate this one’s ego more than it already is.”
“Thinks she’s a queen, doesn’t she?”
“That she does.” Tag tapped on his wrist terminal. “Let’s get started. You know how the SRE is. They want results, and they want it now.”
A rough guffaw escaped Cho’s lips. “Results. Either something’s changed with the SRE, or they really don’t give a shit about Orthod.”
“What do you mean?” Tag asked.
“Those damn colonists are plotting something,” Cho said. “I’m absolutely certain. I had hoped you were here to do something about it. Because all I get from command are orders to stand down. Don’t engage. All that bullshit. They give us guns, but we ain’t allowed to shoot anybody. It doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
“Why do you think the colonists are plotting something?”
One of Cho’s hands balled into a fist, quivering on the table. “They took my men. Four of them.”
“And you’re sure it’s not the Imoogi?”
“Are you kidding me?” Cho asked. “Damn lizard people don’t care about us. Why would they? The only reason I know they exist at all is because Maxine told us when we got here. You ask me, it’s a fucking lie she tells her people to keep them in line. Keeps the kiddies in bed at night, that kind of thing.”
“All right,” Tag said, drumming his fingers on the table. “Do you have any evidence that the colonists abducted your marines?”
“Do I need evidence?” Cho asked. “My men didn’t abduct themselves.”
“Sometimes, on long deployments—”
“Gods, you’ve been listening to Maxine, aren’t you? They didn’t just get drunk and jump off a cliff somewhere. We get a little bored around here, sure. But we’re not incompetent. We’re goddamned marines.”
“Okay, okay. Got it. You know I have to ask. I need
to understand all facets of the conflict here.”
“All facets, eh?” Cho asked. “Look, I’ve been worried about an insurrection from day one. These colonists don’t seem like much, but they’re smarter than they look. How do you think they survived here? Whether they’re hiding weapons somewhere or they made their own, I’ve no doubt they’re armed and planning something. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they be more scared of us?”
Tag couldn’t tell if the man was paranoid or not. Maybe Cho was completely rational and Tag was the naïve one. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
“They don’t want us here. I tell you what, I wouldn’t be surprised if Maxine pulls some kind of attack on us then blames it all on the so-called Imoogi. It’ll be months before the SRE responds, with our luck, and what are they going to do?”
“That all sounds pretty, uh—”
“Paranoid? Think I’m a delusional type, don’t you?” Cho leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs. “I don’t blame you. A few months ago, I would’ve felt the same way listening to me. But I’ll tell you something else. The SRE once paid attention to us. Someone up there sent down some extra goodies on our last resupply shipment. I asked for listening bugs, you know, to keep an ear on the town. I just wanted to get an idea of what the three hells was going on.”
“What did you hear?” Tag asked.
A shit-eating grin crossed Cho’s face. “Not a goddamn thing. Can you believe that?”
“I don’t understand. If you didn’t hear anything incriminating, wouldn’t that prove the colonists were innocent?”
“You don’t get it, Brewer,” Cho said. He spoke slowly to emphasize each word. “Nothing. At. All. Not a word. Just a bunch of static. The bugs didn’t work. Wrote it off as a bad batch, tried some more. Same results.”
“So the SRE equipment failed.”
“I’ve seen that same shit used all across the galaxy. Never more than one bug in a batch failed, and only after considerable use,” Cho said. “Either the SRE purposelessly sent us bugs that didn’t work—which doesn’t make a lick of sense—or the colonists have their own anti-spying measures in the town. Sounds like you’ve got more brainiacs in your crew than I do, so why don’t you ask them if it’s possible? See what they think.”
“Sure,” Tag said, still a little confused. “I’ll do that.” Cho’s rant had derailed the conversation completely, and Tag had almost forgotten the questions he’d meant to ask the marine. He feared the grav impeller had come loose from the starship, though, and there wasn’t much he could do to keep control over it. “You mentioned your marines get a little bored. What exactly did you mean by that?”
Cho folded his huge arms over his chest. “You a mediator or a detective, Brewer?”
“I’m just trying to get the whole picture.”
“Question still stands.”
“Look,” Tag said, trying not to sound too exasperated, “I want to know if Burton’s complaints about your marines hold any truth. What do your marines do when they’re bored?”
“Seems like an awfully petty thing to focus on,” Cho said. “We got much worse problems than my marines trying to blow off some steam after being stuck on a planet without so much as a goddamned pub. And you know damn well the colonists aren’t letting us share a drink with them in their little piss-factory.”
“Really, Lieutenant,” Tag began again. “I’m just trying to do my job.”
“It’s pretty clear-cut to me. SRE sent us down here to keep law and order, but they don’t want to give us the authority or tools to do it. Don’t touch the colonists. Don’t look at ‘em. Even when they abduct my people, I can’t do anything that might threaten the colonists’ civil liberties. It’s getting goddamned ridiculous. You want to send a message to the SRE? Tell ‘em to let us do something about this mess.” He slammed a fist on the table. “Then, when you’re done with that, tell ‘em to fix what we got up here. Half the terminals in the barracks don’t work, and we have to program the damned fabricators by hand ‘cause the AI don’t work. Marines ain’t engineers. Nobody trained us for that. And every time this planet so much as thinks about an earthquake, our terminals go down. We lose control over the entire planetary defense network.”
“Perhaps one of the colonists could assist you,” Tag suggested. “I believe several of them were—”
“If the goddamn colonists knew what was happening, they’d be sending up courier drones every time it happened, spreading all kinds of propaganda and nonsense to neighboring colonies.”
Tag was speechless for a moment. He really had no idea why the SRE had ignored Orthod’s plight. No wonder Cho was pissed. Steam was practically venting from the man’s ears, and Tag didn’t blame him. He wanted to go back to the question of the bored marines—where they went and what they did in their free time—but he feared raising the subject again would be like asking Cho to walk on a bed of plasma-blades.
“This is all helpful,” Tag said. “And, I regret to say, news to me.”
“I bet it is.”
“Maybe it’s best we call it a day for now,” Tag said. “Let’s meet again tomorrow.”
Cho gave a curt nod and started to get up from his seat.
“I’ll make sure your requests get back to the SRE,” Tag said. “They need to hear about the conditions of the camp and the problems with the network.”
“Sounds splendid,” Cho said with evident sarcasm.
The marine left. A second later, Bull and Lonestar spilled inside.
“Long day,” Bull said.
“Was that a question?” Tag asked.
“Just a statement. Pretty uneventful outside. I take it things were different in here.”
“Very much so.”
Lonestar leaned back against one of the walls. “So, what’s next on the docket, Cap?”
“Don’t know about you two, but I could use a drink.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The local pub was as busy as it had been the previous night. Colonists fresh from work, with dirt still on their coveralls, lounged about the space. When Tag entered with Bull and Lonestar at his side, the room seemed to go quiet, as if a pack of predators had suddenly entered the woods. Most of the colonists avoided making eye contact with the trio. Those who did glared at the marines.
One by one, conversations resumed as normal, but the unfriendly looks remained.
“Tag!” a voice called.
Tag looked about the room. He saw Hannah beckoning to him and the marines. Eager to find a familiar face in the otherwise standoffish crowd, he waded through the colonists to meet her. She motioned for them to join her at a table with two other colonists.
“These are a couple of my lab assistants.” Hannah gestured to a slender man stooped over his glass and then to a woman who had a cheerful smile and ruddy complexion. “Rodrigo and Steph.”
Tag introduced the marines and then asked Hannah, “What was with that welcome? Didn’t think I bothered anyone here last night.”
“It’s the marines,” she said. “Cho’s guys never step foot in here. It probably took them a second to realize those two were with you.”
It only took one beer before the group had moved past forced small talk and into more lively conversation. After the morning he’d had, Tag found himself listening more than speaking. He was taken off-guard when Rodrigo turned to him and asked, “So, how did you end up becoming a bureaucrat, Ambassador Brewer?”
“Please, call me Tag,” he said. “And to answer your question, I guess I just sort of stumbled into it. What about you? How did you end up on Orthod?”
Rodrigo grunted. “My family has always lived on SRE stations. Just cogs in the machine, you know? I wanted something different, a purpose.”
“I’m in it for the adventure,” Steph said. She looked up at Bull and Lonestar. “How about you two? What are your stories?”
“Wanted to serve,” Bull said without further explanation.
“You’re not going to get much from him
,” Lonestar said. “He’s about as talkative as a rock when it comes to strangers. Where I come from, we’re real friendly. I remember one time on the ranch...”
Tag tuned her out; he’d heard all of Lonestar’s stories at least once. Hannah’s eyes kept coming back to Tag while they chatted. He hated to admit he liked the attention. Eventually Hannah leaned back in her chair slightly and turned to face him as the lab assistants and marines—mostly Lonestar—continued their conversation about life among the stars.
“You look even more exhausted today than when I saw you last night,” Hannah said.
“That bad, huh?”
“Let’s just say I don’t envy your position,” Hannah said.
“Maybe I’ll do something easy with my next life—like be a scientist on a remote colony. Wander around a bit to pick up some samples, drop them off at my lab for my assistants to handle, then mosey off to the bar for a margarita.”
“Beer is all that’s offered, I’m afraid.”
“Not even gutfire?”
“I hear you can get that on the black market for cheap.”
Tag took a gulp of the grassy-tasting brew. It left an aftertaste like he’d swallowed a salad without dressing. “With beer this good, why would you go through the trouble?”
Hannah tapped the rim of her glass against his. “Cheers to that.” She finished off her glass and set it on the table. “You still interested in that lab tour?”
“Right now?”
“I’ve got to go back to check on a couple samples, and these guys need a break.” She motioned to the lab assistants, still engrossed in conversation with the marines. “Normally the assays I’ve got to run are pretty boring. It would be nice to have the company.”
“Sure,” Tag said. As they exchanged their goodbyes with the others and made their way to the door, Tag thought about everything he’d learned from his talks with Burton and Cho. He wondered if Hannah might have insight into the puzzle. She was smart and observant by nature. She spent most of her time in the field, so maybe she had noticed something that would help reveal who Tag’s real allies were on Orthod—and who might be the collaborators.
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