He wasn’t thinking any of those things. Instead he was thinking she’d voiced a perspective he had no frame of reference for and no clue how to fit into his own worldview so he might understand and it would be great if they could just go back to snuggling in afterglow.
“Kennedy—”
“I’m too wired to sleep. I’m going to go work for a while. Don’t wait up.” She climbed off the bed, grabbed her robe and left without so much as looking at him.
Noah fell back on the bed, kicked the wrecked covers to the floor and dragged his hands down his face. Why couldn’t one goddamn thing in this life be simple and stay that way?
25
PRESIDIO
GCDA HEADQUARTERS
* * *
“MARSHAL, I’VE PUT A MORATORIUM on the use of Dimensional Rifters in any capacity until we fully understand the ramifications of doing so. Which you know full well.”
“Despite the fact a Rifter saved your ass against Prime Minister Winslow? That must have stung.”
Nolan Bastian surveyed the manufacturing lines visible out the windows behind her as he spoke. Miriam couldn’t say if he did so out of genuine curiosity, as a reason to remain standing and loom over her in an oblique attempt at intimidation or, conversely, to provide an excuse to not look her in the eye.
She followed his gaze, but the view was the same as always: the deliberate and swift assembly of one cutting-edge ship after another after another, as rapidly as prudence allowed.
“Yes. Despite that fact. Did you travel all the way to the Presidio and into my office for some purpose beyond asking questions you clearly know the answers to? Because I fail to see what you are accomplishing by being here.”
“I’m here to review whether these new weapons upgrades and engine modifications you’re putting in your ships are safe before I decide whether to allow Federation vessels to occupy the same vicinity as AEGIS ones. If you’re doing nothing more than shoving untested, poorly understood alien tech into existing systems, the answer will be no. I’m in your office to satisfy myself that you’re devoting sufficient effort to determining the cause of the tragedy at the Lunar SSR Center.”
She stared at him deadpan. “Tell me: how much of your mouthing off did Eleni Gianno tolerate before she threw you out of her office?”
“Typically? A fair amount less than you.”
“As I thought. Marshal Bastian, I am trying to work with you, and I appreciate that, being new to your job, you are juggling a lot of things coming at you from every direction. Now, I’m not asking you to trust me because your predecessor trusted me, for I accept the necessity of earning your trust anew, as you must mine.
“I’m merely asking for a centimeter of consideration, of recognition it’s possible—possible—I know what I am doing.”
He stepped back in apparent surprise. “Oh, make no mistake, Commandant Solovy. I have no doubt you are thoroughly, even exceptionally, competent at your job. I simply reserve the right to disagree with you. On any given matter, at any given time.”
She dipped her chin. “Fine. It is certainly your prerogative to do so. Try to be more clear in the future, though, as you’ll find directness is a superior tack to getting a considered response from me. In what way, specifically, do you disagree with me today?”
“I’m not….” He glanced away, and she chalked up calling his bluff as a victory. “I have concerns about the amount of resources being thrown at AEGIS—at the entire GCDA organization—blindly and without question.”
“ ‘Concerns’ is a weasel word and something you’ll find supreme military leaders don’t have the luxury of indulging in. But since I am trying, I’ll help you out this one time—what you mean is you don’t like AEGIS working in concert with the Metigens.” She hadn’t missed his aversion-laden use of the term ‘alien tech’ earlier.
He stared at her sharply even as his tone softened. “Are you going to force me to add ‘perceptive’ to ‘competent,’ Commandant? The colony I grew up on, Dair, was wiped out in the Metigen War. The invaders killed millions and left behind a wasteland we had no choice but to abandon. So, no, I don’t ‘like’ you working with the Metigens.”
“I understand, Marshal. I don’t particularly care for it, either.”
“Is that so? You seem a bit cozy with them to me.”
“Cozy?” She almost laughed. “Should you keep your position for a while, one day you will grasp the absurdity of what you just said. No, Marshal, I am not ‘cozy’ with the aliens who killed over fifty million people in a bid to annihilate us.
“What I am is a realist, and this is our reality: an alien species far more numerous, armed and ill-tempered than the Metigens will discover us soon. When they do they will crush us out of existence unless we are strong enough to stop them.
“The work we’re doing here at the Presidio? The ships, the tech, the research, the training? We’re doing it because if we don’t, one day in the not so distant future, we all die. The sooner you come to terms with this reality, the sooner you can stop obstructing and start helping.”
Miriam closed the door after Bastian left. He’d departed properly cowed, but it hadn’t been an easy win.
She never resented working with an equal, and while she wasn’t yet ready to accept him as such given she’d never seen him maneuver through a true crisis, she conceded it was possible he’d ultimately make the cut. But when one had become accustomed to issuing orders free from challenge, encountering dogged resistance to them could be a mite exhausting.
Humility demanded she welcome it. Vanity left her ruing it.
In some ways, Bastian reminded her a little of David: all hotheaded fire and righteous zeal. She was far from convinced the man had the temperance of judgment to go with the traits needed to make him a great military leader, but only time and crises would tell.
Her too-brief solitude came to an end when Malcolm Jenner arrived. Considering she’d summoned him, she couldn’t fault the interruption. He’d be sorry he came in any event, once he heard what she had to tell him.
She refilled a teacup which had long ago gone cold and welcomed him in. “Brigadier Jenner, thank you for coming on short notice.”
“Of course, Commandant.” He sat across from her. “Is there news from…beyond the portal?”
If only there were. “Not as of yet. I don’t want to keep you when I know you’re as busy as I am, so let me get straight to the point. I’ve received some unfortunate news. Two of your former squadmates, Captains Paredes and Devore, were killed in a training accident on Arcadia yesterday.”
He blinked then swallowed as the words penetrated. “A training accident? What does that mean?”
“Honestly? It means the investigators don’t know what happened. Not yet. Since there are no active hostilities ongoing and there was not an overt hostile attack in the vicinity, it’s an accident until it’s determined otherwise.”
“They were top-notch Marines. People with their skills don’t have accidents.”
“Sometimes they do, Brigadier. No one is infallible.”
He shook his head distractedly. “Yes, ma’am. I wish to be granted access to the on-scene report and be added to the investigation update distribution.”
His rank permitted it. “I’ll see to it. And please, take any leave you need to attend their funerals.”
“Thank you.” He saluted, turned on a heel and left. The departure was unusually curt for him, and also completely understandable.
Before she could so much as consider what was next on her plate, Richard appeared at her doorway to provide a new answer.
Richard nodded a greeting to Malcolm as they passed outside Miriam’s office but didn’t take the time to stop and speak. He didn’t have spare time to give away, and the man didn’t look to be in a chatting mood.
The door to her office closed behind him, and he entered a code on the panel to activate the surveillance shielding then spun to face her. “You have a leak in the ASCEND team tasked with stud
ying the Anaden’s body. Or you had one at a minimum—it may have taken care of itself.”
“What?”
He opened an aural and sent it over to her. “Dr. Weil Symansi, a biomedical scientist on loan from Hemiska Research. He sold a copy of a portion of the Anaden’s cybernetic coding to an unknown party for Ͻ800,000.”
“Since you’re standing here, I assume you’ve already arrested him and locked him down in an interrogation room.”
“Can’t, at least not yet. He hasn’t reported to work in three days and hasn’t accessed his lodging in almost four. I’m tracking down two suspicious identities who booked seats on transports off the Presidio in the last week, one traveling to Pyxis and the other to Seneca. As soon as anything concrete pops on either of them, I’ll follow where it leads.”
She shook her head slowly. “Every person allowed access to the body or the products of the body was meticulously vetted.”
“Oh, his record is spotless. But 800K is a great deal of money, and everyone has secrets.”
“I suppose. How did you uncover the leak?”
He grimaced and leaned against the wall. “Someone used the code to formulate a new strain of cybernetics virus. It was used in an attack on Devon Reynolds and his girlfriend the night of the Metigen Victory celebration.”
Her eyes widened. “Are they all right?”
“The girlfriend’s in a coma. Devon’s unharmed. He took out two of the attackers, but a third escaped during the altercation. Romane law enforcement is searching for the perpetrator.”
“But until this person is found, you don’t have any idea who they were working for.”
“No, I do not. Dr. Symansi is a better lead anyway. The attackers were thugs for hire contracted by an independent broker. Once we confirmed the virus came from the Anaden—I say ‘we,’ but it was mostly Mia Requelme’s doing—it wasn’t hard to find Symansi. Like most first-time criminals, he didn’t cover his tracks well.”
Miriam tilted her head back against the chair rest. “This is turning into a day I’d prefer wasn’t.”
“I can’t disagree with you there.”
She frowned. “Morgan Lekkas was injured in a skycar collision yesterday. The initial evidence points to a malfunctioning rental vehicle as the cause, but two attacks on Noetica Prevos in less than a week is quite a coincidence.”
“That’s because it’s not a coincidence.”
“You think someone is targeting them?”
“I’ve recommended increased security for Ms. Requelme just in case, but I’m afraid it might be more complicated than hits on the Noetica Prevos. It’s possible something else is going on.”
She stood and went to the center window. “Two of Malcolm Jenner’s former squad members were killed yesterday in what appears to be a training accident.”
He straightened up in surprise. In the back of his mind, a warning flared. He tried to trace it to its origin before it faded, to no avail. “It’s probably unrelated, but send me the information?”
“Done. Any authorizations you need to increase security protocols for data or people, you have them.”
“Thank you. We’ll try to make sure no more top secret information leaks out—you know, unless someone in a position of authority freely shares it.”
The teasing jab got a wry smile from her, if only a small one. She’d caught all manner of hell for enlisting the Noesis collective to help riddle out the Dimensional Rifter glitch. True to form, she’d given the politicians the usual brush-off and told the military officers to calm themselves or, failing that, go fret over fixing actual problems.
A priority message arrived then signaling a hit on one of the identities he was tracking. “And like that, I’m Seneca-bound. I’ll keep you updated.”
SPACE, NORTH-CENTRAL QUADRANT
SENECAN FEDERATION SPACE
Richard stood to stretch in the small private cabin of the transport. The cabin didn’t provide sufficient room to pace properly, so after a few circuits he sat down again.
The Presidio was centrally located between Earth, Seneca and Romane, so the trip wasn’t rightfully long enough to give him stiff muscles. Must be due to him spending eighty percent of the last four days on one transport or another.
The news about Jenner’s squadmates continued to nag at him. Training accidents happened in the military; it was an unfortunate consequence of the organization’s use of the most powerful weapons and weapon delivery systems in existence…here. But the bodies and injuries were really starting to pile up this week.
He started a simple list on an aural, nothing but names.
Devon Reynolds
Captain Jacob Paredes
Captain Vanessa Devore
Commander Morgan Lekkas
He paused, then added another line just for kicks.
Paolo Acconci et al
Now he stared at the list, drawing, erasing and re-drawing links in his mind….
He sank back into the seat. “Shit.”
SENECA
CAVARE
The fact Graham Delavasi had to pass through two cordons then weave through multiple forensic techs on his way to the hotel room told him most of what he needed to know about what he would find.
As expected, when he finally made it into the room he found Richard crouched over a prone body missing most of its head. He’d gotten enough of the background before he left the office to not pity the corpse.
Graham crouched beside Richard. “I hope the doctor made good use of his windfall fortune in the short time he had it to spend.”
Richard grimaced. “As far as we’ve been able to determine, all he got out of it was a first-class seat on a transport from the Presidio to Cavare, four hours in a moderately classy hotel suite, a prime rib dinner and a bottle of gin—” he jerked his head toward the dresser “—most of which is still here for the taking.”
“Wife or kids who would have been able to enjoy the proceeds if they weren’t criminally obtained and he wasn’t busted?”
“Of course not. Are there ever? The ones with wives and kids don’t make deals this lucrative—they’re invariably too desperate and take the lowball first offer. This guy? He simply got greedy.” Richard put his palms on his thighs and stood, then pivoted to one of the techs working the body. “Scrape his eVi and send me the results. Also send me his data store, intact. SENTRI will return a copy to you for your records, but don’t try to copy it here, in case it’s rigged.”
She peered up at Richard skeptically. “You think he has a physical data store?”
“He was a scientist. He has one.”
She shrugged in acceptance, which earned a quiet chuckle from Graham.
Whether it was the time Richard had spent with Division, the natural, quiet authority he’d picked up somewhere along the way or the reality that SENTRI had quickly and dramatically imprinted itself on the intelligence business, all the techs were not only deferring to the man but accepting his directives without question.
Richard motioned toward the hallway, and Graham followed him out. After several tries they found a quiet, traffic-free space, and he turned to his friend. “What do you need from us?”
“Find out where the money came from. A close second is to whom the code was delivered.” Richard frowned. “No. The second will help, and I will gladly order the immediate arrest of any and all involved in this chain of events.
“But to prevent further attacks we need to find out who is behind this, and ultimately the money will be the trail to lead us there. Symansi came to Cavare for a reason. Maybe he thought it was busy enough he could hide here, or maybe a piece of the puzzle is located here.”
Graham nodded in the kind of ‘understanding’ that was a hallmark of early investigations—which was to say, they didn’t understand much, but they knew what they needed to begin to understand. Still, seeing as it wasn’t technically his investigation, he could afford to play it a little loose.
“You already know where the money trail�
�s going to lead, don’t you?”
Richard shook his head firmly. “No, I do not. I’m not assuming anything. The evidence will lead where it leads.”
“Uh-huh. Sure will.”
Richard glared at him. “Have I mentioned how I’m glad you’re not my boss any longer? Fine. I have a tantalizing hint of a suspicion that doesn’t make any sense and zero evidence to back it up. Finger’s on the trigger, ready to move as soon as I find even a crumb of an actionable trail, but right now? Whatever I think I know, what I have is nothing.”
AMARANTHE
26
KATOIKIA
TRIANGULUM GALAXY
LGG REGION VI
* * *
VALKYRIE WAS ANNOYED.
It gave her an inordinate degree of pleasure to ascribe names and labels to the increasing range of emotions she experienced, and she was quite confident this particular one was best described as annoyance.
Too long had passed since Alex and Caleb had passed through the cloaking barrier, and she did not care for being left behind to wait until she had no choice but to fret (a most unbecoming emotion).
Admittedly, on Taenarin Aris they had remained beyond her perception for more than two days. But there, Lakhes had explained the situation to her and, in the absence of rampant deception on the Kat’s part, no clear danger or urgency had existed.
Here, however, they all faced critical time pressures with the impending arrival of a fleet of warships bent on destruction. The Katasketousya superdreadnoughts had begun to depart the surface carrying their precious cargo in the last several minutes.
She did not plan for the scenario Alex had so casually tossed out to come to pass. She would not leave them here, but she also did not desire for the circumstances to worsen to the point where the choice must be made.
Decision reached, she engaged the in-atmosphere pulse detonation engine and proceeded forward as cautiously as the engine allowed.
She passed the location where they had vanished with no detectable variation in the air or the environment. Another ten meters, and she was certain: there was no cloaking shield in place.
Aurora Resonant: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 3) Page 18