Shadowed Passage, page 7
DualE said, "I'm impressed, Chels. You should be the brothers' fifth column throughout the Realm."
"Thanks. I'm happy with my role here."
One of Tarbent's new friends strolled to them. By her rolling, bow-legged walk, a decade older than DualE at least. As she got closer, the creases in her face and drooping ears added another decade to DualE's estimate. A frontier woman not to be underestimated.
"Coming tomorrow?" asked Chels. "You're a new arrival?"
The woman nodded. "Two days ago. From the Eddy."
DualE tensed. Don't push it, she thought. Let her take or spit the hook.
"You've piqued my interest. The Realm needs a cohesive vision moving forward. I doubt the time required to grow into that choice will be long enough. The Confluence peace might be their way of ensuring we become who they want. Perhaps your man Pious has an answer. I will be there tomorrow." She nodded toward the group she'd just left. "Tarbent tells me you're looking for the Whisper."
"I'm curious as to its whereabouts, yes," said DualE, trying to sound casual.
"It's in the Eddy shipyard. Or was when I left. I only noticed it because it was one of the few barnacle-sized craft in the 'yard."
"Any crew around?"
She shook her head. "I couldn't say. Assume someone had to pilot it in but we had to pass by that structure to depart and I saw the list of craft warned not to disembark until we were clear."
"Thank you," said Chels. "I look forward to seeing you at the service."
The woman nodded again and returned to her group.
"The Eddy. They jumped straight there if they were already in dock before this woman jumped." DualE was on her own for the brothers as long as they remained here.
The other niggle surfaced. "Chels, why don't I see any military types on Progress? Even the Realm's unofficial forces must station here occasionally."
"Good question. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it. I have to think back. It must be a month since our irregulars were aboard."
"A month. Same time as the peace was being firmed up between the Confluence and the Realm. News travels fast."
"There was never more than a ship or two here at the height of the independence rhetoric. I'll check with Slate but I think there might have been two cruiser class and one converted mozzy all here at once, then within a shift, all three were gone. Three, four weeks ago?"
"Hmm. Disbanded or a strategic withdrawal."
"Does it matter to the brothers?"
Chels had almost caught her. DualE's intel gathering mission pushed her profile in the wrong direction. But it was info she needed. "I'm ex-navy adjusting to my mercenary role. It's hard-wired in me to have as much information as possible before I go into a situation. In this case, allow the brothers to be aware of unknown risks before we make our jump into the Eddy itself."
This seemed to satisfy Chels for the moment but the woman was no fool and DualE would need to double down on her bodyguard persona. Her concern was genuine for either mission. Did the Realm's armada lurk in the void, waiting for an indication the Confluence was vulnerable? She had more reason than locating Carver Denz to push Pious to that next jump soon.
Chapter 13
"Carver Denz?" repeated the Whisper's second visitor.
Carver grabbed their arms and pulled the two inside the Whisper. Zofie for once seemed frozen in shock. Her plans depended that much on Carver's anonymity?
He closed the airlock for privacy. Best way forward? Bluff, indignation and mild insults. "Geez, you guys pretend to be traders?" He sat beside Zofie. "We're trying to run a low-profile operation here and the first thing you do is broadcast my identity. If anyone heard you, our proposed dealings are off and we'll see to it you don't trade with anyone. Got it? Do you think you can be more circumspect going forward?" He glared at each in turn. His anger was genuine. His threat not so much.
"Sorry," one answered when Carver stopped for breath. "You're a legend out here. It was the shock of actually meeting you." He pointed at Zofie. "She didn't tell us you were part of any deal."
"You can see why," she answered.
Good, Carver thought, she'd recovered. He said, "My reputation doesn't affect our dealings here." Not that he knew what those dealings were. Bluff.
Zofie carried on. "We're brokers for Argosy Station and chartered under the Confluence. Peace is coming. Or at least a stand down."
They looked puzzled. Carver pushed. "Argosy Station was fired upon from somewhere in the Eddy. Recently. Any rumors here?"
"Not that it's material to our negotiations," said Zofie. "We'll work through hostilities if we must."
Speak for yourself, Carver thought.
"It can't be true," said the spokesman. "The Eddy'd never attack Argosy Station."
"Someone did," said Carver. "The station might have been an accidental casualty but the Orson suffered damage and she jumped from the Eddy." Sooner or later, DualE and the brothers would appear and he wanted to know the risks by the time they arrived.
"This is news to us and I suspect to everyone in the shipyard."
Zofie responded. "Like Carver's presence, I advise you to keep the news private. Listen but don't question. Advantage in knowledge can help us. Now, what do you need moved from here?"
Carver wasn't going to get any more intel at the moment so he let Zofie lead the negotiations. He'd observe her as much as their company. He needed to know as much about her state of mind as possible if he were to end their temporary partnership as soon as he could without pushing her to volatility.
"Artifacts," said the potential client.
Okay, thought Carver, enough of his casual observation role.
"Are we talking pioneer prospector material?" Zofie asked. "Not sure of your market. Family connections? Want to find out what happened to your long-lost ne'er-do-well forefather?"
The two red suits exchanged glances. "Now it's our turn to demand privacy."
Carver suspected the truth behind the need for secrecy. The men weren't referring to any old pioneer relics. This was the prospectors' Holy Grail. Something which rendered his mineral bonanza penny ante.
Zofie stiffened. She'd put it together as quickly as he had. "Alien," she whispered. "Alien artifacts."
No assent or denial from the prospective clients.
Carver didn't trust himself to speak. Zofie'd need more than the partner guise of Willie Renfrew to pull off smuggling alien contraband from the Eddy.
Carver ensured the access catwalk was clear except for their third member before signalling the two Reds to exit the Whisper. He returned inside and closed the 'lock.
"Our next visitor-slash-partners will be here in an hour," said Zofie.
"I thought you'd cancel, given what we just heard."
"Too risky to go silent so soon after the Reds met us. We can't reveal this job's manifest. Besides, two shipments would be a perfect cover. Routine brokerage. Nothing worth hijacking."
He could see her mind racing forward, digesting implications and devising strategies. Given his lack of success at hiding his lode's shipment back to Bohr, he should let her do the planning. "Do you honestly think you can keep it secret?"
"Absolutely. I tracked through the 'yard and didn't hear a word about it. The Reds haven't talked and no one else appears to know. We can do it."
"What about your other associates?"
"I have none. Except you." She appeared genuine but Carver couldn't read her well, that he knew.
"You're not working with or for someone? Zofie, I know you. Gar Kondradt knows you. Hell, Chancellor Mekli was your patron."
"All in the past, Carver. I work for Zofie Ked. So do you. For the time being. I mean, aren't you excited? If these guys really found something alien, you'll need a half-dozen false identities to walk down any corridor in Gamma Hub or Argosy Station without being mobbed."
"I've experienced such fame. It's neither what I desire nor need. You take this on, I'll help as much as I can. From this end. My duty is to Brother Pious. When the Penance and DualE get here, which I've no doubt they will, my obligation to you is done. You agree or I walk from the Whisper now and make my own way in the 'yard." He drew the shockgun from his pocket and hung it at his side.
Zofie had hers pulled. She remained silent in the standoff. She looked around the inside of her ship, then at him.
"Don't think killing me is a viable option," he said. "The Reds have seen me. If Carver Denz disappears, or Willie Renfrew, they will have questions."
"Eliminating you isn't on my mind. Kondradt and Mekli have been exorcized from my psyche. I don't dream in cryo any more going through spookspace. I am clear of entanglement."
"No dreams? No recriminating nightmares? That's a little disturbing." Or a lie. "The deal with jumpspace is to tear those demons from the subconscious and bring them to the fore." Who was this transformed Zofie? A complete psychotic? One who he'd just committed to help change human zeitgeist by introducing the knowledge and reality we were no longer alone.
"Not for me, Carver. I have no guilt. Brother Pious heard my confession."
If true, Carver doubted that Pious realized what he'd created? A guilt-free Zofie Ked still capable of significant mayhem?
Chapter 14
"I'm ready when you are, Chels." Pious sat in Progress' makeshift chapel one row in front of his disciple. He heard her breathing deep, calming her mind, seeking the way. The station's background hum droned like a hive, each individual system performing a task for the whole.
He and the brothers were parts of a greater whole as well, though their independence this far from church headquarters was only physical distance, not spiritual separation. Pious tried not to dwell on the comfort safely enjoyed by the church's higher officers while he and the rest of the missionaries toiled amidst danger. The church needed to ensure its role in the coming alliance. A few sacrifices were acceptable to be part of the Realm's eventual governance, though it would be unaware of the silent partnership. It was the whole which mattered. Drones such as he were critical but not indispensable. There were always new volunteers. Brother Atone was the future, not Pious.
Chels remained silent. Her burden had to be large to stifle her normal garrulity. He probed. "What troubles you? Share it with me and reduce its weight."
"To weigh you down?"
"This is my chosen path." He closed his eyes, still seeing her face before him. "Begin."
"I'm unsure of my role and my trust contract with a man who confessed a possible crime, Brother Pious."
"A long-standing dilemma for any one in my position of confidentiality. The First Expansion Brotherhood adopted many trappings from the Roman Catholic faith centuries ago. Jesuit mission tactics and confession, to name two. By our laws, we can't act or reveal our knowledge of a crime. But some follow their social conscience if more crimes could be committed. It is a difficult question for some; for others, their commitment to the canon of the church outweighs all other considerations. The priest must ask, who do I serve? In your case, both you and the visitor treated the contact as though it was under the protection of the church and priest-confessor privilege."
"I'm not a priest," said Chels. "Though I guess I was your representative when I heard the confession."
"Who do you serve?"
"I want to serve the church. But I'm also loyal to this station and Slate."
"The information gained in this sacred trust? Is it material to the station's well-being?"
"Yes, I think so. Definitely the Realm is at risk."
"Was there death by foul means?"
"I don't know. But there could be many deaths to come. It involves hostile action against the Confluence."
"What you tell me, I will hold in confidence. What you do with your information remains up to you. Is your confessor still aboard Progress and does he pose a risk to anyone?"
"I believe he's here. He doesn't pose the risk. What he was involved in created a risk."
"Could you ask him to share his information with Slate? That would clear your conscience and perhaps avoid these deaths you fear will come."
"I can try. I won't burden you with the details. It wouldn't alleviate my responsibility. I thank you for the clarity you've provided. This must remain my decision."
"I will include guidance for such a question in my sermon tomorrow, without revealing what you've shared. I can offer an alternative to those carrying guilt within them."
Chels had two missions. Luckily, they overlapped in execution. She moved through Slate's Progress, publicizing the service and hunting for Perry. She had mixed fortune with the former and none with the latter. Some residents were curious, some anxious and many ambivalent. There was another tension in the station's atmosphere she couldn't define. The whereabouts of Perry were unknown. The salvager had vanished.
She stepped from the lift onto the catwalk approaching Slate's aerie. Progress's commander connected to the station from this spot through all his senses. Sight, smell, taste, sound and the many vibrations inherent in Progress's existence. Slate looked up from his desk and smiled.
"Come in. I hear you've been pounding the corridors and catwalks, priming Pious' audience."
` Chels slumped in a chair. "I've covered every meter of this station in the last ten hours. Twice, or I'm a monkey."
"You're no monkey. You can use the intra-comm to get the message out. Less walking. Touch of a button and whoosh, your message is on every open screen and comm." He knitted his hands behind his head and reclined with a groan. "Though I don't recommend welding your butt to a chair for more than an hour at a time. I lose track."
"I needed personal contact and I needed to find someone."
"Thought you were happy with me."
"Not that kind of search, Slate. I met a spacer from deep in the Eddy two days ago. We spoke in my chapel and I received a confession." She'd come this far for a purpose. Pious' guidance hadn't motivated her to tell him Perry's secret but with Slate, she had to make her choice. "I've tried to rationalize what I'm going to tell you as information for the greater good but I'm betraying a trust in doing so. No amount of justification changes that."
Slate sat forward. "Your conscience should be clear if you share your knowledge."
"Should and reality don't always jive." She took a deep breath. "Recorders are off?"
Slate nodded. "Always for you."
She rested her hands on his and leaned as close as she could. "This spacer was or is, a salvager. Combing the Eddy for detritus to refurbish and sell."
"I know the niche. We buy and trade with a few though lately it's been drying up."
"My confidant and his partner found something not human. A piece of alien tech, he says."
Slate's hands tensed under hers. "Go on." His voice was barely audible.
"His partner had extensive communication experience in freighters before going independent and was convinced the machine was a jumpspace transmission device. They muddled through making it operational and tested it."
"Dangerous. One could be contacting an unfriendly species. Not that the human race has ever been unfriendly to a new tribe of fellow humans."
"Point taken. The danger in this case came from the machine itself. It wasn't what they thought. The spacer claims it was a weapon and they fired it. Once."
"Fools."
"Exactly. It sent a beam of some kind, he wasn't certain in the panic and surprise, through a jumpspace opening following a freighter to Argosy Station. They abandoned it and ran."
"Damn fools." Slate's hands sweated. "I've my own confession to share with you. This hasn't gained full rumor traction yet but it will soon, once the latest arrival's crew circulates. Argosy Station was attacked days ago. I learned about it this morning on a courier packet. The freighter Orson limped out of spookspace simultaneously as an energy beam of some kind tore through a couple of docked ships and a piece of the station. Just before a Confluence frigate arrived from Bohr. The Realm is under suspicion of initiating an act of war."
"I hadn't heard the rumor and I've talked to a lot of people today." The manufactured rationale for her betrayal evaporated. She'd done right. But her loyalty to the church would always be in question going forward. "Now that I look outside my mission, there is a change present."
"Explain."
"Progress is on edge. A week ago, I swear I could have gathered two hundred people for Pious' address. Today I've sense that maybe a quarter of that will come. Something's on their minds whether they know the specifics or not."
"I've been too busy to notice," said Slate. "I need to change that. I'm meeting with the other administrators in an hour to inform them of the attack. I won't share your specifics with them but I'll jump the info on to the Eddy to look for this alien artifact. Did your confessor have any more details about its location?"
"On a recoil path still in the Eddy. Someone else could find it." Chels' stomach sank and wrenched. "What if there's an entire cache of these things in the Eddy?"
"We need to find your man if he's on Progress. The lure of alien tech could start an unprecedented bonanza frenzy. Or worse, the Confluence Navy finds it. The Realm would be under greater pressure than now."
"But it could avoid a war if we got there first."
"Keeping the information tight could also give the Realm the advantage we didn't have before. We'll share it but on our terms."
Chels worried that secrets were dangerous. She'd just betrayed one with good reason. She couldn't see how withholding knowledge from the Confluence was right.
"Who's your contact? Name? Description? Anything, Chels."
"Perry's his name. Little guy, half a head shorter'n me. Weighs maybe sixty kilos standard-gee. Brown hair shaved close to the scalp."
Slate keyed as she spoke. "I've got it in the system. If he's passed by a camera, we'll at least get a picture."
