Infinity's End: Books 4-6, page 37
“I tried to warn you.”
“Fine. But if anything comes up on her tox screens, something hidden or dormant, you let me know before you tell her.”
“I’ll make a note of it. Have you spoken to Consul Zenfor since you returned?”
Cas rubbed his chest, noting Box had now caused two bruises. “No, why?”
Box shrugged. “I just thought you might have had an update on—” As he was speaking a shadow passed over Cas’s window.
He turned back, studying the small porthole. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know,” Box said.
Cas pressed his face to the clear material, trying to see on the outside of the ship, but it was too dark. The running lights only illuminated certain sections of the ship. He tapped his comm. “Bridge, this is Caspian. Do we have external sensor cameras on level seven, midsection alpha?”
“No, Commander. They’re down in that area,” Zaal replied. Dammit, he wished people would stop using that rank.
“Zaal, I think there’s something outside on the hull. Get a shuttle or something out there to check it out. It just passed above my window.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cas turned back to Box. “I should get to the bridge. Inform the captain. Remember what I said.”
Box waved him off. “Next time I’m coming back with something for your anxiety.” Cas rolled his eyes as they exited at the same time, both heading in different directions.
He reached the hypervator and got in, he glanced down to see a spot of blood on his shirt. He pulled it forward, glancing down to where Box had snagged him. “Son of a—” Great. Now he was bleeding. He was going to kill Box.
The doors opened on the bridge. “Anything?” Cas asked.
“Rafnkell is checking now,” Zaal replied. “She didn’t like the idea of anyone else out there doing it.”
“I know the feeling,” Cas replied. He took the first officer’s chair.
“What’s going on?” Evie asked, exiting from the command room.
“I’m not sure, but I think I saw something on the hull close to my quarters. Zaal sent Rafnkell out to check on it.”
“You saw something?” Her eyes widened as she took her seat.
“It’s probably nothing. Everything ready for our meeting with Diamant?”
“As ready as can be. I need to figure out what his connection is to those ships that keep attacking. I can’t believe it’s just a coincidence they stopped as soon as he decided to come aboard.”
Cas shrugged. “He’s a man of influence. And he did tell me he’d try to find the faction controlling the raids, get them to stop.”
“Yeah,” Evie replied, “Unless he’s the one controlling them. There’s just something about that guy that’s—”
“Slimy?”
“Exactly.” She leaned forward. “I don’t want him on this ship any longer than necessary. I don’t even care about the provisions anymore. I just want him gone.”
Cas was taken aback. She hadn’t seemed very happy about how much he’d promised the Bulaq in the way of supplies, but maybe she’d come to the same conclusion he had about how as soon as they were back in Coalition space they wouldn’t need the supplies anymore.
“Ma’am, feed coming in from Chief Rafnkell,” Zaal said.
“Main viewer,” Evie replied. The viewer switched to show an external view of the side of the ship. “Anything Chief?”
“It’s hard to tell with all the damage, but I think something is moving out here. Check out grid K-16.” On the screen, it automatically enlarged to show a more detailed view of the ship. And there, among some of the damaged panels and sections that had been blown out into space, was Vrij, using his mechanical mandibles to anchor himself to the hull as he ran across the surface.
“Is that—?” Evie asked.
“Yep. Chief you better grab him.” Cas couldn’t believe it. He must have donned one of his suits that allowed him to stay in a vacuum. But what was he doing out on the hull? And how did he even get out there?
“I’m assuming you didn’t know anything about this,” Evie said. Cas shook his head. “I knew it was a mistake letting him back on board. Why didn’t you just leave him with his people?”
“Diamant seemed to think it was better if he came with us due to the level of scorn he’d face from his own people. Apparently they don’t like him.”
“I can see why.”
On the screen, Rafnkell fired a grappler from the spacewing, which Vrij didn’t see until it was too late. It hooked around him like a vice and yanked him off the hull in one swift move. He flailed in the zero-gravity.
“Chief, bring him into Bay Two,” Evie ordered. “Security team to Bay Two. Prepare to escort a prisoner back to the brig.”
“Do you want to go find out what he was up to?” Cas asked.
“No, that’s your job. I’m not wasting any more time on that criminal. I’ll meet with Diamant. I don’t want him knowing about this until they’re ready to leave and take him with them.” She turned to Zaal. “And figure out how he got out of his room and onto the hull.”
“It looks like the room we assigned him to has been depressurized,” Zaal replied.
“Why didn’t the proximity alarms go off?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “With all the damage to the ship they may not be working properly. Or there could be another cause. Until I investigate I won’t know.” Cas was growing used to Zaal not having human features anymore, with nothing but his robotic exoskeleton visible under his hood. He almost preferred him this way to the smiling, emotionally stuck face he normally had.
“Get on it,” Evie ordered. “And you get down to Bay Two, I don’t want him out of anyone’s sight. See if you can’t find a way to remove those things on his back,” she said to Cas.
“Do you really think—”
“Captain, we have another problem,” Uuma interrupted. “Our weapon systems have failed again.”
Evie stood. “We just finished repairing those,” she replied.
“It isn’t from previous damage to the ship,” Uuma said, studying her console. “It looks like the interruption is coming from where Vrij was on the hull. He must have gotten into the systems from the outside.”
Evie glared at Cas. “Great.”
“It’s going to take some time to repair. And it won’t be easy; we’ll have to send a maintenance crew out in suits.”
“Wait,” Cas said. “Are you saying Vrij sabotaged the weapons? Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s been a spy for Diamant this whole time,” Evie replied. “He used us to get into the ship, figured out what we needed, then told us exactly what we wanted to hear to get him on board. And now I have to find a way to get the Bulaq off the ship without raising any alarms.”
“Are you sure? They seem to vehemently dislike each other.”
“Two people can dislike each other and still work together.” Her eyes narrowed. Damn. He knew he’d screwed up. This was why they needed someone more qualified in this role. Someone who at least deserved it. Now he had to try and clean up his own mess.
“I’ll go see what I can find out,” he said, approaching the hypervator at the far end of the room. “And see about removing his apparatus.”
“And make sure he doesn’t have any more of those portable suits on him!” Evie called after him. The doors to the hypervator closed, leaving Cas with his thoughts.
What a mess.
Chapter Twenty-One
He entered Bay Two just as Rafnkell was setting her spacewing down on the deck, Vrij still flailed about on the end of the extended grappler. As soon as she was down, she extended the cable and it lowered him to the ground where he was met with three security personnel, all with rifles pointed at him and led by Laura. Cas approached as one of the security officers unhooked Vrij from the tether. He cowered under their weapons.
“Cleaning up your mess again, I see,” Rafnkell said, descending the ladder and pulling off her helmet. “Good thing for you I take a clean shot.”
“Good work out there, Chief,” Cas said. If the compliment caught her off guard she didn’t show it. She only turned to Vrij.
“If I have to go out there one more time to retrieve your ass, you can better believe it won’t be as pleasant.” She left them there, returning to the supply lockers on the far side of the bay.
Cas stood over the cowering Vrij for a moment. “Can your mandibles be removed?” he asked. A shaky hand reached up to Vrij’s forehead and held two fingers there before releasing them. No. Of course he’d say no. Perhaps they should take a detour by sickbay to verify. Cas turned to Laura who held one of the rifles. “I need you to bind his hands and those things on his back.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, stowing her rifle on her back using the magnetic locks. “Don’t move,” she told Vrij, approaching him and he went as still as Cas assumed he could. She removed his jacket, tossing it to the side, revealing the mechanical armature attached to his back. From Cas’s vantage point he didn’t think it was something that could just be detached. It looked like it had been integrated into the soft tissue of his back. Crewman Tes pulled a pair of cuffs from her pocket and clapped them on Vrij’s hands, which had begun to shake. She then pulled out a second pair and pressing the tab between them, elongated the magnetic chain between them. Cas had worn a similar pair of cuffs back when Evie had arrested him back on D’jttan. They weren’t the most comfortable things to wear but they did their job of restricting movement.
She wrapped the long line around his chest, under his arms, pinning the mechanical appendages to his back so they couldn’t move, then clicked the two cuffs together. She pressed the tab again and the slack tightened, causing Vrij to wince.
“Here, stand up,” Laura said, coaxing him up by raising his arms. “Come with me. Tes, take point. Unak, cover his rear. Any sudden moves and you shoot him.” She stared at Vrij as she made the orders. “Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” they replied.
Cas was impressed. “You’ve been brushing up on your prisoner protocol,” he said.
“What do you think I was doing that whole trip to the Hub? Reading for pleasure?” She was driven, that much was clear. He could see what Evie admired about her.
As they led Vrij through the corridors Cas brought himself into step beside the man. “First tell me how you got out there. Last time I checked you were locked in your room.”
Vrij made a strange motion with his hands, which Cas recognized as someone moving through a door or portal. “W-w-window,” he said.
“You opened the window? That’s not possible. They’re anchored deep into the hull. Plus, there would have been a proximity alarm. And a depressurization alarm. And a general alert. So, tell me another one.” Vrij tapped his fingers to his forehead over and over not saying anything else. “Fine. We’ll do an investigation later. But what I really want to know is why’d you do it, huh? Was it all just a ploy to get Diamant on the ship? Or was there another reason?”
Vrij tried to reach up and touch his head but with his hands and chest bound and a short line keeping them magnetically connected, he could barely move his hands. “N-n-no. I w-w-was—there w-was—o-on the h-h-hull I-I—”
“Oh my god, just spit it out,” Laura said in front of them.
“I-I-I’m s-sorry. I w-w-was—”
“Is there any way to clean that up?” Laura asked.
“I don’t think it’s the auto-vox. I think it’s just the way he speaks,” Cas replied. He’d suspected as much ever since he’d met the other Bulaq. Vrij was a nervous wreck, though if he’d been caught sabotaging someone else’s ship Cas supposed he’d be pretty nervous too. There was no telling what the Bulaq did to their criminals; he was probably afraid of the Coalition’s punishment methods.
“I-I-it wasn’t—I-I didn’t d-do a-a-anything,” he finally said with tremendous effort.
“Then why were you on the hull?” Cas asked. He shouldn’t even bother, this man was a known thief and the sooner he was off the ship, the better. Evie had been right.
“F-f-following L-lu’m-mat.”
Laura screwed up her face, turning to him. “What?”
Vrij glanced out one of the windows as they passed. “H-h-he w-w-was on t-the ssss-side of the sss-ship. M-messing w-with t-the systems.”
“He’s just trying to shift the blame,” Laura said. “We flew back with Lu’mat. He didn’t make one move out of line the entire time.”
“Not to mention when Rafnkell went out there you were the only one she saw. You were alone, Vrij.”
“N-no,” Vrij insisted. “H-he w-was out there. J-just before s-she showed up. I s-saw—the w-weapons c-conduits, d-damaged. H-he’s Diamant’s m-m-most t-trusted man.”
“You can’t be buying this,” Laura said to Cas.
“Why would Diamant want him to damage our weapons systems? I thought he came here to help,” Cas asked, averting his eyes.
“I t-tried t-to tell y-you. Never the w-whole s-story w-with Diamant. H-he always h-has another a-agenda.”
Cas shook his head. “So, you’re saying Diamant ordered Lu’mat to disable the weapons systems because he’s what? Planning more attacks? Why would he do that when he knows we have the spacewings? Not to mention he’s on board which makes an attack risky. Unless they know exactly where he and the others are on the ship.” Diamant wouldn’t be that brash. What would be the point of bringing them all those materials if they were just going to destroy the ship again anyway? It didn’t make sense. “Sorry Vrij, but it doesn’t hold water.”
“T-then w-what?” Vrij asked, his voice stronger.
“I don’t know. Maybe you were planning on stealing more supplies and didn’t want us shooting at you as you escaped in your shuttle. Or maybe the parts you needed were on the weapons control systems. Who knows? All that matters is you got caught before you could do any permanent damage.”
“I-I am not s-stupid. T-taking w-weapons components a d-dumb idea. Sets off t-too many alarms. N-not good f-for borrowing.” He’d pulled himself up more, walking almost fully upright again.
Cas eyed him. “Maybe you got sloppy. Like last time.”
“L-last time w-was a f-fluke—a m-mistake. S-stupid t-to make a s-second one.”
“Let’s say you’re right, and Lu’mat was out there messing with the weapons. What am I supposed to do about it? Go to Diamant and tell him you saw his associate on the hull of the ship, tearing things apart? He’ll think we’re conspiring against him. And for a man whose temperament seems to balance on a tightrope, I don’t want to see what happens if we push him too far to the other side. For all we know he controls every Bulaq ship left. For my crew’s sake, we need to get out of this in one piece and with all those materials. There’s just no other way.”
They rounded the edge of the corridor to the brig, which sat empty, Ensign Folier stood beside the entrance, her hands on the controls. When she saw them approach she dropped one of the force barriers to a cell.
“Take the ones on his hands off, but leave the one around his back,” Cas ordered. “I don’t want to unbind him until we know the full extent of how he got on the outside of the ship. And confiscate those.” He pointed to the row of small canisters attached to Vrij’s belt. Laura reached over and undid the clasp, handing the belt over to Folier who stored it in a drawer on the other side of the brig console.
“Y-you c-can’t trust him,” Vrij said. “D-do whatever n-necessary to g-get him o-off this ship. The l-longer he’s here, t-he h-harder it w-will be.”
“The only problem,” Cas said as Laura removed his cuffs and gently moved him inside the cell. “—is I can’t trust you either.”
Cas raced on to the bridge, scanning for the captain. But she was nowhere to be found. “Where is she?” he asked Uuma. Ever since leaving Vrij in the brig he’d had a sinking pit in his stomach that had only gotten worse as the minutes had ticked forward. It was like an increasing pressure on his brain and everything was telling him he needed to get to the captain before she met with Diamant. He’d meant to go check on Zenfor and the engine situation, but this took precedence.
“She’s in the command room,” Uuma said.
“Alone?”
“As far as I know,” she replied. Cas dashed over to the room and tapped the call button on the side repeatedly.
“Come in,” Evie said, her voice terse. He pushed inside faster than he thought and scanned the room. She was alone. “What the hell is so important?” she demanded.
“I was afraid to comm you in case you were already in the meeting. Have you spoken to Diamant yet?”
“No, he’s waiting in the conference room. I was just…preparing.”
“Vrij says he was out there chasing one of Diamant’s men.”
“Oh for—” Evie rolled her eyes and slumped back down into her chair.
“I know, I don’t believe it either. But what if he is telling the truth? Vrij says Diamant has a hidden agenda.”
She glared at him. “I think that much is obvious. The question is, what does he want?”
“I’m not sure. And neither is Vrij. And he could have been making it all up; there’s no way to tell.”
“Ugh.” Evie leaned forward, elbows on the desk and placed her face in her hands, rubbing up and down. “How am I supposed to do this?”
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
She pulled her hands away, exasperation painted across her face. “I’m not looking to avoid my responsibilities.”
Cas took the seat across the desk. “No, I’m not talking about that. Did you notice anything odd about all the people Diamant brought with him?”
She furrowed her brow. “Not really.”
“They’re all men. Not one woman among them. The entire time we were there I didn’t see a woman in any kind of authority position. I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or not, but it’s worth considering.”
