“What the hell happened on Venice Coast?”
Adam put his fork down, and dabbed at his lips with a linen napkin. “I have no idea. It’s only sheer luck that I’m not in some basement at the Security Agency right now, having my memories read. Christ, she was fifty meters away, Bradley. I could have whispered hello to her. It’s never been that close before. Never. Why couldn’t you warn me? Your cover has always been superb, it’s one of the reasons I keep doing this for you.”
“I don’t know. My usual… source… hasn’t been in contact for some time. I find that rather disturbing; it’s not someone who could easily be eliminated from Commonwealth life.”
“The Starflyer got rid of them?”
“You say that with so much skepticism, even now. But no, if it was that powerful, I would be dead and the cause would be lost.”
“Don’t be so quick to class me in there with the skeptical brigade. Remember what happened to poor old Rigin two days after I dodged Paula Myo? That was a goddamn superthermal charge which took out the Nystol Gallery. Now much as I despise and distrust our government, I don’t see them doing that. There were fifteen bodydeaths in the neighboring buildings when the gallery blew up. This was somebody else.”
“It’s not like the Starflyer to be so public,” Bradley said. “What would be the point? The shipment was compromised the moment the Agency discovered it. We were never going to receive those components.”
“You told me its plans were reaching the last stage. Maybe it wanted to make sure we weren’t going to get hold of those components. It can’t risk us screwing it now.”
Bradley smiled at the waiter as he reappeared with the glass of juice and a pot of tea. “I’m glad it was you who suggested that, it adds credibility—from your point of view,” he told Adam. “I’ve been considering the possibility ever since it happened. You have a lot of contacts with the mercenary agents, do any of them know anything about the man who attacked the gallery?”
“No, there isn’t even a rumor about him. Whoever he was, the armament systems he must have had wetwired in were very sophisticated. Even I would have trouble acquiring those kinds of systems for you; they’re all cutting-edge stuff, governments get very edgy about who they’re sold to. Someone put a lot of effort into the operation.”
“If it really is the Starflyer becoming more overt, it’s a disturbing development. We have a lot of matériel to get to Far Away if I am to bring about the planet’s revenge. With her new expanded Agency, Paula Myo is becoming unpleasantly efficient at uncovering and halting our shipments. We can’t afford to get hit from two different directions at once. And I can see the time coming when every piece of cargo for Far Away will be stopped and examined on Boongate.” He paused to pour some tea out. “As I remember, we did discuss blockade running once before.”
“As an emergency option.”
“Given our current situation, I believe a small amount of forward planning in that direction might be appropriate at this time.”
“Damnit. Okay, I’ll look into it.”
“Thank you. I have two other small requests for you.”
“Yeah?”
“The data we’re expecting from Mars, I don’t want it routed to Far Away via the unisphere. There are too many options for interception and corruption, especially if the Starflyer is monitoring us.”
“All right, that’s easy enough. We’ll load it onto a memorycell and use a courier, take it through physically.”
“Fine. Someone like Kazimir, for example.”
“Let’s just see how he works out on an ordinary run first, shall we? What’s your second problem?”
“I’ve been trying to talk to Wilson Kime. It’s not easy. He’s well guarded, physically and electronically.”
“He’s on the Conway. They should be at Dyson Alpha by now.”
“Nonetheless, when he returns, I would appreciate contacting him somehow.”
“What exactly do you want to talk to him about? I assumed you consider him to be a Starflyer agent.”
“No, I don’t believe he is; that’s why I want to try and convert him.”
Adam had to swallow his coffee quickly before he choked on it. “Convert Commander Kime? The head of the Starflight Agency? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Fortune favors the brave.”
“Yeah, the brave, not the insane.”
“I’ve watched him in interviews. He knows something wasn’t right about losing Bose and Verbeke. That gives us an opening.”
“An opening for what?”
“To expose the Starflyer. Kime should be able to find the evidence of its treachery on board the Second Chance .”
“What treachery?”
“The Second Chance switched the barrier off, obviously.”
“It couldn’t have. We don’t even begin to understand the physics behind the barrier. God, man, didn’t you access the images of the Dark Fortress?”
“Yes. But humans didn’t switch the barrier off, the Starflyer did.”
“How the hell did it know how to do that?”
“It is old. It has traveled a long way. I assume the Dyson Pair are a part of its history.”
“You and your assumptions. Did its species put up the barrier?”
“I don’t know, Adam. I wish I did. I wish I knew what it was doing to us. And why. But I don’t. All I can do is try and block its schemes, and warn people.”
“People like Kime.”
“Yes.”
“Why? I mean of all the people you could try to convince, why Kime?”
“Because of his position. He can order another review of the Second Chance data. I’ve gone over everything CST released a dozen times, but all they’ve ever given to the media are the visual recordings. I need the ship’s system logs.”
“What do you think is there?”
“Proof that Second Chance switched off the barrier. Proof that losing Bose and Verbeke was no accident. Kime knows something is not right. He’s ready to believe, he just needs a little nudge in the right direction.”
“CST has been over every byte from the flight a dozen times, not to mention all the media companies and government departments. It’s been analyzed by the best experts in the Commonwealth. They found nothing. No irregularities. No anomalies. No stowaways.”
“They don’t know what they are looking for. I can tell him where to search. With the kind of evidence I know is in there, we can make him realize the true threat to humanity. The whole truth about the Starflyer can finally be dragged out into the public domain. The Commonwealth leadership will be forced to acknowledge we were right all along. You and I won’t have to sneak around in the shadows anymore. Far Away can have its revenge without us having to—”
“All right! All right.” Adam held his hands up. “Stop the preaching, I get the picture. But I doubt I’ll be able to get any closer to Kime than you can. And even if I did, I’m not the nutter with a cause who might at least raise a doubt in his mind, I’m just a wanted killer who’s taken up arms smuggling and incidentally organized an attack on Second Chance while he was up there in it. That’s not exactly the kind of credibility we need to grab his attention.”
“I am aware of that. We need to come at him from an angle. Fortunately, there’s someone else in the Starflight Agency who will listen to you. Someone who has complete access to Kime.”