Broken Vision (12 page)

"I was standing out there, leaning on the comm for nans before you responded, that's why."
Sharm stopped in mid pace, pivoted and strode straight for Alerik. "Huh," he grunted as he stared
into Alerik's eyes. "She drugged you. Wonder what she used that you weren't aware of it."

"What are you...? Balls of Sortor!" The waiting calm inside him shattered to let out a host
of demons. Some hurled gleeful taunts. Others shrieked with terror. He was down the hall and at
Maegan's door before he knew it. He barely remembered to disarm the shrieker. Ignoring Sharm's
snort behind him, he slammed his hand on the door release, already knowing what he was about to
find.

The room was empty.

"Where is she?" he asked with absolute calm, even as the demons inside of him went
crazy.

"We have her in custody."

"How?"

Sharm let out a gusty breath. "Let's go sit down, Alerik."

Without moving, he said through gritted teeth, "Is she all right?"

"She's fine."

The demons receded, to lurk in the shadows of his head and heart. He followed Sharm
back down the hall to the great room, his mind doing a crazy dance with conjecture and theory.

Sharm didn't dissemble. As soon as Alerik sat down, he said, "We caught her on her
descent to Pallas Four. We have her space vessel, Alerik. We think it's the same one that evaded us
before. And she had passengers on board."

An ugly specter materialized in Alerik's head. He crushed it immediately. Whatever
Maegan was up to, she could never be involved in the flesh trade. "What kind of passengers?"

"Children. Taragon children." Sharm had not sat down. He stood relaxed but watchful to
one side.

"Blood of Cor!" Alerik leaned his head back and squeezed his eyes shut for a nan. He
forced himself to take some deep breaths. She was involved in the flesh business. Yet he knew with
unshakeable certainty it was not for profit. "That untraceable transmission that was sent to at least
three elders on the Coalition Council was true then."

"Perhaps. Maybe so," Sharm agreed. "Here's something else. The patrol in the eighth
sector came close to catching another vessel near Achien."

"What does that have to do with Maegan?"

"She's not working alone, Alerik. She couldn't make the entire trip from Taragon
herself."

Alerik nodded. "A network--of course. And how deeply is Morgon involved, I
wonder?"

"The uncle? That's a leap."

"Not at all. She's using his habitat and vessel. He's the brains behind some very
sophisticated technology. One thing I do know is I'll tear this habitat apart panel by panel if I have
to, in order to find how she gets out without triggering any alarms. Has she said anything yet?"

"No. We have her in a cell in the security hall."

A great calm took hold of him then, and a conviction that from this, whatever this turned
out to be, they could make a beginning. At least she was safe.

"Best place for her. Make sure she gets some proper food. No nutro tablets. And sleep.
Give her an inducer if you have to. Where are the children?"

"I enlisted the help of Counselor Tipon and his wife. They agreed to care for them in the
short term. They're Soron and they'll be discreet. This has the makings of a very ugly political
incident."

Alerik nodded. So many obstacles. So many complications. So many nuances and
challenges. Amazing he didn't feel more concern. A huge yawn took him by surprise.

"I'll want to inspect that vessel Maegan was using."

He rose to his feet and hitched up his pants. The demons had gone silent. His mind was
quiet. His body demanded rest.

"See what tricks Morgon is using. Maybe we can adapt some of them to our patrol
vessels." He yawned again. "Sorry, have to go get more sleep. Can't seem to keep awake."

He started off down the hall.

"What about Maegan?" Sharm called after him.

"What about her? She's where she should be. Don't let anyone near her. I'll interrogate her
myself when I'm ready."

* * * *

Maegan rested her hand on the comm panel and left it there. They couldn't keep ignoring
her. She had rights. Someone had to talk to her. She just hoped that someone wasn't the governor of
Grogon.

Without warning, the thick plexiwall in front of her changed from opaque to clear. A tall,
slender man with the face of a god, dressed in the dark gray of a commander's uniform, stood on
the other side. She recognized him instantly.

"Commander Foster!"

"Counselor Shale," he acknowledged, his voice cool, his face expressionless. "You've been
causing quite a disturbance."

She'd had Sharm Foster for one rotation at the academy. He'd been one of her favorite
instructors and was certainly a man for whom she'd built up a great deal of respect. For the first
time since she'd been caught and incarcerated, a twinge of nervousness began to expand inside of
her. She wished she were facing anyone but him, with the exception of course of Alerik. She had no
choice but to brazen it out.

"Post Conflict Treaty codes say I have a right to talk with representation. What have I been
charged with anyway? No one's told me anything. No one's been near me since I was placed here,
without being charged I might add."

With the exception of an eyebrow that had hitched higher on his face, Commander Foster's
expression didn't change. "Oh, believe me, there are a host of charges against you. It's going to take
a while for any legal representative to sort through them. We'll give you access in good time, after
you've eaten." He inclined his head at a packaged meal that had been delivered through the pressure
tube, and which she had ignored. "And after you've had some rest. How long have you gone
without sleep?"

"It doesn't matter," she snapped, suddenly irritated and uncaring. This man worked for
Alerik, it was clear. "I want to see someone now!"

"No." He moved a step closer. "Until you do what we want, you don't get what you
want."

Exhaustion was getting the better of her patience. "He knows I'm here, doesn't he? All
right, I want to see him."

That wasn't true, but she had others to think of beside herself.

Her tone had caused Commander Foster's other eyebrow to join the first. Clearly
disapproving, he said, "He'll see you when he's ready and not before. Eat and get some sleep,
Maegan. Then we'll begin a dialog."

The wall began to turn opaque. "Wait," she screamed. "Where are the children?"

Sharm Foster turned and began to walk away. "Safe."

"You can't send them back to Taragon." Panic was clawing through the exhaustion, the
fear, the anger.

He did pause at that and turned his head. "They belong with their parents."

"No! No, their parents don't want them. You can't send them back. Please," she pleaded
with every atom of her soul.

The man lacked a heart. He shook his head and began to move away again. "That's not
your decision to make."

The wall was solid again. She couldn't see him. "I demand to see Governor Mariltar," she
cried.

"Eat. Get some sleep," came the answer.

She had never felt so ineffective and helpless in this blank world in which they had placed
her without the means to communicate. They had relieved her of everything but her clothes. They'd
even taken her boots. Her head pounded. Her eyes were gritty from lack of sleep, her body tense
and aching. Hunger prowled through her stomach. She ignored it all.

Somehow she had to convince them the children couldn't go back to Taragon.

She pressed her hand over the comm again.

Margaine Confluence:/Second Rising
Pallas Five

In Sharm Foster's office, Alerik winced as the comm began its muted buzz again.

"Stubborn," Sharm observed as he walked in the door.

"That's putting it kindly."

"All that remains to be seen is which of the two most stubborn people in the galaxy will
win this skirmish."

Alerik snorted as Sharm dropped into his chair and reached to turn down the noise of the
comm. "What skirmish? I have the advantage of time. She's desperate to learn the fate of the
children. She'll yield sooner rather than later."

Sharm snickered. He leaned back and propped his booted feet on the console. "Perhaps, if
it weren't for an interesting phenomenon I've observed recently."

Alerik didn't particularly want enlightenment on any of his second's observations.
Especially if they concerned Maegan. But he wasn't likely to get a choice either.

Sharm linked his hands behind his head and spoke to the ceiling. "Yes, indeed. Interesting
phe-nom-e-non all right." He snickered again.

"Well, then." Alerik rose abruptly to his feet. He could no longer hear the buzz of the
comm. "I'll leave you here to contemplate your interesting phenomenon. Fill me in another time. I
have to prepare for an arbitration session."

"We'll be debriefing the Soron from Janas Corporation shortly," Sharm told him with a
grin. "Shall I inform him his esteemed leader is in a holding cell, buried so far under an avalanche
of charges, it's going to be rotations before she can direct the corporation again?"

"Of course not," Alerik snapped, fully aware Sharm was toying with him, but irritated
nonetheless. His words came uncomfortably close to the current reality of the situation. "As far as
they, and anyone else, are concerned she's been called to other duties temporarily. She's my wife.
I'm the governor. That won't be so hard to believe."

"Depends on how well they know Maegan," Sharm told the ceiling, that infernal smirk still
stamped on his face.

There was a reason for Sharm's baiting, but Alerik had neither the time nor the patience to
have it out with him. He stepped out the back door of Sharm's office into the corridor. For a
nanonan, he considered turning to the left and Maegan's cell, only steps away, driven by a
compelling need to see for himself that she was all right.

He forced himself to turn in the other direction. He was due in arbitration chambers in
nans.

Arbitration, the legal resolution to the vast majority of disputes and infractions. The
charges against Maegan would not be settled by arbitration in a regional jurisdiction. The charges,
brought by her own husband, would take her before the Coalition Council of Nine Nations itself.
Maegan had violated the basic tenets of the post-war peace Treaty.

That realization had descended on him with the crushing force of a samlwind after he had
woken up, free of the effects of whatever it was she had used to drug him, and read Sharm's report.
She had been caught red-handed. Six pieces of evidence were in a safe house on Pallas Three. His
duty was to uphold the law. For the first time in his life, he wanted to deny his responsibilities.

And then where would Maegan be?

Arbitration council was quickly finished with. Two petty cases that should never have
reached him, and about which he resolved to speak to the referring counselor, and one more serious
property dispute.

He dealt with a few other pieces of pressing business, then strode back to the security hall.
A grim-faced Sharm was observing an interrogation.

Alerik joined him in front of the plexiwall barrier dividing the two rooms. "The Bogasill
from Janas Corporation?" he asked. "You're still working on him?"

"I swear I'm ready to incarcerate the entire company. They're troublemakers. This
youngster had way too much fun messing with our communications team. Took us two hanans to
figure out he was feeding us utter nonsense."

"Who are the other interrogators?"

"Saroch recommended them. Experts from Wiretech Corporation, a Janas client. Since
they've worked with the newer technology, we thought they might be of assistance in sorting out
truth from exaggeration and pure batgoo."

Maegan's influence? Had to be. Irritation snaked through him, even as his thoughts tried to
linger on how she was doing. In the interrogation room, the young Bogasill sketched a three
dimensional diagram on the holovid with a laser pointer. The Wiretech experts and the two
members of his own communications team appeared relaxed. Heads were nodding.

"Is he cooperating now?"

"Appears to be. We're not asking him to reveal patented technology secrets. We just want
to understand where our security technology is weak."

One of the men on his team looked in their direction and raised a brow. Sharm touched a
control, which instantly converted the plexiwall to two-way visibility, and knocked hard on the
barrier. The young Bogasill jerked around. His gaze focused on Alerik. His eyes widened and his
already pale ivory skin noticeably lightened a shade. He turned quickly back to the holovid and
adjusted something.

"What was that about?"

"A persuasive technique I use when he isn't cooperating."

"Huh! Anything to do with children and monsters?"

"Sort of."

"And I'm the monster?"

"Worked, didn't it? You're timing is impeccable, by the way."

"I feel sorry for your future children. Just hope this doesn't show up on my docket as a
torture charge. You're on your own. I'm going to check on Maegan."

"Alerik!" Sharm's sharp tone stopped him as he turned. The expression on his second's face
was tense and serious. "We cannot hold those children much longer without notifying the
authorities on Taragon."

"I'm aware of that. Give me some time with her."

"For the record, I don't think you should be conducting her interrogation."

About to turn away again, Alerik paused. The fact that Sharm was right just aggravated the
present volatility of his emotions, but no one--no one--else was going to do this. Tension arced in
the air between them.

"Noted," he bit out. He forced himself to unclench his hands. "The entire session will be on
record. You're welcome, of course, to observe."

"I'll do that." Sharm wasn't budging. He had Alerik's back again but, for once, Alerik
couldn't find it in himself to appreciate it.