Gabriel's Ghost (49 page)

Sully nodded, clearly understanding more than I did.

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“What kind of move? Why?” I thought of the usual political power struggles that had dotted the news vids over the years. Ego contests, in my opinion. Nothing like this, nothing like Jodey was intimating.

“It goes back to the Boundary Wars. Promises were made during the peace talks, some of them in secret meetings. Promises about mining rights, trade rights, succession in power that would in effect remove much of the control from the Councils. Some of those promises were kept. But some weren’t.”

That I had seen—it was something my mother often commented on. The Councils had become ineffectual. It was something Sully had noted: the Rim Worlds were disproportionately rife with suffering.

“Burke’s charged with enforcing those promises?” That didn’t seem possible, not even for Hayden Burke.

“We don’t have all the facts yet. Our sources,” and he grimaced wryly, “keep mysteriously dying. But Burke’s father was on one of the original committees.” He shot a glance at Sully. “So was Winthrop Sullivan.”

“I don’t share my father’s political allegiances.”

But Hayden Burke did. And the Sullivan moneys to fund his beliefs. Starting with the jukor labs.

Which both Crossley-Burke’s and Tage’s statements referred to as ‘illegal weapons laboratories’ created by Farosian supporter Zabur Lazlo. No mention of jukors. No
proof
of jukors, thanks to Sully’s firebombs.

Only the data on its way to Drogue, a copy of which my brother and Philip also had.

But data could be altered, faked. I knew that first hand from my trial. Odd that the very people who’d ruined my career would now use the same defense I’d tried to. I had a feeling they’d be much more successful than I had been.

“This list of yours.” Sully pulled the datapad toward him but didn’t look at it. “I take it Darius Tage wasn’t on it.”

Jodey shook his head slowly. “Not only was he not on it, he knew about it. He knew about our suspicions. He was one of the people we thought we could trust.”

Silence followed Jodey’s pronouncement. The readyroom felt suddenly cold, as if wrapped in sheets of ice.

Sully clenched his right hand into a tight fist. “How much does Tage know?”

“We thought he shared our goals. A more equal distribution of power, more control to the Councils.”

“What does Tage know?” He leaned toward Jodey.

Jodey’s mouth was a tight line. “Everything.”

* * *

The only good piece of news came about an hour later. The
Boru Karn
responded to one of Sully’s coded hails. At top speeds, she was less than an hour from us. Sully spoke briefly to Marsh from on the readyroom’s main screen. Gregor was offshift.

“We were tagged but we lost them.” Two ships of unknown origin, bristling with weapons, had challenged the
Karn
but were unable to complete a capture.

I remembered the feeling. Sully’s ghost ship had a well-earned reputation.

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We traded coordinates with the
Karn
, set up a meetpoint.

Jodey’s broad face furrowed in worry as he stood by the readyroom door. “I’ll inform navigation, code the course change myself. I have bridge crew stripped down to a minimum. There’s too much at risk.”

More than just my life, Sully’s, Ren’s or Verno’s. Everyone who’d helped us, if Tage was able to convince the Admirals’ Council that Philip Guthrie, and the
Morgan Loviti
had assisted Farosian terrorist Gabriel Ross Sullivan.

That was the only thing Jodey felt fairly sure Tage didn’t know, yet. They’d intended to contact the First Barrister’s office once we came on board, but Philip would have to be the one to do that, and he was in sickbay. The
Loviti’s
departure had been unremarkable, and, other than the fact that her captain had been injured in a ‘shuttlebay explosion,’ without incident.

We could only guess at what Burke knew from his sources on Marker. Which meant Thad’s life, too, was in danger.

“Your brother’s a smart man, Captain Bergren.” Jodey stopped in the opening doorway. “But you know Captain Guthrie and I will do all we can. There are still people we can trust.”

Then Sully and I were alone for the first time since Jodey had burst in with news of Tage’s defection. Or perhaps, revelation of which side he’d been on all along.

“Did we accomplish anything?” I asked after the doors closed. “Destroying the jukor lab. There’s a second, somewhere. You believe that as strongly as I do. So did we accomplish anything, other than placing more innocent people in harm’s way?”

“Guthrie’s far from innocent. He knows how this game is played. He’s tracked it probably as long as I have. Just from a different angle.” He shook his head slightly, his mouth twisting as if the thought for some reason, amused him. But not pleasantly so.

“But did we accomplish anything?”

His smile softened, turned almost wistful. “Yes, angel-mine, I think we have.” He covered my hand with his own. A tiny warmth trickled through our contact, fluttered up my arm. “We’ve put them on notice. They know we know. Granted, the problem is larger than I’d like it to be.”

I noticed he didn’t say larger than he’d suspected.

“But, in a way, that will only make it more difficult for them to hide,” he continued.

“Do we even know who ‘them’ is, Sully?”

“It might be worthwhile to compare lists with Guthrie. Though I have a feeling he might not like what he’d see on my—” He turned, the sound of the door sliding open stopping his words.

I turned, too, expecting Jodey with confirmation of our position relative to the
Karn
. But it wasn’t Jodey leaning in the doorway.

“Philip!”

He was in Fleet’s generic brown workout sweats, the soft sweatshirt unzippered revealing a thin medimesh hugged to his torso. I couldn’t see a trail of med-brooches on his arm covered by the long sleeve, but I suspected they were there. His silver hair was mussed, his eyes shadowed. His mouth was a tight line, reflecting his physical pain.

“You shouldn’t be out of sickbay!” I shoved myself to my feet, pulling my hand out from under Sully’s, and reached for him.

“Doc Draper’s already tried that line. It didn’t work.” But he accepted my hand. I helped him into the chair next to mine. He waved me back down into my seat. “My first officer informs me we’re less than forty-five from meetpoint with your ship, Sullivan. That doesn’t give us a lot of time. You know about my error with Tage.”

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That was typical Philip. I highly doubted it was solely his error to trust Darius Tage. But I was surprised when Sully echoed that sentiment as well.

“It’s one anyone would have made. He wasn’t on my list, either.”

“I think Thad Bergen and I have sufficiently muddied the Marker incident that it will reflect only what Burke’s release stated: Farosian terrorists and an unstable Englarian nun attempted to sabotage Marker’s core and were killed when trying to use a Fleet pinnace to escape. There’s no record of your visit to Commander Bergren’s office. No record of your transfer to my ship. It will take Tage a lot of work to backup his statement, to prove you were on Marker.”

Because Philip had been our escort. There was no record of us passing through the security checkpoints in the corridor, only people’s memories. We could have easily been any two of the more than three hundred on board the
Loviti
, accompanying their captain back to the ship.

But that had never been my worry. “How many people saw Sully in the shuttlebay?” Besides Thad and two of his officers, I could remember seeing at least three med techs and a half-dozen or more security. The word ‘soul-stealer’ echoed viciously in my thoughts.

“Enough. But there’ve been rumors of Stolorth support of the Farosians. That’s most likely how it’ll be remembered.”

“Those same people saw Ren there,” Sully added. He leaned toward Philip. “I have a number of files on the
Karn
that might interest you. I’ll have copies on the shuttle that comes for us.”

“I appreciate that. Now we have to talk about what will happen when your ship gets here.”

Sully sat back slowly. “I take it you’re not interested in the navigational mechanics of its arrival.”

“Chaz stays with me.”

“Philip—!”

He held up one hand. “I’m asking you to release her. I’m asking you because, first, the woman had her own mind and the right to use it. But second, I’m asking because you must know she’s safer with me. Burke knows you’re alive. He may even know what you are by now. Your family’s wealth aside, that gives him two reasons to kill you.”

“The first has always been sufficient. He’s never managed to accomplish it.”

“You’re willing to risk her life on that?”

“Philip!”

He ignored me. “You can offer her nothing but heartache. You’ll be continually on the run, fugitives. Welcomed only in places like Dock Five, or the Rim. My family has properties, places she’ll be guarded, safe. She’ll lack nothing.”

I’d many times visited the Guthrie’s palatial estates. He was right. Every luxury was there. But I’d walked away from luxury before. Wealth was a very cold bed partner.

Besides, too much had happened to Chasidah Bergren since Moabar. Hell, since she’d been in command of the
Meritorious
. Even if Sully and I had never been more than partners in a cause, that cause—jukors breeding and Takas dying and now, the Empire I’d committed my life to infested with a vile corruption—that cause would make Philip’s silk sheets and expensive wines a mockery of everything I believed in, everything I was.

Everything I am.

“He doesn’t control me, Philip.” My voice was soft but I remembered that tone of command Fleet had insisted we adopt, and I used it. “I am going back to the
Karn
.”

Warmth, hope, relief surged through me. Sully wasn’t touching me, but it was as strong as if he were. I realized, suddenly, that he’d been totally absent from my thoughts, from my senses,

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save for that brief spike of fear when I’d talked to Philip in sickbay. And even then it had been withdrawn as quickly as it had appeared.

That’s what had made me suddenly lightheaded. Not that Sully had been in my mind. But that he wasn’t. I’d become used to his reassuring presence, and when it hadn’t been there, I’d felt off balance.

There was no way I could accept captaincy of the
Loviti
, though I doubted Darius Tage would approve of that now. There was no way I could accept Philip’s offer of protection, and all the luxuries as well.

Because I’d lack the one thing I knew I could no longer live without. That wicked, wicked Sully-smile.

And the man, the
Kyi-Ragkiril
, the shape-shifter it belonged to.

“Chaz, listen to me.” Philip’s voice was strained.

“Listen to
me
, Philip. The time has passed where any one person’s safety is more important than what we know has to be done. And you know this is me talking, not anyone else, because it’s a failing you’ve said I’ve had all along. I will not suffer injustice quietly. We’re faced with more than injustice, my friend.” And yes, I felt Philip was my friend, perhaps for the first time in a very long time. “We’re faced with corruption, with a heinous misuse of power, with blatant murderers. And they’re running the government we know as the Empire.

“I will not and cannot let that continue. And I won’t be shuttled off to one of your estates, like some fragile but useless piece of sculpture. There are things I can do. There are things Sully and I
will
do. And we will do them best because we’re not a part of that government. We’re ghosts, Philip. They may think they see us, but they’ll never truly be sure. Because we’re ghosts.”

Philip stared at me a long time, studying me, seeing again, perhaps, the young recruit he’d mentored in boot camp, the lieutenant he’d commanded on the
Loviti
. The woman he’d loved, married and divorced. The woman he’d watch go to prison, who’d never once looked back, never once flinched.

And had never backed away from what had to be done.

He rose slowly, unsteadily, the pain on his face more than physical. But when he turned toward Sully, his blue eyes narrowed.

“Anything happens to her, Sullivan, and I will tell Hayden Burke all I know about you. Hell, let me add this. Anything happens to my wife, and I’ll help your cousin kill you.”

He turned, lurched unsteadily for the door, then plowed doggedly out into the corridor.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Boru Karn

She waited for us in the big wide darkness; a sleek ship, built for opulence. A ghost ship, stripped for war, for stealth. We would need all that and more now. There was a message in Tage’s alliance with Hayden Burke, a warning. The first of many, Sully and I knew.

The
Karn’s
crew, Marsh, Dorsie, Aubry, even Gregor, were subdued through the two hour briefing in the readyroom, as the
Karn
streaked an oblique path toward Dock Five. We needed supplies, we needed fuel. We needed information. We needed to know who our friends and our enemies were.

We had to warn the former, watch the latter.

But we had time—several days, one jump.

Dorsie was first to rise when the briefing ended. “I baked a
srorfralak
pie.” She glanced at Verno, then to Ren. “With that special gravy you like.”

I knew Ren couldn’t see her shy smile. But he could read her rainbows, gravy-flavored ones.

Marsh seemed relieved, clasped my hand tightly. “Had me a little worried this time.”

Only Gregor had little to say. But the set of his mouth, the narrowing of his eyes, said what he didn’t. I was Fleet. Ren, he believed, was a mind-fucker and those were two things he had no intention of forgetting.

That was something Sully would have to deal with, eventually. But right now we both needed sleep more.