Red Angel (19 page)

"Thank you, but how about older sister rather
than adult. Makes me feel old and ready for retirement ... I'm glad you're with
me. We make a good team." She gave me a quick hug—very brave
considering there was no guarantee Red wouldn't bite anyone that close to me.
He seemed to understand friend from foe, but that was an assumption, since he didn’t
talk or give signals.

"What do you think the captain will do
next?"

"She doesn't have a lot of choices. She has an
assigned area which doesn't appear to have any activity for close to one
hundred days. Probably hoping we'll stumble on something like Fire Rock or that
we get information on Dealmaker, Dreamer, or Star Trader, and it's in our
area."

"It's going to be equally boring for us unless
you would like to learn something about the Comm officer's duties," I said,
thinking that would keep us busy and make the time go faster.

"No thanks. Someone might get the idea I'd like
cruiser duty. I want off this
space
submarine
as fast as possible. Oh, don’t forget to wear your laser. The
danger might appear to have passed, but let's not take any chances. Red may
need some support if there is a next time."

* * *

Although we entered Truth Star during second shift, I
accompanied Kris and watched as she stripped the WavCom and sent the messages
meeting her search criteria to our tablets. I noticed the captain also joined
us.

"Anything?" she asked, and I could feel her
growing excitement.

"We won't know until we review the messages. That
will take several hours. We'll let you know immediately if we find anything
important," I said as Kris turned off the equipment. Feeling Sharat's
disappointment, I felt sorry for her. She wanted to be chasing smugglers, and
it was unlikely she was going to get any action. I suspected the smugglers
would curtail their operations soon and wait for the Alliance’s investigation
to conclude so they would know the extent of the damage.

"Good luck," she said and wandered off,
probably with her fingers crossed. Back in Kris's room we settled down with
drinks, divided the messages between us, and began looking. About two hours
later, Kris broke the silence.

"To quote Wilber, this is too easy."

"What?" I asked, and immediately a message
appeared in my incoming box. I opened it and agreed. The message was similar to
the one Dotson had written—simple with the key in the message. Decoded,
it read:

To: Dreamer,
crewmember Chatman.

Pickup on
Shadows Rest in seven days coordinates: "5.115 degrees, 5 hours, 14
minutes, 0 seconds, 4.4 astronomical units.

"The captain must have a lucky charm. This is a
real gift," Kris said with a snort. I wasn’t so sure. It was too easy. My
natural paranoia reared its head and screamed. Even Red seemed agitated, but of
course, he might have been that way because I was
—
or it could have been my active imagination.

"Don’t tell her yet," I said almost to
myself as I sought some way of deciding whether this was a gift or a trap.

"She won't like it if she finds out we delayed
her departure to Shadows Rest." Kris frowned at me, and I could feel her
concern.

"Blame me," I said, still debating my
options.

"Doesn't work that way, Anna. We're a team. If you
say hold it, we will withhold the information. I'd like to know the reason, but
we'll withhold the information whether you have a good reason or not. And if
the captain is unhappy, she is unhappy with both of us." I stood and gave
her a hug.

"Thank you, sister. It's just too easy. The
message is practically written in the clear; the notice to the Dreamer is too
short; Shadows Rest is too much of a coincidence; and it feels wrong. I would
like some way to verify it before the captain gets it."

"She is going to order the Tityus directly to
Shadows Rest when she hears what the message says. And although I agree with
you, we can't pretend we didn't see it or not tell her indefinitely."

"I know. Stall her until I verify the Dreamer's
current location"

"How are you going to do that?"

"I meant until I can send off an urgent message
to verify where the Dreamer is or is going. Hopefully, by the time we get to
Shadows Rest we'll know."

"Deal," Kris said, looking relieved. I
prepared the message I planned to send when I reported for first shift duty. It
was at least a five-day trip to Shadows Rest, which should be plenty of time to
find the Dreamer’s location and get the information back to me before we arrived.
And if the Dreamer couldn't make it to the rendezvous, then maybe I could
convince the captain it was a trap. I worked on the message as the hours
dragged by.

A few minutes before I was to leave for the Bridge, I
knocked on Kris's door. As I suspected, she was dressed and getting ready to
join me.

"Can you be late by fifteen minutes or so? Then
when you enter you can give the captain the good news. That will give me time
to get the message off."

"All right, what's fifteen minutes more? We've
already delayed the results by six hours."

When I reported to the Bridge, Sharat was already
sitting in the captain's chair.

"Anything, Paulus?"

"I left Lieutenant Sinclair with the messages
late last night, since I had duty this morning," I said, trying to set the
stage for Kris.

"That's funny. You look like you haven't slept."
Sharat frowned as her eyes searched me.

"I didn't sleep well," I turned back to the Comm
panel. I connected my tablet and sent the message:

To: Scylla for
Lieutenant Weiss, Romulus for Lieutenant Shrader, All NIA offices. Urgent.

Need latest
location of the merchant ship Dreamer and its schedule for the next week.

Signed: Agent
Paulus, address to Tityus

I hit send just as Kris entered the Bridge and Sharat
turned toward her.

"Nice to see you, Lieutenant Sinclair. Did you
manage to find anything after Lieutenant Paulus left for her beauty
sleep?" Sharat wasn't looking in a good mood. I suspected she knew
something wasn't right but couldn't figure what it was. Kris smiled.

"Yes, I think you'll be pleased." She handed
her tablet to her. I looked at mine and saw she had linked the display to mine.
It had the original message and below that the decoded message.

"Yes, very pleased. How long have you had
this?" If she intended to intimidate Kris, I think she was in for a
surprise—me yes, Kris no. It helped that Kris wasn't in Sharat's chain of
command.

"Since we accessed the WavCom."

"You know what I mean—the decoded
version."

"Finding coded messages and decoding them is far
more art than science. We had a lot of messages to sort through. It might take
weeks or hours to decode a message after you find it. Because you or I may want
it done quickly doesn't change the process or the result. I guess you will have
to assume I got it to you as quickly as I could." She gave an
imperceptible shrug. Sharat shook her head.

"Spooks!" She turned to Burkett.
"Commute a vector to Shadows Rest. Helm, execute as soon as you have
it."

"Captain, two hours to Wave entrance, one hundred
twenty three hours to Shadows Rest."

"How long to get to those coordinates from the
Wave exit, Paulus?"

"What are they, ma'am?" I asked. I imagined
she thought I knew already and would blurt it out reflexively.

"
5.115
degrees, 5 hours, 14 minutes, 0 seconds, 3.4 astronomical units.
" She
stared at me while she waited.

"At five hundred forty gravities, a little more
than eighteen hours. That position isn't too far from our Wave exit."

"Burkett?" Sharat asked by way of
confirmation, still frowning in my direction.

"Eighteen hours, ten minutes, and thirty seconds
at five hundred forty gravities," Burkett said while staring at me.

"That gives us two full days to get in position.
Good." Her frown disappeared and a small smile touched her lips. The Bridge
was quiet as the Tityus was positioned to enter the Wave.

"Sixty minutes to the Wave," Burkett said,
breaking the silence.

"Comm."

"Attention. Entering the Wave in sixty minutes.
Repeat. Entering the Wave in sixty minutes," I announced over the loud
speakers and sent the message to all CPCs. I wasn't sure whether anyone had to
do something specific before entering the Wave or whether it was just standard
protocol. The next five days were not going to be fun, since I would be on
pins-and-needles awaiting the results of my query. I thought I had done the
right thing, but I should have let the captain know my concerns. Something
warned me that she would not only have ignored it but would have been upset
with unknown consequences. I didn't report to her and it was within my rights,
but she was the captain of the Tityus and had God-like powers here in space.
Kris stayed until the end of first shift, then walked with me to the dining
area.

"Thank you, Kris. I don't know why I'm being so
... paranoid," I said as we sat to eat.

"Doesn't matter. As Adrian has said, we need to
trust each other. Besides, I agree with you. That message was too convenient
and too amateurish. And I can't blame you for thinking the captain a bit ...
too eager."

"Well I've asked Adrian and Wilber as well as NIA
offices for the location of the Dreamer and its schedule over the next week. If
it's close by like Westar or Safe Harbor, I'll have to concede ... No, I’ll
still believe it's a trap, but I won't have what I'll need to dissuade Sharat."
I laughed.

"I'm not sure if anything will change Sharat's
mind, but we have a responsibility to give her the best analysis we can. Maybe
... if we can't dissuade Sharat, we should send Adrian and Wilber a message
telling them our concerns so they will be aware if a similar situation occurs.
Won't help us but might help them."

I agreed and would prepare a message, using Crazy
Numbers, and send it ... before I talked with Sharat just in case ... I didn't
know, but better to look foolish than be the cause of others’ deaths. With that
decided, I relaxed and began eating.

The next few days proved as boring as I had anticipated,
and as a result, I managed to talk Kris into touring the ship with me. We even
visited the marines’ area and were treated to a tour and got to watch one of
their practices. The captain ignored me, except for small talk, when I was on
shift. I wondered if she had the new Comm officer, a lieutenant Croft, review
the outgoing messages to read what I sent. If she had, then she knew I had
known about the decoded message before Kris gave it to her. Well, it couldn't
be helped.

The first shift was on the Bridge as we approached
Shadows Rest, and Kris was at the WavCom equipment for when we exited.

"Exit in sixty minutes," Burkett said, and
Sharat nodded to me.

"Attention. Exiting Wave in sixty minutes.
Repeat. Exiting Wave in sixty minutes," I said after activating the loud
speakers. Each minute seemed like ten as we waited. When it reached ten minutes
to go, Sharat broke the silence.

"Well Agent Paulus, should we initiate Battle
Stations?" she said, confirming that she had read my message, which
confirmed she didn't like spooks.

"I'm here to look for suspicious messages and to decode
them if I can ... and to tell you when I believe them strange. You command the
Tityus. I wouldn't exchange your responsibilities for a cure to my
illness." I stared back at her. She nodded.

"Good, so long as we understand each other."

"Exiting the Wave in ten, nine ... two, one,
now," Burkett said as we left the Wave. Immediately, Kris's fingers flew
over the keys. Ten minutes later, she transferred a packet to my tablet and sat
back and sighed.

"Well Agent Paulus, what's the news?" Sharat
asked, smiling like she had pulled something over on us. I didn't feel any
concern from her about what the messages said—just what I had expected
from her. I flipped through the messages: from Adrian, the Dreamer is in Zespa
scheduled to leave in five days for Stone Ring; from Wilber the same message;
and from two NIA offices confirmation of the Dreamer's location and schedule. I
knew a confrontation was coming and sent my prepared message to Adrian and
Will. I had used my Crazy Numbers software to encode the basic message so it
couldn't be read by anyone but the team and Commander Stauffer.

To: Scylla for
Lieutenant Weiss, Romulus for Lieutenant Shrader, Urgent.

Attached is a
coded message we received from the WavCom in Truth Star. Kris’s and my
translation is also attached. It looked amateurish and too convenient so we
sought the location of the Dreamer. It obviously can't make the rendezvous, so
Kris and I believe it's a trap and want you to be aware of similar messages. We
will try to convince Captain Sharat. You will know the results in a few days.

Signed: Agent Paulus, address to
Tityus

I moved another message into the outgoing queue, ready
to be sent:

To all UAS
ships: URGENT Believe UAS Tityus is heading into a trap set by smugglers out of
the FPU. Need assistance from any ship within one day of Shadows Rest, at
coordinates 5.115 degrees, 5 hours, 14 minutes, 0 seconds, 4.4 astronomical.

Note: If I'm
wrong you will have wasted fuel; if I'm right you may save hundreds of lives.

From NIA Agent
Paulus.

 
"We have confirmation from
several sources that the Dreamer is in Zespa and couldn't make the meeting time
in less than two weeks from today. I think that confirms the message is an
attempt to lure the Tityus into a trap."

"So what? It's a chance to kill more smugglers.
That's a good thing."

"If you win. What if you lose?"