Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (36 page)

“In
that case, welcome to newly-liberated Federation territory, sir. Can we give
you a lift somewhere?”

She
decided that it would be less suspicious looking if she let them give her a
ride. “I’ll accept your kind offer, trooper. I’d like to see the Ops Center for
planetary defense, if you happen to know where that is.”

Both
men relaxed visibly. This Navy Commander looked like she’d be easy to get along
with. “No we don’t, but we’ll find it for you if you hop in, Commander.”

They
were as good as their word. Fifteen minutes later, she was standing in the huge
Ops Center looking up at the three-story high main display, which was dark now.
The room was empty of people. Most of the consoles were turned off. She was
hoping to find someone who could tell her where Drake was assigned or at least
point her in the right direction of someone who would know, but clearly she
wasn’t going to find any answers here.

“Remington,
is that you?” said a female voice from behind her. There was a hardness in the
tone that made her reach for her handgun as she spun around. She saw a woman
wearing the rebel uniform of an army Major, with her hands up. Remington
lowered her weapon but didn’t put it away. There was something vaguely familiar
about this major. The woman stepped closer, and Remington read her name tag.
Foster. Suddenly her memory clicked.

“You’re
Cate Foster, the spy who was in Trojan’s planning group on Earth,” said
Remington.

Foster
nodded. “And you’re Lorelei Remington, Roland Drake’s long lost love. Let me guess
why you’re here. You’re looking for him, right?” There was a sad smile on her
face. While Remington was still making up her mind how to answer that question,
Foster asked, “Can I put my hands down without getting shot?” Remington nodded.
Foster stopped approaching when they were roughly two meters apart. They looked
each other in the eye and said nothing for several seconds.

Remington
was just about to give Foster her cover story when on a sudden impulse she
said, “Yes, I’m here to look for Roland. Do you happen to know where he is?”

Foster
gave her a calculating look. “I don’t know exactly where he is, but I can tell
you where he isn’t. He’s not here on Sparta anymore.” Remington’s
disappointment must have shown on her face, because Foster continued in a less
harsh, even slightly sympathetic voice. “I can see how that news affects you.
It’s been how many years since you’ve seen him?”

“Too
many,” whispered Remington.

“Yes,
a long time without the man you love, and now you’re faced with the prospect
that you’ll never see him again. I know what that feels like, Lorelei. My
husband was on Midgard when FED forces raided our operation there. He’s almost
certainly dead, but I’ll never know for sure.”

After
a period of silence, Remington said, “I’m sorry about your husband. I hate this
war. I hate what it’s made us become and do. Trojan’s turned his troopers into
fanatics, and a little while ago I saw them shoot your leadership off the top
of the gold tower. Whatever happened to honor, Cate?”

“It
was never here to begin with, Lorelei. We only had rumors of honor, that’s
all.” Foster looked like she wanted to say more, and Remington waited. Stepping
over to the nearest console, Foster sat down on the edge, folded her arms, and
continued.

“I’ve
got a proposition for you, Lorelei, and it’s not as one officer to another, but
rather as one woman to another. You want to join up with your man,  and I want
to join up with mine. I’ll help you if you promise me, on your…honor, that
you’ll help me.”

There
was something about her tone that made the hairs on Remington’s neck stand up.
“You want my help to get to Midgard?” she asked.

Foster
shook her head. “Bret’s not there anymore. Oh, his body may be, but his soul
has moved on, and I need your help to follow him wherever he is now.”

“I
don’t understand, Cate. Do you want me to help you commit suicide?”

“I’ll
explain everything, but only after you agree to the deal. I help you find
Drake, and you help me with what I need to do.”

“One
question first. You said you don’t know where Drake is now, so how can you help
me find him?”

Foster
thought for a moment and then said, “I didn’t lie to you, Lorelei. I don’t know
for certain where he is right now, but I can point you in the right direction.
If you’re clever enough, you can pick up his trail and follow it. That’s all
I’m prepared to say at this point.”

Remington
didn’t know what to say to that. Cate clearly had something other than simple
suicide in mind, and Remington had a hunch that if her help came to light, it would
be bad for her career, maybe even bad enough to get her booted out of the Navy
altogether. Then she remembered that by following Trojan, she had already
crossed a line. Maybe being able to take her uniform off for good wasn’t such a
bad prospect. Unless Cate was lying to her, this might be her only clue to
Drake’s whereabouts, and her intuition was telling her that Cate wasn’t lying.
She made a decision.

“I
give you my word that I’ll help you in return for pointing me in the right
direction to find Roland.”

“Good!
Good. Here’s what I need from you. Do you know who was in charge of the raid on
Midgard?” asked Cate.

“Yes.
Commodore Romanov was in charge of the fleet component, and Colonel Ericson was
in charge of the ground operation.”

“Is
Ericson here on Sparta now?”

“I
know he’s in charge of the troops, but I don’t know for certain if he’s on the
ground or not.”

“Then
I need you to find out if he’s down here, and if so, arrange for me to be taken
to him. Then your part’s done, Lorelei.”

Remington
frowned. “What exactly are you planning on doing, Cate?”

Foster
stood up and undid the front of her uniform jacket. When she opened it, Foster
saw that she was wearing a harness containing flat bricks of what had to be
plastic explosives.

“I’m
going to get as close to him as I can, and then I’ll blow both of us sky high,”
said Foster.

Remington’s
first impulse was to say no, but then she remembered how Ericson had murdered
Stevens in cold blood, and the firing squad on the top of the gold tower looked
like the kind of thing that he would be capable of ordering.

“I
don’t see how I could get you near him. I’m not on his staff you know.”

Foster
closed her jacket and smiled. “I can tell that you’re shocked by this. You’re
desperately looking for a way out of your obligation to me. The answer is quite
simple really. You take me at the point of your gun to the nearest trooper
officer. Then you explain that you’ve stumbled on the rebel spy who used to be
on General Trojan’s staff on Earth and that Colonel Ericson would definitely
want to have a little chat with me, which I’m sure is absolutely the case. We
know that Trojan was embarrassed by having a rebel spy on his staff all that
time. What do you want to bet that he didn’t order Ericson to try to find me?”

“What
if his troops search you first?”

Foster
shrugged. “It’s a risk I’ll just have to take. I’d rather take Ericson with me,
but if I have to, I’ll take a couple of black-uniformed troopers with me
instead. I can detonate this stuff pretty damned quick, even with my hands tied
or cuffed.” After a pause she asked. “Will you do it?”

Remington
surprised herself by saying yes and meaning it. “Obviously you have to tell me
how to find Roland before I turn you over to Ericson’s goons,” she said with an
apologetic smile.

Foster
smiled back. “Obviously. How you do it is up to you, but you need to get
yourself to Zanzibar. I doubt if Drake will still be there, but that’s where
you can start following his trail.”

Remington
was now a little annoyed. Zanzibar? What would Drake be doing on a backwater
colony like Zanzibar?

“What’s
the SSU been doing on Zanzibar?” she asked.

Foster
sighed. “That is the kind of question that a Federation Navy Commander asks of
a rebel Major during interrogation. I may be a woman consumed by fury, but I’m
not a traitor. That kind of information wasn’t part of the deal, Lorelei.”

“Damn,
you’re right, Cate. I’m sorry. I had no right to ask you that. I just don’t
understand why Roland would go there,” said Remington. To her surprise, Foster
laughed.

“Think
about what you’ve just said, Lorelei, and you’ll be able to answer your own
question.”

Before
Remington could respond, she heard voices that sounded like people were coming
closer to the room. Foster stepped forward and produced a pair of handcuffs
that she held out to Remington. “Here, put these on me quick and point your gun
at me before someone comes in here and gets the wrong idea.”

They
were ready by the time three men in black uniforms entered the room. One of
them was, in fact, an officer. Remington told them who the rebel Major was and
why Colonel Ericson would want to interrogate her personally. The trooper
officer laughed a vicious laugh.

“Oh
yes, the Colonel will definitely want to interrogate your prisoner himself. I
know where the Colonel is, so my boys and I will relieve you of this burden,
Commander. We’ll escort her to him right now, won’t we boys?” His men agreed
heartily. Remington wondered if Cate would make it to Ericson.

As
the two troopers took Foster by her arms and pulled her away, Foster spoke
without looking back. “Good luck, Commander.” The officer turned away without
saluting. Remington breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t seen him look at her
name tag, so maybe her involvement with Foster would not come back to haunt
her. She decided that staying here on the ground any longer would be pushing
her luck. She would head back to the shuttle and then to her ship. As she was
about to leave the now empty room, she looked back to the exit the troopers and
Foster had used. “Good luck to you too, Major,” she said softly.

Foster’s
initial fear that the troopers would first strip-search her for their own
amusement turned out to be unfounded. The officer in charge seemed to be more
interested in boosting his career than in simple rape. Maybe he thought the
Colonel would give her back to him and his men after Ericson was finished with
her. Then he’d get the recognition AND the fun. In any case, it didn’t take
long before they ushered her into what had been a large conference room.  There
were a dozen black-uniformed officers huddled around an oval table. Her
escorting officer whispered something to a lieutenant who must have been
Ericson’s aide. The lieutenant passed on the information to one of the huddled
men who then stood up and came over to her. His name tag did say Ericson and he
was a Colonel.

“Well,
well, well, what do we have here? Major Foster. Yes, it is you. I recognize
your face from photos, Major. General Trojan asked me to keep an eye out for
you.” He stepped close to her and lifted her chin with his hand so that his
face was almost close enough to kiss her. She didn’t think he would do that in
front of his subordinates, but then again, she wouldn’t put anything past this
bastard. Her hands were still cuffed, and both troopers still held her arms.
The officer who escorted her here was standing right behind her.
All four of
them! Can’t ask for more than that. I’m coming home, babe.
With that
thought, she closed her eyes and tapped her heels together two times.

As
Remington stepped off the shuttle inside Trafalgar’s hangar bay, the pilot
called to her. “Commander? Shooter and I heard some interesting chatter over
the assault Ops frequency that I think you might appreciate knowing.”

“What
is it, Lieutenant?”

“Well,
apparently a rebel officer got close enough to the top ground force  commander
to blow the two of them plus three more troopers to hell with hidden
explosives. If that force commander ordered the firing squad, then the rebels
got a little payback, wouldn’t you say, Commander?”