Sky Hunter (24 page)

“
Living in fear?”

He stared at her and his mouth worked as if
he was trying to form some words that didn’t quite make it past his
lips.

She touched his arm, again astonished by the
sheer power Beryl wielded over these people. “Tell no one you saw
me. You can at least do that, can’t you? Just clear out. Go home to
your girls. You don’t want to be here when we get back.”

He nodded wordlessly and stumbled away,
perhaps to retrieve the box he had dropped.

Nova returned to the lift and directed it to
the administrative level. Pointlessly, she tried to straighten her
hair and uniform in the reflection of the elevator’s wall. She
looked like some lunatic about to storm into her Commanding
Officer’s presence with tales of drug smuggling and extortion. She
only hoped that her so-far spotless record would convince the
colonel to at least come down here to see the evidence for
himself.

She felt calm and resolute by the time she
stepped out of the car and onto the elegantly designed upper floor
of the station. Her calm and resolution flew out of the graphene
re-enforced windows when she saw Rafe. He, Ancel and two others of
Beryl’s security team stood at the entrance of the vast workspace
shared by the administrators of the skyranch.

This time there was no sardonic smirk to
welcome her. She walked toward them as if in some sort of
nightmare. The men, three Centauri and a Human, seemed like some
alien creatures in their ill-used, armored uniforms and well-kept
weapons, covered in tattoos and scars and a cloud of ill will. In
contrast, the rest of the space was a sea of work stations,
separated by invisible sound proofing, where even at this hour
teams of well-groomed individuals worked quietly, oblivious to the
lower-level ruffians among them.

“
Whiteside,” Rafe said. “Finally
decided to report to the colonel?”

She frowned. Had he actually told the truth
when they had come for her? What would the station commander want
with her at this hour? True, he was temporarily their wing
commander as well but so far had left those duties to the other
officers, relying heavily on his squadron leaders.

She walked silently past the grunts to look
around the vast space. Indeed, she saw the colonel near the terrace
in conversation with several officers. She stopped by a
receptionist who directed her into a separate area, this one with
opaque walls and furnished with a few lounges and chairs. She sat
stiffly near the door.

Two of the guards followed her. Ancel leaned
against the wall, so close to her that his hip brushed her arm. She
rose from her seat and moved to another. Rafe flung himself into a
deep armchair and, out of sight of the staff in the main work
space, propped his boot against the back of another.

“
So what did our favorite pilot do to
get an audience with the big boss,” he said.

“
How would I know?”

“
Could it be that you have something to
tell him?”

“
Not your business, is it?”

“
Maybe it is. Had a little trouble down
on Bellac earlier?”

“
No. Why?”

He leered up at Sergeant Ancel. “Where’s that
blond boyfriend of yours these days?”

She tried to ignore him but found that she
could not. “What did you do to him? How did you get him to
cooperate?”

He shrugged, making it clear that he had too
much fun in keeping her wondering. “He didn’t take much convincing.
Humans are weak. They scare easy.” He leered at her. “Not like you,
though, Nova.”

“
Lieutenant Whiteside,” she
corrected.

He shrugged. “By the time Beryl’s had his say
with the colonel, you’ll be lucky to be Private Whiteside. Do you
really think that we don’t have this covered? That some snoop like
you could actually matter?”

“
Actually, I do think that. You
wouldn’t be up here threatening me if you weren’t scared
green.”

He shook his head but it seemed to her that
some of the sneering arrogance had left his unshaven face. “Beryl
tells us you spread for him like a blanket.” He placed his hand on
his groin and left it there. “Is that true, Nova? He said you had
some decent parts on you.”

“
You’ll never know,” she said, sure of
his bluff now that nothing remained but lewd suggestions with the
threat of more violence. None of them had anything more than
that.

“
We’ll see. Guess you haven’t had a
nice piece of Centauri before.”

She regarded him coolly. “Well, I have.
Although that one liked to bathe.”

Ancel, still slouching by the door, cackled
with laughter when Rafe scowled at her. He sat up straighter in his
chair when a woman in a stylish sky-colored wrap came to the door.
She did not look at him but gestured to Nova with a polite
smile.

Nova stood up. She bent slightly toward Rafe
as she passed. “It’s called soap,
shekka’an
. Write that down
somewhere so you don’t forget.”

It felt odd to walk past people speaking to
each other and yet not hear a word through the discreet sound
baffles. She stepped through one of those shields onto the open
terrace overlooking the lower levels, waiting to be called. Even at
this hour, a few off-duty staffers were enjoying the space. A nice
place to take a late meal, she thought, feeling her stomach rumble
despite her apprehension.

“
Lieutenant Whiteside,” she heard
finally from some hidden sound source. “Please join us.”

She looked up to see the station commander
gesture to her from his workspace further along the terrace. Nearby
stood Captain Dakad and a crisply uniformed Feydan major that she
did not recognize. She fought an irrational urge to run away.

“
Sir.” She saluted the officers and
stood stiffly before them.

“
Whiteside,” the colonel indicated a
seat close to him. There was no table between them and she sat
awkwardly, crossing and then uncrossing her legs. Her boots were
caked with desert dust and she tucked them under the
chair.

Thedris held a data unit in his hand. He
regarded her for a long while and she berated herself for not
having taken a minute to at least put on a set of fatigues instead
of remaining in this rumpled uniform. She glanced at Dakad and saw
nothing helpful there.

The colonel looked down at his screen. “Your
records,” he informed her. The officer seemed relaxed, his formal
jacket unfastened, the shock of black hair casually brushed over
the crown of his head. The light from above reflected eerily in his
eyes when he looked up again. “I’ve had the pleasure of working
with Colonel Tegan Whiteside once. Outstanding officer.”

“
Yessir.”

“
From what I see here, you look to be
following his example.”

“
I try, sir. Thank you.”

“
Forty hours left until your Hunter
Class trials. Impressive. What is your goal after that?”

She lifted her chin. “Targon, sir.”

He raised an eyebrow. “A fine objective,
Lieutenant. That’ll put you on a battleship into deep space.”

“
I hope so, sir.”

“
Much more interesting than guarding
this dust ball.” He pointed down, toward the planet. “Or patrolling
a jumpsite.”

“
Those assignments have their
challenges as well,” she replied dutifully.

He nodded. “You’ve lost some colleagues
recently. I’m sorry. That is never easy.”

“
No, sir. They’ll be missed. Our squad
was… is a tight unit.”

He looked up at Dakad. “That is good to
hear.”

She glanced at the major standing beside the
colonel. She stood with one hand around the wrist of the other, no
doubt recording this meeting with the camera in her data sleeve.
Her elaborately tattooed face gave nothing away. She and Dakad
would also be sitting if any of this was as informal as the Colonel
appeared. Nova stopped herself from squirming nervously as she
tried to recall anything that might give her cause to feel as
nervous as she did. Nothing came to mind.

“
As you know, we’re still involved in
the investigation of the horrific event on the flight deck. It
appears that a new material was used to compromise the power packs
on General Ausan’s shuttle. We’ve traced some components to Pelion
so far.”

She frowned. “Those packs aren’t volatile.
What we saw was an explosion.”

“
Exactly. The labs are busy figuring
that out.”

“
Sabotage, then? Rebels?”

“
Likely. The question is: how did it
get aboard?”

“
I’m sorry, sir. That isn’t my field. I
would assume the material was already aboard her cruiser when it
arrived.”

He tipped his head. “A reasonable assumption.
Leaving the entire ground staff at the Siolet base under
suspicion.”

“
I suppose,” she said uncomfortably.
“Some of us were guessing that they wanted to blow it here to make
more of a statement about the orbiter. And bag a few pilots while
at it.”

“
Also reasonable. Meaning that someone
up here could have tampered with those packs after she arrived.” He
gestured to the terraces. “Crew, admin, pilots.”

“
Sir, surely you’re not suggesting that
the pilots had anything to do with this. Our pilots suffered as
many casualties as the ground crew.” She leaned forward, unable to
hold herself in check much longer. “Why am I being questioned? And
here? By you?”

“
The rest of the station staff is being
interviewed by security. But we have some additional inquiries for
you.”

“
Sir?”

“
Tell us about Djari Nathon,” he said,
watching her intently.

“
Djari?”

He consulted his screen for the correct name.
“That’s Nathon Lis Djari. You know him well.”

Nova blinked, trying to discern the direction
of this inquisition. “Yes. He was with us in Shon Gat. Working with
the wounded there.”

“
Yes, we’re aware of what happened
there.”

“
He… he’s a farmer. Somewhere in the
Rift. He said he came to look for work up here.”

“
And you petitioned General Ausan to
expedite that.”

“
Yessir. He showed great fortitude at
Shon Gat. He helped us escape. It seemed a small reward for his
actions.”

“
What is your relationship with him
now?”

She furrowed her brow. “He’s been dealing
with some… difficulties. But I like to think that we are friends,”
she added firmly.

The colonel came to his feet and gestured for
her to remain seated when he walked to the perimeter of the
sound-shielded space. He looked out over the terrace for a while
before returning to stand behind her. She felt him place his hand
on her shoulder and fought an urge to pull away.

“
Your
friend
is under suspicion
of aiding the rebel on Bellac,” he said finally.

“
What?” she cried out before biting her
lip and reminding herself to hold it together in front of these
people. “That’s not possible.”

“
Oh?”

“
He’s just not like that. He’s suffered
as much as any of the locals have. He’s no rebel.”

“
He may be a spy. Or even just a
sympathizer.”

She shook her head. “He has no regard for
them.” She looked up at him. “And he would not even think about
something as horrific as the sabotage in the hangar. He cares about
people. I’ve seen it.”

The colonel returned to his chair, likely
assured that they had enough video of her reaction to this
news.

“
Besides,” she said. “If he’s a spy
he’s not a very good one. He’s never pushed me for any information
that he shouldn’t have. And he was hurt in the blast,
too.”

“
He had no business on that
deck.”

She shrugged. “He said he was picking up a
shipment of seeds.”

“
Five cargo pods arriving daily and he
has seeds delivered to the flight hangar? The whole point of the
elevator is to make that unnecessary. Security should have stopped
him. Yet he seemed to know how to avoid them.”

“
He’s a farmer. What would he know
about placing explosives onto a guarded Air Command
cruiser?”

“
How do you know he’s a
farmer?”

Nova closed her eyes. Chemical analysis kits
in his room. Boxes of material there one day and gone the next.
Guns. Evasive answers. “I don’t.”

“
Coria Taren,” he said.

“
Sir?”

“
Coria Taren, liberated along with
yourself and a few others at Shon Gat. I’ll say that ‘liberated’ is
not the correct word. She is a confessed rebel operative who’s been
working in Shon Gat for months. She was also ‘captive’ along with
you and Nathon Djari?”

“
Yes,” Nova said faintly. “I suspected
she might have been one of them.” She looked up, feeling caged. “I
was in no position to arrest her!”

“
But you did not suspect your friend
Nathon Djari?”

“
I can’t believe he would side with the
Shri-Lan.” She looked up at Dakad and then stood up to pace, as
Colonel Thedris had done, to the edge of the terrace. Crossing her
arms she looked up through the skylight to the glittering solar
collectors above.

Was it possible? She thought about Djari’s
endless patience and gentle handling of the injured at Shon Gat.
His knowledge of agriculture was undoubtedly the main reason for
his presence up here, with or without her recommendation. He had
been a solid rock in what had been weeks of turmoil for her, and
that only for a few exhausting, confusing days.