The Phoenix Conspiracy (54 page)

"I didn't know that then, but I do
now. The Organization exists to protect the Empire, trust
me."

"From replicants? How long has this
been going on?"

"No not just from
replicants. That's a recent move. They started replacing people
about five years ago, the captains and officers in the Fifth Fleet
were the easiest targets, close to the DMZ. Far away from most
major ports. Mostly they,
we
, were just tests. They had to be
slow, careful, and see if the transition between real persons and
fake persons would get noticed. It's only recently that they've
been targeting more important people. Like those ships headed for
Capital World."

Calvin instantly thought of his
strange visit with Kalila. Had she been replaced? Was this the
threat she was hiding from? "More important people meaning
nobility?"

"Perhaps some of the nobility. If not
yet then eventually, yes, they will be targeted."

"What about the royal family?" Calvin
pressed him.

Raidan scratched his chin. "I doubt
it. The Akiras keep themselves well-protected. Perhaps eventually,
but for now I’m sure they are safe."

"So you've noticed no strange activity
from them whatsoever?"

Raidan hesitated. "No. Why are you
that interested in this?"

Calvin shrugged, not wanting to give
himself away. "No reason. I just want to be sure the monarchy is
still intact."

Raidan raised a curious
eyebrow.

Calvin changed the subject. "So how
did your Organization discover the threat?"

"I don't have the answer to that. It's
an invisible war that's been going on for a long time. Decades.
Their side building and building up, readying their plans, and us
trying to keep up and unravel them before it's too late. This fight
has taken many forms.

"So who is the enemy?"

"They call themselves The Phoenix
Ring. No, not a reference to my old ship. They mean the creature of
legend. The firebird that dies and resurrects periodically. We
think it's a metaphor for the Empire. They want to destroy it and
re-create it. And since our Human empire is the premiere powerhouse
of the galaxy, they depend on deception to conquer us."

"Who are they?"

"We don't know the ring-leaders yet.
They're called The Council. They act through seconds and thirds,
like our politicians on Capital World, except in this case
anonymously."

"So what
do
you know?" Calvin asked. "Are they
rotham? human? polarian?"

Raidan looked surprised. "Why would
you guess polarians?"

"Well... we saw a Polarian ship at
Abia."

Raidan's eyes narrowed. "Are you
sure?"

"Yes."

"Very interesting..." he paused. "To
answer your question, we know that humans and rotham are both
involved. As for who is giving orders to whom, no one can be sure."
He leaned back and rested his head against the back of his chair,
tapping his fingers thoughtfully upon the armrest. Obviously
unhappy.

"It's because we're going to Gemini,
isn't it?" asked Calvin.

"What?"

"Why this upsets you. It's because
we're going into Polarian space. And now you don't know if you can
trust them."

"Yes that is troubling me. But don't
read too much into it. Gemini is a safe place."

"Why
are
we going there?"

"It's a safespot for my group. A kind
of a haven for The Organization. It's handy to have a few outside
the jurisdiction of the Empire."

"But now it might not be such a safe
spot."

"No, it's safe," said
Raidan.

"So tell me more about Gemini. What
can I expect to find when we get there?" asked Calvin.

Raidan said nothing.

"Let me guess. This trip, and all your
hints and clues you left me, it's all an effort to recruit me into
The Organization, isn't it? But it wants me to commit to it before
I get to know anything really about it. Isn't that how all these
secret combinations work?"

Raidan leaned forward once more,
looking a little less tense. "No. Recruiting you was my idea. There
have been... mixed feelings over the matter. There is no formal
invitation being extended to you. I'm just hoping we can... make
some kind of arrangement."

"What kind?"

"That depends on what happens when we
get there," he smiled. "Don't worry. I won't compel you to do
anything. You are not my prisoner. Make your own choice. Just
remember that nowhere is safe for you. They're going to come after
you. They'll hunt you from Tarsonis to Polaris, Capital World to
The Corridor. Cooperating with me is your best chance of
survival."

Calvin thought that was probably true.
He didn't want to die and needed a safe port for the Nighthawk to
take supplies. His best path, he guessed, was to infiltrate The
Organization and from that vantage point decide whether they were
right and worth joining, or if he should betray them to the Empire,
perhaps regaining favor.

"Who's in charge of The
Organization?"

"It's split into groups with group
leaders who all report to one person. That person and the group
leaders share power and cooperate."

"Who is that person?"

"She's called White Rook."

"So this person is a she,
then?"

"Yes," said Raidan. "But that's hardly
a helpful clue."

"Any clue that can rule out half the
population of the galaxy is a helpful clue."

"Good luck guessing her identity among
the other half."

"So you won't identify her for
me."

"I will not."

"But you know who she is."

"Yes."

"Have you ever spoken with her
face-to-face?"

"Yes."

Calvin sat forward. "You're a group
leader aren't you?"

"Yes. After the last group leader and
his ship, the Arcane Storm, disappeared. I took his
place."

"How large is a group?"

"Some financial contacts, a few ships,
some intelligence agents and analysts, a couple of safe havens.
That's about it."

Calvin got the feeling Raidan wasn't
telling him everything.

"Some, as defined as how
many?"

"A number between one and infinitely
many," Raidan shrugged.

Calvin changed the subject back,
thinking this could help him estimate The Organization's reach.
"How did you find out replicants were on those Rotham ships? The
first ones you attacked, the Beotan convoy.”

"Insider information," said Raidan.
"Though now that particular contact has vanished, presumed dead.
But I did the best I could with what she gave me."

"But you didn’t succeed in taking out
the whole convoy."

"Yes," he sighed. "One ship got away.
Maybe I took out all the replicants by destroying the other ships.
Or maybe they all escaped on the one ship that evaded me, I don't
know. But at least it never made it to Capital World."

"So then you were arrested and taken
to Praxis where The Organization arranged for your escape. How'd
you pull it off?"

Raidan smiled. "I know what you're
doing. You're trying to figure out how powerful The Organization
is, and how it works. I won't play along. But I'll tell you this
much. Not everything in the Harbinger's cargobays was cargo, if you
get my meaning."

"So what did you do with the
Harbinger's original crew?"

"Handed them off somewhere—those who
weren't on our side. Can't remember where," he shrugged innocently.
Calvin frowned, understanding that Raidan wasn't going to share
more.

"Then you went to Aleator," said
Calvin. "But you got there late. Probably because you were 'handing
off' the original Harbinger crew, and since there were no bases or
planets nearby, you transferred them to another ship," he thought
back to Sarah’s findings. "The Liberty Sun."

Raidan clapped quietly. "You don't
disappoint."

"And then," Calvin continued, "you
went and received a huge sum of money from one Yanal Kemmer on
Aleator. That's why you went there."

Raidan smirked. Calvin knew if there
had been another reason, Raidan wouldn't share it.

"Then you went to Brimm and
invaded the station and raided its harddrives. Obviously searching
for intel. We got that same data, analyzed it, and found that
several Rotham ships—many of which you destroyed—were scheduled to
arrive at or bypass Abia System. But you already knew that, didn't
you?" Calvin looked into his eyes. "So why
did
you go to Brimm?"

"Brimm. Brimm. Brimm... We did go to
Brimm to collect information. It is, or was, a hub for Phoenix Ring
operatives. A staging point for maneuvering cargo, personnel,
weapons, you name it, in that sector. From there we identified many
of the ships involved in the conspiracy. Distinguishing the bad
Rotham ships from the innocent commercial ones is not
easy.

"Luckily, the Phoenix Ring didn't know
we were onto their operation at Brimm and the station wasn't
properly defended against a dreadnought."

"What about the Rotham ships that were
there? You destroyed one and left the other intact."

"The T'orma and the Vim?"

"Yeah," said Calvin. "One was wiped
out but the other you just left there. Though, officially, you
boarded it and captured its crew."

"I did. A key Phoenix agent was on
board. He was responsible for coordinating a lot of the activity
and stood out like a sore thumb—a human on a Rotham ship. We took
him and the crew alive. They're currently in our detention block on
this ship."

"Are they an information source or
bargaining chips?" asked Calvin.

"Information. The Phoenix Ring doesn't
value their compromised agents. And, unfortunately, their
compromised agent didn't know as much as we'd hoped.

"Why did you leave that ship intact
instead of destroying it and depriving them of that
resource?"

"I wanted you to see it," said Raidan.
"Simple as that."

"Okay…” said Calvin, piecing it
together. "Then you went to Iota. Probably because of information
you got from Brimm. But what did you find there?"

"Phoenix ships. They had to be
destroyed."

"Class One Cargo?"

"No. Class One Cargo is very rare, so
far. These were carrying weapons."

"Small arms?"

"No, the big kind. Planetary
bombardment rounds."

"Do you know what they were planning
with them?"

Raidan didn't answer.

Calvin sighed and asked another
question. "You left one ship there intact too. Disabled. But
intact. And you told me to board it."

"Didn't you?"

"No," said Calvin.

"That's too bad," said Raidan. "I was
hoping you could have exposed its cargo to Intel Wing, and hoping
too that Phoenix agents inside the government wouldn't have been
able to censor your discovery completely."

"What would I have found?" asked
Calvin. "More planetary bombardment rounds?"

"No. Criminals. Easily
identifiable Human fugitives living comfortably under the watch and
guard of the Rotham crew. I didn't kill them because they weren't a
threat. Their freedom and safe escape into the Rotham Republic is
the Phoenix Ring's way of repaying someone for some kind of favor.
My killing them wouldn’t have been much of a prize, but your
finding them, criminals on a ship that’s supposed to be there for
peaceful reasons, well … that
would
have meant something.”

"I see," said Calvin. "And then you
lured us to Abia to see the Rotham squadron. Why didn't you just go
straight there? We would have followed you."

"We didn't want to alert them. If they
figured out we were jumping to Abia, the squadron might have run
away. Instead we pretended to go to Zendricun until we were too far
out to be seen. Then we turned around, met up with our other ships,
and went to Abia."

"And we took the bait," said Calvin.
“And because of that we lost many great people." He kept his voice
cool, despite the mixture of feelings boiling inside him, and above
all tried not to think of the gruesomest deaths he'd witnessed.
Losing officers was part of the job, but that knowledge had never
really prepared him for losing friends.

Raidan's smile faded and his eyes
became sober. "I never guessed they could have seen past your
stealth system.”

Calvin didn’t reply.

After an appropriate pause, Raidan
added, "I'm sorry. We've all lost much. And we're going to lose a
lot more. That's just the way it is. Eventually we all die and lose
everything."

"Indeed." It made him think of his
brush with death on Aleator One, when first Jacobi and then Tristan
had saved his life. "Tell me…” said Calvin.