The Phoenix Rising (18 page)

“
Aye, aye.”

“
What is our new ETA?” he
asked.

“
Just over two
hours.”

“
Good, I’ll be in my office
in the meantime. Hopefully that will be our last run in with
pirates on this trip.”

***

The unexpected communication from the
Nighthawk had seemed sincere. Nimoux was unsure whether or not the
agent claiming to be a mole for Intel Wing aboard Calvin’s ship was
a ruse created by Calvin, or if the story was true—if there was a
mole, he hadn’t made himself known to Intel Wing—but the mole’s
suggestion that they head into the DMZ did correspond with Nimoux’s
analysts’ best prediction of where the Nighthawk had gone. “Most
likely in the direction of The Corridor,” they’d told him, after
computing their best probability analysis.

The DMZ was just beyond The Corridor, so it
very easily could be the Nighthawk’s destination. If so, then the
rogue ship just might be on its way to QH-212 like the mole had
said. A quick survey of the database revealed that QH-212 was a
star with satellites and no habitable planetary bodies. But that
didn’t make it worthless. On the contrary, Nimoux’s many excursions
into the DMZ had taught him about the significance of QH-212. It
was home to a large group of type three Remorii. Or so he’d heard.
An interesting twist if the Nighthawk was working with them.

“
Set course for QH-212,”
he’d ordered his officers. “Engage stealth and initiate a jump of
ninety-nine percent potential. Once we cross into the DMZ, change
to eighty-five percent potential, we don’t want to be seen. You
know the drill.”

Now they were well on their way. And Nimoux
had spent the past few hours assessing what kind of resources he
had access to in the vicinity of QH-212 and trying to coordinate a
plan with Intel Wing. The mole had also told him that the Nighthawk
was searching for a ship called the Arcane Storm. There were
limited records on it, but from what Nimoux could gather, it was a
relatively worthless civilian ship. Apparently it had a cargo that
Calvin was very interested in, though the mole had claimed not to
know what it was. Very intriguing indeed.

Unfortunately, there was no Intel Wing ship
close enough to intercept the Nighthawk—which was projected to
arrive at QH-212 soon—and all of the civilian contacts he had out
there would be hopelessly outmatched by the Nighthawk in a straight
fight. So there was no use offering to pay a bounty for disabling
the ship. It was unclear how long the Nighthawk intended to stay at
QH-212, the mole hadn’t known, but Nimoux doubted Calvin would keep
his ship in any one place for long. So a forceful capture of the
Nighthawk at QH-212 by the Imperial military seemed out of the
question.

He did have one card to play, however.

“
Mister Cortez, good to see
you again,” said Nimoux. A middle-aged man with tawny skin and
thick stubble on his face looked at him suspiciously from the other
end of the display. Nimoux made this call from the privacy of his
office, and had left orders not to be disturbed.

“
Why you slick
son-of-a-bitch,” said Cortez. “I thought you folks agreed not to
bother me again.”

Nimoux smiled. “Now, Cortez, you know very
well that’s not the arrangement. Your operations get a blind eye
only if certain conditions are satisfied.”

“
I’m not sure that I’m in a
cooperative mood. Though a few q or some guns might change my
attitude.”

“
I have a better proposal.
You do exactly what I tell you to do and Intel Wing allows you to
keep running your illegal operations on some of the border planets
and inside the DMZ. You don’t, and I’ll personally hunt you down,
my soldiers will board your ship, and you’ll be thrown in a dungeon
so deep you’ll never see space again.”

“
Alright,
alright
, I get the picture,” said Cortez.
Obviously unhappy about being extorted. He was a smuggler who ran
relatively harmless operations on the border systems and inside the
DMZ, mostly trafficking controlled narcotics. Intel Wing had pages
on him, and had taken him into custody more than once, but he’d
proven a willingness to share information. And in return had been
given something of a pass. Truthfully, Nimoux was surprised the
crazy old man hadn’t been killed yet, he was one of very few
entrepreneurial drug smugglers in a region tightly controlled by
the Khans, a criminal organization that was as widespread and
pervasive as the influenza virus once was.

“
You are in regular contact
with the Remorii in QH-212—”

“
I know nothin’ about no
QH-212—”

“
No point denying it. I have
tapes of you confessing that one of your main outfits is there. And
you’re one of their main suppliers of, shall we say, miscellaneous
goods.”

“
What’s it to
you?”

“
That means you have
connections there, and you know the social order.”

“
I ain’t spillin’ what I
know about those fellas. They crazy.”

“
I’m not asking you to.
Instead I want you to deliver a message. I’ll even pay
you.”

Cortez’s eyes lit up at this revelation.
“What’s the message?”

“
I need to arrange
something. And it has to happen soon.”

“
I’m all ears.”

He gave Cortez very specific, very simple
instructions, and secured his cooperation with a large transfer of
money and the promise of more on completion. Satisfied, Nimoux
disconnected and then contacted Intel Wing.

“
Did your contact
agree?”

“
Yes,” said Nimoux, now
looking into the face of Director Jack Edwards. The man had been
his handler for years but Nimoux couldn’t shake the feeling that
there was something...
different
about him. Perhaps the stress of his position was
starting to take its toll.

“
And you’re sure he will be
able to do his part before the Nighthawk arrives?”

“
I believe so. I don’t know
exactly when the Nighthawk will arrive but Cortez operates very
near QH-212, in fact he has a setup on Echo 3 itself. He is
apparently warmly accepted among the Remorii. I think he’ll be able
to do his part in time.”

“
Will the Remorii go for
it?”

“
Cortez seemed to think he
knew the right ones who are open to
persuasion
. I don’t foresee a problem.
What I need from you is the assurance that I’ll have what I
need.”

“
The arrangements are being
made.”

“
Good. I’ll keep you
updated.”

“
One more thing,” said
Director Edwards, “how do you know he won’t keep all the funds we
sent him and make a run for it?”

“
Someone else in his
position might be tempted,” admitted Nimoux. “But not Cortez. He
knows he’s not long for this universe if he’s being hunted by
us
and
the Khans.
He’s far too prudent and cautious to make an enemy as powerful as
Intel Wing. Though I have no doubt he’ll skim a little off the top.
But the amount should still be sufficient.”

“
It’d better be. If it was
anyone but you suggesting this crazy plan, I would never approve
it.”

Chapter 12

They arrived at the QH-212 star system and
found little of value. There were no ships or bases, no habitable
planets, and no obvious exploitable resources. A gas giant, an
asteroid belt, and several rocky planets circled the brilliant blue
star but it seemed no different than thousands of other so-called
“destitute systems.”

“
Is there any indication
that the Arcane Storm is or was here?” asked Calvin.

“
Not yet,” said Shen. “But I
haven’t scanned the entire system.”

“
Keep scanning,” Calvin
said, then he turned to Tristan. “We’re here. What are we supposed
to find?”

The Remorii smiled. “You think this system
has no value. That is by design. But I assure you, my people live
here.”

“
So you said earlier. But
you failed to mention where.”

“
Inside the asteroid belt.
There is an especially large, super dense asteroid that we call
Echo Three. Our facility is there.”

“
And?”

“
And we must go aboard that
facility and ask our questions in person.”

“
Why can’t we just hail
them?”

“
Because Afton will never
answer our questions in such a manner.”

“
And...” said Calvin, “Afton
is the only one who can tell us where the Arcane Storm
is?”

“
Afton is the leader of my
clan. He is the one who told me the Arcane Storm took supplies
here. Don’t worry, after your ship docks I will go alone and return
speedily.”

Calvin didn’t like the idea of Tristan
collecting intelligence from the clan leader and then forcing
Calvin and the others to take his word at face value. If there was
new information to be had, he wanted to get it from the source. And
not give Tristan a monopoly on it. “I’m going too.”

Tristan gave Calvin a strange look. “It is
probably better for you to remain here.”

“
Why?” demanded Calvin. He
understood the inherent dangers in surrounding himself with a bunch
of Remorii—but he thought Tristan’s presence would most likely keep
him safe.Tristan didn’t respond right away. “Very well, you may
come. But bring soldiers if you do.”

“
I intend to.” Entering a
colony of potentially blood-thirsty Remorii without an armed
escort... Calvin wouldn’t dream of it. He’d have to keep the shore
party small, however, so as not to intimidate Afton—assuming
Tristan hadn’t made him up.

“
You must follow the
coordinates I give you exactly, and you must allow me to broadcast
a message into the asteroid belt,” said Tristan. “That’s the only
way for us to proceed safely.”

“
Sarah, standby to transmit
whatever message Tristan—”

“—
no
I
must send the message. It must
be
my
voice.
Otherwise we will never arrive at Echo Three. There are thousands
of weapons batteries mounted on asteroids, they will automatically
target us and open fire. Unless I temporarily disable the automated
system.”

Calvin folded his arms. “Sarah, give Tristan
your headset and allow him to make his broadcast.”

Sarah handed the headset to Tristan, looking
uncomfortable as she did, and Tristan put it on.

“
You’re broadcasting now,”
said Sarah.

“
The one who returns is one
of the few,” said Tristan. He listened for a moment, hearing
something over his headset—perhaps an automated response—and then
said, “is there no rest for a wanderer?” He took off the headset
and handed it back to Sarah, announcing, “we may now approach
safely. Follow the coordinates I give you, pilot.”

“
Sarah,” said Calvin. “Do as
he says. But only if the course he gives you is safe to
navigate.”

“
The asteroid field is not
very dense,” said Sarah. “By the looks of it, all the large
asteroids that could puncture our armor are quite spread out. A
ship our size, properly piloted, should have no
trouble.”

“
Then I’m glad you’re the
one at the helm,” said Calvin. He motioned for Tristan to
proceed.

Tristan walked over around to the front of
Sarah’s station and began entering coordinates to act as waypoints
that she would manually navigate between.

Calvin returned to his seat at the command
position. “ETA?”

“
We’ll be entering the
asteroid belt in just under two minutes,” said Sarah. “At that
point we’ll have to reduce speed.”

“
I’m picking up something,”
said Shen.

“
What is it? A
ship?”

“
No, not a ship. More like
an alteredspace jump signature. It’s very fresh but its proximity
to the star makes it almost undetectable.”

“
Why would someone jump so
close to a star?” asked Miles. “That’s stupid. They could have been
killed, gravity from the star could easily have trashed their
alteredspace equilibrium.”

Obviously, Calvin thought, the ship had
something to hide. Perhaps it didn’t want to be followed. “Could
that jump signature belong to the Arcane Storm?”

“
It’s probably one of the
traders we do business with from time to time,” said Tristan. “They
will jump near the star if they think there’s a chance someone is
following them, such as a raider, a competitor, a military vessel,
a loan shark, or just their imagination. It’s a pretty common
maneuver.”

“
I don’t think this
signature was made by the Arcane Storm,” said Shen. “It seems too
small. About the right size to have been made by a common trading
skiff, like Tristan suggested. If the Arcane Storm was here, it
left so long ago there’s no trace of it. Either that or it jumped
even closer to the star, which would have been extremely
reckless.”

“
Is there another jump
signature, one that might corroborate the idea that the trading
vessel was being chased?”

“
No.”

“
Is there any way we could
ID that jump signature more conclusively?”

“
Negative. It’s too
distorted by the star. Honestly we’re lucky we saw it at
all.”