internal tribunal. A proper hearing. There might still be – but not if you don’t want it to.’
Saul thought hard. ‘Are you telling me you want to cover this up?’
Donohue’s smug expression once again made Saul want to drive a fist into his face. Public Standards seemed to attract individuals of such a reptilian nature that it was easier to imagine them lying on sun-baked stones, catching flies with their tongues, than engaging in any kind of normal human interaction.
‘If we open this up to a tribunal, the whole case goes on official records,’ said Donohue. ‘But if we make it look like none of it ever happened, we’ll want you to do something in return.’
Saul imagined Donohue’s mouth opening wide to reveal long rows of glistening fangs. ‘Go on.’
‘Your fuck-up gave us an excuse to send in that task force, and naturally we took an interest in any records we happened to come across.’
‘You found something?’
‘Something even better than Hsiu-Chuan,’ interrupted Sanders, picking up the thread. ‘We said earlier that we were watching Maks because we thought he might be selling information to the Tian Di Hui. Well, it looks like maybe he wasn’t the only one. So, in return for making this whole mess disappear, we want you to accept a temporary reassignment to another ASI task force.’
Saul settled back in his seat. ‘Why?’
‘Because someone in that task force is playing the same game. Public Standards can’t infiltrate the task force, because someone there will recognize who we are, and that means we need someone else who they’re much more likely to know and trust.’
Saul regarded them both with undisguised loathing. ‘So you want me to spy on them? And if I refuse?’
Donohue regarded him unpleasantly. ‘Think about how much you have to lose, Saul. The Galileo link will be re- established in just a couple of month’s time. Do you really want to be stuck inside a cell on charges, just when you have the chance to finally find out if your wife and kid are still alive?’
The man was right, of course, but it didn’t make Saul hate him any less.
‘All right,’ Saul slowly forced the words out, ‘what exactly is it you want me to do?’
‘The task force is by a man named Constantin Hanover. You know him?’
‘Of course.’ Saul nodded. ‘He ran the investigation into the collapse of the Copernicus–Galileo gate.’
Donohue’s eyes gleamed in the dim light of the observation room. ‘There’s a lot we can’t tell you, but you need to be aware that you’re on your own if the mole in Hanover’s team figures out you’re looking for him. There’s only so far we can protect you.’
Saul’s eyes drifted back towards the lunar landscape outside. ‘You’re asking me to make a hard choice, whatever the consequences.’
‘There’s something else you should know,’ said Donohue. ‘We found evidence that could link Hsiu-Chuan not only to the Tian Di Hui, but to the people directly responsible for sabotaging the Galileo gate. And if Hsiu-Chuan is involved, then you can bet the Sphere governments are in deep, as well.’
Saul glanced back at him, startled. ‘We can prove that?’
‘Not quite,’ said Donohue. ‘We need to talk to whoever it is on Hanover’s team that’s been dealing with Hsiu- Chuan, in order to make a solid case, but the point is this could be your chance to find out who’s responsible for Galileo. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?’
Saul nodded slowly. ‘What exactly did you find there on the pharm?’
‘A couple of days ago, a shipment came through the Florida Array from off-world, and got hijacked in broad daylight on its way to an airfield,’ said Sanders. ‘The hijackers managed to get so deep inside the Array’s security zone that they could only have done it with the help of someone on the inside. What we found suggests that the whole operation was planned by Hsiu-Chuan’s people, and that means the whole operation was done with Sphere backing.’
‘What kind of shipment?’
‘Does it matter?’ said Sanders. ‘Take a look at these.’
Saul’s contacts flashed him an alert that Sanders had sent him information. He reached out and touched an icon visible only to himself, then watched as the air rippled, a series of half a dozen photographs materializing around him.
‘It doesn’t look like much,’ he said, after studying them for a moment. ‘Just a big metal box with wheels. How did you swing my secondment with Hanover?’
‘One of his task force’s members got killed in the line of duty,’ Sanders replied. ‘A man named Mitchell Stone, to be exact.’
Saul opened and closed his mouth. ‘You’re shitting me. Mitchell?’
‘I know he was a friend of yours,rsquo; said the agent. ‘I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you.’
Saul had a sudden mental flash of the last time he’d seen Mitchell, years before. They’d been in a bar far up north, near Inuvik, close by the Jupiter platform’s CTC gate. They’d both moved on since then – Saul to police work, Mitchell to off-world security – but they had a shared history that bonded them. He remembered Mitchell, sober and drawn, at his brother’s funeral; then, months later, grinning in a field under a brilliant Arizona sun, tugging off his wing-suit and laughing as Saul clung to the soil as if it were a lover.
‘He was killed serving under Hanover?’
Sanders glanced at Donohue, who replied. ‘He was just coming to the end of a long-term secondment to a high-security research programme when he died, so, strictly speaking, no. He was due to rejoin Hanover’s task force in a couple of weeks. His death makes it easy enough to put you in his place as a temporary replacement. Frankly, the timing couldn’t be better. Hanover’s going to be taking his task force out to follow up the hijack, and we’re going to make sure you go with them. We’re betting that if someone on his team was involved in the snatch,
