Worlds of Honor

Kingdom and under the names of Thoreau and Krogman.

None of which made him any happier about Krogman's speculations. The possibility that someone might have managed to sneak a bug in on them despite his best efforts was bad enough, but his partner's musings were frightening. People in their line of work became dangerous when they knew too much . . . and their employers became dangerous to them when those employers only thought they knew too much. Besides, he'd heard that same note from Krogman before, and it usually indicated that the other man was mentally prospecting for fresh opportunities. Which was a good thing, most of the time, but would be a decidedly bad thing if it got them any deeper into some kind of plot aimed at toppling the monarchy outright.

'Yeah, well, maybe you're right about all that, Jean-Marc,' he said, 'and maybe you aren't. But what we've got to worry about is the operation we signed on for, and I'd feel a hell of a lot better if we already had her real itinerary.'

'All we can do is all we can do,' Krogman replied with a philosophical shrug. 'We told them they'd have to provide us with the intel to get our boy into position, and they agreed. So if they don't get us the word this time, then we wait for the next time she comes out where we can get at her. Either that, or they find themselves another team.'

'I don't much like that thought, either,' Thoreau muttered, and Krogman quirked an eyebrow. 'The thought of their finding another team,' the big man amplified. 'I mean, what if they've already lined up somebody to pop us right after we pop her? Kinda tie up the loose ends real quick, just in case?'

'A thought,' Krogman murmured, and there was a gleam of respect in his eyes as he regarded his partner. In point of fact, Krogman had already considered that possibility, but the fact that Thoreau had also pondered it gave it additional point.

Of course, that's always a part of the game, isn't it? And our 'clients' know that we know that they know that we know it. So if I were the people we're working for, and if I were as smart as I've been giving them credit for being, would I also be smart enough to know that people like me always cover our asses? Or would I be smart enough to figure out a way to pop me and get away with it no matter howthoroughly I've covered my ass? 

He smiled dreamily at the thought.

* * *

'Here! Take it and get the hell out of my life!' the uniformed woman hissed, and threw the data chip viciously at the elegantly groomed man. They stood between towering banks of Terran rhododendron in Mount Royal Palace's Grand Garden, atop the hill overlooking the city of Landing, and Manticore-A hung on the western horizon. The cool breezes of evening sighed in the glossy green leaves, and the shadows were dense enough to blur their features, but the insignia of a commander in the Royal Manticoran Navy glittered on the woman's collar.

'Now, now, Anna!' The elegant man caught the chip with negligent grace. 'That's no way to talk to someone who's paid you so well for your services.'

'Paid? You call it paid?' The commander sounded strangled, and her fisted hand quivered at her side. 'I never took a goddamned cent from you!'

'Ah? Well, I suppose not,' the elegant man agreed. 'But there are other commodities than money, aren't there, Anna? Like silence. Yes,' he mused, 'silence can be quite valuable, can't it? Especially when it keeps someone like you in the service of the Crown rather than buried on a prison asteroid somewhere. Or possibly just buried, if the court-martial happened to feel particularly vindictive. Normal bribes and contractor kickbacks are one thing, after all, but when substitution of substandard materials leads to the deaths of—what was it? Sixty of your fellow Navy personnel? Well—'

He clicked his tongue and shrugged, and the woman physically twitched with the rage boiling through her. But he was right, damn him! All he had to do was drop a hint in the right ear, and her career, her freedom, and quite possibly her life would be over.

But the smartass bastard's overlooked the flip side of the coin, she thought savagely. Sure, he can wreck my life. But I can do the same for him, too, and if I turn King's Evidence to nail a damned dukefor treason, they just might let me walk, too! 

The thought helped steady her, and she drew a deep, hissing breath.

'You've got your information,' she said flatly, 'and I hope it doesn't do you a damned bit of good. I sure couldn't break the encrypt.'

'Just as long as it's the right file.' The elegant man's voice was no longer lazy, and the woman felt a sudden flicker of fear at its sudden coldness.

'It's the one you asked for—that's all I can tell you,' she said. 'That's all anybody could tell you about a Blue File without the encrypt key.'

The elegant man seemed to consider that, then nodded slowly, and she relaxed a bit at the evidence that he meant to be at least a little reasonable. Blue Files were the most closely held of all military data. Their encryption programs were the best in the Star Kingdom, and their file designations were randomly generated strings of letters and numbers to avoid names which might offer any possible clue as to their contents. All the commander knew was that this particular file had been designated as 'A1108G7Q23,' and that she had pulled it out of the files of the King's Own Regiment. And, frankly, that was all she wanted to know about it.

'Then I suppose I'll just have to find myself a key,' the elegant man said, and smiled. 'You wouldn't happen to know where I could find one, would you, Anna?'

'No, I wouldn't,' she said shortly.

'A pity. Ah, well. Thank you ever so much for your assistance. If I should need any other small favors, I'll be in touch.'

He raised one hand and twiddled its fingers in a dismissive, shooing gesture, and she clenched her jaw. But she also made herself turn obediently and leave.

Let the prick enjoy himself for now, she told herself venomously. I'm just about ready to put the blocks to his ass. 

She smiled thinly into the gathering evening gloom at the thought. It was risky, and she'd implicated herself hopelessly if anyone else ever found it, but the file she'd put together on all her 'patron's' demands over the years was just about thick enough.

Another few months, she thought, nodding a brusque salute to the sentry outside Mount Royal's Lion Gate, and turned to her left, stalking down the pedestrian mall with a long, angry stride.

Just a few more demands like tonight, and it'll be enough to take to Justice and barter for a pass on the bribery charges. Hell, I'll even settle for five-to-ten in a cell if it lets me take the son-of-a-bitch down with me! 

Commander Anna Marquette, senior military aide to the Second Lord of the Manticoran Admiralty, never noticed the dark-haired woman behind her. There was no reason she should have, for the stranger had mastered the art of unobtrusiveness. It was, in fact, her stock in trade, and she moved through the sparse, evening foot traffic as if she wore a cloak of invisibility, making no more impression than the breeze itself on anyone who saw her—or, rather, didn't quite see her—as she drifted along behind Marquette.

As a matter of fact, the commander mused as she made the familiar turn to cut through Eminger Park, maybe I shouldn't wait even another month. I don't know what the damned file he wanted was all about, but it wasa Blue File. That means someonesure as hell thought whatever's in it was important enough to bury deep, and if that's true, then— 

The unobtrusive woman touched a button in her pocket, activating the contact lens in her left eye. An