“How do we know this isn’t a setup of some sort?” Honda wondered then, bristling. “Maybe you got tired of my Nikky, here, and want to get rid of him. Or maybe those bastards that beat his face black and blue convinced you they’re right.”
“Settle down, Rikky,” Ashton murmured, dropping into the good cop/bad cop variant. “You’re letting that hot head of yours get the better of you again.”
“I’d kill him before I’d let you get hurt again, Nik,” Honda threatened. Niebecker recoiled briefly, then seemed to collect himself.
“All right, I understand what is going on,” he murmured. “And I did think about this, about how to prove I was telling the truth. It’s been hard, trying to find a way to walk a tightrope, to maintain my loyalty to my people while disapproving the direction our leader takes us.” He sighed again. “If, as I now suspect, you found a way to look into the data packages you have couriered for me, you may have noticed that, while the other polities have increased their presence on Sintar, specifically in Imperial City, Annalia has not. We have not even replaced everyone that was there during the last sweep by the Sintaran government. And what few I have requisitioned and sent there are... how can I put this? They are men and women I would not trust with my shit.” His face twisted in disgust as he fairly spat the last. “They are considered good in espionage for the simple reason that they will do whatever it takes to get the information, and they have no honor, mercy, or conscience; they are, in my humble medical opinion, psychopaths. But they would turn on Annalia in a heartbeat if someone else were to offer them something they wanted more. They have no true loyalties save to their own skins and their own desires. So it does not trouble me in the least to give you a list of their names.”
Ashton stared in shock as Niebecker pushed a file to him in VR.
“You’re lying,” Honda accused. “There’s no way you’d risk giving up your own people to somebody you thought were enemy agents. Even if you were wrong. Which you are.”
“Hush, Rick,” Ashton said in a quiet voice. He had used Honda’s accusation to quickly check the list of six names without appearing to do so, and had found it a dead match for the list of Annalian agents he had recently given to Director Carter.
“What?”
“Hush. Everything is all right.”
Honda dropped into a VR conversation.
“You’re suckering him in, right?”
“No, I’m not. One thing Lee, Maia, Stefan and Gene taught me over the years was how to tell if someone is lying without needing equipment. Besides which, these eyeglasses allow me to see a few things like his pulse, and whether he’s flushing or sweating anywhere. As near as I can tell, he’s telling us the truth. He’s scared, but he’s being honest with us.”
“What about that list of spies? Surely it’s fake.”
“No. It’s identical in every instance to the list of Annalian spies I gave Lee when he first sent us the secured VR channels.”
“He’s serious?”
“Yes, I think he is. I’ve gotten to know him over the weeks I’ve worked with him, and this seems to fit his personality, too.”
Niebecker waited patiently but with obvious anxiety while they communicated. When they came back to reality, he drew in a deep breath.
“Do you believe me?” he wondered.
“I do,” Ashton said. “I believe you’re telling us the truth, and I believe you need our help. I’m not sure we can provide that help, but first let me ask if you feel safe going home alone.”
“No. I don’t think I was followed, because I made sure to leave from a back entrance and look like one of the maintenance workers during shift change. But my apartment is being watched.”
“Are there any items in it that you would hate to lose?”
“No. I learned during my time in the military to travel with only what I could carry easily.” He patted the capacious kangaroo pockets of his hoodie jacket. “All I need or would want is here.”
“Rick,” Ashton said, “would you please contact InfoDumpPlease and notify them of circumstances?”
“Sure thing, Nick. Anybody else?”
“Lee, of course.”
Once Honda had notified the local IPD as well as the IPD Director, Ashton produced several devices and placed them around the apartment. One was a VR suppressor.
“This ensures no one can trace us here, if they haven’t already,” he noted, activating it.
“It also ensures I cannot betray you,” Niebecker noted.
“Well, it does...”
“No, no, I understand, and appreciate your caution,” Niebecker said. “May I know your real names?”
“Not yet.”
“May I know who you work for?”
“The Sintaran government is as much as you need to know for now, sir.”
“Still you are polite,” Niebecker said with a rueful smile. “But you don’t trust me.”
“It isn’t that, so much as it is, we’re not out of the woods by a long shot,” Ashton pointed out. “The less you know, the less you could accidentally give
