Galina appeared to be paging through something privately on her desktop as I talked. Suddenly, she squawked and snatched up her gun again. She’d set it aside on the desk over the last few minutes, and I was hoping she’d forgotten about it.
“You lying bastard! I just found this in your body-cam files.”
She flicked the table, and the wall behind her lit up. There was Abigail, talking to me inside the Green World warehouse.
“Oh yeah! I remember now, I did meet Abigail out there, and we talked a bit.”
“Shut up. Stop spouting your filthy lies, or I won’t be able to keep from shooting you.”
“Um… okay. Sorry.”
“Shut up. Let me think.”
Galina paced around a little, tapping her pistol on her cheekbone. “I think I get it. At least some of it. The Clavers are helping to fund this illicit expedition, or whatever it is you discovered. Somehow, she captured you and sold you to Rigel. She’s tried that before, and I can hardly blame her for it.”
Deciding this story worked better than the truth, I sheepishly confessed she was on the right track.
“Okay then, we’re getting someplace. Your files were transmitted to Rigel, where you ran into Armel, yes?”
“That’s exactly right, sir. I was revived by Armel. He told me he wanted out of his mercenary contracts. He wanted to come back to Earth and serve here again.”
Galina snorted. “As if! Why would that fool dare to dream we would take him back? Why would he even want to return to Earth?”
“Well sir, he said something about believing Earth was going to win the coming conflict in the end.”
Galina blinked at me. “What conflict?”
I shrugged. “I don’t rightly know. It sounded like a rebellion, a revolution, a government coup—I don’t know. But it was something big, and Armel didn’t want any part of it.”
“Hmm… stolen equipment, a monstrous explosion in the harbor, possibly done to cover up this scheme, and now Armel wants forgiveness? All right, McGill. It does seem unreasonable to pin the entire explosion and subsequent fire on your back. It’s tempting, mind you, but it just doesn’t fit the facts. It’s not like you were caught at the firing controls of a ship’s broadside cannons again.”
“Not at all. I was nowhere on Earth when the Sea Empress blew up.”
She nodded. “Okay. This is good. We might be able to shift the blame off my legion’s back. It’s going to be up to us to find this Green World, track these thieves down and destroy them, if only to make up for the losses at the harbor.”
“A reasonable point of view, sir.”
She began to pace, and that made me watch her movements. Soon, I began to get ideas, but I couldn’t see any path to success. Not tonight, anyway.
“Go find some of your nerd friends and get them to track down where Green World might be. While you’re doing that, muster out your unit. Alert them that a mission is incoming very soon. With luck, you’ll have some accurate coordinates by morning.”
“Uh… coordinates, sir?”
“Yes. Dammit, McGill! Were you not listening again? Legion Varus must take out this nest of pirates on Green World. The brass here doesn’t want excuses, they want scalps, and it’s up to us to find some to give them besides our own.”
“Okay, but why am I getting the unit ready for action?”
Galina rolled her eyes at me. “You’ve been out to this mystery planet more than once, so you’re the obvious choice to spearhead a commando raid.”
“Oh… great. What are you going to do in the meantime tonight, if you don’t mind my asking?”
She gave me a suspicious look. “I’m not going to be entertaining you, if that’s what you’re hinting about.”
“What? I’d never suggest such a thing.”
“Of course you would. But it’s out of the question. I have a serious job to do, and it will probably take all night to finish it.”
“What serious job is that?”
She looked surprised, like I should know what she was thinking already. “Why, I’m going to revive Armel and torture him until I’ve extracted everything he knows about this farce, of course.”
“Got it. Good luck, sir…”
I left in a hurry, as she was busy and in a bad mood. When your officers are feeling itchy, it’s best to get out of the way.
Using my tapper, I alerted all the goons I could from my unit. The adjuncts were the key, along with certain noncoms. When a sudden summons went out over the grid, some of our people were known to hide for a bit. Technically, without a stated planet-wide emergency, they were allowed seventy-two hours to report in. Some of them abused this stipulation, playing hard to get for the first sixty or so of those long, long hours.
I didn’t want any of that crap tonight. Each member of my supporting staff was charged with keeping tabs on their direct underlings. It was kind of dirty, but our optional human-tracking apps were on our tappers for a reason. Personal calls, unit-wide announcements, activation-bonuses—we would use every tool and trick in our arsenal to get the troops to report by morning.
Unsurprisingly, Leeson and Harris were the biggest complainers. In the end, they fell into line and turned their frustrations into motivational chewing-out sessions for the troops below them. It was a process that was as old as time itself.
With that effort put in motion, I headed for a bar and had a few. After that, I contacted Natasha.
“Hey, girl. I see by your tapper you’re in town.”
“Yes, Centurion. Most of the unit is in town. We were given our summons when the harbor blew up—this isn’t related to that,
