“Yes, yes, I know. Go on.”
“Well sir, that’s about it. I was stuck in my cell getting pissed on by ornery dogs most of the time.”
“You didn’t strike up a relationship with Abigail?” he asked.
They all looked at me suspiciously. I had a certain well-deserved reputation with the ladies. Galina in particular appeared interested in my answer.
I lifted my hand to my heart and placed my other hand on an imaginary bible before me. “No, sir! I swear, as God is my witness, I got no sugar from that ice-cold woman. She barely talked to me, not until Dominus appeared in the sky and scared her shitless. Then, she dragged me out of my cell and tried to leave the island with me.”
“So… they knew we were coming, but they didn’t know when. That means they didn’t get the report from the border. The Skay told them nothing.”
“Uh…” I said, seeing the logic of his thinking. That made me a little nervous. I’d thrown out two lies, and they’d already blown up the first one. To a man like me, being down to one thin lie was dangerous territory.
Drusus kept pacing and thinking. He was scary-smart sometimes.
“No,” he said at last. “I think your other theory must be correct. They were warned, and they had the critical detail that we were spoofing their security. I can only think of one man who knows these crucial details, and who is of highly questionable character.”
At this point, I was starting to sweat. A lesser man might have broken down and confessed. He might have cried to his mommy, begged for forgiveness, and made up some other bullshit about being tortured or something.
But that wasn’t my way. Instead, I contrived to look as retarded as possible. My face went slack, my eyes were big, round and clueless. It was my last line of defense.
That seemed to work. Everyone was watching Drusus—but a few were eyeing Winslade.
Winslade seemed to notice this, so he stood up and pointed a finger at Drusus. “I’ve got it. I know exactly who you’re thinking of, Praetor!”
“Who’s that, Winslade?” Galina asked.
“One ex-tribune known as Maurice Armel. It all fits. He knew we’d spoofed the border guards, because he gave us the codes. Maybe this entire fiasco has been a monstrous ruse.”
“What are you talking about?” Drusus asked.
“Think about it. McGill is fooled into thinking Armel is his friend. He just wants to come back to Earth. We all fall for it—don’t say you didn’t. Then, he gives us the magic key to come here like fools. McGill scouts and sees a pile of stolen gear, but he sees no troops to speak of.”
Drusus shook a finger at Winslade and nodded. His face broke, as if he’d seen the light at last. “Of course. We’re all fools. We’ve been tricked into coming out here—this is no accident. It was a setup, right from the start.”
I looked from one of them to the next with growing satisfaction. Of course, I kept my face slack and stupid, but inside I was all grins. They were off and running in the wrong direction.
“We have to question him,” Winslade said. “I’ll do it personally, sir—and don’t worry. I won’t go easy on him. I’m no bleeding heart.”
“I should say not,” Galina said with her lips twisted in disgust.
“All right,” Drusus answered after a moment’s thought. “Normally, I wouldn’t condone such a thing, but I’m not sure how big this trap might be.”
“Uh…” I said, unable to keep my big mouth shut any longer, “I think we do know the scope of it, sir. They tricked us into coming out here in order to trap Earth’s finest. If Dominus is unable to go home, if we’re destroyed, it would make a lot of alien folks happy.”
“That’s true McGill, but you’re thinking too small. What if this is a setup to create a border skirmish? An excuse for the Skay to invade Province 921—to invade Earth?”
My fool mouth hung open after hearing that idea, and it wasn’t even an act.
-40-
I quickly volunteered to accompany Winslade while he arrested Armel. This was partly to get out of the meeting early, but also to see that things didn’t get too out of hand. After all, there was a pretty good chance Armel was innocent—to my mind, it was almost a certainty.
Winslade took my offer the wrong way. “Itching for a little pay-back, eh McGill? Well, I for one don’t blame you. Fair warning: it’s likely to get ugly before I’m through with this traitorous French fop.”
“Heh…”
I followed him down long passages. We found Armel with our tappers, and they led us right to him.
He was on Lavender Deck, a zone normally restricted to passengers and crew. As he wasn’t technically a member of Earth’s armed forces, they didn’t want him lurking around the modules.
Down here on Lavender, things were pretty nice. They had a public area with sports rings for null-gravity exercise, and three bars. We checked these first.
He was holding down a barstool in the second place we barged into. A lady with an odd complexion sat beside him, listening to all his bullshit stories of glory and fortune. She looked like a stray Edge Worlder to me—they were kind of easy to bamboozle.
We walked up and stood to either side of him. Armel noticed us right away. He was a little tipsy, but that was normal for him. His blood-type was always somewhere between beer and a bottle of brandy.
“Gentlemen! Are you here to congratulate your benefactor? Perhaps a commendation is in order, is it not?”
“And how, pray tell, have you come
