'Still,' Kharls said, 'those of us with the strength must continue to do our duty as best we can. So let's get on with it and see what can be redeemed from the horrible mess that ensued after the destruction of the Falada shuttle.'
'Redemption is always welcome,' Elinke replied, 'but I question whether that word and the name Gabriel Connor should properly appear in the same sentence.'
'That won't be our judgment to make,' Kharls said, 'and possibly not that of the next generation either. Nonetheless, there are still some loose ends hanging about the investigation.'
'The trial certainly should have made Star Force's position clear,' Elinke said. 'I wonder that you would question it.'
'My business is questioning things,' said Kharls easily, 'which is probably why you're so annoyed with me, especially when you have your mind made up.' She said nothing.
'Far be it from me to confuse you with further facts,' said Kharls, 'unless you are already in possession of all of them.'
She said nothing again.
'So,' Kharls said, 'let's say there are still some aspects of this situation that require inspection. Captain, I am going to require you to follow my orders or be reassigned, but that doesn't mean I intend to keep you in the dark. That would be rude. For one thing, take the trial itself. Why did Star Force relinquish the right of Connor's trial to Phorcys?'
Elinke looked at him with some surprise. 'They had to. It happened in atmosphere-'
'Yes, that well-known truism. Except if Star Force really wanted to try Gabriel Connor itself, it would have fought a little harder over the prospect, don't you think? That fight could have gone on for months.
You know how the legal process is, even now. How long did it take the Adjudicator General to come back with a decision on the venue?'
'Well, about an hour-'
'The Adjudicator General couldn't-well, there are a lot of things she couldn't do in an hour. Never mind. Does the speed with which that decision came through suggest anything to you? Just play with that thought for a while. Second, what about Jacob Ricel?' 'He's dead,' Elinke said rather bleakly. 'Unfortunately.'
'Yes, and when there were so many people who wanted to talk to him.. .theoretically, at least. An interesting problem, that last one with his e-suit. All kinds of people could have gotten at it. It suggests something about e-suit maintenance security on board Concord vessels, or on your last command, anyway.'
Elinke held quite still and concentrated on not breaking out in a sweat.
'In any case,' said Kharls, 'there was Connor claiming under oath and not under it that Ricel was Intelligence of some kind or another, and there was Ricel denying that he was, and there you were denying it as well.'
'Administrator,' Elinke said, getting annoyed now, 'you know perfectly well how Intelligence assets are assigned and identified to Concord commanders. We must know who they are, but sometimes we are required not to approach them with this information, for reasons that Intelligence finds good and proper.' 'Which we lesser beings cannot understand, yes, I know. It annoys me too.'
'In Ricel's case, no such identification was ever made to me by Intelligence. This leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities, one of which is that Intel has begun submerging assets in our commands and not telling us-an action that would be very much against the thread of Concord law in these matters, as I understand it.'
'Yes,' Kharls said, 'it would, wouldn't it?'
Elinke got up and walked around, trying to calm herself a little, trying to look at her mother's oil paintings on the walls, those seascapes that she ordinarily found so soothing, which were doing nothing for her at all at the moment. The very thought that they might be submerging assets and not informing her ... 'The other possibility is that Ricel was telling the truth when they questioned him-that he was not Intelligence, no matter what Connor said-and that Connor was lying to try to save his own skin. That possibility was the one that the prosecution favored at the trial.'
'Partly because the other one seemed too far-fetched,' Kharls suggested.
'Yes,' Elinke admitted, a little reluctantly, because she thought she could see where this might be leading.
'However, Captain, you've missed a possibility ... as did everyone else at the trial, whether accidentally or on purpose.' 'And that would be?'
Kharls leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. 'That Ricel was Intelligence, but not ours'
Elinke paused for a moment, then shook her head. 'That would be very convenient for Connor, if it were true.'
'And what if it were?'
'You would have to work at it to convince me,' Elinke said. 'It's multiplying conclusions in a way that would have made old Occam whirl in his grave. Why reach so far for a conclusion when there are more convenient ones that don't require the stretch?' 'Because it might be true,' Kharls said mildly. She could think of nothing to say to that.
'If it were the truth,' said Kharls, 'it would be worth discovering, surely, whether you like it personally or not.'
Elinke looked at the table and said nothing.
'But we'll leave that for the moment,' said Kharls. 'It doesn't matter whether you like the way this line of reasoning is tending. I intend to investigate various aspects of the Falada disaster and of the Connor trial as incidental to the disaster. One more question for you, Captain. Why did those two planets come to terms so quickly? Don't tell me about the ambassador's plans. I know what they were, close enough. It still happened too fast. Even she was surprised.'
Elinke blinked. That was information that not many people would have had, and she found herself wondering how Kharls had come by it.
'Yes,' he said. 'It comes time to continue in the direction that Delvecchio would have, if she could have- not that she could have remained in this system very long. She knew that, but long enough to put some people in place to ask awkward questions. This I intend to do, and one of them will be Connor.' At that Elinke's eyes narrowed. 'I wouldn't have thought you would stoop to using a traitor,' she said. 'Oh, I wouldn't,' Kharls said, 'but it's so hard to find out what makes a traitor. Usually they don't consider themselves such. The judgment is almost always external. And myself, I haven't made my judgments. Though of course you have.'
Elinke held herself very still and quiet, for there was something obscurely threatening about the way the man was looking at her.
'Captain Dareyev,' said Kharls, 'my job is justice. You know that. Justice is not always done in one sweep of the broom. Sometimes it takes two or three strokes, or five, or ten, to get it done right, though I try to make as quick a job of it as I can. Believe me, if after I have gathered the evidence I seek, I find that Gabriel Connor was actively involved in the deaths of the ambassador and your partner and the others, I guarantee you that he will not long enjoy sunlight or starlight or anything else. In the meantime I have other business here as well, which I will be attending to in due course. This is a busy system, and there's a lot here that needs the occasional careful eye turned on it while people think I'm occupied with other things.'
He sat back. 'Grith,' he said. 'And particularly the sesheyans' status here.'
'It's stable, surely,' Elinke said. 'That was what the Mahdra settlement was all about.'
'It will certainly be stable while we're hanging here,' Kharls replied dryly. 'My concern at the moment is for the periods when our collective back is turned, so to speak. VoidCorp is still looking for ways to overturn Mahdra. As far as they're concerned, it's a direct challenge to their power as a company. In VoidCorp's case, specifically, there is nothing more dangerous.
Their stellar nation status is secondary to them, and they esteem it less than you might suspect. Their main concern in the world is to dominate the market. Completely. They believe they own the sesheyans- from the de facto point of view, they do, however repellent it may be to us to admit the fact-and any free colony of sesheyans is abominable to them. That there should be a huge one here, sitting right under their noses in a system where the Company already has such extensive holdings and business interests, is an ongoing threat that is impossible for them to ignore.'
'But they have been ignoring it,' Elinke said, 'or at least if they haven't, they've been keeping very quiet about it.'
