The deep voice was unusually gentle, and Alicia felt an almost unbearable temptation to tell him everything. Every single impossible word. If anyone in the galaxy would have believed her it was Uncle Arthur. Unfortunately, no one could believe her, not even him, and they weren't alone. Her eyes nipped to the Justice man, and an eyebrow arched.
'Inspector Ferhat Ben Belkassem, Intelligence Branch,' Keita said. 'You may speak freely in front of him.'
'In front of a spook?' Alicia's eyes snapped back to Keita's face, suddenly hard, and the temptation to openness faded.
'In case you've forgotten, I'm a spook,' he replied quietly.
'No, sir, I haven't forgotten. And, sir, I respectfully decline to be debriefed by Intelligence personnel.' It came out clipped and colder than she'd intended, and Ben Belkassem's eyebrows rose in surprise.
Keita sighed, but he didn't retreat. His eyes bored into her across the table, and there was no yield in his voice.
'That isn't an option, Alley. You're going to have to talk to me.' 'Sir, I decline.'
'Oh, come on, Alley! You've already spoken to McIlheny!'
'I have, sir, when under the impression that he remained a combat branch officer. And-' her voice turned even colder '-Colonel McIlheny is neither Cadre nor a representative of the Ministry of Justice. As such, he may in fact be an honorable man.'
She felt Cateau flinch behind her, but Tannis held her tongue and Ben Belkassem stepped back half a pace. It wasn't a retreat; he was simply giving her room, declaring his neutrality in whatever lay between her and Keita.
The brigadier leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose.
'You can't decline, Alley. This isn't like last time, and I can't make any bargains with you.' She sat stonily silent, and his face hardened. 'Allow me to correct myself. In one respect, this is exactly like last time: you can damned well end up in the stockade if you push it.'
'Sir, I respectful-'
'Hold it.' He interrupted her in mid-word, before she could dig in any more deeply, then shook his head. 'You always were a stubborn woman, Alley. But this isn't the case of a captain breaking a colonel around the edges-' Ben Belkassem's eyes widened fractionally at that '-and I don't have the latitude to allow you a gesture.' He raised a palm as her eyes flared hot. 'You had a right to it. I said so then, and I say so now, but this isn't then, and the questions aren't coming just from me. Countess Miller personally charged me with uncovering the truth.'
His eyes drilled into hers, and she sat back in her chair. He meant it. If it had been only him, he might have let her off-again. But he had his orders, and orders were something he took very seriously, indeed.
'Excuse me, Sir Arthur.' Ben Belkassem raised one placating hand as he spoke. 'If my presence is the problem, I will willingly withdraw.'
'No, Inspector, you won't.' Keita's voice was frosty. 'You are part of this operation, and I will value your input. Alley?'
'Sir, I can't. It- I promised the company, sir.' Her own hoarseness surprised her, and a tear glistened. She felt Tisiphone's surprise at the surge of raw, wounded emotion, then relaxed minutely as the Fury slipped another pane of that mysterious glass between her and the anguish. She drew a deep breath, meeting Keita's eyes pleadingly but with determination. 'You understand about promises, sir.'
'I do,' Keita didn't wince, though his voice gave the impression he had, 'but I have no choice. I know what happened at Shallingsport, and I was at Louvain. I understand your attitude. But I have no choice.'
'Understand?' Alicia's voice cracked. She swallowed, but she couldn't stop. Despite all Tisiphone could do, an old, old agony drove her. 'I'm not sure you do, sir. I don't think anyone could-except Tannis, perhaps. We went in with a company, sir-a company!-and came out with less than a squad!'
'I know.'
'Yes, and you know why, too, sir! You know why that son-of-a-bitch screwed our mission brief to hell! You know he sent us in against a 'soft target,' a bunch of crackpot League separatists with 'improvised weaponry' and no tactical training. Well, I've got news for you, sir- there were two fucking thousand of the bastards, with the best weapons money could buy! But Captain Alwyn took us in, and we did our job. Oh, yes, we did our goddamned job, and seven of us came out alive!'
'Alley. Alley!' Alicia's augmentation crackled with prep signals as emotion jangled through her, and Gateau's hands massaged her shoulders, trying to relax her tension. 'They did their best, Sarge.' Tannis's voice was soft. 'Intelligence screws up sometimes. It happens, Alley.'
'Not like this,' Alicia grated. 'Not like this time, does it, Uncle Arthur?' Her eyes were green flint, challenging his, and he inhaled deeply.
'No, Captain. Not like this,' he said at last, quietly, and looked over her head at Major Gateau. 'Did Alley ever discuss this with you, Major?'
'No, sir.' Tannis sounded confused, Alicia thought, and no wonder.
'No,' he sighed, and turned his eyes back to Alicia. 'Forgive me. You promised me you wouldn't, didn't you?
She stared back, face like marble, and he pursed his lips in thought, then nodded slowly.
'Perhaps it's time someone did, Major.' He gestured at the chair beside Alicia and waited until Gateau sat. 'All right. You know about the, um, flap when Alicia resigned?' Tannis nodded. 'Then you know it was part of a bargain-a cover-up, if you will. In return for her resignation, the Cadre agreed not to press charges for striking a superior officer. Correct?' She nodded again. 'Do you happen to know the identity of the officer she struck?'
'No, sir.'
'I'll be damned. I never thought the cover-up would hold.' Keita pinched the bridge of his nose again. 'That officer, Major Gateau, was Colonel Wadislaw Watts, Imperial Cadre, the man-' he met her eyes, not Alicia's '- responsible for the Shallingsport intelligence assessment. And she didn't just 'strike' him; she hospitalized him in critical condition. In fact, it was, by her own subsequent admission, her intent to kill him.
Tannis gasped and turned to stare at her friend, but Alicia looked straight ahead, eyes stony, showing her only her profile, while Keita continued in that same flat, steady voice.
'Precisely. You and I know, Major, that the Cadre isn't perfect, whatever the Empire as a whole may believe. We make mistakes. Not often, perhaps, but we make them, and when we do, they can have … major consequences. Shallingsport was one such mistake.'
'Mistake!' Alicia hissed like a curse, then caught herself and pressed her lips together. Keita frowned, but he didn't reprimand her. He simply went on speaking to Tannis as if they were the only people in the room.
'Alley's right,' he told her. 'It wasn't a mistake that killed ninety-three percent of your company. It was a crime, because those casualties-' he laid his palms on the tabletop, as if for balance '-were completely avoidable. Colonel Watts had in his possession data which gave an accurate picture of the opposition you faced. Data which he suppressed.'
Gateau's race was white, twisted with disbelief and anguish, and Keita folded his hands together and frowned down at them.
'He thought he could get away with it, hide it,' he said softly, 'and he very nearly did.'
'But … but why, sir?'
'Blackmail. The … foreign power actually behind the Shallingsport terrorists had suborned him. He'd been feeding them information-minor data, but valuable- for seven years before the raid, and he'd been very, very clever. He went through several routine security checks and one regular five-year close scrutiny, and we never realized. But when Shallingsport came up, his employers informed him that he could either cook his intelligence analysis to guarantee a blood bath that ended in failure, or be exposed by them.'
'You're saying we were set up,' Gateau whispered.
'Exactly. You were supposed to be wiped out and 'push' the terrorists into massacring their hostages, thus blackening the Cadre's reputation and branding the Emperor with the blame for a catastrophic military adventure. That plan failed for only two reasons: the courage and determination of your company and, in particular, of Master Sergeant Alicia DeVries.'
Alicia glared at him, hands taloned in her lap under the table edge, and horror boiled behind her eyes. Captain Alwyn and Lieutenant Strassman dead in the drop. Lieutenant Masolle dead two minutes after grounding. First Sergeant Yussuf and her people buying the breakout from the LZ with their lives. And then the nightmare cross-
