Lu Wai nodded, and slipped into the dark. With her visor up, it seemed to Danner that the sergeant disappeared. Good. The whole thing should be contained. She risked a look over the windowsill. The light was dim; she saw vague shapes—sacks, she supposed—and what had to be the spy, holding a comm to her mouth. Talking.
She could not see who it was.
She tongued for a channel change. “Sara. She’s still talking. Is the Kurst talking back?”
“Sigrid says there’s definitely two-way communication. She also says, and you should find this interesting, that the Kurst transmission comes directly from their bridge.”
Danner nodded to herself. It was the confirmation she needed: whoever was in there was talking to and spying for Company hierarchy, with everyone’s full knowledge and consent, except the command on Jeep. It was a relief; now she would no longer wake up in the night, wondering if she was being paranoid. Danner was surprised at the sudden bitterness she felt at the confirmation. After all, she had expected this.
Kahn arrived. Danner sent her to join Lu Wai.
The spy had not moved. What did the woman have to talk about for so long?
Danner began to wish she had had Dogias patch it through. Was the spy talking about her?
“Dogias, do you recognize the voice?”
“Nope. No one I know. But judging by the way she’s talking to the first officer up there, she’s a Mirror, and not a lowly foot soldier either. Lieutenant, maybe.”
Danner only had six lieutenants. She knew all of them, had promoted all of them personally. The betrayal bit deep. She wanted to know who it was, now, but she restrained herself. They had to let the woman finish her message; the longer the Kurst was kept in the dark about Danner’s discovery of their duplicity, the more Danner could learn, the more time she would have before… whatever was going to happen happened.
“This is Dogias. Sounds like she’s winding up the conversation.”
“Sergeant, any minute now.” She flipped channels. “Sigrid, please monitor the Kurst. I need to know the instant they switch off.” She flipped back. “Sergeant, I want you both armored up, just in case.” She risked another glance through the window. “I don’t think she’s armed, so be quiet, be smooth. I want her silenced and subdued inside this building. Not a whisper to escape. Acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged.”
“I’m right here outside the window if she chooses to come this way.” She slid down her visor. The world turned gauzy. Her heart pumped.
“That’s it,” Dogias said suddenly in her ear.
“Kurst transmission ended,” Sara confirmed.
“Go,” Danner said. She edged away from the window to give herself the space to maneuver if necessary. It had been five years since she had been involved in any kind of action. She had forgotten how adrenaline made legs wobble and defied the suit thermostat. She shivered.
Nothing happened. Surely Lu Wai and Kahn should be there by now?
Yellow glare flooded her vision for a split second before her visor compensated: in the storeroom, her Mirrors had turned on the lights. One armored figure, Kahn, Danner thought, had her weapon out and was covering Lu Wai as the sergeant confiscated the spy’s wristcom and wrapped a cling around her arms and waist, then her ankles.
“Subject immobilized.” Lu Wai’s voice was calm.
Danner slid up her visor and strode to the door. Her thigh muscles felt too big, too tight: adrenaline reaction, rage. Now she would see.
The storeroom smelled of dust and grain and the faint ozone hum of clings. The spy was not wearing a helmet.
Lu Wai saluted. “Sublieutenant Relman, ma’am.”
The spy was half sitting, half lying on some sacks. Young. Short black curls.
Round face that normally looked relaxed, but now reflected her physical discomfort.
“Sit her up straight,” Danner said to no one in particular. Kahn obeyed. Helen Relman, who worked under Captain White Moon. Who answered directly to Ato Teng. How far did this go?
“Lieutenant Relman, you are being held on suspicion of behavior likely to endanger fellow officers. You will be taken to an appropriate holding place and questioned. Do you have any questions of your own at this time?”
Tell me it’s all a mistake, Danner wanted to say. Explain everything.
Relman said nothing.
She was pumped up with adrenaline, with over-oxygenated blood hissing through her veins; that silence was too much for Danner. “Goddammit, Relman!” She wanted to shake the woman until her teeth rattled, but settled instead for pacing up and down. “Why in hell did you do this? You think I’ve treated you badly?What?”
“You said I would be taken to an appropriate holding place before being questioned.”
“This is as appropriate as anywhere.” She hit the wall stud that darkened the windows, then folded her arms. “I’ve got all night.”
Relman appeared to think. “I would like my partner, Bella Cardos, informed of my whereabouts.”
“She’s involved in this?”
Relman looked startled. “No. But she’ll worry.”
Danner turned to Lu Wai. “Sergeant, find Cardos, bring her to an adjacent office.
Tell her only that she is to be questioned in regard to an offense that may endanger the safety of fellow officers.”
“I told you she’s nothing to do with this.”
”I don’t believe you,” Danner said mildly. “You may choose, of course, to try and convince me otherwise with some pertinent information.”
No reply.
“We have all the time in the world,” Danner said, knowing it was not true, knowing that now that they had Relman, things would move very fast indeed.
Relman’s cheeks were pale except for some broken blood vessels around her nose.
Danner thought it made her look like she had a bad cold. The woman was just realizing what kind of position she was in.
“You have a choice, of course. Tell us everything, let us verify it; we’ll take that into consideration. Or you could keep quiet and hope that something happens, some miracle to change the situation in your favor.” Danner kept her voice steady, calm, reassuring. “That hope, in my opinion, is not only unreasonable but foolish. I don’t think you want to continue being foolish.” Surely the woman could not believe that the Kurst would come down just for her.
“We’ve got nothing to tell you.”
“‘We’?”
Relman flushed, but said nothing.
Danner sighed. Stupid woman. “I don’t really know why you’re behaving like this. You’ve nothing to gain from it, and a lot to lose.” She looked around, found a folding stepladder made of slippery gray plastic, pulled it opposite Relman, sat down. “In all likelihood, you will never leave this world. None of us will. Think about that: we’re the only people you will ever see, ever again. And we’re not happy with you, we won’t forgive you. Not even Bella. And no one will forget. Is that what you want?”
Danner stopped. She was not getting through: Relman did not yet see the seriousness of her situation. She stood up. “I’ll be back, when you’ve had some time to think.”
Outside, the air was cold and wet and smelled of snow. Danner nodded to the women who were leaving Rec in ones and twos. Halfway back to her office, she called up Lu Wai. “Sergeant, I want you to take Relman over to sick bay and check her over. She might be suffering some shock. See that she gets something to eat.
Don’t talk to her until she starts talking to you. When Cardos is found, explain to her what’s going on; if you can persuade her to help us, give them five minutes alone.
Whether or not Cardos is cooperative, keep them both in sick bay. Separate rooms.