The Empire, in its heyday, would have brought everyone who could have reasonably have sent the warning signal — as useless as it had been — and run them through a full interrogation, designed to sniff out any treacherous thoughts or mental conditioning. Charlie had expected that as well — and Gillingham, despite not having been properly conditioned, might well have been detected — but that too would have ruined morale. Colin had found so much support because the Empire mistreated everyone who didn’t have the right bloodline, but Admiral Wilhelm didn’t even have the kind of legitimacy provided by a thousand years of unbroken rule. If he treated his people badly, they might revolt against him and destroy his support base. If the shipyard were to be taken out, his entire war effort would grind to a halt.
They’d followed, as best as they could, the battle and its aftermath. The news channels had been full of propaganda — someone from Public Information had clearly gone to work for the Admiral — and had been claiming the complete destruction of the rebel fleet. There were other signs, however, that suggested otherwise, including the presence of two superdreadnaught squadrons in orbit and the rapid enhancement of the orbital defence network. Admiral Wilhelm was clearly worried about an attack on Cottbus — one carried out by units aware, now, that there would be no peace until Admiral Wilhelm was killed or forced to surrender — and it showed. The only question was who might be inclined to take advantage of it.
He wandered over to the terminal and checked it carefully. Admiral Wilhelm and his security officers would have been horrified to know that it existed, assuming that they didn’t already. The Empire-designed computer networks that existed on most planets, including Cottbus, were perfectly transparent to anyone who had the right command codes, allowing Imperial Intelligence to track everyone’s usage with ease. If someone was a suspected rebel, Imperial Intelligence could open their files and browse them carefully, looking for evidence or information they could use to support their claim — and encryption was forbidden, as was the development of secondary computer networks. The transparency of the system was common knowledge and very few used it for anything secure — apart from the Thousand Families, who were allowed private military-grade encryption — but it could still be useful. Sasha had ordered him to probe into the computers and see if they could locate anyone who might be helpful.
Admiral Wilhelm’s people had closed some of the access links into the system, including two that he was fairly sure that no one outside of Imperial Intelligence should have known about, but they hadn’t removed all of the private access codes. They were hardwired into the system, part of its very design, and gave whoever had access complete control of the system. It was a pity that the planetary system wasn’t connected to the orbiting shipyards or orbital fortresses, he’d reflected when he started to hack into the system, or they could have sabotaged them with comparative ease. The Imperial Navy had refused to allow such links; a wise precaution, as it turned out. It was difficult to hack into a starship’s systems unless you were already on the inside.
He called up Gillingham’s file and read it thoughtfully. There was nothing there to suggest that he was under suspicion; indeed, most of his boasts to Sandra had been plain fact. He was an important figure, he was being promoted as fast as he could manage it — and earn it, unlike most of the pre-war superior officers — and he didn’t seem to have any rebel leanings. Sandra’s covert interrogations had convinced her that while he was a decent man, he was also loyal to Admiral Wilhelm, the person who had given him the chance to shine. Given time, she could alter that, conditioning him to their side, but the more changes she made, the greater the chance that it would be picked up upon by counter-intelligence. Once Gillingham had been identified as their unwitting ally, they would certainly be exposed and captured. He doubted that Admiral Wilhelm would order them treated as standard prisoners of war.
And there was no escape from the planet. Admiral Wilhelm’s ban on any starships leaving the planet, apart from his warships, would have an effect on the system’s economy, but that wouldn’t be an immediate threat. The three agents could have vanished into the underground and completely disappeared from view — a planet was a large place, after all — but that would have ended any chance they had to strike back and complete their mission. The problem was that he couldn’t see any way to complete the mission anyway. It wasn’t that easy to trigger the self-destruct systems on orbital fortresses, or the shipyards, which meant… what?
Somewhere, there will be a rebel, Charlie thought, and smiled. He called up other files and started to skim through them thoughtfully. Admiral Wilhelm might talk the talk about wanting to bring democracy to his sector, but so far it was nothing, but military rule. He might have embraced the concept of rewarding competence, unlike most of the other Admirals, but there would still be winners and losers. The only task would be to find them.
He checked the sensor in Sandra’s room, unsurprised to see that she and Gillingham were making love again with a passion that seemed genuine, at least on his side, and carefully placed the terminal in the secure box. Sasha had been out exploring the Cottbus nightlife, learning where the fault lines lay between the Imperial Navy and the criminal sector, and it was time to meet her. Between them, they could find a rebel, no matter how reluctant, and build him up into a real threat.
The Vacuum Sucker was a fairly typical spacers bar. It was large, cheap and cramped; Charlie was unable to move quickly, just for the sheer press of bodies. Given it’s rating in the guide, it probably hosted only crewmen and junior officers, mainly the handful of mustangs in the Imperial Navy. Admiral Wilhelm had embraced the concept of promoting mustangs to command rank with all the fervour of the converted and the results had been impressive. Like Colin before him, he had seen the potential that was ruthlessly suppressed and had taken advantage of it, even though he was maintaining his own power base at the same time. How long would it be, Charlie wondered as he searched for Sasha amidst the crewers, before someone arose to challenge him?
He smiled as he passed through a handful of girls towards one of the private booths at the rear of the bar. Spacers were easy marks for women of easy virtue and hundreds of them, some working professionals, others merely out for a good time, gravitated towards every spacer bar in the city. They would give their victim a good time in exchange for being wined, dined and feted with presents, rather like girls like them had been doing since time out of mind. The spacers, who didn’t have anything to spend their money on while in space, took part quite happily, seeking someone — anyone — so that they wouldn’t have to spend the nights alone. The bar, and the hundreds of other establishments, even offered rooms for the night, although several couples in darkened corners hadn’t bothered to wait. He watched, tracking how the women moved and pulled their marks out of the mass of spacers drinking and laughing as they celebrated the battle, and shook his head. There might have been little difference, at bottom, between them and Sandra, but at least Sandra had style.
The buzz of conversation rose up around him and he listened, carefully, without seeming to listen. It was a skill he’d learnt back when he’d been recruited into Imperial Intelligence and it served him well. The main body of clientele were from the orbiting fortresses, cheering their victory, even if the fleet had largely won the battle. There was an ongoing rivalry between fortress crews and starship crewmen — even though there was supposed to be an ongoing exchange program between the two divisions of the fleet — and it turned violent at times. Most of the discussions involved resentments, real or imagined, about how the starship crews were going to win glory in the Empire, while they were stuck at home. It reminded him of Colin’s speech before the Battle of Earth. The fortress crews might have been a vital part of Admiral Wilhelm’s war effort, but they didn’t feel that way.