“Mr. Rabbit,” Chang said. “Just the bunny I was looking for.”
“What do you want, Spiffy?” the rabbit asked.
“I wanted to show you something,” the skipper replied, waving at him. He led the rabbit down the corridor to a locked storeroom and opened it from a ring of keys.
“The ships of the UFS Navy are dry…”
“Not something you have to tell me,” the rabbit said, bitterly. “And no alfalfa either. And your women are mostly dogs.”
“Well, I can’t help you there,” the skipper said, opening the door. Inside there was a large barrel, already tapped. He took down a half-liter pewter mug and held it under the tap until it was full. “But there are times, as the Navy recognizes, when it’s medicinal to administer a small belt. For just such occasions it maintains the means.”
He bent down and handed the mug to the rabbit, who peered into its depths suspiciously then took a sip.
“Rum, by God!” the rabbit said happily, drinking half the mug in one draught.
“High-proof rum,” the skipper noted. “Royal Navy grog to be exact. I can’t leave the room open, but if you’ll step inside I’ll come back in a couple of hours and have you carried to your bunk. You’ll forgive me if I don’t want you wandering the ship under the influence of alcohol, what with one thing and another.”
“Nah, believe it or not I’m a happy drunk,” the rabbit said. “Just let me fill up one more of these mugs and I’ll let you lock back up.” He beamed up at the skipper as he took another swig. “You know, for a stuffy son of a bitch you ain’t all bad.”
“I was thinking something similar, myself,” the skipper said.
“Don’t kid yourself,” the rabbit said, taking another swig. “I’m all bad.”
“Mistress Sheida,” Joel said to the avatar. He had chosen the cable tier for the meeting on the assumption that there were multiple exits and hardly anyone ever came down there.
“How is your mission going, Mister Travante?” Sheida asked. Her avatar looked tired, which meant it was projecting “her” current state.
“Not fun, but that’s not important,” Joel said. “We were attacked today. The ship apparently knew our estimated course, location and speed.”
“I see,” Sheida sighed. “I guess sending you out wasn’t just insurance, was it?”
“No, ma’am,” the inspector replied. “I have a suspicion who the agent is, and even a feel for motivation. Could you give me some information on Commander Owen Mbeki’s family?”
Sheida’s avatar looked distant for a moment, then shrugged.
“The usual story. A wife, Sharon, daughter Sara. No last known location but his primary residence was in Ropasa. You think New Destiny has them?”
“Given one single comment, ma’am,” Joel said, nodding. “I’d say that they have one or both and are using them as hostages.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“I need to have more proof, even for myself, than one unguarded comment, ma’am,” Joel admitted. “And I also need to know more about an AI rabbit that accompanied an elf to the ship. The attack took place after the rabbit’s arrival. And while he was instrumental in destroying the New Destiny craft, I don’t discount him being the agent.”
“That rabbit, he is a scamp, isn’t he?” Sheida said with a faint grin. “I’d love to hear more of the story at another time. He’s another distinct possibility,” she added with a frown. “I’ll give you two items,” she continued, holding out her hand and floating a pair of disks across the compartment to him. “I can ken those with very little power usage. Place them in strategic locations. If an avatar appears near them but not in the same room they’ll indicate direction when you touch them. If an avatar has appeared in the room, they will record the conversation. Will that do?”
“Perfectly,” Joel said, pocketing the disks.
“What do you intend to do?” Sheida asked. “Take the information to Duke Edmund?”
“The duke is currently at the mer-town,” Joel told her. “We’re sailing there at the moment. But, no, I don’t intend to do that. With your concurrence, as soon as I’m sure who the leak is I’ll take action. If it’s the rabbit we will have to act quickly and decisively; he is a dangerous AI. If it is the commander I intend to turn him.”
“What do you mean by that?” Sheida asked warily.
“It is often useful to let an enemy think they have perfect intelligence,” Joel replied. “I would suggest that the commander be moved to a very important shore post where he can pick up various useful items of information. Most of them relatively low level, as, frankly, the movement of this ship is. But from time to time he’ll forward important bits of information that are higher level. Some of them will be real information that we don’t mind the other side having. I’m sure there are things that you wished you knew that New Destiny knew.”
“Indeed,” Sheida said, her eyes narrowing.
“Other things will be carefully crafted falsehoods. Carefully crafted because you don’t want to burn an agent that good.”
Sheida frowned. “And I certainly don’t want to ‘burn’ his wife and daughter.”
Joel paused and shrugged after a moment. “The time may come when that choice has to be made. The preference is to ensure the safety of the agent and their close kin. For example, if we catch someone that they don’t want to lose, and if the commander has lost his utility, we could attempt to trade ‘their’ person for ours. But, sometimes, you have to cut your losses. If it meant harm to Commander Mbeki’s family to prevent, oh, Paul winning the war, would you do it?”
Sheida frowned and shook her head. “I hate questions like that.”
“You need to think about them, ma’am.” Joel shrugged, his face hard. “I certainly do. Several times a day.”
“Still no word on your wife and daughter,” Sheida said, sadly. “I take it you haven’t ‘heard’ anything.”
“No, ma’am,” Joel replied. “But if I do, you’ll be the second person to know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Duke Edmund,” Bruce said, coasting into the swim-through that had been set aside for the duke’s party. “Would you mind joining me for a short swim?”
“Not at all, sir,” Talbot replied, setting down the section of whale bone he had been carving.
He didn’t ask, and Bruce didn’t offer, where they were going. He just followed the mer-leader as he popped up above the reef and headed downward towards the open ocean.
The reef ended at about twenty meters or so and gave way to sand bottom. The light had trailed off, but it was still quite bright in the brilliantly clear waters. They turned to the right and swam along the edge of the reef and Edmund looked around himself with interest. He realized that while he had been enjoying the overall beauty of the reefs, he hadn’t had the time, or, face it, the inclination to really examine them.
The reefs were covered with fish; schools of ones the size of his hand and nearly round of body with blue vertical stripes were everywhere. There were other schools of more “fishlike” appearance, fairly long to their height, with bright yellow tails. In among the crevices were more small fish, all of them in a rainbow of colors. It was only with great trouble that he managed to realize that there were drab fish there as well. And finally he picked out ones that were camouflaged so perfectly they were almost impossible to see. One that looked exactly like a section of reef popped up as they passed and swallowed a smaller fish whole. Edmund never would have noticed it if it hadn’t moved and when it stopped to swallow its prey it nearly disappeared again.