“I hope you like sitting there like that, Donelly, because that’s how you’re going to die.”
“Sure. Fine. I’ll die. That won’t save you.”
He grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it. Ask Alba. I sent her a message. I told her to abort.”
“She didn’t get a note.”
“It was at the dead-drop. In a can.” I turned my head and spat, missing him. “I made the mark. I told you to abort.”
“Liar!”
“Fine. Not my fault some eco-freak picks up the can.” I raised my head myself. “You sure she didn’t get it?”
“She didn’t say anything… ” His eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“Maybe she didn’t. She’s a merc. She can be bought. Maybe Emblyn owns her. She knew the details, right? Who else?”
“Me, Teyte, her.”
“And her boss. Or your cousin’s.”
That earned me another slap. “Teyte is not a traitor.”
“Fine. One less suspect for you.” Bloody saliva dripped to pool between my feet. “She’ll say she got it too late. She just picked it up too late.”
“She’s not a traitor, either.”
“Yes, my lord. You have a traitor. You have to smoke him out.” I snorted. “You don’t, Emblyn hurts you bad.”
“How do I find the traitor?”
I straightened up, then looked at the guards. “How much do you trust them?”
Bernard looked up, then waved them out of the room. “How?”
“Tell Alba you’re doing a political op. Tell her one plan. Tell her subordinates each another plan. If it is a political op, Emblyn will use me to counter it. I get the details, tell you. You know who leaked it.”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. “I can see that working.”
“Good. Keep the pressure on Emblyn. More action.”
“More disaster. We’ll get sold out again.”
“No, you have to do what he’s doing. He can’t cover everything. You went for a big bite and got hurt. So now go for nibbles. So many, so fast, targets chosen at random by teams with no oversight. He can’t cover them all. A hundred little cuts will bleed him just as well as one big one.” I smiled. “And then, when he’s scrambling to cover the little ones…”
“We go back after the Palace.” Bernard started pacing. “Was I wrong about you, Donelly, or are you setting me up again?”
“You know what? I don’t care about you or Basalt. Get me out of here and I’m heading off Basalt. If there’s a DropShip going this afternoon, I’m on it.”
“Oh, no, you’re not.”
“Why not?”
“You’re my man inside Emblyn’s organization. You’ll deliver the traitor to me.”
“Fine, then I’m gone.”
“No, Mr. Donelly, nowhere near gone.” Bernard gave me a smile that made me nostalgic for Helen. “After the traitor, you’ll give me Ring Emblyn himself.”
32
He who has the gold makes the rules.
Manville, Capital District
Basalt
Prefecture IV, Republic of the Sphere
16 February 3133
Bernard called his bullyboys back in and they dragged me down to their hovercar. Given the deterioration of my personal hygiene, they stuffed me in the trunk and drove around for a while, then dumped me in an alley. They took turns kicking me in the stomach, then uncuffed me.
One grabbed a handful of my hair, then slapped me with the other hand. “Be smart. Do what he wants. Next time we’re planting you where you’ll never be found.” He let my hair go then kicked me into a garbage midden.
I passed out at that point and when I came to, I actually thought I was dreaming. I was on my back in a garbage pile that reeked of puked pizza and oranges. A rather large rodent was sitting on my chest and came upright as my eyes opened. It flashed me a grin full of nibbler teeth, which made my belly ache more, and then it spoke.
“So sorry a sight even a nibbler won’t bite you.”
It took me a moment to marvel at the nibbler speaking about himself in the third person, but then my brain coordinated things and told me the voice was actually coming from above and to my right. The nibbler and I both looked in that direction simultaneously. The rodent scampered off and I wished I could have.
I groaned. “Good evening, Colonel Niemeyer. Out for your constitutional?”
“Nope. Back from the coroner’s office, where we’re putting BSU corpses together like puzzles. Lots of work, and it’s your fault.”
I rolled to my right and gained a knee. “My fault? Enable help files, please.”
“Come off it, Donelly. I know what’s going on.” He posted his fists on his hips. “Why do you think I’m here?”
He almost had me on that one, but my head had cleared just enough for my training to click in. Any time someone in authority asks an open-ended question like that—“Do you know why I stopped you?” or “Do you know how fast you were going?”—they’re fishing for information they can use against you. The logical answer to his question would be to assume he knew about FfW or BSU and actually had tied me to things. In an effort to avoid trouble, I might spill my guts, which would just put me in deeper with him.
I was about to be sullen and vaguely insulting in my response, but my brain had started running and an idea popped up. “Actually, I think you’re here because of an internal PSD investigation into the activities of officers Higgle and Giggle. You know they’re working for Bernard Germayne, you’re afraid laws are being broken and that the integrity of any investigation you might be doing is compromised because of them. You need to catch them red-handed, however, preferably with Bernard there too, because he has enough influence to be able to protect them and discredit you. How close is that?”
Niemeyer blinked, then crouched down beside me. “I think you’re a lot smarter than I give you credit for.” He looked me over, then shook his head. “Not that you give that impression in your current state.”
“Yeah, well, I fell down the stairs. Into a urinal.”
He reached out and turned my face to the side where a bruise was coming up from Higgle’s last slap. “Okay, we’re going to have a conversation, and I want to fast forward through all the macho posturing. I know you won’t give Bernard up to me. You’re not going to turn nibbler. And maybe you have it in the back of your head that you’ll get Haggle and Gaggle yourself. Ditch that idea. They’ll kill you or you’ll kill them, and if you do, I’ll kill you. I’ll just have to.”
“Okay, you’ve saved yourself twenty minutes. The point you’re going for is?”
“My world, my people, I care. So far, aside from the mercs that got splashed up north, all we’ve had is property damage. That’s not Bernard’s style. Someone is exerting a lot of influence to keep things on a simmer. I’m glad of that, but that same person has to know things will boil over. He can’t control someone like Bernard. No one can.”
I narrowed my eyes. “No one? Not even you?”
“I can control him, but I have to be able to put him away.”
“And you want me to give him to you, somehow?”
“No, that would be going back to the part of the conversation we skipped. You won’t do that. Fine.” He slowly stood. “I will get him, one way or another. A smart guy like you might just want to be clear before that happens.”
I looked up. “And how would a smart guy like me know when that was going to happen?”
“Same way that someone who called a tip into PSD knew when the assault up north was happening. You’re not smart enough to leave Basalt, so I hope you’ll be smart enough that you don’t get stuck here forever.”