“Yes, Commandant?” It was Major Palnuss; she was glad she’d met him within the past hour.
“There’s a situation in my office. I need the duty officer and two armsmen to take a prisoner into custody.”
“Wha—Yes, Commandant.” Almost no hesitation.
“I am armed and holding the prisoner at gunpoint. Inform your people that shooting me is not a good idea.”
“Er… yes, Commandant.”
In seconds Ky heard feet in the passage. Stornaki drew himself up, trying, she could tell, to look unafraid and innocent of all wrongdoing, but the patchy red and pale of his face betrayed him. A knock came first: “Commandant. This is Major Palnuss, Security duty officer.”
“Thank you, Major. Come in. The prisoner will be to your left, seated, arms on head.” Stornaki jerked, as if to move his arms, but then held rigidly still. The door opened; Major Palnuss entered with two armsmen. His eyes widened a little when he spotted Stornaki but he said nothing.
“It’s not me!” Stornaki said. “It’s her—she’s—she’s crazy or something—”
“Commandant, do you have a charge to prefer?” Palnuss’s voice was calm.
“Yes,” Ky said. “I have evidence that Colonel Stornaki has been part of a conspiracy to commit treason, in concert with former Commandant Kvannis.”
“That’s ridiculous—you can’t possibly believe her!” Stornaki squirmed back in the chair as one of the armsmen pulled out a set of cuffs.
Palnuss nodded to Ky. “You will be convening a court?”
“Indeed,” Ky said. “In the meantime, I want him confined, and interrogated by another officer with the skill set, to whom I will transfer the evidence I have.”
Palnuss nodded again, then turned to the passage. “Everts, Matsuko, take Colonel Stornaki into custody and confine him in an empty cell for the time being.”
“You can’t—!”
Palnuss interrupted him. “Former Commandant Kvannis arrested a colonel, as I’m sure you recall, Colonel Stornaki. Held him three nights in the Academy lockup before letting him contact his family. Inasmuch as Commandant Vatta is the Commandant, I’m certain she has just as much authority.”
Stornaki clamped his jaw, glared at Ky and Palnuss alternately, then, shaking his head, stood and allowed himself to be cuffed and led away.
Everts and Matsuko handled Stornaki efficiently, warily. Ky holstered her pistol as they took him away. Palnuss stayed behind. “For your information, Commandant, our facilities are not really suited for long-term confinement of senior officers. They’re fine for the drunk enlisted who needs to sleep it off, but—”
“What other facilities are available to us?” Ky asked. “This is only my second day and I’m just learning my way around.”
He smiled. “Yes, Commandant, I know that. May I ask how much threat you think Stornaki poses? Flight risk? Violent attacks?”
“Flight risk, definitely. A risk to any investigation, as well. Likely to communicate with others in the conspiracy if he gets a chance.” She pushed the book toward him. “This is what he came to the office for this morning—he was surprised to find me here, and more surprised when I confronted him with what I’d learned. I’d assumed Kvannis would have taken anything incriminating with him—”
“He destroyed documents the night he left,” Palnuss said, walking up to the desk. “Documents Destruction was locked up as usual when one of my people left at 1800, but Kvannis had a master key. Like all the master keys, it was numbered and recorded, so when he used it after 2030 to open the room, the automatic surveillance recorded his visit. I don’t know what he shredded and then burned, but I know it was about a tenth of a cubic meter.”
“This book contains names, contact information, and timetables: some handwritten, some printed off a device.” Ky opened it to show the pages. “You will notice it’s bound like other books printed by Legal Services… that suggests to me that someone in the printing office is involved in this, too. I found it in the top drawer, right-hand side, of this desk, along with two other similarly bound books I haven’t yet examined fully. I had already found a key carefully hidden in the bottom drawer on the left-hand side.” Ky paused while Palnuss picked up the book, opened it, and looked at several of the pages. “I’m surprised Stornaki didn’t take it yesterday, before I arrived.”
“I had a team in here all day, drilling out the safe and trying to understand what Kvannis was up to,” Palnuss said. “Then after you arrived I imagine the colonel had other worries.” He cocked his head. “You were looking because you thought you’d find something incriminating?” he asked, setting the book back down and pushing it toward her.
“Kvannis fled in the night, after—” Ky paused. “You do know about the fate of the other survivors of the shuttle crash?”
He shook his head. “Not all the details, but we got a bulletin from the base yesterday evening. They’d been illegally detained, mistreated, and were being freed and transported to the Joint Services Headquarters. There’s supposed to be a big press conference today, I heard.”
“Going on about now,” Ky said. “I would be there if this weren’t my second day as Commandant. I didn’t get back from the rescue until early yesterday morning.”
“You were out there? I guess you would be, but—how dangerous was it?”
“Moderately,” Ky said. “Shots were fired. Our side had more people and more firepower.” Some of which—Rodney’s militia and reserve friends with their “borrowed” armaments—would not ever be publicized. “A few nonfatal injuries on our side; a mix of fatal and nonfatal on the other.”
“And you think Kvannis directed attacks on the rescue—”
“Yes. There’s evidence that he specifically called out an AirDefense interceptor flight to attack the civilian aircraft in which personnel were being transported back to Port Major. I think he directed the entire operation. And when that was unsuccessful, he fled; he hasn’t been found yet. Since he was destroying documents before he left, I wonder why he didn’t destroy this.” She patted the book. “Unless he meant it to be found and rescued by his assistant. Stornaki caught my attention yesterday by what he said about Kvannis. When he appeared this morning, was surprised to find me, and then showed such interest in the open drawer and what I’d found… I knew.”
“Commandant, I hope you’re right about this, because I’m going to cooperate without reservation. May I speak freely?”
“Go ahead.”
“I would like to transfer Colonel Stornaki immediately to the Joint Services Headquarters, but I do not know if all the security staff there are reliable. Do you?”
“I know some of it is not. Sergeant Major Morrison is aware, and has officers she is sure are loyal—”
“Morrison was involved in this?”
“Yes. She arranged specialist troops for the rescue. It’s too long a story for now, but she found out what was going on, and helped us on the rescue. General Molosay is fully briefed on this issue as well. Would you like me to contact the general?”
“Yes, I would. And I would advise that this book be copied immediately, with witnesses to swear to its provenance and the methods of copying, then sent to the forensic division at the headquarters.”
“All good ideas,” Ky said. “I’ll call the general now; would you like to be on the call?”
“Yes, as a witness.”
“Take a seat, then. If you have orders to give your staff, do that now; we may be busy awhile.” She looked at the time. “Right in the middle of the media event out there… General Molosay may be unavailable, and so may the sergeant major and the Rector.” She touched her control screen. “Let’s see. It’s on open voice now.”