Ky said, “Even though you’ve been very helpful today—”
“Oh, please!” Sera Vonderlane looked ready to cry. “Please don’t fire me! My daughter—I mean, I’m sure I can please you, just give me a chance.”
“Sera, you have not given me cause to fire you.” Ky kept her voice soft with an effort. “But the situation is such that I must have you checked out before you continue, because the person who hired you is absent without leave—and in the military that presupposes an ill intent. Before you become my permanent secretary, for however long I’m here, I must be sure that you are not secretly passing information outside this office.”
“I wouldn’t! That would be wrong!” Vonderlane’s eyes were wide open.
“Yes,” Ky said. “It would be. And that’s why you need to pass a security check.” She paused. The woman was trembling and a tear ran down her cheek. Genuine fear of losing a job or good acting? “Tell me—what is it about your daughter?”
That brought on a flood of tears and a narrative broken by gasps and sobs. “She—she was out with her children—for a break—the train to Falls Park and this car—it derailed—and they died—and she can’t—can’t work—and has no one—the house—her pension—”
“I see,” Ky said. “I understand; I’m so sorry. Listen carefully now. I am not firing you. Your salary will continue—though not the subsidy Kvannis was providing. But you cannot be working for me, in this office, until you have been cleared by security. I will do my best to find you a place to work in the meantime, but you will still get your salary regardless. Do you understand?”
“I—I will be paid?”
“Yes. Now, I want you to stay right there while I make a few calls. Can you do that?”
She wiped her eyes. “Yes, Commandant.”
“I will talk to you again shortly.”
“Yes, Commandant.”
Ky went back to her desk, leaving the door open. Sera Vonderlane was crying again, but softly. Now what? The woman was older than her own mother would have been. What could she do? Secretarial work, obviously. But where? It was irregular for her to be the Commandant’s secretary, and Ky would have preferred a military appointment for that post. But she could not toss the woman out to deal with a disabled adult daughter on her own, either. And she doubted Kvannis’s wife would take her back as a social secretary.
Vonderlane’s employment record was available to her: she could look up any of the staff. Sure enough, the woman had not undergone a background check when Kvannis hired her as his secretary. That was a breach of security and standard protocol. Her prior employment, as his wife’s social secretary, was on the record, but her references were all civilian women listed as “longtime family friends.” No credit check had been reported, no check of political connections or conflicts of interest. Clearly both Kvannis and his wife had counted on his rank and appointment to cover this breach. Which meant that someone in security was bent; she hoped it was not here at the Academy. Not, for instance, Palnuss, who now had the Greyhaus diary.
She used her skullphone to call the Rector again. Grace listened to Ky’s report. “Obviously she can’t stay as your secretary,” Grace said. “If she passes the security check, I’ll see if we can find her another place in the department. Do you think Kvannis is the one who hid all the evidence you brought back?”
“I suspect so, since we found Greyhaus’s log in his desk. Why he kept that I don’t know. My guess is that he incinerated the samples I hoped would help determine what poison was used. But we didn’t find the flight recorder, and those things won’t burn.”
“Someone’s got it, or threw it into the ocean,” Grace said. “Maybe it’s somewhere around the Academy. You should look for it.”
Ky closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. “This place is a warren,” she said. “There are far too many hiding places. But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Put the students on it. A reward to the one who finds it.”
“Aunt Grace, I’m not going to tell a bunch of young people to go poking around when some of them may have families who are part of the conspiracy. Besides, they’re on strict schedules. Military academy, remember?”
“Oh. Well, do your best.”
Next Ky called back to the Academy security team. “I need an escort to take Sera Vonderlane home,” she said. “And start a background check on her—no background check was done at the time she was hired. And do you know who a Colonel Dihann is? Was he ever on staff here?”
“Commandant, there’s only me and Corporal Metis here right now; Major Palnuss took the others with him out to the base because they’d been witnesses to making those copies. We’re not supposed to have fewer than two here in the Academy at any time…” His voice trailed away.
“Then who do you suggest I have escort her home? Any spare bodies around? She’s upset and worried, and I want her to get home safely.”
“Yes, Commandant, I can find someone, easy. Maybe ten minutes?”
“That will do. You can start running a proper background check on her. Her only former employment listed in her file here is working for Kvannis’s wife. And—Colonel Dihann?”
“Yes, Commandant. Colonel Dihann—no, he wasn’t ever assigned here. He came to talk to the former Commandant or Colonel Stornaki. Him and the major didn’t see eye-to-eye sometimes. The major thought there was something wrong about him, but we didn’t dig anything up.”
“Dihann signed off Vonderlane’s employment application,” Ky said. “On Kvannis’s word.” She glanced at the file again. Vonderlane had started at the Academy as soon as Kvannis took over… immediately after the shuttle went down.
“That’d be because he and Kvannis were buddies. He told the major they’d worked together in Dorland, at Joint Services Headquarters South.”
Dorland. Capital Makkavo. Had Aunt Grace been there, or at Esterance, when the Unification War started? “I’ll get back to you later; I need to speak to Sera Vonderlane again, make sure she understands she cannot take anything out of the Academy.”
Sera Vonderlane looked slightly better; she wasn’t actually crying and she remained calm while Ky explained what she would need to do. “You’ll have an escort to your residence; your pay can be sent there, or deposited automatically, as you prefer.”
“It goes to my bank now, Commandant. The military pay, I mean. Commandant Kvannis gave me the extra himself, in cash.”
So—under the table, what could easily be construed as a bribe for her silence. “It will be a few days before I talk to you again,” Ky said. “I have a lot to do, and I’m sure you deserve some days off. And you must not take anything from here—your keys to this room and the files, for instance. I have begun a background investigation, but I don’t expect to find anything amiss. Please do not leave the city, however.”
“I wouldn’t!”
“Good. I—” She paused as a tap came on the secretary’s door to the passage. “Come.”
It was her own assigned driver; she wished she’d thought of that herself. “Ah—Corporal, Sera Vonderlane wasn’t feeling well and will be taking a few days off. Take her to her residence and see her to the door.”
“Yes, Commandant.”
Sera Vonderlane looked at Ky, her expression pleading, but Ky had already given her what she could. “Take care of your daughter,” Ky said. “This will all work out, one way or another.” Vonderlane nodded and followed the driver out. Ky picked up the keys from the desk and locked both doors to the secretary’s office. She would need a new secretary, but before that the office would have to be searched. She was tempted to do it herself, but she needed a witness.