They all paused, waiting to see if the High Angel would refute the claim. It was silent.
“It’s got to be the first one,” Oscar said. “We know the Starflyer infiltrated the navy right from the start. Son of a bitch, any of us could be its agent.”
“But we’re not,” Paula said. “Don’t let paranoia take over. Look at it this way, you know you’re not a Starflyer agent.”
“How does that help?”
“It’s a start. You have to work on the assumption that not everything you do can be sabotaged. Plan your actions very carefully.”
“Right, so we repair the official recording.” Oscar gave Wilson a defiant glance.
“I can’t permit that,” the Admiral said. “It compromises the whole allegation.”
“He’s right,” Paula said.
“But we have to,” Oscar said. “It’s the only proof we’ve got. My copy is the genuine record. You can’t let the Starflyer escape on some smartass lawyer technicality. For fuck’s sake, this is our future as a species we’re talking about.”
“You know for certain that the copy is real,” Paula said. “So does the Admiral because he saw the official recording before it was doctored. I, however, do not know for certain. I suspect it might be real, but that isn’t good enough.”
“I don’t believe this! I have genuine evidence that some bastard traitor was on board the Second Chance, and I can’t use it? The original recording was altered.” He gave Wilson a pleading glance. “You know that all we’d be doing is repairing the Starflyer’s sabotage.”
“If the provenance is faked, the evidence is worthless,” Paula said.
“Son of a bitch, you can’t be serious. We can blow the Starflyer out of space with this. Everyone would know it exists.”
“I would not accept a substitute recording, no matter how noble your intentions,” Paula said. “I would have to inform any authority you went to that it was not genuine.”
“Both of you!” Oscar growled sullenly.
It wasn’t hard for Paula to work out what he was thinking. Option five: he was the only innocent one.
“The Starflyer hasn’t been entirely successful in this venture,” Paula said.
“It might have avoided exposure, but we ourselves now have further evidence it is real.”
“What fucking use is that?” Oscar demanded. “You just said we can’t use it.”
“Not publicly, no.”
“Further evidence?” Wilson asked sharply. “You knew already?”
“I strongly suspected, and have done for some time now. I’ve amassed a great deal of circumstantial evidence; but again the problem is that it’s not sufficient to go to court with.”
“Is that why you wanted me to pursue the Mars case?”
“Yes, Admiral.” She gave Oscar a steady look. “It could have got me closer to them. I still don’t have any access route to the Guardians. If I did, and we shared information, they might be able to help me trace the Starflyer.”
“When they get in contact next I’ll tell them,” Oscar said in defeat.
“They probably won’t want to talk to me,” she told him. “But try and persuade them anyway. Try very hard. It is extremely important that we work together on this.”
“Sure thing.”
“What the hell do I do about the navy in the meantime?” Wilson asked.
“We’re completely compromised.”
“I don’t think there’s much that can be done. Obviously you’ll have to increase security, but there’s no way the Starflyer can prevent the major actions you’re undertaking. There’s too much political, fiscal, and physical inertia behind the navy.”
“But it can tell the Primes everything. We’ve already seen it can communicate with them.”
“Even if the Primes knew the exact time the navy ships are due to arrive at Hell’s Gateway, would it make any difference? Really? They know we will attack them there at some time. Their defenses will be as strong as they can conceivably make them. They’ve seen our weapons technology in action. Nothing has changed.”
“The strength is in the details,” Wilson said. “If they know exactly what we can do, they’ll be able to counter it.”
“They know what we’re doing on the Lost23, yet that insurgency campaign appears to be remarkably successful.”
“Yeah, maybe, but this is one weapon type we’re using. Neutralize that and we’re screwed.”
“You cannot change the attack’s schedule by much, that much is obvious. What you must do now is conduct the rest of the conflict appropriately. Information must be compartmentalized. Internal security procedures need to be strengthened, starting with your network and arrays. Work on the assumption that all information will ultimately leak to the Primes. In the meantime, I will try and identify the traitors.”
“Do you think Columbia is working for the Starflyer?” Wilson asked.
“I’m not sure yet. His actions are certainly detrimental to me personally, but that doesn’t make him guilty of anything other than being a politician.”
Wilson pushed back his hair. “Damnit, I still can’t believe anyone would betray their own species.”
“From what I understand, such an action is not voluntary. The Starflyer exercises some kind of mental control over its agents. I don’t understand the nature of it yet. I am currently tracking down several such people. When they are in custody, we may be able to determine the methodology.”
“You already know the identity of Starflyer agents?” Wilson asked.
“I have suspects, yes.”
“Are they connected with the navy?”
Paula considered the question carefully. She had arrived prepared to share a great deal of information, but the alteration of secure navy records was a nasty surprise. There was no way of telling how trustworthy Wilson and Oscar actually were. Until she was certain, she had to regard option three as highly probable, which meant limiting the information she made available. “I have reason to believe that a legal firm and a bank in New York have been acting as a financial distribution center for the Starflyer. The specialists I’ve had examining their accounts have come up with an interesting connection. A Mr. Seaton, who is one of the lawyers we’re trying to locate, sat as a nonexecutive director on the board of Bayfoss Engineering.”
“They manufacture sensor satellites,” Oscar said quickly. “We used their ground survey models in the CST exploration division to map new planets.”
“They also manufactured the Armstrong-class satellites which the Second Chance carried,” Paula said. “That means the actual hardware integrated into the satellites must be considered suspect.”
“Oh, shit,” Wilson whispered. He and Oscar swapped a horrified look.
“How many did we lose in the Dark Fortress?”
“Nine satellites total,” Oscar said. “Four of them were Armstrong-class.”
“And just after that, the barrier came down.”
“Did the Starflyer know how to switch it off?”
“That depends,” Paula said. “If you take the Guardians’ assumption that this whole war was deliberately engineered by the Starflyer, then it is highly likely that one or more of those satellites contained a device capable of shutting down the barrier.”
“And the traitor on board triggered the damn thing while we were there,” Oscar said. He closed his eyes as if he were in pain. “So we did switch off the barrier and let them out? Oh, God.”
“We, as in humans, did not,” Paula said. “We were, however, manipulated to produce the result it required.”
“How did it know?” Wilson asked in confusion. “If it planned all this out decades ago, it must have known the Primes were inside the barrier, and known how to shut that barrier down. How?”
“That’s certainly something I intend to ask it when I finally catch up with it,” Paula said. “But for now I suggest you concentrate on this information as an exercise in damage limitation. I believe Bayfoss is still supplying the navy with equipment? Their shareholder report certainly claims they’re doing well on military sales.”