At that moment, Kris caught sight of something flashing, metal and sharp out of the corner of her eye.
Vicky was at Kris’s left elbow, somehow she’d become last in the receiving line. A middle-aged gray fox of a woman who had given Kris a weak handshake suddenly was very vigorously yanking a knife from her small purse and doing her best to plant it in Vicky’s throat.
Jack was making sure she had very little luck in her endeavor. He’d stepped forward in a flash, half-past Kris, reached for the arm with the offending blade, and just as quickly yanked the woman through the receiving line and into the waiting arms of Gunny Brown.
The Gunnery Sergeant clamped one arm around the woman, locking her knife-wielding arm to her side. His other arm covered her mouth so solidly that not so much as a whimper escaped. Holding her a good six inches off the ground, Gunny quickly walked the woman out of sight to the back of the dais.
This was all done so quickly and efficiently that if you weren’t to the right or left of the woman, you very likely didn’t know something untoward had happened.
Mannie did. With quick eye movements, he directed Danny toward the action. The young man went quickly.
“What was that about?” Vicky hissed under her breath to Kris.
“Nothing at all if you can manage to not notice it.”
“Should I?” Vicky asked.
“In a few moments, you and I will slip away from here, never to return. I don’t know what caused that poor woman to do what she just did, but I doubt that she will ever be a threat to you or anyone else again. The call is up to you.”
Vicky seemed to consider that as she shook two more hands. Two Greenfeld Marines and one of the civilians who looked even bigger and meaner moved toward the clump of people at the back of the dais. Vicky made eye contact with them and firmly shook her head.
“I think Maggie will be proud of you,” Kris said.
“My dad wouldn’t.”
“Do you want to be your dad?”
“You come up with the darnedest things to think about,” Vicky whispered back.
Admiral Krätz broke into the receiving line. “I hate to be a wet blanket on these celebrations, but there are matters in the fleet that must be taken care of,” was all he had to say to get people moving away from his lieutenant. Mannie offered one more round of thanks to them and announced a reception to be held in the rotunda.
Since Danny had been last seen slipping the knife-wielding woman out the back of the room, Mannie had to take charge of moving the framed copy of the charter out to the rotunda, where more people could see it.
Even with Kris and Vicky guarded by Marines two deep, Grandmama managed to slip in to thank Kris for coming. “You really should stay for the party. I and several of the girls have made homemade ice cream. It will be very nice.”
Kris expressed her regrets, but Jack made sure she never missed a step. For once, even Grandmama was outmaneuvered.
“How are things going topside?” Kris asked, once she, Vicky, and the admiral were in a limo headed for the admiral’s barge.
“Very thoroughly,” the admiral got in before Nelly could begin her own report. “Unfortunately, it is not producing what we want.”
“Sergeant Bruce, Chesty, and the Marine techs have turned the jewelry store upside down,” Nelly began. “The admiral was able to provide us with DNA samples for most of the sailors who recently went missing from his ships. Several of them had gone through the store. The rest had clearly been in a bar next door owned by the same businessman.”
“And the businessman?” Kris asked.
“Is nowhere to be found,” the admiral growled. “Neither he nor any of his four associates.”
“When did they leave the station?” Jack asked.
“According to all our travel logs, they never left it,” Nelly said.
“That’s not good,” Vicky said.
“No, and it doesn’t get any better,” Nelly went on. “By the time we got to the network-services office on the station, there was a small fire fast growing into a large one. We quickly doused it. The best tech boffins on the Wasp are going through the wreckage now, but it looks like all the storage devices were professionally wiped before they were given over to the flames.”
“And the people running the place?” Kris asked, as she stepped from the limo and headed for the gangplank to the shuttle bobbing beside the wharf.
“Ran,” the admiral snapped, moving quickly on his own to follow Kris. “Gone from the office. From the station. From heavens knows where all.”
“I hate it when the bad guys are so good at what they do,” Kris muttered.
“Good at bad, this crew is,” Nelly agreed.
“People don’t just vanish,” Jack said as he boarded the barge. Dave the businessman was already there, ahead of them. He was cuffed to the aft-most seat in the palatial surroundings one would expect on an admiral’s barge.
“Unless there’s a stack of bodies hidden somewhere on the station, these people have fled. Is a shuttle missing? Did one pull out that the harbormaster missed or was paid to look the other way for?” Jack asked.
“I assure you, the senior port captain has developed a marvelous memory,” the admiral said with a not-at-all-pleasant grin as he belted himself into his seat. The shuttle was already pulling away from the pier. “He’s full of recollections that weren’t in his harbor log. Which is good, because every record on that station is now gone. So is the network. My people are putting in place a temporary network, but it can’t replace what is missing. And it seems that there is very little equipment available on St. Petersburg. At least, equipment for sale to the Navy.”
“And what is our dear senior port captain remembering?” Vicky said, settling down beside the admiral and keeping them on topic.
“He verified what you found out. Certain shuttles from Sevastopol have docked directly with freighters, no inspection, no verification of their claimed bills of lading. He also says the last freighter to receive such visits suddenly dropped out of dock and made for Jump Point Eva early this morning. About half an hour after you went dirtside.”
“Is this freighter still in system?” Kris and Abby demanded in the same breath.
“Sadly, no.” the admiral said, shaking his head. “From the looks of it, the freighter put on higher than normal acceleration, say one and a quarter gees. It also went through Jump Point Eva at a very brisk clip just about the time we discovered that we had a special interest in this freighter. Less than an hour ago, I’m sorry to say.”
“Where does this Jump Point Eva lead?” Kris asked.
“I really don’t know,” the admiral admitted ruefully. “It’s not one that we use. We do know that it leads to a worthless system, out beyond the Rim. There are three jump points in that system that have never been explored.” The admiral shrugged. “Planets like St. Pete out here on the border usually have one or two jump points that lead out into the unknown. As you’re aware, the Sooners are the only ones who use them.”
“We should send a destroyer after that freighter,” Vicky said.
“I have one standing by,” the admiral said. “It can be under way in fifteen minutes from my orders.”
Kris shook her head. “I appreciate your offer, but it would be better if the Wasp took up the chase. Checking out new jump points is what we do. We’re equipped for it.”
“How much trouble can it be?” Vicky said. “You duck through a jump point. Look around. Duck back through if there’s nothing interesting.”
Kris had sat in on the meeting where the Iteeche told King Raymond, Grampa to her, that something was chewing up their scouts and not spitting back enough for them to even examine. Jack was the only other person on the admiral’s barge cleared to even know that the other meeting had happened. Kris opted to do a little tap dance.