“Only what everybody else does,” Turk said. “Have to admit, it shook me up a bit. I know he was nine years older than God, but he’d been around for so long it felt like he was going to last forever. Hard to believe that he’s dead.”
“Not just dead,” said Jonah. “Murdered. And the Exarch has put me in charge of the investigation.”
Turk whistled. “What did you do to make Damien Redburn hate you that much?”
“I’m still trying to figure that one out myself,” Jonah said.
“Cracked the case yet?”
“Yeah. Looks like the butler did it.” That earned a weak grin from Turk. “No, it’s far too early to know anything. But there’s a distinct possibility that Steiner-Davion’s murder was planned by persons very high up in the government.”
“How high? As high as you?”
Jonah nodded gravely. “Maybe. But I hope not.”
Turk shook his head. “They still don’t give you the easy jobs, do they? Where do I come in?”
“You and your people come and go in the government buildings at all hours,” Jonah said. “You see the stuff that the workers bring in and the stuff that they throw out; you see who’s meeting with whom off the record; and nobody ever sees you. The custodial staff in a large building is effectively invisible—you could be plotting the overthrow of the government and no one would even notice.”
Understanding crossed the other man’s broad face. “Anyone in particular you need me to put the word out on?”
“Henrik Morten.”
Turk showed no recognition. “Anything in particular about him?”
“Who he works for. Who’s acting as his main sponsor. I’ve got him doing odd jobs for half a dozen politicians, but I know there must be someone out there giving him a majority of his work, and protection to boot. He’s been in more than one sticky situation and come out smelling like a rose. Someone powerful is watching his back.”
Turk nodded. “I’ll get the word out, and we’ll see what people try to tell me.”
“Thanks, Sergeant.”
“No worries, Captain. I owe you one.”
Jonah shook his head strongly. “I thought we’d established a long time ago on Kurragin that I owe you.”
“Not the way I figure it. If you hadn’t been with us, we’d never have held down the flank without breaking, and I’d have gotten chopped up just the same.”
Jonah looked at the other man. Turk’s expression was firm; nothing was going to sway him from his position.
As Jonah drove home, Turk’s expression stayed with him. Everyone needed someone they could trust with the important work. He had Horn, Turk and a few others. A few people, it seemed, had Henrik Morten.
Morten certainly seemed loyal enough, but his ethics looked quite malleable. Unfortunately, that’s all some people demanded. The people that Jonah valued were the ones who proved themselves beyond Jonah’s expectations, the ones who did a better job than he could have thought of ordering.
Turk was one of those. His face hadn’t changed much from the days in the Kyrkbacken militia, and it didn’t take much to push Jonah’s mind back to those days.
30
Kyrkbacken Militia HQ
Kyrkbacken, Prefecture VI
June–July 3110
The headline displayed in the scrolling marquee atop the newsstand read:
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE LOST.CAPELLANS DENY INVOLVEMENT.
Captain Jonah Levin was making his way through the public transit station when he saw the marquee and paused. After a moment’s consideration, he went over to feed his personal card into the newsstand’s payment reader.
The bored young clerk watching the transaction observed Jonah’s militia uniform and said, “Checking to see if you know any of the missing troops?”
“No. Just interested in what people have to say about why we’re doing it.”
A JumpShip was gone. One day it had been stationed near the Capellan border. The next day it was gone, and Republic military commanders had fallen completely silent about it. If they received any transmissions from it, or knew anything about its fate, they weren’t telling the public.
This was bad, Jonah knew. More and more voices were proclaiming that war with the Confederation was inevitable even before this ship disappeared, and those voices were only going to grow louder. But Jonah wasn’t sure The Republic was ready for conflict with the Capellans. Not yet.
Jonah took the news printout with him onto the public transit car and read the full story on his way to Militia Headquarters. Units from five planets spread over three Prefectures had been aboard the ship. The force had been touted as a prime example of the cooperative spirit of The Republic. Now it was gone, and Jonah wondered how cooperative those planets were feeling.
He checked the names of the planets. Elnath, Yunnah, Palos, Wei, and Holt. All border planets. All pivotal to The Republic’s defenses. We can’t afford to lose their support now, Jonah thought.
The newssheets offered a few personal reactions, mostly politicians and family members saluting the troops’ bravery. A few, though, questioned the buildup of force on the Capellan border and wondered why people from so many other planets needed to be involved. And this was only the first day of the story—things would get worse as time passed, especially if the missing JumpShip never turned up.
At the HQ transit stop, he exited the train and made his way through the main gate to the building where he had been assigned an office. The Kyrkbacken Militia was mostly a reserve force; the bulk of its personnel drilled one night a week, one weekend a month and two weeks out of the year. A small permanent cadre—of which Jonah was a member—provided administration, training and the framework of a regimental structure. All in all, the militia was a quiet, low-key posting for a young officer who needed to pay his dues before moving to a more interesting assignment.
Based upon the news stories, and upon the apprehensive energy pervading headquarters when he arrived, that peaceful time was about to end. He went to the cell-sized office that he shared with fellow militia captain Rafaella Graves, and found her already at work at her desk.
“Jonah,” she said.
“Raffi.” He nodded a greeting, then slipped into his chair and called up the desk files for this morning’s paperwork. “How did we manage to lose a JumpShip?”
“That’s the big question, isn’t it? I’ve squeezed a few bits and pieces from a few contacts I have near the border. They say the JumpShip might have wandered a little off course before it disappeared.”
“‘A little off course’? As in, into Capellan space?”
“That’s the gist of it, yeah.”
“They wandered into Capellan space and disappeared?”
“From what I hear.”
“Refresh my memory,” Jonah said, though he knew full well the answer to the question he was about to pose. “Do the Capellans like their borders being crossed?”
“Hmmm, I’m pretty sure they don’t.”
“So when a JumpShip disappears after wandering into their space, we can pretty well assume…”
“…the worst,” Raffi finished.
Jonah shook his head. “This is going to get worse. At least we have a pretty good vantage point from which to watch it all unfold.”
A month later, Jonah found out he was going to do more than watch.
“Called up? To where?”
“The border,” Raffi said. “First and Third Regiments both.”
“The border? What the hell? We’re supposed to be support for the border troops, not border troops ourselves! If we’re guarding the border, who’s guarding us?”