“Henrik Morten. I’m sure you know who he is.”
“Never heard of him.”
Heather faltered briefly, and immediately hoped Cragin didn’t see it. Her instincts had told her this was absolutely the right thing to do, that Cragin would know something. When he was out, Cragin had been perhaps the best-connected radical in The Republic, his fingers somehow monitoring a thousand heartbeats at once. If there was anyone gaining influence, whether they were a potential ally or potential enemy, Cragin knew about them. If he didn’t know Morten, that meant the diplomat was really a little fish trying to stretch out a little. It meant Morten hadn’t made as much of a name for himself as she and Jonah had guessed.
But then why did someone entrust Morten with an assignment like doing away with Victor? He couldn’t just be a no one. She decided to press forward.
“Oh, okay, you’ve never heard of him. And you’ve probably never heard of the Kittery Renaissance.”
“Them, I know.”
“Impressive group, aren’t they?”
Cragin shrugged.
“I don’t know how much news gets in here, but about a year ago they poisoned the entire staff of a representative from Clan Jade Falcon that was in town. Didn’t kill any of them, just made them all stay very close to their bathrooms for a couple of days. They were just showing off, telling us what they could do if they wanted to. I don’t know if even you could have pulled off something like that in your prime.”
“I heard about that one. And yes, I could.”
“Well, it looks like Henrik Morten might have a connection to these folks. That could make an interesting allegiance, I’d think—only you wouldn’t know, since you’ve never heard of Morten.”
No response.
“All right. If you don’t know him, you don’t know him. I’m sure you’ll find out about him in two years.” She stood up.
“Won’t you have caught him by then?” Cragin said in mocking tones. “Isn’t that one of your actual responsibilities?”
“Yeah,” Heather said casually. “Maybe I’ll have him by then. But maybe I won’t. Might be fun to see the two of you duke it out for a while—if I’m lucky, you could get each other out of the way for me. Anyway, see you around.” She walked toward the door.
Cragin waited until her hand was on the doorknob. “I know what you’re doing,” he said.
She turned and arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
“You’re fishing. You want this Morten guy out of the way, and you’re hoping to get me mad enough that I’ll help you out.”
Heather rolled her eyes. “Of course! I’m not trying to be subtle here, Royle. I want him out of the way, and I want you to give me the info that’ll help. I know you’re not going to do anything to help me, but I figured you were still smart enough to help yourself.” She stayed by the door, but didn’t move. She knew what was coming.
“Kittery Renaissance, huh?” Cragin finally said.
“That’s right.”
“This is the guy from Mallory’s World.”
Heather took a step back toward her chair. “That’s the one.”
Cragin’s face twisted into a snarl then puckered, like he had bitten on a pickle while drinking unsweetened lemonade. Heather watched his fingers flex involuntarily, and knew he was imagining how they would feel around her neck. She stood firm and expressionless.
“I’ve heard of the guy,” he finally said.
40
Jonah Levin’s Office, Geneva
Terra, Prefecture X
17 December 3134
One thing Jonah hated about getting around Geneva was the number of one-way streets. For some reason, they always seemed to be pointing him opposite the direction he wanted to travel.
That’s the way this investigation seemed to be going. He kept accumulating information telling him to look in one direction, when he’d prefer to look almost any other direction.
Maybe the problem was that he hadn’t thought through the data well enough. If he sat down, reviewed his notes and organized his thoughts, he might find something he’d missed, something that could point him in an entirely different direction.
He fervently hoped this would be the case.
Unlike most Paladins, Jonah could find privacy in his official offices. Even during the middle of the day they had an abandoned feel, as Jonah kept a minimal staff on hand—usually a single receptionist hired from a temp agency. He simply wasn’t on Terra enough to require permanent staffers, and he had no enthusiasm for finding temporary help when he was on-planet. The receptionist was stationed at the front of his suite, while his chamber was in the back. He could lock a marching band in his office and she wouldn’t hear them.
She politely said hello as he walked by, and he smiled, vowing to remember her name before he left Terra. He told her not to send through any visitors or callers.
“Even other Paladins?”
“Especially other Paladins,” Jonah said. He had even less time than usual for politics.
Jonah’s office resembled a prison cell with a very nice desk. When Jonah was appointed Paladin, the office maintenance staff had thrown a few items into this room (a picture of a sunset, a plastic plant and a matched set of blue marble bookends), and these remained the only decorative items. A single book of governmental rules and procedures sat between the bookends. The plain curtains turned the sunlight gray.
He opened the curtains at the touch of a switch, then locked the door behind him with his personal key code and set it to report the suite as unoccupied to all but the highest security inquiries. He then sat down at the desk, opened the portfolio he had been carrying, and took out all of the sheets of paper inside. Some of them represented his notes on the case; others were Burton Horn’s. He hadn’t looked at the dossiers Heather GioAvanti had forwarded to him yet, but Jonah doubted he would need them. What he had was bad enough.
He removed a datapad and a stylus from the desk drawer and began setting down the items one by one.
Fact. Steiner-Davion had been scheduled to give the opening address for the Paladins’ Electoral Conclave, but was killed the night before he could give it.
Fact. Henrik Morten, the lover of Victor’s nurse-housekeeper Elena Ruiz and a diplomatic troubleshooter with questionable ethics, encouraged Ruiz to pass along to him information about the late Paladin’s final project.
Fact. Gareth Sinclair was appointed Paladin after Victor died.
Fact. Victor was working on a document that named Gareth Sinclair, Melanie Vladistok, Lina Derius, Geoffrey Mallowes, and about a dozen Knights of the Sphere. Why their names were on the list, and what the numbers meant, was unclear at the moment.
Fact. Morten has been connected to numerous politicians, with an emphasis on those with Founder’s Movement sympathies. Of the Paladins, he has worked for McKinnon, Sorenson, and Sinclair. Victor Steiner-Davion was considered an antagonist by the Founder’s Movement.
Fact. Morten was spotted at a riot believed to have been instigated by the Kittery Renaissance.
Fact. Senator Melanie Vladistok was involved with Morten, and wanted to conceal the nature of her relationship.
Supposition. The politicians whose names appeared on Ruiz’s document were involved in something shady enough to arouse the suspicion, and significant enough to arouse the anger, of Steiner-Davion—who, in his long personal history, had experienced firsthand just about every kind of treachery and underhandedness the universe had to offer.