'Good point. Paula activated a layer of specific-function biononics on the skin surface of her right palm.
'You have a good relationship with ANA, you might want to tell it that someday, Chatfield said.
'I'm sure it has its reasons.
'Yeah.
Paula stood, and held out her right hand. 'Well, thank you for your time, Captain.
'Not at all. He shook hands warmly. 'Was I of any use?
Her biononics sampled the dead cells of Chatfield's outer epidermal layer. 'I'm not sure. There was a second when she thought he might activate his combat enrichments. It passed. Even so, old fashioned instinct made her uncomfortable turning her back on him as he showed her out.
As soon as she got back into her taxi capsule she opened an ultra-secure link to ANA: Governance. 'He's an Accelerator.
'What makes you say that? ANA: Governance asked.
'He admitted a possible error and accepted the blame. Standard sympathy-grab manoeuvre. But his real mistake was a fundamental one. When I said Vernon had an agenda for a Faction, Chatfield asked what the agenda was, not which Faction. She held up her right hand, turning it to examine the palm. There was nothing visible, but the biononics were already feeding a stream of sequencing data down the link. 'I'm sending you his DNA. Run it against every file you have. Specifically, people involved with Government and Navy.
As before, the speed of the reply was near instantaneous. It impressed Paula exactly how much attention ANA had devoted to the analysis. Her u-shadow would have taken at least a minute to run the comparison.
'That instinct of yours is quite something, ANA: Governance said.
'Really?
'There is a twenty point spread marker similarity with a Captain Evanston.
'Not identical, so it's either family, or…
'Or he had a DNA resequence for that assignment.
'That's very deep cover. So is he Evanston or Chatfield?
'I'd say Chatfield. Evanston was a serving officer twenty-five years ago. But Chatfield's current DNA is almost a match for Captain Chatfield's registered Navy file a hundred years ago.
'Almost a match?
'The variance is small but noticeable. If we weren't considering a period spent resequenced it would be within acceptable error.
'So, if he's going for resequencing, why keep the twenty point similarity? Complete resequencing used to be quite a popular option among the criminal classes of late first era and early second era Commonwealth. The perfect way to avoid court-verified identification. A lot of them literally got away wild murder.
'That's a simple answer: his brain. He wanted to maintain his thought routines as they are. If you alter neural structure and neurochemicals you alter how you think, your very personality. He wanted to keep on being him.
'That makes sense. So give me his file. She observed it enter her macrocellular clusters. Secondary thought routines picked the data apart, highlighting the relevant sections. One long entry leapt out at her. 'Oh Jesus, she muttered.
'Quite, ANA: Governance said. 'And in connection with today's events, extremely significant.
'Overwhelmingly significant, she retorted. 'Evanston was second in command of the development-restrictions monitoring station on Elan.
'I always considered it quite an irony that the Commonwealth allowed the surviving Prime invasion forces to continue living on the worlds they conquered.
'Not all of them, she said. 'Just on the five Lost23 that we didn't completely nuke into oblivion. Some of those surviving immotiles got smart.
'You mean they got human. .
'They accessed the memories of human lawyers and promptly surrendered. They even quoted our own basic rights laws back at us. I'd say that was quite smart. Evolutionary even. Adapt to and then accept the ethics of an alien species that you were trying to wipe out in order to survive yourself. It was the only reason Admiral Columbia allowed them to live, he considered it an indication that Primes were capable of social progression — as humans see it.
'They've kept their side of the agreement until now.
'I don't think this can be blamed on them. Paula hadn't felt this angry for quite some time. Centuries. But for the Accelerators to use the Prime to bolster the Ossian Empire… It took a lot to shock her, but this had done it. Don't they understand the danger? But of course they did. It's me who is only just starting to grasp the stakes they're playing for, the ends to which they'll go.
'That is also our conclusion, ANA: Governance said.
'It's treason.
'If provable. So far we only have circumstantial evidence.
Paula resisted the temptation to glance back over her shoulder. The capsule was already clear of the city's elegant greenways. Now it was soaring gracefully over the mountain peaks towards the starport on the inland plain beyond. She toyed with the idea of going back and arresting Chatfield. 'A memory read will provide the evidence.
'Do you think Chatfield will allow that to happen?
'No, she admitted regretfully. 'If he's an Accelerator agent at tin- level we believe him to be, then capture is not an option.
He'll just auto-bodyloss and they'll re-life him inside a day with a safe body. We'll have to keep him under observation and see where he takes us.
'I have placed him under electronic scrutiny.
'Thank you. That should do until I can get a colleague here to shadow him. If Chatfield is part of the project which allied the Primes to the Ocisen Empire, he'll probably be aware of the hardware Troblum has helped them build. I'm wondering if it was those starships accompanying the Ocisen fleet.
'According to Gore, Ilanthe said the Accelerators can protect the sol system from any Void expansion. I have no idea what that might translate into in practice.
'Two illegal hardware construction projects? They really are committed to their ideology, aren't they? We're going to have to keep a very sharp watch on Chatfield.
'Who will you use?
Paula allowed herself a slight smile. 'Digby has been wanting an assignment at this level for some time. It's only fair I give him the opportunity.
'He is fully qualified, and has the necessary experience.
She laughed outright. 'That's a very tactful way of accusing me of nepotism.
'He is four generations removed.
'But still my descendant. After all, who else is crazy enough to do this kind of work?
'I find him highly capable.
'He's too young, and too eager. But if anything is going to cure that it'll be this assignment. I'll call him.
Marius was half a kilometre away when Paula's taxi capsule left Chatfield's house. He found the Investigator's presence at this exact time to be unnerving. It meant she was making a lot of connections he'd assumed would stay hidden, at least until it was too late. When her capsule had left the city greenways he walked unhurriedly to Chatfield's house. That approach at least would eliminate some observation protocols which he knew would be enacted following her visit. In confirmation, his u-shadow informed him of extremely sophisticated scrutineers slipping into the local cybersphere nodes.
For a moment he considered simply abandoning Chatfield. But advancing to the next stage was an acceptable risk. If Paula Myo had any real understanding of the Accelerator strategy she would have taken Chatfield into custody. So he sent his u-shadow into the homes of Chatfield's neighbours, and examined various files, siphoning out inconsequential personal details and preferences. As he walked down the greenway the data was absorbed by his biononics, enabling them to change his appearance and electronic emissions. His shimmering toga suit transformed to a bland swaddle of amethyst cloth, with ginger boots just visible below the shifting folds. Confident in his amalgamated persona he crossed the shaggy front lawn and triggered the house sensors.