“Henry Nostrada,” Harden said.
Ethan lifted his comm unit, eyes on Harden, and connected. “It’s Ethan,” he said as Velda Shanïha answered. “Harden just threw Nostrada under the bus. Which means he’s probably dead.”
He heard Velda draw in a surprised breath, while watching both Pamela Ingot and Harden stare at him with varying degrees of shock.
“I’m here in Nanganya, same as you,” Velda said, voice clipped. “I got in a couple of hours ago. No one has seen Nostrada since yesterday, so I’m about to head to his apartment.”
“Wait for me,” Ethan said. “Where’s the Planetary Administrative Council building in Nanganya?”
“We’re in it,” Pamela Ingot said. “We have the bottom four floors, Planetary Admin has the two floors above.”
That was good.
“I’ll come down to you,” Velda said, voice slightly amused, and Ethan realized he’d just ordered her to wait for him.
He gave a mental shrug. She shouldn’t be out looking for Nostrada without protection.
“You weren’t surprised Commander Harden threw out Nostrada’s name,” Pamela Ingot said.
“No. We know Nostrada’s involved. But I’m guessing Harden was either told he was going to be killed, or had him killed himself, for him to so casually give out his name.”
“And Velda Shanïha is here, in Nanganya, a few floors above us, right now?” Ingot’s mouth twisted. “What have you brought down on us, Harden?”
Ferris Harden said nothing. His hands stretched and flexed on his thighs, and he didn’t look at them.
“You want to come with us?” Ethan asked Ingot.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Going to see if Henry Nostrada is in his apartment, because he hasn’t come in to work.”
“You really think he’s dead?” Ingot asked.
Ethan nodded, but he didn’t think. He was sure.
2
Velda Shanïha letEthan Hyt go ahead as she walked toward Henry Nostrada’s apartment building.
His stride was longer than hers, and she was fine with walking with Pamela Ingot, the Nanganya Head of Protection.
She and Pamela had met numerous times in the past few years, although usually in a group setting, and she had always liked the commander.
“Ethan said that Ferris Harden tried to have Wren Thorakis killed,” Pamela Ingot said as they approached the entrance to Henry Nostrada’s building.
“He did. Along with the last person on planet who can use the Guan Scanner, Ed Zeneri.” Velda shuddered to think what would have happened if that plot had succeeded and both Wren and Ed Zeneri had been murdered. She and her people would still be blissfully unaware of the massive threat to their planet.
“I know Ed.” Pamela Ingot glanced at her in surprise. “I thought he’d resigned.”
“We managed to persuade him to come back.” And thank goodness they had. The Cores, along with the Caruso, were obviously smuggling something into Aponi, and Ed Zeneri wasthe only one who could use the tech that could expose what that was.
“What’s going on here, Velda?” Pamela reached the door to the apartment block and opened it, holding it for her to enter. “I can barely believe most of what came out of Ethan’s mouth today.”
Velda stepped through with a nod, noting two Protection Unit officers standing beside the lift with Ethan. They must have been sent ahead.
Except Pamela Ingot was frowning.
“You’re not my officers. Who are you?” Pamela called, hand going to the laz on her hip as she focused on the two men.
