“She says that Nostrada was killed last night, before his apartment was set up as a booby trap to kill me and Commander Hyt, as well as Commander Ingot, this morning.” She turned and looked directly at Georgi Valk. “And she also says the person seen entering Nostrada’s building was Commander Ferris Harden, and that he has since escaped Protection Unit custody.”
Ethan was watching the woman as everyone around her gasped, and she turned pale.
Velda stood, leaning forward with her hands on the table. “Anyone who has anything to say about this—if you remember something Nostrada said to you that seemed strange, if you noticed something that made you frown, tell the Protection Unit officers that will be coming to speak to you.”
“What if the officer I speak to is the one who helped Harden escape?” someone asked.
“Good question.” Velda gave a nod. “There are only four people who could have helped Harden, and they are all out of the investigation, and being held by Commander Ingot.” She looked around the table, and again her gaze came to rest on Georgi Valk.“As you can imagine, Commander Ingot takes the corruption of her department as seriously as I take the corruption of the Planetary Administrative Committee. It is unacceptable, and everyone involved will face consequences.”
As she finished speaking her comm unit made a noise, and Ethan’s went off a moment later.
It was the emergency signal.
Velda turned to him, and he stepped away from the wall.
“It seems things are hotting up,” Velda said to the committee. “Do your jobs, cooperate with Commander Ingot, and maybe we’ll get through this stronger than we were.”
She turned on her heel and stalked out, and Ethan fell in behind her.
“The emergency notice says that the ships up in nearspace that Ed and Wren were searching were attacked,” she said as soon as they stepped into the lift and were whisked down to Pamela Ingot’s department.
“Someone really wants them dead.” Ethan thought about it. “And is so concerned about them finding whatever it is they’re trying to smuggle in that they’d rather blow this shipment up than have us know what it is.”
“It’s bad.” Velda vibrated with impatience as they waited for the lift door to open.
Pamela was waiting for them. “What’s the emergency?” she asked.
“My people have been attacked in nearspace by whoever’s behind this.” Ethan told her. “Check out Georgi Valk, I think she’s involved.”
Ingot glanced upward to the floor above, gave a nod.
“We have to go back to Demeter to oversee the response to this attack. And Pamela,” Velda stepped out the lift and grasped Ingot’s hands. “I’m sorry but I don’t think you can trust anyonein Special Forces here. We’ll have to do a full clean out when this is over, but until then, it’s just you.”
Ingot gave a nod. “I’d already worked that out. Good luck. I’ll keep you informed.”
Velda stepped back in and the lift took them down.
As they stepped out of the building, the evening call for peace that rang out from the clifftops every day in Nanganya began.
The long, high note sounded mournful.
4
There wasno pilot available to fly them back to Demeter, but Ethan Hyt didn’t blink at that.
Which is how Velda ended up sitting beside him in a small runner as he flew them out of Nanganya, headed for the mountains and the coast, toward Aponi’s capital city.
He set the hover on autopilot as soon as they were high enough, and got on his comms unit to find out what was happening.
She was doing the same.
It had been nearly an hour since they’d gotten the emergency news about the attack and Velda found out the main targets had been the ships the military had singled out for Ed and Wren to check for smuggled items.
“Neither battleship could return fire,” Tara, her admin, told her over her comm unit. “There were too many freighters in the way. So they used one battleship to shield the special forces team from getting hit and the other moved to leap over the freighter line to attack.”
“And the ship that initiated the attack, it’s gone now?” Velda asked.
“It seems to be,” Tara said. “They couldn’t tell where it went, though. And get this, the battleship’s captain says it’s just like the ship that destroyed the ruins at Cepi.”
