Kira made a point of not asking more of her friends than she thought they could give. This was skating dangerously close to her breaking that rule.
"Fine," Raider ground out.
Kira had no intention of letting Raider ship out with the rest of the battle group. If it came down to it, she'd use force to bring him with her.
That being said, they still had time.
Jace would figure things out eventually. The hole she put in his precious brig when she broke Raider out would be a pretty big clue.
Jace cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "There's one other matter I need to discuss with you."
The way Raider stiffened distracted her. She glanced at him in question, only to find his face hard.
"You should know I've arrested Blue," Jace announced.
"Explain."
"She's responsible for Rothchild. She is our leak." Jace nodded at the tablet in front of her. "All the information is there. See for yourself."
Feeling like she was having an out of body experience, Kira reached for the tablet in question and dragged it into her lap. It was already unlocked, the files queued up and waiting for her to access them.
"The records of Himoto's you gave me go back years. Rothchild wasn’t the only thing he was investigating. There are files on every battle you mentioned. Every one that went unexpectedly wrong. Apparently, you're not the only one who suspected a leak."
Kira scanned a few of the files. "You're saying Himoto knew about Blue?"
The man she'd known would never have let a spy join the Curs. He would have rooted her out at the tiniest of suspicions. Evidence—or the lack thereof—wouldn't have stopped him.
Unless—he hoped to use her to disseminate false intelligence.
Himoto could have given a masterclass on spycraft. It was one of the reasons she'd stopped trusting him in the latter part of the war. There'd been a small piece of her that feared the forty three were right about him being the cause of everything.
"It appears so," Jace admitted. "Himoto identified at least four highly placed officers in Centcom's fleet who he thought might have been party to this. Admiral Kent was among them."
"No surprise there," Raider muttered.
Jace acted like he hadn't heard. "Several government officials were involved as well."
"Are any of them still in power?" Kira asked.
"Many of them helped spearhead the Consortium's withdrawal from the alliance."
"How is Blue involved? She left the Vega months before it was assigned that mission."
When Rothchild happened, Blue was attending a military academy on New Lexington. It was why Kira and Jin had excluded her from the list of suspects. Their orders hadn't come down until long after she was gone.
"There was a sleeper program embedded in the comms array. It was set to send her regular updates as to the Curs' status. Your status specifically."
Kira looked up from the tablet. "It's funny. This is the second time today that someone has claimed to know who was responsible for Rothchild."
Jace frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"I ran into an old friend of ours down on the planet," Kira said, glancing at Raider as he leaned forward in sudden interest. "Remember, Diesel?"
Raider's nod was slow as a thoughtful look entered his eye. "I do."
"He's dead," Jace said in confusion. "I attended his funeral."
"Maybe he is now," Kira allowed, remembering the explosion that had leveled the Vega. "But earlier today he was as alive as you and I."
