15.
The bodyguard heaved Debra further into the conference room and kicked the door closed behind him.
‘You’re hurting me!’ Debra clawed ineffectually at the man’s hand where it sank into her shoulder. ‘Let me go! You can’t hold me!’
‘Evidence to the contrary, dear,’ said Tara. She looked almost happy, and glanced around at Straughn. ‘I believe the First Minister has a number of emergency powers in the event of a threat to the system. One is deputising militia, and another is having security risks interned. I would say this spy should vanish for the remainder of this crisis, wouldn’t you?’
Straughn scratched his head and thought furiously. What had he been saying that she might have heard or, worse, recorded? He didn’t think he had advocated murder or anything... but then again, he’d definitely heard Thurden admitting to crimes, and he hadn’t been showing concern for the safety of the generation ship. ‘Yes, that’s right,’ he said thoughfully. ‘She might jeopardise the safety of this planet. We shouldn’t harm her, but we can’t let her speak, either!’
‘The public definitely has a right to know!’ shrieked Debra. ‘You’re putting them in danger keeping this—ugh!’ She broke off as the other bodyguard slapped her in the face.
‘Neither of us like nosy journalists. We’re finding all kinds of common ground here!’ said Tara.
Silgoe had craned sideways so the little camera perched on his earpiece in front of the impossibly slick hair could see Debra. ‘She’s not one of ours. Potential troublemaker, the corporation would probably have needed to arrange her sasking and blacklisting within a few years.’
‘We can hold her somewhere for a few days easily enough, stop this getting out, let her go when it doesn’t matter any more,’ said Tara. ‘We won’t do her any permanent harm, although... it’s odd how many people join our philosophy after they’re been our guests for a while.’
‘No...’ Debra fell quiet again when Tara’s bodyguard put his hand on her throat.
‘You going to come quietly, or shall I render you unconscious?’ sneered the huge man.
‘Easy Brand,’ said Tara. She looked back at Straughn, who nodded and then swallowed after she looked back.
The second Darzian produced a small gun, waved it in front of Debra’s face, then poked it into her back. Brand took her drone held it in front of her, and tightened his grip. Veins and tendons stood out on the back of his meaty hand, then the plastic crumpled and crushed, spilling microchips and servo-motors onto the carpet. ‘Ooops,’ he said. ‘Take her away.’
Ashen-faced, Debra moved towards the door, but it opened before she got there. Gillian came into the room, followed by two other uniformed Federal soldiers. Unusually, they were carrying rifles in addition to their usual sidearms. ‘Is there a problem here?’ asked Gillian in a mild tone, but her eyes were hard.
The Darzian twitched, and his gun vanished. ‘Not at all, officer.’ Debra ran herself across the room and put the guards between herself and the Darzians. She looked like she was fighting the urge to fling herself on Gillian and cry.
‘What is this about? You’re interrupting an important meeting!’ blustered Straughn.
‘We’ve heard back from our scouts, and we have reason to believe that Captain Thurden was not entirely honest with us,’ said Gillian. ‘He will be accompanying us back to base.’
Thurden scowled. ‘Am I under arrest?’
‘You will be if you don’t come voluntarily. I warn you, I get crabby when I have to do paperwork and put cuffs on too tight,’ said Gillian.
Thurden got out of his chair. ‘Well I’ve said what I had to say, sure I can leave the matter in your hands.’ He crossed the room with bad grace.
Gillian bent and picked up the remains of the drone’s central circuit board, chips trailing on wires. ‘Litter removal, no extra charge!’ she said. ‘As you were.’
Straughn watched them go, scowling. ‘Is that going to be a problem?’ he asked.
Tara shrugged. ‘Probably not, but we should move fast. We have established that we are concerned about the Federation, but what of the Empire? They recognise our legal possession of this world but I’ve never heard of them accomodating colony ships.’
Silgoe nodded. ‘They are comitted to protecting Imperial citizens and assets on this planet and thus, by extension, support our interests too.’
‘Then I’ll contact the Consul as soon as possible,’ said Straughn. He appreciated that the company man had allowed him to say that himself. ‘Do we have any other suggestions?’
‘You can count on our support,’ said Tara. ‘If any new opportunities arise, I’ll let you know.’ She got up and padded out of the room, followed by her guards. Not so much as a word of goodbye or thanks.
Straughn tapped his ear. ‘Did you get that, Tom? Don’t have to tell you it’s confidential. Draft me up a couple of messages to forward to the Imperial Consul, outlining our concerns and asking if we can count on his support. I’ll be up to the office in a few minutes.’
Silgoe had risen and walked around to him. He was holding a round device with a large amber button. ‘May we speak privately, minister?’
Straughn nodded. ‘Of course.’
Silgoe pressed the button, which lit up. Straughn’s earpiece immediately began emitting a low rustle of white noise. The device was a privacy scrambler, disrupting all electromagnetic communications around the two men and the majority of unshielded electrical devices as well.
‘The Empire on its own may not be enough; they might not be willing or able to confront the Fereration,’ said the corporation man. ‘It may be wise to follow... certain other avenues.’
‘You mean like Thurden did asking the pirates to destroy it?’ said Straughn. ‘I couldn’t be involved with anything like that. Officially.’
‘You would not have to be,’ reassured Silgoe, not missing a beat. ‘All monies and organisation would be taken care of elsewhere. All we would need is assurance that you would not aggressively pursue any prosecutions against corporate entities that might become implicated in unethical actions.’
‘If they were protecting Perabyssos then I’d say they were being patriotic!’ said Straughn after taking a moment to work out the last sentence. ‘Are you thinking of hiring the Code? I heard they chased off a Fed capital ship, I bet an ancient generation rust-bucket would be no match for them!’
Silgoe shook his head. ‘The Code would rob it blind, but they wouldn’t destroy it. We had hopes for the Cosmic State, but they appear to be re-inventing themselves with a modicum of honour, and could not be relied upon for disposal work of this nature.’
‘Who then?’ asked Straughn.
‘There are two main possibilities,’ said Silgoe. ‘First, you may have heard of a subculture known as “griefers.” There are certain individuals who take great pleasure in murder, destruction and humanitarian outrages for own sake. That they have severe psychological disturbance is a given, but they can be surprisingly effective nonetheless. Some are able to operate because of very high financial assets and connections that shield them from legal repercussions. We know how many of them can be reached via the darknet.’
‘They don’t sound like people we want around.’
‘Not normally, but the opportunity to commit mass murder of protected colonists would be sure to attract them. It would have the advantage of requiring no money and being virtually untracable. Some of them would be bound to show up regardless once news got out.’
‘If they are going to come here anyway, let’s hope they go for the... right... target.’ said Straughn. Despite the scrambler, he felt the need for additional deniability about this.
‘A stronger possibility is known as the Kumo Crew,’ said Silgoe. ‘They are a nomadic pirate force who have recently begun setting up bases in the Pegasi sector. They are known to be highly organised and fearsome. With the right inducement and prospect of loot and infamy, I am quite sure a detachment might come here and act for us. They have no fear of either Federation or Empire.’
Straughn thought. The Federation was bound to send an enforcement party; would the Empire really risk war over what was, after all, only a minority on a Federal planet? Even if they did, it seemed likely that the two giants would balance each other. Something needed to tip that balance in their favour.
‘Do it,’ he said.
*
Just realised I’ve broken a rule of thumb from the writing group: Try not to have characters whose names start with the same letter. Well so much for that...
This thriller technique isn’t that easy. This is the second potential cliff-hanger I could have ended a section on, but I can’t because there’s nothing to intersperse it with, or the sections was simply too short! Heh well.
Having to break up the exposition as best I can..