Dragoon's Honor, page 12
And she watched her perimeter, doubling back a few times and making random detours like she was lost, while watching for someone who might break the pattern of movement around her as they followed.
But she wasn’t being followed, in spite of the traffic of other bodies, near as she could tell.
Of course, this was a ship, for all the square kilometers of deck available. There were only so many places she could go, and truth be told, she was drawing on her reserves.
Stealing spoons from tomorrow, as someone had once described it. Could be done, but that just moved the price out a day or two.
Eventually, she got back to the wing where Iqbal just happened to be seated in a corner of a lounge as she went by, anonymously holding a perimeter where there were only two ways to get to Javier directly.
He caught her eye and made a sign that everything was good as far as he knew. And he’d have an earpiece letting him talk to the others, so no issues had come up.
Good.
She returned the countersign and kept going.
Bethany was awake when she got there. Presumably, Zakhar had gone to sleep for now, but she could slide in and snuggle, stealing his warmth.
“Everything good?” Bethany asked, looking up from her tablet.
Always doing research, that woman. Cataloging. Discovering. Something intellectual.
“So far,” Djamila replied, crossing the otherwise empty room. Sascha was no doubt asleep, and Hajna’s door was open, so Javier was still out and about.
“So far?” Bethany asked in a sharper voice, looking up critically.
Djamila nodded, then went ahead and sat on the couch near Bethany’s chair. The room itself was vast enough to hold small sporting events in here. Furniture arranged into clusters where half a dozen different groups all could be talking simultaneously. A bar with coffee and tea, but no kitchenette, because you were expected to eat at one of the restaurants available.
“I went to settle in a bar, mostly to think,” Djamila told the ship’s Librarian. “Not that long after I arrived, Gustavus Nyseth appeared.”
“Did he now?” Bethany asked in a petite growl of disapproval that warmed Djamila’s heart.
Djamila nodded, then walked Bethany through the entire event, detail by detail because the young woman kept asking questions whenever Djamila started skipping ahead.
Almost a report in depth, but Djamila supposed that she’d have to bring everyone up to date at some point.
Or not. Javier had told her she was on her own until she needed help.
Did she?
Not his. He was busy being visible, letting her work in the shadows.
But she had Bethany and Afia if she needed.
“That just rings wrong,” Bethany pronounced when Djamila was done.
“I felt the same way, but I can’t put my finger on it,” Djamila replied.
“He wanted you to think he was seducing you, without actually doing it,” Bethany said firmly.
Djamila felt her face scrunch, then nodded. Yes, that felt right.
“But why?” she asked the Librarian.
“Assuming he is who we think he is, maybe we’ve been paying too much attention to the legend, and not the purpose,” Bethany noted. “Javier’s all about layers of misdirection. Are we falling into the same trap?”
“What would he be trying to hide?” Djamila asked. “After this long, and this many light-years, few would know him, and fewer would care what he did. I’m certain that there are places in the Union or Balustrade that still consider the man to be a hero.”
Bethany nodded, her eyes taking on a distant gleam.
“Did he recognize you?” she asked.
“Not that he gave any appearance,” Djamila replied. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Javier wouldn’t have.”
“Agreed,” Bethany nodded. “I’ll mark that as an unknown. I’m more interested in how he found you. That rings false, too.”
“It does,” Djamila said. “Do you suppose he has someone in security feeding him information?”
“The bribes would have to be pretty good,” Bethany replied. “I looked at job board postings as part of other things, and they pay about twenty-five percent above comparable rates in the capital city of Urid, when corrected for cost of living. This is a cushy job, if you can get it, and they wouldn’t just fire you. You’d be put on a freighter and sent back to Yu’Urid pretty quickly if you transgressed. I’m more interested to know if he’s somehow hacked the surveillance system and can monitor feeds remotely.”
“Are we threatened here?” Djamila felt her hackles rise.
“No, because Afia did some things with her tool to confirm that,” Bethany said. “Considering what her tool is, I’m confident.”
Djamila agreed. A shard of Suvi, with many of the same tools the remote control probe had once had, tucked down into a palm tablet as if nothing at all. And the room had been scanned twice, plus Afia had left a few pingers designed to alert if they did detect something.
Sovereign Nakhimov guaranteed your privacy, for the rates they were charging Javier to have this space. Presumably, that meant assignations wouldn’t become blackmail later, lest the ship develop a bad reputation that might not ever be undone, considering how clannish people with that much money could get.
“Why would he need to hack into the security systems?” Bethany asked. “That’s a much more interesting question.”
“I can only think of a few reasons,” Djamila noted. “None of them are honest.”
“Yes,” Bethany said. “None of them. Do we tell Javier?”
“Not yet,” Djamila decided. “Let’s talk with Afia and Suvi, the two of us, and see what we can find.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun,” Bethany replied. “She should be back in a few hours.”
“I’ll talk to her in the morning,” Djamila decided. “I need sleep, or I will start making sub-optimal choices.”
“Understood.”
Djamila moved quietly to her cabin, leaving it dark and stripping before sliding into bed.
“Hiya,” Zakhar murmured as soon as she did, so she’d either woken him, or he’d been waiting for her.
She got a kiss for her troubles.
“All good?” he asked.
“All good,” she said. “Sleep. We’ll talk later.”
He rolled over and settled. Djamila expected to be up a while, decompressing, but the darkness claimed her quickly.
THE THIEF
PART 1
Afia got the note to wake Bethany up as soon as she got to the suite regardless of time and shrugged. Stations ran around the clock, like ships did, so folks were forever coming and going. You caught folks coming on duty or going off as needed.
She’d stolen one of Del’s cookies he was using to bribe Flight Control, so she wasn’t all that hungry. And she’d caught a nap on the shuttle.
Bethany she found stretched out on a couch, instead of in her cabin, so Afia went ahead and poked the babe quietly.
“Need food?” Afia asked when Bethany’s eyes opened.
“Yes, but you and Suvi needed an update first,” Bethany said. “Here, in private. Suvi, could you confirm?”
“Stand by,” Suvi said from inside Afia’s jacket. “Yes, we’re good. No changes from checksum. What’s up?”
Afia settled and listened to Bethany talk. Probably repeating the Dragoon’s story word for word, knowing the Librarian.
“Yeah, I’m with you two,” Afia said as Bethany finished. “Man’s up to no good. Got a few ideas, but nothing I could prove.”
“Shangdu,” Suvi said simply. “That’s why you’d need that sort of access. No idea what he might want to steal around here, but the man sounds like a thief to me. And I’m kinda an expert on the topic.”
Afia laughed. Understatement and a half, considering all the things that Suvi had done in her time.
“Money?” Afia asked.
“Most of what folks do is bring either cash themselves or a letter of credit with some bank somewhere,” Bethany replied. “Small players would have walking-around money and travelers cheques that the local bank would bundle up and haul back somewhere for credit that they use to buy supplies, with very little actual money changing hands physically.”
“At Shangdu, we were after paper in a box,” Suvi said. “With the Khatum’s Hellenic-style helmet as a way of getting in the door. Does the station store art objects?”
“Sometimes,” Bethany acknowledged. “Again, things that important players have brought with them, as it was in your case that time. Hang out here and make a deal in a place where everyone is on neutral and safe ground.”
“Did he steal something and is doing that trade with someone else?” Afia asked. “Not us, so I’m not sure why he’d be interested in Djamila.”
“To find out how dangerous Prince Javier is, maybe?” Bethany asked. “If our boy is smart enough to hire experts like her, then he’s not a man to underestimate. Plus, maybe he has something interesting to steal?”
“Shit, I’d like to feed him a pig in a poke if that’s the case,” Afia laughed. “Like you folks did the Khatum that first time.”
“She does consider it a trophy,” Suvi noted. “I’ve seen pictures of her wearing it. And nothing else.”
Bethany’s eyes got big, but Afia just laughed at the Librarian.
The Khatum was good people. Nice lady, and had gone out of her way to be friendly with all of them, and not just because of Javier.
Altai was home now. Afia would protect that, and her.
“Okay, so the Dragoon is going to need help, if he really is a thief. She’s lovely at the things she does, but being sneaky ain’t among them.”
“We’ll need to do what he did,” Bethany replied. “Somehow get into the systems so we can track him. I’m guessing he’s got some tech or something that will let him vanish, if he’s going to go commit larceny. Can we catch him in the act somehow? Let the locals handle him, because I’m willing to bet that trying to steal something on this station is a higher crime than merely murdering a guest.”
“Agreed,” Afia said. “Bethany, you look exhausted, so you go crash and sleep. We’ll have a conversation over room service in the morning.”
“Aren’t you tired, too?” Bethany asked.
“I was able to catch some sleep with Del,” she replied. “Enough for now, I think. Mostly, I need to do one thing, then I’m right behind you crawling into bed.”
“Okay,” Bethany said, rising. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Afia watched her go, then looked around the big lounge. Empty, but that would change as folks started coming and going, their personal clocks detaching from Javier’s until he needed someone to do something.
Her job usually kept her detached anyway, because of the needs of cargo management, so she was used to being on her own.
She went ahead and pulled out the shard, bringing up the screen so she could make eye contact.
“My drone would be nice,” Suvi began. “Obviously, we can’t bring one aboard easily. Or did you think you’d make one?”
Afia considered it. The parts were probably all somewhere, but buying, borrowing, or stealing them wasn’t worth the effort. Nor would it be to have Del bring one.
Last thing she needed was to draw attention to him, when those folks were already a bit nosy for smuggling.
Never act suspicious. Even after you’ve been caught.
“We’ll skip the drone,” Afia said. “What could you do if I plugged you in somewhere and gave you a few minutes to roam their systems?”
“Everything here is at least two centuries older than I am, at least by design,” Suvi nodded. “The hardware is freshened regularly, but those are all standard components that just about any fab can turn out easily enough.”
“And you don’t have a cousin in there anywhere?” Afia confirmed.
“I shouldn’t,” Suvi corrected. “Until I try something like that, I can’t be sure that there isn’t some sort of web angel in there hiding. Probably just a sophisticated decision-tree matrix. Couple of orders of magnitude easier to build and maintain, especially when you don’t have a government backing you. Retrofitting for that sort of stuff involves ripping out vast stretches of hardware and cabling. Could be done. Would it be worth doing?”
“I’m going to find you a place to check,” Afia nodded. “You’ll need to be extra sneaky, because what we need is to confirm our pigeon isn’t doing anything right now. Then we’ll figure out what we need to do about it, and when to drop the Dragoon on him.”
“You got it,” Suvi smiled. “Digging out my…well, crap.”
“What?” Afia asked, jolted.
“I’m not me,” Suvi bemoaned. “I mean, I have the personality circuits, but most of my programming on this tiny thing ends in stubs where she detached that wonderful datacore that let me know and do so many things. I’ve got the tools, but I don’t have my wardrobe with all the appropriate costumes for a caper like this. Kinda spoils the mood.”
Afia laughed. Suvi could be adorkable, some days.
“I’ll make sure to wear something appropriate for you, when we get serious,” Afia assured her. “For now, let’s get to work.”
She rose and turned back towards the main hatch. There were a few places down on the loading docks that had felt like they were out of view of the necessary cameras for her to plug Suvi in and let her peek around.
Why those dead zones existed, Afia had no idea. Perhaps it was intentional to let folks smuggle. Or maybe to lull them into a false sense of security.
She’d probably have to plug Suvi in, then keep walking, so that eyes stayed on her.
Distraction, like Javier did it.
Time to play.
PART 2
Suvi had several short-range scanners built in on Afia’s gadget, specifically to keep track of anyone trying to keep track of her on the moon. Or Javier, at least.
Sniff the radio spectrum and identify everything she found. Same with UV and IR, because you could get sneaky that way.
Mostly, her main version had set her up as a defensive tool, which meant a lot of things stripped down. She missed her flying suit. And the complete works of a half-dozen composers who could provide her appropriate theme music in here when she needed it.
Every bit of space inside her was accounted for, and she’d rather be able to gather up as much data as possible and dump it into a chip for later. Music and costuming could go budget this time.
As it was, she was in Afia’s pocket for the time being, pinging quietly and listening to everything else pinging. She’d mapped a few places that seemed a little too good to be true, in terms of smuggling.
Those sorts of spots were what Javier would call a pig in a poke. An area where normal sensors didn’t appear to be active. Suvi presumed that there was a tripwire hidden somewhere, and it would bring up things when you did something, letting them catch you in the act.
So instead of heading down to the docks, she’d directed Afia to a spot where cargo brought aboard had already been removed from bigger containers in order to be stored long term.
Presumably, after all the smuggled goods had been removed or discovered.
Not dark alleys, but quiet corridors with white walls and too much light, compared to everything else.
Not a lot of traffic, which was good. They’d crossed this area previously, when Afia had worked with some of the local stevedores to confirm the stuff Del had brought over for delivery.
Sovereign Nakhimov never slept, just like the crew never did, but every ship had lulls. Normally associated with shifting to the time zone of the capital city of the world closest.
Urid ran on twenty-eight hours and change, with leap days on a complicated pattern even weirder than Gregorian. Right now, it was about an hour before dawn.
Sovereign Nakhimov was quiet. Quiet enough. Afia wasn’t seeing anyone, though Suvi detected occasional cameras and sensors tracking her.
“Next side corridor left,” Suvi said quietly, tracking her map.
That proved to be a dead end, which was the goal. Three storage rooms that didn’t need to be accessed all that often. Mostly overflow from others, when some big ship had brought a ton of stuff and you needed to fill in every room you could to hold it.
“Left door,” Suvi said. “Walk up and hold me close like I’m a badge.”
Afia pulled her out into the light and Suvi sniffed at the dirtiness of the walls themselves. Painted a while ago. Not cleaned in a few months. If that.
Suvi had pinged the local door controllers. Not all that smart, because if every door everywhere was tracking badge entries, you’d overwhelm your datacore in a few weeks. Back here, it was mostly binary stuff, as guests weren’t supposed to be in these areas.
Afia was working, but an outside vendor, as it were. And Del had bribed folks with cookies, so the locals weren’t all that hyper about being assholes.
Suvi chirped a signal at the reader, listening for the confused response. She’d also been listening when other folks had badged things open while anywhere close to her, so she had fourteen options.
Number Three unlocked the door and Afia carried her into a room eleven point three one meters deep by seven point five four wide, filled with shelving units each one meter deep and holding a fairly random assortment of cleaning supplies.
Suvi found a moment to be offended that they had all this stuff and hadn’t used it in the corridor, but got over herself quickly.
“On your right, about four meters down,” Suvi said as Afia closed the hatch. “Calf-level to you. There is a port I can access with a standard plug.”
“You got it,” Afia said, carrying her over and shifting things out of the way. “Do I hide in here with you or come back?”
Suvi considered her options. She could chirp the lock from here, on a coded knock from Afia. However, that meant that Afia might have to just wander randomly for a while, and that risked someone intercepting her and asking questions.
