by Terry Mixon
It took an effort of will to stop her jaw from dropping. “So that’s the line you’re going to take? Bold, I’ll give you that.
“Sadly for you, the criminal mastermind that you were working with made recordings of your meetings, and Imperial Intelligence has taken an interest in your case. I also don’t think that the emperor is going to be very happy when he finds out how you tried to subvert his will.”
In a flash, the woman’s expression became almost feral. “He betrayed his oath to the Empire. We can’t allow those things to get a foothold among us ever again. You might have captured me, though it’s still far from certain that I’ll face any punishment for my patriotic actions, but someone else will step in to take my place and keep the Empire safe.”
“I suppose we’ll see,” Fei said. “For you, this little play is over. As soon as Imperial Intelligence wraps up questioning a few other people, they’re going to take your ship and you back to Terra. I’d imagine they’ll put you in a hole so deep that you’ll never see the sun again. I say good riddance.”
With that, Fei stood up and walked out of the compartment, closing the hatch firmly behind her.
She took a deep breath and bent her head, forcing the rage to dissipate. That woman was done. Her wealth, position, and friends might be able to save her from the worst of the consequences, but they wouldn’t be able to shield her completely. She was going to pay a price, even if it wasn’t to the fullest extent that Fei wished it could be.
That left the other woman. The criminal had been caught in the act with illegal weapons and resisted boarding by Imperial Marines. Even the jamming system that had been turned on to disrupt everything had finally been traced back to her, though Fei was confident that Dayton’s money and connections had played a role.
Fei wished she could question the woman, but she’d already clammed up until she spoke with her lawyer. Well, Fei supposed that didn’t stop her from trying.
She went into the makeshift hospital room and sat beside the bed. The woman turned her head somewhat lethargically and looked at her without real concern.
“I have nothing to say until I speak with my lawyer,” the woman said, her voice listless.
“That’s fine,” Fei said. “I acknowledge that nothing you say is in any way binding or capable of being held against you. This is a private conversation without the legal representation you are entitled to. I just want to know something from a personal standpoint.”
The woman blinked a couple of times, likely fighting the drugs in her system, and focused her attention more firmly on Fei. “I’m not entirely certain that the authorities would agree with your assertion, but I’ll at least hear what you have to say.”
“My name is Na Fei. Andrea Tolliver is my ward. I understand that you were paid by Countess Dayton to kill her. That’s someone else’s problem, so you don’t have to confess any crimes to me.
“I’m just confused about your process. Everything that happened in orbit could’ve been done so much more easily on the ground. And then you killed your boss and your associate. It just feels like I’m missing something, and I want to know what it is.”
The woman stared at her for long seconds. “Nothing that I say in this conversation is being recorded? You swear that nothing I say will be used against me?”
Fei nodded. “That’s correct. I’m not in law enforcement and am acting as a private citizen. I’m more interested in answers than revenge. You were the tool in this, not the cause, and you’re done no matter what you tell me.”
That actually earned her a chuckle from the woman. “I suppose I am. I didn’t know the woman’s name, but I’ll assume that Countess Dayton is the woman who forced my organization to go after Tolliver.”
At Fei’s nod, the woman continued. “She wasn’t satisfied with the speed things were being done and offered me a lot of money to take control of the organization and finish it—more money than I ever expected to see working as a junior lieutenant in the organization.
“I had nothing against Peter or Jomos, but if I could take control of our organization, then I’d basically be paid twice. The temptation was too much, so I did it. It was more than worth the price of bribing the marines to help me make it happen, though it took the woman’s influence to get them transferred to the orbital to do the job.
“As for why the attack took place in orbit, that’s simple. I ordered my people to capture Tolliver or at least recover her body. I’m pretty sure that the Singularity would’ve paid quite handsomely to get her back, dead or alive. That would’ve been a third payday, and I could’ve lived my life without ever having to work again.
“Their job was to allow the recruits into the ship and kill them all so that no one somehow escaped into space. If they’d succeeded, no bodies would have been recovered, including the marines. They’d have left the system with me, though they’d never have been seen again.”
Fei’s blood ran cold. The Singularity getting word of Andrea’s survival had always been a possibility, but this was the closest it had ever come to reality. Sadly, the Singularity would eventually learn that Andrea was alive and take action. They’d dodged a flechette today, but it was only a matter of time.
She was about to rise when Drake said something else.
“At least the woman won’t live to gloat. It may take a while, since she’s in custody, but she’s a dead woman.”
Fei sat back down, crossed one leg over the other, and raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.
Drake smiled coldly. “Peter paid someone very good to make certain that she never makes it home. I won’t mention any names, but they’re very good at what they do. Somewhere along the way, unless she’s under a lot more protection than is likely, the woman is going to suffer a tragic accident or some kind of equipment malfunction. Who knows? All I care about is that she dies.”
“Imperial Intelligence is pretty good. What kind of chance does your assassin have against them, particularly if they use her ship?”
“I suppose that’ll make the job more challenging, but I’ll still put my money on the assassin. They’re that good.”
“I’d wish you good luck, but I have no sympathy for you.”
With that, Fei stood and walked out of the room. She stopped in the corridor and eyed the Imperial Intelligence agents watching over the prisoners. Would they be able to stop a trained assassin?
Maybe. Knowing about the situation would make it much more challenging to kill Dayton. Pity. If anyone deserved to die, it was that woman.
She almost said something to them, but then she thought about all the times that Imperial Intelligence had withheld information that was critical to the missions that she and other marines had carried out. Of how many people they’d lost because of that.
She put the assassin out of her mind and headed for the exit. The potential assassin was Imperial Intelligence’s problem. Let them deal with the unpleasant surprise for once.
Page sat in Major Martelle’s office, slumped into a chair with a drink that he really wanted to down in one gulp. Today had been a disaster. A complete and almost unmitigated disaster.
He’d come very close to losing the entire platoon. If not for Tolliver’s actions, that outcome was almost a certainty, and it was all because he’d failed to take the danger seriously enough.
The major had mobilized an entire company to array around the temporary barracks where the recruits were staying. No one was getting in or out without being triple checked. Not even other marines.
The guards patrolled in groups that were always changing their makeup to make absolutely certain that no one made a deal to betray their oaths like the four marines that had taken the platoon out to the training ship.
One of them had been killed in the fighting, but the other three had been taken alive. One of them had been stunned by Tolliver, and he admired the girl’s restraint in not killing the man. The two officers had tried to concoct a story to cover what happened, but no one was buying it. They’d sold ou
t the Corps.
Riggio Gomez was dead, killed protecting the recruits. Sophia was devastated, of course, and she blamed Tolliver.
In a way, she was right. If Tolliver hadn’t been here, her brother wouldn’t have been put in the position that had killed him.
He rethought his situation and downed the drink he held in one gulp.
“I understand something of what you’re going through,” Martelle said from the seat next to his. “You’re wondering what you did wrong and how you could’ve stopped this from happening. You couldn’t have seen it coming. The situation was just so far outside what anyone could’ve expected, and we didn’t account for all the potential mayhem.
“Don’t think that I haven’t noticed that you submitted your resignation. It won’t be accepted. There’s going to be an inquiry, but I already know that there was nothing you could’ve done differently with the knowledge that you had. It’s going to take you a long time to accept that, but it’s the truth.”
Page sighed. “I let them down. Handley and Gomez are dead because I wasn’t there. I don’t think any amount of time is going to make that better.”
“Better? No. Yet time heals all wounds like water washing away bits of stone and grinding a mountain down. In other words, slowly.”
Page wasn’t sure that he agreed, but it didn’t seem the right time to argue.
“So, what do we do now?” he asked. “I think the danger is past, but I don’t know that I can take that as a given.”
Martelle shook his head. “No, we won’t take that as a given. The recruits are going to finish their training under heavy guard. We’re not even going to try to hide it anymore. That cat is well and truly out of the bag.
“We’re going to move them to an isolated barracks and put them under heavy guard. They’ll finish going through everything that they need to learn about being marines, but as far as I’m concerned, they’ve already made it.
“That isn’t to say that some of them won’t quit after having been through this, but they’ve seen the elephant now. They did what needed to be done, and they’ve proved themselves. Isn’t that what basic training is for? To separate those who think they can from those who actually can?”
Page supposed that was true. There was still a lot of training to do, and it was always possible that a recruit would somehow fail to make the grade. Still, they’d already been under more pressure than he’d ever have laid on them during training. So long as they stuck it out, each and every one of those recruits was going to graduate.
After that, who knew?
Once this was done, he was going to take some of that leave he’d never used. He needed to get away from this and figure out what he was going to do now.
That line of thought was apparently also prominent in the major’s thinking because the next words out of his mouth mirrored Page’s thoughts.
“As sooner this training cycle is finished, I want you to take a minimum of three months’ leave. Frankly, I’d prefer six. You need to leave this entire thing behind you for a while and regain your perspective. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll lose you.”
“I’ve already decided to do something like that, sir. I think I’ll do some of that wilderness camping that Gomez keeps encouraging me to do. Maybe I can convince her to come with me, and we can both help one another heal. When I get back, we can figure out what’s going to happen next.”
“You can figure it out with whoever my replacement is,” Martelle said, raising his glass in salute. “I’ve decided that I’ve been in a rut as well, and I need to change my life. Training is rewarding, but I’ve been thinking about the Imperial Guard.”
Page blinked in surprise. The Imperial Guard drew its forces from the Imperial Marines but was a much smaller and more focused organization. As one might imagine, they protected the Imperial family.
“Doesn’t that come with a big cut in rank?”
Martelle nodded. “If accepted, I’d be the new guy. They’d bump me all the way down to sergeant, and I’d have to work my way back up if I wanted to become an officer again. You can bet your ass it would be a long, long time before I made it back to being a field grade officer like I am now.
“But I think it would still be worthwhile. I’ve been wanting a change, and they’ve sent me a couple of inquiries over the years, encouraging me to try out in one of the competitions. I think I’ll see Tolliver and the rest of the recruits graduate and then give it a shot. I’ve got a lot more to give the Empire, and that might be how I can make it happen.”
The two sat quietly and drank far more of the major’s excellent whiskey than they should have. When they were finally done, they had a final toast to those who hadn’t made it and headed off to get a little bit of sleep before they got back to training the recruits who’d survived.
44
On the final day of basic training, Andrea stood at the platoon’s head in the center of the graduation field and stared straight ahead. The drill instructors—minus Sophia Gomez, who’d taken bereavement leave—were arrayed in front of them. In front of those worthies was a platform that held Major Martelle and a number of other officers.
All around them, bleachers held family and friends of the graduating recruits, including her own. It was hard to keep herself from looking at them, but she forced herself to keep her attention focused on the moment.
She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that the main stage also held another man she knew: Earl Still Water. He’d been one of the people who’d delivered the offer for her to attend training in exchange for permanent recognition as a human being.
He was seated just to the right of Major Martelle and looked for all the world like he was supposed to be there. She wondered where the woman who had been with him was.
While she couldn’t see the recruits arrayed behind her with her eyes, she could tap into the feeds scattered around the graduation field that were meant to be used by their civilian visitors as well as those who couldn’t attend. In those feeds, she could see Diana staring at Still Water.
Granted, her friend was masking her feelings quite well, but Andrea knew the signs after several months of close proximity. Diana was pissed.
Now that the rest of the recruits had received their marine-grade implants, she was able to communicate with them directly. She took advantage of that and opened a private channel with her friend.
What’s wrong? Why are you staring at that man?
I’m trying to figure out why he’s on the stage. He should be sitting with the other parents, so that means he’s up to something, and I don’t like it.
Andrea blinked in surprise. With the other parents? Why?
Because he’s my father.
Like a set of dominoes falling, everything suddenly dropped into place. That was why Diana was here and how she’d ended up as Andrea’s bunkmate.
Diana’s father had been pulling strings behind the scenes, including getting Riggio Gomez assigned to keep an eye on her. Diana was just one more arrow in his quiver.
Not that she was complaining. Diana was a close friend now, and she wasn’t going to hold the manipulation against the man.
She suspected his daughter wasn’t going to be so forgiving when she figured it all out.
Andrea considered not saying anything but knew that the truth would be out soon enough. It was far better to be honest with her friend than to conceal the truth and make her even angrier.
He’s the one who delivered the emperor’s offer for me to attend training in exchange for legal recognition. I suspect he pulled some strings and got you assigned to the platoon. He’s also the one who made sure that Riggio Gomez was watching over me, I’m sure.
That sonofabitch, her friend silently snarled. He arranged all of this. He’s in Imperial Intelligence, you know.
I’m not surprised.
And she wasn’t. That really fit in with the manipulation that she suspected the man of engaging in. That thought prompted a thought about something her friend had s
aid about her father when they’d first met.
So that’s what you meant when you said that your father was a big fan of spy thrillers. I can also see why you wouldn’t want to talk about him.
Diana, I’ve been manipulated more than you, and I’m not going to hold that against him. I ask that you at least consider that he was doing this for me. He thought that we’d make good friends, and we are. Let’s let that be enough.
Her friend was silent for a moment before she spoke. I suppose you’re right. Ending up with you is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, and I’m not going to hold that against him, but I am going to make him pay for manipulating me. He’s my father, and he deserves it.
Before Andrea could respond, Major Martelle stepped up to the lectern. “Allow me to welcome all of the parents and visitors to this graduation ceremony for First Platoon, Bravo Company, of the 225th Training Battalion. The people you’re here to support have worked long and hard to become Imperial Marines, and that dream is about to be realized.
“Though the details aren’t something any of us can talk about, this has been a challenging training cycle. Each recruit standing here has gone above and beyond what was expected of them and should be congratulated on their achievements.
“The staff has done everything in their power to see that these fine young men and women have all the basic tools that they will require to serve the Empire, and that each and every one of them is ready for that signal honor. Recruits, raise your right hands and repeat after me.”
Andrea did so and repeated the words that bound her to the Empire and the Imperial Marines.
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Empire against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the emperor and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Imperial Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
