White Fire

by Laurie Bell

  Toni didn’t reply. She hit the hatch release and watched him storm away. When he was halfway across the docking bay, she shouted, “You taught me not to trust you. You’ve got no one to blame but yourself.” Asshole.

  He didn’t turn.

  Damn him! Toni slammed her hand against the catch to close the ramp, wishing she could get him out of her heart just as easily.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The Blackflame streaked away from the bright lights of the casino complex. As they cleared Uxt’s atmosphere, Toni told the CII to contact Zaambuka. She wasn’t sorry to leave Uxt, but was happy with how she’d handled her meeting with The Smuggler. For two years she’d been afraid of how she’d react if she ever saw him again. She’d proven she could maintain control. He had no power over her now. She swallowed hard. The little voice in the back of her mind laughed hysterically. She ordered it to shut up.

  “What’s taking so long?” Mate grumbled as he paced the floor at her feet. It seemed as though her anger had infected her partner as well.

  She couldn’t concentrate. Colten’s words replayed over and over inside her head. She drummed her fingers on the console, knowing she was too wound up. She needed to calm down and figure out what she was going to tell Zaambuka. The screen melted into the SPT logo and then dissolved into …

  “Oh, my gods.” Toni ducked out of her chair.

  “Not one word.”

  She exaggerated a wide-eyed look of horror and turned back to the screen, covering her eyes. “Let me guess, it’s another one sent by the Vice-President’s staff?” Toni burst out laughing. Zaambuka brushed his hand down the tie’s length. “They really don’t like you, do they?” She dropped her hand, chuckling sporadically. Her body relaxed, the momentary jocularity going a long way to settling her nerves.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” he muttered, but Toni couldn’t stop herself.

  “I have to find out where they get them. I wonder if they’re designed specifically or are an off-the-shelf variety.”

  “Toni.” Zaambuka’s glare was hot enough to melt metal. “I assume you’ve contacted me because you have some information?”

  “Oh, yes, I do.” Her demeanor became all business. Don’t mention The Smuggler. Her fingers tingled. She clasped them tightly together.

  “Go on.”

  “We have two computerized dispatch tablets in possession and have located and destroyed a shipment of Resonators, a big shipment. I have a sample. It’s been tested, and it’s effective, to say the least.” Her stomach flipped just thinking about it. She scrubbed a hand over her face.

  “What a coincidence. I received word this morning that a powerful weapon was fired in the main casino on Uxt, causing untold damage. The perpetrators haven’t been found. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

  Toni smiled. “That’s not all.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do the words Midock, secret meeting, a master assassin named Balandez, and Vice-President Cat Ramo mean anything to you?”

  Zaambuka muttered under his breath.

  “From what I’ve discovered, they intend to assassinate the Vice-President on Midock using some sort of untraceable dart—filled with what I don’t know, poison I suspect. The suspect is Jase Balandez. What I don’t have is a motive or evidence of who masterminded this plot.”

  “I can give you the motive.” Zaambuka leaned back in his chair and interlocked his hands in front of him.

  Oh no, lecture mode. She slumped back into her seat.

  “What do you know about the current political situation?”

  Toni waved her hand around. “That I don’t care about it. You know I steer clear of politics, Ant.”

  Zaambuka ignored her. “At this very moment, the APE Senate is in the middle of negotiating an alliance with the UPC, the United Planets Confederacy.”

  “The President is behind it? I don’t think I’ve seen an image of him on the holonet for an age. Are you sure he’s not dead and Ramo’s running the show? It sounds like the kind of project she’d initiate.”

  “I thought you stayed clear of politics?”

  “Doesn’t mean I don’t hear gossip.”

  “Toni.”

  She waved a hand. “So, an alliance with Sector Two. I’ve flown to the border but never through Confederacy space.” You didn’t just fly into another Sector without permission. It was a fast way to get shot. “That’s Gendix, Hemell, Ziim, Djpitt and the Anderee systems.”

  “As well as the Cryy’v-eft, the Shayshall, and the Teriniz zones.”

  Toni shook her head. “That many systems must add up to over a third of the populated space.”

  “If the Confederacy allies with APE, well over half the galaxy will be governed by a peace-focused collaborative political party. And yes, Vice-President Ramo is the campaign’s spearhead.”

  Toni tapped the tips of her fingers together. “I still don’t see where the assassination comes into it other than to get a lot of negative publicity.”

  “The Ascendancy.”

  Toni sat forward and leaned her elbows on the console. “Sector Three?” She remembered stories her grandfather told her when she was little, of pirates and smugglers and of Sector Three. A place filled with ghosts.

  In reality, she knew little about the Ascendancy. Its borders were tightly controlled.

  “Yes. The Ascendancy is consolidating their control over Sector Three and are starting to expand. The area is deep on the other side of Confederacy space. They’re taking down independent border worlds with deadly force. Vice-President Ramo is aware of this incursion and wants to be prepared in the case of full-scale invasion.”

  “Invasion? That’s jumping to forcedspace, isn’t it? They’d have to overrun Confederacy space to get anywhere near Sector One’s borders.” This was insane. It would never happen. The Sectors were too established, too regulated to degenerate into war. The public would never go along with it. Toni shook her head. Those Resonators though …

  “Perhaps not. The Ascendancy strictly controls their communications network. Our security specialists suggest it’s impossible to predict the Ascendancy’s strengths and weaknesses without regular updates. We don’t even know who’s coordinating their attack.”

  “So if Ramo is taken out of the picture, the entire peace alliance will collapse, making us vulnerable to an Ascendancy invasion force? You’re stretching the threat a bit, aren’t you? Ramo can’t be that pivotal. She’s not even officially in charge.”

  “Ramo’s leading opposition, Senator Kalzee’tiam is a Protectionist. He and his followers believe in tightening our borders and strengthening our armies against both the Ascendancy and the Confederacy. If Vice-President Ramo is killed, her supporters will lose their loudest voice in the Senate. If her supporters were to join ’Tiam’s party, he’d control the majority Senate. He’ll demand the entire project be scrapped.”

  Toni rolled her eyes. “Surely Ramo’s supporters are more loyal than that. Don’t they believe in the alliance?”

  “They do, but without a leader as gifted as Ramo, many would settle for the APE to continue on as they are now. And besides”—Zaambuka leaned forward and rested his hands on the panel before him—“I have suspicions Kalzee’tiam has been bought. He’s received information from someone trying to influence his position. I’ve had him under unofficial investigation for the past year, and he’s good. I can’t find direct evidence linking him to the Ascendancy, but someone is pulling ’Tiam’s strings.”

  Let me guess. “Gallian?” This is ridiculous. The strings were barely tangible.

  “I fear so. Toni, if Ramo dies, ’Tiam will reject the peace alliance. If he has been paid off by someone with loyalties to the Ascendancy …” Zaambuka didn’t finish. Toni understood the implications.

  “But what does Gallian have to do with the Ascendancy?” This sounded like nothing more than conspiracy talk. Was Zaambuka so focused on capturing Gallian that he was seeing connect
ions that weren’t really there? Gallian was an obsession—it colored her boss’s judgment.

  “We don’t know that he does.”

  “Are you suggesting two separate factions want to disrupt the summit? For completely different purposes?” Now it was sounding like a conspiracy.

  “I don’t know.”

  Do I go along with this? She gave the idea some thought. Could it be a coincidence? But what was Gallian’s motivation? Why disrupt the peace process? If Gallian knew of the Ascendancy’s plans, he could be taking advantage of the timing. It certainly wouldn’t be the other way around. It was possible he knew, but how?

  “So, these underground weapon shipments? You think they’re part of this plot to undermine the alliance project. I mean, if they intend to attack the Confederacy while representing the APE, then the APE and UPC will never ally. Maybe the Ascendancy is attempting an underground coup, and using Gallian to do it? Organizing a private army, maybe?” It was only Toni’s respect for Zaambuka that allowed her to give this scheme airplay.

  “It’s possible. We need more information. The summit is in less than a week.”

  “Follow the shipments or hunt down the assassin?”

  “Do you have a lead on Balandez?” Zaambuka straightened.

  “No, but I can make some calls.”

  “Then focus on the shipments. You have the tablets, pick a target and find out what’s been planned. Destroy all the deliveries you find. I’ll put a team on Balandez.”

  “Gotcha, Boss.” Good—that was the tangible threat. The rest was pure guesswork. The thought of standing around playing bodyguard 28/6 was just boring enough to send her over the edge. Before signing off, she grinned. “When you warn the Vice-President, thank her for the tie. Perhaps you can get the manufacturer’s name for me?”

  “Toni …”

  With a smirk, she closed the link. “Zach, have you scanned those tablets?”

  “Yup. Closest target is Telber. Interestingly enough, that’s closer to the Sector core than Border Space.”

  “Then that’s our destination.”

  With a fluctuation of the Blackflame’s shields, they disappeared into forcedspace.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The fight was dirty but brief. Toni dragged the heavy body back into the enclosed washroom and started on the fastenings holding the man’s jacket closed. Mate was at the end of the platform keeping an eye on security. There was a lot of security.

  Toni dressed quickly in the stinky uniform, muttering under her breath as she did so. “Oh my gods.”

  Zach’s text bubble blossomed on her shade’s display.

  Zach: What?

  “I don’t think this guy has showered for a week. His shirt reeks.” Given the height difference between her and the guard, Toni was forced to tuck the pant legs into her boots and fold the material of the sleeves over several times. Hopefully no one would look too closely. Of course, that was a ridiculous thought—given her genetics, she would stand out regardless. Still, it might buy her some time. She tied her hair back and tucked it under the guard’s cap. Immediately, her skin began to itch, not liking the rough fabric at all. She groused inwardly. Tonight, she’d have to soak in a bath of her special salts and liberally spray her allergy diffusers.

  They’d arrived on Telber in the earlier hours of the capital city’s morning. As soon as they touched ground, Zach hacked the arrivals database, and between him and Mate, tracked several unusually large shipments of ranic fruit to this train station.

  “Original, are they not?” Mate said in response to Toni’s question about the ranic fruit. It worked in their favor that Stiev and his distribution buddies kept the same routines and the same cover stories.

  According to the records, the ranic fruit crates were delivered to this train yard twenty-one standard hours ago and loaded onto three separate trains bound for Ganick City.

  Toni had never been to Telber before. To familiarize herself with the terrain, she had Zach prepare a brief analysis. She hated homework, but for missions such as this one, the more she knew, the better. Zach displayed numerous maps of the largely mountainous planet and explained most of the cities were built deep underground. The planet’s extreme tropical temperatures made the surface too uncomfortable to live on. Toni couldn’t get over the size of the giant Truby trees that grew everywhere. The trunk width on an average Truby was the length of a star-roller, and they grew to at least thirty-five hundred feet.

  She quickly realized there was no safe way to travel overground and limited travel by air, restricted by the height and width of the Truby trees. The inhabitants found it easier to transport items of worth between cities via long underground trains. The tunnel maps were incredibly intricate. As she traced her fingers along the paths, she snorted. The tunnels looked like the veins beneath her skin. They wouldn’t be able to land in a city travelport without coming across one of the many train hubs tasked with running vital supplies between the cities and the giant storage facilities at each mountain. Which, as it turns out, was exactly where she needed to go.

  On arrival at the platform, Toni and Mate were forced to turn back at the sight of heavy security. They had to find another way in, which led Toni to the guard change rooms.

  She scratched at her neck scars and walked briskly along the platform toward one of the waiting trains. It looked like it would be departing shortly. Gusts of metallic air pressed against her as she walked the length of the train. The three rear cars appeared designed for storage, large and bulky. They had plenty of room to carry the fruit crates. She counted four cars to each train, designed to carry passengers. More trains waited on nearby platforms.

  Toni passed two maintenance workers crouched at one of the train’s repulsor ports. They didn’t look up as she stopped beside them.

  “Morning, Miss,” one said. He didn’t move his outstretched leg, so she just stepped over it.

  By climbing over the two men, she made it clear she was not sneaking around. It was a way to maintain anonymity while being obvious about it. The maintenance men would only remember her as a rude member of the security team.

  Sliding into the car, she moved swiftly along the inside corridor. The train floor trembled beneath her feet, forcing her to sway as she walked. At the sound of voices ahead, she ducked into a nearby compartment. It smelt moldy. She dreaded to imagine what was stored inside. Pressing her ear to the wall, she waited.

  “We’re running thirty behind. Patch the kheghing thing so we can get moving.”

  “Sir, if we rough patch it, we run the risk of popping it out during transit. We could end up halfway along the wet zone with no way to repair it if it blows.”

  “How long for a full repair?” The voices trailed off as they moved away. “We must arrive before the woman—”

  “Politicians. Getting rid of her won’t change nothing. I just can’t guarantee …”

  Toni slipped out of the door and continued down the corridor behind them.

  Zach’s text bubble appeared at the lower corner of her display.

  Zach: Sounds important. Think the woman they’re talking about is the Vice-President?

  “Yup.” Toni had no idea if there were more security or maintenance on the train but it sounded like at least some of the crew knew what the crates contained. She had to stay quiet, but that didn’t stop Zach from texting.

  Zach: I can’t see ranic fruit being on the urgent list for any community.

  “Yeah.”

  Zach: Be careful, Boss. If they know what’s being transported, they’ll be keeping a close watch on it.

  Toni slipped through a door between the car she was on and the next carriage, closing it softly behind her. Her blood thrummed as she crept to the large window overlooking the passenger car. “Oh shenghi.” The words were barely a whisper emerging on the breath of her exhale. The carriage beyond was full of uniformed men and women. They sat strapped to their chairs or milled about the carriage, talking quietly to one another. She did a q
uick headcount. “Too many.” She backed away slowly.

  Zach: What?

  With one last glance through the window, she darted back along the train corridor.

  Zach: What?

  “Too many,” she said. She had to get off this train.

  Zach: What is too many, Boss? Too many guns? Did you see the guns?

  There were at least a hundred soldiers sitting in that car. If the train had three more passenger cars and they were all full, then that was four hundred soldiers on this one train alone.

  If each of the three trains carried the same numbers …

  “They are starting a war.” It didn’t make sense. Telbar was a relatively peaceful planet. Why stage a coup here? Messages kept popping up on her display.

  Zach: What?

  Mate: What?

  Toni didn’t have time to explain. She ran for the end of the train. “Mate, I need a distraction.”

  Within seconds of her order, a loud rumble filled the air. The entire train carriage jolted at the sound of the first explosion. Windows rattled within their rubber seals, and the whole carriage vibrated ominously. There was a moment of silence, then came the thundering sound of feet running in the direction of the explosion. Toni could smell smoke.

  When the sound faded, Toni ran.

  Reaching the end of the train without issue, she tugged open the rear access door. Gray smoke surrounded the front of the train. She slipped off the rear carriage and over the damaged repulsor still waiting for its patch. Her heart thudded as she searched the area for anyone looking in her direction. She had to be careful now. Anyone catching sight of her would wonder why a guard was headed away from the explosion instead of moving toward it.

  “What did you do?” she asked.

  Mate: Do you really want to know?

  “Nope. Meet me at the café on the corner, near the supermarket.”