The Babylon 5 customs guard also raised her eyebrows at the sight of them. "Welcome back, Commander." She looked at the prisoner, the guard.
"Nothing to declare, Fitch," Ivanova said briskly. "Just a worthless piece of salvage. How are things on the station now?"
"Settling down. Cleaning up to do yet."
"Thanks." Ivanova frowned, wondering why Garibaldi hadn't contacted her if the disturbance was over. Had he gotten her message?
Once they got to the lift tube, she raised her link, not taking her eyes from her prisoner. "Garibaldi, this is Ivanova. Are things under control?"
"Ivanova! You're back!"
"Can you meet me in Security Central? At the lockup? I think you'll want to see what I brought back."
"I'm there now. I think you'll want to see what I've got, too."
She frowned, recognizing the amused tone in Garibaldi's voice and wondering what surprise she had waiting for her this time.
Getting off the tube at Red level, she was shocked to see the condition in which the riot had left the place. Wall panels had been battered, even quite a few of them ripped off. Lights were smashed, equipment broken, and debris littered the floor. A maintenance engineer was up on a scaffold doing repairs to a power junction that looked as if it had been blasted with fire from a PPG. Which, knowing Garibaldi, Ivanova figured it probably had.
The raider emitted a low whistle. "Some wild parties you guys must have around here, Earthforce."
Ivanova gritted her teeth. Without comment, she led the way to Security Central, back to the lockup area, where both Garibaldi and Sheridan were waiting for her. "Captain," she said in slight surprise. Then, gesturing at Zaccione, "Garibaldi, will you please have someone take this off my hands? Mr. Massie, thank you for your assistance."
A guard came to lead the raider away, but Zaccione turned to call back, "It's been fun, Earthforce!"
Garibaldi rolled his eyes back. "Who's that?"
Ivanova exhaled in relief. "One of the raiders who hit us out there. I managed to run him down and persuade him to surrender." Then, turning back to Sheridan and straightening to attention, "Sorry, sir. Mission was completed successfully. Transport safely escorted to dock. Nine raider ships shot down, one captured. But we lost Lieutenant Mokena."
Captain Sheridan's face seemed to tremble for an instant, before his expression set. He'd heard those words too many times, too many men and women under his command gone to their deaths. "Any other casualties?" he asked at last.
"No, sir, just slight damage to Alpha Four. Moy brought in my ship, and I came back in the transport with the prisoner."
The dead pilot's memory hovered like a ghostly presence among them, reducing speech to set formulas. Finally Garibaldi asked, "And your prisoner? Sorry, I got your message, but I didn't have time to contact you before this. We had a few problems on the station."
"So I saw," she said dryly. But then she recalled a little of the excitement of finding out what Zaccione knew. "The prisoner, right. I got him to talk. He knows all about the morbidium deal! It's a company called AreTech behind it."
"AreTech Consolidated Mines?" Garibaldi asked with great interest.
"They pass the routing information on to the raiders. It's a scheme to sell morbidium on the black market. I'm sure there are Earth Alliance officials involved, too. To keep the whole dirty mess quiet."
"And this guy knows about it?"
"He knows a lot. More than he's already said, I'll bet on it."
"So that's what it was all about," Sheridan said, shaking his head.
"And that must have been what Ortega knew, the reason they wanted him killed," Garibaldi added.
Ivanova looked at him. "Ortega? You found a connection?"
"Oh, I forgot, you don't know. J. D. Ortega worked for AreTech mines. The guy who killed him, Yang, worked as an enforcer for the mining company."
"That's what Zaccione said! People who asked too many questions about the mining operations would turn up missing."
"Yeah, that sounds like Yang, all right," Garibaldi agreed.
"So that's it! That was the information they were after!" Ivanova's excitement heated with hope. They had the answer! Finally!
"And then Wallace's gang came onto the station to find out what Ortega knew, who he'd passed the information on to. They found out about Yang, took care of him"
"Commander Wallace killed Yang?"
"Actually, it was probably Khatib, if you ask me. At any rate, we found evidence decisively linking Khatib to Yang's death."
"Has he confessed?" Ivanova asked doubtfully.
"He can't. He's dead," Garibaldi said.
"Khatib is dead?" Ivanova shook her head. "Wait a minute. Just what exactly has been going on around here while I was gone?"
Garibaldi grinned. "It all started when I got a lead on that guy who set me up to get zapped. I put him under arresthe has an interesting story to tell, too, by the way and I tried to keep it quiet, but apparently word got out. Some of Nagy's Free Mars pals panicked. They must have figured somebody talked and they were next to be arrested. They killed KhatibI guess they didn't like him as much as meand shoved his body out the airlock. We retrieved the body, took it to Medlab, and that's where we found the evidence linking him to Yang's murder."
"That's all?" Ivanova asked, eyebrows raised.
"Not quite. So when Wallace found out Khatib was dead, he went a little unhinged. He ordered a general sweep, started to pull in people from all over the station people from Mars, people who'd worked with Nagy, people who had any connection to mining. And that was just the last straw. People had just had enough of the arrests. Somebody tried to intervene, it turned into a fight, the fight turned into a riot.
"And while we were all busy trying to put out the flames, Wallace sneaks back into Medlab to try to steal the evidence linking Khatib to Yang."
"And did he?" she asked, ready to believe anything by this time.
Garibaldi's grin widened. "Nope. But he did manage to give us sufficient cause to charge him with complicity in Yang's murder. After the fact at the least." Ivanova slowly understood. "You mean"
"That's right. Wallace and his little mouthpiece Miyoshi are locked up right down the hall from your pirate."
CHAPTER 27
The raider wasn't cooperating. He wasn't joking anymore, either, at least.
"He insists on seeing the Ombunds," Sheridan told Ivanova. "Says he's not saying a word unless he does. Says he's got the right."
"He has the nerve to talk about rights . . ." she fumed.
"Well, he does," Sheridan told her. "And the fact is, he doesn't have to talk at all, if it comes to that. If we want his testimony, that's how we're going to have to play it."
"Put him out on the other side of the air-lock, see how long it takes him to decide to talk," Ivanova said stubbornly. "I've got it all on record, what he told me on the transport."
"That's another point," Sheridan said firmly. "It could be arguedand when he goes to trial and has a lawyer it probably will be arguedthat everything he said at the time was coerced. That you threatened him. Now, I understand how it wasMokena getting killed, the heat of combat. You got carried away. But if we want his testimony to hold up this time, we've got to do it by the book."
"So he gets to see the Ombunds. To cut a deal." Ivanova was disgusted.
"We need what he has to say," Garibaldi said, looking up from the display where he was going over the raider's records. "We're all pretty far out on a limb here if Earth Central wants to start sawing. J. D. Ortega still officially has the status of a wanted terrorist, and you're still under suspicion as his associate. We have to prove those charges were false, that Earthforce officials on Mars were corrupt, that Wallace was engaging in a cover-up, not a legitimate investigation."
"Or else we're in for a long, hard fall," Ivanova said under her breath, reverting to pessimism.
Communications broke in. "Captain Sheridan, there's a Gold level transmission for you, from Ear
th. Admiral Wilson."
Oh-oh, Garibaldi's expression said, and Ivanova nodded agreement as they both stood to leave the briefing room and give the captain privacy to take the call.
Sheridan faced the comm screen alone, like a man facing an execution detail. He straightened his shoulders, said, "Put the admiral through."
Wilson's face was high-colored with agitation. "You've really done it this time, Sheridan. You had your orders. Explicit orders. You were warned. Not to interfere with Commander Wallace's investigation in any way. I thought I made myself clear. You've exceeded your authority this time, Sheridan."
"With all due respect, sir, I believe I have not. I believe that my actions were justified. Sir."
"Arresting the investigating officer? For murder? For conspiracy?"
"Sir, if my authority in commanding this station does not include the authority to place a murder suspect under arrest, given adequate cause, then I hereby tender my resignation, immediately."
"Now, you just hold it, Sheridan. What are you talking about?"
"Sir, we have proof that Commander Wallace's aide, Lieutenant Khatib, murdered a man named Fengshi Yang. We have additional evidence that the commander knew about this murder, that he abused his authority in order to cover it up, and that he finally tried to destroy the evidence, pulling a lethal weapon on my senior medical officer."
Wilson looked dubious. "This is a serious accusation. You said you have proof?"
"I hope so, yes, sir. We do have proof of the murder, and who committed it. And in addition, we may have additional evidence that involves the commander in a another conspiracy which has cost the lives of over one hundred transport crew members over the last sixteen months."
Now Wilson snorted in disbelief. "Wallace? In a conspiracy?"
"Sir, we have strong evidence that AreTech Consolidated Mines has been engaged in a systematic conspiracy to sell out its own cargoes to raiders, in order to profit from the increased price of the metal. We believe Earth Alliance officials were part of this conspiracy. We have reason to believe that the actual purpose of Commander Wallace's investigation was not to pursue Free Mars terrorists but to eliminate a threat to this conspiracy."
Wilson's face slowly lost its color. "You say you have evidence of this?" he asked slowly. "This conspiracy?"
"We have some evidence. In the case of the murder, conclusive evidence. Our investigation into the other matters isn't concluded yet."
Wilson looked grave. "Captain, you've stumbled onto matters you know nothing about. It may be that you've uncovered some valuable information. I'm going to consult with my superiors about this. I'm not authorized to disclose any further details. In the meanwhile, let me warn youthis information is to go no further than it's already gone. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir. And what about Commander Wallace? He hasn't yet been officially charged with murder"
"Forget about that, Captain. You do nothing about the commander. It will be taken care of. A ship will be coming to take him back to Earth."
"I understand."
"I'll get back to you about the rest of this. Wilson out."
The screen blanked. Sheridan sat for a moment watching the BABCOM logo scroll across it, as if it carried a message for his execution. Finally he stood and went through to where Garibaldi and Ivanova were waiting for him, both looking concerned.
"Do we keep our heads," Garibaldi was the one to ask, "or not?"
"We keep them." But before the expressions of relief could take hold, he added, "For the moment."
"And Wallace?" Ivanova asked.
"Gets shipped back to Earth." Sheridan glanced around at security agents coming and going, making reports and taking calls. "Maybe we'd better talk about this back inside."
"He's going to get away with murder?" Garibaldi demanded with some heat once they were back behind the closed doors of the briefing room.
Sheridan answered him slowly. "I get the distinct feeling that Earthforce Command thinks a single murder is insignificant, in comparison."
"To what?" Ivanova asked.
"To what they won't say yet." Sheridan paused to remember what Wilson had said: "We've stumbled onto matters we know nothing about. That we're not supposed to know anything about, either."
"So what are we supposed to do, then?" Ivanova demanded.
"For one thing, not to let this information, whatever it means, go any further than it already has. That's an order. And the other thing is, if we have any chance of finding more evidence, we'd better find it now."
Ivanova sighed. "In that case, we'd better call in the Ombunds."
Ombunds Wellington's position on the matter was quite firm. The station's chief civilian judge might be old and white-haired, but his air of authority was sufficient to transform the utilitarian setting of the interrogation room into a court.
"No matter what you might think of Mr. Zaccione's alleged crimes, nothing he could have done negates the fact that he still has the right not to incriminate himself. And it seems clear that what you're asking him to do, to testify about these matters you can't disclose, would in fact require him to admit to his involvement in a number of crimes that carry the highest penalties our law allows short of the death penalty, that is," he added, with a reproving look at Ivanova.
She flared back, "I don't need his confession. I have enough proof to convict his tail a dozen times over. I saw him flame my wingman"
"But that isn't the point, Commander, as we all know," Sheridan reminded her. "It's not Zaccione we want to convict. Not now, at any rate."
She exhaled sharply. "I know. Of course. Sorry. It's just the thought of that scum, getting off"
"You don't want to convict him now," Wellington reminded them, "but Mr. Zaccione has to consider that he will be put on trial later, in the future. When what he says now can be held against him."
"What's the deal, then?" Garibaldi asked, getting as usual to the bottom line. "If he thinks he can just walk"
"I managed to convince him that option was unrealistic," Wellington said dryly. "As Commander Ivanova points out, the evidence against him is quite overwhelming. He has agreed to testify for you under two conditions: first, that none of his testimony will ever be used as evidence against him in a court of law. Second, that you agree not to seek either the death penalty or brainwipe if he's convicted of any crimes."
Ivanova was about to protest, but Sheridan said, "Remember, Commander, from what Admiral Wilson said, I don't think it's likely that Earth Central will allow the facts to be made public in a trial, no matter what. And if we have any hope of proving . . . what we need to prove, your raider is it."
"I know. I know. All right. If it's the only way."
"Tell him it's a deal," said Garibaldi.
"No, wait!" They all looked at Ivanova. "All right," she said through clenched teeth, "it's a deal, but I want something else. I want a guarantee that his testimony is really the truth. I want a telepath to scan him during questioning. I want the truth out of him, no matter what."
Garibaldi stared at her. "You want to call in the Psi Corps?"
"Ivanova has a point," Sheridan agreed. "Can we get Ms. Winters in to scan the raider while we question him?"
"I'll see if she's available," Garibaldi said, lifting his link. "This is Garibaldi, get me Ms. Winters."
But he still couldn't quite believe Ivanova had asked for her. Not Ivanova.
Two guards brought the prisoner between them into the briefing room, sat him in a chair, and at a nod from Garibaldi, left the room.
The raider looked around, from one of them to another, and when his eyes lit on Ivanova a faint grin came onto his face. "Hey, Earthforce, I guess you missed me, huh?"
But the joke was halfhearted and fell predictably flat in the company present. Garibaldi took the place of the guards, leaning back in the corner with his arms crossed, watchful eyes on the prisoner.
Captain Sheridan, ignoring the remark, began the proceedings by sitting down opposite the raid
er. "Mr. Zaccione, this session is being recorded. You've freely agreed to make these statements on the condition that they won't be used against you in any future legal action, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right," he replied.
"The woman standing next to you is Ms. Talia Winters, registered telepath. She'll be scanning you during the questioning to monitor the truth of your statements. You've freely agreed to this, is that correct?"
"Right."
"Mr. Zaccione," Talia took over, "I want you to relax and try not to think about my presence. Simply answer all the questions openly. Remember, I'll only be scanning the surface level of your thoughts, just far enough to determine whether you're telling the truth. You probably won't even be aware that I'm here, unless you attempt to lie."
"Oh, I think I'd always be aware of you in my brain, Psi Corps," he said, turning the grin on the telepath, who ignored it.
"I'm ready, Captain."
"All right, Zaccione, you can start by telling us everything you know about the scheme by AreTech Consolidated Mines to have its cargoes apprehended by raiders. How did you obtain the shipping schedules from the company?"
The raider went through the entire story again, essentially what he'd already told Ivanova on board the Duster: how a contact from AreTech had met with an agent of the raiders to pass on the shipping routes and schedules, the company selling out its own cargoes. But Sheridan pressed for more details:
"How often did your agent meet with the company representative?"
"Did you know the names of the ships? The exact nature of the cargoes? The exact tonnage?"
"How many freighters did you attack every month as a result of this information? How many in total? What was the total tonnage of cargo lost?"
Most questions the raider answered, occasionally saying he didn't know the exact details Sheridan was asking for. In a few cases, he seemed reluctant.
"The name of the AreTech representative who supplied this information to you?"
"I'm not sure ..."
"Previously, you told Commander Ivanova that your organization had verified his identity."
Babylon 5 02 - Accusations (Tilton, Lois) Page 21
