Ambassador 3: Changing Fate: Ambassador Space Opera Thriller Series (Ambassador: Space Opera Thriller)

by Patty Jansen

  “Apparently Trader Delegate Federza is here.”

  “Yes, he came after the others had just come home, and wouldn’t leave until he had seen you. I tried to get him to come back tomorrow, but I’m afraid he was very insistent.” Very angry, more likely, about a junior staff member of mine breaking into his office.

  “It’s all right, Eirani, I’ll go and see what he wants.” Drat. I hadn’t even spoken to Reida about it and was utterly unprepared for a conversation about that. Great.

  “Will I bring you some tea?”

  “Just leave it for now. He might not stay for long.” Couldn’t let the man think that he was welcome to disrupt my evening over this issue. I’d try to palm him off as soon as I could. “You’re welcome to make some tea, though. I’ll have it when he’s gone.” Hell, by that time I would need the tea.

  “As you wish.” Eirani gave a bow which was half-mocking.

  “Where is Raanu?”

  “The young lady has gone to bed after doing her work.”

  “Of her own volition? That’s got to be a first.” It had to have something to do with Thayu’s promise of a day trip.

  I walked down the corridor, wondering if I should drag Reida in with me, but I should really talk to the young man first to see if I could uncover a bit more of the reason for his transgression. And I should talk to Nicha. Somehow, I was going to get to the bottom of this, but Federza was not going to sit in the front row while that happened.

  And while I was at it . . . I raked my hand through my hair. The feeder’s legs attached to it and I pulled it free from my skin. That moment that it popped off always made me shudder. The background voices in my head fell silent. I put the thing in my pocket. There. Now I might not be able to listen to anyone, but no one could listen to me either.

  The light was on in the office and Marin Federza sat in the chair that stood on the side of the desk. He rose when he saw me come in.

  Every time I saw the man, I got a shock over how tall he was.

  He nodded a polite greeting. “Delegate.” He wore his full uniform, which, considering the fact that the assembly didn’t sit, and the time of day, was a little odd.

  “Good evening.” I debated saying good night, because by the gamra clock it was well into midnight, but judged that a little too peeved.

  “I do apologise about the hour, but I have a matter I need to discuss urgently.”

  From close up, his face seemed pale and his expression drawn.

  “Sit down.” Not in the mood for niceties. I let myself drop in my chair and gestured him to the chair on the other side of the desk. Behind him, I could see over the water where the lights from the main island of Barresh twinkled in the night and a train zoomed over the elevated track across the water.

  He placed his fingers of one hand neatly meeting the corresponding fingers on the other, and then both hands on his knees. Was I imagining it or did his fingers tremble?

  “Look, Delegate I understand you don’t like me—”

  “Who says I don’t—”

  His nostrils flared. “Oh, that’s evident from everything you do or say. You don’t need to apologise. Few people like me.”

  Well, whose fault is that? “Do tell me why you’re here. I’ve been out most of the afternoon and evening, it’s late and I have to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting. If you are here for the reason I think you are, you’re going to have to allow me some time to sort out this matter, because I’m not in the capacity to comment on it right now.”

  He raised his eyebrows and his expression was so genuinely surprised that it took me aback. He was a good actor.

  “You’re here because the commercial building’s security camera shows my latest young employee breaking into your office in town. I’m going to have to apologise. I’ve only been notified of his transgression this afternoon, and I haven’t been able to talk to the rascal. I will do that as soon as I can, and should bring him to apologise to you in person.”

  He nodded, and let a silence lapse. Not the reaction I’d expected, at all. I pressed on, despite the feeling that I was missing some important fact. “I understand you’re angry, and I assure you that I want it cleared up.”

  “It’s all right, really.”

  “No, it’s not all right.” Since when was breaking into offices all right? Seriously, what the hell was going on?

  I stared at him, and the way he sat across the desk from me. Tired-looking, defeated.

  “Then tell me why you’re here.”

  He swallowed visibly and straightened his cloak. “The fact is, much as I dislike to admit it, I need your help.”

  Oh? I raised my eyebrows as far as they would go. “My help? This is something that you waited here for me to do? Something that absolutely can’t wait until tomorrow?”

  “I’m afraid it is.”

  “Something that only I can do?”

  He looked at his hands and squirmed ever so slightly. “Well, much as we’ve disagreed on all kinds of matters, I respect your integrity. I have been suspicious of you ever since your arrival here—”

  Well, that feeling was mutual—

  “—but I’ve found not one reason that justified my doing so.”

  So what was this? Some kind of backhanded compliment?

  “You have been, without exception, true to your word, transparent in your dealings with gamra. I don’t like the fact that you work for the man I despise, but you have not made any missteps yourself.”

  He must not have been paying attention, because I could name plenty.

  “And in the office you hold currently, I could imagine a thousand candidates that would have been a thousand times worse. Anyone from Asto’s First and Second Circles, for example—”

  “And all this is important because?”

  “I’m explaining why I’m here.” The tone of his voice acquired a little edge.

  “Well, there is no need for explanation. I’d rather get to the main message.”

  He nodded, pressing his lips together and not meeting my eyes. “My life is in danger.”

  I almost laughed. And he came to me, and this household, the very epitome of risky politics? “We’re all in danger, everyone who takes part in these negotiations.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “Tell me about it, then, because I’m stabbing in the dark.” And I was getting extremely frustrated with his refusal to talk straight.

  He looked up at the ceiling. “You’ve got bugs on.”

  “Of course I do.”

  “I want you to turn them off before I say anything.”

  “I can’t do that, I’m afraid. My staff member who knows how to do that has already gone to bed, and I don’t want to do it, because if this is as important as you say, I want a record of it.”

  “But my enemies will hear what I say.”

  “Of course not. No one hears what is said in these recordings unless I release them.”

  He looked at me. Blinked. Pearls of sweat glistened up his upper lip. He would know that what I said was not entirely true. If the news was juicy enough, it would find its way into the gossip circuit anyway. There was no secrecy.

  “I want your guarantee that no one hears what I say in this room.”

  “You know I can’t give that guarantee, for the safety of both of us.”

  “I am not your enemy.” Spoken with an intensity that chilled me.

  “Well, I don’t know about that. You represent a group of people who have caused us no end of trouble. You provided the technology for people with political aims that allowed them to kill the president of my world. More recently, you were not particularly helpful during the Exchange outage.”

  “Please note that I represent the Trader Guild. I work for the Trader Ledger. No one else.”

  “As far as I could see, you were at the meeting this morning representing the Barresh Aghyrians. Are you now saying you don’t really represent them?”

  He hesitated. “I was . . . relieved from my
position.”

  Well, what the hell. “Any reason?”

  “The Barresh Aghyrians are not a homogenous group. I recently . . . disagreed with some of the more powerful members of that group.”

  “About what?” Who were these powerful members? Chief Delegate Akhtari?

  He glanced aside. “That’s why I wanted the listening bugs to be off. If they hear me talking about this—”

  “—if I am to do something with the information, as I assume is your wish, I will have to justify my source. How can I do that without a recording?”

  His nostrils flared. “You’re a very hard-nosed diplomat.”

  “I can assure you, you have not experienced hard-nosed if you think that. I know that the Aghyrians are not a homogenous group. They’ve never presented themselves as otherwise. In fact they’ve never presented themselves as anything at all. They do their own thing in their own compound that’s off-limits to any of the rest of us.”

  He met my eyes, his expression pained, hard, exhausted, contemptuous and a whole lot of other emotions all at once. “I would appreciate if for once you could set aside your vendetta against me.”

  “I have no vendetta against you.” Just get to the fucking point.

  Damn, I was getting angry and that was never helpful, especially without Thayu around. I wished to hell he’d just get to the point instead of dragging up all this nonsense.

  I rose, breathing deeply to try and calm my rattled senses. I was going to tell him quietly to leave before I did something stupid and come back when he had decided to be more informative. He might be right about being in danger, but he should go to the guards if that was the case, because I couldn’t help him.

  I don’t know what made me glance out the window, but I noticed a spot of light in the darkness of the marshland where there were only reeds. Pengali sometimes went fishing at night, but they never used light. My heart jumped. More Tamerians?

  While Federza kept talking—something about trust and fellow delegates—I walked to the window. The light was gone now. Damn it. That wasn’t a good sign. That meant there was someone out there—

  A burst of fire flashed.

  “Watch out!” I lunged, grabbed Federza’s arm—

  He called out, “Hey, what are you doing—”

  —and pushed him face down on the carpet. I hit the floor a split second later.

  Thump.

  A flash engulfed the window. There was a loud crack. Lightning zapped across the opening, casting the room in hot white light. Glass shattered and sprayed through the room, hitting my back and the carpet with sharp thuds.

  Then it was silent. Black spots danced before my eyes.

  Holy shit. That was far too similar to a situation I was all too familiar with.

  “Are you all right?” I asked Federza, forgetting to use formal pronouns. Forgetting that we’d just had a fight, damn it, forgetting about customs and formality, and just reaching out to him as a fellow human.

  He said something in Aghyrian which I didn’t understand. Likely a swear word. His face was pale and sweaty, and he breathed fast. He pulled at globs of glass which had melted onto his tunic. Then looked at me. Shaken. He might be a pompous prick, but damn it, I should have taken him a bit more seriously.

  “Keep down!” Sheydu and Nicha ran in, both of them with guns in hand. They ran to the window, followed by Thayu. Deyu was with her.

  “Get them out of here,” Thayu said.

  Deyu and Nicha helped me and Federza up and ushered us to the back of the room. Thayu and Sheydu each stood on either side of the molten hole in the glass. The charge had gone straight through the room and had hit the opposite wall, where I intended to put a bookshelf, but that was still empty. It had left a mark on the paint but had hit nothing important—because the important things it wanted to hit was us? Or rather, Federza?

  Eirani ran in, all wide-eyed and panicked. “Oh, Muri, what happened—oh.” Nicha’s outstretched arm stopped her. She covered her mouth with her hand. “Look at your clothes, Muri.”

  I looked. There were burn holes in my shirt and trousers. I had no idea if any of the glass had hit my skin. My mind was racing too much to feel anything.

  “How dare they shoot at you? These criminals are getting away with everything. This is just outrageous. Not even in my time with—”

  “Quiet.” Sheydu cut off Eirani’s flow of words. She wore her earpiece and was listening to something. Thayu held up her tracker. The screen flashed with a wriggly line.

  Eirani glared sideways at the two Coldi women.

  “Take them out of here,” Thayu ordered in a low voice.

  I protested. “Thay’, you get yourself to safety, too.”

  She gave me a don’t argue look.

  Eirani muttered something in keihu about rudeness. “That’s right, Muri. Do come with me. I will give you some tea to soothe the nerves. Let the soldiers do the shooting.” She turned into the corridor, leaving us staring at her big backside.

  Federza and I followed Eirani to the sitting room. My ears were still ringing and I felt unsteady on my feet, as if my knees would give away any moment. The corridor had never seemed so long.

  Xinanu came out of Nicha’s room in her nightshirt and stared at me, in particular at a spot on my side where the glass had burned through my shirt and that was now starting to hurt like blazes.

  Damn it, damn it.

  This apartment was meant to be a safe haven for me and everyone who lived here and was part of my staff or association, even Xinanu who annoyed the crap out of everyone. Eirani and the other local staff deserved a safe environment. Living on the island was about being safe. If I wanted break-ins, robberies and shootings, I would have moved to town.

  That flash I’d seen would have been a long way off the island. Gamra security was strict and, so far, effective. They would patrol the waters around the island. They had warning systems set up if anyone crossed into the exclusion zone, and cameras, trip wires and infrared scanning equipment. Did that mean that the shot had been fired from outside the exclusion zone?

  In the living room, we were met by the shocked stares of a number of other members of my staff. Devlin, Yaris, all the kitchen staff. Reida was there, too, looking unimpressed, with his hair mussed from sleep. He sat with his hands clamped between his knees. He didn’t meet my eyes when we came in. At some point I should speak to him, maybe even in the presence of Federza so that he could apologise straight away, but all that didn’t seem so important now.

  Xinanu came in after us, walking softly on her bare feet. Reida shuffled aside to make room for her on the couch. She sat down, placing both hands on top of her belly. Her dark eyes reflected the light as she glared at me, pursing her lips.

  Raanu lay on the ground on a blanket, still asleep.

  “Where are Evi and Telaris?” I asked in a low voice so as not to wake her up.

  No one knew. On the ground floor, outside or otherwise on the case, I guessed.

  “Does anyone know what’s going on?” I looked at Devlin. But he was wearing his nightclothes and hadn’t been at the hub. I leaned aside so that I could look out the door, through the hall. It was dark in the hub room, and I couldn’t see anything, not even the faint glow of the screens that indicated that someone was at the central bench. “Is anything wrong with the hub?”

  “We shut it down temporarily,” Devlin said. “For security’s sake.” He yawned.

  “Do you know why that was necessary?” Did this have something to do with that reply to the ship? With the fact that we went to look at the spot where the reply was said to have come from? With the Tamerians?

  “No. Just that Sheydu was yelling at us to shut everything down.” He used a pretty rude pronoun, which would have been the form Sheydu had used. “So I did.”

  Trust Sheydu to be rude about it.

  Damn. What now? Sit here and wait until there was news? I stifled a yawn.

  I didn’t want to talk to Federza, whose prim uniform app
eared to have acquired a good number of burn holes at his back. Surely he would have some idea who had fired the shot—

  Tamerian mercenaries, hired by . . . whom exactly?

  —but I didn’t want the story in any other way than wrapped up and presented to me by security, with advice on precautions to take.

  If Federza thought that only I could offer him safety, there was obviously something going on within the Aghyrian group. It was just a thing Aghyrians would do: hire others to do their fighting. The Aghyrian groups were parties in the claim and negotiations, and I couldn’t get involved. Didn’t want to be involved. Damn it, this was my house that had been attacked.

  Eirani came in and set tea and fruit on the table. I poured some tea, for me and then Federza. He didn’t want it so I left it on the table. He looked more shaken than I’d ever seen him.

  “Drink the tea, please. I’ll get my housekeeper to give you a snack.” Otherwise he might faint.

  He stared at me blankly, and didn’t move. I put a cup on the table in front of him.

  I took my cup anyway, got up from the couch again and looked into the hall.

  Behind me, Eirani said, “They said we had to stay in here, Muri. For our safety.”

  I turned back from the door and sat on the couch again.

  Federza must have changed his mind about the tea. He clutched his cup in both hands. Whenever he lifted it to his mouth, his hands trembled.

  His eyes met mine.

  “Is there anything we should know about the danger you’re in at this point in time?”

  He glanced around the room. “No.”

  Too quick? Afraid? I didn’t know. It was hard to tell. He glanced at the cupboard against the back wall of the room. In most apartments, that was where the security recording equipment was. Maybe he still wanted me to turn it off. I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to and I was going to make sure that he was being watched.

  The apartment’s front door opened. There were footsteps in the hall and a moment later Telaris appeared in the door opening. He wore his armour over his uniform, and carried one of his guns in his hand.

  I went to the door. “Mashara, any news?”

  “Mashara did not find any trace of the culprits. They were too far away, and there is no trace of the attack in the garden. Gamra security are combing the reed fields.” He came closer to me, enveloping me in his Indrahui onion-y scent. “This is confidential and the delegate didn’t hear it: Trader Delegate Federza’s apartment has been trashed. It seems that people broke in by blasting a hole in the façade.”