McKnight's Mission: A House Divided, Book 1 (Spineward Sectors- Middleton's Pride 4)

by Caleb Wachter

  “Really?” she asked with apparent surprise.

  “Really,” he said seriously.

  Silence hung between them for a long while, during which time Tiberius considered how they could proceed.

  “All I’m asking you to do is re-take the general written exam,” Tiberius explained, “but I want you to give it your best. If Horgan’s scores still beat yours, I’ll make him the Chief Engineer—and you and I can decide how best to proceed with…this,” he gestured to the two of them.

  “But if I beat Horgan?” she asked as a short-lived hope flitted across her face.

  “Then you’re the Chief Engineer,” Tiberius said firmly, “and as the ship’s XO, it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to have a non-professional relationship—at least not as long as we’re both assigned to the same command.”

  “What about a transfer,” she asked almost before he finished speaking, “what if we were on another ship—one where we weren’t XO and Chief Engineer, or one where military regs didn’t restrict us?”

  Tiberius found himself pondering that particular query for several seconds before replying, “Then we’d be more or less free to do as we pleased.”

  “Ok,” she nodded curtly, drawing herself up confidently, “I’ll re-take the test. But after I do—and after this messiness with the Raubachs has been dealt with—we put in for a transfer.”

  “I don’t think our credentials are all that good, Pen,” Tiberius said thoughtfully. “We’d probably have a tough time getting into another military outfit.”

  “It doesn’t have to be military,” Penelope said pointedly. “It just has to be somewhere we can be together. Even Captain McKnight won’t need us on this ship for much longer, and once we’re done with the retrofits I’m sure she’ll sign off on our discharge.”

  Tiberius found himself smiling in spite of her almost unthinkable suggestion that they quit the military altogether. But it did show just how seriously she thought of their potential future together, and he knew that wasn’t the kind of thing one should dismiss lightly.

  “Ok,” he said with a nod, “you re-take the test and we’ll see where we go from there. But first things first,” he added sternly, “we need to get this ship into fighting trim, and to do that I need the best engineer on this ship in charge of Engineering. That means you, Pen.”

  “Well…second best engineer, anyway,” she amended with a twinkle in her eye.

  They shared a laugh before returning to their duties, during which time Tiberius pondered the previously unthinkable idea of life outside the military.

  The scariest realization was that he actually thought he might enjoy such a life.

  Chapter XXI: Harmonious Interests

  “Lynch,” McKnight greeted, standing from her chair as the muscular arms dealer entered one of the Gate’s conference rooms. When he entered the room, the quad of Tracto-an Lancers assigned to escort him there made as if to enter behind him. But McKnight waved them off with a firm look, and they reluctantly stepped back into the corridor. After they had done so, she reached down and closed the door via remote switch built into the DI interface near her chair.

  After the door swished shut, Lynch nodded approvingly. “Where you want me?” he asked, gesturing to the dozen or so empty chairs arranged around the conference table.

  “Here,” she gestured to a suggestively positioned chair adjacent to her own.

  After he had seated, he said, “I’ll cut right to the chase: I don’t know everything about your mission out here, but I think I’ve got the long and short of it. Stop me if I’m off-base,” he said with his usual commanding confidence, “Tim was sent out here on regular patrol but ended up uncovering all this Raubach unpleasantness. With some quick thinking, nerves of iron, and an unhealthy desire to do the right thing, he dug down the hole until he got to what he thought was the root of the issue: the Alpha Site, otherwise known to y’all as the Cagnzyz System.”

  He paused deliberately, and McKnight made no reply since he had been fairly precise with his breakdown thus far.

  Appearing to take her silence for the affirmation it was intended to be, Lynch continued, “Along the way he made some enemies, a friend or two, and proved that he and his people were equal to the task put before ‘em—a task that would send most people screamin’ into the night, but which you people saw through to the bitter end.” McKnight knew he was angling for something here, and he was appealing to her vanity as part of his approach, but she firmed her resolve to remain impassive as he spoke, “Now we could dance around the truth or I can just say it so we can get down to the real bidness at hand: you bucked for promotion so you could oversee the creation of an intelligence network out here in Sector 24. You’re a smart girl,” he said with what seemed like genuine approval, “and Tim was a smart boy. So y’all realized, even if your Little Admiral didn’t, that information is what really matters out here. Warships are nice and all, but what good are they without a smarter plan than the one your opponent’s got?”

  “The MSP has done fine—“ McKnight began in protest, but Lynch interrupted her.

  “I’d prefer if we did away with all that posturing,” he waved a hand in dismissive disgust. “I’m layin’ my cards on the table and I’d appreciate you doin’ the same, Lieutenant Commander.”

  McKnight stung from the rebuke, but maintained her professional veneer. “Go on,” she said after taking a moment to gather her wits.

  “But while you’re determined to succeed in your little endeavor, the hurdles y’all have to clear are significant,” Lynch explained. “Not only do y’all need to develop a workin’ network of informants, but you’ve got this lingering Raubach bidness to address—bidness which, it so happens, could use a partner to help you conclude.”

  McKnight had suspected this was the turn which the conversation would eventually take, so she said, “We’ve worked together in the past, Mr. Lynch—“

  “Please,” he interrupted cordially as he leaned back in his chair, “just ‘Lynch.’ Wouldn’t feel right with you callin’ me by a title—or family name—that ain’t my own.”

  “Ok…Lynch,” she said neutrally, “we’ve worked together in the past, and while the MSP can’t have official dealings with a man of your particular circumstances, you’re right about one thing: I do want to get this job done, and I’m willing to do what it takes to see that happens.”

  “My ‘particular circumstances’?” he repeated with subtly narrowed eyes. “That’s soundin’ an awful lot like snake-speech, McKnight. If there’s one thing I cannot abide, it’s snake-speech. I came here alone, unarmed, and vulnerable—more vulnerable than I’ve made myself in decades. I’d appreciate a little reciprocity, but if that’s not in the cards,” he stood from the chair, “I’ll bid you good huntin’ and be about my own bidness.”

  “Wait,” she said as he turned to leave, prompting him to pause mid-motion and turn to face her. She stood from the chair and placed her knuckles on the table, “This is newer for me than it is for you. I can appreciate your desire for reciprocity; surely you can appreciate my reluctance considering what you seem to be proposing. I’m not saying we can’t work together,” she gestured to the chair, “I’m just saying that you might need to be a little patient with me. Will that work?”

  A gleam entered his eye and Lynch began to laugh as he nodded. “Patience happens to be one of my strong suits, McKnight,” he said as he placed his hands on the back of the chair he had just occupied, “but time ain’t exactly a luxury we’ve got a lot of at this particular moment, if you can take my meaning?”

  McKnight felt a thrill of excitement at having successfully established her position in the negotiations. She had stood her ground and not caved to his demands, and she had already managed to wrangle one compromise out of the notorious man best known as The Beast by anyone with whom he dealt.

  “I do,” she said, sitting down in her own chair, “so let’s get down to it. No more ‘snake-speech’ and no more innuendo. I’m here
to develop an intelligence operation for the Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet as a primary objective…and I, like you, have unfinished business with House Raubach which I consider to be of secondary official importance.”

  Lynch grinned, flashing his rare mineral teeth as he spun the chair around and seated himself with his chest against the back. “I’ll forgive that last bit of innuendo,” he said approvingly, “since I understand well enough what you meant by it.”

  McKnight nodded shortly and leaned back in her chair. “What are you offering?”

  “More than enough to get you to say ‘yes’,” he said confidently. “But before we get to terms, I need to know if you’ll see this thing through to the end. I told you I’m gonna lay my cards out on the table here, but before I do that I need to know that if you accept then you accept all the way.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” McKnight said guardedly, knowing she risked offending him by being reserved but also knowing she couldn’t hand the man what was essentially a blank check to her involvement in whatever it is he had planned.

  “What it means,” Lynch said patiently, to her surprise, “is that I intend to give you everything you came out here to accomplish, right now and with only one condition, in exchange for your help on one mission. But that mission will be long, complicated, and dangerous—more dangerous than anything you’ve done yet. The only reason I’m makin’ this offer,” he added seriously, “is because I know you and your people can help make it happen, and because I think you’ll agree with me that it’s more important than anything else you’ve been up to.”

  McKnight was taken aback, not only by his bluntness but also by the magnitude he seemed to suggest. She decided it was best to respond in kind, “We already destroyed the Alpha Site. The Ancient world is gone, along with its technology and most of the ships Commodore Raubach had outfitted with it.”

  “This was never about upgradin’ guns, McKnight,” Lynch said heavily. “Like any good deception, the real reason why them Raubachs came out here was shrouded in misleading truths—chief among them bein’ their supposed aims for the Spineward Sectors.”

  Hearing him suggest that the Alpha Site had been nothing but a glorified diversion piqued McKnight’s interest instantly—and it also offended her on a deeply emotional level. She, and her crew, had come to terms with the sacrifices made by their shipmates back at Cagnzyz in no small part due to the solace taken by believing they had derailed House Raubach’s plans permanently. She had expected to come out to Sector 24 and, essentially, root out the remnants of the Raubach forces now that the Commodore was out of the picture.

  But Lynch seemed to be saying that House Raubach’s main goals were far from derailed, which meant that Captain Middleton’s sacrifice might well have been for naught.

  And that offended her far more than she could have ever expected.

  “How do you propose to help me accomplish my primary goals—those goals being the establishment of an intelligence network which the MSP can use to stabilize the region against forces which work to destabilize it?” she asked challengingly as anger began to well up within her at the thought of her shipmates having died because they—and she—had fallen for a glorified diversion.

  “I’ll give you mine,” he said simply.

  McKnight felt her mouth threaten to fall open before a thought occurred to her. “What about Cagnzyz? If you knew that it was a diversion, why would you send us off to assault it?”

  Lynch sighed and nodded gravely, “The truth is I only have enough ammo for one shot at these people. I couldn’t risk bein’ wrong about where the real prize was, because if I missed my shot then it’s ‘game over’ for the Spine.”

  “So you used us,” McKnight said, her voice tremulous with anger.

  “I did,” he confirmed, meeting her gaze unflinchingly, “just like you was plannin’ to use me when we sat down at this table. I ain’t holdin’ that against you, and I think it’d be wise if you followed suit.”

  She gripped her left hand into a fist and saw Lynch’s eyes flit down to it before once again meeting her gaze. She forcibly relaxed her hand and drew a deep breath as she considered his offer. “What kind of an intelligence network are we talking about…and how could I be certain they’ll work with the MSP?”

  The barest hint of a smile played at the corner of Lynch’s mouth, “Two hundred and eight embedded informants—includin’ four in your own organization—along with my very own local ComStat access program. Though, truth be told, y’all seem to have the better of me in that regard.”

  McKnight was surprised that he would volunteer the fact that he had several informants operating within the MSP, but she realized she really shouldn’t have been. Admiral Montagne had been one of the few people to take an active interest in upholding the Confederation’s rule of law—which was the only rule of law left in the Spineward Sectors—so it seemed rather obvious in hindsight that Lynch would wish to keep his finger on the pulse of all things MSP.

  “What else?” she asked levelly.

  “Up to date, fully re-integrated star charts—includin’ several classified staging points in Sectors 23 & 24 which the Imps likely plan on usin’ when they make it this far,” he explained. “Financial records I’ve compiled over the last few decades for every major player in the region; a list of over three hundred confirmed, and two thousand suspected dark operatives at work in the Spine; access to my robust logs of communication transcripts pertaining to…shady bidness several of the Spine’s prominent politicians have conducted—oh yeah, and a battle fleet.”

  McKnight blinked in surprise at that last. “A battle fleet?” she repeated skeptically.

  “Whatever’s left of it after we strike at the Beta Site will be made available to help your Little Admiral for the royal rumble we all know is comin’,” he said matter-of-factly. “There are gears in motion here, McKnight,” he leaned forward with a deadly serious expression, “and if we don’t line up together right now, in this moment—on this side of the ball—y’all might as well retire from military life and learn how to properly calculate a cost/benefit ratio.”

  McKnight’s eyebrows rose at the last bit about ‘cost/benefit ratios,’ and she quickly lowered them in contemplation, “Are you suggesting—“

  “I ain’t suggestin’ anything,” he cut her off. “I’m makin’ an offer, and I’ve put my cards out on the table. It’s time for you to do likewise or this meeting is over.”

  McKnight had not expected the meeting to be so quick, so blunt, or so ominous in its tone. But she could not ignore the fact that Lynch had indeed given Captain Middleton the weapons and information he had needed to strike a crippling blow to the Raubach forces which actively sought to destabilize the Spineward Sectors. For all his faults—and McKnight had no illusions as to Lynch’s detracting factors—she knew that his interests were aligned with her own, if only for the time being.

  If he was serious about handing over control of his vast intelligence network—a network which was likely surpassed only by the wealthiest of Core Worlds in the Spine, or by the Empire itself—then it presented the opportunity to accomplish everything she had sought when making her proposal to Admiral Montagne.

  The urge to refuse Lynch’s overture was undeniable, but as the minutes passed in contemplative silence she realized that the primary driving force behind that particular impulse was nothing but pure, unvarnished vanity.

  She had wanted to build the operation with her own two hands, so to speak, and to lay claim to the accomplishment on her own merits. But in the end she knew that the most important thing was actually getting the job done, and even her most aggressive timelines had suggested it would take a year to build a fully functional network of operatives, contacts, and resources even remotely similar to what Lynch was offering. And the only reason she could believe he would be willing to give up those resources—or even surrender joint access to them—was because he was indeed running out of time.

  And that meant that if
he was telling the truth, the Spineward Sectors and everyone in them were running out of time.

  “If what you’re suggesting is accurate,” she allowed, considering her words with extreme care, “then I need to know your one condition before I can possibly accept.”

  Lynch shrugged, “I don’t burn people, McKnight—never,” he added with a diamond hard look. “If y’all want to remove my MSP informants, which wouldn’t be unreasonable, let me do it my way. They’ve done good work and never once have they been across purposes with your organization, but I’d understand if you’d want them removed as soon as possible. That’s my condition,” he explained. “You let me take care of them—like they’ve earned through their good work—and don’t go lookin’ to punish ‘em in any way, and I’ll see to it they never bother your Admiral and his organization ever again. Same goes to a lesser extent for my other informants, though I doubt there’ll be much conflict of interests with them.”

  “I’m not sure I can get the Admiral to approve of that,” she said doubtfully.

  “Then he don’t need to know,” Lynch shrugged. “You make the call; if you want ‘em out, they’ll be yanked by the week’s end and you’ll never hear from ‘em again. You’ve got my word on that.”

  “Why would you give this up?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

  “Because I ain’t gonna need ‘em after we ride on the Beta Site,” he replied before grinning mischievously, “at least…not for a while. I won’t say I approve of everything Admiral Montagne’s done since grabbin’ them reins, but y’all have proven yourselves willing—and able—to do what needs doin’ out here. That makes your organization number two on the depth chart after my own, with a strong case for startin’ a few games in the near future.”

  “You seem to think pretty highly of yourself,” she said coolly as she could seemingly smell the arrogance wafting off of him.