Chapter 20
Calvin stewed quietly, tapping his fingers against his desk over and over. He thought about turning on some music but decided it’d be too distracting. Instead he sat there in silence, head buzzing, while he debated what to do.
The ship was heading toward Abia; he felt good about that decision. It was in Abia. And he wanted to know what it was before it left, whatever the consequences were.
Raidan had made it clear as crystal that he wanted Calvin to go there, for whatever reason. Probably to see something important. And Calvin wasn’t about to let that opportunity slip through his fingers because Summers wanted to keep hounding the Harbinger. Especially since, if Calvin caught up to it, he’d have to invent some new excuse for why he refused to attack it again. Since the obvious one didn’t seem to be working—that it was tactically insane.
Summers was wrong. Everyone was wrong! Raidan wasn’t a lunatic trying to start a war, and he wasn’t a pawn in some corporate game either; he was part of something much larger. Why else was the fleet behaving so strangely? And why else would Princess Kalila act so threatened?
Perhaps Princess Kalila was representing her own interests and not the royal family’s. If a war broke out, or some kind of instability shook the Empire, it might mean an opportunity to grab for power—outmaneuver her other siblings and destabilize her father’s control of the monarchy.
He knew less about Kalila than he would have liked. He’d heard of her charity work, and bits and pieces about her here and there from news and tabloids, but he’d never given her, or her family, much thought. They were above and beyond him, and not worth thinking about. Or so he’d assumed. And now he wished he knew more about her, to better judge her motives and character.
Calvin frowned. It was hard to pinpoint just what he believed. The most he could do was continue collecting information. And the best way to do that was to go to Abia. He knew that was what he had to do.
But he had to sell that idea to Intel Wing. If they wanted him to do a good job with his investigation, they would be supportive. But if they were only interested in containing Raidan and preventing the truth from coming out, then it would mean they’d been compromised too. That some third influence had its hooks in both Intel Wing and the navy, and that influence, whatever it was, would see Calvin’s choice to go to Abia as a direct threat.
He decided that, since Summers had forced his hand, it was time to test the fleet and Intel Wing to see just how far the corruption went.
So he recorded his message.
In it he explained his reasons for going to Abia. He couldn’t tell them about his meeting with Kalila. And he couldn’t tell them why he’d chosen not to fire on the Harbinger. Or that he’d stolen data from Brimm that implicated Abia. All he could say was that he’d cracked a code that discussed Abia and that he thought it likely Raidan would be there. That the Harbinger’s apparent jump to Zendricun Alpha was merely a ruse.
The truth being as limited as it was, he was unable to fully explain his reasoning, so his argument sounded weak. And he knew it. But he did the best he could. Appealing to his direct superiors and emphasizing, again and again, that this was definitely the right move for the investigation; he was certain. More certain than in previous investigations from which he’d earned Silver Stars. If they were objective, and had not been compromised, they would understand his message for what it was.
But if they had been compromised, they would hear it as: I’m not working for you anymore. I’ve gone rogue.
How they reacted would tell him a great deal. If they came down hard, he’d know he was on his own.
The Phoenix Conspiracy Page 38
