An Airless Storm: Cochrane's Company: Book Two

by Peter Grant

  The official perked up at once. “Processing fees? They might be expensive.”

  “I expect so. Do you think ten taels might cover them?”

  The Warden licked his lips. She knew the gold’s value on the local black market would be pretty close to his annual salary. “I think that would be sufficient, yes.”

  I just bet you do, she thought, amused. Funny how, as soon as you’re cut in on the bribes, you change your tune! “Then consider it done. I’m sure we can rely on your cooperation and support.”

  “Oh, yes! Yes, of course!”

  CONSTANTA

  Cochrane tried to frown disapprovingly, but couldn’t suppress a grin. “So you’ve been spending my money like water, have you?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes, sir.”

  “And did you get value for it?”

  “I think so, sir. They gave us a great deal of background information – all minor in itself, but it helped to fill out the picture of what motivates the Brotherhood and makes them so fanatical. I’ve included it all in my report, which I transmitted from the ship as we approached. Briefly, Bashkin Bregija seems to have been an unusually gifted demagogue, a hypnotic speaker who could motivate his audience to believe in, and attempt, what would seem impossible, even insane, to any normal person. He set them on fire with his vision that only if they had their own planet would they be able to reach the same level of influence and power as the Big Three criminal organizations.”

  Cochrane shook his head. “That’s crazy! A physical base is only one requirement for that sort of thing, and probably not the most important one, at that. An adequate skills base, commitment and loyalty, cohesiveness, motivation… there’s a long, long list. We’re learning a lot about that ourselves, as we try to mold Hawkwood into what we want it to be.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I presume the Dragon Tong is one of the ‘Big Three’?” He glanced at Chen. “Who are the other two?”

  Chen replied, “The Cosa Nostra and the Nuevo Cartel. All three organizations began on Old Home Earth before or at the start of the Space Age. Both of the others are similar in size and power to ourselves, although we like to think we are larger and better. They would probably make the same claim, of course.” His audience laughed.

  “Don’t you get crossways with them sometimes?” Cochrane asked.

  “We tend to steer clear of each other’s planets of influence, sir. That’s an unofficial arrangement, but in practice it’s proved very stable. On planets where we all have interests, we try not to interfere with each other.”

  “And how do you deal with conflicts when they arise?”

  “It’s funny you should ask that, sir, because I think the Brotherhood’s activities have escalated to the point that they’re infringing on all of our spheres of influence. I discussed this with my superiors before we left Qianjin to come here, and they agree. In fact, they’ve authorized me to discuss the matter with the other two members of the Big Three. With your permission, I’d like Lieutenant-Commander Ross to come with me as Hawkwood’s representative, because you’re as involved in the whole Brotherhood mess as any of us. I think her expertise and breadth of knowledge will be very convincing.”

  “Caitlin?”

  “I’d like to go, sir. This will be a unique experience.”

  “It will be necessary for Lieutenant-Commander Ross, and Hawkwood Corporation as well, to guarantee confidentiality,” Chen cautioned.

  “I think we can agree to that,” Cochrane acknowledged. “Where will this meeting take place?”

  Chen half-smiled. “Have you ever heard of the planet Bintulu?”

  Caitlin sat bolt upright. “The underworld playground?”

  “Oh, it’s more than that – a great deal more.”

  “I’d heard of it, but only vague rumors,” Cochrane noted.

  “I think Lieutenant-Commander Ross will be able to tell you a lot more about it when we return, sir.”

  “I’ll look forward to that. When will you leave?”

  “If you’ll let us use the Commander’s communications vessel, we can be on our way in a few days. She should be fully fueled and stored, and her crew given a chance for liberty if possible, sir. We’ve worked them hard, and there’s more of that ahead.”

  “All right. I’ll arrange that. Meanwhile, both of you catch up on some rest and relaxation planetside. Oh – one more thing. Caitlin, you’ve done a great job so far. I think you’ve more than earned a promotion. While you’re on R&R, get yourself the insignia of full Commander’s rank.”

  She flushed. “Thank you, sir! That’ll give me even more to celebrate.”

  19

  Rehabilitation

  MYCENAE SYSTEM

  Frank looked up from his desk as Lieutenant-Commander Moncrieff knocked at the door. “What is it? Oh – it’s you, doctor. Come in and sit down.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “What’s this about our prisoners in your latest report?”

  “Sub-Lieutenant Sejdiu is as medically recovered as he’ll ever get from his head injury. I’d say it’s left him with a propensity for headaches, but nothing much worse. However, he needs more rehabilitation than we can provide in Mycenae. The eight Kedan spacers with him are getting space-happy, too. He says their previous work never had them in space for more than two or three months at a time, but they’ve now been off-planet for over a year. They’re getting a bit loopy, sir. I think all of them need time planetside, for psychological as well as physical health reasons.”

  Frank sighed. “I see your point, doctor. I know I get to the point, after too long in space, that I want to go planetside, find a nice storm, and stand outside in the wind and the rain, just to remind myself how nice it is to experience even bad weather occasionally!”

  She laughed. “Me, too, sir. I’m looking forward to doing exactly that when my relief arrives next month.”

  “That gives me an idea. It’ll be better for Sejdiu to make the transfer under medical supervision, right?”

  “Well, yes, sir, although I think he’s recovered enough that routine medical care could handle his needs.”

  “I daresay the Commodore would want us to be careful. I’ll forward your report to him, and suggest that he find secure quarters where we can keep the prisoners planetside for a month or two. The officer can receive therapy, and the spacers can wander around outside and soak up some sun. They can travel to Constanta with you, so you can keep an eye on his condition.”

  CONSTANTA

  Two weeks later, Cochrane read Frank’s report and frowned. He skimmed through the doctor’s recommendations, then summoned Tom Argyll and described the problem. “What can we do about this? Technically, Constanta is neutral territory. We’ve no legal right to hold prisoners here – hell, we’ve no legal right to hold them anywhere! It’s not like we’re a sovereign nation at war with another. We’re just a private company, in the eyes of the law.”

  “Yes, sir. It might help if we became a sovereign nation. We could get away with a lot more!” They laughed softly together. “We bought that farm outside the city to house our security training camp. The off-planet instructors lived in the farmhouse, some distance from the training grounds. They’ve all left now, after bringing enough of us up to their level. Our own instructors don’t live out there. Why don’t we convert the farmhouse into quarters for our prisoners? We could extend it with temporary buildings, and put up a security barrier around it to keep the prisoners in and snoopers out. We could even treat it as a training exercise. I’ll rotate our security teams through it to guard the prisoners, and warn them that our offensive teams will try to sneak past their guard or mount an attack, at least once every week. I’ll offer a bonus to the offensive team every time they succeed, and to the defenders every time they spot them and keep them out. It’ll keep both sides on their toes.”

  Cochrane grinned. “I like it! All right, get that set up. You’ve got about a month before the prisoners arrive. We’ll bring th
em straight down to the farm in a cutter, bypassing customs and immigration. I’ll square that with the Defense and Foreign Ministries. They take enough money in bribes for our armed vessel license each year that I don’t think they’ll turn a hair at a few temporary, unregistered visitors.”

  “What about that Sub-Lieutenant’s medical care, sir?”

  “I’ll send his file over to Elizabeth, Captain Cousins’ wife. She can recommend therapists to help with his rehabilitation. We’ll send them out there to do it, rather than bring him into town. I won’t take the risk that he might escape. That would be very embarrassing, not to mention very awkward if he got clean away. He hasn’t told us anything about his own people, but he’s always watching what’s going on, according to Frank’s reports. He’s probably learned enough about how we do things to be valuable to them.”

  “All right, sir. I’ll start getting things organized at the farmhouse.”

  Cochrane pulled up Sub-Lieutenant Sejdiu’s file, including his medical records, and assembled the necessary details to be forwarded to Elizabeth Cousins. He was scrolling through the last few pages when Hui came in.

  “What was that?” she asked curiously. “It looked like an X-ray.”

  “It was. It’s our prisoner’s skull after surgery, showing the repair. He was lucky to survive.” He flipped back to the first page. “Here’s what he looked like when we captured him.” The image showed a limp, unconscious figure, blood running down his face from a depressed fracture above one eye. “Here he is a few weeks later, once he’d regained consciousness.” The second picture showed a much-improved patient. His hair had been shaved around the operation site, but his eyes were clear, looking straight out at the lens, almost defiant in their expression.

  “He’s so young!” she exclaimed.

  “Old enough to help kill our people, when it came to that. He’s damned lucky Frank sent a courier ship to collect the survivors. After that sneak attack, I think our warships might not have bothered. One shot from a laser cannon, and that lifeboat would have ceased to be a problem.” Cochrane sounded exasperated, but shook his head even as he spoke. “That would have been wrong, though, no matter how tempting. Someday some of our people may be in the same situation, and need rescuing. That’s why I told the head of the Albanians that we had him. I want them to take prisoners, too, if they can, rather than kill our people out of hand, in the hope of an eventual exchange.”

  “Do you think they will?”

  “I have no idea, but at least I tried.”

  Two weeks later, Hui walked the few blocks between Hawkwood’s premises and those of the Grigorescu Shipyard. She was expected, and ushered into the owner’s office.

  “Good morning, Matei. It’s such a lovely day, I decided to hand-deliver the final payment for the conversion of those eighteen cargo shuttles, rather than just do an electronic transfer.”

  “Hello, Hui. It’s good to see you again.” He accepted the envelope from her. “We had a lot of trouble getting them to stay balanced in flight without their cargo compartments, but I think we got it right in the end – just as long as they don’t run out of reaction mass. As soon as that happens, they’ll be uncontrollable. You’ll have to tow them to another ship to refuel their tanks.”

  She laughed. “I doubt they’ll be flying anywhere without pods unless it’s between ships, so they should never be far from a fuel source if they need one. You did good work, and quickly. Your shipyard’s developing a well-earned reputation for quality.”

  “That’s thanks to you. We were just a sleepy little backwater business, looking after local orbital craft and the occasional visiting freighter, until you came along. First there were those old patrol craft to be modernized, then all the modifications to commercial freighters, and maintenance work on your corvettes… you’re becoming like a military Fleet in miniature, you know – and not so miniature, at that. We’ve had to grow fast, to keep pace with your needs. That’s helped us attract business from off-planet, too. I’ve just signed a contract to modernize two old freighters for a cargo line on Jaelle, only a few light years away. They like the thought of keeping the work in the family, so to speak – our planets were colonized at the same time, both by Romanian groups.”

  “That’s good news. I notice you’re hiring a lot more people planetside, as well as aboard the shipyard in space. You’ve taken over two more floors of this building.”

  “Yes, we’ve had to. Our administration wasn’t keeping pace with our growth. It was getting more and more difficult to keep track of everything. Fortunately, a few months ago, I was able to hire a very highly qualified accountant who’d recently arrived here. She’s already transformed our management systems, giving us much better control. I’d be lost without them now.”

  “Sounds interesting. I must meet her. We might ask to borrow her for a few months after she revamps your systems, to look at our own.”

  Grigorescu shook his head. “I don’t think she’ll do it. I mentioned you required anyone accessing your files to undergo your standard security screening, including truth-testing. She said something about that being ‘an unpardonable invasion of privacy’, and that she’d never allow a private company access to that much information about her. She found even the thought repellent.”

  “I can’t say I blame her. It is repellent, in one sense. On the other hand, we’re in a very high-risk business, with lots of security requirements that a typical company doesn’t have. We’ve got to have those measures in place to protect ourselves.”

  “I suppose you do. Would you like to meet her, anyway? Her office is just down the corridor.”

  “Why not, while I’m here?”

  Grigorescu ushered her down the passage and knocked at a half-open door. “Antonia, I’d like to introduce Captain Lu Hui. She’s Hawkwood’s Chief of Staff. Captain, this is Antonia Funar.”

  The attractive woman behind the desk looked up from her terminal, then rose to her feet. “Good morning, Captain. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you from Mr. Grigorescu.”

  “And he’s said a lot of good things about you,” Hui replied as they shook hands. She tried not to look too interested as she covertly scanned the accountant. She’d got to her feet in a smooth, effortless manner that hinted at strength and flexibility – not necessarily what one would expect in a business executive who looked to be in her late forties or early fifties. Her face was attractive, and her eyes particularly striking, with a rare gray-green coloration. Somehow, they nagged at Hui’s subconscious. Have I met her before? she wondered. Her eyes seem familiar.

  ‘Antonia’ studied her visitor just as intently, if equally covertly. According to Agim’s briefings, this woman was a senior officer in Qianjin’s Fleet. Qianjin was home to the Dragon Tong, one of the Big Three criminal organizations the Patriarch had cited as the prime reason he’d begun the Fatherland Project. Not for the first time, she wondered what sort of ties could possibly exist between it and Hawkwood. Perhaps she could find out.

  “What brings you to Constanta, Captain?” she asked. “I wouldn’t have thought there was any reason for official contact between this planet and yours.”

  “A number of planets have problems with criminals interfering with asteroid mining activities. Hawkwood provides security to one operation like that, and it’s negotiating with others to do the same. That’s of interest to us from a professional point of view, so we exchange information with them, and keep each other informed. My position as Chief of Staff at Hawkwood is part of that. It helps me keep an eye on what they’re doing, and helps them at the same time, because they don’t have many staff-qualified officers, although they’re training a number of them now.”

  “Do Hawkwood and your Fleet operate together?”

  “No, it doesn’t go that far – at least, not yet. If we both had sufficiently serious problems dealing with the same criminals, I suppose we might join forces to take care of them. That decision would be taken far above my pay grade, of course.”
>
  “I see.” Inwardly, the spy felt a sudden chill. The Brotherhood was having enough trouble dealing with Hawkwood alone. If it had to face the armed forces of the Dragon Tong’s planet as well, that might be too much to handle. This information, irrespective of anything else she learned, was enough to justify her mission. Agim would be seriously alarmed when he heard it. He would have to deal with Hawkwood before it could ally itself more closely with a more powerful enemy.

  “I’d like to invite you to look at our management systems, as well as the shipyard’s, but Mr. Grigorescu informs me you aren’t willing to go through our security checks.”

  “No. I was raised to value my privacy. The thought of some truth-tester operator being able to rummage through my most intimate thoughts is very disturbing.”

  “But he can’t. He can only detect whether or not your answers are true or false, not what you’re thinking.”

  “That’s not exactly true, Captain. If he establishes a pattern of questioning, true or false answers will reveal a lot. Say he wanted to know about my love life. He could ask questions about past partners, my attitudes, my experiences, and so on. If I didn’t want to answer, or evaded a direct answer, that would show up as a lack of truthfulness. If he asked enough questions, he’d be able to pin down the subject, or event, or relationship, that was bothering me. That’s going too far, in my opinion.”

  Hui nodded. “I see your point. Well, it’s a pity, but we won’t be able to use you, then.”

  “I don’t think you’ll be losing much. I’ve more than enough to keep me busy here for several months yet. I don’t think I could take on more responsibilities right now.”

  As Hui walked back to Hawkwood’s premises, her mind kept returning to the accountant’s eyes. Something was bugging her about them. She shook her head as she walked into her office, trying to put it out of her mind and focus on the work that awaited her… but it kept coming back to her over the following days. Somewhere, she’d seen those eyes before.