Towne raised his eyebrows. " 'The most part'? Intriguing choice of words."
"I find that I've done work for you in the course of doing my job. I need to know a few things, though, to be sure."
"Are you suggesting I owe you compensation?"
"I may send you a bill. But for now, let's just see how much what I've done is worth to you."
Towne waved his hand as if to say "continue" and eased further back in his chair.
"Alda Mikels is trying to oust you from the chairmanship of Imbitek. He may also be trying to kill you, but he's certainly trying to frighten you."
Towne frowned and glanced at Socras. Coren felt the bodyguard's presence fade. When he glanced back, Socras was gone.
"How did you arrive at this conclusion?"
"Circuitously. Someone killed Rega Looms' daughter. I'm trying to find out who."
"Do you think Mikels is involved in that?"
"Directly? No. But it was his people."
"And who are they?"
"I don't have names…yet. But they all work for the Hunter Group, in one way or another. So does Mikels."
Towne steepled his fingers below his chin and stared at Coren for a long time. "You are either very diligent or very lucky, Mr. Lanra. The Hunter Group wants to buy Imbitek. I've no doubt Alda is behind the attempt. Even for them, we're a bit too large and perhaps too dangerous."
"Who are they?"
"On Earth? They own shipping companies and warehouses, that's about it. Off Earth, however, they are one of the largest consortiums in the Settlers' worlds. Fewer rules, more places to move things when the law tries to compensate for the newness of the colonies. They own a little of every kind of industry. No one worried about it two or three centuries ago, before Terrans began to go out to space once more, and only Spacers existed away from the homeworld. It's fairly brutal business out there now. Mind you, I don't quite understand why Hunter wants us-they own comparable firms on several worlds. Maybe it was a prize for Alda."
"He got them Captras Biomed. "
Towne sighed and dropped his hands. "You are very well informed. That's disappointing. I spent a lot of money trying to keep that news from spreading."
"Why did you want to get rid of Captras in the first place?"
"No real applications. I'm trying to consolidate Imbitek, streamline the company, get us back to our base product. Most of the things Captras produces have no use here-they're all exports."
"There's money in that."
"There was money in it for Alda, he had the connections. We've been running into higher and higher losses."
"Hunter?" Coren asked.
"It's my opinion that Hunter is the legitimate face of the pirate consortiums. Alda has been doing business with them for years, perhaps decades. Alda wants the chair back, but I won't give it to him. I have the shareholders on my side."
"But he has Hunter."
"Exactly. So I thought, just to irritate him and give us a better position in the field, it would be smart to get rid of our albatrosses. I set up a sale for the company with what I had thought was an independent group of investors. Too late I found out that Hunter was backing them." He shrugged. "I still got my price, Imbitek shares increased in value, and the last poll among shareholders showed a higher degree of confidence in my leadership."
"So now he's trying to kill you."
"It appears that way." Towne narrowed his eyes. "What did Nyom Looms have to do with all this?"
"She was running baleys. "
Towne's face went slack. "I see. That's unfortunate."
"You hired a data troll to find some minutes of old board meetings Mikels chaired. She was threatened when she started looking, so she planned to leave Earth. The group of baleys she intended going with was murdered-including Nyom."
"Then I can only say that she was collateral damage. I can't imagine anyone would want to kill her. Not anyone involved in all this."
"No? Did you know Rega Looms was an initial investor in Nova Levis?"
Another shock registered on Towne's face. "No, I did not. I know almost nothing about Nova Levis."
"But you know which one I'm talking about. "
Towne shrugged. "The colony holds no interest for me."
"It's interesting that you don't have more concern for Nova Levis, though. Your mother was also a primary shareholder."
"So? That doesn't mean I was ever privy to the company's workings."
"The company's material became Captras Biomed."
Towne pursed his lips. "A little knowledge…The minutes I hired the troll to find concerned exactly that transaction. I know what products Captras started out with, but there was more to Nova Levis than that, and those records were missing by the time I joined Imbitek. Captras was Alda's pet project, and apparently it has returned to its owner."
"The minutes?"
"Concerned several topics of a clandestine nature, but none of them Nova Levis. Quite a bit concerned Hunter."
"Oh? What connection was that?"
"Weapons, apparently. Hunter deals in arms among the colonies."
Coren nodded. "And now they have a very good bioweapons company. "
"They already had one."
"Decompilers. "
"You saw the results of one such misapplication the other day." Towne heaved himself out of his chair. "So. Are you working for me now or not?"
"I'm working for myself at the moment. When I've finished, maybe we can talk. "
"Good. What changed your mind about Mr. Looms?"
"I don't take well to being lied to," Coren said.
"I see. Then, with that in mind, let me tell you this: One of Imbitek's many…subsidiary interests…is in baleys. I learned upon assuming the chairmanship that we-plus two or three other firms-run illicit trade through a variety of avenues. Nothing direct, purely through ancillary personnel, many of whom do not even know they work for us. I've been looking into shutting all this down, but not fast enough. Alda's people have been attacking several of our illicit ventures, including the baley running. In the last ten months we've lost eighteen shipments of baleys. We recovered three of them. They were all dead."
He stepped closer to Coren. "Your Mr. Looms' daughter was apparently using one of our egresses. The murderers were attacking me, Mr. Lanra." He blinked furiously. "I'm…sorry."
For a few seconds, Coren felt something like pity for Towne. He believed that the man truly was sorry. "I appreciate your honesty, Mr. Towne."
"One more thing, then. I didn't acquire those minutes through the data troll I hired-she never returned to me with the requested information. I used another source to obtain them. I have no idea where that troll went."
"Her name was Jeta Fromm."
"Yes."
"How long ago did you hire her?"
"Almost four months ago."
Coren nodded. "That's useful to know, too."
"I hope we can do business soon, Mr. Lanra." Coren walked away from the warren, hands in his pockets, unsatisfied. He knew more now, but, though it made sense on the surface, he felt he still did not know enough.
Where did Nyom's brother come into all this?
He stopped across from a walkway access and looked around at the nearly-deserted plaza. Third shift would be ending soon and people would be filling the moving walks and the corridors and their way home or to work.
His comm chirped.
"Lanra."
"Ariel, Coren. Where are you?"
"Um…"
"You need to come here. Things have changed. Your friend Palen is no longer in charge, and the TBI have assumed command of the investigation on Kopernik. Derec's in detention."
Coren sighed. "I need sleep. Do you think that can be arranged?"
"As long as you do it quickly."
"I'll do what I can. I'll be there soon. "
Twenty-Three
Derec opened his eyes in the half-light of sleep mode. The lights had dimmed shortly after Masid had left his cell. Derec lay awake for some time, mulling over what Masid had told him, and had gradually drifted off to sleep.
He raised himself on his elbows and stared across the corridor to Masid's cell. Masid seemed still asleep on his cot. Derec sat up and rubbed his eyes, wondering what had awakened him. He yawned. He went to the bowl in the corner and relieved himself.