“I have contacts.”
“I see.” Radko made a mental note to let Vega know. Military police shouldn’t have been able to get that detail.
Han watched her face. “I like to know what I’m getting into. And we do have orders on our comms.”
“Those orders shouldn’t be something you can get from your contacts.” Radko looked around at the crowd waiting to exit the shuttle. “We’ll discuss it when it’s more private.”
Radko’s team was directed to a small, eight-man shuttle. They were the only passengers for Barth, the fourth-largest spaceport on Shaolin.
“We get people like you every four, five trips,” the pilot said. “They think because it’s busy and on the southern end of the continent, it’s a good place to come if you need to go south. But there’s nothing but cargo sheds. Passengers don’t usually get off here. Most people go on to San See and take an aircar across the continent.”
Which was why their equipment was stored at Barth. “It’s close to where we need to go,” Radko said. “And provided we can hire an aircar, does it matter if there’s nothing there?”
“Lady, your aircar will have to come from San See. If you were thinking of saving money, this is not it.” The pilot turned abruptly and waved frantically at Chaudry, who’d been about to strap himself in beside a small, refrigerated crate. “Not on that side. Can’t taint the special orders, can we.”
Chaudry squeezed in between van Heel and Han instead.
Radko looked at the crate. She recognized the logo. “Gippian shellfish. Here?”
“You’d be surprised where we take these babies,” the pilot said. “Here. The center of the galaxy. The outer rim. We go from Lancia to Redmond, Roscracia to Yaolin, and everywhere between. Anyplace someone is prepared to pay for them.”
Including Haladea III, where the Lancastrian ambassador served them to his guests.
It was a pity this particular delivery wasn’t going straight to Redmond.
“Gippian shellfish,” Han said, salivating.
“Spacers can’t afford shellfish on our wage,” van Heel said. “You’ll never get to taste it, Han.”
Chaudry shuddered. “I had one once. It was awful.”
“Gunter Wong is a friend of my father’s,” Han said. “He brings it over sometimes when he comes for dinner. Fresh as.”
Van Heel and Chaudry might not have understood the reference, but Radko did. Gunter Wong owned the Gippian shellfish company. His beds were on the coast in the province of Han, across the river from the main Han estate, in fact.
“Wish I had friends like that,” the shuttle pilot said. “I’ve never even tasted the things. That little box is a week of my wages.”
“Some people say they’re an acquired taste.” Radko smiled as she thought of Ean, politely swallowing shellfish, then washing it down with a mouthful of wine.
“It’s a taste I wouldn’t mind acquiring.”
The discussion as to the merits of whether it was worth acquiring lasted until touchdown.
The pilot let them off with a cheery wave. “Order your aircar now,” he said. “It’s got to come half a continent. You’ll be here awhile.”
Radko didn’t tell him the aircar was already on its way, courtesy of Vega’s well-laid plans.
He off-loaded his precious cargo into the drone that waited for it, and he and the drone took off at the same time.
Han looked around. “We must be the only humans for hundreds of kilometers. What a dismal place.”
“We’ve an aircar coming,” Radko said. “Let’s collect our gear.” Their gear was stowed in a cargo container on the edge of the field.
“They couldn’t have gotten it out any farther away without taking it all the way back to San See.” Han clapped Chaudry on the back, making him jump. Chaudry had been looking around nervously. “You don’t have to worry about other people. There’s no one here.”
Radko suspected that was the problem. “Have you been out of the city before, Chaudry?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.” It was a mumble.
There was a cure for that. Take his mind off the wide-open spaces. “Van Heel, you’re in charge of our equipment. Tell us what you want. Chaudry, you pack it. Han, you’re on guard.”
She watched what van Heel chose. She definitely skewed to the surveillance and electronic side.
“Add two sheets of explosives,” Radko said. If all else failed, they could blow themselves out of trouble. “Some hand weapons. A blaster each. And spares.”
She checked the stats of the ship they were to travel to Redmond on. It was a commercial liner. “Van Heel, what can you hide from the ship security?”
“You don’t hide something like this from a ship,” van Heel said. “You bribe the staff. I’ve got that in hand.”
Radko hoped she was right. “More weapons then.” Something that didn’t look like a weapon. Something they could put in their baggage. “A tranq gun. And that Pandora field diffuser, there.”
“That’s not a weapon,” van Heel said. “I don’t even know why it’s in the container. It’s practically an antique.”
Radko hid a smile. Commodore Vega, who collected ancient weapons, had an early-model Pandora field diffuser on her wall. “You never know. It might come in useful.” It wouldn’t be the first time one had been used as a weapon.
“If we come across a meteor shower,” Han said, picking it up and handing it across to Chaudry. “We’ll let the captain know we’ve got one in our luggage.”
“Any other crazy suggestions?” van Heel asked.
“No,” Radko said. “I’m sure you think one is enough.”
Once in the aircar, the extended day caught up with Radko. All she wanted to do was sleep. Instead, she spent the trip to the spaceport going over the job and getting a feel for her new team.
“You all know this is a covert mission,” she said. “Secrecy is vital and will likely save your life. Don’t discuss the mission where we can be overheard.”
“Are you sure it’s covert ops?” Chaudry said uneasily. “I don’t think I’d be good at that.”
It wasn’t a comment Radko would have expected from a man whose psychiatrist said he had a death wish. Radko thought Toll’s assessment might be more accurate.
Van Heel pulled out her comms and held it up to him. “What do you think that code means?”
Radko craned her neck to look. Van Heel had brought up her mobilization orders.
Chaudry looked at the orders as if he’d never seen them before although he had.
Van Heel put her comms back into her pocket. “You can’t say you didn’t look at it, for you’re in casual clothes, like the rest of us.”
“I was on leave. My kit’s in my bag.”
“And I was pulled out of a training course I’d waited two years for,” Han said.
One soldier on leave, another on a training course. Vega must have scrambled to get this together so fast. Even if Vega’s main reason for choosing them had been their line ability, surely there were more than three available linesmen in the Lancian fleet.
Perhaps Vega didn’t trust the Lancian fleet right now. Sattur Dow was getting his information from somewhere, and it was more likely to be inside the fleet than out of it. Radko could understand that Vega might go outside the usual channels to put her covert-ops team together.
Which meant Chaudry and Han wouldn’t have had the usual pre-op training. Vega would deal with it when they got back. In the meantime, a quick overview of the basics would be a good start.
“I hope you all understand what a covert op entails. No uniforms. No comms out until we’ve completed our task. In fact, you should all have received new comms before you left.”