Chen made straight for Sattur Dow. “I need to talk to you.”
“Later.”
“I need to talk to you now.”
Sattur Dow looked irritated. “Please excuse me a moment, Linesman.”
Ean was pleased to see him go. “Of course.”
Dow tried to halt at the door, but Chen took him out into the foyer. “Privately.”
Ean eavesdropped unashamedly through the lines.
“You set me up.” Ean could hear Chen’s rage, icy on his skin.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Dow said. “But drag me away like that in the middle of a conversation again, and I will most certainly set you up.”
Ethan Saylor moved in to fill the void. “Linesman.” He smiled cordially. “We should get to know each other better since we’ll be working together.”
“Working together?” Most of Ean’s attention was on what was happening outside the door.
“Once your bodyguard marries Sattur Dow,” Saylor said.
Ean looked at him. He was serious.
“You sent me to Redmond to kill me,” Chen said.
Redmond, again. Why so much about Redmond all of a sudden?
“Maybe we could get together for a drink sometime,” Saylor said.
“If this is your way of getting something more out of our agreement, it’s not going to work,” Dow said. “Where are my plans?”
“What about tomorrow night? After you finish work,” Saylor said.
“I don’t have your precious plans,” Chen said. “You know that already.”
“Linesman?”
“You set me up, Sattur.” Chen took something out of her pocket. A chit. Ean was familiar with them from his youth. Chits were guarantees of money. You purchased them from moneylenders at above-market rates. They allowed you to move money without the purchase being traced.
She threw it at Dow. “Here’s your money. Be warned, Sattur. You think you’re too powerful to be reached, but everyone has secrets, you more than most.” Chen turned and walked away.
Dow watched her go. He picked up the chit, then came back inside.
“Is there anyone inside there, Linesman?”
Ean blinked. “Sorry,” he said to Saylor. “I was momentarily distracted.”
Sattur Dow rejoined them. “Apologies, Linesman.” He inclined his head toward Saylor. “Ethan, would you please find out what Merchant Chen’s problem is?”
Saylor smiled although the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course, Sattur.” He nodded politely to them both, leaving Ean alone with Sattur Dow again.
The noise in the room dropped. Yu, Bach, and the Factor looked at Ean.
He should have been listening to them, not to Dow.
“Linesman Lambert,” Bach said. “When did you first realize—” His comms beeped. He glanced at the screen, thumb about to swipe the message to silence it. He paused, then looked up. “Please excuse me. I must take this call.”
Michelle had exited from the shuttle and was making her way quickly along the corridors. Coming this way. She walked so briskly, her bodyguards had to half trot to keep up with her.
“What was in Jakob’s message?” Yu demanded, as they waited for Bach to return.
“I don’t know.” He considered telling them to ask Vega, but Vega would be forced to say he was the one who heard it. He repeated the few words he could remember.
Yu’s face, and the Factor’s, grew grimmer as they listened. “That’s only an approximation.”
“Translated?” Yu asked.
“I don’t know,” Ean said, but Yu was looking at the Factor.
Coming from neighboring worlds, he would know enough Redmond to get by.
The Factor shook his head.
An uncomfortable silence fell.
Ean didn’t break it. Instead, he listened to Bach take his call outside the door.
The woman on the comms was the same woman Bach had been talking to earlier. “This had better be important,” Bach said.
“I found who assigned Han’s son to Redmond.”
Redmond again. Why was everyone at Redmond all of a sudden? Including Radko.
“And?” Bach asked.
“Commodore Jiang Vega.”
“Vega,” Bach said, as Michelle slowed to enter the foyer where he was talking.
Michelle looked at him.
Bach bowed. “Your Royal Highness.”
“Commodore Bach.”
Bach bowed and waited for her to enter before he turned back to his comms. “Send a code five,” he told the woman. He flicked off and frowned down at the screen, then followed Michelle in.
Michelle inclined her head. “Father. Factor. Merchant Dow. Good evening.” She nodded at Ean.
“Daughter. So glad you could make my supper. I heard you were staying on Haladea III tonight.”
“My meeting finished early,” Michelle said. “And I had some security issues I needed to discuss with Commodore Vega.”
“We have been hearing about security issues.” Yu ignored what was an obvious warning glance from Bach. “You spy on your guests.”
“Surely not.” Michelle didn’t look at Ean, but he knew she knew who had precipitated the accusation.
Yu’s comms vibrated discreetly then. And Bach’s. And those of an assistant.
Yu ignored his comms. “Yes, apparently you are—”
The assistant raised a discreet hand.
Yu took out his own comms. He glanced at the message, raised a brow in Bach’s direction. Bach nodded.
Was that Bach’s code five? What was Vega involved in? And if it was Redmond, was Radko involved?
Yu swiped his comms off with force. He looked at Michelle. “We are not finished with this conversation, Daughter, but I have other issues to attend for the moment.”
“Of course. My ship is at your disposal, Father.”
“The Factor of the Lesser Gods wishes to be present at the interrogation of Captain Jakob. Arrange this, Daughter.” He turned to Bach. “We should start now for Haladea III,” and glanced at Michelle again. “In case Galenos steps up the timing of his interrogations.”
He swept out, the Factor close behind him. Bach followed them both, calling Helmo for clearance for the Emperor’s shuttle.
Sattur Dow, left behind, bowed to Michelle.
“Excuse my rudeness, Sattur,” Michelle said. “But I must organize the Factor’s request to sit in on the interrogation. Ean,” and she indicated he was to leave in front of her.
Ean half bowed to Sattur Dow on the way out. “Good night, Merchant.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: EAN LAMBERT
Ean tried to pull the screens on the shuttle through to the screen in Vega’s office. He couldn’t.
“It won’t be wired for comms,” Vega said. “The only time you’ll ever get a signal out of there is if someone opens a channel on their comms. You could kill someone in one of those secure shuttles and no one would know. Not unless they recorded it.”
He tried for Bach’s comms but didn’t know it well enough to identify which, out of the thousands around, it was.
Vega made them tea. It was only the four of them. Michelle, Ean, Sale, and Vega. “You’re here to save Lambert from his supper?” she asked Michelle.
Michelle nodded.
“At least something makes sense. And you, Lambert. Why the sudden spying on Bach?”
“Because he wants your head,” Ean said. “On his desk. By morning.”
Vega paused making the tea. “Literally? Or figuratively?”
“He doesn’t actually want your head, I think, but he was unhappy with something you did. He called a code five.”
“A what?”
“A code five, and not long after that, Yu got a message.” Ean was sure that Yu’s message had been precipitated by Bach.