“Isn’t that what this is about?” Renaud asked.
Was Radko was chasing smugglers on Redmond? No. Vega wouldn’t have sent her there for that. Not unless someone was smuggling war secrets.
“I’m not ashamed of what I did.”
“Tell the damn story, Renaud, or I’ll feed you a truth drug. We’ve got more important things than having you procrastinating.”
Lord Renaud nodded and blew into his cupped palms. Maybe to give himself courage.
“You need to understand why I did it.”
“Tell us, then.”
“My son was a monster.” Bald and flat, and absolutely honest, according to the lines.
“This son you are trying so desperately to rescue?”
“Of course not. Let me tell it from the beginning.”
Vega nodded.
“Yves was… you don’t need to know… but we started sending him away for treatment when we discovered what he was like.”
He relaxed as he spoke. Ean thought he might be relieved to tell it.
“We got a look-alike for some of the public functions because, of course, we had to keep up appearances. It wouldn’t do to show the Emperor we had a weakness.”
Emperor Yu again, controlling everyone’s lives. One man shouldn’t have that much power.
“Jaxon was a lovely boy. And although Amina never said it to my face, I know we both wished he was our son, and not Yves.”
Renaud blew into his hands again. He was trembling now. “Yves got worse, especially once he started line training. There were incidents. Here, and on Roscracia.”
House of Sandhurst was on Roscracia, and Vega had said Han trained at Sandhurst.
“One girl.” Renaud’s voice didn’t change, but the wave of horror—bitter and nose-clearingly sharp—overwhelmed the lines.
“The girl?” Vega prompted Renaud.
“Her mother decided to kill Yves. He came back to Lancia for a function. She blew up the hotel. Killed him, killed herself, and fifty other people.”
That would be the explosion where Yves Han had lost his line ability.
“They told us that Yves was dead. Then they said they’d made a mistake, and he was in the hospital.” Renaud breathed into his palms again. “We think the initial prognosis—that Yves was dead—came from the DNA they got from the bomb scene. Then someone at the hospital recognized Yves as our son. We didn’t know Yves had asked Jaxon to stand in for him. Not for weeks. Not until they started the skin grafts and found we were incompatible.”
Vega nodded.
“So we went to his parents. They wanted money. For what we’d done to their son.” Renaud looked earnestly at them both. “Understand, no one expected Yves—Jaxon—to recover fully. We all thought he’d… so we paid them off, provided they came in every week for skin grafts.”
Renaud breathed in deeply again. The opposite of Abram, who always blew out. “They’re still getting their money.
“Things went well for a while. Yves—Jaxon—recovered, although he didn’t remember much at first. Everyone thought he was Yves, treated him like Yves. His parents stayed away, provided they got their money.”
A lot of families Ean knew would give up their sons for a regular allowance.
“Did he ever remember?” Vega asked.
“In the end, but, of course, we wouldn’t listen. We always changed the subject.” Another deep breath. “Tiana Chen found out. I don’t know if you know her. She sticks around the fringes of court, finding everyone’s secrets and blackmailing them.”
“She blackmailed you?”
“Yes. Yves guessed we were being blackmailed. So he joined the fleet.” A laugh that was half sob. “I think he felt guilty. He thought it would solve things. Only the entry tests—”
“Would have picked up that he was an imposter,” Vega said.
“Yes.” Renaud rubbed his hands together again. “I found someone. On Redmond. They agreed to switch the DNA records in exchange for my sending them things from Lancia. Medical supplies, mostly, because the taxes between the two worlds quadruple the cost. There were some things you couldn’t send to Redmond, even back then.”
Ean shivered. The adopted son would have thought he was fixing things. But he hadn’t. He’d made it much, much worse.
“How did you get the items to Redmond?”
“I have a friend.” Renaud stopped.
“He won’t get into trouble. We’re interested in your son, right now.”
“He’s a good friend. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“I’ve already said no repercussions for him.”
“He exports live shellfish. He gave me access to the ships he uses. He’s their best customer. They’ll do anything for him.”
“So let me get this straight,” Vega said. “The boy’s parents are blackmailing you. Tiana Chen is blackmailing you. And Redmond is blackmailing you and asking you to smuggle medical supplies and other goods.”
“Yves is worth every credit. And I’ll still happily pay it.”
The truth of that was a high crystal note through the lines.
“So what changed,” Vega asked. “You wouldn’t be this stressed about something that’s been going on for years.”
Renaud rubbed his eyes. “A month after the formation of the New Alliance I got a visit from someone. I didn’t know him, but he was Lancastrian. Military, I think, but I couldn’t be sure. He said, ‘We know you are sending items to Redmond. We want you to send things for us, as well.’”
“And if you didn’t?”
“They would take Yves and torture him. Suddenly, instead of passing medical supplies, I’m passing fleet plans and… alien gadgets and I don’t know what else.”
“Alien gadgets?” Ean asked.
“I recognized one of them. From the media. A little thing about so big.” Renaud cupped his hands.
Ean wanted to ask him to describe it further. He didn’t.
“I knew it was wrong. Of course I did. We’re at war. I couldn’t keep it up, not even for Yves. So I went to Commodore Bach.”
“What did he do?” Vega’s tone was mild.
“He told me to keep sending the items but to tell him about each shipment. That if I stopped, Redmond would likely make good on their promise to harm Yves. Or at the very least kidnap him and use that to force us to continue sending goods.”
Renaud blinked hard and breathed in three times fast in succession, nearly choking himself. He blinked again. “No one saw me go to Bach, but not long after that Yves leaves the barracks without calling me first. He knows we worry if he goes away. He always calls to let us know.”
“How often does he go away?”
“Hardly ever. He’s a military policeman. He’s stationed at Baoshan Barracks.”
Who had assigned Yves Jaxon Han to Baoshan? Ean suspected Renaud wouldn’t be above dropping a word in the ear of someone in power to get his “son” a job somewhere safe, where the worst thing he was likely to come across were soldiers drunk after a night out. Where the Han family could keep an eye on him.
“When Yves finally calls, he’s on Redmond, and he wants Gunter to send shellfish so he can escape. How does he even know we always put the smuggled goods in with the shellfish? Not unless someone is forcing him to call.”
And people said the families in the slums were strange.
“Well, it’s a mess,” Vega said in the silence that followed. “It’s also a damned remarkable coincidence. Gunter Wong is one of the few Lancastrians who can still get ships off Lancia on a regular basis. His product has a short shelf life, and he has buyers in Gate Union and Redmond who keep the lines open for him. We follow the shellfish orders.”