“This is Major Nicholas Strauze,” the enforcer said, “with an urgent message to Tal-Kader command.”
“Fucking enforcers,” Pascari muttered under his breath. Clarke shared the man’s dislike. Few people were friendly to enforcers. The private police force was to the Edge what Internal Affairs was to Jagal Metro City, but public and sanctioned by the SA.
Major Strauze paused for effect, then, he went on:
“Our suspicions were right about the Newgen situation. Unlike other divisions in Tal-Kader arguing the contrary, we have proof that not all of Isaac Reiner’s family was on board the Monsoon during its destruction, and that Newgen helped cover up their survival. Reiner’s wife and daughter used Newgen’s assets to reach the Backwater Systems about two decades ago. We don’t know why they weren’t on the Monsoon, but we’re investigating—”
At that point, Antonov had to pause the video, since the exclamations around the table drowned the sound of Strauze’s report.
“If it’s true, it could mean civil war,” said Julia. The idea seemed to both please her and scare her at the same time.
“Impossible,” Clarke muttered, more to himself than anyone else. “That was over fifty years ago. Why now?”
Reiner’s daughter, Isabella, had been a newborn when the Monsoon’s reactor went critical, but if she had survived, that was fifty years of not saying a word, of not claiming her family’s legacy, of letting the mystery of her father’s death hang over the Edge, a phantom seeding conflict and mistrust across history.
“Please,” Antonov said, “hold your thoughts until the video is over. I know what you’re hearing is surprising, almost unbelievable, but the Edge’s survival depends on you keeping an open mind to what you learn today.”
With that, the table calmed down. Antonov resumed the video.
“—possible reasons. Our evidence—attached to this file—comes from Newgen’s last data haven, located in Alwinter City. It was hidden until our data-sifting algorithms came upon it recently. The files show that Isabella Reiner made it onto the planet. Her mother is presumed dead. Regrettably, we lost access to the data before we could figure out Isabella’s location, when a pair of agents infiltrated our HQ and wiped the servers. Given the timing of the attack, there’s reason to believe they knew the information they deleted and were actively involved in its cover-up.”
Agents! Clarke thought. If agents were involved, maybe the Reiners had a chance to escape the enforcers…if the agents didn’t double-cross them first. Given their reputation, neither option would surprise Clarke.
Strauze kept talking. “During their attempt, we captured one agent. She performed a Mahamudra mindwipe to escape interrogation before my operatives could prevent it. Her body was stored for study. The other agent is on the run. The situation isn’t hopeless though. Our search of their base of operations revealed an old, smuggled computer that may contain clues to the Reiners’ location. I’m personally overseeing the cracking of the device. If necessary, the enforcers will use local expertise for the job, while taking the appropriate measures to maintain secrecy.”
“It means they’ll kill the poor fuck that takes the job,” said Julia. It surprised no one at the table. Enforcers cared little for human life.
“Given the situation, the enforcers believe we’re justified in asking the Board to send further enforcer assets to bolster the investigation—”
Antonov cut the feed.
“Whatever Major Strauze’s political aspirations may be,” he said, “he both overplayed his hand and gave us a fighting chance. Strauze thinks of the Reiners’ survival as corporate unfinished business, and he’s treating it as business per usual. Tal-Kader Board, on the other hand, has better oversight. Upon receiving this transmission, they declared an ultraviolet emergency and diverted Defense Fleet Sentinel to Dione, with orders of closing all traffic in-system and to shoot down any ship that tries to leave. From there, the fleet has orders to search the Backwater Systems until they…plug the leak.”
Clarke winced. He held little doubt that if Tal-Kader found the Reiners, they’d spend the rest of their lives—however long that may be—hidden away in some dark and enclosed compartment.
“They won’t get away with it,” Julia said through clenched teeth. “We won’t let them.”
Antonov nodded. “As of now, Free Trader Beowulf is racing the SA fleet. Our best estimates give us a lead of two weeks—”
“Wait, one second,” Clarke demanded. He couldn’t believe his ears. “What are you saying? The EIF plans on finding the Reiners first? If they’ve been in hiding, somehow, for the last fifty years…they could be anywhere in the Edge. Hell, they could be dining with Commodore Terry for all we know. And how do you plan on using a Free Trader vessel against a planetary garrison? Because that’s what you’ll be up against when you try to extract them from enforcer-infested territory. It will be suicide.”
“Sensible questions,” said Antonov. “The EIF knows something the Systems Alliance doesn’t. Isabella Reiner is hiding in Dione, under Strauze’s own nose. We’re extracting her and bringing our forces to bear. We’re going to New Angeles to rendezvous with our deep space force, the Independent fleet, and then the EIF shall break Dione’s garrison and save Isabella Reiner. We won’t allow Tal-Kader to get away with their crime. There shall be justice, Clarke! Brought by our own hands!”
Antonov spoke with the authority of a man that knew he was riding the coattails of history in the making. It was a sight that filled Clarke’s soldier heart with dread. He had seen a man with a burning gaze like that, once before, when Commodore Terry invaded Jagal’s garrison with a message demanding surrender, at the beginning of the Battle of Broken Sky.
“And you,” Antonov told Clarke, “are going to help us.”
9
CHAPTER NINE
DELAGARZA
“You pretend to tell me Taiga Town is hiding in the sewage?” Krieger said with a voice so loud it was almost a screech.
“No,” Delagarza told her, “it’s not in the sewage. It’s in the sewers.”
“I’m not going to wade through shit-river for you, Delagarza,” said Cooke. Krieger echoed the sentiment, in less pleasing terms.
“You don’t have to,” he told them both. “Okay? Just follow me. You’ll see.”
Before they had a chance to complain further, he dove down the rusty metal ladder of the hatch. It was difficult to keep a grip with his hands covered in so many layers of clothing, but experience and tenacity prevailed in the end.
He waited at the bottom until both Krieger and Cooke had followed.
The sewers’ tunnels were empty and dry around this zone of the city.
It still stank.
“Reiner have mercy,” Cooke muttered under his breath. He turned his reg-suit hood’s orange light a notch hotter, as if he could burn the shit-particles that floated in the atmosphere.
“Don’t be cry-babies,” Delagarza said.
He led them through a series of tunnels, as dry as the first one, and up maintenance stairs that brought them to maintenance corridors that should have long been foreclosed.
Except the doors had been unbarred at some point in the past, and signs of habitation were visible. The butt of a cigarette here and there, a mostly empty bottle of cheap vodka, a corner that reeked of stale piss, a flea-infested mattress.
Delagarza ignored all of them and kept going. He knew the inhabitants of Alwinter’s sewers wouldn’t bother them. Krieger was clearly armed.