Saul settled back in his seat. ‘Why?’
‘Because someone in that task force is playing the same game. Public Standards can’t infiltrate the task force, because someone there will recognize who we are, and that means we need someone else who they’re much more likely to know and trust.’
Saul regarded them both with undisguised loathing. ‘So you want me to spy on them? And if I refuse?’
Donohue regarded him unpleasantly. ‘Think about how much you have to lose, Saul. The Galileo link will be re-established in just a couple of month’s time. Do you really want to be stuck inside a cell on charges, just when you have the chance to finally find out if your wife and kid are still alive?’
The man was right, of course, but it didn’t make Saul hate him any less.
‘All right,’ Saul slowly forced the words out, ‘what exactly is it you want me to do?’
‘The task force is by a man named Constantin Hanover. You know him?’
‘Of course.’ Saul nodded. ‘He ran the investigation into the collapse of the Copernicus–Galileo gate.’
Donohue’s eyes gleamed in the dim light of the observation room. ‘There’s a lot we can’t tell you, but you need to be aware that you’re on your own if the mole in Hanover’s team figures out you’re looking for him. There’s only so far we can protect you.’
Saul’s eyes drifted back towards the lunar landscape outside. ‘You’re asking me to make a hard choice, whatever the consequences.’
‘There’s something else you should know,’ said Donohue. ‘We found evidence that could link Hsiu-Chuan not only to the Tian Di Hui, but to the people directly responsible for sabotaging the Galileo gate. And if Hsiu-Chuan is involved, then you can bet the Sphere governments are in deep, as well.’
Saul glanced back at him, startled. ‘We can prove that?’
‘Not quite,’ said Donohue. ‘We need to talk to whoever it is on Hanover’s team that’s been dealing with Hsiu-Chuan, in order to make a solid case, but the point is this could be your chance to find out who’s responsible for Galileo. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?’
Saul nodded slowly. ‘What exactly did you find there on the pharm?’
‘A couple of days ago, a shipment came through the Florida Array from off-world, and got hijacked in broad daylight on its way to an airfield,’ said Sanders. ‘The hijackers managed to get so deep inside the Array’s security zone that they could only have done it with the help of someone on the inside. What we found suggests that the whole operation was planned by Hsiu-Chuan’s people, and that means the whole operation was done with Sphere backing.’
‘What kind of shipment?’
‘Does it matter?’ said Sanders. ‘Take a look at these.’
Saul’s contacts flashed him an alert that Sanders had sent him information. He reached out and touched an icon visible only to himself, then watched as the air rippled, a series of half a dozen photographs materializing around him.
‘It doesn’t look like much,’ he said, after studying them for a moment. ‘Just a big metal box with wheels. How did you swing my secondment with Hanover?’
‘One of his task force’s members got killed in the line of duty,’ Sanders replied. ‘A man named Mitchell Stone, to be exact.’
Saul opened and closed his mouth. ‘You’re shitting me. Mitchell?’
‘I know he was a friend of yours,rsquo; said the agent. ‘I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you.’
Saul had a sudden mental flash of the last time he’d seen Mitchell, years before. They’d been in a bar far up north, near Inuvik, close by the Jupiter platform’s CTC gate. They’d both moved on since then – Saul to police work, Mitchell to off-world security – but they had a shared history that bonded them. He remembered Mitchell, sober and drawn, at his brother’s funeral; then, months later, grinning in a field under a brilliant Arizona sun, tugging off his wing-suit and laughing as Saul clung to the soil as if it were a lover.
‘He was killed serving under Hanover?’
Sanders glanced at Donohue, who replied. ‘He was just coming to the end of a long-term secondment to a high-security research programme when he died, so, strictly speaking, no. He was due to rejoin Hanover’s task force in a couple of weeks. His death makes it easy enough to put you in his place as a temporary replacement. Frankly, the timing couldn’t be better. Hanover’s going to be taking his task force out to follow up the hijack, and we’re going to make sure you go with them. We’re betting that if someone on his team was involved in the snatch, they’re going to show themselves.’
‘Show themselves how?’
‘Put yourself in their shoes, what would you do?’
Saul thought about it. ‘Find any evidence of my involvement and do what I could to destroy it.’
Sanders stepped up close to him. ‘Find our mole, then, Saul,’ he said, ‘and there’s a chance we can figure out who’s responsible for losing Galileo.’
SIX
Copernicus Array Security and Immigration Office, Luna, 21 January 2235
Thomas Fowler checked his reflection in the elevator’s mirrored side walls and saw the face of a man who hadn’t enjoyed a decent night’s sleep in weeks. A course of amphetamines from an understanding physician was helping with that, but he’d been warned more than once there was only so much abuse his body could take. But, then again, a solid night’s sleep was out of the question when you happened to know the world was going to end.
The doors slid open to reveal a busy operations room. While he waited for a guard stationed by the elevator to clear his ID, he counted at least a dozen uniformed ASI staff and a smattering of civilian analysts manning workstations. Dr Amanda Boruzov came towards him, weaving her way through staff and between workstations. The director of research for the Founder Project had skin like porcelain, while small folds around her eyes hinted at an Asiatic inheritance worn smooth over several generations. On this occasion, however, her eyes were rimmed with red, her exhaustion also showing in the way she carried herself.
The pro with women who had skin like porcelain, thought Fowler, was that they always looked like they might easily break.
‘Thomas,’ she said, as the guard gave him the all-clear, ‘I must have just beaten you here. I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to make it, at such short notice.’
Fowler stepped forward, once again struck by the unaccustomed buoyancy of his body. No matter how often he made the trip to Copernicus, he never quite adapted to the sudden drop in gravity once he had passed through the Florida Array. The first-aid clinics that served the tens of thousand of people flowing back and forth through the CTC gates worked twenty-four-seven repairing broken bones and fractured skulls. They’d wound up padding the ceilings of the lunar-transit systems, once they realized most people coming through from Earth kept smacking their heads into them.
Their hands touched as they spoke, the touch lingering. If anyone had been paying attention at that moment, they might have guessed at their relationship.
‘I guess we should get started,’ he said.
He followed her across the busy room, passing wall-mounted TriView panels displaying real-time video of the mass-transit systems connecting Copernicus City to the nearby Lunar Array. They arrived at a second bank of elevators, where another guard checked their UPs for clearance, before allowing them passage.
They both relaxed as soon as the elevator doors closed. Amanda stepped in close to him, her hands taking hold of his lapels and tugging him down towards her, so that he had to bend over, in order to kiss. Fowler reached out and touched a button that halted the elevator between floors.