“She once called herself O’Malley. As best I can determine, she originally came from Conall Star System and that was the name she used there.”
Iceni realized she had stopped breathing, and slowly inhaled. “A woman who went by the name O’Malley? From Conall? How certain are you of that?”
Malin was watching her closely. “Not absolutely certain, but at least eighty percent certain. Do you know of her?”
“Possibly,” Iceni said, trying to sound dismissive of the news. “I once knew a woman who used that name, after an ancient pirate she admired.” Could it be her? There were surely many, many real O’Malleys in that star system. But if it was her…
Iceni needed something to distract Malin from this topic, and fortunately she had just the thing right at hand. “You were out for a while last night, Colonel.”
“Yes, Madam President.” If Malin had noted her change of the subject, or was surprised that Iceni had been able to discover he had been unaccounted for during the evening, he didn’t show any traces of either.
“Did you find anything about Togo?”
“No, Madam President. There has been no trace of Togo. The security forces have found nothing, and system defense experts have not identified any attempted intrusions that could be sourced to him.”
“Togo is more than capable of making his intrusion attempts look like someone else’s work,” Iceni told Malin. “Look at all of the intrusion attempts being detected and see if any pattern exists that could identify a target for Togo’s actions.”
“That effort is already under way,” Malin said. “There has been a slight uptick in attempts against your security systems and those of General Drakon, but the increase is within normal variation levels. No successful intrusions have been detected.”
“If Togo manages an intrusion, you won’t detect it,” Iceni said. “I need to know what he is trying to do. Have you discovered anything else?”
This time, Malin paused. “I found indications that may lead me closer to a target General Drakon assigned me.”
“Which target?”
“His daughter.”
Iceni fought down an angry response before speaking again. She hated being reminded of the girl, and hated that she felt that way. “I was told that Colonel Morgan had placed safeguards around wherever the baby is, and if anyone gets too close the child will die.”
“As near as I can determine, what Morgan said is true,” Malin said.
“And what were General Drakon’s orders in that regard?” Iceni pressed.
“He told me he did not want his daughter to die.”
Iceni leaned back in her chair, eyeing Malin. “Suppose I told you to press on in ways that would trigger those safeguards and ensure the child’s death. Would you do it?”
Malin did not reveal any emotion as he shook his head. “No, Madam President. I could not obey such an order.”
“Why not?”
“Because I believe that it would be a mistake to betray General Drakon’s wishes in the matter. He would regard it as a very serious breach of trust. It might sabotage his cooperation with you in the governing of, and defense of, Midway.”
“And?” Iceni asked.
“There is no other reason, Madam President.”
“No other reason? The girl is your half sister. You refused to kill Morgan for me, without revealing to me that the reason was because she was your mother. Yet now you feel no obligation toward a sister?”
Malin started to speak, paused, then tried again. “We all die, Madam President. Our sacrifices can build important things, great legacies, if we do not hesitate to do what we must.”
He sounded sincere. Iceni nodded slowly, then waved a dismissal at Malin. She didn’t want to risk anything in her voice giving away how much his reply had disturbed her.
Too many of the people working for her and Drakon were still caught in the Syndicate belief that the ends always justified the means. Worse, they were making their own decisions about means and ends.
Means don’t always produce the ends we want. Like “O’Malley” from Conall. Damn. It must be her. And I sent Kommodor Marphissa and Manticore out there to deal with her. The last I had heard, that girl had taken after her father. Of all the pirates out there, why did she have to sail into my region of space? That mess with her father wasn’t my worst mistake, but bad enough.
My worst mistake might be pursuing his own goals in this city right now.
Iceni wondered what ends Togo was working toward, and what means he was willing to use.
Chapter Four
Celia Gozen had fallen into bed, worn-out from work, only taking time to ensure a ready weapon was close at hand before she fell to sleep. Promotions in the Syndicate sometimes happened because “accidents” befell superior officers, and sometimes workers who spotted an opening went after a supervisor on general principles. Growing up Syndicate meant realizing that you didn’t have to be guilty of anything to become a target.
She didn’t know whether a noise or simply battle-honed instinct awakened her hours later. Buildings, even a building in the headquarters complex where people worked at all hours of every day, grew hushed at night. Gozen lay in the dark, straining her senses for a clue to what had woken her up. She didn’t know why, but she was certain that someone else was in this room. Her pistol was only a few centimeters from her right hand, but she knew the difference between reality and fiction was that in reality someone who had the drop on you wouldn’t just stand and watch while you grabbed for a weapon.
And whoever that someone was, they must be very good at what they were doing. In addition to the standard security measures in the building and the door to her room, Gozen had rigged the sort of small, portable alarms that Syndicate executives carried around routinely. But none of them had sounded, so the intruder must have neutralized them all soundlessly.
But whoever it was hadn’t yet killed her, so this couldn’t be a simple assassination attempt. Gozen spoke into the darkness, her voice very low. “What do you want?”
After a couple of seconds the reply came, in a voice also low, so it was hard to distinguish much about it except for the words. “Someone who is wise. Are you wise?”
“No,” Gozen said, unable to avoid the frank reply as she tried to estimate just where in her room the intruder was located. If she rolled to her left as her right hand grabbed her pistol…
“You are too modest. I know your record. If you move, I will kill you.”
Gozen took a slow breath. “What do you want?” she repeated.
“Drakon is dangerous. He cannot be trusted.”
The pause seemed to expect a reply, so Gozen chose a careful response. “Why not?”
“He is Syndicate. A deep plant.”
“Must be awful deep. He’s killed a lot of snakes.”
“The Syndicate does not worry about sacrificing pawns in order to reach the queen.”
The queen? “You mean President Iceni?” Gozen asked. The voice was definitely coming from near the door. Whoever it was hadn’t gotten very far inside. And it was a man, she thought.
“Yes. I could have killed you before you woke. But I know you hate the Syndicate. They killed your uncle.”
The only people she hated more than those who had killed her uncle were those who tried to use her uncle’s death to their own ends. Gozen didn’t bother trying to hide the quaver of anger in her voice, knowing that the intruder would interpret that as rage at the Syndicate. “And the Syndicate wants the president dead?”
“Yes. They’ll use Drakon. All you need to do is watch, and when the time comes, do nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing. Doing something would be… a mistake.”