“Hah,” Kurt said.
“Point is, you have to lure someone into betrayal,” Parnell said. “But in this case they pushed you into an outright betrayal far too quickly. And that implies they have a real time problem on their hands. Whatever they want to do, Commander, they want to do it quickly.”
“I gave them the codes,” Kurt said. “What else do they want from me?”
“Good question,” Parnell said. “And once you find out, you need to inform me at once.”
“I will,” Kurt promised. He wanted to ask if he could talk to Rose, but he didn’t dare. “And thank you.”
Parnell met his eyes, evenly. “For what?”
“For being understanding…”
“I know, better than you, just how stupid people can be when faced with the threat of death,” Parnell said. “I also know that you left yourself vulnerable after the threat of death was removed — and you wouldn’t have come forward if you hadn’t been urged to confess. Your carelessness got you into this mess, Commander. If you weren’t vitally important, if we didn’t need as many pilots as we could muster, I would have urged the Admiral to send you back to Earth on Holmes. Your conduct has been disgraceful.”
“I know, sir,” Kurt said.
“You also cheated on your wife and risked your children’s futures,” Parnell continued. “I know a little about the vetting process, Commander. A family history of adultery would prevent them from taking up any post that required a full security clearance. If the media got hold of it, and they would, because they think you’re a hero, they’d have to tolerate questions being asked in inconvenient places. Their lives would be ruined.”
He took a long breath. “Frankly, my advice would be to do as you’re told until we get back to Earth, then take your discharge, change your name and go elsewhere,” he concluded. “If your kids — and Rose — want to go with you, you can take them — or let them go, if they don’t want to have anything to do with you. Your weakness will cost them dear in the future.”
Kurt clenched his fists, feeling anger spilling up within him. He wanted to throw a punch at the younger man with the older eyes, even though he knew it would be suicidal. And yet he knew Parnell was right. He had acted badly.
“Yes, sir,” he grated, finally.
“Good,” Parnell said. “And one other thing?”
Kurt leaned forward, curiously.
“Watch your back,” Parnell said. “They’ve used you, Commander. They may now seek to discard you.”
“I know,” Kurt said. “But would they discard me if they thought they might still have a use for me?”
“Probably not,” Parnell said. “But as we don’t know quite what they want, it’s hard to know just when you’d outlive your usefulness to them.”
“Still nothing from them,” Parnell concluded. “The blackmailers are biding their time.”
“I see,” Ted said. “And we still don’t know what they want.”
He looked down at the surveillance reports. The Russians — and the other foreigners on the ship — weren’t doing anything particularly suspicious. As far as the Marines could tell, the Russians were observing the negotiations and discussing the results amongst themselves in their cabins. But it was impossible to be sure. The Russians had swept their cabin for bugs the first day they arrived and repeated the process every few hours.
“They may have orders to act only if certain conditions are met,” Parnell said. “I’ve had missions like that in the past, sir. Once we slipped fifty miles into hostile country, only to withdraw five days later as silently as we came.”
“If that’s the case,” Ted said, “what conditions will activate their orders?”
Parnell shrugged. “Impossible to say, sir,” he said. “Unless we want to try to take them now…”
Ted cursed under his breath. If they had proof — clear proof — that it was the Russians, they could have rounded them all up and locked them in a sealed hold until the ship returned to Earth. But now, without clear proof, it would cause a major diplomatic incident at a time the human race could hardly afford it. The alliance against the aliens was fragile enough, after the Battle of Earth, without him adding to the tensions threatening to rip it apart. He doubted the Prime Minister would thank him for starting a second war.
“We can’t,” he said. He paused. “Can we arrange a… fake accident for our CAG? Something we can use as an excuse to put him in sickbay for a few weeks?”
“Of course we can, sir,” Parnell said. “But that would also deprive you of his services over the forthcoming weeks.”
“True,” Ted agreed. No matter how he looked at the situation, he saw no way to do anything, but wait for the enemy to make their move. And with aliens on his ship, another alien starship keeping them close company and a prince who might have been placed under alien control, there were just too many variables for him to keep juggling safely. “Bollocks!”
He looked up at the display. The alien starship was holding position on one edge of the flotilla, out of plasma weapons range — he hoped. If the aliens intended an elaborate trick… he shook his head. Unlike some human planners he could mention, the aliens didn’t seem intent on devising the most complicated plans possible, simply because they could. It would have been far easier to simply shadow Ark Royal until a fleet was massed to smash her into rubble. And they’d have the advantage of knowing just where the carrier was going and what it would encounter.
“Yes, sir,” Parnell said. “I felt safer on Target One, knowing the enemy were just lurking below the waves.”
Ted had to smile. “We’ll reach the destination the aliens have selected within nine days,” he said. The potential consequences nagged at his mind. If his calculations were correct, the War Faction would have time to prepare a warm welcome. And then there were the Russians… if it was the Russians. His head hurt just trying to keep track of the different factions, human and alien, involved in the war. “And then we will see.”
“Aye, sir,” Parnell said.
He paused. “With your permission,” he added, “I’d like to run a series of counter-boarding drills for the Marines. It would mean sealing off several decks, but…”
Ted’s eyes narrowed. “Why…?”
“We need the practice,” Parnell said. “The aliens who boarded the ship didn’t know where to go, I think; they had to make guesses about where to send their forces. And besides, we’re better soldiers than them, I think. They’re just not designed for fighting on dry land.”
Ted nodded. “I’d hate to fight them in the water, though,” he said. “Even Mermen wouldn’t be able to match them.”
“True,” Parnell agreed. “I’d not expect anyone, even an SBS operative, to be able to keep up with them in the water, certainly not without specialist equipment. The aliens could simply out-swim them.”
He paused. “Do you realise the aliens must know our biological requirements very well?”
“They had captives,” Ted said. “I assume they must have dissected dead bodies too…”
“As far as we can tell, they provided their captives with a proper atmosphere,” Parnell said. “They didn’t have any trace of anything, but a standard air mix in their bloodstream. And yet they managed to avoid the bends completely, sir. They couldn’t have been more than a few metres below the water.”
“They might have discovered the hard way how fragile we can be,” Ted said. Several alien captives had died in captivity, for reasons no human had been able to understand. Theories ranged from being lonely — which made more sense now — to simply lacking a trace element they needed to eat. But then, surely, all of the alien captives would have died. “Or maybe they were just careful.”