The Price Of Peace

by Michael P Calligaro

Ivana Isotaria sighed and patted her eldest child on the head. Her younger twin daughters cowered against her, staring at the Terran interviewer with their large reptilian eyes. She spoke in a subdued voice, her accent light. "He looked me right in the face and said, 'with your lifemate gone, you've got to survive to take care of your children.' Then, before I could argue, he pushed me into the capsule and sealed the door." She paused, frowned, and continued, "Our peoples have had a difficult past. I'm ashamed to say I never knew that you Terrans were so gallant." She smiled sadly and wrapped her tail around one of the twins. "I do now. We all do."

The scene cut to a pretty Terran newscaster. "And there you have it, the first interview with Ivana Isotaria since the tragedy at Freedom station. The outpouring of support from the Horzoks over the heroic actions of Johnson MacCabe has surprised the most cynical of our people. There is even talk of a lasting peace being suggested by both sides. It's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy like this to bring such bitter enemies together--"

Nathan had seen enough. He rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, just stop that thing."

Roberta paused the stream. "What's your take on this?"

"Run it back about twenty seconds, to right after she pats the kid on the head."

The image of Ivana appeared again. Nathan watched for a few seconds then said, "Stop! Right there." The part that had jumped out at him the first time through was now paused on the monitor. He moved in close and pointed at Ivana's eyes. "Typically, a Horzok's eyes are vertical ovals, like a snake's. When the beasts lie, however, they squint, flattening the ovals. It's so difficult for them to not do this, that many squint all the time to hide it." He smiled. "It's been said that you can tell a Horzok lawyer by his circular eyes. And most Horzok politicians have horizontal ovals. Maybe we're not so different after all."

Roberta cut him off, "And?"

She'd used a curt tone, but Nathan could tell she was playing with him. Roberta was a sharp agent. She'd seen the same thing he had. "Ivana's clearly had a lot of training. She's doing a great job of hiding it, but she's squinting."

Tapping her chin, Roberta said, "You're accusing her of lying?"

"I'd stake my reputation on it."

She replied ruefully, "You don't have a reputation, my friend. You squandered it crying wolf about the Horzoks one too many times."

Nathan shrugged, "That's my rep with Central. It's irrelevant. The one I care about is my reputation with EyeEye. And you and I both know that I had legitimate causes for concern in each of those cases. It's likely we averted an assassination with the second to last one."

Roberta made a show of considering for a minute before she nodded. "You're wrong about the reputation with Central. It is relevant. However, I suspect that you're right about Ivana. So I'm giving you authorization to investigate this matter. If our Horzok friend there is lying, I want to know why."

"I'm on it, boss."

He turned to leave, but Roberta called to him. "Nathan, I'm sure I don't need to mention this, but I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't. Don't let Central get wind of your activities. They're so caught up in the prospect of peace that they'll have my head if they find out you're anywhere near this."

* * *

After watching replays of all twenty-seven interviews with Johnson MacCabe's mother, Nathan knew he wouldn't get anything useful out of speaking with her. Yes, she was proud of her son. Yes, she missed him. Yes, she was happy about the prospect of peace with the Horzoks. It was enough to make him sick.

Fortunately, he had access to better databases than the newshounds did. A small amount of searching turned up a half brother named Tony living in upstate New York. After verifying that no one had interviewed him yet, Nathan grabbed a company floater and shot up there. He set down in a non-descript garage named "Tony's Lube," donned a pair of x-shades, and got out. He rarely used the tech in the shades, but he did like keeping his eyes obscured when talking with people. It let him look around without seeming to.

A greasy, overweight guy with long hair sauntered out. The faded name patch on his coveralls read, "Tony." In a thick Manhattan accent, he said, "What can I do ya for?"

Nathan replied, "Are you Tony Fuccoli?"

"Who wants ta know?"

Evading the evaded question, Nathan replied, "I'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother."

Tony stared at him evenly and then looked to the floater. He pulled a dirty rag out of a back pocket and wiped sweat off his forehead. "Come on inside. The sun's a bitch at this time of day."

The shop had a small waiting room with hard chairs and a monitor showing a football game. It would have been hard to see the game from the chairs, because Tony had turned the monitor to be better visible from behind his paper-strewn desk. He plopped down in an overstuffed chair, threw his feet up on the desk, and gestured to turn off the monitor. "I doubt mom suddenly remembered her less famous son, and none of the shows have tracked me down yet."

Nathan lowered himself into the chair directly across from the desk. He sat comfortably, with his back against the rest, but didn't slouch or put his legs up. "Some of us are more resourceful than the rest."

"Yeah, I'll bet you are. But I ain't never seen a reporter drive a government floater like that. And the Central Authority is too hot on Johnny being a hero right now to bother with me. I figure that makes you a spook."

Tony wasn't nearly as stupid as he looked. Mildly impressed, Nathan considered his options. Would this get back to Central? Unlikely. If Tony called a receptionist and, in his colorful voice, said that he was Johnson MacCabe's long lost brother and that a member of Investigative Intelligence had been asking him questions, he'd get transferred to the crackpot lines. Nathan slouched a bit to get more comfortable and stretched his arms out to the chairs on either side of him. "Spook huh? I've been called worse."

"No shit?" Tony's eyes got a faraway look. "Is it true that you guys can look through walls?"

Still wearing the x-shades, Nathan made a show of looking around the office. "Why? Do you have something to hide?"

He caught Tony worriedly glancing at the side wall. Nathan clenched his teeth, making his temples buldge and setting his shades into x-ray mode. Tony had looked at a false panel full of narcotics. Nathan turned off the shades and shook his head. "We're not into that kind of thing. Tell me about your brother."

"Who? Hero boy? What da ya wanna know?"

Nathan could see that Tony was dying to talk about something. He shrugged, "What do you want to tell me?"

Tony took his feet off the desk and leaned forward conspiratorially. "I tell ya one thing. Johnny had his faults, but he was a good Terran. He hated those fuckin' snakes. There's no way in Hell he'd have killed himself to save one, kids or not. Who gives a damn if some snakes grow up without parents?"

Nathan's thoughts exactly. Nodding, he said, "Who indeed? But are you sure you're not just putting your feelings in his mouth?"

Tony sneered and shook his head. "Before he went up we went drinking. He never stopped whining about being forced to take the dignitary up to the space station. He said he'd have to bathe for a week to get the stench off him."

Nathan nodded. "So, you think the Horzok is lying?"

"Have you ever known one to tell the truth?"

With a smile, Nathan stood up and said, "No I haven't. Thank you for your time, Mr. Fuccoli."

"Sure thing. What're you gonna do about it?"

Ignoring him, Nathan said, "Oh, and I'd clear that panel out if I were you. I'm not into that sort of thing, but there are groups who are. Good day." He didn't wait for Tony's shocked expression. He just went out to the floater and took off.

On the way back to Washington, he called Roberta. She looked worried. "What have you got for me, Nathan?"

"Corroborating evidence. Nothing Central would buy, but it's removed any tiny doubts I may have had that Ivana was lying."

"Speculation on why?"

Nathan frowned. She usually wanted evidence before hearing his speculations. Something was up. "I see a few possibilities. Maybe when the life support started to fail, she knocked him out and took the escape pod. Or, maybe it's something more sinister."

"Sinister?"

"What if Johnson's death was premeditated? The Horzok are treacherous. This could be part of some sort of elaborate plot."

Roberta matched his frown. "Central would never buy that. How do you suggest we proceed?"

Asking how to proceed? Roberta was a good manager and usually gave him enough room to maneuver without getting in his way. But she rarely let him drive this much. Something was definitely up. Fortunately, he had been thinking about how to proceed since he got into the floater and was ready with an answer. "I'd like to get a Horzok specialist to analyze the interview. We both could tell that she was lying, but the Professor should be able to learn more about her emotional state. If it's guilt, then there's probably not much going on. But, if it's deception, we've got more to worry about."

With a nod, Roberta said, "Good thinking. I've already had the Professor analyze the stream. Then I made him get a second opinion. He's confident that Ivana isn't feeling any guilt."

Nathan whistled. "Okay, I'll think about this. I should be back to the office in about an hour."

She nodded and cut the connection.

* * *

Nathan paced back and forth in Roberta's office. "Say they're trying to get our guards down. They've been watching us for long enough to know we're suckers for someone telling us that we're good people. So they work out this scheme where one of us is a hero, and their entire race comes forward saying how great we are. We all feel good about ourselves and ignore the attack fleet they roll in."

Roberta frowned, "That's convoluted."

"We're talking about the Horzok here."

After considering for a moment, she grabbed her keyboard and typed something in. A voice with an English accent came through her speakers, "What can I do for you Roberta?"

"Hey Frank, can you run an analysis of Horzok troop movements over the last month? Look for something subtle that we would have missed on routine inspection."

His voice sounding regretful, Frank said, "When do you need this? We're rather busy down here today."

She smiled, "If you don't find anything, then I don't need it at all. If you do, I needed it yesterday. Who's on you? I'll get him to back off."

Since Nathan was behind Roberta's monitor, he couldn't see Frank. But he did see the intense glare Roberta gave him. She had a well-earned reputation for eating people who got in her way, and this glare was her way of announcing that she was hungry.

"No need for that, dear. I'll grab an underling to take some of the pressure off and get right on your request myself."

"Thanks. Think I can have that analysis in an hour?"

A bit perturbed, Frank responded, "I'll do my best."

She hit a key and looked up at Nathan. "The Horzok are clever. The best we're going to get out of Frank is some circumstantial evidence that they're readying an attack. There's no way we'll get enough to convince Central."

This had been bugging Nathan as well. He inhaled deeply. "Even if we scrambled the entire ghost wing, we'd be spread too thin trying to protect the entire planet and the colonies. We need to figure out what they're going to attack and be ready for them there."

"How?"

Nathan stared at her with a twinge of suspicion. It was almost as if she was quizzing him. "I'll call in some favors with a contact or two on the other side. If their entire race is in on a conspiracy, someone will be willing to talk."

She nodded. "What's your assessment on the need for urgency?"

This was a quiz. Did he dare ask what was up? Not yet. Good thing he knew the right answer to this question as well. A poor employee would have just said that it was urgent. Roberta didn't want that. She wanted to know why it was urgent. "One of two things is going on. Either this is the first in a long line of moves to wear down our guard, or they know that even Central will get suspicious after the initial peace euphoria wears off. If it's the former, there's no need for urgency. We just need to pay close attention into the future. If it's the latter, then they're going to have to make use of their deception soon. In which case there's an obvious urgency."

"So, in the end?"

"In the end, we assume the worst until proven otherwise."

The corners of her lips curled up a bit. "Get on it."

* * *

Frank's analysis did indeed show that something out of the ordinary was happening with the Horzok troops. Their exercises had been slightly changed recently so that they were now in a rotation that put a few members of a number of battalions a little closer to the jump gates at varying cycles. The cycles and movements were complex, so it took a fair amount of computing time to work out the pattern well enough to make predictions based on it. The final analysis, however, showed that the cycles would all line up just less than a month into the future. At that point, the rotations would put the maximum number of stray troops close to the Horzok jump gates. If there was going to be an attack, the timing and size would not be a surprise.

Nathan, however, had spent a fruitless week working on every sympathetic Horzok his department knew about. He'd even snuck into Horzok space to bring a rather large bribe to a particular Horzok leader. This turned up nothing new. He'd gotten noises that something was up, but no one would tell him where the attack would happen.

He sat in Roberta's office rubbing his temples, still jumplagged from the trip. Soothingly, she said, "No, this has not been a failure. You picked up twelve pieces of corroborating evidence. We're absolutely sure that we're on the right trail now."

He continued to rub his temples as he shook his head. "We don't have anything concrete enough to bring to Central."

"And we never will have. The Horzok are too good to make our jobs that easy. But their stealth will work against them this time. To hide their movements, they've had to keep their attack force relatively small. With a good element of surprise and a little luck, we'll be able to hold them off with the ghost wing. All we need to do is figure out where to put it."

"But that's what I've failed to do!"

She made shushing sounds. "Go home and get some sleep. We're way ahead of the game here."

* * *

Nathan rushed into Roberta's office. "Did you see this?"

She looked up from her screen, glared at him for a second, then said, "I'll call you back."

Blinking, Nathan said, "Sorry."

She shook her head and replied, "What have you got?"

"Senator Cliston just submitted a bill that, if ratified, would declare peace with the Horzok."

Roberta nodded, "And, what do you have on the good senator?"

Cognizant of the multi-week quiz Roberta had been putting him through, Nathan had hastily done his homework before bringing this to her. "He's got no previous record to suggest that he's a traitor...."

"But?"

Nathan inhaled, "But, knowing how Central works, especially in a time of euphoria like this, we'll see this ratified four days before the attack. I'm sure the official signing with the Horzok will be four days after it's ratified here. And that signing would have a top-heavy portion of our government present. In order to show our good intentions, both sides would keep the military away. It's a simple way to cut of our head. The full attack would come right after the confusion set in."

She nodded. "So we know where to send the ghost wing."

"Wherever the signing is to take place, yes."

With a smile, she said, "Victory."

No, it wasn't that easy. A number of things bothered Nathan. He crossed his arms, looked at the ground, and started pacing.

"No victory?" Roberta asked.

"Oh, we'll hold them off. We're pretty sure they don't know about the ghost wing. They jump in, and we surround them and materialize. They'll be scared out of their minds. Easy. But what happens then? Cliston will be vilified. No sleep lost there, but how do we keep it from turning into a Horzok-sympathizer witch-hunt? Those kind of things tend to do more damage than outright war."

When she didn't say anything, he looked up at her. She was staring at him in obvious pride.

Feeling self conscious, Nathan said, "What?"

She smiled. "Very, very good Nathan. You've looked past the obvious problem and have seen the subtle one. My faith in you is completely warranted."

This made him feel great. There were few people Nathan respected as much as Roberta. "Thanks, boss. I learned from the best."

"You start thinking about the McCarthy problem. But first, do we take this other information to Central now?"

So, the quiz wasn't over yet. He shook his head. "No, we still don't have enough evidence for them to buy it. We're going to need to save their sorry butts ourselves."

"No, and yes. You're right that we're going to need to do this ourselves, but you're wrong about bringing it to them."

Nathan frowned. "If we know they're not going to listen, why?"

"Because, if we don't tell them first, and then we save them, they'll accuse us of toying with the lives of our leaders for glory. If, on the other hand, we tell them, and they turn us down, then we'll be on record as having done our job. They won't be able to lash out at us in their guilt."

Whistling, Nathan said, "I've still got a lot to learn, I guess."

She shook her head. "Not a lot. Just a little. Now, what do you do when the McCarthy springs up?"

He'd just realized that problem a minute ago, so he didn't have an answer to this question ready. He couldn't keep her waiting, so he had to blurt out the first thing that came to mind to stall. "Well, assassination would be the most fulfilling course, but its hardly practical."

"Why not?"

He stared at her for a moment, but she didn't give any indication that she was kidding. After blinking twice, he cautiously said, "Well, if you hit your McCarthy, everyone would assume a Horzok traitor pulled the trigger. It would fan the flames."

"And, how do you keep that from happening?"

Nathan considered for a moment. His job was by no means "clean," and he was no spring chicken, but this talk of assassination of leaders, for the good of the planet or not, made him uneasy. Still, the answer to her question dawned on him. "You hit him before he gets too widely heard."

She nodded. "Now, can you achieve the same thing without killing one of our leaders?"

Could she read his face that clearly? Or was it that she read his mind? Sometimes he wondered. When he got to where she was leading him, he smiled. "You mean like a mandatory vacation for him and his family to a remote island paradise? The vacation would last just long enough for the sparks of paranoia to die out. When he got back, he wouldn't be able to fan them back up."

"Very good. Get me a list of influential people whose political leanings suggest that they'll need some sun in two and a half weeks."

* * *

Nathan waited patiently outside of Roberta�s office. At least, he would have appeared patient to a casual onlooker. Inside his mind raced. She'd just gotten back from the meeting with Central in which she presented their evidence. Now she had the door closed and was talking on the vid. Nathan was dying to hear how the meeting had gone. Central was full of spineless morons, so he knew they'd ignored her evidence. But he was holding on to a faint hope that Roberta had somehow managed to make them see the light. The military would have a much easier time dealing with the situation than EyeEye would.

Covertly watching Roberta through the relight, he saw her nod and stand up. She looked through the relight and waved him in. Before he'd taken one step into the office she said, "Close the door." As soon as he did, she said, "What do you think happened in the meeting with Central?"

Nathan shrugged, "They didn't buy a word of it. They probably jumped up and down and called you names. I'm sure the phrase, 'Why can't you dumb spooks stay out of our business?' came up once or twice."

She smiled, "I'd ask if you had me bugged, but I know you speak from experience. Yeah, it pretty much went like that. When you save the upper echelons of our leaders, you're going to be a national hero."

This set Nathan's head spinning. "What?"

"I told them this data was all yours."

He frowned, "But it's not. I've just been relearning things you already knew. I don't deserve the credit."

She grinned. "Credit? If we're wrong about this, your career is over."

Shaking his head, he said, "A, we're not wrong about this, and b, you didn't name me to cover yourself."

"Right on both counts, but irrelevant. The real reason you're going to be a hero is that you'll be leading the ghost wing."

Self doubt bordering on panic caused him to blink. He took a second to control his heart and make sure his worry didn't show in his voice before saying, "Are you sure? It's been a while since I've done any combat training. There are probably better people for this."

"No. If it comes to combat, we'll have failed. You may save the leaders, but our real goal here is to avert a full-scale war. That's only going to happen if you get the Horzok to back down without any shots fired."

Nathan inhaled deeply. "Your faith in me is--"

Roberta cut him off, "Well founded. Now, tell me one last thing. Who do you trust?"

The quiz was still going on. It had to be that she'd been quizzing him to make sure he was right for the task. So this last question was just to make sure. "Well, I trust you."

She shook her head. "No. You shouldn't. What if I'm in a compromised position? You can never be sure of anything."

Nathan stared at her for a moment. She held his gaze steadily without showing even a trace of confirmation or denial. When it became clear that she was still waiting for an answer, he said, "If I can't trust you, then I don't trust anyone."

She nodded. "Very good. Remember that."

Now worried, Nathan asked, "Roberta, are you okay?"

She smiled, but there was a trace of sadness in her eyes. "If you save our leaders and avert a massive attack, I'll be fine." She fixed him with one of her glares that said, "And that's all I'll say about that."

Reservedly he said, "Okay, boss. I'm going to go remind myself which button does which on a ghost ship. I'll see you at the party after we succeed." He turned to leave, but she stopped him.

"Nathan?" In their ten years together, he'd never heard her voice this unsure of itself.

He looked back, "Yeah?"

"Good luck."

He stared at her for a moment, then nodded and left.

* * *

Nathan had to fight to keep his hands off the ghost ship's controls. These ships were made to be small and stealthy, so he had no room to stand, much less pace. But he desperately wanted to pace. Waiting was always hard. Waiting when the possible future of his race depended on his being correct was intolerable. His fingers wanted to grab the controls and make the ship float back and forth, but he held himself in check. The displacer fields weren't perfect. He suspected the success of previous ghost ship missions had been due as much to EyeEye's having kept their existence secret as to the displacer technology itself. No one, not even the military, knew to look for them, so no one noticed anything.

Moving around unnecessarily now might reveal himself to the lone ship full of leaders nearby. Then again, these same people didn't seem to think it was a bad idea to send an unescorted ship containing the head of the Terran government out to meet an enemy. Even the military had been against this, but the president had stood firm, saying that, if there were to be peace, they'd need to start trusting the Horzok. Nathan idly wondered if killing these people off wouldn't actually be good for Terra. He quickly pushed these thoughts aside. The Horzok knew what they were doing. Killing off these people would result in a time of confusion, and they'd unquestionably attack during that time. So, imbeciles or not, Nathan was going to have to protect them. But, none of this made the waiting any easier.

A Horzok jump portal appeared in space before them. Nathan fired up the scrambled channel that linked him to the rest of the ghost wing. "Okay people, stay calm. When the Horzok ships arrive, you slowly encircle them. Don't show yourselves until I give the signal, and, no matter what, you do not fire unless either I give the signal or I'm destroyed. If one of you gets ansy and starts a war, you'd better hope you get shot down."

A single Horzok diplomatic shuttle came through the portal. Nathan held his breath and thought, "If they close the portal, there's no attack coming. My career will be over, but we'll really have peace." He actually would have liked for that to have happened, but was completely sure that it wouldn't. Sure enough, the portal stayed open.

On an open channel, for all the world to see, the President smiled triumphantly and said, "On behalf of all of Terra, I welcome you to our space. Let this be the first day in a long period of peace and prosperity between our people." Behind him stood eleven leaders, all smiling patriotically.

Staying invisible, Nathan carefully maneuvered his ship to sit between the two diplomatic ones. Eleven other ghost ships moved to form a circle around the Terran ship.

A Horzok dignitary with horizontal ovals for eyes appeared on the reply channel. "Thank you, Mr. President. I see that many of your leaders are with you. It is quite gratifying to see you taking this so seriously. Had I arrived to a significant military escort, I would have seriously doubted your belief in the peace process."

The President smiled and started to say something, but the Horzok cut him off. "Of course, that would have saved your miserable life."

Twenty-four Horzok fighters burst out of the portal and took up a position surrounding the Horzok diplomatic shuttle. Nathan was expecting exactly that many. And, a quick glance at his sensors verified that they were the kinds of ships he was expecting. He could name the pilots of half of them. He had sixty of his own ships, forty-eight of which were now moving to take up positions in pairs around the Horzok ships. The military would be frantically launching their own craft now, but they would be ineffective. This would be over long before they arrived.

The president turned white. He opened his mouth to stammer a reply, but Nathan jammed his transmission. Stupid or not, the Terran people didn't need to see their president with his pants down. He disabled his ship's displacer making himself visible to the leaders, the Horzok, and the rest of the world. Speaking on the President's channel, Nathan smiled and said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Snake Eyes, but this isn't going to go down quite the way you expected it to. Now boys."

The eleven ships behind him appeared momentarily, linked their displacers, and disappeared again, taking the Terran diplomatic shuttle with them. Through an ear mic, Nathan could hear one of his pilots telling the pilot of the shuttle, "You fly exactly as I tell you to, and we'll get out of this, understand?" When the shuttle pilot gratefully agreed, Nathan turned his attention back to the Horzok.

The snake was furious. "Parlor tricks! We'll crush you and--"

Nathan threw on his cloak and quickly hit the controls. Two seconds later he appeared again, this time right in front of the Horzok diplomatic shuttle. "I'm small, but I'm really maneuverable. And I've got a lot of guns."

He let that sink in for just long enough for the Horzok to feel vulnerable. The diplomat opened his mouth to say something, but Nathan cut him off. "And I've got a lot of friends. Wave one, go."

Twenty-four ghost ships appeared, each in the blind spot of his Horzok ship's guns. The diplomat looked around frantically. Nathan calmly said, "Now, if wave one worries you, wait until you see the positions of waves two, three, four, five, and six."

The diplomat sneered. "You're bluffing."

Without hesitation, Nathan said, "Wave two, go." The remaining ships appeared. Using his best poker face, Nathan leaned forward and said, "What I've got here will kill every last one of what you've got here. And your reinforcements won't get here before mine do. You've got two choices. You can either go down in Horzok history as the snake who started a war by throwing away the first battle, or you can be remembered as the guy who, faced with overwhelming odds, decided to go home and plot an even more devious way to beat his enemies."

The look on the diplomat's face said that he knew he was beaten. Nathan calmly said, "All waves, back off and give our friends some room to move." All of the ghost ships but his disappeared.

The Horzok stared at Nathan for a long few seconds. Nathan held his gaze evenly. Finally the Horzok said, "We will meet again."

Nathan nodded and said, "I look forward to it."

The Horzok cut his stream. Fighting the urge to say something about eternal vigilance to the Terran people, Nathan quickly cut his own channel and went invisible. He watched the last of the Horzok ships go through the jump portal then had to wrap his arms around himself to keep from shaking. If he hadn't already been sitting down, he would have collapsed. After half a minute of deep breaths to try to slow his rapidly beating heart, he realized that the ghost pilots were waiting for word from him. He took one more deep breath then opened the scrambled channel. "Excellent work everyone. Let's go home."

* * *

Nathan smiled and nodded to his cheering coworkers as he entered the office, but he mostly ignored them and looked for Roberta. When he didn't find her in the lobby, he decided that she must be up in her office. He left the other ghost pilots to the throng joyous people and grabbed an elevator. Roberta's door was shut, and her relight shades were closed. In his excitement, he came close to barging in. But, if she was in a meeting his insolence would be extremely awkward and would make her look bad. He certainly didn't want that. He didn't even want another glare like he got the last time he barged in. So he knocked.

A male voice said, "Come in."

Confused, Nathan opened the door. Roberta's boss, Sam was standing behind her desk and reading a file. Roberta was nowhere to be seen. His voice devoid of emotion, Sam said, "Come in and close the door, Nathan."

Even more confused than before, Nathan did as instructed.

Sam said, "Great work up there. You gave us perhaps a bit more publicity than I'd have liked, but it's good publicity. You've already become a worldwide hero, which will do good things for our funding next year."

"Thank you, sir. May I ask where Roberta is?"

Sam frowned and looked at him compassionately. "Nathan, I regret to inform you that Roberta is dead."

Nathan gasped. "What? How?"

"Near as we can tell, she went out to her car shortly after your success. They got her in the parking lot."

Without asking permission first, Nathan sat down in a chair. "Oh my God."

Sam held up the file he was reading. "I believe she may have known it was coming. She updated her Death File just last week. Did she say anything to you that might give us a clue as to her assailants?"

Nathan held a hand over his mouth. She hadn't been kidding about being in a compromised position. It was the Horzok who hit her. And Nathan's success in space had been the catalyst which lead to her death. He felt queasy.

"Nathan?"

He looked up at Sam. "I'm sorry, sir. Yes, she's been acting a little strangely since we started working on this case. Just before I went into space, she inferred that she was in a compromised position. I believe she crossed them and they killed her for it."

"Do you know who 'they' are?"

Nathan took a deep breath. "I have some speculations, but no evidence." With a sneer he added, "Yet."

Sam nodded and laid the file down in front of Nathan. Roberta made it abundantly clear that she wanted you to replace her. I have some reservations that we'll discuss at a later time, but she is correct that you are the right man for the job. So I'm promoting you. I wish the circumstances were better."

Roberta had known that they'd kill her. The quiz over the last few weeks had been her making sure her choice for a replacement was the correct one. Nathan sighed and said, "Thank you sir. I too wish the circumstances had been better."

"It's 'Sam,' Nathan. I doubt I'll be able to fill Roberta's shoes as your manager, but I hope you'll learn to trust me the way you trusted her."

Nathan smiled at the irony. The last thing she'd told him to do was not to trust her. He nodded.

Sam said, "I'll leave you to your thoughts. Come see me tomorrow, okay?" He walked around the desk but stopped at the door. "Oh, and she left a data file there that's encrypted to you." He closed the door behind him.

Nathan sat in silence for a few minutes. Why hadn't he seen this coming? Why hadn't he recognized the signs Roberta had been sending him and done something about it? And, if she knew, why hadn't she done something? It was unlike her to willingly give in. He shook his head and grabbed the microdisc from the file. His pocket data device authenticated him off his retina and decrypted the file.

The file was nothing more than a short bit of text. "Final lesson: always have an escape route."

After staring at the text in disbelief for a moment, Nathan smiled. He quickly went around the desk and called Sam, wiping the emotion from his face as the connection went through. Sam appeared to have just arrived at his office, for he answered the call while in the process of sitting down. "Yes, Nathan?"

"Sam, how did they get her? Was it a head shot?"

Sam nodded. "With an exploding bullet. At least she died instantly."

Keeping his face neutral, Nathan said, "That's good to know. Thanks, Sam." He cut the connection quickly before his grin broke through again. After leaning back and putting his feet up on the desk, he muttered to himself, "Damn, Roberta, you're almost as devious as the snakes."

The End

Copyright Michael P. Calligaro

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