On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) (44 page)

He shrugged. 

“Besides I never quite fitted in at court,” he added.  “Everything has been so
tense
for the past two hundred years.  You don’t dare cough for fear that someone will take it as a sign to start something violent.  It’s so much more comfortable out along the Rim.”

Mariko giggled.  “Does Prather know just how high-ranking you are?”

“No one does, apart from my superiors,” Fitz said.  “And now that you know, please keep it to yourself.  The last thing I need is overawed people crawling around me.”

“The Twins know, don’t they?”  Mariko guessed, teasing him.  “What would have happened if you
had
gotten them pregnant?”

“It would have been difficult to say,” Fitz said.  “But once the fatherhood test proved that the kids were mine, they would have been in line for a share in the family’s holdings.  It would have been very interesting to watch...from a safe distance, of course.”

***

They passed through the wormhole at Marius’s World and emerged at Sumter, where Fitz promptly made contact with Prather using codes he pulled out of his implants.  An hour passed before there was a reply, ordering them into a holding orbit that would take them away from the standard shipping lanes.  Mariko steered them into the orbit and waited, wondering just what Prather and his subordinates were playing at, until a large freighter signalled them with Imperial Intelligence codes.  The docking tubes were extended and Colonel Prather walked onto the
Bruce Wayne
.  Fitz would have preferred not to allow him onboard, but he’d been insistent that they needed a secure environment.

“Remarkably luxurious, for a courier ship,” he said, rather snidely.    “Anyone would think that you were stealing money orders and ripping them off.”

Fitz scowled at him.  “We don’t have time to argue,” he said.  He passed Prather a chip, one he’d spent the last day putting together.  “This is what we have found out from our mission, including a detailed idea of what the Secessionists are planning.  We also have a lead on a major Secessionist leader that I intend to follow right now.”

“Oh,” Prather said.  His tone turned sarcastic.  “And what does the high-and-mighty Priority-One Agent wish his loyal subordinates on Sumter to do while he’s gone?”

“I expect you to look to the junction’s security,” Fitz said, sharply.  “The Secessionists, we believe, intend to take and collapse the wormholes.  Order the Admiral to concentrate the Sector Fleet and ensure that the junction is secure.  Pull intelligence priority if you must.”

Prather stared at him in disbelief.  “Are you out of your mind?”

“I just killed one of the Imperium’s foremost experts in wormhole science to keep him out of enemy hands,” Fitz snapped.  “And we have a Secessionist agent on this ship who can corroborate the basic idea behind their plot.  I suggest you start taking this seriously before the Secessionists arrive and start their operation.  Losing the wormholes would mean the end of the
fucking
universe!  Do you understand me?”

“You can't come in here and give me a crazy story...”

“That’s what they’re counting upon,” Fitz hissed.  “It
is
a fucking crazy story.  That’s what they thought when they calculated that no one will believe us.  You have got to listen, right now.”

Mariko glanced at him in alarm.  She had never heard Fitz so stressed. 

“I’ve already sent a compressed packet through the datanet to Homeworld,” he added.  “Do you want to take action now, while you can, or do you want to explain to the Imperium why you did nothing?”

Prather locked eyes with him for a long moment, and then looked away. 

“You don’t understand,” he said.  “Part of the Sector Fleet has been dispatched to Iceberg and is beyond recall for at least three weeks.”

Fitz gaped at him.  “In God’s name, why?”

“Iceberg has been experiencing heavy levels of piracy recently and their governor managed to be very persuasive...”

“Paid a very large bribe,” Fitz injected.

“...To the Governor and Von Rutherford, the CO of the Sector Fleet,” Prather continued.  “Over half of the Sector Fleet’s active units were dispatched to patrol the region in the hopes of stopping the bastards before they cut into the profits...”

“And the Governor’s bribes,” Fitz snapped.  “I suggest, very strongly, that you urge the Governor to recall them, at once.  If that fails, get in touch with Baron Yu and convince him to order the Governor to recall them – and send some reinforcements while we’re uncovered here.  You have
got
to understand, Colonel; we’re looking at complete disaster for the entire damn Imperium if we fail.  Can you really take the chance that we’re wrong?”

“...No,” Prather admitted, finally.  For some reason, he didn't look keen on the idea, even if success would win him certain promotion.  “And your prisoner?”

“Take her on your ship, get her to higher authority, try and crack the implant in her head,” Fitz ordered.  There’s a transcript of the original interview I did with her on the chip; see if your experts have any other ideas we can use to break her.  And if you can convince her to turn state’s evidence in exchange for cancelling the death penalty, do it.”

“I’ll do my best,” Prather said.  He hesitated.  “Do you remember that we had a handful of important officials who might have been targeted for blackmail?”

“Of course,” Fitz said, impatiently.  “I thought you were interviewing them.”

“We
were
,” Prather said.  “Two of them ended up dead, seemingly in Undercity.  The bodies were recovered carrying wounds that suggested that knives were used to kill them.  We cannot understand how they escaped protective custody...”

“Unless they had help from the inside,” Fitz snarled.

“Precisely,” Prather said.  “I’ve contacted Baron Yu and asked for assistance, but so far I haven’t had a proper reply.  What’s going on in the heart of the Imperium?”

“I wish I knew,” Fitz said.  “Believe me, I wish I knew.”

There was something in his voice that made Mariko look up at him, sharply. 

Prather stood up.  “I’ll take the prisoner now and then let you go,” he said.  “Do you need another wormhole transit?”

“A priority passage,” Fitz agreed.  “At least that won’t look unusual for the
Wally West
.  We might have to leave the
Happy Wanderer
here, perhaps on a powered down orbit.”

“It could go into the docks here,” Prather pointed out.

“I’d prefer it somewhere where it won’t be noticed,” Fitz said.  “And Colonel...I wasn’t joking about the fate of the Imperium riding on this.  Don’t let up.  Even if we defeat this threat, the universe will be changed forever.”

“I won’t,” Prather said.  “Good luck.”

***

Later, after they had passed through the wormhole and set course for Tuff, Mariko found herself standing with Fitz as the ship ploughed her way through phase space.  There was nothing out there to see, of course, but the darkness attract
ed her on a primal level.  Others, groundhogs mostly, never grew used to phase space.  A handful even went insane when they saw the endless darkness.

“I’m scared,” she confessed, finally.  “Everything could be riding on us.”

“I know,” Fitz admitted.  He put an arm around her shoulders and she relaxed into his grip.  “I’m scared too.”

“It looks just the same as before,” Mai said, as the shuttle swooped down towards Lady Mary’s compound. 

Fitz smiled, but his heart wasn't in it.  “What did you expect?  A massive brooding planetary garrison?  A flashing light with SECRET REBEL BASE blinking on and off?”

Mai looked at him in surprise. 
They’d been working every day on possible scenarios in the holochamber, rehearsing what they might have to do with Lady Mary. 

“I would have expected her to run and hide,” she said, with great dignity.  “Instead...”

“Here she is, inviting people to come and hunt the Hex,” Fitz said.  He’d picked up a copy of the brochure when they passed through Ming, a colony world only ten light years from Tuff.  It was also connected to the wormhole network, a stark warning of the chaos that would rage over the entire Imperium if the Secessionists succeeded in bringing the network down.  “It’s a perfect cover for her.  She looks innocent, yet she has a chance to feel the pulse of the entire sector.”

“It looks busier, too,” Mariko observed. Yet despite that, OTC had already assigned them a berth. “How many people do you think are here?”

“As many as she can get,” Fitz said.  “Hunting the Hex isn't something you can do anywhere else.  I’d bet you good money that half of the wild sportsmen in the Imperium have decided to come this year.”

The shuttle dropped to the ground and landed.  Mariko shut the systems down, one after the other, and opened the hatch, allowing the warm smelly air of Tuff to flow into the shuttle.  Mai wrinkled her nose as she picked up her share of the luggage and stepped out of the hatch.

They were met by a pair of porters.  This time, they would be staying inside the walls of the compound.  Fitz had special-ordered it while they’d been waiting for permission to land.

“Take these bags to our quarters,” Fitz said, drawing the Lord Fitzgerald persona around him like a shroud.  He produced a pair of silver coins from his pocket and passed them to the porters.  “And then please let Lady Mary know that we have arrived.”

Mariko blinked before realising that Lady Mary had no reason to connect them to Imperial Intelligence.  Or so she hoped. 

But what if someone had made the connection between them and Imperial Intelligence along the way?  What if Prather was dirty? 

She felt naked despite her expensive, all-covering shipsuit.  Did Fitz feel this way all the time?

The sense of unreality grew stronger as they walked out of the shuttle and up to the giant mansion.  It was surrounded by visitors enjoying themselves swimming, eating and chatting up the expanded staff.  Lady Mary had clearly hired additional servants to keep her guests happy, mostly young and female Indents.  Mariko wondered how many of them would be paid well enough to pay off their debts, before realising that it was unlikely that they would ever be paid enough to be free.  Indenture was effectively permanent – and ran through the family.  No wonder Indents were the most rebellious humans in the Imperium. 

But why had Lady Mary turned against the Imperium?  It had given her everything, from a social position that everyone outside the Grand Senate would envy to wealth and power and a planet of her own.  Mariko puzzled over the question as they entered the mansion and allowed one of the butlers to guide them to their rooms.  They’d been given a suite larger than many homes in the Imperium, complete with a shower, bathtub and drinks cupboard.  Mariko poured herself a glass of water and drank it while Mai started to unpack their clothes.  The protective camouflage they’d wear tonight – two dresses, low-cut enough to make her blush – and the dark suits they’d use when the time came to deal with Lady Mary.  And, below them, equipment for the hunt.

Fitz tapped on the door and came inside, carrying a bug detector in one hand.  Two bugs were quickly located and just as quickly destroyed; a third, hidden inside a wooden statue of a horse-like animal with a human head, was removed and placed inside a locked cabinet.  It wouldn't hear anything from there.  Fitz insisted on holding their discussion in the bathroom and running a hot bath while he talked, just in case he'd missed something. 

“I recognised a number of people who came to the hunt,” Fitz said.  “Most are sportsmen, people who go from planet to planet blowing up big game, but several are planetary governors from this sector and its neighbours.”

Mariko felt her eyes narrow.  “Don’t they have duties on their homeworlds?”