Conspiracy (49 page)

“
What happened in the
Northern Frontier? And why were you along on an ‘expedition’ up
there?”

“
A team of archaeologist
pirates was attempting to uncover ancient advanced technology to
use against the empire. I was sent to make sure they did not
succeed.”

“
Ancient
advanced technology?” Amaranthe asked. “How would
that be possible? I know there are some lost civilizations out
there, but technology is at its peak now, isn’t it? If there’d been
a time when humanity had greater means than we have today, I’m sure
I would have heard about it in school. Or Books would have brought
it up in one of his unsolicited lectures.”

“
Humanity is at its peak,
yes,” Sicarius said. “This wasn’t human technology.”

“
Er, what?”

“
The archaeologist working
on deciphering the foreign language wasn’t there willingly and
didn’t share all of her findings, but, based on the artifacts we
returned with and the details the marines and I reported, the
Imperial Historian judged that the technology was derived from one
of two possible sources. The first suggestion was that the work
came from a race that lived in the world so long ago that almost
all sign of them has been lost.”

“
Huh. And the second
possibility?”

“
Extraterrestrial
beings.”

Amaranthe snorted. “When I told you to start
making jokes, I meant for you to do it in front of Sespian, so he
could see that you have a sense of humor.”

Sicarius’s face was the epitome of
seriousness.

“
Truly? You’re telling me
aliens from outer space brought that knife here—” Amaranthe waved
toward his sheathed blade, “—and gave it to you?”

“
Whichever theory is true,
the creators of the technology disappeared from our world long ago.
Some of their artifacts remain, and they are extremely dangerous.
Floating boxes this large—” Sicarius outlined a one-foot square
with his hands, “—killed numerous marines by incinerating
them.”

“
You saw this with your own
eyes?”

“
They tried to incinerate
me as well.”

“
Oh,” Amaranthe
said.

“
I heard the archaeologist
talking with Starcrest, and—”

“
Wait, Starcrest?
Fleet Admiral
Starcrest?
The legendary naval strategist?”

“
Yes,” Sicarius
said.

“
Who was the
archaeologist?”

“
A professor from Kyatt,”
Sicarius said. “Tikaya Komitopis.”

The name was familiar, and Amaranthe
wriggled her fingers in the air as she tried to place it. “The
cryptanalyst who cracked all our encryption codes during the
Western Sea Conflict?”

“
Yes. She believed these
boxes were simple cleaning machines designed to eliminate
trash.”

Amaranthe blew out a slow breath. It wasn’t
that she hadn’t believed Sicarius exactly, but having two such
significant historical figures contributing to the research did
seem to lend more credence to the story.

“
This flying craft,”
Amaranthe said, “is something that was brought back from the
expedition?”

“
No. We went to a remote
area only accessible by dog sled. Nothing large was
retrieved.”

“
Then someone got it
later.”

“
The marine captain in
charge of the expedition blew up the entrances to the tunnels
afterward. Regardless, everything was in the middle of a mountain.
Even if such a large craft had been inside, it never could have
been flown out.”

“
So where
did
that thing come
from?” Amaranthe asked.

“
Unknown. Perhaps an
archaeological expedition unearthed another site with ruins from
the ancient civilization, and Forge learned of it.”

“
Are you sure this craft is
made from the same technology?”

“
I would need a closer look
under better lighting conditions to be positive,” Sicarius said,
“but I deem it highly likely.” His gaze flicked upward, reminding
her of the power it must have taken to collapse so much of the
tunnel, a tunnel set deep in what had been a very old and stable
cliff.

“
Suppose you’re right. Are
we sure those were Forge people up there, piloting that
thing?”

“
Who else would want us
dead and know where we are?”

Sicarius had a long list of people who
wouldn’t mind taking a shot at him, but... “Even Forge shouldn’t
have known where we were,” Amaranthe said.

“
Sergeant Yara may have
informed someone.”

“
And then come along so she
could put herself in danger? That doesn’t make sense.”

“
Akstyr then,” Sicarius
said.

Amaranthe grew still. She
hadn’t told Sicarius about Rockjaw’s tip, and she was positive
Books didn’t regularly confide in Sicarius either. Had he found out
another way? And, if so, did he know that
she
knew and hadn’t said anything?
Surely he’d see something like that as a betrayal, even if her only
intent had been to keep Akstyr from getting killed.

“
What makes you suggest
him?” Amaranthe asked carefully.

“
He’s not as deeply under
your spell as the others.”

“
Maybe it’s because he
avoids eye contact,” she said, referring to his comment that her
eyes had some persuasive quality. “Anyway, how those people figured
out where we were is something to dwell on later. For now, we need
to escape.”

Sicarius looked toward the crevice leading
back to the locomotive. A long moment passed before someone came
out of it covered with dust. Sespian.

He paused at the entrance, glancing between
Amaranthe and Sicarius with an uncertain expression on his face.
When nobody else followed him out, Amaranthe wondered if he might
have been concerned at the idea of her wandering off alone with
Sicarius.

Amaranthe lifted an inviting hand. “Any
thoughts, Sire?”

“
I was curious as to
whether you’d found a way out.”

“
Not yet,” Amaranthe
said.

“
I was also wondering if
you knew who those people were and if they were trying to kill
you... or me.” Sespian grimaced, perhaps worried that this mess was
his fault.

“
We don’t know anything for
certain yet,” Amaranthe said, “but Forge is always at the top of my
list of conniving misfits determined to make my days
bad.”

“
Why,” Sicarius said, “is
it ‘conniving’ when the enemy does it and ‘planning’ when you do
it?”

Sespian’s eyes flickered with surprise at
the joke. Amaranthe bit down on her lip to keep a grin from
spreading across her face, though she was ridiculously proud of
Sicarius for managing the line with a witness—this witness in
particular—around.

“
Because our motives are
noble,” Amaranthe said, “and we’re not simply trying to add gold to
our bank vaults. We don’t even
have
bank vaults. Or accounts for that
matter.”

“
Most imperial citizens
don’t,” Sespian said. “Though that’ll change if those bankers have
anything to do with it.”

“
Oh?” Amaranthe put on her
most attentive and earnest expression, hoping he might explain
further.

Sespian glanced at Sicarius
and shook his head once. Amaranthe wanted to shout out that
Sicarius was his father and that Sespian could trust him more than
anyone in the world, but she was afraid—no, she was
certain
—that statement
would only drive Sespian away and raise his suspicions against the
group. He’d think it some kind of trick instead of the truth. No,
she had to get Sespian and Sicarius to spend some time together
before anyone sprang that little fact upon him.

“
Anyway, Sire, I don’t
think they were after you,” Amaranthe said. “Or at least you
weren’t the priority. After all, they’ve been keeping you alive for
these last nine months, so why would they try to crush you with a
rockfall now?”

“
They may be prepared to
make their move,” Sespian said grimly.

“
Possibly, but we’ve...
irked them a few times of late.” She winced, knowing ‘irked them’
might describe her team’s meddling over the water-poisoning and
baby-creating projects, but wasn’t an appropriate way to talk about
thirty assassinations. She had no wish to take responsibility for
that, but she doubted Forge would separate her from “her assassin”
as so many people liked to label Sicarius.

“
Oh,” Sespian said in a way
that suggested he hadn’t considered the possibility.

That probably meant he hadn’t seen recent
newspapers or didn’t know Sicarius was responsible for those
deaths. If that was the case, she wasn’t going to bring it up.

“
Either way, it’s time to
get out of here,” Amaranthe said. “I imagine they’ve moved on by
now.”

“
You have a plan?” Sicarius
asked.

“
The digging hasn’t been
terribly productive so far,” Sespian said.

“
I wouldn’t have suggested
digging if I’d know about this big sturdy chamber.” Amaranthe
strolled over and patted one of the walls, blocking the view of a
particularly substantial crack.

“
Sturdy,” Sicarius said in
a flat monotone.

He must already have an inkling of what she
wanted to try.

“
You might want to stay
here, Sire,” Amaranthe said, then jogged for the crevice. She
didn’t want to explain her idea, and handle objections, more than
once.

She wasn’t surprised when both Sicarius and
Sespian slipped through the dark passage after her. She found
Basilard, Maldynado, and Yara sitting inside the cab, digging tools
discarded. Given how little progress anyone had made, Amaranthe
couldn’t blame them for giving up.

“
The secret,” Maldynado was
saying, “is to hold your nose while you chew so you don’t taste it.
He pulps up the meat pretty good and glues it together with bone
marrow fat or something, so the texture isn’t as horrific as you’d
think, though sometimes you do get these chewy bits...” Maldynado
pointed to Yara’s hand; she was holding one of Sicarius’s meat
bars. “Then you’ve just got to swallow quick without thinking too
much about it,” Maldynado finished.

Basilard was halfway
through one of his own bars, and he merely shook his head as
Maldynado went on about them.
They’re
fine,
he signed.
Sufficient for the purpose.

“
I can’t believe you’d say
that, Bas,” Maldynado said, “you being a fair to excellent chef and
all.”

You are too used to city food. My people
make something similar for travel. We usually add spices and dried
berries to give it flavor.

“
Flavor, a completely
foreign idea to that inhuman—er, hullo boss.” Maldynado noticed
Sicarius as he hopped into the cab behind Amaranthe. “And...
others.”

Amaranthe plopped down on the coal box next
to Basilard and fought back a yawn. The clock on the wall was
broken, and she didn’t know how late it was, but she knew they had
long since missed meeting with the others at midnight.

“
Got any new plans?”
Maldynado asked.

“
As a matter of fact...
yes.” She paused to pick grit out of her eyes, or maybe simply
because she had a flair for the dramatic. “Who wants to disable the
safety valves and blow up the boiler?”

“
What?” Yara asked at the
same time as Sespian did. He and Sicarius remained near the doorway
behind Amaranthe.

Maldynado leaned toward Amaranthe and peered
into her eyes. “I thought you got shot in the shoulder, not the
head.”

“
We’re close enough to the
exit, that blowing up the boiler might clear the rubble for us,”
Amaranthe said. “Like using blasting sticks.” She smiled and tried
to appear confident, though she wished Books was there to do some
calculations. She didn’t know if the explosive power of an
overheated boiler could move that many tons of rock, but it ought
to at least shift some of the rubble around. Given how close they
were to the exit, that might be enough. “There’s a chamber a little
ways back where we can hunker down. There should be enough rock
between it and the engine that we’ll be protected.”

“
Unless the reverberations
in the rock cause the ceiling over that chamber to collapse,”
Sicarius said.

“
If it held off that
bombardment, maybe it’s sturdy enough to survive our little
explosion,” Amaranthe said.

“
Maybe
?” Maldynado asked.

“
Does anyone have a pen and
paper?” Sicarius asked.

Sespian unbuttoned a pocket and pulled out a
small, leather-bound notebook with a pen clipped to the spine. He
flipped past a few pages with sketches on them—Amaranthe was glad
he still made time to pursue that passion, if only in hurried spare
moments—and opened the book to a blank page before handing it to
Sicarius.

Sicarius stalked to the controls and wrote
down a few numbers.

“
What’s he doing?” Yara
asked.

“
Calculating the likelihood
that the boss has gone insane?” Maldynado suggested.