In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V-ARC (16 page)

Weiss hissed a quiet German curse. This was incredibly bad timing on Charles’s part, in his opinion. But with the process already underway, the only thing they could do was see it through and wait for StateSec to get bored and move on.

Besides, there were other things Weiss could do in the meantime to keep this particular ball rolling. “Understood,” he said. “Let me know when it’s safe to meet.”

“I will,” Charles promised. “
Auf wiedersehen.
”

It was actually closer to four weeks before Weiss finally got the message he’d been expecting. It was short and unsigned and waiting in his inbox when he arrived at his desk:
1522 Rue de Leon, today, 10:20 am.
Charles, it appeared was finally ready.

So was Weiss.

The address turned out to be a modest home in a neighborhood that had once been on the upper edge of Havenite elite but which had since fallen on somewhat harder times. Resisting the urge to look furtively around him, Weiss walked up to the front door and rang the bell.

Charles had the door open almost before the chime’s echo had faded away. “Come in,” he murmured, doing a quick visual sweep over Weiss’s shoulder as the Andermani slipped in past him. He closed the door behind his visitor and then led the way down a hallway into a small study reeking of fresh paint. “Sorry about the smell,” he apologized as he gestured Weiss to one of a pair of chairs in the center of the room. “A wise old ex-spy once told me that redoing a room with a metal-based paint would play havoc with any bugs in the vicinity.”

“I hope you used two coats,” Weiss said as he sat down in one of the chairs.

“Three, actually,” Charles said as he took the other. “Plus all the rest of the bug-sweeping routine, of course.”

He took a deep breath. “Well. The fact that you’re here implies you took my advice and sent an observer to the Karavani system.”

“I did you one better: I went myself,” Weiss said. “So tell me. Did I really see what I thought I saw?”

Charles’s gaze locked on Weiss’s face like a weapons targeting system. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice cautious. “What do you think you saw?”

Weiss braced himself. “I believe I saw a Manty ship come through a heretofore unknown wormhole terminus.”

Some of the rigidity vanished from Charles’s face and body. “I was right,” he murmured. “It really
is
there.”

“You weren’t sure?”

Charles waved a hand. “I’d heard rumors,” he said. “I spent—oh, hell;
years
—putting pieces together, analyzing thousands of reports, following the movements and activities of hundreds of Manty ships. It was only in the past three months that I began to suspect what was really going on.”

“What
is
going on?” Weiss asked. “I mean, here’s the problem. According to our Intelligence people, the Peeps have been bringing Solly tech into the Karavani system for at least the past few months. Why haven’t the Manties hit them before now? Or are you suggesting the Manties have hit other shipments and the Peeps somehow didn’t notice?”

“Even StateSec isn’t
that
stupid,” Charles said dryly. “No, from everything I’ve been able to pull together, the Manties have known all about these Karavani handoffs, but have been biding their time and saving their thunder for the big score. Actually, there are some indications that they’ve been subtly nudging at the Peeps’ other transshipment points, herding their operations to Karavani. This shipment was supposed to be the big one, the one with actual Solly missiles and stealth technology and who knows what else.”

Weiss winced. The People’s Navy with Solly missiles and stealth tech. God help the Manties, and everyone else in the region, if that ever happened. “Well, they won’t be getting anything from
that
shipment, anyway,” he said. “The
Charger
took care of that.”

“The
Charger
was the ship the Manties used?”

Weiss nodded. “It was keeping its ID quiet, but that’s what our analysis of its emissions gave us. Any thoughts as to why they didn’t just go back out through the wormhole instead of running for the hyper limit like they did?”

“They may have been a little rattled by the unexpected presence of an Andermani courier boat in the system they were hitting,” Charles said. “I’m guessing they hoped you hadn’t picked up the terminus’s precise location and didn’t want to give you another chance to locate it by exiting the same way. Besides that, the hyper limit’s obviously the closer escape route. The less time they gave you to study them, the better. What kind of energy spike did you pick up?”

“It was fairly small,” Weiss told him. “And frankly, I have to say that this whole thing is starting to drift into the interesting-but-not-very-useful category. Unless you want to run ore freighters to Manticore, there’s not a lot in Karavani that anyone would want. And while I’m sure the hyper-physicists would have a field day trying to figure out how a wormhole terminus can be twice as close to the hyper limit as any previously mapped terminus, that’s not exactly of galaxy shaking importance in the middle of a war, either.”

Charles gave him an odd look. “Who said the other end of the wormhole is in the Manticore system?”

Weiss frowned. “It’s not?”

“Why do you think I came to you with this in the first place?” Charles asked, frowning in turn. “The other end of the wormhole doesn’t come out in Manty space.

“It comes out inside the Andermani Empire.”

*
   
*
   
*

For a long minute Weiss just stared at his host, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging slightly open. Charles sat perfectly still, letting the other have his moment. If he could convince Weiss, then the ball would continue rolling.

If he couldn’t, he would probably be back in the Peeps’ torture chamber by dinner time.

He was pondering that unappetizing possibility when Weiss seemed to shake himself. “Where?” he asked.

Charles started breathing again. “I’m not absolutely sure,” he said. “But I believe it’s somewhere along your border with Silesia, possibly in or near Irrlicht. It’s a small system with four uninhabitable planets and a couple of asteroid belts—”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it,” Weiss said. “Why do you think the terminus is there?”

“I’ve noted a significant number of reports describing attacks on Silesian pirates by unidentified ships in that area,” Charles said. “Even asteroid miners don’t stay in Irrlicht full-time, which means Manty ships coming and going wouldn’t even be noticed. My guess is that they’ve quietly set up a base somewhere, probably in the outer belt, to run their operations from.”

Weiss pursed his lips, then abruptly shook his head. “No,” he said firmly.

Charles felt his heart skip a beat. “I can show you the data,” he offered.

“No, I mean you’re wrong about the only two termini being in Karavani and the Empire,” Weiss said. “Karavani to Irrlicht has to be somewhere close to four hundred light-years. The terminus we saw at Karavani is far too close to the hyper limit for the wormhole to stretch that far in a single gulp. There has to be a junction somewhere considerably closer—sixty to eighty light-years away at the most.”

“Eighty light-years won’t get you to Manticore,” Charles said, frowning in feigned thought.

“No, but it could get you within forty or fifty light-years of Yeltsin’s Star,” Weiss said.

“You mean like somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where no one’s ever thought to look,” Charles said, nodding. Not only was Weiss falling right into step on this, but he was even filling in details Charles now wouldn’t have to bring up himself. Perfect.

“Exactly,” Weiss said. “And if the other arm—or
an
other arm; at this point we have no idea how many there are—goes all the way to Irrlicht, it would come out a good three or four light-hours out from the system. Plenty of distance to ensure even those transient miners never notice the energy spike when the Manties come out.”

“Yeltin’s Star,” Charles said with just the right touch of sudden understanding. “Of course.”

“Of course what?” Weiss asked.

“I’ve always wondered why the Manties bothered to open contact with Grayson in the first place,” Charles said. “And why they then went to such lengths to make allies out of them.”

“Possibly because they’re damn good fighters,” Weiss said wryly. But his eyes were distant and thoughtful. “Interesting idea, though.”

“Regardless, I daresay this is something you need to get back to the Empire with immediately,” Charles said. “Enjoy your voyage. I presume you’ve brought my fee for the information? Possibly with a bit of a bonus included?”

“I have it, yes,” Weiss said, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Are we in some kind of hurry?”

“What do you mean?” Charles asked guardedly.
 

“I mean you seem anxious to get your money and send me on my way,” Weiss said.

“I’m not anxious about anything,” Charles protested, putting a bit of subtle discomfort into his voice. “I’ve given you everything I have. I want my money; you want to lay this out in front of the Emperor and collect your commendation. Nothing mysterious about it.”

“But you
haven’t
given me everything,” Weiss countered. “You just said you could show me the data on the Manties’ anti-pirate operations running out of the Irrlicht system.”

“Oh, well, I can’t show you
all
the data,” Charles hedged. “Technically, that belongs to a colleague of mine.”

Weiss sat up a bit straighter. “You never mentioned any colleagues,” he said, his voice suddenly ominous.

“It’s all right—I’ve known him for years,” Charles hastened to assure him. “In fact, I’ve recently made him my partner.”

“Really,” Weiss said, his tone not mollified in the slightest. “This is
not
something you should be springing on me, Charles. Not here, and certainly not now.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you,” Charles said apologetically, suppressing both a shiver and, paradoxically, a sly smile. If Weiss was upset at this revelation, he could imagine how Mercier was reacting to it as he eavesdropped on the conversation from upstairs. “But there’s nothing to worry about. He’s hardly going to betray us. Not a Manty in the middle of Peep territory.”

“He’s a
Manty
?”
 

“A disaffected one, of course,” Charles said. “Come now,
Herr
Weiss—where else did you think I’d gotten all my data on Manty ship movements?”

“Yes, of course.” Weiss paused, his narrowed eyes those of a cutthroat spades player trying to read his opponent. “This complicates things a bit.”

Charles felt a stirring in his gut. “What do you mean?” he asked carefully.

“But it should still work,” Weiss said, as if thinking aloud. “After all, two passengers can be transported nearly as cheaply as one.”

“Hold on,” Charles said, pressing back into his chair. “Two
passengers
?”

“Of course,” Weiss said. “As you said, this news has to be taken to the Empire at once.”

“So take it,” Charles said. “Give me my money and go.”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” Weiss said coolly. “We need to make sure nothing leaks out to the Manties before we’ve found the Andermani terminus. Unfortunately, that means you and your colleague will have to our guests for awhile.”

“And if we refuse?” Charles asked.

Weiss’s expression went diplomat-impassive. “I hope you won’t make me insist.”

Charles looked down at the Andermani’s waist, as if only just now noticing the subtle bulge of a hidden weapon.

Mercier was also armed. Would he be willing to use his pulser against a foreign diplomat? Charles didn’t know, but he had no intention of finding out the hard way. “Let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “All you want us for is to help you find the Andermani terminus?”

“That’s all,” Weiss assured him. “Once we’ve found it, we can start sending cruisers of our own through and start our own quiet survey of the thing.”

“And you’re not going to be convinced of all this until you do that?”

“Let me put it this way,” Weiss said. “Until we
are
convinced, you don’t get paid.”

For a moment Charles gazed at him. Then, he exhaled a long sigh. “Fine,” he said. “But bear in mind that
Herr
Mercier and I are now on the Andermani clock, and we charge by the hour.”

“Then we’d best be going, hadn’t we?” Weiss said, standing up. “Go collect your friend, grab your data chips and any personal items you want to bring along, and let’s get to it. My car and driver are waiting down the block.”

Mercier, to Charles’s relief, played his part perfectly. He came downstairs at Charles’s summons, accepted his new position as Charles’s colleague without flinch or glare, and even added in a bit of verisimilitude by telling Weiss that his task upstairs had been to watch for possible StateSec lurkers. He accepted the offer of a trip to the Andermani Empire with just the right degree of surprise, followed by the right level of reluctant agreement.

But Charles wasn’t fooled. Mercier was furious, and Charles had no doubt that he would be hearing about it the minute he and the Peep were alone.

Fortunately, that minute was likely to be a long time in coming. Weiss made a number of quiet calls in German from the car, and instead of going back to the Andermani embassy the driver took them directly to the spaceport. A diplomatic pinnace was waiting, the pilot giving them barely enough time to get settled in their seats before lifting and heading out to the orbit where the embassy’s three ships were parked. Charles made a private bet with himself that they were headed for the larger and more luxurious consular ship, and promptly lost as they instead swung in close beside a courier boat. Apparently, Weiss and Ambassador Rubell had decided speed was more important than comfort.

The courier’s captain had already begun his own preparations, and in less than an hour they were underway, heading for Haven’s hyper limit at nearly six hundred gravities. They had barely left orbit when Weiss called for lunch, and he, Charles, and Mercier settled down to a surprisingly but gratifyingly well-laid table.

Charles ate mechanically, his full attention on Weiss’s smoothly casual interrogation of Mercier and the Peep’s equally casual and surprisingly good answers. Either the colonel was a far more competent StateSec agent than Charles had realized, with the training to make up—and remember—answers on the fly, or else he’d spent the entire trip since leaving the rendezvous house working out a detailed cover story for himself.