Chapter 20

Helios had agreed to deliver the parts in six weeks, through an intermediary whose contact information Mbosa supplied. There was to be no further contact with Mbosa again, under any circumstances. Mbosa had also supplied Helios with a copy of the information his sources had dug up, and with which he was threatening him. If Helios failed to deliver, or if even a whisper of Mbosa's involvement in the deal came to light, the information would be sent to both the local Peace Keepers and to InterSys.

Once Helios and Kat had returned to their hotel suite, and checked it for bugs, they sat down to discuss the next steps.

"Good news, bad news." Helios began. "The good news is that we have confirmed that Mbosa is also a member of the ExTrans and that he is involved in the disappearance of the ships. Just hiring us to get those chips for him is enough to bring down the weight of the Union government on him and his company."

"The bad news is that there is no corroborating information on the involvement of the Church so until there is, we have to assume it is coincidental. We do, however, have proof that there is a leak in the Agency. Some of the information that Mbosa found on my activities could only have come from the Agency. It is just too specific to have been gathered from previous smuggling contracts."

"You seem to have forgotten something." Kat scowled at him. "Just how do you envision that we are going to be able to convince the Union military to release some of those chips to us when they haven't even made enough to supply their own ships? That doesn't even consider that they would be letting go of a military secret, and to a group that has six military ships that they intend to use. We don't even know what they intend, or where the ships are, much less what they plan to do with them."

"Details, details." Helios grinned at Kat. "Getting the chips released is going to be a problem. Getting them to help us by providing a chip that is non-functional and that we can use to trap these folks, that should be easier."

"You are assuming that we can fool these folks. They don't seem the type to be taken in by a fake. It would have to work, at least minimally, in order to pass muster."

"Let's hope our tech department is better than his tech department." Helios responded, then changed the subject. "I am more worried about the leak."

A leak in the Agency, while not unheard of, was something that every Agent had to worry about. Agents spent time in the field, often alone and often under cover, working on issues that many would rather never see the light of day. Secrets that people would kill to protect.

"We need to talk to Margo and get word to the Citadel. We can do that a lot easier on Calysto than we can from here, and since it is only a day's travel, we won't be cutting into our deadline. The time saved in having a secure, face to face communication channel will more than make up for any delays." Kat laid out her argument, ticking points off on her fingers.

Helios held up both hands, miming surrender. "No argument from me. We can be on the evening shuttle and be on Calysto when we wake up tomorrow morning."

An ear-splitting alarm klaxon shocked Kat out of a sound sleep. They had made the evening shuttle up to the inner-system passenger liner with time to spare. Kat had wolfed down a quick dinner and spent a couple of hours in the gym before indulging herself in the sauna and a long, hot shower. Knowing that there was nothing expected of her while in transit, she collapsed into bed and was almost instantly asleep.

Kat rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with both feet and rising into a crouch, looking for danger long before her waking mind made the connection between her jolt of adrenaline and the alarm sounding in her cabin. Her eyes locked on the cabin's desk comp, its screen displaying a flashing message.

"Emergency Alert: Collision Warning. All Passengers Brace For Impact ... Emergency Alert: Collision Warning. All Passengers Bra..."

Kat dressed as quickly as she could and, after a second's hesitation, she grabbed what she had come to think of as her 'field kit'; her favorite knives, a 2.5mm Flechette pistol and her Comm unit.

She had just finished when her door opened and Helios dashed in, a pistol in hand. He didn't look surprised at seeing Kat up and ready to move, just motioned for her to follow him. Kat nodded and was on his heels as he turned and left the cabin again.

"The collision alarm is bogus, we are being boarded. I was up, going for a midnight snack when the alarm started. The big vidscreen in the dining room were still on and there were three ships closing on us, no markings I could see before the crew shut of the external view. I don't know who they are or what they want, but you can bet that this is no coincidence."

"Where are we going?"

"Bridge. I need more information."

They were silent for the rest of the trip up to crews' territory. The passageways were full of scared passengers, milling around without a clue about what was happening. Some of the crew were posted at intersections to prevent the passengers from moving around, and others were trying to push people back into their cabins, all calling for calm. Helios and Kat ignored demands that they return to their assigned spaces and brushed by the protesting crewmen.

For the most part, the harried crewmen were too overwhelmed to focus on the two Agents, though one young man in a mechanics shipsuit would wake up with a headache after grabbing Kat by the arm. She regretting having hit him so hard, but she didn't have time to explain things nicely.

Arriving at the bridge, they found the door blocked by a pair of crewmen with brassards around their upper arms that read 'Master At Arms' and had the ship's insignia embossed above a pair of crossed swords. They were the ship's equivalent of police and had obviously been stationed to keep people out of the bridge crew's hair during the emergency.