Page 61 of Enthraller

“Didn’t think so,” she muttered. “Didn’t fucking think so.”

23

He had her,safe and right in his arms.

Ed suppressed a shudder at the memory of when he’d seen her floating in the debris of the station, and for a moment . . .

But her nanos had done their job, and he would put up with a lot from them for it.

“Ed.” Bailey glanced at him over her shoulder. “It’s Violet Fann.”

Ed reluctantly set Wren down on the bench and settled in next to Bailey at the controls. “Captain Fann.”

“You and your team alright, Zeneri?” Violet Fann sounded concerned.

“We’re all alive. So is the maintenance crew, who we have in custody, but the whole of the academic team is either dead or missing. We have reason to believe Dr. Lashka Garde is dead, and her body is in the station. I saw Professor Jens Ludlow’s body with my own eyes. He’s floating in the debris near our current position. One of the research assistants, Cora, may or may not be alive, and Dr. Garner and his research assistant, last name Kailis, are missing, possibly alive in full suits, floating near the station.”

“The maintenance crew is in custody?” Violet Fann sounded bemused. “Wren said something about them when she told me the station might be under attack but I don’t understand.”

“We take a dim view of people who hold weapons on us and try to restrain us.” Ed left it at that. There were no doubt ears listening in.

“Right.” She let the word hang, then carried on. “The battleships are doing a full life scan sweep, and they’ll scoop up whoever they find, so you can head back to Demeter.”

“Will do.” Ed stood. “Let’s get back to headquarters.”

He felt Bailey and Hatch’s relief at his order, and caught the opposite on Banks’s face. The head of maintenance was more than a little unhappy with being brought in.

“Who are you afraid of?” he asked. “Protection, the SF teams, the Department of Defense? Where do you think the group you work for is likely to have their plants?”

“Everywhere.” Trish was the one who answered.

“Everywhere?” Hatch stretched out his legs as Bailey dropped them through the atmosphere. “That just can’t be true. I’ll allow they could have a few plants, promising I don’t know what, or blackmailing their marks, but I just don’t believe they are as all powerful as you think. They’ve played a mind trick on you all.”

No one had any more to say to that, although Ed mulled over it as they plunged through the sky toward Demeter.

He agreed with Hatch. The instance of corruption and betrayal was almost non-existent in the Verdant String. Everyone had to take a turn at working in the government—public service duty was compulsory unless you joined the military or the Protection Unit. It was three years of your life, although if you liked it, you could stay for five. You could choose an area that aligned with your education, and while you coulddefer your service for a while if it didn’t suit you when your time was called, no one got away with not doing it.

It kept people from forming corrupt power structures and it meant there was little chance of people cooperating in a corrupt endeavor, because of the short tenure of their stay. Chances were people with corrupt intentions would be hard-pressed to find someone of like mind, and the penalties were swift and severe.

That wasn’t to say it didn’t ever happen, but it was rare.

For this shadowy criminal organization operating out of the former breakaway planets to have seeded a vast number of cronies through the many arms of government on Aponi not only stretched credulity, it just didn’t seem logistically possible.

Which probably meant the people they did have in place had enough reach to pretend there were more of them than there really were.

Which meant they were high up on the chain.

Ed didn’t like it.

He’d been played before, and he was just beginning to see it was probably by the same people.

He heard Bailey talking in a low voice to ground control, and then the higher rev of the engines as she settled the runner lightly onto its landing pad.

A Protection Unit was waiting for them, as well as an SF team out of Ethan Hyt’s office.

“Know them?” he asked Hatch, who checked the feed and gave a nod.

“They’re good.”

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