Page 70 of Enthraller

“But he didn’t know much?”

Ed felt the rise in frustration he’d felt when he’d been questioning Grayson in the narrow laneway, and realized the little traitor really didn’t know anything useful. “Just that he got his orders at the cafe, and passed the information he had acquired back at the same place. He did give me a list of people he was told to spy on. It tells us who we can trust.”

Wren gave a nod. “That’s something. And Violet Fann will also bring in his co-conspirator, so between them, she can at least work out how much damage has been done. Did they say what information they were looking for?”

“Aponi’s defense arrays positioning and military protocols in the event of attack.” Ed’s voice was dry.

Wren stopped dead, looked across at him in horror.

“I know,” he told her. He had felt the same when he had put it together. “When I pressed Grayson, he said he was told it was trade related. That the Verdant String Coalition’s time was coming to an end, and Aponi was going to be first in line.”

“First in line for what?” she asked.

“I think he meant in line to leave the VSC.”

“Like a breakaway planet? Like Lassa and Garmen? That isn’t going to happen,” she said. “Why would he even think that was better?”

“I think he was promised some things he can’t have under VSC laws.” He recalled the strange, almost sick light in Grayson’s eyes, and guessed whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be anything sanctioned by a planet in the VSC, or even those that were VSC allies. “So yes, exactly like a breakaway planet. We know now what things were like on the breakaways, and that would fit with what I think he was hoping for.”

“Like sexually deviant stuff?” Wren suddenly got what he was alluding to. She focused on his expression and her eyes widened in dismay. “Like that freighter captain?”

“Yes.” He said it slowly. “Just like that. Seems we’ve found one of their recruitment tools.”

“I really don’t like these people.”

They’d been headed in the direction of the hover port, but Wren slowed their pace, and now she turned to look down a dark street.

“Here?” he asked, voice low.

She gave a nod. “It was deserted this afternoon. It should be even more deserted now.”

They kept close to the buildings and the deeper shadows as they made their way toward the warehouse. With the hover port nearby, even without much street lighting, the sky was brightly lit and the ambient light made true darkness impossible.

Wren slowed again, and pointed to a building a little way ahead. “That’s where the woman went in.”

It was not exactly derelict—Aponi didn’t allow any building to get in an unsafe state—but it had clearly not been an active concern for some time. The only reason for that would be if it had been bought by a company and then left deliberately unused.

Ed wondered what the chances were it had been bought roughly two years before. Around the same time he was being manipulated into resigning.

He pulled his comms unit out of a pocket and tapped out a quick message to Violet Fann. “It would be interesting to know who owns this building,” he said.

“And what else they own,” Wren agreed.

They had decided to leave the building the woman had entered until the end, if they had time, and they made their way to the warehouse.

Up ahead, at the port, he could hear the sound of hovers. The warehouses at that end of the street would be close to the back of the hover port, and Ed guessed they were loading up a freighter.

This warehouse, though, was absolutely silent and dark.

Wren walked straight to the door, ran her finger through the laslock and pushed it open.

They were inside in seconds.

Ed closed the door softly behind them and pulled out the small light he always carried with him.

He held it high, trying to get a sense of what was inside here.

The place smelled strange, almost sweet and musky.

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