Leaks

Markov sat in his office, waiting for everyone to arrive. Breakfast was still settling in his stomach. He had a feeling that it might be settling for a long time. He still wasn't sure why Commander Harris had been waiting for him in the cafeteria, but he had seemed genuine enough. Markov got the feeling that his intentions were good. It had been Harris that had brought up the subject of Rachel Henson, but several of the other commanders had mentioned her too. Markov had been considering the implications of their feedback when Lord Hades had derailed his thought process by making it clear what he expected to be done. Markov could not question his orders. He had set up a meeting at short notice.

Vanmarek was the first to arrive. The door console buzzed twice. Markov tapped a button on his desk and the door rose up into the ceiling. Vanmarek stood with a sincere expression and a twinkle in his eyes.

'Something amusing you, Commander Vanmarek?' Markov said.

'No, General. It's just that your office is even smaller than mine.'

Markov glanced around at the cluttered room. A table filled the centre of the floor, and four chairs had been arranged around it. There wasn't much room for anything else.

'This was Thompson's office, I believe,' Markov said. 'If it was good enough for her, then it's good enough for me.'

Vanmarek nodded. 'This was one of her offices,' he said. 'She had a larger one too, but she spent most of her time in here.'

Markov stretched his hands across the desk. 'I have no need for anything more elaborate.'

Vanmarek made no comment.

'You were in charge of the honour guard. Is that right?' Markov said. 'You sent those Wasp Drones to meet me?'

'Yes, General. It was my idea, but Commander Parker was the remote pilot. I don't have neural implants myself.' Vanmarek twisted around to show the back of his head. His copper brown hair stopped at the base of his neck, giving way to smooth pale skin rather than the grey bulge of an implant.

'Did you send any messages to the Albatross?'

'No, General.'

'Nothing about the Heart welcoming me back?'

Vanmarek frowned. 'No.'

'You're quite sure about that?'

'I wouldn't even know how to send a message to the Albatross. It's not listed on any of the systems that I have access to. Is there something wrong?'

Markov rubbed a hand across his wide, square jaw. 'No. It doesn't matter.'

Vanmarek nodded, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets as he leant back against the wall.

Markov leant back in his chair. 'What can you tell me about that little incident during my approach?'

'You mean the attack from the Old Quarter?'

'Yes.'

'Not much at this stage. We've started an investigation. Some guy in the Old Quarter opened fire with some kind of electrovolt droid. We haven't been able to identify it yet. It was heavily damaged by a Spinner rocket, but it looks like something quite old. I haven't seen that type of chassis before. We think it might even have been manually operated.'

'Strange,' Markov said. 'Why would they use something so old?'

'I'm not sure. Sometimes the older droids are harder to detect. Maybe that's how they were able to store it in such a built up area without us noticing.'

'What's the damage report?'

'Two Wasp Drones were damaged. They both recovered enough to fly back to the towers on their own. Their crew pods were empty at the time, which was just as well. I doubt anyone would have survived an electrical attack of that magnitude. The Wasp Drones were already airborne when the attack began so we were able to shut down the target relatively quickly.'

'Who was behind the attack?'

'We only found one man in the area. His body was badly burnt. We haven't been able to identify him yet. My hunch is that he was an undercover Kamari agent. I'll confirm that when we are able to make a better analysis of his remains.'

'It doesn't surprise me that the Kamari would try something like this,' Markov said. 'What does surprise me is how they knew I was coming.'

Vanmarek rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. 'I was wondering that myself. There was no official announcement until an hour before you arrived. It shouldn't have been long enough for the Kamari to organise anything like this.'

'That announcement went out to commanders only, with strict orders not to pass the information on to anyone else.'

'It doesn't look good,' Vanmarek said.

Markov shook his head. 'No. It doesn't.'