Commander Richard Vanmarek left the Air Route on level 139 and strode down a wide corridor that led through the middle of the White Spear. High ceilings and wide corridors gave most levels a spacious feeling, and natural light piped in through optical routers made the building's interior feel bright and welcoming. Fresh air pumped through the building's extensive ventilation systems added to the overall feeling of comfort. Whoever had designed the building had known a thing or two about creating comfortable working environments.
For many years, Vanmarek had been based at Ostra Station in the Industrial Zone to the North-west. The crew quarters had been constantly flooding due to problems controlling the underground water table. When Commander Nick Chambers had been transferred to Beacon station, Vanmarek had been in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it. Within a week he had been transferred to the White Spear. After spending a little time living and working in the White Spear, he had decided that he was never going to work on any of the outlying stations again. Rachel Henson had survived her experiences at Beacon Station, but chambers, Fredericks and many others had not.
He had been upset to hear about Rachel's injuries. He was pleased that she had been able to return to duty so soon. He had always liked Rachel, even when she had been an item with Nick Chambers. He hadn't approached her for obvious reasons, but now that Nick was dead it felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Nick had been a good commander. Many of the crew had been saddened by his death. But now that he was gone, it did open up certain possibilities that hadn't been available before. Rachel didn't know how much he liked her. It never seemed like a good time to tell her. He knew it was too soon after Chambers' death to talk about it. He was also very aware of the problems of dating a fellow officer. Sooner or later, one of them would end up dead.
Vanmarek tried not to think about Rachel. He made his way to his office, carrying his helmet under his arm. He counted the doors that ran along both sides of the corridor until he came to the eleventh door on the left, and then turned and waved his wrist console across a panel beside the door. The door slid silently into the ceiling and Vanmarek stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
The office was small and cluttered. It was stuffed full of boxes and cabinets. A black moulded chair sat waiting for him behind a cheap composite desk that creaked whenever he leant on it.
'Status,' he said.
'Nothing to report,' a woman's voice said from somewhere up in the ceiling. It was a basic monitoring system that he had installed himself. It was designed to detect anyone entering his office while he was out. On more than one occasion it had reported that there had been unauthorised access to his office. It always recorded a visual log.
The most recent intrusion had been just over a week ago. Vanmarek had run some basic analysis on the captured data before he had looked at it. He was not a tech specialist, but even with his limited skills the culprit had not been difficult to identify. The man entering his office in a big brown robe was clearly Lord Hades. On one occasion, Lord Hades had looked directly into the monitoring system as though he had known it was there. He had made no attempt to be subtle about his actions. He knew that he had been detected, but he just didn't care.
There was nothing Vanmarek could do about the intrusions and Lord Hades knew it. Who could question the actions of the leader of the Council of Lords? Vanmarek had no illusions that his complaints would be listened to. He wondered, not for the first time, what Lord Hades was looking for. He didn't have much hope of finding out. There was no way that he could question Lord Hades about it. Even to politely ask him what he wanted could be a career ending move. Vanmarek didn't know Lord Hades well. Few men did. The lords were a law unto themselves. They had their own ways, and men played very little part in them. Vanmarek had decided to deal with the situation in his own pragmatic way. He wouldn't let the intrusions bother him. He knew that he was clean. Whatever Lord Hades was looking for, Vanmarek would prove that he had nothing to hide.