CHAPTER FOUR

Gillan took a sip of his coffee and grimaced as he discovered it had grown cold. Only two other people joined him in the lab this afternoon, aside from the one technician who monitored the passage security. Events within the colony had calmed lately as life beyond the safehouse returned to routine. Now that he’d completed his transmitter project, Gillan resumed his monitoring duties. He took comfort from the ordinariness of the task, and always felt a sense of relief whenever he made it through his shift without hearing anything dire, no matter how boring it became. The computer language rendered all transmissions dry, but he could never record the terse report, “Pickup accomplished,” without dread, knowing that another hapless individual would occupy a windowless room within High Command.

Sometimes he switched through different channels just to alleviate the monotony, picking up chatter from the space station or incoming ships. The dishes had aligned with the illicit satellite dropped by the Rebel ship, and he intercepted a lot of new reports from about the galaxy. The Rebel hierarchy studied these closely, making determinations about what happened in the broader universe. Gillan allowed his eyes to constantly roam the wall of monitors as well, watching for anomalies or things of interest, but mostly just to keep some sort of connection with the outer world. He hadn’t left the safehouse in weeks, since that fateful night he joined Kona on her private mission. Instead he kept to his schedule within the lab, and dropping the kids off and picking them up from childcare. They spent their evenings working on homework, or playing games, or sometimes watching the Unification-sanctioned vids. Gillan kept a low profile and received no more special projects from Daryl.

Kona remained absent as well during this time, and Gillan found himself thinking about her often. He wondered if the Rebel leadership kept them apart deliberately or if her obligations to the Rebel cause occupied her time. Or if she simply avoided him. He wished for something new to preoccupy him, hoping that if he remained discreet and behaved himself Daryl would award him something new and interesting to work on. The older man had seemed pleased when Gillan presented him with the transmitter and they went over the specifications together. He informed Gillan that the success with the satellite dishes delighted the Rebel leadership. As Gillan left Daryl’s office at last, he couldn’t help feeling that his leader meant to prepare him for something, but it never came to fruition. What purpose the transmitter served remained a mystery as well.

A touch on his shoulder made Gillan turn about to see Kona beside him. She pulled the chair from the empty work station next to him and settled into it. “I should’ve known I’d find you here,” she commented. “You never take a day off, do you?”

“I like to keep busy,” he told her. He shrugged. “And there’s not a lot to do for entertainment down here.”

She laughed softly in acknowledgement. Gillan knew that some of the other occupants of the safehouse played games through their neurals. Sometimes Allie remained after school to play her friends on the closed circuits within the playroom. He felt no interest in joining the virtual challenges and competitions. He preferred the challenge of creating something instead. “So,” Kona said, breaking into his thoughts. “When’s your next break?”

He looked at her sharply. “Why?”

She sat back with a hurt expression. “I haven’t seen you in awhile. I just wanted to connect with you and see how you’re doing. Or don’t you trust me anymore? Has Papa Daryl been telling you what a bad influence I am?”

“I haven’t talked to Daryl in awhile either,” he defended himself. “I’m sorry. I just thought maybe you had ulterior motives.”

“No motives. I just wanted to see you. I won’t corrupt you.” A wicked smile crossed her face. “At least, not any more than you want to be.” The smile grew as heat filled Gillan’s face, and she reached out to pat his arm. “Come on. The events of the world can manage without you for a little while. Let’s take a break.”

Gillan reached to remove the neural but hesitated as he caught sight of the code that began to crawl across his screen. Kona frowned in puzzlement but he ignored her as he leaned close to scan the transmission. “Something’s going on,” he gasped in response to her confusion. “There’s been an explosion at one of the municipal buildings downtown. They’re digging people out of the rubble right now-“ As he glanced aside at Kona, he expected the horror he saw on her face but noted another quality there as well. Slowly he lifted his hand to remove the neural, not taking his eyes from her. “We did that, didn’t we?”

Kona pressed her mouth into a thin line and looked away, confirming his suspicions. For a moment Gillan thought he’d be sick and turned away from her, wiping his face with his hands. “Why?” he demanded in anguish. “There were innocent people there. Good God, it’s the middle of the afternoon. So many people-“ His voice broke and he jumped to his feet. “Did you know?”

Kona looked down. “I heard a rumor we were going to make a statement. I didn’t know where. Gillan, you can’t blame yourself. They would’ve done it whether or not you-“ She stopped herself suddenly and her eyes widened as he turned to her.

Vaguely, Gillan grew aware of the other workers within the lab muttering as they received the transmissions as well. He barely heard them as he stared at her with rising horror, ice running in his veins. “What do you mean?” he demanded hoarsely. As she faced him silently with a stricken look, the meaning became all too clear. “That’s what I built the transmitter for, isn’t it?” he asked softly.

“Gillan.” Kona shook her head and reached out to him, but he flinched back.

“You knew. You knew what they wanted it for, and you didn’t tell me. My God, why didn’t you tell me? I would never have built it.”

“I only knew in a general way,” she protested softly. “I overheard them talking but didn’t know what or when. I was already walking a fine line after the Portsmuth mission. As I said, it would still have happened whether-“

“At least it wouldn’t have been my fault!” he thundered at her, making heads turn. He ignored the tears that came to her eyes in his anguish. “One life was worth the risk, you told me! Well, what about all those lives? What about the clerks and janitors and the people who just showed up today to apply for a marriage license? Don’t they count? People who don’t care about Unification or your great ideals but are just trying to make a living! To make a life for themselves!” He turned his head as he noticed Daryl standing just within the doorway, and included him in his tirade. “If you’d told me, I would never have built that thing.”

“It wouldn’t have stopped a thing.” Kona ignored Daryl as she pleaded with him. “I could not have stopped it. If I’d walked into that building and told the peacekeepers there was a bomb it wouldn’t have done any good. Because if they searched the building they wouldn’t have found any explosives.”

He scowled at her. “What do you mean?”

“What she means,” Daryl interjected as he approached, “Is that the transmitter wasn’t used to detonate explosives within the building. It was used to signal the weapons turret on a neighboring building. We learned that one of the downtown buildings houses a Unification stronghold. We used the transmitter to override its security codes and remotely activate and target the municipal building. We used Unification’s own weaponry to harm themselves.”

“Oh, my God.” Gillan covered his face as the realization of his involvement overwhelmed him. “How could you use me like that?”

“I used you for what you do best. What do you think you did this work for, Gillan? This is what we do. This is our battle.” Daryl swept the lab with his dark eyes and made a small gesture, and the other occupants quietly left their stations as they filed out the door. He turned his glare on Kona but she stood her ground, her face tight with resentment. “Would you like to know why we performed this act, Gillan?” he continued quietly.

“You mean you’re not going to blame it on radical factions?” Gillan retorted scathingly.

The older man remained unperturbed. “It came to our attention that several files were being compiled within that building’s system regarding various Rebel members. Very damning reports that could have led to the capture and execution of key Rebel personnel, including me and Kona. You haven’t asked how Mr. Portsmuth is doing, Gillan.”

Gillan shook his head, confused by the leap in subjects. He hated being led but asked, “What does he have to do with it?”

“Mr. Portsmuth wasn’t the timid, confused man we all hoped he was. He was a very clever double agent. As we sheltered him, he was passing information about us to his contacts within Unification. We silenced him but not before the damage was done. Everything he gleaned from us was in a report that he transferred over to his superior within that building. We learned of it before that agent was able to upload it into Unification’s information storage. It was our good fortune that someone wanted to polish it up before presenting it, but we needed to act as quickly as possible to destroy it before it could be spread through Unification’s hierarchy. Even so, we can only hope that no one else possesses it. Innocents were slaughtered, yes. But it’s often that way in war.”

Gillan put a hand out to steady himself against the back of his chair, stunned by the repercussions of his actions. A sudden thought occurred to him. “You gave me the specs on that transmitter before we rescued Portsmuth.”

“At that time, we didn’t have any solid plans for it,” Daryl admitted. “We’d just acquired control of the dishes and were experimenting with those capabilities. When you finished it, we realized we held the answer to our problem. Otherwise, someone would have had to infiltrate the building, silence the contact and destroy the information. Since it lies in the heart of Unification territory, it would have been a suicide mission. And since it was her fault the mission became necessary, the assignment would have gone to Kona.”

Gillan turned his eyes to her in shock but she only looked down, saying nothing. Overwhelmed, he pushed past them both and hurried blindly from the lab. By habit, his steps took him to the playroom but he continued past, heading to his quarters where he could be alone and suffer his anguish in private. He staggered, feeling sick with horror and shame.

Within his home, Gillan moved to the kitchen sink and ran cold water to splash his face, dispelling some of the nausea. He felt uncertain who deserved the most contempt: Daryl, who could coolly devise such a diabolical plot and who could punish disobedience with death; Kona, who had acted so unthinkingly without gathering all the information first; or himself, for playing at being a Rebel and taking pleasure in his accomplishments without understanding what it all meant. No wonder Angela hadn’t confided in him. Perhaps she’d seen something in him that he didn’t want to see in himself. He wished that he could honestly mourn those who’d died because of his actions but his moral outrage was swallowed by his disgust for his role in the incident.

He heard the door open and spun around in panic, afraid that his children had seen him go by and followed him home. He had no idea what he’d say to them right now. Instead, he found Kona standing uncertainly in the middle of the living area. “I was worried about you,” she explained softly.

“You’re worried about me now?” he retorted. “Why didn’t you think of that before?”

“He had me against the wall, Gillan. I know it’s all my fault. I know what I did.” Her expression softened as she crept closer. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know. You were used, just like you said.”

“I helped you rescue him! I should’ve known better than to just take off like that. I was so pumped up about everything, the mission at NCSBS, building the transmitter... What did I think they were going to do with these things?” He put his hands to his head, pressing his temples.

“You helped rescue him because I asked you to. You trusted me. And I trusted Mr. Portsmuth. We’d been in contact for years. I knew all about his wife, I heard stories about his cat...he doomed his own wife for Unification, Gillan. How could I ever have understood that? Why would someone do such a thing?”

“Why would they blow up a building and everyone in it to destroy some data files?”

“To protect us, Gillan. You, me, and many other people here.”

Gillan rubbed his face. “I was a lot happier when I was just one of those inconsequential peons that the Rebels and Unification seem to think are expendable. I didn’t have any noble ideals but at least my conscience didn’t bother me.”

Coming closer, Kona leaned on the back of a chair. “It’s easy to be ignorant when you don’t realize anything’s going on,” she commented. “But when you do realize it and just ignore it, I think that’s a crime. I’m sorry I dragged you into this, but staying here is your own choice. Like it or not, you chose your side.” As Gillan gave her a cynical look she asked, “Are you going to be all right?”

“What do you think?” he retorted. “I need to be alone for awhile. I need to think this through.”

She drew back and straightened. “I understand. But I’m still here for you if you need me.”

He listened to her retreat, and the door slid shut behind her. Gillan sank into a chair and rested his head in his hands as his mind ran in circles. Random memories of Angela came to mind; weekend mornings spent in bed before the kids awoke and evenings curled together as they watched the vid or just talked. He could recall every detail of the first time he spied her at a club on MarsBase, looking poised among her giggling friends. It created an ache so deep in him that he felt certain it would never heal, constantly aggravated by the secret she’d held so completely. He wondered exactly when she’d made her choice to serve the Rebel cause, on exactly what day and what hour they took her from him. Did she just come home from work that evening and talk about her day as if nothing happened? He wondered if anything she’d done, any information she exchanged, had cost someone’s life. Nothing so drastic, Daryl had assured him. But Kona said that Daryl was a liar.

He thought about Kona’s assertion that he’d made his choice as well. If he truly made the decision to become implicit in the taking of lives, he thought, if he had that much control over his life, then he should be able to change it. Straightening, he looked vaguely around the small home that the Rebels had given him and at the possessions the Rebels wanted him to have. They doled out his food and decided what shampoo he should use. Not one thing he possessed, down to the clothing he wore, truly belonged to him. He couldn’t understand how this could be his choice, his decision.

He jumped to his feet in a surge of anger. He couldn’t think clearly and he found the apartment oppressive. He wanted to escape. He wanted to test the limits of his freedom. No one stopped him as he hurried through the corridors. As he passed the playroom he felt a pang of guilt but silenced the impulse with difficulty. He’d sold his soul for security; let the Rebels protect his children for a little while longer. He couldn’t face them right now with the guilt of his actions burning him up inside.

Only a couple of people remained in the lab as he passed through it. No one paid any attention as he put his hand on the outer door. He wondered briefly whether the security system would activate and fry him for trying to escape, but the woman on duty only glanced at him as he slipped through the door.

Outside, Gillan took deep breaths of cold air. It amazed him that the day hadn’t progressed much beyond early evening. It seemed a lifetime since he first deciphered the transmission that tore his narrow world apart. He considered his options briefly, but no transports waited in the lot. He feared that if he lingered too long in the open he’d trigger some unknown security. Worse, Daryl could come looking for him and haul him back into his prison. he shivered with cold and wished that he’d thought to grab a jacket. He wore a heavy fleece shirt but that proved small protection against the bitter wind. Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he hunched his shoulders and began to walk quickly toward the gate.

Full night fell by the time Gillan turned a familiar corner and stopped. He glanced over his shoulder but saw nothing ominous in the usual pedestrian traffic. Drawing a deep breath, he faced the street on which he and Angela had lived for six years of their married life. He felt a sense of surrealism as he passed the familiar buildings. He’d walked this way hundreds of times on his way to the corner to catch the public transport to work. He and Angela had walked in the evenings with Allie and then with Joran swinging between them. The memories filled him with desolation but he wanted to remember the happier times. He wanted to salvage something from his past. Yet all he could recall was that it all proved a farce, that the life he’d thought he lived never existed. His hands clenched in a spasm of pain and he looked behind himself again.

As he reached the steps that led into his building, Gillan hesitated with his foot on the bottom step. He’d formed only a nebulous plan during his walk from Telstar’s warehouse, a vague notion to defy Daryl’s strictures and regain possession of the few things that meant something to him. Now that he’d arrived, he no longer remained convinced that he should go through with it. He understood that he really just wanted to prove to himself that he wasn’t simply a pawn in the game between the Rebels and Unification. On the other hand, he craved some kind of closure, a way to come to terms with his loss and to reconcile the memories of his life. Almost, he turned away to head deeper into the heart of the city, but at the last moment he ducked his head and hurried up the steps.

The door still opened to his hand on the touchpad. In all the years he’d lived in this building, Gillan had never before consciously noticed the security camera set in plain sight with its eye fixed on the entrance. He kept his head lowered, wishing he’d thought to wear a hat or at least held his baggy shirt over his face. Hurrying beneath its view, he stopped before the lift and pressed his hand to the pad inset beside it to summon it.

When it arrived, he selected a floor other than his, feeling clever with his misdirection. He sent the lift to two other destinations before exiting and climbing the dank, seldom-used stairs to his own floor. A cautious look through the door revealed no one in the hallway, but at the last minute he noted the camera set in the ceiling at the far end. He drew his shirt up to hide his face and quickly palmed the pad as he reached his door. The door clicked open and he caught his breath. Carefully he nudged it further. Nothing happened; no alarm sounded and no explosion occurred. No one lunged out to grab him. He slipped inside and it closed soundlessly behind him.

Gillan expected to find the place a mess, thinking that the peacekeepers would have strewn things about and broken through doors as they searched for him. Instead, it looked much as it had the last morning he’d walked out the door except for a thick layer of dust. A couple of forgotten toys lay scattered in the living area, and he bent to absently pick one up as he drank in the aching familiarity. The plants in the window box had withered into dry skeletons. A cup in the sink bore a coating of mold, and a musty smell hung over everything.

Gillan shook himself from his reverie and hurried to the back hall. Daryl’s warning rang in his mind and he didn’t intend to take chances. He’d determined to pick up the few items he wanted and then he’d turn his back on the place forever. He just hadn’t realized how difficult that would prove. As he hesitated at the doorway to his bedroom, the sanctuary that he’d shared with his wife, he felt suddenly overwhelmed. The room still faintly held her scent. He entered softly as if stepping into a shrine and ran his hand over the rumpled coverings of their bed. His pillow bore the imprint of his head while Angela’s still retained faint indentations from where he’d clutched it in his sleep. As he reached the closet door, he drew back briefly before sliding the door aside. He fingered a silken dress, remembering the last time he saw her wear it. A desolate longing filled him, and he buried his face in the soft material to inhale her perfume while tears squeezed from his closed eyes.

A faint noise made Gillan stumble back, blinking in a mixture of panic and outrage, and he brought his hands up in defense. Daryl raised his as well, a sign of truce. Gillan leaned against the wall, shaking with reaction as he gasped, “God, you scared me. What are you doing here?”

Daryl eyed him severely. “I was just going to ask you the same thing.”

Gillan recalled his anger as he regained his composure, freshly indignant that he’d been caught in his private moment. “That’s my business, isn’t it?” he retorted, hearing the petulance in his own tone even as he said it.

“No, it’s not.” The older man shook his head soberly. “Not when it endangers everyone else.”

“I was careful. And they haven’t even been here. It’s exactly the way I left it.”

“Is that what you think?” Daryl demanded. “Because they didn’t destroy everything in their search? These are professionals, not some small-time criminals. They’ve probably scanned this place with everything from noise detection to infrared. I’m sure they’re monitoring it right now. Good lord, Gillan. There are cameras everywhere-“

“They’re just security cameras, like any place has-“

“Do you know who monitors them? Where the data goes? Can you vouch that it isn’t transferred over to Unification?” Daryl gestured roughly. “Come on, the damage is done now. Grab what you came for and let’s go. If we’re lucky we can escape before the peacekeepers come.”

Under his watchful eye, Gillan’s nostalgia evaporated and his anxiety and resentment returned. Daryl’s arguments caused him to question his actions against his will. As he grabbed up the holo by his bedside and hurried into the kids’ rooms, he asked sullenly, “How did you know where to find me?”

“Where else would you go?” Daryl reasoned.

The idea that his actions could be so easily predicted disconcerted Gillan. He began to realize that he’d allowed his shock and horror to dictate his behavior, acting more like a sullen teenager than a rational adult. Daryl grabbed the belongings he chose from him and stuffed them into a mesh bag. “This will block any potential signals,” he explained at Gillan’s scowl. “If there are tracers on them, it will mitigate their signals until we can kill them.”

A faint scrabbling against the outer door alerted them both, and Gillan quickly stepped into the protection of a wall while Daryl eased himself to stand behind the door with a weapon in his hand. As the door swung open and the intruder stepped within, he kicked the door shut and grabbed her with the weapon pressed against her temple. Gillan held up his hands in alarm. “Wait! It’s ok!” He confronted the frightened woman held in Daryl’s arm. “Maggie, what are you doing here?”

Gillan’s sister-in-law gaped at him in shock. “Gillan! Oh, my God, you’re alive! Where are the kids? Where have you been?”

Daryl refused to release his hold, his dark face grim. Gillan shot him a hard look before replying, “Never mind that. Why are you here?”

“The neighbor pinged me to say someone broke in. I’ve been checking on your place since you disappeared, just to make sure no one steals anything. My God, Gillan, we didn’t know what happened to you.” She glanced aside at what she could see of Daryl. “Are you all right?”

Relief flooded Gillan. “It’s a long story. I wouldn’t have worried you if I could’ve helped it.” Briefly, he wondered if she knew about Angela’s affiliation. He saw no comprehension in her face however, nothing but fear as Daryl continued to keep his weapon trained on her. “It’s all right,” he told the older man. “She’s family.”

“I think she’d better come with us,” Daryl grated. “We have to leave. Right now.”

“No!” Gillan felt the blood drain from his face. “I won’t let you do that! She’s got a family, kids-“

Maggie’s eyes widened and she attempted to pull away but Daryl kept his grip and pushed the weapon against her head. “Gillan,” she pleaded in panic, “what’s going on?”

“It’s ok, Maggie,” he tried to assure her. He turned his hot gaze on Daryl. “I won’t let you do this. I swear she won’t do anything to hurt us.”

“Do you swear on your life?” the other challenged. “What about your children’s lives? She won’t have a choice if she’s interrogated, you know. She can destroy us all.”

Gillan closed his eyes briefly, not wanting to accept the truth in his words. He refocused on Maggie. “Has anyone asked you about me?” he asked her.

“Of course,” she told him faintly. “When you first disappeared. They brought us all in, and we answered their questions. No one’s bothered us since. Why? What are you into, Gillan?”

“They will know!” Daryl insisted desperately. “If they’re monitoring the cameras, they’ll see her arrive while we’re here. They’ll suspect her as well. You’ll be leaving her vulnerable.”

Gillan ignored him as he went on, “How often you do you check this place?”

She shrugged helplessly. “Once a week, maybe. What is this about? What are you talking about?”

“And you’ve never seen anyone here?”

Maggie shook her head. “Not since the first day, when I let the peacekeepers in to search. They didn’t even take anything that I could see. Gillan, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

Gillan turned to Daryl. “Maybe you’re overreacting to everything. Maybe I’m just not as important as you thought.”

“Maybe she’s lying,” the older man suggested softly.

Sudden fury flared within Gillan. “I’ve heard enough! You ruined my life! You destroyed my wife! You destroyed even my memories. I have no home, no career, and no future to give my children. Because of you, I killed people-“ He choked on that, while Maggie gasped. “I won’t let you ruin her life and destroy her family. I swear that I will turn you in, myself, before I let that happen.”

They confronted one another for a long, tense moment. Slowly, Daryl relaxed his grip and let Maggie go. She backed away hastily, rubbing her arms. Daryl continued to hold Gillan’s eyes as he spoke in a low voice. “I hope you know what you’re doing. You’d better be sure of where you place your trust.”

“I trusted you,” Gillan retorted bitterly, “and see where it got me.”

With a heavy sigh, Daryl turned to Maggie. “Go now, and don’t do anything to attract attention. Leave the way you always do. And remember, if you speak to anyone about this, you can kill Gillan and his children. I assume you care about him as much as he cares about you.”

She nodded and edged toward the door, but paused before opening it. “Gillan? Is there anything you need? Anything I can do for you?”

“I’ll be fine,” he told her gently. “This is something I need to resolve myself. Please go and keep safe.”

She looked doubtful but left without another word. Daryl’s expression grew grave. “Come on. We have to go right now.”

“We need to talk,” Gillan told him resentfully.

“Fine! Not here!”

It occurred to Gillan at last that the other man seemed afraid. The realization shook him and made his own resolve waver. “Do you still think they’re watching us? Wouldn’t they have shown up by now”

Daryl said nothing as he peered along the corridor beyond the door. Gillan noted that Maggie had already vanished. As Daryl gripped his arm, he could feel the large, dark hand trembling. He didn’t relinquish his hold as they hurried toward the stairway. Easing the door open, he looked up and down the echoing, empty area before dragging Gillan through. As they rushed down the stairs, Daryl finally spoke. “If they aren’t actively watching, they’re going to know about us very soon. They probably know by now.”

“Maggie wouldn’t do that!” Gillan protested breathlessly. “She’s my sister-in-law, for God’s sake. She’s always been there for us.”

They reached a landing and Daryl took a moment to glance through the window before urging Gillan on. “What do you think she’d do if she was torn between two sensibilities, her regard for you and her duty?”

“What do you mean?”

The black man didn’t reply until they reached the ground floor. An emergency exit led directly outside from the stairwell, and Daryl studied it closely. Taking his communicator from a pocket, he woke a light within it and ran it completely around the frame. Satisfied at last, he shot a quick, direct beam from his weapon at the alarm and eased the door open. Cool night air touched them both. Daryl took Gillan’s arm again as they hurried behind the row of buildings, avoiding the street. “I’m parked a couple of blocks away,” he explained tersely before adding, “Instead of trusting her blindly, you should’ve been asking yourself a couple of questions.”

“Like what?” Gillan demanded impatiently. He wrenched against the surprisingly strong grip and Daryl released him at last.

“For one, thing, she said she checks your place about once a week.” They reached a corner and Daryl took time to watch the area carefully. As they lingered in the protection of the buildings, he went on. “If she cared that much, why didn’t she ever water the plants? Or wash the dirty cup in the sink instead of letting it mold? Or make the beds? Why not dust once in awhile?” He gestured, and they hurried up the street and toward a private transport. It purred to life as they approached, and Daryl activated the door. Gillan entered it wordlessly as he chewed over the other’s speculations, not wanting to face the doubt that suddenly filled his mind.

Daryl rapidly activated the destination and the transport quietly moved into the street, taking an evasive route as it headed back toward the safehouse. He seemed easier and his voice a little calmer as he continued on. “Another thing, she said that the neighbor alerted her that there were intruders at your place, and she showed right up. I’m just curious, do you know which neighbor? Most people do their best to ignore suspicious happenings. No one wants to be dragged in and questioned by peacekeepers.”

His words caught Gillan like a blow, and he felt suddenly dizzy and sick. He rested his hand on his forehead and felt the other eyeing him with alarm. He couldn’t answer Daryl’s question; he knew of no one within his entire building that even knew how to reach Maggie or Edmund, let alone willing to take the risk of drawing attention by reporting an intrusion. Angela might have given the apartment manager her sister’s code as a contact, but Maggie had specifically said that a neighbor called her. That realization dredged a memory that Gillan had long forgotten. The night the peacekeepers had taken him and the children from the street, the night they’d drugged Gillan before questioning him, one of the peacekeepers told him that an agent would remain with Allie and Joran until he returned. Maggie had greeted him and told him then that a neighbor told her about the abduction. He’d never questioned it or thought about it again, until Daryl opened his eyes. Lowering his hand, he stared at the older man in horror, not wanting to accept that the person who fed him and cared for his children, who supported him so caringly after Angela’s death, would also betray him. And perhaps had betrayed her sister.

Daryl’s dark, lined face softened sympathetically. Neither of them spoke again as the transport cruised through the streets, eluding patrols and taking them to safety.

###

Selena Kurejka blinked and glanced toward her communicator as her secretary pinged her. She tapped her neural, momentarily pausing the data feed as she checked the message. Finding that he merely sent the files she’d requested earlier, she continued her review of the latest reconnaissance report. The space station continually scanned the star system as it orbited New Caledon and relayed its data to High Command. Lately, the NCSBS facility reported a catastrophic failure of their dishes. They found that the trajectories became misaligned and no one had yet found the solution to the problem. High Command relied upon a more sophisticated system to receive data, however. Transmissions continued to feed into the compound, and techs continually sifted through them as they watched for anomalies. They shunted potentially significant finds directly to Kurejka’s feed, by her orders.

The lanes within the system showed typical traffic, busier than usual with the conflict around Annwn. Insystem haulers and fuel barges serviced the starships that used New Caledon for refueling and repair, while freighters brought the necessary supplies needed for the colony. Unification warships used the space station as a transit point before heading toward the war zone. What caught Kurejka’s attention currently was a shadow on one of the moons that orbited Badb, the furthest of the system’s planets. It seemed uninteresting, just a dark spot on the moon’s pocked surface, and one could suppose that the shadow of a peak or crater created it. However, comparisons to earlier images revealed that it hadn’t always existed, and continual feed showed that it traveled along the surface rather than moving with the slowly spinning satellite. Observing it repeatedly, Selena knew what she viewed. A ship used Badb as a blind behind which to hide, but the captain obviously didn’t realize that the sun cast its shadow as it orbited. A Rebel ship, she concluded with satisfaction, spying on the colony and no doubt communicating with the Rebel movement on-planet.

The technician who’d discovered the anomaly thought so as well. His transmission requested permission to notify one of the Unification cruisers patrolling the system. No, Kurejka keyed back in her response. She reasoned that the ship could run into the great, wide dark before the cruisers could close on it, becoming a larger threat as they would no longer be able to track it. She instructed the technician to keep watch on it and learn whether it sent any transmissions of its own. She felt complete confidence that the technician would follow instructions to the letter; Unification took a hard stance on lower level personnel who didn’t.

Selena ended the report and accessed the files her secretary provided, looking through them methodically. They consisted of updates on persons of interest to Unification. Most she stored within Unification’s data banks as Resolved or Deceased. She paused at one with her finger on the touchpad, and with a click brought up the holo. The image turned lazily from side to side, allowing her to view it at all angles as she studied the square-jawed, serious face with dark hair conservatively cut. In the holo, the eyes appeared hazel in which the green showed predominantly. The scant information included in the file seemed unimpressive; Beyer, Gillan A. Height 1.56 meters, 69 kg. Birthplace: MarsBase, Sol System. Educated at MarsTech Academy, electronic engineering. Last employed by Technocal Corporation as an electronic engineering technician. The last line of the file flashed red: Unlocated.

Kurejka recalled the other times she’d seen that face. She recalled tear-filled anger as he bent over the body of a known Rebel sympathizer, and the stark fear as he stood between two of her peacekeepers in the heart of High Command. She’d observed it just that day in a file handed over by a Unification agent, in the company of a Rebel leader whose movements Unification watched for some time. The corporation that employed him had sold his information along with several others as potentials for Unification recruitment. Selena noticed that the human resource director who compiled the list had neglected to patriotically add his own name. She’d corrected the oversight and routed the man to Minos System to serve in the war effort.

His wife’s affiliation notwithstanding, Gillan A. Beyer seemed a perfect candidate for Rebel recruitment. His records showed an aptitude not just for electronics but for programming as well. He possessed no close family of his own, and the only living kin appeared to be a sister of his wife’s. He belonged to no organizations. His interrogation unearthed nothing, however. He’d revealed a total ignorance of his wife’s involvement, which Selena found incredible. Yet undoubtedly he’d gone to ground, protected by the Rebels. Either he was an extremely naive innocent or a very skilled Rebel agent.

With a couple of taps, Kurejka separated the file from the data record and obliterated it. Closing the data her secretary had sent her, she conducted a search through her saved files and brought up another image. She stared grimly at the dark, aging face on the holo, tapping the fingers on her free hand as her mind ran through options. She knew that the time had come to do something about this one. He’d made too many mistakes, including being a fool for another’s sake. It had proved a simple matter of tagging him, and now she just needed to reel him in. Bringing up a communication link, she issued an order, relaying it to several subordinates within the system.