“We can sustain the loss of one airplant to the rebels, ma’am. We only need one operational per ring. The others are primarily for redundancy.”
The Infrastructure supervisor for the forward ring was a lighter-skinned woman with tired, narrow eyes set in a thin, angular face. Toiwa’s constables, backed by an Army fire team, had located her at her post in the forward spindle. A fiber-optic line had been strung post-haste between the control station and Constabulary HQ, where Toiwa still maintained her base of operations. The technical services people had every fabber they could re-task running full out to make more cable.
“So taking back the plant they hold in this ring needn’t be top priority?” Toiwa asked.
The Infrastructure woman began to answer but Kala Valverdes, back on duty, broke into the call. “Governor? Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a group here that Inspector Zinsou said you’d want to see right away.”
She glanced at the identities of the new arrivals and hastened to finish the call. “Send them in, please. We’ll speak later,” Toiwa promised the station manager, and closed the connection as her office door opened. Chijindu, now sporting sergeant’s tabs on his shoulders, levered himself to his feet as the newcomers entered.
This looks like a good sign for a change. Toiwa carefully rose and made her way around her desk to greet her visitors. “M. Okafor, M. Shariff, I’m very glad to see you’re all right,” she said as she motioned for them to take seats at her briefing table. “I hadn’t realized you were both in this ring when the rebels attacked.”
“We weren’t,” Shariff said. “Pericles Loh brought us. He’s waiting in your outer office.”
Surprise rooted Toiwa where she stood, and her brain raced. What the hell is one of the leaders of the Fingers doing here? She knew who Loh was from intelligence reports, but of course she’d never met him. For a few seconds she wished Shariff’s partner, Okereke, was here rather than planetside; rumor had it she knew Loh well.
The three women seated themselves in her conversation nook as a commissary bot rumbled in bearing a tray of wrappers filled with coconut rice, strips of newt meat, crisp cucumber and boiled eggs. Chijindu transferred the tray’s contents to the table, set two wrappers in front of Toiwa, and shot her a look akin to the ones Eduardo gave her when she’d neglected to eat while studying for her lieutenant’s exam. Her heart ached at the memory.
Still, he was right. Food was fuel, and her body needed fuel to keep going. Chijindu placed spoons at each place and set the tea things on the table before fading into the background. She picked up her spoon and gestured to the women. “First things first. A senior leader of the Fingers brought you here himself?”
“Yes,” Okafor said. “Actually, his people saved me from death or capture.” Her fingers traced the edges of the paper around her serving, then peeled it open. She spooned a generous helping into her mouth.
“Could you elaborate on that, please?” Toiwa asked.
Okafor finished chewing and swallowed. “My apologies. I’ve missed several meals.” She laid her spoon down, freeing both her hands to manipulate her AR windows. She briefly related the story of her near-capture.
Toiwa heard Chijindu start to say something, then cut himself off. She turned to him. “Something to add, Sergeant?”
“Just that, well, that’s hard to believe, ma’am,” he said. “Military armor’s hardened against malware attacks.”
“I did not say it was easy,” Okafor said mildly.
“I’m sure it wasn’t.” Toiwa waved her spoon at Chijindu. “Sergeant, let’s stipulate that M. Okafor is as good at her job as you are at yours.” The big man nodded. “The Fingers rescued you. Why?”
“If Loh is to be believed, I attracted the Fingers’ attention some time ago,” Okafor said. “He knows about the ancient dark net and knew I was investigating it. He claims he received warnings about the coup just before it happened, and dispatched people to ensure my safety.”
Shariff took up the tale, and Okafor went back to her food. “In my case, he appeared at my offices in the south ring a couple hours ago with Okafor here in tow,” she said, waving her spoon at the infonet specialist. “He asked, for the sake of his long-term acquaintance with my partner, for me to broker an audience with you.”
“What does he want with me?”
“To propose an alliance for the purpose of retaking the station from Miguna’s goons,” Shariff said.
Stunned with surprise, Toiwa sank back into her chair, thoughts racing. The idea that the Fingers would take an active role in the conflict, on the side of Toiwa and the government, was incredible. She tried to reorient herself. “What is he offering?”
“You’ll have to get the details from him, but he said his assistance would be threefold,” Shariff said. “First, as he demonstrated by bringing Okafor from the trailing ring and me from the south ring, he’s got ways to bypass the rebels. No, he didn’t let me get a good look at it,” she said, waving off Toiwa’s unasked question. “Had to put my djinn in a Faraday wrapper and made me wear a blindfold.”
“You weren’t worried for your safety?” Toiwa couldn’t help but ask.
Fathya Shariff’s laugh at that was loud and ringing. “Not from anything his people might try,” she said. “He knows Noo would neuter him if he betrayed me. And if she didn’t, my granddaughter would.” Shariff sipped her tea before continuing. “As for the rest, he says bringing us here is a sign of good faith. He wants to make the rest of his pitch in person.”
“I see.” Toiwa thought furiously. With communications down, and some the bulk of the military’s arsenal in rebel hands, even the limited control her forces had over parts of the station was tenuous at best. But to deal with the Fingers, with their centuries-old legacy of extortion, smuggling, and occasional murder? Was that a bridge she was willing to cross?
Would that actually be better than capitulating to Miguna?
Maybe. If the deal is good enough.
She glanced at Sergeant Chijindu’s implacable face. Would I betray the trust of this man, and all the others putting their lives on the line, by making some kind of deal?
Could she afford to not at least hear Loh out?
Stalling for time, she turned back to Shariff. “What’s it like out there?”
The businesswoman frowned as she set down her teacup. “Not good,” she said. “With transit and the infonet down, and most fabbers and bots offline, people are stuck wherever they are with only what provisions they’ve got. Folks are taking care of each other, from what I’ve seen, helping out their neighbors, people stuck away from their home rings. No one’s going to go badly hungry for a few days, though a few might miss some meals.” She squared her shoulders and faced Toiwa directly. “But people are scared. They’ve seen soldiers and constables shooting other constables, and seizing airplants and med centers, and the university in the south ring. There’s a lot of rumors. Everyone seems to know about Miguna’s claim that he’s the new PM, but I didn’t even know you were alive until Loh told us. And”—her eyes dropped to the floor—“some of the regular people? They’re on his side. Some agree with him. Or at least the Saljuans showing up and throwing their weight around has scared them into agreeing with him on that point. There’s pockets held by One Worlders and their sympathizers.”
“That sounds like what we hear from down the cable,” Toiwa said. She explained the overall situation to her guests. She turned to the infonet specialist. “M. Okafor, you witnessed, at least partially, the fighting at Government House. Can you confirm whether the rebel claims the governor’s been killed are true?” Since they lied about killing me...
“While I had access to the suit, I tracked the force attacking the complex,” Okafor replied. “Loh’s people offered me video evidence confirming the governor’s death, and I verified the imagery they gave me isn’t adulterated, but a sighted person will need to view it. Loh had another data point, though, a more hopeful one. The Commonwealth delegation that arrived on Amazonas was taken with no deaths and only minimal injuries and moved to another location. His people managed to track them.”
Thank the Mother. “Give all that to Inspector Valverdes, please.”
“Already done.”
“Good.”
“It would seem, then,” Shariff interjected carefully, “that an option that might help resolve the situation quickly is worth considering.”
Right. That crystallized her thinking. “It can’t hurt to hear his proposal, I suppose.” She called Valverdes. “Show M. Loh in, please.”
For someone who by all accounts had trekked through the bowels of the station, Loh looked surprisingly dapper. He greeted Toiwa with warm politeness, and even graced Chijindu with an acknowledging nod. Toiwa cut short the niceties once he was seated. “You have a proposal. I’d like to hear it.”
“Very well.” He settled himself comfortably in his chair. “I take it the first capability I can offer has been demonstrated by bringing these two notables into your care?”
“You’re offering us access to the smuggler’s ways, or part of them,” Toiwa said more hotly than she’d intended. Fatigue had caught up with her, making her irritable. “That’s one item. M. Shariff mentioned you have two additional things to offer.”
Loh seemed unfazed by her attitude. He held up two fingers. “Material support. My organization possesses our own unrestricted fabbers. We have no programmatic limits on what we can build, no restrictions but for what our fabbers can physically create from available feed-stock. I can offer you armor and weapons to put your people on equal footing with the rebels.”
“Very interesting,” Toiwa said. The gear disparity was a serious issue; one she could resolve on her own, in time, with the Constabulary’s own fabbers. But not quickly. “And the third thing?”
“Bodies,” Loh said, ticking off a third finger. “We can augment your forces, in addition to helping you reunify the loyalist groups on-station.”
Just like that. Loh offered Toiwa exactly the tools she needed to push back the rebels and regain control of the station. Of the planet’s gateway, she thought, recalling Ruhindi’s words.
She locked eyes with the criminal. “And what does your organization ask in return for all of this largesse?”
Loh folded his arms against his chest. “Amnesty.”
She felt her guts fall away, as if a giant void had opened inside her body. The word hung in the air for a moment before she pressed for more. “What kind of amnesty?”
His answer came in the mildest of tones, as if what he sought were completely reasonable. “Absolute forgiveness and immunity from prosecution for all acts prior to the beginning of the coup, and for anything done in defense of the station or anyone on it during the coup. No forfeiture of assets or funds. Clean slates for all my people.” He tilted his head as he finished.
Toiwa sat back, stunned at the effrontery, the sheer brazenness of Loh’s demands. “You want forgiveness for every criminal act? All the theft, the extortion, the assaults, the killings? Going back how far?”
Loh didn’t even blink. “I believe thirty years is reasonable.”
The faint sense of gratitude Toiwa had felt towards the man for saving Okafor and bringing her in was burned away by her sudden anger at his demands. “Out of the question. You ask too much. And besides, I’d have to run that through the Ministry of Justice, which at the moment is a bombed-out shell.”
“Really, Governor?” he said, his voice soft. “These are exceptional times. And Prime Minister Vega has a reputation for pragmatism. I’m sure when you communicate your offer—”
Her right hand snapped up, palm open, and he stopped abruptly.
Toiwa fumed inwardly. For a brief moment, she’d thought the tools she required were within her grasp. But Loh wanted decades of transgressions, thousands of acts, wiped away without consequence as if they’d never happened. She’d been police too long to acquiesce to such a deal.
“Governor?” Shariff asked.
She did not say ‘Over my dead body’, as much as she wanted to. “I’m going to have to decline your generous offer at this time,” she said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice. “Sergeant?”
Loh, sensing the discussion was over for now, simply nodded, slowly, as Chijindu loomed beside him. “Should you change your mind, I would be happy to speak at greater length,” he said as he rose. The room was silent but for footsteps as Chijindu escorted him from the room, before returning to hover discreetly in the corner.
Toiwa sighed and turned to Shariff. “I can’t take those terms. But he was right about one thing—I find myself desperately short of trained people. I’d like to hire your firm for the duration of the emergency. Name your fee and I’ll see it paid.”
Shariff studied Toiwa’s face. Whatever she was looking for, she seemed to find it. “I see.” Shariff wiped her hand and extended it to Toiwa. “My people are at your disposal, Governor.”
“Good.” Toiwa rose and shook her hand. “Let’s get Valverdes and my staff in here and figure out our next step.”