34: Harbin

"They're gone." Delphi glanced over her shoulder. Harbin fought the urge to snarl at her for stating the obvious; he knew he'd have a fight on his hands if she decided not to take it. And it wouldn't even vent his frustration. "Should we go after them?" she continued, half turning her head towards him, the long scar on the side of her face visible. Acquaintances often asked why she didn't get it removed. They never asked a second time. The thought made his lips quirk, threatening a smile despite their situation.

He glared at the spot in space that the Lyra had slipped through, then turned to watch the navigator and his assistant pluck and poke at wriggling strings on their display, murmuring to each other in sing-song whispers.

"No." He pulled his shoulders back as his nostrils twitched. "Even with my limited knowledge of astrodynamics and this fancy ship, I know that's a fool's errand." Not without using a set of tracers, he thought to himself, glad his new ship hadn't come with one of those particular crew members. He'd only encountered a few in his life, and their near-synchronous movements and finishing each other's sentences sent an insect crawling up his spine.

Just then his wrist patch flashed: the Queen expecting an update from her Rook. "I'll be in my ready room if you need me." Harbin spun on his heels, took the stairs up to the command platform in one long step and strode into his office. The door slid shut behind him. He paused to turn on privacy mode then decided against it. He wanted to watch his crew. Instead of going to his desk and pulling up his holodisplay, Harbin went to the dispenser first and got a mug of coffee, searing hot and double-strong. Braced for the conversation ahead, he sat down at his desk.

"They're in the stream?" Gar said, an impeccably groomed eyebrow arching. "How are you going to retrieve the package now?"

Harbin wanted to reach through and punch the man in the face. Instead, he sat back in his chair, the hand on his desk relaxed while the other gripped his thigh; the pain of his fingers digging into flesh helped keep his expression neutral. "I've had a message from the ship. The mole says he can protect the package if we attack the Lyra." He glanced at his desk, then at the darkness beyond Gar's shoulder. "But I don't trust him anymore. So, it's not guaranteed."

Gar frowned, his head barely moving as he waited for orders. None came. Instead, as Harbin had expected, Archon Halcyon Koning once more emerged from the shadows. She'd taken a personal involvement in this operation. Although he appreciated seeing Gar at the end of someone's leash, the Archon's intent interest made Harbin's bowels go liquid. And her glacial expression did nothing to put him at ease. He pursed his lips and swallowed to force the bile down.

"I have absolute trust in the operative." Her tone was frosty. "The mole, as you call him, is more my creature than you are. He would die for me." A little warmth came into her voice as she played with one of the rings on her bony hand, peering at it intently. "Would you?"

Harbin didn't speak, hoping the question was rhetorical, and neither did Gar. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Liet repeatedly glancing at him through the window, no doubt waiting for orders.

After a minute, he swallowed and opened his mouth to say something, though he wasn't sure what. One eyebrow on Archon Koning's face twitched, as if she'd heard that little sound across the emptiness of space. And perhaps she had, as her head tilted to the side though she continued to examine her rings.

"I need to know what lengths I can go to. As you say, you have other interests on that ship."

"Any." She looked up at him without lifting her head fully. "Go to any lengths to take that ship down. That is now your prime objective, no matter the cost — their people or yours."

"Even if your mole is lost?" Harbin's forehead wrinkled at the change in orders.

She gave a sharp nod. "Even if the package is lost."

Harbin breathed into his chest, the tightness relaxing, the burning abating. That relief was quickly quashed, and just when he thought his day couldn't get any worse, it did.

"But..." Halcyon lifted her head to focus her icy eyes on him. "It's better if it's not." Harbin recognized she meant it was better for him, but he didn't have time to dwell as she continued. "Better that all my interests on that ship are returned to me alive."

Harbin nodded sharply, but the screen had already blinked out.