6

"FINN RADKO," SAID THE tiny woman. "It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kestrel Cagliari."

Shaking her hand was like shaking the hand of a child. Cagliari, who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Anna Cortez, was short and thin and seemed perfectly suited to be cast in the role of a pixie in a fantasy movie, right down to her short and spiky bright blue hair. What she did not look like was the owner and president of one of the most advanced aeronautical engineering and design firms in the Commonwealth.

Cagliari Aerospace, despite its undeniable innovations in spacecraft design, had fallen out of favour with the Commonwealth for political reasons that were in reality more racist that they were political. Kestrel Cagliari’s mother had been Chinese and a card-carrying member of the Communist Party prior to her love affair and marriage to Anton Cagliari. Their marriage had been a major scandal as certain members of the Commonwealth government began questioning – at first in whispers and then in chest-thumping speeches – the wisdom of having the development of the Naval fleet in the hands of someone with such close ties to the Soviets. Only with their successful design bid for the HMS Royal Sovereign had Cagliari Aerospace resumed doing work for the Commonwealth.

"Likewise, Miss Cagliari. And thank you for designing the Isaac Brock class to withstand so much punishment," he said. "With everything the Vimy Ridge has gone through, she’s still in remarkably good shape."

Cagliari smiled and it made her look even younger.

"I appreciate that. And please, call me Kestrel."

"All right, Kestrel," he said, then pausing for a moment. "I don’t mean to be rude Kestrel, but..."

"Yes. Yes, sorry – you’re probably very busy," she said. "Please."

She waved toward a two-seat table nearby. Though given how small the coffee shop was, nearly everything could be classified as nearby. As Radko took a seat opposite Cagliari, he noticed for the first time that there was no one else in the shop... and, in fact, a ‘sorry, we’re closed’ sign hung in the window.

"I rented the whole place for an hour," said Cagliari, following his gaze. "It seemed like the best way to do this. And it’s not like money has much meaning anymore."

"Can’t argue with that."

"Okay. So. I’ll get right to the point," she said, laying a manila folder out between them. "Have you ever heard of Project Argentavis?"

Radko shook his head.

"It was a project we were working on entirely on spec. We weren’t getting any funding from anyone, it was just something we were doing to try to break back in with you guys in a big way. Try to stop you from sucking at the teat of ATC Castle, to put it bluntly," she said. "We designed a multipurpose fighter – interceptor, bomber, superiority fighter, capable of both atmospheric and space flight. I’m not throwing out a sales pitch when I tell you the Argentavis is the most advanced fighter ever designed by humans."

Having seen the designs used for the Royal Sovereign, Radko had little reason to doubt the statement.

"Okay," he said, taking a look at a schematic she handed him. "It certainly looks impressive."

He wasn’t just speaking figuratively about its capabilities – the fighter looked impressive. Named after an enormous extinct bird of prey from Earth’s past, the Argentavis fighter looked the part: beak-like nose cone, powerful and aerodynamic body, massive articulated wings.

"Maneuverability is second to none," she continued. "I’ve seen video of the way the ril-galas fighters move and I’m one hundred and ten percent certain that the Argentavis can outperform them. As for weaponry, we have what is essentially a pair of integrated, up-scaled icaran aoran assault rifles in addition to a full rack of conventional warhead missiles and the capability of carrying several different types of bomb for-."

She stopped as Radko held up a hand. One thing he hadn't wanted from this meeting was for it turn into a request for him to lend his fame to support another military contractor. ATC Castle was already one PMC too many, as far as he was concerned.

"All very impressive, but this is sounding very much like a sales pitch."

"I’m sorry," she said, sitting back in her chair. "The Argentavis was my pet project – I get rather... animated when discussing it. And I guess, in a way, it is a sales pitch."

"I guess what I’m wondering, Miss Cag... Kestrel... is why are you telling me all of this? I don’t have any say in what projects the Commonwealth Armed Forces choose to fund," he said, shrugging apologetically as he handed back the schematics. "They’re barely listening to me now on topics I do have some experience with."

"Commander, I'm not looking for funding. The project was completed," she said. "We finished production on thirty Argentavis fighters – with our own money because of how much we believed in this project. I can bring thirty highly advanced, heavily armed and armoured starfighters to the front lines on this war. I know from hearing the stories how much the fighter wing from the Leonid Gorshkov helped your initial efforts – imagine having a fighter wing based on the Vimy Ridge. But not just any fighter wing."

She held up the schematics and smiled, her eyes bright with excitement.

"A wing of these fighters."

Her body language made it clear that Cagliari believed in her fighters. And the Gorshkov’s fighters had been instrumental in several engagements with the ril-galas and having a fighter wing at his disposal was something he’d been advocating for ever since the alliance with the Soviets was allowed to wither on the vine.

"If these fighters are finished and ready for action," he said. "Why are we only hearing about it now? We’ve been fighting this war for well over a year."

"Yes, I know it looks bad from a timing perspective," she said. "But honestly, Commander... we only recently found them."

"Excuse me?"

"Our production facilities are located outside the Commonwealth, in neutral space," she said, sounding mildly embarrassed. "Tax reasons, I’m told. I’ve never been involved in those kind of discussions – I’ve not been head of the company very long."

Clearing her throat, she leaned forward again and, despite the fact that they were still alone in the café, she lowered her voice.

"We were shipping the fighters in a pair of our large cargo haulers from our production facility on Muriel’s Moon to our main hangar on Mars. Both ships went missing about a week before the ril-galas attack. At first, the company just assumed we had communications issues, which can happen. It's actually not that unusual to lose contact with cargo haulers for brief periods. And then the ril-galas swept into town. We thought maybe the transports had changed course to try to avoid the swarm and either been destroyed or had somehow made it to safety and gone into hiding. Then three weeks ago, I received a message from someone with whom I’d gone to university," she said. "He’s a software engineer now, working at the ATC Castle R&D centre on Duster’s Range."

"I think I know where this is going..."

"Turns out, ATC Castle landed a contract to design new fighters for the Commonwealth," she said, nodding. "But couldn’t offer enough improvement on current designs to justify what they wanted to charge. The bottom line is that those sons of bitches have my fighters and I want them back."

"You’re certain they have them?"

"My contact sent me photos," she said, bringing out a tablet and tapping a few commands before handing it over to Radko. "They’re in a secure hangar beneath the Duster’s Range installation. It looks like they tore two of them apart to try to reverse-engineer our work, but the other twenty-eight are intact."

Scrolling through the photos, Radko just nodded. It was possible the photos had been doctored, but he didn’t see what the point would have been in that.

"I want you to help me get them back and get them into the fight," said Cagliari.

"And I take it you haven’t been able to get anywhere with the government?"

"No. I don’t have any connections, I don’t have any pull with anyone. I was never supposed to be in a position to run the company – up until eight months ago, I was just a test pilot with pretty solid job security. Well. Maybe not just a test pilot, but you get my point."

There was a long silence as Radko stared at the photos and thought about what the young woman was asking.

"Please, I’m begging you," she said. "Not even because of what it could mean for Cagliari Aerospace – I think that ship has sailed – and as much as I’d like to hurt ATC Castle, forget that too. Just think about how these fighters can help humanity. Not just humanity, everyone – all of us."

"Who would be cleared to fly them? They’re pretty much experimental, aren’t they?"

"Me. I’ve flown every prototype through the entire development phase. And I have ten others who have flown this latest version. Five human and five icaran."

Radko looked up sharply.

"You’ve been working with the icarans?"

Cagliari shrugged.

"How do you think we’ve been able to be so innovative with our designs over the last few years? We started looking outside the human sphere and started studying what other species were doing."

"And the icarans just loaned you pilots?"

"Hardly. The icaran government didn’t know anything about this, but do you think humanity is the only species with freelancers?"

"All right," said Radko, steepling his fingers in front of him. "Assuming I were open to the idea, what’s your plan for getting them back?"

"Well... if I ask for them to be returned, ATC Castle will just deny and stall until they can move them somewhere else."

"So you’re hoping the Commonwealth will park a dreadnaught on their doorstep and demand the fighters be turned over?"

"Do I have your word that this discussion is off the record?"

Radko nodded.

"I have my pilots on standby and have a ship ready to take us to Duster’s Range as soon as I give the order," she said. "But I’ve never launched a military operation and I know that facility will be heavily defended."

"I can’t be directly involved in an assault against ATC Castle. Another assault against ATC Castle," he said. "I’m still feeling heat over the other one. However, I agree that those fighters would represent a significant war asset. Give me a couple days and give me the details of this ship you have waiting for you and I’ll see what I can come up with. Okay?"

"Yes. Great. Thank you," she said, shaking his hand vigorously.