DROPSHIP TACHIKAZE
NEW EXETER SPACEPORT
EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
7 APRIL 3150
1510 HOURS
This time, Yoshizawa’s interview of Zachary Vogel and his second, Esme Blanc, was not in his stately meeting room. It was aboard the DropShip Tachikaze, the one Sho-sa Nagaaki Ukita favored. The vessel, whose name meant “wind from a swinging sword,” was one of the troop transports. It had the most room, and it also housed many of the tools of Nagaaki’s intelligence trade. Most of the important intel came from unwilling subjects. That was what the sho-sa had been busy with over the past day.
The interview room was a working office on a DropShip, and not anywhere near as comfortable as his normal meeting room. Everything that could be bolted down was, including the metal desk. Nothing hung on the walls. A stylized Combine dragon had been etched into the door.
Yoshizawa paused when he saw Sumi waiting in the corner, next to the desk. She stood and bowed as he entered. Her presence was unexpected and unwanted. However, he knew he needed to thread the needle between the courier and the shingiin with careful words and deeds.
The door closed behind him, leaving the four of them in awkward silence. The woman’s deed done, there was nothing to do but continue on. Yoshizawa gestured to the two chairs. “Please sit.” Then he gestured to his unwanted guest. “This is Dai-i Sumi Yoshida. She will be observing.” That last was more to instruct Sumi than to inform his prisoners.
Again, Sumi bowed. “A pleasure to meet you both, Lord Zachary and Lady Esme.”
“And you, Commander,” Zachary said.
“Were it under more pleasant circumstances,” Esme added with a faux-rueful smile.
Then that is how it will be, Yoshizawa thought. A polite conversation between false friends in unpleasant circumstances. He had planned to take a harder route, a more questioning approach. But with Sumi’s interference, he would have to take the disappointed-father approach.
We will have words over this.
Yoshizawa sat and allowed the silence to grow while alternating his attention between Esme and Zachary. He ignored Sumi altogether. Esme appeared uncomfortable, while Zachary waited as if he hadn’t a care. Later, after the interview was done, Yoshizawa would have Nagaaki watch the recording to figure out their tells. Of course, if things went the way he believed they would, pretend politeness and courtesy would end, and the familiar fear-filled politeness would ensue.
“Who is Count Aldric Ritza?” Yoshizawa directed the question to no one in particular.
Neither Zachary nor Esme spoke.
“Come now. This should be an easy question. Who is Count Aldric Ritza?”
This time Zachary shook his head, shrugged, and gestured to Esme. “You’re more of a historian than me.”
Esme mimicked Zachary’s shrug. “Aldric Ritza is a member of House Ritza.” She consulted the ceiling. “Son of Lord Liam and Lady Catherine, longtime patrons of Emporia from New Avalon. Aldric was House Davion’s representative to Emporia from time to time, whenever the First Prince’s edicts needed a bit of a deft hand in making sure they were implemented across the Federated Suns.”
Yoshizawa nodded as if he’d heard this sort of thing before. Of course they would lie to him. He expected no less. “Where is Lord Aldric?”
“I don’t know.”
Though she tried to keep the smile off her face, Yoshizawa caught a flash of satisfaction that revealed the truth of her statement. “When was the last time you saw Lord Aldric?”
Esme made a show of thinking about it. “It’s been some time.” She glanced at Zachary.
Zachary counted silently on his fingers. “About fourteen months ago. It was a commonwealth visit. A checkup on Emporia.”
Yoshizawa noted the baron’s exaggerated body language. Normally, he was quite contained. Lying made him dramatic. “Fourteen months. Is that a long time between visits?”
Zachary nodded. “It is. I’m not certain he is still working directly for the First Prince anymore.”
“Tell me about his family.” Yoshizawa guessed that Zachary would hand the conversation back to Esme.
“His family?” Zachary shrugged.
Esme hesitated only a moment. “He’s married to Lady Rowena. As far as I know, they have no children. If they do, I’m sure the children are in a blind fosterage.”
Through the entire exchange, Sumi sat there without moving or changing expression. She could’ve been a statue. Now she glanced at Yoshizawa out of the corner of her eye. What do you know? he wondered.
“Why do you ask about Count Ritza and his family?” Zachary tilted his head, keeping his eyes on the tai-sa.
“Ah. The name came up in a conversation with a couple of your people. For a house that seems to have several important things named after it—an academy, a street, a library, and a government building—they are curiously absent among my guests. I wondered about it. House Ritza seems to be interwoven throughout New Exeter and its paperwork, and yet House Ritza does not exist in the flesh, or so it seems.”
“As Lady Esme said, House Ritza has long supported Emporia. We honor their patronage.”
Yoshizawa let out a long, disappointed sigh, shaking his head. “Lord Zachary, I thought we had a better relationship than this. I allowed you to speak to your world. Have I slaughtered your people? No. One or two needed to be made an example of, yes, but I came here with generosity in my heart. And this is how I am repaid. I thought we had an understanding. I see I am wrong.”
Zachary shifted in his chair, leaning forward with a concerned look on his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m speaking of this charade you are performing. You are not Emporia’s leader. Not monarch, regent, nor prime minister. You are, however, Lord Aldric’s right-hand man. You perform the job that Lady Esme is performing for you now. You are the count’s second, visibly so. It’s how so many followed your lead, but don’t you think I already know about Aldric, his wife, who is also your older sister, and his son, Mason?”
“Whoever you’ve been speaking to, they’re lying. I’m sorry. Perhaps they want to muddy the waters, or curry favor, but—”
Yoshizawa set his hand on the desktop with just enough force to make an audible noise, cutting off Zachary’s false protest. “Stop, Lord Zachary. These lies do not become you. I’ve had the Estburys under questioning. While it is true that women can handle more physical pain—and Lady Charlotte is impressive, which is not to impugn Lord Devon in any way—neither of them could resist the mind-controlling drugs my man used.
“I know everything. I know House Ritza is in hiding. I know you are not the leader of this planet. I know you sent a hidden message to Emporia using some sort of sign language known by the nobles. Lady Shannon will have her hands broken for her part in that act of rebellion. The blood of everyone who has died since we arrived is on your hands. I gave Emporia, your planet, a chance. I gave you a chance. I see I was wrong to be so lenient. Now, I must be as harsh as my council has wanted me to be.”
There was no change in Zachary’s expression as he tensed and leaped over the desk, crashing into Yoshizawa.
As he moved, Sumi brought up a small caliber hold-out pistol just as quick and fired once. Esme was only a second behind, knocking the pistol from Sumi’s hand.
The bullet struck Zachary’s side, but the man refused to let that stop him. Zachary became a man possessed with the one chance he’d have at the tai-sa. Yoshizawa knew it. Even as Zachary grabbed his throat and squeezed, Yoshizawa fought back. He punched Zachary’s wounded side, then broke the hold the baron had on his neck.
Next to them, Sumi and Esme fought each other with the brutality of a street fight. Sumi had speed and martial training on her side; Esme had weight, desperation, and training. The two women punched, elbowed, and kicked each other until Esme threw herself at the smaller woman, crushing her against the wall. She grabbed Sumi by the head and slammed it against the steel. Sumi pulled a hidden blade from her waist and stabbed Esme in the neck. Blood fountained from the punctured artery.
Yoshizawa kicked out Zachary’s knee and followed it with an uppercut. Zachary would not go down. He lunged at Yoshizawa, striking him in the throat, but the punch didn’t have lethal force behind it. He gripped Yoshizawa’s neck again.
Then the tai-sa’s personal guard swarmed the room, pulling Zachary from Yoshizawa and a still-fighting but fast-fading Esme from Sumi. Yoshizawa’s hand slashed the air to keep his guard from executing the pair of them then and there. That didn’t stop them from pummeling Zachary into submission.
When the baron stopped fighting, Esme was bleeding from the neck, being held up by the two soldiers who had her in a vise grip. She was soaked in blood and bruised, her skin going gray.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Next time.”
With one eye swollen shut, bleeding from various wounds on his face and body, Zachary nodded. “Next time.”
Yoshizawa looked to Sumi first. He had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “Sumi?” He helped her up.
“Fine.” Her cheek and mouth were discolored and swollen, her hair tumbled about her shoulders. But she looked healthy enough. Her eyes were bright and murderous as she looked beyond Yoshizawa at Esme. “I want her.”
He stood tall and took the time to straighten his robe. “She’s yours. I doubt she will even last five minutes. I’m not certain any of our medics could save her, even if I called them right now. Which I won’t do unless you beg.” He addressed this last to the restrained baroness.
“Screw you. I’d rather die than submit.” Blood that had run like a river now trickled and slowed.
“Then die as the defeated captive you are, and know you won’t be the last.” Yoshizawa glanced at Zachary. The man stood on his own two feet in that waiting pose, despite the iron grip his guards had on him. “There will be no next time for either of you.”
Zachary bared bloody teeth at him. “So you say. I don’t believe you.”
“You have condemned everyone in your household to public execution for this. You, your wife, your children. Even your servants and pets. Every last one of them.”
The last thing Yoshizawa expected was to see that bloody smile turn into a genuine laugh.
One of the soldiers cuffed Zachary on the back of his head. “Show some respect.”
That stopped the laughter for a couple of seconds. Then Zachary chuckled and shook his head. “Every last one, huh?”
Unease filled Yoshizawa and his gut fluttered in an instinctive way that said the man before him knew something he didn’t know. “Why are you laughing?”
“You’ll execute every last one of them…right down to my children and my pets?” Zachary’s voice was filled with inexplicable mirth. “I have no children or pets.”
The tai-sa raised his chin. “I know about Harry and William. It’s no use lying to me.”
“The gargoyles?” Zachary let out another chuckle. “I don’t think your man’s mind-controlling drugs did the job you think they did. Either that, or the Estburys know something I don’t.” He let his head drop, still shaking it.
The hair rose on the back of Yoshizawa’s neck. This wasn’t what the baron was supposed to say. He was supposed to be cowed. Remorseful, even. Things were not going to plan. “Nevertheless, Lord Zachary, you and Lady Shannon will be executed in front of your nobles. You won’t have the satisfaction of one last worldwide address. You will be killed, and your bodies hung as a warning to the others.”
Zachary raised his head at that, his eyes fiery with rage. “We’ve been dead for days. Our bodies just haven’t stopped fighting yet.”