Angolin, p.24
Angolin, page 24
“That was absolutely out of the question, Lieutenant,” said Gennet. “We had no idea what we’d find here, and I couldn’t risk General Tate’s safety.” He narrowed his eyes, turned on Armetrian. “You! How could you destroy your honor like this? Kidnapping, beating, and plotting against your own people on top of all else you’ve done. Do you have any idea of what you’ve become, soldier?”
“A visionary if anything, General,” Armetrian snarled. “Angolin is old and sick. It needs to die and all of you with it if you can’t see past this useless little land. And if I’m the one destined to make that happen, then let it be!”
“Illuminating perspective! And the last one you’ll ever give as a free man, Lieutenant Commander. But save it for your court-martial.” Gennet’s eyes flickered in the dim light. “Get him out of here! And you two,” he said to Theus and Dori, “excellent work. Absolutely outstanding! Now get Tate and the others back to base and to the infirmary. I don’t want to lose anyone else tonight.”
Dharmen reached down, ripped his sword from Narond’s limp body, and nearly fell over from the pain shooting through his own. “Glad you finally made it, Thee,” he gasped, needing to be held up. “I was just about at the end of my . . . Others? What others?”
“You’re not the only inmate here.” Theus’s tone was morbid. “We’ve found three dozen so far and not all of them alive. But guess who we did find safe and—”
“Oh my goddesses, Dharmen!”
Dharmen looked to the doorway and couldn’t believe his sight. Caked in mud, looking otherwise no worse for wear, Aremel came in and ran through the muck with tears streaming down her face. She went to hug him but stopped at his appearance.
“By Lothnë! What have they done to you?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Dharmen began to feel light-headed. “I’m glad to see you, Aremel.”
“We’re glad to see you both!” Dori said as she and Theus helped him to the door.
“Commander, I know I . . . made a mess of things . . .” The rest of it left him. It took all he had just to stay conscious and standing.
“Later, Dharm. Right now, let’s get you patched up and back to base before you bleed to death,” Dori said.
Before they got him through the doorway, Dharmen turned. “General,” he addressed weakly.
“Yes, Tate? Make it quick.”
“Send that detachment to my house. Sublieutenant Ciros . . . is still on his way there. We can’t let him esca—”
In his friends’ arms, Dharmen closed his eyes and said nothing more as everything went black.
13
BALANETH’S CHOICE
Rem-E? Rem-E!
I am here, sir. I am online.
Thank the uplords. Where . . . where am I?
In transit, sir.
Again? How? Armetrian and the others—
Are all in custody. You are safe. They can do you no further harm. But you are far from well, and your memory is clouded. You must not overexert yourself with worry.
Taroc balls, Rem-E! The traitors . . . Will and my father, I need to make sure—
Sir, for the first time ever, I must give you an order: Silence your mind. Rest!
“Commander, there are too many people in here,” Theus insisted. “Dharm’s under intensive care. They don’t allow more than one visitor at a time for that. We should leave Will and him alone and come back later.”
“We won’t be long, Thee. I’ll take responsibility,” Dori said. “And he’s in delta sleep. We could throw a party on him, and it wouldn’t wake him. Sorry, Will.”
Willem was far away. His thoughts and emotions danced painfully to the music of one question: why? Everything from a year ago, months ago, three nights ago—why? He said nothing.
And as far as he or anyone knew, Dharmen heard nothing. He lay peacefully on his back, fitted with an army of medi-synths and biopresses. Collaborating under Rem-E’s close supervision, they ran tests, repaired tissue, and administered treatment for the rebuilding of his badly damaged body. Beeps indicated stages of bone repair. A flicker of light now and then signaled ocular and nerve tissue regeneration for his nearly shattered left eye and root strengthening for broken teeth. Natural microbiome replenishment commenced silently. Mattress membrane sensors worked with nanites swimming throughout his bloodstream to scan and heal internal injuries while surface bruises and cuts were covered in refurbishment wraps. All activity was reported in uprights surrounding Dharmen’s infirmary bed that had served as his convalescent haven all week’s end.
“Now, as I was saying,” Dori continued, “of everybody we apprehended in those caves, eleven worked for Aremel, including her pilot, kitchen staff, and most of her gardeners. How’s that for household loyalty?”
“Is it any surprise? Look where they put their operation,” said Theus. “I still can’t believe that in all of Angolin’s tucked away places, Dawn Fire chose the caverns under Mount Condorcet for their ops base, right above Aremel’s estate! Dharmen wondered what Gallin was doing up there. Now we know.”
“The hideout was still being established. The general’s search teams assessed as much,” Dori said. “Aside from Gallin and his Kleve Park cohort, the larger traitor network hadn’t been there more than a week when we found them. They definitely started elsewhere, and that base likely still exists.”
“It actually makes sense,” Willem said through a mournful sigh. “So much of Angolin is unknown and uninhabited. No one thought to look beneath their own noses. The Condorcet caverns are endless. Every Highland family has spelunked a few, but no one knows how many networks there are or how extensively they reach.” He turned to the window, looked past the confines of Seventh and Nieuw Holland Valley to the unending line of snow-capped peaks beyond the Great Lake’s opposite shore. The morning rain had diminished to drizzle, but fog continued to mantle the mountains’ faraway feet. “The East Ranges are perfect for the collaborators. I just wish they hadn’t infiltrated my cousin’s home. Blasted! If only she hadn’t been in her gardens that night.”
“Gallin had scouted and recruited the household staff for some time,” Dori said, “though it appears they didn’t need much coaxing. Aremel would have run into them eventually; she couldn’t have avoided it.”
“Yes, yes, I know all that.”
“She’s safe, Will. That’s what matters,” Theus said. “So is Dharm now, thankfully.”
Willem turned around. “Why did Dharmen go with them?”
Theus gave him a forlorn look. That and his lack of answer were too much.
“You heard me, Thee. Why did he go? He knew who Vara was. He told me about his run-in with her on Negara.”
“We don’t know why he did what he did,” Dori said. “I intend to find out when he recovers, but I wish, for your sake and his, that we knew more.”
Willem glowered. “Everybody always tells me how calm and peaceful I am, and I’ve managed to remain so thus far. I stayed calm while the love of my life was away at war, I stayed calm when some kid tried to blow up my dine-in, I didn’t say anything when I was nearly snatched off my canal just steps from my own pod, and”—he brandished a finger at both of them—“I kept my wits about me when my house synth shot up my sleep-in. Now four traitors—four of your colleagues—just beat my Dharmen to within a centimeter of his life, so I want you both to stop feigning ignorance and talk to me.
“Dharmen knew exactly what would happen, so why did he agree to go with them?” The brittle silence beyond the infirmary’s instrument chimes was more than he could handle. “I’m easygoing most of the time, but that ends right now, and believe me, you two don’t want to see a patient man lose his patience! Now for the love of the Heaveners, tell me!”
“Dori doesn’t know why Dharm went,” Theus said, “but I do. He wanted to draw them out of hiding and expose them.”
“Thee, what are you saying?” Dori asked, incredulous.
“Dharmen wanted to go traitor hunting when he discovered them, and more when they started harassing him. And he would’ve done it in his usual knock-’em-down-first-ask-questions-later way, but Gennet demanded caution and wanted things handled quietly.”
“General Gennet’s purpose was to locate and apprehend as many of them as possible. And mind your place, Lieutenant,” Dori said. “Casting a net takes time and care. The general thought it better to surround a whole hive at once rather than stir them up too soon and scatter them. I know this because Dharmen certainly wasn’t the only officer recruited to work on the problem, and despite what’s happened, I support the general’s strategy.”
“So do I. But it’s easier to stomach from a comfortable office than from out in the field every day,” Theus flatly replied.
“That and your tone are insubordinate, Lieutenant.”
“I apologize, ma’am, but with permission?” Dori’s raised eyebrows barely granted approval. “General Gennet is occupied with base business most of the time,” Theus continued, “and I know part of that involves monitoring the traitors now, but he doesn’t have to deal with them constantly, face-to-face like us, and he hasn’t had to put up with them trying to kill him like Dharm and Will.”
Theus laid a hand on Dharmen’s shoulder. “He towed the general’s line for as long as he could. But he just wasn’t having it, not the first time someone targeted him and Will, not the second. And after that house synth incident, he’d had enough. He wasn’t about to wait for more attacks and risk having one actually succeed, he wanted to flush them out. He insisted we try to find Dawn Fire’s hiding place, so we started planning. Then Vara came along and gave him the opportunity. Dharmen knew I’d track him, so he took it.” He lowered his eyes, shook his head. “But damn it, I should have recognized her sooner.”
“What do you mean, Thee?” Willem asked.
“I mean, it was Vara who helped Armetrian get the weapons off Bemin. She shot Dharmen and would’ve killed him had he not been wearing Yos’s antiparticler, and it all happened right in front of me. Didn’t Dharm tell you about that?”
“No, he didn’t! He tells me less and less, lately. He thinks he’s protecting me. If only I could tap into that internal AI of his.” And if only I could tap into my fiancé’s mind. One nasty surprise after another, and now, Dharmen is the one creating them!
“Well, Vara must’ve been as shocked as I was to find she hadn’t killed him then, and wanted to finish the job when she caught up with him at the protest,” Theus said.
“She nearly did, no thanks to Dharmen, himself,” Dori grumbled. “And Thee, you should have filled me in on all this en route up to the mountain. I knew there was more to it.”
Footsteps approached the doorway. “Ma’am!” Leatra said.
“At ease, Shipman, but you can’t stay long,” Dori said. She shot Theus an impish eyebrow. “Too many people in the room.”
“Commander, if I may,” said Theus, “Dharmen would want her here.”
“Aren’t you the one policing the visitor count, soldier?” Dori said. “The lieutenant commander needs his rest.”
“What happened to I’ll take responsibility?” Willem wanly chimed in.
“Oh, all right, Vinc, stay a while!” Dori said. “How’s your brother doing?”
“I wish I knew, ma’am,” Leatra answered. “He won’t talk to anyone since his court-martial, and our parents aren’t having an easy time with him at home. Mother says she preferred him back at school, running his mouth and getting in trouble, to having him quiet and sad around the farm every day. He spends most of his time out in the fields or with the animals, as far from people as he can get. It’s hard for him, being under house arrest with a disappointed family.”
“House arrest and far from the house. Angolinian justice at its finest,” Dori moaned. “The punishment never matches the offense in this land.”
Leatra wrinkled thin eyebrows. “Ma’am, permission to speak freely.”
“I did say at ease, Shipman. Say what you need to.”
“Aye, Commander. I overheard Gallin’s name before I came in. What little Irzek’s had to say lately has included him.”
“What has he told you? Excuse me, Dori,” Willem said, having ripped the question right out of her mouth.
“I don’t know if you’ve gotten this from interrogation yet,” Leatra continued, “but Gallin has a safe house in South C. That’s where Dawn Fire started. Irzek went there several times.”
“No, we hadn’t gotten that, not from anyone,” Dori said, wide-eyed. “We only knew they were all working for Armetrian. No one’s mentioned Gallin before now.”
“This place is in South C, you say?” Willem asked Leatra.
“Yes. On Niro Way, near Ursula. Irzek tried to keep quiet about it whenever I asked, but I’m good at making him slip up and talk.”
“Niro is just down the hill and beyond the market from me and Dharmen,” Willem said, astonished. “Every morning, I go to work and look down that way, and all this time Gallin was right within sight!”
“Shipman, we’ve got to get you to the general. He needs this information,” said Dori. “Who knows what we’ll find in that pod. If we can get there soon enough, it could turn this whole investigation around. Thee, comm his staff assistant and set up a meeting, stat.”
“I’m on it, Commander.” Theus activated his internal and left the room.
Dori folded her arms, lifted one to rest her chin on her hand. “Tell me about Armetrian,” she ordered Leatra. “Your brother’s already given several statements on his dealings with him, but I want to know what you know.”
“Well, ma’am, Armetrian’s biggest—his only—duty for Irz, far as I can tell, involved that last Port incident.”
“You mean the one where my Dharmen was shot,” Willem put in.
“Yes, sir.”
Willem managed a slim smile. “She’s sir,” he said, glancing at Dori. “You can call me Will.”
“Well, Mr. Hanne . . . Will, Armetrian had the weapons theft carefully planned, ever since . . .” Leatra peered at Dharmen and lowered her voice. “Ever since Lieutenant Commander Tate and Lieutenant Tarkala took down the one before it. I think Armetrian needed a successful one to maintain his reputation with the enemy, but he couldn’t just walk in, grab the arms, and go. He needed authorization first, specialized authorization.”
“And that’s where your brother came in?” Dori asked.
“Yes, Commander. Irzek’s job was to obtain the access codes for heavy weapons stores and report on the standard security rotations guarding them. His duty station was in the ops hub, so he had ready access to the information.”
“Why, Shipman, didn’t you come forward with any of this before?”
“I didn’t think I needed to, ma’am. Irz had been detained for a while. I assumed you’d gotten this already.”
Dori shook her head. “And before now we’d scrutinized Armetrian and Vara the most. How did we not catch any of this? We should have broadened our scope from the start.” She went to the foot of Dharmen’s bed, shifted her weight to one booted heel. “Vinc got difficult-to-obtain access codes to restricted stores. Narond created the diversion, then was somehow released from confinement. It’s amazing how an operation’s biggest parts are made possible by its smallest players.”
Theus returned, gave Leatra a sharp nod to the doorway. She saluted Dori and left the room.
“My internal recorded that conversation, Will,” Dori said when she was out of earshot. “Once I turn it over, Gallin’s as good as caught.”
Willem sat at Dharmen’s bedside and took his hand, resting peacefully beside him. “Think so?”
“I wish I could say I know so. But this is the breakthrough on that part that we needed to—”
“Indeed! And if you don’t find that Lenan thug, I will!” huffed a big voice from a smallish woman storming in past Theus. “We Hannes have our own way that’s far worse than anything the Guard will do to him, and if I ever see Gallin again, I’ll . . . Whatsamatter? High flyers got all your tongues?”
“Aremel, how did you get up here?” Dori asked. “Security has been lax as it is. Don’t tell me no one’s guarding the lifts.”
“Why, my dear, I am the queen of resource. Precious little holds me back!”
Willem nodded to that. Half-heartedly.
“There are too many people in here,” said Dori with a raised eyebrow for Theus. “I know, I know. My responsibility. I’ll handle it!”
Aremel bent down and gave Willem a brusque hug that pulled him out of his seat. Her eyes went to Dharmen’s massive injuries and attending devices. “Lothnë’s grace, how will he come through this?”
“He’ll be fine, Aremel. Every part of him is being worked on,” said Dori. “He’s way better than he looks, at this point.”
“Oh! Well, can’t we wake him then? You know, I’d so like to thank him from the depths of my heart for everything he’s done.”
“Absolutely not!” said Theus. “His father woke him this morning, early this morning, and the medi-synths had to backtrack and restart every treatment.”
“He has to recuperate, cousin,” Willem added just as forcefully.
“Well, pity! He’s done so much and been through so much—oh, and my Balaneth wanted to come and give his regards to one so honorable, as he so rightly put it. But he had some other business, left me in a hurry this morning saying he had justice to serve. I have absolutely no idea what that could be.”
“Cousin! Everyone, actually,” Willem said. “A moment alone, please?”
“Why certainly, Will,” Aremel said. “How utterly selfish of us all!”
Theus shot Dori an exasperated frown that said, she’s calling us—
“Come along, you two,” Aremel directed. She bid Willem goodbye with the customary Angolinian right-left-right cheek kisses before ushering Dori and Theus out the door.
Willem sighed hard. It felt as if the weight of the world was leaving him. Marginally. He turned to Dharmen. “I know why you did what you did, I just wanted to put feet to fire. But guess what? You’re not a young bachelor warrior anymore, you’re with me now. And what about your father? Nüren would be crushed right now if you hadn’t survived. Even leading the Guard couldn’t prepare him to lose his only son—and I’ve got news for you, every conversation you and I have had about you dying in combat hasn’t prepared me either. I’m not ready, Dharmen!”
