Red Angel (11 page)

"I don't know. I thought the Bridge a magical
place. In reality, I'll never get the opportunity, so I guess it doesn't
matter. Come, let's go see your missile and what goodies it has for us." I
was excited. We were helping to catch smugglers, maybe friends of the same ones
who almost killed Alexa. When we reached the weapons bay, a lone missile sat on
the loading train. "You want to take it apart?" I quipped.

"You’re kidding, aren't you?"

"You watched Chief Hartley do it. A few screws
and off it came." I managed to keep a straight face.

"How do we know this one is a fake?" Kris
protested while staring at the missile. "You want to take it apart?"

"I'd like to bring it back to Oxax. Maybe Captain
Vogel wouldn't mind." I shrugged. Kris choked.

"I want to be there when you ask. Pretty please,
Captain, for my mother," she said in a little girl’s high-pitched voice
while batting her eyelids and smiling.

"We ... you could invoke Priority One
Access," I smiled and batted my eyelids.

"Seriously, do we want to let the smugglers know
that we found their clever cache? I think it's conference time. Come."

I left the ship following Kris. At the entrance bay,
Captain Pfeiffer stood glaring at us as we exited.

"Well, are you satisfied? Can I have my ship
back?"

"No, we found some illegal drugs in one of the
crew's compartments. That warrants a further search," Kris said, and
continued walking with me almost running to keep up. In the Port Authority headquarters
building, Kris insisted on speaking to the commodore in charge, and when the
officer on duty began to protest, she pulled out the P1A badge.

"Now," she said quietly, with the badge only
inches from his face. After a couple of phone calls, we were ushered into his
office. After saluting, Kris began before the commodore could speak.

"Sir, this is a Priority One Access request. We
need a secure message transmission to Admiral Rawls on Oxax and Lieutenant
Adrian on Eastate, copy Admiral Lulltrel."

"Come, I'll take you to our communications
center. It will save time and questions. You seem in a hurry." He gave a
wry grin as he rose. He didn't seem annoyed with Kris, which was surprising
considering she was a lieutenant giving orders to a commodore. He had a
pleasant face with definite laugh lines and felt curious. "That badge can
move mountains and commodores." He smiled as he proceeded to guide us to
the basement, where the computer network was housed along with his
communications personnel. "Does one of you know how to operate the
equipment?" he asked. Kris looked to me, and I shook my head. I knew how
to operate communications equipment, but not how to sent P1A messages.

"It won't matter, Commodore. It will be
encrypted," Kris said, taking out her tablet and typing out the message.
After a few minutes, she turned it so I could see.

Priority One Access To: Admiral Rawls, Copy: Admiral
Lulltrel, Commander Stauffer, Lieutenant Adrian.

Dealmaker like
Wheeler. Holding under excuse we found illegal drugs in crew compartment. Do we
let the ship leave or keep quarantined under current excuse or open to see
contraband and alert smugglers?

"Can you add, ‘Anna believes Wheeler could lead
to the organization’s methodology if smugglers unaware of our discovery’?"

"What are you thinking?" Kris asked. "I
thought we could shut down their Alliance operation."

"I took Chief Hartley to lunch the other day. I
asked him if someone could retrieve one of those missiles once fired. He
thought it wouldn't be too hard and said he could tell if he got a chance to take
the Wheeler's missile apart."

"Oh ... Interesting. So we might catch who is bringing
the stuff in from one of the other empires. That would be even better."
She began typing again, finally turning the message for me to see.

Priority One Access To: Admiral Rawls, Copy: Admiral
Lulltrel, Commander Stauffer, Lieutenant Adrian.

Dealmaker like
Wheeler. Holding under excuse we found illegal drugs in crew compartment. Do we
let the ship leave or keep quarantined under current excuse or open to see
contraband and alert smugglers? Agent Paulus believes Wheeler could lead to the
organization's methodology if smugglers unaware of our discovery. I concur.
Talk to Chief Hartley on Oxax.

Signed
Lieutenant Sinclair

She called up the encryption program I had named Crazy
Numbers, touched
Go,
and the message
suddenly became a collection of numbers and special characters. She transferred
it to a chip and handed it to the commodore, who handed it to a chief petty officer.

"Chief Bauman, set this Priority One Access to
the addresses on the chip." The chief nodded, slipped the chip into his
panel, nodded again, typed for a minute, then hit one of the switches.

"It's on its way. I'd say you should have a reply
within sixteen to twenty four hours," he said, looking at something on his
monitor. "How can I contact you, Lieutenant?"

"Send a message to Captain Vogel for my attention."

After thanking Commodore Mosby, we visited the
Windjammer but found nothing. The ship had no missiles. I played with their
laser system but discovered nothing.

* * *

"It's been more than twenty-four hours, what do
you think?" I asked Kris as we sat talking in her room.

"Admirals don't like all-or-nothing solutions.
Probably deciding who will take the blame if it turns out to be nothing."
She laughed. "You and me."

I panicked. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble—
"

"It was a joke, sort of. Usually it's the lowest
man or woman on the totem pole who gets blamed when something goes wrong, and
the ranking person who gets the credit if things go right. But Stauffer is one
of the good ones, so he would get hit the hardest."

"That's wrong," I blurted. "It's my
idea. I should take the blame." I didn't really understand. I ... we were
all just doing our jobs. Why did someone have to take the blame if things
didn't work out? My head pounded so bad I wouldn't be surprised if Red could
hear it and if that was the reason he was wrapped around my leg.

"It’s the reality of life, Anna. Credit gets you
promoted, so everyone ... most everyone spends a lot of time trying to take
credit for the good things that happen under them and trying to pass the blame
for the bad things to others. My advice is to do your best and don't worry
about the consequences."

"I've a lot to learn." I sat thinking for a
long time before coming to a conclusion. "My goal is not to change who I
am, but to understand those around me: worthwhile friends like you."

* * *

My tablet woke me with a P1A message. When I looked at
the time, it was three-thirty hours. I called up Crazy Numbers and touched Go.
Slowly the numbers disappeared and the message appeared:

Priority One
Access To: Lieutenant Sinclair, Lieutenant Adrian, Lieutenant Weiss, A. Paulus.

Let all the
merchants go. Report back as soon as inspections finished.

Signed Admiral
Rawls.

I didn't have to wake Kris; she had coffee brewing
when I knocked.

"Well, Rawls is on the hot seat. Lulltrel probably
made the decision, but she is the one officially giving the order. I'm
surprised she didn't pass it to Stauffer."

"Maybe she's one of the good ones," I said. Kris
nodded.

"Let's notify Mosby and tell the captain we’re
ready to go to Zespa.

The trip to Zespa only took a little more than two
days, and Vogel was in a good mood after hearing a synopsis of the situation.
In Zespa we visited the Spinner, Wanderer, and Storm Runner and found
smugglers' missiles on the Spinner and Wanderer. A day later we were back on
the Minerva and heading back to Oxax.

When the Minerva docked at the space station, a
shuttle was waiting for us along with a message from Stauffer:

To Lieutenant
Sinclair, A Paulus.

Report to the
office immediately upon arrival.

Commander
Stauffer.

"I guess that means no shower and no early night
to bed," Kris quipped. "Adrian and Wilber have probably been back for
days and everyone has been waiting on us. Welcome to the navy. A good paying
job with excellent benefits but lousy working hours and conditions."

"And they are slowing down your search for a
father for your children," I quipped.

"And that too." Kris smiled.

When the shuttle landed, I used my skimmer to fly us
to the office. Alexa had been right about me needing a mode of transportation.
My hours were erratic, and it was certainly convenient to have my own skimmer
to get around. The best part? I was getting paid to use it. We arrived at
sixteen hundred hours and found Admiral Rawls and Commander Stauffer waiting in
the conference room with Adrian and Wilber. Rawls waved us to seats when we
entered the room.

"First, I'd like to congratulate everyone. This
team has exceeded all our expectations, but don't quote me. Those of us who
were part of the selection committee want everyone to think we're geniuses and
expected no less." She grinned. "You have identified
six—probably all the merchants working with the smugglers: Wheeler,
Spinner, Wanderer, Dealmaker, Dreamer and Star Trader. Next, I like the way
this team thinks ahead. All of us were content to arrest the merchants you
uncovered and shut down the smugglers' Alliance connection. That wouldn't have
stopped the smugglers, but it certainly would have slowed them down. But the
team was ahead of us and already thinking about the next objective—the
merchants' contacts. Admirals Webb and Lulltrel were impressed and want a shot
at the smugglers’ ships, which they believe originate out of the PRS and or
FPU. Chief Hartley examined the Wheeler’s missile and found it has an emergency
beacon that can be activated at a specific frequency. He knows the frequency
but not the code that activates it. And he was able to determine the celestial
coordinates the missile was programmed to go to. However, he can't determine which
solar system. We have a team of astronomers trying to determine whether that
could be in Oxax or Eastar, since the Wheeler was in Oxax and heading for
Eastar. But of course, it could be anywhere in the Alliance. If we had the
missiles from the other merchants, we would know if the coordinates were the
same, meaning they had one drop, or whether they had multiple drop locations.
But then the smugglers would know we were on to them, and the information would
be interesting but useless. Comments?" she asked, pausing for a drink of her
coffee.

When nobody said anything, she continued. "You
have been away from family and friends, and I'm sorry to delay your reunion,
but I wanted to bring you up to date and thank you for a job well done. You are
free to take time off while the experts ponder the problem. Of course, it would
be nice if you could come up with the answer." She laughed and departed
the room.

Stauffer stood, which kept everyone from rushing the
door. "In a sense, I believe everyone thinks this project has ended, and
maybe it has. We certainly can't go running around in Peeps or Freebees space
looking for smugglers. But I would encourage you to use your excellent
instincts to look for anything we might have overlooked. Even if the project is
over, you are the golden team, and I predict you will be kept intact for the
next big problem. Of course, you could put in for a transfer, but I doubt you'd
get it." He left laughing.

"Anyone want a transfer?" Adrian asked,
looking at each of us. Everyone shook his or her head. "Me neither. Check
in with me to let me know how to get in touch with you in the event it's
necessary, and I'll keep you up to date on what I hear."

We stayed for another hour, exchanging brief accounts
of our activities. It was twenty hundred hours when the meeting broke up. I was
glad the team planned to stay together. I was tired of making friends then
losing them. I would particularly have missed Kris, who I was beginning to
think of as an older sister.

When I arrived home, Alexa was still up. Neither of us
said anything. We met halfway into the room in a tight hug.

"Welcome home, daughter. I'm glad to see you
safely back in the nest," she finally said while holding me at arms’
length and examining me. "You look good and have no injuries."

"The trip was interesting and exciting, but I'm
glad to be back."

"Have you eaten?" she asked. When I shook my
head, she dragged me off to the kitchen and prepared a meat and cheese sandwich
and cut a huge slice of berry pie. Afterward, I gave her a detailed account of
my experience, which lasted well into the morning hours. It felt good to be
home.

* * *

I stayed home the next couple of days, pondering the
problem of the smugglers and a little disappointed that the team’s involvement
had ended. I checked with Adrian and had him send me the celestial coordinates,
since I was familiar with them from my studies of navigational mathematics at
the academy. Then I used my tablet and connection to the NIA computer to look
at the position it represented in the Eastar and Oxax systems. Both positions
were out of the conventional traffic lanes leading to and from the Wave
entrance and exit points. That made sense if you didn't want to be seen. Even
if one of these points were valid, the key was timing: hour, day, week, and or
month. Six merchants dropping off and picking up contraband in the same solar
system didn't seem logical. That would be easier to verify than which solar
system the celestial coordinates pertained to. I sent a quick message to
Adrian.

Adrian, if the merchants
were picking up and dropping off contraband on a regular basis, wouldn't their
itineraries give us an indication of where? Regardless, I would think the day
would have to be communicated whether it were a regular drop point or
scheduled. Anna.

Four hours later, I received a reply back from Adrian.

Anna, everyone
agrees. I'll put in a request for the information. Let’s meet three days from
now at the office. Adrian.

Kris had been right. Adrian would make Admiral
someday, and he was a good leader for the group. He never seemed to rest,
didn't mind the administrative work, and had a good leadership style—he
listened to each person, didn't feel like he had to have the answer, and
supported each of our suggestions. Two of the days, I picked Alexa up at the
end of her day and we went shopping and ate out.

When I arrived for our team meeting, everyone was
already there, to my surprise. Adrian nodded when he saw me and headed for the
conference room with us following.

"That was a good suggestion, Anna. Besides, it
will give us something to do while we await another assignment." He
grinned as he slid a CPC chip to each of us. "Homework. I suggest we each
look at the itineraries for all the merchants we identified to see if we can
determine a pattern." He looked around the table to nodding heads.

"This is going to detract from Kris's effort to
find the father of those kids," Wilber said looking serious, but I could
feel his amusement.

"What about you, Wilber? Aren't you looking for
Mrs. Right?" she shot back. "That’s going to take a while, I'd
wager."

"The longer the better. I’m having too much fun
to settle down."

"All right, how about three days from today we
meet back here to discuss what we've each found?" Adrian said. "That
should allow for some fun and some looking."

"What about you, Anna?" Wilber asked.

"I'll have to discuss it with my chaperone,"
I said to nods and feelings of sadness. I suspected they were each considering what
their life would be like with a poisonous krait around their neck. I had been
too young to worry about that, but I was already at the age where fun and dating
were normal. But with Red, I wasn't likely to attract anyone unless he had the
Coaca Virus. For me, the future was a topic best avoided, as it presented a
black hole of depression: How long will Red live? Will someone kill Alexa
trying to get Red? Even if I could have children, which wasn’t certain, would I
live long enough to see them reach school age? If the team were dissolved, what
would happen to me?

Everyone rose as if sensing my thoughts.

"Remember to keep me updated if you change
locations," Adrian said as everyone began leaving.

"Sorry, Anna," Wilber said as he approached
me, and I felt his genuine concern. "Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my
brain. Actually, quite often."

"I'm looking forward to seeing Kris's children
and your wife," I said after a brief pause. I thought that a good future
to look forward to.

"And a cure for the Coaca Virus," he said
with real emotion as he headed for his desk.

"Does anyone need a ride?" I asked, since it
was early and I wasn't in a rush to get home.

"I do if you want to go to lunch," Kris
said, waving at me from her desk.

"I'll join you, if you don't mind," Adrian
said to my surprise. He was not so much unfriendly as he was serious and
focused. I laughed mentally. Like me, a loner either by nature or by
circumstance.

"Great, any preferences?" Kris asked. "If
not, how about somewhere we can hear ourselves talk. Maybe the Flamingo."

"Okay with me," Adrian said.

I would enjoy the company and didn’t care where. The
Flamingo was on the other side of Eteos and was noted for their fish menu. The
restaurant wasn't full when we arrived, and we were seated promptly.

"Anna, I hope you weren't upset that Admiral
Rawls gave the team credit for your suggestion and your work with Chief
Hartley," Adrian said, looking concerned.

"No. One for all and all for one." I meant
it. I was content to be thought of as a full member of the team. Individual
credit didn't matter. In my experience, individual credit tended to ostracize
you from the group.

"Rawls and Stauffer know your part in the missile
discovery and work with Chief Hartley. It's normal policy to give the credit to
the team rather than individuals. Recognition is usually reflected in your
annual review and in consideration for promotion."

"I would prefer it that way. I've first-hand
experience with singling out individuals. It usually just causes
problems."

"That's the reason the team always gets the
credit. I'm glad you understand."

Kris snorted, "She's eighteen going on
forty."

"This is a good team. You never know what will
happen when you throw four people who don't know each other together for a
project, but the chemistry feels good. I for one am hoping we stay together for
a long time," Adrian said.

After we had finished our meals, we ordered dessert
and drinks and sat around talking. It was a relaxing time, and I learned more
about my teammates as they talked about their growing up years. Adrian had been
born on the planet Sutan—the one where I had picked to be a monk when
Adela was having trouble placing me in a home. His mother and father had met
while in the navy as ensigns. Several years later they decided to get married
and his mother left the service to raise their family. Adrian was the oldest of
four and grew up on stories of navy life and lived for the times his father was
home. From a young age, his whole life had been in preparation to join the
navy, which made him an intense student and a loner. Kris on the other hand was
an only child and spoiled by her mother and her mother's sister. She related
several incidents with her aunt, who used to take her shopping and to the
theater. Her aunt sounded like a fun person to be around, and the two made a
mischievous duo. I was sorry to see the lunch end.

I dropped Adrian and Kris off at their current residences—apartment
buildings near work—and headed for home. I too hoped the team would stay
together, even though I felt comfortable Stauffer would keep me on permanently
if the team were disbanded. I arrived home early, grabbed a berry juice, and
spent the time reviewing my bank account, which had one month's salary, a
reimbursement for the mileage on my skimmer, and the minor expenses incurred on
our trip to Stone Ring and Zespa. Then I started making a list of tentative
expenses
—
fuel
for the skimmer, periodic maintenance
—
and
quickly realized I didn't have a clue what else. I would need Alexa's help. I
wanted to contribute to her expenses now that I had money. She had spent tens
of thousands on me over the years, and it appeared I'd have a lot of credits
left over each month. Unable to continue, I inserted the chip Adrian had given
each of us into my tablet and began reviewing each merchant's itinerary. Then I
merged the six itineraries into one timeline, which turned out to be
overwhelming. I had just begun to separate the timelines by solar system when
Alexa arrived home.

"You NIA agents have better hours than bankers,
and they pay you for a full day." She smiled and gave me a hug. "Let
me freshen up and I can tell you what a working woman's day is like." She
laughed as she headed upstairs. I had just finished my new timeline by solar
system when Alexa came and sat next to me.

"Well, I went to the office, was given a chip,
went to lunch with Adrian and Kris, and came home," I said, trying not to
smile.

"Sounds like a tiring day for an NIA agent. I
heard three very boring cases which each lasted more than two hours and then
spent the next three hours writing up my decisions," she said.

"Glad I'm not a magistrate," I said, and we
both burst out laughing. "I tried making a budget so I'd know how much
money I could contribute to our expenses but found I don't have a clue."