Red Angel: Book II: Raiders (Red Angel Series 2) (15 page)

"You're crazy." Her gaze went off into space.

"Adrian says we're both crazy." On reflection, I had to admit he might be right.

"I'm beginning to believe him. Okay." Her face stiffened in determination. "It will be worth it if we’ve cracked the code."

When we reached the conference room, a guard stood in front of the door.

"Commanders, Captain MacLin says you are welcome to use his office until the conference room is repaired." He walked down to MacLin's office door and opened it for us.

"Thank you, Sergeant," Kris said.

But before she could enter, one of the corporals in our security detail stepped inside, looked around, and then nodded for us to enter. Two guards stayed outside and two came in.

I made myself my moo-coffee drink and Kris poured a cup of regular coffee. "All right, let me watch so I understand."

I brought up one of the puzzle messages, removed all the non-Latin characters, removed all the spaces, then broke the string into meaningful Latin words and finally reversed the sentences to read left to right.

"There," I said when I had finished.

"Very funny," she punched me on the shoulder. "Or do I have to get physical to get a translation?"

"Red wouldn’t like that." I grinned. "All right, but just to keep our guards from having to report you for striking an officer." I noticed the guards trying to repress a laugh. I spent the next half hour translating the text. "This is a close approximation," I said and sent my translation to Kris's tablet.

Have contestant winner. Person identified fifty paintings and six admirers. Art worth ten each. Expect West courier post for two hundred 83.223.45.13 at 44.8217 -64.0054.

"That's still a bit obscure unless you know what you’re looking for," Kris said, studying the translation. "The Controller found a client and the prizes are paintings worth ten ... million each or five hundred million. Sender is expecting a courier at Westar to post what, where? A date or meeting place?"

"I think to post a date on the Eastar Internet using the protocol 83.223.45.13 for a rendezvous at latitude
44.8217 and longitude -64.0054 at two hundred hours."

"They're a cautious bunch and not taking any chances in case someone should decode the message. This method maintains everyone's secrecy. I suspect the courier, who takes the puzzle message to the raiders, doesn't know the message, sender, or the raiders. He's just a messenger. Conversely, I doubt he knows the code to determine the date or who the date message is for, since they’re using the Internet." Kris nodded. "We're a step or two closer but still several steps from catching them."

MacLin entered as we were discussing our next move. "How is the puzzle going?" he asked as he poured a glass of wine and smiled. "I'm off shift."

"We’ve decoded the puzzle, thanks to Anna. I think it confirms we aren't going to find anything at Westar or Zespar and should probably return to Oxax. We need to see if we can pinpoint their couriers while we wait for another raider ad."

"What does it say?" he asked, and I could feel his excitement.

Kris handed him her tablet with the translation.

He stood there with a far away look for a long time. "So if we get another puzzle message, we'll at a minimum know the area where they intend to land raiders and, therefore, the approximate location of the cruiser ... but not the date they’ll show up. And it seems likely they have three UAS merchants and three Free Peoples' cruisers involved."

"That's our current thinking," Kris said. "I think we should stop in Oxax and check in with Admiral Rawls and Commodore Stauffer."

I liked that idea, thinking a search for the courier would be more productive, and as a bonus, I would be home and causing Alexa less stress.

"That's great news," Rawls said on hearing we had cracked the raiders' puzzle code.

"It is, and it moves us one step closer to the raiders, but the translation only tells us how they operate. Unfortunately, we need another robbery ... well another ad, since we know their puzzle code," Adrian said, summarizing our team’s discussion prior to the meeting.

"Then I have good news for you. I received a message from the NIA office on New Zheng that they had identified a similar ad and had answered it—"

"Stop them!" I blurted and felt my cheeks burning. I knew I should apologize but wasn't sure what to say other than I thought it wasn't a good idea, now that we had broken their code.

"Why, Paulus?" Rawls asked, frowning at me. "It was what you asked them to do if they found a similar ad."

"Yes, ma'am. Before we broke the code it was our only option. But they obviously know we know about the ads, yet they’re still running them ... I think it's dangerous. They're well organized, sophisticated, and evil." I knew those weren't the right words to convey my concerns. I just knew it wasn't the smart thing to do, although I wasn't sure why.

"Anna, I think you’re reacting to your two previous attacks, and I don't blame you. Commander Whaley's a good man. You'll get your puzzle message, and he'll be able to catch the Controller and the thugs he has working with him. And no one will have to die, since the target won't be real."

I looked to Kris for support, but she shook her head almost imperceptibly. I wanted to scream and argue but remembered that same feeling with Captain Sharat—and the result. I didn't have the right words then or now. "Yes, ma'am," I mumbled, knowing I wasn't going to win an argument with an admiral. I shut my eyes and reached up and stroked Red.

"All right, Operation Winner's a go. I'll inform you when a puzzle message has been sent, and we'll continue to monitor the other systems. That was great work," Rawls said as she rose and exited the room.

Stauffer dismissed us shortly after saying we had earned a rest and should take the next two weeks off. Back in the office, I collected my weapon and was getting ready to leave when Kris came up to me and put her arm around my shoulder.

"Sorry, Anna. You did the right thing. There was nothing you or I could have said to change Rawls’s mind. She has decided to make the team's decisions, and it would have been Sharat all over again." Kris gave me a squeeze. "Adrian and I would have supported you. I think you're right. The raiders aren't stupid, and they're vindictive."

"I think I just learned adult speak, but I'm not sure I like it."

"All you can do is to give your superiors your best advice. The smart ones will listen, although they might not follow your suggestion. Like you, they have to follow their intuition. We can cross our fingers and hope she's right, or at least that no one is harmed."

"Thanks, Kris. I hope you make some progress finding the father of your future children."

"With the Vulcan, Lapis, and Cabiri on station, I think I need a vacation upcountry or back on Eastar to get away from officers who like space submarines and have a girl in every system." She laughed. "Unfortunately, you can't hunt down the right one. He has to find you."

I cheered up while flying, at the thought of being home—my refuge from thinking about the future. When I arrived, Alexa was already there, which meant she had left work early.

She said nothing when I entered the house, just grabbed me in a tight hug, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I know you said you weren't hurt, but ..."

"I'm sorry ... I could quit ..."

"No. I was meant to be a cruiser captain, and you were meant to chase evil people. I think that’s why you have Red," she said, surprising me.

It sounded both ridiculous and reasonable at the same time. Kraits don't seek out people in the snow—they hibernate. He not only keeps me alive; he won't leave me. And I was convinced he helped me learn and understand, allowed me to sense people's feelings, and warned me against danger.

She finally ended our hug, sniffling. "I don't want you to be someone else. These are tears of joy that you're well and home for awhile."

"Thank you, Mother. As much as I love flying on cruisers and chasing bad guys, being home with you is where I'm the most at peace. If I ever get married, you might have to put up with a husband and kids in the house." I laughed.

"Gladly," she said, hooking her arm in mine and dragging me into the living room. "I want to hear all the gory details."

"The trip to Safe Harbor was boring, if you don't count dining with the captain, having commander's quarters, and access to the Bridge ... " I continued the story through dinner and well into the evening. "I agree with you, Mother. Red's no accident, and he does look after me in many ways."

When I reported back to work two weeks later, it was like we hadn't seen each other for years.

"Anna, I missed your urgent messages at two hundred hours," Adrian said when we gathered in the conference room.

"I'm bored. Even my marine security detail is bored." I pushed out my lower lip and crunched up my eyes in a good imitation of sulking.

"Don't even joke about that," Kris said. "I've just managed to get my mind free of that image of us under the conference room table and that madman on the table destroying the room."

"After seeing the pictures of that conference room, Rich and I have been at the firing range every day. The only things those shooters missed were the two of you."

"Maybe we should put Chief Ransom on our team," I quipped. "I took him to lunch last week and thanked him a couple of hundred times."

Pannell, who was sitting off to the side, nodded.

He had been along and had given Ransom a detailed accounting of the attack in the lobby. And, of course I had to elaborate on the conference room shootout. Our get together had lasted to near dinnertime and when I called Alexa, she had joined us and taken Ransom, Pannell, and me to the Aughoes, one of the oldest and most expensive restaurants on Oxax. It was a wonderful day.

"I'm thankful for the marine security," Adrian said, "but there’s no doubt we need to be capable of helping if necessary. By the way, Rich has been assigned to the Oxax office and is part of the team for the foreseeable future."

"Congratulations, Rich." Kris and I said together.

"I'll put you on my two hundred hours urgent message speed dial," I added.

"Thanks, Anna."

"I talked to Stauffer," Adrian continued. "He doesn't want to put us on anything while we await the outcome of Operation Winner. I told him we want to look at the merchants' itineraries to see if we can generate a list of potential raider's couriers. He agreed. I just received the last of my queries yesterday." He slid a flash-drive to each of us. "These contain all the merchants' activities from the date of the first puzzle message from Holy Star until one week ago."

"I guess I'm no longer bored." I was looking forward to analyzing the data.

"Keep in touch, and let's meet back here once each week."

I decided to leave the merchant problem until tomorrow and enjoy dinner and the evening relaxing with Alexa. The problem wasn't going to be solved in a few hours. There were four hundred and thirty merchants who made between forty and sixty stops a year, and we were looking at close to a year's activity. The best we could hope for was to narrow the list to twenty or thirty candidates.

After seeing Alexa off to work the next morning, I went into my home office and sat thinking. I had to narrow the list—almost twenty-one thousand visits—to something manageable, so I made a few assumptions:

1. There were three couriers—one in each of Master Puzzle's publication areas.

2. They were UAS registered merchants.

3. The ship had to be in its Master Puzzles area within a week of the monthly publication.

4. The ship had to stop at the raided planet between the publication date and one month afterward.

5. The ship spent seventy-five percent of its time in the Master Puzzles publication area.

That decided, I began my search of the Eastar Master Puzzle's area. Assumption one didn't eliminate anyone. It just focused the search within the five planets in that area. Assumption two only eliminated twenty-eight merchants and fourteen hundred entries. Assumption three, however, eliminated three hundred eighteen merchants and more than fourteen thousand entries, leaving only seventy-four merchants. Assumption four eliminated sixty-four merchants and almost four thousand entries. And I was pleased when assumption five left only three merchants: Star Trader, Easy Explorer, and Storm Runner. Then I realized I hadn't checked to see if any of the three had visited Safe Harbor, the indicated system for the coordinates. Only two, Star Trader and Easy Explorer, had during the thirty days after publication. That became the sixth assumption.

The next day, my assumptions generated similar results for the Holy Star area—two merchants—and Stone Ring area—three merchants. When I finished, I sent the team a message stating what I had found and the assumptions I had made and finished in time to wash and join Alexa for dinner.

"You look pleased with yourself," Alexa said as we took our places at the table.

"I managed to narrow the list of potential merchants working with the raiders to two or three in each of the Master Puzzle's publication areas. Once we get a puzzle message, I think our odds of identifying the specific merchant are high."