Viking (28 page)

“They did.”

Heward cursed softly, then leaned against the rough surface of a towering trunk. “So
let them rot.”

“I’d like to. But the transponder signal is part of the official mission log, and
anybody who audits us will see it right away and wonder why we didn’t go pick up part
of our crew.”

“So what?”

“You know what we’re sitting on here. When this breaks they’ll be looking for any
excuse to throw the book at me. As long as I’m marginally compliant with regulations,
I’ll get off with a few fines and some finger wagging, but they’ll be too interested in
the site to worry about minor issues. It’s worth the cost a hundred times over, even
when they carve a hole in our claim. We’ll build a spaceport and sell entry visas at
fifty thousand a head. But let them sniff out attempted murder or your nocturnal
activities and my goose is seriously cooked. I’ve got to act reasonably normal, and
normally we would want Orosco back.”

“I suppose you want a guarantee that he won’t actually get here.”

The voice in his ear rasped hoarsely. “Of course.”

“Well, I can’t just fly down there and blow him away. The other two would probably
be witnesses, and besides, you might have to produce the recording from my implants.
Unless I went during off-shift.”

“No way. You know I need you busy on our side project. Besides, waiting till
nightfall would look suspicious just by itself. Maybe if you picked a fight, like on
Morga Prime...”

Heward was shaking his head. “Orosco wouldn’t go for it. He’s not the type. And
anyway, I’m not too hip on another adventure with the self-defense plea.” He spat for
emphasis and folded his arms to hide a slight shudder. Much as he wanted to deny it,
Orosco scared him. Some subconscious warning bell had sounded the night of the pistol
whipping—a nagging unease about the lethal casualness of Rafa’s stance, the absolute
lack of concern in his eyes as he stood to be bullied. Heward had never had a man face
him that way, and he had no desire to repeat the experience.

After a pregnant pause, his invisible companion tried again. “I hear you almost had
a mid-air collision with some of those balloon-things the other day.”

“Yeah.”

“I guess it got a bit slippery on the deck. One of the vikings filed a
grievance.”

The beginnings of a thin smile returned to Heward’s lips as he anticipated the
suggestion that was coming. “It was a close call. If it hadn’t been for the straps,
he’d have fallen to his death.”

“How many seats up front in the skimmer?”

“Eight.”

“The small one?”

“Oh. It’s got three. But it’s been running really rough. Supposedly Latimer and his
control are trying to fix it.”

“Hope it gets those poor vikings back here in one piece.”

Heward snorted at the mock concern. “I’m glad I’ll be doing the acting. You couldn’t
fool anybody.” He rocked forward and began to push farther into the underbrush.

“Where are you going? The skimmer’s the other way, and you can leave right now, as
soon as I break the happy news that three missing souls are miraculously alive.”

“Go check on Latimer. I wasn’t kidding about that potty break.”

Agent Oristano studied her gleaming fingernails as she waited for a connection.
Brilliant colors suited her, but this particular shade of pink was a bit too neon to
pull off. Too bad the bureau frowned on tanners; a medium cherry wash on her arms and
neck would alter her complexion just enough.

If she weren’t in so bad with Geire right now, she’d do it anyway.

What a relief that Orosco’s signal had turned up again! Besides getting her off the
hot seat, it resurrected her entrepreneurial prospects just when she needed to make an
anonymous but hefty patch to Bruce’s bank account.

There was a click as her call finally went through. Bezovnik’s voice sounded even
more crabby than normal. “Yeah?”

“Me again.”

“Yeah.”

“You moved the base.”

“So?”

“Come on, Bezovnik. Fess up.”

No answer.

“That stampede was your salvation. When the dust cleared and days went by and I
didn’t call back with more nasty demands, you put two and two together and figured out
I was working through a viking who’d been trampled. I bet it was a liberating
feeling.”

“You have no idea.”

“Well guess what, Sherlock?”

“What?”

“You were right. I admit it. For a while there, I was afraid I’d have to go into
maintenance mode, and just threaten you periodically with what I could document up to
the time of the accident. A boring career for a blackmailer, with no prospect for pay
raises.”

“You bled me for plenty.” Bezovnik growled.

Oristano laughed. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Is there a point to all this banter?”

“The point is that I’m back, and now I’m not after small potatoes. As soon as your
hands were free, you dropped all pretenses and moved right to that mineral deposit
you’re so excited about. If that’s really what it is. And you played right into my
hands.”

“How?”

“I knew about those three survivors as soon as you did. Isn’t modern communication
wonderful?”

“So what?”

“So you’re in checkmate. My informant’s alive and soon to be gratefully reunited
with the crew. That gives you heartburn, I bet; I know you’re pretty desperate not to
let the cat out of the bag about whatever you’re up to at the new headquarters. And
it’ll cost you a pretty penny to keep me quiet.”

“You’re assuming this informant will make it back to the crew alive.”

Again Oristano laughed. “Oh, Bezovnik, I really should call you more often. It does
such wonders to my smile and my pocketbook.” She paused, half-expecting a rejoinder,
but when none came she pressed on. “Don’t be so naïve. Even a child could predict
you’ll bump off the spy somehow. That’s the beauty of the situation.”

“It is?”

Oristano rolled her eyes. “Think about it. People open themselves up to blackmail
when they skulk around doing naughty things like that. Maybe you think this spy has to
run to the closet or the bathroom to make a secret report, and you’ll catch him in a
dark corner before he can call for help. Of course not. I tapped his implants. And if
you kill him I’ll be recording the whole thing in every bloody detail. Or maybe I’ll be
watching it live at local FBI headquarters, even. I bet they’d be really
interested.”

“Not all murders look deliberate.”

“They do when I have a recording of what you just said. There’s no distorter on your
voice, Bezovnik. I’ve checked. A voice print will ID you in a flash, even if you did
make this connection untraceable.”

There was a long pause.

Oristano licked her lips. She’d been debating this next part for almost an hour,
evaluating one Machiavellian twist after another. She wanted Orosco alive if she could
manage it, both as job security and to keep her options open. Bezovnik didn’t really
know who to finger as his leak. If she told him nothing he’d probably kill all three
just to be on the safe side. But if she gave him a name, he’d know she was lying.

“Go ahead, choose your poison. Want to kill my spy? It’s Orosco. Feel free to take
him out. Or bring him back and spill the beans about the real purpose of this mission.
I don’t really care which.”

“How much?” His voice sounded defeated.

“Ah. Ready to negotiate, are we?”

“How much?”

“Well, that depends on which option you choose. You kill Orosco and I lose a
valuable informant. Of course I’ve got the murder to hold over your head, but no more
fresh and juicy reports. My income stagnates. On the other hand, if you let him see the
skeleton in your closet, it’s uncharted territory. Maybe whatever it is, is worth more
than a murder.”

“Give me a number.”

“You know, I’m of two minds on this one. As a gambler I’m inclined to bet that
peeking at your new headquarters is worth more than documenting a murder. I think you
think so. But on the other hand, I’m not sure I want you as a long-term client. After
all, blackmail is a hazardous and stressful occupation. Maybe I’d be better off to take
a single lump payment and walk away.”

“What kind of a payment?”

“A hundred million.”

“Are you out of your mind? I could never come up with that kind of cash! I was
sweating bullets to find a way to shuffle the books just to get
one
million.”

“Act your age, Bezovnik. I don’t expect you to snap your fingers and produce that
kind of payoff.”

“How do I get it, then?”

“Some cash, of course. Also stock and plenty of options.”

“What?”

“Stock in MEEGO. You personally own shares worth six times that amount.”

“But I can’t just give them to you. There are all kinds of regulations.”

“Of course there are. But show a little creativity. Sell through the right chain of
middle men. Deed over a block to charity. Bribe your favorite representative from the
SEC. Or blackmail him; I might give you some pointers there. We could even get you
married off to some stooge go-between, wait a few weeks, then divorce her and use the
stock as alimony. We can work out the details.”

Bezovnik’s voice was trembling now. He sounded sick. “Why do you want stock?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m hedging my bets here. If your racket will really profit so
much from a little cover-up, then I get a share of the take. Think of it as padding my
retirement portfolio.”

“The mineral deposit’s pretty rich, but it’s not going to make a hundred million
worth of difference to my private pocketbook.”

Oristano lay back in her chair with a sigh. “Maybe I
have
set the threshold a
bit high. Not being fully privy to your secrets yet, that’s the unknown I wrestle with.
You can always take the pay-as-you-go approach. I’ll set my rates when Orosco gets back
to camp and I see what we’re dealing with.”

Now he was furious, and the guttural edge to his voice became more pronounced as he
spluttered. “Suck like a leech while it lasts! In a few weeks we’ll have the claim all
sewn up. Then I can afford a few fines and a legal staff to fight whatever dirt you
might release. Heaven knows it will cost me less than you do!” He broke the
connection.

Oristano was grinning like a Cheshire cat. She’d call again as soon as Orosco was
back in camp.

Julie raised her eyebrows. “You say some of them are viking broadcasts?” She spoke
loudly to overpower the sound of vacuuming from the hall outside her hotel room.

“Two of the longest streams.”

“But I don’t get it. None of the stuff we gave you was steady-state. Since when does
a viking flip a switch on his implants? And besides, the satellite that picked up these
transmissions didn’t get them through a planetside signal processor.”

The grandmotherly woman on her phone screen shrugged. “I can only tell you what
the decrypter told me. Most of the stuff was unintelligible, but he claims 87d and 29f
both originated with a viking.”

Julie tapped at her computer screen briefly to bring up stats on the signals she’d
forwarded. She felt a surge of excitement when she saw the timestamps. Both had been
transmitted to the satellite after the stampede.

“So these clips you just attached are the decoded versions?”

“Yeah. But they’re a straight audiovisual feed, not a full vid.”

“How come?”

“I guess it’s pretty badly garbled. The decrypter claimed he couldn’t quite get
everything coherent. Tried watching it as a vid and said the distortion almost made him
lose his lunch.”

“How much do I owe you?”

“A thousand.”

“That much?”

“Well, the decrypter had to do some custom programming to post-process the stream.
Said he was up half the night. Knowing him, that’s just a convenient line, but that
doesn’t make his invoice go away.”

Julie sighed. “All right, hold on for a second.” She keyed in a security code and
transferred the payment, thinking nervously about her next installment on the legal
bills, due at the end of the month. If she didn’t sell the house soon, her account
would be back in the red for good. The spur-of-the-moment trip to Houston hadn’t
helped.

On the screen, Madison nodded briskly to acknowledge the arrival of the funds.
“Okay, we’re even.”

“Well, I still owe you a favor. Thanks for getting this done on such short
notice.”

“No problem. We try to keep our translators happy... Speaking of which, you
interested in another job? We just got a big manual from Bolívar Mundial. It’s a rush,
as usual. You could make back double what you just paid me.”

Julie rolled her eyes with a grin. “You’re an incorrigible capitalist, Madison. If
it’s anything like their last release, the first chapter will be worth five thousand by
itself, and you know it.”

Madison smiled primly, completely failing in her bid to look apologetic.

“Anyway, I can’t,” Julie continued. “My life’s pretty much a disorganized shambles
at the moment. Maybe I’ll call you back in a couple days.”

“The manual has to be done by then.”

“I know. But you’ll doubtless have some other urgent project that you’re willing to
underpay me for.”

Madison snorted. “Under this crusty exterior is a heart of gold—you know that. Did
you notice my last attachment?”

Julie’s eyes flicked to the readout along the bottom of her screen. “You mean that
program at the end?”

“Yeah. I finagled it out of the decrypter, so you can unscramble stuff yourself. I
figured if he wanted to charge for programming time, the least he could do is fork over
the results.”

Julie shook her head in wry good humor. “I take back all the bad things I said about
you, Madison. You’re great.”

The gray-haired woman wagged her finger in mock admonishment. “Don’t you forget it,
next time I call with a job.” Then she winked cheerfully and broke the connection.

Julie continued to stare at the blank screen for a long time, pondering. She’d given
Madison a handful of the longest transmissions from the cache on the off-chance that
they might contain something useful—a clue to MEEGO’s behavior, perhaps, or hints about
what had happened to Rafa. But she hadn’t expected viking broadcasts. Supposedly,
vikings didn’t send out random, abbreviated snatches of radio waves; they emitted an
uninterrupted signal on a constant frequency.