Empire of Light

'You're saying you could have done things better?'

Martinez sighed. 'Once word about this gets around, everyone's going to be wondering if they'll be next. What you need to do now is make them feel like you're in control of things, because you're the reason we're all here. And if you thought your job was hard before, it's about to get an awful lot harder. I mean, you do realize Dakota's going to be top of everyone's shit list when they start looking for someone to blame for his death? Assuming,' he added, 'that she didn't do it herself

Corso let his shoulders sag. 'All right,' he conceded, 'what do you suggest?'

'Talk to Dakota – Lamoureaux as well. See if their stories add up, and if they do we can get on with finding out who actually did do this.'

'Fine. I'll talk to Dakota first.'

'We'll both talk to her.'

'No,' Corso shook his head fiercely, 'I'll talk to her alone. The rest we can interview together.'

Martinez fixed him with a look that made Corso wonder if he was asking for too much this time.

'All right.' Martinez nodded at Olivarri's corpse. 'We'll play it your way for now, but just for now. Just show me you've got a handle on things.'

'Thank you, Eduard. Right now she needs to work with Ted to get the rest of the data-space back online, but I'll talk to her as soon as they're finished.'

'No.' Martinez shook his head slowly. 'Don't try to thank me. Just figure out what the hell's going on before anyone else ends up like this.' 'Are you serious?' Dakota looked offended. 'You think I had something to do with Olivarri's death?'

Corso leaned against a bulkhead and closed his eyes for a moment. They were back in the debriefing room located on the centrifuge. Dakota slumped back in her chair, her eyes puffy and red from too much stress and too little sleep. They had all been working long and hard at getting the last of the systems online.

Tension had hung heavy in the air since Olivarri had been found dead less than twelve hours before, and large parts of the frigate had been declared off-limits. People got on with their jobs, or talked over food in one of the canteens, but it was impossible to miss how they all kept glancing over their shoulders, or the careful way they looked at each other. Corso could feel it too: the sense that nowhere was safe.

'You know that I have to ask, because no one but you and Ted has the kind of high-level access needed to pull something like this off

She gave him a withering look. 'Nice to know you've got my back, Lucas.'

'Jesus and Buddha, Dakota, I only just managed to convince Martinez to let me talk to you on my own.'

'Why? What is it you don't want him to hear?'

'For a start, he's better off not knowing about some of the things that happened at Nova Arctis. It's a matter of public record that the Uchidans mind-controlled you at Port Gabriel, but if he knew how Trader did it to you a second time, he'd lock you up or throw you out the nearest airlock, and to hell with me or the Mos Hadroch.'

'And that's what you think is happening to me?'

Corso felt his face grow hot. 'I'd be an idiot if I ruled it out.'

She stood up and leaned against the table, facing him obliquely, her arms folded defensively over her chest. 'Then I'm ruling it out for you. And, in answer to your next question, I've barely even spoken to Olivarri, except for the one time we were out on the hull working on some repairs along with Dan.'

'There's no possible way Trader could have got to you somehow, without your being aware of it?'

'Look, what Trader did to me back then was a kind of rape. But he had to get physically close before he could do it. I'd know if he tried anything like that again, and he knows that I'd know.'

'And yet you said you met him in person, the time he gave you control over the Meridian weapons.'

'That's true,' she nodded, 'but there still wasn't any direct or even indirect contact of any kind. Certainly nothing physically passed from him to me in any way.'

'But it doesn't always have to be physical, does it?'

'No, but this time I'd have known it. If I'd been affected in any way, the Magi ship would have told me.'

'Except that your Magi ship isn't around any more.'

'Yes, but…' She hesitated. 'Look, I see where you're going. But if I was compromised, Ted would know.'

'All right.' Corso moved away from the wall and came closer to her. 'Can you think of a reason why anyone might want to kill Olivarri? Even Trader?'

'Hell if I know,' she replied. 'Have you talked to Trader?'

'I did. He says he knows nothing about it. But even if he's lying, what can we do?'

Take his yacht away, for a start. Dakota wasn't ready to tell Corso or anyone else just what Moss had given her at Derinkuyu. She had thought more than once of trying a gentle infiltration of the Shoal-member's ship, but had held back for fear such an intrusion might be detected.

'I can't make any suggestions when it comes to the rest of the people on board,' Dakota replied. 'They tend to… keep their distance.'

'They do?'

She shot him a look of a

A strange look passed over Corso's face, as if he had suddenly remembered something.

'What?' asked Dakota, peering at him.

'Nothing,' said Corso, a little too quickly. 'Look, it's true the rest of them can't help but remember what happened at Port Gabriel every time they see you. But that just makes it all the more important to prove you've not been compromised in the same way again.'

'And how do you propose to do that?' she asked, tightening her lips into a thin, bloodless line.

'Remember how I tracked down and destroyed the routines that Trader placed in your head back at Nova Arctis? Well, the med-bay should be up to the same job, and a deep scan on your implants would show if they're clean or not.'

Dakota's expression turned defiant, but Corso could detect the faint dampness at the corners of her eyes.

'All right,' she said, standing up. 'If that's what it takes. But you're going to have to persuade Ted to do the same.'

'I've already talked to him,' said Corso, straightening up once again. 'He's going to meet us there.' They found Ted Lamoureaux waiting at the entrance to the med-bay. He was looking distraught.

'You'd better take a look inside,' he said. 'I've already alerted the bridge.'

Dakota and Corso entered and immediately saw that the diagnostic equipment had been badly vandalized. Every unit above the examination table was blackened and burnt with scorch marks.

Lamoureaux came in behind them. 'I got here about twenty minutes ago,' he said. 'Everything's fried except for the medboxes.'

Dakota surveyed the damage, feeling suddenly numb. The labyrinth of bays and corridors that contained the med-bay was one part of the ship they had not searched during their hunt for Olivarri earlier.

Lamoureaux pushed past them, bringing himself to a halt by grabbing the edge of the examination table and pulling himself close to it. He reached up and levered open a panel on the side of one of the diagnostic units, revealing the scorched and blackened circuitry.

It occurred to Dakota that the easiest way to go around destroying the diagnostic gear would have been by using a handheld plasma cutter, just the kind of thing you would expect to find lying around a ship like the Mjollnir.

'The Commander told me to get here as fast as I… shit.'

Dakota turned to see Nancy Schiller appear in the doorway. She stared at the ruined sca