Part 56 (1/2)

”Raymont, sir. Traffic controller on the Seraph Angelma.s.s Catapult. It's-well, it's a little late now, sir; they've already gone through. I was wondering if you wanted us to send a backup shuttle along with them. Or behind them, now.”

”If this is supposed to be making sense, it's not,” Forsythe growled. He didn't have time for games. ”Who and what are you talking about?”

”Why, the rescue mission, sir,” Raymont said. ”The blue-three code. The woman on the Gazelle said-”

”The Gazelle?” Forsythe cut him off.

”Yes, sir,” Raymont said. From the sound of his voice, it sounded like he was suddenly having trouble breathing. ”She said someone had been accidentally left aboard Central, and that you'd personally authorized a rescue mission even though the catapult was officially shut down, because a blue-three supersedes other orders...” He trailed off.

”I see,” Forsythe said, his voice sounding calmer than he would have expected it to. Preoccupied with the incoming threat, he'd completely forgotten about Kosta and his theories about Angelma.s.s. ”When did they go through?”

”About two minutes ago, sir,” Raymont said, sounding thoroughly miserable now. ”Shall I send a shuttle after them? We could have something prepped in fifteen minutes.”

Forsythe looked up at the tactical. ”No, don't bother,” he said.

”Or one of the EmDef s.h.i.+ps could get there even sooner,” Raymont offered. ”We could recalibrate while it gets here-”

”I said don't bother,” Forsythe repeated firmly. ”Close down the catapult again, but leave your net operating. Sooner or later, they'll be wanting to come back.”

”Yes, sir,” Raymont said. ”I'm... yes, sir.”

Forsythe closed the phone, noting peripherally that General Roshmanov had disappeared sometime during the call. ”Kosta?” Pirbazari asked quietly.

”And Lalasha, and the Gazelle,” Forsythe confirmed, putting the phone away. ”They've gone to Angelma.s.s.”

”I see,” Pirbazari said, his voice gone suddenly hard and cool. ”I guess I should have sent someone to the hunters.h.i.+p yards after all.”

Forsythe frowned at him. The other's expression matched his voice. ”You have something to say, Zar?”

”We could have stopped him,” Pirbazari said, his voice just loud enough for Forsythe to hear over

the background noise. ”Instead, you let him go. A confessed Pax spy; and you deliberately let him go. Way the h.e.l.l out to Angelma.s.s, where he'll be conveniently out of the way when the Komitadjigets here.”

”What exactly are you accusing me of?” Forsythe asked quietly.

”I'm just wondering if you made some sort of deal with him,” Pirbazari said. ”If you did, shouldn't the rest of us be brought in on it?”

For a long minute Forsythe gazed at him, a part of him marveling at how rapidly it was all

unraveling. A single decision not to wear an angel... and now it had come down to suspicion of treason. ”I made no deals,” he said at last. ”But perhaps I should have.”

Pirbazari's eyes twitched. ”What's that supposed to mean?””The Komitadji is an impressive weapon,” Forsythe said. ”Very powerful, very dangerous. But as everyone is so fond of pointing out, the Pax wants conquest, not destruction.”

He nodded fractionally toward the sky. ”Angelma.s.s is a different matter. It's already attacked several hunters.h.i.+ps, and it looks like it's gunning for Central next.”

Pirbazari snorted. ”If you buy Kosta's theory.”

”Dr. Frashni confirmed what Kosta said about his experiment,” Forsythe reminded him.

”It's a long road from a nine-angel logic circuit to a mad killer black hole,” Pirbazari argued.

”Agreed,” Forsythe said. ”And the first step down that road is to gather more data. Which is precisely what Kosta's doing.”

”So he says,” Pirbazari countered. ”Maybe he just wanted to get himself out of the way of a fight.”

”No,” Forsythe said firmly. ”Think about it. Every hunters.h.i.+p in the yard has been grounded, which

means he could have taken his pick of them. Why take the Gazelle, which would logically be the first place we would start looking for him?””Maybe because he knew we wouldn't be looking for him,” Pirbazari said bluntly.”He took the Gazelle because it had his test equipment aboard,” Forsythe said. ”He's there to find out what's going on.”

Pirbazari's eyes were still hard, but Forsythe could see the suspicion fading a little. ”And not because you offered him a deal to let him sit out the battle?”

Forsythe gave a snort. ”If you think the vicinity around Central is safer right now than facing down the Komitadji, you're welcome to go sit out the battle with him.”

Pirbazari's mouth tightened. ”That was uncalled for, High Senator.”

”So was yours, Zar,” Forsythe said. ”Are we clear now?”

Pirbazari seemed to measure him with his eyes. ”For the moment.”

”Good,” Forsythe said. ”Then let's see if the rest of the s.h.i.+ps are in place yet.”

Chandris had never been aboard Angelma.s.s Central before, but she had studied the floorplans and procedures once during a quiet hour between angel hunts. Getting the Gazelle into the axis docking bay without inside personnel to a.s.sist was a challenge, but she managed it without too many false starts. The interface between the non-rotating bay and the rotating part of the cylinder was also a bit tricky, but again they got through without anything more serious than a bruised s.h.i.+n on Kosta's part.

”Quite a place,” Kosta called down to her over the chatter of gamma sparks as they headed down a narrow access ladder toward the operations area. ”Must have been fun duty being a.s.signed here.”

”I don't think it was usually this noisy,” Chandris called back up, feeling her heart thudding in her ears. The gamma sparking wasn't nearly to the noise level that it had been during the radiation surges, but it was definitely heading in that direction.

”I just hope it doesn't get any worse,” he called back. ”These electronics can't take this kind of beating forever.”

The station's designers had apparently had similar thoughts. The main catapult control complex, when they reached it, was considerably quieter than the approach had been. ”They must have laid on extra s.h.i.+elding here,” Kosta said as he turned in a slow circle, studying the softly glowing lights and displays. ”Looks like they left everything on. Good.”

”Including the net,” Chandris said, looking around and then starting up the ladder again. ”I'm going to go across to the other end and shut it down.”