Звезда Пандоры

At eleven o’clock Rafael Columbia appeared in the office. He was dressed in his full admiral’s uniform, with several staff officers in attendance. Everyone in the office stopped what they were doing to look at him.

Paula stood up just as he reached her door. “Wait for me,” he told his officers, and closed the door.

“Admiral,” Paula said. She closed the file in her virtual vision that had been displaying the names of everyone she’d informed of a target arriving at Seattle, along with their time frame.

He gave her a humorless smile as he sat in the visitor’s chair. “Commander.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Ordinarily, I would say you can explain your latest fuckup. But, frankly, I think we’ve gone beyond that, don’t you?”

“Los Angeles was unfortunate, although we did learn that…”

“Not interested. It was a half-assed operation from the start. And that is indicative of the way you run things. Some target appears out of nowhere, and without any planning or prior notification you put an underresourced team on pursuit duties. Not only that, but when things go wrong, you drag half of the LAPD into the operation just in time for them to watch it blow up in our face. We’re a fucking laughingstock, Commander. And I will not tolerate that.”

Paula saw how much anger was behind Columbia’s steely expression, and realized she was going to have to confide in him. “I’m sorry about the negative publicity, but I can assure you the operation was planned with considerable forethought. I used a small team for a reason.”

“Which was?”

“I believe there is a leak of some kind in navy intelligence. I have been running isolation and identification operations for some time in an attempt to identify the source.”

Rafael Columbia’s face darkened. “A leak?” he said with false calm.

“There has to be.”

“And you didn’t bother informing me nor Lieutenant Hogan about this?”

“I was waiting for some concrete results first.”

“So then you don’t have a suspect, yet?”

“No, sir, not yet.”

“Outside your suspicions, is there a single shred of evidence to back up this allegation against your fellow officers?”

“I believe Venice Coast was…”

“Ah! The other very public setback you inflicted on us.”

“As I was saying,” she said forcefully. “Venice Coast was leaked. The unknown attacker must have received information from a source inside the navy.”

“And this unknown attacker, who was wetwired with the most sophisticated armaments the Commonwealth can produce, is working for Johansson’s Starflyer?”

“That is an option.”

“An option you’ve been shouting very loudly to your political allies.”

“Somebody has been deflecting my investigation for decades. I need to start widening my approach.” She just held back from telling him what Thompson Burnelli had told her.

Rafael Columbia took a small paperscreen from his pocket. He held it up as it unfurled. “Recognize him?”

Paula stared at the image on the paperscreen. “That’s the Venice Coast attacker.” The image had been taken from a bad overhead angle, and he was wearing sports whites, but she would never mistake that face.

“I’m glad we agree on something. That image was given to me by Senate Security. It was taken by a camera at the Clinton Estate. That is the man who walked out of Thompson Burnelli’s squash court after the Senator was murdered.”

“He wouldn’t,” she whispered in horror. Sheldon eliminating his political opponents? I don’t believe it. That’s not how the Grand Families and Intersolar Dynasties operate. Something is wrong about this. Badly wrong.

“Who wouldn’t?” Rafael demanded.

“The murderer. Why would he be used to kill the Senator?”

“I don’t fucking know. But according to you, he goes around causing mayhem on the orders of a navy officer.”

“I did not say that, and you’re a fool if that’s what you think.”