Crucible of Truth by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781649710956
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing

Chapter Thirty

June 16, 2231, UTC Space Fleet Base Troy, Conference Room

Their return to the base hadn’t been as dramatic as Jia anticipated. They’d explained the basics of their history lesson to Anno over the comm before taking off and Jia had written up a report, which they’d chosen to send to everyone on their team. The government could make their own decisions about how much they wanted to release.

Now Jia and Erik awaited the vice-director in a conference room. He’d specifically instructed them to come alone and warned them that they’d be cut off from Emma during the meeting. They had an inkling about what he intended, but they weren’t going to shoot their way out of a conference room on a Fleet base. They might have their disagreements with the government, but right now, they wanted to work with everyone to stop the Core.

Jia kept quiet, not wanting to accidentally say something in the obviously monitored room that Anno might use against her later. Erik was doing the same. They sat in near-total silence for ten minutes after the scheduled time, then Anno entered without fanfare. He headed to the front of the table and sat.

Anno pinched the bridge of his nose. “Part of me wants to bitch because you’ve brought more trouble, but I can’t complain when you come back and hand off the complete background of our greatest enemy. It would have been better if you’d brought in Barbu for further questioning. It was convenient, though—your little trip to Germany.” He leaned forward with an accusing look. “According to the DD, they have some evidence that surveillance of Dr. Aber was disrupted for a few minutes the other day. You were fairly close to her around that time.”

“Were we?” Erik shrugged. “We were too busy hearing an old man admit to mass murder to worry about a disgraced retired scientist.”

Anno scoffed and nodded. “Did you go to Germany knowing you were going to meet Barbu?”

“We thought we had a lead.” Erik smirked. “It turned out it was bigger than we knew.”

Anno looked at Jia. She nodded her agreement with Erik’s statement but didn’t add anything. The vice-director could suspect what he wanted, but they needed to give Emma her chance to finish. The government might not break up the team out of necessity, but if they knew what she was up to, they could make sure her new core matrix never got anywhere near the jumpship.

Jia cleared her throat. “Were you able to confirm anything he said? I know it was a long shot, given how long ago we’re talking. I believed him, and it does fit what we know, but…”

Anno chuckled. “There are a number of very confused historians wondering why the Intelligence Directorate suddenly brought them in for questioning while also making them sign non-disclosure documents. We can’t confirm everything he said when we’re busy concentrating on the defense of our main systems, but there is at least some tentative evidence supporting his claims, including unusual activities around the time period by a wealthy industrialist named Elias Castnar.

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