Hunter's Return by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Avenger’s Archive was almost embarrassingly well-stocked with files containing secrets that Hunter had naively assumed were highly confidential, records that might have changed the course of the war. It had taken two cups of coffee for him to find the nerve to look up details of his last disastrous visit to Tau Ceti, that battle that had cost him his first command, the lives of so many of his friends.

The Federation had known more about the battle plan than he had. Their intelligence had totally infiltrated the upper levels of the Republic’s top command structure, and from what he could work out, the only reason that they hadn’t been able to make use of that advantage to bring an immediate end to the war was that the Republic had been able to gather a similar level of intelligence on the Federation.

And everywhere, he found signs that someone had been playing both sides, had been finding ways to feed information from one to another. None of them would be obvious to anyone not aware of the existence of the third party, the Olympian threat, but in retrospect, whenever it looked as though one side was on the verge of gaining an advantage that might provide some sort of edge, might allow a break in the stalemate, it was always countered, either through an intelligence leak or some sort of technological breakthrough. The Warp-Two drive seemed to be precisely such an edge, both sides seeming to develop it within months of each other.

Once could be a coincidence, or the result of good tradecraft, but it kept on happening, again and again, covered up sufficiently that it would take someone familiar with operations on both sides to realize the truth. He shook his head, reaching for a terminal to call up the files on Admiral Hawke, almost reluctant to see just how much material they had on his enemy.

Behind him, there was a knock on the door, and it slid open to reveal Lieutenant Mendez, a datapad in one hand and a bag in the other, the smell of curried chicken seeping through the material. Hunter turned with a smile, and gestured for him to put his load down on the table.

“Thanks for that, Lieutenant. I’m not sure I can remember when I ate last. You sure it isn’t a problem for me to eat in here?”

“We’ve all done it on research runs,” he replied. “Have you got all that you need, Commodore? All the access you require? It’s quite an extensive collection. I don’t think there’s a single part of your operations we weren’t fully informed about.”

“Not that I can see from a first glance, anyway,” Hunter replied. “You certainly had our measure. I’m amazed the war went on as long as it did.”

“And now we’re bringing it to an end,” Mendez said. “And in a pretty damned convenient way, at least from your perspective. We know all about you. Internal reports from your superior officers, making it clear that you were a Free Worlds sympathizer, that you were heavily involved in the Revolution on Hyperborea.

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