Saxon's Raid by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-21T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“Long-range sensor readings show no sign of unusual activity at Relay Two,” reported Benedetti. “No sign that any Council ships are heading out that way either. As far as we can tell, there’s no sign of trouble.”

Saxon nodded, looking across the table at her, and replied, “Have you managed a breakdown of the personnel stationed out there?”

She pulled out a tablet, brandishing it in front of her like a shield, a quartet of faces on the display, saying, “They’ve been out there now for three months, and it’s their second tour of duty as a combined team. The boss is an old warhorse called Elijah Mackenzie…”

“Old Eli’s out there?” Dietrich said. “I thought he’d retired.

“You know him?” Saxon asked.

Nodding, the technician replied, “Sure I do, and we just might have a break there. He’s a tough old bastard, but he doesn’t have much love for the Council. Nor anyone else, for that matter. He’s got to be pushing seventy…”

“Seventy-four, actually,” Benedetti said. “I get the impression from his record that his superiors decided he was better off as far out into the dark as possible, but there’s no record of any political concerns, and he’s been pretty outspoken against ‘terrorists’ more than once.”

“The others?” Saxon asked.

“Two engineers, Veronica Ortega and Mike Strickland, both with good service records. Ortega’s working on an engineering doctorate, specialist in computers, which might not be so good. Strickland’s a thirty-year veteran who has gone precisely nowhere. He’s a reliable, competent workman. That’s about all, though again, no sign of security concerns.”

“And the final member of this merry band?”

“Kenneth Cook,” Benedetti said, “and his record screams that he’s working covertly for Colonial Security. Maybe they’ve got concerns about one of the others on the station, or maybe it’s just general principles. Qualifications list him as one step above mediocre, and he’s got a series of adequate-at-best evaluations behind him, but he’s somehow managed to get and keep this job.”

“Any chance that he just doesn’t play well with others?” said Dietrich.

Shaking her head, Forbes said, “If he’s who I think he is, no chance at all. I think I ran into him out at Phoebe once, running stores. The guy is by-the-book to the point of insanity. Everything has to be triple-checked and referred to higher authority. The guy seemed to think that everything in the inventory was his personal property.”

“I’ve met more than a few quartermasters who thought that way,” said Saxon, a wry smile on his face. “Sounds like a crew of exiles…”

“But Cook had a habit of taking bribes,” Forbes pressed, “and could be a bit careless about it. Sooner or later he was either going to end up being taken down by Colonial Security, or end up working for them.”

“It fits the profile,” Benedetti said. “We used to cultivate informers all the time, especially out on the more distant stations. It’s a lot easier to use blackmail to increase manpower than push budgetary changes through the Council.” She sighed, then added, “I took part in operations like that myself, more than once, before I could openly defect.

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