Violent Fires by Eric Thomson

Author:Eric Thomson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sanddiver Books Inc.

***

Chief Superintendent Kyra Bain listened to Delgado’s proposal, and when he fell silent, she nodded thoughtfully.

“You’re entirely correct. It would probably be better if the arrest were a police action rather than a military one.”

“So long as we can interrogate Bailo and her minions, I’m happy.”

“And once you’ve done so, what do you propose we do with them? I suppose the Garonne government can charge the lot with subversion, being accessories to mass murder and abetting an insurrection, among other grave offenses.”

“It could. Or you can hand them over to us. We’ll try them under the code of service discipline, seeing as they’re a hostile military force — albeit private — operating on Federation territory. If found guilty, the court will send them to a penal colony on Parth, possibly for the rest of their lives.”

Bain cocked an eyebrow at Delgado.

“I’m pretty sure President Verrill wouldn’t mind giving you jurisdiction. He has enough on his plate right now. So long as he can declare the emergency over and give the public a full accounting of what happened, he’ll be content.”

“Okay. We’ll play it that way. Did you want any of my people to accompany you?”

“As observers, sure. Perhaps a dozen to give my team an impression of greater heft.”

“A section of troopers, along with my Constabulary liaison and intelligence officer, then.”

Miko Steiger, now wearing the same sort of uniform as the rest of Ghost Squadron, with the tattoos and piercings gone and her now-blond hair in a conservative, albeit short style, entered the CIC at that moment and joined Delgado at his workstation. Her face still bore the bruising from the kicks she’d received but the cuts had been seen to by Iolanthe’s sickbay.

“I understand you’ve run the mercenary bastards down.”

“We have. Chief Superintendent Bain, meet Chief Warrant Officer Miko Steiger of Naval Intelligence. It’s thanks to her the Graysons are alive, and Sprax and his scum are dead.”

Bain nodded politely.

“A pleasure, Chief Warrant Officer. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through.”

“Likewise, and you really don’t want to imagine what I’ve seen.”

Delgado glanced up at Steiger.

“I’ve just been discussing the arrest of Bailo and her mercs with the chief superintendent and will send a section from D Troop as well as Aleksa and Jake to back up the Constabulary team that’ll take them in.”

“I want in on it, Curtis. If only to see Bailo’s face when I appear as if by magic, looking nice and clean.”

“You good with that, Chief Superintendent?”

“Sure. Chief Warrant Officer Steiger deserves a bit of satisfaction after what she did.”

“Right then. I’ll have them at the spaceport in one hour. That should give you enough time to organize the arrest team.”

“In that case, I’d better get going. Thanks for letting us have this one and for the intel on the site.”

Delgado waved her words away.

“De nada. We’re on the same team, and I figured we’d better do this one in accordance with the legal niceties. You won’t need a warrant?”

“No. This comes under operational exigency since you provided us with the data necessary to effect an entry and arrest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.