We Dare by Eric Thomson

Author:Eric Thomson [Thomson, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989314234
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

— Twenty-One —

Secretary-General Brodrick Brüggemann looked up when he heard Firmin gently clear his throat by the open office door.

“Yes?” He put down his reader.

“Senator Hogue begs for five minutes of your time, Monsieur le Secrétaire général.”

Brüggemann swallowed a sigh of irritation. He already knew what she wanted and couldn’t muster enough energy to discuss the finer points of Commonwealth law with her. News of the New Oberon incident was spreading as predicted and had become the subject of debate in the Senate a few days earlier, with the expected Core Worlds-Out Worlds split, only it was more acrimonious than ever.

Though many privately pointed the finger at a rogue Armed Services unit for carrying out the raid on the Hogue estate, no one was foolish enough to say so openly, let alone on the Senate floor. And so far, Brüggemann’s administration was keeping the focus on criminal cartels.

Surprisingly, the Fleet was doing so as well instead of pointing out the cartels could only operate with such impunity because of political corruption on New Oberon and elsewhere. Even more astonishing, Grand Admiral Larsson had shared a summary of the Fleet’s findings with him. Of course, Larsson was following his own agenda, as Brüggemann well knew. But if their goals coincided for once, so much the better.

The matter of human trafficking victims coming from the Hogue family’s New Oberon estate wouldn’t go away, and Brüggemann could only hope against hope they found a way to deal with it that wouldn’t deepen the crisis. The estate itself was gone, along with the supposed cartel enforcers who worked there, and the Fleet’s evidence was too tainted for a court of law. But the court of public opinion would look for justice.

If Allard Hogue could make a good case he was unaware of cartel activities because he never visited and left matters in the hands of his trusted, and now sadly vanished manager, it might raise enough doubt to avoid a formal investigation. But if incontrovertible evidence surfaced, things would get ugly. Allard might well threaten to expose the colonial administration’s corruption should he find himself in front of a judge, which would reflect badly on the Commonwealth government as a whole.

And his cousin, Senator Graciela Hogue, who understood the ramifications should they not prevent the legal system from connecting her family with the Saqqa Cartel, wanted to make sure that would never happen. Brüggemann checked his calendar, knowing their conversation was inevitable.

Besides, Hogue and her colleague from Arcadia were among those who voted to install him as the Commonwealth’s head of state, and he couldn’t just brush her off.

“Tell the honorable senator it would please me to receive her at fourteen hundred hours today.”

“I shall do so right away, Monsieur le Secrétaire général.” Firmin bowed his head before withdrawing.

At the appointed time, he ushered Graciela Hogue, a short, plump fifty-something woman with a face permanently set in a disapproving frown, into Brüggemann’s office.

“My dear Brodrick. Thank you so much for receiving me at such short notice.

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