She motioned him to follow.

  “I’ll do what I can, Trevor.”

  They passed through the quiet lobby outside her office. This area teemed during IC sessions.

  “I enjoyed your speech,” she said. “You struck the right balance. I’ll expect to see that same leadership style in the coming days. Amity will need it.”

  Trevor’s keep-calm-and-carry-on remarks lasted three minutes. His Chiefs reported no initial disturbances.

  “The delayed transmissions will be hitting the station soon. I can’t guarantee the peace will hold.”

  “Hmmph. If there’s trouble, it will be short-lived. Trust me.”

  He didn’t care for the implication. Haas told him not to ask.

  “This way.”

  She took him down a narrow corridor with small offices on either side. The Executive employed almost as many residents at peak as Central Administration.

  Haas did not speak as they took a left, a right, then entered a stairwell. She led him up two levels and stopped at the landing inside a door bearing the giant label B5.

  “Do you know what’s special about this location?”

  “Not a clue, Kieran.”

  “We’re in a blind spot. There are no secure cams or audio sensors on the stairwell from Levels 4 to 6. An aide discovered the flaw two years ago. She wrote up a lovely report detailing the necessary upfits. I buried it.”

  Great. I’m hanging out in a stairwell with the President of the Collectorate. This can’t possibly go wrong.

  “Why hold onto a blind spot?”

  “It’s a private place in a public building. People rarely use these stairs. They’re a relic of the old Ark Carrier. Most prefer the lifts and the ramps.”

  She was half-right. Few used them because most residents didn’t know they existed. Trevor and Connor chased each other up and down these stairs after they arrived. Haven and Episteme had none.

  “Isn’t your office a private space?”

  Haas tapped his nose, as if he were a silly boy.

  “One would think. One would think wrong.”

  “Wait. The Office of the President is being monitored?”

  Haas shrugged.

  “As is yours, Trevor. As are so many.”

  Even his paranoia had its limits.

  “What are you even talking about? We’re a secure facility. We have safeguards in place to prevent third-party surveillance.”

  Trevor bit his tongue right away. Haas giggled.

  “We track everyone’s LinkPass history. You use it to solve crimes, rescue people in crisis, and expel others from this station.”

  “OK. Yes. You’re right. But that’s not what I’m talking about. We don’t use surveillance devices in homes or offices.”

  “We don’t.”

  Trevor’s cheeks dropped. Maybe she hadn’t gone over the deep end.

  “Who? How?”

  She drew close to Trevor, much to his agitation. The perfume tickled his nose.

  “I think you know.”

  She’s trying to trap me into saying the wrong thing.

  Mau answered.

  “The bag is honest. The Enzathi senses no attempt to deceive.”

  Trevor gave in to the assessment and played along.

  “Why am I just now hearing about it?”

  “Because it must not be exposed.”

  Only a left hook would have caught him more by surprise.

  “Wait. We’re being spied on in our offices, and you want it to continue? Now I’ve heard it all.”

  Haas grabbed his arm again. Same place, softer touch.

  “If we remove the devices, they’ll know we’re onto them. People will die. Not right away. They’ll wait until it’s explainable. I’ll be first.”

  Trevor backed away. If the Enzathi were right, Haas believed what she said. What if the Enzathi couldn’t analyze a vivid imagination?

  “I don’t know, Kieran. This sounds over the top.”

  She tucked at his ruffled collar. Trevor wondered whether she wanted to divulge secrets or seduce him.

  “It’s an embarrassing security breach,” she said. “But it’s been in place longer than you’d think.”

  “For what purpose?”

  She slipped a hand around the back of his neck.

  Yep. Seduction.

  “It’s complicated. So, allow me to pose a scenario. Imagine you run a covert organization intent on restructuring the human race top-down. Your problem lies in the simple fact that humanity is spread out over a thousand light-years and forty star systems. It’s a huge undertaking. Won’t be easy. Among your many strategies, wouldn’t you try to monitor everyone of importance?”

  Trevor heard countless hypotheticals over the years – he engaged in more than his share of such paranoid fantasies – but recent events lent this one a ring of truth.

  “I might,” he said. “How would I use this intel?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You might design military or political strategies. You might discover like-minded recruits. You might make political alliances. You might establish sleeper cells. You might embrace chaos agents.”

  A new jigsaw puzzle came together in a hurry.

  “I see. Might I brainwash people to become my followers?”

  “Absolutely. It would be essential to a long-term strategy.”

  “Might I name this plan after a mass for the dead?”

  She pulled away and broke eye contact.

  “You would, Trevor. You’d make sure it was a name spoken only by the truest believers. And those who spoke it out of turn would be silenced.” She swung around in a flash. “So, we will not say it today or ever. Agreed?”

  Connor made a similar warning with an implied threat. Haas said it with a quiver of fear.

  Shit. If she’s afraid ...

  “Why don’t you go public? You’re the President.”

  She laughed off the notion.

  “Of course. I could sound like a crazy woman with no tangible proof. Not long after, everyone genetically connected to me – even in the most distant sense – would die, along with just about anyone inside a two-kilometer radius.”

  Mau did not wait for Trevor’s inevitable question.

  “The bag’s words are guided by terror. She does not deceive.”

  Trevor felt some of that terror chill his own blood.

  “I don’t understand, Kieran. The last thing Lana Devonshire ever said to me was: ‘Haas is Requiem’.” The word they banned a moment ago fell from his lips. If all this was a trap, they nabbed him. Might as well play on. “What you’re suggesting is the opposite.”

  Water pooled in her eyes.

  “Oh, gracious Lana. She said what you needed to hear. If you were ever interrogated, you’d point the finger to me. You would be my life insurance.”

  “OK. So, you’re not working against me. I think. Help me out. Explain why I should trust you.”

  She leaned against the door and sighed long and deep.

  “I smoked digipipes for years. I never should’ve given them up.” Haas chuckled. “Black Star began four years ago on Azteca. It expanded quickly. My predecessor helped. I don’t know if Kara Aleksanyan ever saw the big picture. She was paranoid, like you.

  “She hired Black Star’s founders to assassinate political enemies. She paid them well. My operatives uncovered it, with the help of SI. We were close to exposing her. It would have been a Constitutional crisis. Then she went to Riyadh for a state visit. She and the Emir were assassinated.”

  Trevor heard rumors of her corruption at the time and accepted them. They died down after Aleksanyan’s death and the resulting military action against the Riyadhi faction responsible.

  “I always hoped I was wrong about her,” he said.

  “You were, to some degree. She ordered most of those assassinations at the behest of someone else. Someone who told her it would be best for humanity’s future. But the same someone’s threat was her true motivation. It was the same one I received after I took office in her wake.”

  Fuck me.

  “Riyadh ... was it connected?”

  Haas nodded.

  “Kara had one conversation with her Head of Security where she expressed doubts. She didn’t want to continue the arrangement. Someone overheard. She was unaware of the surveillance. They staged Riyadh and made me Kara’s heir. They plan far ahead.”

  The last of the jigsaw clicked into place.

  “Him, you mean. He plans far ahead. Each of us is one piece among thousands to be moved. ‘So fluid are the streams between the stars.’”

  Haas wiped away tears but could not hide from the truth: She recognized those words.

  “You’ve known Nexus for years,” Trevor said.

  “Not by choice. No one makes his acquaintance by choice.”

  “Who is he?”

  “I met him once. He was disguised behind a shifter.”

  “Why today, Kieran? Why tell me everything now?”

  Her smile felt like a cross between compassion and pity. She called off the seduction.

  “I want you to know why you’re Amity’s Governor.”

  “Already do. I’m a pawn to be manipulated.”

  “No, Trevor. Not a pawn. A champion. Someone Nexus believes will do his bidding but who has the power to fight him when the time comes.”

  OK. She’s insane. And I’m insane for listening.

  “Fight how?”

  “Think, Trevor. There’s no Congress. My hands are tied. You control the station’s security apparatus. The badges are loyal to you. No one knows Amity better. At this moment, you are one of the most powerful men in the Collectorate. Lana and I need you to see it through. It’s why we pushed out Murrill and moved you in.”

  Through all the puffery, one question popped into his mind.

  “Lana’s alive?”

  Haas nodded, but not with conviction.

  “I’ll tell you more in the coming days. Just know this, Trevor: There is a way through. It’s difficult but doable.” She checked the time stamp on her pom. “We can’t stay here any longer. Whoever’s watching might wonder where we’ve disappeared to. Are you with me?”

  As if he had any other job options.

  “I am.”

  “Very good. We’ll speak again soon. I ...”

  He couldn’t end it there.

  “There’s something you need to know. It might change everything.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Please don’t start with but.”

  What came next felt like a betrayal but also the only fair choice. If she wanted to fight back, the President needed to know the variables. Or one, at the very least.

  “My brother works for them. Requiem turned him into a killer.”

  Haas cursed under her breath and turned away.

  “Did you know, Kieran?”

  She shook her head.

  “I wasn’t sure. When I heard he arrived yesterday for leave, I suspected. The timing was too close. Trevor, I’m sorry.”

  Trevor’s voice quivered. His eyes welled with water.

  “I won’t hurt him. I can’t.”

  She hugged Trevor. Haas felt like an ordinary, caring woman in his arms, not the Collectorate’s most powerful politician.

  “Understood,” she whispered. “But it makes what we have to do next even harder.”

  “Which is?”

  “I want you to leave through Level 5. Take the lift. We’re due at the spaceport in twenty minutes. Landing zone 12.”

  His stomach knotted.

  “Why?”

  “A contingent from the Guardian fleet’s replacement is arriving. They’ll want a tour of the station. You’ll be appointed a military liaison.” She swallowed hard. “I need you to be on your best behavior. Stay composed at all times.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Haas offered an apology before she explained.

  Trevor wasn’t shocked by the news, though he might have been on any other day. Stacked against everything else, it seemed par for the course.

  24

  TREVOR TOOK A MOMENT for himself alone on the spaceport’s observation platform. He linked into Master Control to hear comms between Portmaster Shee and the command deck of the Guardian fleet’s replacement. Routine business, for the most part. The new ship arrived ahead of schedule, like everything else on Requiem’s timetable.

  “The cynics are right,” Trevor said to no one. “Life is a cruel joke. Players strutting on a stage. Sound and fury signifying nothing.”

  Mau answered.

  “The Enzathi disagrees. Life is bountiful surprise.”

  Trevor laughed. Was this how his days would play out from now on?

  “Sorry, Mau. I didn’t ask for a debate. We’ll need to set ground rules if this partnership is going to work.”

  Mau inched forward, his quarter-smile shifting to half-smile.

  “Then you agree with the Enzathi’s proposal?”

  “Two hours is not enough time. If I give myself to you, I’ll never be the same.”

  “All bags grow and change. Same is static. Static is impossible.”

  Trevor tightened his grip on the balustrade.

  “Humans. We are called humans. If you won’t translate even that one word, how I can trust you or your proposal?”

  Mau forced a complete smile.

  “The Enzathi will try to accommodate.”

  “Thank you, Mau. I’ll call upon you the next time I want your contribution. Please go.”

  When did he start addressing the avatar as if he were the original man? Yeah, maybe the barriers lowered too soon.

  The Enzathi’s proposal made too much sense. Its timing too perfect. Its goal equally terrifying and exhilarating. It gave Trevor a fighting chance beyond anything Kieran Haas might have in mind.

  If I do this, I can’t come back.

  What was the alternative? Release the Enzathi. Free it to find a more suitable vessel. Hope the new union did not add to the long list of darkening threats.

  I can do this without their help. I know it.

  The moment he saw the military Scramjet pass through the cascade barrier, Trevor’s confidence took a dive.

  “This day will not end.”

  He reached Landing zone 12 as the Scramjet Pennix completed dock procedures. He joined the President and Lt. Stallion.

  “Wasn’t expecting you, Connor.”

  The Lieutenant burst with pride.

  “You must not know, bruv. These are my mates. My crew. I was alerted when they jumped in.”

  Your mates. Requiem. Of course, they are.

  “Will they be as much as fun?”

  He couldn’t help the snark, but Connor’s steeled jaw said Trevor had crossed a line.

  “These are some of the finest people I know, T. We’ve been to war together. Show them the respect they deserve.”

  “Is that a command, Lieutenant?”

  Haas poked him in the side.

  “Come now, Governor. Let’s show appreciation to our new guardians.”

  Loosely translated: Get with the cudfrucking game!

  Five officers departed the Scramjet. The tallest of the lot, leading the way and no doubt the Captain, was flanked by three women and a thin, wiry man with a broad mustache. Only one mattered to Trevor. He focused on the Hokki woman to the Captain’s right.

  She returned as she departed: In uniform. Otherwise, few features resembled the woman he briefly called partner.

  Hoshi Oda seemed inches taller in the blue and gray, her chest also decorated in bars and stars. The hair was shorter – buzzcut around the sides. No innocence, no naivete, nothing placid about her. The desperate, defeated coit he trapped in the Raison Club had been nicely tucked away.

  At least Haas gave him a heads-up. There’d be no need for a moment of shock and awe followed by twenty questions.

  The President stepped forward to greet the contingent.

  The five officers came to a stop and saluted Haas.

  Interesting. Who’s really in charge here?

  “Madam President,” the Captain said, extending his hand. “On behalf of the Hampton Wave, we’re honored to protect Amity Station. Capt. Andre Felt.”

  Haas gave her political all, sporting a well-spring of enthusiasm.

  “I’ve heard a great deal about your amazing work. I’m thrilled the Admiralty chose you to safeguard the station.”

  “Thank you, mam.” Felt turned to Trevor. “Gov. Stallion. Your brother here speaks of you with enormous pride.”

  Trevor improvised without going for the snark.

  “I’m sure Lt. Stallion lays it on thick. I’m just doing my job.”

  Felt glanced between the brothers, who flanked Haas.

  “Connor has proven himself a remarkable patriot and soldier in a short time. If his courage and leadership runs in the family, I’m sure we’ll have a fine working relationship.”

  Courage. Leadership. Cold-blooded murder. Yep.

  Felt turned to the woman at his immediate left.

  “Madam President, Gov. Stallion, may I introduce my XO, Col. Cessa Tyloe. No finer commanding officer in the fleet.”

  Tyloe offered Trevor and Haas a curt nod with a staid grin. She struck Trevor as someone who never lost an argument.

  Felt continued, calling forward the pencil-thin man with a pronounced mustache.

  “Mid-Star Lt. Karson Delhi is our intelligence officer.”

  Unlike Tyloe, this man offered both recipients an enthusiastic handshake. He hit Trevor with a rock-solid grip one might expect of a muscular behemoth like Connor.

  “Governor, I’d like to arrange a meeting tonight if possible with Shireena Balance, your Director of Safety and Profiling.”

  Trevor didn’t make the mistake of flinching or asking why.

  Give them what they want.

  “Certainly, Lieutenant. I’ll arrange it.”

  “Perfect. There are a few urgent matters I wish to address. On second thought, I’d prefer to speak with her entire team.”

  “Of course.”

  Delhi glanced at Connor.

  “Among the most pressing is the operation our outstanding Lt. Stallion executed. We understand there may be complications in regard to your on-site personnel. I have a simple solution. So, at Director Balance’s earliest convenience.”

  What else to do but comply? Another coverup, no doubt. In fairness, Trevor already swept many things under the rug.