Connor said it best:

  What in ten hells have we walked into?

  Trevor closed the hologrid and stowed his pom.

  OK. Get it together. What now?

  The implications would extend far beyond Sec Admin and Maynor. He needed time to sort out the next steps. He needed ...

  “What a night!” Connor said with gusto.

  So much for planning.

  He grabbed his pistol, took a position behind Eliza’s corpse, and held the weapon at his side.

  What would he say first? Where would the questions begin?

  The answers terrified Trevor.

  After the door slipped open, the birdwoman stopped in the threshold and jerked back half a step. She froze for a few awkward seconds. Trevor wondered whether she was armed. Though his eyes were hidden behind the flippers, might she have recognized him?

  “Who are you?” A guttural male voice shouted. “What have you done to them?”

  Trevor raised his pistol and aimed between her eyes.

  “You can drop the voice modulator. It might have fooled them, but not me. Step into the room, Hoshi.”

  31

  HE GAVE HIS SECOND DEPUTY few options, but Trevor did not expect her to choose the most foolish. Rule number one for criminals on a space station: Don’t run. There’s no escape. Unless, of course, you fancy an airlock.

  Hoshi sprinted as far as the mountainous younger Stallion brother allowed – about a meter. Connor grabbed her with both arms and shoved her back into the doorway. To Hoshi’s credit, she employed the defensive techniques learned in UNF basic training.

  She broke free of Connor’s right arm, reached inside her outfit, and retrieved her pistol. A green bolt exploded from the plasma chamber and smashed into the center of Lake Sonang.

  Connor chopped down on her free arm. Hoshi grunted and dropped the weapon. Connor yanked both arms around her back and pushed her forward.

  “This little coit’s got an edge, bruv. Jabbed me in the jewels.”

  “You did great, C. Hold her tight.”

  Trevor stowed his weapon and patted her down. He found her pom and removed the voice modulator from beneath the feathered collar. He didn’t want to see her face; Trevor wasn’t sure he’d be able to control his actions.

  Like he had a choice.

  He removed the neck feathers, the wig, and the flippers. Her disguise gone, only Hoshi Oda remained. And yet, it wasn’t her.

  Sweat poured down her face. Her eyes belonged to a different animal from the one who wore the bar. Was it fear? Rage? Insanity? Simple bewilderment?

  Trevor thought she aged twenty years from the woman he’d known for all of two days. He grabbed her by the chin and squeezed.

  “You called me ‘sir’ the first time we met. Then said, ‘Ready when you are.’” She didn’t reply, not a single hint of pain even as he tightened his grip. “You made a fool of me. All of us. I sat in my office today and described the killer’s profile. I told you what parameters to search for.”

  Trevor’s chest hurt, or maybe it was just his pride.

  He laughed in her face before he turned away.

  “I was describing you! And the shame of it is, I never suspected you for a nanosecond. I saw the entire picture, but I was too fucking arrogant to think someone wearing the bar was behind it all.”

  As Trevor tried to regain self-control, soft string music filled the silence. Under any other circumstance, it might have soothed his battered ego and lessened his roiling fury.

  Trevor grabbed Hoshi’s weapon, which lay near the door.

  “Throw her down, C. Don’t be gentle.”

  “With pleasure, bruv.”

  She hit the floor on her side and came up holding her right wrist. Trevor handed the extra pistol to his brother.

  “I can’t play this by the regs,” he whispered to Connor. “There’s never been a situation like it before.”

  “Uh, you want to tell me who she is?”

  Trevor realized his oversight.

  “My Second Deputy, Hoshi Oda.”

  Connor’s double-take was a fitting capper to the night.

  “Whoa. Wait. This is your partner? T, I don’t know what ...”

  “Don’t bother. I’m at a loss myself. Look, earlier you mentioned there’s a staff entrance to Raison. Right?”

  “I think it’s Level 2, directly under the Spin Rooms.”

  “Thanks, C. For now, why don’t you guard the door? I doubt she has an accomplice, but let’s play it safe.”

  Connor laid a hand on his shoulder, the supportive kind one gives in lieu of saying, “Sorry for your loss. Here if you need me.” Did Connor ask the logical question: “How could you not know?”

  Trevor refused to fall back on the easiest excuse: “She was my partner for two days.”

  Two days, two hours. It shouldn’t have mattered. The clues were there at every stage. He refused to accept them.

  Trevor grabbed a mat beside Ashraf’s body and dropped it a few feet in front of Hoshi. He took a seat and crossed his legs.

  His venom subsided.

  “You were good,” he told Hoshi. “Almost pulled it off. Anything you’d like to say before we begin?”

  She scrunched her face as if trying to hold back tears. Her teeth chattered.

  “Why did it have to be you?” She said, spitting her words. “I’m dead because of you. They’ll kill me, Trev. I’m dead.”

  Rage and fear. A usable combination.

  He pointed to the corpses.

  “No, Hoshi. They’re dead. Ulbrecht’s dead. But you? I’ll damn well make sure you live.”

  “You can’t stop them, Trev.”

  “I disagree. Unlike the Motif mastermind, your people don’t know what’s happened here. We can play it differently. Yes?”

  As he said the words, a horrible realization took over.

  Shit. She was at the security conference. She knows everything. How much did she report? Shit.

  Just another problem to face, but not the immediate one.

  Trevor flipped open his pom.

  “I recall you said yesterday that Chief Dorrit isn’t fond of wrist plates and impersonal forms of communication. He likes to be on site and take charge of the scene. You said that, yes?” She eyed him with understandable suspicion but did not reply. “Before I left the office today, he and I reached an understanding, given the urgency.”

  Trevor tapped his comm link and scrolled. He glared at Hoshi while waiting for an answer to his call. A blubbering voice responded.

  “What? Trevor? What time is it?”

  “Sorry to bother you at home, Chief. This is your personal pom?”

  “Yes. I was asleep for ten minutes. This had best be important.”

  “Today, I made you a promise. Now I’m keeping it. Chief, I’m with Ulbrecht’s killer. There have been complications. Three more bodies.”

  Dorrit’s shock echoed far beyond the pom.

  “Three? What in ten hells!”

  “Listen to me, Chief. We can’t do this on an official line. You need to come alone.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you ...?”

  “We’re in a Spin Room at Raison. There’s a staff entrance on Level 2. You need to enter through an override protocol. Ignore the regs and do not wear your uniform.” Trevor glanced over his shoulder. “My brother will be waiting. He’ll escort you up.”

  Connor nodded, but Dorrit sounded flustered.

  “Your brother? Trevor, you are not making sense.”

  “Fine, Chief. Here’s our killer.”

  Trevor activated the pom’s cam and flipped the device around. Hoshi looked away, as if that might do any good.

  After a predictable pause, Dorrit’s tone softened.

  “No. Not her. You must be ...”

  “She’s a Black Star agent. She killed three students, also working for Black Star. You understand our problem?”

  Trevor took the only practical course. If word got out that Sec Admin had been compromised ...

  “I’ll be there in ten,” Dorrit said, ending the call.

  Trevor stowed his pom.

  “You know how to get there?” He asked Connor.

  “No worries, T. But what if she’s working with someone?”

  “I’ll be fine. Stow the pistol in your side pouch.”

  “On it, bruv. Good luck with this coit.”

  Trevor glared at what his partner had been reduced to.

  “Luck,” he said for Hoshi’s benefit, “won’t play a role.”

  Alone now, Trevor gave the Hokki woman a moment to come to her senses. Might she think logically about her predicament?

  “It’s only going to get worse, Hoshi. You’ll be handed over to SI. They’ll bury you in a prison moon so deep, Black Star won’t waste their resources hunting you down.”

  He saw her gears churn. Perhaps she was searching for an escape mechanism.

  “I know my rights as a citizen of the Collectorate. You have to arrest me and charge me before a public panel.”

  “If I were playing this game by the regs? Sure. Then you’d likely join these three fools in the abyss. Hoshi, you have one chance at ever seeing the light of day. Right here, right now. Everything. Names, locations, dates.”

  He expected her features to soften with even the distant hope of freedom. Instead, Hoshi burrowed her eyes into tiny daggers.

  “Never. If I crack, they’ll go after my family. They’ll wipe out my entire neighborhood.”

  She seemed convinced, but Trevor wasn’t persuaded.

  “Oh, I’m sure the good guys will get to them first. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe they’re like you ... committed to the cause. Or whatever the fuck it is Black Star stands for.”

  Hoshi spit, but her pitiful effort fell short. The saliva formed a little puddle at his feet.

  “You don’t know, Trevor. People like you don’t know.”

  “Really? Tell me. We’ve got some time.”

  The same innocent smile she greeted him with yesterday now felt like the byproduct of a deranged mind.

  “My family were farmers for generations. My parents lost their land because it was poisoned by the seamasters. No one helped. We moved to the city and scraped by. We had nothing, but the seamasters and the elite classes, they rode high. They ignored us.

  “Until Black Star came. Now my brothers have jobs. My parents have dignity. We owed them, so I gladly took this assignment.”

  Gratitude. That’s her motivation? Great.

  “Your benefactors are ruthless killers, anarchists, and psychopaths. It’s dignified to work for that lot?”

  She sat up straight. Her crooked smile revealed the human beneath the human. That’s when Trevor understood: She’s been conditioned. How else could she have hid this rage for so long?

  “Dignity is having solid ground beneath your feet, Trevor. Dignity is knowing people give a damn what happens to you. Remember what you said yesterday about the seen and unseen on this station? When you said that, I almost thought you’d be an ally.”

  “Or at the very least, someone you could con. Yes?”

  She licked her lips. Did her eyes shift toward the bodies?

  “Ah,” he said. “Thirsty, I’d wager. The dance must have taken it out of you. Sorry I can’t help. Bad tea.”

  “Hah. Hah. People like you are so smug. You should hear yourself. Every time you announced a new theory about who did what to whom, you strutted around like the smartest man on the station. I wanted to laugh and throw it back in your face.”

  The notion was humbling. Trevor remembered Effie’s ironic words before he took the Haven job: “Build trust equity.” His wife meant well. Yet like every diplomat, she was far too self-assured.

  Trevor wasn’t certain how he’d learn to trust anyone again.

  “I imagine you had a private chuckle, Hoshi. For all the worlds, you tried to slow me down at every turn.” He softened his tone, delivering a feminine touch. “Oh, no, Trev. Don’t go in Ulbrecht’s flat. You’re violating his rights. Oh, no, Trev. Don’t report an MOD. Oh, no, Trev. You can’t access private medical records. Oh, no, Trev. You can’t research their financial assets.”

  He sighed. “That’s when it fell apart. Right? You saw me getting close, but when I requested the ROAs, it was game over. You knew what the money would show. You also knew your name would turn up on the search I ordered. You probably scrubbed it, but it was too late. The person you report to agreed. He ordered you to take out these three before we brought them in. Yes?”

  Her chin raised in open defiance.

  “You have everything figured out, Trev. You know nothing.”

  “This is your chance to enlightenment me.”

  “Fuck. You.”

  “So, that’s it then? Nothing more to confess?”

  She crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Trevor might have thought her stance amusing were it not for the three bodies lying close by.

  “Fine, Hoshi. Then let’s do it this way. I’ll confess for you now that I’ve slipped the last pieces into place. When I’m done, tell me where I went wrong. OK?”

  The string music filled a long gap, after which Trevor decided he needed to work off the nervous energy. He hopped up and stretched his legs.

  “You didn’t kill Ulbrecht because he learned about Black Star’s role in buying his phantom drill. That story Eliza gave us? Utter bullshit. Ulbrecht was a genius but also ambitious. He didn’t care who paid him. See, this guy was shooting for the big time. The biggest of all. He intended to steal Halifax’s research on trans-wormhole drives and partner with like-minded geniuses who dreamed of opening new fissures to the other universes.

  “That possibility works against Black Star’s goals. It wants control of this universe. It wants to destroy the Collectorate and run a savage new regime. So, when word of Ulbrecht’s plan got out, your supervisor ordered you to kill him. Right so far?”

  She was a totem, unbending and silent.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he continued. “Ulbrecht would not have accepted Motif voluntarily, and threats of killing his family wouldn’t have worked because he only has a mother, and they haven’t spoken since he arrived on Amity. She verified as much when she received the death notice. So, you had to try a novel approach. You entered with his phantom drill, hid in his bedroom, and attacked him. He wasn’t a big man. You have UNF training. While he was subdued, you planted the pad on his tongue. Nature took its course.

  “You closed the bedroom door and waited outside. Afterward, you planted the other pad in the end table and stole his pom. If his mentor hadn’t reported Ulbrecht late to class, or if I wasn’t your partner, he wouldn’t have been found until the K3 level had dropped. Whatcha think? Perfect score so far?”

  Yeah, she wasn’t going to be any help.

  “Excellent. On we go then. At first, I assumed Bien Thet was the minder. Then I saw you at work in the prime dance hall.”

  Her cheeks fell. Ah, she’s paying attention. Hoshi must have wondered how he snagged her.

  “But now I realize Thet isn’t excused. On the contrary, he’s your contact. He gave the order. You see, I’ve been thinking about yesterday when we arrived at Maynor. The greeter tried to put us off. Something about Thet being much too busy. She didn’t count on me making myself at home in his office. Nor did you, Hoshi.

  “We went after lunch. Ample time for you to warn him. That little exchange about the pearl tea? You two were talking in code. You said, ‘We’re renowned for our blend in New Seoul.’ Funny that. You grew up in Puratoon. That’s fifteen hundred kilometers from New Seoul. I didn’t understand how you’d mix up that city with the place you claimed to love. Until it made sense: It was coded language. Kind of like my brother out in the hall when he told you, ‘What a night.’”

  Trevor tapped his ear bead twice, no doubt answering her last, lingering question about the trap but also reminding him that Connor heard the entire soliloquy. As if on cue, and no doubt proud of himself, Connor replied in his ear:

  “Damn, we’re the best, bruv.”

  “We are, C. Now, Hoshi, we come to this mess. When Thet ordered you to kill these three, you had serious reservations. You thought the timing would draw too many eyes to Maynor. I’m sure Thet agreed, but I doubt he had much choice. He has a master, too, and I’m sure they had a plan to weather the storm.

  “You knew the Motif strategy wouldn’t work, and a part of you related to Sil, Ashraf, and Eliza. They also came from humble backgrounds. You didn’t want them to die violently, so you came up with this plan.” He looked around the room at its many Hokki trappings. “You ordered a simulation with all the best features from home. A beautiful view, sweet music, and a chance for them to die with ... what did you call it? Dignity?”

  He walked over to Eliza.

  “I remember how shocked you were when I proved she was pregnant. It must’ve torn you up inside to know you’d have to kill a pregnant woman. Or maybe not. I don’t think it matters. What I do believe is you couldn’t stick around to see them drink. Not after Ulbrecht. You’ll kill, but only if you don’t have to watch.

  “You went to the prime hall because you didn’t want to think about it. That’s what people do in there. Lose themselves. When time was up, you returned. You had to make sure. Just like with Ulbrecht. We’ll have to touch base with the others in Ulbrecht’s mentee group – Freddie Lighthorne and Jor Kerrindos – but I’m sure they’re innocent. Otherwise, I’d be staring at five bodies.

  “Which brings me to Orval Erdogan. He wasn’t obligated to Black Star, either, but he was in deep. Ulbrecht cut him out of their partnership when he sold the phantom drill. I believe you helped negotiate the sale. You or someone up the chain decided Orval would be a liability as a partner. He didn’t fit Black Star’s profile. If he wasn’t cut out, he’d be killed. Yep. Except for a few other minor details, I believe that’s a perfect score. Thoughts?”

  OK, so maybe he was strutting. Unseemly given the context, but Trevor didn’t care. Given the past several days, ever since an arrogant ambassador tried to ruin his career and good name, Trevor needed to bag a victory, no matter how small.