“Sir . . .” George clasped his hands together tightly. “I have orders.”

  “Well, then you have a choice,” Geary said. “Either you upset whoever issued those orders to you, or you upset me. And I already told you what’s going to happen if you upset me. I am not ordering you to do anything which is in violation of your oath. I am, actually, trying to save your life, as Lieutenant Iger pointed out.”

  “Chris,” Iger said, “you can trust the admiral. If you follow his orders, he will take responsibility.”

  “That’s right,” Geary said. “Anything you do under my orders is on my head. Do you want that on the record, Lieutenant Commander George?”

  After another hesitation, George shook his head a final time. “No, sir. Your reputation is well-known. I will, under duress, comply with your orders.”

  Geary let himself smile slightly. Not in a gloating way. Just to signify approval. “Good. Here’s one more order, though. If Colonel Webb orders you to do anything that you feel conflicts with my orders or your oath, I want you to contact Lieutenant Iger. Is there a stress word you can use that Colonel Webb wouldn’t recognize?”

  “Um . . . ‘splice the main brace,’ ” George said. “The colonel will probably recognize that, but it’s a common fleet term so he shouldn’t be worried if he hears it.”

  “Good,” Geary said. “If it gets bad, give Iger a call. He will let me know, and I will get you out of there.”

  George nodded, still worried. “Colonel Webb is, uh, pretty scary.”

  “I’ve got three thousand Marines with me,” Geary said. “And I will use every single one of them if necessary to get you safely off Boundless. You’re one of my people now. I take that responsibility seriously.”

  Lieutenant Commander George stared at Geary. “Th-Thank you, sir. I’ll go speak with Colonel Webb.”

  As George’s virtual presence vanished, Lieutenant Iger shook his head. “Will he be all right, sir?”

  “He’ll do his best,” Geary said, “and we’ll do our best.” Which didn’t really answer the question, but Iger seemed happy enough with it. “There’s been something I’ve meant to ask General Charban. Have we been picking up any Dancer communications not intended for us?”

  “No, sir,” Iger said. “The general assumes the translation transmitter software is keeping us confined to a single frequency intended for that use. We’ve made some cautious explorations of the Dancer software controls and none of them allow any change in frequency or transmission type.”

  “Which means the Dancers are making sure we’re not learning anything about them that they don’t want us to know,” Geary said. “Whatever the differences in thinking among different species, we all seem to want to keep other species from learning anything we don’t want them to learn.”

  Lieutenant Iger frowned. “Admiral, we have strong cause to believe that the Dancers already know a great deal about humanity.”

  “Yeah. Our alien neighbors like the enigmas and the Dancers seem to have done a lot of research while humans were busy trying to kill each other.” Geary rubbed his eyes, feeling unhappy about that and unable to do anything in particular about it. “And we’re still working against ourselves. Half of the humans on this mission seem determined to undermine it.”

  The lieutenant’s frown deepened. “Sir, we’ve been unable to spot any dangerous activity aboard Dauntless.”

  “And that doesn’t make you happy?”

  “No, sir.” Lieutenant Iger hesitated before saying more. “We know from the assassination attempt against you at Midway that there are elements among us who want to kill you. Yet they either haven’t tried to get at you on this ship, or . . .”

  “Or they’re up to something and we haven’t spotted it,” Geary said. “Kind of like that duck.”

  “Yes, sir, kind of like that duck,” Iger agreed. “But we did eventually discover the duck.”

  “Only because the Marines hiding it did something stupid,” Geary said. He clenched one fist, looking down at it. “One of the things I’ve learned is that it’s very dangerous to make plans that assume your opponent will do something stupid. So far, whoever is behind a lot of this has been very smart.”

  “I don’t think it’s just one group,” Lieutenant Iger said. “I think there are multiple efforts underway.”

  Geary gave him a questioning look. “Do you have some evidence of that?”

  “More of a gut feeling,” Iger confessed. “I’ve tried looking at everything we have as if I were a Dancer, looking for patterns. And I keep getting a feeling that there’s more than one pattern, that the vague information we have so far doesn’t all tie together.”

  “What does Lieutenant Jamenson think? If anyone can spot deceptive patterns, it’d be her.”

  “Lieutenant Jamenson doesn’t have clearances necessary to see a lot of the information,” Iger said. “But I have discussed it with her in general terms, and she warned me that people often try to present information that shows the pattern they want others to see. Deception, in other words.”

  “Or what Master Chief Gioninni calls misdirection,” Geary said. “All right. Keep an eye on things, and let me know if Lieutenant Commander George contacts you.”

  He hoped that would be the last he had to deal with people and events on Boundless that day.

  But a few hours later his stateroom door alert chimed. Dr. Nasr came in, looking as somber as Geary could recall him ever being. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Colonel Webb,” Nasr said in a heavy voice. “Something very serious.”

  NINE

  DR. Nasr held out a data coin. “The report is on here. I did not think it wise to send it to you along normal channels.”

  Geary took the coin, handling it as carefully as if it were a bomb. From the way the doctor was acting, it might as well be explosive, and there was something uniquely worrisome about a doctor who looked so much as if he had bad news to impart. “What is it?”

  “To summarize,” Dr. Nasr said with a sigh, “Colonel Webb was scheduled for a mandatory psychiatric screening before we left Alliance space. Someone broke into the fleet’s medical files and altered his record to delete that screening, so it was never conducted. Our code specialists found subtle but clear signs that someone was Colonel Webb himself.”

  Amid the thoughts tumbling through his mind as he looked at the data coin, Geary noticed one memory in particular: Morgan learned how to break into the system on her own and gundeck her psych evals. Colonel Rogero had told him that. He’d never suspected that he’d face the same situation.

  But as his mind focused on that, Geary thought of something else.

  According to Colonel Rogero, Morgan hadn’t been caught doing that. Not until after she’d gone completely off the rails.

  Someone with Webb’s skills and experience had left subtle but clear signs of what he’d done?

  Before they even left Alliance space?

  That happened to surface now?

  “How did this get spotted?” Geary asked.

  Nasr gestured to the coin. “The technical explanation is in the report. The code monkeys summarized to me that the system software is always scanning for anomalies, and keyed on Webb’s file.”

  “Recently?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “Yesterday.” Geary thought about that, not liking the feel of it. Thinking about what Lieutenant Iger had said, how Lieutenant Jamenson had warned against those trying to feed disinformation to others. About how so many things Ambassador Rycerz had told him about seemed to be focused on creating problems among those critical to the success of this mission. “Thank you, Doctor. I assume since you brought this to me that you’re going to let me handle it?”

  “Yes, Admiral,” Dr. Nasr said. “That seemed the wisest course of action.”

  “Thank you,” Geary said again. “I’ll look this over and decide what to do.”

  After Nasr left, Geary read the report, trying to make it through the technical annexes as well that explained the precise means the fleet’s code monkeys had used to reach their conclusions. It all seemed very damning when it came to Colonel Webb.

  No longer entirely trusting the safety of discussions in the high-security conference room, he called Dauntless’s communications watch. “I want a maximum-security virtual call set up between me in my stateroom and Colonel Webb aboard Boundless.”

  It took about five minutes before the image of Colonel Webb appeared, standing in Geary’s stateroom and looking both concerned and curious. “Has something happened, Admiral?”

  “Yes,” Geary said. “Do you recall a psych screening appointment prior to leaving Alliance space?”

  Webb immediately nodded. “It was a couple of weeks before that. I was told I’d passed clean. Just the usual combat veteran issues. Has someone claimed otherwise?”

  “You took that evaluation?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Your medical record has been tampered with,” Geary told him. “Someone made it look as if that screening never happened, that the appointment was deleted from your files, and that you did it.”

  Webb breathed in very slowly and very deeply, his eyes on the bulkhead behind Geary. “Do you believe that, sir?”

  “I’m skeptical,” Geary said. “And not just because of your immediate and frank acknowledgment of the screening. This is too easy,” he added, hefting the data coin containing the report. “Evidence of gross misconduct on your part, illegal activity, just falling into our lap right after we reach Dancer space. Tell me, Colonel, if you had altered your medical record, what evidence would you leave of that?”

  “None,” Webb said. “I’m not boasting, Admiral. I’m simply stating that I know how to do it without leaving any tracks that could be traced to me.”

  “Do you have any proof that the screening was conducted as scheduled?”

  Colonel Webb’s lips widened in a wolf smile that displayed his canines. “Normally, officially, I shouldn’t. But I keep a copy of my medical file.”

  Geary raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

  “It’s not . . . authorized, sir. But it is possible.” Webb shook his head in anger. “I’ve had some issues in the past with official doctors, Admiral. I download and keep a copy of my medical file to prevent a repeat of that.”

  “So, that is unauthorized,” Geary said, making it a statement rather than a question.

  “Yes, sir. I freely admit to having made multiple unauthorized accesses to my medical file to download copies. I’ve done nothing else,” Colonel Webb added firmly.

  Technically, unauthorized access to most systems was a minor offense. What could make it serious was what was done, such as “stealing” official files. Like most of those in the fleet, Geary had never understood how his medical file could belong to the government and not to him. But that was how the law read. “Colonel, I could rake you over the coals for what you just admitted doing.”

  “I’m aware of that, Admiral,” Webb said, his tight posture somehow stiffening even more into a rigid stand at attention.

  “But I won’t.” Geary dropped the data coin. “I’m far more concerned about who tried to set you up, and who is trying to create problems for this mission. You’re not in my chain of command. But I’d like you to do two things for me. The first is to provide an unedited copy of your medical record to me that I can pass on to Dr. Nasr so he can fix your file in the system. The second is to help me find out who is doing all this.”

  Colonel Webb stared at Geary for a moment, before finally nodding and relaxing. “Thank you, sir. I assure you, I’m already trying to find who is trying to kill you, who I assume is the same as those who just tried to get me sidelined.”

  “They’re not necessarily the same people,” Geary said. “Lieutenant Iger thinks we have more than one set of saboteurs working on the inside. I suspect he’s right. Will looking at the technical data for how your file was altered help you find any of them?”

  “I doubt it,” Webb said. “If they were good enough to get in and plant false tracks leading to me, they were good enough to conceal anything leading to them.” He grimaced as if in pain. “It’s something some of the people in my unit could’ve done. Maybe I’ll see fingerprints I recognize.”

  Something about that didn’t sound right. “Wouldn’t your own people know you’d be able to spot their fingerprints in hacking?”

  “They would assume I could,” Webb admitted.

  Geary leaned back. “Relax, Colonel. I’ve been thinking, which I know is a statement that alarms people when an admiral says it. The bit with Lieutenant Commander George. Maybe the people who put him on Boundless were careless, but he had markers that led you to suspect him and he could be recognized by my intelligence officer. Perhaps we were meant to spot him.”

  “Perhaps,” Webb said, his voice cautious. “To sow mistrust?”

  “Or to misdirect us,” Geary said. “And now this bit with you. You’ve just acknowledged that there are members of your unit that have the necessary skill sets to do that. And to commit other acts, like an attempted assassination.”

  Webb’s face twisted into an angry glare. “Yes. I am painfully aware of that, Admiral.”

  “And that’s primarily where you’ve been looking.”

  The colonel brought his eyes back to meet Geary’s, the glare shading into a puzzled frown. “Yes, sir. Of course.”

  “Colonel, Lieutenant Commander George may have been set up to be spotted. To create noise in the system that draws our attention. What about someone who wasn’t?”

  “Such as?”

  “Do you know by sight every special forces soldier in your own particular skill set?”

  “No, sir,” Webb said without hesitating. “Our small units tended to be kept separate for security reasons. We’d get after-action reports from other units like ours, but they’d be scrubbed of any data that could identify the individuals. No one wanted one unit to be able to compromise another unit by accident.” He paused. “You’re suggesting that’s our real opponent? Someone with the same skills and experience as my soldiers, but unknown to us?”

  “Maybe,” Geary said. “One of our opponents, anyway. Do you think it’s plausible, or am I spooking at shadows?”

  Colonel Webb didn’t answer for several seconds, his head bent in thought. “It makes a lot of sense, Admiral. It makes one hell of a lot of sense.” Webb slammed one fist into his open palm so hard that Geary expected to feel the impact vibrating through the deck even though the colonel was only here in virtual form. “How do you neutralize me and my people? How do you wreck our effectiveness as a unit? By destroying our trust in each other.”

  “If I’m right,” Geary said, “and whoever planted this false evidence in your medical files doesn’t see us react, they’ll do something else that points back at you or someone in your unit.”

  Webb nodded, his eyes dark. “I don’t like just waiting for something else like that, but it may be our only option.” He hesitated, his gaze weighing Geary. “Admiral, maybe it’s not another unit like mine. There’s another level parallel to us. Even I’m not supposed to know they exist. But you hear things, you see things. You’ve wondered if my people were involved in any of that junk at Unity Alternate, haven’t you? We weren’t. As far as I know we were never targeted against any Alliance citizens unless they’d turned their coats and were actively aiding the Syndics. But we heard rumors there were others who would go after people who were only suspected of treason or other crimes.”

  “Too many damned secrets,” Geary grumbled.

  “Secrets are necessary,” Webb countered.

  “I know. But they make it too easy for people to hide things that shouldn’t be happening.” He paused, not wanting to go into a rant about the excesses of secrecy created by the war. “What’s your suggestion, Colonel? How do we respond?”

  Webb smiled slightly. “I act personally affronted, saying where others can hear that I’ve been unjustly accused and my denials blown off, but nothing is going to happen to me at this time. That’ll lead our opponent to think their plan is working, and they might try another nudge to get you or the ambassador to get rid of me.”

  “In other words,” Geary said, “encourage them to stage another incident that implicates you or other members of your unit.”

  “Exactly.” Webb went silent for a long moment before speaking again. “What do they want? If we know that, we can better predict what they’ll do.”

  “I can’t be certain.” Geary waved at the star field displayed on one wall of his stateroom. “Some, like Dr. Kottur, want to prevent us establishing closer ties to the Dancers. But things Ambassador Rycerz told me have caused me to wonder if others simply want to sabotage this mission so that other missions, representing other people or associations of star systems, will have a chance to move in and establish themselves as primary contacts with the Dancers.”

  “I have to tell you, Admiral,” Colonel Webb said, “I don’t like sitting and waiting for the other side to make a move. I understand why we have to, but I don’t like it.”

  “I don’t like it, either,” Geary said.

  As it turned out, though, he didn’t have to wait very long at all.

  * * *

  GEARY was used to being awakened by alerts from his stateroom’s comm panel. He was a lot less accustomed to being jolted from sleep by urgent tones from his door alert. Hastily pulling on a uniform, he opened the door.

  Just outside stood a half-dozen irate Marines, a stone-faced Gunnery Sergeant Orvis, a furious Captain Tanya Desjani, and between the Marines a junior sailor with a defiant look on his face and fright in his eyes. “What happened?” Geary asked.