Dredge

(Starspeak)

I was not a great leader.

On my best days, I round out to 'good'. Most days I settle for just 'decent'. On my worst days…well if there was one virtue I had as a leader it was avoiding catastrophic mistakes. My screwups were frequent and small-time.

Not through any skill of my own, but rather because I was so proud of the people who had my back; they were really good at catching my disastrous mistakes before they happened.

More specifically, they asked good questions.

"What groups were feasibly in the area when Shuma first went AWOL?" Donnie asked.

"Our assumption is that they communicated psionically," Avi frowned. "Why would they need to be in the area?"

"You can't really cold call anyone with psionics," Donnie said. "If someone started helping Shuma, they had to actually cross paths with them at some point after they did their killing spree, right?"

"Why not before? Shuma clearly put an inordinate amount of work into their fabricated identity and planning their killings."

"You described it yourself as a spree," Jordan said. "The actual timing of their departure wasn't planned—the software update ruined their cover identity, right? They didn't have help planning their crime. They started getting help after the manhunt began."

"How can you be sure?" one of Avi's taskforce allies asked.

"Look at the first two-and-a-half weeks of the manhunt," Jordan said, psionically highlighting some of the earliest records. "Especially the duration it was still exclusively within Gogathi jurisdiction. There's sporadic sightings and very few false-positives. Then, after three weeks, suddenly they pop up in ten different places. Somewhere inside that window? Someone started helping them."

"I can see where you might think so, but it's hardly conclusive…" another skeptical Vorak said cautiously.

"How many months have we been at this and still failed to catch Shuma?" Avi rebuked smoothly.

The skeptical Vorak looked like they were sucking lemons.

"Kappitom," they replied.

The Tarassin equivalent of touché.

"We have failed to capture Shuma with what little is conclusive," Avi said. "So I tend to find the Terrans' analysis worth following closely."

"And hey, if we screw up, you will be cordially invited to say 'I told you so'," I added.

Mild chuckles went around the room.

I knew I was getting better at Vorak sense of humor.

It was actually incredible to watch the Vorak professionals take our opinions seriously. Forget just the Puppies, every one of us was nervous the first couple minutes. But as the questions began to flow back and forth, the ice thawed quickly.

My people asked exceedingly good questions.

I expected Ingrid to get in on the action, but since making introductions she'd withdrawn, more focused on analyzing some documents. Whatever she was looking at, she didn't like it. Not one bit.

She wasn't the only one not actively participating in the brainstorming. More than a few of the Vorak making up Avi's task force were doing something similar.

But everyone was free to jump in at any time. Madeline even raised her hand, earning a few chuckles in the process.

"Surely there can't be that many groups that fit our criteria," she said. "Gogathi isn't that huge a nation, right? We know we're looking at a clandestine group, well equipped, and widespread. With a three-week window to narrow the search, shouldn't we be able to brute force a list?"

Glances went around the room.

It was possible.

Coincidentally, our contribution to the hunt for Shuma was parallel to our own search for our abductors. The difference in scope was massive, but they were fundamentally similar groups.

Secretive, or at least capable of staying off the radar: false sightings of Shuma had been corroborated with false hideouts and other physical evidence that was only possible if an actual rak had been present to create the illusion.

Well-traveled: like CENSOR, ENVY, and SPARK, Shuma's allies had shown the ability to create false leads in a myriad of nations up and down the continent. This wasn't some foreign power trying to invest in a double agent. Shuma's identity was already blown.

But most of all they had a cutting-edge. Seeing all the psionic junk that Avi had recovered actually made me feel bad for how little I'd contributed so far. They'd delivered me just a handful of psionics to be analyzed—presumably the most crucial and potentially fruitful of the bunch.

But the task force had kilograms of shattered objects embedded with dense psionics, most of which were riddled with false data and wild goose chases—at least, the contents were.

The psionics themselves were extremely advanced. A step or two behind what I'd seen aboard the Missionary Marines' subs, but still; they had some competition.

With even just an hour going through the boxes of evidence, I formed a much better idea of which pieces of evidence were genuine and which ones had been left intentionally, damaged but in just good enough condition to yield recoverable data.

They were just a little too neat.

False leads were easier to restore. The 'damaged' patterns were just a shade too easy to fill in the blanks. It was the right call from their perspective too. If they were making false leads, it was better to err on the side of caution and make them a little too easy to unravel than too hard.

If the false-lead was too difficult to find, it would be dismissed. But false-leads still had to be checked, even if they were known to be false.

But not by us.

It took a few hours, but we pruned leads and possibilities—apparently a little hastily for the task force's tastes.

"We're skipping ahead a few steps," I confirmed. "Frankly, we're not trying to build a court case, right? We just want to bring them in. Someone else can fill in the blanks afterwards."

"Here's the short list of suspect groups," Tasser said. "Top of the list are these three cargo ships. Their crew shows high turnover, but also a high rate of rehires. Gogathi authorities have flagged their vessels in connection with smuggling cabals in the past. They have strong networks of personnel across half the continent, and these three ships have all been docked in four of the five cities while Shuma was confirmed present."

"Corporate shipping operations are one of the most likely new suspects," Avi added. "They have the resources and reach to provide the kind of help Shuma's getting, and Shuma's own knowledge would be valuable enough to warrant the risk."

Other suspects included rumors of a coup festering in the Gogathi military, as well as a vigilante network that had operated across the continent in years past. But the international shipping businesses had our attention for now.

"I'm willing to admit when I might be wrong," I said. "It is an assumption that whoever's helping Shuma made contact after their killing spree, but it could be that the three-week gap is a result of their unexpected discovery. It could be a personal network Shuma built years ago. So I'm going to see if I can't diplomatically lean on the Gogathi and get more information about Shuma's actual crime."

"I appreciate that," Avi said.

On the room's edge, Ingrid caught my eye. She was still poring over charts and tables, no happier than before.

I gave a psionic poke.

"Weren't you wanting to consult Cadrune?"

"…You mean right now?" she asked.

"Yep. I'll swing by the Gogathi embassy in town, and we can drop in on Cadrune while we're out," I suggested. "That work for you?"

"Yeah, alright," she said.

<Ya'll good here?> I asked everyone.

Everyone was paired off with Vorak from Avi's task force, not hesitating to get chewing through the work.

<Yeah, get outta here.>

<Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?>

<How did you manage to say 'ya'll' in Starspeak?>

Yeah, they were fine.

There was one person I wanted to bring with us though…

"Halax," I said. "You're coming with us."

"Why's that?"

"Need a rak just in case, and I've got some questions only you can answer," I said.

Halax gave me a suspicious look that I returned. How much did he know about his fleet? Nora trusted him, I knew. But I'd run everything the Prolocutor shared by Peudra, and they'd concurred—while they certainly didn't share the whole truth—nothing Unee had said was a lie. Which left Halax a very strange question mark in our situation.

"Caleb wants someone because he can't drive," Ingrid explained, wrongly.

"Why would I not be able to drive?" I asked.

"Practice? Experience? Not like you had your license," she shrugged.

"I had a permit! But, actually, yes: Halax, you should do the driving."

"[You're never beating the allegations at this rate,]" Ingrid chuckled.

I bit my tongue.

How could I explain that I wanted to force Halax to pay attention to the road so he'd be off balance when I asked him potentially tough questions?

Anyone else and I'd say I could psionically direct message Ingrid, but Halax was on a very short list of Vorak capable of cracking my encryption psionics. I mulled it over as we exited Avi's task force building.

"[I can live with that,]" I said honestly. "[…You lived in Germany, right?]"

"[Yeah?]" she said.

"[Parlez vous Francais?]"

"[Like…barely any,]" she said, half-chuckling at my bad pronunciation.

I wracked my brain, trying to recall middle school French lessons.

"[Je…dois demander,]" I said cautiously, hoping she'd get my drift. "[Jouer…le jeu.]"

What I hoped would be received as 'I need to ask some questions, play along' clearly did not pass muster. Ingrid just gaped at me, trying not to laugh.

I had to play it off too.

"[I have no idea what you just said. 'Le jeu'? Isn't that 'the game'?]" she said. "[What were you trying to say.]"

"[Oh forget about it,]" I said, trying to act embarrassed over the driving. I'd find another way to grill Halax about his fleet.

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Ingrid's idea inevitably filled that gap.

"What exactly do you think that Cadrune is going to tell us that we can't already figure out?" I asked.

"Cadrune does business all over the planet," she said. "They're crazy well informed. Trust me. It'll be fine."

"Embassy first," I said.

Halax kept any grumbling to himself and our vehicle lurched into motion.

Luckily, Avi had the pull to get us an appointment on short notice.

The ambassador very insistently refused entry to Ingrid and Halax, only allowing the big bad Lightbringer beyond the lobby.

After that point though, they made a point to be polite and accommodating. Judging from the cooperation I got inside the embassy, I got the feeling the nation of Gogathi was expending a lot of political capital to drag Shuma back before a court.

"Investigators with far more experience than me are insisting Shuma will be far easier to apprehend if we have a better picture of their offense—especially victimology," I said to the ambassador. "Right now, we only have names and dates they were killed."

The ambassador gave a reluctant show, but I could tell they wanted to speak.

"Come on," I said. "You didn't just send away the people with me for no reason. You want deniability. If the task force and the Prolocutor's office get classified Gogathi data, it's a diplomatic incident. But if the Lightbringer tries spouting inflammatory secrets, I'll either be dismissed or blamed. Either way, your nation is in the clear—or at least your boss is."

The ambassador blinked in surprise.

"Astute," they said. "I was instructed to share information in an unofficial capacity only. As such, I have no documentation to give you, but I can speak some limited information."

"We know Shuma killed some high-ranking military personnel," I said. "Even their ranks haven't been officially disclosed, so we've been operating under the assumption they were very high -ranking."

"Five battalion commanders, three of their adjutants…and two division commanders as well as their spouses," the ambassador said. "I trust you can identify the division commanders and their spouses based on the surnames."

"Can you share anything about their motive?" I asked. "Agent Avi was given only vague statements about retribution for a military operation that ruined their hometown."

"There's a reason the manhunt has to call them Shuma Norshun," the ambassador said, seemingly changing the subject. "It's because those ten military officers destroyed all the records that had the names of the town's population—covering up their offense, see?"

"What exactly did they do?"

"…Longitudinal experiments on neurochemical agents," they said quietly. "It was a broad-spectrum of goals. Coercion. Destabilization. Pacification. Those officers surreptitiously dosed the inhabitants of the town for more than a decade."

I gaped.

The Vorak had their own MKUltra, and it happened all in one little town. With kids and everything. And they'd been none the wiser? Did I have that right?

"During their tenure at the aerospace contractor, Shuma gained access to those officers homes and dosed them with the same substances, just as stealthily," the ambassador said.

"Gotta admit, it sure sounds like they had it coming," I scoffed.

"…They probably did," the ambassador said quietly.

"No wonder your country wants to cover it up," I said. "Even if the experiments weren't officially sanctioned, it doesn't speak well that it happened on your watch."

"That's not the half of it," the ambassador said wryly. "Shuma poisoned the officers, specifically. They just shot the spouses. If they hadn't, or if they hadn't bothered with the poisoning and just killed the officers quick? There's a decent chance they might have just been allowed to disappear after a token effort to find them."

"I get why you'd keep after them for the spouses, but why does poisoning the officers matter?" I asked.

"Because Shuma got poetic," the ambassador said grimly. "They used the same neurochem agents that rotted their family and hometown inside out."

"…And they were used on people holding active military command," I realized. "How badly was their decision making affected?"

"This number is just a guess, but it's probably several hundred rak that died in training and operations failures related to the officers' altered states and capacity. One live-fire incident killed two whole squads. Military tribunals want blood."

"And they won't be satisfied with just the officers who drugged a whole town for a decade?"

"The leadership's feels the incidents are separate, and that Shuma's use of chemical behavioral modifiers is a mitigating factor in the officers' culpability for the accidents," the ambassador said.

"Those same officers were the ones that dosed Shuma with the same chemicals though, right? The chemical altered states is mitigating for the officers, but not Shuma?"

"Shuma hasn't been home in years," the ambassador countered. "The argument being, they haven't been exposed to the chemicals for such a long time, the effects must have cleared from their body, and their decisions were made sober and with full agency."

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard on this planet," I said.

"I'm just passing along the information," the ambassador said apologetically. "Is that enough to help your investigation?"

"Definitely," I said. "I don't know the first thing about criminal profiling, but I know Agent Avi can do plenty with this."

"I need to remind you, all these details are unsubstantiated," the ambassador insisted. "This is strictly in an unofficial capacity. Repeated publicly, my nation's government is going to deny all of it."

"Relax," I said. "Our investigation is desperate: willing to explore long shots. Any of this that appears on the investigation's documentation will be firmly labeled as 'speculation'…any results such speculation yields will be happenstance."

"That's acceptable," the ambassador said, relaxing a hair.

"Your politics are awful," I accused.

"Don't I know it?" the rak said glumly.

·····

"You get it?" Ingrid asked, curious.

"Sure did," I said. "Shuma's got a moral code. Or something like one. The rak they killed conducted chemical mind-control experiments on their hometown for years."

"Retribution," Halax said. "Two pairs of the victims were family though. Were they involved?"

"No, I think they might have been coincidence," I said. "The ambassador let slip that they were shot, while all the other killings were poisonings—the same stuff they administered to the town."

"…How high were the dosages?" Halax asked.

"They didn't say," I said. "But think about this: all the killing started when Shuma's cover identity was blown. But all the people they wanted revenge on were poisoned."

"They had help before?" Ingrid guessed.

"Possible," Halax said, "but…"

"No, I think they were already poisoning them," I said. "We know from the dates that all the killings happened in one two-day window. All the targets were in the same place. Shuma had access. They were poisoning them slowly, just like their town got poisoned. When they were discovered, they killed them by forcibly administering far higher doses."

"Shooting the spouses could have been mercy killings," Halax muses. "Or even forensic countermeasure. Steal into a house on a military base, kill the spouse quick and quiet and wait for your real target to arrive home."

"At the very least, it gives a much clearer picture of their motivations," I agreed.

"I still think Cadrune might be helpful identifying whoever's helping them," Ingrid insisted. "Can we not cancel that?"

"Wasn't planning on it," I said. Begrudgingly. "But I'm making another call first."

·····

Ever helpful to all us poor souls, Macoru and Mavriste met us just up the road from Cadrune's estate.

"What are you doing here?" Ingrid frowned.

"I said I was making another call," I said, gesturing to the two.

"We're here to support you and…"

Macoru trailed off.

"We're here to remind you that Cadrune is [the devil]," Mavriste said cheerily.

It was funny seeing the two side-by-side. Both of them were subtly accompanied by their illusory simulacrum of the other, both of which chuckled at the joke.

The simulacrums noticed I could still see them.

<Still so strange…> 'Macoru' mumbled.

"I trust you guys," I told them. "Go with Ingird, make sure Cadrune doesn't try tempting her into moving back in or something."

"You're not coming with?"

"I'll be right behind you," I said. "Halax and I need to discuss some Red Sails stuff."

"I don't get to hear this?" Ingrid asked.

"Halax doesn't want me knowing this, much less you," I said. "Just go. Say hi to your friend. Gomi, right?"

The reminder of her Vorak friend was the perfect distraction. She forgot about any of my secrecy in a heartbeat and turned toward the gate to Cadrune's estate.

"We need to discuss Red Sails stuff?" Halax asked.

"Nora trusts you," I said, ignoring his question. "Do you trust her?"

"She trusts you, even if it doesn't get returned," Halax said. "So are you really asking if you should trust me?"

"Something like that," I said, materializing a gun, and aiming at his gut. "The Prolocutor of this system had some very interesting things to say about the Red Sails and some abductions."

Halax did not move.

"You're back to thinking we did it?"

"No," I admitted. "But you should know how much we've found that points toward the abductions being commissioned. And that's cause to revisit old suspects. Red Sails operations budget. Who would have it?"

"Tispas and Tox," Halax said easily.

I added 'grill Tox about Red Sails budget' to my to-do list.

"No one else?"

"No one with decision making powers," he said. "Fleets operate a lot on stipend, with wide discretion. Especially the Sails. We've been around a long time. Built up a lot of trust."

"So no one in the Assembly would have immediate authorization to audit the fleet's funds," I followed. "I assume there would be some sort of process where the fleet is made to produce its own documents."

"No," Halax said, almost smugly. "Some old fleets use their trust that way, but not Tispas. Their predecessor hired a civilian third-party consultant for oversight. The oversight consultant doesn't have decision making power on the budget, but they could demand full access to document and Tispas would give it."

"Why?"

"Because even though Tispas's predecessor established the third-party oversight, Tispas is the Marshal now; they would be entirely in their authority to dissolve the arrangement unilaterally. They haven't. Thus?"

"Thus there's still a gaping hole in your logic," I said. "Just because he hasn't revoked the oversight doesn't mean he wouldn't if it came knocking."

Halax rolled his eyes.

"I appreciate that I'm explaining things quickly and vaguely, so you might think that's the case? But protocol doesn't work that way. If oversight demanded an audit, the demand would still be legally enforceable if Tispas tried dissolving the oversight after the demand," he said. "I appreciate how corrupt what I'm describing sounds to you, but I assure you? The Prolocutor is mistaken.

"…So are you going to take that gun off me?"

"Depends," I said. "Would Nora lie to the abductees?"

Halax eyed me, trying to suss out my line of questioning.

"…Yes, if it was for their protection."

I pursed my lips, doing my best to stare into the rak's soul. Everything about him bothered me, and I knew it was only because he was friends with Nora.

He bothered me anyway.

…But much as I might want to hate him, that was the right answer.

I flipped the gun and offered him the handle instead of merely dematerializing it. A small symbolic gesture, but one Halax appreciated. Visibly.

Halax looked at the weapon and the simple psionic message I'd left embedded in it.

I was making a very small gamble here, but one that might doom or save every last abductee in the long run.

It might be years before I knew if it paid off or not.

Halax absorbed the message and looked at me strangely, his expression begging the question, 'really? Are you sure?'

I was.

I knew Nora would lie to her campers. She'd done much worse to me. But Halax was right. She hadn't and wouldn't do so without good reason.

The same friendship that bothered me so much…well sometimes bothers were more trustworthy than comforts.

Prolocutor Unee had merely acted as the messenger, but it'd been made clear that someone thought humans were involved in the abductions. And there were really only a handful of humans worth accusing.

Me and Nora were no doubt at the top of that very short list.

It was so, so tempting to think Nora was in cahoots with ENVY, CENSOR, even SPARK. It would certainly explain how quickly she'd cooperated. It'd certainly explain her duplicity.

But that was anger and betrayal talking. Cold logic told me she wouldn't take the risks she had unless she was genuine. My instincts whispered that, as deeply as she'd hurt me, she was not evil.

"That'll have to be good enough," I said, breaking the conversation.

"Just like that?"

"Shut up," I said. "Don't try making this a moment. A week from now, I'm going to find out you're a spy or something, and I'm just going to shoot you anyway."

"Got it," Halax snorted. "I won't get chummy."

It was my turn to roll my eyes, and we strolled after Ingrid and the M&Ms.

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