The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 17.1

Sabrina managed to keep moving throughout the day, visiting the infirmary; issuing orders restricting Dansestari to emergency aid teams; talking with General Zhahghai about the possibility of welcoming the trade delegations, if they could be coaxed to come, somewhere other than Dansestari; sending official messages of condolence to the families of civilians who had died in the attack and approving posthumous commendations for soldiers; receiving ever more depressing damage reports from Mukryilla; attending an emergency session of the Council of Ministers and confirming Therenden as interim Minister of Justice and Mukryilla as Planetary Defense Commander, pending the Council's formal investigation and approval; and generally losing herself in her work. At the end of the day she went up to see whether her conservatory had survived; a few of the windows had shattered, and the glass roof was cracked, but otherwise it was remarkably intact. Her eye fell on Tassan's covered canvas, and she had to ruthlessly stamp down a flare of panic that she had not yet discovered whether he was alive.

Back in her apartments, she discovered that Rndara had fallen asleep in the guest room. Mara was still deeply asleep in Sabrina's own bed, but Scotty had woken sometime during the afternoon and gone down to Control. Sabrina wondered if she could drink enough wine to sink herself into a hopefully dreamless sleep, but before she could try, Darice's comlink pinged.

"They want you in Control again, ma'am," Darice said.

"All right," Sabrina said.

She found Mukryilla looking even more grim than earlier. Scotty was standing beside her desk at stiff attention, not quite hiding a scowl. "Oh God, what's happened now?" Sabrina burst out.

Mukryilla waited for the door to slide closed behind Darice. "Your brother has told me an extraordinary tale. I wanted your opinion while I wait for confirmation."

Sabrina glanced at Scotty. "What is it?"

Mukryilla nodded to Scotty. He said, "I was tellin' the Subcommander the real reason I left."

"Which is?"

"Rayland and I had this plan—"

"Rayland knew you were leaving and let you go?" Sabrina demanded.

"Yeah. Well, it was my idea. He didn't like it, but once I was gone he didn't try to stop me. And he could have, you know."

"Scotty, tell me what you're talking about, in some kind of halfway coherent fashion!" Sabrina said, dropping into a chair.

"We knew there were more Homeworld agents here. We wanted to smoke 'em out. We figured the best way to do that was to get onto Homeworld's side of things, find out who their contacts were here. I was the best one to try to do that. I'd been on not one, but three Wayships at one time or another. And we figured I'd be irresistible to Homeworld, bein' so close to the Regent." He grinned a little, teasing his sister.

"Rayland agreed to this?"

"Well...not really. He said he had to think about it. I was afraid he was gonna say no, so I just went. We'd already talked about where I should go."

Sabrina closed her eyes briefly. "And did you make contact?"

"No," he said in disgust. "I didn't do a damn bit of good out there. Except maybe meet some cool traders on Naferi Station. Either Homeworld didn't think they could get to me without Mara findin' out, or they already had somebody here who was in as good a position as I was."

"And why wasn't I told?" Sabrina demanded angrily.

"Well, for one, I told you, it wasn't approved. I was technically AWOL, so I guess Rayland figured there was no point making out like I was on a mission. And for another, we didn't know who was an agent around here. He wanted it kept quiet. And we didn't know if you could keep up the act."