Mindstar Rising

CHAPTER SEVEN

"It's impressive," Morgan Walshaw admitted. "One of the biggest tekmerc deals for quite some time. We estimate thirty to thirty-five of them were assembled to turn our memox-crystal furnace operators. As far as we can tell, they started last June, and they were still recruiting until November. That kind of involvement would take kombinate-level resources." There was a grudging note in his voice that implied respect, or even admiration.

Julia didn't like that, the security chief was supposed to be guarding her and Grandpa, not paying compliments to their enemies. It was that bloody dividing line between the legal and illegal again, too thin, far too thin.

"So it's impressive," Philip Evans grunted. "So is your division's budget, Morgan. Question is: what are you doing about it?" He was sitting at the head of the table in the study with Julia and Morgan Walshaw on either side, facing each other.

Julia would've liked to voice her own criticism, but didn't quite have the nerve. Morgan Walshaw was a forbidding figure, he'd always been stern around her, as if she didn't match up to his expectations.

"My priority at the moment is to halt the spoiler," Walshaw said. "Thanks to Greg Mandel we've rounded up all the guilty furnace operators who were on their furlough. Unfortunately none of the Zanthus management personnel he interviewed were responsible for circumventing the security monitors, we have to conclude the culprit is up there now. Mandel should be able to find him without any trouble."

"Told you that boy was just what we needed," Philip Evans said.

Walshaw remained unperturbed by the implied criticism, his composure mechanical. "Yes. We shall have to give serious consideration to employing gland psychics in security after this. The tekmercs seem to be making good use of them."

Julia pulled a face. Her grandfather caught it and squeezed her hand softly.

"Certainly, I believe the tekmerc team who ran the spoiler used them quite extensively on this occasion," Walshaw went on. "We've been running some deep analysis on our furnace operators, and there is overwhelming evidence that the tekmerc team assembled a comprehensive profile on every one of them. Bank accounts, medical records, past employers' personnel files, they were all sampled by the team's hotrods. I think we'd be correct in assuming that the likely candidates were also scanned by a psychic to see if they would be susceptible in the final instance. It's very significant that not one of the furnace operators they approached ever came to us."

"How many did they turn?" Philip Evans asked.

"So far, we've nabbed fourteen, out of a total of eighty-three on furlough. Greg Mandel and Victor Tyo are due up at Zanthus tonight. Probability suggests there are between four and six furnace operators currently in orbit who've been turned. We've done our best to make sure no news of the round-up has leaked. Not that they can run, but there is the prospect of sabotage to consider. Out of the fourteen we've already got, two had consented to kamikaze if they were cornered up at Zanthus."

"Bloody hell!" Philip shouted. "What kind of people do we employ? That's damn near twenty per cent of them willing to sell us out at the drop of a hat!"

"It's over now, Grandee," Julia said in a small voice. "Please." She bowed her head so he wouldn't see how upset she was. It'd been a good morning for him, he'd eaten well, and he wasn't sweating like he usually did, even his colour was almost normal. But now she could see the pink spots burning on his cheeks, showing just how badly worked up he was, which wouldn't do his heart any good.

There were some days when she wanted it all to be over, this pain-drenched clinging to life. And that wish only brought more guilt. Psychics would be able to see that clearly. Perhaps Walshaw would hold off using them until afterwards. She ought to have a word with him about that.

When she looked up the security chief was staring candidly out of the window.

"All right, Juliet," her grandfather said in a calmer voice. "I'll be good."

She gave him a tentative smile.

"I don't believe the crystal-furnace operatives are representative of Event Horizon personnel as a whole, nor any of the other Zanthus workers for that matter," Walshaw said. "Theirs is an extraordinarily high-stress situation. There is an average of three fatalities a year, a significant chance of radiation poisoning, and the psychological pressures from living in such a closed environment are way above normal. Those factors came out time and again from all the interviewees."

"Yeah, OK," Philip Evans said grumpily. "I'm a no-good mill owner, exploiting his downtrodden workers. What else is new? You got any good news for me?"

"Greg Mandel should've pulled the last of the furnace operators by this time tomorrow. We'll be sending up the replacements on an afternoon flight, so from tomorrow evening the spoiler will be over. Plus, the memox crystals tagged as contaminated last week haven't been dumped yet. That's nearly two million Eurofrancs we'll recover."

"Jesus, chucking away perfectly good crystals like a crap dump. That's a bugger, that is." He gave Julia a forlorn smile.

Walshaw shrugged. "Only way to do it."

"What about the people who organised this?" Julia asked. Walshaw hadn't said anything about them, as if they didn't matter. He lived for the game, not the players, she felt sure of it.

"Difficult," he said.

"Why?" She made it come out flat and cold, and never mind if he disapproved.

"This is what we call a finale deal. It's all cut-offs, understand? The tekmercs who made the moves, turned our people, they'd be assembled by an old pro, someone with a reputation. This leader, he's the only point of contact between the team and the backers, the ones who want Event Horizon spoiled. Now first we'd have to find one of the tekmercs. OK, maybe we could do that; they've all gone to ground right now, but a deal this size is going to leave traces, and we've got some pretty accurate descriptions. Once we get a tekmerc we extract the team leader's name."

"How?" she blurted, cursing herself instantly. This was why she'd never probed security before. The secret horror, and fascination. Right down at the bottom of all the smart moves were people who deliberately inflicted pain on each other, who chose to do that.

"Not as bad as you might imagine," Morgan Walshaw said placidly. "Not these days. There are drugs, sense overload techniques, gland psychics. Greg Mandel would just read out a list of names to the tekmerc, and see which chimed a mental bell. But even if we obtain the name, it still doesn't do us any good. That team leader, he'll already have vanished off the face of the Earth. Finale, remember? He won't put this deal together for anything less than a platinum handshake. New identity, a plastique reworking from head to toe—hell, even a complete sex change, it's been known. You see, it's not only us he's hiding from now. His ex-employers, they know he's the only link back to them, and that I'm going to be hunting him. They want him zapped."

"So why would he do the job in the first place?" Julia asked.

Morgan Walshaw smiled gently. "Kudos. A finale is the top of the tree, Julia. If you've come far enough to be asked, you're good enough to survive. No tekmerc ever turns down a finale. Take this one; for the rest of time, he's going to be the one who burnt Event Horizon for forty-eight million Eurofrancs. He beat me, he beat your grandfather. And even if I catch him, or they catch him, nobody's ever going to know. His reputation has made it clean."

"Bugger of a world, isn't it, Juliet?"

She turned to her grandfather, surprised by his level questing stare.

"You approve," she accused.

"No, Juliet, I don't approve. I regard tekmercs as pure vermin, dangerous and perennial. Doesn't matter how many you stomp on, there's always more. All I hope is that you've learned something from this sorry little episode. Don't ever lower your guard, Juliet, not for an instant."

She dropped her eyes to the table. "You will try, won't you?" she asked Walshaw.

"Yes, Julia, I'll try."

"Me too." She pressed her lips together in a thin determined line.

"You'll do nothing, girl," Philip said.

"They nearly ruined us, Grandpa. Everything you've built. We've got to know who. I've got to know who. If I'm going to stand any chance, I need the name."

"Doesn't mean you go gallivanting about chasing will-o'-the-wisps."

"I'll do whatever I can," Julia said with stubborn dignity. She subsided into a sulk, certain that Walshaw would be silently censuring her outburst. Well, let him, she thought. Anger was an improvement on boredom. If only she didn't feel so apprehensive with it.