“I don’t know. We’ll discuss it,” Garm replied.
“Hey,” I began, thinking. “I need you to open the port so I can get a ship out of here.” Jyen and her brother had to get off this station. That many troops were sure to find them.
“For you?” Garm asked.
“Yes,” I answered. I couldn’t tell Garm about them, so I’d just say it was for me. No ship was single-passenger anyway.
Garm laughed.
“When they come to audit my books, I’m in at least as much trouble as anyone here. But I have a better chance of getting off this station than you do.”
“Why?”
“Because you killed two Dredel Led! About the only things the military asked about were empty housing and you.”
“Why did you tell them I destroyed the robots?” I asked, annoyed.
“I didn’t. Your friend Rendrae printed it for the whole galaxy to read. Blame him.” Seeing my expression she continued, “Yes, some issues of The News make it off Belvaille. Did you think Dredel Led would be just a local concern? They’re talking about this across the whole Confederation.”
“Are you really a former intelligence agent?” I asked, thinking of Rendrae’s conspiracy theories.
Garm pursed her lips.
“I don’t know if ‘former’ is the right word,” she said.
“What?” I was shocked.
“It’s not exactly secret. I mean, what did you think all those giant radio telescopes are used for?”
I was beginning to question everything I knew about Belvaille.
“So there is hidden military stuff that goes on here?” I asked.
“Nah. But they figured they got this space station, might as well use it. And it is at the edge of our empire.”
“But there’s nothing out there,” I countered. Rendrae’s paranoia was all coming true.
“Who said there’s nothing out there? There’s plenty. The Boranjame crisscross at leisure. There’s been Dredel Led talk for ages. Rettosians. Qwintine. Keilvin Kamigans. There’s a whole galaxy besides Belvaille, you know?”
I sat looking at my knees for a moment.
“Are you trying to assassinate Rendrae?”
“No,” Garm began firmly, and I felt myself relax. “But I am trying to arrest him. If he doesn’t stop he’s going to make it a hundred times harder when those soldiers get here. They’ll just flip through issues of The News arresting people. He’s detailing every crime we’re committing, and quite a few we’re not.”
“Wow” was all I could say. After a moment, I asked, “You know anything about delfiblinium?”
Garm’s brow furrowed at the unusual question.
“Why?”
“I’m just curious,” I said innocently.
“Well, it’s incredibly rare.”
I was about to ask her “how rare?” when she continued.
“Because it’s super unstable and explosive.”
“Oh.”
“Please don’t tell me you know of some delfiblinium on Belvaille. That’s all I need is for the Navy to find some of that here.”
“No, I was just…thinking,” I said. I could see Garm was a pile of jagged nerves, so I’d hold off on telling her unless there were no other options.
I had just started feeling good about being healthy again. Now there was an army coming that specifically wanted to see me, they had the authority to kill probably half the population on the station, and there was no way to leave.
“I felt better when the Dredel Led were still here,” I said morosely.
CHAPTER 15
The next day I had lunch with an old friend, Bon-Peeb. I’d worked with him on more jobs than I can remember. He was definitely an old-timer and I kind of felt like talking about the past, as the present and future were becoming oppressive.
“Hank. Hank,” he called across the restaurant, standing to get my attention.
Bon looked…well, old. He had a big white beard and big belly. I suppose he had always been older, but I forgot by how much. He was a large Colmarian, standing almost a half-foot taller than me. He never had trouble finding work on Belvaille as a tough of some kind.
I shook his hand and took a seat, wanting to get out of view of the nosy patrons around me.
“Great seeing you, Bon,” I said.
“Uh, the name is Been-e now, what with the military coming. I still have some outstanding warrants.”
“How does everyone know about this stuff?” I asked, amazed.
Bon/Been-e twisted his face to express the ease of information.
“It’s just around,” he said. “Hey Hank, so how long we known each other you think?”