Defender (Verdant String #8)

Chapter 1

Special Forces commander, Ethan Hyt, knew his arrival in the city of Nanganya had landed like a large rock in a still pool.

He felt the ripples and splashes in the looks of interest and curiosity on the one end, and outright dislike and fear on the other.

It was the dislike and fear that he was having to deal with now. Sensing the mood in the interrogation room, he was sure now that every accusation he’d come to Nanganya to investigate was probably true.

The two heads of department he’d called in looked as shifty as only the truly guilty could look.

And furious that someone from the planet’s capital was here to ask them uncomfortable questions.

“I don’t know why I’m here.” Demilla Garret, the Head of Support Services for Nanganya Special Forces, sounded mulish.

Her mouth had been in a sulky pout since Ethan had called her in for questioning, and he forced his irritation at her down.

“You don’t?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows. “I thought I made it very clear.”

She shot a quick, nervous, sidelong glance at Ferris Harden, Nanganya’s Special Forces commander and her boss, and Ethan leaned back against the desk he had been standing in front of with a sense of satisfaction.

Now they were getting somewhere.

He let the silence stretch out, and Ferris Harden’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “How would you feel if I came waltzing into Demeter and started hauling you and your people into an interrogation room, Ethan?”

Ethan gave a slow nod. “I’d be pissed,” he agreed. “But I would also be curious. And you haven’t asked a single question since I ‘hauled’ you in, as you put it. Which tells me you know exactly why you’re here.”

Ferris Harden leaned back in his chair. He glanced over at the fourth person in the room, Pamela Ingot, the Head of the Protection Units in Nanganya.

She was the only person present who was legally able to mete out any consequences for whatever she and Ethan discovered from this interrogation, and it was her who’d been sending him the interested and curious looks.

It relaxed him a little, because of everyone, she seemed genuinely unsure why he was here and puzzled by his actions.

Which made him think she was innocent.

Which was good, because Ethan had no rights to arrest anyone in Nanganya.

He’d been appointed special envoy by the Head of Defense for the whole planet of Aponi, Velda Shan?ha, and she’d given him permission to question anyone he deemed interesting, but she’d also sent Pamela Ingot along with him, to help with his investigation.

Pamela, for her part, had her game face on, which Ethan appreciated. He knew she was friendly with Ferris Harden, and it was usually a good thing for the Special Forces and Protection Unit commanders of a city to be on speaking terms.

“Looking for some help from an ally?” he asked.

Both Pamela Ingot and Harden turned their gazes on him.

He quirked his lips. “I know you’ve previously had a cordial relationship, but I’ve told Commander Ingot what the stakes are here, and what we know so far.”

“And would you care to tell me?” Ferris Harden asked.

“Sure.” Ethan finally sat down on the edge of the desk.

“You are either being paid or blackmailed to keep the discovery of an ancestral shipwreck on Ytla from the Aponian government. You set Wren Thorakis up on Ytla four months ago to be kidnapped by the people searching for parts of the ship, in order to send them the supplies they desperately needed under the guise of ransom for her release, and when she stumbled across a part of the ship when she escaped, you tried to keep her quiet, and when that didn’t work, tried to have her killed. ”

“Wren Thorakis was kidnapped by the Har Met Vent,” Demilla Grant objected. “Not . . . whoever it was you just said.”

Ethan waited a beat for Harden to add anything, and when he didn’t, he gripped the edge of the desk and leaned forward.

“The Har Met Vent is a front, a group of mercenaries pretending to be a religious cult in order to find and steal the technology from the ancestral wreck they’ve already found part of on Ytla.

It broke up into pieces on crash landing, but the presence of a university research group that has recently been conducting unrelated studies on Ytla made it difficult for the Har Met Vent to move around, and to get the supplies they needed without some questions being raised by Aponi Defense.

The two of you came up with a kidnap plot where you could provide the Har Met Vent with the supplies they desperately needed under the guise of a ransom payment. ”

“I didn’t come up with anything.” Demilla Garret fairly vibrated with outrage.

“You didn’t say anything when Ferris here lied to Wren’s face and told her the wreck she’d found was a research vessel that had gone down years before.” Ethan tilted his head.

Demilla shot Harden another sidelong look. “You said you were humoring her.”

Harden didn’t even look over at her. “If this information is coming from Wren Thorakis, you have to understand she’s traumatized. She was held prisoner by the cult, and then spent three days after her escape making her way back to our camp. She’s . . . delicate.”

Ethan threw back his head and laughed. “Wren Thorakis is not delicate.”

Pamela Ingot frowned at him. “Is this whole thing based on the word of one artifacts consultant?”

Ethan sobered up. “Do you honestly think the Planetary Head of Defense would send me to shake up a hornet’s nest in Nanganya on nothing but someone’s word?”

Pamela Ingot gave a slow shake of her head. She looked over at Harden. “So, why did you lie?”

Ethan could see Ferris Harden’s mind racing as he sifted through the possible explanations he could give. He was pretty sure none of them would be the truth.

“I was told the ancestral wreck was top secret. And that I should appease Wren Thorakis with an explanation she would accept.” Harden lifted his shoulders. “Why didn’t she believe me?”

“Because she saw the wreck, you idiot. Do you honestly think an artifacts consultant, a specialist in these things, would mistake an ancestral wreck with a research runner from twenty years ago?” Ethan held his gaze until Harden cut his eyes to the left.

“She never said she thought it was an ancestral wreck,” Demilla Garret said. “I’d have remembered that.”

“No, but she knew it was. She felt it was her duty to report the find, but she wasn’t willing to give her assessment of what it was to Nanganya Special Forces when she didn’t trust them further than she could throw them, especially after they abandoned her in the hands of the cult for nearly a week.

” Ethan tilted his head. “And I have to say, Harden, shame on your teams for that. I have never heard anything like it.”

“They couldn’t rescue her, there was a massive storm raging.” Demilla Garret seemed to like parroting what she had obviously been told by Harden.

“We’re Special Forces,” Ethan said. “We eat storms for breakfast. Or at least, Demeter Special Forces does. And we would never leave one of our own in enemy hands because of a little rain.”

“Lieutenant Trent was sanctioned for that,” Harden said, and Demilla Garret gave him some side-eye, as if this was the first she was hearing of it.

“Not according to his file.” Ethan twisted, leaning back, and picked up a file. Flicked it with a finger.

Harden shifted. “It was verbal.”

“Convenient. You’re happy with that level of capability? Because we run very different departments, if that’s so.” Ethan tossed the file back on the desk, and crossed his arms.

“So you’re saying they deliberately left Wren Thorakis with the cult, because someone in the government is supporting the Har Met Vent and needed to get them supplies.

And they used Wren’s kidnapping as an excuse to give the Har Met Vent what they needed under the cover of ransom? ” Pamela Ingot spoke slowly.

“I’m not only saying that, I’m saying that Harden’s team on Ytla set Wren Thorakis up to be kidnapped to begin with.

So Harden couldn’t sanction Lieutenant Trent for his behavior, because he’d ordered his actions.

” It still made Ethan furious just thinking about it.

The corruption of Special Forces was anathema to him.

“I wasn’t told any of this.” Demilla Garret stood, and physically distanced herself from Harden. “Has Wren put in formal complaints?”

“She has.” Ethan had asked her to do it before she and Ed Zeneri had left for the observatory station in nearspace. Having it in writing added a layer to his investigation.

“You’re saying Harden here was being bribed or blackmailed to do this. Are you being serious?” Pamela Ingot had been watching her colleague as they spoke, and Ed guessed she’d seen the same thing he had. The closing up of his expression, the stiffness in his posture.

“Deadly. The old Core Companies, in league with the Caruso, are behind this.” Ethan noticed a muscle twitch under Harden’s eye at that.

“What?” Demilla Garret took another step away from Harden. “Commander?” She was staring at him, eyes wide.

“You can leave,” Ethan said, turning to her. “Some investigators from Commander Ingot’s department are waiting for you outside. You can give your account to them.”

Demilla closed her eyes for a moment, straightened up, and then gave a curt nod. “I see. Thank you.” She walked out, back stiff and straight.

“Where is Lieutenant Trent?” Harden tried to look nonchalant as he asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Some of my officers took him in for questioning as soon as this conversation started,” Pamela Ingot said. “I thought Commander Hyt was all kinds of wrong about this, but that’s a lesson to me. Velda Shan?ha doesn’t rattle cages without good reason.”

Mention of Velda had the effect it usually did on Ethan. It shot some adrenalin through him, made his chest tight. He hoped like hell it didn’t show on the outside. Not to her, and not to anyone else, either.

Her tenure as Head of Defense for Aponi was ending next year, and he’d told himself he’d wait until she was no longer his boss before he made any kind of move on her.

“Now that Garret is out of the room, care to share who told you the wreck was top secret?” Pamela Ingot asked, gaze steady on Harden.

Ethan was impressed that she was circling back to it. It was his next question, too. Not that he believed Harden had been telling the truth about that, but it would be interesting to see what name he threw out.

“Henry Nostrada,” Harden said.

Ethan lifted his comm unit, eyes on Harden, and connected. “It’s Ethan,” he said as Velda Shan?ha answered. “Harden just threw Nostrada under the bus. Which means he’s probably dead.”

He heard Velda draw in a surprised breath, while watching both Pamela Ingot and Harden stare at him with varying degrees of shock.

“I’m here in Nanganya, same as you,” Velda said, voice clipped. “I got in a couple of hours ago. No one has seen Nostrada since yesterday, so I’m about to head to his apartment.”

“Wait for me,” Ethan said. “Where’s the Planetary Administrative Council building in Nanganya?”

“We’re in it,” Pamela Ingot said. “We have the bottom four floors, Planetary Admin has the two floors above.”

That was good.

“I’ll come down to you,” Velda said, voice slightly amused, and Ethan realized he’d just ordered her to wait for him.

He gave a mental shrug. She shouldn’t be out looking for Nostrada without protection.

“You weren’t surprised Commander Harden threw out Nostrada’s name,” Pamela Ingot said.

“No. We know Nostrada’s involved. But I’m guessing Harden was either told he was going to be killed, or had him killed himself, for him to so casually give out his name.”

“And Velda Shan?ha is here, in Nanganya, a few floors above us, right now?” Ingot’s mouth twisted. “What have you brought down on us, Harden?”

Ferris Harden said nothing. His hands stretched and flexed on his thighs, and he didn’t look at them.

“You want to come with us?” Ethan asked Ingot.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Going to see if Henry Nostrada is in his apartment, because he hasn’t come in to work.”

“You really think he’s dead?” Ingot asked.

Ethan nodded, but he didn’t think. He was sure.