Chapter 22
General Olna came herself.
Hal had the feeling she was enjoying the excitement, while simultaneously dreading the fallout.
He was just getting tired of all the people trying to hurt Fiona.
Not that she wasn’t actively putting herself in the middle of things, and he had to accept that she felt justified in doing so.
It didn’t mean he had to like it.
Trayla and Natta were indeed inside the hover.
They were both drugged, so they’d been taken away along with Lieutenant Grogan, and now the team General Olna had brought with her were moving through the building, looking for any clue that would tell them what was going on.
“We need to wrap this up quickly,” Olna said, her gaze going once again to the path that ran past the back area toward the warehouse. “Security might decide to expand their search area, and then I will have some explaining to do.”
“Can you get some inside information about what Security has found out?” Hal asked. “Knowing who came through the tunnel from here to the warehouse would go a long way to finding out who’s behind this.” Whatever ‘this’ was.
“We’ve got some sources,” Olna said. “We’ll get everyone we can on to it.”
“I have ways, too,” Eazi said.
Hal didn’t respond, as he was sure Eazi was only speaking to him, and he was also sure General Olna would probably have the same uneasy reaction as he did to that statement.
Eazi’s ways were probably worming into Security’s systems and finding the information for himself.
And if he could do that to the Balcoans, Hal didn’t want to ask how deep Eazi was burrowed into the Grih’s systems. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer.
But as long as Fiona was considered Grihan, there was nothing the Grih had to fear.
Hal didn’t think enough people understood that.
That the reemergence of thinking systems being a positive thing was balanced on how they treated five sentient beings from the planet Earth.
Fiona was standing a little way away, talking to Lieutenant Crin, who’d arrived shortly after General Olna and her team.
“What does Fiona think?” General Olna asked, her gaze following his to the two women.
“She thinks someone is trying to build a Class 5 by coopting the parts Paxe has ordered.”
Olna’s reaction was one of shock. “With what thinking system?” she asked.
“No thinking system. Just the ship.” Hal remembered Eazi saying that would be substandard to the Class 5s that were run with thinking systems, but what Hal needed to find out was how they’d compare to the top warships of the rest of the United Council.
“It makes a kind of sense, but who could be behind it? The Balcoans?”
Hal shook his head. “That’s what we have to find out. Baruke claims he doesn’t know what’s going on, but the tunnel we took between the warehouse and here was the same, down to the lights lighting the way, to the tunnel in the secret facility the Tecran had near Kyber’s Arm in the Balcoan desert.”
General Olna turned to look at him, mouth slightly agape. “You’re sure?”
“Fiona showed Eazi the lights through her lens feed and he compared them to what we saw back at the facility, and says they are identical.”
“The Balcoans always swore they had no idea about that facility. It was part of the grievance lodged against the Tecran, that they had usurped Balcoan sovereignty by building that place in secret.” Olna shook her head. “Now you’re saying Balcoans helped to build it?”
“It looks that way.”
“I see some uncomfortable meetings in my future.” Olna sounded grim.
Hal was still watching Fiona, and she nodded to Crin and the two women stepped away from each other, Crin heading back to the street, he assumed to the hover she’d arrived in, and Fiona turned toward him and the general.
The back door also opened, and the team the general had brought with her filed out, a few of them carrying boxes.
“Anything?” Olna asked the team leader as the other members of the team went to load up the hover they’d tucked away in the back with their spoils.
“A few comms units that might give us something.” Vinter, the team leader, glanced at Fiona as she moved toward them. “And we found how to close up the tunnel from the office, so it looks undisturbed.”
“We need to find out who owns this building and the warehouse, and we need to find out now.” General Olna inclined her head to both Hal and Fiona. “You have your own transportation?”
“We do,” Hal said.
“Then let’s all get out of here before Balcoan Security get curious about this place.” Olna and her military team climbed into the hover and left, and for a moment, it was just him and Fiona standing in the back area.
“What are they going to do with the two Balcoans who took Trayla and Natta?” Fee asked.
“Sounds like they’re taking them to the military hospital, and they’ll be asking them some questions.
” Hal realized that wasn’t ideal. The protocol was to involve Balcoan Security when Balcoan citizens were found to have offended against Grihan military personnel.
This was getting a harder and harder line to walk for the Grih.
“At least we found Grogan, and got Trayla and Natta safe before they suffered the same fate as he did.” Fiona rubbed her arms.
“Grogan will be in recovery for a while, but he’ll come through.” There wasn’t much Grihan medics couldn’t put back together, fortunately, and Grogan’s injuries were not on the level of missing limbs.
“It will be interesting to hear his debrief,” Fee said. “I wonder what they were trying to get out of him.”
Hal wondered that, too. And remembered again the way the Balcoan had grabbed up Fee in the warehouse, and run.
These people were after information, just as much as they were, and they weren’t afraid to spill some blood to get it.