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“I wasn’t able to find the excellence of your resources. I assume those you hired came from Mercy? Are they available for more work?”
“Of course. This is only the beginning.” Mitchell was smirking in supreme satisfaction again.
“Was Spence in on it? It smells of him. Not so much Green and Lawrence.”
“Spence is too big a coward to take real command. He talks big, but he’s chickenshit. When we were on Mercy, if he had problems, he called me to find help. He never wanted to get his hands dirty.” Mitchell shook his head. “This was my party. I’ll let you in on the next, if you’d like.”
“I would.”
With that, they’d added attempt to conspire to Mitchell’s laundry list of crimes.
* * * *
“Here it is.” Kuran showed Stacy and Bryant the bank records he’d subpoenaed in his capacity as Earth’s security chief. “Large payments made two weeks prior and a day after the attack on Etnil to an outfit named Transgalactic Couriers. The owners are three men named Whaley, Mack, and Appleby. Whaley and Appleby arrived as potential investors in Earth businesses two days before the explosive attack. Here are their pictures.”
He brought up stills of the men, taken from their Mercy Colony official identifications. He then activated a security vid and played it.
“This was recorded from the street vids on the day you went shopping, Governor. There you are passing the view right there…the walkway was crowded, and Etnil ended up briefly separated from the group for a couple of seconds.” His Imdiko had paused to gawk at a shopfront’s promotional vid. The security detail, focused mainly on the women, had missed him lagging behind for a matter of mere seconds.
The ensemble of Stacy, Etnil, Rosa, Toni, and the security detail had their backs to the recorder, but they were recognizable nonetheless. Kuran also had a vid’s record showing them from the front, but he wasn’t interested in that particular view.
The reason was the two men, facing the vid in the current footage, who’d bumped into Etnil an instant before the security guards retrieved and returned him to the Nichols women. They smiled and mouthed what were obviously apologies to Kuran’s clanmate as they hurried on.
“It’s them.” Stacy appeared sickened. “Whaley and Appleby.”
“Slick. I didn’t see the explosive go in the bags he was carrying. Is it obvious from a different view?” Bryant asked.
“No. They’re good. Unlike the men you hired, they had covert military training. Based on the vid alone, we wouldn’t have a case at all if Mitchell hadn’t transferred those large sums to them. It’s still a chancy case if he doesn’t confess to hiring them to attack Etnil. Mitchell can claim they did it on their own.” Kuran privately admitted grudging respect for the plot.
“You have my witness testimony.”
“Which you can’t give if you’re to remain under the Earthtiques’ radar.” Kuran folded his arms over his chest and glared as the vid looped to show the same few seconds. Ancestors, he wanted to rip off the heads of the whole gang.
“Use the footage from the nano that accompanied me to meet with Mitchell?”
“Which can be twisted as proof Kalquor is spying on Earth’s leadership.”
“We can’t have that if we want to keep an eye on the Earthtiques.” Stacy no doubt saw what Kuran did: the chance for Bryant to play both sides of his endgame to stop the radical politicians and remove the alien empire’s influence.
“Do you want me to visit Mitchell again? I could try to tease out additional damning evidence from him, details you can find physical proof of,” Bryant offered after a moment’s silence.
“The payment to these men and the vid evidence they had a brief interaction with Etnil offers too much of a case to delay bringing Mitchell in. As flimsy as it is, if we fail to arrest him now, we’ll earn a judge’s wrath.” Kuran couldn’t keep a growl out of his tone. If only Stacy would let him have a minute alone with the bastard. “It’ll be up to Michael Adams to get his confession.”
Bryant had gone still and watchful at the snarl Kuran had allowed to escape. He spoke carefully. “I can’t imagine how difficult it is for you to let Earth law and the man replacing you confront the criminals who hurt your clanmate. I’m impressed by your resolve, Nobek Kuran.”
It was on the tip of Kuran’s tongue to say he didn’t give a fuck about Bryant’s regard. He swallowed it, as well as his rage, under Stacy’s caring attention.
For her. For only her would I let those men live another second.
“Let’s show Adams what we have so he can arrest Whaley and Appleby and charge Mitchell,” Kuran ground between clenched teeth.
* * * *
Alpha Space Station
“I’m sorry you had a difficult day, Blythe.”
Difficult? Her day had been an absolute clogged toilet. “Difficult” was sunbeams and rainbows compared to the day she’d had.
