information was money. If I had time to throw her off my scent I would send a decoy after I’d been there.
I sent Veronica a note of thanks, then disconnected. I set up a new connection, using the highest level of security. I didn’t want anyone on the ship to be able to eavesdrop on this information because I was going to check my digital drop boxes.
Thanks to my semipublic call for information, I had received a flood of messages. I deleted most of them and flagged a few for later follow-up. The latest messages were from the last few hours, so information was still trickling in; I just had to be patient.
I worked my way through my various accounts, reconnecting each time. In the account most relevant to House news, I’d received replies to the two messages I’d followed up on before.
The first message related to Ferdinand’s dinner with Evelyn. There was a picture of Evelyn alone in the restaurant and a short note that the photographer, presumably, had been tipped off by a member of House von Hasenberg staff about the meeting. He was trying to get a shot of the two of them alone together, but Ferdinand had never showed.
We screened our staff, but everyone was human. It didn’t surprise me too much that someone had sold Ferdinand out, but the proof gave us a place to start. The informant might’ve told the Syndicate where to find Ferdinand on the night he was taken.
I asked Catarina to look into who had access to Ferdinand’s schedule that day. My baby sister was desperate to help. This should be relatively safe for her, while also allowing her to meaningfully contribute.
The second message had claimed to have information about the shooter. I hadn’t expected much, even from a regular contact when I’d paid the good-faith money, but he or she—and I tended to think she based on the writing—had delivered a treasure trove of information.
I’d have to confirm the authenticity, but based on a quick look, it seemed legit. The Syndicate had put a hit on me. Oh, I wasn’t positive it was the Syndicate, because they weren’t stupid enough to advertise the contract under any of their official accounts. But if it wasn’t them, then it was the most coincidental timing in the history of the universe.
The picture became a little clearer. The Syndicate had hired a patsy to cause a distraction by shooting at me and maybe even killing me. I doubted the best and brightest would take a job on Earth, but maybe I was wrong and someone would see it as a challenge—of course, my continued existence sort of defeated that argument.
I wasn’t sure why I’d been targeted, but as the information specialist, it would make the Syndicate’s abduction of Ferdinand easier if I wasn’t digging for answers. Or it could be that they thought I would be the least protected. Or they could’ve heard that I was in poor health.
Not only did my contact include a copy of the contract, she’d also included a short list of people suspected of accepting it. This person either had excellent sources or was high up in either the Syndicate or the Consortium. No one on the list was familiar, which meant it wasn’t the top 1 percent jumping for a chance to off me. Not that they wouldn’t, they just wouldn’t do it on Earth.
Thank goodness for small favors, I guess.
I closed the connection and reconnected to a different set of secure servers. I would keep digging until Ian returned or it was time to prepare for the party. I set a timer, set the ship to alert me when the cargo door opened, and dove into the Net.
Nearly two hours after they’d left, Ian and Alexander returned, their armor scratched in multiple places. Both moved easily, though, so nothing serious had made it through the tough composite and into their flesh.
Aoife handed them each a bottle of water and a protein bar. Alexander stripped off his helmet and chest armor, revealing sweaty hair plastered to his head. Ian took off his helmet, but left his chest armor. He frowned at the floor, not exactly the look of a man victorious.
I made my way down to the cargo hold. Alexander, Ian, and Aoife were arguing fiercely about something I couldn’t quite hear but the three of them went silent when I appeared.