Secrets and Lies Part I
14 May 2017Jellicoe
I took a cabin on a Beluga liner for the journey to Alioth, I was tempted to fly myself of course but a few days of total relaxation in luxurious surroundings after the exertions of the Rift proved far more appealing. Kira was in the city when I arrived at Argent's Claim and when it took me longer than I had hoped to get a com link to her I put it down simply to her being a busy woman but when her hologram shimmered into life in my hotel suite she seemed edgy and ill at ease, a far cry from the confident, self assured woman I had always known. As always she looked immaculate, her beauty still barely touched by the years but her eyes, usually so penetrating as they skewered the object of her attention were nervous and shifty, darting this way and that, rarely fixing on me. Our conversation was awkward, strained and short, ending with an invitation to dinner at her apartment and leaving me to wonder just what was wrong.Kira Goméz's apartment in the city was sumptuous. A penthouse suite at the top of one of the most desirable sky scrapers in the most fashionable part of the capitol city of the Alliance, she had had the interior designed by the very best people money can buy, the décor and fittings perfected by the finest craftsman though everything about the place bore Kira's own stamp of functional elegance. She gave me a drink and I sat down to wait for dinner, Kira again appeared uncomfortable, rarely looking me in the eye, her hands constantly fidgeting.
"Not the Quest Club tonight? Does that mean you're ashamed of me?" I asked trying to find a way to lighten the mood.
"I'm too tired this evening, the last thing I want is to be on show in that goldfish bowl." She appeared flustered by the question, I had never seen her flustered before. The evening continued in a strained silence, Kira looking about to speak several times until finally, part way through our second course.
"You were out in the Rift?" She asked taking me completely by surprise.
"I was."
"And you found something?" It was not spoken like a question.
"I did."
"What was it?" Something was wrong. In all the years we'd known each other outside of a vague concern that it was broadly within the law Kira had shown not even the slightest interest in the detail of what I did.
"That depends whether I'm speaking to Kira Goméz the mother of my son or Kira Goméz vice president of the Alioth Independents."
"Do you really need to ask?" She replied. When you have known someone as long as I had known Kira you learn to read their reactions, my question should have produced a withering put down or similar cutting repost, I may not have been as good as some at this game, but I was good enough.
"That answer tells me all I need to know. What's going on Kira?"
"Be careful what you're getting mixed up in Stannis."
"All I did was sell some cartographic data."
"Don't treat me like a fool Stannis." Her eyes flashed, finally I saw some trace of the woman I knew. "I know you're connected to this Children of Raxxla group much more closely than that."
"What of it?"
"You don't see why a woman in my position should be concerned that the man she's involved with has ties to a terrorist organisation lead by a convicted killer?"
"Maybe, but you didn't ask me about them, you asked me about what I found in the Rift. Why does that interest the Alliance?"
"It doesn't, it's your links to terrorists that bothers me." She was flustered again.
"who's treating who like a fool now Kira? You may think I'm just another thick spacer but I'm not that dense. What's going on?"
Kira drained her wine in a single swig, refilled her glass, rose from the table and moved to the window. She stood with her back to me leaning on the sill looking out over the city below.
"A few days after I last saw you two intelligence men came to see me, senior people, they wanted to know what you knew about Raan Corsen, why you were interested in him and why I'd given you the location of his crash site. I thought it was just about Sirius and a chance to embarrass them but no, it involves us to somehow. They particularly wanted to know about some 'Exodus Documents' and if you had them or had seen them, I don't know why this is way above even my level but it's big and I was left in no doubt about the lengths they'll go to to keep it secret, now will you tell me what you found in the Rift? For all our sakes."
"Our sakes?" I queried. Kira breathed deeply and was about to answer when a series of beeps sounded, Kira whirled round a look of shock and fear on her face.
"Display." She ordered and a hologram of the buildings foyer appeared with two fire teams of SWAT police moving through it. Kira cursed under her breath. "They promised me they'd let you go if I found out what they wanted to know." She said in shock. "You have to go. Now."
"Where? Who are they? What's going on?"
"Alioth Intelligence Service. They've lied to me, they're here to take you in, follow me."
"They'll have all the exits covered." I replied my mind racing.
"Not this one. It isn't just government types and senior execs who like these places, criminal bigshots live here too, and they like a way out that isn't in the schematics. This'll drop you a few blocks away." She pulled me by the arm into her bedroom and stopped before a section of wall that opened on her touch to reveal an emergency transit pod. "When you get in press the green button to launch then the yellow one to close the wall back up."
"What about you?" I asked.
"They're after you not me and I can't go anywhere without Corrin. Now knock me out." I looked at her stupefied. "If they think I helped you I'm in just as much shit as you are so they need to think I tried to stop you so knock me out."
"But..." I began to protest.
"Do it!" She ordered.
"Alright, sorry." I swung my fist, connecting with her elegantly sculpted chin and she collapsed to the floor. I looked at her crumpled form my mind an agony of guilt, then saw from the hologram that the police had reached our landing. I climbed into the pod and triggered my escape.