Minerva's Dirty Secret: Need To Know
13 Jan 2018Mack Winston
PREVIOUSLY...1. The Contract
Capitol, Achenar
"You asked for me," Joe Kemper said, without emotion.
"Yes," Norman Mosser said, simply.
He was sat in the enormous living room of his sprawling mansion, Achenar's light streaming through the windows. The pale light reflected off his bald head. Joe always found the reflection curious, it was as if Norman had a personal beacon. Norman indicated the large comfortable sofa with a noncommittal wave of his right hand, inviting Joe to take a seat.
"I'm afraid the crows are coming home to roost," he said, with an air of lament.
"Crows?"
"A still-born project I was working on decades ago with your father. It seems that...well, an adversary has discovered it exists"
Joe Kemper's face rearranged itself into the familiar look of resigned inevitability. The years of working for Norman had taught him that his pleasant little sojourn to the nice resort on the other side of the planet probably wasn't happening for a while. Not that he minded these jobs, he gained plenty of satisfaction from being the man that fixed things for Norman. The challenges they brought were always mentally stimulating. But he really was looking forward to a few weeks of carefree nothingness at the beach.
"So, you want me to divert your old adversaries," Joe stated.
"Not quite. I need you to persuade someone else to do that job. Unfortunately," Norman said, frowning slightly, "if they see you out there, they will know that I know that they know, and they will know..."
Joe held his hand up. Norman was about to get into a long tangled web of he-knows-that-she-knows until Joe wouldn't have a clue who knew who or what.
"Remember Mack Winston?" Norman said.
"Uh-huh," Joe answered, grimacing slightly, his look becoming more set in its default expression of resigned inevitability.
"I need Mack to do this job," Norman answered.
"I can think of about a thousand people who would be better," Joe observed dryly.
"Hear me out. I think I can trust him, and he's leaving on the Minerva Centaurus expedition in a few days. This expedition is a hundred thousand light year romp from Kippax Ring to Colonia via the eastern Scutum-Centaurus arm. And the project ship?"
"Let me guess, is hidden somewhere in the Scutum-Centaurus arm"
"You've got it. My friend has been signed up for this expedition for months, so no one will suspect he's got a side mission. Anyone joining up now will be immediately suspicious, even if there are better people than him. I also think he rather owes me one after that incident with his uncle, so I'm sure you'll have no problem persuading him to take the job."
Joe took in a deep intake of breath. "Yep, he'll be easy enough to persuade. Easy enough. But if your adversary knows that his father was an associate of yours back in the day..."
"It's a risk I'll have to take. It's not that well known"
"Mm-hmm", Joe uttered, thoughtfully. He'd seen the picture in The greatest crime, a book that even now was on Norman's bookshelf in luxury paper form.
"So your vacation won't be interrupted," Norman added, as a bonus, as he transmitted the details to Joe's handheld.
Joe reviewed what Norman had sent to him as he left for Kappa Fornacis. Norman had apparently used the same trick to hide the ship as he had with the Azure Sunset, a pattern of automatically executed hyperspace jumps and misjumps that could only be recreated if you had the algorithm and proper key. Thousands of jumps later, the ship would be in deep space, thousands of light years away. It took real engineering expertise to pull it off too...the hyperdrives from fifty years back weren't what they are now.
This meant someone had to have leaked the algorithm and key if someone else had figured out where the ship was hidden. Only a handful of people knew about this project of Norman's - Joe's father, Sam - who was now dead - and two others who Joe had never heard about.
They would need to be researched. Joe knew there would inevitably be a revenge mission.
But before any of that happened, Norman needed the data core retrieved off the ship - and a few other items, too - then the ship destroyed. Too bad, the ship was a rare example of a Mark I Panther Clipper, something only found in museums. The data core would ultimately be returned to Norman's possession.
Joe reflected that Mack Winston would be easy enough to find. No doubt he'd show up at Harvestport within the next day or two, or if not, then certainly at Kippax Ring, but Joe rather preferred to find him sooner rather than later...