Episode 71

A Merciful Death

As Benbow bent over Barngate to examine his pulse, they waited. Within moments they heard a heavy clumping noise in the corridor. Captain Pedrattus, helmeted and wearing full battle armor, marched through the door. He was followed by two similarly armored Marines, then Les Osborn, bent under the weight of a body.

“That's Char Wong!” exclaimed Hull.

York felt a mild stab of surprise herself. She'd known it had to be either Char Wong or Lu Singkai, but she'd figured the older man for the guilty party. Between the two of them, she'd thought Singkai made for the better candidate for the secret navigator, given his obvious intelligence and spatially-gifted mind.

Captain Pedrattus extended a blade from his right gauntlet and slashed through Captain Hull's bindings first, then York's own. She nodded her thanks at the armored giant, then rubbed at her newly freed wrists, wincing. David Apgar had pulled the zip-binder unnecessarily tight. The other two Marines went about freeing the other Navy men.

Osborn deposited his burden none too gently on the floor and straightened, looking at the agent. “It went just like you said it would, Miss York.”

“What went like she said it would?” the captain demanded.

Osborn rubbed at his lower back. “Miss York told me to hide in the air-cycling room, Captain. Told me to make damn bloody sure nobody put nothing in the air system.”

“Did Wong have the air watch?”

“No, Singkai did. While I was hiding, Wong here came in and stuck a stunner in the back of Singkai's neck. Singkai went down, and then he locked the door.”

“You just stood there and watched this?” Hull asked, incredulous. “Singkai could have been killed!”

“Yes, sir. Miss York warned me of that, but she ordered me not to show myself or interfere until someone tried to put something into the air system. So I didn't.”

The Captain looked down at the unconscious maintenance tech. “It seems he did.”

“He tried, sir. He took out a pair of 10-liter cylinders that were hidden behind the indicator panel and placed them near the air ducts, but he didn't unseal them. They was plain, they didn't have no marks on them. After maybe a half-kilosec, someone gave him an order over his comm. Wong put on a mask, I got ready to let him have it–”

“With what?”

Osborn dug into his pocket and brought out a very small stunner, a Brown-Markham of the sort commonly favored by Directorate operatives. “Miss York gave it to me,” he explained.

“I see.” Hull eyed York. She batted her eyelashes at him in feigned innnocence.

Osborn looked puzzled. “But something happened. I don't know if something was wrong with the mask's breather or what, but Wong just keeled over before I even did anything. I shot him anyway, just to be safe.”

“Bravo Zulu, Osborn.” Hull nodded approvingly. Then he turned and glared at York. “It seems to me I could have been acquainted with some of this.”

York suppressed a smile. “I very much doubt it, Captain.”

“And why not?”

“Can you honestly tell me you would have gone along with it?” York answered coolly. “I very much doubt you would have let them go so far.”

“Perhaps you're right,” he admitted. “Was it really necessary? We could have lost the crew. We could have lost the ship!”

“You know what was at stake. It was the only way we could encourage the traitors aboard this ship to show themselves.”

Hull swung toward Tregaski. “Lock these men up, Lieutenant, and I don't want to see anyone talking with them. No one!”

York raised her hand. “I'm sorry, Captain, but I'll have to ask you to countermand that order. Need I remind you–”

“Belay that, Lieutenant,” Hull spat. “Dammit, Miss York. I know what you have in mind and it isn't right! These men may be traitors, but they are naval enlisted men and as such they have the right to military justice.”

“With all due respect, Captain Hull, your Navy has the luxury of fighting its clean wars because the Directorate fights the dirty ones.” She turned to the Marine captain. “As we discussed previously, Captain Pedrattus.”

His face unreadable behind his mirrored visor, the Marine captain nodded, then kneeled down and picked up Jonas Norden in his powered gauntlets. In response to a command only they could hear, the other four Marines followed suit and each seized an unconscious Dai Zhani agent.

“What are you going to do with them?” Doctor Benbow called as she followed the Marines out of the mess hall.

“Shoot them and space them,” York answered. “Shed no tears for them, Doctor. It's a far more merciful death than they offered us.”

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