Chapter 63 - The Kraken Gate
‘The Nallians must think the Koulomb Gate is a weapon,’ Benjamin said.
We’d made good progress down the rim of the crater, but as the ground began to level out, it also took on a wrinkled look, like the bellows on an accordion. We scrambled up and down creases in the ground, each successive one larger than the previous one.
‘I don’t see why,’ I sighed. ‘Why would they care if we make craters in distant planets? It makes more sense that they think it will give Emberland an advantage in the war; something they can’t allow.’
‘Do you really think these attacks are all the work of the Nallians?’
‘I’m more sure than I was. Until recently, I felt sure that you and the chancellor had some reason for wanting to put a stop to Harman.’
‘That’s absurd!’ exclaimed Benjamin. ‘The Council is worried about Harman’s methods.’ He waved a hand over his shoulder at the crater. ‘Draxil’s Beard, Connie! He blew up half of Emberly.’
‘Somewhat melodramatic, Lieutenant Scott.’ I was struggling to relinquish formality with Benjamin. ‘When I try to piece together the various attacks on Lannerville and on my team, it has a homegrown feel to it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that some of what’s happened doesn’t have the feel of a military operation carried out by a foreign operatives.’
‘Such as?’
Benjamin hadn’t heard of the attempt on my life in Poplar Square, so I filled him in.
‘That does sound clumsy,’ he conceded, climbing down into a ravine that had to be a fold in the landscape. I tried to imagine the shockwaves radiating out from the event that made the crater, like ripples on a pond, except that these had only gone so far, and had then frozen in place when the energy dissipated.. ‘You have to remember that it would have been worthwhile trying to stage it as an accident, even if there was a reduced probability of success.’
I hopped down after him. ‘They must have had low expectations to have a Nallian assassin ready for another attempt the same evening? That would have been planned many days in advance. Why risk alerting me to danger by using a bunch of amateurs when a proper operation is only a handful of bells from readiness?’
‘Hmm…then there was the attack on the sky-train,’ said Benjamin. ‘Could there be two factions at work? Maybe they’re aligned, but one doesn’t trust the other to get the job done.’
I nodded. Benjamin’s theory fitted the facts. We climbed a short way again, then dropped back down into another deep gully. It was an irritatingly slow process, but we both agreed that we had no time for a leagues-long detour to avoid the ruptured landscape. ‘Six on the train, but they almost certainly had a couple more back at Kirsten, in case we tried to slip away. A cell of foreigners that large wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. Banks and his lot at Special Intelligence Corps would have known about them.’
‘Same for the ones who tried to destroy the observatory on the estate,’ Benjamin added. ‘None of them looked to be Nallian.’
‘That’s not a reliable guide.’ Their capital had a large cross-section of different nationalities, thanks to centuries of trading history; cloth merchants from Lyhsten and spice traders from Mazat and beyond, settled where their best customers were. Then there were fishermen from The Lippetts, all the way from the Grey Ocean, adventurers and freebooters from Mazat, Gulreh and Vareh, drawn by mercenary contracts.
‘True,’ Benjamin agreed, ‘but I thought you said you recognised one of them from Lannerville itself.’
‘I did, and that’s what makes this complicated. By the way, I think this is the last one of these bloody cracks.’ I shimmied down a couple of ledges. Benjamin was waiting for me at the bottom. He was perspiring like a first-time criminal under judicial cross-examination.
‘Phew! I hope you’re right. This is hard work isn’t it?’ Benjamin gave me a concerned look, which is when I realised that I was also soaked, and smelling ripe with it. My water bottle was open and at my lips before I realised it was still empty. Not good. At least ten bells journey from the touchdown, assuming we hit open ground soon and avoided trouble. Benjamin broke the silence first.
‘It’s complicated, I see that, Connie, but what I don’t understand is how you could have suspected us, me…Draxil’s Teeth, Connie! You all but accused Chancellor Gordon of being a traitor!’
‘Benjamin…’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘In my defence, everyone in Lannerville was a suspect. It even crossed my mind that Harman might be trying to get rid of me!’
‘Now you’ve really gone off the deep end. Harman? Trying to kill you and destroy his own machine? That makes no sense at all.’
‘That’s what’s been eating away at me,’ I went on. ‘If it’s not Harman, then there has to be someone else on the inside coordinating this. They know too much about what we’re doing and where we are at any given time.’
‘How do you figure that?’ Benjamin looked puzzled. ‘People could have been posted at Kirsten looking out for you. There could have been another squad watching the the land trains.’
‘Sure, but what about the observatory? If they had known it was such a critical component of the Gate, why didn’t they strike it earlier, before we even arrived in Lannerville? No, someone on the inside heard that we were putting it under special guard and passed that information to the team waiting outside the estate. We only sowed the seed of that idea with Chancellor Gordon, so you can see why we suspected your lot.’
‘Alright,’ Benjamin’s shrug said he wasn’t convinced. ‘I should have made you spend more time with Banks. If anyone can help you, it’s him. He’s counter-insurgency, after all. Checks on people and cargoes at all the ports are at an all time high.
Just then, I felt something shift inside me, information, like the piece of a puzzle, turned sideways and suddenly looking very different. I remembered Banks and the paperwork in that little office where I’d questioned him.
‘Is Banks helping you with administration? He says you’re not too keen.’
‘It’s more that I don’t have time, what with everything else that needs to be done, but no. He offered, and I told him that I’d enlisted Overstrand to help.’
I was pondering Bank’s alternate spin on that, when another memory surfaced…the piece of paper Inigo found in the copse on the night that Chancellor Gordon arrived at the Lannerville Estate. It had been a scrap of inventory and timings, and now I wondered if it had something to do with the docks and tide times.
‘Did you just say Banks’s department in the S.I.S. have oversight of the ports?’
‘You do know that I only met him a few days ago, right?’
‘Yes, but all the same, you seem like firm friends.’
‘He’s very easy going,’ said Benjamin, defensively. ‘But yes. I think it was the chancellor who told me he was something in “Maritime Operations”.’
The word maritime reminded me of the pamphlet or notebook I’d seen. It had had some sort of logo on it, an outline of a ship’s prow. Suddenly it was clear to me. That image had been on the sign outside the warehouse by the docks, the sign that said ‘Armeda Shipping’.
‘The day you and I met Banks, we were watched,’ I told Benjamin. ‘After you both left, I tailed the man back to a warehouse by the docks. That was Banks’ doing.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Because the place he went had the same sign as Bank’s notebook, and that notebook, or whatever it was, is the same one that was used to create the cypher, the one used by whoever was signalling from inside the estate to those outside it.’
Benjamin frowned. ‘I don’t get it. Why would Banks need to have you followed if he was meeting you?’
‘I’ve been under surveillance for days, my team too.’ I thought back to the person watching our office in Emberly from the building opposite. Another thought occurred to me then, one that made my skin crawl.
‘It’s Banks, and he’s coming for us!’
‘What, here? Now?’
‘You asked why I was under surveillance…well, he, I mean whoever he works for in the Nallian hierarchy needed to get rid of Lockhouse Security. It turns out that we’re good at what we do, really good. So they needed an opportunity to get rid of us, and the simplest way to do that is to kill me.’
‘Except you’re always surrounded by your team,’ Benjamin cut in. ‘So Banks planted Private Coleman into the list of replacements and used his contacts in S.I.S. to make sure he got picked. Coleman was the hit man, brought in to take you down.’
‘Or whittle down the numbers,’ I said. ‘And Banks is on his way to finish the job. He’s not taking any chances after the previous failures. Coleman wasn’t marking the route so he could find his way back. He was laying a trail!’
‘Draxil’s Peace! It’s all beginning to make sense.’
A nearby sound startled us. Second Lieutenant Banks, or Captain Banks, or whoever he was, was standing at the top of the fissure holding a loaded crossbow.
‘Well, well,’ he drawled. ‘Have’t you been clever?’
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