Kaspar's Box

"And you're telling me that those who command this task force, those who make the life or death decisions on it, are having information withheld from them by junior officers and even"-she looked over at Maslovic-"enlisted personnel?"

"It is all available to them if they require it."

"I see. And you, and your comrades, you alone decide if they require it?"

"Not exactly, but in a practical sense, yes. It has to be that way, Commander. It is a part of our job, our oaths. The information we have is far more secure than anything else on this ship. If the sergeant's right, and I believe he may be, then your entire computer system, command and control and all support and subsystems, have already been compromised. Ours isn't because they don't know it isn't. Now they can't learn of it and compromise it because it remains in the Directorate and in this room."

"And if they're already here? Assuming I buy this nonsense?"

"We've taken some precautions, sir, in this area. But, they could still be here. We do not believe it would mean anything to them if they were, though. These aren't highly intelligent secret agents. They are three units of someone's breeding stock who think they are getting their powers from demons inside black holes."

"They'da been bored to death by this point if they was here," Murphy commented dryly.

"And what about him?" Sittithong asked, gesturing towards Murphy. "He certainly knows now."

Maslovic went over to the old captain. "What about you, Murphy? Is this really a surprise or were you delivering these girls to somebody before their babies were born?"

"Eh? I don't know what yer talkin' about, sonny boy."

"You're not the science type, but you're not dumb, either. Sure, I believe these girls could make you take them along after they came aboard without you ever noticing. But if we're right, and Tara Hibernius is more than a primitive backwater, then they'd need somebody to get subjects in and out without attracting any undue attention. You and your scow are just about ideal for that, Captain Murphy, and while you might have been under their spell, I don't think they could have gotten into that small but extremely tightly guarded spaceport on their own, particularly in their condition. Don't play the fool any more, Murphy. Who was paying you to pick up ones like these girls now and then and where were they to be taken? Might as well tell us. You should know more than anybody that, in the hands of people like us, there's nobody who can't be broken."

Murphy's grizzled features broke into a slight smile, and there was still something of a twinkle in his eyes. "You're a smart laddie, aren't you? 'Course, I'm no genius meself. I had no idea what them girls was capable of and that's the Lord's truth. I mostly never know, and that suits me fine. I have-had-a regular route. The extra couple of folks now and then they put on at Tara Hibernius was always young, usually young girls in a family way, you might say. The pay was good, and instead of deadheading out of that hole I made a handsome profit, all below the table, as it were. I never asked no questions. That woulda been bad fer business, y'see. There was always somebody at the other end worried about gettin' 'em through the port, usually without the port knowin', if you know what I mean. And me account in the Trade Bank of Marchellus would get fatter. Hell, I never even knew if I had a pickup 'til I got 'em. Sometimes yes, but only maybe a third of the time if that. I can say that most of them what came aboard was out-and-out devil worshippers or somethin' of the sort, though. Just like them. All sorts of secret stuff and signs and blasphemous shit."

"Did they all seem to believe that stuff, like these girls seem to?" Maslovic asked him.

"Some did. Some didn't. You could kinda tell. But the ones that didn't seem to be into it was often the scariest of the bunch."

"In what way?"

"I can't explain it to you. Not really. But you could feel it, deep inside. But if any of that sort had been aboard this time, we wouldn't be standin' here now talkin' about it, 'cause they'd be runnin' this whole damned tin soldier factory. This lot, they're probably gettin' their jollies playin' Peepin' Tom and explorin' the place. They ain't actin', Sarge. They're really that dumb. Like little kids. I got to tell you, if I knew about what these girls could do, I'da been makin' plans to divert maybe to some worlds that got things worth stealin' before I dropped 'em off."

"And where were you to drop them off, Captain?" Mohr asked him, thinking.

"Same place as always. Didn't make sense to keep 'em around any longer than we had to, so it was my next stop. Queer little place called simply Barnum's World. You know it?"