Valiant

Rione glared back for a moment, then dropped her gaze. “Yes. She’s not the sort to stab someone in the back.”

“I’ve really got enough problems right now without you two sniping at each other.”

“Are you going to tell her that?”

Geary realized for the first time that Rione had long since stopped referring to Tanya Desjani by her name. “I did, and I will. I need both of you.”

Rione raised her eyes to Geary’s, her expression sardonic. “You need both of us? Tonight, perhaps? I’m shocked.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know what you think you mean.” Rione shrugged. “My loyalty is to the Alliance, Captain Geary. I’ll do what’s necessary to support that. Right now, that means supporting you to the best of my ability. Neither you nor she need fear me unless you start acting against the Alliance. You know I’m telling the truth.”

He did, Geary realized, since a slight variation on that statement had registered as true in the interrogation room. “Thank you. I know this isn’t easy.”

“You’d better be referring to the fleet’s situation.”

He eyed her, wondering if he should admit he was also talking about personal issues.

Her eyes blazed as she stared back. “Don’t you dare pity me. I left you.” Rione spun on one heel and walked quickly away.

THE atmosphere inside the conference room was different this time. The tension wasn’t from politics or worry about the Syndics. It was focused inward, with every virtual commanding officer’s presence eyeing those around it as if hoping to see clear signs of who had tried to sabotage the fleet. But eyes also kept going to Lieutenant Iger, who was looking uncomfortably out of place, and to Victoria Rione, who sat so silent and expressionless that she might have been carved from stone.

Geary stood up, and all eyes went to him. “You all know the reason for this conference. I’ve received reports from all of your ships and confirmed that every single one had been sabotaged by the placing of a malware worm in the jump-drive systems. The great majority of those worms would have simply kept your ships from jumping the next time it was ordered and kept your systems off-line for some time while it was neutralized. Three ships, the battle cruisers Dauntless, Furious, and Illustrious, had worms which would have allowed the ships to jump but then stranded them in jump space forever.” He paused to let that sink in.

“Someone intended removing me from command of this fleet by destroying a warship of the Alliance and her crew. Someone attempted also to destroy Furious and Illustrious.” Geary glanced at Captain Badaya, whose face was rigid with anger. “Whoever did it knew the daily changing security access codes for the system filters and had access to the means to transfer the malware to every ship in the fleet. That means it had to be the work of individuals wearing the uniform of the Alliance. This is not dissent, this is not debate or professional differences or the act of someone loyal to the Alliance. It’s the act of traitors. The act of cowards. Has anyone found any information that might help identify them?”

He ran his eyes over the long, long virtual table, meeting the gaze of each commanding officer in turn. He almost lingered on Commander Gaes but remembered in time not to. She’d been a critically important informant this time, and he couldn’t afford to risk compromising her. Lorica had been one of the ships that followed Captain Falco, and apparently whoever was continuing to conspire against Geary thought Gaes was still mutinous enough to be part of the plot. Either that or Gaes had managed to maintain enough contacts among the plotters to discover what they were doing.

Captain Caligo and Captain Kila didn’t betray anything other than the same feelings shown by others.

It was impossible to tell if any of the faces reflected guilt rather than anger or fear. Geary gestured toward Iger. “Lieutenant Iger is the senior intelligence officer on Dauntless. He has some information regarding Co-President Rione.”

The commanding officers of the ships of the Callas Republic and the Rift Federation gaped at Rione, their expressions shocked, but she unbent enough to give them a reassuring look.

Lieutenant Iger spoke in his briefing voice. “I was made aware of unauthorized security software modifications aboard Dauntless that implicated Co-President Rione.”

“Why is she sitting here?” Captain Armus of Colossus demanded. “She should be-”

“Let Lieutenant Iger finish,” Geary broke in, his voice like ice.

Iger continued as if totally unaware of any interruption. “Co-President Rione volunteered to be questioned inside a Class Six interrogation cell. She was asked a series of questions to determine if she had actually been involved in those or any other software modifications, and registered as absolutely truthful in her denials of any knowledge or involvement. ”