Black Dawn (29 page)

It seemed a reasonable, and quite understandable request. Coy
decided to leave Butler at Triton with the
Nighthawk
to oversee the
continuing work on the
Karasu
. The
Rook
and
Raven
with their
Talons
on board would be the most useful if it came to actually protecting
their clients.

The trip, however, was nicely uneventful and the most
workout the
Talons
got was flying point. It also gave the new crew a
much calmer initiation into BlackFleet service than most of the members had ever enjoyed. Nothing like the memorable trial by fire experiences of the
Nighthawk
crew nor triple plus shifts of the original
Raven
team.

It also gave Coy plenty of time to ponder exactly how to man
the new vessel. Not that it would ever admit to Butler that it was a
problem. And actually, Coy told itself, it wasn’t really. Yes, a few departments that they had just gotten up to speed were going to be spread
a little thin –again- , but that was nothing new to anyone.

Some personal observations as well as vid com conferences
with Ken assured Coy that Tony Knepp could handle still another elevation. This time to commander of the
BlackBird
. When it was docked,
Knepp could continue doing his current duties on the bridge of the
Raven
in Butler’s absence. But if circumstances dictated that the ‘
Bird
was cut loose, Butler would be taking over the bridge of the flagship
and Knepp would take the yacht-turned-warbird and leave Drake
available to take over the new vessel.

That settled all that was left to fill was every other position on
the ship. A little creative shuffling of new and old crew and that was
taken care of as well. The next highest position, chief engineer was
also filled by veteran BlackFleet Hassam Tibai. Jump Pilot Heyob was
beside himself with joy at being given his orders to report as J P for the
destroyer.

Lynn Harper was put onboard as shuttle and backup pilot having shown tremendous, and untapped talent as a future JP. Com and
Weapons chairs were filled by a couple of those rescued by the
Talons
on Kendrick. The Tac Com position for the
Karasu
was given to one
of the civil servants turned mercs. Engineering and medical were
staffed by an even mixture of new and old.

As Coy sat at its desk pondering not only all the changes the
Fleet was going through, but also at its own acceptance…no, it had to
be honest with itself…enjoyment at it all. Someday it was going to
have to properly apologize to Butler for all the grief it had given him
back in the old days. Someday.

It was smiling to itself at that, when a breathless Ceal Byars
entered its quarters.
“Ceal? What…?”
“We found him. Finally. Well we could’ve done it sooner I
suppose, but with you being dead and all we kinda put it on a lower
priority I guess. But we did it…”
“Whom did you find?”
Ceal took a breath as if making a great announcement.
“Hessemen.”

The room looked much like any other low end bar in any other town on any other planet. Neutral colored walls, inexpensive furniture, cheap copies of cheap art on the walls. Tables and booths were
occupied by semi sober people trying to hold conversations with other
semi sober people. Tinny music floated through the air entertaining no
one. A rather unexciting prize for a long tedious search.

A quick survey of the room showed only one card game being
played at present. Coy picked out their target easily enough from the
description of his current appearance. If they hadn’t had the information, however, there would have been no way Coy or Bon either one
would have recognized this as the same person from the game on Alluria. He was much smaller, tan instead of the pasty pale from before,
thick dark hair and just a touch of an accent that was impossible to
place. His name this time was Cravaack.

Coy nodded to Raeph and Ken and the three of them converged on the game. Bon and Butler both pulled chairs up on either
side of “Cravaack”. Coy sat down in a space between two players, directly across the table.

“
What is going on here?” sputtered one of the players.
“Cravaack, are you in some sort of trouble?”
“What? No! I don’t know what this is all about,” he sounded
convincingly innocent.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I need to talk to Mr. Ah, Cravaack,
here for a little while. After I’m done he can return to your game, if
he’s still interested…and able,” Coy told them, smiling at them all.
“Forget it,” another man threw down his cards and stomped
off.
“What business have you got with these…” the first player
eyed their uniforms.
“Mercenaries,” Butler supplied for him.
“None!” he cried in self defense. “I’ve never seen them before!”
“Not entirely true, Mr. ‘Cravaack’,” Coy emphasized the name
so that he could hear the quotes around it. “Now, if you will excuse
us…” Bon and Butler each grabbed an arm and stood up on either side
of him, forcing him to stand as well.
“I am so glad you lost that weight!” Bon murmured to him.
Cravaack stared hard at both of them and then over at Coy. “A
herm mercenary,” he said slowly, beginning to make connections. “Oh,
shit.”
Coy grinned at him, and nodded to the door.
Two angry faces watched them exit the bar, sure that they had
just been scammed out of some winnings. Hardly anyone else even
acknowledged their leaving.
“Where are we going?” Cravaack demanded as they turned
down a few streets.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll recognize it when we get there,” Coy told
him. “After all, it was yours for awhile, I believe.”
Cravaack came to a dead stop, dragging his two bodyguards to
a halt alongside him. “You don’t still have that damn ship do you? Are
you insane?!” he choked out. He looked all around him. “What do you
want with me?”
“Just some information,” Butler told him. “Which we could
get a lot faster if you would keep walking.”
“Information. You are insane. Just what do you think I can tell
you?”
“We will discuss that at length once we are aboard the
Raven
,”
Coy said in an even voice. “Now as Captain Butler indicated, this
would be over more quickly if you co operate.”
“Cooperate? I’m not setting foot on that cursed ship!”

“What are…”
was all he got out before the hypo hissed against
his neck. “You’re in…” He went limp in their arms.
“Insane, yes, I know,” Coy finished for him.
“Now I’m real glad he lost that weight!” Bon grunted, slinging
the unconscious man’s arms around his neck as Butler did the same on
the other side.
Around one more corner they hit the docks. They headed for
the shuttle waiting for them in the rented slot, BlackFleet guards standing by the hatch.
“Shore leave,” Coy grinned and shook his head at any questioning looks they got from passersby.

From the information that Ceal and Vennefron had uncovered,
their guest’s original name had been Dominick Tryon. He didn’t seem
to have used it however for a good twenty years, using about 30 different aliases over that time. Coy figured he must have had a memory
almost as good as its own to keep track of all the deceits.

Whoever he was at the moment, he came to consciousness
slowly as Ceal’s antidote took effect.
He looked around the room blearily for a moment before his
memory caught up with him. When it did, he jerked upright on the
couch he had been lying on.
“Oh my….I’m really on …” he turned panic stricken eyes on
Coy. “What are you doing? What do you want from me?”
Coy took its time seating itself calmly in a chair across from
him. “Why are you so afraid of this ship?”
He paused a moment and surveyed the faces around him. He
made a concerted effort to collect himself. “It’s not the ship. It’s…” he
paused again and turned back to face Lamont. “It’s not really yours
you know.”
“I have documents saying otherwise. They do not appear to be
forgeries…”
“No, they’re real. But, I mean, surely you know by now this
wasn’t mine.”
“I know you were the middle man. The ‘fence’ as it were.
Which brings me to who’s on the other side of the fence.”
Tryon stared at it for several minutes, his lips shut tightly as if
he were afraid something might escape through them without his consent. “Yyou can’t pentha me,” he stammered.
Coy sighed. I know. We tested you while you were out.
Which leaves us with another puzzle. Most independent fences value
their own skin rather highly. It makes me wonder all the more what
information you have that’s more important than your life?” Coy raised
an eyebrow in invitation.
Tryon looked as if he was going to respond to that, but stopped
himself.
“It also puzzles me why you are so afraid of him when he’s so
far away, and yet not afraid of me when I’m right here.”
Butler and Bon exchanged a quick glance at each other at the
obvious bait.
“He’s never far away,” Tryon mumbled.
“I meant him personally,” Coy told him, “not his hired hands.”
“Same thing. Dead is dead no matter who pushes the button.”
Coy toyed with the idea of presenting itself as a button pusher,
but it didn’t want to make a bluff and he call it. It would weaken their
position even more. They sat in silence a moment more.
Tryon frowned at Lamont. Coy got up and walked across the
room to pour itself a cup of tea as if it hadn’t a care in the universe.
Tryon watched it . “I know what you’re trying to do with me.”
Coy looked pensively down into its cup as it stirred its tea. “
I’m doing the same thing I do every day – I give people options of how
they want to live – in shame and fear or pride and accomplishment.”
Tryon snorted. You don’t have that power.”
“I beg to differ,” Bon spoke up. “I think so would a whole fleet
full of people who are living that better option.” He looked at Coy and
gave a firm nod of support.
Coy smiled and kept stirring.
“You can’t fight him,” Tryon tried again.
“Watch me.’
“It’s too big now. Too many lines involved.”
Coy finally took a sip of its overly stirred tea, hiding its attention to even this tiny bit of information. “He can’t control all shipping,” Coy took a shot in the dark.
Tryon shook his head. “He thinks he can.”
All three BlackFleet officers froze in shock of having their
theory proved by four such simple words. Then by exchanged glances
they all seemed to agree to keep Tryon in the dark as long as possible
as to how much he was helping them. Coy returned to the chair it had
occupied previously.
“What did the
Raven
have to do with everything? What was
the point in giving it to me?”
He shook his head in exasperation. “A mistake. A mistake that
has all but ruined my life.” He looked ruefully at his captor. “Still ruining it.”
“What mistake?” Coy asked.
` Tryon glared. “You’re the wrong bloody Rigan!”
The conversation halted as everyone digested this revelation.
“So what made you think I was the right Rigan?”
He snorted. How many Rigans were there on Alluria?”
Coy blinked. “Then what makes you think I’m the wrong Rigan?”
“You must be. You’re doing the wrong things.”
“Such as trying to stop him with his own ship?”
Tryon, suddenly aware of how much he was talking, closed his
mouth with an almost audible snap.
Coy gave him a grim smile. “Well, the Boogeyman may have
had this ship once, but thanks to you and your mistake, it’s mine now.”
Tryon was caught off guard by the reference. “The Boogey
what?”
“Besides being a child’s nightmare, it refers to an ancient
Earth people who preyed on passing ships. It also is my nickname for
my, ah , adversary.”
Ken stared at it with one of his ‘how do you know this stuff?’
expressions.
“Adversary.” Tryon snorted. “He will destroy you before you
can get close.”
“At which point he destroys you – because you’re with us,”
Ken pointed out. “Cause the longer you’re here the more chance there
is that you will tell us something a little more useful.”
He dug his hands into the upholstery for emphasis. “I will
not!”
“Ah, but will ‘he’ believe that?”
Tryon suddenly went very, very white under his expensive tan.
“Let me go.”
Coy shook its head. “ Captain Butler is right. I think I had better keep you right here where you are safe.”
“Until I talk?”
“At that point we could re negotiate, yes.”
Tryon stared at Coy’s calm face. “You’ve killed me. Whether I
go or stay, I’m dead.”
Coy shook its head in disagreement. “Options, remember?
Yes, out there I would agree your usefulness has expired . But here,
you can help out a whole lot of people and we can keep you safe. What
do you say?”

“
I wonder how many conversations it would take to get another snippet of anything useful?” Coy sighed after Tryon had been escorted out.

“There’s probably ways to speed up his conversation,”
Bon
suggested carefully.
Coy’s eyes flashed. “We’re not torturing anyone!” It blew out
its breath. “I came too close to that with our last prisoner. I don’t want
to repeat that scene.”
“So we wait him out?” Butler scowled. They were still sitting
in Coy’s quarters reviewing the conversation.
“For now.”
Ken blew out his breath in frustration. “If you say so.” He
shook his head.
“Does make you wonder though,” Bon mused.
“Wonder what?” Ken asked.
“Who the right Rigan is?”
. Coy paused in its reach to turn on its computer. It looked at
him thoughtfully, but didn’t answer. Something in Bon’s question
almost
connected with something Butler had said lately. And both things
almost
connected with thoughts Coy had had since the cascade. But
nothing quite lined up. Nothing quite…
“Skipper?” Bon asked at Coy’s expression.
Coy shook its head. Whatever the thread was it would have to
wait until a better time to unravel it. For now it turned on the computer
set into the conference table, found the information it was looking for
and read for a minute. It raised its wrist com up while it read. “Lamont
to Vennefron.”
There was a very short pause before, “Vennefron. Go ahead,
sir.”
“I’m looking at the list of shipping line owners. Is this the
most complete list we have?”
“That’s probably the list of first layer owners. But what I
found was that lots of times a few small companies are owned by some
larger company. That’s the second layer.”
Coy mused on that. “How many layers back can you go?”
“Not very many. I started running into sealed documents and
silent partners and all kinds of evasive maneuvers so to speak.”
“Hmmm. Thank you Lieutenant. I may be getting back to you
soon.”
“Aye, sir. Vennefron out.”
Lamont lowered its wrist slowly, looking across the table at
Butler as it did so. “Evasive maneuvers indeed.”
Ken perked up as he caught on. “Literally? You think he’s
hiding behind bogus company names?”
“One person couldn’t literally own all the shipping lines, could
they?” Bon asked. “I mean that’s so illegal they would be easy to catch
wouldn’t they? And besides, why would he attack himself?”
Butler snorted and pushed himself away from the table in frustration. “We are missing something really important here. And I have
the terrible feeling its right in front of us and we’re going to hate ourselves when we think of it. If we’re going to do any more brainstorming, I think we need more brains.”
Coy definitely agreed.