The Noise Revealed (33 page)

Chapter Twenty

Kyle tried to talk to Joss about Wicksy several times. Finally a suitable opportunity presented itself. They were in the rec room, no one else at the table, when he attempted to express his regret at her loss and apologise for anything he might have said or done to make her feel worse. Strange, but when it came to light, witty banter with a woman -
any
woman - he had always found that words flowed freely. Now, when matters were anything but frivolous, he felt as if his tongue had been dipped in lead rather than the desired silver. The conversation went badly, with her snapping that she didn't want to talk about it before ensuring that others came over to join them. She might not have stormed off this time around, but she pointedly spoke to the new arrivals rather than him, with a forced cheerfulness presumably intended to convince Kyle that she was fine and there was no problem here at all.

He came away from the encounter feeling frustrated and a little embarrassed, wishing that he'd never bothered trying to explain himself in the first place. He also felt confused, not least about whether he was merely trying to win Joss's friendship or was hoping for something more. There were certainly prettier women on board, so why was he spending so much time and effort trying to get into the good graces of this one?

On the plus side, the energy veils had held up admirably, with no sign of tearing or damage following the two jumps since his repairs. Also, he continued to feel far more comfortable around the rest of the crew, as if they really had accepted him now. He began to wonder whether his previous sense of isolation was the result of a milder form of what Joss had shown him; that the crew as a whole had subconsciously resented his presence as a reminder of the friends they'd lost. If so, his success in fixing the ship's drives seemed to have overcome their reservations; in all bar one instance, at least.

Something that continued to surprise him was the lack of fatigue evident among his shipmates. Not in the sense of physical tiredness, but rather the simple wearing down of spirit that spacers usually suffered after being cooped up for so long within the confines of a ship. From what he'd been told, these people had been stuck aboard
The Rebellion
for an age, and yet he heard no real griping, not even when they learnt that Kethi and Leyton had escaped to the planet below while everyone else remained up here. He supposed this was to do with their culture. On any other ship, he felt certain there would have been muttered complaints on all sides.

He was on his way to engineering when he glanced down a branching corridor and saw Joss again. She was with someone - Simon - and she was leaning into him, hugging him. Joss looked up and saw Kyle at the same instant he almost stumbled. Then he was past and hurrying on towards his station, without a word spoken.
Joss and Simon?

His shift went by in a blur, even though there was little for him to do. He couldn't get the image of Joss's head on Simon's chest out of his mind. Who'd been hugging whom? Had they both been hugging each other or was it only one way? Where had Joss's arm been? Was it around Simon or by her side? He tried to remember, tried to analyse the picture in his mind's eye, but the more he thought about it the less he trusted his memory and the more variations he could envisage.

Kyle was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he missed the big news. Only when he dropped in to the rec room at the end of his shift did he hear.
The Retribution
had arrived. Rumours were rife that she had brought a VIP with her, though if any of the off-duty bridge personnel knew who it was, they weren't saying. Kyle wasn't really in the mood for the animated gossip that was flying around the room and didn't even know the other two names which kept being bandied about - Nyles and Mya - so he decided to make an early night of it and headed for his quarters.

The way life had been slapping him around of late, he probably should have been prepared to bump into Joss at the rec room doorway, but he wasn't. She looked as embarrassed as he felt. None the less, he remembered his manners and stood back, ushering her into the room.

"Look, I wanted to explain about what you saw earlier, me and Simon..." she started to say.

He waved away her words. The last thing he wanted right then was an awkward conversation, and he certainly didn't need her pity. "No problem. You don't have to explain yourself to me," he assured her. "Have fun." With his best imitation of an unconcerned smile firmly in place, Kyle brushed past her and strolled on towards his room.

Kethi and Leyton were in transit back to
The Rebellion
when
The Retribution
arrived. Catherine Chzyski had offered to put them up at Kaufman Industries' expense, but they declined. Not because they had any qualms about trusting Kaufman Industries' CEO, but they decided it was safer to return to the ship, bearing in mind their rebel status and the fact that Home was not some backwater planet but a significant world deep within ULAW space. The meeting itself had gone remarkably well, with common ground apparent from the off, after which all parties were able to contribute information that the others lacked. The fact that both groups had reached similar conclusions independently strengthened their conviction that they were on the right track. A further meeting had been scheduled for the following day. Finding likeminded people was one thing, now they had to decide on what to do next.

Both Leyton and Kethi left in buoyant mood. It was hugely uplifting to realise they weren't alone, and that a corporation as powerful as KI was sympathetic to their cause.

The good mood didn't last long.

News of their sister ship's arrival came as no surprise - Kethi had ensured a coded message was left for Nyles informing him of their destination - but news of
The Rebellion'
s additional passenger did.

"You've brought
who
with you?" Kethi asked.

"I know, but things aren't always as clear cut as they might seem, Kethi," Nyles told her.

The tone Nyles habitually adopted when addressing Kethi never ceased to amaze Leyton: patronising, as if she were a child. He supposed it came from the man having known her since she was. Leyton for one didn't welcome the return of the habitat's leader. In his absence, Kethi had blossomed, growing into the responsibilities of command, and that tone had seemed light years away. Now, here it was again, in the very first communication between the two of them.

"Mr Benson has provided us with some fascinating intel and has convinced me that he's not our enemy. In fact, far from it," Nyles continued. "He, Mya and I will transfer to
The Rebellion
shortly, allowing Captain Forster to withdraw
The Retribution
. I don't like having two of our ships exposed like this so deep in ULAW territory. We can discuss the matter further when I arrive."

"Are you all right?" Leyton asked once the connection was broken. Their own shuttle was about to dock with
The Rebellion
and Leyton knew that once they were back on board she'd be too busy for any private conversations.

"Yes, I'm fine," Kethi replied, though her face suggested otherwise. "I'm just thinking about the reallocation of cabins all over again."

"Bullshit; that's just logistics. What's really bothering you? Is it the prospect of losing the captaincy now that Nyles is back?"

She smiled. "Maybe, a bit. I've enjoyed being captain, I have to admit, but it's more than that."

Of course it was. "Benson."

"Yes!" and she frowned, looking anxious, frustrated, and perhaps even a little angry. "I've spent so much time looking into all this, and it's been like chasing shadows. There are hints and half clues about the people responsible, but hardly ever anything concrete. They are adept at avoiding the limelight, these faceless kingpins. Identifying them with any certainty has been impossible most of the time. The one name that's emerged from the murk and shadows enough for me to point at and say 'yes, he's one of them' is Benson's. To me he's like some dark spider sitting at the heart of a web of manipulation, misinformation and conspiracy, pulling the strings and making his puppets dance, and now Nyles turns up with this man and presents him to us as an
ally
?" She shook her head and looked at him, as if seeking reassurance. "What do you think? Am I too close to this, reading too much into Benson's role? You know the man, you've worked with him."

"I don't know," he said. "To me Benson was the political side of what I did. He was the man who represented ULAW, who issued the assignments and told me what needed doing. I always viewed him as a bureaucrat, a politician; not exactly a figure of fun, but someone to be humoured, whose world moved in a completely different orbit from mine. Then he was put in charge of things at New Paris and I had to start taking him a whole lot more seriously.

"As for knowing him... no, not really. I don't think any of us ever did."

"But can we
trust
him?"

That was the question, of course, and he knew that Kethi was looking to him for the answer. "For as long as it suits him, yes," he said. "And there's no question that Benson could prove a useful ally. He's shrewd, perceptive, and knows a lot more about the inner machinations of ULAW than I do. The trick is going to be recognising the point at which his interests no longer coincide with ours. Then... watch out."

"That's what I thought," she said. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

Kyle tended to sleep on his side much of the time. So when he came awake to the soft movements of somebody slipping into bed, he had his back to them. Even so, he reckoned the field of likely candidates was pretty limited. He lay there, not moving, not reacting, not wanting to spook her.

"You'd have liked Wicksy," she said softly.

"Yeah," he replied, "I'm sure I would have done."

She snuggled up against him - her thigh against his, the soft pressure of her breasts on his back, while her hand reached round to rest on his stomach. Joss was something special. He'd bedded many prettier girls in his time but none more beautiful. It seemed to him at that moment that all his previous conquests had been shallow, two dimensional, or at least his perception of them had been. There was a lot more to Joss than that, a greater depth, and he was delighted to feel all of her dimensions cuddling up against him right now. He sensed that this was all she wanted, at least for the moment, and that was fine by him; that was enough for both of them.

Chapter Twenty-One

There was something new between Kethi and Leyton. They did a good job of hiding it, of masking their body language, but Mya was an expert at reading them. She was also an expert at reading Leyton, and he was trying just a little too hard not to react to Kethi. Lovers, perhaps? It was all very touching.

She'd picked up on it the previous evening when she, Nyles and Benson had boarded
The Rebellion
. Not so much from Kethi, oddly enough, who'd been preoccupied with greeting them all and handing command back to Nyles, but from Leyton, whose gaze lingered just a fraction too long on the ship's erstwhile captain. The real giveaway, though, was his reaction to her. Nothing overt; he smiled warmly enough and hugged her in greeting, but he wasn't focussed on her with the sort of intensity he'd shown after she was liberated from Sheol. Mya no longer felt that she was the centre of his universe, which piqued her curiosity, not to mention her pride, and made her determined to discover who had usurped her: Kethi, it would seem.

Mya felt a small prickling of jealousy, which was ridiculous, and she experienced a flash of amusement at her own reaction. She ought to feel pleased for him, not proprietorial. The jealousy was followed by a sudden jolt of fear. What if he could read her reaction to Benson as clearly as she could his to Kethi? No, start getting paranoid about that and it was bound to lead to awkwardness and tell-tale behaviour. She just needed to relax and act naturally.

At least staring too much at Pavel hadn't been an issue. He was the centre of everyone's attention, with Nyles inviting him to explain to Kethi and Leyton why he was such a vital ally.

It was interesting seeing Jim and Pavel together - these two men who, Louis aside, had been the most important in her life. Leyton was powerfully built - not fat, all solid muscle, but nor was he some muscle-bound grotesquery. He possessed the sort of rugged handsomeness displayed by a wild coastline of sweeping cliffs standing defiant against the pounding waves. He moved with the easy grace of a dancer, but held the menace of a watching bull. Pavel was older and, despite being well-toned, seemed positively slight in comparison, although the two were roughly the same height. His features were softer, more sensitive, the artful touch of grey in his hair conspiring to make him look distinguished and wise. Pavel had poise and a real presence. He could command a room with a gesture and a few well chosen words. Here was a man who exuded authority and an aura of power that was pure aphrodisiac.

Considering the two of them now, Mya felt that Leyton had been the great love of her youth, when everything had been about energy and fierce excitement; but over the years her needs had grown more sophisticated and less visceral - technique and intelligence valued more highly than obsessive, unadulterated passion. She had matured, and found Pavel. If Leyton was the love of her youth, then Benson was the love of her life.

Their relationship had always been an intensely private one. For professional reasons they'd gone to great lengths to ensure that no one in ULAW suspected they were sleeping together, and it seemed natural to continue such discretion now. The last thing either of them wanted was for personal factors such as her previous relationship with Leyton to cloud the important issues.

Pavel had explained himself with typical charm and forthright sincerity, but Mya could sense that neither Kethi nor Leyton were entirely convinced. Now he would have to do the same all over again to the higher ups at Kaufman Industries, and she could only hope that they proved a more sympathetic audience.