The Salvagers (13 page)

             
But they weren't men. It was a swarm of armed drones that cut through the
Hyperion
's
hull in only a few minutes. I was impressed. It had taken us a full day to cut through the
Cape Hatteras
, yet these hovering robots were through Keating's hull in no time, with an airtight corridor ring mounted. Fifteen minutes later they radioed that the crew had given up without a shot and were jailed in a bathroom with the door welded shut. They'd never seen the face of the pirate who was robbing them.

             
"Alright, Mr. Hunter, now to deal with you," Stunt said with his gun still drawn. "I really am sorr. . . ."

             
I heard a zap and cringed, thinking it was all over for me. I opened my eyes to see Stunt's body floating in front of me. He had been shot by none other than Sister Mary Joanna.

             
"I've ordered the drones to stand down. The ship is ours, Mr. Hunter."

             
I had no idea what to say.

             
"Mary Joanna Johnson, UNAG Intelligence," she said.

             
It was the first time I'd heard her speak, but I recognized the voice instantly. It was the sexy one from the spy note.

Chapter 17     Day 248

             
"December 21, 2259. 1100 hours. Log of Captain John Andrew Nelson, Commanding Officer, UNAG Mining Vessel
Cape Hatteras
. Crewman Galon and Fitz have been collecting samples as they descend into the cavern system. They report a host of carbon-based minerals containing amino acids, the building blocks of life."

              "You're the agent who was watching out for me?" I asked.

             
"That's me!" She let out a little giggle, but now it rang hollow.

             
"It's so hard to believe. If I had to make a guess regarding you and the Mayor, I'd have said he was the agent. You always seemed to be, well, just there."

             
"That's why I'm such a good spy," she said.

              "How long have you been watching him?"

             
"I joined him shortly after his raid on the Europa colony. Play the bimbo, slay the crook."

             
"So the UNAG knew that he was the pirate?"

             
"Yes, but it wasn't our place to interfere with Europa's internal business unless they wanted help. They never asked for it. And losing that crop was in Earth's interest."

             
"In Earth's interest? How? Stopping the drug trade?"

             
"Yes. The Europan traders are very good at distributing their garbage on Earth. We haven't had much luck with catching them in the act. The Mayor was bolder, and it paid off for him, but his distributors were sloppy amateurs. He watched them all go down one after another. He'd taken some precautions. None of them knew precisely who he was, but it made him paranoid, and he automated this ship."

             
"Automated?"

             
"Yes, Mr. Hunter. There is no crew at all. It was just the Mayor and I plus the robots. If you go down below, all you'll see is computers and drones. When he raided Europa, this was just a fueling hulk with a crew of three and a big cannon mounted on it. Now it's a warship as good as anything we've got in the UNAG fleet. One of the reasons we helped you was to take it out of commission. I needed a way back on board, and you provided that."

             
"What happened to the original crew?"

             
She drew her finger across her neck.

             
"He killed them?"

             
"We think he ejected them into space. I wasn't with him when he did it, but he talks in his sleep."

             
"Why didn't you just arrest the Mayor early on?"

             
"We'd have gotten him if he hadn't tricked the Europans into electing him. The UNAG considered that a bonus. Europa under a bad administration meant only bad things for Europa's economy, so we didn't interfere. But the new crop is set to be distributed in a few weeks, and we intend to stop them. Picking up the Mayor was the first step. The moment he left that moon, he was in
our
territory."

             
"You mean space."

             
"Yes, colonies may do as they please internally, but space is
ours
."

             
"What about the other unions?"

             
"We all agree on one thing, Mr. Hunter: space is
ours
."

             
"Call me Cam. No reason to be formal. You just saved my ass."

             
"Alright, Cam, and you're welcome."

             
"Well, where to next? Will we be going back to the
Cape Hatteras
as planned?"

             
"Yep! Don't worry. We'll tow that salvor with us. Your gold is safe. The
Neptune's Revenge
is a powerful vessel. We could pull two or three ships."

             
"Why didn't Stunt tell me the ship was automated?"

             
"I'm sure he would have told you that there were 40 people on board so he could charge you wages for them. But it's just us now, and I have full control of the drones."

             
"How did you gain the Mayor's confidence so easily?"

             
"By playing dumb, loyal, and sexy."

             
I didn't want to pursue that conversation to its natural end. I was content just to be in a better position than I had been a few days before. One thing still worried me, however. I couldn't guarantee that the UNAG would relinquish my gold when the time came. It
was
originally theirs. Moreover, they could prove that they had never actually abandoned it. That undermined my claim. But if they did pursue it in court, it would be a very public affair. I doubted that they wanted the publicity.

             
I contacted Ed Iron from the
Neptune's Revenge
. He assured me that the UNAG was in his pocket, but there was still the matter of just what they
did
want with the
Cape Hatteras
. Two days of access is one thing, but I could see that turning into a week and then finally a confiscation. I pressed Mary Joanna on the issue. She said that it was classified information. She didn't have the whole answer, and if she did she couldn't tell me about it, but she did say that the person who knew the most was on one of the warships with which we were set to rendezvous at the location of the
Cape Hatteras
. I couldn't wait to meet him.

             
I went over to the
Hyperion
to talk to Keating. He and his loyal thieves were not in nice quarters. The drones had imprisoned four men in a single bathroom and welded the door shut.

             
"Captain Hunter, you've got to improve our conditions," said Keating.

             
"Why would I do that?" I responded, speaking through a small hole cut in the door.

             
"It's what they're feeding us. They're taking perfectly good food and converting it into a more efficient form. When we get it, it's just a paste."

             
"I'm sure it's perfectly nutritious. It's probably had all the fat removed and vitamins added, and I'm sure you're getting plenty of fiber."

             
"It’s tasteless. We'll go insane cooped up in here."

             
"Well, I do have some candy treats."

             
"What do you want for them?" he said, seemingly willing to do anything I might ask.

             
"Well, you know, you deserve what you've got. You did maroon most of my personnel on a derelict, but I will trade you for some information. Whom else did Pace tell about the
Cape Hatteras
?"

             
I was worried that Pace might have reinforcements on the way and that the task of keeping the
Cape Hatteras
secret was spiraling toward futility by the day.

             
"He didn’t tell anyone," declared Keating. "We were to keep strict radio silence. Pace wanted it kept a secret as much as you did. He didn't want the Europa pirates or the UNAG government to know. I don't think he expected you to cut a deal with the pirates. Who was it?"

             
"How do you know I wasn't the pirate all along?" I said, giving him the candy and returning to the
Neptune's Revenge
and ignoring his pleas for better accommodations.

             
I spent most of the rest of journey exploring
Neptune's Revenge
and chatting with Mary Joanna.

             
"Care for some of Europa's best?" I asked her.

             
"Best what? Not that hideous weed they're all dependent on."

             
"No, this is better. Sausage's famous moonshine."

             
I had brought two bottles with me. I thought they might come in handy, and UNAG was good enough not to confiscate them when they moved my luggage to the
Amaranth Sun
.

             
"That I can handle. I'm so tired of hot water and cola."

             
I poured a couple of shots. I had a motive in trying to get Mary Joanna drunk: I wanted more information. I didn't really care if it pertained to my salvage or not. I just wanted any classified stuff I could get out of a spy.

             
"I know things that certain people would kill to know," she said with a slur as I broached the question of secrets after the fifth serving.

             
"Tell me one."

             
"I can't."

             
"Why not? I won't tell anyone."

             
"I trust you, Cam," Mary Joanna said, "but I can't tell you. I have an implant that will knock me out cold the moment I say anything that it doesn't like."

             
"Does that mean you can't lie either?"

             
"Oh, I can. I'm trained to lie my way past any detector. That's easy, but it's a lot harder to train someone to hold her heart rate down when she reveals a secret. UNAG Intelligence only accepts agents who
can't
do it."

             
"Was that a secret?"

             
"What?"

             
"The initiation rituals of UNAG Intelligence?"

             
"I don't know. Now that you mention it, it might be."

             
She promptly passed out. The UNAG’s implant worked, but not quite the way they intended. She was out for at least eight hours. I had no idea what part of that sleep was the alcohol and what part was the effects of the implant, but she didn't move once the entire time. Mary Joanna just floated around the bridge like a helium balloon. I finally had to secure her to a wall with a strap when she drifted in my direction and planted her boot against my neck. When she came to, she had only a vague memory of the last few minutes of our conversation.

             
"Your implant made you pass out!" I said.

             
"Hard to get information from someone that passes out the moment you start torturing them," she said.

             
"I wasn't torturing!"

             
"I meant hypothetically."

             
"Well, if I ever need to know if there's a spy in the room, all I have to do is ask everyone if they're UNAG agents. Whether they lie or not, the one that goes down . . . "

             
"It doesn't work quite that way, Cam”

             
"I'll bet it does," I said, intending to try it some day.

             
We were faster than the
Amaranth Sun
, so we caught up with them a few hours before both ships arrived at the
Cape Hatteras
. The scientists were happy to be liberated. They had been marooned for only a week, but judging by their reactions it might have been years.

             
"Cam, we're so glad to see you," Janet exclaimed.

             
"You can thank me later, darling. It's all part of a day's work for a hero."

             
"Hero? We've been cursing you for running away when we needed help," said my ex-wife.

              "He was going to ram and kill us!"

             
"Don't make excuses for cowardice, where's that adventurous spirit and go get 'em attitude?"

             
"No wonder I divorced you."

             
"You didn't divorce me. It was the other way around. And we never finalized it. We need to do that as soon as we get back to Earth."

             
She hugged me. I hadn't expected that.

              "Just glad to have you back," Janet said. "We've got to talk privately."

             
"Alright, let's go to the bridge and. . . ."

             
"Not on this ship, Cam. On that thing you arrived in. I've never seen a ship like that before."

             
"It's the pirate ship with the big cannon that robbed Europa."

             
"What? You hired pirates? That kind of idiocy coming from you isn't surprising. But how did . . . ? Tell me later. You've got to order the evacuation of this ship immediately."