Wing Commander #07 False Color William Forstchen (top 10 books to read .txt) 📖

his jaw. "Do you think the Council will really pull the plug on him? The war party's still strong. Hell, Galbraith's no pacifist. He just wants to squeeze out Max."

"It doesn't really matter what the final vote is," Williams said. "The point is, it'll slow things down all around. Kruger will be facing a political crisis and won't dare throw any more resources at the carrier until there's some kind of decision. And more delays give Ragark more time to get his plans in motion." He paused. "Sounds like our best plan. By God, Mancini, we might pull this off yet. Even if we did damn near lose it all to Zack Banfeld."

Commander's Office, Guild Base Hellhole, Hellhole System 2330 hours (CST)

The door to the office swung open soundlessly, and the figure silhouetted against the lights out on the tarmac stood for a moment as if unsure of what to do next. After a moment he let the door close behind him and hit the locking stud. Only then did his fingers touch the light plate. When nothing happened he started to curse in Spanish.

"Please, Antonio, such language," Zachary Banfeld said quietly. 'There's nothing wrong with the lights. I just overrode the wall plate from here." He tapped a control on Delgado's desk, and the lights came up bright.

Delgado gaped at the laser pistol Banfeld held trained on him with an unwavering aim.

"What—what do you think you're doing?"

Banfeld smiled. "All your precautions, Antonio, and you didn't think that I could monitor your power usage, did you? When I found out you were making a hypercast so soon after our meeting this afternoon, I just had to know who you were sending to." He shook his head. "It took time to get the back traffic downloaded from the comm satellite at the jump point . . . and even longer to crack your codes. But once we had your message to Williams, well . . ." He shrugged, but the barrel of the laser pistol didn't shift at all. "Three days to bring the Highwayman's stealth systems back up to standard, eh? Imagine the shock when the work crew discovered that you had simply tampered with the control mechanisms, and the stealth generators turned out to be fine after all. I can leave tomorrow . . ."

The traitor's eyes flicked toward the comm gear.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm told we can produce an excellent computer simulacrum to keep your friends Williams and Mancini quite happy. You'll continue to make reports as needed." Banfeld paused. "I wish I didn't have to leave so quickly, Antonio. I'm sure a few days with our persuasion specialists will have you eager to spill everything you've given away about Guild activities. But I really do have to be on my way, so I'll have to defer the pleasure of listening to you scream until I get back."

Delgado lunged forward, but Banfeld was ready for him. He fired the laser pistol, aiming for the big mercenary's knee. Delgado screamed once and collapsed.

"That was just a sample. You'll find things will get much worse as time goes on, Antonio. Much, much worse."

CHAPTER 15

Revenger Pte Ltd"Never permit your enemy to learn your advantages, unless doing so can cause him to become fearful so that he stumbles during the chase."

from the Ninth Codex21:05:10

Bridge, Guild Scoutship Highwayman Near Baka Kar, Baka Kar System 1034 hours (CST), 2671.017

"Cloak is holding. All systems nominal."

Zachary Banfeld nodded at the helmsman's report, his eyes on the tactical plot beside his command chair. The voyage to Baka Kar had gone smoothly, but Banfeld was still nagged by worries. How much had Delgado betrayed of the Guild's secrets? What was going on back in the Landreich while he made this foray into Kilrathi space? How would Ragark receive his information? Everything now balanced on a knife-edge, and he knew one wrong move could spell disaster.

The trouble was, so many of those possible wrong moves weren't even his to make. That was what galled him most, not being in control. That had hardly ever happened to Banfeld before, and he didn't care for the feeling at all.

The scout had managed the three jumps from Hellhole to Baka Kar in less than two standard days, a tribute to the high acceleration Highwayman could generate at need. With the stealth generators on, they had slipped past the Kilrathi picket boat at Vordran, where a whole locus of jump points located close together made the system a vital strategic link along the frontier of the Hralgkrak province. Now they were less than two light-minutes out from the provincial capital, still cloaked.

Banfeld was still not sure how to initiate contact with the Kilrathi. He had never sent one of his smugglers to the provincial capital before, never faced the problem of dealing with so much naval traffic. If they were in a trigger-happy mood the Guild ship could be fried by patrolling elements of Ragark's fleet before he could get a message through, once the cloak went down. But he had none of the usual facilities for making contact with his links to the Economic Minister. The usual procedure required initiating contact at a remote outpost, but there wasn't time for that.

He would have to hope the Kilrathi would give him time to talk rather than take Highwayman for a spy or the forerunner of an attack. All he had to do was get in touch with Ghraffid nar Dhores, and the Baron would do the rest.

"Drop the cloak," he ordered. "Jonas, broadcast the hail. Broad channel . . . we want everyone to know we've got business with the Minister."

"Broad channel," Jonas Hart, manning the communications station, confirmed.

He continued to study the tactical monitor. The traffic in the system was making him edgy, and he was sure there was something important he just wasn't seeing out there . . .

Certainly there were plenty of Kilrathi ships orbiting