Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,5
Unfortunately.
“I’m being offered the chance to remedy past grievances so my friends will be safe.”
Ishii’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t refute anything. Shayban also squinted, if for a different reason, and Casmir suspected the intelligent and self-made Miners’ Union leader had no trouble understanding far more than he’d said.
“May we be permitted to dock?” Casmir asked.
“The ship carrying you, Professor, may dock. The others may not. And when you arrive, only you and your most trusted allies may walk onto my station.”
Ishii’s eyes were now so narrow, Casmir wondered if he could still see.
“He’s not going to kidnap you and your team, is he?” Ishii growled under his breath.
Casmir shook his head. “Thank you, Sultan. I look forward to seeing you again.”
Casmir did not look forward to trying to swindle the man out of his slydar detector. But with Bonita’s and Qin’s lives at stake, what else could he do?
2
Kim Sato paced in her lab, trying not to think about the data-based simulations she’d run for how rapidly the modified Orthobuliaviricetes virus could spread if those rockets were detonated over Odin’s population centers. It was hard.
“Solutions,” she muttered to herself. “Think of solutions, not how bad the problem is.”
If she had the virus, she could have attempted to work on a vaccine, even though virology wasn’t her area of expertise. But even if she’d carried samples away from Dubashi’s base, Captain Ishii would have forbidden them on his ship. Understandably. The Osprey didn’t have a lab capable of safely isolating such a deadly virus.
“Scholar Sato?” came a male voice from the doorway.
“I’m not making any more, but you can use my machine if you want espresso.” Kim waved to the counter—she was tempted to move it out to a counter in sickbay so the crew wouldn’t bother her in their quest for superior coffee, but she was reluctant to let it out of her sight. If something happened to it, she would be stuck drinking those dreadful coffee bulbs with all the suspicious ingredients.
“That’s not why we’re here.”
Kim faced the newcomer, a sandy-blond-haired lieutenant it took her a minute to place. Meister, one of the ship’s Intelligence officers. He’d had a long conversation with Casmir a couple of months earlier about his relationship to Rache. And now he was looking intently at her.
Behind him stood Lieutenant Grunburg, the chipper young programmer who’d helped Casmir come up with a solution to the astroshaman computer virus that had stripped the Osprey of power and nearly sent it crashing into a moon. All that seemed like long ago now.
“Are you looking for Professor Dabrowski?” Kim hoped whatever they wanted had nothing to do with her—or Rache.
“We’ll be speaking with him too.”
Why did that sound ominous?
“But I need to talk to you first, Scholar Sato. If you’ll permit it?” The way Meister raised his eyebrows seemed like he was testing her.
What happened if she didn’t permit it? She was a civilian, not in the military’s chain of command. They couldn’t order her to go along with an interrogation.
Which this might not be. She shouldn’t make assumptions. Maybe all they wanted was her mocha recipe.
Nodding curtly, Kim waved them in. The lab had only one seat—a stool that was locked to the deck in front of the counter. She put her back to the wall, not feeling comfortable enough to sit.
“Ambassador Romano has requested that I ask you a few questions.” Meister smiled briefly.
“Is there a malfunction at one of the nineteen speech-assisting points between his vocal folds and lips that precludes him from speaking for himself?”
Meister walked in with a tablet under his arm and didn’t respond other than to furrow his brow slightly.
“From what I’ve heard, he yells a lot,” Grunburg said. “Maybe his uvula is sore.”
Meister shifted the frown to him. “You may wait outside. You’re here to talk to Dabrowski when he’s done on the bridge.”
“I thought I’d get a drink first.” Grunburg winked at Kim as he walked to the espresso machine. He eyed the various handles, knobs, and steamer nozzle. “If Dabrowski can work this thing, I’m sure I can.”
“He can’t.” Kim wasn’t sure if that wink suggested she had an ally or only that Grunburg thought Meister was a twit, but she doubted an interrogation would get intense with him in the room. He had a puppy-dog mien about him, and she remembered that he’d once taken classes from Casmir and liked him.
“He can’t?” Grunburg pointed at the appliance in disbelief.