Storm Force: Book Three of the Last Legion Series Read Online Free PDF

said. He and Yoshitaro were at rigid attention in front of the
Caud
’s desk.
    “Any explanation?”
    “Nossir,” Yoshitaro said.
    Angara considered them, picking up a piece of paper from his desk.
    “Mister Kouro has declined to press charges against you. His com said he preferred to let military justice deal with you two miscreants, since he considers it to be far more severe.” Angara grunted. “I am not fond of civilians expecting us to do their jobs for them.”
    He sighed. “Knowing Mister Kouro and his, shall we say, personality quirks, and certain … personal matters about you,
Mil
Jaansma, I can theorize about the actual course of events.”
    He tore the paper in half, deposited it in his wastecan.
    “I’m taking no official response to this matter, either as far as punishment or reprimands in your file. You will, however, be held responsible for the repairs to the Shelburne, which seems fair.
    “Also, both of you are on my unofficial villain list. I don’t want to have any other problems from either of you until I tell you it’s authorized to be rowdies. Understand?”
    “Yessir,” the two chorused.
    “I’ll also suggest you can get back into my good graces the quicker you catch that damned spy. That’s all. Dismissed.”
    Garvin saluted, and the two, moving like clockwork figures, left-faced and went to the door.
    “Jaansma!”
    Garvin stopped. “Yes, sir?”
    “After the hoo-raw, did you two ever get your reenlistment drink?”
    “Nossir. We didn’t figure it was a good night for boozing.”
    Angara nodded, and the two went out. After a moment, he shook his head, grinned, and turned to other matters.
    • • •
    Yoshitaro looked at screens. “Okay, here’s my theory on our agent. Since Redruth hasn’t spent much time on Cumbre, he must’ve hired him out-system. I’d guess Snoopy is either a native of Larix/Kura, or maybe a Cumbrian native who spent some time on those planets, long enough to get bought or subverted.”
    “Sounds logical,” Hedley said from where he sprawled on a couch.
    “It’d be a lot simpler if everybody on Cumbre had an ID card,” Yoshitaro said. “We could just look up anybody who’s been around Larix and Kura, haul ‘em in, and take out the thumbscrews.”
    “Hell of a note, hearing you say that,” Garvin said. “Considering your background.”
    Hedley looked curious. Yoshitaro decided this might not be the time to tell the boss about his background as a professional thief, lock-breaker, forger, arsonist, strongarm man, and general layabout.
    “Actually,” Hedley said, “you’d have a problem even if you could roust everybody in who knows anything about flipping Larix/Kura. Before you two got shipped out here, that was the main shopping vacation for the Rentiers. If we hauled all of those rich pigs in and started asking, you know they’d gossip, which I’ll assume would go straight back to Snoopy.”
    “So everything stays at ground zero until we nail him,” Garvin said. “All right,
Cent
Yoshitaro. Let’s hook the snake.”
    “Right,” Njangu said. “We’ve hopefully got Snoopy relaxed with our phony spies all locked up. Now I think it’s time to begin our operation against Kura.”
    • • •
    Hedley scanned the printout.
    “We’re sure … as sure as we can be … this includes everybody who had any knowledge of our penetration attempt against Larix?”
    “We were sloppy, boss,” Njangu said wearily. “But not
that
sloppy. We did try to keep a need to know on things.”
    “And you trust the Force enough to be assuming the leak to Snoopy was from a civilian source?”
    “Not me,” Yoshitaro said. “I mistrust everygod-damnedbody. But Garvin said we can’t spread ourselves too thin.”
    “ ‘Kay,” Hedley said. “Now, get your ass out there and talk to all participants again, and make sure they didn’t just happen to forget anybody.”
    “Slave driver.” But Yoshitaro said it with grudging respect.
    • •