Wolf Among the Stars-ARC Read Online Free PDF Page A

period of time, with any kind of connection with Arnstein or Valdes or the Black Wolf Society?”
    The virtual brow of Ben Roark furrowed as the software scanned data. “There’s just one possibility, but I doubt if it will help you. As you know, I’d kept up some informal contacts within the Intelligence community. I won’t go into the details, but around the same time—just before the war, in other words—I became aware through those contacts of a Lokaron agent named Reislon’Sygnath, working for Gev-Harath . . . and specifically for Hov-Korth.”
    Andrew nodded his understanding. The largely still family owned Lokaron merchant houses had turned most military functions over to the gevah “national” governments. Indeed, it was one of those governments’ primary reasons for existence. But the hovahon kept the Intelligence function for themselves—they had too many secrets. And Hov-Korth, the preeminent hovah of them all, had the most secrets and maintained the most extensive espionage network in the known galaxy. It shared most of its findings with the Gev-Harath military, of course. The exceptions implicit in that most constituted one of the inherent weaknesses in the Lokaron militaries that Nathan Arnstein had spotted early in his career. Andrew shied away from that thought, with its freight of attendant grief.
    “I’m impressed,” he said. “Just by the fact that CNE Intelligence had uncovered the identity of a Hov-Korth agent.”
    “It isn’t really so surprising. You see . . . Well, this is supposed to be a graveyard secret. But I don’t guess that’s a stopper in my case . . .” The image let the thought trail off, with an ironic lift of eyebrow.
    My God! thought Andrew. The software actually has a sense of humor! But of course it does—my father’s sense of humor.
    “Anyway,” Ben Roark’s digital ghost went on briskly, “what I’m not supposed to be telling you is that Reislon wasn’t just working for Hov-Korth. He was also working for us.”
    In the midst of his shock, Andrew found room to wonder why he was even surprised. Earth’s history held no shortage of spies who had sold themselves to more than one side. And in this case, it didn’t even involve overt disloyalty: Gev-Harath had been officially neutral in Earth’s war with Gev-Rogov, while barely troubling to conceal its sympathy for its human protégés.
    But in all those examples from Earth’s history, everyone concerned had been human. It wasn’t quite the same.
    “Was this Reislon’Sygnath acting with his bosses’ knowledge?” Andrew asked. “I mean, considering how his ultimate boss Svyatog’Korth felt about Gev-Rogov. . . .”
    “Shrewd guess, but to my knowledge the answer is no. I doubt if Svyatog was prepared to be that un-neutral. Reislon was playing his own game—or, rather, games. We could never figure out all the dimensions of what he was up to. I doubt if anybody could have.” The expression on the virtual face of Ben Roark reflected the respect of a good spook for a great one.
    “Did you ever actually talk to him?”
    “Oh, no. His contacts with us were, as you might imagine, extremely discreet, indirect, multilayered, and what have you. And I wasn’t even officially in the game by then. No, everything I know is from conversations with people who were actually involved—or people who had talked to them. So you see, all I have to offer is hearsay. That’s why I was hesitant to offer it at all. But there was one common theme that emerged pretty clearly from all of it: Reislon took the Black Wolf Society seriously—and he was worried about it.”
    “How do you know this?”
    “The clincher came that very year, 2064. Without going into the details, our people got part of the text of a report by Reislon to Svyatog. Only a fragment, mind you. But he was passing on a warning for the future, and the context made it clear he was talking about the Black Wolf Society.”
    “And two years after that, the war