Read The Iron Admiral: Deception for Free Online

be with her. Or maybe neither.
    “Perhaps. But they should have recognized the threat earlier. These four were fishing in the lake earlier.
    They’re known petty criminals. The team leader admits he underestimated the potential for danger.”
    Saahren dropped into an armchair. “Is that why you’re here? To tell me your people screwed up? Or to commiserate?”
    “Commiserations are clearly appropriate,” Leonov said, a hint of a smile hovering around his lips. “No, this is a bit more important.”
    More important than Allysha?
     
    Leonov sat in another chair and steepled his hands. “You were followed today. By this.” Using his comlink, he projected an image of a nondescript skimmer carrying two people. “One of your escort vehicles noticed and went to investigate. These two know their business; they pretended they were going to a factory to put us off the scent.”
    He brought up the two men’s profiles; Liam McNeill, late of Ullnish, looking for a job on an all-human world. Kris Hybent, a buyer for the Quartermaster chain on Hildebrand.
    “Their IDs check out—face matches, voice prints, all the usual checks. But my people put trackers on them.” He grimaced. “Our friends found them both and transferred them to a skimmer, then stole another
    skimmer and disappeared.”
    “Smart.”
    “Very. I’d hoped that these two fellows would lead us to Sean O’Reilly.”
    “You think he’s in Malmos?”
    “I can’t be certain. You know how hard he is to track. We thought we’d found him on Kentor but he disappeared a few days ago, not long before this fellow McNeill arrived. And it’s interesting—this McNeill fellow has a chip but we can’t track it for some reason.”
    “Really? That sounds like something Allysha could do. Or maybe O’Reilly. According to Allysha, he’s good.”
    “I’m wondering if this McNeill fellow is O’Reilly. Either way, we need to find these two.”
    “You think this was about Allysha. What makes you so sure? It might have been unrelated, some half-brained assassination attempt on me.”
    “Perhaps. If that’s the case I still want to find them. Something’s happening out there. The ptorix are too quiet, the GPR is too quiet. Just consider this.” He ticked the points off on his fingers. “We know Tisyphor was GPR and whatever they wanted from Allysha they didn’t get. Van Tongeren was killed within a day of being released, a professional hit job which is what they’re known to do with failures.
    O’Reilly has disappeared and this fellow McNeill can’t be traced. Let’s assume she was the target, which means somebody is still chasing her but we don’t know what for. And then again, if it isn’t the GPR after Allysha, then we still need to know who they are and what they want.”
    Saahren leaned back into his chair.
    “What are you suggesting?”
    “That we do nothing and we see what happens.”
    Something about the way Leonov said the words chilled his blood. Not again, surely not. “Forget it, Vlad. I’m not going to put her into danger again.” First Brjyl, then Carnessa. And on Carnessa she was nearly murdered. No, not again.
    Leonov rubbed his hands on his thighs. “I knew you’d say that. But—”
    “No.” Saahren smacked his hand down on the arm of his chair. “Absolutely not. You’re not going to dangle her on a line like some… some bait for a fish.”
    “Chaka, please. Let’s look at this rationally. Nobody wants to hurt her. Nobody. They want her to do something. We keep an eye on her, and when they make a move, we’ve got them.”
    “Use her again, you mean. No, Vlad. It isn’t going to happen.”
    “Chaka, the GPR wants her for something. We still don’t know what and we’ve run out of ways of finding out. We’ll look after her, I promise you.”
    He drummed his fingers on the chair. There had to be some other way. Therehad to be. “They might be planning a major hit on a casino or something. She could certainly manage that