William R. Forstchen Wing Commander 04 Heart of the Tiger

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told me about accusations. About wanting proof& and I don't have any. But I
have to say this anyway, even if you're going to throw me in the brig over it.
I think there could have been some kind of hidden
signal in all that junk. To a Kilrathi agent."
"You're talking about Hobbes, of course," Blair said, frowning.
"Lieutenant& "
"I didn't say it was Hobbes, sir," Cobra said. "But we know the cats have
agents in the Confederation."
Rollins cleared his throat. "Colonel, I think you should hear her out on this.
It would explain a lot, if the cats had an agent aboard."
"like how they keep throwing us softballs in tight corners," Buckley
amplified. "Letting us get away at Delius. Ariel, too, if you think about it.
They could make jump points disappear, but the second one stayed open for us.
And it wasn't defended, either."
Blair looked from one to the other. "It still isn't proof of anything except
the fact that both of you have active imaginations," he said at last. "You
know where I stand. I don't like having accusations leveled at Hobbes, and all
you've really got here is a conspiracy theory." He looked down at his desk.
"It's a very serious charge to make& "
"Hell, Colonel, I'm not saying it is Hobbes," Cobra told him. "I mean, he's a
Kilrathi, and you know how I feel about him, but I know this doesn't prove
anything." She laughed, a short, bitter, humorless sound. "For all I
know, Colonel, you're the Kilrathi spy. You love the cats& a cat, at least,
and you were in command when things went sour at Locanda Four. All I'm saying
is that it would explain some pretty strange shit. I think we have to consider
it."
"All right, Lieutenant. I'll consider it." Blair leaned back in his chair.
"Suppose you two keep looking into the matter, and let me know if you find
anything concrete we can use. And keep your suspicions to yourselves.
Have you talked with anyone else?"
"No, sir," Rollins said. "I was going to take it to the captain, but Cobra
wanted to come to you first."
"I didn't want you to think I was going behind your back with this thing,
sir," she amplified.
"Good. For now, lets keep the matter between us. That way nobody gets
embarrassed by a lot of gossip. Nobody. You read me on this?"
"Yes, sir," Rollins said.
Cobra met his look with a level stare. "Aye, aye, Colonel," she said.
"All right. Dismissed, then."
They both started for the door, but Blair held up a hand. "Mister
Rollins. I have some reports for the captain. Stay a moment while I round them
up, if you please."
"Yes, sir," he responded.
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Blair waited until the door closed behind Cobra. He gave Rollins a long, hard
look. "Forgive me, Lieutenant, but I have to ask this. How much stock do you
put in all this?"
"Sir? I think there's a lot to consider here."
"How much of this is your idea?"
Rollins frowned. "Well, Lieutenant Buckley came to me asking what I
thought about the battle& about how the Kilrathi fought it, I mean. She made
some good points& " He trailed off, frowning. "But I had some suspicions about
the signal content already, sir. She had nothing to do with any of that." He
hesitated. "Just what are you trying to get at with all this, Colonel?"
Blair sat down heavily. "Cobra makes a good case, I'll give her that. And if I
didn't have complete faith in Ralgha nar
Hhallas I might be ready to go along with it. But she doesn't know how much
we've been through together, Hobbes and I. And all her hate isn't going to
make me change my mind about him now."
"She admitted she wasn't pointing any fingers, sir."
"True enough. But ever since I've been on board she's been running
Ralgha down. She accused him of everything but mopery and dopery on the
spaceways." Blair paused, reluctant to go on, but Rollins was the only one he
could talk to, under these circumstances. "There's another possibility I can't
help but think about, Lieutenant."
"Sir?"
"Rumor is that Cobra was a Kilrathi slave for ten years. You hear any of that
from your sources?"
"Er& no, sir. Not really. Some scuttlebutt in the rec room, maybe, but nothing
solid."
"I heard it from somebody I trust," Blair told him. Rollins didn't need to
know about Rachel Coriolis and her friend from the
Hermes
. "The point is this: if I was in Kilrathi Intelligence, and wanted to plant
spies in the
Confederation, I don't think I'd use Kilrathi as agents. They'd have a tough
time winning acceptance. I'd use humans, slaves who had grown up in a
Kilrathi labor camp. The things they can do with personality overlays are
pretty wild from what I've heard, and I'll bet you could make sure they got
through debriefing so they were 'rescued' and brought back to Terran space."
"You think Cobra's our spy?" Rollins looked incredulous. "Hell, Colonel, she's
the one who suggested we look for a spy!"
"As you said, you already had some questions about those Kilrathi signals."
Blair frowned. "You thought there might be other signals buried in there
somewhere? Maybe there were orders, for instance. But a clever spy might want
to figure out how much we suspected, and steer our suspicions in an acceptable
direction."
"Like Hobbes." Rollins was frowning. "It's& how did you put it, Colonel?
A conspiracy theory? But I don't see any more proof that it's Cobra than I
do for Hobbes."
"And Cobra& she'd have to be one hell of an actress, making believe she hated
the cats so much."
"It's pretty thin, isn't it?" Blair gave him a sour smile. "I don't want to
believe it, Lieutenant. She's a good pilot, and a good wingman. But
Hobbes is one of the best friends I ever had." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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