was a smart man, but he seemed to be totally blinkered when it came to Selwood. He thought the sun shone out of her— Ellen giggled. She didn't approve of language like that. Not like Selwood, who was foul-mouthed enough to make a trooper blush. Of course, technically, Selwood wasn't in the Star Fleet anymore. She'd resigned her commission years ago, only operated as a consultant. Even so, Ellen had heard that Makasa had hinted that he would have liked to see Selwood take over from him when he retired. Well, that wasn't going to happen, and she, Ellen Cruickshank, was going to be promoted to admiral very, very quickly.
Wait a minute .
She put her glass down and found the record for Sefton and her admiral friend. The name of the ship they'd arrived in was Curlew . Her heart beat a crescendo to rival the crashing bars of the music. Selwood and Curlew . The music changed, moving into the gripping build-up of the forces gathering to defend against the demon armies. The bass beat matched the rhythm of her heart. But this ship wasn't the grubby freighter Selwood had been piloting, it was an armed, luxury yacht. A coincidence?
Connecting to the room's data port again, she found the arrivals record for their ship. Curlew , out of Tel Sanna, a planet outside the Coalition. Oh, Lord. Ellen gripped her head with her hands. The identity of this ship matched that of the Curlew that had disappeared. Bile rose in her throat. She swallowed, forcing the acrid taste down. It couldn't be a coincidence.
Think, Ellen, think .
She mopped her brow with a trembling hand. Curlew's shift drive had failed, or so everyone thought. The records from Belsun said the ship had left without paying dues, pursued by a patrol ship, but had disappeared into shift space, on a bearing for Calisto's Veil. Could Selwood have found the fault and repaired it before she left Belsun? It was possible; Selwood was good but… that good? Was it possible the drive hadn't failed? Ellen dismissed that notion with a shake of her head. Not a chance. A shiver of dread slid down her spine. What if Selwood had worked out the drive had been deliberately set up to fail? What if Selwood went back to Makasa and told him so? It wouldn't take them long to figure out who had sabotaged the system. In that case, those admiral's stars Ellen coveted would be out of the question. She'd be lucky if she only lost her commission.
Damn Selwood. Damn her to all the hells in all the universe. Ellen picked up her glass, and threw it at the wall. Red wine ran down the cream plaster like tears of blood. Selwood wasn't going to ruin her plans.
Chapter 4
S elwood was still here on Iniciara. Curlew was not scheduled to leave for another day. Ellen disconnected from the space station's computer. Why were they here? What were they doing? Could she even be certain that this really was Selwood? Sure, it was her ship, but maybe she had gone somewhere, and someone else had taken the ship. That was possible, wasn't it? Unlikely, sure, but possible. Such a pity they didn't collect DNA at the space port, she could have run a match.
There was only one thing for it; she would have to find them, to confirm Selwood's identity for herself. A visit to the space station wouldn't be wise. Ellen didn't want to advertize her interest in this ship. So what had they been doing? She knew they'd gone down to the city and caught a taxi to the jewelers' district.
They'd deposited money into an account—rather a lot, from the sale of gems to a dealer. And then they'd gone… where? The taxis recorded pick-ups and destinations. Ellen connected with the computer again and followed the data trail to the taxi records. A cab had picked them up in the jewelers' district and dropped them off outside the university. Then what?
Ellen checked Ravindra's financial records again. They'd bought a data stick at the Conflagration museum. From there, they next appeared on the surveillance records, walking through the seedy