Free The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear by Jack Campbell Page B

no detections of enigma ships had been seen at Ulindi before the freighter jumped for Midway.”
    Iceni nodded shortly, glaring at her desk. “But nothing from Taroa yet?”
    “No, Madam President.”
    “If the enigmas hit us again, we may be wishing the Syndicate was back. I’m getting every standard report on events in this region of space. I want you to ensure that I see any important information that doesn’t make its way into those reports because someone decided it wasn’t worth reporting.”
    “Yes, Madam President. I did discover some more information about Granaile Imallye which was buried in captured Syndicate files. She is operating under her real name, but once was more widely known by a false one.”
    “A pirate using an alias?” Iceni remarked sarcastically. “What an amazing development.”
    “She once called herself O’Malley. As best I can determine, she originally came from Conall Star System and that was the name she used there.”
    Iceni realized she had stopped breathing, and slowly inhaled. “A woman who went by the name O’Malley? From Conall? How certain are you of that?”
    Malin was watching her closely. “Not absolutely certain, but at least eighty percent certain. Do you know of her?”
    “Possibly,” Iceni said, trying to sound dismissive of the news. “I once knew a woman who used that name, after an ancient pirate she admired.” Could it be her? There were surely many, many real O’Malleys in that star system. But if it was her . . .
    Iceni needed something to distract Malin from this topic, and fortunately she had just the thing right at hand. “You were out for a while last night, Colonel.”
    “Yes, Madam President.” If Malin had noted her change of the subject, or was surprised that Iceni had been able to discover he had been unaccounted for during the evening, he didn’t show any traces of either.
    “Did you find anything about Togo?”
    “No, Madam President. There has been no trace of Togo. The security forces have found nothing, and system defense experts have not identified any attempted intrusions that could be sourced to him.”
    “Togo is more than capable of making his intrusion attempts look like someone else’s work,” Iceni told Malin. “Look at all of the intrusion attempts being detected and see if any pattern exists that could identify a target for Togo’s actions.”
    “That effort is already under way,” Malin said. “There has been a slight uptick in attempts against your security systems and those of General Drakon, but the increase is within normal variation levels. No successful intrusions have been detected.”
    “If Togo manages an intrusion, you
won’t
detect it,” Iceni said. “I need to know what he is trying to do. Have you discovered anything else?”
    This time, Malin paused. “I found indications that may lead me closer to a target General Drakon assigned me.”
    “Which target?”
    “His daughter.”
    Iceni fought down an angry response before speaking again. She hated being reminded of the girl, and hated that she felt that way. “I was told that Colonel Morgan had placed safeguards around wherever the baby is, and if anyone gets too close the child will die.”
    “As near as I can determine, what Morgan said is true,” Malin said.
    “And what were General Drakon’s orders in that regard?” Iceni pressed.
    “He told me he did not want his daughter to die.”
    Iceni leaned back in her chair, eyeing Malin. “Suppose I told you to press on in ways that would trigger those safeguards and ensure the child’s death. Would you do it?”
    Malin did not reveal any emotion as he shook his head. “No, Madam President. I could not obey such an order.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I believe that it would be a mistake to betray General Drakon’s wishes in the matter. He would regard it as a very serious breach of trust. It might sabotage his cooperation with you in the governing of, and defense of,