Free Betrayer of Worlds by Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner Page B

knows.”
    “Putting through the call,” Voice said.
    “Louis, you are about to learn things you will not take back to Known Space.” Nessus shifted his weight from hoof to hoof. He seemed about to say more when the comm display changed. Ausfaller again, looking very tired.
    “Nessus, thank you for responding. It appears our old friend Achilles is away on a mission of his own.” A curl of the lip showed that
friend
meant anything but. “If whatever he’s up to is sanctioned by Clandestine Directorate, they are not admitting it. I’ve asked.” (Ausfaller named names with whom he had checked, all from Earth’s mythology. Louis wondered what
that
was about.) “And the disturbing thing is—” Ausfaller paused. “Who is that with you?”
    “My name is Wu. Louis Wu.”
    “I invited Louis to help me on my business,” Nessus said.
    It had taken perhaps a minute for Ausfaller to notice Louis. Even doing the math in his head, approximating like mad, Louis was certain:
no way
was Ausfaller on a planet among the Fleet of Worlds. A hyperspace relay beyond the singularity of
five
clustered terrestrial worlds had to be well over a light-minute away from any of them.
    Suddenly, it was painfully obvious.
    Louis muted the connection. “Another world. A human world, apparently, and they don’t speak Interworld. Why did you need
me
?”
    “Not all humans are created equal,” Nessus said. “As your quick mind demonstrates.”
    “Very well,” Ausfaller eventually resumed. “I’m pleased to meet you, Louis.”
    Ausfaller had not reacted. Because Wu was a common name? No, Louis decided. Because Ausfaller had not allowed himself to react. He was, undoubtedly,trained
not
to react. He would surely have had more to say if Nessus had included a random party in the conversation.
    You and I will talk about what you did to my family, Louis promised himself. Ideally when I can reach out with more than words.
    Nessus unmuted the connection. “All right, Sigmund. Tell us what you find disturbing.”
    “It starts with a band of New Terran criminals unaccounted for. Some of our worst, I’m afraid. Out of sight for about a third of a year, now.”
    “Criminals and Achilles unseen at the same time?” Nessus said, “That is a tenuous connection at best.”
    The round-trip comm delays gave Louis’s mind ample time to churn. New Terra was a human world, obviously. This Achilles sounded like a high-ranking Puppeteer official, and Sigmund was keeping tabs on him. As secretive as Puppeteers were, Nessus did not seem surprised. Why not? Ausfaller doling out the bad news: because he knew that too much misfortune too fast would send a Puppeteer into shock.
    “For one, there is the leader of these vanished criminals. Roland Allen-Cartwright.” Ausfaller permitted a flash of anger to show. “He was one of my best people—and, it turned out, a sociopath. I booted him out of the Office of Strategic Analyses, but he had learned very special skills first.”
    Office of Strategic Analyses. That had to be government doublespeak, like the United Nations giving its massive security apparatus the innocuous name of Amalgamated Regional Militia.
    A spy agency, Louis guessed. “What ARM dirty tricks did you teach your bad apple?”
    Another delay. Ausfaller refused to take the bait. “The relevant skills for now are how to probe security systems for vulnerabilities. I didn’t have my own computer network in mind.”
    “What did he get into?” Nessus asked.
    But Ausfaller was still talking. “Too late, audit software found anomalies that triggered an intruder alert. Someone with far more computer savvy than me would have to give you the details. How isn’t the important part. The thing is”—and Ausfaller glowered—“Roland hacked into the sealed archives of the Pak War.”

10

    Achilles woke screaming. Something tugged at his leg!
    His shouts echoing in his helmets, he saw that the tether he had tied just above a forehoof had gone taut.