Free The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle by Peter F. Hamilton

table, and the walls opaqued. “Thank you for such a swift response,” Paula said. “We’re here because I have a tip-off that Adam Elvin has arrived on Velaines.”
    “A tip-off from who?” Don asked.
    “A contact. Not the most reliable, but it certainly needs investigating.”
    “A contact? That’s it?”
    “You don’t need to know, Detective Mares.”
    “You were here nine years ago,” Maggie said. “At least, that’s the official entry in our files. So I’d guess your man is Sabbah. He’s a member of the Socialist Party, as was Elvin.”
    “Very good, Detective.”
    “Okay, we’re here to help,” Maggie said. She felt like she’d passed some kind of test. “What do you need?”
    “To begin with, two surveillance operations. Elvin has made contact with a man called Nigel Murphy at the seventh chapter of the local Socialist Party here in town. We need to keep him under constant watch, virtual and physical. Elvin is here to acquire arms for Bradley Johansson’s terrorist group. This Murphy character will be his link to a local underground dealer; so he can lead us to both of them. Once we have the connection, we can intercept Elvin and the dealer at the exchange.”
    “This all sounds very easy and routine,” Maggie said.
    “It won’t be,” Tarlo said. “Elvin is very good. Once we’ve identified him, I’ll need a detective team to help backtrack his every movement to the moment he arrived. He’s a tricky son of a bitch. The first thing he will have done is establish an escape route in case this deal blows up in his face. We need to find it, and block it.”
    “You guys know it all, don’t you?” Don Mares said. “What he’s doing, where he is. I’m surprised you even need us.”
    Paula looked at him briefly, then turned her attention back to Maggie. “Is there a problem?”
    “A little more information would be appreciated,” Maggie said. “For instance, are you sure he is here to contact an arms dealer?”
    “It’s what he does. In fact, it’s all he does these days. He’s just about given up on the Party. Oh, he’ll throw the local chapter a bone or two for cooperating with him. But he hasn’t really taken any part in the movement since Abadan. The Party’s executive cadre effectively disowned him and his entire active resistance cell after that fiasco. That’s when he hooked up with Bradley Johansson. No one else would touch him, he was too hot. Ever since then he’s been the quartermaster for the Guardians of Selfhood. The acts they commit on Far Away make Abadan seem quite mild.”
    Don Mares grinned. “Managed to get any of the money back yet?”
    Tarlo and Renne gave him hostile stares. Paula Myo looked at him without saying anything. Don met her gaze levelly, showing no remorse.
    “Is he likely to be armed?” Maggie asked. She glared at Don; at the best of times he could be an asshole, and today he seemed to be going out of his way to prove it.
    “Elvin will probably be carrying a small weapon,” Renne Kempasa said. “But his main armory is his experience and guile. If there’s any kind of physical trouble, it won’t be him that starts it. We’ll have to research the arms dealer carefully; they tend to lean toward violence.”
    “So no money, then,” Don persisted. “Not after—what is it now—a hundred and thirty years?”
    “I also need your office to try and track down Elvin’s export route,” Paula said. “The CST security division will cooperate with them fully on that.”
    “We’ll liaise with our captain over officer allocation,” Maggie said. “We’ve already arranged for you to have an office and access to the departmental array.”
    “Thank you. I’d like to brief the observation teams in two hours.”
    “Tight schedule, but I think we can manage that for you.”
    “Thank you.” Paula hadn’t moved her gaze from Maggie. “No, I haven’t got any of the money back yet. Most of it is spent on arms deals like this one, which