Free Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two by G. S. Jennsen

you’re a good kid. You’ll do this for the challenge but also because you value the truth. I don’t think you’ll sell me out—you’re after a different kind of glory. Hackers take great pleasure in exposing corruption, so much so they’ve made a cause of it for the last three hundred fifty years. You find what I need, and I assure you we will be doing quite a lot of that.”
    He paused to give a melodramatic sigh. “And I’m told there are less than a dozen people in the galaxy who possess the intellect and skills to do what I’m asking of you.”
    Impressive answer. He should have realized there was depth and wisdom beneath the man’s quiet, unassuming demeanor. “Seven, sir.”
    An eyebrow quirked in question.
    “There are seven—counting me—and three of them are in the Federation. One is serving a ten-year prison sentence on Demeter, and the other two, Abigail Canivon and Gerard Bordelon, are a lot farther away than a lunchtime stroll.”
    “So they are.”
    He extended a hand. “It would be my pleasure, sir.”
    Navick shook his hand warmly. “In that case, you should probably call me Richard.”
    They parted ways at the courtyard. Devon spent the walk back to Special Projects thinking not about the ‘what’ of the assignment, but the ‘why.’
    An exanet query revealed the Colonel was a personal friend of Admiral Miriam Solovy, and Miriam Solovy’s daughter had been implicated as an accomplice of the Senecan Intelligence agent accused of perpetrating the bombing. To seal the deal, Solovy had been the woman leaving Jules’ office as he had arrived.
    Either Navick was willing to go a long way indeed to bail out a family friend…no, the investigation would lead where it led. There had been no mention of altering legitimate records, only discovering altered ones. So Navick genuinely believed Alexis Solovy was innocent.
    Which meant there was a decent chance he didn’t believe the Senecan was responsible for the bombing. Which meant he believed someone inside the military or government was responsible for it, or at a minimum involved in perpetrating it.
    Devon’s step hastened. This was hardcore, and he couldn’t wait to get started.
     

8
    SIYANE
    P ORTAL P RIME, U NCHARTED S PACE
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    A LEX WAS LOATH TO ADMIT Caleb had been right. But as she ascended the stairs, freshly showered in fresh clothes, the alluring aroma of Peronan coffee in the air…she had to admit he had been right. A decent night’s sleep had restored both her energy and her determination, two things she needed in order to properly investigate this odd and disturbing planet cloaked in the void. Quickly.
    But properly.
    Caleb greeted her with a kiss and a mug, both of which she accepted happily. She eased into one of the kitchen chairs as he brought over a plate of croissants and oranges. Damn, he really was rather wonderful.
    She began devouring a croissant. This would be a fast, if tasty, breakfast. “So I was thinking. I want to try retuning the instruments a bit. We haven’t picked up any unusual readings on conventional bands, but there is clearly something technological here. Tech is likely powering the light source, and tech is definitely powering the cloaking shield. If that tech isn’t going to show up on conventional scans, we’ll have to get creative.”
    He joined her at the table, already halfway through an orange. “It’s a good idea, but retune them to what?”
    “On our side of the portal these aliens displayed an inkling for the extremes and rare frequencies—the lowest TLF ever recorded at one end, high-end gamma frequencies at the other and terahertz waves we call ‘exotic.’ So we focus in tightly on the margins, on the ranges our scientists have written off as unnecessary or unusable. Narrow the search bands enough and I can increase the sensitivity so much we’ll pick up a bird chirping fifty kilometers away. But first…I want to go outside.”
    “Good. So do I.”
    “Really?”
    “Yep. I