Free The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) by Michael Wallace Page A

course not. There’s no point. The ship is crippled, weeks away from her fleet, and her captain only wants to find us to get repaired so they can scurry back home. Some vague promise of giving us aid, of course. I have no idea how they got Imperium codes—it might be a trap after all—but it doesn’t matter. They can’t help us, and so I’m not tempted to answer.”
    This was not true, of course. Li was highly tempted. He could have easily swung the other way if he’d had slightly more confidence in the contents of the message.
    “And so we remain silent,” he added. “I told one of the pair who helped me to keep quiet until the ship was past us, and I was coming back here to summon the other to give her the same orders when you and your friend showed up and threatened me.” Li briefly turned to glare at Megat, who looked troubled. The situation was very nearly back under control. “Now, sister , tell me why I shouldn’t have the both of you arrested? You’ve broken about twenty military regulations, any one of which means a court martial. Should I name them?”
    Anna sighed and settled back onto the couch. “Sit down, Jon.” She glanced at Megat, who still had his hand on his gun. “Oh, will you stop that, Megat? We made a mistake, that’s obvious enough. My brother wasn’t the instigator.”
    “Well?” Li demanded. “What is your excuse?”
    “Jon, there was a message sent out. About thirty minutes ago. Someone sent a response back at our visitors. Tried to hide their tracks, but we found it. We got into communications and traced it back to you.”
    Li narrowed his eyes. “Neither of you work in communications. How would you do that?”
    “Neither does anyone else. Not really. They’ve been transferred elsewhere since there’s no one to communicate with, and all passive listening is automated.”
    “So how did you get into the system?”
    “The same way we turned off your com link and locked you into your room.”
    “In other words, you’ve hacked your way through the base. Broken through protected systems, made us less secure in an emergency.”
    “It was necessary,” she said.
    “And you call me the traitor.”
    “Anyway, we’re not the only ones, obviously. The originator of the outgoing message got in somehow, assuming you’re telling the truth.” Anna nodded darkly. “We’ll find out if you’re lying.”
    “You know I’m not.”
    “Then who did it?”
    Li thought of Swettenham and his boast that he’d been a level one communications engineer. He’d be skilled enough to get into the system, especially if he had a programmer like Koh helping him. Was Li even sure that Koh herself hadn’t been the one to build the extra security layers that protected the communications equipment? She might have coded a back door.
    Li faced threats from both sides. He’d been fighting a losing battle against factionalism for all these years, and now it had come to a boil, thanks to the message from HMS Blackbeard . The Sentry Faction and the Openers had each made a move. Which was more serious, the breach of the communications systems by the Openers, or the Sentry Faction physically attempting to remove him from command? And which was a bigger threat to the base?
    Li made a decision. “Keep your gun, Megat.”
    “Was there any question of that?” the man said.
    Li ignored him. “You will stay armed at all times. I’ll open the armory and distribute weapons to a handful of others. There are people who have proven willing to undermine our security.”
    “Openers,” Anna said. “The bastards.”
    “Call them what you want, they cannot be allowed to continue.”
    Anna remained lounging on the couch. “What is your plan?”
    “I’m sick of your insolence. Stand up when you address me. I’m going to forget this incident, and chalk it up to an overzealous desire to protect this base, but we’re tightening discipline here, and that starts with the two of you.”
    “What is your plan,