members who were convicted of committing atrocities. The remainder of the
pirates-Karla Jost included-were exiled to Gastonia for life. The matter should have
ended there-but it didn’t.
“Just a few days ago, the Navy put out a decoy ship to trap a pirate group it had been
chasing for some time. The pirates took the bait and, after quite a fight, the Navy
captured the outlaw ship. More than half the pirates were killed in the battle-and when
the Navy went about the routine task of identifying the bodies, they found that one of the
women was Karla Jost.
“Quite naturally, they contacted us to tell us that they’d found an escapee, and that we
no longer had to worry about her. The problem was that we hadn’t been worried about
her, all our records indicated that Karla Jost had never left Gastonia.”
The implication was not lost on any of the agents, but it was left to Vonnie to voice the
obvious. “Then someone spirited Jost off the planet without our knowledge, and she
ended up with the pirates.”
As the Head nodded, Yvette continued her sister-in-law’s line of reasoning. “And where
there’s one escapee, there might be more. I presume you suspect an organized attempt
to get the better talent off Gastonia and into a treasonous conspiracy.”
“It sounds like a plan I’ve heard somewhere before,” Jules drawled with no little irony.
Indeed it was. Lady A’s conspiracy had already attempted a similar maneuver, hiding
some of the Galaxy’s most notorious criminals on a world called Sanctuary. Jules and
Yvette had broken up that plot-and, in the process, they learned of Lady A’s existence
for the first time. It was also on Sanctuary that they. met and teamed up with Pias, who
had gone there on a private mission of revenge against one of the criminal refugees.
The Head nodded soberly. “It has Lady A’s touch, no doubt about it. And as you can well
imagine, we’re a lot more concerned with these possible escapees than we were about
ordinary criminals. Each of the exiles on Gastonia was sent there for one specific crime:
treason. We have a planet populated by traitors, every one of whom has some reason
for hating the Empire-and many of whom, like Karla Jost, are dangerous people. If Lady
A and her cohorts are looking for help, they couldn’t go to a better spot.
“As soon as I discovered that, I sent for you. While you were on your way here, I
developed a preliminary theory. We already know from the raid on Ling’s base that the
conspiracy was amassing ships. We can tell from what little wreckage remains of the
munitions plant Jules and Vonnie destroyed on Slag that the conspiracy was
manufacturing weapons at an enormous rate. If what we fear about Gastonia is true, we
now know where the conspiracy is getting some of its manpower.”
The Head sat up straight in his chair and ran a hand lightly over his smooth-shaven scalp.
“The thing that concerns me the most is that it’s all starting to come together. Ships,
weapons, manpower-and in the background, a pair of strategists who seem to know
every move we make, while we know next to nothing about them. It’s going to be soon, I
can feel it coming. And in just four months. . .”
He didn’t have to complete the thought; each of his agents knew exactly what he meant.
In four months, Emperor Stanley Ten would reach his seventieth birthday-and he had
already announced his intention of abdicating at that time in favor of his daughter. Crown
Princess Edna would then assume the title Empress Stanley Eleven, becoming the
supreme ruler of the Empire of Earth and its trillions of inhabitants. Edna Stanley was a
powerful and resourceful woman, a fitting offspring of her noble lineage; but she was only
in her mid-twenties, and lacked the depth of experience she might need to cope with a
crisis of this magnitude. That, apparently, was what the conspirators were counting on,
too.
With his point made silently, the Head shifted topics slightly. “We can’t afford to sit
around and wait for developments. Jules and Yvonne, I want you to go to Gastonia and
find out what’s going wrong. If anything’s amiss there it’s a particular embarrassment to
us; the Service is supposed to be responsible for the disposition of traitors. If there are
any of our people involved in this conspiracy, I want them weeded out.”
“No more than we do,” Jules said. His jaw was clenched tight; loyalty to the Empire and
to the Service was virtually an inborn trait of the d’Alembert family. The thought of anyone
betraying the organization to which he was so devoted was most repulsive to him, and
the Head almost pitied any turncoats that Jules encountered. Almost.
“What about us?” Yvette asked.
The Head turned his attention to the Bavol couple. “Yes, you two have a little different
assignment. Originally I’d thought to let you work with Jules and Yvonne, so that the case
might be cracked twice as fast. But something else came up that might put your talents
to better use elsewhere. Some of our people down in Computer Analysis, after
performing their arcane rituals with their machines, came to the conclusion that a joint
operation between SOTE and the Navy to wipe out the pirates might be a good idea.
Piracy has usually been the Navy’s territory, and I know that Naval Intelligence has an
ongoing undercover operation; but now that the lint: has been found between the pirates
and this conspiracy, we do have a vested interest in this aspect of the operation. I
proposed a mission to Captain Nacorn of NI, and he’s pledged his department’s
cooperation. Since the two of you helped us crack Ling’s outfit-however accidental it
was-you’re the Service’s top experts on pirate catching. How do you feel about the
idea?”
“We go where the work is,” Yvette said pragmatically. “If the pirates are part of Lady A’s
plans, it’s our job to smash them.”
“Good”‘ the Head exclaimed, a dash of gusto in his voice. “I knew you’d feel that way.
This will give us a two-pronged attack on the problem. Jules and Yvonne will work from
the Gastonia end, sealing off that escape route, while Pias and Yvette will go to work on
the pirates. As always, you’ll have carte blanche; when agents produce results as
spectacularly as you do, it would be presumptuous-not to mention foolish of me to tell
them how to do their jobs.”
He took a couple of book reels from his jacket pocket and handed one to each of the
teams. “Here is the background information you’ll each need, as well as my number here
at the base should you need to reach me with any questions. I’ll trust you to do your
usual superb jobs-within, I hope, four months.”
He did not have to emphasize the date. The four agents had already dealt with Lady A,
and knew how serious a threat she could pose to a newly crowned empress. They could
also sense the process quickening, the pace of the conspiracy accelerating as time went
on. It was a feeling they did not like-and it promised to get worse before it got better.
Chapter 3
The Road to Gastonia
Had Jules and Vonnie been less dedicated agents, it would have been a simple matter to
have themselves exiled to Gastonia. The Service’s Documentation Department would
have been happy to build for them a record of treasonous activities as long as they
wished. The record would then be fed into the Empire’s computer banks, along with the
trial judgment that these two traitors be exiled to Gastonia. Jules and Vonnie would be
imprisoned and, within a week, they would be on their way to the prison world. It would
be an easy, fast and convenient way to reach their destination.
Jules had, in fact, used that procedure before on the planet Chandakha when he wanted
to be put in prison to check out the procedures of a criminal mob that was murdering
thousands of people every year. But in that case he had been dealing with a small, local
organization with no way of tapping into SOTE’s tiles to see how valid the fraudulent
records were. Lady A’s conspiracy was far bigger, spanning perhaps the entire Galaxy,
and was much more organized than the Chandakha gang could have dreamed of
becoming.
There was little doubt that C and Lady A had some informational sources from within the
highest levels of SOTE. They knew who the Head was and they were intimately
acquainted with the Service’s innermost workings. The Head had been trying to trace
down the leaks within the Service for the past several months, without any success; but
in the meantime, Jules and Vonnie could not completely trust their safety to their own
side.
On their last assignment, they had asked SOTE to provide them with some false