“Sabotage,” Pandusky murmured. “But why?”
Sighing heavily, she slumped back in her chair. The material immediately flexed to mold itself to her new posture. “It’s inexplicable, remember? Tell your contact to ask especially about any Sakuntala who might have been seen lingering in the vicinity. I’ve never met one myself who was capable of incapacitating a skimmer once it was airborne, much less deactivate a sealed internal emergency beacon in a way that would not trigger a blowback alarm. But then, until a little while ago I’d never imagined one pulling a punch pistol on me, either. New revelations raise new expectations—not all of them good.”
Turning, he started toward the door. “I’ll find somebody trustworthy; don’t worry. I have a couple of people in mind.”
She waved him away. “Let me know the minute they find anything even remotely suspicious.”
As the door closed behind him, she swiveled back to face the window. The cloudburst had let up, giving way to the moderate rain that passed for normal daytime weather on Fluva. It was a good thing, she reflected, that the sun did come out occasionally or she feared she might forget what it looked like. Hard as the perpetual gloom was on adults, it was no wonder Andrea was having such a difficult time coping. Lauren mused that her daughter’s deciding to call herself Fitzwinkle was less destructive than any number of other things the girl could do.
And what could she do? Her mandate to interfere in the affairs of Commonwealth sentients was severely proscribed. If the Sakuntala and the Deyzara had been evenly matched, she could have sat on the sidelines and watched them beat each other senseless until they ran out of arms, energy, and willing combatants. But they were not evenly matched. They never had been. Ever since they had come to Fluva, the Deyzara had relied on at least the threat of Commonwealth intervention to protect them from the repressed ferocity of the Sakuntala. Now a large group of the indigenous had chosen to challenge that nebulous threat. Because, she suspected, someone had provided them with advanced armaments. No need to fear Commonwealth intervention, they had apparently been convinced, if you have Commonwealth guns yourself. Running down the source of those highly illegal imports was yet another problem she had to deal with.