Naturally, the Sakuntala came first to mind. In the context of the current uprising, it would be much to their benefit to have the irritation of the Commonwealth Authority turned away from them and focused instead on the Deyzara. Motive was certainly there. The only trouble with that scenario, she reflected, was that while the Sakuntala were famed for many qualities, subtlety was not among them. That was not to say the cleverest among them, individuals like the missing Jemunu-jah, could not have devised such a plan. But conceiving and carrying out were two different things. Were there Sakuntala techs accomplished enough to have made the necessary alterations to the missing skimmers’ instrumentation? That was one possibility Bergovoy had not discussed. And if they were not sufficiently accomplished to have carried out such sabotage on their own, who might have advised them? For that matter, who could have advised the Deyzara techs on matters of sabotage? Was there anyone else besides Deyzara or Sakuntala who potentially stood to benefit from the disappearance of Shadrach Hasselemoga and the team sent to find and rescue him?
She probably should have made the connection sooner between such possibilities and the possession by the Sakuntala radicals of advanced weaponry. But she’d been so overwhelmed with work, so swamped with the refugee crisis, that she’d had little time left for speculating further afield. She addressed the desk sharply.
“Call to Major Bredel.”
The head of Fluva’s peaceforcer contingent appeared above the desk less than a minute later. He looked as harried as she felt, she decided.