“We have also arrested an associate of Senator Mallowes, Henrik Morten. Based on evidence those two men are providing, we expect more arrests to be forthcoming.”

Anders Kessel and Otto Mandela shot to their feet the moment Jonah stopped talking.

“Two Paladins stand for what I assume to be questions for Paladin Levin,” Drummond said. Kessel and Mandela nodded. “Paladin Kessel may speak first, then Paladin Mandela. Other Paladins wishing to ask questions may stand in like fashion.”

Kessel began. “First, let me commend Paladin Levin for extraordinary work performed in a short period of time. I would, however, like clarification on one matter. You say this conspiracy that you have identified seeks to ‘control thought.’ In what direction are they pushing? That is to say, what do you know about the political leanings of this conspiracy?”

Jonah took a breath and counted silently to ten before responding. Kessel was asking him to walk through a minefield. If he did not cast his remarks carefully, his response could be seen as accusing everyone tied to the Founder’s Movement as being part of the conspiracy. The backlash from McKinnon, Sorenson and their supporters would be considerable—which might be what Kessel wanted. Fortunately, he had learned enough from Mallowes to know what to say.

“This conspiracy is about what most such conspiracies are about—power. The people involved see instability in The Republic, and they believe this is a perfect time to seize power. I believe Senator Mallowes saw it as a chance to return his family to the prominence he feels The Republic denied him. Other people involved hope to grab any splinters of power left if any part of The Republic breaks.

“I can’t say with certainty that all people involved in this conspiracy share a political leaning. What they share is a desire for power and a predator’s instinct that tells them their prey may be growing weak.”

Kessel, expressionless, sat down. A few chairs to his left, David McKinnon was nodding slightly at Jonah’s words. Made it through that one, Jonah thought.

True to form, Mandela moved right to his question, forgoing any niceties. “You said there are other arrests coming up. Who? More Senators? And for what? I can’t believe there was a whole crowd involved in Paladin Steiner-Davion’s death.”

“Right,” Jonah said. “There may be a few hired hands implicated in the assassination, but Mallowes and Morten look like the top of that particular chain of events. But the project Victor was working on shows plenty of crimes having taken place over the years, and bribery and blackmail are just the beginning. Honestly, I don’t know how far this may go, but I’m certain it’s not confined to the Senate. One thing to remember is this—the purpose of the conspiracy wasn’t to kill Victor. That was something they felt they had to do to keep their activities secret. As devastating as his death is to all of us, it’s only a sidelight to the central activities of this group. I wish I could say Victor’s death is only the tip of the iceberg, but it might not even be that—it could be a small chip broken from an iceberg that’s floating ahead of us.”

The Paladins rolled his words in their minds for a moment. No one even typed. Then Janella Lakewood fidgeted, hesitated, and finally stood to make her first remarks as a Paladin.

“Paladin Lakewood,” Drummond said.

“I’d like to echo what Paladin Kessel said and thank you for all the work you did on this. But I have to wonder, if this conspiracy is as vast as you say it is, how have we missed it for so long? How have they managed to stay hidden?”

“I could make a number of excuses for us,” Jonah replied. “After all, we’ve had plenty of things happening across the Sphere to keep us occupied. The same instability that’s fueling this conspiracy might have kept us from seeing it sooner. But leaving all excuses aside, we should have known about it earlier. That’s our job. And I’m extremely proud that Paladin Steiner-Davion’s final activities involved bringing this conspiracy to light. He was older than all of us, but he still saw clearly enough to notice a few patterns that told him what was going on.

“I wish I could say that maybe the conspiracy’s not as big as I’m making it out to be, that the fact that the rest of us missed it means it’s relatively small. But I’ve seen the names on Victor’s list. This is a cancer. There was already a long list of problems for the new Exarch to deal with, but this might have to move to the top of the list. They’re trying to rot us from our core.”

He sat down.

The silence lasted for nearly a full minute. Then fourteen sets of hands—everyone but Jonah and Drummond—attacked their keyboards with a vengeance.

Drummond stood. “Thank you, Paladin Levin, for that information. Your reputation for integrity assures us that your investigation was conducted with all due diligence…”

Drummond’s formal drone provided cover for the messages flying from screen to screen.

Jonah responded to the last one.

Jonah’s hands hovered briefly above his keyboard.

Jonah almost laughed aloud when he read that. He hadn’t meant to get it, and he had no idea what to do with it now that he had it, but Jonah seemed to be in possession of his very own little voting bloc. And he hadn’t even mentioned the Kittery Renaissance connection. He’d leave that for Heather, when she made it back.

Warehouse District, Geneva

Terra, Prefecture X

20 December 3134

The fifth warehouse cache showed up in the heads-up display in Heather GioAvanti’s Spider BattleMech, as well as on audio for weapons-correlated sounds.

“Looks like we’re going in hot,” Heather said to Santangelo over the ’Mech’s command circuit.

“Roger that,” the senior Knight replied. “They’ve got scouts and skirmishers out, and it looks like they’re bringing into position more of that inventory we’ve been blowing up all morning.”

“Figuring that if they’re going to lose it anyway, they might as well expend it? Probably a good choice.”

“We don’t have time for a siege,” Santangelo said, “not if we’re going to hit the other places too. I say we stand back and blow it up from a distance.”

“Long-range weapons aren’t going to mesh with the no-casualties objective in the rules of engagement.”

“So? Frontal assault’s too messy,” Santangelo said.

They had drawn closer to the target building by now, and Heather had it on visual from her ’Mech’s cockpit: a two-story warehouse made of poured concrete.

“Frontal assault’s what we’ve got,” she said. “Hit ’em hard; hit ’em fast.”

“We’ll need someone to go in first, to draw fire and break the situation.”

“That’s what I’m built for,” Heather said. She increased the loping stride of the Spider, taking it up past 100 kilometers per hour.