Danica nodded solemnly. "You radio clearance for him to hoard and inspect, but try to keep Mori from knowing he's there or that you're on to Mori's secret. I'll radio Leigh the second our little shuttle leaves planetary orbit."

* * *

"Thank you, Fomalhaut Control. This is Bifrostshuttle Mistletoeleaving your control on return vector to our home ship. Out." Danica switched the shuttle's radio over to the scramble frequency she'd designated for covert communications. "Mistletoeto Bifrost.”

“Leigh here, Danica. How did it go?"

Danica smiled. "Pfister bought it. Take the Hemlockover to the Meridian and blow the helium seals.”

“What about Mori?"

Danica paused for a moment. "As we discussed, make the blowout look like sabotage and implicate Mori."

Leigh's voice dropped to a grim bass roar and rumbled through the shuttle's cabin. "Dead men deny no charges."

Danica nodded. "If you see an opportunity to catch him when the helium tank goes, do it."

"Roger. Out."

Danica removed her headset and swiveled the chair around to face her son. "You did manage to get the Bifrostdesignated as the alternate carrier for the Silver Eaglewhile rampaging around in the Monopole computer, didn't you?"

Clovis nodded sullenly. "You kept Pfister busy enough for me to have reconstructed Monopole's entire corporate structure."

Danica frowned at her son's glum expression. "What is it, Clovis? I know something is bothering you. You can't hide it from me." She narrowed her brown eyes. "Is it killing Mori?"

Clovis brushed his long black hair back from his face and snorted. "Killing an ISF agent? Don't you think I knew that telling you about his ISF connection was his death warrant . . . ? No, that's no concern of mine." Danica frowned. "What is it, then?"

Clovis sighed heavily. "It's this whole mission, mother. The things Gray Noton has paid us to do in the past have been simpler—running 'Mech parts to insurgents in the Combine, or moving some documents from the Federated Suns to the Free Worlds League. That kind of job doesn't bother me, but hijacking a DropShip to sour relations between the Commonwealth and the Federated Suns . . . Well that doesn't seem like the kind of thing Heimdall should be involved in . . ."

Danica shook her head emphatically. "Don't confuse things, Clovis. Performing this job for Gray has nothing to do with Heimdall. Gray is paying us good money—money we need to keep the Styx base functioning—to divert a DropShip. It's a job. Nothing more . .."

Clovis crossed his arms and hugged them to his chest. "How can you say that? You speak as though you can divorce Heimdall from what you and I are. Sure, our base in the Styx system harbors refugees who have fled the Combine, but it's mostly peopled by other Heimdall refugees who have fled the Commonwealth.

We've refused other missions that would have directly damaged the Commonwealth, but you accepted this one. Why, mother? Why?"

Danica turned and stared out the large viewing-port on the shuttle's nose. "For 700 years, Loki has existed in the Commonwealth. For most of that time, it has been a godsend. Answerable only to the Archon and the head of the Lyran Intelligence Corps, it has searched out spies and carried out operations that have blunted attacks by the enemies of our people.

"From time to time, though, the Archon has turned Loki loose on his own people. During one of those times, a number of loyal nobles and citizens banded together to form Heimdall. They worked passively and covertly, for the most part, to prevent Loki from depriving Commonwealth citizens of their rights. The attack on the spaceport on Poulso twenty years ago was the most public display of our power ever, yet only those within Heimdall even suspect we had anything to do with the raid."

Clovis ground his teeth. "I know all this, mother. Small I may be, but I am not a child who needs to be lectured about the history of Heimdall. You avoid answering my question."

Danica shook her head. "It's not a lecture I'm giving you, Clovis, but you don't know all there is to know. You, my dear, were born into Heimdall and have lived within it all your life. I came to Heimdall while I still carried you . .. Had someone not rescued me, you and I would be nothing more than casualties blamed upon a raid by House Kurita. Even as Heimdall saved Katrina Steiner from her uncle's plots, it also extracted us from a dangerous situation. Yet, for all that I now owe Heimdall, at that time, I'd only heard it mentioned in whispers—dark whispers. For most citizens of the Commonwealth, Heimdall is as much a fiction as Saint Nicholas or the sanctity of ComStar."

Danica smiled at her son. "The Heimdall you've grown up with is an organization far more public than ever before. Our base is the latest in a series of 'openly' Heimdall centers hidden in the forgotten recesses of the universe."

Clovis shook his head. "I'd hardly call it 'openly' Heimdall, mother. We never admit it to the refugees we take in."

"True, Clovis, but we all knowwhat we are. That's just one of the changes in Heimdall that forces me to look at things like this job differently. With Arthur Luvon's marriage to Katrina Steiner, he sent out a signal to all of us that he endorsed her as an Archon who would deserve our full support. She curbed Loki's operations within the Commonwealth, and while that has given Heimdall room to breathe, it has also weakened Katrina's ability to uncover the treasonous plots of her internal enemies. Heimdall has accepted some of that responsibility, but we still must act in a subtle and covert manner to accomplish our ends."

Clovis stared hard at his mother. "This is where you confuse me, mother. In one breath, you say we should be quietly loyal to the Archon. In another, though, you order an operation—at the behest of a political mercenary who is only out to enrich himself—to hijack a ship. In that one motion, you will damage the relations between the Commonwealth and the Federated Suns—hardly the subtle kind of action you claim to favor. How can you, while professing to be loyal to the Archon, undertake an action that will jeopardize a policy that Katrina Steiner supports completely and utterly?"

Danica turned back and smiled at her son. "Congratulations, Clovis. You've asked the question I've wrestled with since the day Gray Noton offered us this job. Had I a chance, I would have taken counsel with the person above me in the chain of command, but I had no time to do so. I weighed the positive and negative points, then made a difficult decision."

Danica clasped her hands together, leaned forward, and rested her elbows on her knees. "It's true that this plot is undoubtly sponsored by the Archon's enemies, and could be very damaging to her. That's why I decided Katrina could afford to have no one else undertake this mission."

Clovis narrowed his eyes, then slowly nodded. "So," he said thoughtfully, "by accepting the mission, you're in control of how it turns out. You can decide whether or not to turn the DropShip over to Noton's people .. ."

Danica crossed to Clovis and hugged her son. "Exactly, Clovis. With your work, Monopole will let the Silver Eagleknow that they're to link up with us. We won't jump to Errai, as they expect, or Sirius, as Noton intends. We'll jump back to Styx, and from there, Heimdall will be the one to decide who exactly is to profit from this enterprise."

42

Fomalhaut