Curse of the Iris (16 page)

“And the local authorities did nothing?” Carlo asked.

“They tried. A week after the first alerts went out, a Perimeter Patrol cruiser engaged in a shoot-out with three bandits escorting a captured ore boat. The cruiser was jumped by a pair of frigates and forced to retreat.”

Carlo looked incredulous. “And what was the response? Did the Defense Force flood the area?”

“Easier said than done,” Mavry said. “Saturn is a long way from here, and most of our defenses are meant to stop an assault from Earth.”

“Right,” Carina said. “And those defenses are increasingly stretched. The incident with the Perimeter Patrol got the Securitat poking around, and they started picking up chatter that these pirates were following a chain of command. Within a couple of weeks, there was no need to speculate—pirates from Hygeia to Triton were openly declaring their allegiance to Saturn. They call themselves the Ice Wolves.”

“Good name,” Huff rumbled appreciatively.

“That's what the wolf patches we saw on Titan meant,” Tycho said. “So is Mox working with them?”

“Unknown, but given the firepower he threw at you over P/2, I'd assume so,” Carina said. “What's more, the ship you encountered—the
Geryon
—was impounded by Saturnian authorities a decade ago. As for the Ice Wolves, they seem to be a mix of pirates and spacers with a history of working both sides of the law. Most of them are from Saturn, but a handful are from elsewhere in the Jovian Union or are spacers based in the asteroids.”

“No surprise there,” Huff said. “Yeh always got yer adventurous types what flock to a banner.”

“True, but this is different,” Carina said. “There have been credible reports of Ice Wolves throwing around a lot of livres to recruit crews and buy equipment.”

“Money from Earth?” Yana asked.

“Possibly,” Carina said. “But some of it seems to be coming from individuals and entities based on Saturn's moons.”

“There's certainly enough money out there,” Tycho said, remembering the refineries and traffic above Titan.

“You're right,” Carina said. “And in the last three weeks, there have been reports of Ice Wolves raiding Jovian and Earth ships alike, but letting ones registered at Saturn go unmolested. In response, some spacers have started flying Saturnian colors. A number of ports have lost interest in good recordkeeping, making it harder for the Securitat to track the bandits' movements.”

“They're in league with the Ice Wolves, then,” Carlo said.

“Or scared of them, maybe,” said Mavry. “What does the governor at Enceladus say?”

“What you'd expect,” Carina said. “In public, he's dismissed the Ice Wolves as a few troublemakers, while in private he's appealed frantically to Ganymede for ships. But that brings us back to Earth. A lot of His Majesty's intelligence operatives lost their careers after you discovered Threece Suud's labor camps. But now that the scandal's been largely forgotten, Earth's intelligence services are looking to get even—and this time they're working openly with their military to do so. Earth has built up its forces in the asteroids. They're sending merchant convoys out under guard, stopping Jovian merchants on suspicions of piracy, and displaying very itchy trigger fingers.”

“Earth's engaged in that kind of saber rattling before,” Diocletia said. “It tends to last until His Majesty's taxpayers get the bill.”

“Yes, but Earth has agents at Saturn too, and they've heard the same stories about the Ice Wolves that our people have,” Carina said. “They know the Union's attention is divided, and they see us as vulnerable.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, considering that.

“No one knows what any of it means just yet,” Carina said. “But these are perilous times. The Union's never had a confrontation with Earth while having to worry about the loyalty of Saturn.”

“Are we really at that point?” Carlo asked. “It seems hard to imagine.”

“Lots of things do, right up to the moment when they become reality,” Carina said.

The grim look on Carina's face made talk of the
Iris
cache seem frivolous—even Yana looked reluctant to speak up. But Carina retrieved her mediapad, extinguishing the map with its ominous red dots, and sat back with her fingers knitted together in her lap.

“Now then,” she said, “I believe there's a lost treasure to discuss. Diocletia's told me about the
Lucia
, and the Collective, and the device from the Bank of Ceres. The question is how we're going to proceed—if we decide to do so.”

That was too much for Yana to take.

“If?” she asked. “I read the old media reports about the
Iris
raid, and we're talking about a lot of money, Aunt Carina—years' worth. Maybe it's not polite to talk about it, but we could really use that money. Unless we want to count on Tyke getting
incredibly
lucky at the end of every cruise.”

“Hey!” Tycho said.

“Belay that, Yana,” Diocletia said. “Remember what a wise old pirate once said: luck is the residue of design.”

Tycho tried to smile, but he knew the luck was a lie, and the design had been DeWise's. For what purpose, Tycho didn't know.

“It is a lot of money, I agree. Perhaps millions of livres in high-end cargo,” Carina told Yana. “But the question is whether our chances of finding the treasure are worth the time required to try—time we won't have for other things.”

“You want to talk about time?” Yana asked. “How about the fact that it's running out? While we sit around yapping, that quantum signal is beeping down to nothing.”

“Don't let a countdown force you into a bad decision,” Carina said. “What I'd like to establish here is where we think the treasure is. Because that will affect what we decide to do. If we think the
Iris
cache is in the hands of the Securitat—or in orbit around, say, Neptune—we may as well move on to our next order of business.”

“Agreed,” Yana said. “But it's
not
in orbit around Neptune.”

Carina looked over at Diocletia, and Tycho saw his aunt's eyes warm as some old memory or joke passed between the sisters. Then Carina leaned back in her seat and gestured to Yana.

“You may as well go first,” she said. “Where's the treasure, and how did it get there?”

“Europa,” Yana said instantly. “I thought it over all the way from Ceres, and it's the only answer. The signal is the clue.”

“Why Europa?” Carina asked.

“Josef Unger was from there, for one. But more important, the scanners were designed to be able to pick out an underwater signal from a fair amount of noise. Those are conditions you'd only find on Europa.”

“So you think Josef put it there?” Carina asked.

“Josef, or members of the Collective working together,” Yana said. “It doesn't really matter. The treasure's on Europa. Everything points to it.”

“But nobody lives on Europa,” Carlo objected. “Unless you count tube worms and armored fish.”

“We're not talking about
now
—we're talking about eight decades ago,” Yana said. “The Resettling wasn't until 2817, remember? The
Iris
was seized eight years before that. And Josef Unger registered his ship there.”

Carlo looked embarrassed. “But hadn't most of the residents left by 2809?”

“Not quite,” Mavry said. “The dead-enders resisted until the very end, when they were forced to leave.”

“Which means there would still have been subs, and underwater transmissions between homesteads, and other noise,” Yana said.

Every child of Jupiter knew the story of the Resettling and what had led up to it. Europa's thick ice hid an ocean warmed by smokers, undersea vents surrounded by mountains of rich minerals that served as oases for aquatic life. After Earth's mining subs destroyed many of the smokers, the Jovian Union declared Europa a protectorate, banning further economic development and paying its colonists to relocate. That had infuriated Earth and led to the Third Trans-Jovian War. Now the only inhabitants of Europa were a few rangers in research stations.

“If the
Iris
cache is on Europa, why hasn't anybody found it?” Carina asked.

“Because it's a big ocean,” Yana said. “Given the scanner's short range, you'd have to be looking in the exact right place or get very lucky. And until we opened the case, the signal wasn't transmitting. Just like it won't be in eleven days, when we'll still probably be sitting here flapping our lips while everyone else with a working scanner uses it to find the treasure that could be ours.”

“That will do, Yana,” Diocletia said. “Can I remind you this isn't the first time the signal's gone off? It must have done so three times before. That's three opportunities for the treasure to be found, and for this argument to be a waste of time.”

Tycho scrubbed at his hair, agitated, then forced himself to tuck his fingers between his legs and his chair. It wasn't a waste of time, he knew. But he couldn't say
how
he knew that. He had proof from DeWise that would all but end the argument, but he couldn't use it.

“We've discussed this,” Yana said. “The Moxleys didn't get the treasure or everyone would have known about it. The Ungers didn't get the treasure or they wouldn't have lived the way they did. That leaves—”

“So why was Josef Unger's scanner missing?” Diocletia asked. “Never mind where it is now. Why was it removed in the first place?”

“The pirates could have tested one of the scanners to make sure they could find the treasure again,” Yana said. “Josef's would make the most sense.”

“That doesn't sound too convincing,” Carina said.

“I admit that part bothers me too,” Yana said. “But everything else fits.”

“No, it doesn't,” Carlo said. “Why would the pirates hide the treasure on a moon that was going to be abandoned?”

“They thought they'd retrieve it before then,” Yana said. “They didn't know that Earth would get so angry about the raid, or that the Securitat would hunt them down as well. They thought they had time, but they were wrong.”

And all of that happened because they found something they hadn't meant to find
, Tycho thought.
Something the Securitat still wants, all these years later.

“'Tis a fair point,” Huff said.

“Thank you, Grandpa,” Yana said. “It's the simplest answer—which you've taught us is usually the right one. The treasure's still where it's always been. And we're running out of time to find it.”

“You're wrong—we're already too late,” Carlo said. “Yana's quantum signal is beeping in a Securitat warehouse somewhere—because their agents found our treasure a long time ago.”

“And how do you know that?” Tycho demanded.

“The other missing scanner,” Carlo said. “I'll tell you what happened to it. Muggs Saxton gave it to the Securitat in return for a reduced sentence and a cut of the treasure—”

“You've got no proof of that,” Tycho objected.

“Maybe not, but it makes sense,” Carlo said. “Why'd Muggs get released early, then? He gave them the scanner, they found the treasure, and he got a cut of it—enough livres to quit pirating and make his investment in Gibraltar Artisans.”

At the mention of that name, Carina flinched—just for a moment, but they all saw it.

“I'm sorry, Aunt Carina,” Carlo said.

Carina leaned back in her chair, and Tycho could see the pain in her eyes. Diocletia, meanwhile, was looking down at her hands where they sat in her lap.

Tycho hoped Carlo would catch the hint and move on. But to his surprise, it was Carina who spoke first.

“It's all right, Carlo,” she said. “There's a lesson here for all of us. I know you didn't want to hear about the Water Authority, or negotiations with the Mining Union, or any of it. But those things are important to this family. They're important to
every
family in our business. The Gibraltars . . . they suffered a terrible loss, but today they make millions of livres a year supplying armaments and technology to the Jovian Defense Force. Because they had an alternative to piracy.”

She gestured at the walls of Darklands. “It wasn't just taking prizes that built what you see around you—it was the kinds of businesses our cousins run, that you think are boring. In fact, it's more accurate to say we depend on them than the other way around.”

The flesh-and-blood half of Huff's face twisted scornfully, but he remained silent. So did the rest of the Hashoones.

“Anyway,” Carlo said tentatively after a moment. “The point is, the treasure's gone.”

“No, it isn't,” Tycho burst out, before he could stop himself.

His family turned to regard him, and he felt himself flush.

“And what makes you say that?” Carina asked.

“Um . . . just a feeling,” Tycho muttered.

“A feeling?” his aunt asked, eyebrows raised.

“Already told yeh—Muggs made his fortune by jumpin' a prospector,” Huff said.

“I know you did, Grandfather,” Carlo said. “But I don't believe it. It sounds like a convenient story to me. Where did you hear it, anyway?”

“Oh, around,” Huff said.

“Well then,” Carlo said.

“Not a terribly flattering thing to have people to say about you,” Mavry pointed out. “If he were lying, wouldn't Muggs have made up something that didn't make him look bad?”

“No—that's the whole reason why people believed it,” Carlo said.

Diocletia nodded. But Huff was shaking his head.

“From what Father and everybody said 'bout Muggsie, he weren't nowhere near that smart,” Huff said.

“Maybe not,” Carlo said. “But the Securitat is.”

Mavry paused, then nodded. “Point taken.”