Echo of Tomorrow: Book Two (The Drake Chronicles) (15 page)

Kat came back, and he inspected her, nodding. Next, he indicated the hamper, motioning for Brock to unpack it. He looked though the packages of sandwiches, placing them in a woven, natural-fiber bag Hiro held out for him. He added the fruit and the bottles of wine and brandy into the bag, and gave each of them a thermos to carry. That done, he motioned them to follow, and took off toward the beach. They walked for ten minutes until he found a place he liked near some rocks, the surf crashing onto them to mask any long-distance sound pick-up. At last he sat down on a flat rock and unscrewed the top of the flask to pour himself another cup.

“Thank Christ for that. I think we’re safe now,” he announced, breathing a sigh of relief. He clenched his hand a few times to stop them shaking.

“Safe from what, Scott!” Brock said. “What the hell is going on?”

“Spies, Gunny, spies.”

“I don’t get it, why all this?” Brock held onto the bright-colored silk kimono, the only garment any of them were wearing, including underwear.

“A short while ago, I read a report from you, Pete, that you’d caught some spies. We all know about the constant acts of sabotage, as well as the theft of weapons and such. This morning, someone sabotaged my shuttlecraft.” Now he had their undivided attention. “If I’d been standing in the doorway as I usually do when it landed at moon base, I would’ve been sucked out into a shuttle bay devoid of air, even though the door indicator said there was air, and open.”

“Good god!” Brock and Pete exclaimed. Hiro just nodded.

“That was the first plan. The second was, if I wasn’t in the main cabin, and sitting in the second seat, they knew the flight deck door would automatically close and seal. Whoever it was had rigged it so the cabin would slowly decompress, and we’d be forced to don emergency breathing gear. Or if we were wearing spacesuits, plug into the air supply. We didn’t, because I’d brought two emergency breather packs with me. But I suspect if we’d used the air supply, the bottles would be empty, full of gas, or filled with vacuum. Either one, not a nice death.”

Brock said, “Shit! This gets worse by the minute.”

“Scott hasn’t told you about the shuttle exploding twenty-five seconds after we got out yet,” Kat murmured. Brock, Pete, and Hiro’s faces paled, each thinking how close Scott, and Kat, had come to being killed.

“The explosion had two objectives in mind,” Scott said. “One, to destroy evidence of the crime, and two, to kill us if the other two methods failed.”

Brock held out a hand. “Pass that coffee over, Scott, I think I need a cup.”

“Make that two,” Pete said, looking a little unsettled by the news, as they all were.

“Make that three, if you don’t mind,” Kat said.

“Could I have a drop of that brandy?” Devon asked.

Scott passed him the bottle, and looked at Hiro, who said, “With the honorable Admiral’s permission, I should like a small amount of the brandy, please.”

“You can have a large belt if you want, but cut the honorable Admiral BS out. As of this moment it’s Scott, understand?”

Hiro bowed. “Yes, Scott
-san
, I understand, and thank you.” Hiro felt his chest tighten with pride. He was samurai, and he now had a lord and master to serve, one he would give his life for if necessary. But first, there was one thing he had to do.

“So explain the clothes, and how’d Hiro know to bring them?” Brock asked, taking a long drink of his brandy-laced coffee.

“To do that, I have to backtrack to the battle with the aliens.” Scott added a slug of brandy to his coffee and passed the bottle around. “I doubt you’ve had time to read any of the reports, but I’ll tell you the things that aren’t in them. Such as … within minutes of the start of the battle, we took a hit on the port side. The objective was to take out most of the point defense system on that side. I suspect the one meant for the starboard side never made it. Anyway, after that, they launched something that turned out to be an updated version of a torpedo bomber. Same idea, same objective, except these were meant to take out critical areas, not sink the ship.”

He stopped for a moment, refilling his cup with coffee and brandy. “We took two hits in rapid succession at the base of the superstructure. The third one missed its target, but the fourth one hit, almost taking out the bridge and CIC.”

“Not random chance, I suppose?” Pete asked.

“We ruled that out. After that, it brought up the question of how they knew where those two areas were: unlike the old surface ships, we didn’t want them in vulnerable area, thanks to Devon here.”

“It was an obvious defect,” Devon said. “On many occasions, capital ships were put out of action when the enemy, either accidentally, or deliberately, took out the bridge.”

Scott nodded. “I won’t ask the question of how many people knew of the design change. The list would be so long, it would be meaningless. What bothered me was how the aliens got the information, and when. Also, how they’d know I’d be there, or on the shuttle.”

“I follow so far, but why the clothes?” Brock asked again.

“I think I can answer that,” Pete put in. “We don’t yet know all the technology the rest of the world has. We have no way of knowing if they can implant listening devices in our clothes, or uniforms, Saint Christopher medals, computer memory crystals like our wrist communicators, or in Lady Jane, for that matter.”

“This is the conclusion my sensei came to, Scott
-san
,” Hiro added.

“Smart lady.” He was glad the old lady figured it out, even with the limited information he’d given her.

“She deduced this from the list you sent, plus your odd behavior.”

“So where do we go from here?” Brock demanded.

“That was the reason for the fishing trip. I had to get us away from anything and everything that might conceivably contain a listening device. Now the floor is open to suggestions.”

“We have a very difficult problem ahead of us if we cannot discuss this openly,” Hiro said.

“That’s for sure!” Kat said. “It means we can’t even talk to each other in bed!” People always said things in bed they wouldn’t normally say in public. The thought that one of those perverts in the World Government was listening in on her most private moments outraged her even more. Now it was personal.

“With respect, Scott
-san
,” Hiro said with a small bow. “Our main task is to learn the identity of the person who is the end recipient of this information, not the spy.” All four stopped and looked at him, realizing his was the obvious conclusion.

“So, go on, you have the floor,” Brock said.

“I feel we can rule out any of the people who came with you in cold sleep, yes?” Hiro raised one eyebrow in query.

“Yes,” Scott said. “None of them would have any reason to give secrets to the aliens, or the local government. And I doubt there’s any inducement anyone could come up to make them betray us.”

“So, we then come to the people of England.”

The group quieted in thought, until Scott said, shaking his head, “No. This goes back before we contacted them. The attack on Alpha base, remember?”

“Yeah. Those suckers were trying to nail your butt even then, Scott,” Pete commented.

“So, we come to the people of my island, the people from Japan.”

“Why do you include them, Hiro?” Scott asked.

“It is only logical that at some time you would ask yourself this question.”

“And the answer?” he asked.

“There is no answer that I can give, honorable Admiral,” he said, bowing.

“We’re back to that again are we.”

“Hiro’s right in that respect, Scott,” Pete said. “What could he say that we’d believe? If they are the authors of this attack, there’s nothing he could say that would convince us otherwise. It’s like the Greek, or Spartan and the
‘Lier’s paradox’
, I can’t remember which, my history’s a bit rusty, who said to the King of Persia, ‘Because I am a Greek it is impossible for me to tell the truth’.” Hiro and Brock looked at Pete, while Scott, Kat, and Devon chuckled.

“But if he said that, that meant he was lying … but if he was lying, that meant he was telling the truth, but he just said …” Brock stopped, looking at Pete for a moment while he figured it out, then said, “Remind me not to play poker with you anymore.”

“Peter
-san
, you are correct, I shall have to remember that saying.”

“It’s not mine, Hiro, I wish I was that smart.”

“Please, could you tell me what the king’s reaction was?”

“Oh, yes, the king thought about it, while generals pleaded with him for permission to torture the man to get the truth. In the end, the king gave him his freedom and a horse.”

“Wise king,” Hiro commented.

“That’s the point,” Scott said. “Either we accept that no one from Japan is involved in this plot, or we don’t.”

“I don’t see any advantage for them to do it,” Kat commented.

“Pardon, Katharina
-sama
, but that is not true. Though isolated from the rest of this world, we had the knowledge for doing such things stored for many years, and grievances against the people of this world.” None of the group could deny history. “We could have contacted these aliens many times in the past and offered our help in destroying the rest of the people of this world.”

“What would you have gained?” Kat said.

“What any people want: a world we could rule without interference.” Hiro’s dark eyes gave little indication as to what he really thought about that statement.

“He’s got you there, Kat,” Pete said with a chuckle.

“Hiro,” Scott said. “It still comes down to the fact, do we trust you or not, and the answer is, yes we do.”

“Would the honorable Admiral enlighten me as to your reasoning?”

“Yes and no. Over the years, Japan has suffered much, from invasion by the Chinese to dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Your isolation by the United Nations, and the dumping of the plague onto your people, were only two more items in a long list. I can see where you might want to even the score, so to speak. Your people did try to conquer much of Southeast Asia in the past, yet I can’t see the Japanese people willingly helping a bunch of aliens destroy the human race. If you had been helping them, you’d be in space yourself by now. As it is, you, like us, are struggling to find a place in this new world—a place you can be proud of, and in an honorable way under the code of Bushido.”

Hiro bowed again hearing his words. “You are correct, Scott
-san
.”

“But, that aside, I spoke with Sensei Hira Yamaguchi, and my gut feeling is that I can trust her.” Scott met eyes with Hiro.

“Thank you honorable Scott
-san
. I for one will give you my pledge that I will never betray you, or that which you are trying to do for all of us. I will swear that I will kill anyone I find who is, even among my own people.” Hiro turned to reach into the net bag, and came out with some fruit and a small wood cutting board. He pulled a
tanto
from his sleeve and prepared to slice the fruit.

“Thank you Hiro
-san
. I accept your pledge,” Scott said, and turned to the others.

“Hiro, no!” Kat yelled, and they all turned in time to see the blood spurt from the end of Hiro’s little finger. The tip, up to the first knuckle, lay on the board. Quickly Hiro wrapped the bloody end in a napkin to stop the bleeding.

“Damn! Why didn’t you watch what you were doing?” Kat yelled. Without a medical kit handy, there was little else anyone could do. Hiro smiled through the pain, a look of pride on his face.