Crossing the Line Read Free Page A

able to help, had we been allowed access.”
    â€œI know.” She was drawing parallel lines on the pad in front of her, darker and deeper and harder with each stroke. “Do you have current orders regarding Frankland?”
    â€œWe’re backing off for the time being. No point getting into a pissing match with the wess’har, not if we want to do business with them. If she’s got what you say she’s got, there’ll be other ways to acquire it. I’ve got enough on my plate trying to keep the isenj sweet without the wess’har noticing we’re kissing both their arses.”
    â€œI can’t help thinking this double game is going to be the proverbial hiding to nothing.”
    â€œIt’s diplomacy. Evenhandedness. Like arming both sides in a war.”
    â€œThe wess’har don’t deal in gray areas.”
    â€œWell, they’ll get fed up with the isenj taking pot shots at them sooner or later and then an offer of assistance might be appreciated.”
    â€œAnd who’s going to negotiate with them?”
    â€œI pulled the winning ticket.”
    â€œOh. I take it the isenj aren’t privy to this.”
    â€œOf course not. And it wasn’t my idea. Thanks to the bloody EP or ITX or whatever they’re calling it today, I don’t have the luxury of making my own decisions. I’ve got politicians and chiefs of staff second-guessing me a comms call away. I might as well be a bloody glove-puppet. And don’t tell me ITX is a boon to mankind. It’s a pain in the arse.”
    Lindsay wondered how different things would have been if Thetis had been able to get instant messages and instructions back from Earth. It might have made matters worse. She wondered if it would have saved Surendra Parekh: somehow she doubted it. Somewhere there was a bezeri parent who had lost a child because of the biologist’s arrogant curiosity about cephalopods, and for a split second she felt every shade of that alien pain.
    No, she was content that Shan had let the wess’har execute the woman.
    But that didn’t excuse her allowing David to die. She took the rising bubble of pain and crushed it into herself again.
    â€œAt least we’ll probably go down as the most economically viable mission in history,” said Okurt. “Instant comms, new territory, maybe even immortality in a bottle. That’s what exploration’s really about. Unless Frankland’s already acquired the biotech for a specific corporation, of course.”
    â€œShe said she wasn’t paid to get the tech. I’m inclined to believe her. She’s not like that.”
    â€œCome on, everybody’s like that sooner or later.”
    â€œNot her. She’s EnHaz. An environmental protection officer. As far as she’s concerned, she’s on a personal mission to cleanse the bloody universe. And she loathes corporations, believe me. Enough to let terrorists loose on them. Enough to be a terrorist.”
    â€œWell, whatever EnHaz was, I’ve got my orders—detain her, as and when, for unauthorized killing of a civilian and for being a potential biohazard. That’ll do for now.”
    Despite her hatred, Lindsay fought back an urge to correct Okurt about Frankland’s involvement. It might have been her weapon that shot Parekh, but she hadn’t fired it, whatever she claimed. The woman would have said anything to protect her pet wess’har, Aras. Lindsay had confronted him once: she had no doubt he would have killed her too without losing a second’s sleep over it.
    â€œI want Frankland,” she said. “But I want her for the right reasons. This isn’t vengeance.”
    She dug her stylus into the paper. She hadn’t written a single word, just black lines. When she caught Okurt staring, she tapped the border of the smartpaper and the surface plumped up into pristine white nothingness again.
    â€œI’m sure it