Let's Make a Deal (Bob and Nikki Book 11)
Get with her and see if you can find anything that will help us pin down what he was dosed with. Even knowing for sure who did it would help.”“I’ll get right on that, Boss. Do you happen to know where she is working?”
“I don’t, ask Gene. I’m sure he can lead you right to her.”
“On my way. I’ll let you know when we find something.”
“Later.” I turned to Sue. “Sue, could you look over your logs for last night, and see if any odd comm calls went out from the Squirrel ship?”
“I’m sorry, Boss. What do you mean by odd?”
“That’s a good question. Not part of the normal schedule, seemingly urgent, anything of that nature.”
“You understand there’s no way for me to know what was said, right?”
“I do. I have a pretty good idea what was said, if the call went out. I just need to know for sure if it did.”
“Okay, Boss. I’ll go through the logs, I should have an answer in an hour or two.”
“That should be quick enough. Thanks.” I turned to Topper. “All our vessels are in fighting shape at this point, are they not?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Are the Armstrong and the Conrad free to maneuver?”
“Yes, Boss. The Aldrin and the Shepherd are handling operations with the Squirrel flagship.”
“Saucy, get me Captain Sloan.”
Dingus said, “What’s up, Bob?”
“That’s just it, Dingus. I’m not sure that anything is. The fellas that took over the Squirrel ship put Natti into hibernation. He won’t wake up for a week, unless we can figure out what antidote to use. I have to wonder if they were figuring to call in a fleet, while Natti was out, and cause enough of an incident to cancel the negotiations.”
“You think they were setting us up for an ambush?”
“Given the way they’ve acted so far, I don’t think I can discard the possibility, do you?”
“No, I don’t. What do you propose?”
“You take Diego, and whatever destroyers you think you might need, and lay low, a few AU’s out. If we get unwanted company, you can jump in behind them, and mess up their whole day.”
“As annoyed as I’m getting with these rascals, I might mess up their whole week, Bob.”
“Do as you see best, Dingus.”
“Have I mentioned I like working for you, Commodore?”
“You might have. Why do you ask?”
“Just the way you give assignments. Go do what needs doing. Holler if you need help.”
“You’ve got as much training as I do, unless you’ve been slacking. The chances of me telling you a better way of doing something are pretty slim. Besides, you need to get in the habit, for when one of these idiots gets lucky and does me some damage.”
“You really think one of these Squirrels is going to be able to hurt you?”
“If Dixie wasn’t as quick on the draw, one already would have. Managed to nick my ear with a poisoned knife.”
“Dixie got you an antidote before you got sick?”
“She did. Makes me wonder why they’re having trouble figuring out what’s going on with Natti. Guess it has something to do with it being related to hibernation, and Dixie doesn’t have any prior knowledge to go on.”
“Sounds reasonable. Anything special you want us to do while we’re out there waiting in the black?”
“Gee, I dunno. Figure us out a sensor that can see a ship coming in FTL, so we don’t keep getting surprised?”
“People have been trying to figure that one out for years. Nobody has had any luck yet.”
“Then it’s about due, don’t you think? Call if you need anything, Commodore Grandpa.”
“Asshole! You just wait till we play paintball again. Talk to you later.”
“Bye, Dingus.” I thought for a minute, and said, “Gene, could you connect me to Lakki?”
Lakki asked, “Yes, Boss?”
“Did Haffi find you?”
“She did. We found video of the Ambassador getting dosed. The Marines have the perpetrator in custody, and are taking him to the Grissom, for the personal attention of Captain Mason. We were also able to determine which quarters were his, and the Marines are in the process of searching them for any clues to what drug he used.”
“You two are quick! Good work! I have one more request, and then you can go back to what you were doing.”
“There is fear in my heart, Commodore. What do you need?”
“Could you grab all the files their medbay has on hibernation, and drugs to induce it, and ship copies to Dixie? Between her and Haffi, maybe they can figure out which drug was used on Natti.”
“Sure. I thought you would want something difficult. Haffi wants to know if she should stay here, or head back to medbay and help Dixie?”
“Do you need her for anything?”
“No, Boss. She’s good company, but I’m busy right now.”
“Send her back, then. Thanks again for all the good work, you two.”
“You’re welcome, Boss. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.” Sue spoke up. “Boss, I found that comm call you were worried about. Lakki told me when the Ambassador was drugged, and I was able to narrow the search. Looks like it went out about five minutes after the Ambassador went to sleep.”
“Any way to narrow down where the recipient might be?”
“No, Boss. I can tell you that no calls went out from the fleet to this particular recipient since they arrived.”
“Even with all the studying I’ve done, I still can’t make heads or tails out of the way they run their operations. If it was me, I would have had the backup fleet a light-year or so out, running quiet, so they could have been on top of us before we even knew the Ambassador wasn’t in charge any more. They’ve had what, six or eight hours, and they still haven’t sprung their ambush?