Chris Moriarty - Spin State

“So what was Kintz doing down there?” she asked. “And what was the deal between him and Voyt, anyway?”

McCuen looked like he’d sat on a tack.

“I’m not asking you to tell tales out of school, McCuen. I just need to know how to spin him.”

“I know,” McCuen said reluctantly. “But it’s my job if I piss the wrong people off.”

Li looked at him, eyes narrowed. “So it wasn’t just that Kintz was scamming Voyt. Kintz was Haas’s man in the office. Is that it? Or was Voyt in on it too?”

One look at McCuen’s face told her she’d hit pay dirt.

“So what were Voyt and Kintz doing for Haas besides passing along information?” she asked.

Again the hesitation.

Li kicked her chair back and lit a cigarette. “Christ, Brian. Tell me if you want. If not, don’t. We’re all big boys and girls here. I’m not going to waste my time dragging it out of you.”

“I don’t know anything,” McCuen said. “Honest. I’m just repeating rumors. But… Voyt had an eye on the bottom line. You always hear rumors about mine security being on the take. God knows there’s plenty of chances. But Voyt… the rumors about him were pretty persistent. And somehow if you knew Voyt at all, they didn’t surprise you.”

“And you think Kintz might have taken over Voyt’s sideline?”

“I’m not saying that. But it’s possible.”

Li put down the list of names and stood up. “Let’s go talk to him then. Before Haas’s little bird gets a chance to whistle in his ear.”

Kintz turned out to be a hard man to find. They finally caught up with him in one of the fifth-level strip joints. Li recognized his drinking buddies as company goons—one step above the bouncers who were standing around itching to kick them out before they broke something. None of them looked sober enough to operate heavy equipment.

“Like to talk to you,” she told Kintz.

He looked at her but kept his hand on his drink. “I go back on duty tomorrow at eight. That soon enough?”

“Jesus, Kintz,” McCuen burst out. “We’ve been looking for you since three in the afternoon!”

“And how the hell was I supposed to know that, Brian?” Kintz said McCuen’s name as if it were a dirty joke.

“You could answer your damned comm for one thing.”

Kintz kicked back in his chair, smiling. “Aren’t you the teacher’s pet,” he drawled. “Wag your tail a little harder and maybe she’ll let you sit in her lap.”

“Right,” Li said. “If I wanted to referee playground fights, I could have taught kindergarten. Karl and I are stepping around the corner for a nice quiet cup of coffee.”

Kintz didn’t protest much; Li was able to steer him out of the bar and down the street with no more than a firm hand on his elbow.

“What do you want from me?” he asked when she’d gotten a table and two steaming cups of coffee between them. “I’m off duty in case you didn’t notice. And I don’t fucking appreciate being dragged around like a child either.”

Li smiled and lit a cigarette. “I don’t recall asking whether or not you appreciated it,” she said pleasantly. “In fact I’m pretty sure I don’t give a shit. Personally, I’d have fired you the day I got here. Except I’m piss lazy, and if I shipped you out, I’d have to waste my time figuring out who Haas’s new rat in the office was.”

“Whatever.”

“What were you doing in the mine the day of the fire?”

“Working.” He sounded nonchalant, but the sudden tension around his eyes told a different story.

“Working on what?”

“Working for that dumb bitch, Sharifi.”

“You obviously got along. Must have been a real pleasure all around.”

“You wouldn’t think it was so funny if it was you who had to deal with her fucking attitude. I knew her before she ever got here. Not that she remembered. She was my fucking college physics teacher.”

Li blinked, uncertain whether she was more baffled by the idea of Kintz being a student anywhere Sharifi would teach or the idea of his being a student at all. “Was she a good teacher?” she settled on asking.

“Fuck no! You know how she graded us? She gave an exam with one problem on it, one problem that takes like three hours to solve, and I get it back and there’s one fucking sentence written on it: ‘Oops, you lost the mass of the universe. C minus.’ Like my whole exam was some kind of fucking joke to her. You lost the mass of the universe ? I mean, what the fuck does that mean, anyway?”

“I think it means she had a sense of humor and you don’t,” Li said. “So. What did your favorite physics professor have you doing in the mine?”

Kintz shrugged sullenly. “Standing around mostly. Security, I guess. Fuck if I know.”

Li drew on her cigarette and watched him in silence. “Did you know Sharifi was murdered?” she asked finally.

“I might have heard something like that.”

“And did you know that you’re the last person who saw her alive? Other than Voyt. Oh, but someone killed him too.”

“So what?”

“So if I were you, I’d be busy thinking about how many ways I could bend over for the investigating officer and keep myself out of trouble.”

“Jeez, lighten up! I fucking work for you, in case you forgot. Why don’t you go round up the usual suspects?”

“Unfortunately the usual suspects weren’t down in the mine. You were. And I want to know what Haas had you doing down there.”

Kintz stared. Then he kicked his chair back on two legs and laughed a laugh that set Li’s teeth on edge.

“You don’t know shit,” he said. “They hung you out to dry. You’re in fucking free fall, and you’re just too blind to see it.”

Li flicked out her left arm as fast as her internals would go. It hurt like hell, but the special effects were worth it. To anyone watching it would have looked like Kintz’s coffee had simply fallen off the table and into his lap. Before Kintz realized what had happened, Li was on her feet and coming around the table right behind the coffee.

“Gosh!” she said, patting at the front of his pants with a napkin. “You spilled on yourself. Hope it wasn’t too hot.”

Kintz stood up and backed away from the table a step or two but let Li keep swatting at him with the napkin. He looked like he was still trying to catch up with his coffee. He was also now standing with his back against the wall and Li’s body between him and the rest of the tables. Li smiled, grabbed him where it counted, and lifted.

“Have I mentioned that you’re really pissing me off?” she asked.

Kintz’s face contorted, but his eyes didn’t drop away from hers. Worse, as pain drained the blood from his neck and face, Li saw the dense network of ceramsteel filament woven through flesh and muscle.

She almost dropped him in surprise.

Well, that explained where he’d taken Sharifi’s classes. The only thing that didn’t add up was why the Corps had put this waste of skin through Alba. Or how an ex-Peacekeeper had washed up as Haas’s errand boy. Either Kintz was working for internal affairs—impossible—or he’d screwed up so badly the Corps couldn’t risk the publicity of a dishonorable discharge.

Yet another reason to keep a close eye on him. As if she needed one.

“You’re no better than me,” Kintz said, pain and hatred battling in his voice. “I was on Gilead. I know just what kind of fucking hero you are. I know you.”

Li let go and backed away as if he’d stung her.

“Yeah,” Kintz said. “I was there. And when the memory wipe didn’t take they washed me out. For doing the same thing you did. For doing less than you did. What do you think of that, Major? Only you weren’t a major then, were you? That was your reward for doing their dirty work.” He laughed. “Or don’t you like to talk about it?”