We all just stared at him for a minute, but then Andrew picked up the task of getting him to keep talking. “What was the confidence rating?”
“A shade above eighty percent likelihood that the image is of Ivan Solovyov.”
“Ivan Solovyov?” I asked. “You mean the Arbiter of Shaanxi?”
This was a respectful epithet, not an indication that Solovyov had ever been a member of the Arbiter Force. He was far too important to have ever had such a role, having held many positions in both the public and private sector over his long and influential career.
“Yes, the very same.” Thomas nodded.
“So you want me to track him down,” I asked Andrea. “To question him about the Warwick node?”
“Yes,” she replied. “But it has to be discreet, both for his safety and the sake of the investigation. The last thing we want is for the Eleven to know who we’ve spoken with and about what. They could anticipate our next move and cut the lead out from under us.”
“I will endeavor to do my best. Where do I find this guy?”
“His home is on Callisto,” replied Thomas. “In Valhalla.”
“That seems a bit too significant, don’t you think?” asked Raven. “I mean, considering that we were attacked by Jovian special forces. And that we found the Warwick node on Llyr Station.” I could see her point. A lot of little connections to Jupiter. It didn’t amount to evidence, though—just a vague possibility.
“I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions,” Andrea cautioned. “We’re still far better off tracking down Katerina. Are you suggesting Solovyov is one of the Eleven?”
Raven shrugged. “I mean, he fits. He’s wealthy and powerful, has all kinds of influence. What do we know about his childhood? His younger days?”
“Not much,” admitted Thomas. “His family origins are fairly obscure, and all I could find of his childhood was a list of private boarding schools he’d attended.”
“They might have been obscure, but they certainly weren’t poor,” I commented.
“See what I’m saying?” said Raven. “He fits the profile. Does he have any connection to David Kote?”
“Other than appearing in the memory banks of a Warwick node connected to David Kote?” countered Thomas.
“Well, any connection other than that.”
“No. They don’t really move in the same circles,” Thomas admitted.
“I think Ivan Solovyov is our best candidate yet for a member of the Eleven,” Raven insisted. “And I think we should focus more resources on him.”
Veraldi held a hand up as if to stop her. “Hold on there. If you ask me, Solovyov doesn’t really fit the profile as well as you think he does.”
“Why is that?”
“He’s too much of a public figure.”
I had to agree. “I’ve been hearing about that guy my whole life. He’s not just a public figure, but one of the most respected diplomats in the history of the solar system. He’s renowned as a peacemaker because of what happened in Shaanxi, and he’s been heavily involved in both the Jovian and Sol Federation governments at different points in his life. I think he’s retired now, or semi-retired, but his public profile is just too wide for him to be one of the Eleven.”
Veraldi agreed. “That’s what I’m saying. If you ask me, the Eleven would keep out of the public eye as much as possible. They’d operate from behind the scenes, not right out in plain view.”
“I don’t know.” Raven shook her head. “I just have the feeling we’re sending Tycho into the lion’s mouth here.”
“Tycho’s not green anymore,” said Andrea. “Do you think you can handle this, Tycho?”
“Yeah, of course.” I wasn’t really as sure as all that, but I didn’t want to be seen as a novice anymore either.
“What do we know about the Eleven anyway?” asked Andrew. “I mean, what do we really know? We’ve been chasing this thread for a while now, and it always seems to recede into the distance.”
“That’s exactly it,” replied Veraldi. “The power of these individuals comes from operating in secrecy. No small group, no matter how extensive their resources, can stand against the rest of humanity in an open fight.”
“I agree with Vincenzo,” said Andrea firmly. “Ivan Solovyov’s image was in the Warwick node, so he is connected somehow, but for all we know he was just given a demonstration of the technology on a visit to Llyr Station. We don’t have any real evidence that he’s one of the Eleven, and even if he is, we have to remember that he’s an old man. I’m confident that Tycho can handle Solovyov’s private security. Once he asks the right questions, we’ll know more.”
“Any thought on how we’re going to find Katerina?” asked Andrew.
Thomas replied, “Her biometrics have been given to the security agency of every Aperture in the solar system through our Section 3 cover. Someone will see her at some point, probably sooner rather than later. I told them not to try to pick her up—she would just kill whoever tries to stop her and escape again—but once she’s spotted, we can close in and track her down.”
“One question about Solovyov just occurred to me,” I added. “This guy was high up in the state. Does he know about Section 9?”
“No.” Andrea shook her head. “Not many people do know about Section 9, even at the highest levels of government. The heads of Sol Federation Intelligence know, and a handful of others. But someone like Solovyov, involved in diplomacy? No.”
“He would know if Katerina told him,” Raven pointed out.
Andrea shrugged. “I suppose that’s true. She could have told any number of people though. We can’t do much about it.”
An android opened the door then and glanced around the room. It approached Andrea. “Agent Capanelli, we have a priority one message from Section 3 for you.”
“Show me.”
The android turned up a palm and projected a hologram. It was a stationary view of a crowd at a spaceport terminal. A woman walking through the crowd wearing a shawl and glasses was outlined with a green rectangle. A line of text below the image read:
The individual was seen boarding a passenger vessel bound for Mars through the Timaeus Aperture. 85% confidence it is Katerina Capanelli.
“What do you think, Andrea?” asked Vincenzo. “The way she’s dressed seems like a disguise. I can’t honestly tell whether that’s her or not.”
“How old is this,” Andrea asked the android.
“Four hours.”
Andrea leaned in, eyeing the holo closely. The room was quiet while she stared at the image. The expression on her face was too intense to interpret.
“It’s her,” she said, waving away the android. “We’re heading to Mars, and we’re not coming back without her.”
Andrea’s expression was no longer so ambiguous. Now she just looked fierce, almost excited. As everyone stood to leave, she added, “I need all of you to understand something.” She brushed the hair out of her eyes and looked around the room. “Katerina knows how to hurt us. She’s done it once, and she will not hesitate to use that knowledge again. If you have any reason to believe she presents an active threat at any time, you are authorized to use every means available to subdue her. Let me be clear: I want any resistance she presents to be met with maximal force. As long as the tissue is viable, I don’t care if all we bring back is a brain. Understood?”