Chapter 31

My mind was brimming with possible avenues of interrogation by the time Thallin and I reached my office. I unlocked the door and held it open for him, but, as he walked past me, he looked like a man going to his own execution. I pondered this as I closed the door and decided to cheer him up a bit. <Not too much. He may be a friend, but you still don't want to lose your advantage.> 

As he sat down, I went over to the side-board where I kept most of my coffee supplies, pulled out two mugs and set my coffee machine in motion. Ground coffee. <This should cheer him up some. Might be worth more to him if he knew how hard I worked to get this stuff.> "How do you want it?" I asked, with a glance over my shoulder at him. 

He snapped out of his reverie. "Sorry?" 

"Your coffee - how do you want it?" 

"NATO-standard, thanks." 

Turning back to the coffee pot, I dug through my memory for the meaning of 'NATO-standard'. <Oh yea, cream and 2 sugars.> As I reached for the sugar box, I noted I had left my micro recorder right here. It would be so easy to hit record and Thallin would never notice. A hard copy was more useful when it came down to... I stopped myself. <This is Thallin here.> I finished with the coffee and turned to face Thallin. 

"Thanks," offered Thallin as I gave him one of the mugs. I shrugged a bit, still debating the recording, and sat on the edge of my desk. It looked like his mood had lightened some when he'd smelled the coffee. 

I looked him over again, taking a sip from my own coffee, "First order of business: What's in the bag?" 

"Okay," Thallin replied, "I give; What is in the bag." 

<Cheered him up a bit too much.> I glared at Thallin, <Time to start working him back down.> "I'm pretty damned sure you know what's in the bag. Give it up, Lieutenant. You're in enough shit as it is." 

That got him. "No need to get uptight. They're computer parts, that's all." 

Or maybe not. <He's holding back.> "'Computer parts...' I've managed that much by myself already, Thallin. But what are they -for-?" 

"Research and Development project I'm working on." 

<He's doling out tidbits.> If I didn't get somewhere with this soon, I'd have to come back to it again after distracting him a bit. "R&D? For the VX?" 

Thallin's expression shifted, almost imperceptably, "Precisely. While the VX uses mainly off-the-shelf Robotechnology, some of the parts we use for the control systems are pretty specific - some even custom made. I ran out of parts." 

I pondered his answer for a moment and decided to leave the subject for a bit.. <I'll get him off his guard and come back to it.> "So why did you stash them in my locker?" 

"Well, what with the attack and the business with Tamara, I needed somewhere safe until things settled - your locker was the closest." <..business with Tamara... Her death?> I took another sip of coffee to give myself a moment. <No, I'll have to come back to that, too.> 

"And how did you stash the bag in my locker?" I pushed further, and he reacted slightly. "That's not something you're supposed to be able to do casually." 

"Would you believe my keycard works on your locker?" I glared at him, <If you have that kind of clearance, Thallin, I'm going to be very upset with Dr. Lang.> "No, I see you don't." <Oh. Phew.> He took a deep breath. "I had a copy of your keycard in my possession." 

That wasn't exactly what I expected. "A copy?" I blinked. "Of my keycard? Where did you get a copy of my keycard?" 

Thallin looked at his cup and did not answer. 

<He's not acting like he's supposed to have access to that kind of thing, so I guess it's not a matter of clearance... I have an idea!> "Well then," I purred, reaching meaningfully towards my phone, "Since you won't answer, I guess I'll have to ask Dr. Lang about all of this." 

Thallin jumped out of his seat, confirming my suspiscions and spilling coffee all over himself. "No! Don't!" I couldn't keep myself from grinning at him, and I could see his heart sinking as he caught on to my bluff. 

Now I had him. "So Lang doesn't know about this either, huh?" I sat back up and took a sip from my coffee, eyeing his now heavily stained and soaked uniform. "So, once again, where did you get the copy?" 

Thallin noticed his uniform too and winced. Then, in a slow voice, as he settled back into his seat, he explained, "The tables at the Pegasus contain readers. A duplicator in the main office spat out a copy of your card." I fed him a disbelieving look and he responded, "Honest!" 

I decided to test this answer further, "Kinda funny to have that kind of equipment in your club. I can hardly imagine what could be done with a personal key for just about every pilot on this ship." That wasn't entirely the truth, I had a fairly good idea of the havoc that was possible. Thallin just shrugged. "Where'd the duplicator come from?" 

"Not a clue," he answered. 

<Yeah, right.> "Really? Then it just appeared out of thin air? Who built your club?" 

Thallin was getting worked up now, "Hey, I'm not lying to you. I originally rented the place through Sergeant Sam'di before she was k- before she died." 

<Before she was what, Thallin? She was killed?> Thallin paused, but rambled on before I could press the issue. "She asked what I needed, I told her I wanted to start a club, and she told me to leave everything to her." 

<You're still hiding something,> I thought as I pressed further and harder, using this new lead he had given me to its best advantage. "Uh-huh. Kinda convenient, isn't it? The person who provided you with the club and at least one illegal device suddenly dying?" I was tempted to add, "She said to leave every thing to her, right Thallin? But who did she leave everything to?" But I saw him collapse into himself and I knew I had gone too far already. 

Giving him a break, I changed to a lighter subject. I took a breath and swallow from my coffee cup and asked him, "Why the hell did you go out on Mars in an unarmed trainer?" 

"Still slouching in his seat, Thallin answered, "I am not cleared for an armed trainer-" 

"Very funny." I was ready to dig into him again. 

"-and I needed a passenger seat," he finished. 

I took the last gulp from my cup to conceal my face and decided to really take it easy on him for a while. As I got a refill, I kept the questions coming, but in an easier tone, "So what were you out there for? What kind of things were you bringing back that you needed a passenger seat for space? I mean, you've got plenty of space in the cargo holds, especially on a trainer. And it certainly doesn't look like you'd need a passenger seat for the stuff that's in this bag." After filling my cup, I turned back to face him and smiled him another question, "What I'm getting at is: Why didn't you just let S&R get the stuff themselves?" 

From his stuttering reply, I could tell I had struck gold on that one. "Er... Well, you see... I... I'm in deep trouble already with Dr. Lang over the amount of damage the VX-001 sustained in its first sortie over Macross Island. And if he found out I'd allowed it to go on other sorties without his permission, well..." Thallin let the sentence hang, hoping my imagination would fill in the rest. It did, but my curiosity wasn't going to give it a rest. 

"Why couldn't you just make a special request? I've seen that you pretty much get what you want around here," I said, memories of the supply requests, transfer processes, Izabelle, the Black Pegasus, and Tamara Sam'Di's behavior when she'd turned the keys over to Thallin. With the memory of Tamara fresh on my mind, I continued, "so far as equipment is concerned. 

Thallin paused for the briefest of moments before explaining, "If I ordered the parts via normal channels, Lang would know the VX had suffered further damage. But if I coud get the parts from Mars Base before the normal S&R crews got there, then everybody would be none the wiser." 

I noted there was still something missing from his story. His attachment to these components and his reaction to my bluff with Lang were too strong to be dismissed. There was more at stake here than he was letting on, and I was getting towards a bitter mood, so I walked from the side-board around behind Thallin and towards my desk, "So in other words, there is no reason - apart from you keeping your job - for me not to throw this in the disposal chute?" With the bag within reach, I snatched it up and stepped over to the oubliette against the wall. 

Thallin reacted as strongly as I'd guessed. He leapt out of his chair screaming "NO!" as he rushed towards me. 

"STOP!" I yelled, holding out both hands, one between myself and he and the other directly over the mouth of the disposal chute, holding the bag. Thallin stumbled to a halt, behaving exactly as I had planned. I wasn't done with playing nice, and my voice was chilled and dry as I spoke, "Enough lies, Thallin. I want the truth, and I want it now." 

Thallin winced and deflated visibly before me. "Izabelle is an AI, banned by the Tifarro Treaty. Lang found out about her through the 

requisitions I'd done to get the parts for her neural net. I have until 1700 today to disassemble Izabelle and present the parts to Lang.. I had to get these parts, don't you understand? There's no way I could fool Lang unless I had the right components to show him." Thallin was sobbing by now, sinking to his knees as he continued, "Please... If I don't have these parts, Izabelle will be killed." 

I stood there, dumb, as he sobbed quietly before me, looking at the ground before my feet. This was nothing anywhere near what I had expected. The story about getting parts for the VX was more believable, but I was sure Thallin was telling the truth now. It dawned on me that I had, actually, despite my best intentions, fully broken this poor man before me. On top of that, I had endangered Izabelle's life. "Oooohboy." 

I knelt down on one knee before Thallin and pushed his chin up with the hand I held the bag in. "You're telling me the truth?" He nodded, his eyes a painful red, and I gave him an apologetic smile. "Alright, Thallin. It's yours." 

He took the bag from me with one hand as I stood up. When I kept my hand held out to help him up, he stared at it for a moment before taking and getting to his feet. "You don't know how much this means to me, Kay," he sniffed. 

"Oh, I think I do," I smiled at him and walked to the other side of my desk. My mind was still reeling a bit from the shock, but I was getting my grips back fairly quickly. "How much time will it take you to prepare the parts so it'll be convincing enough to Dr. Lang?" 

Thallin thought for a moment as he wiped his eyes with his coffee-stained sleeves and turned slightly for the door. "Oh, about 5 hours, I'd think." 

"Five hours?" I checked my watch: 1124 hours. Questions started pouring back into my head. Things I wanted to know, things Thallin had mentioned but hadn't clarified. "You don't have much time, then." 

He checked his own watch and nodded, "You're right. I'd better get moving." 

He was reaching for the door when I spoke up, my voice serious, "Thallin? You need the other bag, don't you?" 

He froze, his fingers just touching the catch, then turned. His face held a look of dread. 

I locked eyes with him and steeled my voice, "You need your components and I have more questions. I have your bag and you have my answers. You don't have much time and I know how much this means to you." 

Thallin and I looked at each other. He swallowed. 

I reached down, slid open the base drawer to my desk and pulled out Thallin's other sack, setting it on the desk. 

"You owe me big time. Get going." 

Forward to Chapter 32. 
Back to Chapter 30. 

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