Kamak punched the contact information into the center console of the ship and clenched his fists as he waited for an answer. As soon as he heard the trademark chime of his call being answered, Kamak slammed a fist into the speaker near the console.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific, Kamak,” the voice on the line said. It was a new voice this time: whether that meant it was a new person talking or just a new synthesizer setting remained to be seen.
“I mean this shit with Bevo,” Kamak said.
“Why the fuck would you arrest her?” Corey demanded. “Do you really think she’s the Butcher?”
“We’re not entirely convinced,” the New Voice said. “But apparently you have your reasons to be suspicious.”
The voice played back audio files from a conversation in the hangar, where Corey had referred to Bevo showing up at several crime scenes, and Tooley had even mentioned her being “on the suspect list”. Kamak let out a low groan of frustration. Of course the government conspiracy had been watching them through the security cameras.
“Please tell me you aren’t publicizing those,” Kamak said.
“Of course not. We’ve pieced together evidence of those suspicions on our own as justification,” the New Voice said.
“So how are you actually justifying it?’ Doprel demanded. “If you heard our talk, you know it’s unlikely Bevo did it. Why arrest her?”
“In your last conversation with our agents, you mentioned a strategy of provocation,” New Voice said. “Remaining on the move to force the ‘Bad Luck Butcher’ to move as well. We decided to adopt a similar strategy.”
The holo-display in the Wanderer’s central room activated, displaying headlines from across the universe, and several holographic images of Bevo in chains.
“For someone interested in making a statement, a plausible culprit in the case forces a response from the Butcher,” New Voice said. “Our preferred outcome is that the Butcher sees this as an opportunity for a clean break, allowing Bevo to take the heat for their crimes while they lay low and stay quiet.”
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“Sacrificing an innocent women for a false peace,” Farsus said.
“Our concern is stopping mass panic, not keeping one woman in or out of prison,” New Voice said. “The expected, and far more likely outcome, is that the Butcher feels compelled to act again, as a show of force, to satisfy their ego. Hopefully the circumstances will cause them to rush, be sloppy, make a mistake.”
“And push them to kill someone else,” Corey said. “Either way, you’re deliberately sacrificing someone for your own convenience.”
“We’re making a deliberate sacrifice for the greater good,” New Voice said. “The longer we take to make progress on this case, the more panic spreads and the more unstable the universe becomes.”
“And what happens when the people find out Bevo has nothing to do with this, huh?” Kamak demanded. “Does that look good?”
“Amauris is a backwater planet, and the Galactic Council hasn’t sanctioned this arrest,” New Voice said. “We’re already preparing our narrative for when the news breaks. A bunch of uneducated yokel cops jumped the gun to try and play bigshots, and the Council was wisely wary of the whole situation.”
“A narrative which conveniently overlaps with Amauris’ newly elected prime minister being anti-Council,” Farsus said. Discrediting him with a story of a foolish false arrest would only strengthen the Council’s position on the planet.
“Precisely. If the plan succeeds, it serves us, if it fails, it serves us in a different way,” New Voice said. “That’s what good preparation looks like.”
“You know, it’d be really funny to watch this blow up in your face if it wasn’t taking so many other people down with it,” Kamak said.
“I’m curious to hear what you think the flaws in our plan are,” New Voice said.
“Can I recognize them? No,” Kamak admitted. “Do I know they’re there? You bet your faceless ass I do. It’s always the people like you, the people who think they’re in control, who send things spiraling.”
Kamak had seen the pattern play out more than once, across the universe. It didn’t matter how smart any one person or group of people really were, the minute they started to think they were smarter than they actually were, they became indistinguishable from the dumbest sons of bitches in existence. Once ego got in the way, it blinded them to flaws, made them overlook critical errors and small gaps in their plans. Morrakesh was the latest and greatest example: an entire universal conspiracy, brought low because the crime lord had underestimated one group of stubborn assholes.
“You jumped the gun on this,” Kamak said. “And you better hope we don’t pay the price.”
Kamak stared at the silent console.
“Well?”
“I think they hung up on you, Kamak,” Corey said. Kamak double-checked the console and found that the connection had, in fact, been cut.
“Oh we’re really fucked now,” Kamak said. “Tooley, take us to Amauris. We need to get on top of this ASAP.”
“Already plugged it in,” Tooley said. She’d plotted a course not long after they’d gotten the news. Some trainwrecks could be seen coming a lightyear away.