Fool's Gold: Carson Lyle's War - Part One by Thomas J. Rock

and all the evidence in the world to charge you, The Authority…agents, no less…just let you walk back on the street?
    Lyle was getting tired of the constant questions and a little honesty here might buy him some time to figure out what his next steps should be.
    He took a deep breath.
    "I don't know. They wanted me to get on the inside, here, and help them figure out what you're up to. I told them to 'cram it up their ass'." His stomach twisted into nervous knots wondering if telling the Colonel about that was a good idea. Best case scenario; The Colonel makes him take a long walk out a short airlock.
    "These agents," the Colonel said, "They played a good cop – bad cop routine with you? Did they call themselves One and Two?"
    Lyle's eyes went wide with genuine surprise. How does he know that?
    "It was, wasn't it? You don't have to worry. If that other short dipshit hauler would have been the one to bring the cargo, he wouldn't have made it through the gate."
    "You...you knew?"
    "Yeah," Kagan said. "It's...uh...all in the preparation." He chuckled.
    Lyle was shocked. It's not often anyone stays ahead of Authority Intel. "So what now?"
    The Colonel stood up and pushed the chair aside. "Well, like I said, you don't have anything to worry about. I may not know who you really are, but I know Carson Lyle doesn't have any loyalty to The Authority. I doubt I can trust you, but I know you're not going to spy for those two freaks. But there is still the matter of the gate."
    Lyle gave him a questioning look.
    "The treaty limits the trade that goes on between us, out here, and the inner territories, for essentials and such."
    "Now," Kagan said, "There won't be any for a month. There is the hub gate, but this time of year, our trade partners are too far out of position in the planetary orbits for it to be practical. We'll have to rely on the handful of ships that can jump the tramlines without a gate. That's going to put a pinch on the food supply out here, territory-wide."
    Lyle took another deep breath. "I'm sorry about that, but it was out of my hands. I-"
    The Colonel held up a dismissive hand. "I know, I know." He started to pace in front of Lyle slowly. "It's a cold, hard life here in the asteroids. The civilian population, here, doesn't live high on the hog like the inner worlds. That was kind of the problem in the first place, as you might recall. The philosophy, here, is everything is one for one. You need repairs to your ship, we need repairs to the gate."
    Lyle laughed and said sarcastically, "I don't know how to fix a jump gate."
    "Agreed. But you will have to earn your keep while you're here, and whatever you do, it'll have to be something more than just useful."
    Lyle shrugged. "I'm pretty good with a torch. Did a lot of the work on the mods to my ship myself."
    The Colonel shook his head. "Look, we know you were military. We know this."
    "But—"
    "I just about don't care who you used to be, but I need manpower—"
    "Whoa! Hold on there," Lyle said, protesting with his hands. "I'm not here to join your war or whatever it is you're going to do!"
    "Shut it, son! You owe us some service time for getting you out of there! I'm not saying you're going to fight a war for us, but from what my guys, here, tell me, you seem exceptionally well trained; zero-G combat, piloting skills, etcetera. That's what's useful to me right now. What was your job for the Authority Military Corps?"
    Lyle sat, thinking about what to do next. They had him in a corner. Would he be helping them get ready to invade the inner territory? Like it or not, it was his home. With everything else that happened in the last war, he couldn't live with himself if it happened again. He just couldn't. On the other hand, working with them would give him time to find the man that attacked Wagner. It's a chance at the closure he needed for almost a decade.
    "Now," the Colonel said, "What was your job?"
    Lyle took a deep breath. This is for you, Sarah. "Mech