The Darkness of God: Book Three of the Shadow Warrior Trilogy by Chris Bunch

Admirable, simply admirable. If he were still on the payroll, we’d have to promote and gong him a couple of times. And I won’t even consider the seven rather senior officials in FI who decided, after the debacle on Rogan’s World, to either take early retirement or transfer to less, shall we say, active sections of the government. Rather a good job of smoking the moles out, I’d say.”
    “Yes, sir,” Cisco said. “So what do you wish done about Wolfe?”
    “I’d say nothing. Let him sneak back to his Outlaw Worlds and mind his own business.”
    “We can’t do that, sir.”
    “Why not?”
    “We’ve picked up some very strange data,” Cisco said. “You’re aware of those Al’ar objects called Lumina?”
    “I am.” Fordyce’s tone became flat, disapproving. “Manna for oo-ee-oo-ee idiots and mystics.”
    “The Al’ar didn’t think so,” Cisco persisted.
    “That doesn’t mean they have any relevance to us,” Fordyce said. He waited for Cisco to withdraw the point, but the gray man just sat, lips drawn into thin lines. Fordyce sighed. “Very well. What new data about these Lumina further complicates the issue of Joshua Wolfe?”
    “We’ve been getting reports of some sort of a super Lumina the Al’ar had at the end of the war. I don’t know if it was a secret weapon that didn’t quite work out, or what, for it was never deployed as far as I can tell,” Cisco said. “Supposedly this is what the Chitet were after, and why they hijacked Wolfe when I had him comfortably zombied and on the way back here for debriefing.”
    “Of
course
this Great Lumina would give anyone who touched it superpowers,” Fordyce said cynically. “Such things always seem to have a reputation like that.”
    “That’s the story,” Cisco said reluctantly. “Supposedly this woman who bossed Rogan’s World, who was called Alicia Comer, but who was in fact a deserter from the Federation Navy named Token Aubyn, had possession of this Lumina, and used it to carve her way upward.” Cisco told Fordyce as much of Aubyn’s history as he’d been able to get from Naval and FI records.
    “Interesting,” Fordyce said, lacing his fingers on his desk. “I still view the whole matter skeptically. Now let me return your question to you: What do you want to do about Wolfe, assuming that he has possession of this ruddy great chunk of colored glass? Put out an all-Federation hue and cry? That’ll certainly attract attention, particularly with the rather strange happenings these days.”
    “No, sir. But I’d like to let word slip out at a high level that FI’s very interested in talking to him. Alive only. Anyone who can provide his services to us will be appropriately, if quietly, rewarded.”
    “That seems a viable alternative,” Fordyce said. “I assume you can do it through the usual conduits — old boys and such?”
    “I can.” Cisco started to rise. Fordyce held out a hand.
    “A few minutes ago, I referred to the current level of excitement. Have you been following events?”
    “Not really, sir. Since I got out of the hospital from the gassing, I’ve been concentrating on Wolfe.”
    “Things have been a little unusual of late. Quite some time ago, we lost one of our spyships. The
Trinquier,
which was operating under civilian cover as an exploration vessel, vanished. Then an investigative team — straightforward scientific chaps — on one of the Al’ar homeworlds disappeared, after making some very aberrant screams for help. We had to make some threats in the scholarly community to keep that silent. Finally, we sent out a task force — six ships, including the
Styrbjorn —
seven weeks ago, to investigate along the
Trinquier
’s
p
rojected mission plan. The entire task force has fallen out of communication. We’re presuming all six ships are lost, with no explanation whatever.”
    Cisco sat down heavily. “The
Styrbjorn
? I used that ship a few times. Sharp crew. Good captain. There’s no way they could