Agent Enquiry

Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau

16 March YC 127

I entered Sister Alitura’s office and stared at her without saying anything. Usually, I dislike giving people silent treatment, preferring to avoid such people instead, but face-to-face debriefing was unavoidable if I wanted to get my kredits.

“You arrived too late,” said Alitura starting a conversation, “CONCORD was faster to respond and they took survivors to care facilities.”

“I am very happy that CONCORD came to the rescue first but I did not sign up for a competition,” I said testily. “You asked me to ‘provide whatever assistance was required’ and so I did. It’s not my fault that the amount of required assistance was nil. I earned my mission reward and I demand it to be transferred into my account immediately.”

The agent’s face darkened, “You’ll get your money, Captain, if money is all you care for. And I’ll offer you an opportunity to earn more if you can spare you precious time on further investigation.”

I had absolutely no wish to continue my collaboration with Sister Alitura, but I was intrigued by that incident in Manarq.

Having decided that I could at least listen to what she had to say, I put on an exaggeratedly greedy smile and said, “I am all ears.”

Taking a pause to show how regrettable she found the necessity to talk to me, Sister Alitura continued, “We will pay you 240,000 ISK for making a contact with a CONCORD agent who can provide further directions to you.”

“Wow,” I drawled, looking incredulously at Alitura, “you are paying me money to get rid of me?” Then I guffawed, “Lady, you missed an opportunity of the year – I would have taken such a mission for free!”

The agent clenched her teeth, “We are paying money to incentivise you to continue the investigation and also to ensure your discretion.”

Now I felt genuinely offended. Again.

“Who do you take me for?” I asked indignantly. “None of my agents has ever had a reason to question my integrity. Confidentiality is a standard clause in any mission contract, and I honour it without demanding an extra payment.”

“This is a special case. The CONCORD agent I mentioned works under cover. You will be required to keep the agent’s identity secret. Do you accept the mission?” asked Sister Alitura pushing her datapad to me across the table.

I noticed how she avoided using a personal pronoun before ‘identity’, thus concealing even the CONCORD agent’s gender. The shit was getting serious. I considered the offer for a while. All in all, it looked like a win-win situation – Alitura and I would get rid of each other, and I’d get a nice stack of kredits just for travelling to CONCORD agent’s location. I started moving my finger to the signature field on the datapad screen when a sudden thought occurred to me and made me pull my hand back.

“Where is that agent located?” I asked suspiciously.

“It’s classified information which I cannot disclose before you accept the mission,” replied Alitura.

“What if it’s somewhere in null-sec? Then your reward will not be worth the risk.”

“If you are afraid of travelling to null-sec, I can put your mind to rest,” Alitura said scornfully. “The CONCORD agent is in hi-sec – this much I can tell you.”

“It’s not about fear, it’s about risk and reward,” grumbled I, putting my finger on the datapad sensor. “If you ask Black Frog to make just one jump in null-sec for you, you’ll have to start with a nine-digit figure, not your puny 240K.”

As soon as the sensor confirmed my identity, Alitura pulled the datapad and said coldly, “That will be all, Captain Korff. Have a good day.”

She then turned her eyes to the screen and started typing something, ignoring me. I was past empty courtesies. Silently I had entered that room, and silently I left.

---

Genesis region – Sanctum constellation
Tar System

When I boarded my ship, Aura showed me the mission brief. I had to contact CONCORD agent Tevis Jak who was located just three jumps away, in Tar. He posed as an ORE agent and lived in an Epithal anchored somewhere in the system. The cover was plausible as, I guess, even ORE had to have representatives outside Outer Ring, but why CONCORD would deploy their undercover agent in CONCORD space was beyond me.

As we arrived in Tar, the overview showed a beacon which advertised Tevis Jak’s location to the whole system.

I chuckled, “If you want to hide something, or someone, make them blatantly conspicuous.”

We warped to the beacon where we saw the agent’s Epithal and… a Cormorant floating near it. I observed the scene for a couple of minutes during which the Cormorant went away and was replaced by an Atron. Then I saw a Catalyst and another Cormorant warping in and out.

“This guy is busy,” I said, surprised, “but I can’t wait the whole day, lest my time bonus expires. Aura, will you please inform the esteemed agent of our arrival?”

“Knock-knock,” said Aura with a smile, and requested a connection.

As soon as the connection was accepted, Neocom informed me that I became 240,000 kredits richer. For a moment I considered simply collecting my fee for three hi-sec jumps and flying away, but… I was really curious. I wanted to know how, in the middle of CONCORD space, two capital ships were destroyed without anyone noticing.

Then Tevis Jak’s face appeared on the screen and said, “Good day, Mr Korff. I was waiting for you.”