Asterion Noir: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 4)

by G. S. Jennsen

  Her contentment.

  30

  * * *

  MIRAI

  PERRIN RUBBED GROGGILY at tear-stained cheeks. It seemed impossible she’d actually fallen asleep, but the feel of her face smooshed into the pillow argued otherwise. Her subconscious processes continued to act in ways they thought best for her physical well-being.

  She reached for the glass of water beside the bed before responding to the ping that had woken her.

  What have you got, Ryan?

  The vaccine? It’s the real deal.

  Relief competed with confusion in her still-drowsy mind. Thank gods they had a vaccine! But if the meeting hadn’t been a farce and Justice was sincere in their olive branch, who had taken Joaquim?

  Spencer had said they were defying the Guides by confiscating the augments and pursuing a vaccine, so maybe the answer was another group within the government, or within Justice.

  If different factions of the government were actively warring against one another, it was surely the beginning of the end. The only question was, the end of what? A repressive and increasingly authoritarian governmental system, or the Dominion itself?

  But she couldn’t worry about those questions; they were so much bigger than her. Beyond her grasp or understanding. She had to concentrate on the vaccine. On saving Joaquim. On saving innocent lives from the virutox. On making it to tomorrow.

  With a weary sigh, she climbed out of bed and trudged to the lavatory to make herself presentable.

  “And everyone agrees with Ryan’s assessment?”

  A series of nodding heads greeted her, and no hesitation or doubt showed on their faces. None of the faces belonged to Parc or Cair…or Nika. But they’d all worked twice as hard on account of it, and she trusted Ryan’s judgment.

  “Incredible work, everyone. I mean it. Now, I want every person in NOIR inoculated right away. Next, we need to get copies out to our allies as well. We’re going to save a lot of lives, but we have to do the work to make it happen.”

  Ava scowled, which wasn’t unusual. “Great, but how? See, we kind of told everyone not to trust any routines. Are we seriously going to turn around now and say to trust this routine?”

  “It’s a little dicey, but essentially, yes. The whole point is, people know we have their backs. We warned them when there was a danger, and now we’ll show them how to protect themselves from it.” She drew her shoulders up and consciously lifted her chin. “Get everyone gathered together here on The Floor. We’ll put together an action plan and split up into teams. Then we’ll execute on the plan.”

  Spencer, I need to meet with Advisor Weiss, but there’s a problem. His movements are being tracked—or yours are, or both of you.

  Why do you think we’re being tracked?

  Perrin stumbled over the silent words.

  Last night after our meeting, Joaquim was abducted.

  What?

  Exactly what I said. Now, we’ve confirmed the vaccine is legitimate, so I’m going to go out on a limb and trust Advisor Weiss for now and assume he wasn’t behind the abduction. But this means we’re all still in danger.

  Shit, that’s terrible. Of course it wasn’t us.

  Spencer, if another group within Justice has Joaquim, you have to find him.

  I’m…not certain what we can do. The Guides have sent another Advisor in to undo all the work we’ve done, and we’re one wrong step away from detention cells ourselves. But we’ll try. For now, concentrate on getting the vaccine out there. We have to stop the virutox’s spread.

  I know that!

  I’m sorry. I realize you do. Okay, you can fill us in on the details of what happened to Joaquim when you get here. I’m sending you an ID file to use to get through security. I’ll meet you in the Justice Center lobby and take you to see Advisor Weiss.

  She hesitated. Joaquim always said she was too quick to trust people, to see too much of the best and too little of the worst in them. Now enemies were multiplying in the shadows, and she was all alone. She had to trust someone.

  If only Nika were here to tell her what to do. Nika would see the larger strategies at work. She’d be planning three steps ahead and have a solid bead on the best course of action.

  But Nika wasn’t here, and Perrin wasn’t about to change who she was.

  Tell me what time to be there.

  Spencer showed her into a surprisingly open, brightly lit office. Advisor Weiss was sitting at a cluttered desk when they entered, but he hurriedly stood and came over to them.

  “Thank you for coming, Ms.…I never got even a false name at the meeting. What should I call you?”

  She exhaled slowly and deactivated the morph she had worn to the meeting. Joaquim was going to throttle her for exposing her true identity; she only hoped he got the chance. “Perrin. Perrin Benvenit.”

  He smiled, and it looked genuine. Warm and comforting. “It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, Ms. Benvenit, though I hate that it’s under these circumstances. I feel terrible about your colleague’s abduction. I—just a second.” He half-shifted toward Spencer. “I need you to shadow Advisor Satair for as long as our guest is here. If he starts heading this way, do what you can to divert him and notify me.”

  “Yes, sir.” Spencer gave Perrin an encouraging nod and headed out the door.

  Weiss gestured toward an equally cluttered table near the windows. “Sit with me? Oh, and I apologize for the mess. Things are a bit…well, I imagine you can guess how they are.”

  She followed him somewhat warily. “Spencer said the Guides sent someone, I assume this Advisor Satair, to rein you in. Are you sure it’s safe for us to talk in here?”

  “This might be the only place in the Dominion where it is safe. This office has always been warded, but when I decided to get involved in our current crisis, I made some significant upgrades to its security. Neither Advisor Satair nor any of his stooges—or anyone else—can get in this room without my approval. They’ve tried to plant listeners three separate times, and every time the devices short-circuited, courtesy of those upgrades. Also, as soon as Spencer told me what happened to your colleague, I double-checked all the security.” He slid one of the chairs out for her. “Our conversation will not be overheard.”

  She’d have giggled at the silly display of chivalry if her heart weren’t so damn heavy. Instead she simply sat down.

  He sat opposite her, clasped his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Now, Ms. Benvenit, I want you to tell me everything that happened after you left our meeting.”

  “On one condition. You have to call me ‘Perrin.’ No one has ever called me ‘Ms. Benvenit’ more than twice.”

  He almost seemed to blush, but she assumed it was a tic of his and not evidence of any bashfulness. Advisors were not bashful.

  “If that’s your condition, I’ll acquiesce to it. Perrin.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t want to think about the events of the night before, but her wants stood at the end of a long line of musts. So she recounted everything in a calm, quiet voice, and dammit but she did not cry. Not once.

  When she finished, she folded her hands in her lap and met Advisor Weiss’ gaze, where she found concern, sorrow and empathy. It made her feel safe, and she so badly needed to feel safe.

  “You did the right thing by running. I’ve no doubt they would have taken you as well if they’d been able to catch you.”

  “Do you know who ‘they’ is?”

  “I don’t. I fear it is agents from Justice working directly for the Guides. But because their actions—from stealing Dashiel’s limb augments and planting the virutox in them, to raiding outposts, to kidnapping your colleague—are not part of any official or recognized directive, I have no visibility into who specifically is taking an active role. Several Advisors in particular are definitely involved to some extent. Gemina—” he blinked “—I’m sorry, please take no offense, but I really shouldn’t be telling you all this.”

  “Advisor Weiss—”

/>   He cringed. “Adlai.”

  She tilted her head in concession. “Adlai. We’re the only ones left. Our friends and colleagues are either off the map, infected with the virutox, imprisoned or kidnapped. The number of people we can trust is vanishingly small and shrinking rapidly. If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?”

  His lips parted, then gradually rose into an endearing half-smile. “You make quite a convincing and depressing case. So we’re partners in this fight, then? Your colleague indicated that wasn’t an option.”

  “As we’ve covered, he isn’t here at the moment. Partners.”

  “All right.” He leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other knee and visibly relaxed. “Advisor Blake Satair, who you heard me refer to earlier, is obviously involved on some level. That level appears to primarily involve making my life miserable, but it could go deeper. In fact, for your colleague to be subdued, taken and, presumably, held and interrogated at a secure location, someone high up in Justice is almost required to have orchestrated it. Part of me hopes this does mean it’s Satair, because if even more Justice Advisors are on the wrong side of the fight, our circumstances are…worse.

  “As for Advisor Gemina Kail, she is first and foremost responsible for Nika’s psyche-wipe five years ago, even if she acted at the Guides’ behest.”

  Perrin nodded tightly. “I know.”

  “So you spoke to Nika after the…unfortunate events in the Mirai Tower data vault?”

  “More like plugged a hole in her abdomen, helped a dyne carry her across the city and back home, situated her in a tank for five hours, then talked to her. But, yes.”

  Adlai buried his face in his hands. “Thank you. Thank you for rescuing her. It was my fault, what happened to her that night. I should have believed her straight off and protected her. But I didn’t want my glass house of a world to shatter. I’m glad my mistake didn’t—I’m glad the damage it caused was repairable. Literally and figuratively.” He eyed her cautiously. “Still want to be partners?”

  “Did you not know Nika was all right? I mean, at least as of a few days ago?”

  “Oh, I did. At least as of a few days ago. And knowing it took the edge off the guilt, but not much more.”

  “I won’t add to it. Yes, I still want to be partners. We’re both drowning in guilt. We’ve both made mistakes.” Joaquim’s words at the transit hub crater echoed in her mind. “Don’t we have to try to move forward? Try to do better?”

  Adlai chuckled lightly. “You are a very wise woman.”

  “I’m so, so not. Trust me.”

  “We’ll agree to disagree. Anyway, I expect Advisor Kail is involved to a greater extent than merely arranging psyche-wipes. She has the Guides’ confidence and their ears. Unfortunately, this information doesn’t help us much at present. In addition to using false names and nonexistent cutouts to obscure their crimes, either or both of Satair and Kail could be running innumerable Asterion agents, and those agents could have minimal to no knowledge of the true nature of or reason for their orders.” He shrugged. “People tend to do what Advisors say.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Not the people I know.”

  “I bet that’s true. I’m definitely learning a lesson about following orders without question. A hard one.” He glanced away, out the windows. “But I shouldn’t whine. It’s not a good look for me.”

  “Again, I say: if you can’t whine to me, who can you whine to?”

  “In addition to being wise, you are entirely too forgiving and compassionate of a woman, which is…wonderful, but I really mustn’t abuse your kindness.”

  “I hadn’t noticed. So how do we rescue Joaquim? That’s his name: Joaquim. When you see him, don’t tell him I told you.”

  “Understood. Can I ask, are you two together, or otherwise—” his cheeks flushed again “—never mind. It’s none of my business.”

  The notion of an Advisor getting flustered around her was so preposterous, she laughed. “No. He’s my best friend. I mean, in some respects Nika is, but…she’s sort of a special case. Know what I mean?”

  “I do.”

  “Joaquim and I have been through so much together. He needs me, to keep him grounded and to soften his edges. I need him, to keep me thinking with my head instead of my heart and to harden my edges.” Stars, this man wasn’t her therapist! She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. “More importantly, NOIR needs him. So how do we rescue him?”

  A new sadness darkened Adlai’s mist-gray eyes. “I’d wager this is where my grace period comes to a rather stark end. We don’t.”

  Her lips moved, but words struggled to make it past her throat. “What do—”

  “Not immediately. The fact that someone abducted him after our meeting means it’s entirely possible that the Guides already know I’m working with NOIR. If so, they’re watching every move I make, and the steps I’d have to take just to maybe find out where he’s being held would result in my rapid removal from this office and likely imprisonment. Now, I’m willing to pay that price, but if I’m locked up, I can’t do the work we have to be doing right now.

  “Distributing the virutox vaccine to everyone we can get to accept it. Blocking the transport of as many convicts as possible to Zaidam. Keeping as many innocent people as possible from being convicted and imprisoned. Stopping the flood of people falling into a trap that’s sending them gods know where to be subjected to gods fear what, and otherwise holding the line until Nika and Dashiel find answers and a way to bring an end to this madness.” He sighed. “I am so, so sorry.”

  She pushed her chair back and stood, then went to stare out the windows. The world outside looked so far away, like a mirage forever out of reach. “Every part of my psyche wants to say screw all your bullshit and demand you help me rescue him. But the thing is, Joaquim would say the same thing you just did. He’d kick me out of NOIR and to the curb if he found out I let hundreds or thousands of people be sacrificed to whatever evil is taking them so I could pull his ass out of the fire.”

  She turned back to find Adlai watching her intently. She swallowed but didn’t flinch. “Nika would be able to devise a way to do both.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. She’s gotten herself psyche-wiped, shot, fallen out of a building and been forced to become a fugitive while trying to accomplish less. You? You’re stepping up and making tough decisions in impossibly difficult circumstances. Don’t sell yourself short.”

  Her face screwed up at him. “Are you trying to use flattery to get me to accept the bad news?”

  “I’m nowhere near suave enough to pull off anything so artful as that. I’m being honest, because it’s all I know how to be. And I have to believe it can get us through to the other side.”

  An awkward silence lingered for several seconds. She had no idea how to respond to him and end it.

  Finally he cleared his throat. “I promise you, Perrin Benvenit, I will do everything I can that won’t get me instantly arrested to find out where Joaquim is, who has him and how to free him. And I promise you that one day soon, we’ll be able to do it. Because one day soon, this nightmare has to end. There is no other option for us.”

  31

  * * *

  WAYFARER

  Asterion Dominion Space

  THEY STUDIED THE PROJECTION of the Gennisi galaxy filling the cabin’s free space. Pairs of dots connected by short lines created a jagged path that ascended in fits and starts up and across the right half of the galaxy. Two single dots bounded the path—one near the Synra stellar system, the other orphaned on the outskirts of the galaxy’s upper left quadrant.

  The records of the Tabiji’s repetitive travels stacked atop one another with no deviation. A couple of squiggly lines beneath the first pair of dots accounted for trips to Zaidam, the secret space station and not much else.

  Nika fisted a hand at her chin, eyes narrowing. “The Tabiji has been traveling to the opposite corner of the galaxy and back every few months for the last eight years, and tra
veling there fast. Which means these gaps between the location markers must be d-gate traversals, right?”

  “It’s a logical conclusion, but it begs the question of who placed them and when. The first recorded trip used them, so we have to assume it wasn’t the Tabiji.”

  “Unless someone erased the records of the original journey. But why would they? No one was ever supposed to see this map.”

  “They didn’t account for you.” He flashed her a brief smile.

  “No, they did not. How long would it take to make the trip to the final location marker if there were no d-gates?”

  Dashiel ran a couple of calculations in his head. “If you went directly there, no stops along the way? With our best superluminal engine, about three weeks. But the gaps aren’t in a straight line. They veer all over this half of the galaxy, as if the original purpose of the d-gates was not to provide a shortcut to whatever resides at the endpoint.”

  Her head tilted curiously…then she laughed. “Because it wasn’t. These d-gates? You built them.”

  He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t follow.”

  “This is the route the Shorai took.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She reached out and splayed the fingers of her left hand to overlay the map. Annotations popped up beside each of the paired dots. “These are the locations of points of interest the Shorai encountered, according to the press releases.”

  He stared at her in puzzlement until she shrugged sheepishly. “After experiencing your memory and hearing how intrigued my former self was by the mission, I was intrigued as well. I did a bit of research.”

  He couldn’t help but smile, if somewhat wryly. She hid it well, or perhaps their current circumstances demanded its suppression, but the dreamer side of her personality had survived the psyche-wipe mostly intact. And he was glad for it, even if his more practical nature meant it had often been a source of friction between them over the centuries.