by R S Penney
The small conference room on the upper floor of Racada Island had windows that looked out on a clear, blue sky. A long, oval-shaped table took up most of the floor space, but almost all of its leather chairs were tucked neatly in. There was room enough for ten people, but only three were present.
Governor Pel Arandeli sat with his elbow on the elbow on the armrest of his chair, his mouth hidden behind his fingers as his eyes crept wider and wider. A short man with a face like a hatchet, his dark hair had gone gray around his ears. “By the Fire Above,” he whispered. “This is what the Leyrians are capable of?”
Dressed in a simple gray coat with silver trim on the lapels, Slade sat across from the man with his black hair in a long ponytail. “I have tried to warn the City Council,” he said. “I've even contacted our member of parliament.”
“How have you learned o their…abilities?”
Rising gracefully, Slade pressed his lips together and nodded to the man. “My ships have come across several Leyrian vessels making incursions into our territory,” he said. “On one occasion, a team of these…Justice Keepers boarded one of my freighters, and the damage they did was extensive.”
The governor turned slowly to regard Slade with beady little eyes. “I would like to speak to the crew of that ship,” he said. “To get a first-hand account of just what these Justice Keepers can do.”
“I'm afraid that will be impossible.”
“And why is that?”
Hunching over with a hand pressed to his stomach, Slade grimaced as if he could taste something vile. “Most of the people who served on that ship are dead,” he said. “A few survived to tell the tale, but I would not traumatize them by making them relive it.”
With a loud harrumph, Renos slid his chair back from the table and stood up. He puffed out his chest as if that would somehow lend his words more credence. “You can trust Adan, sir,” Renos said. “He warned us about the danger.”
“Have you apprehended this masked man?” Arandeli inquired.
“No, sir.”
Pel Arandeli stood up with a sigh, shaking his head with obvious disappointment. “Very well, gentlemen,” he said, turning to the door. “I will take this information to the Provincial Defense Council and share it with my contacts in Fedreen. Good day.”
“If I may, sir,” Slade interjected.
The governor stopped in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder with a look that said this had better be worth it. “What is it, Mr. Tirasso?” he barked. “Do you have something more to say on this matter?”
“I think,” Slade began cautiously, “that I might just be able to provide you with a countermeasure that we can use against these so-called Justice Keepers.”
If Arandeli had been skeptical before, now he was downright suspicious. His eyes shifted back and forth as if each flick peeled off another layer of Slade's skin. “And how would a shipping mogul who isn't licensed to carry weapons get his hands on something that can counter…” The man shuddered and pointed to the screen where footage of Slade's mayhem was replaying on a loop. “That?”
“I would prefer to discuss that with the Provincial Defense Council,” Slade replied. “And if possible, with the Systems Defense Sub Committee. Perhaps you could reach out to some of your contacts in Fedreen.”
“Very well, Mr. Tirasso,” Arandeli said. “I will bring your offer to the president's attention. But if I'm going to go out on a limb for you, whatever you come up with had better be worth it.”
“Believe me, sir,” Slade promised. “It will be.”
Striding through the door to his chambers, Slade allowed himself a brief moment of satisfied laughter. His living room window looked out upon the crumbling city below. It was a wretched sight, but even that couldn't ruin his good mood.
He had done well.
The Inzari would be most pleased when he delivered his report. After all those long years of struggle on Earth, things were finally running smoothly. Everything had started to fall into place once he opened the Class-2 SlipGates. Now, it was only a matter of time before the Inzari saw their long centuries of planning come to fruition. Yes, he had done well, and-
His reflections were cut short when his pocket computer began to beep. Retrieving the small device, he opened it and watched as a six-inch-tall hologram of a hooded figure appeared before him. “You must come to Leyria,” Isara said.
Slade suppressed the urge to express his anger. Was she still foolish enough to tell him what he must do? “Why?” he inquired. “Have your failures once again become so severe that I must clean up yet another mess?”
“There has been a rather interesting development,” Isara answered. “A matter that will require your personal attention.”
Chapter 16
The guilt and anguish made it hard for Jack to think, but he soon became aware that he was staring at the high ceiling of the auditorium, a ceiling with floodlights that shone down on the stage where…where his friend's body remained. He felt dead inside. No. Not dead. Worse than dead. Damned.
He sat up.
Jack winced and pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead, groaning in pain. “I'm sorry, Summer,” he murmured in a hoarse voice. “I'm so, so sorry…I don't deserve the gift you've shared with me.”
He got up with a grunt and hunched over with his hands on his knees, shaking his head. The grief was terrible, the revulsion at what he had done – what he had tried to do – but through it all, he could sense that his symbiont loved him.
For reasons he couldn't fathom, Summer loved him.
Without thought, he lifted his forearm and tapped at his multi-tool. Moments later, Anna's face filled the screen, her eyes widening when she saw him. “Jack,” she breathed out. “What's wrong?”
He closed his eyes, tears streaming over his inflamed face. “There was an attack,” he said softly. “Ben is dead. Leo…Leo killed him while he was giving a talk at the Tareli Conference Centre.”
On his screen, Anna stared into the camera with an open mouth, then blinked and shook her head. “I'll be right there,” she mumbled. “Just stay where you are, and I'll be there in half an hour.”
Men and women in gray uniforms showed up in the open doorway, each looking in at Jack. “Excuse me, sir,” one said, stepping forward. “I am going to have to ask you to step aside as this is a-”
“I'm Agent Jack Hunter with the Justice Keepers.”
The lead cop shut his eyes and nodded once. “I see,” he replied, striding deeper into the room. “Then perhaps you can provide me with a recap of what went on here. We were responding to several calls from people who fled the conference centre.”
Jack laid it all out in plain detail, his statements terse and rigid. Not his usual style, he realized, but he was pretty damn sure that he was in shock. What else could he do but go through the motions? Leo had attacked, Ben was dead. Local police officers were not to engage Leo unless he threatened a civilian. Instead, they should call Justice Keepers. It was all pretty standard.
Jack wanted to puke. Somewhere deep down, he could feel Summer's attempts to soothe him, to remind him that she still loved him. He didn't want to be loved; he wanted to pay for his crime.
Eventually, Anna came rushing through the door, jerking to a halt when she saw him waiting near the last row of seats. “What happened?” she demanded, striding toward him. “Tell me everything.”
He went through it all again.
When he was finished, Anna stood before him with arms crossed, her eyes glued to the floor. “Bleakness take me,” she whispered. “Jack, I am so sorry. I swear we're gonna make him pay.”
Jack felt his face crumple. “Make him pay,” he said, shaking his head. “That's how it starts, but it never ends there.”
“What do you mean?”
He said nothing.
The rational part of his brain wanted to tell her that nothing good would come from seeing their friend's corpse, but Anna had that ring in her voice, the one that said that she wouldn't
be dissuaded.
She strode down the aisle that ran between seats, toward the stage where over half a dozen forensics officers scanned the environment with their multi-tools. One woman was squatting near the edge of the stage, tapping away at her screen. A pair of men stood over Ben's corpse, both frowning.
Jack really didn't want to see the body again. The image of what Leo had done was playing in his head on a constant loop; he didn't need any reminders, but he wanted to be there for Anna if she needed him. So, he followed.
Anna covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes nearly falling out of her head. “Companion have mercy,” she whispered. “He did that?”
Jack shut his eyes, breathing slow and steady. He nodded to her. “I saw it with my own eyes,” he mumbled. “I thought that I could talk him down, but Leo just…I was too far away to stop him.”
Anna turned to him and slipped her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest. She squeezed him tight and whispered that she was here for him, but that made him feel so much worse.
He didn't deserve her sympathy.
Summer was angry at him, and he knew that last thought had sparked her ire. Up until now, she had been nothing but sympathetic. Now…He imagined his symbiont would have all sorts of nasty things to say when they spoke.
“It's going to be okay, Jack,” Anna whispered. “It's going to be okay.”
He hated himself.
When the forensics team was finally done questioning him, Jack found a quiet spot in the Conference Centre's lounge, a small table where he could relax and let his thoughts flow freely. That proved to be exceedingly difficult today, but he tried nonetheless. After a few minutes, he found himself drifting away from his body, floating through the endless darkness on the edge of consciousness.
He was pulled downward.
Jack landed on a cobblestone path that ran through a garden, dressed in blue jeans and a simple t-shirt. The sun on his skin was warm, the scent of the flowers sweet. It was a very pleasant setting for a lecture.
He turned around.
Looking gorgeous in a sundress and cardigan, her golden hair falling in waves to the small of her back, Summer stood between two flowerbeds with a solemn expression on her face. “My poor Jack,” she said.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut, turning his face away from her. “I don't deserve your kindness, Summer,” he whispered. “Not after what I did.”
Standing with her hands folded behind herself, Summer came toward him with her head down. “You made a grievous mistake, it's true,” she said. “But it is for precisely this reason that Nassai and humans are partners.”
“I don't understand.”
She looked up at him with his mother's eyes, deep brown eyes full of sympathy and compassion. “We are meant to be a check on your power,” she said. “Symbiont and host working in concert. This is why what Slade has done is an abomination.”
“The corrupted symbionts.”
“Yes.”
Jack crossed his arms and turned around, starting up the path that ran between the rosebushes. “I don't deserve the power you've given me,” he said. “Today, I have proven that I can't use it wisely.”
Summer fell in step beside him, her face serene as she considered his words. “No humans can use it wisely,” she said. “Not all of the time. And the same is true for Nassai. That it takes two minds to Bend is a blessing of the Great All.”
“Nassai religion?”
“There is much about us that you do not understand.”
Well, that much was true. Quite an understatement, really. Nassai seemed to dole out information only when they deemed it necessary. “I failed, Summer,” he said. “You chose me because you believed I would use the power to help people, not to fulfill my own selfish desires. But today-”
She moved gracefully, planting herself in front of him, craning her neck to meet his gaze. “Tell me, Jack Hunter,” she said, her eyebrows rising. “Do you really believe that I don't know you to your very soul?”
“Of course not-”
“Do you really believe that I didn't know, in the moment of my choosing, that you were capable of this? I understand humanity, Jack. Better than you, I suspect. I carry the memories of hundreds of your kind. I know that every last human is capable of depravity, but also of incredible nobility.”
She laid a hand against his cheek, and Jack closed his eyes, leaning into her touch. “I chose you because you choose nobility,” she said softly. “Leo thinks that with enough pain, every human being will become just as depraved as he is.”
Her mouth twisted, and she grimaced, shaking her head in disgust. “Pain brings out the worst in people,” she added. “It brought out the worst in you, but one single mistake need not define the rest of your life.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Jack, ordinarily you would take weeks to come to terms with what happened; you would drown yourself in guilt, torment yourself until you believed that you had suffered enough to balance out your crime. But we do not have time for that now. I know that you mistrust yourself, that you will hesitate the next time you are required to call upon your power, and such hesitation will kill you.”
She stood on her toes and kissed him softly on the cheek, then pulled away and blinked at him. “You must find a way to make peace with your sin,” she said. “Because Leo will strike again. Soon.”
When he opened his eyes, the lounge was empty, round, linen-clad tables all bare except for centrepieces where colourful flowers grew. The Conference Centre was all but desolate, but Anna was waiting for him.
She stood with her hands in her back pockets, frowning down at the floor. “Hey,” she said, striding toward him. “The forensics teams are finishing up; we should have the results by tomorrow. Are you all right?”
Jack offered a small smile, then bowed his head to her. “I'll be all right,” he said. “But there's something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
He gestured to the chair across from him.
Anna sat down with her hands folded on the table, a grimace twisting her features. “Why do I get the impression,” she began, “that as bad as today was, it's about to get a whole lot worse?”
Jack made no effort to stop the lone tear that slid over his cheek. “I did something terrible,” he whispered. “Something that no Justice Keeper should ever do, and I need to come clean.”
“What happened?”
He told her everything, every last detail that he had held back from the cops: his fury upon witnessing Ben's death, Leo's cruel laughter, their fight and his decision to use Summer's power to kill his opponent in the most gruesome way imaginable. As the last words tumbled out of his mouth, he braced himself.
He had only just gotten Anna back, but now he knew that he would lose her again. After what he had done, he deserved it. They couldn't take Summer away from him – not without killing him – but Larani could take away his badge. And she would be within her rights to do it.
Anna's lip quivered, and then she looked down into her own lap, a ragged breath escaping her. “Oh, Jack,” she whispered. “I'm so sorry. But Summer stopped you! I can only imagine the guilt you must feel, but-”
“Should it matter that Summer stopped me?”
“Of course it matters!”
Sliding her chair back across the carpet, Anna stood up and shook her head. “This is why we have Nassai,” she went on. “To be a check on the abuse of our power. Do you think you're the first Keeper to ever go too far?”
Jack sat back with his arms folded, turning his face up to the ceiling. “I suppose I never thought about it,” he answered. “But is Leo any less immoral because I've stopped most of his attempts at killing people?”
“You are not like Leo!”
“No, I'm worse.”
Strangely, Anna didn't respond to that; she merely tapped a few commands into her multi-tool and summoned the hologram of a waiter. A transparent man with pale skin and red hair appeared before
her. “Can I help you, ma'am?”
“Just a glass of water please.”
Less than a minute later, a robot with a drink-tray attached came rolling out of the kitchen with a single glass of crystal-clear water. When it approached their table, an arm extended from its cylindrical body and picked up the glass with a metal claw, setting it down in front of Anna.
She picked it up and threw it in his face.
Jack flinched as the water hit him, spitting some of it out of his mouth. He blinked a few times. “Your point is taken,” he said. “Look, I didn't mean to imply that I go around killing people, but I-”
“Don't you dare compare yourself to Leo!” Anna fumed. “I get that self-flagellation is your new fun hobby, but you are not Leo.”
Jack leaned forward, setting his elbow on the table and burying his nose in the palm of one hand. “You can defend me if you like, Anna,” he muttered. “But right now, I'm the last person who should be wielding the power of a Justice Keeper.”
“You've done well.”
Down on one knee in the middle of the sitting room, Leo kept his head bowed. “I thank you,” he said with as much deference as he could manage. “But he's not dead yet. I left him to suffer.”
He didn't need eyes to perceive Valeth sitting in the big, comfortable chair with her hands on the armrests, watching him with a calm expression. “You've introduced a new variable into the equation.”
“Indeed, he has!”
Leo glanced over his shoulder to see a woman in a red dress striding through the narrow hallway that led to this sitting room, a woman who kept her face hidden under a red hood. “Most impressive,” she said. “Perhaps I was wrong to oppose removing you from that cell.”
Isara.
Malice leeched into mind, a smoldering fury matched by the anger he felt from his symbiont. Leo hated this woman. No one humiliated him, and one day, he would pay her back for their last encounter. He still remembered the fear as she threw him around the kitchen of that house he had been using as a base of operations. No one made him feel fear. No one.