Hero Code

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Damn,” he whispered. He didn’t want those astroshamans having sole access to the gate any more than he wanted the Kingdom military to control it. “That’s where I left it. I’m trying to think of how it might have moved. The crew was all dead, and I reprogrammed the robots and computer systems I left there. I kept the android Tork-57 offline, since he had a lot of autonomy and might have tried again to take the ship home.” Casmir looked at the king and the officer. “Has the gate out of our system been activated? If not, you may want to reinstate a physical blockade and checkpoint to make sure the cargo ship can’t sneak out. If it’s not too late.”

  Casmir grimaced. If the cargo ship escaped the system with the ancient gate after all he’d done to keep that from happening, it would be his fault. He could have let the military have it and ensured it would at least remain in System Lion. But now, possible enemies of the Kingdom might have it. His vision of a joint research project that all of the systems could benefit from shattered.

  He pushed a hand through his hair. Why had he ever believed he had the right to try to make that happen? Or the power?

  “Go,” Jager told the male officer. “Send a message to the warships at the gate.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  Jager and the superintendent clasped their hands behind their backs and studied Casmir. He wished he could disappear under one of the flagstones. He’d thought he was being clever, and all he’d done was hand the gate over to possible enemies of the Kingdom. If Jager had him shot for treason, would it even be unjust?

  “Do you believe him?” Jager asked Van Dijk. “I know Kyburz was prepared to physically torture him because he thought he knew how to resist the drug.”

  Van Dijk hesitated. “It’s hard to say, Sire. He could be a good actor, or he could be a poor one. He has that eye tic, but I’m not sure it’s a stress response.”

  “Perhaps not. His genes were flawed from the beginning.”

  And with that comment, Casmir realized the king was among the people who knew where he’d come from. He also likely knew who he’d been cloned from. Casmir still struggled to come to terms with the idea that he was a copy of someone who’d lived and died long ago, but for the moment, he remained still, hoping they would give him more information.

  “I’d be inclined to give him more credit rather than less, given those genes.” Van Dijk glanced at the silent and unmoving guards. Perhaps because of them, she didn’t comment further.

  “Yes, me too.”

  “And whose genes are those exactly?” Casmir offered an affable smile, even if his heart wasn’t in it. He felt like kicking himself, not smiling.

  Neither of them looked at him.

  “So you suggest torture?” Jager asked, not sounding like it would bother him one way or another.

  Casmir stuck his hands in his pockets, wondering if that had been inevitable. Would he crumble at the first hint of pain? Probably. He was no knight with a constitution of steel.

  “I know Kyburz was in favor of it, but if Dabrowski eluded the drug, he may be able to withstand torture too.” Van Dijk cleared her throat diffidently and gave Casmir an almost apologetic look. “He has friends and family that he’s close to.”

  “Mm,” Jager said noncommittally.

  Casmir’s blood turned to ice in his veins. He imagined Kim or his parents being hurt because these people thought he was holding back information that he wasn’t. A thousand protests threatened to erupt from his mouth, but he made himself close his eyes and take a steadying breath. As he’d long ago learned to be calm and rational with doctors, so he would have to be calm and rational here. He didn’t know these people well, but he doubted an emotional tirade would sway either of them.

  “It sounds like I made a big mistake,” Casmir said, “in failing to anticipate some action that either the cargo ship, the AIs aboard it, or even some astroshaman ally in the system could have taken. There’s no need to threaten my family—or me. I ask that you give me an opportunity to fix it. I’ll find the ship and the gate, no matter where it might be.” His heart wilted at the idea of leaving Odin again, without even getting the opportunity to see his parents. By now, he even missed Simon and Asahi from work. “I have no objections to Asger or others being sent along to guard me. I’d welcome the assistance.”

  “Asger was sent to guard you before,” Van Dijk said, “and he let you out of the brig and personally escorted you away from the Fleet in a private knight’s shuttle.”

  “Technically, I was never in the brig,” Casmir said. “And my understanding was that Asger was sent to protect me, not imprison me.”

  Van Dijk raised her eyebrows toward Jager.

  Jager hitched a shoulder. “My wife sent him. She’s always had more invested in this one—” he flicked two fingers toward Casmir, “—than I.”

  This one. Casmir made himself stand tall, but he felt how he imagined Qin often felt. Not a true human. A clone. Something cooked up in a scientist’s laboratory.

  “Perhaps we should wait to consult her, Sire,” Van Dijk said. “Isn’t she due back tomorrow?”

  Yes, if they could hold off on the torturing and threatening of friends and family until he had his meeting with the queen, Casmir would deeply appreciate that.

  “I fear she may be biased and that it’s best to make this decision rationally and without emotion,” Jager said.

  And so he called his wife emotional and irrational… From what Casmir had heard of the queen, he didn’t think that applied. But he admitted how little he knew about the royal family, and that all of his perceptions were colored by the media’s extensive filters. After all, he’d believed Oku to be pretty but useless with nothing better to do than spend the Kingdom’s money. He didn’t know what she was exactly, not yet, but he didn’t believe she was useless.

  “It’s possible, Sire,” Van Dijk said neutrally.

  “Please give me a chance.” Casmir spread his hands. “What do you have to lose? If you send people along with me, I can’t flee the system. Nor am I foolish enough to believe there’s anywhere to flee that would be safe from your wrath. The only two reasons I hesitated to turn over the gate were because it’s currently deadly to anyone who goes near it and doesn’t receive a very specialized treatment in time and because…” Casmir let himself meet Jager’s eyes for the first time—they were cool and green and seemed older than his face, a face that looked no more than forty or forty-five when Casmir knew the man was in his sixties. “Because I’d heard that the crushers I helped design for the defense of Odin were being used to attack a station in another system.”

  Jager’s brows rose slightly. Mild surprise, not great surprise, Casmir judged. He’d heard about the attack if not ordered it himself. What seemed to surprise him was either that Casmir knew about it or that he cared.

  “When I signed on to that project,” Casmir said, “I was explicitly told my robots would be for defending the Kingdom, for defending Odin, the only truly Earth-like planet in the Twelve Systems, and one that, they say, is coveted by all who don’t live here. I believed there was a need for that defense. I didn’t know there were plans to try to expand again. It was because of those plans that I was hesitant to hand such a powerful technology over to the military. I’d made that mistake once, and I was afraid of what would happen if I made it again.”

  He half-expected them to point out that the gate was merely a means of transportation, not something for killing people, not like the crushers.

  But Van Dijk snorted. “So you decided to make a different mistake instead?”

  “Apparently so. I’ve been accused of being naive.”

  “That I believe.” She glanced at Jager.

  He was watching without comment. Observing Casmir while his Intelligence officer handled the questioning?

  “As I said, I’m willing to risk my life to fix that mistake,” Casmir said.

  “And bring the gate back here?” Jager pointed to the stone at his feet.

  This time, Va
n Dijk’s eyebrows twitched in surprise. “Your Majesty, are you considering it? He would say anything to get out of here. And if he was out in space again, a little fast talking, and he could—”

  Jager lifted his hand, and she stopped speaking.

  Casmir held his breath, wanting out of his prison, but wondering if he was offering to get in bed with the devil. He’d refused an offer of employment with Rache. Would it be equally unwise to place himself in the king’s employment? To give his word to work for him?

  But what other choice did he have? If he couldn’t prove himself a trustworthy Kingdom subject, he would either be killed or exiled. And once again, those he cared for seemed to be in danger because of him. He feared he’d simply have to hope for the best, hope the king wasn’t a monster, hope that there had been some provocation behind the crusher attack on Stribog Station, that it wasn’t simply the beginning of an attempt to make history repeat itself by extending the Kingdom’s rule over the entire Twelve Systems.

  “You are correct,” Jager said. “It would be too easy for him to flee if he were out in space. And we haven’t yet determined whether the cargo ship escaped the system. I believe I would like Professor Dabrowski to prove himself before I consider giving him such autonomy.”

  Jager’s gaze landed on Casmir again.

  Casmir struggled not to squirm. Prove himself? In the drama vids, that was usually when people were asked to kill a loved one to prove their undying loyalty to the crown. But those were historical dramas. Nobody truly expected such things anymore, did they?

  His eye blinked.

  “We’ve been having trouble with the Black Stars terrorist organization,” Jager said. “You’ve heard of them?”

  Van Dijk’s eyebrows twitched again, as if she had no idea where the king was going with this.

  “I’ve heard of them,” Casmir said.

  “They’ve been behind bombings around the planet, and they just bombed a synagogue in the city.”

  “A synagogue?” Casmir whispered, thinking of his chavrusa buddies and family friends he’d known all his life.

  “My city.” Jager growled, not hearing him. “These terrorists often send robots and drones. Sometimes, they send humans who don’t care if they throw their lives away—they simply poison themselves if they’re captured, before they can be questioned and we can find out where their bases or cells are located.”

  Casmir nodded, shifting his thoughts to the man in the cargo hold who’d killed himself, though he vowed to find out more about this synagogue bombing as soon as possible. “I’ve seen this, yes. I assume you know they also want me dead for some reason.”

  Surprise flickered in Jager’s eyes, and he looked at Van Dijk, who was already nodding.

  “We believe they’re who sent the crushers after Dabrowski at Zamek University,” she said.

  “Oh? Then he should have even more reason to pursue the mission I’m giving him. Perhaps too much to prove his loyalty to the crown…” Jager lowered his voice, as if speaking to himself. “No, this is better. Small steps.” He lifted his gaze and spoke to Casmir again. “These terrorists are like tacks littering the floor when you’re barefoot. We cannot have this unrest going on at home when there are other concerns requiring our attention in the rest of the systems. I will not deny that I have ambitions and have sought alliances with other habitats and worlds that seem amenable to returning to Kingdom rule, given the correct stipulations, but I am not a tyrant who seeks to displace governments and force people to live under my rule. We, Professor Dabrowski, are being used as scapegoats.”

  Since the king was gazing into his eyes, Casmir allowed himself to gaze back, to try to determine if he was telling the truth. Jager had sounded most honest when he’d admitted to having ambitions. Casmir was less sure about the rest. Maybe it was the truth. Maybe it was a truth that Jager had talked himself into believing. Casmir had always thought himself decent at reading people, but it wasn’t as if Jager had some facial tic that hinted at lies.

  His own eye blinked. He snorted inwardly.

  “I am tasking you with finding the location of these terrorists, at least where their leaders are hiding out,” Jager said. “To strike as frequently as they do, they must either be on our world or somewhere nearby. As I said, they often send robots to attack, so perhaps you will have some insight that my regular analysts lack.” His lips thinned, and he looked at Van Dijk.

  It wasn’t blatant censure, but her cheeks turned pink, and she clenched her jaw. Even if Jager hadn’t blamed her explicitly for being unable to find the terrorists, she must feel it her responsibility and that she was failing. Would she resent that someone else was being asked to help?

  “That is possible, Your Majesty,” Casmir said, warming to the notion of helping the Kingdom find these people.

  This would be far less morally ambiguous than recovering the gate for Jager. If he succeeded, it might lead to that task, but for now, it was a chance to do all he’d wanted since this mess got started. To find the people who were targeting him with his own crushers and convince them to stop. Admittedly, he’d envisioned doing that through words, a long chat with the leader, but if they were truly killing innocent civilians, he wasn’t against marking the base so the military could come in and do what it must.

  That was all he’d ever wanted to do, to use his talents to protect people and make sure Odin remained the safe and beautiful place it was.

  “I would be highly motivated to find and stop these terrorists,” Casmir added with heartfelt sincerity.

  “Good,” Jager said.

  Van Dijk frowned. “Are we just going to let him go, Your Majesty? He’s not going to work in my office, is he? Have command of some of my people?” She grimaced. “It wouldn’t be fair to force them to endure the flippancy of some untrained outsider.”

  As Casmir debated whether he should take offense at her dismissal of his abilities to lead Intelligence officers, Jager lifted a placating hand toward her.

  “Have no fear, Chief Superintendent. I intend nothing of the sort.” Jager’s green gaze locked onto Casmir. “If he’s half the man his genes suggest he should be, he will be able to do this on his own.”

  Casmir stared at him. He was supposed to do what Van Dijk, all of her Intelligence officers, and however many knights were stationed here on Odin hadn’t been able to do?

  “Er,” Van Dijk said, “we believe there are hundreds of terrorists, a huge secret base somewhere, dozens of cells they operate out of, and money and resources flowing in from powerful off-world connections.”

  “Yes, I’ve read your reports.” Jager smiled at Casmir. It wasn’t a cruel smile, but it wasn’t a warm one either. Wry? Ironic? It was hard to tell. “My wife thinks I made a mistake with you. This is your chance to prove yourself in more ways than one.”

  “Can I at least have Asger?” Casmir wondered if he could talk Bonita and Qin into helping again. If there was some secret base, it could be anywhere on the planet—or even up in orbit, using a stealth generator similar to the one he’d already encountered. It would be useful to have the Dragon to ferry him around. And Qin was always useful.

  “Yes,” Jager said. “In fact, that’s perfect. He needs to prove himself as well, especially if he insists on trailing along after my daughter.” Jager sneered for the first time.

  Casmir wondered if he should let Asger know that the king knew about his crush and didn’t approve. The princess hadn’t seemed inclined to reciprocate it, so maybe it didn’t matter. She was probably destined to some arranged marriage with a prince or emperor in another system. A lamentable thought, that.

  Jager pressed a button on a control panel, and the wall of bars slid aside. For the first time, the armored guards, who’d been like statues throughout the conversation, stirred. Some dropped their hands to their rifles. Others glanced at each other, as if confused.

  “Find the terrorists’ main base and send a signal to our soldiers so they can annihilate it,” Jager said, stepping
aside and gesturing for Casmir to step out of the cell. “Do that, and I will give you the opportunity to retrieve the gate that you lost.”

  Casmir again wondered about the wisdom of working for the king, but again doubted he had much choice. At least he could do this first task with a clear conscience.

  In the corridor, Jager dropped a hand onto Casmir’s shoulder.

  Casmir braced himself, expecting him to squeeze or make a threat. Jager was more than a half a foot taller than he was, and he looked strong and fit for his age. For any age.

  “We needn’t be enemies, Casmir,” Jager said. “Accomplish these things for me—for the crown and your Kingdom—and we’ll discuss a position that would be suitable for you.”

  Casmir licked his lips—his mouth was very dry. This reminded him uncomfortably of the offer Rache had made him, of employment among his mercenaries. He had prefaced that with the very similar, “We don’t need to be enemies.”

  “Court roboticist?” Casmir asked.

  Jager chuckled. “We’ll see. Believe it or not, I don’t insist that everyone around me agrees with me. I prefer people who speak plainly. It’s the ones who are always quick to agree that you have to watch out for, as they surely have secret motives.”

  Van Dijk’s face was carefully neutral at the comment. It was probably her job to agree with everything the king ordered. Jager likely referred to nobles and those with positions in the Senate, people with the right by blood and history to argue with him without repercussions.

  Jager dropped his hand and stepped aside so Casmir could head for the stairs. “Escort him out, Van Dijk.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. Should I give him anything?” She looked him up and down. “A weapon, at least?”