Assassin's Orbit

by John Appel

  “It investigates specialized bioactive nanoware,” Ogawa said. She stood preternaturally still.

  Fuck. Puzzle pieces began slotting together in Toiwa’s mind. Walla’s behavior, sudden martial prowess, hell, the fact that she’d tried to kill the Saljuan team that had kidnapped her in the first place, Okafor’s dark net, the mysteriously coordinated actions by strangers to attack Ogawa. The presence of the illegal nanoware on Ileri in the first place. The reason the Commonwealth had sent a delegation of experts in this kind of nanoware.

  We have this tech, we’ve always had it, and Miguna got it, and here we are.

  She voiced her conclusions aloud.

  “It appears we do,” Valverdes said. “Well, not the plague itself. But something akin to it, according to the lab. Confirmation came in while you were at the med center.” Ze tossed Toiwa a data packet.

  Toiwa popped the bundle open, called up the précis, and began skimming. She reached the third sentence, stopped, and backed up to read it from the beginning, word by word. Her stomach dropped as she read on. “These findings are conclusive?”

  Kala nodded. “Yes, Governor. Councilor Walla and the persons who attacked M. Ogawa all carry variants of the nanotechnological agent found in a prisoner M. Ogawa captured during the Fenghuang affair last year. Director Sadiq’s researchers have definitively shown that it’s related to the Unity Plague that sent our ancestors into Exile.”

  The Unity Plague. Her world, her children, all could be infected, all heartbeats away from forming a new pack of near automatons, bent to the service of—whom? Back on Lost Earth, the Plague had been the tool used by an unholy union of kleptocrats and religious fundamentalists to bring the world’s unruly people under control for good. As the Unity began to blanket the Earth, as dissent died away to be replaced with blissful submission, the peoples closest to the space elevators had fled to join with those already in space, taking the first great jump that led to Chatterjee’s one-way wormhole stargate and Exile.

  But those people were more than two centuries and countless light years away. Who would pull the puppets’ strings now?

  Miguna and his cabal, it seemed.

  But did it matter? If word got out a pocket of infection had come with them, and lived again on Ileri...

  “Sweet Mother of the Leap,” Toiwa breathed. “The Saljuans have cause.”

  “Only a minority of the newer prisoners are infected, though,” Valverdes said, but Toiwa didn’t hear it the first time and, embarrassed, asked zer to repeat it.

  “It seems likely that only a relatively small number of the rebels carry the infection,” her aide repeated. “The leaders all do, and some small teams like those who attacked M. Ogawa before the coup do as well. But most of the rebels we’ve captured since show no signs of contamination.”

  “Do we know why?” Toiwa asked.

  “It seems this variant doesn’t spread via the aerosolized vectors the original plague on Earth is believed to have used. We’re not sure precisely how it’s transmitted yet, but that means it can’t spread like wildfire, the way it did on Earth.”

  “Well, that’s a comfort,” Toiwa said bitterly. “I’m sure the conversion bombs won’t hurt so much.” She looked hard at Ogawa, her eyes narrowed. “Do your superiors know about this?”

  The Commonwealth agent glanced about the room, as if looking for cover, or perhaps escape. “I can only speak to what I know, and there are some things I can’t say here,” she said cautiously.

  Toiwa leaned into the other woman’s space. “Out. With. It.”

  Ogawa licked her lips, then squared her shoulders. “We know for sure that the person who led the expedition to recover the Fenghuang is indeed infected with a nanoware agent that is derived from the Exile-era Unity Plague. He also had access to a different strain of nanoware which could only be used to coerce those infected with it into following his orders by stimulating the victim’s pain receptors.” She glanced at Teng, lurking in his corner. “Your Directorate scientists are capable of removing the torture nano. The Fenghuang expedition leader is detained for study.”

  Toiwa turned to stare at Teng, who shrugged and nodded. “He’s held in a secure facility elsewhere in the system. She”—he pointed at Ogawa—“was there as Commonwealth liaison.”

  “Is your prisoner one of Miguna’s people?” Toiwa asked.

  The spies looked at each other. Ogawa shrugged, but Teng shook his head. “If he is, I haven’t been told.”

  “But both the Commonwealth and our governments know about this?” Both agents nodded.

  So killing you won’t keep this secret, Toiwa thought, and was surprised to realize she felt no shame at casually considering murder. Gods, what’s happening to me? She pushed that line of thought down for later.

  Ogawa spoke up. “Your scientists requested assistance from the Commonwealth to help investigate that nanotech. The team Amazonas delivered is full of specialists in this sort of thing. My government clearly wants to help.”

  Toiwa barked out a laugh. “The delegation was taken in the first hour of the coup.” She shook her head and tried to push back the despair that threatened to claw its way to the surface. The fools have brought this down on us. “This is a death sentence for our world under the Accords. Every planet in the Cluster will be clamoring to scour Ileri with fire.”

  Ogawa didn’t flinch. “It’s not a monolithic set of phages. Some can be treated.” She looked back up at Toiwa. “Your people already have some capability to do this. I’ve seen it work.”

  It was a lifeline, however insubstantial. Toiwa swept her eyes across the room. Shariff was aghast, her expression mirroring the dread Toiwa felt. Okereke looked angry, but that was her norm, based on her previous encounters with the woman. Valverdes looked grave, but Ogawa seemed... guardedly hopeful, Toiwa thought. Only Teng remained impassive as he skulked watchfully.

  Toiwa’s despair subsided, just a bit, and her resolve reasserted itself. Maybe we’re still doomed. But it won’t be because we didn’t try to dig our way out of this.

  She pointed at Valverdes. “Get the Prime Minister’s people on the line now. This has to be handled at the highest level.” Within moments, they had Vega’s chief-of-staff looped in. Toiwa forced her jaw to relax before she started grinding her teeth. “Lieutenant Zheng, please continue the interrogation.”

  Over the next hour, Zheng drew the story out from her subject. They learned that Mizwar had been dispatched along with his team of special operatives not long after word reached Salju about the discovery of the lost warship Fenghuang. (“Someone must have leaked the information about my prisoner,” Ogawa said. “Your intel people have a mole.” Toiwa noted that for follow-up.)

  Mizwar and his team were an advance guard, charged to investigate the extent of any incidence of the Unity Plague or other Exile-level technology. They had hacked the infonet just as Okafor had surmised and begun sampling potential candidates they identified via some kind of sophisticated algorithmic engine.

  That led the Saljuans to what they were looking for, a cell of infected victims like the group which attacked Ogawa. They then traced that cell by following chains of anomalous contacts up to the businessmen Ita met with. “When we discovered their meeting, it seemed a perfect opportunity for a limited decapitation strike,” Mizwar said in the singsong voice of someone doped to the gills. “We could observe the behavior of other potentially infected individuals and trace the extent of the contamination.”

  “You mentioned you were an advance guard,” Zheng said. “You knew Iwan Goleslaw was en route?”

  “Not that ship specifically. But I knew a warship would follow carrying a Technology Constraint Minister.”

  “And did you make contact with them?” she asked.

  “My team on the station did when the ship arrived. I was planetside by then.”

  “And why did you go downside?” she asked. “I thought you were going to observe and trace the infected?”

  “Because we discove
red something new when we investigated the other people at the meeting with Ita,” he replied. “One of them owned a biotech plant in Kochi. I went to investigate and discovered what they’d been making there.”

  “And what were they making in Kochi?” Zheng said.

  “An aerosolized version of their variant of the Unity Plague, like the original on Earth,” he said.

  Consternation drowned out his next words. “Quiet!” she snapped, and everyone fell silent. “Lieutenant, ask him to repeat that, please.”

  “We destroyed what we found,” Mizwar said, and Toiwa nearly buckled in relief. “We cracked their server, found the inventory. About ninety percent of it was in the warehouse we torched. All but about one hundred liters’ worth. But we discovered they were making more, in bulk, in orbit. We had just notified Iwan Goleslaw when the Constabulary blanked communications around the building, when your team landed.”

  “Do you know where the missing hundred liters is?” Zheng pressed.

  “We figured it out when we reviewed the data later, after we slipped your people tailing us. It was shipped up to the station a few days ago,” Mizwar said. A blissful smile stole over his face. “When Minister Dinata finds out, she’s going to burn you all.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-ONE

  Noo

  Constabulary HQ, Ileri Station,

  Forward Ring

  “When Minister Dinata finds out, she’s going to burn you all.”

  Noo had passed into that state somewhere beyond both mental and physical exhaustion hours back. A nap aboard Amazonas, and another as they’d climbed back through the embattled skies to the station, hadn’t come close to restoring her energy. The shocks encountered once they’d docked with the station—the scenes of destruction, limited though they were, Fathya pulling her aside to give her the news about Daniel’s condition, and now Mizwar’s revelations—it was simply too much to try to take in.

  So don’t, came the whisper. You are a daughter of the Huntress. Do what you do best.

  “When Minister Dinata finds out...”

  “Waitaminute,” Noo croaked. Faces turned her way and she cleared her throat. “Zheng. Follow up. He said ‘when Dinata finds out’. Does that mean he didn’t tell her that last bit yet?”

  Zheng probed, and Mizwar confirmed that their surprise raid had prevented his team from communicating their latest finding up to Iwan Goleslaw. The maneuvers that kept the warship away from the orbital forces of either Ileri faction had kept it out of position for Mizwar to share what he’d learned.

  It was as if someone had swept a curtain away, and the fogginess in her mind she’d grown so used to over the last day blew away like atmo from a compartment venting into space. For a few seconds she felt like she was outside her own body, observing herself while someone else ran the program that was Noo, and then there was a sudden rushing sensation, a feeling of being carried along, and then she was back looking out from her eyes again.

  Some part of her wondered if she was having an adverse reaction to the pharmaceutical cocktail the medics had dosed her with. She pushed that thought aside in favor of a death-grip on her newfound clarity.

  “Then we can still stop them.” Her voice rang out clearly this time.

  “Which them?” Fathya asked. Noo looked at her partner, and that detached portion of her brain noted that Fathya Shariff suddenly looked old.

  “All of them. Well, that goat-fucker Miguna and his pals, the plague-ridden, and those Saljuan shit stains.” She raised a finger. “The nanoware is on the station. We find it and destroy it, and it doesn’t matter what this turd-brain knows.” She pointed at the monitor from which Mizwar grinned nonsensically at them. “We can show the Saljuans that Ileri’s not a fucking nano-plagued shithole and if your people,” she jabbed her finger at Meiko, “show a little backbone, then we can probably keep those dustbrains from starting the Third Cluster War.”

  “About that.” Meiko hopped up from her chair, pawing through personal AR windows. “About the plague agent on the station, I mean. I came across something the other day.” She found what she was looking for, and her eyes slid across the text. “One of my contacts mentioned that he was trying to get a shipment of medical aerosol moved to the south ring.” She glanced at Toiwa. “It was the day after the assassination. The Constabulary was all over the Fingers, and all their illicit goods shipments were disrupted.”

  “Why does that matter?” Teng asked.

  “Because I think the conspirators were using the Fingers to move their goods,” she said.

  Toiwa frowned. “That’s quite a leap.”

  “Ask them,” Okereke said. “They can tell us about the shipment. If it matches, we’ll know.”

  “Did I just hear correctly that you wish to involve the Fingers in this?” a new voice Noo didn’t recognize interjected.

  There was a few seconds’ silence. Fathya caught Noo’s eyes and then jerked her head at Toiwa. The message was clear: Let her handle this.

  “Prime Minister, I didn’t realize you’d joined the link,” Toiwa said.

  Oh shit.

  “Just in time to hear the last comment, though my staff has given me an overview of the situation,” Vega’s disembodied voice said. “And I’ve just now seen the memo you sent earlier today, sketching out your agreement with M. Loh.”

  Noo darted a look at Toiwa. “You cut a deal with Pericles?”

  Toiwa squared her shoulders. “It is an extraordinary move, I grant you. But in my judgment, it will be impossible to retake the station without their help.” Noo saw the tendons in Toiwa’s neck standing out. “We can’t match the rebel’s capability without substantial assistance that’s not available from any other source.”

  “Perhaps we should discuss that later, Governor,” Vega said.

  Wherever her surge of energy was coming from, Noo was strapped in for the ride. She seized control of the conversation back. “We need to find and destroy the nano and rescue the Commonwealth scientists, so they can help us deal with the people who are already infected.”

  It seemed the Prime Minister was already up to speed on that aspect. “I concur with your overall assessment, M. Okereke,” Vega said. “Retrieving the Commonwealth scientists might also help influence Captain Gupta to provide more open support, which would simplify operational matters in orbit.”

  “We’ll need to retake the infonet if we’re going to mount an operation of that scale,” Ogawa cautioned.

  “Noted,” Toiwa said.

  “I have M. Loh standing by,” Valverdes said, somehow not managing to sound smug about it.

  “Put him on,” Toiwa said crisply. Noo saw the look Fathya shot at the governor, recognized as one her partner had given her countless times over the years.

  You resent that you’re stuck relying on people with dirty hands. I love you like a sister, but if you pull your righteousness act here, I’m going to smack you.

  Fortunately, everyone present, in person and virtually, maintained the veneer of civility. Toiwa briskly summed up the key points of discussion for Loh, keeping the momentum going. “What support can you offer in support of these objectives?” she said.

  “Some aspects are easier than others,” Loh replied. “Getting a strike team to a data junction so you can retake the infonet is straightforward enough, if dangerous. Getting to the Commonwealth delegation is a bit trickier. We believe they’re held at a location that’s not particularly convenient to one of our ingress/egress points. That team will require substantial firepower.”

  Noo was still riding her wave of energy. “What about the nanoware, Pericles?”

  “I will need to confirm it, but if I’m correct, it’s taking a roundabout route.”

  “Spit it out, Pericles,” Noo said, as she hunched forward. Loh hesitated, and Noo could almost picture his expression. This is something he doesn’t want to give up. “Come on. Your shorts are already on the floor, time to get it wet.” Someone choked back a giggle at her vulgarity.r />
  “Calliope always said you were pushy,” he complained. “But as you crudely put it, we are intimately engaged—”

  “Cut the shit. Where is it?”

  “Traversing the outer surface of the station,” he said, sounding peeved. “More specifically, being hauled by a bot across the outside of the hub to the southern spindle. Which is, unfortunately, very firmly in rebel control.”

  There was silence while everyone processed this. “If it’s on the surface, can the Navy hit it?” Noo asked.

  “Not without damaging the station,” Vega said. “I’m sure they can target it, but the collateral damage would be huge. That might be a measure of last resort, though.”

  Zheng had left Mizwar to the medics and slipped into the observation suite. “I’ve done EVA combat ops before.” She grinned. “And I’ve got the right party wear for it, thanks to Captain Gupta.”

  “I have experience with free-fall combat as well,” Meiko said, nodding at Zheng. “If any of your maintenance people have an engineering hardsuit I can borrow.” Major Biya chimed in that he could support them with a team from his tiny force in the hub.

  “That leaves the data junction and rescuing the Commonwealth team,” Noo said.

  “I can send Okafor and a team, if Loh’s people can guide them,” Toiwa said, and Loh agreed.

  “That leaves the boffins for me, then,” Noo said. Teng volunteered to join her, and both Toiwa and Loh committed to support them.

  Fathya put her hands up. “Out of the question. You’re played out. And you’ve done your part.”

  Noo popped up out of her chair to confront her oldest friend. “We’re not done yet, Fathya,” she said. “Not while these turds can turn us all into zombies. Or give the Saljuans a chance to use the rest of their bombs.” She pointed at the screen where Mizwar’s face still loomed. “You heard him, heard Dinata. They’ll burn our world down to the mantle if they have to, if that’s what it takes to quiet their fears.” She lowered her hand. “And besides, I need to pay these shits back for Daniel.”