“What? You people made some rather strong accusations in that Manifesto of yours. Things that other people were willing to kill to keep quiet. What could be have been so important for you to withhold the evidence?”
Pinter looked to Clio, then to Amaru. “Would you care to explain? I think it might mean more coming from you.”
“Nika. The contents of Doctor Lee’s sleeve indicated Emile had support from within the Martian and Cytherean Councils,” Clio replied.
Gallego felt like she was suddenly standing in cold water. She couldn’t imagine for the life of her that Elenko could be involved, but she had been away for some time. Who knew what could have happened during those intervening years? What enticements or pressure could move someone to back such a plan? “Who? Who was implicated in their scheme?”
“Doctor Lee’s files didn’t specify whom. But it left little doubt that key members of the Inner Worlds were aware of their plans and were even hoping they would come to fruition. That certainly indicated that Emile wouldn’t be the only one who would fear the files release. But we couldn’t simply do nothing either.”
“We also knew none of the Council members who were involved could know the full extent of Doctor Lee’s files,” Pinter added. “We believed if we claimed to have vital information on Emile himself, they might be frightened enough to dissociate themselves from him. With him isolated, he would be more likely to do something foolish. Clio and I considered all the likely scenarios and ran simulations on the likely outcomes. We determined that letting Emile know what we knew was the best course. Not only would it serve to isolate him politically, it would make him feel out of control and off-balance. Under those circumstances, he would be most likely to make a mistake.”
Gallego sighed heavily. She could see the path their logic was taking, but also knew the outcome. To pretend they had thought things through would be the overstatement of the century. She couldn’t fail to point this out. “I take it the attack on Ganymede didn’t come up in those simulations of yours? Or was that part of your master plan as well?”
Pinter cleared his throat and looked downcast. Clio stepped in to answer this challenge.
“It was a terrible mistake on our part. We didn’t know that Emile had factional support in addition to backing from some Council members. We’ve since amended our calculations.”
“Amended?” Gallego echoed. The clinical way in which Clio had said it struck her as supremely offensive. It was Pinter’s turn to step in and offer up some defense.
“What she means is, we’ve been monitoring communications between Emile and his counterpart on Ishtar. While the communications themselves have been difficult to intercept and decode, their timing and destination leave little doubt. It’s now clear that Paulo Auriga, leader of the Illuvians, was also involved.”
“Auriga?” Gallego said, saying the name with equal measures of malice and disbelief. “He and Emile are competitors, practically enemies. You’re telling me those two managed to bury their mutual enmity long enough to conspire on something this big?”
“Apparently so,” replied Pinter. “And now, that enmity has resurfaced with a vengeance. Thanks to the release of the Manifesto, Auriga clearly smelled weakness on his old adversary. By his actions, sending a strike team to Ganymede at a time when tensions were already high, he successfully put a series of events in motion.”
“Not only did he take great pains to implicate the Children of Jove in the attack, a move which would benefit him in the end, he also managed to cast suspicion on his rival,” said Clio, taking over to outline the broad strokes of Auriga’s strategy.
Gallego nodded and raised her hand. “Yes, I know. The Solar Council agreed that a civil war in the Jovian system would likely result in them having to intervene. For the Formists, or the Illuvians, that would be a good thing.”
Gallego began to swear as soon as the uncomfortable realization hit her. “Mother fucking, puta madre, kuma nina!“
She wasn’t cursing Auriga nearly as much as she was her own inaction. A short time ago, or so it felt, she had been on Ishtar. She had been rubbing shoulders and exchanging words with people who knew Auriga and Emile personally, even intimately. If she’d had any inkling they were at the heart of this, she wouldn’t have hesitated to strike them down on the spot. When she finished with the multilingual expletives, an uncomfortable silence followed. Eventually, Houte was the one to break it.
“Maybe now would be a good time to talk about our next moves?”
“Excellent idea,” said Pinter. “Our next move is something we’ve been planning for some time. It’s where the two of you come into play.”
“Us?” said Cheboi. “What exactly do you expect us to do?”
Clio smiled, her head cocking to the side. “What was your purpose in coming to this system?”
“Our purpose was to find the perpetrators of the attack and the authors of the Manifesto” replied Cheboi. “The reason for that was to verify the claims made in it. But if what you’re saying is correct, we can’t release this information without triggering some political crisis in the Inner Worlds and making things worse. So, what do you propose?”
Pinter raised a finger. His expression was uneasy, as if he were once again trying to figure out how to address something delicate.
“That’s where things get a bit complicated,” he said. “Your being here fulfills a crucial part of the plan. But the next steps... you’re not going to like them too much. You see, they involve putting yourselves in danger.”
He was right. Gallego already didn’t like the path this was taking. Cheboi was even less of a fan. She took a few steps towards Pinter and became rather demanding. “You might want to explain that, sir. Choose your words very carefully.”
“You’re not alone,” said Houte, sounding rather displeased himself. “Amaru and I are also putting our lives on the line by being here. Now that you’re with us, we stand a much better chance.”
Cheboi raised her arm. In real space, her suit was likely forming a threatening weapon at the end of her limb. Pinter threw up his hands defensively and began talking rather rapidly.
“I’m sure you want to hurt me right now. But might I recommend you hold that thought for our guests?”
“Guests?” Cheboi barely had time to say the word. The DS shut down, leaving Gallego and the others with nothing but blackness to stare at. When Gallego ripped off the headset, she noticed the power was out in the room as well. The others quickly removed their gear and noticed this as well. Their sextet was once again back to a quartet.
Gallego also noticed another pertinent fact, this time about the room’s lights.
They were off.
Outside the door, terrible noises had erupted and appeared to be getting closer.
“Oh shit,” Gallego whispered. She looked to Cheboi. “We know what’s coming.”
FORTY
CHEBOI JUMPED TO HER feet, her suit already deployed, and readied her weapons. Gallego followed, instructing her helmet to once again cover her face. She also deployed a shield from her left arm and selected a heavy projectile launcher for her right. Their next words were filtered and amplified. Without comlinks, they still needed to communicate with their hosts verbally.
Cheboi had some choice words to share with them. “You knew you were being followed, and you still lured us here?!”
“It’s all right,” Amaru replied. “We’re prepared for this. Just follow our lead.”
“What doesn’t that mean?” Gallego demanded. Outside the door, there was the sound of loud cracking. She recognized it as being from a gauss weapon that was firing off electromagnetically-accelerated slugs. It was followed by the sound of a plasma discharge. Not exactly the standard issue for Jovian officers.
Gallego’s heart turned to ice as she realized one inescapable fact.
Their enemy had returned.
“You have to trust us!” Houte said, lowing himself to his knees and placing his hands on his head. He nodd
ed to Amaru, who hesitantly did the same. “When they burst in here, it would be best if you didn’t try to fend them off.”
“These people want to kill us!” Cheboi said, maintaining her arsenal.
The door began to glow as a series of energy weapons became focused on it. Their enemy was now trying to cut their way through. Amaru’s reply had to be shouted to be heard over the growing noise.
“They want to kill us too! But if we do this right, we’ll come through this in one piece.”
Gallego swung her head back to the door. It was turning from red to orange to yellow. Within seconds, it would be nothing more than a pool of molten metal on the floor.
“You don’t know that!”
“Veronika, please,” Amaru implored. “We wouldn’t have made it this far if we didn’t know what was coming. Clio is watching our backs, she would never let anything happen to us.”
You’ve been wrong before, Gallego thought. It was pointless to say it, though. Their hosts, and the ones who had been with them virtually, were all aware that they had screwed up once already. Gallego was in no position to determine if they had learned from that mistake or not.
Gallego looked at Cheboi. She had been correct before. They had passed the point of no return. In fact, they were so far past it that they wouldn’t even recognize it at this point. Yet somehow, they were still being asked to place their trust in these people, and this time around, their lives were very much on the line. Whether or not they survived depended entirely on what they did in the next few seconds.
Looking to Cheboi, Gallego voked a simple and desperate query. [What do we do?]
[I don’t know,] she came back. [We’re trapped in here like rats. I’m not sure we could fight our way out of here, even if we wanted to.]
Cheboi looked at Gallego, her worried eyes just visible through her helmet’s visor. She glanced back at the door and the arsenal she had deployed, as if assessing their chances of survival. This was followed by one final look back at their hosts.
[Tell me now. Do you trust these people?]
[With our lives? No way. But they’re gambling with their own too. What are the odds they know what they’re doing?]
Cheboi considered that for a second and then stood up straight. [They were right before, weren’t they? They warned you that these people were coming for us. And they managed to get us here too, right?]
Gallego didn’t need to voke a reply. She simply shrugged.
Cheboi deactivated her energy weapon but kept the shield in place.
[All right, I’m standing down. But keep your shield and armor deployed. I won’t be defenseless when they come in.]
Gallego nodded and did the same. Both women took a knee, using the floor to prop up the shields extending from their arms. When the door gave way, they would at least have a barrier between them and their attackers. A minor guarantee, but one which would ensure they’d survive the next few seconds - assuming their hosts weren’t deluding themselves.
Through the shield’s translucent skin, Gallego saw the door liquefy and fall to the floor. A veil of steam obscured the doorway for just a second. Then a foot stepped through, followed by another, followed by several more.
The room was occupied with four more bodies now, all of whom were armored and sporting the same frightening and twisted holographic images on their faces. One of them stepped forward from the rest, his face painted with a death’s head. A booming voice broke the temporary silence, issuing a guileless set of demands.
“Lose the body armor, ladies! This will hurt far less if you don’t make us pry you out of those suits.”
Cheboi quickly issued an equally guileless reply. “We’d rather die slowly, asshole.”
“Suit yourself,” the deathly figure replied. His squad began to train their weapons but hesitated on the point of shooting. His attention became fixed on one person in the room.
“Amaru,” he said cheerily. “Good to see you again. I was impressed to hear you survived our last encounter. Rest assured, we won’t make that mistake again.”
“Eat a dick, Adler,” she spat.
So, he has a name, thought Gallego. It was good to know at least that much about him. He also appeared to have a sense of humor, the way he laughed in reply.
“Same old Janis. You should also know it was no easy task, keeping these two alive,” he said, pointing his weapon arm at Gallego and Cheboi. “We even lost one of our own thanks to that stunt you pulled. Don’t think we’ve forgotten that.”
“Only one? Too bad.”
This remark didn’t elicit a laugh. If possible, the death’s head became even graver. “Well, all is about to avenged. I hope it was worth it... Janis.”
Gallego drew in a deep breath. Her reflex package kicked in, and the next few heartbeats felt horribly long. Then again, they were likely to feel that way regardless. Time had a way of slowing down to a crawl when staring death in the face.
Her thoughts raced, and she pictured Clio’s bright and shining avatar in her mind.
Clio, if you’re going to do something, do it now!
And just like that, she did. In an instant, Adler and his entire squad stopped short of firing. Even encased in armor, they all looked suddenly pained. Shrill cries escaped their helmets, and the holographic images began to fade in and out of existence.
It took barely a second for Cheboi to voke to Gallego. [I’d say that’s our go order. Hit them now!]
Gallego and Cheboi both jumped to their feet, deploying fresh weapons from both limbs and opening fire on Adler and his crew. Stunned and immobilized, their would-be killers were hit by all manner of things - energy bursts, lancing shots, flechettes and slugs. The first few sent them reeling and ducking for cover, each mercenary desperately scrambling to get out of the way of their attack.
While the one to her left tried to dive for the floor, Gallego managed to catch him on the hip with some well-placed osmium alloy slugs. The first few tore into his suit, sending little pools of nanoware to the floor. The next pierced raw flesh, sending a cloud of viscera from his flank. He hit the ground hard, his suit forming around him to encase his bloodied body.
Cheboi managed to hit Adler square in the chest, sending him through the doorway and out onto the walkway. She then redirected her fire onto the one immediately next to him, hitting him in the face with multiple shots of plasma and creating a hole that burned clear to the back of his skull. With only one shot left, Cheboi deployed melee weapons and charged. Gallego could only watch as she neutralized a section of the poor bastard’s armor with a directed EMP burst, then plunged a jagged blade through it into his chest.
There was a dull crunch as the blade pierced through his ribcage and bisected the chambers of his heart. Just to be sure, Cheboi twisted the blade and yanked it out, sending pulverized flesh and blood all over the floor.
Cheboi stepped back and stood over the man she had just killed. Gallego knew that her method had been very deliberate. She wanted one of them to die in the same grisly fashion as Najafi. Whatever satisfaction she had derived from it didn’t last. Dashing through the door, she began to look for what had become of Adler.
Gallego followed, then paused as she saw what Cheboi was seeing.
Beneath them, the entire settlement was experiencing a cascading power failure. Lights winked on and off, alarms were blaring, and people were crying out in confusion and anger. They moved to the edge of the walkway and stared over the railing. Wherever they looked, there was the same pattern of general chaos.
There was no sign of Adler, though. Cheboi scanned back and forth but was coming up empty. Gallego’s suit was also actively looking for signs of the mercenary leader. Alas, there were none to be found. If his body had been thrown clear and he’d fallen down the edge of the slope, there was no sign of it now.
Cheboi slammed her fist against the railing. Gallego knew how she felt.
The moment was broken when Amaru and Houte came rushing up behind them.
“Com
e on! We have to get out of here!”
“What the hell is going on?” Gallego managed to say between gasps. “How did we just survive that?”
Houte emitted a thoughtful hum. “I trust you noticed the nullification field around the building?” Gallego nodded. She very clearly remembered how their scans had come back negative. “Clio and Pinter set that up. They were drawing power from the colony to keep it in place. It wasn’t something they thought anyone would notice. But when they reversed it to jam the implants of those mercenaries, the power draw must have exceeded the grid’s capacity for a second.”
Gallego considered the explanation and nodded. An overloaded interference field would certainly have that effect on an Extropian comlink, and the resulting interference could cause symptoms akin to an embolism. The fact that only the mercenaries had been affected suggested that Clio and Pinter knew exactly which frequencies to adjust the field to, and which to avoid.
The thought made Gallego want to laugh. After everything she had done, Clio was still finding ways to impress her!
She looked back at the buildings beneath them. Sure enough, the situation appeared to be slowly getting better. In some places, the lights began to come back and remain on. In others, the blinking either continued, or they remained in a state of blackout and brownout. In some spots, the damage appeared to be done, and repair crews would probably need to be sent in.
While fascinating, their hosts were in no mood to stick around. Amaru repeated her earlier suggestion that they get moving. “Time’s not on our side here. We need to get going before the authorities arrive.”
“Not yet!” Cheboi roared, looking back over the railing. “We need to find that bastard!”
Coming to her side, Houte placed his hand on Cheboi’s arm. “You’ll get another chance, sooner than you think.”
Cheboi flinched from the man’s touch. Gallego thought that she might strike him, but his words seemed to soothe her. Whether it was because of how he said it, or the fact that their newfound friends had made a few accurate predictions at this point, Gallego couldn’t tell.
The Jovian Manifesto (The Formist Series Book 2) Page 26