by B. V. Larson
He didn’t look convinced, but he did gesture for me to hurry up and tell the rest of the story.
“Well… you see, sir, after that it gets kind of complicated.”
I kept going, telling him about Green World and Rigel and killing Armel and Raash. I skipped over the part about how I got Raash a ghetto-revive and him being depressed with his blue scales and all. I went right on into the business of Green World being a rebel group stronghold and how they were plotting against us.
“At last I’m beginning to see why you’ve come. This group—whoever they are—has already struck a blow against Earth.”
“That’s exactly right, sir. They plan to do a lot more than blow up one big ship.”
“Hmm…”
He began to pace and think, and I let him do it without interruption. In the meantime coffee and Danishes arrived. I helped myself despite getting an admonishing glance from Primus Bob. By the time Drusus reached for his cup, there was nothing but coffee left on the tray. Fortunately, he was preoccupied, and he didn’t complain.
“This is big news, McGill,” Drusus said. “We can’t let this nest of rebels just sit out there and fester. But I’ve checked on my tapper, and we haven’t located Green World yet.”
“That’s exactly right. The Intel boys have been slacking—but I spent the night working on the problem.”
With a dramatic flourish, I flicked a big folder of data to his desk. He tapped at it, opening star charts and astronavigational material. There was a whole lot more, too, such as chemical analysis of the atmosphere, spectrograms of the local sun—the works.
“This is impressive. You really think you’ve isolated the star’s location?”
“I’d wager my left nut on it.”
Drusus smiled tightly. He liked the work, but he didn’t like the threat it represented.
“What surprises me is that Turov herself isn’t here to present this to me.”
“Uh…”
“Ah!” Drusus said, working his tapper. “I see she’s in her office. I’ll summon her up here for her input.”
“Oh…”
Right then, I realized I had a big decision to make. If I admitted to Drusus that Turov was in the dark about Green World’s location—not to mention crazy blue lizards and a dozen other details—it was going to look bad for her. It would appear that I’d jumped the chain of command, and worse, that Turov was incompetent.
Now, all of that was true and more—but I didn’t want Drusus thinking it. There would be hell to pay with Galina if he did.
Drusus messaged Turov, calling her to an emergency meeting. Then he began to page through the files I’d dumped on his desk, marveling at the work.
While he was distracted, I messaged Galina privately.
Act like you know everything. That was all I sent, and then I put my tapper behind my back. My forearm vibrated several times, but I didn’t dare look at whatever it was she sent back.
In the meantime, Drusus made an awful discovery. He’d finally gotten around to realizing Green World was in the middle of Province 928.
“Is this correct?” he asked, aghast. “Is this planet located inside Skay territory?”
“Well inside, I’d say.”
His shoulders slumped. “Diabolical. It makes so much sense… there are countless examples of this kind of asymmetrical warfare in history, you know.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yes. A weak power, such as a rebel group, often hides inside the territory of a rival. That way, the nation that’s under attack can’t simply fly out and destroy them. If they do, it will cause a greater war that the abused nation doesn’t want.”
“Hmm… what are we going to do about it?”
Drusus paced again. “We’ll have to do what nations have done under such circumstances for thousands of years: we’ll fight a small, dirty war. We’ll infiltrate, we’ll sabotage—anything that can get to them without admitting that’s what we’re doing.”
“Uh-huh.”
About then, Galina arrived. She seemed a little out of breath. Possibly, she’d run from the elevator to Drusus’ office doors.
She gave me a weird look as she was let inside. I suggested she have some of Primus Bob’s excellent coffee, but she passed.
Drusus beckoned, requesting her presence at the big battle table.
Galina stood straight and marched right up there. She gave me one worried glance, but I just stood there and grinned like an idiot. I didn’t dare give her any more hints on how to play things.
Fortunately, she was almost as good as I was at bullshitting. “Praetor Drusus? I see McGill has given you his report.”
“Yes… I must say, I’m quite impressed. Perhaps you can fill me in on certain details.”
She swallowed—hard. Her expression didn’t show it, but I knew she was curling up her toes and digging her nails into her palms. She did that when she was freaked-out.
“I’ll explain what I can. Some of it is technical.”
“Right… you must have put quite a team on this. Who did you use?”
Galina hesitated, and she glanced at me. I didn’t give her any hand-gestures or other nonsense. Drusus was simply too sharp for that kind of junior high skullduggery. Instead, I grinned and waited.
“Uh… Natasha, of course. She’s one of our best techs.” Galina glanced my way, and I dared to give her the slightest of nods. She was on safe ground, as she knew that I always got Natasha to do my homework.
“Specialist Natasha Elkin did all this?” Drusus asked incredulously. “Star-charts? Astrophysics? That’s incredible, we’ll have to promote that woman immediately.”
“Ah… well, there were others.”
“Like who?”
Galina seemed flustered. She looked around, thinking hard. Then her face changed, and she looked slightly annoyed. “Floramel, from Central’s underground labs. Isn’t that right, McGill?”
Finally, she’d given me an opening.
“That’s right, sir,” I said loudly. “Floramel has access to some of the best minds we have in this complex. She’s got my own daughter Etta working for her, too.”
“Ah, I see…” Drusus said, and he went back to looking at force positions. I could tell he was plotting distances, trying to figure out if we could secretly fly a ship out there to Green World or not.
Galina took this moment of distraction to cast me a sour glance. She was jealous of both Natasha and Floramel. There was quite a history there. A whole can of worms I’d rather not open up again today.
Even worse, though, she’d been surprised by all this and I knew she hated surprises. Hated them.
Drusus frowned slightly at us. Maybe he’d picked up on an odd vibe. “Where are these experts? If they have a better grasp on the details, they should be here for the presentation.”
“Ah…” Galina said, but I moved in to save her pretty behind again.
“You see, Praetor sir, we worked all night on this. I sent them to the barracks to get some sleep.”
Galina jumped in, not wanting to be left out. “I also thought it would be better if McGill and I did the presentation. Some people have skills when summarizing complex information—and others do not.”
“I get it. All right,” Drusus said at last. “Good work, you two. I’m impressed. I’m going to have to call a special meeting of the Joint Chiefs. Make sure you’re both available, along with any other support personnel you might require. Mobilize the entire legion as well, just in case. And McGill, take a shower. I can smell you from here.”
“Will do, sir!”
After that, he kicked us out of his office.
Galina headed straight to the elevators, and I followed her.
“James…?” Galina said, walking stiffly. “I’m not sure how to process what just happened in there.”
“Oh yeah? Well… go with your gut. That’s what I always do.”
“Obviously. All right, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, since you tried to warn me conc
erning the situation. I’m going to assume you were found out somehow, that something leaked and Drusus found out what you were investigating. Then, when he hauled you upstairs to report, you clued me in.”
“That’s exactly how it went, Tribune.”
She pursed her fine lips tightly. I knew she didn’t believe me—but she also appreciated the fact I’d given her a heads-up. That would have to do for now. Sometimes, a friendship depended on plausible deniability.
Galina entered the elevator, and she let me step aboard with her.
“Are you actually tired?” she asked me.
I thought about that question for a full second. If I said yes, I might get a little shut-eye. The truth was I hadn’t had a full night’s sleep. That wasn’t due to actually working, or anything like that, but the opportunity to lounge could never be taken lightly by a legionnaire.
Following this line of thinking, I almost faked a yawn and a stretch—but I stopped myself.
What if there were other fringe benefits under consideration? Galina and I had been intimate on worse days, after all…
“Nope. I feel fine. You want to get some breakfast?”
Her eyes slid to the deck, then back up to my face. That was a tell, right there. She was interested.
“All right.”
We made our way to the officer’s mess nearby. The staff there eyed me strangely, and I knew right off what the trouble was: I’d just eaten breakfast here about an hour ago.
That wasn’t any kind of a problem for man like myself. I was often hungry long before lunch, no matter what I ate for breakfast.
We had omelets and coffee and more Danishes. Galina was happy she’d gotten in on the credit for all our discoveries, so she was in a fine mood. That was a nice change of pace.
“The only thing that worries me is how we’re going to go out there and take care of this place—Green World, I mean.”
“You don’t think we can simply fly Dominus out there and take care of business?”
She snorted. “No. It’s not that Dominus isn’t up to the task, it’s the fact that it will be too easily recognized. That very ship was posted at Edge World during the last campaign. The Skay would recognize it, among others.”
“Huh… by the way, did the Skay ever complain after we took the whole Shadowlander tribe off Edge World right under their noses?”
“Not that we know of. They probably didn’t even notice. They care even less than the Mogwa about what we do out here on the frontier. By the way, we’ve begun moving all the tribesmen from Earth to L-374.”
I shook my head. “Death World? That’s still the plan? That seems kind of evil.”
Galina shrugged. “The nomads can handle it, if anyone can.”
I sipped my second coffee and wondered if Galina had shipped those people all the way out to Death World just to remove Helsa from my vicinity. That might sound petty and extreme—but I knew this woman pretty well.
“Okay, so… what about Armel?” I asked.
“I haven’t revived that snake yet, if that’s what you mean.”
“Why not?”
She made an off-hand gesture of disinterest. “Why bother? What does he matter at this point, now that we’ve located Green World? We’ll go out there, find their hidden base, and blow it up.”
I leaned toward her. “What if he can help us get there? Without being noticed by the Skay, I mean? He was the enforcer of the province, after all.”
Galina stopped sipping her tea and stared at me. Slowly, she put her tea cup down. “James… that is an intriguing idea… come on.”
She stood up, and I rammed a last Danish into my mouth in a wad. Slapping my hands together to remove the flaky glaze, I followed her out.
-24-
We went down—a long ways. It took damn near fifteen minutes of elevators and several ear-pops to go from the top of Central to the bottom—or almost the bottom. At least we didn’t end up in that creepy vault full of disembodied old brains.
Walking along with Galina for that long was something of a mistake for a man like me. I couldn’t help but notice her shapely form and her light step. She didn’t seem to notice my attentions, as she was distracted with what were no doubt nefarious thoughts of her own.
When we finally got to one of those sterile Blue Deck chambers, a room where people were revived who were never meant to see the light of day again, she stopped and filled out some forms.
The bio people were weird down here. I got the feeling they hadn’t had a lot of business lately—and that that was a good thing.
A centurion-level bio-woman came out of her office and examined Galina’s filled out e-paper. After about twenty seconds, she frowned and made a slash through it. Everything Galina had written melted away.
“Request denied.”
“What?” Galina squawked. “Do you know who I am?”
“I’m sorry, Tribune Turov,” she said, pretending to give a shit. “We can’t do this kind of revive here.”
“Maurice Armel is a traitor to Earth. He therefore belongs here.”
The smug bio shook her head. “Not with your authorization. You don’t have the clearance. You’re not even government.”
Galina was pissed. That was a bad thing. This little bio was playing with fire, and I doubted she knew it. Galina leaned forward into the other woman’s face.
The bio-woman flinched back in surprise.
“You don’t know who you’re frigging with. I’ll burn this place down.”
The centurion regained her composure quickly. “What you are is lost. You’re not Hegemony, and even if you were, you don’t have the clearance or the authority to tell us to revive a dead rat.”
“As an amazing coincidence,” I said, “old Armel is kind of similar to a dead rat.”
Neither of the women even glanced at me, much less smiled at my joke. They were ready to throw-down right now.
“I’ll be back,” Galina said, and she spun around to march out.
I followed along after her, and when we got to the elevator, I asked an obvious question. “Hey, we don’t need to step on any toes, here. We can go upstairs to some Blue Deck and buy a cheap revive on the legion budget if we have to.”
“You don’t understand. I’m not just trying to get a revival. These people have… techniques. They can get information from a man that no one else on this planet can.”
I frowned. That sounded kind of… evil.
At that moment I remembered what I’d told old Armel before I’d tossed him off a cliff back at Rigel. I’d pretty much promised him I’d help him not get tortured—or whatever foul fate was on Galina’s mind.
“Uh… Tribune? I’ve got an idea.”
She looked at me. “So do I, but I doubt our two thoughts are compatible.”
“Huh? Well, maybe not. But the way I see it, is the trick will be to avoid government stooges like that group that just cock-blocked us. They’re going to get in the way, and they will take the credit if Armel does talk.”
She eyed me thoughtfully. “Go on. How do we do fix these problems?”
“Let’s get Armel a revive off the grid. Down at that place around the back of Central—you know, where they charge a million credits to revive anyone.”
Her eyes were narrowing as I spoke. “How do you know—ah, right. You found out about them when you killed Floramel.”
“I surely didn’t!”
She threw up her hands. “Whatever. I don’t care who you kill. But how would reviving Armel there help us?”
“Well sir, if no one knows he’s on Earth… if no one knows we’ve got him… well, we can do whatever we want. No evidence. No regulations—nothing.”
She thought that over carefully. “Hmm… You’ve got a point. After all, if Armel won’t cooperate, we can always put him down and then bring him back here for a second round. If your idea works, on the other hand, we’ll be able to take full credit. Yes… I like this idea of yours.”
Thoughtfully, she fired
up the elevator again, and we began sailing back up to the lobby area. The revival chambers I’d taken Floramel too had been on the ground floor, so that made perfect sense.
She worked her tapper like a pro while we sailed past levels. “Of course,” she said while looking at her forearm and moving her fingers like greased-lightning, “you realize that you’ll have to do all the dirty work, right?”
“Oh… huh?”
She lowered her arm and stared at me. “The torture, McGill. Get your head past breakfast, will you do it?”
“Uh… I get it. Sure.”
I was concerned, but I kept quiet while Galina contacted shady people and made arrangements. She seemed to have an endless supply of cash for events like this. A million credits didn’t seem to mean squat to her. It was kind of odd. Was she getting the cash from legion funds, or… where?
I had the good sense not to ask, and by the time we got to the backdoor region of Central, a pair of bio people were waiting for us.
The leader, a skinny woman in blue coveralls, smiled when she saw Galina. But then, her eye caught sight of me, and her expression changed dramatically.
I knew what the trouble was right off. Several years back, I’d been revived by this woman and her beefy orderly. They’d argued about the matter and decided to grind me up. Naturally, I’d taken offense at this, and I’d seen to it that the orderly fellow died instead.
“I see you remember McGill,” Turov said. “Today, he’s not going to kill anyone—unless I’m highly dissatisfied.”
Catching onto the nature of my role immediately, I gave them a relaxed death-stare. The pair both shifted uncomfortably, as if their coveralls had suddenly become itchy.
“What can we do for you, Tribune?” asked the bio girl in a kiss-ass voice. “We’re awfully busy, but we always like to do our best for Earth’s security.”
“That’s sweet. James, give them the body-scan and engrams.”
I did as she asked, and we looked around the office. It was kind of low-rent.
“Where do we wait?” Galina asked.
The bio indicated a shitty, sagging couch with a flick of her finger.
Once seated, I decided to ask for a bottle of pop—but they were already gone. They’d slammed the portal to their revival chamber and sealed it from the inside.