‘What about your watcher? Truelove?’
‘Oh, I’ll put her in charge of hunting for the terrorists. Just make sure your people leave the right kind of evidence. Odanari, but better. Dear Elaine will be so busy trying to track them down that she won’t be in a position to snoop on me.’
Part gave a grunt, and whether that was in agreement or not was open for debate. ‘Just so you know, I’m asking this to hear the answer, not because I’m having second thoughts… Do we really want to kill Jenlay civilians to keep this lie going?’
‘War is a truth surrounded on all sides by fully armed squads of lies and half-truths, Admiral,’ Pierce replied. ‘What we’re doing on Eshebbon will see to it that the Jenlay come out as the soul inheritors of the Federation, and see to it that those who created that future become very, very rich. The Jenlay will look upon us as saviours by the end of it. History will see us as the men who brought the children of Old Earth to their true position in the galaxy. We will be remembered as veritable gods!’
Gareth Part was an arrogant, over-confident, highly self-opinionated man, but even he was starting to wonder whether Pierce was just a little insane.
Tristar Township, 8.11.530 FSC.
It began with something relatively small. Truelove, Janine, and Sharissa came back to the house looking distinctly unhappy, but by then they just needed to supply the details.
‘Someone set off a small bomb in Shin You,’ Truelove told them. ‘I’m sure that’s been all over the news.’
‘Yes,’ Katelyn said, her tone distinctly sour, ‘though there was no one there. There were rumours about the Herosians using biological weapons and it was shut down as a health risk a couple of weeks ago.’
‘Who started the rumour?’ Aneka asked.
‘There was an editorial piece on Front Line News,’ Truelove said. ‘It didn’t actually say “the Herosians have created a virulent, sexually transmitted disease,” but that was one of the speculations made on what might happen. So, as you say, no one was hurt.’
‘But now Front Line are portraying this as an attack on the Jenlay lifestyle,’ Ella said.
‘No one ever said that news channels had to be consistent,’ Aneka told her. ‘I get the feeling there’s more to this than the media has got a hold of yet.’
‘Yes,’ Truelove said. ‘It’s being kept quiet “to avoid panic,” but there were various slogans sprayed on the walls. In Herica characters.’
‘Slogans?’ Ella asked.
‘The usual. “Victory for the Herosians.” “All Jenlay will die.” “Death to the oppressors.” Good, solid, terrorist stuff.’
Aneka gave a resigned sigh. ‘How long before it leaks?’
‘I give it another hour. Two tops.’
9.11.530 FSC.
CFN was largely covering the crowd of currently unemployed Jenlay gathering outside the Herosian embassy which still housed the Ambassador and those Herosians who had not managed to leave the planet.
The crowd had begun gathering about an hour after the leak, which had been sixty-eight minutes after Truelove made her prediction, and their demands were simple. A plea for calm and for the crowd to disperse from Elroy had had no effect. The people were speaking, and they would not be denied.
One of the throng had managed to get himself elected spokesman, either by not stepping back fast enough or because he was the kind of loudmouth who had been waiting all his life to be put on camera.
‘The terrorists have to be in there,’ he had said. ‘We want them sent out. Adjaxis must know who they are. We want them sent out so that they can be dealt with. All fair and legal.’
‘Adjaxis will be panicking,’ Aneka said as the reports played out in the background. ‘He seems like the type.’
‘He has a right,’ Ella replied. ‘Communications with Herosian space are cut off. Even if their network is up and running again, I doubt he knows that, and we know the Navy has disabled the diplomatic and civil channels. He’s isolated, locked inside his embassy, and there’s a crowd of angry Jenlay massing outside. I’d panic.’
‘No, you wouldn’t. You didn’t.’
Ella looked at her, and then remembered Eshebbon. ‘Oh, I suppose I didn’t.’
Eshebbon.
Daniella Bishop opened her eyes and, for a second, could not work out why she was not looking at the ceiling of her bedroom. Her room was all warm reds, sensual colours. This was white, very white. Antiseptic.
She remembered the man on the beach. He had shot her with an energy weapon. She remembered pain and then nothing. The man had shot Melissa with the same weapon. A blaster, she decided, set to incapacitate.
The question then became one of where she had been taken after blacking out and the only way she was going to find out more was to look at something other than the ceiling. She turned, swinging long legs off the edge of the narrow bed.
The remainder of the room was just as white as the ceiling, except for one wall. The clinical, almost scientific appearance was continued by the use of white Adanymax panels in the walls and the stainless steel of the toilet and sink which were in there with her. It reminded her of a cell. She was in a cell, and it had one transparent wall. She checked herself to be sure and found that she was still naked. Whoever had put her there had no desire to preserve her dignity, but then Daniella had no dignity to speak of. She got to her feet and moved closer to the clear wall.
The cell was one of many. She could see one opposite, and more stretching out on either side. But in the opposite cell was a man, a Jenlay she did not recognise. She would know him if she saw him again, that was a certainty. He looked… like a dead man who could not cope with that as a concept and so was sitting in the middle of the floor, rocking slowly. His skin had a grey quality, his eyes were yellow, and his thin lips were shrinking back to show dull-coloured teeth.
As she approached the window, he seemed to notice the movement. His head lifted, he saw her standing there, and he was all action. He rushed toward her, slamming into the Polyglass as though he simply did not realise it was there. He let out a howl and slammed his fists against the barrier, trying desperately to get to her. Daniella decided that she would prefer it if he failed in his endeavour.
‘You’re safe,’ a voice said, coming to her over speakers in the room. The man who had spoken was in the corridor outside her cell, dressed in a white coat over an Ultraskin bodysuit. He looked like a doctor. ‘He can’t get out.’
‘I know.’ Reaching out, Daniella tapped the wall in front of her. ‘Armoured Polyglass. My brother builds starships. What’s wrong with that man?’
‘We used him in an experiment. We need test subjects. We are re-engineering a complex viral agent and we need to be sure it doesn’t affect Jenlay.’
‘You haven’t got it right then.’
‘No, not yet. We’ll keep trying. We have plenty more people to test it on.’
Daniella nodded, unconcerned. ‘I’m going to end up like that.’
‘If your brother does as he’s told, no. If not, you get the next dose.’
She gave another nod and turned away from the window.
‘You don’t appear concerned about your fate,’ the man said, his brow wrinkling a little.
Daniella curled up on the bed, facing the wall. ‘I’ve had worse things done to me,’ she said before closing her eyes.
Tristar Township, New Earth, 11.11.530 FSC.
The next bomb detonated outside the museum in High Yorkbridge. It was early and there were few people about, and the device was designed to injure rather than kill, but the news was full of it.
Aneka watched the videos, knowing the likely result, and she was not disappointed. By midday the crowd outside the Herosian embassy had doubled in size and was a lot louder about its demands for the terrorists to be brought out for ‘justice’ to be served.
Adjaxis went so far as to issue a statement that he knew nothing of any Herosian insurgents who might be operating on New Earth, but that had been reported only
on CFM, once. No one wanted to hear the truth, and Aneka doubted the Herosian would know what the truth was if it bit him anyway.
‘Technically,’ she commented after another citizen had demanded the same thing on screen as all the others had, ‘they aren’t terrorists. The Jenlay and the Herosians are at war, so they’d be classified as spies. Not that a Herosian spy could move around the city unnoticed anyway.’
‘According to Front Line,’ Dillon said, his tone sullen, ‘the Herosians have developed a sophisticated holographic technology from recovered Xinti tech. That’s how they’re disguising themselves.’
‘What utter gopi,’ Justine replied. ‘You can’t disguise someone like that.’
The big man shrugged. ‘I didn’t say it sounded right, I just said that was the current idea.’
‘Sorry. This whole business is getting on my nerves. Maybe I spent too long alone on Odanari, but I never thought the Jenlay were this stupid.’
‘We’ve spent five centuries scared of robots,’ Katelyn replied. ‘We really are that stupid.’
‘Everyone is when they’re scared of… well, dying,’ Aneka said. ‘No one knows where these spies are, so they’re making up stories to explain how this could possibly be happening.’
‘And right now,’ Ella put in, ‘they’d rather believe anything than that Jenlay are setting the bombs. If Jenlay are doing it, then anyone could be an agent.’
13.11.530 FSC.
Four Peacekeepers with carbines led by an FSA agent in a black suit stood on the doorstep looking slightly uncomfortable about being there. Janna opened the door, smiled at them, and said, ‘Good morning. What can I do for the Peacekeepers?’ She was wearing her smallest bikini and that resulted in the five men looking even more uncomfortable.
‘Agent Winnell, FSA,’ the man in the suit said, his implant transmitting his identity as he said it. ‘We’ve had a report of unusual activity here and we’re required to check the premises…’
Janna’s eyes shifted to the surrounding houses. A curtain moved, dropping back to hide whoever had been watching. ‘I’ll be sure to thank our neighbours for their concern. You’d better come in. We’ve nothing to hide, but things are a little disorganised. Most of us had to move out of Mid-town. The previous owner, Doctor Gilroy, has moved to another planet.’
The men trooped in, the Peacekeepers fanning out to check the bedrooms as Winnell followed Janna into the lounge where Katelyn and Dillon were watching the news flanked by Cassandra and Al’s drone. The latter pair did not move as the newcomer walked in, continuing to stare, glassy-eyed, at the wall screen. Neither of them was wearing clothes.
‘This is Katelyn and Dillon,’ Janna said, ‘two more refugees. Actually, I’m a little surprised to see you here given that our other three residents are FSA agents.’
Winnell sighed, though it sounded a little exaggerated. ‘Agent Truelove is in charge of hunting down these insurgents. When the tip came through she couldn’t be partial about it so we got sent down to deal with it immediately. Who are the other two?’
‘You mean “what,”’ Dillon responded. ‘I’m surprised. He’s a custom build we had made for Kat, but she’s a good old Eroticon series. Most people recognise them.’
‘They’re… sexbots?’
‘Dillon grew up on the Rim,’ Katelyn said. ‘They’re a lot more common out there. I was a bit dubious, but… Oh, the things she can do with her tongue…’
Dillon tapped Cassandra on the shoulder. ‘Go say hello to the nice man, Sandra.’
Cassandra went from immobile, inactive body to supple seductress in an instant. She rose from the couch as though on strings and began prowling toward the agent. Her eyes, however, remained slightly dead. There was a little light in them, but not quite the right sort for a Jenlay.
‘Uh… no,’ Winnell said, holding up his hands. ‘That’s fine. Now you mention it, I do recognise the model. She can stay right where she is.’ And Cassandra stopped in mid-stride, her face shifting to a blank expression in an instant.
‘Don’t know what you’re missing,’ Dillon told him, but the agent was saved from having to reply by one of the Peacekeepers.
‘There’s nothing here, sir,’ the armoured figure said as he walked into the lounge. He paused, taking in the scene, and then added, ‘We’ll wait outside.’
‘Right,’ Winnell said and then turned back to Janna. ‘You don’t know where your daughter is, do you, Miss Narrows?’
‘By now? She’ll be on Shadataga with Gillian and Aneka. I’m hoping we’ll be able to talk soon, but with relations the way they are…’
‘Yeah. Sorry to have bothered you.’
Aneka and Ella reappeared from over the back wall a few minutes later as Cassandra and Al were dressing. Janna smiled at them. ‘The house across the circle outside, to the left,’ she said. ‘Don’t you think Cassandra and Al did an amazing job there?’
‘I figured it was that house,’ Aneka replied, ‘and yes, they did. And having two live feeds of what was happening in case we had to intervene was very useful.’
‘I must admit,’ Cassandra said, shimmying a tube dress into place around her hips, ‘that having the body of a well-known sexbot has never seemed quite so fortunate.’
‘I don’t get how you can just go blank like that,’ Katelyn said. ‘I mean, it was like there was nothing in there but a dumb computer.’
‘I’m not a fabulous actress, but I have more control over my expressions and movement than a Jenlay. Much of my appearance of intelligence is the result of the designer’s attempts to make me look like the perfect partner. Switching a couple of those off gives a pleasing result.’ Happy with her dress, she assumed a thoughtful expression and added, ‘And I was a dumb sexbot before I woke up.’
‘I find that very difficult to believe,’ Al said in his smooth, darkly tinted voice.
Cassandra smiled across at him. ‘You say the sweetest things.’
High Yorkbridge, 15.11.530 FSC.
It had been quiet for a day or two, which had resulted in some of the people massing outside the embassy getting bored and leaving. No one seemed to be especially displeased about that, but it did mean that the ones remaining were the loudest and most belligerent.
There were Peacekeepers there too. None of them exactly looked pleased to be guarding an embassy some of them would probably have liked to see rased to the ground, but it was their jobs. Each of them had taken an oath to uphold the laws of the Federation, and even if the Federation no longer really existed, the laws did. So there they were, armed with blaster carbines set on stun and thankful that their combat suits kept them comfortable in the warm sun. New Earth had little in the way of seasons, and it was warm pretty much all the time. Not great for those doing guard duty.
Philip Trent was, thankfully, almost at the end of his shift. Soon he would be able to go back to his station house, take off the stupid uniform, get into some comfortable clothes, and go out for the evening with his girlfriend. He had met her maybe two weeks earlier and she had made him go on three dates before going back to his place for the night. They were still at the stage where the novelty of a new body to play with was enough that they did not need to get inventive. When they did he was probably going to get dumped, because he was not an inventive man, but for now things were just perfect.
Trent was contemplating exactly how they would go about banging each other into a stupor tonight when he saw the woman walking out of the crowd in front of him. Something about her seemed odd and he raised his carbine a little, but he could not quite make out what was wrong…
She was dressed in a heavy, faux-leather jacket, which did not fit with the weather. Her face was pretty, but that could have described most of the population. Except for her eyes. He saw her eyes and knew that he had figured out what it was that was so strange. Her eyes were blank, dead, almost as if they belonged to a robot.
The woman turned and raised her head. ‘Death to the Jenlay!’ she screamed at the top of her lungs
, and then the world seemed to explode into bright light.
Tristar Township.
‘There were three more of them,’ Truelove said. ‘Same MO, all in public places. Lone person walks into the area, yells an anti-Jenlay slogan, and explodes. High-energy explosive with a signature which suggests a Herosian military source was used, with five-millimetre metal balls embedded in it.’
‘Suicide bomber standard equipment,’ Aneka commented.
‘Why?’ Ella asked. ‘I mean, why would someone do something like that?’
‘Suicide bombing is a terror weapon, but it’s also the kind of thing you use when you don’t have anywhere else to go. You need people so dedicated to the cause that they’re willing to die for it, and there are very few ways to stop someone who’s that determined to kill people. How many casualties?’
‘Fifteen dead at the embassy,’ Truelove replied, ‘three of them Peacekeepers. Another twenty-three injured. Ten dead and fifty-one injured at the other sites. That’s excluding the bombers. We found one ID implant in good enough condition to extract the data from it. Bettina Milby, mother of two. Went missing three days ago, but the Peacekeepers are so overworked at the moment that they hadn’t got round to trying to find her. We also found one witness who saw her before she blew herself up. He said she looked weird, like she was a robot or something.’
‘Quint,’ Aneka said, spitting the word out.
‘He’s dead,’ Ella replied, frowning.
‘Yes, but he couldn’t be the only psychic who can reprogram people.’
‘No,’ Truelove agreed, ‘he isn’t. It’s illegal, immoral, and repugnant, but far from impossible.’
Ella swallowed. ‘So they get kidnapped and programmed to blow themselves up in populated areas. That’s… Why am I even surprised by this kind of thing anymore?’
‘It’s good that you are, love,’ Aneka told her. ‘When you get to be as cynical as I am, I’ll be worried.’
‘Well,’ Truelove said, ‘this has had one slightly positive effect. Elroy has declared a state of emergency. There’s a night-time curfew in effect, people are to move about only when necessary, and there are to be no gatherings of more than three people. It means the siege of the embassy is over.’
Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame Page 14