by Eliza Green
Bill pulled down the sheet from her Light Box and activated the machine. Fourteen messages waited, all from her mother. They could wait until later. Bill air-punched a code into the virtual screen and Dave Solan’s face appeared. Dave looked surprised to see Bill.
‘What do you want?’ he said.
‘Don’t be a dickhead, Dave. Get me Simon.’
‘No can do. Simon’s in a meeting.’
‘Then get him out of it.’
‘I’m sorry, but that’s not poss—’
Bill banged his fist down on the coffee table. ‘I’m not asking for your permission. Get him for me. Now.’
Dave blew out a breath and moved away from the screen. Bill could hear voices in the background. A minute later, Dave reappeared looking more subdued. ‘Simon will take your call in his office.’
A few seconds later, Simon appeared on screen, visibly unnerved by the impromptu call. ‘What can I do for you, Bill?’
‘This call isn’t about me.’ He pulled Laura into shot and Simon couldn’t hide his surprise.
‘What happened to her?’ he said.
‘She’s been infected by Indigene genetic code.’
‘Tanya Li explained already. There are doctors here...’
Bill balled his fists. ‘Cut the bullshit, Simon. They don’t want to help her. They want to study her.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘She needs help from the Indigenes. Tell the board members I’ll cooperate with them, do whatever they ask. They can assign a security detail to her if it makes them feel better. I need them to arrange for us to travel to Exilon 5 now.’
‘You’re asking a lot.’
‘Didn’t you hear me? I said I’ll act as the go-between for both parties.’
Simon shook his head. ‘I hate to say it, but you need to speak to Deighton. He has the Chair’s attention, not me.’
‘I wouldn’t trust that fucker as far as—’
Laura tapped Bill on the arm. ‘Let me say something.’
Bill sat back to let her speak but kept one hand on her to steady her. He could feel her shaking.
‘Simon, Gilchrist was worried,’ said Laura. ‘She met with me the day before she died. She wanted to know what the Indigenes were like. You knew about the test subjects—you said the transfer numbers never lie. I think Deighton killed her because she opposed World Government plans to alter people into new Indigenes.’
Simon said nothing.
‘Please, help me.’ Her words came out slow and thick. ‘The Indigenes did this to me. They’re the only ones who can reverse it.’
Simon cut his eyes to Bill. ‘She won’t last the two-week journey.’
‘She will if we put her in stasis. Harvey Buchanan gave me a nanoid treatment to delay the alteration effects, but it’s only temporary.’
‘Why not use the treatment on her now?’
‘He gave me just enough to keep me dependent on his help. I don’t want to waste it,’ said Bill.
‘I can order him to give you more.’
‘It’s a temporary solution. It doesn’t fix the underlying issues.’
Simon sat back. Bill couldn’t bear the silence. He grabbed Laura’s hand. She squeezed it so hard he thought the bones might break. Then, Simon leaned forward.
‘Be at the docking station in Sydney tomorrow morning. I’ll do my best to convince them.’
‘What are our chances?’ said Bill.
‘The board members have wanted you for a long time now. Deighton used your wife to make sure you took a negative interest in the Indigenes. No matter how standoffish the board have been about it, they’re not about to miss out on this trip. Now Laura’s turning into a new species. I think they’d prefer it if she stayed on Earth so they can study her, but if that’s not an option, they’ll want her where they can keep an eye on her.’
Bill’s chest tightened at the mention of Deighton using his wife. ‘What was my real mission on Exilon 5?’
‘Aside from telling us the exact location of the Indigenes? To reveal their strengths and weaknesses.’
‘And they pulled me off, why?’
‘Because you began to sympathise with them.’
‘And now?’
‘The board members view your friendship with the Indigenes as a way for them to get in close,’ said Simon.
Bill shook his head at the pack of lies they had fed him for so long.
‘Inform them that we’re on our way,’ he said. ‘For once, Simon, you’ve chosen the right side.’
28
Charles Deighton yawned as his town car pulled up outside the docking station in Washington DC. He shook off his lethargy after a restless night’s sleep and swapped the car’s warm interior for a blast of cold air. A second car carrying his bodyguards pulled up and they got out. Next he saw a string of lights through the gloom. The approaching light blinded him as a convoy of black cars pulled up to the kerb. Three board members got out just as a military vehicle pulled up behind the last car. Tanya Li was among them.
He greeted Tanya, the conservative member and the liberal member with a brief, stiff handshake. They huddled together in their thick winter coats. Deighton’s icy breaths filled his mask with condensation. The oversized bodyguards talked into micro-thin wires and patrolled the stretch of pavement outside the docking station.
‘Are we waiting for someone else?’ Deighton asked Tanya.
Tanya shook her head. ‘This is it. Nobody else wanted to come. But don’t worry, we’ve enough security.’
Deighton didn’t care about security. Fewer board members meant less for him to convince about his alteration plans. ‘Are we meeting Mr Taggart and the girl on the passenger ship?’
‘Yes, I’ve arranged their travel from Sydney. Security will accompany them.’
On board the spacecraft, the tension in Deighton’s body refused to break. Taggart could be a problem and he needed a strategy to deal with his most rogue investigator. Maybe if he spoke to Taggart privately, he could convince him to see things his way. The investigator and his sick girlfriend stood in the way of Deighton’s plans to get a sample from Serena.
The spacecraft manoeuvred into the hold of the passenger ship just as Deighton felt a new tremor in his leg and hand. He squeezed his hands together to dull the tremors that usually accompanied his stress.
When the craft doors opened, Deighton stepped out into the hold of the ship. The second spacecraft had arrived and a security team buzzed around Bill Taggart as he emerged with his arm wrapped around Laura. Deighton couldn’t see her face that was covered in a blanket. But Taggart’s face, fraught with worry, told him things were not good for the girl. When Laura stumbled, Taggart scooped her up in his arms. Deighton never did understand relationships. An arrangement that required the best of a person yet yielded so little in return.
Taggart whispered something to Laura before his wild eyes sought out a member of staff. ‘We need to put her in stasis, immediately.’ He handed one of the staff three vials. ‘Give her one dose every four days. It will halt her changes for now. Stasis should do the rest until we get there. Did you get all that?’
The staff member nodded while the remaining staff, flustered by the intense security presence, got their act together and wheeled in a mobile bed. Taggart placed the girl on it. Then the investigator’s eyes cut to Deighton before he disappeared through the hold doors that led to the main part of the ship. The mood lightened and the board members, who Deighton noticed had gone still, finally moved.
A personal attendant appeared and relieved Deighton of his luggage. Genetically superior bodyguards ushered him through the doors as if he were delicate cargo.
Deighton arrived at a corridor that was housed in a separate part of the ship near the cockpit, but away from the general public. Twelve doors—six on either side and one for each board member—were before him. The others picked their rooms. Deighton chose the room furthest away from Tanya.
He entered the room with wa
ll to wall cream carpeting. The attendant placed his bags down and closed the door behind him. A walnut four-poster bed sat against the back wall. Four chairs with cream fabric seats surrounded a marble table in the centre of the room. A chaise longue nestled against the base of the bed. The smell of dark roasted coffee hit him and his eyes cut to the sterling silver pot on the marble table. A single fine bone china cup and a plate of bite-sized lemon muffins sat beside the pot. If it hadn’t been for the Light Box on the wall that had activated as soon as he’d entered, he could have been in the 1920s.
Deighton really needed sleep but his mind wouldn’t settle as he imagined Bill Taggart poisoning Tanya Li with his lies. He would need to limit the private contact Taggart had with Tanya. Deighton had worked hard to get the Chair on side.
He opened his carry-on bag and removed a syringe. He flicked off the protective top and jabbed the needle first into his leg and then into his arm. The muscle-stabilising shots would only work a few days before he’d need another hit.
He forewent the coffee that would only keep him awake to lie on the chaise longue. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. But his sleep mirrored his waking state as he dreamt about being locked in a room with poisonous snakes that kept biting him.
29
An unshaven Bill sat on the floor of the sleeping quarters. His back pressed up against the wall and his knees were pulled up to his chest. Twelve sleeping pods dominated the room that only he occupied. This room was the closest he could get to privacy, and to Laura in the stasis room.
His heart hurt when he pictured her alone in her stasis pod, while the onboard computer monitored her vitals. He dug the heel of his hand into his tired eyes and sighed. He’d already tried to get in to see her but guards posted outside the stasis room denied him access. What else could he do? Demand an audience with the board members? Yes, if it meant he could check that Laura’s transformation had stabilised for now.
But what if the Indigenes couldn’t reverse what they’d done to her? What would he do then?
In his hand, he held the last vial that Harvey Buchanan had given him to slow Laura’s alteration. She’d already had one shot. He’d given the ship’s personnel three additional vials which would cover the two-week journey. He held on to the final one for when they arrived at Exilon 5 and Laura came out of stasis.
Bill pressed his fist with the vial to his chest. He’d done all he could for Laura. It was up to her to fight now.
‘Please fight...’
He thought about their night together and wished they’d got together sooner. Isla used to fill his thoughts but now when he closed his eyes he only saw Laura. She made him want to be a better man. This couldn’t be the end of their story. His chest tightened when he thought about the risks she’d taken for him.
She’s alive, Bill. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
When they’d boarded the ship and in the grips of transformation, she’d even managed a smile for him.
After hours sat on the floor, he stood up and brushed the dust off his green military coat and black combats. He had to believe it would work out fine.
Bill picked up the grey holder that the vials had come in off the floor and slipped the remaining vial into the sleeve. He tucked the holder into the breast pocket of his coat. He might have to sweet-talk Tanya Li to have any chance of seeing Laura. Storming the stasis room protected by Tanya’s genetically modified guards wasn’t an option.
He locked the rest of his belongings inside his sleeping pod and left the room. Outside in the corridor, two military men approached him.
‘The Chair wants to see you,’ one said.
‘Good, because I want to see her. Where is she?’
‘We’ll take you.’
Bill followed one man while another brought up the rear as though he was under arrest. He patted the vial in his breast pocket.
They passed through the recreation room filled with blonde-haired, blue-eyed passengers. Bill gaped at the quiet group dressed in white who smelled of fresh laundry. Not that long ago, passengers could wear civilian clothes.
The people dressed in white paid no attention to the dark-haired, scruffy man being escorted by military. And the glossy look in their eyes explained why.
‘Why have they been drugged?’ Bill asked one of the military men. They stopped in front of a metal door that led to the non-civilian area of the ship.
The man shrugged as he scanned his security chip on the plate beside the door ‘Stasis?’
The door opened. Bill stepped through quickly keen to leave behind the group of blonde passengers that gave him chills. What if Laura’s eyes had been blue instead of green?
The bare floor gave way to thick carpeting and an overpowering smell of flowers. His heavy boots made no noise as he followed the men down a corridor lined with dark oak doors and rich lighting sconces. Gentle music reached his ears.
He’d reached the board member’s hub.
The military men stopped outside a set of double doors; one of them knocked then opened the door. Bill followed him inside the oval-shaped room. Two tall bodyguards stood at military ease against the wall by the door, their heads grazing the ceiling. The board members sat around a table with a leather insert. One red velvet covered chair remained empty.
‘Ah, Mr Taggart, you’re here.’ Tanya Li patted the vacant seat beside her.
Bill looked around at the faces, one he recognised, but the other two he didn’t know. Tanya introduced them including Deighton, but he remembered nothing about the pair except one represented affairs on Earth and the other Exilon 5.
Bill frowned at the small turnout. ‘I expected more of you.’
Tanya nodded. ‘The others couldn’t find people they could trust to look after things in their absence.’
Bill sat down. He ignored the fact that Deighton sat opposite him.
‘Would you like a drink?’ said Tanya. She rang a bell and a waiter emerged from behind a panel in the wall. ‘Brandy, wine? Whatever you’d like.’
Deighton picked up his glass and swirled the amber liquid around. ‘You must try the whiskey, my boy.’ His gaze was fixed on the contents. ‘It’s vintage. You probably won’t get another chance to drink something from 2133. Only a thousand bottles remain in the world and we have them all.’ Deighton’s hands shook. Bill blew air through his nose at the drunken man.
He felt Tanya’s eyes on him as she waited for his reply. ‘Water will be fine.’
The waiter returned with a cut crystal glass of water. Bill lifted the glass to his lips but set the glass on the table without taking a drink.
‘Bill, we know you’ve befriended the Indigenes,’ said Tanya. ‘We need your help to bring them to us. We wish to extend the hand of friendship in an effort to resolve our differences.’
‘I can’t say that I’ve befriended them.’
‘It’s in our interest to find a way to occupy Exilon 5 without interference from them. We want to establish a common ground between our two species,’ said Tanya.
‘And if you can’t find it?’ said Bill.
‘I don’t know what will happen to them. It’s in all our interests that this trip goes well.’
Deighton leaned forward. His watery blue eyes locked on Bill’s and he gave what Bill assumed was a smile. ‘Taggart, my boy, the Indigenes have killed key members of our medical staff. The board is worried that the Indigenes will never come to accept us. Unless we’re open and honest about our plans for Exilon 5, we will always be looking over our shoulder. I’m sure you can understand that.’ Deighton put his glass down and clasped his fingers together. ‘For this meeting to go well, we need the Indigenes to trust us. That’s where you come in.’
Bill hid his disgust for the man who’d orchestrated his wife’s murder. He ignored Deighton and turned to Tanya. ‘They don’t trust you and with good reason. The Indigene you captured—the one you tortured for three months—would have nothing positive to say about you. And that’s just for starters.’ He so
ftened his tone. ‘But, I’m willing to help if you do one thing for me.’
‘You saw him—Anton?’ said Deighton.
The excitement in Deighton’s voice confirmed to Bill what Simon Shaw had told him—that Deighton had sent Anton home with the bomb. ‘I’m told he’s still alive—psychologically damaged, but alive,’ Bill said to Tanya.
‘When we discovered Anton had arrived on Earth unannounced, we had to protect ourselves,’ Deighton continued, not bothered by Bill’s lack of interest in him. ‘We had no idea why he travelled there or what his motives were. We attempted to establish a connection with him, to understand his race better.’ Deighton paused. ‘We don’t blame him for killing two of our doctors—it was self-defence, we know that now. Once we were sure he no longer posed a threat, we sent him home. No harm done.’
‘No harm done?’ Bill controlled his fury with a slow breath and addressed Tanya again. ‘I need a favour from you. I need to see Laura.’
‘Laura’s resting. We’ve given her one of Harvey’s vials, as you instructed. There’s nothing more you can do for her.’
‘I still want to see her. Grant me that request and I’ll do what you want.’
‘I really don’t see the need. She’s being looked after. We won’t allow any harm to come to her.’
Tanya touched her nose; her tell tale sign she was lying. Bill folded his arms and waited.
Tanya stared at him then conceded with a sigh. ‘Fine, but only for a short time. And only after we’re finished here. First, we have business to discuss.’
Bill uncrossed his arms. ‘I’m all ears.’
‘The board members have tried to maintain peace since—well, since Peter Cantwell’s reign as Chair. He gave the order for Exilon 5 to be terraformed all those years ago while the Indigenes occupied the planet. We, as in the current board members, realise that killing the Indigenes may not serve our best interests.’
‘And you came to that conclusion all by yourself?’ Bill laughed. ‘You’ve been killing them in other ways—restricting their movements, tracking them, picking them off one by one and experimenting on them.’