Deus: The Eurynome Code, Book Six

by Gorman, K.

  “Karin’s friends and bodyguards,” Takahashi said politely. A wry smile touched his lips. “They helped find you.”

  Karin pushed a smile onto her face and let out a chuckle, stepping next to Takahashi’s shoulder to tilt her face at the camera.

  “I work for the Menassi Tri-Quad Alliance from Alpha Centauri. They’re a bit paranoid about my well-being, these days, with the Shadows and all. Actually, I can heal the Lost, and the powers you developed helped find a reproducible cure for them.” Her lips twitched again. “I guess you’re probably retired by now, after the incident my sister and I caused, but I know about three governments that would like to figure out how you did it.”

  There was a pause.

  “Unfortunately for them, I don’t do that anymore. Eurynome is behind me now. But, give me a moment. I’ll let you in. I think I owe you some answers, at least―and I would like to know how you are doing. It sounds like you’ve been up to quite a lot since we last saw each other.”

  On the call, there was a groan of creaking leather, as if someone were getting out of a chair, and the line cut.

  The holoscreen retracted back into its base.

  “‘The incident my sister and I caused,’” Soo-jin quoted. “That’s quite a tip-toe. Any way he might not know what you two did on your way out?”

  “Not a chance,” she said. “And I expect him to be wary. But I’m not going to waste this chance.”

  Marc shifted behind her. His hand came down on her shoulder, rubbing into the edge of a muscle with his thumb. She swallowed. Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. She tensed, grinding her teeth as she heard the lock scrape.

  When it opened, all of the color drained from her face.

  Bernard Corringham stood in the doorway, looking over them with an expression of cautious curiosity.

  Chapter Forty-One

  “I thought Elliot was living here?”

  Takahashi’s voice seemed to come from far away. A dull roar filled her mind, rushing through her ears like the thunder of a raging river. Adrenaline surged into her blood, and her hands began to shake. She stared, keeping the smile from before firmly plastered across her lips, dully registering the note of surprise in Takahashi’s manner while her mind ripped itself apart in dizzying panic.

  Then, slowly, her new modifications kicked in.

  One by one, like watching a worker flip switches on a line, her mind closed the door on her panic.

  Within seconds, she was present again, with only a slight tremor in her chest and a shallowness to her breath.

  She blinked.

  Bernard was watching her, his expression harboring more than a little wariness. He was taller than she remembered, and thinner, but it didn’t look like he’d aged. Not like Tylanus had, and certainly not like Sasha had.

  More than gene extension therapy at work, she’d wager.

  He was about half a foot taller than her, with brown hair a shade darker than his brother’s dirty blond.

  And he looked…normal.

  Then again, so did she. Out of the armor, she was just another well-muscled blonde woman.

  He wore a white collared shirt under a thick tan cable knit, and a pair of comfortable-looking jeans. The white socks on his feet stood out against the dark slate tile of the floor.

  “Yes, he is. He just isn’t here at the moment,” Bernard answered, his gaze finally slipping from her to the rest of their group. His searching eyes quickly found Tylanus, and his frown deepened, mild shock hitting his expression. “Aren’t you Eva’s son?”

  Panic leapt in her chest, but Tia clamped it down. Behind her, Marc had gone very still, his fingers tightening on her shoulder. She glanced to the side, exchanging a tight look with Soo-jin. Beside her, the woman’s face had shuttered, going dead serious.

  Not good.

  Fortunately, Tylanus was a better actor than the rest of them. Though his body posture showed a small amount of tension through his shoulders and back and the arms he’d crossed over his abdomen, he played it off, unfolding his arms and hunching with a guilty expression as he replied.

  “Yes, sorry. I’m a bit of a tag-along.” He shot a grin at Bernard. “I heard Karin was coming to see you, so I invited myself onto her ship.”

  “Her ship?” Bernard asked speculatively. His gaze drifted back, presumably taking in the Nemina behind them.

  She laughed, the sound stilted and tense to her ear, and glanced up at Marc behind her. “Technically, it’s his ship, but I’m its usual pilot.”

  Gods, this was so fucked up. Were they just going to stand there, talking as if they were long-lost friends?

  Everyone knew the history. And yet, they were dancing around it.

  But, as they kept standing there, and Bernard kept looking them over, the moment dragged on into awkwardness.

  His gaze flicked back to her, making her heart skip―apparently, not all of her fear and panic had left this time, though Tia was doing a good job of keeping them down and behind the usual glass. His gaze flicked to Marc and Soo-jin before pausing on the two cyborgs in the back.

  “You’ll have to forgive me if I seem rude, but I am cautious. Your sister killed quite a lot of people during your escape, and not all were precisely necessary. You killed, too, if I recall.”

  “Doctor, if I wanted you dead, I would have had someone shoot you from orbit by now.” She shook her head. “No, I just want to talk. There’s a lot of unanswered questions about my past that only you can fill.”

  It was a lie, but it came out smoothly, as if she’d lied every day of her life. She shot him another grin, then stepped around Marc and toward Malouf and Seki.

  Both cyborgs looked mildly uncomfortable. Fortunately for them, the expressions fit well with their armor and their current position as bodyguards.

  She reached up and rested her hand on Malouf’s bicep, feeling the tension in the muscles underneath, and kept her smile firmly in place as she looked up to him. “Specialist Malouf, you and Lieutenant Seki can go back to the ship. Tell Tillerman where I am and whatever else she wants to hear. I know how she likes to keep tabs on me.”

  His gaze flickered down to her. By his expression, he’d overheard enough on the bridge to know who Bernard Corringham was and what danger he represented.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, glancing back to Bernard. “We can stay, if you wish.”

  “That won’t be necessary. Thank you, Specialist.”

  The two soldiers gave her a nod and a quick bow and turned away. Lieutenant Seki looked back once, then turned an inquisitive expression toward Malouf and asked a question, but he made a dismissing gesture and said something in Centauri.

  They both headed back to the ship.

  When she turned back, Bernard was staring at her again, his blue eyes intense.

  Then, to her surprise, he inclined his head and bowed away from the door. “Come in, then. Let’s talk. I’ll have Grace put on some tea.”

  That was too easy, Tia thought. Something is wrong. I think he knows.

  She had to agree. That had been too easy.

  If he’d been a regular person, knowing the history between them, he would have slammed the door in their faces and sicced whatever security program he had on them while he either made a break for it or holed up in a panic room. She swallowed, exchanged a look with Takahashi, and followed Bernard and the rest in.

  They entered through a small mud room, exchanging their outdoor shoes for slippers provided on a small shelf inside, as was common in Japanese houses, and stepped up with Bernard through a small hallway to an open space. A living area with a fireplace and holoscreen setup sat on the left down a set of two stairs, looking out on a continuation of the wisteria-laden walkway from the front of the building and the side yard of the house, and a kitchen opened on her right. Everything had an expensive, understated touch.

  He gestured to the seats in the living room. She never took her eyes from him.

  Baik just called someone, Tia whispered. H
e has a transponder in his pocket.

  Do you think we can beat him? she asked. If it comes to a fight―and I think it will―do you think we can win?

  That all depends on how much power he has accumulated. Remember: your body was literally built for modification. His was not.

  Yes, and yet, she was the one getting headaches and nosebleeds, while Bernard looked just fine.

  Maybe he didn’t make himself a god. Maybe he was really just the same.

  But…why would he allow them inside, then? And why would Sasha lie about it?

  No. He had been planning this since Tia had been alive.

  He was modeling himself after Ophion, right? The snake that was Eurynome’s husband? There’s a story where Eurynome kicked Ophion’s teeth out for insulting her. Maybe we could win?

  Yes, I believe he was, although he wasn’t going for an accurate representation of Ophion, but instead an all-encompassing monotheistic god that was a combination of every single mythological archetype the Cradle had to offer.

  Which means that it is all dependent on who he managed to get into his Cradle.

  Yes. And I don’t see a Cradle yet.

  It’s a big house. I bet it’s here.

  They all sat down in the living room. Bernard stopped by the fireplace to put another small, split log into the wood stove. “So, Tylanus, last I heard, you and your mother went to Nova?”

  “Yes, we were in Nova briefly, but she found it too stifling―you know how she is. Seirlin offered her a spot in one of its Fallon facilities, so we’ve been between Chamak and one of its moons for the past little while.” Tylanus shot her a look from where he’d sat in a small armchair close to the veranda door, the light from outside gleaming on the blackness of his eyes.

  “Chamak? Beautiful planet. I took a trip through one of the northern jungles once. Absolutely stunning.”

  “It is,” Karin said. “Did you hear what Dr. Sasha got up to recently?”

  “No. I haven’t been following. What is it?”

  “Well, it turned out she was the one behind the Shadow attacks. Do you know anything about the ruins in Macedonia? We’ve been trying to figure them out.”

  “Can’t say I do.” He didn’t sit like the rest of them, instead heading close to the doors and leaning against the wall on the other side of the window from where Tylanus stood. “You were always quite fond of them, as I remember.”

  Gods, he actually remembered that?

  She didn’t remember him. Not really. Just a slip of a fractured memory.

  “Yes,” she said cautiously. “I always found them interesting. Magical, really, though our scans show otherwise.”

  “You should try an archaeology department for those. They have one at the university in Skopje.” He glanced up and to the side. “Ah, Grace, there you are. Could you put some tea on for us, dear?”

  A woman had appeared in the hall from the back of the house. Dressed in a simple, elegant combination of slacks and a blouse, she was of middling height and held a mixture of East Asian features, with a narrow face and thick black hair that she kept pinned in a tight bun at the back of her head.

  Karin’s jaw slackened, and something inside gave way.

  The woman looked just like Tia.

  She was on her feet before she knew it, staring. “What the fuck?”

  Bernard glanced to her, startled. “Pardon?”

  “You―you leave me to rot in a tank, and you make yourself a god-damned clone?” She sputtered. “What in the fuck is wrong with you?”

  The woman froze, eyes wide. Karin took several steps forward, mouth agape. Cold shock flowed through her.

  Then, anger.

  When she turned, Bernard was staring at her. Everyone was staring at her. Her body shook, rage lining her mind with hot lead. Power fluctuated through her fingers. She turned slowly, her lips twisting into a sneer when they met Bernard’s eyes.

  He was frowning, his stare boring hard into her.

  Then, it clicked. The frown dropped from his face, replaced by shock.

  “Tia?”

  “In the fucking flesh,” she spat. “Gods. You―You actually did it. You actually fucking did it.”

  “Well, fuck,” Soo-jin muttered from her chair. “Guess that cat’s out of the bag.”

  Slowly, her powers were awakening, Eurynome’s strength and mind coming into more and more prominence as Tia took control. She shook her head, squinting as the room seemed to flicker around her. Wherever she looked, a strange static began to rise. She stared at the nearest potted plant, an ornamental ficus, a living version of the dead ones they’d found in the abandoned Eurynome Project office on Nova, and reached out to touch one of its leaves.

  Slowly, the static receded, and she snatched her hand back.

  Before her, the leaf bobbed up and down.

  But it…wasn’t a leaf. It wasn’t real. Not like it had been moments ago.

  It looked like a leaf, and felt like a leaf. Hells, it even smelled like a leaf. If she put it under a microscope and examined its cells, it would have every single property of a leaf.

  But it was just an alien wearing the same face. Bernard had changed it, just like he’d changed the rest of the world.

  Suns. He really had made himself God.

  No wonder he’d felt so comfortable letting them all in. Even if they did attack, he had an enormous advantage.

  “Now I see what Sasha meant. Now that I’m here, in front of you, I can feel it. You were smart about it, weren’t you? Taking over, bit by bit, living a quiet life, not drawing attention. All the while, you were undermining the entire structure of the world around you, right down to a quantum level.”

  She looked around as she spoke, taking in more and more of the room. It was like watching a film form on top of an old mug, but so much deeper. Bernard had threaded himself through every piece of this reality, an entire universe of dormant cells ready to mutate on his command. She could only see it because she was looking right at him. “Gods, you were always a two-faced bastard.”

  He was watching her. She could feel it. She turned slowly, shaking, until she faced him once again.

  “How many did you kill?” she asked. “How many did you kill to get this power?”

  He gave her a sad smile. “Tia, Tia, I’m surprised you even ask that question. You already know the answer.”

  And she did know.

  Hundreds, she thought. Nearly a thousand. If he could, he would have made more. There are millions of deities in some places. If he could, he would have made and killed them all.

  But he hadn’t had time. And, by the looks of it, he hadn’t had the desperate ambition that Sasha had to cook up more in a time-controlled pocket dimension.

  This house was no Olympus. But she was willing to bet his Cradle was here.

  She snapped her gaze once again to the woman in the kitchen. Her clone looked taken aback. There was a comms device in her hand. She must have picked it up when Tia had started acting out.

  Her gaze flicked over the familiar features, the way she turned her head, the cool logic of her gaze.

  Had he made another Eurynome?

  A sick feeling hit her gut. She shuddered, fighting as a fit of anger rolled through her.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I wanted to see if it was possible. And it was.”

  “So you just did it?” She sputtered. “You just killed people?”

  He shrugged. “If it weren’t for me, they never would have lived. Their lives served a single purpose, as did yours.”

  Her hands were shaking. In the kitchen, Grace was silent. Everyone around her had grown tense. Marc was still sitting, but his alert, straight-backed posture suggested he could get to his feet any second. On the other side of the couch, Soo-jin sat with her fingers gripping the chair’s arm like claws, her expression wiped of emotion. Baik and Reeve exchanged a look. They both carried blasters.

  A dull roar covered her mind again. She shuddered, a wave of numbness rush
ing through her, then her mind clicked.

  “My life was not to serve you,” Tia said. “And neither is hers.”

  Power rippled. She reached out to the dimensional barriers, pulled at their boundaries, and made to rip Bernard Corringham straight down the middle.

  An energy, dark and nefarious, blocked hers with a clank of steel. She staggered, pain blooming through her skin as if she’d been hit. For a full second, the room swayed in her mind.

  When her vision focused again, Bernard was moving forward, his socked feet silent on the carpet. Power built around him, his energy in everything at once. Nothing was sacred for him. She saw that now, what Sasha had been seeing all along. He’d inserted himself into every atom in the universe like an invisible disease. The floor, the walls, the fireplace next to them, even the very air they breathed.

  Along with every person in the room.

  He could do anything he wanted, depending on what Programs he’d loaded into himself.

  She retreated, wide eyes staring at everything.

  He’s taken over everything. And our power is useless against him. This is his world.

  She snarled. “Fuck you.”

  Then, she went for the fire poker.

  She swung it at his face, and it hit an invisible wall. In the kitchen, her clone gave a cry and began running.

  Her power shifted. She turned, the fingers of her free hand flexed into claws, her expression twisting, putting the clone in her sights.

  Bernard attacked.

  She wasn’t sure what he did. The image of him next to her blurred, and the next thing she knew, pain exploded from her left side. A hand grabbed her wrist and jerked it up high. Her shoulder popped, bones snapping and cracking like kindling. She screamed, power fluctuating. Around the room, everyone jumped up. A blaster cracked, splashing straight through Bernard and sniping into the brickwork of the fireplace. The woman in the kitchen yelped. She saw Tylanus move.

  Then, something popped in her head, and everything went black.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The darkness flexed, breathed. The Shadow twisted inside her, around her, the fog of its being both a comfort and a fear. She caught a flash of the Macedonian ruins, the clean, cold smell of their stone, the roughness on her skin. A sky full of stars rotated overhead―then she was gone again, floating in the blackness.