by Melissa Good
Stephan sat next to her, resting his elbows on his knees, watching the gasses from the jet lifts evaporate. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Jess leaned back and rested her head against the rock wall. “None of this was your fault, Stephan.”
“I know. I’m just sorry. I don’t want you to leave. I’ll miss you.”
Jess was so surprised she nearly fell off the bench. She turned her head and looked at him, but he was staring ahead, his shoulders hunched. “I’ll miss you too.” She waited for him to look at her and their eyes met. “I’ll miss this place. I’ll miss the force. It’s really the only home I’ve had.”
“Stupid mother fuckers,” Stephan said, clipping the words, and clamping his jaw shut. “If Elias was still here—”
“Well, she’s not.” Jess sighed. “But she would have kicked Bricker’s ass, that’s true, and put a shut on his damn crazy ideas.”
The transport door opened and moved down to form a ramp. After a brief pause, several people came out. Most were in Interforce uniform and didn’t really give them a glance on passing. The last two were a man and a woman, both blond and in civ space gear, both looking a bit unsteady under downside grav.
The woman had a bio alt collar, and as she cleared the ramp she looked over and her eyes met Jess’s.
It was an almost physical impact. Jess felt her nape hairs lift a little, bringing a chill to the back of her neck as her heart did a funny little thump in her chest. She watched the blonde woman almost trip on the edge of the ramp. She looked away as the man next to her put a hand on her shoulder and urged her toward the entrance.
Jess saw the door close behind them and she jerked her attention back to the transport. Was that Bricker’s damn crazy project? “Bricker keeping that bio alt idea going?” She asked, clearing her throat a little as she heard the rasp in her voice.
“Yeah.” He stood up. “Told them he wanted to start early, matter of fact.” He looked at Jess. “Let’s get you settled on board.”
It must have been the bio alt. Jess stood up, resisting the urge to look behind her, at the closed door. She’d never seen that set before and she’d come in with what looked like a proctor.
She followed Stephan up the ramp, then exhaled and dismissed the unlikely newcomer, since she was heading in the wrong direction to care. “That’s too bad. I was hoping they’d at least kill that idea, and save that poor bastard pain and trouble.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t have any unpaired agents so I don’t know why he wanted them now.” Stephan stopped abruptly, almost making Jess crash into him. “Oh.” He took a step back. “Sir.”
Jess looked up quickly and edged to one side. Standing at the top of the ramp was an older man, with silver white hair and a long, saturnine face. He had a hooked nose and bushy eyebrows, and she felt her own eyes open wide as her brain identified him.
The Old Man. That’s what everyone she’d ever known called him, but never to his face, and she was careful to school her tongue not to utter that description rather than his name. Alexander Bain, the man who ran Interforce, though she had no idea what his actual title was, or whether he really did own the vast organization or just operated it for some moneyed consortium.
“Commander, Bock,” the man rumbled. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“No, sir.” Stephan inclined his head a little. “It’s a great honor.”
“Hm,” the man mused. “And this is Agent Drake, I assume?”
“No,” Jess replied quietly. “Not anymore, sir.”
The Old Man studied her, making a little beak with his lips, and knitting his brows. “I see. Well, perhaps you could join me inside for a moment, so we can have a chat. I would hate to lose this opportunity to exchange a few words with someone who has tendered my organization such excellent service.”
Jess felt very off balance, and not only because she was standing on a ramp. “Yes, sure.” She managed to mutter.
“I didn’t know you were arriving, sir,” Stephan said, meekly. “We would have made arrangements.”
“You didn’t know I was arriving because I took some pains to make sure you didn’t.” Bain said. “What’s the fun of being the Old Man if I can’t show up unannounced and scare the living daylights out of everyone?”
“Sir,” Stephan responded.
“Please go take a seat there, Commander.” Bain pointed at the bench.
“Do not contact anyone, do not move until we come back. Understood?”
“Sir.”
Bain turned and went back into the transport, clearly expecting Jess to follow him. She did, shifting her duffel a little to allow it to clear the door frame as she went inside, moving off the metal ramp onto the solid steel of the airframe.
They went down the port passageway, past the general seating section with its rows of cramped bucket seats and belt-ins. The lights were dim and there were three bio alts there vacuuming the interior with the intent, single minded purpose of their kind.
Bain led the way through a second passageway, and then down into the aft of the transport, opening a door and passing through into a smaller, more comfortable section.
He took a seat on one of the large, plush chairs and indicated the other with a wave of his hand. “Please sit down.”
Jess unloaded her duffel and put it neatly against the wall. Then she sat down in the chair and put her hands on the arms, facing him and waited.
He could be there for many reasons. She wasn’t quite vain enough to think she was one of them. Jess knew she could be forgiven if she immediately started explaining her part and viewpoint in the whole situation, but she was savvy enough to know sometimes it was just better to shut your mouth and wait.
So she did.
Bain studied her. “You have a reputation for many things,” he said. “For stubbornness and arrogance, for courage and perseverance, for strategic brilliance and occasional criminal insubordination.”
Jess pondered that. “That’s pretty accurate,” she said. “I trust my own judgment and have learned, painfully, not to trust pretty much anyone else’s.”
“You know, I learned much the same lessons myself,” he said. “However, I never quit over any of it.”
Jess waited, not really offended by the accusation as it was, in essence, true.
The silence lengthened. Eventually, Bain smiled a trifle. “It occurs to me that perhaps what I was told regarding this entire event was not entirely accurate,” he said. “Would you like to enlighten me further?”
Perfect opening. The tantalizingly offered leverage made her tongue itch. Jess watched his body language and evaluated him as she’d had to so many others over the years. “The official report is the official report, Sir. I’m sure Bricker had reason for the report he tendered to you.”
Bain steepled his fingers and regarded her. “Come now. I’m sure you have a side to this event to tell. There’s always more than one.”
“That’s true, sir. But my view is my view, not the corps’s view. That’s what is relevant to you.”
Now Bain smiled more easily. “Ah.” He leaned back. “Eleven generations, hasn’t it been? Given at six, taught and trained by the corps, loyalty bred in the gut for years. Even if the corps just turned its back on you, regardless of your service, at the whim of a single minded chimp with a view so narrow it’s a wonder he does not trip over his own jackassery.”
Jess remained silent for a few moments as she watched him watch her. Then she exhaled a little, deciding on honesty. “Only home I’ve ever known,” she admitted. “But I’d be damned if I was going to walk the corps into an embarrassing disaster just to serve the purpose of being the scapegoat for the Council.”
“Hm,” Bain mused. “Is that what you think this is?”
“Don’t you?” Jess responded bluntly. “Or why are you here?”
“Why am I here?” He tapped his fingertips together. “Now, that’s a very good question, isn’t it,” he said. “Before I get into that, let me ex
press to you how personally grateful I am that you concluded the ambush you got into the way that you did. I think you must know that the results of that incident turned out badly for the group who planned it on the other side.”
Jess wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “We lost good people.”
“We did,” Bain agreed. “But they lost more good people, and it seriously pains me to think our final consequence of that situation will be losing you.”
That could only be a compliment. For no apparent reason, Jess suddenly recalled a pair of pale green eyes looking into hers and she let herself have a moment of possibly wondering if there was a way back. “Thank you, sir. It hurts me to separate myself.” She paused. “I had hoped by taking myself out of the situation, it might stop Bricker’s plans. But it seems not to be so.”
“No.” Bain shook his head. “But consider this. It might well be the idea of replacing a tech with a bio alt is a pitch to deflect the investigation of the Council.”
Jess nodded.
“However, it’s equally possible that this idea, as unlikely as it seems to you, might succeed,” Bain said. “In which case, almost certainly we will achieve a sea change that might alter the way the corps operates in a good way.”
“All due respect, sir, I don’t really think so. It takes years to train a tech. They’ve had only a couple of days to prepare, and even with the knowledge, the instincts aren’t there.”
“Hm.” The Old Man leaned forward. “Jess Drake. Do you truly wish to leave?”
There was a long silence.
“Do you truly wish to become a harvester? Live in a stone box? Sleep on the floor? Scrape moss and seaweed for two meals a day?”
“No,” Jess finally admitted. “But I don’t want to lose my honor either.”
“Ah,” Bain said. “That I do understand, as I too put a great stake on my honor.” He looked intently at her. “Let me ask you this. Would you put your honor to one side just long enough to accompany me back inside that rock pile? There is something I believe I would like to show you. This might—or might not—allow you to bend your principles enough to consider remaining.”
It was so tempting to immediately agree. Jess knew she wanted to. The surge of emotion at the offer was undeniable. Catching Bain’s eyes on her, she realized abruptly that he knew that, he was reading her just as clearly as she often read others. She just smiled. “I can do that,” she said. “Gladly.”
Bain smiled. “I imagined you might say that.” He stood up. “Let’s go then. Before your Commander Bock cannot sit on his instincts any longer and rushes inside to ruin my surprise.” He waited for Jess to get her duffel, then led the way back out.
He paused, just before they were about to exit, and turned. “Drake,” he said in a lower, more serious tone. “I do understand what you experienced. I understand why you have lost trust.”
Jess studied him. “I’ll carry the memory of his laughter as he cut me to my grave,” she said. “That takes a lot of getting over. I’m not sure I can.”
Bain nodded. “Consider helping me resolve this crisis, as you did the last one, and I will put you in a position that will not require that of you.” He watched her eyes intently. “Think on it.” He turned and descended the ramp, now in pristine condition from it’s cleaning.
Jess took a deep breath and released it. She followed him down the ramp and across the landing pad, seeing a group of bio alts, and several security troops waiting there to board. Stephan saw them and stood up, approaching quickly.
“Bock.” The Old Man waved him forward. “Glad you didn’t go with your base instincts. Join us.”
Stephan just nodded and fell in next to Jess. He raised his eyebrows at her, and she raised her shoulders at him, and they walked on in silence.
The troops braced to attention at Bock’s signal. The bio alts just looked confused.
Jess kept her head down as she caught up to Bain at the stronghold entrance, watching him key open the door and step inside. “Sir.”
“Hm?” Bain turned and looked at her.
“They’ll need to reset my creds.” She pointed at the scanner. “I’m not much in the mood to be crisped to death right now.”
“Ah.” Bain turned and pointed at one of the guards. “Deactivate that.” He indicated the scanner, squatting mutely over the entrance.
“Sir, we can’t.” The guard looked distressed.
“You can,” Bain said. “Or did you mean to tell me you don’t know how?”
The guard went to the console. “No, sir, I do know, but—”
“Come along, lad,” Bain said. “Just tell them I said to do it. I am the last court of appeals. The final judge, as it were.” He glanced at Stephan and smiled. “Has a nice ring, doesn’t it?”
“Sir,” Stephan murmured.
The guard still looked uncertain.
“Or, I could just order Mister Bock here to kill you and do it himself.” Bain went on. “Since I am the top sec, as it were, hmm? My name, since you seem unsure, is Alex Bain.”
“Sir!” The guard’s eyes got as big as clams. “Yes, sir!” He rushed forward to deactivate the sytems.
Jess stood quietly waiting, not exactly sure what emotion it was that was stirring up her guts. As the faint hum ceased, and the light went out over the scanner, she had to force herself to cross under it, wondering if she really hadn’t just gone from bad to infinitely worse.
“Well done.” Bain started forward with her. “Now don’t you worry, Drake. We’ll get this all sorted out, tally-ho.”
IT WAS A long walk. They followed the guard mostly in silence. Kurok’s brow was now creased with worry, and Dev was too busy looking at everything to talk.
It was very, very strange. Dev tilted her head back and looked up at the high ceiling, its irregular surface seeming odd and out of place. She followed the two men through the now open steel door and down a corridor bisected by many other steel doors blocking their way until they were keyed through.
Security? Dev felt the sensation of the space they were in closing in on her, aware suddenly of how much solid material was around them as they moved further inside the facility. There were no other people around until they entered the last door in the corridor, which opened up into a huge central space, with yet more corridors leading off in all directions.
Here, there were people. Lots of them. Dev felt their eyes on her as they passed and she moved closer to Doctor Dan in reflex at the borderline hostility directed at her.
The man in green led them to a door set in stone with a rotating red light over it. He scanned through and then held the door open for them to enter.
“Thank you.” Kurok gave him a brief smile, and then he guided Dev inside a round cavern of a room, with consoles around every available edge. Four people were standing in the center of the room next to a table with a big lit screen.
One, she recognized immediately as Commander Bricker. The other three were unknown to her, not even a memory flash indicating they’d been programmed. She followed Doctor Dan down three steps, then across a ramp up to the central table.
Bricker was juggling a light pen. “I thought they were sending her alone,” he said. “I don’t need anything that needs an escort.”
Kurok stepped up onto the platform and took a seat on one of the stools, folding his arms across his chest in a typical pose. “I don’t need to turn over one of my projects to ignorant gits,” he said. “You cut short the programming cycle. I want to know why.”
His voice was casual and unafraid, and Dev felt a certain awe of him. Even though she knew he was important, at least to her kind, she knew from her programming they were in a dangerous space.
The other people in the room were staring at Kurok. Bricker had stopped juggling his pen and was also staring as though unable to believe what he was hearing.
“You have any idea where you are, buddy?” Bricker finally said.
“Yes,” Kurok replied. “Station ten, Central Design level four,
comm space Alpha, control central, data store prime. Now please answer my question. If you can’t, then I’ll be more than glad to take my friend Dev here and go back where we came from.”
Dev merely stood very still, having no reference at all as to what to do.
“As the chief geneticist of LifeForce on Bio station two, whom you’ve asked to provide you with this resource, I need to know why you truncated an already insufficient release cycle,” Kurok restated his question. “I have no intention of providing you with either a scapegoat or an excuse for failure.”
Bricker started juggling his pen again. “So that’s who you are. Figures why we didn’t have an ident on you. Made sure no one could look at your insides too close. Huh?”
Kurok didn’t answer. He merely sat there, head cocked a little to one side, waiting.
Bricker turned to the display table. “Well, you’re gonna have to wait, buddy, since I’ve got an activity in work. If it completes, maybe you can just take this jelly bag with you and go back to that crystal palace you got up there after all.”
The door opened behind them, and Bricker glanced over his shoulder as three people entered. “What—” He straightened and started to reach for a pad, then stopped. “Sir.”
Alexander Bain strolled up the ramp. “Bricker.” He glanced at the rest of them. “I found these two outside. Seems a terrible place to leave agents, seeing as you’ve lost so many lately.”
Dev backed up a little as the two other people emerged from the shadows, revealing the two from the outside bench. Now they looked wary and uncomfortable and she held her breath as they both looked around and she found herself once again meeting the woman’s gaze.
Kurok got up off his stool and took a step back, putting himself between Dev and the table as the tension in the room ratcheted up to a higher level. “Well now. This is getting interesting.”
Bain’s eyes swept over and pinned him, one grizzled gray brow lifting sharply. “You!”