The Peyti Crisis: A Retrieval Artist Novel: Book Five of the Anniversary Day Saga (Retrieval Artist series 12)

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “She’s not sleeping?” Talia asked. The question sounded important.

  Popova’s gaze met Nyquist’s, but he couldn’t read it.

  “She’s working her butt off,” he said.

  Talia looked down, and nodded.

  He decided to venture one more piece of information. “But the stress is taking a toll on all of us.”

  “We’re never going to solve this, are we?” Talia asked. “We’re just going to get attacked forever.”

  He didn’t know how to answer that. At his bleakest, he felt that way.

  “We’re making progress,” he said. He had a confidence in his voice he didn’t quite feel. Or maybe he did. For all of his disgust, his talk with Uzvaan showed that the clones had answers, and at least one of them was willing to talk.

  Several others might be as well.

  Talia shook her head.

  “I’m sending you a menu,” Popova said to her. “I want you to choose something from it.”

  “I’m not hungry,” Talia said.

  “And still, you’re choosing,” Popova said.

  At that moment, Flint came down the hall. He was grinning. Nyquist’s heart rose. Why would Miles Flint, one of the most serious people Nyquist had ever known, grin?

  “Nyquist! You’re here,” Flint said as if they were long lost friends and Flint hadn’t seen him for years. “Excellent.”

  Nyquist exchanged yet another confused glance with Popova.

  “I don’t have to brief everyone, then.” Flint looked at the door. “Is Noelle available?”

  “She’s talking to someone,” Popova said, “but I think she’s almost done.”

  “What’s happening?” Talia asked. She sounded frightened. Nyquist wasn’t certain why Flint’s good mood would frighten her.

  “I think I finally figured out how to wrap my arms around this thing,” Flint said.

  “What?” Talia asked. She didn’t seem to understand. Nyquist had always thought of her as smarter than the average kid, but she seemed dulled somehow.

  He wasn’t sure why, and Flint didn’t even seem to notice, so maybe Talia’s behavior wasn’t unusual.

  “Which thing?” Popova asked.

  “Let’s wait for Noelle,” Flint said.

  At that moment, DeRicci’s office door opened.

  “Did you really just send me a menu?” she asked Popova. “If you were going to order something, you could have…”

  Her voice trailed off when she saw Flint.

  “Miles,” she said, noticing that something was different about him, but she clearly couldn’t tell what. “Picking up Talia?”

  “Actually, I came to see you,” Flint said. “But I can talk to all of you. Let’s go in the office.”

  As if it were his own. Not even Nyquist spoke to DeRicci like that. But she didn’t seem to mind. She held the door open.

  “Should I order food?” Popova asked Nyquist softly.

  “Hold off for a few minutes,” he said.

  “Me too?” Talia asked her father.

  He hesitated for just a minute, as if he were weighing the answer.

  “Not this time,” DeRicci said. “I have some classified things I need to discuss.”

  “Order the food after all,” Nyquist said softly to Popova.

  “Already done,” Popova said, as she stood. Then she turned to Talia. “I just ordered food for all of us, and put it on our account. When the delivery arrives, let us know.”

  Talia nodded. She looked heartbroken.

  Flint put a hand on her shoulder, then kissed the top of her head. “I’ll tell you what I can,” he said softly.

  She nodded again, eyes downcast.

  Nyquist turned away from her and walked into DeRicci’s office. It felt a lot more comfortable in here, despite the clutter and the obvious lack of attention DeRicci had paid to anything this last week.

  “What’s with Talia?” Nyquist asked DeRicci.

  “I have no idea,” DeRicci said in a tone that implied she hadn’t noticed and she didn’t care.

  Popova came in next, followed by Flint, who said something Nyquist couldn’t hear to Talia. Then Flint closed the door.

  He looked almost giddy.

  “You have something,” DeRicci said.

  Flint opened his hands, then folded them together. “Give me a chance on this, because it doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s everything.”

  He hadn’t even come all the way into the office. Everyone crowded around him. Nyquist leaned against a desk stacked with empty food containers, some of which he had brought. Apparently no cleaning bot had come into this office for a while. Good thing the containers scrubbed themselves clean after the food became inedible, or this place would reek.

  “Deshin kept telling me we had to follow the money,” Flint said, “but I didn’t even know where to start. That was my biggest hurdle. Deshin himself was tracking the DNA—”

  “You’ve mentioned this,” DeRicci said. She clearly wanted him to get to the point.

  Nyquist could feel how tense she was, how she believed that each moment wasted was another moment that could lead to an attack.

  “I did mention it,” Flint said, “but I didn’t tell you he found a name.”

  “A name?” DeRicci asked.

  Flint nodded. “A woman who works in a classified area of the Earth Alliance. She had access to Frémont’s DNA decades ago. But I can’t find much about her.”

  “I might be able to find out about classified information,” DeRicci said.

  “I know,” Flint said with a curtness that surprised Nyquist. Flint clearly didn’t want DeRicci involved. “Not yet. If she is connected to the attacks, she’ll be watching for someone in authority on the Moon to track her.”

  “That’s not the breakthrough?” Nyquist asked. Because it sounded like a breakthrough to Nyquist. But he wasn’t in on all the planning, and he could tell that DeRicci wanted everything to move quickly.

  “No,” Flint said. “I was researching this woman, doing what I could, when I realized that we already had an entry point for the money. I don’t think I would have figured it out without thinking about this woman’s history—”

  “Miles,” DeRicci said, her irritation evident. “I don’t care how you got there. I want to know what you found.”

  “I haven’t found anything yet,” he said.

  DeRicci rocked back as if he had slapped her. He didn’t seem to notice her reaction.

  “But I know we will,” he said, giving her a sideways glance. Then he raised his eyebrows just a bit, as if telling her to calm down.

  Now, Nyquist was feeling impatient. He was about to second DeRicci’s request for more information when Popova asked,

  “If we can find the money, we can find the attackers?”

  “That’s the theory,” Flint said. “The answer isn’t on the human side. It’s on the Peyti side. In fact, knowing who these clones are—the fact that they failed—gave us a gift. For the most part, they’re lawyers.”

  “Yes,” Nyquist said. “That’s such a fun—”

  “And they went to law school,” Flint said.

  “Yes, but—”

  “They went to Alliance law schools,” Flint said. “I don’t know about Peyti schools, but Alliance schools cost a small fortune. I know; I’ve been investigating for Talia.”

  Nyquist took a breath. He was already five steps ahead of Flint. Law school, payments, tracking, applications—there was a wealth of information on these clones that was just out there. Even if there were lies on every single application, the lies would probably match.

  “My God,” DeRicci said. She’d obviously made the same connections. “We can find them.”

  “You’re sure?” Popova asked. She was the only untrained investigator in the group.

  “I’m positive,” Flint said.

  “I’m even more positive,” DeRicci said. “Because we found a clone who is willing to talk.”

  “Even with S-T
hree?” Flint asked.

  Nyquist nodded. “Palmette’s lawyer. You remember Uzvaan.”

  “I do.” Then Flint shook his head. “I never will understand how someone like him could do something like that. Was it some kind of triggered response?”

  “We don’t think so,” DeRicci said before Nyquist could say anything. “He—”

  “He told me that he felt like he had two lives. The one he wanted, which he was living, and the one that he had been given, which he had to pay for,” Nyquist said. “He also said he knew they would end on the same day. Of course, they didn’t, so now he’s questioning everything.”

  “I’m just amazed that he didn’t question it before.” Flint ran a hand over his face. “And you can talk to him?”

  “We’re just not sure for how long. When S-Three finds out what we’re doing, and they will, they’ll figure out how to shut us down.” DeRicci sounded disgusted.

  “It’s an opportunity,” Nyquist said, “and it’s one I’ll be taking advantage of tomorrow.”

  Nyquist was a bit amazed that he had gone from hating his assignment to looking forward to it. Flint’s discovery made Nyquist’s job that much easier.

  “I have someone who can investigate this on Peyla as well,” DeRicci said. “It’s a human woman on Peyla who deeply understands Peyti culture. She says they’re as shocked as we are by this betrayal, and they’re not sure where to look.”

  DeRicci glanced at Nyquist, then at Popova, before continuing,

  “Bartholomew got Uzvaan to speak Peytin to him. This woman, Jin Rastigan confirms that what Uzvaan said is something that some of the clones of Uzvekmt said on Peyla after they were arrested. It’s part of the training.”

  “I knew it,” Nyquist said, then, before Flint could ask, he explained, “It’s about failure.”

  He told Flint about the interaction, and then DeRicci mentioned the killings on Peyti, and their theory. Popova added her thoughts as well.

  Flint was nodding by the end of it all.

  “And Jin confirmed to me that the Peyti brain is similar to the human brain, even in emotional response. So if you take a child and raise him in a world where failure equals death, then he will learn not to fail. And just like humans, the Peyti child will become desensitized to murder if it’s part of his daily existence.”

  “Then I don’t understand,” Flint said slowly, “how any of these Peyti could have become lawyers.”

  “They were good at the law,” Nyquist said. “They found nuances in whatever was on the books. But their attitudes—Uzvaan’s at least—toward their clients was always a bit contemptuous. I didn’t like that about him.”

  “And now we know why it was there,” DeRicci said. Then she looked at Flint. “I didn’t want Talia in here, because I don’t think we should discuss our progress on the Peyti clones with anyone.”

  “You’re right,” he said.

  “Will she be helping you track the money?” DeRicci asked.

  He shook his head. “She’s not in any shape to do so.”

  Nyquist frowned. So there was something going wrong with Flint’s daughter.

  “I may have found her some help,” Flint said. “I’ll let you know.”

  “She can come up here any time,” Popova said. “We’ll be working, but she’s welcome.”

  “You can work up here,” DeRicci said.

  Flint shook his head. “Remember what I said about being monitored. If there’s a Peyti mastermind as well as a human one, then the Peyti mastermind will be watching for Moon-based investigations. Better that I do it from my office.”

  “You have no protection there,” DeRicci said.

  Flint smiled. “I have no human protection there. Otherwise, I’m well fortified.”

  Nyquist shifted a little. Normally, he would offer his services, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to follow the leads now. They actually had a direction. And it felt good.

  “Let’s get busy on those questions,” he said. “I’ll find out how early I can get to the prison.”

  DeRicci grinned—a real, happy smile. “I actually feel hopeful for the first time six months,” she said.

  Popova laughed in agreement. Nyquist wasn’t sure he’d ever heard her laugh before.

  Flint was smiling too. Then he put up one hand.

  “Not to darken the mood,” he said, “but I want to warn you all that it’ll take me a few weeks to find anything. I have to go slow. If I blunder my way into the databases, someone will catch me.”

  “That’s just prudent,” DeRicci said. “We need to be careful. But at least we have a direction now. Something to hang onto.”

  Nyquist looked at her. She seemed more energized than he’d seen her since Anniversary Day. That was what she needed; she needed hope. She had been flailing in dozens of different directions.

  Everyone had been flailing. Nyquist too. But he had a purpose now. He wasn’t just trying to figure out how to manipulate a suspect into revealing something. He had one who wanted to talk, and he even had questions to ask besides the big one: Why?

  He might get to that. But he suspected not even Uzvaan knew the answer to that big question. Uzvaan’s why—he owed it to his creators—had already been answered.

  Now, Nyquist and the rest of the team had to figure out what Uzvaan’s creators wanted—what their reasons for the attack were. Maybe Uzvaan knew; maybe not. But the creators themselves couldn’t hide forever. And Flint had probably just discovered how to find them.

  “Every investigation has its turning point,” Nyquist said to Flint. “And sometimes it’s just that moment when everything becomes clear.”

  Flint’s gaze met his, softened, and Flint smiled. “I wouldn’t have found it without Deshin. I think he knew all along that the finances were key. We just didn’t know which finances.”

  “I always figured it would be the DNA,” DeRicci said.

  “I thought it was the choice of mass murderers,” Popova said.

  “Those are all elements,” Flint said. “But we’re not going to find our bad guys through those things. If we could, they wouldn’t have been so obvious. It’s the money.”

  “It always is,” Nyquist said, wondering how he missed it. “Money finances everything from greed to hatred to wars. Follow the money, and you find who put something together.”

  “Law schools,” Popova said. “It sounds so simple.”

  “The masterminds expected the lawyers to get blown up with the rest of the Moon,” Flint said. “If they had succeeded, we never would have known what caused this round of explosions.”

  “This was something the masterminds didn’t think they had to cover,” DeRicci said in wonder.

  Nyquist grinned. “And that’s their flaw.”

  Everyone looked at him.

  He shrugged. “They didn’t plan for failure—because it’s not allowed. Uzvaan isn’t the only one in new territory. The masterminds are too. I wonder how they’ll react.”

  The smiles faded.

  This fight was only just now getting underway. They had a lot of preparation to do.

  Because the masterminds would figure out how to react, and this group had to be ready. The Moon had to be ready.

  And Nyquist would do everything in his power to make sure that it was.

  The thrilling adventure continues with the sixth book in the Anniversary Day Saga, Vigilantes.

  A shocking act of violence...

  The looming threat of another attack spurs the Moon’s chief security officer, Noelle DeRicci, to uncover the identity of the masterminds behind the Anniversary Day bombings before they strike again. Armed with information uncovered by Retrieval Artist Miles Flint and Detective Bartholomew Nyquist, DeRicci lets herself hope she can put an end to the violence against the Moon.

  But then a brutal murder changes everything.

  DeRicci must risk everything to launch a secret investigation into the very heart of the Earth Alliance.

  Can the next attack be stopped?
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  Turn the page for the first chapter of Vigilantes.

  FORTY YEARS AGO

  ONE

  THE GRAY DOOR before Claudio Stott had fifteen levels of protection on it. Stott knew because he had actually studied the manual for this part of the Forensic Wing of The Alliance’s Security Services. Most of the other candidates had downloaded the manual and used AutoLearn to figure out the massive information contained within.

  The problem with that, of course, was that the other candidates gave similar answers to the verbal quiz Terri Muñoz gave them before making her final selection for this job.

  Now that Stott stood in the corridor outside the most secure part of the Forensic Wing, he wasn’t certain he wanted this job at all. The door stood at the end of several long corridors. The door was buried in the center of the starbase, and the first rooms beyond the door were clean rooms. He would have to use both a sonic shower, and a shower with specialized liquid before entering and leaving the section, something not mentioned in the manual, because, apparently, it irritated everyone involved.

  Muñoz told him that several employees of the section actually got enhancements to keep their skin moist and to prevent rashes from the four-to-eight-times-per-day showers. The showers themselves sounded like wasted effort. Stott wanted to know why a decontamination chamber wouldn’t work better, one calibrated for foreign DNA.

  Then, even as he had the thought, he realized the problem with his question. The Forensic Wing didn’t care about foreign DNA. They cared about the DNA that every single human being sloughed off through the course of every second of every day.

  The showers, in theory, would prevent the sloughing long enough for the staff to don specially made environmental suits without contaminating the exteriors of those suits.

  He should have known all of that; after all, he had studied the manual.

  He looked at Muñoz. She was slight, her skin tending toward a greenish-olive that made her seem just a little ill. He had seen a holo of her from the days when she was first hired. Then her skin was a creamy brown.