Veiled Designs: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Uprise Saga Book 3)

by Amy DuBoff

  “We were always looking for the wrong thing,” Luke said. “The mineral is in everything on the planet, so it never stood out.”

  “What makes the telepaths different?”

  “The right neurochemistry, near as I can tell. In certain individuals, the mineral accumulates to form the neural bridge that enables telepathy. A random side effect.”

  “And such small traces that it never registered, without knowing where to look or what for.” Kurtz shook his head. “With everything we know, we still know so little.”

  Luke chuckled. “Humbling, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed, it is.” The colonel paused. “That wasn’t the reason for my visit, though I am glad to hear you solved the mystery. I needed to talk to you about the solution you developed for my condition with Nox.”

  “What about it, sir?”

  “The neurochemical mixture—can it be scaled up?”

  “You mean doses for a large number of people?” Luke clarified.

  “No. More like make it into an industrial-strength aerosol.”

  The statement was so out of nowhere that it look Luke a moment to process the words. “I don’t think that’s possible. You could never control the dosing.”

  “This isn’t for people,” the colonel clarified. “We want to use it to dissolve the rock-like structures on Nezar and Gidyon. Since we can’t get a super-weapon to blow up the whole planet, we need to take a more surgical approach.”

  “I wish I could help you, sir, but I would have no idea how to do that. Doctor Dwyer knows way more than I do about the chemical mixture we used.”

  “I’m not asking for you to do it, just for you to put me in touch with your former contacts.”

  Luke stared at him. “From NTech? You want to involve them in this?” he asked, not caring that his tone was far from deferential.

  “I want to involve anyone who has the information and resources to accomplish this task in our timeframe, whether they work for NTech, the university, or anywhere else.”

  This is insane.

  Luke fought the impulse to say as much out loud. “It’s possible that NTech would have the necessary chemicals to synthesize a large batch. If they do, it would be located in a supply cache outside the capital city on Nezar.”

  “Forward me the appropriate contacts, as best you can estimate. I’ll coordinate with them and the Nezaran government to get some mining equipment.”

  Luke’s eyes widened. “What for?”

  Kurtz cracked a smile. “Well, I doubt the Dyons are going to let us inside the facility through the front door, or via that back tunnel from the government building, with a deadly arsenal in tow. So we’ll make our own door.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The incoming message from Colonel Kurtz caught Karen by surprise.

  Shit, what now? She set aside her review of the media summary Trisha had drafted.

  “Colonel Kurtz,” she said, answering the call.

  “The FDG is sending support to Nezar. It’ll arrive in approximately sixteen hours.”

  Karen did the math. It was the minimum travel time from headquarters to their location. “Thank you, Colonel.”

  “In preparation for their arrival, I have a request. Actually, several requests,” Kurtz went on.

  “What can I do?”

  “I hope you’ve made friends in the government, because you’ll probably need to call in everyone’s favors.”

  Karen braced for it.

  “Our plan is to make a chemical assault on the pit in the valley,” the colonel continued. “However, we’ll need to source those chemicals on Nezar, and also create an alternate access point into the valley facility to directly deploy the solution.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Karen asked.

  “Drilling an access shaft,” Kurtz stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Drilling a…?” Karen laughed. “Yeah, sure, if we had a month.”

  “You have sixteen hours, beginning now, to get the equipment to the site. We’ll have twelve hours to drill, once we know the exact location.”

  Karen almost choked on her breath. “That’s an impossible timeline.”

  “I looked at your mining records, and the drills you have within range of the city can accomplish the project well within that time. Get the equipment in place and have operators standing by.”

  Taking a deep breath, Karen composed herself. “This is critical to your plan?”

  “It is.”

  “Then it will be ready,” she stated with assurance she didn’t feel.

  “Good. And the second matter involves synthesizing a large batch of specific neurochemicals. We need to leverage any connections that government officials have with NTech. I have the names of contacts, but I don’t know if they will take this threat seriously.”

  “I’ll make sure the appropriate people get in touch.”

  “I’ll leave you to it. Good luck.” Kurtz ended the call.

  Shit, what did I just sign myself up for? Karen shook her head.

  She hit the comm on her desktop. “Trisha, Fiona, get Garett and the others. We have a new project.”

  * * *

  Nezar glowed rusty orange against the black starscape out the Raven’s kitchen window. Ava and her team were dressed in their light armor, ready to head out.

  Behind them, Widmore was consulting a tablet with the latest reports feeding in from Kurtz and Karen.

  “Okay, everything should be in place for us,” Widmore reported. “Mining equipment is en route to the valley where the pit is located, and a chemical cocktail is being brewed at the NTech lab.”

  “Sir, can we trust NTech to deliver?” Ava asked.

  “Karen has a government team overseeing it,” the major replied. “The remaining NTech workers want this awful business behind them as much as anyone else. Honest people worked there, regardless of what the company was up to behind the scenes. Everyone is jumping at the chance to make things right.”

  Ava nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Ava, you and your team will head directly for Dome 5 to meet with Karen’s informant,” Widmore continued. “We need to know the exact placement of the pit within the facility, and he’s the only one we know of who’s seen it.”

  “Speaking from experience,” Ava began with a frown, “geography makes no sense when you’re underground.”

  “This is true,” Widmore replied, “but we have a map of the facility as part of the data Karen and her people retrieved. The only problem is the pit isn’t noted on that map. If you can trace the route in the man’s mind, we can apply that navigation to the map, which will then translate to the official geological survey.”

  “Understood, sir, I’ll do my best,” Ava acknowledged.

  “What about the chemicals?” Samantha questioned.

  Widmore nodded pensively. “That’s where things will get tricky—well, trickier. The pit on Nezar and the one in Gidyon need to be hit simultaneously to make sure the Dyons don’t have time to jump somewhere safe, assuming that’s something they can do. Except we need to load the chemicals onto space tankers to bring to Gidyon. The transit time will be cutting it dangerously close to the alignment time.”

  We can’t assume that alignment time means anything, Ava commented to Ruby. There’s no way they’d construct something on this scale, and have it work only for a narrow window.

  >>I agree. Either our assumptions about the significance of the alignment are wrong, or…<< the AI faded out.

  Or…?

  Ruby’s mental tone turned darker. >>Or they only need the alignment to activate the setup, and then alignment doesn’t matter.<<

  Ava’s stomach twisted. That is the only explanation that would make sense.

  “How do we deploy the chemicals in Gidyon?” Edwin asked.

  Ava returned her attention to the room. “I need to distract them.”

  Widmore nodded. “I don’t know how to articulate that request, or if it’s even reasonable, but we do nee
d you to find a way to keep the interstellar transmitter from activating. We have no extra room in the timeline.”

  “I have an idea for how to do that, but I won’t know for sure until I get down to Nezar,” Ava replied.

  “Then enough talking,” Widmore stated. “I’ll be coordinating activities from here on the Raven. As soon as the chemicals are loaded, we’ll head to Gidyon. You need to gather the necessary information and get back here within two hours.”

  No pressure, Ava quipped to Ruby.

  >>Only the fate of this system and maybe the entire Federation at stake, nothing to worry about.<<

  Jesting aside, Ava knew she was up for a major challenge. She had full confidence that she would be able to extract the necessary map information from Karen’s informant, but the part about learning the Dyons’ weakness would be much more difficult to accomplish. When it came down to it, though, she had to succeed.

  The team was dismissed from the kitchen, and they took the ladder down to the hangar so they could load into the pod in preparation for descent.

  With Nick and Samantha at the front controls, Ava and Edwin strapped into the back passenger area.

  Samantha examined the pod’s navigation instructions. “Do you know anything about these dome districts, Ava?” she asked.

  “We’re going to Dome 5, right? I think it’s the seedy part of town, from what I’ve heard. Not sure why an ex-government worker would be hanging out in those parts, but we’ll go where we’re told.”

  Once the Raven was in position, the pod dropped from the belly of the ship and descended through the atmosphere. Unlike on their previous visit, it was still broad daylight, and they were able to get a full view of the city’s five domes as they approached. Ava tried to spot the valley from the air with no luck.

  The pod set down a hundred meters from one of Dome 5’s entrances, which was little more than an overhang and a sliding door.

  Ava and her team stepped outside, and a wave of intense heat washed over them.

  “I really don’t like this place,” Samantha muttered.

  “You’ve been saying that about everywhere we’ve been recently,” Nick shot back.

  She sighed. “Why can’t we ever get assignments on planets with tropical beaches?”

  Ava smiled. “Because we only go where there’s trouble, and no one wants to cause a fuss in a paradise like that.”

  “Man, now I’m craving a drink with a tiny umbrella in it,” Edwin grumbled.

  They stepped through the entry doorway into an intermediary space between the outside and the main set of interior doors.

  Two sentries standing inside the door stiffened as the group approached the security checkpoint.

  “State your business,” the first guard asked, placing a hand on his holstered sidearm as he surveyed the group’s armor and weapons.

  “Lieutenant Ava Landyn with the FDG,” she stated. “Our orders should have been filed this morning.”

  The guard’s colleague nodded.

  “Yes, everyone has been sent to their homes, as requested. You should have a clear path to your destination,” the first guard replied.

  “Thank you.” Ava inclined her head and continued past them.

  The inside of the dome was simpler than Ava would have imagined, for a civilization reliant on technology to survive the planet’s harsh environmental conditions. She’d seen pictures of the city before, but she realized those had probably been of the central districts. Any metropolis had an area that never made it onto the tourist brochures.

  They followed a map depicted on their wristbands, since the light armor didn’t include a faceplate with HUD. After a half-kilometer walk, they arrived at a five-story, plain concrete building.

  “He… lives here?” Samantha questioned with a raised eyebrow.

  “You know as much as I do,” Ava replied. “Come on.”

  The group headed inside. A reception desk was three meters from the door inside the small lobby, which was framed by hallways marked with stairway and elevator access.

  Behind the front desk, the receptionist looked like she was about to call for backup. “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “FDG. Karen Carter said she let you know we were coming.”

  “Yes, we got the request. You can’t go up like that, though.” The woman looked them over head to toe, her gaze lingering on their weapons.

  “We don’t go anywhere unarmed,” Ava replied.

  “Our policy—”

  “It’s not up for negotiation,” she cut her off.

  The receptionist folded her hands on the desktop. “Leave your weapons here, or I’ll need to ask you to leave.”

  Ava glanced at her team and rolled her eyes. We don’t have time for this. Ruby, I’m going to bend the rules. Hope that’s okay.

  >>Whatever accomplishes the mission,<< the AI replied. >>But you aren’t going to hurt her, are you?<<

  This is to keep me from hurting her.

  Ava looked the receptionist in the eyes, locking her in a telepathic link. “You’re going to let us pass with our armor and weapons, just as they are,” Ava said in her mind.

  The woman blinked rapidly and placed a hand on the side of her head. “Uh, go on inside. Third floor.”

  Ava inclined her head. “Thank you.

  “You just used telepathic control on her, didn’t you?” Nick whispered once they were beyond earshot of the front desk.

  “Seemed preferable to a sonic blast,” she replied.

  Samantha got a wistful look in her eyes. “Things would be so much easier if you could do that on all of our ops.”

  They boarded the elevator and took it to the third floor. As soon as they stepped out from the elevator car, a guard posted at the security gate sprang to his feet.

  “Hey, you can’t—!”

  Before Ava could initiate a telepathic link, the three Were members of her team had begun transforming into Pricolici. Their yellow eyes were fixed on the guard, and they curled their lips back to reveal fangs.

  The guard took a step back, his face pale and eyes wide. “Holy shit…”

  “Open the gate,” Ava commanded, looking him in the eyes.

  He fumbled for the controls, and the gate unlocked with a harsh buzz.

  “Have a good afternoon,” Ava said as she walked by.

  When they were past him, she turned to her team, who had returned to their human forms. “We need to find this Edgar guy.”

  Samantha consulted her wrist display. “This picture in his file is terrible, but we could probably spot him in the rec room, if he’s there.” She pointed to a directory on the wall with navigational arrows.

  Ava nodded. “Let’s check it out. If he’s not there, he’s probably in his room.”

  The rec room, as it turned out, was empty. During her brief glance inside, Ava also decided that it looked far from recreational.

  They did a number on him, for him to end up in a place like this, she said to Ruby.

  >>Hopefully you can make it right.<<

  I will if I can.

  Having struck out in the first place they looked, the group continued on to the location of Edgar’s assigned quarters, further into the facility from the elevator. To Ava’s surprise, they didn’t pass any nurses or orderlies.

  “Shouldn’t there be more people working here?” she commented to her team.

  “Maybe they were sent home with the martial law state,” Nick speculated. “Just kept some critical personnel.”

  “Clearly it was the B Team,” Ava replied. “The security is a joke.”

  “In all fairness, they’re not used to Weres and telepaths,” Samantha pointed out.

  Edwin nodded. “I’d be intimidated by me, just sayin’.”

  Ava rolled her eyes. When she checked the door numbers ahead of them, she figured they must be close to their destination.

  “Ah, there it is up ahead,” she noted aloud.

  Bars covered the small window mounted in the door at Ava
’s eye level. She looked inside and saw a narrow bunk along the left wall, and a man sitting in a solitary chair facing the back wall, toward a window covered by a security grate.

  “Can you get the door open?” Ava asked Nick.

  He glanced at the electronic lock. “No problem.”

  Within ten seconds, the red light had turned green.

  “Wait here,” Ava told her team.

  She slowly opened the door to the room. “Hi, Edgar. May I come in?”

  He made no indication that he’d heard her, so Ava stepped inside.

  “My name is Ava. I want to talk with you about the pit beneath the facility in the valley.”

  Edgar went rigid in his chair. “The voices. The voices are evil!”

  “I know.” She crouched in front of the man and stared into his eyes. “I’m here to help you,” she told him in her mind.

  He looked back at her, his eyes filled with longing. “Make them go away,” he thought in response.

  “I’ll try,” Ava replied, not willing to promise an optimum outcome after what had happened with Cynthia Heizberg less than a week before. “But to do that, I need you to be open with me.”

  Edgar nodded. “Please. I’ll do anything to make it stop.” The words in his mind were accompanied by a profound feeling of being trapped.

  Ava thought back to Cynthia, and how she had been defeated by that sense of confinement. Though it had been too late for Cynthia, Ava had a chance to save this man.

  She set her jaw. “Edgar, show me what you saw at the facility,” she instructed telepathically.

  “They don’t want me to.”

  “Then we’ll make them.”

  Ava dove into his mind. A tiny beacon flashed in her mind’s eye, marking the information that Edgar wanted to share but was presently incapable of accessing. She clawed her way toward it, catching the end of a thread. Holding onto the delicate strand that snaked through his mind, she traced the memory.

  Flashes and bursts of emotion washed over her. Darkness. Fear. Whispers. Pain.

  It filled her mind, burning behind her eyes.

  Perspiration formed on Edgar’s brow. “They’re too strong,” he said in Ava’s mind.