Vile Machinations

by P. S. Power

  Which made sense. No one could touch him without going zombie. Clearly the older woman, who had enough wrinkles to show character, while being fit and cute enough that no one would be surprised if she could get a date, had clearly been briefed about what it took to work with him.

  The machine itself hovered over his head, attached to the wall by a single actuating arm. It was made of metal, though from the look of it there was brass in the works, instead of steel. He’d been told not to have anything magnetic on him, before he left his own room. No one had mentioned why, of course. Just that it wasn’t allowed. To that end he’d come in dressed in slacks, running shoes and a simple light blue button up shirt. No belt, since the ones he had all had metal involved. He didn’t even own a watch or cell phone, so that meant he was probably within the rules he’d been given.

  Bennet, the lady he was supposed to meet, if he was with her at all and not some random technician, smiled at him. It actually seemed… Friendly. Like she meant it and wasn’t just putting him at ease so Connor would relax before being killed.

  “Mr. Harriman, have you ever been under a cognitive analysis machine before?” She said the words as if it was something ordinary. Like asking him if he’d ever been to a dentist or knew how haircuts worked.

  Smiling back, since the woman was standing about ten feet back, meaning her friendliness was real, he spoke gently. Smoothly, for him.

  “No. That one hasn’t come up before for me. How does it work?” It seemed like the sort of thing you were supposed to ask before having a medical procedure.

  Bennet seemed to find it funny.

  “It uses a process similar to an F-MRI to note brain activity, while also measuring the electrical impulse frequency and origin location. The computer analyses your reactions on an in-depth level. It’s basically a very advanced lie detector. The big difference is that this kind actually works. Even if you’re insane, it will show that and be able to separate fantasy from truth. You’ll have to hold your head still for me. I’ll ask the questions. Just answer as honestly as possible. This won’t take that long, I don’t think. We just need to make certain of your alliances.”

  She sounded friendly, even if others had mentioned that the price for failing was going to be his death. It was nerve wracking, given that. Enough so that Connor could feel sweat forming on his forehead and under his arms.

  Still, moving his head around to ruin things would probably be a bit too obvious and could lead to his death as well.

  “Understood, ma’am.”

  There was a buzzing from the machine that seemed hover over his face. A blue light came out of the machine, hitting him in the middle of his no doubt shining forehead. Probably lining things up, so that it could find his brain. How that worked wasn’t described to him at all. On the good side, if it worked and he wasn’t killed, it would be proof positive that he did, indeed, have a brain in his head.

  The older woman cleared her throat gently.

  “Mr. Harriman, how do you feel about the Sisyphean Order?”

  The question wasn’t where he’d expected to start. Honestly, he’d figured that one to be kept until nearly the end. A trap for him, that wasn’t going to be gotten out of easily. Especially since, apparently, he had no choice except to tell the truth.

  After a moment, trying to arrange his thoughts to no real avail, he spoke. His words surprised him a bit, even if they were basically what he’d been thinking since he’d heard about the Order in the first place.

  “I don’t know? I guess I can get behind the idea of killing most of the world’s population in order to save the rest. I’ve looked at the data, so… yeah, that one just makes sense to me. The Order itself… Really, I haven’t seen or heard anything to make me think that highly of them, other than the fact that they’re actually trying to do something.” He waited, wondering if the machine dangling over his head was going to surge with power or kill him using some other, quieter, mechanism. A shot in the arm, for instance.

  There was a pause, then Bennet went on. Still sounding roughly like she was fine with what he’d just said. Pleasant, at least.

  “If we leave you alive, are you willing to work with us in that goal? Billions of people will die, if we’re successful. There’s a good chance that you and I won’t survive it either. I dare say that you’ll be sacrificed on purpose, given your personal powers. You’re a long-term liability, since you can’t mesh with any system that requires human contact.”

  Connor wanted to close his eyes. To refuse to answer. To hide from the obvious. He was, in the end, a liability in almost every way.

  Even to himself.

  “I know. I mean, I can see that we still need to save the world, even if it means that I have to die to make it happen. Really, anyone doing something like that probably shouldn’t be allowed to live through it. We need to pick who lives and they shouldn’t be monsters. Even if the monsters are needed to make it happen in the first place.”

  From the side of his eye, Connor noticed the woman, sitting in a black chair, in front of a computer desk, tap on a keyboard for a while. When she spoke, her voice was a bit cool. That or bored.

  “You… accept that you’re a liability in a long-term setting?”

  He didn’t nod, even if he kind of wanted to. He had orders not to, after all.

  “Yes.” He didn’t elaborate. No one required him to, either.

  Certainly not Bennet.

  “Very well. This is… Well, not how we normally do things in the Order. Most of the time you’d have been raised with more than a bit of brainwashing, and we’d force you to do things that would be recorded, for long term blackmail purposes. Eating children after raping them is a popular one for most of the various groups. Doing that with you won’t work. There are the tests of loyalty as well. Then, we normally don’t just place people in a machine like this, either. Do you know why that is, Mr. Harriman?”

  She sounded abstract and matter of fact, instead of manipulative.

  “Because it doesn’t work? I mean, most people probably aren’t really going to throw in with something like this on purpose, are they? Even psychopaths are going to be more interested in themselves, instead of the long-term goal. For them it would have to be… I don’t know, about protecting themselves, instead of saving everyone they can. If you put everyone in this kind of machine, you’d have to kill most of them, leaving no one to blackmail into doing the work you want done.”

  Those words got a muffled laugh. It was tempting to look over, but he couldn’t do it without turning his head. Waiting, Connor didn’t know what was going to happen next. It sounded like he was either being set up to be allowed into the Order, or killed before leaving the room. He functionally couldn’t be blackmailed, after all. Anyone trying to do that by force would find that they just stopped in place and did what he said they should, as soon as they got too close.

  He wasn’t abusing any little kids either and cannibalism wasn’t a taste treat he wanted to try for himself, if given a choice. Really, he’d take a bullet to the head first, even if that went against his years of programing at Etain. Just being dead sounded nice at the moment, actually. Which, it occurred to him, probably had to do with the chemicals in the food, instead of his horrible life. Not that anyone would blame him for that, if they learned anything about him at all.

  So, he waited. Not even letting himself feel upset over his impending death.

  Bennet tapped something and asked another question.

  “You’ve been involved with Doctor Short. How do you feel about that? Do you love her?”

  He blinked, when asked that one.

  “Um… No. I like her all right, since she let me have sex with her. Really, she’s kind of a bad person, outside of that. Not… She’s said some stuff. Weird things. Especially when she isn’t under my influence. Then she gets a bit better. I mean, she tried to distract me by implying she was my great-great-grandmother once. She wasn’t totally outside of my field effect. Then she said it was
a lie, so it probably is.” That had been odd, even though he eventually understood the reasoning behind it. She’d been trying to protect the Order.

  Or him, from the Order. That part wasn’t certain at all.

  The woman tapped a few times and then laughed.

  “She is a bit of a character. Old, of course. Probably insane in ways that you and I can’t even begin to understand. I’ve always wondered why she’s so far down in the power structure here. She’s been higher in other organizations over the years. Anyway, you can get up now.” She sighed and tapped a few more times. “You didn’t lie at all here, which is rare. Normally people try to protect themselves more than this. The long and short of it is that we’re letting you in. You won’t betray us. No more than anyone else at any rate. Less than most. That places you in a very special situation, Mr. Harriman.”

  She stopped speaking, watching him stand up, his running shoes touching the ground softly, as he did it. Then, after a moment he took a step forward. Toward the woman behind the desk. Her dark hair moved as she looked over at him, a smile curling on her lips.

  She let a single eyebrow come up.

  “It isn’t the norm for us, but the truth is that you’re too valuable to simply get rid of. Yet. Even the challenges of working with you are worth it. The issue, is of course, that we cannot expect to keep anything from you, long term. No secret is safe. No plan will be left undisclosed. Using that ability against those who would harm us or get in the way of our plans is… Well, mind boggling, to say the least. At the same time, recruits on their first day aren’t normally brought into the upper echelons of power. In order to use you, we have to do that, which won’t please most of the elite.”

  “I can see that. So…” He’d probably do something like keep him on an island. Then bring in those they wanted to be questioned. He could do it all on video, never meeting those who had secrets to keep.

  Bennet stood up then, hitting a single key as she did it. It made a soft clicking sound. A thing she explained, since they were far too close for her not to.

  “I sent my recommendation off. I have final say, in all of this and for the time being, I don’t want to lose the resources it would take to try and kill you. We could do it, of course. We have robots and machines that can kill, well enough. Announcing that I intended to kill you would force you to flee, which right now, at this location, we can’t stop. Especially if your powers flare when stressed, as it seems they might. So, instead, you’re in and we’re placing you in the second outer circle.” She smiled then shrugged. “Which means that you aren’t just one of us, but fairly important to the Order now. We won’t give you any real command power, though, so don’t feel too good about it. You have rank, but nothing else. In return for that, we expect you to keep your mouth shut, when you find out all our secrets.”

  She winced then, as if that hadn’t been what she really wanted him to know.

  To him it made sense.

  “That sounds better than a bullet to the head. What do we do first? I was planning to try and find who’s been stopping all the plans from working.” That might be over reaching, for the new kid.

  Rather than seem upset, Bennet laughed again. It sounded a bit unhinged, for some reason. Like a character from a story that, frankly, was trying to seem kind of evil.

  “Do that and you might actually be allowed to live. No one has been able to even touch whoever, or whatever, is stopping our plans. No one, from any of the groups or governments. It’s like hunting ghosts, without knowing where the haunted house is.” She shrugged then, and started to move toward the door of the room. “That sounds like a plan. We’ll also want you to be available to question people. Is that something you’re willing to do?”

  Connor returned the shrug.

  “Yes. Especially since you can just tie me up using a robot and cart me into a room in order to get the answers you need. I might as well walk, right?”

  That got him pointed at, happily.

  “Nice point! It really is better to have you working with us. I’ll put my contact information into the system directly. You work for me, from now on. Keep that in mind. No one here outranks you, but you also don’t have a clue what you’re doing. If I don’t tell you to do something, then you’re responsible for your own actions. If you mess up too many times, we’ll have to take other actions. For now…” She paused, moving back a bit. Still, not out of range.

  When she spoke, her words were intense, compared to what had come out earlier. Almost as if she were slightly unwell, mentally.

  “For now, stay here. You’ll be able to move in a few days. Keep a bag packed, once you get home. We’ll want you to be able to move at a moment’s notice.” Then, instead of leaving, the woman pointed at the door.

  “Head to the left, and take the stairs at the end of the hallway. I’m going to use the teleportation device to leave from here directly.” She smiled then. “Don’t tell anyone I said that. It isn’t common knowledge that we have that kind of thing. If I don’t leave soon, the time distortion from it will make me sick, which I hate.”

  Connor absorbed the idea and walked out, following her instructions. Alive and planning to stay that way, for the time being, or so it seemed. There was the idea that Bennet had cleared him and that her boss might change the orders given, of course. That was just life. What you were told, by anyone, was only going to be true for a limited time.

  On the third floor, Connor went back to his own room, not knowing what else the night would hold for him. That, it turned out, was something different than he’d expected. There were people in his room, waiting for him. None of them were wearing decorative robes or were naked, which was probably a signal that they’d come to chat, instead of finish the ceremony or whatever.

  Sitting and standing in the sitting area, with Walker and one of the other guards standing behind the others. The two men wearing all black suits with white shirts. They had small black guns in their hands.

  In a chair that had been moved toward the far wall on the right, sat his father. The lean man held a small smile on his face. He didn’t say anything in particular. On the other side of the room was a handcuffed and bound Parker. She was in a tight red dress that didn’t really seem like what the woman should be wearing as a prisoner. It showed too much cleavage and that she wasn’t wearing anything under it. At least there were no lines visible from that kind of thing.

  She wasn’t better dressed than the others, except for Doc, who came out of the kitchen, her face lighting up when she noticed him passing. They were about ten feet away from one another.

  “There you are. I was worried that you’d be busy catching bullets or learning to drink cyanide Cherry-Ade about now. I take it that things went well? I mean, I wouldn’t leave you alive otherwise and I have to think Bennet is in the same mold. I trained her to be like that, after all. That was the last time I was in the Order… about thirty years back, or so.”

  Everyone looked at him, as if the news would be interesting or perhaps entertaining. Which it was, to him. That anyone else there would care made little to no sense to Connor at all. Then again, Bertie was standing there, close enough to him that lying would be impossible. Even for her. She sounded fairly well pleased that he wasn’t dead. It was something to keep in mind, even if she was a bit strange, from time to time.

  That Parker was looking at him was interesting, since she wasn’t scowling or seeming ready to fight. Her hands were in front of her, connected to a chain that showed her ankles were cuffed together as well, which seemed out of what was needed for the scene. She really didn't seem upset or as if she feared for her life.

  Connor nodded, as he moved into the room, hedging toward Parker, since it was kind of clear that getting her to tell the truth was going to be the plan for the evening.

  “I was promoted. Something about the second circle? Bennet is my direct boss, I think. At least she told me that if I messed up I was responsible for my own mistakes, even if one of you tried to order me
to do it.” He tried to seem professional, as he moved directly to Parker and touched her on the shoulder, clasping her there. She was shapely and warm enough that keeping his hand there was nice. Not that he was going to do anything with the woman. She hadn’t given him permission to that night. Plus, it was weird, having all those other people in the room. He might be all right with it if it were only, say Doc and Walker. Doing anything with his Father there just felt weird.

  She didn't speak, her jaw going a bit slack as the light left her eyes.

  “Relax, Parker. We have some questions for you. Please answer completely.” He was willing to let everyone else ask what they wanted, and got ready to tell them to do that, since it made sense to him. Doc Short moved over by his father, and waved at him a bit before he could do that.

  “We need the Mariah code key, first thing. If we can get that before they understand we have her…”

  It was a bit abrupt sounding to him. Still, Connor just relayed the question, instead of trying to show he was the one in charge. Technically that was the case. It didn't mean he knew what information they needed.

  “Parker, what is the Mariah code key?”

  The woman sounded very flat affected as she spoke. Dead inside, or very nearly so.

  “A-seven minus three, displaced by nine.”

  He thought he got the idea, it was a cipher key for a replacement code, the information being written down by Doc, on her clunky looking data pad. Before she could look up, Stephen spoke, his words bland.

  “What was her duty here?”

  That question took several questions to get to the answer. Not because anything was being hidden, rather that the woman had six different jobs there, even if she’d only spoken of two before that point. None of them sounded all that dire. The worst one was that she was supposed to try and find a way to crack the Order’s secret computer system. From the sound of it, that wasn’t the one that Connor had been given access to.