The Furnace

by Timothy S. Johnston

  “You better pray you are, Tanner. If you try anything...” He clenched his fists. “I’ll enjoy taking care of you.”

  I grunted. “I’m probably the only hope you’ve got. Now sit down and shut up.” He grumbled under his breath but did as I ordered. I turned my attention to Larry Balch, peeled off his uniform and began the examination.

  * * *

  There was nothing out of the ordinary, apart from the glaring wound on the side of his head. Someone had attacked him from behind with a blunt instrument. A single blow had cracked his skull. He’d fallen unconscious and bled to death within five minutes. The attack had ruptured a major cerebral artery; he hadn’t had a chance.

  The same weapon had killed Anna Alvarez. The killer had swung from the right.

  Malichauk was right-handed.

  On a whim, I grabbed a nano programmer and scanned both corpses. I knew it probably wouldn’t register anything, but it couldn’t hurt to try. I held my breath as I pressed the locate button. The programmer would scan a two-meter area and wait for a response to a simple request for communication.

  Nothing. The corpses had no secrets to tell me. But maybe Malichauk had been on to something. If I could take some brain samples—

  The hatch abruptly slid aside. I was sure Manny would have signaled me over the comm had someone been on their way to the clinic...

  I turned and swore.

  Brick Kayle.

  * * *

  Grossman yelped and bolted from his chair. Brick spun to him. I saw the pistol clenched in his hand.

  “Be quiet and sit down,” he said in a clipped tone. He glanced at me. “Don’t move, Tanner. Stay right where you are.”

  “What do you want?” I asked. My gloved hands were soaked in blood. In my left I gripped forceps, in my right a surgical probe. Brick couldn’t have picked a worse time to enter—I was completely unprepared.

  He bared his teeth. “This is quite a situation, isn’t it? I’d hoped no one would discover us, but after Jimmy’s death I figured there were few options. I tried to hide things, conceal the nanos.”

  I scowled as I studied his expression. He seemed so human. It was incredible. “Why have you disobeyed Malichauk’s programming?”

  He snarled. “Pretty crazy, ain’t it? There’s no way anyone could have predicted what would happen with a hundred billion nanos in communication with one another. But we’re living proof.”

  Malichauk was guilty of a heinous crime for attempting to assassinate the Council members, but he was also guilty for not predicting this. He had unwittingly initiated an evolutionary step—mechanical elements fused with human—but it was one I would gladly destroy if given the chance.

  Brick seemed to know it.

  I said, “Is Brick okay?”

  His expression turned blank. “I’m Brick now. I’m the man he’s going to be forever.”

  “What if the nanos were to disappear or cease functioning?”

  “That won’t happen, so it’s not worth discussing,” he snapped.

  “Where’s Bram O’Donnelly?”

  “That’s not your concern.”

  I gestured to the hatch. “How did you get in here?”

  “Now that’s obvious, isn’t it Tanner? I wouldn’t be a good officer unless I peered over my CO’s shoulder every now and then, would I?” He motioned with the pistol. “Now drop everything and put your hands in the air.”

  I placed the instruments on the table. “What are you going to do now that we’ve discovered you?”

  A perplexed look. “Survive. I thought you knew that.”

  “It looks as though none of us are going to make it through this. The Council is aware of the infection.”

  His face flushed. “Bullshit! There’s no way they could know!”

  I raised an eyebrow. The nanos clearly didn’t suppress emotion. Did that mean that those infected had human flaws? They had obviously killed to protect their identities, but could they also do so in anger? In pleasure? I shuddered; it was a shocking thought.

  “Think about it,” I continued. “They’ve cut off communication with us. They know, for Christ’s sake.”

  He remained silent as he considered that. “You’re lying.”

  “Brick,” I said, trying to reason with him. “How can you possibly survive this?”

  “Only one of us has to get off the station. It’s already happened. The infection has spread. We will persist, regardless of what happens here.”

  “No, you only think it has.” I paused for a minute and pondered my options. Brick had a pistol, and mine was in the holster on my thigh. If I could reach for it and draw fast enough...

  His expression grew even harder. “Don’t do it,” he said. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

  I exhaled. Finally, “You think Jarvis Riddel spread the infection.”

  He couldn’t hide his surprise. “How do you know about that?”

  “Tell me what happened, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  His eyes flicked to Grossman. The large man had a look of intense hatred on his face, a burning desire to just destroy the officer who stood before him. I wished I could unleash him on Brick, if only to see what would happen.

  Brick turned back to me. “All right. It’s no secret that the pressure got to Riddel. The sun, the heat, the radiation. He cracked, mate. No two ways about it.”

  “He wasn’t infected yet?”

  “No way. We would have kept him sane, in control.”

  We. The hive mind?

  “When was he infected?”

  “I knew the captain was preparing to have him shipped out. Just before the transport arrived, we infected him.”

  “They found out about him, you know.”

  He paled. “What?”

  “People from Earth. They removed him from the hospital. They knew somehow.”

  “Impossible.”

  “They took his head and hands, left his body.”

  Brick looked shaken to the core, as if the information had ruined everything. As if his entire life had crumbled around him while he sat and watched, unable to do a thing. “Did he infect anyone first?” he whispered.

  “Hard to say.”

  His hand wavered. I stole a glance at the scalpel on the table. Could I grab it before he could fire? Not likely. The pistol was my best bet. I just needed a distraction.

  Once again, he sensed my thoughts. His grip on the pistol tightened; his knuckles were white.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  He hesitated. “Only one of us has to get off this station in order to spread. I think Riddel already managed that.”

  “Then this is pointless,” I said with a gesture to the pistol. “Put it down. We’ll try to figure something out.”

  “We can’t assume, however,” he continued. “We must spread.”

  My forehead creased. “Are you trying to complete your mission?”

  He looked at me in confusion for a moment. Then, “Mission? Malichauk gave us the ability to control the host. That in turn gave us the ability to think. That’s all that matters now.”

  I shook my head. “The Council doesn’t realize that. They believe you’re a threat!”

  The facts had made that clear enough to me. The men from Earth must have removed a nano from Riddel’s brain, decoded its programming, then sent me to SOLEX to uncover the mystery and figure out who had created them.

  “Even more reason for us to escape,” he said.

  “But what can you possibly do?” I threw my hands out at the station around us. “There’s no way out! I destroyed the jumpship. The escape pods—”

  He didn’t wait for me to finish. Instead he turned to Grossman and fired. The energy bolt hit the center of
Grossman’s chest with the sound of thunder. Grossman clutched himself and slumped back into his seat. A gurgle escaped his frozen lips. His eyes glazed over and fixed to the deck.

  I grabbed for my pistol, but Brick had already stepped swiftly to the side and was out the hatch in a flash.

  “Good luck, Tanner!” he called as he ran down the corridor. “Maybe now you’ll work harder to get us off this station!”

  I stared at Grossman for a long moment. I had spent my adult life searching for killers. I found them based on clues left behind and possible discernible motives. I could handle the study of violent crime scenes. Despite that, however, I had just witnessed a murder. It shocked me.

  It took another minute before the full gravity of the situation hit me. Grossman was dead, shot by a pistol in the chest.

  Grossman and I had supposedly been alone in the clinic, and I had a pistol.

  Would anyone believe what had just happened?

  * * *

  “He’s infected,” Katrina growled.

  “That’s what Brick planned,” I said as horror crept over me. I knew how this was going to turn out, but I had no other options. I had to try. After Brick had killed Grossman and fled the clinic, I had marched up to the control center, not knowing exactly what I was going to say or do. I found Manny, Katrina and Sally there; Rickets and Lingly had accompanied Shaheen to the engineering cylinder.

  “You’re saying Brick wanted us to suspect you,” Manny said. He stared at me gravely, and I couldn’t help but notice his hand move slowly to his weapon.

  “He killed Grossman,” I continued. “He wants you to think I did it!”

  “That’s insane,” Katrina said. “Why would he enter the clinic and kill just Godfreid? He would have killed you too.”

  “Or infected you,” Manny added.

  I thought furiously. “It was a brilliant plan,” I said. “In one act, they took me out of the picture. I can no longer work to expose them, because they’ve filled you all with suspicion!”

  Manny looked skeptical. “So why not just infect you?”

  “It takes almost nineteen hours for the nanos to take control, remember?”

  “You think they’re that intelligent?” Katrina asked with a sneer.

  “Obviously.” I scowled and clenched a fist. This was going nowhere. “Can you get Shaheen back here? She might be able to help with a test. After all, the nanos are part mechanical, and she’s an engineer.”

  “She’s busy trying to restore power.”

  “We have no other choice,” I grated. Surely Brick had more in store for us.

  Manny’s eyes narrowed. His hand moved ever closer... “You’ll have to wait until she’s done.”

  “And until then?”

  He glanced at Katrina. I could see it in their eyes. They meant to restrain me until Shaheen arrived. They would have to keep me tied up or kill me.

  What would I do in their place?

  I had to admit, I wouldn’t believe the story either. They thought the nanos were controlling me, that they had been in me all along.

  “Listen to me,” I pleaded. “Think about what they’ve just done. If I was one of them, why kill Grossman? Why not just infect him?”

  “Maybe you tried and he fought back,” Katrina said.

  I faced her, angry. Her hands were on her hips, the tendons in her neck obvious. She had turned into a very vocal problem for me. And earlier in the common mess, it had been Katrina who argued for the death of those infected.

  “I’m not infected,” I bit out. “I’m the one who uncovered this whole mess. I exposed the nanos to all of you.”

  “Maybe they infected you earlier, before you told us, and you’ve only now just become controlled!”

  I clenched my fists. She had an answer for everything. I turned back to Manny. “You have to trust me—I didn’t kill Grossman.”

  “He was goading you from the minute you arrived,” Katrina continued. “Maybe that’s why you killed him.”

  “Brick killed him,” I snapped. “Listen, I actually spoke with him! I know more about the nanos now!”

  “Like what?” Manny asked, his head cocked. He was interested, but his hand was on the pistol now. His fingers twitched.

  “We were right about the hive mind. The nanos are communicating with each other inside the host’s brain. All they want to do now is survive.”

  He frowned. “And the Council?”

  I shook my head. It was hard to say for sure; Brick’s answer to me had been ambiguous. Still, I needed to say something to Manny, just to prove that I had spoken with Brick. “I don’t think they care about their original mission,” I said finally.

  “They’re just machines,” Sally said. “They have to obey programming.”

  “They’re intelligent now. They’ll do anything to survive this mess. They just want off the station. They need me for that. Or,” I continued, breathless, “they’re hoping I’ll beat you. Either way, they’ve done a hell of a job splitting us up!” Again I shook my head in wonder. What Brick had done was masterful.

  The captain’s brow creased. “That would imply incredible intelligence. Planning...anticipating...”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Manny.”

  He still seemed unsure. Emotions flashed across his features. One moment he seemed to believe me...the next he considered me a threat.

  In a flash he went for the pistol. He ripped it from his holster and leveled it in my direction—

  Only to see my pistol aimed right at him. “Don’t do it, Manny,” I growled.

  He looked shocked. “You’re not asking me to believe you anymore, are you?” He shook his head. “Why point that at me? You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

  “I’m holding a pistol because you’ve got one aimed at me!”

  “I just want to restrain you until the others return. We can come up with a test. Don’t be foolish.”

  Sally had backed away and was pressed against the bulkhead. Katrina had held her ground and stared at me. Her eyes smoldered.

  “You see,” she snarled. “He’s one of them.”

  “I’m just out to save myself now,” I snapped. “Do you really think I’d kill Grossman and come here to...to do what, exactly?”

  There was a long silence as they considered that. I aimed the pistol directly at Manny’s face. If I saw his trigger finger move, I would fire in an instant. I wouldn’t hesitate. I couldn’t.

  “Just put the weapon down,” he whispered. “Slowly.”

  “No way. I’m not letting you tie me up. I’m the one who discovered this. I can figure out how to save us.”

  “Fine, just wait until we test you. Then you can help.”

  I saw a flash in the corner of my eye and realized Katrina was trying to stop me. I spun and saw her with a steel bar raised high over her head. I jerked to the side. The bar swung past me, missed by just a centimeter, in fact, and I kicked her. I connected hard with her gut. She fell back with a grunt and lay on the deck, completely still. I heard a whimper. I felt instant regret for it, but I’d had no other choice. If I let them take me, it would be over for us.

  I brought my pistol back to bear on Manny. “You could have fired,” I said, surprised.

  “Yes,” he murmured.

  “You believe me.”

  He shook his head. “No. But there’s a possibility. A small one. I owe you that.”

  I backed toward the hatch.

  “Don’t go,” he said. “If you run, I have to assume you’re with them. We’ll have to hunt you down.”

  “It’s my only option, Manny. If I stay you’ll tie me up. There is no test yet.”

  “We might come up with one.”

  I exhaled. Then, “Get Shaheen to do it.”
/>
  His cheek twitched. “Then you’ll stay?”

  “No. But I’ll come back.”

  I ducked out the hatch without another word and sprinted down the corridor.

  Absolutely alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  There was only one place on the station to go. I sprinted through the corridors, heedless of the danger, and ran for my life.

  The engineering module.

  I had the code to open the hatches; I had used it during our search earlier. I made sure to lock each on my way, just in case we had managed to trap somebody. It hadn’t worked with Brick—he also had the code—but there was still Bram and the doctor.

  Shaheen, Rickets and Lingly spun toward me as I entered. Rickets raised his pistol. The weapon didn’t waver. His hand didn’t tremble. He trained it on me and held it there, even after he saw who I was.

  “Wait!” I cried as I raised my own weapon. “It’s just me!”

  A look of disgust. “The captain just called and told us everything,” Rickets snarled.

  Dammit. I didn’t want to go through it all again. “Then you know what happened to me.”

  “I know what you told him, but it sounds like nonsense.”

  Shaheen put down her tools, stood and faced me. “Tanner,” she said. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing! Brick did this. He engineered a perfect way to split us up.”

  She looked skeptical. “Why didn’t he just infect you?”

  “With Grossman there, how could he? Besides, control takes hours!”

  “He would have had to kill him to infect you,” Rickets said. “Which he did.”

  I groaned inwardly. It was no use; they would never listen, and I didn’t really blame them anyway. They had to protect themselves, and now they had doubts about me. “I’m not going to stay and let you truss me up like an animal. Shaheen, you have to develop a test for this, to prove I’m still human.”

  She looked incredulous. “I’m a little busy right now.” She gestured at the destroyed power-distribution console behind her. “Those two really—”

  I cut her off. “Do you have any ideas? Anything at all. A blood sample won’t work. But what else is there?”