by John Vassar
He sat down against the wall, closed his eyes and tried to think with cold logic. The girl was sleeping when he left her. Her IDN would have alerted Populus Control of her death, but a fully-armed staffer squad headed up by Delere Secos was not standard investigation protocol. The behaviour of the lead agent was also suspicious. He seemed to know exactly what to look for.
The walls brightened as a half-oval portal formed to his left. Two staffers carrying side-arms entered and flanked the opening, followed by a fair-haired man in his mid-forties. Acknowledging the FedStat rank insignia, Mitchell got to his feet. The man looked at him, then dismissed the guards, the wall reforming silently behind them. He touched a comlink control and three cubes grew from the floor to form a rudimentary table with a seat at opposite sides. He sat down and motioned for Mitchell to do likewise. The interrogation began.
‘Your service record appears adequate. As for the present, I’m surprised that FedStat have allowed you to pursue your current line of commercial activity, given the circumstances of your exit from Delere Secos.’
‘Given the circumstances, I had very little choice,’ said Mitchell.
The senior rank remained impassive. ‘Your immediate superior was Harry Doyle, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘And during your time with Delere Secos, the Director was...?’
‘Commander Estephan. Is there a problem with data retrieval on my record?’
The comment was ignored. ‘I am Commander Devlin. I took over from Estephan fourteen months ago.’
‘Really? How high was his E-quotient?’
‘Commander Estephan resigned for personal reasons.’
‘That’s a pity,’ said Mitchell. ‘He was a good man. Level-headed. And logical...’
‘Quite. And if he were still in charge he’d require every ounce of that logic to solve this particular conundrum. You do see my point?’
‘I wasn’t aware you’d made one.’
‘Then let me spell it out for you. We’ve established from the autopsy and forensic analysis that Talia Ash, the girl found at your domice, died of a sniffer mix overdose. She has a record with local staffers for over-indulgence, although we have yet to determine whether you played an active part in her death.’ The Director of Delere Secos looked up and made eye contact for the first time. ‘The thing that puzzles me, Mitchell, is why you were also one of the last people to see Harry Doyle alive.’
Mitchell was silent. He searched Devlin’s face for a sign of deceit but found none. The DS commander, for his part, was professional and relentless. ‘Two victims in the same night and one man in common – an unstable ex-DS agent with a plausible motive for Doyle’s murder, but no apparent reason to kill the girl. Now do you see my point?’
‘Harry was alive and well when I left him. When did this happen?’
‘Did you pick up Talia Ash to take your mind off something, perhaps?’
‘I asked you a question...’ Mitchell stood up, his fists clenching.
Devlin raised a finger towards the ceiling. A turret-mounted Fetter Gun had emerged from the grey and was pointing straight at Mitchell’s head.
‘The effects of a unit this size are far more unpleasant than you experienced a few hours ago. Sit down, slowly.’
There was a faint whirring as the gun retreated into its housing.
Mitchell put his head in his hands. ‘I didn’t know Harry was dead.’
Devlin stood and moved away, hands clasped behind his back. ‘I would like to take your word for that. But we have to be sure. Whatever you are now, you were Delere Secos. You know what has to happen next.’
It took a few seconds for Mitchell to realise what he meant.
The Link.
He looked across to Devlin. ‘How long will it take?’
‘No more than six hours. We’ve improved the technique in the last few years, although-’
‘How did Harry die?’
‘I can’t give you that information beforehand, you know that.’
‘Yes, of course...’
‘You have no objection to The Link being carried out?’
Mitchell didn’t answer. They both knew he had no choice.
‘This discussion will resume after the procedure.’ Devlin walked back to the portal. ‘Open up please, gentlemen.’ Before stepping through, he turned and said, ‘It appears that you still have a measure of integrity, Mitchell. I wasn’t expecting that.’
The wall solidified and Mitchell was alone again.
He wondered how long it would be before they took him to the SenANN Central Complex. Physically linked to the SenANNs and prepared with the appropriate dose of Verum, his memories would be revealed as living dreams on a simple airscreen. There was no possibility of deception on the subject’s part. Knowledge of The Link was Level 10 classified and restricted to the High Council, senior ranked FedStat officials and, of necessity, Delere Secos. Always, its use was limited to the most serious of cases.
Cases as serious as the death of his good friend, Harry Doyle.
Mitchell’s chances of survival were good, but not certain. A small percentage of subjects had a natural intolerance to Verum. Less serious side-effects included extreme paranoia, hallucinations and psychotic depression. According to DS records, several ‘patients’ had slipped into coma and later died. Mitchell knew that The Link was inevitable, given the circumstances. He accepted it without question, but not without fear. The SenANNs’ ascent from Artificial Neural Network computers, military machines designed over a century ago, was historical fact, but Mitchell’s DS active service had given him Level 9 security privileges and he knew more than most of the Populus. The first SenANN to bear any resemblance to their current form emerged thirty years after the Great Famine. Co-designed by the World Alliance’s greatest scientific minds and the most advanced ANN on the planet, its first act was to request a greater role in designing its successor. A decade later, there were three more. FedStat itself was conceived by the SenANNs as the most efficient way of maintaining peace across the globe. By the 2160s, their ranks had risen to fifty. Their incredible intelligence allowed the rapid design and construction of the orbital conurbation programme, with the first Orbtown commissioned just a few years before Mitchell was born. DS records showed their critical involvement in the ExTerra colonies and the Earth regen programmes and it was no surprise to FedStat when religious cults sprang up across the Populus, devoted to the new machines and dedicated to protecting their rights. The Central SenANN cluster, here in Sat-1, held the latest generation machines - built in human laboratories but designed entirely by other SenANNs. They were as close to sentience as any machine that had ever been conceived. And he was about to be connected directly to them.
He rose from the grey seat, which disappeared back into the floor along with its counterparts. With little option, he walked the room. The Link gave every subject a photographic memory. His own memories of that night would be analysed to the last detail and it was possible they might reveal a clue to Harry’s death – something that he may have missed consciously. If it helped bring the assassins to justice, he was ready to accept the personal risks if the process went wrong.
And if it did go wrong, he wouldn’t have the faculties to worry about it anyway.
A wave of tiredness swept over him. The room somehow sensed this and grew a low couch from one of the walls. It was, of course, grey, but comfortable enough. He lay back and thought not of his old friend, but of Talia Ash. Strange, the way she kept drifting back into his mind. Strange also, he thought as he stretched out and yawned, that the couch had grown up around him and become much softer.
His eyes closed and Talia’s ghost came to him.
She stroked his forehead with the same, cool hands she had used on the shuttle. She told him that she was in a safe place and that he shouldn’t worry. As her soothing fingers caressed away his fear, she moved closer and whispered that everything would be okay.
He reached up to her.
Mitche
ll awoke to the warmth of natural light on his face, albeit filtered. He was in a larger room now, a visible portal to his left and a vista screen opposite. He felt refreshed, apart from an irritation close to the spot where his old neural implant had been. He remembered Harry and he remembered the girl. His mood was inappropriate, probably due to enhancers in the air supply. He sat up and rubbed his face. There was more stubble than there should have been.
Which meant that unless he was dreaming, he’d survived The Link.
He must have been tranquilised in the interrogation room and kept unconscious throughout the whole thing. He had no recollection of the Central Complex, his communion with the SenANNs, or, for the first time in four years, no idea what was going to happen in the next few hours of his life. But one thing was certain. He was unrestrained and being provided with a higher level of comfort. His innocence had been established. Whether or not Devlin would now reveal any more details on Harry’s death was still an even bet - the loss of someone as senior as Harry Doyle would have sent shock waves as high as the Senate itself.
The sun burst over Earth’s horizon and the vista panel dimmed. Mitchell became aware that he was not alone. His arresting agent, minus the visor, was standing two metres behind him, arms crossed. He had lost none of his charm from their first meeting.
‘I am Agent Charlis. You have an appointment with Commander Devlin.’ Charlis moved close enough to make it awkward for Mitchell to stand. He said in a low voice, ‘You may have convinced Devlin, but I’ll be watching you. I don’t trust psycho-freaks who have to be kicked out of Delere Secos.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ said Mitchell, and stood up anyway. He was a centimetre taller, but found himself staring into hard, ambitious eyes that dared him to make a wrong move. Maybe the visor was a good idea after all.
Charlis led him outside into a broad, sweeping thoroughfare which Mitchell recognised as ‘B’ Corridor. It connected the laboratory sections, Operations Control and the Optimum Security Area.
‘Nice to be home again,’ Mitchell said.
‘Make the best of it. You won’t be here long.’
The portal to Devlin’s office looked as strong as a hangar hatch and sacrificed morphic minimalism for an old-fashioned deadlock array. Inside, the obvious change since Estephan’s time was the decor. Sumptuous carpet underfoot, ornate framing around an enormous vista screen and an impressive desk that looked like it was made of solid oak. It looked like a finance director’s suite. Mitchell was reminded of Harry’s budget-balancing comment.
‘Sit down, Mitchell.’ The DS Director was already seated in a black, high-backed multichair. Mitchell took the single guest chair opposite, forcing Charlis to loiter near the portal.
‘I should offer my congratulations,’ Devlin said, flatly. ‘A clean bill of health, on both counts.’
‘If I thought you meant it, I’d thank you.’
‘You know the way it works, Mitchell. I don’t like taking risks with The Link any more than you would in my position.’ Devlin looked past him and added, ‘Are you still here, Agent Charlis?’
The deadlocks crunched home as the Charlis left without comment.
‘That’s not in the regulations,’ observed Mitchell.
‘You are no longer under arrest, his presence was not required. Agent Charlis is now our best operative. His arrest record is second only to Doyle’s and he obeys orders without question. He is the single most efficient resource at my disposal.’
‘But you don’t trust him. Not like you could trust Harry.’
‘You know that for certain, do you? With your elevated E-Quotient?’
After the incident in the cell, Mitchell chose not to show his displeasure. Devlin glowered at him for second, then said, ‘What I think of Agent Charlis as a man is irrelevant.’
‘Very professional. One question. If I’m not under arrest, why am I still here?’
‘You can leave at any time. I thought I’d give you a few facts surrounding this case to ease your mind a little.’ Devlin entered a command on the SenANN monitor. His demeanour became more relaxed. ‘For one, the girl isn’t dead. Talia Ash is, or rather was, Latere Volgis. Right now, she’s on her way ExTerra with a new identity and a new life.’
Mitchell sat forward. ‘You faked her death? Why the hell would you do that? You could have arrested me for any number of bullshit reasons.’
‘I needed another serious charge, unconnected to the Yorktown incident. We instructed her once she was in your domice. Up until that point, your meeting with Ash was a lucky coincidence, at least for us. Agent Charlis reacted quickly enough to make use of her.’
‘My meeting with Harry should have been enough.’
‘We knew you met Doyle, but we also knew that you weren’t involved in his death. There was no guarantee that the SenANNs would sanction The Link in those circumstances. But if you were also suspected of the murder of a Latere...’
‘Wait a second. You’re telling me that you had to get permission from the SenANNs to carry out The Link?’
‘They require certain… assurances, shall we say, before they accept that The Link is necessary.’
‘But they’d be aware that the girl wasn’t dead, that DS had set the whole thing up.’
‘Only if that data had been entered on her record... and it wasn’t. As far as the SenANNs and Populus Control are concerned, she is dead, a tragic victim of illegal narcotics. Outside this room, Agent Charlis and the girl herself are the only others who know the truth. Of course, this requires her early retirement from the ranks of the Latere, at least as Talia Ash…’
‘I hope she’ll get a full pension,’ Mitchell muttered.
‘She won’t have to work again, if that’s what you’re asking.’ Devlin directed his gaze towards the SenANN monitor. ‘You should also know that this conversation is not happening – at least not the way you and I are perceiving it. How much did Doyle tell you at Yorktown?’
Mitchell hesitated. After The Link, there was no point in defending Harry’s honour. Sound-cocoon or not, he had broken every protocol in the volum and then some. Brevity was the best he could do for his old friend...
‘Background intel on an autom fraud case that he believed had roots at Autogen. Plus some detail on the bartender at Mulligan’s who’d been his informer.’
‘Go on.’
Mitchell shrugged. ‘That’s it. He outlined the contract terms but nothing else. I told him no, we argued and he left. Now he’s dead. But you know all this from The Link. What you haven’t told me is whether you uncovered anything else.’
‘Nothing that could help with Doyle’s case. Although your privacy device was somewhat intriguing.’
‘You seem to appreciate privacy in conversation. Why are you keeping the SenANNs out of this one?’
‘I have to be certain that what I’m about to set in motion will succeed.’ Devlin glanced towards the portal. ‘And in case you’re wondering, Agent Charlis knows only what I want him to know.’
Another curveball. Nathaniel Devlin was more complex than Harry had suggested.
Devlin spoke again, his tone betraying nothing. ‘I’m confident we can help each other, Mitchell. Given the extreme circumstances, I‘ve come up with a strategy that is somewhat... unusual.’
‘I told Harry he was asking me to commit treason. Sounds like you’re not far from it yourself.’
‘Quite. That should demonstrate just how serious this is. Doyle’s approach could sometimes be archaic, but his ‘hunches’ as he called them, were always worth listening to. His theory on the Autogen affair is worth investigating. That’s where I suggest you begin.’
‘I gave Harry my decision. Nothing’s changed.’
Devlin stood and walked across to the giant vista panel. Below them, the South Pacific glistened blue and silver in the morning sunlight. ‘You will receive a complete dossier of the intel we have to date and an unmarked transport. The rest will be up to you.’
‘Perhaps you didn�
�t hear me, Commander.’
‘I heard you well enough, Mitchell. Your retirement may not have been justified in your eyes, but the decision was made for a reason. Personally, I believe that a high Empathy Quotient could, in certain circumstances, be an asset. But I also agree with High Council policy... in combination with a high T-Quotient, it brings an unacceptable element of unpredictability.’
‘I heard all this four years ago from Estephan. Except he had the balls to admit that DS’s decision was based on guesswork.’
Devlin turned back. ‘The SenANNs don’t guess. They predict.’
‘It’s a shame they’re not listening now. They could save you a lot of trouble.’
‘I agree. My actions would appear illogical. Like you, they might classify me as dangerous and unpredictable.’ Devlin sat down and stared again at Mitchell. ‘Perhaps it’s the effects of the sedative. I hoped you would have realised by now just what I’m offering you - and why I’m offering it. I may have overestimated you. For that, I apologise.’
‘I understand exactly what you’re offering,’ Mitchell snapped back. ‘What part of my service record isn’t clear enough? FedStat treated me like a faulty clunker and threw me on the scrap pile. You know what you can do with your ‘unusual strategy’. I told Harry and now I’m telling you, I wouldn’t come back to DS for– ’
‘Who mentioned DS? Or FedStat for that matter? You’ll work directly for me, undercover from Delere Secos, undercover from FedStat. It’s the only way I can get to the truth.’
Mitchell stared across the oak desk at Commander Nathaniel Devlin. ‘You’re telling me that the High Council are not aware of this?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Perhaps. But I don’t need a high E-Quotient to tell me that you’d jump at the chance to find Doyle’s killers.’ Devlin leaned forward. ‘And if you’re successful, you have my word that I’ll personally recommend your reinstatement as an active DS agent to the Senate.’