by MJ Blehart
Ivanov said nothing. He looked at Jace but addressed Dr. Deng. “What about him?”
“It’s rather clear he’s infected,” Dr. Deng said. “At this stage, though, there’s nothing we can do for him.”
“What do you want to do?” asked Ivanov.
“Apologies, Ms. Wei, Ms. Lopez,” Dr. Deng began, “but 2274 hasn’t got long. However, he can still serve a greater purpose.”
“What’s that?” asked Onima.
“I would like to ease his suffering”—Onima didn’t miss Dr. Deng’s euphemism for ending Jace’s life—“and study his brain.”
“Is that our only option?” Kara asked.
“Dr. Deng is the expert,” Ivanov said. “There’s nothing else for it.”
“I don’t understand,” Onima said. “What is wrong with 2274?”
“He is infected with the virus we’re working on here,” said Dr. Deng.
“‘Working on here’?” asked Onima.
“Yes.” Dr. Deng replied as he glanced toward Ivanov. “Didn’t you know that was what our research here was about?”
Before Onima could respond, the lights went out.
19
“How is that possible?” Ivanov asked angrily.
Jace was on his feet, his pistol drawn. Onima and Kara had also drawn their weapons.
“Kaji Ivanov, Dr. Yagnesh Deng,” Onima began, “I am Marshal Onima Gwok of the Confederation Bureau of Investigation. You are both under arrest for sedition, conspiracy, and treason.”
Ivanov laughed. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“A duly appointed officer of the AECC,” Onima responded. “I am well within my rights and my mandate to place you under arrest.”
“What in the starry-eyed galaxy is this lah shi?” said Dr. Deng.
“We’ve been investigating this for a while,” Kara said.
“You see, Mr. Ivanov, Dr. Deng,” Onima said, “when Palmer Cadoret, a deputy director of Gray and Chaung, was murdered on Raven, alongside two clones, the shooter took a shot at me, too. That led me to Gray and Chuang headquarters, where I encountered unexpected resistance. It raised a lot of questions, not least of which was why no one seemed to care about one of their executives being murdered. Then I saw the same blue armored shells with black helmets the shooter used—and started drawing some conclusions.”
“You’re grasping at straws,” Ivanov dismissed her.
“You’re not wrong,” Onima said. “Or, rather, we were grasping at straws. Yet, throughout the investigation, we saw that there were so many moving pieces—so many subjective, circumstantial matters that all still seemed interrelated. Still mostly presumptive...until we got to you. You, Mr. Ivanov, alongside Dr. Deng, are the missing links in this whole case.”
“You are in so far over your head,” Ivanov said.
“The clones,” Jace said, surprising Dr. Deng with his sudden clarity of mind. “Where are you keeping the clones you took from Pao-hui-burg?”
Neither Ivanov nor Dr. Deng said a word. The elderly doctor looked thoroughly uncomfortable, but still held his tongue.
“Deputy Marshal Martinez,” Onima said, drawing her second pistol, “get on the terminal and see if you can get that info.”
“On it,” Kara said.
“You don’t think that’s a violation of your precious mandate?” Ivanov asked.
Onima smirked, “When, in the course of an investigation, a suspect refuses to answer reasonable questions, all resources available may be used. An open terminal is an available resource, albeit anything we find inadmissible in the courts. But we’re not looking for that sort of thing.”
“Got it,” Kara said. “I’m sending the data to Teru.”
“Thank you,” Onima replied.
“Once again, Marshal,” Ivanov began, “you are making a terrible mistake. Have you the slightest idea who I am? How much influence I wield? Your career is over. You’ll be suspended, discharged, and then likely face criminal charges for threatening a man in my position.” He glanced at Jace. “Oh, and I am sure you have no doubt the consequences of arming a clone.”
“I know who some of your powerful friends are, Mr. Ivanov,” Onima replied. “I assure you, in the face of all the evidence we have—and adding you and Dr. Deng to that—they’ll be in as much trouble as you.”
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with, Marshal,” said Ivanov with clear derision.
Onima was not taking the bait. She smiled. “No? I’m rather sure I do, Mr. Ivanov. You see, the reason we’re here is that our ongoing investigation led us to Vladimir Bettani, a former minister of the NEEA. That led us to Diane Nazari, a former deputy minister of the NECC. Don’t you find it rather interesting that two people who were formerly on opposite sides of a two-decade-long war might be working together?”
Ivanov did not reply. Deng looked nervous, wringing his hands.
“Then there is you, Kaji Ivanov, company director of Gray and Chuang,” Onima continued. “A man who was with the company in its previous iteration before and during the war. All the circumstantial evidence we gathered pointed to a connection between Bettani, Nazari, the clone virus, and Gray and Chuang. And here you are, the living embodiment of that connection.”
Ivanov remained silent. Jace hadn’t seen a poker face quite like his since the war.
Onima was not done. She turned to Dr. Deng. “Then we have you, Dr. Deng. A renowned virologist who has had a great deal of influence on his field and is well respected...but also controversial. And he just so happens to be working for Kaji Ivanov, the Gray and Chuang company director. Now we find you together in a warehouse where you are holding clones you’ve had rounded up for your illegal and likely immoral experiments.”
Jace said, “Dr. Deng, I lost a roommate to your virus. And yes, I mean your virus—because we know it was engineered. We also know that its original intent was not to kill my kind. It was meant to be used to take over clone autonomy via the control input sector specific to clone brains. The section used to upload the template/donor brain scan and programming to inhibit certain ambitions toward the end of the original work on the cloning process.”
Deng looked exceedingly nervous. The hand wringing was still going on, and Jace thought the elderly doctor was beginning to sweat.
Jace continued. “We met an old friend of yours, Dr. Raima Steingarten. We learned that she had been involved in the early stages of the cloning program. She explained how, originally, the idea of the control input sector had been to make for greater direct control of clones. But that came with a price: it removed the ability for clones to think and reason on their own, which made them worse than automatons. Since the idea behind cloning was to have soldiers capable of thinking on their feet and handling unexpected situations—which artificial intelligence might not be able to reason out—it was abandoned. But the programming was still there. Which you knew.”
Dr. Deng said nothing. Kaji Ivanov stood as stoic and unmoving as ever.
“By the way,” Onima added, “Dr. Steingarten is dead.”
Deng flinched. He was definitely sweating now. Ivanov was seething.
“You created a virus targeting clones,” Jace continued. “It was intended to steal our free will away and make us into puppets for your former NEEA and NECC leaders to use to overthrow the AECC. But it didn’t work, and now it’s killing clones instead.”
Jace took a step closer to Dr. Deng, who stepped back. “Look at me. We are still human beings, Doctor. Doesn’t it bother you in the slightest that, like you, we can think, feel, and experience pain? We may have been genetically engineered to fight a war, but we’re still human. Do you care at all that we’re also human beings who feel pain and want to be connected? Or are we just cattle and cannon fodder to you?”
Dr. Deng looked intimidated. Jace held his pistol one-handed, aimed at the man’s chest. At this range, a shot would kill him instantly.
Still, Dr. Deng said nothing.
Onima said, “We need
to know, Doctor, if you have been working to further modify the virus. We learned that chances are, it will never work as originally intended, since a decade has passed, and the altered brains of the clones and individuality among them has likely made that almost impossible to overcome. But knowing how it kills clones, are you working to make it airborne? Or, worse, are you trying to make it capable of infecting non-clones?”
“And what about a cure?” Jace added.
Dr. Deng glanced back and forth between Jace and Onima, then toward Ivanov. Though he remained silent, the hand-wringing was now accompanied by parted lips and sucking air in between his teeth.
“Kara, what’s on his computer?” Onima asked.
“Let’s take a look, shall we?” Kara said, having already pulled up some information. “Dr. Deng is a consummate scientist and keeps excellent notes. He has continued altering the engineering of his virus and chooses clone subjects to infect with it to experiment on. It’s awfully technical, so I’m not entirely sure just what he’s trying to do.”
“Doctor?” Onima prompted.
Deng glanced toward Ivanov, who remained still and unresponsive, eyes fixed on Onima. Jace was starting to think the elderly doctor might begin to hyperventilate.
“Also,” Kara continued, “it looks like he’s working on a second virus. This is all way beyond my understanding, but I suspect Dr. Patel can make heads and tails of it for us.”
“Good,” Onima said. “Download everything, and let’s get them out of here.”
“Do you really believe you will leave this warehouse alive?” asked Ivanov. Jace didn’t miss the menace in his tone. “Security will stop you.”
“You would probably be correct,” Onima said, “if security were not already engaged. Since we know you’re holding a number of clones here—who you had illegally rounded up—we’ve helped get their friends here to free them.”
Ivanov smirked at Jace. “All the clones will be dead soon enough.”
Jace shifted his pistol toward Ivanov. “Have you exposed them to an airborne variant? Can those infected with the first virus infect others?”
Ivanov looked at Jace with disdain but didn’t respond.
Jace shifted his aim again and place the barrel of his pistol on Dr. Deng’s temple. “Answer me!” Jace practically growled. “Is the virus airborne, and have you exposed the clones you’ve been holding here?”
Dr. Deng was shaking, but Jace pressed the pistol harder against him. “Well?”
“No!” Dr. Deng practically deflated as his resistance crumbled. “No, the process wasn’t begun yet. We hadn’t gotten the optimal conditions set up yet. And no, the virus cannot be transmitted from an infected clone to an uninfected clone. Direct transmission by injection or ingestion is the only way to infect you.”
“Is that the truth?” Jace said through clenched teeth, unrelenting. He’d be damned if he would let this doctor infect the clones of Pao-hui-burg with his virus.
“Yes!” Dr. Deng was starting to cry now. Jace had no sympathy for the man, despite his advanced age.
“Done,” Kara informed them, pistol in hand as she joined Onima and Jace.
“I suspect, by now, the clones have caused the rest of the building to be evacuated. It’s time for the two of you to come with us.” Onima gestured with the barrel of her pistol.
“You are so massively overstepping your authority, Marshal,” Ivanov practically spat. “I will ruin your career and see to it you never work again in the whole of the Confederation, publicly or privately. This insult will cost you dearly. You haven’t the slightest idea how far over your head this is.”
Onima once more smiled sweetly at Ivanov. But her eyes spoke a different, darker story. “All your money, power, and influence, Mr. Ivanov, isn’t going to be worth a damn in the face of what we have on you. In fact, I suspect it’ll only be a matter of time before you start singing a very different and conciliatory song—to save your ass.”
Ivanov said nothing. Dr. Deng had stopped crying, but the hand-wringing continued.
Onima placed cuffs on Ivanov’s wrists, and Kara cuffed Dr. Deng. Jace kept his pistol trained on them to make sure neither tried to escape.
“It’s time to go,” Onima said.
Jace hoped this would be the easy part. Past experience, however, left him prepared for it not to be.
20
As she’d expected, the space between the offices and the front was clear. The clones’ retrieval of their brethren had either occupied everyone else or caused them to evacuate.
While Onima had cuffed Ivanov’s hands behind his back, Kara had cuffed Dr. Deng’s in front. Granted, he was an old man—and though still clearly strong, he was also frail.
Onima commed Yael. “We’re on our way out.”
“We’re just across the way,” Yael replied.
Jace was bringing up the rear. The clone soldier appeared to have lost none of his edge. Of course, Onima had had proof more than once that Jace had been a skilled soldier, and that skill remained.
They emerged from the warehouse. Yael had moved the transport across the roadway that abutted the warehouse. They had parked in a designated space, which had likely been intentional to alleviate suspicion.
That likely worked just fine—until the clones exited out of the APC’s rear compartment and went to the warehouse. Though Onima had not been in on the planning for their raid, they were all ex-soldiers. Of course, that was the whole reason they’d been cloned in the first place; they’d be fine.
Just before the trio could step onto the road, another armored personnel carrier glided up to the entranceway. It was painted a dark, charcoal gray and was not a CBI transport. It immediately placed itself between Onima’s team and their transport.
A side hatch opened, and unsurprisingly, a dozen people in blue armored shells with black helmets began to emerge, armed with laser rifles.
A figure in a simple, light-armored coat emerged from the command module of the transport. Onima sucked air in through her teeth when she saw who it was.
Feroz.
“Marshal Gwok, Deputy Marshal Martinez, and Jace,” Feroz said, a hint of derision in his tone. “And here I thought you’d be utterly lost without me and my data-mining skills.”
“Clearly that’s not the case,” Onima said.
Kara’s anger was apparent both on her face and in her tone. “None of us appreciated your attempt to kill us.” She had one hand on Dr. Deng’s arm, the other aiming her pistol at Feroz.
“I didn’t intend to kill you,” Feroz said. “Disable the Aquila? Wreck the data? Absolutely. I mean, if the gravity well had pulled you in and crushed the ship, that would have been unfortunate. But then, since you are here, maybe less so.”
“And Calvert?” Kara pressed.
“That was all Nazari,” Feroz replied.
“Why, Feroz?” Onima asked. “Why did you betray us?”
“Oh, please,” Feroz said. “I was only working for the Bureau because they hadn’t left me much choice. But the better offer I received at the time has paid off in spades. It’s a better long-term investment than working with you, in ways you still don’t fully understand. Now I’d take my ESCA and retire—if they weren’t paying even more to stop your investigation.”
Onima worked to keep her face blank. Feroz’s betrayal still stung. The cold-heartedness of his admission was like a fresh punch to the gut.
“You will release the doctor and Mr. Ivanov to me,” Feroz continued, gesturing with the pistol he brandished. “Also, any data you retrieved on this excursion as well. If you don’t...well, the consequences will be on your head.”
“That’s not how this is going to go,” Onima informed Feroz. “You and your associates, here, can surrender to us now, or the consequences will be on your head.”
“You and what army? It’s just the three of you, and fourteen of us. For the moment. We’ve informed the warehouse security that we’ve arrived, so they will be joining us shortly. This is not
going your way. You’re outnumbered, outgunned, and out of time.”
“You won’t have any backup,” Onima told Feroz. “Warehouse security forces are otherwise occupied presently, so they’ll be of no help to you.”
“You brought a warrant team along?” asked Feroz.
“No,” Onima said. “Just a group of incentivized clones working to free their own. We armed them and brought them here.”
Teru and Yael had left their transport. The duo was quietly working their way behind Feroz’s group.