The Only Game in the Galaxy

by Paul Collins

  ‘I’m all right,’ said Anneke. ‘I don’t plan on staying.’

  She didn’t know why she’d said it, but for some reason she trusted Mirella, even felt sorry for her. There was a terrible ache in the woman that no painkiller would ever erase.

  Mirella smiled sadly. ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘No one wants to be here. But what choices are there?’

  ‘There are always choices.’

  ‘You think like a foreigner, too,’ said Mirella, and sighed as if her memory stirred. ‘But the House Absolute runs Tormat. There is nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide … If there were, why, I would have gone long ago, instead of indenturing myself to the House of Stalh.’

  ‘There’s offworld.’

  Mirella stared, as if she didn’t comprehend. ‘But how could one leave Tormat? No ship would take you.’

  ‘Perhaps. Perhaps not. Are there no jump-gates here?’

  ‘Many. But those that go offworld are regulated by the House Guilds. Without papers, you would not get far.’

  ‘Then a ship it is.’

  ‘And who would pilot it, child?’

  ‘I would.’

  Mirella looked carefully at Anneke, as if divining the truth of her words. ‘You can fly a ship through space?’

  Anneke looked thoughtful. ‘I can.’

  ‘But the girls say that you do not remember who you are. How do you know you can fly?’

  She hesitated. ‘I think it’s a different kind of memory. Like still being able to speak a language. None of which matters right now. How far is it to the space port?’

  ‘A kilometre, maybe more.’

  ‘Good.’

  Mirella’s face wrinkled. She stood suddenly, clutching her back as though an old pain stabbed her.

  ‘I came to offer you solace, instruction. I am sorry. I see that it is too soon for you. But we will talk more on this,’ she said as she moved to the door.

  ‘Tomorrow night,’ said Anneke.

  ‘What? What about tomorrow night?’

  ‘That’s when I’m leaving. If you wish to join me, then you must gather the things we’ll need. Clothes. Food. Some local money. Oh, and a rope. Ten metres will do.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Mirella’s tone was faintly scoffing. Despite this, she gazed at Anneke with unease and maybe a trace of hope.

  ‘I’ll do the rest, Mirella,’ said Anneke, lying back on the cot and folding her arms beneath her head.

  The next day was another tedious succession of hours with little to do. Food and a jug of water were placed on a tray by the door at midday. The servants averted their eyes and spoke little. She did discover, however, that Roklegg was away in a neighbouring city and would not return till the morrow. Anneke slept, paced, ate, slept and fidgeted. A voice in her head, a man’s voice from her past, counselled her to breathe deeply and be calm. Good advice. But as far as she could tell, she had never mastered the fine art of patience.

  Night came with the usual swirl of bathing, oiling, dressing and monosyllabic conversation. Anneke longed for the cool dark hours to come. Eventually, lights out was announced and the rooms plunged into darkness.

  Around midnight, Anneke heard a tiny noise. Her door eased open and Mirella entered. She carried two small backpacks, her eyes wide as she regarded Anneke, clearly terrified.

  ‘I’m not sure why I’m trusting you,’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ said Anneke. Mirella froze. ‘You can smell freedom on me. The places I’ve come from. I can smell it myself.’

  Mirella moved forward hesitantly. ‘How do we get out of here?’

  ‘Did you bring the rope?’

  Mirella nodded and handed it to her.

  ‘Then that’s how we go.’ She pointed up at the windows.

  Mirella followed her finger. To her, the windows were impossibly high. She snorted. ‘I was a fool to hope,’ she muttered, then slumped, defeated.

  Anneke said nothing. Gathering herself in the darkness, she sprang upwards, landing easily on the window ledge.

  Mirella’s mouth opened.

  Anneke let down the rope till it brushed the woman’s shoulder. ‘You coming?’

  Trembling with confusion, Mirella clenched the rope.

  MAXIMUS kept his composure though he had no doubt that Anneke Longshadow, with her RIM training, saw through his effort to maintain control. All the while, he was assessing the situation.

  Anneke had never seen him in ‘Maximus Black’ form (close to his original ‘birth jacket’) though it wasn’t prudent to assume she’d never identify his underlying biometrics. Never is a long time. Acting suspiciously would not help.

  He needed to act fast. He opened his mouth to brush her off, to get out of there. He would have to leave RIM, permanently this time –

  But Anneke spoke first.

  ‘Excuse me, could I speak to someone in charge?’

  Maximus’ heart missed a beat. The tone. The phrasing. The question itself.

  Something was wrong. Translation: Something was very, very good – for Maximus Black.

  Maximus extemporised. ‘Which department did you want?’

  Anneke pursed her lips. ‘I’m not sure. Recruitment?’

  ‘Have you been here before?’

  ‘Perhaps. It’s – familiar.’

  There. That tone again. Completely mystifyingly genuine. She wasn’t faking amnesia. He must act. Take advantage somehow.

  ‘Please step this way.’ He led her to a hush corner: a spot where dampening and privacy fields would make their exchange unreadable and unrecordable. Even lip movements would be blurred.

  Anneke clearly knew what a hush corner was. She frowned. ‘Why here?’

  ‘Give me your code.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  Maximus’ eyes widened. He was good at this. ‘You don’t remember your code?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Okay,’ said Maximus. ‘Here’s what we do. I walk you up to my office. On the way, we talk about normal things. The weather. Local politics. Whatever. Now follow me.’

  ‘Wait a second,’ said Anneke. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say right now.’

  ‘Do you know me?’

  ‘Yes. Okay? No more questions till we’re in a secure location. That’s an order.’ He loaded the last word with subsonics implying a past history, an expectation of obedience …

  Anneke nodded.

  ‘Right.’ Maximus led the way to a security desk out of view of the public lobby. There he obtained a pass for Anneke. He also collected the package the Commander had asked for, scanning it and verifying its contents. To the security guard he said, ‘Have Esprin Harbage deliver this parcel to Commander Ferren with my apologies. A matter of importance has arisen.’

  Then he hustled Anneke into an elevator. They lifted fifty floors, and half a block, before disem-barking not far from his private office.

  Anneke said nothing throughout the journey.

  This gave Maximus plenty of time to concoct a story. And to decide what to do.

  Foremost on the list was to obliterate her. Irreversibly. But that could wait (though he was itching to gloat over her still-warm corpse).

  Maximus, leading the way, came to a hard stop outside an open office door. He stared inside, growing pale. Behind him, Anneke glanced inside too.

  Maximus kept them moving. His head was in a whirl. A new factor had entered the equation of survival and empire building, one he would have to ponder, given time.

  It was peculiar.

  First Anneke Longshadow comes back from the dead (yet again), turning up on his doorstep, afflicted with amnesia (convenient for him, he presumed, though it was not wise to presume) and now this. In the same building on the same day.

  Coincidence?

  They reached Maximus’ office without further incident. He stepped inside, ushered Anneke to a chair, and locked the door behind them. He noted Anneke’s cool reaction. Even without memory, he thought, she’
s good.

  He sat down and steepled his fingers, to give himself some further time.

  ‘Your pulse is racing,’ said Anneke casually. ‘And you’re pale. Something spooked you back there.’

  ‘You’re right. But let’s talk about you.’

  ‘Fine. What about me?’

  ‘What do you remember?’

  Anneke stared back at him, obviously weighing up how much to tell. Again, he marvelled at the training that could operate when core memory was gone.

  She relaxed slightly. ‘I was dumped out of a jump-gate onto some planet I’d never heard of. Judging by the circumstances, there was a firefight at the place I’d left. I was wounded and there were explosive residues in my clothing.’

  ‘What planet did you arrive on?’ asked Maximus.

  ‘A pleasure world. Scorpius Sector. Though I bounced through another place first.’ She frowned, perhaps clutching a fragmented memory.

  ‘What was the other world like?’

  ‘I just have impressions,’ said Anneke. ‘Heat, noise, colour. Possibly a jungle, but it happened so fast. And there was a lurching sensation that felt – wrong.’

  Maximus nodded. ‘Okay. That’s called a ricochet effect.’ Inwardly, he cursed. The controls of the jump-gate had been tampered with, leaving the original setting in place but programming a second, almost instantaneous, redirection.

  Maximus sat back, feeling weary. There was a traitor in his camp.

  Anneke eyed him. ‘Do you know what happened to me?’

  Maximus met her gaze, holding it. ‘I know what happened, because I was the one who sent you through the jump-gate.’ Always good to interlace a lie with the truth. ‘I also know who you are and why your memory is gone.’

  Anneke leaned forward. Perhaps she’d thought her amnesia to be a secret. She recovered quickly, and smiled. ‘Then I came to the right place.’

  ‘You did, but you needn’t take any credit for that.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘You were programmed to come back here.’

  ‘Interesting,’ said Anneke. ‘Why?’

  Maximus leaned forward. ‘Because you are a member of an elite and secret force of –’

  There was a knock at the door.

  ‘Give me a moment,’ Maximus said, groaning inwardly as he opened the door.

  ‘Yes, Esprin, what can I do for you?’ He tried to keep his body between the man and Anneke. Anneke would not recognise the young agent, but the same could not be said of Esprin Harbage.

  Clearly, Esprin was in a bad mood. Esprin hated him because Maximus had poisoned him, making him his ‘slave’ by doling out the antidote. Naturally, he wanted to see what Maximus was hiding. Badly.

  Esprin craned his neck and squeezed through. ‘I delivered the parcel,’ he said in a bid to excuse himself.

  Maximus could have stopped him ‘nicely’, with some messy manoeuvring, which would have needed explaining.

  Instead, he opted for a dramatic solution.

  ‘Watch out!’ Maximus said, kicking the door shut behind Esprin. Before Anneke could turn, Maximus had snatched Esprin’s blaster from his holster, flipped it away, and pulled his own. ‘He’s got a gun!’

  He shot Esprin in the stomach.

  Esprin staggered, fell to his knees, clutched his stomach, then stared at Maximus.

  Anneke jumped to her feet, shocked. For a second her eyes met Esprin’s then he pitched forward on the thick carpet and lay still.

  Maximus felt for a pulse. Staring up at Anneke, he shook his head.

  ‘Who was he?’ Anneke demanded.

  Maximus dragged Esprin’s body into his ready room. Closing the door behind him he came out.

  Anneke hadn’t moved. She indicated the closed door. ‘Was that necessary?’

  Maximus sat down calmly, beckoning Anneke to do likewise. She didn’t. ‘Answer my question,’ she said.

  ‘He was an enemy agent, obviously sent in to kill you. I’m guessing the other side discovered you’d made it back alive – irritating them no end – and in desperation activated their sleeper agent. I’ve known about Esprin for some time, but was using him to send disinformation.’ He pursed his lips. ‘This is good news.’

  Anneke sat down. ‘You call killing a man good news?’

  ‘Don’t be a fool,’ Maximus said. It was time to assert authority. ‘The only reason they would risk exposing a sleeper agent is if it was vital that you die. And that means –’

  ‘That I must know something.’

  ‘Correct.’

  Anneke considered that. She indicated the closed door. ‘You didn’t call security. Why not?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘Sleeper agent. At most, he’d report every few days. You can use the window of time before his handler knows he’s been eliminated.’ Maximus nodded. Anneke continued. ‘But you were saying, before you murdered him –?’

  Maximus suppressed an urge to kill her there and then. Too difficult to explain away, and certainly too unimaginative. He wanted to savour the cleverness with which he finally dispatched her. ‘Hard times make for hard choices, Anneke.’

  His use of her name made her flinch.

  ‘That’s what I’m called? Anneke?’

  ‘Anneke Longshadow. You have no recall of this?’

  She frowned. ‘I guess it feels – right.’

  ‘It should. It’s your – code name. You were born on Normansk, a 1.9G world. You later relocated and settled on Se’atma Minor where you attended a RIM training academy. Excelling in all your classes.’

  ‘I’m an agent?’

  Maximus leaned forward. ‘Not just an agent. A member of a special force of mnemonic agents.’ Anneke stared at him. ‘Such agents routinely have their memory erased before going into the field to maintain and protect their cover.’

  Anneke looked overwhelmed.

  Maximus went on. ‘Anneke Longshadow is your cover name. You were on assignment to investigate an illegal organisation known as the Imperial Myotan Combine – a hit was involved. An error occurred and we had to evacuate you immediately via jump-gate. Unfortunately, the transmission was hi-jacked and instead of ending up at a safe destination you were ricocheted elsewhere. The effect of a ricochet can easily cause partial amnesia, compromising the pre-existing memory erasure. We shall just have to wait to see if your mission parameters return …’

  ‘And if they don’t?’

  Maximus sat back. ‘Cortical stimulation has been successful in such cases.’

  ‘And what if they –’

  Maximus’ screen buzzed. He activated it. The face of the Envoy appeared. Maximus felt better immediately. ‘You’re – back?’

  ‘As you say. I see you have company.’ He acknowledged Anneke Longshadow from the screen, unsurprised by her presence. Of course, I’m permanently unsurprised, Maximus thought.

  ‘Agent Longshadow has returned,’ he said, giving the Envoy an almost imperceptible signal that said, ‘Play along’.

  The Envoy nodded. ‘Good to see you again, Agent Longshadow.’

  Anneke stared at the visual. She nodded curtly, unable to explain her unease.

  ‘When can you get here?’ Maximus asked.

  ‘I am on Wolf’s Bane, scheduled for a jump in two hours.’

  ‘Good. We’ll talk when you arrive. But expect some revision of the other matter. The leveraging issue can hold off for another day.’

  ‘I understand,’ said the Envoy, cutting the link.

  Maximus turned back, smiling. He felt inverted pleasure that, via code, he had ordered Anneke’s execution right before her own eyes! Not before, of course, she accomplished a mission for him.

  This was turning out to be not such a bad day after all.

  ‘Can you tell me more about my assignment?’ Anneke asked suddenly.

  ‘That will have to wait for the debriefing,’ said Maximus, thinking fast. ‘First things first. We must get you to a safe house and cover your tracks. Clearly the Combine has tracked you f
rom the nearest jump-gate and knows you are here. We need to make you disappear again …’

  Maximus took her out through a secret exit built into and under RIM headquarters, a subterranean corridor that led under the street to a staircase three blocks south. There it branched away again, but Maximus took the staircase up into the basement of a department store. From there, he led Anneke through adjoining sub-basements to a voice-secured elevator that took them up fifteen floors. From there they moved into the public domain, taking a drop tube back to street level and then a series of zigzagging journeys through alleyways and crowded shopping malls.

  The final leg of the journey was made inside a closed, field-dampened auto-cab, which Maximus removed from the grid by inserting a RIM jack into the vehicle’s input port. The city’s mainframe AI couldn’t track them. An anti-satellite tracking field also made them pretty much invisible to the all-seeing eyes in the sky.

  ‘This is rather elaborate,’ said Anneke at one point as they neared the safe house.

  ‘The best for the best,’ Maximus said.

  ‘You do realise that we were being followed?’

  Maximus looked at her. ‘I didn’t know that you did. How could you tell? I only picked it up through my tactical implants.’

  Anneke considered that. ‘Maybe I have implants, too.’

  Not like mine, Maximus thought, but he had to admire her skill. The woman had a sixth sense. He should never forget that. Nor, he realised, should he ever lose focus on his surroundings.

  The explosion ripped a hole in the side of the auto-cab and tossed it on its side. It skidded several metres before screeching to a stop amid a spray of sparks. Maximus and Anneke sprawled on the new floor of the cab. Max had his gun out before the cab had stopped moving.

  ‘So much for your precautions,’ said Anneke.

  ‘Those precautions just saved your life,’ said Maximus, peeking out through a reinforced window. Civilians were scattering. No problem. They wouldn’t have deterred anyone truly serious. ‘This cab is an augmented model.’

  Anneke kicked out a rear door then belly-crawled through the opening. Maximus followed her. They kept going until they were behind a low ferrocon-crete pedestal bearing a piece of multi-dimensional modern art.