"Why me?" I said.
"I already told you."
"No, you told me why you wanted Lobo."
"Fair enough. I want you because you're good at covert ops, I've worked with you and know you, our team isn't big, and I need everyone on it to be someone I can trust. Besides, it never occurred to me that you and Lobo were anything other than a package deal."
"Nor to me," said Lobo over the machine frequency. "Were you seriously considering loaning me, as if I were some small appliance?"
I looked down for a moment as I subvocalized, "No!"
"Good," he said, still privately. "I should certainly hope not."
I turned my attention back to Lim. "You're right, of course: I stay with my ship. At the risk of coming across as insensitive to this cause, I have to ask: Why Tumani? Why these kids? This can't be the only planet where one side in a conflict is using children as soldiers. Why are you getting involved here?"
For the first time, she looked away from me as she spoke, and her tone softened. "I'd like to think I'd try to intervene anywhere this was happening, but the truth is that I've never gone looking for the chance to help end this sort of abuse. The same source that showed me the holos and asked me to lead the rescue team is also funding this entire operation. I would have never even thought twice about Tumani if these people hadn't contacted me." She stopped talking, but it was clear she still had more to say, so I stayed quiet. After a bit, she continued. "I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that we'll all get paid—and rather handsomely—for this work. These people had done their research. They knew they could probably persuade me and a few others to take the job for expenses, but they also understood that we'd have to spend serious money to set up and properly outfit the kind of team we'd need." She finally faced me. "Do you think I should have turned down the money?"
I considered the question, which clearly had been troubling her. Finally, I shook my head. "No. If you had, you wouldn't have been able to assemble as good or as large a team, and if someone is willing to pay and has the resources to do so, I see no harm in taking their money. That answer, though, begs the next obvious and important question: What's that party's reason for being involved?" I'd learned the hard way in a lot of fights over many decades that if you didn't understand the motives of the people paying your way, you were likely to find yourself in some very bad situations. Of course, many mission plans went nonlinear even when you did have that knowledge, but possessing it was always better than not knowing.
"I'll tell you what they've told me," she said, "but I think you've done enough of this work to know better than to trust that we have the whole story."
I nodded.
"One of the kids is special to them. They won't say why, and I haven't pressed the issue, but they're willing to spend a fortune to have us rescue all of the boys just to get this one."
"A one-target smash-and-grab would be a lot cheaper and easier," I said. "Unless their entire organization is full of morons, they have to know that."
"I know, I know," she said, "and I considered that fact. I even raised it to them, but they said simply that they had the money to help all the children, so they should." She paused a beat, as if considering whether to tell me the next thing. "They also refused to identify the target. They want us to save all the kids. Once we have, they'll come in and take the one they want."
"Do you believe they really care that much about all those children?"
She shook her head. "No," she said, her voice sharpening with anger, "but someone should, and that's just one more reason I agreed to do this." She stepped closer to me, cutting in half the space between us. I fought my reaction to stand and push her away and instead stayed where I was. "Look, I deal with only one person, a woman, and though she's pretty convincing, her story doesn't hold together as well as I'd like. We both know that the most efficient way to get that kid is to target only him. She knows it, too, but she won't do it. She's shown me the money, so I know she or the group she represents can afford this operation, and her intel has been topnotch so far. My theory—and it is only a theory, I haven't raised it with her and don't plan to—is that the kid they want is for some reason so valuable that they consider it less risky to pay us to save them all than to let us know which kid they want."
I thought about it. That would certainly protect the identity of a high-value target, and it would remove any easy temptation for blackmail, but having to acquire a base full of children was a lot more dangerous—to the children as well as to us—than going after a single one.
I got it.
I stared at her. "You think they would rather risk that child dying than us finding and keeping him."
She nodded, very slowly, her face tightening. "Yes—which is why we really can't trust them until we've secured all the kids and they've retrieved their target." She rolled her head a bit, working to dispel some of the tension that was tightening her neck and shoulders. "On the other hand, when could we ever trust the rear-echelon jerks who hired us?"
I smiled and shook my head. "Never." I stood and stretched. She held her position, the two of us now less than a meter apart, and watched me carefully.
"We're clearly going to do it," I said, "so what's the next step?"
"About time," Lobo said, his voice filling the air around us.
I'd expected Lim to relax; after all, she'd won. Instead, though, her face tightened further, as if she'd smelled something bad, and she held up her hand. "There's one more complication."
"That doesn't sound good."
"I don't like it," she said, "but I'm also not sure what to make of it; maybe it's bad, maybe it's not. My contact with their group was the one who suggested I involve you two. I would have thought of you if you'd been in the area, but I'd never have gone to the trouble of reaching out to so many planets for you. No offense."
"None taken," I said, but only to buy time. That a third party was suggesting me did not make me happy. I didn't want to be on anyone's first-call list; that kind of notoriety did not make my life easier. Lim was staring at me, so I continued. "Working with people you can reach easily and with no risk only makes good sense." On the other hand, as much as I didn't like having anyone notice me, I had no reason to be particularly surprised by it; I'd attracted more than my share of coalition attention the last few years. "So other than the work you had to do to find me, why is their recommendation of me a complication?"
"They won't proceed until they meet with you," Lim said.
Excellent, I thought but did not say. Getting more firsthand data about this mysterious group could only be good for me, though Lim might well see it as potentially undercutting her authority. "I already agreed to work for you," I said, knowing it would help appease Lim, "so they shouldn't make any such requirement."
"I know," she said, "but the woman did."
Lim backed up a step.
"In fact, she's waiting on the gate station for me to call her. She knew you wouldn't go into the structure itself, so she insists on coming aboard and talking to you."
"Fine," I said. "Call her."
Over the machine frequency, Lobo said, "I just scanned the station network for visitor IDs," Lobo said.
I shrugged as if to say, "So?"
Still private, Lobo said, "Jon, I'm pretty sure you're not going to like this."
Chapter 12
Just outside the jump gate station, planet Macken
As Lim spoke into the display that Lobo opened in front of her, over the machine frequency he said, "Jon, Alissa's contact is Maggie, Maggie Park."
I rocked back into Lobo's interior hull as if someone had pushed me. I'd last seen Maggie a little over eighteen months ago on a street on the edge of Nickres, a city on a planet called Gash. She'd held me and kissed me and she'd walked away, holding the hand of a psychic boy I'd helped save from multiple government and private groups that had wanted to own him. She'd left, and I'd watched her disappear, and I still felt as if part of me had gone with her. Afterward, I'd spent
almost a year living in the trees of a developing world and trying to come to peace with a life in which I'd never see her again.
Now, everything about Lim's operation made sense. Maggie was a member of the Children of Pinkelponker, a secret group of people descended from residents of my home world, people who all possessed special powers. Maggie could read minds; the boy, Manu Chang, received glimpses of the future; and others in the group, Maggie had said, had other abilities. Like those my sister, Jennie, had used to heal me. The group existed in secret. Its members lived normal lives and worked hard to avoid attention, because if anyone found out they existed, they'd spend the rest of their days either on the run or as lab rats. Like Benny and I had been in the Aggro prison station, where the scientists had conducted the experiments that led to me being the only surviving human-nanomachine hybrid. Those tests also started the chain of events that culminated in the destruction of Aggro, the quarantine and blockade around the apertures to Pinkelponker that persist to this day, and the universal ban on research into melding people and nanomachines. Of course, that ban hadn't stopped all the research in this area, as I'd learned six months ago, when I'd been tricked into helping retrieve a scientist conducting illegal experiments on children. Still, I remained, to the best of my knowledge the only person whose cells teemed with nanomachines.
As Maggie had walked away from me, her head vanishing as the crowd on the streets enveloped her, I'd wanted with all my heart to run after her, to be with her, to be with other people tied to my home world. Instead, I'd stood still, knowing it was the right thing to do, the safe thing for all of them, even for me. I wouldn't ever again be somebody's experimental animal, and I wouldn't let anyone else suffer that way, either. People near me tended to get hurt; I wouldn't put Maggie and the others in her group at that risk.
The correctness of the decision had not, however, meant that I'd liked it, that watching her leave hadn't been harder to take than any of the wounds I've ever suffered. The nanomachines in my cells have been able to heal all of those injuries, but they could do nothing for this one.
And now she was here, mere meters away from me, only a short leap across the void of space in the station, and for the life of me I couldn't decide whether to burst through its walls to be with her or to head through the first available aperture and keep jumping until I was as many worlds away from here as Lobo could carry me.
"Jon," Lobo said privately, "Alissa is talking to you."
I blinked a few times and focused on her. "I'm sorry," I said. "I missed what you were saying."
She stepped closer and put her hand on my shoulder. "I understand," she said. "The thought of those poor children gets to me, too, if I think about it too much, but we will save them. We will."
I nodded, happy for her inadvertent rescue.
"My contact would like to come aboard," she said, "though she's also willing to meet in the station. Your choice."
"Bring her here," I said. Without thinking, I also said aloud, "Usual protocol, Lobo."
"Executing," he said out loud. Over the machine frequency, he added, "Only one person is waiting, and all the data I can get from the scan confirms that it's Maggie."
I was grateful that he didn't choose this moment to needle me about giving him instructions he already knew to follow. I looked down long enough to subvocalize, "Thanks. Act as if we've never met her until she shows otherwise." Either Maggie hadn't told Lim she already knew me, in which case she had a good reason for withholding that data, or she and Lim were gaming me, which I should be able to detect and expose soon enough.
"Will do," Lobo said privately.
"I'll warn you right now," Lim said, "that you can push her for details all you want, but she won't give you any. As I said, she'll show you the money, but that's it."
I forced myself to focus on the task at hand: responding as Lim would expect. "You've confirmed her information about Tumani, right?"
"Of course."
"You can think of no reason anyone would choose that location to spring a trap on you?"
"None."
"Then I have no reason to brace her for data she doesn't want to provide."
"Linked to the station," Lobo said aloud. "One human female ready to board." Privately, he added, "No other humans within twenty meters."
"Let her in," I said.
As I'd done with Lim, I stood beside the entry hatch, which opened as soon as I was in position.
Maggie walked onto Lobo and held up her arms.
The hatch closed. Lobo disengaged from the station.
I sagged against the wall to my left, glad for its support.
Maggie was as beautiful as ever, almost my height with a strong but shapely body and lush red hair that was half a meter longer than when I'd last seen her, now falling past the middle of her back.
"Jon Moore," Lim said, gesturing to me, "Maggie Chu. Maggie, Jon."
Maggie stuck out her hand and said, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Moore. We've heard only good things about you—and, of course, about your abilities and your ship."
Lim was watching me. I was afraid to stare at Maggie, but I caught the slight wink she gave when she mentioned Lobo. I registered the new last name but didn't care; it was Maggie.
I shook her hand for as brief a time as I could manage, afraid that if I got too strong a grip on her I might never want to let it go. "My pleasure." I gestured to the front of Lobo. "Let's go up front and talk."
Lobo had put out another couch. I took the pilot's and swiveled so I could watch them both—and so I would be as far from temptation as I could manage.
Neither sat.
"You wanted to talk," I said, staring at Maggie, "so talk. If all you need is to know if I'll help, we can save some time: I will, as Lim almost certainly told you."
"Alissa did assure me you would," Maggie said, "but it's still good to hear confirmation directly from you. I'm not sure if she told you much about us."
Lim interrupted her. "I didn't, because you've told me almost nothing."
Maggie continued as if Lim hadn't spoken. "Mr. Moore—"
I interrupted her. "Jon."
She smiled and nodded, all business, no warmth in her expression. "Jon, I represent an organization of wealthy individuals who despise the thought of any group using children as soldiers. They've made it their special cause to stop such abuse wherever they hear of it. Sometimes, they can be effective with lobbying and similar conventional approaches to the problem. Other times," she paused and shrugged, "more direct and controversial tactics are necessary. When they are, I help facilitate a solution."
"It's a good cause," I said, "and I already told you I would help. Lim said you're paying, which is definitely a nice additional incentive."
"It's that very topic that I want to discuss with you," Maggie said.
Lim had been acting as if she were barely paying attention, but at this statement she snapped her head around to face Maggie. "Our deal is that I negotiate terms with each team member and all funding flows through my organization."
"And so it shall," Maggie said, "but due to the special equipment—" Maggie gestured with both hands to take in Lobo "—that Mr. Moore, Jon, is supplying, we'd prefer to work out compensation directly with him."
Lim's face clouded. I couldn't blame her. Maggie was undercutting her authority and in the process putting me in an awkward position with the woman who would be my commander on this mission.
"Lim's in charge," I said, "so I have no problem with her participating in our discussions."
Maggie stared at me, but whatever she was trying to tell me, I could not understand. She turned and put her hand on Lim's shoulder, and I knew what Lim could not: Maggie was now reading her thoughts.
After a few seconds, Maggie said to her, "You're right about compensation. I hadn't wanted to bring it up, but even though we suggested Jon, my principals would like me to vet him in private. It's not my choice, and I apologize for it, but I have to follow my orders. Perhaps if you'd lik
e, after he and I speak alone long enough for me to do that, you could rejoin us and we could all discuss the payment terms. That way, I'd be indulging my principals but not violating our arrangement. Would that work for you?"
Lim clearly wasn't completely satisfied, but the compromise addressed enough of her concerns that she was no longer as angry as she had been. Being able to read someone's thoughts definitely would provide a huge edge in negotiations—though the fact that Maggie had to be touching a person to do so had to be a frustrating limitation. Watching Maggie use her ability naturally and without obvious thought, much as most of us might stare into another's eyes, made it even more clear to me how distressing it must be to her that I was the one person she could not read. Another gift of the changes Jennie had made to my brain, I supposed, and one I was very glad to have.
"Okay," Lim said. "Do we have to go back to the station again?"
"No," Lobo said aloud. "You could wait in the med room."
"Fine," Lim said. Staring at me, she said, "Come get me as soon as you're done."
"Will do," I said.
She paused a few beats, nodded, and headed out of the pilot's area.
Maggie and I stared at one another, saying nothing, until Lobo came over the speakers. "Lim is in the med room and can hear nothing." Privately, he added, "I assume I should not show her this conversation."
"Correct," I subvocalized.
Now that I was alone with Maggie, I wasn't sure what to say to her, how to behave. Should I rush to her? Yell at her? Pretend the past had never happened?
We stared at each other some more. I stayed where I was. I knew there was a right thing to do, but I could not figure out what it was. My frustration at my own incompetence grew.
Finally, the words coming out harsher than I intended, I said, "You wanted me alone; now you have me. What do you want?"
Chapter 13
Just outside the jump gate station, planet Macken
Children No More-ARC Page 5