“Yes?”
“Sir, Mr. Fitzroy needs you right away,” Hugo chanced.
“He does?” the thin man narrowed his eyes. “Can you not tell him I'm occupied?”
“He was rather insistent, sir,” Hugo said, keeping his hands clenched together behind his back and his gaze lowered. The man's dark eyes stayed on him for a second longer, then he sighed and placed the scalpel delicately on a metal tray and removed his gloves. “Very well. It's his credit he's wasting more than my time.”
He swept out and then only the little medic was left. Hugo was just considering pulling his gun when he trotted right up to Hugo, eyes round. “Listen, soldier,” he muttered. “Could you get this man out of here?”
“Sir?”
The medic, twisting his fingers, glanced behind him at Webb. “Just... get him away from this room. Somewhere safe. I will smooth it over with command, I assure you. You won't incur any blame. If the interrogation continues I fear there will be damage that cannot be undone and then all is lost. I will find you when I can and take him back.”
“Okay, sir,” Hugo managed and the doctor let out a shuddering sigh and smiled weakly at them.
“Thank you,” he said, then scuttled off.
Rami drifted over to the table looking dazed.
“We need to move quickly, Lieutenant,” Hugo muttered. Rami nodded and started examining the table's binder controls whilst Hugo shed his coat. “Webb?” Hugo muttered. “Zeek, can you hear me?”
“Hugo?” Webb's voice was thick, his eyes didn't seem to want to focus.
“We're getting you out of here. Try and stay awake.”
Rami got the binders open and Hugo laid a hand on the commander's shoulder to help him sit up but Webb twisted away, whimpering and mumbling.
“Bastards…” Rami hissed.
“What?”
Rami was staring at the vials on the tray next to the scalpel and a neat row of syringes. “They've given him a neuro-enhancer.” She looked at the shallow cuts that ran down his ribs, over his chest and behind his ears and shook her head, going pale before turning back to the tray. “You'll have to wait, Captain.”
“We need to move before the Zero shows up on their scans.”
“We can't even touch him in this state,” Rami replied, looking through the vials. “They should have a suppressant... if they were planning to keep him alive, that is.”
Hugo glanced between Rami and Webb and the door, feeling seconds slip by. “Hurry, Lieutenant.”
Rami found a vial and filled a syringe. She hesitated with a hand over Webb's arm.
“Do it,” Hugo snapped.
Hugo saw her swallow, grab Webb’s wrist to hold his arm down. He cried out and tried to pull away. Hugo helped her hold him down but every touch made the clone tremble and writhe. Rami went even paler but she managed to administer the injection and Webb gradually calmed.
“Zeek?” Hugo asked.
Webb blinked at the ceiling, looking a little more focused.
“Quick, Rami,” Hugo said and Rami helped him sit him up. He whimpered but Hugo managed to get the coat on him and cover most of the blood. “Webb, try and stand.”
“That's not my name,” he mumbled, staring at his knees.
“It is for now,” Hugo growled, pulling the slighter man’s arm over his shoulders, ignoring the responding shudders. “Rami, your hat.”
Rami pulled her cap off and placed it low on Webb's shorn head to hide his face. He gazed blearily at her. “Anita?”
Rami swallowed, jaw tight.
“Lieutenant,” Hugo snapped. Rami shook herself, taking Webb's other arm and helping him to his feet. They shambled to the door. “You go first.”
Rami looked up and down the corridor then waved them out.
They made their way back through the corridors of the Tide, Rami guiding the way. They managed to shuffle out of sight around corners whenever someone came their way and Webb managed to take more of his weight as they got down to the level of the docking holds. These corridors were busier and they drew a few looks as they shuffled along, hands out to stop Webb stumbling.
“We need to hurry,” Hugo said. “It won't be long before someone reports this.”
“The dock is just around this corner, sir,” Rami said, checking her wrist panel. They came around a corner onto a more familiar hallway and ducked through an entryway into the wide, bright dock, busy with berthed fighters and flyers and a bustling tech crew.
“Oh no,” Rami muttered, drawing up short. Hugo looked up and saw some of the engineers stood around Son, frowning at the reg code and at a computer panel.
“They'll be checking the docking schedule,” Hugo muttered.
“I got Son on it, sir,” Rami whispered, shifting a step forward to hide Webb from view. “But who knows how they work from day-to-day on here.”
“Webb,” Hugo said. His head was hanging and Hugo was afraid for a minute he'd passed out. “Webb, you need to try and walk.”
The clone lifted his head. His eyes looked far away. “What's the point?” he mumbled.
“What?”
“There's nowhere to run.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sir,” Rami said, pointing. The dock workers were shrugging and moving on to the skiff berthed next to Son.
“Webb, you have to try and stand.”
Webb shook his head but pulled some of his weight off Hugo. He swayed but Rami steadied him and he nodded. Hugo took a breath then stepped out onto the dock area and started walking over towards Son. He fell back to walk beside Webb, ready to grab him if he fell, and Rami paced just behind. One of the tech crew at the skiff paused to watch them approach. He consulted his panel again, frown deepening.
“Quick,” Rami hissed, keying the cockpit control.
“Hey,” the tech called.
Rami scrambled up the fighter then reached down. “Zeek, quick,” she said, reaching for him. For one horrible moment Webb just stood and stared at her. Then he reached up grabbed her hand and allowed her to help him up into the squat space behind the pilot seat. There was another shout from the tech but Hugo was up and in the seat before he reached them. He fired the engine and the man fell back, staggering with the force of the thrusters. Son lifted from the floor then blasted out the drift shield into open space. A light on the control panel started blinking as the Tide tried to hail them.
“More,” Hugo said, pushing the comm button. “Bring the Zero round and open the hold.”
“Yes sir. What's your status?”
Hugo glanced over his shoulder. Webb was curled up against Rami, head on her shoulder with his eyes closed. She was holding him but her eyes were dry and angry.
“We've got him,” Hugo said.
“Sir, the Tide is moving to engage you.”
“I see it,” Hugo said, scowling at his instruments. “Just get to the rendezvous.”
The Tide's cannon fire seared past his wing but Son was far more manoeuvrable. He increased their speed and the bigger ship fell away behind. Fighters started to deploy but the Zero pulled into their path and Hugo manoeuvred them into the hold. “More, full thrusters, now.”
They felt the Zero's engines scream and they thundered away from the oncoming LIL fighters.
“Webb, wake up,” Rami said as the hold pressurised around them and Son's cockpit opened. “Sir, can you help?”
Hugo swallowed and reached around the pilot's chair to try and help manoeuvre Webb out of the squat space. Bolt and Sub came running up to the side of the fighter and helped hand him down.
“Take him to the medbay,” Hugo said and they nodded and headed towards the ladder. “More,” Hugo said into his wrist panel as he followed. “Are we away?”
“Out of the Tide's range now sir. Any heading?”
“Anywhere away from here. And fast.”
“No,” Webb croaked, pulling himself from Sub's grip and trying to turn and face him. “Hugo, no, we need to get out of Service space.”
“What?”
“Just -” Webb swayed and clutched his head.
“Get him to medbay.”
“Kaleb, get out of Service-controlled space. Trust me.”
Hugo stood frowning at him for a second, but through the bleariness and the pain he saw certainty haunting his eyes. “More,” Hugo said again.
“Sir?”
“Take us out into neutral drift.”
A pause. “Sir?”
“Just do it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sub and Bolt managed to help Webb up the ladder then Rami was ushering him through to medbay.
“It was LIL all along,” Hugo said as Webb was perched on the medbay bunk and Rami peeled off his jacket and cap.
“How did you find out?” he murmured.
“You were right to stay in Anton's good graces. He was the first one Evangeline tried to make a deal with when LIL issued the contract for your recapture. He knew about them using the Tide as their flagship, too.”
Webb just nodded in response, staring at the floor.
“Why did they interrogate you?”
“Sir, he needs to rest,” Rami said.
“Leave us for a minute, Lieutenant.”
“Sir -”
“It's okay, Anita,” Webb managed a weak smile. “Go help More. He's going to need a copilot once we hit the Belt.” She hesitated a moment longer, looking angry and confused, then put down her medkit and left. “Fitzroy ordered it,” Webb continued, reaching for some sterilising wipes and wincing as he cleaned some of the blood off his ribs. “He wanted information to use against the Service before they wiped it all out of my head.”
“Wiped it?”
Webb nodded, throwing a bloody wipe on the floor and taking another. “They never wanted another Webb. Not after he so obviously wouldn't play their game. They just wanted something that looked like him that would pass a DNA test.”
“A DNA test?” Hugo frowned.
Webb looked up at him. “Webb... the original Webb,” the clone managed a half-grin. “Governor McCullough's son.” Hugo stared at him. The clone's weak smile widened into something that looked like a leer. “Didn't see that one coming, huh? Though, to be fair, neither did Webb.”
Hugo stared at the face. His blood ran cold. This broken, bloody and defeated Webb – not in a hundred years would he have associated him with the Governor McCullough from all the history reels. But the old Webb... his commander...? He thought of the determination, the fire, the energy.
He sat down heavily at the workstation. “This is not possible.”
Webb shrugged. “Apparently it is.”
“Doll?”
Webb shook his head, not looking at Hugo. “Doll's sterile. It was probably the result of some roll in the hay with some poor, bedazzled low-life on Lunar 1. Kind of explains why Doll did all she did for him,” he shook his head, looking pained. “He was her husband's son...”
“She knew?”
“Judging from the way she reacted when I turned up on her doorstep...” His eyes went far away again. “Yeah, I'd say she knew.”
“But we ran a DNA test,” Hugo said. “Spinn ran one and didn't...” Realisation slammed into him. He snarled and turned to the medbay workstation. “Spinn,” he barked into the comm whilst rooting through the medbay data.
“Captain?” Spinn's reply sounded nervous.
“Medbay. Now,” then Hugo cut off the connection. He turned back to the figure on the bunk who was staring at the bulkhead again. “LIL are planning an uprising?”
Webb nodded. “Using Duran McCollough Junior as a figurehead. Fitzroy thinks it will unite the Lunar Strip and make them willing to throw themselves on Service swords. But Hugo...there's more.”
Hugo felt his skin go cold. “To do with why we had get out of Service space?”
Webb turned his gaze on him, glassy and tired. “Admiral Pharos is LIL.”
Hugo took a second to find his voice. “What?”
“This whole thing... it was her. Her and Fitzroy.”
Hugo stared at him. “No.”
“Saw her with my own eyes, Hugo,” Webb said, cleaning more cuts and flinching. “She was all for having my memory wiped and using me as a puppet this evening.”
“But... she... she gave us our missions...”
“They came from Luscombe,” Webb countered.
“Under her supervision.”
Webb shrugged. “I'm willing to bet she didn't know about the Splinter operation. Hence her jumping on your case when it was over. And as for AI... well... didn't you get the feeling we weren't supposed to come back from that?”
Spinn came in then and stood against the bulkhead, glancing between Hugo and Webb. It was a long time before Hugo could trust his voice to be steady. “Spinn,” he grated.
“Captain?”
“You knew?”
“Sir?”
Hugo sprung to his feet. “You knew who Webb really was?”
Spinn looked between them again, eyes widening. He swallowed. “I'm sorry, sir.”
“You knew all along?”
Spinn took a step back, though Hugo hadn't moved. “Sir, Pharos commissioned me to track him down when he was still a child. I was the one charged with... with...”
“With keeping him watched?” Webb's didn't look at the doctor.
Spinn swallowed again. “I was keeping him safe.”
“Safe?” Webb laughed then. It was a horrible sound.
“Why didn't you say anything?” Hugo growled, taking a step closer to the researcher. “From the minute we heard LIL were trying to recruit him, you must have known why.”
“I -”
“We could have saved him, Spinn,” Hugo closed the distance between them and shouted in his face. “He'd still be alive, if we'd known. You bastard. You spineless, treacherous bastard.”
Spinn's jaw worked and his body stiffened. “Fifteen years I've lived with this, Captain. Fifteen years I watched More, Rami, and others, poor nobodies, bleed and die for this blasted ship – for the Service – when the whole time I knew they were just using us. Using every one of us to keep him hidden but alive, while they bided their time until he became a political advantage, or a loose end to scrub out. Fifteen years I had to watch and say nothing.” His face took on an imploring expression as he looked over Hugo's shoulder to Webb. “The minute I said anything that would be it. His ignorance – all of your ignorance – was the only thing that kept him alive as long as he was.”
“I want you off my ship,” Hugo growled.
“Hugo,” Webb said.
“The next colony, satellite, fuck it, you can get off at Haven for all I care. You're done. I never want to see your face again.”
Spinn's gaze didn't waver. “If those are your orders, Captain, I will follow them. Though Admiral Pharos was the one who commissioned me. The Zero will be finished if she finds out you've relieved me.”
Hugo ground his teeth. “Admiral Pharos has joined LIL.”
Spinn's brow clouded.
“It's true, Spinn,” Webb said, throwing another sterilising wipe into the disposal. “This clone thing was all her idea.”
“No,” Spinn shook his head. “No. The Admiral charged me with watching over Webb. To keep him safe... exactly so he couldn't be used in this way by the enemy. She would never -”
Webb sighed. “She's dicked you, my friend. Dicked us all. She put out the contracts. She recruited the Splinters.”
“That was her too?” Hugo said, heat washing through him.
Webb nodded. “Through untraceable back channels we gave her, most probably.”
“Why?”
“Lunar 1 would never fight for anyone, LIL or Service. She knew she'd have to take it by force if she wanted a united Lunar Strip and there was no way she'd get enough Servicemen aboard to do the job without drawing attention.”
“This isn't true,” Spinn said, shaking his head. “X6-119 was the source of the Splinters' credit. She ordered it
destroyed -”
“To cover her tracks,” Webb said, staring at the bulkhead. “Under a rather convincing cover of an official mission, of which there will be a record, somewhere. I bet she knew we'd exceed the orders and send crew aboard too, Hugo. And that I'd be with them.”
Hugo went cold. “That's why it was so heavily armed. And why every knew who we were. And... and why they...”
Webb nodded.
“No,” Spinn was still shaking his head. “She admired Duran McCullough. I know that's true. That's why she wanted his son kept safe. But she's a loyal Service Officer. She would never side with rebels. She fought against the Lunar rebellion...”
“Did she?” Webb stared at his hands.
Spinn just stood there blinking.
“She was a captain then,” Hugo mumbled. “Captain of a relief team that was charged with clean-up work on the moon and colonies. Her unit never fought in the battles.”
Spinn was staring into space, looking dazed.
“Spinn,” Hugo said, quietly. He pulled his gaze round, wide and distant. “My orders still stand. Lock yourself away in the brig. If you're lucky we'll wait until we can get back to the Orbit before we throw you out.”
Spinn blinked at him a few times. For a moment he thought he might say something more but he just turned and left the medbay, moving like someone in a waking nightmare.
“Hugo. They may have lost their toy dictator, but they're not going to stop now. Pharos issued the assault order whilst I was there.”
“We have to warn someone.”
“Who?”'
Hugo balled his fists and uttered a wordless exclamation. “We can't just let them declare war without warning anyone.”
“Luscombe...” Webb mumbled.
“How do we know he's not in on it all?”
“The good admiral mentioned him whilst I was there. It doesn't look like she thought highly enough of him to include him in her schemes.”
“Luscombe then,” Hugo muttered, sitting himself back at the workstation.
“Then what?”
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