by C. T. Phipps
Or maybe my usual cocktail of emotion and memory-suppressing drugs were finally wearing off.
“Please, Cassius, if God hadn’t intended us to explore the universe then he wouldn’t have given us brains.”
“Cloning me without my knowledge and making me a fucking terrorist is a curious way of exploring the universe.”
“I thought you were dead,” Zoe said, lowering her voice. “The version of you I created for Thomas was ready and willing to help the Crius Reborn movement. He was eager to avenge the destruction of our homeworld. As for the Judith he’s married to? Well, she’s as real as he is, or I am.”
I felt my face and swore by Lucifer’s wives. “Eisheth Zenunim, Na’amah, Lilith, and Agrat Bat Mahlat.”
Zoe looked to one side. “Points of divergence I suppose. Those memories were taken from a time when you were still extremely loyal to the Archduchy. I don’t know what these past five years have been like for you, but it clearly seems to have been taxing emotionally. Your doppelganger doesn’t have those feelings, so I wouldn’t be surprised he’s chosen to side with family.”
I looked down. “So, this is all Thomas’ doing?”
“Somewhat.” Zoe said, sticking her hands in her jumpsuit pocket. “He and the State Security organization had no one to surrender to as they were the nobility’s sacrificial lamb to appease the war crimes’ tribunals. Unfortunately, the nobles underestimated just how many CSS officers were ready to go to ground and had powerful allies willing to finance their war. I don’t know when the transtellars and Chel got involved but our brother is a key figure in the Free Systems Alliance. As for why I’m serving the Commonwealth, one must adapt to new realities. I’ve never had the same nationalist sentiment as you or Thomas. Knowledge is my master, lover, archduke, and husband. Besides, why are you serving them?”
I took a deep breath. “That is a very good question.”
That was when the door whooshed open behind us, despite my locking it. Turning my head, I saw Hiro at the door holding a plasma pistol.
“I can answer that,” Hiro said. “After all, I was the one who recruited him.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hiro pointed a gun at me.
I would like to have said this was surprising, but the events of the past forty-eight hours had left me quite jaded. Zoe, by contrast, grabbed my arm and stared at the weapon in Hiro’s hands. I wondered if she was faking, given she’d casually gassed the entire population of the Rhea with seemingly no ill-effects.
I would need to talk to her about that as well. A part of me wanted to believe she wasn’t capable of such a thing but everything indicated both she and my brother were capable of doing anything should the circumstances warrant it. They were able to turn off that little light in their heads which warded off evil.
Just like I was.
“Hello, Hiro,” I said, doing my best to remain calm. “Why are you pointing a gun at me?”
“The crew will hear any plasma shots,” Zoe said, looking up into Hiro’s eyes. “Then you’ll be killed.”
“This is a soundproof room,” Hiro said, knocking on the side of the walls with his free hand. “The noise of recharging mechs can get quite loud.”
Well, fuck. I decided to hedge my bets and decide whether or not I could make a move fast enough to get the gun away from him. At the present range and given our confined quarters, my chances weren’t very good.
“I’m not here to hurt you, though,” Hiro said. “I’m here to talk.”
“Talk with a gun,” I said, skeptical.
“It helps for emphasis.” Hiro lowered it. “I’m a representative of an interested party.”
“An interested party,” I repeated.
“We don’t have an official name,” Hiro said. “However, if you wanted to know what we do then it’s fix things. We are the Fixers.”
“Not exactly a name which inspires much fear.”
Zoe actually squeezed my arm. “Then you haven’t been listening.”
Oh dear.
“Your sister’s doll, at least, knows of us.” Hiro gave a half-smile. “Think of us as the Left Hand to the Watchers’ Right in terms of Commonwealth Intelligence. We analyze the immense amount of data accumulated by the communications devices of the Spiral and provide unconventional solutions to the problems that afflict the Commonwealth.”
Ah, that was a group I’d heard whispers of. The Commonwealth had numerous agencies which existed off the books, most of which were only tangentially tied to the Watchers. With so much of the Commonwealth’s Parliament tied up with bureaucracy and transtellar puppets, the real power of the organization lay with the hands of its Ministries and clandestine agencies.
“So, you’re not allied with Ida?”
“Friendly rivals,” Hiro said. “Though I do have orders to report on her movements and eliminate her if she goes too far in her plans.”
“Charming.”
“It does mean, at least, I have an answer to the question of, ‘Who Watches the Watchers?’ The answer being me.”
I gave a light snort. “I must confess I preferred the callow youth. He was more likable.”
Hiro shook his head. “Please, nobody could stand him on the Melampus. That was part of why it was an effective cover. The poor pitiful rich kid from Earth who ruined his chances to be a pilot so he ended up deluding himself being the security officer on an old tug was worthwhile. The only thing more maudlin about it would have been if he’d come from a farm somewhere.”
“I take it your backstory is untrue then?”
“Surprisingly, my cover is mostly accurate. I like to keep a paper trail for my real identity in-between covers. I was a gunship pilot and trying to evacuate a group of three soldiers who were left behind. I disobeyed orders, and all were killed as well as my gunner.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t throw you in prison for that,” Zoe said.
“They did,” Hiro replied, twitching as if the memories were something he couldn’t quite suppress. “I served two years in a pit before I was released and given my new position.”
Zoe blinked. “However did you manage that?”
“I didn’t.” Hiro shrugged as if the story was no longer relevant. “My family did. They had the one quality that makes all the difference in the world in the Commonwealth.”
“Money,” I said.
Hiro smiled. “No, you have money. My family has wealth. They let me rot for a time as a lesson in the perils of idealism before putting me in touch with my employers. I had to make sacrifices to prove my loyalty, terrible ones.” For a moment, Hiro’s eyes looked at the floor and he shook his head. “However, I eventually got the rank I desired and was dispatched here to be Hiro the Monkey Boy.”
“No one thought of you like that,” I said, lying.
“Then I wasn’t doing my job,” Hiro said. “It is my job to provide a dissenting opinion to Ida’s network of spies, informants, and assassins working throughout Sector Seven.”
Zoe stared at him. “Ida can be trusted.”
“Why?” Hiro asked. “Just because she chose your mnemonic template as her agent? Don’t flatter yourself. It was just one of a hundred plots, some of which panned out. You realize you can, and probably were, programmed with loyalty to her, right?”
Zoe’s eyes widened. “My…I…wouldn’t do that.”
Her voice trailed off at the end, though, with the acknowledgment the Zoe I’d grown up with would have been happy to do so to a bioroid of herself.
“You claim to have recruited me?” I asked, diverting the conversation back to the subject which most interested me.
“Yes,” Hiro said, looking me up and down. “I do not maintain the kind of network Ida does. I work entirely within the Fixer’s Ubiquote System. It analyzes data from all known communications nodes, ship’s records, and jump communications in the Spiral. Indeed, we rarely send out agents but for the fact that the Watchers are completely untrustworthy. One of those info feeds analyzed by ou
r dummy A.I. came up with your name and alias, which I used to divert you to this ship.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s an expensive joke to play on Ida.”
“Not so much a joke as a contingency,” Hiro said, his voice lowering, sounding more like a jaded man in his forties now than a young man in his twenties. “I also was the one who set in motion you being found out. The Free Systems Alliance needs to be destroyed and Ida’s attempts were working too slowly. I figured with you, we could discredit them but I let you stew in misery while forming relationships on this ship so you’d be more amenable to working with us.”
I frowned. “I am getting very sick of being a pawn.”
“You’re a knight, not a pawn but we’re all pieces for the players of history,” Hiro said, surprising me. “I admit, I wanted to delay revealing myself longer. I set up Holtz to attack you, so I could endear myself and, abandoning that—”
I punched Hiro in the face hard enough to send him to the ground before grabbing his gun off the floor and aiming it at his head. It was done instinctively and over before I even had time to think about my decision. Hiro, himself, looked stunned both from the blow and the speed of my movement. He’d severely underestimated just how much effort had gone into enhancing my body with cybernetics.
“I should kill you,” I said, my finger on the trigger. Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I decided it was a good idea. Zoe wouldn’t betray me until I got off the ship and I didn’t need a viper like this beside me. “In fact, I think I will.”
“The gun is encoded to my biometrics,” Hiro said, feeling his jaw. “A benefit of wealth.”
I aimed the gun at the side of his head and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
I frowned. “Unfortunate. Pistol whippings, though, are still entirely possible.”
Hiro smiled, not making a movement to get up off the ground. “That would be most unfortunate for us both. Especially as I can offer you some things even Ida can’t.”
“I’m going to tell her about this,” Zoe said, looking at Hiro then turning to me. “Even if she knows you’re an agent on board you don’t need—”
“The Elephants are dancing on Xerxes with teddy bears,” Hiro said, his voice slow and clear.
Zoe froze up and her expression became utterly blank.
“What the hell did you just do?” I said, lifting up the pistol butt to club him.
“Hardwired factory codes,” Hiro said, shrugging. “Project: Electric Bookmark was the Fixers’ so we made sure Zoe was outfitted with certain precautions like all bioroids, just with the programming changed. It’s why Ida was able to offer to fix Isla’s. She just had to ask what the ones were for her. Don’t worry, I’ll pull her out of Standby Mode after our conversation.”
“What do you want?” I said, now worried he was about to turn Zoe into a brain-dead machine. I was surprised how important preventing that was to me. I really did, on some level, already consider her family. Murderous deranged completely unethical mad scientist family, but family nonetheless.
“I want you to spy on Ida,” Hiro said, surprising me for the second time. “I believe she’s passing on information to the Free Systems Alliance. I also believe she’s sabotaging the efforts of the Commonwealth to effectively fight them.”
I was honestly flabbergasted. “Really?”
“You say this as a former terrorist pardoned by her on a ship with the sister of one of the FSA’s chief arms supplier. This, after someone warned the Free Systems Alliance of her spy on board the Rhea who only managed to survive by sheer happenstance. This after said spy had worked for years on technology they managed to transmit to the FSA’s flagship. Not to mention the Chel fighters were ordered to attack the Melampus and ignore any of her orders to stand down.”
“Why would she order an attack on her own ship?” I said, staring. “You, I point out, had Holtz attack me. If anyone would have a reason to order them to attack, then it would be you to ingratiate yourself.”
“Perhaps,” Hiro said, nodding. “In fact, I was improvising or maybe everything I’m saying is a lie, the fact is there’s something of a mole here and if Ida isn’t a traitor then she’s doing more damage than she is helping.”
“Maybe she’s playing the long game?”
I took a deep breath. “You’ve been here as long as me. Do you really think she’s a traitor?”
Hiro paused. “No, no I don’t. However, she has a history of political activism and criminal behavior that makes her suspect. My superiors question the leak and want someone to blame who isn’t part of our house. Ida makes an easy target. If they want evidence against her, I will provide it. I don’t question orders. Not anymore. It’s a lesson I learned from the war.”
“Funny, I learned the opposite lesson.”
“Questioning orders would have gotten you killed. You obeyed and survived instead. Others died.”
“Maybe my self-respect is worth more than my life.”
“The dead have no self-respect,” Hiro said, finally getting up. “Besides, you haven’t heard what I’m offering.”
“Ida already gave me everything I wanted,” I lied.
“All of which can be removed again, by me,” Hiro said, pointing out a flaw in my plan. “Ida may have presented the carrot but I’m very fond of the stick. But what I’m offering you is much, much greater.”
“Which is?”
“The Melampus itself. After Ida’s plans end here, she will be recalled back to Earth, and this massive tug will need a new owner.”
“You’re offering me an old tug I could buy a copy of now?”
“I think we both know it’s the people on board you want. I’ll also continue feeding you missions from that. You’ll be an agent of Earth and respected. In certain circles, at least.”
I stared at him. “Ida seems to already be planning that.”
“Not so much,” Hiro said. “Now that she has you, she’s going to use you to lure out your brother, the Revengeance, and your doppelganger before destroying them all. Then she’s going to hand you over to her superiors who want to blame you for all of this. They need someone to put on trial for the Free Systems misery and you’re already on camera. Convenient, huh?”
I paused. “You’re lying.”
“Could be,” Hiro said. “Of course, then again, everyone has been lying to you on this ship, haven’t they?”
He had a point. “What do you want me to do?”
Hiro just smiled and handed over a small strip of electronic paper. “Put this in your ear and we’ll hear everything. It’s undetectable even to Janice’s technology. Report on everything you do for Ida and deliver it to me. We only need to establish a connection between Ida and Ms. Rin-O’Harra to bring her down.”
“All right,” I said, reluctantly putting it in. “This is very possibly a loyalty test, isn’t it? To see if I would turn against Ida if offered a better deal.”
“Possibly,” Hiro said. “But why would we think you had any loyalty to the Commonwealth to begin with?”
That was another good point.
“So I keep this in my ear the entire time?” I said.
“Yes,” Hiro said. “I’ll be monitoring you and agents with you. If you take it out, even for bed, I’ll consider the deal off and revoke your pardon.”
“You aren’t a very fair negotiator.”
“It’s not a negotiation.”
“I understand.”
“Wolves are very shameless when they wear pink dresses,” Hiro said, his voice equally cold and calm.
Zoe felt her head and looked like she was coming out of a trance. “What the fuck?”
“I was discussing possible gift ideas for the women he has offended and yet still wants to screw around with,” Hiro said. “I was giving my input.”
“I’ll make my own choices, thank you,” I said, wondering if there were any more surprises waiting for me.
“My gun, please?” Hiro asked.
&nb
sp; I removed the ammo clip and handed it back to him. Hiro frowned, then smiled before turning around and departing.
“Cassius, what the hell just happened?” Zoe said, feeling her head.
“Nothing of consequence,” I said, pausing. It was a sign Hiro hadn’t done his research on Crius that our language was a mixture of hand gestures as well as communication. The second wave of settlers had included many people who had chosen to forego hearing for reasons which apparently had to do with cultural identity. It was one of the dozen or so languages I knew.
His ignorance didn’t surprise me, though. He was Albionese and he was used to the rest of the world bowing to his attitude. What was the old joke? What did you call someone who spoke two languages? Bilingual. What did you call someone who only spoke one language? Albionese.
I proceeded to sign to her the situation, providing Hiro’s more obnoxious statements on the subject.
“[Asshole,]” Zoe said, responding to me with her fingers. “[I should have known they’d take advantage of my situation and install control codes.]”
“[We’ll figure out a way to remove them,]” I said, taking a deep breath. “[Can you inform Ida about all of this?]”
“[You want to go with her rather than Hiro?]” Zoe said. “[Cassius, someone did betray my position. Someone who knew I was a spy on that ship and no one, not even my brother, our brother Thomas, suspected me.]”
I took a deep breath and explained in very simple terms. “[Those who sit on the fence in wartime get shot at from both sides. If I have to pick a side, I might as well pick the one who didn’t hire a man to shoot me.]”
That seemed to cause Zoe to pause. “[You raise a valid point, Cassius. Is there anything else?]”
I nodded, trying to figure out how to ask my next question. “[Zoe, why did you kill all those people?]”
Zoe looked down, a sad look on her face. “[It’s simple, brother. In the end, I’ll do anything to survive.]”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shogun.