by Chris Bunch
“I am going to help,” Joshua agreed.
“Don’t play me for a fool, Joshua Wolfe,” Kur replied. “I’m not going to listen to nonsense about a sudden realization of the truth of our beliefs. We are not on the road to Damascus, nor are there many visions in N-space.”
“Oh, but I am going to cooperate,” Wolfe insisted. “For I already know how to find the Chitet — sorry, the former Chitet — who murdered eleven men and women and stole the Great Lumina. But I’ll need your resources to recover it.”
Kur stared at him, without blinking. “This decision is well beyond me,” she said. “I must consult with Master Speaker Athelstan.”
• • •
Wolfe ‘freshed, ate, and slept, feeling the last of the drugs wash out of his system. He asked if he could work out, and his request was denied, without explanation.
His guards were changed every hour, and never varied their routine. They sat, eyes fixed on Joshua, never answering anything he said, nor volunteering anything of their own.
Two ship-days later, Authority Coordinator Kur returned. With her were three Chitet. Two were men, average looking, calm-expressioned. One wore a close-cropped beard. The third was a small woman who, in another setting, might have been considered quite pretty.
“Master Speaker Athelstan wishes to speak with you,” Kur announced. “Now, listen closely, Joshua Wolfe.
“Your life is important to you, I assume. It is also important to us, at least until we have fully exploited you and whatever knowledge you possess.
“You will continue to be watched by gun-guards such as those who have been with you since your capture. It. is known that you’re a master at most forms of combat, armed or otherwise.
“We have also heard stories which appear preposterous about your other abilities, which I assume you acquired from the Al’ar at one time or another.
“We can take no chances, Joshua Wolfe, even if it means sacrificing whatever leads you might provide toward the Overlord Stone.
“These three are an additional safeguard. They are Guide Kristin,” Kur indicated the woman, “and Lucian and Max.” Lucian was the bearded one. “They are among our most highly trained security specialists, and have formerly been assigned to the private bodyguard of Master Speaker Athelstan, so you should respect and be wary of their skills.
“You do not need to know their family names. Kristin speaks for the team. They have orders to kill you if ordered, and if anything, I repeat anything, appears wrong, to destroy you instantly, without waiting for a command from Master Speaker Athelstan or myself. Remove your tunic, please.”
Joshua obeyed. Kur stepped out of the room again, and returned with a small flat black case.
“Put your hands in front of you,” she ordered. “Guards, each of you stand to one side, so you have a clear field of fire. If Joshua Wolfe attempts anything, kill him.”
The guards obeyed. Kur took a flesh-colored pouch with thin straps from the case. “Turn around,” she ordered. She touched the object to the base of Joshua’s spine. It felt cold for an instant but quickly warmed. She ran the straps around his waist, touched them together, and they joined seamlessly.
“Replace your clothing,” Kur said. “That object, as you can probably surmise, is explosive. It is phototropic, and will gradually take on the coloration of your skin, though you should exercise care about disrobing in public, because the camouflage is not perfect.
“The charge is shaped, so someone standing next to you when the device is detonated would be unharmed, and only momentarily deafened.
“You, on the other hand, would have your spinal cord shattered. If you attempt to remove the charge, a signal will be sent to the operator, and he or she will instantly detonate it.”
Joshua sat down, leaned back. It felt as if he had padding against his spine, no more.
“The woman or man controlling the detonator to that device is watching a monitor at all times, a monitor carrying your image,” Kur said. “You do not need to know how far away the operator is, nor even where he or she is, nor where the monitor is. If you are moving, one of these three will have a tiny camera concealed about his or her person. If you are in one place, the camera will be hidden there. It might also be more than one camera, so there’s no point in finding and destroying one single pickup.
“If the operator sees anything amiss on the monitor, or if you vanish from its screen …”
“Quite clever,” Wolfe said. “I see you three are now my closest and best friends.”
“That is an excellent way to think,” Kur said. “Now, Master Speaker Athelstan awaits.”
• • •
“You were once in possession of a Lumina,” Athelstan said, stating a fact, not a question. He appeared in his fifties and could have been a successful merchant banker. Wolfe had seen him once before, on a vid interview. He’d ascribed the glitter in the man’s eyes to camera flare. There was no such excuse now.
There were three others in the compartment, which was soberly but richly paneled: Kur, Max, and a Chitet in his early thirties who was Athelstan’s aide.
“I was,” Wolfe said. “The Lumina was originally purchased by one quote Judge end-quote Malcolm Penruddock of Mandodari III, stolen from him by a spec thief named Innokenty Khodyan. I recovered the gem on a warrant, and Khodyan got dead in the process.
“I interviewed Penruddock about his interest in the Lumina — ”
“At the behest of Federation Intelligence,” Athelstan said.
“It was … and also for my own interests. But your Chitet killed Penruddock and his wife before I found out very much. Almost killed me.”
“He did not deserve the Lumina,” Athelstan said. “He’d been quietly approached to sell it, but refused. That left us no other course.”
“Must be nice to be sure of who deserves what and when. And that’s not quite how it went,” Wolfe said calmly. “Credit me with a bit of intelligence. You first commissioned Innokenty Khodyan to steal the Lumina from Penruddock, using a fence named Edet Sutro as a cutout. You killed him on Trinité. For a group of people who think themselves philosophers, you sure trail a lot of bodies.”
“Nowhere does it say philosophy cannot resort to direct action to accomplish its goals,” Athelstan said. “And our goals are great, encompassing not only the salvation of humanity, but enabling it to reach the next level of evolution as well.”
“There was a Chinese once,” Wolfe said, “who said, ‘Those who would take over the Earth and shape it to their own ends never, I notice, succeed.’ ”
“Lao-tzu lived long before the Chitet,” Athelstan said. “And there were those of his time who came very close. Buddha. Confucius. The group of Jews who created Jesus. Mohamet … But there’s no point in this sparring. I assume the Federation has the Lumina.”
“They do.”
“Does that cripple you? What powers did the stone give? We have one, but none of our savants have been able to do more than the most minor trickeries with the object.”
Wolfe’s eyes flickered. So they have one now. “I can still find the Mother Lumina for you,” Wolfe evaded.
“How? We have searched hard for it, for almost seven years without result.”
“Obviously you were looking in the wrong places,” Joshua said. “And you didn’t have a ferret with sharp enough teeth.”
“I agree. The facts dictate the truth.” Athelstan’s head bobbed slightly, as if he’d just recited a prime canon of his faith. “Tell us how to look, and we shall.”
“Not quite that easy,” Wolfe said. “If I just tell you, my continued existence, as your knob-rattler Kur has pointed out, would become a little redundant. So even if I knew, exactly, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“You were our captive once,” Athelstan said. “And the head of the interrogation team reported you had suicide devices installed in your mind against forcible questioning and against any psychotropic drugs we have access to. I assume she was correct.”
“
I’d be a fool not to say yes,” Joshua said.
“How do we seek the Overlord Stone?” Athelstan said. “My security coordinator will obey your orders.”
“I await instructions,” Kur said, showing no resentment.
“First, here’s what I know,” Joshua said. “The Al’ar placed the Overlord Stone in a ship, actually a satellite. It was set in space in a certain place of importance to the Al’ar. Sometime after the war, three Federation scout-ships found it. I assume this discovery was not an accident.”
Kur looked uncomfortable. Athelstan nodded for her to speak.
“Some Federation investigations on Al’ar homeworlds suggested the existence of the ur-Lumina,” she said reluctantly. “The Federation issued orders for a naval patrol to visit the area of interest. We learned of this patrol shortly before it transshipped, and were able to insert one of our agents aboard one of the ships. The agent was equipped with an N-space blurt-transmitter, and was able to report the discovery to us. We had ships standing by capable of capturing the scout-ships, and dispatched them immediately. But when they arrived, they found — ”
“Eleven corpses, two ships, and no Lumina,” Wolfe said. “Your boy changed his mind while he was sitting around twiddling his thumbs, and decided to render unto Caesar instead of the Chitet. And he wanted to be Caesar.”
“So we assumed,” Kur said. “We went in search of the individual.”
“Who is she?”
“How did you know it’s a woman?” Kur demanded.
“Because of the care you’ve taken not to mention her sex,” Wolfe said.
Kur eyed him, then went on. “Her name is Token Aubyn. She was a lieutenant in the regular Federation Navy. All E’s on her quarterly reports. An officer with a great career in front of her. She’d been secretly raised as a member of our culture, and chosen to infiltrate the Federation military.”
“Home system?”
“Vidaury III, although she spent time on VI as well before she enlisted.”
“I assume you’ve toothcombed that system without results or leads?”
Kur nodded.
“Token Aubyn,” Wolfe mused. “Pretty name for somebody that cold-blooded. You have a full dossier on her?”
“We do.”
“I want it. All of it,” Wolfe said. “No dandy little crossouts for Chitet snitches and sources.”
“But — ”
“Be silent, Coordinator Kur. We must give Wolfe every possible aid,” Athelstan said.
“After all,” Joshua said, “it’s not as if you plan on letting me escape with anything I learn here, now is it?”
Athelstan didn’t answer, but his cold eyes held Wolfe’s.
• • •
Joshua went through the fiche on Token Aubyn quickly, letting his senses, his training, reach for what might be in the data. Then he read, viewed everything very slowly, twice.
Security Coordinator Kur and his alternating guardians waited stolidly.
There weren’t many holos or vids. Kur told Joshua that Aubyn reportedly hadn’t liked having herself recorded.
The best holo Joshua could find was a head-and-shoulders cameo of Aubyn in full-dress Federation uniform.
“That was her graduation picture from the Academy of Flight on Mars, taken at her parents’ insistence,” Kur said.
“Where are they now?”
“Dead. In an accident two years ago.”
“Convenient.”
Wolfe examined the portrait. Aubyn wasn’t pretty, but striking. Dark hair, worn very short. She was the gamin type, with hooded eyes just turned away from the lens.
Other documents said she was slender, a bit over average height.
“What about her love life?”
“Nothing known.”
“Come on, Kur. Everybody plays pinch-and-tickle sometimes.”
“Not necessarily,” the woman protested. “Especially in Aubyn’s case. Her parents were deep-cover types, so she grew up in a house full of secrets, on two planets. Then, when we gave her our long-range plans for her, she would have been a fool to endanger everything by listening to her glands.”
“How romantic you Chitet are.”
Wolfe ran the fiche forward.
“Now here’s something interesting,” he mused. “The final competition for the Academy of Flight broke down to her and one other person. He died just before the final oral examinations. In another accident.”
“We checked into that thoroughly,” Kur said. “It was an accident. Aubyn was half a planet away when this boy died.”
“I say again: convenient.”
He returned to the fiche.
“You either did a good job of programming Aubyn, or else she already had her calling. No zigs, no changes of major. Chosen field of study at the Academy … sociology. And her thesis was on ‘The Dynamism of a One-Party State.’ ”
“I fail to see any significance in that,” Kur said. “When we have convinced the people of the Federation of the benefit of our ways, of course there won’t be any necessity for dissenters.”
“Thus spake Savanarola,” Wolfe murmured. “Did you ever consider that Aubyn was doing research for her own idea of a one-party state? One with Token Aubyn as dictat?”
“Oh,” Kur said. “That’s insane — and of course we didn’t allow ourselves to consider any options that didn’t make sense. Our error.”
“Do you have data on the eleven men and women she murdered who were in her minifleet?” Wolfe asked.
“We do.”
“Then let’s start looking for a hole for me to go down,” Wolfe said.
“I don’t follow.”
“Isn’t it logical that Token Aubyn, once she decided to steal the Lumina and desert both the Federation and your — social circle to boot, had brains enough to know better than to go home, especially with something that would give her the powers it would?”
“Of course. We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to find her throughout the Federation and even the Outlaw Worlds. Do you think you can provide a lead?”
“I do.”
“Since you’re experienced with the Lumina,” Athelstan put in, “what powers will she have?”
“I’m not sure,” Wolfe lied. “But that’s for later, anyway.
“So she went somewhere. If we’re lucky, maybe she didn’t just pick someplace out of an interstellar gazetteer. Maybe she got an idea from her shipmates. There isn’t much to do on those little spitkits but talk, and since Aubyn was a newbie, everybody would’ve been eager to tell her all the war stories everyone else had heard until their eyes turned green. Maybe somebody talked about his or her homeworld, and maybe that sounded like just the place for a woman with big ambition, no scruples, and God in her pocket. Maybe somebody talking about that place was what gave Aubyn the idea in the first place.”
• • •
Wolfe lay in near-total darkness. He’d been moved into a larger chamber, but it was as sterile as the one he’d been revived in.
Across the room Guide Kristin sat in a low chair. A reading light pooled around her head and shoulders, and she appeared intent on her reading matter, A Consideration of Logic As It Should Be Applied in Daily Circumstances, written by one Matteos Athelstan.
Wolfe, momentarily exhausted, turned his mind away from his search and considered her. Her blond hair was sensibly close-cropped. He’d seen the thrust of her breasts under her sensible garment, but had no idea about what the rest of her body looked like, other than it was slender.
He found her face somewhat attractive, a curving vee. It reminded him a bit of an Earth-Siamese cat. At least, he thought, she doesn’t have the screeching voice of a Siamese. He smiled.
The woman looked up, saw Joshua’s eyes on her, and quickly looked down at her book.
Interesting, he thought. He blanked her, let himself reach out, feel through the ship.
A faint direction came to him, as if he were shouting in a wilderness and heard a tiny echo from a hidden g
rotto. He let “himself” float in that direction.
There the Lumina is. Of course Athelstan would keep it close. In his office safe. Not original. But secure, at least. For the moment. But perhaps …
Now I shall try something.
Reach toward it … touch it without touching … fumbling …
Joshua Wolfe was outside the ship, hanging, floating in N-space.
Find ku, find the Void again. Let the Lumina take you beyond. Warmth, feeling warmth back toward the Federation. Out there …
He jerked back, feeling the chill hatred of the invader, the “virus.”
No, not there. Not yet.
Look elsewhere. Let the small find the large. Confusion. There are others. But they’re small. Feel …
Ah! There!
• • •
“Why did you pick Rogan’s World?” Kur said.
“Because,” Wolfe said, “I’m guessing she heard about Rogan’s World from Dietrich, who grew up there. Nice that he happened to be the motor mate on the scout she commanded as well. Looking at his service record — three court-martials, two nonjudicial punishments — I’d guess he was an excellent representative of the planet.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Nope. Always wanted to, though.”
“Why?”
“Because of the delicate aroma of corruption,” Wolfe said. “And money.”
Kur eyed him skeptically.
• • •
Wolfe sat up in bed, yawning, as if he’d just awakened. Kristin was instantly alert. Wolfe took the robe from the chair beside the bed, pulled it on as he stood.
“Ship air dehydrates me,” he said, walking toward the fresher. “Can I get you some water?”
“No,” the Chitet said.
Wolfe went into the fresher, took a metal glass from its clip, filled it, and drank. He grimaced at the cold, completely flat taste, then clipped the glass back in its holder.
“I’m grateful,” he said when he came out, “you don’t insist on watching me everywhere.”
“Even an animal in a zoo is allowed a private area,” Kristin said. “And there is nothing in that fresher that can be used as a weapon.”