His meeting was at a pub not far from the spaceport. He decided to walk.
During the flight his mind had been too consumed by matters other than his mission and he needed to get his head canted straight. But first he allowed himself one final moment to despair in the revelation which had brought him here, and its aftermath.
He was not a violent man. He had committed acts of violence of course, in the First Crux War and later as a field agent. He wasn’t proud of many of them…a few he was, if you got him drunk enough.
Still, his nature was not that of a violent man. As a rule he preferred to resolve tense situations through dialogue, or if dialogue failed through threats he preferred not to be required to fulfill.
But when Will grabbed his upper arm as he rounded the corner toward the lift, he came within a heartbeat of cold-cocking the man who pretended to be his husband.
“Give me a chance to explain.”
A stinging, bleak chill vibrated along his skin, freezing the fire in his chest. Sounds and voices echoed at him through a hollow tunnel. His soul was flayed inside out; he felt brittle, as if the faintest touch would shatter him to pieces on the ground.
The only thing which held his body together, if not his mind, was the knowledge he had a job to do. His life may lie crumbled in ruins at his feet, but he could save other lives. He could end this war, and perhaps his obituary would acknowledge the contribution he had made in the otherwise farce his life had been.
“I’m going to Pandora to meet your boss. If your belongings aren’t out of the house when I return, I will burn them. Do not contact me. Do not attempt to see me. You’ve made a fool of me for fifteen years. Don’t think you can do so for one breath longer.”
“Richard, please—”
The anguish in the eyes of the man standing opposite him did not breach his frozen shroud. “Goodbye, Will.”
He spun—violently—and lurched onto the lift. He didn’t look back.
Richard leaned against the façade of a theatre and closed his eyes. He corralled all the thoughts, images and sentiments that would paralyze then crush him, and forced them behind a wall in a dark corner of his mind. There they would remain until this was done, after which they were free to do to him as they pleased.
Then he opened his eyes and continued walking down the street.
He knew a good bit about Graham Delavasi, as an adversary if not an outright enemy. Former military special forces, he had joined Senecan Intelligence after the First Crux War. Gaining a reputation for pulling no punches and exhibiting a keen eye for artifice and duplicity, he rose quickly within the department despite playing fast and loose with the rules and refusing to respect political niceties. He had been named Director of Intelligence three years earlier.
His reputation had always struck Richard as indicating the kind of man he might have liked were they not situated on opposite sides of the diplomatic divide. Now it appeared he had his chance to find out.
The Director had beat him to the pub and claimed a booth in the back corner. Other than those seated at the bar, the establishment wasn’t crowded and no patrons occupied the surrounding tables. Still, a surveillance shielding device sat discreetly on the table.
He slid in the booth before Delavasi could stand, but the man extended a hand across the table. “Colonel Navick, I’m glad we were able to meet in person. Under the circumstances I’m sure it was as difficult for you to slip away as it was for me.”
He accepted the hand but kept his bearing formal. Delavasi did not, adopting a casual slouch in the booth like he was about to toss back a few beers with a buddy.
“It seems we have ourselves a small alien invasion. Any chance we’re going to be able to stop them?”
“Well, stopping our own war first would certainly improve the odds.”
“So it would.” Delavasi grimaced. “You and I are supposed to be the smart ones. Nothing gets past us—not the machinations of politicians and not the schemes of criminals. But my friend, I believe we have been played.”
Richard wanted to protest. They were not friends, not by a long shot. But if this turned into a pissing contest five minutes in the whole game was lost. “I’ve reviewed the evidence which leaked, and more. Your agent did not perpetrate the EASC Headquarters bombing.”
“I agree. We’ve been studying the wreckage from the fighters shot down on Palluda. They don’t appear to be Alliance fighters, though they did fire Alliance missiles.”
“Thirty-two VI-guided short-range missiles from the Southwestern Regional Headquarters on Deucali are unaccounted for. They went missing during a ware upgrade. What about Chris Candela?”
“Can’t say. My instincts tell me he wasn’t the perpetrator. Unfortunately, the man who could have led me to the perpetrator was murdered a week ago.”
“I heard a rumor you might’ve acquired a copy of Santiagar’s autopsy report. Nothing useful in it to help on that front?”
“It’s gone. Stolen in yet another murder, this time of one of the best men in my department.”
“They’re covering their tracks, cleaning up loose ends.”
“Yep.” The man seemed to deflate, his shoulders dropping a few centimeters. “My deputy was involved in this conspiracy. She isn’t disposed to talk, but I only removed my head from my ass in regards to the matter yesterday, so I’ll know what she knows before long. Of course, ‘before long’ may not be soon enough.”
Interesting. An admission of vulnerability. Delavasi was going a fairly long way to get Richard to trust him. “I imagine that’s how Caleb Marano’s Senecan Intelligence file ended up in my inbox.”
“It did? Fucking Oberti….”
“If it helps, an as yet unknown but powerful member of the Alliance government is part of it as well.”
“The one who doctored the Headquarters records?”
“Worse, the one who ordered them doctored.”
“We’re facing a clusterfain of epic proportions here, aren’t we?”
Richard chuckled darkly; the eccentric Senecan curse had not yet penetrated Earth popular culture, though it was starting to pop up and the connotation was clear enough. “We’re going to need proof if we expect to make a go of pulling the politicians down off the ledge.”
“Agent Marano is in the company of someone I believe is an acquaintance of yours. I don’t suppose you know where they are? I would really like to talk to him something fierce.”
It shouldn’t be a revelation Delavasi knew he was a friend of the Solovys. He likely knew everything about Richard’s life. The logical, analytical component of his brain reminded him the information was public record, discoverable via a simple exanet search, and thus far it was the only personal card the man had played. He reinforced the wall in his mind.
“I wish I did. I assume that means you don’t either?”
“Wish I did.” Delavasi shifted uncomfortably in the booth. “Listen, before we go any further…about Will Sutton—”
“Director, I am here to do my job and try to save a significant number of lives. Do me the courtesy of not injecting my personal life into this arrangement and I won’t walk out of this pub.”
“Point made. So where does all this leave us?”
Richard suppressed a smirk. It pleased him that the man had backed down so quickly, and was looking to him. He appeared to be in charge.
He leaned forward against the table. “I didn’t select Pandora solely because of its neutrality and convenient location. I’ve got a lead on a portion of the explosives used in the Headquarters bombing. A rat grew a conscience and told a Pandora detective one of the local criminal groups was scrambling to try to move a stash of HHNC off-world a couple of days before the bombing, and quickly. The detective told an Alliance operative stationed here.”
“Excellent. You got a name?”
“Nguyen. Shall we go see what he has to say for himself?”
The detective, Jere Kulm, took them to the neighborhood Nguyen operated in and quickly
located him on the patio of a local dive.
They surveyed the environs and flow of the crowd until they both felt comfortable no surprises lurked in the corners, then positioned themselves nearby. Minutes later Nguyen departed the restaurant and started down the street.
Delavasi slid up beside him and slung an arm over his shoulder while Richard crowded him from the other side and quietly grasped his arm at the elbow. “Let’s take a walk.”
“What the—”
“It is in your best interest for you to lower your voice, Mr. Nguyen.” He complied but then proceeded to struggle and sag between them.
Delavasi made a face over Nguyen’s head. “Jesus, do not make us drag you. You look like a goon.”
They took advantage of the man’s uncertainty to persuade him farther down the street and into a dead-end alleyway, then let him scramble out of their grasp and into the rear wall.
Short, bulky and sporting a series of pockmarks on his face and a crooked nose, the man plainly had never invested in gene therapy. His manner was ragged and abrasive, suggesting he had grown up on the streets. Presumably intelligent enough to run what Kulm said was a decent-sized group of criminals, he was still not many decisions away from the gutter.
Nguyen prowled the deepest corner of the alley as if he were some sort of caged predator, recognizing there was no escape but unable to accept his fate. Richard and Delavasi blocked his exit route. In the improbable event he got past them, Kulm waited five meters beyond with a Daemon resting on his thigh as he leaned casually against the wall.
“Who the fuck are you guys? This some kind of shakedown?”
“You moved forty kilos of HHNC sixteen days ago. Where did you move it to?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. You were in a hurry and got sloppy. People noticed.”
“What good does it do me to tell you squat?”
Richard gestured to the street. “There’s a war going on out there, with chaos hot on its tail. You’ve probably heard about aliens coming our way? So if you disappear, everybody just figures you cut your losses and ran.”
“You pretty boys threatening to kill me?”
“Nope. Merely a nice long stay in an Alliance military prison…” he glanced in Delavasi’s direction “…or a Senecan one. I’ve heard they’re far worse.”
Delavasi nodded in exaggerated agreement. “Far worse. Except for that one you guys run in Siberia. You still have that one, right?”
“Oh yeah. The guards have trouble keeping the prisoners from freezing to death, though. Some of them end up gnawing their own fingers off to stop the frostbite from spreading. It’s not pretty.”
Nguyen’s dark irises darted between the two of them like a junkie catching the scent of his next high. “And if I recall a few things?”
Delavasi made a show of considering the question. “Depends on how much you recall.”
“Son of a…word gets out I talked and I’m a corpse by morning. The people I work for do not take kindly to rats.”
Richard regarded him with casual disdain. “I bet they don’t. If we were to walk you out of this alley and escort you down the street then leave you with a pat on the back and a vocal thanks, it would be a shame if someone misinterpreted what they saw.”
The man’s eyes widened; he sank down the rear wall and buried his face in his hands. “Earth. They went to Earth. Vancouver. That’s why you’re here, right?”
Richard hid his relief beneath arms crossing over his chest. He stared at the man, who had shrunk in on himself to become a small, shriveled pile on the ground. “On whose order?”
Nguyen’s voice shook. “Kigin.”
Delavasi looked over his shoulder to Kulm, who indicated he had caught the response. “Zelones lieutenant.”
Richard crouched beside Nguyen and leaned in close. “And?”
“Kigin talks a tough game but he doesn’t take a shit without the Queen Bitch’s approval.”
Behind him Delavasi laughed. “I assume you mean Olivia Montegreu.”
“Who else, man? They say she personally pries the toenails off underlings who displease her, usually after she’s half-fucked them to death.” His entire body quivered. “Do what you gotta, but don’t leave me to that psychopath!”
Richard stood and turned to Kulm. “Take him in and keep a tight lid on him until I give you the all-clear, then cut him loose. Rough him up a bit before you do so he can hit the street like a badass instead of the pansy he is.”
“You got it, sir.” The detective yanked Nguyen up, shoved him into the wall and snapped restraining bracelets on him. “Let’s take a trip. Trust me when I tell you it’s for your own good.”
After Kulm had exited the alley, his prisoner dragging along behind, Richard sank against the rear wall. The adrenaline rush from the encounter wasn’t lasting. “So what now? Shake down this Kigin? We can’t exactly show up on New Babel for a friendly chat with Montegreu. We’d be dead within a minute of stepping off the transport.”
Delavasi stalked through the alley, his trench coat billowing in his wake. “We may not need to do either.” He met Richard’s expectant gaze. “You fancy a brief detour to Krysk?”
Richard frowned. “Director, I appreciate everything you’ve given me so far, but it will have to be a damn good reason for me to accompany you to a Federation world in the middle of a war.”
Delavasi nodded. “How about I can get Olivia Montegreu to come to us. And please, it’s Graham.”
36
PORTAL PRIME
UNCHARTED SPACE
* * *
“SO MAYBE THAT’S WHY it allowed you through the field with your cybernetics active.”
Alex regarded him askance. “What’s why?”
She and Caleb were sitting on the ground, backs propped up against a large boulder. He had grudgingly performed minor first aid on the worst of his wounds. The remains of what passed for a meal—MREs and energy bars—hadn’t yet been cleaned up and were scattered on the ground beside them.
When they had finished eating she had rested her head on his shoulder, draped a leg over his and laced their fingers together. And he had listened.
“The alien needed to be able to control your mind. I don’t mean what or how you thought, but take you where it wanted and show you what it wanted. And keep you unconscious, obviously. Even if it can communicate telepathically, I suspect it needed to interface with your cybernetics in order to accomplish the rest.”
“But now that it’s done with me, why hasn’t the repulsion field kicked me out?”
“Well, two possibilities.” Caleb reached into the pack lying next to him and produced a small, unadorned metal orb. “These orbs generate the field. They were staggered along the mountainside for a while, then eventually I quit seeing them. At first I thought the repulsion was an all-encompassing field, but now I suspect it’s more like a demilitarized zone.”
“In which case the field isn’t active here…what’s the second possibility?”
“That because our cybernetics are internal, they don’t trip the field at all—in which case I’m eVi-less unnecessarily.” He shrugged. “But I couldn’t take the chance.”
“Is it weird, having everything turned off?”
“Yeah, it is. I reach for modified vision or a nano-boost of adrenaline and nothing responds.”
“You did fine slaying the dragon all on your own.”
“True, but it wasn’t exactly easy. Beast tried to roast me.” He sighed. “Mostly, though, it’s quiet. I don’t think any of us realize just how much we have constantly going on in our heads, how much our eVi is always multitasking and tracking and informing.”
“You believe it’s become a crutch?”
“Well, sure. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad crutch. It’s a tool, one which has made us stronger. Healthier, smarter, faster. But the quiet is kind of nice once you get accustomed to it.”
His thumb lazily traced a pattern on her palm. �
��Any idea what the point was? The aliens went to a fair amount of trouble, kidnapping you and spending a day and a half running you through a mental and emotional gauntlet.”
“It was a test.”
“Why do you say that?” His voice had taken on a more measured tenor; he was intrigued.
“‘You have done well.’ It’s what my captor said right before the last vision, scenario, whatever. With my father. Up until then it had simply dumped me into these scenes and let me rant at the empty air. But apparently it was paying attention.”
She groaned. “Unfortunately, it provided no information as to what the test was for or what consequences flowed from doing well, other than not killing me.”
He leaned in and kissed the top of her head. “I saw one of them. Spoke to it. It didn’t speak back.”
She twisted around to face him fully. “Are you serious? What did it look like? What happened?”
“It looked ethereal…individual points of light which morphed and took shape. It was a brief encounter and I’m afraid I was a little distracted by the powerful need to get to you.”
“Oh.” She melted under the intensity of his gaze. “Where did it go? Did you see?”
He motioned behind them, beyond the plateau. “I’ve no idea how far. It vanished from view after the first dip in the land.”
Her eyes followed the direction he indicated. The peaceful, natural terrain continued unabated to the horizon and offered no clues as to the secrets it held. “That’s where we go then.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, resolute. “It owes me some answers. Owes us both answers.”
“Okay.”
“Here’s the problem: it sounds like the aliens don’t look like anything at all. I don’t know how many of them are here or a thing about them except they understand English and are supremely arrogant, yet can be reasoned with. But as to where to find them? This isn’t space. I don’t know the rules of the wilderness quite so well. Or at all.”
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