by Jael Wye
The ghost had never been caught spying before, but then, she had never dared to go so far into enemy territory before either. The risk was worth it, though.
She had only managed a glimpse, a peek through the keyhole of her prison door, but that was enough to let hope dig agonizing hooks into her again. Finally, she had a clue to the location of the lab where her body lay entombed in cryogenic sleep. She had to capitalize on her discovery, but in order to do that she needed allies. Someone to help her from the outside. Problem was, her only potential allies apparently needed her help right now. Victoria Ross was out for their blood. She had to warn them. And she didn’t have much time. The GenIe that controlled her stasis would only allow her another hour of semi-consciousness before it yanked her back down into complete oblivion. Just one more hour to trick her brainwave monitors into thinking she was dreaming while she used them to roam the DataCloud.
Quick as thought, she sped through the routes of the Cloud, looking for the single person she could trust to get a message through. Once, there had been another who she might have gone to, but he had abandoned her to her fate years ago. No, she had only one choice, one chance.
With the ease of long practice, she skirted the edges of GenIes, threaded back-channels, and evaded security traps as she tracked down the small, wandering signal of her friend.
If the ghost could feel anything, she imagined a reckless exhilaration would be coursing through her veins right now. Finally, she was acting instead of just watching helplessly. She had the chance to accomplish something that would make her hellish existence worthwhile. She would not fail the people she hoped to make her friends, she vowed to herself.
And if her would-be friends failed her, if she remained trapped in this endless nightmare...well, she would survive, no matter how little she might want to. The Aurora Project had created the ghost to survive almost anything.
RedIce Habsuites, Pavonis Mons
Cesare opened the door to the habsuite he used when he was in Pavonis. He couldn’t call it “home.” He didn’t really have any one place he could call home. Not like Bianca with her beloved Eris.
Feeling unusually discouraged, he tossed his travelpac on the couch and walked past the darkened bedroom to stand at the viewport. Off to the south, the shining black line of the elevator cable twisted up into the sky.
Somewhere in the complex around the bottom of that cable, Bianca was no doubt holed up with Volkov, waiting for MarSec to spring their trap when Victoria disembarked. It should be me. I should be the man who takes down her enemies and gets her home back for her. Instead, Volkov would be the one to lay her heart’s desire at her feet. He was suddenly seized by the image of Bianca looking up at the investigator, her beautiful face alive with the same pride and delight he had seen sometimes when she looked up at him. The mere idea hurt so badly, he thought the actual sight of it might draw blood.
This was madness. He could barely recognize himself anymore. And yet here he was, shadowing her once again. Even though she had told him to get dusted. Just like she had since the moment she met him.
One of these days, I’ll have to take the hint. But deep down he suspected he would never stop chasing after her. He rubbed his knuckles over a sudden ache near his heart.
Still... I love it when you catch me. His eyes slid shut.
He heard a soft noise. Just the slightest shifting of air, a shuffle of a footstep. A hot jolt of instinct had him spinning, fists up and ready. Two Martians burst out of his bedroom, both wielding shock rods. Cesare lunged at the nearest one, pounding a fist into his short ribs. The bloke fell back with a grunt.
The second was trying to get behind him. He slammed an elbow up and back. There was a satisfying crunch and a scream.
The first one recovered and came in low with the shock rod, but Cesare landed another body blow and grappled for the shocker. The attacker suddenly twisted his shoulders, and the tip of the rod grazed Cesare’s forearm. He staggered, his grip loosening as agony seared over him. Another rod caught him high on the back of his leg, sending him crashing to his hands and knees, roaring in pain. Blows hammered down like lightning bolts on his back. He collapsed facedown, every muscle spasming uncontrollably. Black stars exploded in front of his eyes.
A heavy boot kicked him over onto his back. “Fecker broke my fecking nose!” Another hard kick to the gut.
“Enough. She wants him in one piece.”
Fingers fumbling at his collar. The prickle of an injector at his neck. Then nothing.
Pavonis Elevator Terminal
Something had gone wrong. She could feel it in the air. She paced back and forth across the tech office Volkov had parked her in, foreboding growing in her with each step. She kept her eyes on the array of vidscreens, watching the feeds from the elevator terminal. Absolutely nothing was happening. This was a very bad sign.
She and the MarSec agents had arrived at the station late that afternoon, well before Victoria’s car was due to arrive. Volkov had wasted no time setting up operations. He had established a tech perimeter and stationed a forward team just outside the terminal, under the cover story of a biohazard training drill. Biohaz drills were a common enough headache for spacers to have to tolerate, so the StarLine techs and sec had paid little attention to the armored MarSec agents in their midst.
Everything had seemed to be proceeding smoothly, the trap set to close on Victoria the instant she stepped out of the terminal. But her car had docked nearly an hour ago, and she and her entourage had still not disembarked. In fact, they showed no signs of activity at all.
The tall, narrow car loomed in the middle of the great terminal ring, every one of its twenty stories silent and dark. The terminal itself was nearly empty, except for a few em-techs hurrying through, their shoulders hunched as if they too sensed the mounting tension. Two maintenance bots were trundling a long tank of sanifluid into the tech hold of the car. Other than that, everything seemed frozen. Waiting.
Ay, something was very wrong, and Bianca was going to find out what it was. She spun and left the room in search of Volkov. The personal guard she had been assigned hurried behind, protesting futilely. “Si, I’m going to have to ask you to stay here!”
Bianca barely heard him. She strode down the corridor of the outer terminal complex, making for the tram control room. Volkov had commandeered it as his temporary op center before sending her off with her babysitter. She pushed past the agents stationed at the door and looked around. A small number of MarSec personnel were working at various consoles. Volkov stood at one end of the chamber facing a long array of vidscreens and sensors, his hands locked behind his back. She immediately went to his side.
Without turning, he said, “Victoria Ross is not coming out. She knows we’re here.”
“How?”
“A very good question, and one I fully intend to answer.” Volkov finally turned toward her. He wore a thin silvery strip of a cam unit curled around his ear and beneath his left eye, much like Hussein usually did. But while Hussein looked dreamy and dazed with it on, it gave the SI a sharp, nearly inhuman appearance. “Right now I have more immediate concerns.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to find a way to bring her out. Until she leaves the terminal, I can’t touch her.” It was true, Bianca reluctantly acknowledged. The General Assembly/Eris charter expressly forbade any direct MarSec interference with the elevator. Even Max Ross’s authority couldn’t void the charter.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll go in and lock down the car from the terminal command. If I can access the car’s GenIe, I can force her out.”
Volkov cast her a disbelieving look. “Out of the question. It’s far too dangerous. The allegiance of StarLine sec is dubious at best, and I can’t send a guard with you.”
Bianca thought back over the terrible events of the last few days. “Trust me,” s
he said, “I can handle danger.”
“I don’t doubt it. But you are under my shield. Your safety must be my first concern. I won’t allow you to go in.”
She got a tight grip on her frustration. “Then what do you propose we do?”
“Not ‘we.’ This is a MarSec operation. I’m going to have to insist that you allow us to do our job as we see fit. Please, return to the waiting room.”
Bianca met his gaze steadily, drawing every scrap of arrogant command she possessed around her. “You insist? MarSec is here at my invitation. I am a principal of the Eris charter, and I will see to its security. So I ask you again, what is our next move?”
A gleam of respect appeared in Volkov’s eyes. After a thoughtful moment, he nodded. “Very well. I’m going to try to open communications with M’Ross directly. I suggest you stand out of vid range when I make the com. If she’s aware of your presence, it might complicate the negotiations.” Without another word he turned to the main vidscreen above the console, and began to touch in the com.
Bianca backed away a few paces, standing near an auxiliary console where she could watch the main vid from an angle. Long minutes dragged by. Bianca forced herself to remain perfectly still as the tension wound tighter.
Finally, the acknowledgement chime sounded. A familiar, chillingly perfect face appeared on the screen.
“M’Volkov. What a pleasure to receive your com,” Victoria said. She smiled at the investigator, as charming as if she had just accepted his invitation to tea. “I’ve heard so much about you. How is your mother?”
Volkov’s face was absolutely neutral. “M’Ross. I need to ask you to exit your car.”
She blinked her heavy-lidded eyes. “Whatever for?”
“MarSec is investigating a criminal charge that involves you. We would like your cooperation so that the inquiry can proceed smoothly.”
“Ay, that’s right. A mutual acquaintance mentioned an arrest warrant. Something about attempted murder, if you can imagine.” She looked amused at the absurdity. But Bianca caught a glint of fury just behind the surface of that indulgent gaze.
She had a spy in MarSec itself, Bianca realized. It was the only way she could have gotten that information. Volkov had realized it too. His face hardened slightly. He said, “That is correct. Do you intend to answer these charges peacefully?”
“I don’t intend to answer such ridiculous charges at all, dear boy.”
“You will not be allowed into Pavonis on your own recognizance.”
“Unfortunately, it appears that I won’t be going into Pavonis before I begin my return to Eris.”
Bianca tensed. She was going to run back up the cable.
“It’s a grave disappointment,” Victoria continued with a sigh. “I was looking forward to conducting all my friends on this pleasure trip. Your mother was supposed to come along, you know. But, well...” she shrugged in an intimate, wry commiseration on the vagaries of fate. “You are certainly welcome to come up to Eris in her place, Investigator. In an unofficial capacity, of course. You and I can discuss this problem in a more personal setting. Perhaps we can come to an understanding on the journey out.” Her voice dropped to a purr of sexual promise.
The unbelievable connie! Bianca clenched her teeth so hard she thought they might crack.
“That would be a conflict of interest, M’Ross,” Volkov said without inflection.
“Pity. Well then, I have to be going. Give my regards to your family. I expect I’ll be seeing them soon, once this nonsense is cleared up.”
Volkov ignored that. “Your car will be locked down and sequestered until you decide to comply with MarSec.”
He was bluffing, and Victoria knew it. She laughed, a little silvery sound. “What an absurd thing to say. StarLine’s contracts with the GA and the MBC clearly state that the elevator and its stations are under waiver for internal security. You can’t enter the elevator terminal in official capacity, SI Volkov. Nor are you allowed to take any action that impedes the functioning of the elevator. As I am sure my good friends in MarSec Directorship will tell you.”
Bianca stepped into view. “Maybe MarSec can’t interfere with you, but I can.”
Victoria’s face contorted for a split second. Then her charming smile was back in place. “Ah, Bianca. I thought you might be sneaking about somewhere. You look simply dreadful. What in the Sol are you wearing?” Her pale eyes flicked over Bianca’s ill-fitting Earther c-suit.
“Come out of the car, Victoria, or I will force you out,” she said steadily. “You know I have access to the master commands.”
“I made a few adjustments to the elevator GenIes while you were away. I think you’ll find it difficult to convince them to obey you.”
“My father would never give you access to the GenIes,” she whispered. He and her mother had created those GenIes. Max was the only person who could conceivably alter them.
Victoria laughed her tinkling laugh. “Ay, he would. Your father belongs to me, Bianca. Just as the elevator belongs to me. In fact, everything you thought you had belongs to me.” Her lips curled in a little smile, as if she was indulging in a private joke. “And that reminds me, I have a project that I’m anxious to get to. I really must be going. Good evening.” She nodded graciously to Volkov, and the vid went blank.
The departure chimes instantly began sounding, a sim voice warning of an immediate car launch.
Bianca spun toward the hallway. “I have to stop her. I’m going to the central control.”
“No.” Volkov hauled her around, grasping her arms in an unbreakable grip. “Elevator sec is loyal to Victoria, and she has nothing to lose now by attacking you directly. You’d be dead before you got past the doors.”
He was right. Central control was completely enclosed in a layered fortress of deadly tech and human security. If Victoria had truly locked it against her, nothing short of an army could breach it.
She stared over Volkov’s shoulder at the vids, watching helplessly as the car gathered speed, shooting up the thin black road to the sky. “So all this was for nothing. You’re just going to let her get away.” Her voice sounded hollow in her own ears.
“I’m going to com MarSec Directorship. There are several legal avenues left.” He let her go. “This may take a few minutes. Stay here.” He jerked his head at his agents, who had been silently watching the drama unfold. Two of them stationed themselves by the door, hands locked behind their backs. With a last warning glance over his glinting eyecam, the SI turned away, fingers flying over his cuff.
Bianca started to pace. Impotent fury burned through her veins.
She found herself wondering what Cesare would do in her position. Probably commandeer an orbital and go hijack the car.
In spite of everything, her mouth hiked up at that strangely satisfying thought.
Suddenly, she wished more than anything in the Sol that Cesare was here with her. When they worked as a team, nothing could stop them, not Woods or collapsing drills or even the surface of Mars itself. If he were here, they would have found a way to dust Victoria.
Maybe it was selfish of her. Maybe it was just plain cracked to think he would want to have anything to do with her now. She had left things with him so badly. Still, she wished...
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flurry of disturbance on one of the vids. She glanced over at it, and then turned fully, hardly believing what she saw. Hussein and Mehmet were standing in the hallway just past the checkpoint, arguing with a pair of MarSec agents. She turned and dashed out of the room. The guards stopped her just outside the door, but she called out, “Mehmet! Hussein!”
A few meters away, she saw Mehmet’s bright black eyes peering over the shoulder of one of the Martian guards. “Ni hao, my dear,” the old man said.
“Let them through!” she ordered.
> The sec agents threw her a startled glance, and the two Earthers immediately pushed past them. “Thank Heaven we found you,” Mehmet said.
Bianca’s first, instinctive smile of welcome faded instantly. Mehmet’s face was furrowed in crags of worry. Hussein’s eyes were glazed and distant behind his eyecam as he wandered along behind the older man.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Not here,” Mehmet said, eyes darting over the walkspace and the sec agents milling through it.
“Of course.” Bianca turned and led them into the control room. Volkov was still intent on his com with the Directorship, but he shot a piercing gaze their way as they came through the door. They stationed themselves in a corner some distance away from him and the other MarSec agents.
“What are you doing here?” Bianca asked in a low voice. “I thought you and the others were in Tharsis.”
“We were. We all left the instant we learned you and Cesare were in Pavonis. After the attacks in the Outback, we thought you might need our help, little as it is.”
“How did you hear about that?” Bianca said, astonished. “It was all supposed to be classified!”
Mehmet brushed her question aside. “That’s not important at the moment. My dear, we believe that something terrible has happened.”
Dread curdled in her. “What is it?”
Hussein’s eyes suddenly snapped into focus, boring into hers from behind his eyepiece. “Victoria kidnapped Cesare. She’s taking him to Eris.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Test
“No. No, she couldn’t have. It’s not possible,” Bianca whispered. “MarSec has the terminal locked down. She couldn’t have brought Cesare aboard the car without us seeing.” Even as she spoke, she remembered the service bots that had made the unusually late delivery to the car, and the long, man-sized sanifluid tube they had loaded into the tech hold.