Persist (Discipline Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  Ben understood that, a bit. Now.

  “I’ll handle it. That… We probably won’t really ever be close friends. I’ve been thinking about it and almost everything that I’ve done there has been wrong. I needed to just tap her a few times a day and get her to shield so I could ignore her inner garbage. We don’t have to be more than that. Plus, I think I’ve been a bit of a creep with her. She was sexually abused as a kid, and I keep ordering her into bed. That’s not the best thing ever.”

  Mags nodded, but didn’t tell him he was right.

  “Talk to her about that? We all kind of forget to do that part. The psychics. We just act like we understand everything all the time, from the bits and pieces that we pick up. I hardly know what I want or need most of the time, living in my own head. I doubt that I could figure out what you or Lis want any better. She’s an adult though, and really, while you trying to order us around in bed is cute, it isn’t all that commanding. She’s an adult and really could have just told you no, and made it stick. That’s my take though. Ask her?”

  Not really wanting to, Ben focused and moved into gamma, which got the world to shift around him, with all the lines and colors that had always been there. With measurements, numbers and all, this time. It was like a really confusing VR display. He was tempted to ignore it all, which was his normal way of coping, but he showed up next to himself again, with a floating orange sphere next to the other him.

  “I won’t stay long, but seriously? You’re just going to try and take the easy way? Use the data! This is a power too, if you make it work for you. Now, go to. Remember, be the mature one.”

  Ben nodded to himself, since talking would be heard by the others. Clark even walked out into the hallway, and smiled at him, the large man grinning.

  “Good morning.” He put a hand out, to shake, which Ben did back, the man visibly relaxed on contact, even if it was clear that he’d been doing all right before then.

  “Morning. The first mission was successful. How about the AI?”

  Clark knew what he meant and went a bit blank.

  “The next day or two will be it. We’ve been isolating it and destroying all the computers that it can reach. It’s enough damage that the government has to be starting to understand that I could take the web down on my own if I wanted. Not that I do. I keep all my virts there. It’s nearly done though. I could have finished it yesterday… But… I mean, it’s a living being. Kind of. Killing it seems wrong.”

  Ben nodded then, understanding more than was being said.

  “I know. It’s not good though, and will hurt others in the future if it escapes. I can do it, if you need? I’ll need to go over how again. I’ve never actually tried that time bending thing you mentioned. That really works?”

  “Against electronics? Perfectly. Yeah… I should walk you through that today. I can do it though. It’s my job in this.”

  The man had to wait for the bathroom, being taken up with Mags at the moment, so he headed back into his room. That left Ben alone in the hallway, standing in front of Lissa’s door. He knocked, but there was no answer. Instead of pounding on the thing, he tried the knob, which wasn’t locked. Closing it behind him when he went in, but called out from across the room, not really wanting the woman to be scared that he was there.

  “Lissa? It’s time to get up. Liiisssssaaaa.”

  That got a sleepy eye to open up, her silver mane back in a tail of some kind it looked like. She was pretty, even making the very sour face she was.

  “Go way. Not getting up. Can’t make me.”

  It was cutely petulant, but Ben walked over to her, and patted her on the shoulder, which had her move into him a bit, her body warm.

  “Ben? Did you…”

  He nodded, figuring that she meant to ask about his mission.

  “Winston is dead. I’ll tell you all about it later, if you want? Right now…”

  She nodded, took a deep breath and smiled.

  “Morning sex. I understand. Here…”

  That got him to laugh and hug her.

  “No, not that one. It occurred to me while I was in a different world that I probably shouldn’t be having sex with you at all. I botched that one. Sorry?”

  Instead of asking what he meant, she hugged him back.

  “That’s okay. Thank you. For realizing it now? Almost no one ever does.” Then she sat up, her loose t-shirt falling down one of her shoulders. It was hot. Ben ignored that, trying to read the data around him instead. There was a lot of it now.

  “Well, I was wondering…”

  She looked at him, her face seeming to be about the age he really was. Unlined and relaxed.

  “Yes?”

  “Can we start over? I mean, I know that we really can’t, but could we try?” It probably wouldn’t work, but instead of saying that, she just nodded, her eyes closed.

  “Sure. I think we can. It can’t hurt to try.”

  “All right then. Hi Casandra. I’m Ben Epson. I think we should be friends.”

  That got her to giggle, which was probably fake, but sounded real enough to fool him, which meant it was great acting, really.

  “Hi Ben. I’d really like that. Being friends.”

  Chapter nineteen

  Ben had planned on a nice relaxing day of meditation and possibly some running, doing whatever training Ali had in mind. So it was a shock when Glenda came and pounced on him after lunch.

  “We need to go over your latest mission. Down in the office. Kyle’s waiting.”

  She didn’t exactly drag him along, but it was very clear that the woman expected him to follow along after her as she half stalked away. Ben had been in a nice quiet null field, until he got a hundred and fifteen feet away from the others. That measurement got him to blink, since it was a larger area than it had been before by about eight feet. When he glanced over to his left, walking behind Glenda, Ben noticed that the other version of himself was there, the light from the snow making his hair look almost gem like, to match the eyes. Unlike the black that Ben really had going on that way.

  The sphere was back however, which was useful. Especially if he were going to be meeting up with other versions of himself in the future. The other version of him used a soft voice, that came out almost as if he were whispering.

  “You’re getting stronger. In all ways. Most at least. In the end you’ll probably have four times the distance for that particular field. Given what’s coming, that will be helpful.” There was no explanation, but Ben didn’t blame himself for that one, since Glenda was worried about him. It was coming out as roughness, but that was the real feeling underneath. To her mind Ben had just run off, and then come back late at night, not even bothering to make a note of what had happened.

  She was one to talk, since she’d taken off without telling him about it to act as a messenger. On the good side the papers were all ready for Ferdinand to sign. It wouldn’t be that hard to get them into place, Ben realized. He just needed to drop them off while everyone was distracted by the fight. Then he could follow the more well-muscled version of himself, and see where he got to, if he timed it right. The trick would be in moving fast enough to not get caught.

  His speed wasn’t that great though, in moving from one place to another, and it was kind of clear that being in the world that the other version of him had left from would be a lot easier than doing it from where he was. Then he could pretty much just follow the man.

  For one thing, Ben could peek through the tears into other realities, but still wasn’t able to simply look. It made sense to him, at any rate. In order to follow bomb-girl dropping Ben, he was going to have to be on the side of the rip that Gwen and the others were. That meant being really careful. Otherwise he’d be seen, shot, or cause a minor panic. That hadn’t happened the first time, so it made sense to avoid that the second.

  Kyle had a displeased expression on his face, which wasn’t what he was feeling inside at all. It was simply that Glenda was worried, and you had to back
up your command team. Even if they were wrong at the moment.

  As soon as a chair was brought around for him, Ben sat, the weapon in the middle of his back making a lump in its holster. It caused him to sit a bit funny, not using the backrest at all, perching a bit, and staying very upright.

  Glenda turned on him, pointing at his face with a single finger. She didn’t wag it, since she was saving the big guns for later. It was blame and guilt on the menu, after all.

  “What were you thinking?”

  Ben nodded.

  “Like I mentioned in your head, I’m the one that can get this part done. Winston Mills is dead. The one that was here, anyway. I suppose I should get the package off to King Ferdinand now? I was thinking about getting a jog in later, or doing some training. Clark said that the AI will die today or tomorrow, so that’s about half of the real threats that I can see here. The other two are both different versions of me. So… That part is mine to take care of.”

  The large lady froze, her finger still outstretched.

  “You… Already took out Mills? Are you certain?”

  Ben understood the idea behind the question, since he was nice, and soft, to her way of thinking. It was only half true however. He might be trusting and caring, thanks to the oxytocin that flooded his brain all the time, he wasn’t soft at all. She thought of him that way, since he’d started out plump and uncoordinated. Now, however, he was lean… And uncoordinated. It was different.

  The thing was, Ben had never been weak. Not even once in the time that he’d known the woman. Part of her got that, too. She just didn’t want to believe it. Probably because of his charming smile and all the jokes he made.

  Kyle however, had no such delusions about him, so simply nodded.

  “Understood. How’s your mental state?” It was spoken bluntly, and the accent had shifted just a little. Enough that the man blinked and fixed it, before Glenda could pick it up as anything more than an odd sounding phrase. It was the way that he’d use to speak, at briefings after men had come back from battle. More than a hundred years before. When they’d fought in Korea.

  Ben was honest about it, since there wasn’t a lot of time for lies.

  “Medium. I’m feeling it. Having killed Winston Mills. It was pretty horrible. VR is a lot different that way. I know that he had to die, which helps. He wasn’t going to stop, or change sides. It will be harder with the other versions of me. I mean, think about it, we both pretty much have to think that the other version should be the one to change. I can see the argument even. Is it worse to make everyone suffer forever, or to end the lives of everyone to have ever existed to prevent it? I’m alive and it’s all I know, so I’m choosing to go with that one, but… Is it the right way?” He was asking, hoping that Kyle, with all his added years, might understand more than he did on the issue.

  The gray haired and wrinkled man simply smiled. It was kindly, and seemed polite at the same time.

  “I don’t know? There may not be a correct answer. All we can do is concentrate on the problem one piece at a time. Right now, today, we need to stay alive, or all options are gone. If we can do that, then, perhaps we can work out something that no one has thought of yet? One thing that I do know is that there’s not going to be any way to do that without anything existing. That’s a rather large problem. So we fight, and try to live?”

  Ben sighed, and let himself feel relaxed, which was strange, until he realized that he’d taken a pill for that earlier. Then he looked up at Glenda, who was looming, but not waving a finger under his nose any longer. Not that she’d been that close to him before that. Even with Ben that could start a fight. She’d win, unless shooting started, but that would make a mess of things, so was better to avoid.

  “Right. Well, for now, I need to make a delivery. I… Might not be back for a while. I’ll try to come in later this afternoon, but I… It could take a few days really, on the other side. Or longer. Possibly years. I need to hunt down the other me that was going to nuke New York. I know where he was at one point, and time doesn’t exist really, so that might work.”

  Glenda was gearing up to stop him, or at least try to talk him out of it, but Kyle simply nodded.

  “Understood, Mr. Epson. Don’t be afraid to get help. No one cares if you’re the hero here. Your job is to perform your duty, and to live. Do you need a marker, so you know where to return to?”

  Ben hadn’t thought about that before, but nodded.

  “That would be good. Um, a big blue circle, in the rec center? Only put it up for an hour or so, near my chair? Or the main holo display. I can find it either way. Now…The package?”

  That was on Kyle’s nice wooden desk, looking familiar. It was a big envelope, designed to hold a lot of papers. He snapped his fingers then, and smiled at Kyle.

  “Right. Nachos. Can we get some of those do you think? To go. For Gwen? A few bottles of hot sauce, too?” He was joking, but the man leaned back over his desk and called the kitchen directly, speaking to Riley, who actually sounded happy about the order, rushed or not.

  “We can have that to you in… Forty minutes?”

  Ben looked at Kyle and smiled, nodding.

  “It will take me at least that long to get set up. Just make sure I have them in my hand? I might not be able to actually see you by then. An insulated smart box would be good, since it might take a while before she gets to eat them.”

  Then he closed his eyes, and walked himself back in time. While he focused on the breach over New York, which he had to work himself through several times, carefully, before he managed to appear in the sitting room of the floating airship. It really was a great place, he realized, not distracted by a King that was also him this time. Or the fact that he was stuck in a different world like he was.

  The platter in his hand was huge, and covered, with a very heavy box of food inside that from the weight could feed ten people, if they were hungry. Part of that was probably hot sauce however, so it might not be all that much. Ben still had to grab the thing, trying to drop the envelope quickly, since the first time that he’d walked into the space there hadn’t been another version of him standing there at all. Since, from the noise outside, he was about to be caught. By himself. Heather too, who now that he thought about it, seemed a poor person to shock with a sudden doppelganger.

  Luckily there was a door on the other side of the space that led to a nice hallway, that actually had gold painted trim along the pale blue walls. The floor was wood, but was immaculately clean. No one else was there, so Ben waited, the whole conversation inside both taking a while, and being faster than he remembered.

  As soon as he was gone, vanishing in a way that got a few gasps to let him know it had happened, Ben knocked on the door. Really just walking in was tempting, but he didn’t want to scare anyone, since some of them were well armed. Twitchy, as well.

  Finally, knocking twice, gently, wanting to set the heavy, but still likely warm inside, tray down, the heavy wooden thing opened up.

  It was Heather, who looked at him, puzzled.

  “Missed your target? Only… The clothing is different.” She was about to go for her weapon, when he smiled.

  “It’s me, the good one? I just came here so I could try to track down the version of me that was causing problems here? I can’t do it from my world. It could take a while. I… Brought a treat for Gwen?”

  The woman blinked, didn’t go for a weapon, but did lean back into the room.

  “Gwen? I need you to check out a package. It seems that our friend is already back?”

  There was a rustling of fabric, and regular looking, extra skinny Mags came to the door, smiling.

  “Oh? A present? For me?” She was kidding, but she let him open the box, and stabilized the heavy thing for him, so he could show off what he’d brought.

  That got her eyes to go wide, and a real smile to suddenly form on her face. Given that to her she’d just been held at gunpoint by him, or the King depending on how she thought about it, n
ot two hours before, that showed real strength.

  “Awesome. I… Come in! Or, no, I need a table. This is… I’d cry, but I don’t want my makeup to run. Everyone… Come with me? To the dining room? Ben brought enough to share…”

  The woman grabbed the tray from him, and bumped his hip on the way past, calling out as she scurried.

  “This way! Hurry! They’ll get cold…”

  Only six people followed them, but one of them was the King, and that meant the slightly mean lady from earlier was there as well. His queen, after all. Marianna. She was still frightened and trying to hide it, which was honestly putting her on high alert. That made a lot of sense to him, and she pointed at him, using her whole hand, the line of it coming out as a soft pink.

  “The eyes are the same, but the hair? I don’t wish to cast aspersions, but-” She stopped dead as Ferdinand winced. It was clear, to his mind that his bride, and they hadn’t been married that long, was about to insult the hero that had just saved them all. Possibly millions of others at the same time, if in a different world.

  Ben nodded and looked at the woman directly.

  “I dyed it. I had to… Well, there’s no good way to say it. I hunted down and murdered a man. Winston Mills. He wasn’t an evil person, really, but he was going to destroy everything, if he could. Not just one world, or a hundred, but whole realities. I…” He shuddered, and sat there while everyone looked away, except Gwen, who was getting plates and eating utensils passed out for everyone.

  “Oooh. Cheese sauce and everything. Hot sauce to spare as well? Killing that man protected your world, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Possibly here as well. We, my world, we’re almost safe. There are only two people that need to be gotten rid of directly. Both of them are me.”

  For some reason Ferdinand sat up straighter, as if he might have been the needed sacrifice. Which oddly, he was willing to do, to save a world. Even if it wasn’t his. Not that he really wanted to, but it had been a part of his entire existence that he might, at some point, be called on to do things that he wasn’t going to like. There was a very brave sense about it, under everything, Ben noticed.