Regenesis (v1.2)

by C. J. Cherryh

  Who else, besides you and Denys, could operate Base Two with authority? Abban. Abban could tiptoe through System with not a trace left. Azi could he created. Setted. Records forged without a trace. Any of those things. When Hicks took over, and when Hicks went with Giraud to Novgorod, AK-36 went with Hicks—and ultimately got more specific instructions, didn’t he?

  AK-36’s still in Hicks’s office, the whole reason Hicks has a provisional alpha certificate. AK-36 is 122 years old.

  Kinder if we killed him. A hundred and twenty-two is old to be given an axe code. Real old. And especially if the military messed with it and put a block in that we’ll have to break.

  If we give it, he could die on the table. Then we lose all he might know.

  It won’t be pretty, what needs to be done. We can try to be kind. But we have to move on it, don’t we?

  God, all that, all that, because the first Ari pissed off Defense… was that it? She’d gotten power enough to start calling the shots, not just with azi—with a lot of the things where Reseune cooperated with Defense. The terraforming of Cyteen she got voted down. The Eversnow business, that Yanni’s agreed to provided we get a base down there, which for some reason maybe they really, really don’t want… check that item at first convenience.

  Ari was powerful in Council, and she d gotten Trade and Information on her side, and there was no real way Citizens was going to set up a Bloc with Defense: they’re not natural allies. So she was getting passed just about anything she wanted passed; she was creating the Arks; she was negotiating with Earth at times when State couldn’t even get a message through…

  And Jordan… Jordan made a deal with them. He wanted to bring Reseune down, but it wasn’t Reseune they wanted to bring down at all: it was Ari. They’d found out she was dying. They’d found out about the psychogenesis project, and they weren’t appalled about Ari being reborn—they were interested. Her genius was an asset to Union. But her political power was hurting them. They made their deal with Jordan to get more information—they were using him all the way. And they got the notion they could have a tame Reseune, under a more amenable leadership, and still have an Ari, who could go on being born, and dying, unless the system really, really needed her brain again… while tamer people ran Reseune and didn’t have her power in the legislature, and Defense got its way again.

  But here I am growing up, and I’m not easy to get at, and oh, they’d like to run me. They’d like to. But they can’t do that, where I am. I’ve fortified myself inside Alpha Wing. I’ve controlled all access. I’ve gotten my own azi staff, my own circle of CIT advisors. I trust very, very few people, and some people can’t get close to me anymore. Rafael was their best try, and I have him.

  So who are “they”?

  Who’s the Enemy?

  It wasn’t Gorodin. I don’t think it ever was Gorodin. Maybe it wasn’t even Azov, though I never knew him—maybe it was some force inside Defense that we never even saw. Not Jacques, who’s just a chair-warmer, and more a symptom of how Defense can’t come up with leaders, past its own internal politics.

  And then there was Spurlin—he was clearly on somebody’s bad list. He put his head up: he nearly got into control of Defense. And now he’s dead.

  Say there’s two factions in Defense, at least. And one of them is the side Spurlin was on, which is pro-Reseune; and moderate; and then there’s Khalid and his backers.

  Khalid didn’t like it when I took him on when I was a little kid. I nearly finished him in politics. The head of Intelligence wasn’t used to public appearances—and he looked the fool. But note he’s back. And he won’t be my friend. He’ll have the notion, I’m pretty sure, that Reseune won’t be his to manage if I take over, and I’m very, very close to doing that. It’s personal, for him. It’s emotional; and he is an emotional man—he showed that, back when I Got him. And he’s fast running out of time to stop me from growing up and taking over—it could be weeks, or a couple of years. It could be next week, and he and his know it. All of a sudden they’re thinking they’ve bargained with the devil, like the old story, and it’s not looking like such a good deal for them.

  That’s where Khalid’s getting his support, isn’t it? He doesn’t have enough support on his own or he’d have won the election, but there are people inside Defense who see me coming up fast, and they’re worried all of a sudden. The rank and file of Defense, the electorate, they went for somebody who hadn’t gotten embarrassed by a fourteen-year-old on national vid—And Giraud warned me about that at the time, that I might be sorry. But I was right. I may have kept Khalid from being elected again. The electorate went for Spurlin; and another defeat would about do for Khalid permanently—so Khalid and everybody invested in him has no way to get back in without using some really unorthodox methods.

  Like murder. They’d already done that, inside Reseune, to take out my predecessor. What’s one more? What’s two murders, and three more?

  There’s this Anton Clavery business. Patil dying. Thieu dying. They both had Defense Bureau work, lots of contacts, so they were easy to get to—and then Patil was joining Reseune, and at the same time Yanni was demanding to set a Reseune base down on Eversnow, right down next to their military base. Somebody in Defense possibly didn’t like that.

  We’ve been thinking about Anton Clavery as a Paxer. Paxers have been our noisiest problem. But did the Paxers blow up the tower at Strassenberg? There are those that could blow something up, a lot, lot easier.

  Attacking Strassenberg doesn’t make sense as a political move, except to expose what I’m doing, except to divert our attention to what isn’t their real objective.

  It’s me they really want dead. And they’ll take down Reseune’s power one piece at a time, anything to slow me down. You can only do so many murders without leaving evidence. So they have to ration those. Just peel away the really critical pieces.

  But I’m not playing their game. And when I do move against Defense, I’ll have to move fast, and be ready for anything. They’re not going to let Jacques name the Proxy we want: they’ll kill him, or they’ll force him to name Khalid; and then Jacques will die, and Khalid, who couldn’t get in by a fair election, will he Councillor, just plain Councillor, in complete charge of the military.

  A man named Machiavelli once said something like… commit all your atrocities early. Your enemies will lie low, knowing what you can do, and the rest of the people will forgive you when you turn out to do good things…

  Florian had set a cup of coffee by her hand. The two of them sat, sipping theirs, waiting.

  She picked up the cup, took a sip. Wondered where all of her people were at the moment. But she couldn’t move them. Someone would notice.

  Just one. “Florian.”

  “Sera?”

  “Go down to Justin’s office. Tell him and Grant to go home. Tell him he’s in charge of Alpha Wing for the next while. Gerry and Mark will be under his orders. Then come back here. Catlin.”

  “Sera.”

  “Go down to Rafael’s office, and tell him I want him and his best twenty, no helmets, light body armor. Lethals in reserve. Non-lethals up front. Wait for me there.” She had a last sip of the coffee and put the cup down. “Body armor for me. too. Lay out one of your outfits for me before we go, Catlin.”

  A slight hesitation. Then: “Yes, sera.”

  She opened a drawer, took out the mini, waked it up. Things went in a sequence. She wasn’t particularly scared, not even mad, at the moment. She just found her awareness stretched wide, trying to see everything, imagine everything, think of everything, and not to drop a single piece in the process.

  Chapter vi

  July 26, 2424

  1102 H

  Knock at the office door. And it opened before either of them could acknowledge it. Justin shut the manual with some deliberation, saw Florian standing there—it could just as well have been Ari. Grant had the same manual under consideration, and quietly slipped it onto a neat stack of others.

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nbsp; “Ser.” Florian said. “Sera requests you go home immediately. Mark and Gerry will be in contact soon from AlphaSec.”

  “Is something wrong?” Stupid question. Justin got up, picked up his coat. When Florian asked in that mode, it was urgent.

  “You will be, officially, ser, in administrative control of Alpha Wing. Base One access. Mark and Gerry will be your links to AlphaSec. They will be reliable.”

  “They’re damned young,” he said, feeling a rise of panic, the scatter of thoughts informing him, My God, it wasn’t academic. She’s doing it.

  Florian, who was only months older than Mark and Gerry, and the azi in charge of AlphaSec, said. “They’ll take their orders from you, ser. You may also draw on Marco and Wes, in sera’s apartment. Sera counts on you. Come with me.”

  Grant came, he did. They both headed to the lift, under Florian’s protection. Down the hall, where AlphaSec had its offices, there was traffic, a few black-uniformed officers entering as a group, more of them headed that direction.

  Damn, he thought, asking himself what he would do, what he could do but lie low, himself and Grant.

  Jordan, was the competing thought. He couldn’t protect Jordan.

  “I’m concerned for my father,” he said to Florian.

  “He has security in place, ser,” Florian said. “They are ours.”

  Chapter vii

  July 26, 2424

  1128 H

  Units of two and three went out—walked out of Alpha Wing, into Wing One. One such went to the end of the building and walked across the quadrangle to Admin’s curbside door. Another went via the storm tunnels. Another went to Admin via the as-yet separate second-level connection out of Alpha Wing.

  That one met up with the unit from the storm tunnels and came up together. Other units were moving. One went to Yanni’s office, and into Chloe’s office, unasked. More showed up outside ReseuneSec. all with a businesslike manner.

  Ari stopped, with Florian and Catlin, at the ReseuneSec door. Catlin’s regular winter coat was a little large on her, very heavy. and not with fabric: it impeded her fingers getting at the mini, in her pocket, but she pulled it out. flipped it open, keyed Voice, said, “CannaeCannaeCannae,” and “GoAlpha,” and toggled off.

  “Now,” she said, and Catlin quietly opened the door.

  Midmorning and the ReseuneSec office was full of people, security and otherwise, with business to conduct.

  “The office is closed for an hour,” Ari said quietly, loudly enough to be heard, especially as voices died away. “Please leave and come back later. Please remember your places.” People didn’t like to feel pushed. The fact some clericals might know her, and some might know Florian and Catlin, started a few to their feet without a word, those anxious to reach the door.

  She said to the receptionist, who had punched keys, “It won’t work, probably. I’m afraid not much will for a bit, so we’d like to minimize that time and get things running again. Let Catlin help.”

  “I can’t,” the receptionist began, his face somewhat ashen, and by now the room was filling with AlphaSec personnel and emptying of people to see Director Hicks.

  Hicks, in fact, would find his own door locked, as people would be locked in rooms all up and down the corridors. He might have found a weapon. But that was all right. they had non-lethals to take care of that.

  “You’re no longer working for Director Hicks. My name is Ariane Emory. These are AlphaSec personnel, and I’m now the Director of ReseuneSec. Kindly get up and go have a seat over there. Catlin will handle your desk, thank you very much.”

  The man moved, and AlphaSec moved him to a chair and put him into it as Catlin assumed the desk and appropriated the keyboard.

  “Gas masks,” Rafael said, and Ari put her mask on, as everyone did, including Catlin, hardly missing a keystroke. The reception area door suffered, as AlphaSec didn’t even wait for the niceties of the keyboard, or the chance of a lethal guarding that access on a mechanical trigger. They got past that door and set down two bots, which raced back inside at ankle level, very fast.

  The masks didn’t even hint of the smell of smoke, or gas, but they were stifling, all the same, both an inconvenience and a protective anonymity. Ari pressed hers close to her face, kept out of the way and let AlphaSec do what they knew how to do, with systems they knew far better, while Florian and Catlin, armed with lethals, stayed right by her. She could see a little ways down the inside hall, and saw two of her teams stopped at an intersection of halls, braced and ready to fire. Where the bots were, she couldn’t tell.

  The general com stream was scary. Beta and gamma azi wouldn’t give up a fight, not by their nature. they needed to be taken down, and that went on. Occasionally there was a burst of fire, and the quieter hiss-thump of non-lethals. Wes was their best medic, but Wes wasn’t here. Jay was qualified, and Jay was up there in the halls somewhere, with two calls on his attention, two of their own down, how bad wasn’t apparent. None of the opposition needed Jay’s intervention, which meant her people were doing exactly what they were supposed to do, and taking people down, fast.

  Director Hicks wasn’t the most essential target. She’d decided that. Kyle AK-36 was; and Base One said Kyle was in the offices this morning, and so was Hicks. Kyle AK was smart, he was independent-thinking, and as the attack came down he would probably take command back there, if he hadn’t delegated and scrambled for an exit. All these years. Hicks might have thought he was Kyle’s utmost priority. But he wasn’t. Right now, she’d bet, in contrast to the way she had Florian and Catlin with her, Hicks was sitting in his office with the door locked and immoveable, finding himself all alone, and nobody defending him. Base Two and Three, Yanni’s bases, were both completely down, and that meant ordinary doors didn’t work automatically anywhere in Admin. Base One was in charge of things Base- Two had commanded, and if Base One said open a door, it opened, whether or not it then blew up because it was booby-trapped. Base One had retreated behind the gateway of Alpha Wing, and possibly somebody clever in ReseuneSec had thought maybe they could barrier it in there and not let it out, but that wouldn’t work. Base One was always a moving target. And right now Base Two and Three weren’t awake, just flat weren’t awake.

  They’d had schematics of ReseuneSec. Knew exactly where the emergency-exits were, and whore they led. they knew where the switches were. If there was any doubt, Marco and Wes ran ops from Alpha Wing, with the schematic in front of them, and the eey-screen Rafael had on a contact lens showed him where he was in a completely schematic view, a kind of split-level awareness Florian likewise had, and Catlin, so they knew where their people were.

  Standard. Florian had said, before they left the apartment, that ReseuneSec was supposed to have some stuff to try to scramble that, but it wasn’t going to work without Base Two.

  “Live capture, beta target,” came over the com stream, and Ari let go a long, long breath, but she didn’t let up watching and listening. They’d just arrested Hicks, meaning his office door was open by now. A second later they heard, “Exit A! Coming your way!”

  A mass of people flooded into the corridor she could see—Ari wasn’t ready for it. Florian flattened her to the carpet, made her hit her head so stars exploded in her eyes and things went black for a second; and fire banged out, and the hiss-thump of non-lethals simultaneous with it, right over their heads. Florian’s weight went off her as if he’d levitated, and she twisted around to see Catlin come over the desk and two others of her men hurl themselves at a man who was already through the door, but down and not fighting. One of hers was on the floor, trying to hold the man down, with blood pouring down his own arm.

  “Easy!” Florian yelled, falling on the now inert target, and was after something in his sleeve-pocket. Florian used something with a stab downward, ‘after which the man convulsed, twitching uncontrollably, and Catlin got a bracelet on him, nasty thing. He convulsed a second time. Tried to get up. Catlin flattened him with a second pulse from the bracelet.


  Ari supposed it was safe then. She sat up where she was. Florian had gotten up off the man, then diverted himself to get their own wounded flat onto the floor, and to get at another item in his jacket pocket. “Get Jay,” she heard as Florian applied a tourniquet. “Bad one.”

  Things were quieting elsewhere, however. Quiet prevailed in the hall. Jay came running down the hall toward them with his kit, and relieved Florian of his job of keeping blood in the wounded man. Jay’s moves were sure and involved things in a kit he had, quickly applied. And Florian sat against the wall with his knees drawn up, breathing through his mouth, and sweating a little, while Catlin, who hadn’t raised a sweat, slowly got up and let two others sit on their prisoner.

  “Suicide by non-lethals.” Catlin’s voice came simultaneously from her and from the com in Ari’s ear. “Rarely works. We got Kyle AK, Alpha Leader. We need a team to wrap him up and keep him from going null on us. We won’t leave sera. We need some help here.”

  It was no time for her to be sitting on the floor watching, Ari decided. She ignored her headache and swung a knee around, got it under her and got up, using the reception desk for leverage.

  She sucked in a breath, went around the desk to the console, and found the switch-set for A, B, C, and Master. A maze of switches. Blinked. Her eyes were hazing, blurring and watering.

  Hell with that. She took out her mini, keyed Voice, and said, “Base One, access: Admin One: access: public address. On. This is Ariane Emory.” She heard her voice echo through the halls beyond, as it would everywhere else in Reseune. “Alpha Leader, I confirm Catlin’s order, at your immediate convenience.” Damn, her head hurt. It wasn’t quite the way she’d planned to take over. But it was better than the alternative. “ReseuneSec personnel, wherever you are, Adam Hicks has been relieved of command. I am in charge of ReseuneSec and I am acting Director of Reseune. All ReseuneSec personnel, continue ordinary duties. Citizens and azi, wherever located, you are safe. Certain services have been temporarily disrupted. None of these disruptions jeopardizes environmental integrity. Services will be restored, I hope within the hour. Will an ambulance please come to the Admin Wing? We need ambulance service—”