by JM Guillen
“That’s what Stone said.” I turned to the rest of my cadre. “We’ve got recon teams setting up resonators all across Rome.”
“Stone?” Sofia gave me an odd look. “Demetrius Stone?”
“I thought you called up the Designate, Hoss?”
“Designate channel is down.” I shifted out of my seat and stood. “That means we technically don’t have a dossier.”
“That isn’t helpful.” Rachel stood next to Sofia and calibrated her interface. “How are we supposed to do this if we don’t have a dossier?”
We could standby. Anya’s link felt completely reasonable. It’s standard practice to hold all actions while awaiting Designate approval.
“Absolutely not.” I turned first to her and then to Wyatt. “You remember what the Designate said. We have a very brief window of time here.”
“But we have no idea what to do.” Sofia stepped back to the window and peered out. “We know 3302 is somewhere in the Vatican, and we’re stuck underground.”
“Demetrius had a lot to add.” I slid past Wyatt, and made for the door. “Amir is somewhere beneath the Vatican, near the necropolis. His intel said we were to be inserted somewhere in the necropolis. From there, Anya’s telemetry should soon pick up Amir’s location.”
“Necropolis?” Rachel cocked her head. “Seriously?”
“Huh.” Sofia curled a dark lock in one hand thoughtfully. “There’s a whole city of the dead down there. Supposedly Peter himself is buried beneath the Vatican.”
The soft Spanish curl of Sofia’s words made me consider something I hadn’t previously thought before. It was entirely possible that Delacruz had been Catholic, at least before the Facility came into her life.
“I don’t like the idea of Irrats playing fuck around inside an honest-to-God necropolis,” Wyatt grumbled.
“Me neither,” I admitted. “Not to get all superstitious on the topic—”
“But you’re saying we’re just gonna go in and get the fucker.” Wyatt’s words didn’t lilt up into a question, but I felt their querying nature.
“Yes.” I gazed at each of them. “The Designate is off-line for reasons unknown. We have been informed that our target is beneath the city, and there is probable reason to believe our time is limited.”
“Those things are true.” Rachel chewed the idea over. “It’s also true that just yesterday you were eager to, as I recall, ‘murder the target to death.’”
“Heh.” Wyatt grinned.
“Is it possible, Alpha, that we should wait?” Rachel didn’t challenge me, not in any way. She simply asked a question that showed her concern.
“I don’t think so.” I quirked up one side of my mouth. “I’ll admit, I want to lay 3302 out. But the thing that concerns me is how intent the Designate seemed on our timeframe. Technically, I should still be in torpor, yet here I am. Whatever is happening must be time sensitive.”
I need to set up my personal telemetric relay. Without it, I will be unable to locate 3302. Anya closed her pack, then her gaze met mine. With the permission of my Alpha, I’d like to step outside the Corvus so I can finish queuing my telemetry.
“Yes.” I gazed at all of them. “We should all step outside. Get our bearings.”
“I’ll be right there.” Wyatt gave me a wink. “I need to gear down the Corvus. It’ll take a moment.”
“Understood, Artisan.” I gave him a thumbs up and stepped outside.
From outside the realmship, our position seemed far more cramped. Two stories overhead, light trickled down through the grated ceiling. Even with my optics, I couldn’t make out what might lay up there, but the grating gave more than enough light to illuminate the situation in the room.
We’d barely squeezed in.
I understood little about the way the craft functioned, since I’d only been exposed to such things once before. With my limited comprehension, I remembered that the entire vehicle ran off a similar interface to Wyatt’s tangler. It used the equations of Rationality and Irrationality as coordinates, and sent the ship through reality like a stone across water.
“Wow.” Sofia apparently thought the exact same thing as she let out a low whistle. “So Guthrie slid us in here with less than half a meter to spare.”
“On either side. Yeah.” I turned around and peered down the passage. “And he only has about fifty meters to get us out of here.”
“I’m certain the Designates are aware of the specifications.” She seemed to think about that for a moment, and then nodded with more certainty. “Yes, they’ve already done the math.”
“You’re not just convincing yourself, right?” I gave her a teasing smile.
“No!” She smacked at me, playfully. “You know how logical I am, Michael Bishop.”
“If I remember right, you once merged with an alien symbiont so you could garner support for guerrilla tactics against a corporation of metahumans.” I raised one eyebrow.
“Shut up.” She turned and walked down the corridor.
Setting up the telemetric relay will take less than ten minutes. Anya held the case in her right hand, while her left plucked at invisible strands which comprised her interface. Have you ever been on dossier while a Preceptor makes use of one of the resonator relays?
“I’m certain I have.” I tried to think back, although it’d been several years. The Facility had truly grown reliant on its long range telemetry, and so now it seemed cumbersome to do things the old-fashioned way.
You worked with Katarina Yakovlev, didn’t you? Anya nodded, as if she confirmed the fact for herself even as she linked. That might have been the last time you had to work with local telemetry.
“I remember we used local telemetric resonators while in the Yucatán.” I scratched my beard as I thought. “It really didn’t affect me much. Gideon and Kat did all of the orienting themselves.”
Kat. I felt the curiosity in her link. Were you on a personal basis with Katarina? Anya knelt to open the relay pack.
“Personal? I mean, not really.”
I asked because you used a nickname.
“Oh!” I smiled. “Yeah. She hated that.”
I can imagine. Any pulled a small black sphere out from the pack, and oriented it quite precisely upon the ground. Katarina Yakovlev had very specific ideas about Preceptor associations with general Assets.
“Really?”
Our activity cycles are vastly different. As a result she went out of her way to avoid close association with non-Preceptor Assets.
“I guess I can see that, now that you’ve brought it up. She always seemed a bit distant.”
I don’t know that I agree with her philosophy. Anya pulled at the unseen tethers of her interface.
The relay made a soft ping. Slowly the sphere rose into the air, hovering there.
Once it had gained one and a half meters, it pinged again and vanished from sight.
I have truly come to enjoy the relationships I have built. I actually believe that integrating personal schedules with other Assets might lead to increased teamwork and comradery.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
I also think it’s very important for Assets to be able to communicate clearly to one another. I think miscommunication can cause unnecessary difficulties.
“I completely agree with you. Listen, can I ask you question?”
Always, Michael. Anything. She looked up at me with a smile.
I couldn’t help but be struck at how blue her eyes were.
“The others seem to think it might be a mistake for us to go ahead and act without waiting for the Designate.” I shrugged. “You didn’t have much to say.”
For a moment she just stared at me, a slightly perplexed expression on her face. It almost seemed as if she’d expected a different question. I don’t understand. She cocked her head at me, just a little bit. You are our Alpha. If you think this is the best way forward, then what good will overthinking do?
“Yeah, I get that I’m the Alpha.” I sighed. “Bu
t I’m still fallible. I’m very well known for making mistakes.”
Many times while on dossier, it is simple for things to get confused. I’ve found it more important that there is an individual willing to make a decision, any decision, than to wait for someone to make the correct decision.
“Huh.” I cocked my head in consideration. “I’d honestly never thought about it like that.”
“Realmship’s secure.” Wyatt stepped out of the Corvus and his oculus shone with the numerics and equations only he could truly see. “Watch this.” He spent a moment tapping on the keyboard hung at his waist. With a final flourish, he hit the last three keys.
The Corvus faded from sight.
I nodded, impressed. “You can gear the Wraith from the outside?”
“If you set it up beforehand.” He gave me a lazy cat’s grin. “And if you are also brilliant.”
That’s more than simply the Wraith in use. Anya turned from the spot where the ship had vanished to gaze at the large man. You initiated the Spectre as well?
“Got it right in one.” He pointed at her. “If Amir the Irrat comes this way, he’ll probably walk straight through it.”
I have him. Anya’s link came suddenly, punctuated with fierce pride. Amir Cadavas is less than two kilometers from our current location. I have him at north 27 degrees, eighteen tack 127, by west 33 degrees, sixteen tack 213. He is moving in our direction.
“That is brilliant, Anya!” I crowed.
Asset Gardener made it possible. I felt as if Anya’s link held a touch of embarrassment. I don’t know another Caduceus who could have remotely integrated the Huntsman.
“Can the cadre have a token on his location? With distance?”
Absolutely, Michael. As she linked, a distant man-shaped token appeared over my visual.
I appreciate the time that we spend talking about how smart we are, Sofia’s link interrupted. But I have something interesting I’d like to share.
Fair enough. I nodded at the Gatekeeper Asset.
Alpha, I’m holding extensive maps for our location. The Gatekeeper updated moments ago, and I received the intel.
“That’s great news!” I beamed at her.
“It doesn’t happen.” She shook her head, as if that wasn’t exactly what she meant. “I have never been on incursion in my life where I received an update like this.”
“I’ve been with a Gatekeeper before where they had intel on our location.” Rachel turned from Delacruz to me. “It does happen.”
“Not this much. There’s nearly eight hundred kilometers of tunnels down here.” Sofia brought her right hand up to the glowing Crown augment that hung at the back of her head. “Not only can I see them all, but eight separate conduit locations have been marked.”
“Tier one conduits?” Wyatt asked.
“It doesn’t say.” Sofia turned from me to Wyatt. “I just thought it strange. The Facility has intimate knowledge of these tunnels.”
“Makes sense to me.” Wyatt shrugged the tangler onto his back. “We are beneath Rome, after all.”
“So?” I didn’t see the connection at all.
“So, the Catholic Church was an early front for the Facility. Makes sense that we know all about the secret tunnels.”
“Wait a second.” Sofia shook her head, as if she didn’t quite believe what she’d heard. “What do you mean; the Catholic Church was a front?”
I said nothing. As Alpha, I felt it important they resolve this for themselves.
Also, I wanted to watch.
“Sure.” Wyatt began to walk down the passageway, and his head made the tiniest tic as he switched his optics on. “If you think about it for just a minute, it makes perfect sense.”
Let’s move toward 3302, I sent via general link. Officer Overalls here can explain while we move. Sofia, will you take point?
Sure. She still stared at Wyatt as if he were crazy.
For hundreds of years the Catholic Church practically ruled Western Europe. Most technological and social innovations came through the church, he began.
Alright, Sofia linked. That’s true enough.
If anyone stepped outside the bounds of what the Catholic Church believed, there were inquisitions. Wyatt gestured as he often did whenever on one of his rants. Witch burnings. I mean honestly, they were doing the work of an Asset eight hundred years ago!
You aren’t saying the Catholic Church actually pursued Irrats? I could feel, through the link, that Rachel didn’t like the idea.
You ever read the Malleus Maleficarum?
I hate to interrupt all the brilliant work being done, Sofia linked. It’s pitch dark up here. I’m turning on optics, and you’ll want to do the same.
Thank you, Gatekeeper, I replied.
There’s a split in the corridor here. I can hear water to my left, and that’s the direction I show Cadavas.
Let’s head that way.
That was just the Latin name, a’course, Wyatt picked up right where he’d left off. Popularly, the book was called ‘The Hammer of Witches,’ and the only thing that sold better was the Bible.
What does this have to do with… I felt Rachel search for clarity. …the Facility and the Catholic Church being the same thing?
You gotta look for parallels, Rach. Wyatt turned his gaze to where she walked next to him. Just like the Facility, the Catholic Church spread across the world, stomping out Irrats. What do you think the Crusades were? Or how about the conquistadors ravaging Mesoamerica?
“I think it was a lot of history that I ignored,” I mumbled.
All the Catholic Church ever tried t’ do is make everyone think the same way they do. They try to control the world and are willing to use force to do it. Remind you of anyone you know?
A lot of religions do that, I interjected. The truth was I really didn’t know that much about all this, but I did know Wyatt Guthrie.
Once the man got started, it was hard to get him stopped.
The thing you gotta take into account here is the Jesuits.
Oh geez. I sighed.
[What?]
Who now? Rachel wrinkled her nose.
While the conversation progressed, I peered at Anya. She walked steadily forward with her hands outstretched, typical behavior while on dossier. Her fingers pinched and prodded at things I couldn’t see: the Preceptor interface.
I knew no Irrational asshole could take us by surprise while she remained on the job. We were safe.
The Jesuits are the order of Catholics that began taking all kinds of things into their own hands. There is pretty substantial proof they took a secret vow to wage relentless war secretly and openly against all heretics, protestants, and… He paused for a moment, as if trying to remember. And masons. He waved one hand in a gesture that seemed to say ‘obviously.’
I suppose your point is that the Facility is at war with heretics? Rachel seemed to follow, but she didn’t like where the road went.
The Jesuits are responsible for all kinds of things. They fund wars along with the Bilderbergers. Hell, some people think they sank the Titanic to kill political opponents.
Some people? I gave him a sideward glance.
I’ve known Jesuit priests, big guy. Sofia didn’t seem angry, but wasn’t exactly her usual playful self. I find it difficult to believe that Father Hector is secretly one of the Designates.
Of course not. That would be ridiculous, Wyatt scoffed.
Oh yeah? Sofia seemed legitimately curious.
The Designates are replicants. Completely inhuman. Probably Reptilian in nature.
What! Rachel sounded as if Wyatt had just suggested he ate locusts, and, by the way, she should have some too. That makes no sense!
Even if you were right, I pandered, what does it say about you that you work for the Reptilian Illuminati?
Well, Wyatt shrugged. I mean, everybody’s got to have their thing, Hoss.
Machine gun fire thundered down the hallway, punctuated by Sofia’s cry. The moment I heard the soun
d, stark and burning instinct raised its head.
[Shit!]
Gatekeeper? I frantically linked. Status?
A long moment of silence stretched over the comm. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I felt my skin begin to itch.
I growled.
Hostiles. Her link came somewhat weakly. Didn’t see them.
More automatic fire. I scratched at my upper arm, and a touch of scarlet tinged the world.
Shit. I’m coming. When I toggled the Wraith, icy wintergreen fingers trailed across my skin. I drew my disruptors, prepared to sprint down the passageway and slaughter whoever was stupid enough to shoot one of mine.
Mine. I scowled.
“Hoss,” Wyatt’s tone cautioned.
Alpha, we don’t know how many there are. Anya paused. Who they are.
Also, your heart rate is peaking, Rachel poked in. Need you to ease back.
“Can’t just run in there, right man?” Wyatt put a hand on my shoulder. “That would be stupid, right?”
“Right,” I whispered and shook my head. “Obviously.”
More automatic fire echoed down the hallway.
Sofia, how badly are you hit? Rachel included all of us in the link. I can see you’re injured.
Left quad. It felt as if she grunted the link. Both shoulders. Bleeding. Safe for the moment though.
“God dammit.” I paced for a moment and thought. When I linked, I stared squarely at Rachel. The Gatekeeper is automatically queued to the Corvus. Can you create an aperture and make it back to the ship? I can send Rachel there.
I can. I felt a little bit of Delacruz’s traditional fire.
How many of them do you see, Sofia?
Hallway takes a sharp bend and then opens up. There’s three guys ahead of me, around the corner. Seems like they got automatic pistols, maybe SIGs.
I’m heading back to the Corvus, Sofia. Rachel nodded at me. I’ll see you in about ten minutes.
Copy that. I’m jaunting that way, Alpha.
“Rachel, go.” I gave her a quick jerk of my chin. “Bubba an’ me will step down, with Anya behind.”
I did not have access to the firearms I keep queued at Facility Prime, Michael, Anya informed me.
Mebbe we can pick you up something, Princess. Wyatt gave her a toothy smile as he tapped on his keyboard.