The Ultimate Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Bestsellers)

by Perkins, Cathy

  “Brett, what’s wrong?”

  Would a verbal explanation be the specific feedback they needed to understand what was passing though his brain – and how to ‘fix’ it? From his mouth to her brain, processed by the nanotech mind, would transmit (what?) to his brain directly. He wasn’t quite certain enough to speak the words that would wound or shatter Ariel’s trust forever.

  “Ariel, I have to go.”

  “What about dinner?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m not… feeling well.”

  “Do you need a doctor?”

  He damned well didn’t need an Oceanian doctor. He couldn’t claim he would see a military doctor, since she knew most of their staff had been withdrawn. “I just need to lie down a bit in my own bed.”

  He added the last phrase so she wouldn’t offer an invitation which would have been very welcome even an hour ago.

  “Let me walk you home then.”

  The embassy was only a couple of blocks away from the tube station, but he certainly would have made the same offer if the situation were reversed.

  “No, I need to be alone.”

  He got up and walked away from the expression of bewilderment and hurt on her face. Either Ariel was an amazing actress, or she didn’t know what he was thinking.

  The short trip back to the embassy got him physically away from Ariel, but it didn’t get him away from the nanomachines in his bloodstream, or even distance in any meaningful sense from the supermind to which they connected him. Suddenly Brett ripped the cap off his head. Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier? Maybe because he was so upset? Maybe.

  The virtual conference room was designed to be secure. Ship to surface communications were encrypted. More important from Brett’s point of view, his Oceanian equipment should be unable to transmit in and out. As Brett unclipped the Oceanian computer from his side, a simpler solution occurred to him. He decided not to smash the machine just yet though. He tossed the box and cap in a corner, as far from him as possible.

  Brett sat down in the metal chair and took a deep breath. He had examined Oceanian technology on Roundhouse, and while they were a notch or two beyond the Federalist Worlds in some respects, there was no reason to imagine they could destroy the blockade whenever they took a fancy. Brett wouldn’t attribute layers and layers of secret knowledge to them, with even the technology Brett had examined as a simplistic blind. So he’d assume that the nannies couldn’t communicate more than a couple of inches outside his skull.

  Which left only what had been conditioned into him during the months he’d carelessly used the cap and booster to worry about.

  Brett took another deep breath. He decided to track down the source of his concern. ‘They’ controlled his brain well enough to delude him that Oceanian technology alone couldn’t explain what happened on Roundhouse, but not well enough to prevent his sudden realization, or somehow head if off. Possible, but it seemed less likely as he calmed down.

  Was there another explanation for his reaction? Lydia and her bionic eye had made a lasting impression on him as a Lieutenant, but it was more than that. The Federalist Worlds had indeed been part of the war crimes trials and reconciliation commissions on Roundhouse. If what he had read was really true, Brett had been misled by his own government, at least by implication. Of course the information couldn’t be made public lest the war be restarted, but Brett’s work was directly related, and he could have been informed.

  Of course he might have been conditioned… but that way madness lay. If his brain was no longer his own, there was no sense worrying about it.

  There wasn’t anybody in this solar system Brett trusted more than Colonel Barr. The ship would be overhead right now. Even better, he was already in the virtual conference room. Probably Barr wouldn’t be, but it shouldn’t matter too much.

  In a few moments Brett saw a conference room with a round table. Barr was slightly higher than he should have been, probably because he was at his desk instead of in a virtual conference room.

  “Sorry to call you without an appointment, Colonel.”

  At least Barr wasn’t one of those who experienced disorientation from using VR glasses without the paraphernalia of a virtual conference room.

  “No problem, Major. What can I do for you?”

  “I’ve been doing some open source intelligence work, trying to pick up clues about the nanomachines they might not want to teach me. I was studying the history of Roundhouse. I found a book that seemed likely to be free of propaganda, the author held Oceania responsible for what happened there. He insinuated that the war crimes trials made Alexander sound like more of an independent entity than he was, and less like a composite of the people who made him up. He implied this was done because so many important people were involved in the war crimes, giving them all what they deserved would have started the war again.”

  Barr looked as if he were about to speak, but Brett swallowed and continued. He was having trouble putting this into words, and if he stopped he wouldn’t know quite how to start again. “At first it seemed obviously true, given what I’ve learned about the nanomachines. Then I started to realize how much I’d grown into the habit of accepting what they told me. Now I feel like I’m going crazy, I’m not sure if I can trust my own brain or not. If anything’s been classified secret I’m sure there’s a damned good reason, but I just need to know this.”

  The Colonel frowned, and wrinkled his brow. “There are some things I have specific orders not to discuss.”

  Brett replied, “Sir, under the circumstances could you try and speak directly to Senator Peterson? I don’t see how this information could have military applications, even if they got it from my mind.”

  “I – I do have specific orders from him. I’m sorry Brett.”

  “I understand Colonel,” Brett told him coldly, and broke the link.

  So now there were two possibilities. There was a good strategic reason why what the Federalist Worlds knew about Roundhouse should be kept secret – or Brett had been misled by his superiors to foster his suspicion of Oceanian technology.

  The idea that his brain had been so tampered with that he saw no holes in the idea that now seemed obvious made him feel ill, as if there were alien things inside him. He hadn’t thought of the nannies that way for quite awhile. The idea that his experiences on Roundhouse had been used to manipulate him by his own government was almost as bad, but he needed to know, or at least talk to someone he could trust.

  There was nobody he could trust available to talk to him, nobody except the Ambassador. Brett’s stomach was empty but the thought of food made him queasy. It was a little late, but Williams would probably still be in his office.

  Brett closed the door to the VR conference room. He had no desire to talk to Williams, but it was better than being alone, he felt as if he were going crazy. He remembered his earlier visit this morning, so much more optimistic.

  His current knock was much more subdued. After he had settled in the chair in front of Williams’ desk, he wasn’t sure how to start. He really didn’t want to talk to Williams, but there was no one else.

  Brett swallowed. “They’ve done stuff to my brain. How much I don’t know.”

  The Ambassador’s eyes widened. “How certain are you?”

  “I was supposed to start learning how to use the nannies for verbal knowledge.”

  “What happened?”

  Brett shook his head. “It seemed great at first. They can’t just download information into your brain, but you read a lot faster, experience better comprehension, remember a lot more.”

  “But?”

  “I found myself believing a little too easily.”

  Williams leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “What do you mean? You must have doubts about something, or you wouldn’t be so agitated.”

  Brett sat for a few moments, collecting his thoughts and putting them in order. “I was reading about Alexander, and led to conclude that the supermind is pret
ty much the sum of the people who make it up, and imagining an independent being was controlling them makes little sense. It seemed to fit very well with what I was reading, and what I’ve learned about how the technology works.”

  “So they have enough control over your mind to prevent you from seeing flaws in this conclusion, but not enough to prevent you from deciding you were being manipulated?”

  “It sounds funny when you put it that way,” Brett admitted.

  Brett slumped back again. “Why was I so easily convinced? It felt like I was reading a book, only faster, and with better retention and understanding. If related knowledge came to me, I knew whose opinion it was and where I could read more about it. So it seemed.”

  There was silence for a few moments. Williams started to speak, but Brett interrupted. “What have I done to my brain?”

  Williams replied, “Maybe nothing.”

  Brett remained wound up. “In which case my job is to try and bully this world into appeasing our fears – in a way that may cost them millions of lives. Failing that I help conquer them.”

  Williams picked up the obsidian knight from the chessboard on his desk, toying with it. “So you’re also worried that the nanomachines aren’t deluding you.”

  Brett wouldn’t have put it that way, but found it hard to argue. “It’s not just the horrible things I saw on Roundhouse, and the fact that I’ve spent much of the last ten years trying to prove the hive mind is a threat. Senator Peterson and the upper echelons of the Space Force would have had to know I was barking up the wrong tree – and not merely declined to inform me, but used my misinformation for their own purposes.”

  Williams hesitated. “How badly do you want to know? I would hate for you to feel I had entrapped you into violating security regulations.”

  That sounded promising. “Very badly.”

  Williams unclipped his belt computer. He told it, “Direct line to Joyce.”

  A few moments later he said, “Joyce? Got a minute?”

  Belt computers didn’t have the range to reach the ship directly. Williams had to have a booster nearby.

  Quiet stretched, but Williams seemed expectant, so Brett waited patiently. The silence wasn’t awkward, Brett felt a bit calmer. After about five minutes Joyce’s voice seemed to originate somewhere behind Williams’ desk. “Always glad to talk to you, but this is a busy day. Can it wait?”

  Williams replied, “Brett and I can call back if we absolutely have to.”

  Joyce sounded more interested. “Barr talked to Brett this morning. He seemed unhappy he couldn’t be more helpful. I guess it’s a good thing ship to ground communications are recorded and monitored, so temptation wasn’t too strong, huh?”

  Brett had forgotten about that. Had Barr told her Brett’s question?

  “I guess so. You said you’re busy.”

  “Right.”

  “I remember you used to like going out in a vacuum suit and communing with infinity.”

  “I still do. I’ll be directly overhead in about three hours. Maybe I’ll go outside and wave to you. I’ll have earned a break by then.”

  Was Joyce going through the ship’s radio? She had to be, she probably didn’t have her own in her cabin. It was presumably monitored too, but it was a pity Williams didn’t try and glean some kind of hint from her.

  Instead Williams wound up the conversation. “I’m sure you will. Talk to you some other time.”

  Williams glanced down at the box in his hands. “Three hours. Plenty of time to set up the tight beam laser receiver.”

  Brett blinked, than grinned. “Nobody appreciates a devious mind more than me. Setting this up in advance shows a lot of foresight on your part. So she puts on a spacesuit and takes a little spacewalk? I take it she carries a little laser transmitter. How does she aim it?”

  “It has maneuvering jets. She just lets it float free. Computers are amazing. We can wait until then, but I feel like we already know the answer.”

  Brett found he agreed. “Me too. I really appreciate this. Mind if I ask you something else?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “When we met, and the first few times we worked together, you seemed hostile to the military in general and me in particular.”

  Williams nodded. “Sorry about that. It was just – I should have been delighted to be made Ambassador, but the Senator made such a big deal about not trusting me, and wanting me to clear things through you. Also, I was nervous about being on the ground and risking infection from the micromachines, although they took another look at my tests and said what they called my neurosis wouldn’t get in the way. I know Dr. Casey and he said he could help me, so it was kind of a shock discovering he was being shuttled back up.”

  Brett remembered being told to guide Williams. He had never wondered what Williams had been told about him. Brett said slowly, “So one of the diplomats has a phobia about the planet he’s negotiating with, while the other is famous for his lack of diplomacy. You could almost wonder if someone wanted us to fail.”

  Williams replied, “The thought had occurred to me. That would also explain why we weren’t told certain things that might have made you a tiny bit more flexible, and perhaps deliberately set at loggerheads.”

  It fit perfectly. There was plenty not to like here, but Brett grinned again. “So let’s look on the bright side. Normally, if you want to screw your superiors, you have to stick your nose out and do something wrong. We can do it by just following orders and working together.”

  Brett stood up and leaned across the rosewood desk. “Let’s start over. Normally I’m a surly type. I do everything I can for the Space Force, but specialize in puncturing group think, which gives me the occasional opportunity to take superiors down a notch while doing exactly what I’ve been told. I’m so contrary that on this occasion I’d like us to be friends.”

  Brett extended a hand and Williams took it. His grip was unexpectedly firm. Brett reseated himself.

  “So Ambassador, what important things would you have told me if I weren’t so full of myself, and so ready to dismiss your knowledge and experience?”

  “The Oceanian government may fall.”

  Brett blinked. War had already started, after all they had been through? A surprise invasion? Somehow the Ambassadors tone did not quite fit such a disaster. He asked Williams, “Oceania is a parliamentary democracy, right?”

  The other nodded, “Exactly.”

  Not a monumental catastrophe. The largest coalition of politicians had lost some support. A different party would lead. Hopefully that would be a good thing.

  Brett grinned. “Sounds like it should really stir things up. I guess people have finally realized that their government has to negotiate more seriously if they want the blockade lifted.”

  A moment after he spoke, Brett recalled what he had just learned. Were his own governments’ demands really so reasonable?

  Williams spoke shortly. “People are angry at their government for not speaking with the Federalist Worlds firmly enough.”

  This time Brett’s grin felt stretched and artificial. “No problem. We were already prepared to get one government to be more reasonable, so what’s one more? Between the two of us we’ll kick ass.”

  Williams almost managed to smile. “You’re good at keeping up team spirit in a tight spot.”

  Chapter 20

  Dinner was done. Ariel’s cook had disposed of the dishes and left. A basket of sticky pastries remained on the table in front of them for desert.

  Ariel bit into one. When she had finished chewing Brett pointed out, “There’s icing on your nose.”

  Instead of picking up a napkin, she stuck out her tongue, and curved it as far upward towards her nose as possible. Her pink tongue stretched and wiggled, but got nowhere near the target. Brett was in no hurry, and he waited several minutes before pointing out, “That’s not going to work.”

  She replied, “It may not clean my nose, but it does get your attention!”

 
Brett laughed and nibbled on a pastry before speaking. “Sorry about acting so strangely the other day.”

  “I know you have a lot on your mind. Want to talk about it?”

  Reluctantly Brett shook his head. “I can’t.”

  Ariel smiled. “In that case, all I can do is distract you.”

  She took his hand, but didn’t lead him to the bedroom as he had expected. It was the black and white room with the computers, cables, and couches.

  He said, “I might take a break from learning today. Maybe we could get some exercise.”

  Ariel smiled. “I like that idea, but let’s do a new kind of exercise. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be a woman?”

  Brett leaned back and thought, then gave a serious answer to her silly question. “I seem to recall being more interested in how certain women felt about me.”

  “So you never wondered exactly how it felt to be the woman you touched?”

  Brett replied, “Now that you mention it I wouldn’t mind knowing. I’m still not sure the question means anything though. I can’t know how it feels to be someone else, because when I’m someone else the person who knows how it feels isn’t ‘I.’”

  Ariel shook her head from side to side. “You do realize that makes no sense.”

  He answered. “How could it? Your question didn’t make sense, and you know it. Quit trying to stall until it’s too dark to go outside and move your cute little behind. I’m going to start gaining a lot of weight after all this eating if we don’t at least go for a walk.”

  Ariel’s smile was smaller now, but more mysterious. “I said a new kind of exercise, and I meant it. My question isn’t meaningless in principle. We could have a brain transplant.”

  “Yeah, right. I do hope there won’t be complications when we cut the spinal cord. Anyway, that wouldn’t help. I wouldn’t know how your body felt to you, just how my brain reacted to the signals from your nervous system.”