Sol Arbiter Box Set: Books 1-5

by Chaney, J. N.

  “It’s my body. What’s left of it, anyway.” Andrea was unstrapping herself from the operating table as she argued. Her new left arm was all exposed graphene and metal composites, with no pleximesh skin fitted over it yet. Its shiny black surface stood in sharp relief against her pale skin as she pulled at the straps.

  “Of course, I wasn’t implying otherwise. Here, if you’re going to do that, let me help. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  “I don’t need—never mind. Just unstrap me.”

  Andrea looked away while she waited for her to unclasp the restraints. “I’m not telling you what to do,” Samara said. “As your doctor—”

  “You’re not my doctor. You’re an expert prosthetic surgeon. Stick to that.”

  “Andrea, you could damage the prosthetic interface if you don’t allow yourself to heal. Do you understand what I’m saying? That means heavy metals and neurorelay entering your bloodstream. You could die.”

  “I died a long time ago.”

  Dr. Markov seemed to shrink, like all the energy had been sucked right out of her. She didn’t say anything else, she just stood, grabbed a pill bottle, and handed it over to Andrea without a word.

  Andrea took it from her in equal silence, then swung her feet around to the floor. When she saw Raven and I through the glass she just glared. Raven gave her a sympathetic look, which if anything caused her scowl to deepen.

  I don’t know what I looked like, but I was doing everything I could to seem as impersonal as possible. Andrea came out the room, pouring out a small amount of red pills into her palm. She brought her hand to mouth and swallowed the medicine with a tilt of her chin. She spoke to us as she passed.

  “I thought I told you to meet at holding.”

  She continued without breaking stride. As we followed her toward the door, I glanced back. Samara Markov watched her daughter walk away, and the look on her face was pure heartbreak.

  16

  Veraldi and Jones were waiting at the door to holding. Jones had his hands in his pockets and a melancholy expression on his face. He shook his head as I approached.

  “I want to be clear before we go in,” Andrea began. “This is an unprecedented situation. No section of Sol Federation Intelligence has ever conducted an interrogation of such a high-ranking officer before today.”

  “Wouldn’t she be a former officer?” asked Andrew Jones.

  Veraldi shook his head. “She was never discharged from service, only missing. She’s still OF-6.”

  “I’m sure she won’t be for long,” continued Andrea. “It’s important for us to make sure that there are no questions later about what happened in this interview. We’ll be recording the whole thing, but I also want eyewitness accounts for prosecution. That’s why you’re all going to be observing the interrogation in one capacity or another. That doesn’t mean you’ll all be visible to Katerina, though.” She turned to Vincenzo Veraldi. “You’ll come in with me, but I’ll be asking all the questions. Understood?”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  She looked to Jones. “Andrew, you’re strictly an observer for this one. You’ll be with Thomas Young in the observation post. You can help him run the recording equipment.”

  Andrew chuckled. “I’ll sit and watch him do it.”

  She ignored his comment and turned to me. “Tycho, you and Raven will be on overwatch. Do you have your sidearms?”

  I nodded and drew my handgun.

  “Up in the loft?” asked Raven as she did the same.

  “Yes,” Andrea said. “I know we have her, but don’t forget who we’re dealing with here. If she sees the slightest hint of an opportunity, she will use it. That’s why I’m going in there unarmed—same with you, Veraldi. We don’t want to give her anything she can use. If you have to fire, prioritize shooting to maim. We need her alive if possible.”

  You would never have guessed that she was talking about her mother.

  “You got it, chief,” said Raven.

  I didn’t know why Andrea was even attempting to do this herself, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to me. How many people can stay objective and professional while interrogating their own family? Was she trying to prove something to us, to Katerina, or to herself?

  She led the way through into holding and down a long corridor to Interrogation 01. It was something like a typical StateSec interview room, but with a mezzanine from which agents could observe the interview in progress. An adjacent room separated by half-meter thick ballistic glass contained the monitoring and recording equipment Thomas was likely already setting up.

  Raven and I climbed to the upper level through a narrow staircase beside the door to Interrogation 01. I looked down into the room and saw Katerina was already there, sitting on the floor in easy repose.

  She was wearing the standard all-white coverall given to Federal prisoners, but only up to her waist. She’d rolled the rest over itself and tied the sleeves together around her hips. Dried blood stained her undershirt. Her wrists and feet were manacled with carbon fiber tether secured to the floor. The room was spartan, even for its intended purpose. The only furnishings were two metal chairs just beyond Katerina’s shackled reach.

  When Andrea and Vincenzo came into the room, Katerina’s voice sounded so calm it was almost eerie. “Privet, dorogaya. And ciao to you as well, Vincenzo. You’re looking as sharp as ever.”

  Andrea sat down across from her. Vincenzo took the remaining chair and placed it a few feet behind him, opting to stand instead.

  “Katerina Capanelli, this is a formal interview conducted as part of an ongoing matter on behalf of Sol Federation Intelligence. Your responses to any questioning may be used in legal proceedings against you. Failure to answer may indefinitely prolong detention. Failure to provide factual responses may be considered an act of treason. Do you understand these terms?”

  Katerina laughed. “Of course I understand. I taught you.”

  Andrea wasn’t giving her anything. “Let the record show the subject understands the implications of formal interrogation.”

  Katerina didn’t seem at all thrown by her formal tone.

  “Maximization techniques don’t work on subjects with knowledge of organizational processes. It’s much better to use minimization for a case like this.” Katerina’s hands were steepled in front of her. “Make a deal. Convince me you’re my friend.”

  “The subject’s purpose is to answer questions, nothing else.”

  Katerina shook her head and sighed a little. “I’m not sure why you’re so determined to control the interaction. I’ve told you so many times, an interrogation is a dialogue—”

  “Who is he?” asked Andrea.

  I didn’t know who Andrea was referring to, but Katerina obviously did. There was a long silence, and when Katerina finally spoke her voice sounded much more careful, her words more deliberate. “That question has many answers, but none of them matter.”

  “When you start getting cryptic, I know I’m on the right vector.”

  “No, not in the slightest. You’re still asking the wrong questions.”

  “What should I be asking?”

  Raven glanced at me nervously when Andrea said that. It was a dangerous move, letting Katerina change the direction of the conversation.

  Katerina replied, “You should be asking why.”

  “Why what? Why did you disappear?” asked Andrea coldly. “Why did you assassinate Julian Huxley? Why did you kill two Arbiters and cripple a Section 9 agent?”

  “I didn’t cripple him, he crippled himself. I would have let him go, but he chose to—”

  “You’re dodging the question.”

  “That wasn’t one question, it was three. And all of them are beside the point. Think, Andrea. What is the real question? The essential question?”

  “This isn’t a class, and you have nothing to teach me. I graduated from your school a long time ago.”

  “Learning is a lifelong process. There is no graduation.”r />
  “You’re still not answering.”

  “Disappointing.” Katerina leaned to one side, propped up a leg, and rested her chin on her knee. “I disappeared because it was necessary. I destroyed Julian Huxley because that was likewise necessary. I had my androids delay your attack on the Havisham because that too was necessary. The question you should be asking is why were all of these things necessary.”

  “You’re suggesting that your actions were somehow justified?”

  Katerina shrugged. “Justification is a vague concept. It’s ethically weak. What’s the standard you’re applying?”

  “The same standard I always have. That you used to. The good of the human race. Or have you forgotten?”

  “Yes, exactly. The good of the human race. We’re finally getting somewhere.”

  It seemed to me that Katerina was trying to waste time, but I couldn’t guess her reason for doing it. What good was buying herself a few minutes when Section 9 could hold her indefinitely?

  “How can abandoning Section 9 and protecting those people possibly be for the good of the human race?”

  “Abandoning…” mused Katerina. “What was it like for you that day? When you finally realized I wasn’t coming back, what went through your mind?”

  “That’s not what we’re talking about. You deserted your post.”

  “I moved on from one position to another, yes. When you’re looking at the big picture, to do what’s best for humanity at the grandest scale, a certain amount of flexibility is necessary.”

  “Flexibility. That’s a hell of a way to say treason.”

  Katerina shrugged.

  Andrea took a deep breath and shook her head a little. “Why did you leave?”

  “Why are you so concerned with my motives,” replied Katerina.

  “I’m not concerned with you at all.” She circled back around to her first question. “Who is he?”

  Katerina laughed. “This is unfair of me. I’m making it difficult for you to do your job, and it must be incredibly frustrating for you. I don’t imagine this is usually how you conduct your interviews with—”

  “You know what it means to be interrogated by Section 9.” Andrea’s voice was cold, but the anger below the surface felt like it could burst out at any moment. “We can hold you without trial for the rest of your life. No one will know where you’ve gone. If you refuse food or appear suicidal, we have the authority to implant a somatic lock. Then you’ll be a prisoner in your own body, until you age beyond what even life support can sustain.”

  “Or I could just be killed.” Katerina seemed unfazed. “Section 9 is above the law, and I don’t think you’ll want me whispering secrets to a cellmate or screaming them out in the common room of wherever you decide to hide me. No, you don’t have much choice when it comes right down to it. You’ll have to kill me eventually.”

  I couldn’t tell what game she was playing, but it almost seemed intentionally cruel. It was like she wanted Andrea to have to face the contradiction, to own up to what Section 9 really did. If it was getting to Andrea, though, she didn’t show it. Instead, she just circled back around again. “Who is he?”

  “I can see it in your eyes. You feel lost.”

  Andrea blinked. “What?”

  “You heard me.” Katerina sat up straight and crossed her legs.

  “You’re dodging the question again.”

  “It’s so irrelevant it barely warrants my acknowledgement. You want to know who he is, but that simply does. Not. Matter. The real question is why, and you don’t seem willing to face that. It’s curious, and I suspect the only reason is because of the unresolved matter between us.”

  “There is nothing between us.”

  “You’re still a terrible liar. The corners of your eyes give it away. I taught you to serve without hesitation, without question, but I see now that I failed to teach you the most essential corollary: the only constant in this world is change. I wonder if you now feel lost, having discovered your mother is fighting against what you were taught to obey. What you’ve sacrificed so much for. What you were never prepared to one day fight.”

  There was a pause. Andrea stared at her mother in silence. Veraldi sent a dataspike message.

  Tycho and Raven, stay alert. Katerina is up to something.

  I think she’s just buying time, I replied.

  But why? Raven added.

  I don’t know. Vincenzo shifted uncomfortably. Just be ready.

  Andrea finally spoke. “People change, usually for the worse in my experience.” I was surprised to hear something so cynical from Andrea’s mouth.

  Katerina suddenly dropped the arrogance and lowered her head. With one hand covering her eyes, she spoke quietly. “Oh, Andrea. Is that really it? That binary thinking, that naïve cynicism?”

  Andrea, for her part, seemed to have given up on the interrogation. This was an outright argument with family. “You taught me values then turned your back on those same principles. You taught me service, and then you wouldn’t serve.”

  “I could accept that from a teenage girl. The reductionist viewpoint, the obtuse sense of right and wrong. You’re not a child anymore. I’d expect you to be better than that.”

  “I learned from the best. You only have yourself to blame.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Maybe that’s why you caught me. Maybe that’s why I let you bring me here.”

  Andrea’s face turned red. “You didn’t let me do anything. You tore my arm—”

  Katerina waved that detail away. “Regardless of how it happened. Maybe you need another lesson.”

  “The only thing I need from you is information. Who is he?”

  “So you’re really not interested in knowing why—”

  “No. I’m not,” said Andrea. “I don’t know what happened to you, and I don’t care. All I want is to do my job. Give me his name.”

  Katerina’s sudden change of tone had confused me at first, but I was beginning to think it was just another game. Another time-wasting maneuver designed to lead the interrogation off-track. Andrea wasn’t doing especially well, but at least she kept returning to her original question. At least she kept refusing to play whatever game Katerina was trying to play.

  Katerina sighed and slumped a little. “For years, I imagined explaining it to you, but reality is often disappointing, I suppose.”

  “Explain what? Your actions put billions at risk.”

  Based on Katerina’s body language, that was exactly the response she’d been hoping to get. “How is that, dear?”

  “You’re supporting a cabal of deathless immortals manipulating the entire system to unknown ends.”

  This response surprised me, because Andrea had always portrayed herself as a skeptic when it came to Huxley’s story. Either she had known more than she was letting on all along, or she had discovered something along the way.

  “And how exactly does that put anyone at risk?”

  I was equally startled by Katerina’s failure to deny the accusation. There was undoubtedly just as much unsaid as spoken aloud between them.

  The question seemed to stump Andrea. All she could do was to fall back on platitudes.

  “Immortality removes the one equalizing force in the universe. No one can have that kind of power.”

  “Is that so?” asked Katerina. “Mortals are immortals, immortals are mortals. One lives the others' death and dies the others' life.”

  “Heraclitus was full of shit. What are you trying to say?”

  “Yes, too obscure for you, too abstract. I’ll say it more plainly. Do you honestly believe you can understand the motives of a mind freed from the baneful corpse to which it was tethered?”

  “I don’t believe you understand the situation. I’m asking the questions. Who—”

  “How many people died in Hellas last year? Sloppy work there, Andrea.”

  She stopped short with a stunned look on her face. How did Katerina know that had been our job in the first place?
>
  “There’s no informant,” said Katerina smoothly. “Ares Terrestrial was involved, so the sudden explosion of chaos in the colony could only be the work of Section 9. Tower 7 was your doing as well, wasn’t it?”

  “That was August Marcenn. You already knew that.”

  “But you were there, weren’t you? What was the official death toll? My memory is a bit hazy…”

  Andrea’s voice was so quiet I could barely hear it. “Half of all the blood Section 9 has ever shed has been on your hands.”

  “That’s probably true. I’ve never taken pleasure in it, either.”

  Katerina was not an easy person to read under the best of circumstances, but I was starting to get a sense of who she was. She saw herself as an elite, better qualified to make the important decisions than the majority of other people. At the same time, she saw herself as a woman of principle, blind to her own sadism. The cruelty behind her smile was the real Katerina, even if she didn’t know that about herself.

  Andrea sat up, trying to rally against Katerina’s attacks. “You weren’t on Venus with us. You weren’t on Mars either. You don’t know what happened in either case, and you don’t know why. This is nothing more than another game of yours.”

  “How do you think I’ve always taught you?”

  “You can tell yourself you’re trying to teach me something, but we both know that’s a lie. You’re deep in it and grasping at anything to save yourself.”

  “I could say the same about you. You lost one in Hellas, didn’t you? The tall one. What was his name?”

  Andrea just stared at her with her teeth clenched and her eyes blazing. I sent a dataspike message to Veraldi.

  Shouldn’t you intervene?

  He glanced up at me and shook his head just slightly.

  We have to let them play it out.

  Then Andrea laughed. The atmosphere was so tense in that room that the sound almost made me jump.

  “You’re so full of it even you can’t tell when you’re being insincere.”

  Katerina, for once, did not reply.