The pulse pistol I had tucked into the back of my pants, hidden by my untucked shirttail, dug in, and I fought the urge to adjust it as I approached her. Someone would be watching. Eddleston must have heard me coming, because she turned on the bench to watch me. She glanced in other directions as well, clearly nervous. Once I got within a few paces, she spoke. “I don’t know if they’re watching.”
“They probably are. That’s okay. Once we talk, we’ll get you into protective custody. Have you talked to anyone from Caliber recently?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you, because I thought you wouldn’t meet. They made me call you.”
I was hurrying around the bench to reach her when Mac spoke into my brain. “Something’s happening. Ganos is seeing a spike in activity.”
“We need to get out of here. Fast.” It was part of the plan. If anything happened, my only job was to grab Eddleston and move to a new spot that would give our team an advantage over someone who planned to take us from the bench.
“What’s going on?” Eddleston stood as she spoke, probably hearing the urgency in my tone.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“It’s—” Mac’s voice cut out.
An electric vehicle appeared, driving off road, into the park. I turned to run, trusting Eddleston to follow. I didn’t know why I’d lost comms with Mac, but it didn’t matter. A sharp pain blossomed in my right butt cheek. I turned back to Eddleston, who held an auto-injector.
“I really am sorry,” she said.
“Mac, Eddleston’s in on it . . .” Maybe I could still transmit.
But Eddleston shook her head and pulled a gray disc out of her pocket. “Pocket EMP. Knocks out all the electronics in about a ten-meter radius. He can’t hear you.”
When I spoke again, my tongue lagged, heavy in my mouth, and I had to force the words. “Mac will come.”
“No, he won’t.” Her face started to fade as whatever she’d drugged me with really took hold.
The last thing I saw was Jan Karlsson’s face in the windshield of the car as it arrived.
I woke on a medical bed, adjusted to a reclined position. I’d been in enough of them to know that much without opening my eyes. Even coming out of unconsciousness, I knew I was in trouble, so I tried to assess my situation before tipping off whoever might be around that I’d awoken. Nobody spoke, so I got no clues there. The recirculated air was fresh but odorless, lacking the astringent smell of a hospital. I had an IV in my arm and a pulse monitor on my finger. I shifted a bit, but I didn’t appear to be restrained, which struck me as odd. Perhaps I was alone in a locked room.
Someone moved. Not alone, then.
I opened my eyes.
“Good. You’re awake.” I followed the voice to a tall, bronze-skinned woman with black hair wearing a lab coat. “The sedative usually has no ill effects, but we monitored you just to be safe. Everything is normal.”
“Where am I?”
“That’s not my question to answer. Someone will be with you soon. I’ve notified them that you’re awake.”
The automatic blood pressure cuff on my arm inflated, and I used the time to consider my options. We were in a small room—like a medic’s office or something—with only one door. It was closed and looked solid, made of white-painted metal, almost like what one would find on a spaceship. Shit. Had they taken me into space? Why?
The woman didn’t have a weapon. I could probably overpower her, take her hostage. But without knowing what lay outside the door, that plan had too many variables. I assumed that I was under the control of people . . . I’ll just call them bad guys. The bad guys had me, but I didn’t know where, why, or even when. A rash action on my part might negate another advantage I could find later by cooperating. “Can you tell me how long I was out?”
“No, I can’t. Sorry.”
“What can you tell me?”
“I’m happy to talk about your medical condition. It’s fine, by the way. You could afford to cut out sodium.”
“I’ll work on it. Can you tell me where my clothes went?” I had on a hospital gown, though at least I had shorts underneath it.
“They were taken as part of the search. We also removed a device from your gum.”
“Thanks,” I said. It was valuable information. The EMP had probably fried everything anyway, but now I knew for sure I had no outside communicators and that nobody could track me. That meant that Fader should be triggering plan B and getting the team off Eccasis. Once I knew how long I’d been unconscious, I could estimate when they’d be safe. Once they got to safety, Mac would send my report. Not that I expected it would do any good.
More than anything, I wanted to know who would walk through that door.
I didn’t have to wait long. A metallic thunk shook the room, then a hiss, as if the room depressurized slightly, but not enough to feel it in my ears. Two men came in, dressed in black jumpsuits. They even looked like bad guys. Someone had to be messing with me. “Hello, gentlemen.”
“He good to go, Doc?” asked one of them. In my head I named him Guard One. He had dark hair and pale skin. Guard Two had darker skin and no hair. He stood back by the door, holding a canvas bag.
“As soon as I take out his IV.”
I considered ripping it out like Mac had done with his, but I wasn’t that much of a badass. I held my arm still. “Can I have my clothes? It’s a little chilly.”
Guard One nodded to Guard Two, who brought the bag forward. “The belt is gone,” said Guard Two.
“Fair enough.” Like I was going to use my belt as a weapon or something. The EMP had surely fried the mic hidden in it, so I didn’t care about that. I swung my feet off the bed and got dressed while still sitting, taking stock of my body as I did. My ass hurt a bit from where Eddleston had stabbed me with the injector, and I had a little pain in my robot foot, but otherwise I felt fine. I found dressing a bit awkward with an audience, but I had bigger worries. “Can you fellows tell me where we are?”
“I’m sure someone will,” said Guard One.
“Have we met before? You look familiar.” He didn’t, but it seemed like a way to keep him talking. Anything he said might give me information.
“Don’t think so.”
“You’re prior military, right?” He had the look. They both did.
“Let’s go, s . . .” He almost said sir. Yep. Prior military. It probably didn’t matter, but without my team coming to the rescue, I couldn’t know what might help me. Every piece of intel counted.
We walked down a corridor with walls the same as the door in the office—white-painted metal. It looked like a spaceship, but didn’t feel like one—or, if it was, it was docked. It didn’t give that slight sense of movement that happens in space. However, it didn’t have any windows, so that didn’t help. Guard One walked in front of me, Guard Two behind. Neither had visible weapons, and again, I contemplated resistance. Obviously they didn’t see me as a threat. Better to keep it that way for now. We passed another hatch and proceeded to one farther down the hall, which led to a wider corridor—big enough for maybe ten people to walk abreast. We followed that for maybe forty meters before we reached a set of four oversized empty cells with huge doors. Given the dimensions, they’d probably been designed for something much bigger than a person. They’d still work, though.
Guard One ushered me through the open door of the second cell, which differed from the others in that it had a toilet in one corner and a padded bench against the back wall that probably doubled as a bed. The door closed behind me, powered by some unseen electric motor that had seen better days based on the grinding sound. He checked its security, then both guards disappeared back the way they came, leaving me alone. I didn’t have to wait long for the welcoming committee, as Eddleston entered the area via a door right across from the cells.
“You got me,” I said. I could admit it. She’d totally fooled me. I expected Zentas to try something, but I hadn’t suspected E
ddleston would actively take part. I probably should have. “What did I miss? Was it a setup from the start?” I’d think back through it and figure out how she fooled me, but if she told me, it would shorten the process.
“Forgive me if I don’t give you all the answers. My ego doesn’t require explaining myself. But yes, we set you up from the start. We planted the texts you undoubtedly found in Xyla’s device.”
I shook my head. What an idiot I was. “Is Redstone dead? Was that part true?”
“She is. It happened as reported. A mistake. She wasn’t supposed to be part of that team. She changed things at the last minute. Obviously I left that part out when I talked to you. But the rest of it . . . all true. Sometimes it’s easier to manipulate someone with the truth than with lies. You know?”
Asshole. “Most of the truth. Except for your own involvement.”
“Well, sure, except for that.”
“Here’s what I don’t get. What if I didn’t bite? You planted the text messages, but I almost didn’t look at them.” I caught myself before I mentioned that Fader found them. The less they thought about Fader right now, the better.
“There were backup plans,” she said.
“You wanted me to know about the sonic manipulation of the primates.”
“Yes.”
“And you wanted me to find the not-so-abandoned facility.”
“That was actually all you, but it worked out.” That was good to know. At least we forced them to react there, though it didn’t help me much now.
“And Zentas wanted me to come accuse him.”
“I don’t presume to speak for Mr. Zentas.”
“Is he here?”
“Do you see him?” She was good, not letting me make her answer questions she didn’t want to.
“I mean watching. There are cameras in here. Microphones.”
“Of course there are.”
“And he’s watching?” I flipped both middle fingers into the air and waved them around violently, in case he was.
“I really don’t know. I’m in here with you, and while they can see us, I can’t see them.”
“Where are we?”
“Outside of Dome One. That’s all you need to know. We’re underground. So even if you escape, there’s nothing but jungle.”
Another valuable piece of information. Whatever I could gather would help in my eventual attempt to escape. “How does this place even exist?”
She chuckled. “Easy. Politicians make laws, but nobody actually comes to the frontier and enforces them. Or, when they do, they’re ineffectual. Or bribable. We’re not the only company with secret facilities on this planet. Not even close.”
“They’ll have seen us leaving Dome One.” I didn’t believe that, but I wanted to see if she’d respond.
“They never have before. But enough of the interrogation. Let me answer the rest of the questions I’m going to answer so we can be done with it without you thinking you’re being clever. It’s been six hours since you left the park. Your people are looking for you, but they’re nowhere close. Captain Fader is working on passage off the planet. Ganos is talented, but out of her league.”
“Let them go.” Letting Eddleston know that my team meant that much to me gave her leverage, but I couldn’t help it. They probably knew anyway.
“We might. We don’t need them. In fact, them leaving the planet fits our story.”
“What story is that?”
“The story of the rogue ex-colonel. You’ve probably heard it.”
“Refresh my memory.”
She sighed dramatically. “There was this rogue ex-colonel. You know the type. Full of himself. Plays by his own rules. Makes things happen and doesn’t let anything stand in his way. All that macho bullshit.”
“I’m under your control. You don’t have to be an asshole.” Just because I was didn’t mean I liked it when other people were. Yeah, yeah. I’m a hypocrite.
She smiled. “You asked. Now . . . ask the question you really want the answer to.”
I considered it. She wanted me to ask what they wanted me for. I didn’t feel the need to give her that satisfaction. “So you’re saying Zentas didn’t authorize the death of his own daughter?”
Her face twisted slightly, and her hands came together in front of her for a second. The question made her uncomfortable. Good. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “I’ve told you; I’m not going to speak for Mr. Zentas.”
“Then let me talk to someone who can. Until then, you’re just wasting my time.”
“Now who’s being an asshole?”
“I always have been. It’s part of the rogue ex-colonel story. Or did you miss that chapter? Can we stop playing games? What do you want?”
She glared at me, but if she thought she was going to stare me down . . . nope. Eventually she turned and left, calling over her shoulder “I’ll see you soon, Colonel Butler.”
Soon didn’t come soon enough. I couldn’t track the time, but it felt like maybe a day. They brought meals twice, and the second one looked enough like breakfast to make me think it was the next day. I’d slept a little, but as I’d been sedated for several hours, I wasn’t really that tired. It was part of their plan, I’m sure, to make me wait, to let me sit with nothing to do and think about all the bad things that could happen. I didn’t like being alone with my own thoughts, but in this case, I accepted it gladly. Every hour gave Fader more time to get the team off the planet.
Two guards came for me—Guard One and a woman I hadn’t seen before. I considered calling her Guard Two-Point-One but decided I’d need a different naming convention.
They led me in silence down a wide corridor and around a corner, and then we stopped outside of a biometrically locked door on what I thought was the wall toward the interior of the facility. That led to another hallway and quickly to another door and another biometric lock. This one opened into a small lab with a couple of stand-up workstations and a desk tucked into a corner. Shelves were built into every wall, and the whole setup felt designed to maximize space.
Mae Eddleston stood alone in the room wearing a light blue lab coat over cargo pants, which made her look older, but still probably younger than her actual age. She waited for the guards to leave before she acknowledged me. “I’d like your opinion on a military matter.”
“I’m out of that line of work.”
“Call it an advisory role. Whatever helps you sleep.” She pushed a button on her device and a three-dimensional map of Dome One and the surrounding area popped to life from a projector in one of her tables.
“Where are we on this?” I asked.
“Nice try. But I will share the plan, so you’ll want to pay attention.”
“Why would you do—”
She cut me off. “They’re going to incite the hominiverts to attack human outposts.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I responded without thinking. Of all the things I’d considered, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. “And what’s that got to do with me?”
“How would the military react to that?” she asked. “Would they be able to stop it?”
That was a good question. The military wasn’t prepared, didn’t have enough resources, but they could still fight in an emergency. Oxendine was deliberate, which probably meant she’d be slow to act. She’d want to gather intelligence first and build her case. The governor might interfere. I paused my thought. Something Eddleston said caught me. She’d said they’re. Not we’re. I wondered what that meant. More important, I wondered if I could use it. It couldn’t hurt to fish for more information. “I’d need more detail on the attacks to answer that.”
“In the near future, hominiverts from these locations”—a couple dozen red dots appeared on the map in different places. None of them were adjacent to Dome One, but, based on the scale, they all lay within two or three hundred kilometers—“will start moving in this general direction. We can’t predict their exact path, but we expect them to overrun support domes here,
here, and here.” She indicated three small domes that lit up with blue dots. “This one here”—another dot lit up—“might be in the path as well. It’s not an exact science.”
“You’ll be moving them using the sonic technology.”
“It’s crude, but it’s all we have. The primates will continue in the direction of Dome One. We’re not certain what they’ll do as larger groups meet up, given their territorial nature. They may stop until one group establishes dominance over the others. But we think they’ll keep moving.”
“Because of the sonic torture.”
“Right.” That she didn’t deny my term said a lot. “If you were the military commander and you found this threat, how would you react?”
“You brought me here to answer that? There are hundreds of ex-colonels you could have hired who would willingly answer this question for the price of a paycheck. And don’t give me any shit about me somehow being better qualified. Because it’s not true, and anybody who knows anything about the business would have told you that it’s not true.”
“It’s in your best interest to be useful.” She let the threat hang for a few seconds before continuing. “You have a combination of attributes that fits what we need. This . . . this is just because you’re here.”
The last bit didn’t ring true. The slight hesitation—she was hiding something. It hit me then. They probably did have other retired colonels, but Eddleston wasn’t part of the team. She’d said they’re, but she wanted in. And she wanted me to help her. The colonels probably didn’t work for her at all. Maybe they worked for Zentas, and she wanted to be able to contribute. As a civilian—and a young-looking one at that—military officers would ignore her. That’s why she needed me. I could use that to my advantage, but to make it work, I’d need to gain her trust. “Okay. I’d find the cause of the changed behavior and attack the sonic broadcasters.”
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