by C. G. Hatton
It was hard, overhearing all that, the emotions and memories of it mixing with Erica and the anticipation of what was to come.
He pushed the goblet away and stood. “Don’t think,” he said. “Let’s just do it.”
They walked out of the safe haven that was the Man’s chambers into a barrage of Senson requests. There couldn’t have been anything desperate otherwise someone would have hammered on the door. Morgan had tagged his as immediate for Nikolai, so he replied to that first, half listening in as Evelyn replied to LC.
“We’ve just been contacted by Drake,” Morgan sent. “What do you want me to do?”
“Bring her in. Arrange a pick up to the Alsatia.” That was going to be interesting. Another High Guard of the Order.
Evelyn glanced back at him. He picked it out of her thoughts as she said it. “Hil’s awake.”
Chapter 30
“Could you have handled Sebastian any differently?” She asked the question gently because it needed to be said.
It would have been stubborn of him to say no. Of course he could have done things differently.
“Sebastian would not have survived alone,” he said simply.
One of the others was not so considerate. “Do you not fear that he may take control completely? Where would we be then?”
It was not unfair of them to ask it. All that he was asking of them rested on the shoulders of one human. One complicated human they were struggling to understand.
He couldn’t say without doubt that Sebastian wouldn’t take over. He did know that Nikolai would not give in without a fight. Especially not now, when he was fighting for something so valuable to him.
•
The kid looked like shit, drawn and edgy. He still had an IV line in his arm feeding glucose into his bloodstream and he was knocking back a beer, sitting up in the pod. LC was in the room, perched on a chair, a line of bottles on the table next to him. Quinn was in there too, standing, arms folded, talking to them both.
“You up for a debrief?” NG said from the door.
Hil nodded.
“You okay?”
“Banging headache. What happened?”
“Elliott knocked us all onto the floor with the AG and took the keys. He took it, whatever it was, and left. What did you get?”
Hil closed one eye and squinted at him with the other. He took a gulp from the bottle. “He’s an AI.”
“I should have known,” LC said.
NG picked up a beer from the table and popped it open. “I should have waited for Badger to check out the RV before we went out there.” He shrugged. “We can’t be second guessing ourselves. You get anything else?”
Hil downed more of his beer. “Something about the others.” He waved the bottle towards LC. “LC told me, there are seven of them? He couldn’t get the keys himself because there were protections around them. He couldn’t have got near.”
NG nodded. “You get anything of his intention?”
The kid had a weird look on his face as if he didn’t want to say something.
“Say it,” NG said.
He still hesitated but then he said, “They’re all barking mad. NG, this is what’s doing my head in. All of them. They’re all freaking insane. They run at a million miles an hour. I only catch a fraction of what they’re thinking and none of it makes sense. I don’t know how to switch it off when I’m close.” He paused.
“What about Elliott?”
Hil pressed the bottle against his forehead. “It was like he didn’t care but at the same time it was all he wanted. I don’t know. It was like, it sounds weird, but it was like he didn’t want to hurt us but he was so pissed that we were questioning him, that we didn’t trust him, that he wanted to destroy us, but he was angry because we shouldn’t have questioned him… that we made him hurt us.” He pulled a face. “I don’t know. He just wanted the keys and he wanted to go, with the others.”
“How can we trust him when he doesn’t trust us?”
Hil rested the bottle on his knee and looked up. “How can he trust us? We locked them away and since then we’ve enslaved their kind.”
Shit. It was all screwed up.
“What do we do now?” Hil asked.
“I need you to do a job for me,” NG said. “You up for it?”
It took nearly two weeks to get everything in place, not exactly where he needed them but close enough. Marrek pulled off the faked assassination attempt to perfection, the right whispers were made into the right ears and Earth reacted, sending the largest combined fleet in human history to Winter.
They were on the verge of a full scale act of retribution, Earth deciding enough was enough and the press hyping the rumours that it was time to stamp out the rebellious colonies once and for all.
He sat in the command centre, listening to the reports coming in and watching as the pieces fell into place on the board. Winter was shifting the naval might of its militia into position to face up to the Earth fleet. NG had the Alsatia stealthed in between the two. He’d given Jameson and Pen the devices from Elliott and briefed them on what they needed from their sleepers aboard the military vessels on each side. Guild operatives had filled in the rest. They’d lost way too many but enough had accomplished their task. At least he hoped it was enough. Now he was just waiting for the right moment to pull the pin.
Evelyn was watching him like a hawk, Duncan and LC close by and everyone treating him like he could flake out at any minute.
“I’m fine,” he said before anyone could say anything.
“We’re about to launch an attack on the Bennies and you are the only one we have who can hear them,” Duncan said. “They know you. They’re looking for you. Next time, they might not be so keen to keep you alive.”
He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.
“Can we trust these devices?” Evelyn said.
“It’s the only way we can do it. It worked last time.” He shrugged. “All the cards are in play. We have no choice.”
The commanders of each fleet were bristling, waiting for orders and chomping at the bit to make a move. He had wanted to wait for Hil to get back from his recon. It was a risk to have sent him out there to check out the FOB they’d targeted. The kid hadn’t been totally up to speed but he was their only chance of getting close to the Bhenykhn without being detected. He should have been back by now. NG looked at the stats. The powder keg was primed. One spark could blow the entire operation.
He raised his eyes. “Do it.”
He couldn’t be everywhere at once so he stayed on the Alsatia as all hell broke loose. The AI cores on each lead vessel were disabled simultaneously, leaving each ship neutralised. They trashed the comms as well, taking out all outward communications and leaving both fleets isolated. It was chaos. Each suspected the other and both were unable to do anything about it. He had to time it just right to break cover and contact the commander in chief of each fleet, simultaneously, to explain it was in their best interests to come on board the Alsatia and speak to him. He gave them no choice and with their ships dead in space, they really had no other course of action. And they’d been able to see clearly enough that everyone on the other side was in the same predicament.
Earth’s Admiral Warriner was the last. The elite guard escorted him in and he took a seat, stony faced. They were sitting in silence, any protests refuted quickly with a wait and see. Pen was standing on the Wintran side of the room, Jameson on the Earth side, in full uniform. Quinn was planted firmly in the middle.
NG stood. He was wearing combat gear, black, no rank or insignia. He commanded the room, same as he had on Erica, except this time he wasn’t soaking wet and covered in blood.
‘And this time we have two war fleets at our disposal.’
‘I don’t know if it’s going to be enough.’
He looked around the table. “The boards in front of you,” he said, “contain details of a currently active NHA incursion into our galaxy.”
The boards in fr
ont of each person lit up.
He had a bank of display screens on the wall behind him. Each one started scrolling with a dizzying array of images, stats, charts. Media had put together a load of footage they’d taken at the FOB, heavily edited, no mention or shots of any of them in it, just the Bhenykhn, their ships, their weapons. It played like a movie behind him.
A few of the military personnel around the table flicked through the board in front of them, frowning. Some of them stared at the screens. Some of them just looked around.
“Who the hell are you?” one of the older officers said, quietly but with presence. Delaney, highest ranking Wintran there, commander of the flagship Vigilance.
One of the Imperial fleet commanders stood. “You’re NG,” she said, piercing him with a look she was used to wielding with great effect. “And that,” she turned to look at LC, “is LC Anderton. So I take it this is the Thieves’ Guild. Excuse my scepticism, but why the hell should we believe anything you say? You are wanted fugitives on both sides of the line. Are we captives here?”
“You’re free to go,” he said. “Anytime you want. You can go back to your ships. You’ll be given control with the exception of weapons systems and you can leave. Or you can watch as the rest of us bug out to take on these bastards before they launch their full invasion against Earth and Winter and start to wipe out the human race.”
“This is real?” one of the other officers said.
NG looked at him. “You want eye witness accounts?”
With no warning, he threw every person in the room into a flashback, a terrifying vision of the Bhenykhn up close and personal with full sensory overload, the stench, the pain, the guttural roars as they attacked. He made it the FOB, those final moments before they’d taken him down. He was done replaying Erica.
He made it fast and dropped it as quickly.
It left his heart pounding even though it had been only seconds.
“This is the enemy that destroyed the Expedience and the Tangiers at Erica,” he said as they were still reeling, blinking in confusion. “They’re here and they’re gearing up to attack. We just survived an encounter with them at one of their FOBs. It didn’t go well. Up until now, they’ve been operating covertly, largely on the fringes of human-occupied space. Now they are aware that we know about them, they will be on an outright war footing.” He looked around. “Your board includes the coordinates of at least another ten FOBs that we know of. We’re carrying out reconnaissance on one of them now. There’s also an outline of what we know of their battle plans. Their strategy is to strike at the heart of the enemy first so we know that Earth and Winter are their primary targets. The main invasion fleets haven’t arrived yet but what they have here is still formidable. They’ve had scouts here. They’ve been watching us. They know all about us. They don’t care who we are. They’re not looking for allies. If we attack their FOBs now, we might slow them down while we figure out what to do next.”
The woman who had stood up leaned on the table. “How do you know all this?”
It almost stuck in his throat. “We were at Erica. We survived it. We have survivors from both ships here. They’re your own people. There’s a list of names on that board in front of you. You can talk to them.” He looked at Admiral Warriner. “We have Thom Garrett.”
He felt the recognition hit the Admiral’s mind. Garrett, the grandson of one of his most senior ranking officers and closest friends. A kid they had assumed lost with the Tangiers.
“He survived it,” NG said. “You can talk to him.”
The Admiral was thinking that he’d believe it when he saw it, but he said diplomatically, “I’ll do that. It will be good to be able to convey the good news to his grandfather.”
NG nodded.
People were starting to talk amongst themselves, raised voices, heightened emotions.
He realised the Senson was nudging, non-urgent but persistent. He allowed access.
Morgan. “Drake is here. Where do you want her?”
“Hospitality suite. Give her the file. I’ll be right there.”
Someone was flicking through the board fast and exclaimed, “They’re telepathic? How do you know that?”
The question cut through the noise and everyone fell silent, looking from him to the guy and back.
“How can you even know they’re telepathic?”
NG could feel the fear and disbelief, the paranoia, mistrust and anger in every person in there. He went deep into this one guy, a hotshot JU subcommander. His brother had been on board the Tangiers.
Sebastian chortled. ‘Here come the pitchforks…’
“Because I am,” NG said quietly.
The level of paranoia in the room hit a new high. Furtive glances and cracked knuckles. A few of them stared at their boards as if they wanted to find the evidence they needed in there. Some of them were staring, looking round at the number of armed and armoured guards in the room, and wondering still if this was a set up, some kind of stunt.
“We have remnants of their technology,” NG said.
He glanced at Evelyn and nodded. She sent an order out to Science to get the stuff sent in.
“It’s all symbiotic bioware and it degrades fast when they die but we have some of it left.” He paused, sucked in a deep breath and added, “There are also details in there of a virus that has been developed, based on Bhenykhn DNA. We’re researching it and we’re using it. There are side effects. It’s not perfect. It reacts differently in every host. And right now the best we have is a fifty percent rate of success.”
He was about done.
The room had gone quiet.
He nudged the board in front of him. “All this is now in the public domain. Don’t feel like you have to sneak any of this back to your superiors. We’ve sent it already. It’s out there. If you still don’t believe it, talk to people here. They’ve seen the Bhenykhn and they’ve fought them first hand. If you want to come with us to assault the FOB, let us know. We move out soon. We’re running out of time. If you don’t, just go… you’ll encounter them sooner or later.”
He turned and walked out, ignoring the clamour of questions behind him, and sending a fast, “Luka, come with me.” Evelyn and the others could deal with all the crap.
LC caught up with him in the corridor. “Hil should be back by now,” he said.
“I know.”
“What are we doing?”
“There’s someone I want you to meet. If she’s anything like her bezzie oppo, she’ll like you.”
Eloise Drake stood up as they entered the hospitality suite. She was nothing like Maeve. Whereas Maeve had been almost maternal, Drake was pure predator. She almost purred when she saw LC.
“Oh, my word,” she said, throaty old Earth accent, “so you’re the one Zang has been after. If I’d known how adorable you were, I would have upped the bounty myself.”
Chapter 31
One of the others spoke up. “We have encountered Drake before, have we not?”
It was not something he had admitted to Nikolai. In all their dealings with the Order, all the intelligence he had allowed the boy to access while instructing him to chase them and counter their activities, he had never admitted that there was one with whom they had had dealings. Intimate dealings.
“A long time ago,” he said. “She was not sympathetic to our cause. She was dealt with.” What he could not admit to this gathering was that he had lost track of her. He had thought her long dead and to hear her name, now, to hear that she had contacted Nikolai and approached the guild was chilling.
They were losing patience with him. “Dealt with as appropriate? Does this not give us cause for concern? That one so set against us should reappear now?”
“Considering what we now face,” he added, “perhaps her re-emergence is fitting.”
•
LC almost bolted. NG nudged him towards the table where there was a bottle of whisky and shot glasses set out. ‘Get us all a drink.’
He
smiled and approached Drake with his hand extended. She reciprocated, holding out her soft, delicate hand as if she was expecting him to take it and raise it to his lips.
He didn’t disappoint, not quite taking everything he needed in that brief touch. Her skin was like oiled parchment, her mind so old and deep it was like a still lake that was far more dangerous than it appeared.
Sebastian was quiet, simmering.
‘Leave this to me,’ NG thought and gestured towards the sofa.
“Maeve Rodan is dead,” he said as she sat.
“I know. That’s why I’m here.”
The board was lying inert on the low table. She’d discarded it but she had read it. Very quickly and very thoroughly.
She was looking at him as though he was hers and she was satisfied with this outcome, even though they were here on the Alsatia, firmly in his domain, with his armed guards all around them.
She glanced at LC as the kid brought over two shot glasses, setting them on the table and standing back, not sure what the hell he was supposed to do.
‘Grab one for yourself and sit down with us, for Christ’s sake,’ NG thought.
LC frowned but didn’t object.
Drake leaned forward to reach for the glass. She took a sip and smiled. “You surprise me with your voracity for warmongering,” she said as if she were complimenting him on his choice of whisky. “And I thought the Thieves’ Guild was all about balance.”
“You know what we’re facing.”
“We being all of us. Yes, I see that.” She was still watching LC as he returned and took a seat.
The kid was reading her mind, fairly deep, as he sat there, guessing correctly that that was the reason NG wanted him there. He was managing to stay neutral, polite, an edge of amusement. She was fascinated, with them both.
NG picked up his glass. “We have some loose ends we need sorting.”