‘Look, I can’t say that it’s not a good theory, but it doesn’t feel right to me.’
‘Because you liked him? I liked him too, and I’m a seventy-year-old man who doesn’t like people on principle. But then again, when you know the person you’re talking to can read your mind, it might just be a natural reaction to be more open. One may as well submit to it, so to speak.’ Pinter smiled wanly at the end of his point, and then brightened as the food and alcohol arrived.
They continued to play Criticality as they ate, and sipped at the aniseedy liquor that was provided. It was a good game for their current situation, since it had no end when playing with an infinite deck.
‘I’m not used to waiting around like this,’ Geof complained.
‘Most of a soldier’s life is waiting. At least we can’t be in too much trouble.’ Pinter raised his cup of liquor. ‘If you were Peter —’
‘I refuse to believe it, Colonel.’
‘No, different topic. If you were Peter, I wouldn’t have to tell you this, so this is the first time I’ll be saying it out loud. My wife and I are now parted.’
Geof put down the fork he was holding. ‘And you are telling me this why?’
‘Because if you weren’t cut off from the data right now, you’d already know. I believe the restrictions on us will be lifted. I didn’t want you to think later that it was why I’ve decided to reactivate.’
‘Reactivate?’ Geof stumbled over the thought. Pinter was an old man who hadn’t seen action in decades. ‘So why are you?’
‘Didn’t you see what happened in the Dome? Are you not watching the same screens I am? A single child destroyed a kilometre of a city. Thousands of people were killed. By one boy.’
‘We don’t know for sure that is what happened.’
‘But we both believe that it was. Peter said he saw him.’
Geof nodded agreement. ‘But didn’t you just say we shouldn’t trust him?’
‘I was just passing on what someone told me. It’s always wise to question one’s assumptions.’
‘Okay, so what if he and Pierre were working together?’
‘And Tamsin.’
‘Is there any word on her?’
‘Not that I have been told.’
‘Now there’s something I could be doing. She wouldn’t be able to just slip away if they let me track her.’
‘But we are all on trial for now. Ah.’ Pinter emptied his hold of cards onto the table, collapsing seven tall piles and sweeping them into his prize count. ‘Would you like to play through or restart?’
‘Restart. I think I know where I went wrong.’
‘Every game is different.’ The Colonel gathered the cards into one pile and began shuffling them for a new game. In this way they passed the hours. Reading, talking and Geof losing hand after hand of Criticality.
Geof looked over the news sheets. ‘Are you familiar with this Ryu Shima, Colonel?’
‘I can’t say that I am.’
‘Things will change if the Shima family makes it into the Primacy,’ Geof said. ‘I reviewed his case studies before we started the hunt. The man is efficient. He has developed a good formula for psi collection.’
‘Some efficiency might be what this team needs if the hunt is to continue.’
‘Surely it must. Catching Pierre is more a priority now than ever. We’ve seen what he is capable of.’
‘You are missing the bigger picture, Geof. It won’t just be about Pierre now. There is already a suggestion that this is the first sign of a psi rebellion. Of which we can only assume that Pierre Jnr and possibly Tamsin Grey are a part. Maybe even Peter. The appointment of a man with Shima’s record might be a response to an act of war.’
‘So what should we do?’
‘We wait for the command. As we always do.’
‘And until then we play games and talk?’
‘A soldier’s life for me.’ Pinter smiled and dealt ten new cards to each of them. ‘You start this time,’ he said.
‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask.’
‘Go ahead, Ozenbach. I think I know what it is.’
‘Well, I know who you are of course. I know your history.’
‘Not really any secrets there, are there?’
‘I was wondering what you would do to beat Pierre. Now that we’ve seen what he is capable of.’
‘Ah, well, now you’re in my area.’ He doubled his hand and laid down no cards. ‘For a start we might not have seen what he is really capable of. We’ve seen one instance. We need to know more about his weaknesses. We don’t even know if a simple missile strike might be effective.’
‘Collateral damage be damned?’
‘I think I can guess which way the majority would swing.’
‘That means the first place we think we found him becomes a death sentence for the surrounding Citizens,’ Geof said.
Their conversation was interrupted as a sergeant knocked at their door and entered with a cursory air salute.
‘Colonel, your presence has been requested by the Primacy.’
‘More debriefing?’
‘I have passed on the entirety of my missive. If you’ll come this way, we have a jet waiting for you.’
The Colonel looked at Geof. He turned his cards around to show what he was holding. ‘I was about to get twenty points in one turn.’
Geof followed Pinter to the opposite end of the compound. A two-seater Services cone waited on its haunches in the cleared area slightly away from the squibs.
‘It’s time for the reprimand or the medal, I’d say.’ Pinter winked at Geof as they shook hands.
‘Let me know which it is.’
‘I will if I am able. So long, Geof.’
‘Goodbye, Colonel.’
Geof stood and watched as the jet flung itself into the sky, a hiccup-explosion, then pulled swiftly up as if towed by a line.
Before returning to his quarters, Geof strayed over to the fence to look beyond. The compound lights pushed full dark back for a hundred feet, revealing a red sandy waste. He craved data. His near-useless symbiot fed him what its sensors could gather, but it wasn’t enough. Temperature: six degrees and dropping. Wind speed: eleven kilometres per hour. There were one hundred and fifteen bio-signatures within the compound — though he couldn’t access their files to find out more about them.
He’d read that people in olden times could predict the weather by the smell on the wind. It didn’t seem to work for him.
Nobody stopped him entering the hospital tent. Only one nurse was allowed near the patient while he was conscious; other Servicemen were kept away. The tent was guarded by a single rank of servitors standing at attention with lasers and tranquillisers.
He sat in the only chair and watched Pete’s chest rise and fall. Geof had only known Peter for a few weeks now and wasn’t sure why he felt as close to him as he did. Just liked him, he guessed. And what difference did it make whether or not Peter influenced him? Geof’s whole life was like that ...
‘It amazes me ... that you don’t resent them,’ Pete croaked through a scratchy throat.
‘You’re awake.’
‘It’s hard to sleep. It’s also hard to stay awake.’
‘You’re on a lot of stuff. No, don’t move,’ he said as Pete tried to sit up.
‘What’s happening out there, Geof?’
Pete seemed different. Not simply because of his injuries or because his hair had been removed. Is it the calm of defeat or the extent of his injuries? Or has Pierre Jnr shaken the sense out of him? Geof remembered that Pete was probably reading his thoughts and he looked up to catch his eye.
‘The Colonel has been called before the Primacy,’ he said.
‘Is that bad?’
‘It could be. Though it’s the Primacy itself you should worry about.’
Pete must know everything that had passed between him and the Colonel. That the suspicio
n had caught hold.
I want you to trust me, Peter projected to his friend.
It’s hard to, Peter. I want to, I do, but the thought has been planted now.
I understand. You’re right. I can show you what you want to see though. Then you can decide whether you can trust me or not.
What are you going to do?
I’m going to show you how I escaped.
‘Can you give me some water?’ Pete asked. Geof raised the sipper to his lips and waited until Pete nodded that he’d had enough. He sat back in his chair and waited for something to happen.
‘You see, Geof,’ Pete said, his voice back to normal after a drink, ‘it is not that I am strong, but that I am good.’ He shuffled in the pallet to focus more directly on where Geof was sitting. Abruptly Pete swung his legs off the bed and began detaching the splints from his arms and chest.
‘Should you really be doing that?’
‘I’m fine, Geof, don’t worry. They’re just being cautious with me, trying to keep me in here longer. See?’ Pete jumped agilely off the bed and stood feeling the floor with his toes.
Geof helped him get dressed and then held the tent flap up for him to duck through. A few metres down the canvas corridor Pete stopped and turned to Geof. ‘This is as far as I can go.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I haven’t seen what is down the corridor and you didn’t pay enough attention. If I extend the illusion, it will be too thin a version of reality. We’re also getting too far from your body. Your senses will protest soon.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You’re still sitting in the chair by my bed, Geof. My bones are too weak to stand like this.’
‘You’re putting all this in my head?’
‘Yes.’
Geof looked around him, pressed his fingers to the grain of the canvas, then pushed at the flesh of his own arm. ‘How long can you maintain it?’
‘We’re in it together. You have to stay convinced. If you want out, it’ll end.’
‘You can’t hold me here?’
‘I could try, but you would become nauseous.’ Geof sensed this was indeed starting to happen; as soon as he was told it wasn’t real his stomach became unsettled. ‘Close your eyes,’ Pete suggested.
‘But —’
‘Just do it. It stops the sensory conflict. Good. Now, you are in my room, you are sitting in a chair facing my bed ... Open your eyes.’
Geof blinked and looked around him, at the reality. It looked the same. He looked at Pete, bandaged and bruised in his bed.
That’s what I can do.
‘Why didn’t Pierre kill you?’ Geof asked.
‘I don’t know. He didn’t kill Tamsin either.’
‘You know she’s gone, don’t you?’
‘Gone? Where?’
‘She disappeared when you were in the hospital. Hasn’t anyone told you?’
I knew, Geof. But I couldn’t let them know I knew. The suspicion on me would be even worse.
‘No one speaks to me in here, Geof. How did she get away?’
‘I don’t know and I can’t find out.’ He patted his symbiot. ‘I’m cut off for now too.’
‘What are you doing in here?’ a voice screeched from behind him. The nurse entered the tent with a tray of food.
‘I was just leaving.’ Geof stood. ‘Goodnight, Pete.’
Goodnight, Geof.
~ * ~
At the end of the corridor a squad of armed Servicemen was waiting for him. Geof held up his hands.
‘If this is about —’
‘Please come with us, sir.’ The leader indicated the direction with his weapon and Geof was marched out, three soldiers in front and three behind.
They led him back toward the launching area where an open squib waited for him. ‘Where am I going?’ he asked.
‘Sorry, sir. That information is privileged above my level.’
The squib windowed shut and lifted into the sky. All he knew was that he was heading north and east. The squib was on autopilot and closed off to him. If he wasn’t on trial already, he would be tempted to override it.
This thought was interrupted when a connection tapped in from Ryu Shima, the man the Weave was pushing to be the new Prime.
Geof: Ryu Shima, this is an unexpected honour. Congratulations on your escalation.
Ryu: My humble thanks to you. I hope my call is not entirely unexpected.
Geof: I suppose it shouldn’t be, but I have been out of contact.
Ryu: Your access must remain Limited while your trial proceeds. I expect it to end soon.
Geof: What am I on trial for?
Ryu: Your entire team is under suspicion after the Dome event. With the unexplained departure of Tamsin Grey, we must examine all the evidence thoroughly. I hope you understand.
Geof: We have done nothing wrong.
Ryu: That really depends on how we interpret ‘wrong’. The operation was a debacle, you must appreciate that.
Geof: We did the best that we could.
Ryu: I certainly hope that isn’t true. If this hunt is to continue, I will expect a lot more from you.
Geof: So we are to continue?
Ryu: Of course. The apparent threat has not dissipated. Now we must start over so it can be expunged.
Geof: And may I ask about Peter Lazarus?
Ryu: I fear his trial will be more prolonged than yours. He is a known telepath and was in the zone when the event took place.
Geof: I cannot believe he had anything to do with it.
Ryu: Your support for Mister Lazarus has been noted.
Geof realised that everything he said would become part of the trials: his, Pete’s and probably the Colonel’s. He refused to believe that Pete had been complicit with Pierre ... Then again, after Pete’s demonstration, perhaps he could have been.
Geof: I acknowledge that you have grounds for suspicion.
Ryu: An excellent choice, Mister Ozenbach. I am glad you have the rational mind I surmised you had. As part of my inquiries, I must ask what you think happened on the day and where it went wrong. This is not a debrief, I simply want your opinions.
Geof: As you wish. It is hard to say, for me, what went wrong. We were simply tracking a possible target that we had pinpointed due to a pattern established from earlier evidence. We landed Tamsin and Pete, who were to attempt an intercept. Very quickly we lost the data connection with Pete and Tamsin, as well as with our drones and the neighbourhood passives. You must know the rest.
Ryu: Would it be fair to say that the threat was underestimated?
Geof: Yes. By myself at least. I admit I had no conception of what we were tracing. I’ve never encountered anything like it.
Ryu: And what would you do differently, knowing what you know now?
Geof: I think the evidence we had of the farm, and from the school, should have heightened our precautions, but I don’t see how we could have approached the Paris target differently.
Ryu: I concur. There was insufficient data regarding the threat and while the operation seems clumsy in hindsight, it followed all standard procedures. Do you think it was possible that one of the psis could have warned the target?
Geof: Everything is possible. The limousine was more than two hundred metres from Pete’s location, which is outside of his known reach.
Ryu: Known reach?
Geof: If the information we received from Tamsin Grey was correct.
Ryu: Which would be hard to verify.
Geof peered out the window. The vegetation below looked like a museum model.
Geof: What happens now?
Ryu: Your trial will be resolved, then the hunt will begin again under my supervision.
Geof: You have an impeccable record.
Ryu: That is true, but I am not so filled with hubris to think that this incident is similar to the collections my squads make. Do you know that the Weave has du
bbed this incident the manifestation of Pierre Jnr?
The Hunt for Pierre Jnr Page 14