Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  Zeiss nodded and ordered a security detail for the couple, broadcasting the request via his badge. Monty, Joan, and Mary all volunteered. Then the commander called the starship’s pilot. “We can’t leave yet, babe. Your daughter wants to help stop the epidemic on Earth.”

  Mira cursed, but yielded to her family’s conscience.

  Laura didn’t particularly feel the need to help people who were trying to kill them, but she knew Stu would. Preventing plague deaths would ease his guilt over whatever happened to Mo. She owed him that much.

  When Stu appeared on the yellow brick path to their home, Laura ran to greet him. He was overjoyed to see her but still wracked with grief and horror. She wrapped her arms around him and refused to let him speak. “Shh. You’re home safe. That’s all that’s important for now.”

  After he had calmed, she led him to the living room sofa and held his hand during the entire interview with Conrad Zeiss. Laura didn’t ask questions, choosing to sooth and encourage her husband where necessary.

  Once Stu ended his story with his arrival home, he asked her, “What do you think?”

  “Corporate computers triggered the revenge sequence based on information from the lunar Koku. Nana wouldn’t fall for a trap like that. Someone lied to Koku to induce a cascade. Show me the communications logs.”

  Laura pointed to several mismatches between Stu’s story and the logs. “Sif was the source of the bad intel. She probably also disabled your shuttle’s long-range communication to prevent you from checking the facts.”

  “Was she still working for the Chinese?” asked Zeiss.

  “Nyx,” Laura replied. “I just need to find out why. How soon can we download those Seven Seals files from Koku’s data vault?”

  Her father shrugged. “The AI is reformatting, global communications are in chaos, the data vault is huge, and we can only stay in one location for a short time before we have to dodge. Who knows? Don’t expect anything in less than eight hours.”

  “I’ll check in after four,” Laura said.

  Stu said, “You’re Mira’s daughter all right. What did I get myself into?”

  Zeiss snorted in amusement and tried to suppress a smirk.

  Standing, Laura led her husband from the room. “Right now, you’re getting into bed. You need your rest if you’re going to take a shift piloting to give Mom a break. Any objections?”

  The men remained silent.

  “I didn’t think so.”

  Chapter 54 – The Trumpet Blast

  All non-medical personnel were confined to quarters as the ship maneuvered to avoid detection. Mira tried to limit the turns and acceleration to 1.2 gravities, but at one point, the creek actually flowed backwards.

  Staring at the wall, Laura couldn’t sleep. She used her pad to download the World Health Organization feed that the NERO ship had subscribed to in order to track quarantines. The outbreak seemed to have begun just over a day ago. Since then, men had dropped dead from mysterious causes in airports around the world: Riyadh, Tehran, Jakarta, Rome, Bangkok, Rio, and Washington DC. Authorities also found suspicious empty aerosol dispensers in public places in Russia, China, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines, as if someone had taken a shotgun to a map. Islands and moon bases were on lockdown. At the four-hour mark, she plodded out to the kitchen so she wouldn’t wake the others. Snowflake couldn’t aid her because she was too busy adjusting internal systems to minimize the effects of the dodging. Indeed, Sojiro was the only transcended human not engaged in the hunt. Having spent thirteen years immersed in the ship’s systems, the artist and programmer didn’t like to speak, but he responded well through the art on her pad. She felt like a witch summoning spirits to aid her.

  “What did you get from the data vault?”

  Sojiro displayed a menu of increasingly harsh reprisals.

  Laura clicked on each seal to read the overview. The Seven Seals were supposed to be so horrible no one would ever risk them. Yet, someone had recently added a new extreme, called the Last Trumpet, to signal the final judgment of mankind. Mori owned one business that specialized in cleaning airports and plane interiors between flights. A second business owned a string of strip clubs near international capitals.

  Rio and Jakarta weren’t on the ground-zero list. Still, reformatting Koku had never been the goal. The mission to Dark Lab Seven had been a means to trigger the final failsafe. “Whose digital fingerprints are these, the ones who added the Trumpet code?”

  Sojiro displayed a photo of Eowyn and a hero with a cape on.

  “So she kept a superuser back door into the system?” Laura paced as she chewed this over. “She couldn’t use the back door herself and couldn’t tell anyone else after the Ethics reformatting. That means she had to have told someone about Koku before reading the Page. Since then, someone has been influencing her to write more theoretical-scenario code like she did for the radio telescopes. The same people probably also egged her into pulling a gun on Kaguya.”

  Kelly’s photo appeared, along with her Empathy rating and failed psych evaluation.

  “Yeah. That was my conclusion, too. She destabilized her own sister and had to flee the planet in order to sound the Last Trumpet. Who is Kelly trying to destroy?”

  Blank screen.

  “Open the Last Trumpet genetic-blueprint file.” When she saw the DNA chains on the screen, her face went numb. “My signature is on this at least three different ways, but I never built a plague. What else can you find about the Last Trumpet?”

  Sojiro displayed a three-hour countdown and a count of data pages.

  This is like drinking the Pacific through a cocktail straw. “We can’t wait that long. Send everything we pulled from the vault except the Trumpet to the UN Security Council. Hopefully, they can minimize the damage.” Laura withdrew a data device from a belt hanging in her improvised closet. “These are my private notes from Mori Biotech. Upload them into protected storage.” She jammed the belt device into her computer pad and entered her personal decryption key. “No one else sees these, not even my parents.”

  At the mention of parents, Sojiro displayed an image of Kaguya in the stasis chamber.

  “I know I haven’t been to visit her. I can only deal with one imbalanced relative at a time. I haven’t forgiven her yet for what she did to Stu.” Once the transfer completed, she ordered, “Search my notes for a match.”

  Blank screen.

  She circled a particularly familiar cluster. “Look for matches or even partial matches to this segment. It has to do with the Collective Unconscious.”

  The pad played elevator jazz for a few moments. Then it displayed her last CU patent with the words “98 percent.”

  “Right, I tweaked this part for years. It’s what makes CU want to spread, almost like it’s aware. Shit. If they did this to a disease, it’s going to cover the whole planet.”

  Pictures of Hitler and Stalin appeared on the pad.

  “Yeah. Someone is a true believer. I have no idea how to block this virus, although the !Kung tribes of the Kalahari may have a natural immunity. Even empaths can’t see them through the CU. They claim it has to do with some mystical healing ceremony for star sickness. Walk through the file history and see when this gene-splice version may have been copied.”

  When Sojiro limited the date range, she said, “This was definitely from the disk Mei Lyn stole. Let’s find out what they’re spreading.” She circled two other grafted segments. “Search only file versions during that date range. Recover deleted files if you need to.”

  The match, when it came, shocked her. The file title was dramatic, typical of her teenage years—DeathToTyrants. The image was a pale horseman of the Apocalypse.

  The woman’s voice made Laura jump. “I thought you said you didn’t design plagues.” Aunt Mary stood behind her in one of Mercy’s t-shirt tops and a pair of slacks.

  Laura shut off the computer and put a hand to her chest. “You scared the dickens out of me.”

  “Tell me what’s ha
ppening, or I wake Stu.”

  “Come with me to Kelly’s cell in the saucer,” Laura whispered. “I’ll explain on the way. I’ll even tell my folks when they’re not fighting to keep us all alive, but please don’t tell my husband.”

  Mary tapped her badge. “Snowflake, until I say otherwise, keep a security log of my interaction with Laura. If anything happens to me, broadcast the log to the entire ship.”

  “Do I intimidate you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Coming from you, that’s a compliment,” Laura said.

  “Could I borrow that belt? This shirt fits like a tent.”

  ****

  In the dim light of early morning, Mary followed Laura to the summit of the Counterweight Mountain. When no one could overhear them, Laura explained, “DeathToTyrants wasn’t a disease. Well-behaved viruses don’t tend to kill hosts. Their goal is to steal DNA and spread copies of themselves. This one is a fast-acting bullet with a self-destruct mechanism to hide the cause. The victim’s own dying process wipes out all trace of the pathogen.”

  “A weapon for the perfect murder.”

  “In a fit of anger when I was fifteen, I adapted it for my grandfather. It was never supposed to see the light of day. I shredded the notes. I don’t know why I kept the diagram.”

  “What did Tetsuo do to you?” Mary asked sympathetically.

  “He never asks for what he can’t take. When I refused to craft something unethical, he put my mother Kaguya in solitary confinement until she was clawing at the walls, fingertips bleeding. Then he let me feel the panic she was experiencing.”

  “Why didn’t you use the weapon and save us all a lot of trouble?”

  Laura halted on the final staircase up to the saucer’s resting place. “Because when my mother was lucid, the first thing she babbled about was my father coming back to rescue us—how moral Conrad was. If I stopped Mori’s heart, the charter wouldn’t allow me to go into space. I’d never have a real family.”

  “So there are things even a lawyer won’t do,” Mary said.

  “I never gave it a delivery system. It was safe!” Laura clenched her jawed to calm down. “Someone cobbled together years of my work into a Frankstein’s monster called the Final Trumpet. I might be able to neutralize the pathogen by inducing hypothermia in the victim, but that’s not practical on a large scale, especially when there aren’t many symptoms. We need to prevent the spread. I’m missing one more piece before I can attempt to counter the epidemic. Earth has shut down every major transportation hub, but that won’t slow the Trumpet. Are you part of the problem, or are you going to work with me on the solution?”

  “I’m not a biochemist. I’m not even rich anymore. What can I do?” Mary asked.

  “Get Kelly to open up. Talk to her about her motive and find out what else Mei Lyn stole from our lab. She hates me, but you can do no wrong.”

  “You’re saying that Mater Nyx created this plague? That explains why they partnered with Earth First—to distribute the Trumpet. A plague of this magnitude eliminates the polluters, the oppressors, and solves the food crisis. Mother Earth can recover in peace.”

  That explained Rio and Indonesia, deforestation capitals of the world. Earth First was working its way down an ecological hit list, adding to the Mori plan. Laura cursed and ran for the saucer. They had less time than she originally thought.

  ****

  Laura waved to Mira and Conrad as she floated through the control room. “Mary wants to question the prisoner.”

  Zeiss monitored ships sensors for signs of Earth pursuit. Colonel Dahlstrom sat beside him, learning the ropes. “Fine. We can only hold her for twenty-four hours without charges.”

  “You’ll have them soon. Snowflake, unlock the brig.” The brig was merely a sparsely furnished bedroom along the rim of the saucer that only members of the planning committee could open.

  Mary stopped Laura at the door. “Stay out here.”

  “That woman is dangerous. You at least have to let me eavesdrop.”

  “Suit yourself. Snowflake, allow Laura to listen to the audio feed from my badge.” Mary took her hand. “Remember, I have to sound like I’m on her side to get her to talk.”

  Laura inserted her earbud and stepped out of view.

  Mary entered the brig alone.

  “Ms. Hollis, to what do I owe the honor?” asked Kelly, oozing charm.

  “Save it,” snapped Mary. “The UN wants us to hand you over for crimes against humanity. Trumpet did a lot of damage before Laura gave them the vaccine.”

  Good acting, thought Laura, eavesdropping.

  “That bitch. We warned her.”

  “I’m on the hot seat for funding you. I’m your only advocate up here. Tell me why you did it, just between us, and I might be able to get the sentence commuted to exile.”

  Kelly snorted. “The people of Earth knew this was a test, and they failed. A man from the stars dropped into their laps and offered the secrets of the universe. All he really asked in return was for Earth to stop rape. Your nephew was our richest, most charismatic advocate ever. He owns a fifth of space, for God’s sake. The good old boys would rather kill him than even hold a vote on the subject. They were never going to give us equality or let us travel somewhere that had it. We did what we had to do to bring about change.”

  “And they dismissed the world’s richest woman in the blink of an eye.”

  “Exactly. After twenty years of work. How did they find out about Trumpet so soon?”

  “Stu read everything from Koku’s data vault on the moon. Kaguya gave him complete access,” Mary lied.

  “The damn Boy Scout. At least the bastions of patriarchy will know what a woman’s wrath is capable of.”

  “You started with the organization that kidnapped you.”

  Laura almost felt sorry for the woman.

  “When their leaders joined the government of an oil-producing country, somehow they could claim to be magically reformed. We infected the whorehouses they use, the ones where Allah doesn’t see. We see everywhere, and we don’t forgive.”

  “Yes. Stu told us everything. However, that wife of his withheld a few things. Maybe you could defer a little blame onto her. She explained how CU made DeathToTyrants so effective, but she claimed to have a memory lapse about the rest of the virus.”

  Kelly barked a laugh. “It’s called Fucked Stupid!”

  Mary smiled. “Okay, now I’m intrigued.”

  Laura sank to her knees.

  Kelly teased with some of the details. “That was the title of the signature perfume she designed. Your niece is probably the biggest biochemical genius in this century.”

  “Stop.” Laura couldn’t force enough air through her lungs.

  “She invented this perfume that temporarily lowers a man’s IQ by thirty points to make him easier to seduce and manipulate.”

  Her aunt laughed. “Great idea, but for most men, that’s called an erection.”

  Kelly shook her head. “No. In the initial trials, if the man got an erection, he passed out from lack of blood to the brain. Then she could take anything she wanted. When the man woke up, he was convinced he’d had the best sex ever.”

  Laura pushed on the door, but someone had locked it again.

  Mercy’s voice in her ear said, “Wait.”

  Mary crossed her arms. “What does this have to do with the Trumpet?”

  “That’s the brilliant part. She used the Override gene to develop drugs that only work on men. Women are immune to the final judgment.”

  “All of the prototypes have been destroyed,” Laura blurted to whoever might be listening. “That product never went into production. I only toyed with it because Grandfather was going to kill those men if I didn’t find another way.”

  Kelly couldn’t hear her and kept talking. “After the UN outlawed experimentation with Overrides, Laura destroyed all her notes.”

  “Which was why Mei Lyn had to steal her disk drive before that was erased, too.”r />
  “Exactly. We never could reproduce the perfume, but with practice, we were able to duplicate the immunity effect.”

  That’s why Kelly had needed so many samples from Mo.

  Then Kelly twisted the knife. “We all figured Laura used the last of Fucked Stupid on the ambassador to snare him in Rio.”

  Laura had been wrong about hell. Hell was being given paradise and losing it by your actions years ago. Hell was having your goddess mother-in-law listening to your every flaw. “I never forced Stu.”

  Then Mary asked the important question. “What I don’t get is that you aren’t all lesbians. You clearly like being with Mo, and you don’t want to kill him.”

  “He’s already infected with CU. The virus won’t attack anyone who carries it,” Kelly explained. “Speaking of Mo, when does he get back? When can I talk to him?”

  “Discontinue log,” Mary ordered, terminating the audio link.

  Waves of grief emanated from the brig. She’s probably telling Kelly what happened to Mo.

  Zeiss stood up from his console. “Laura, are you okay?”

  Laura turned to her father, her face wet with tears. She wanted to crawl under a rock, but she had too much to do. Every second, someone else was infected with her handiwork. “Sir, Aunt Mary squeezed a confession out of the prisoner. The plague is far worse than we thought. Contact the UN. Tell them Nyx and Earth First collaborated. Stop the distribution. Sojiro can provide a list of initial contamination sites and flights to quarantine.” She sniffed and wiped her face.

  “Does she have a cure?” Zeiss asked.

  “No, but we can inoculate people by infecting them with the Collective Unconscious talent. Even a drop of blood should do. For embryos, I’ll sign my patent for CU variant 37 over to the World Health Organization. Check my article in the Journal of Anthropology for disease-dispersion patterns to plan containment strategies. I could probably suggest a couple tests to find infected people in a crowd, based on cranial temperature and pupil response.” After a pause, she added, “We should immunize our own crew members as soon as possible.”