Two—she could do two. She could handle them. Maybe even learn enough to understand one of them. She felt the purple crystal was somehow less threatening. It makes people take naps when it’s used; it doesn’t scream like it’s dying.
She was going to have to become the Blight Crystal expert. She couldn’t trust anyone else to do it. But, she still needed a team under her. Hunt would have no problem working with her. But the Source-casters were another problem. She pulled up her LightTab, tapping on the icon to contact Captain Hassan.
She typed the message, keeping it short and sweet.
Bring Kaiban to the U labs tomorrow morning. Inform his husband that Kaiban will live there for the foreseeable future.
Seconds later, her LightTab chimed and the Captain’s response popped up. She had simply said, “We will bring him at eight o’clock. Shall we detain the husband if he gives us any problems?”
Ayna hesitated for just a second before tapping back, “Yes.”
Ayna knew she should have felt some remorse, but she couldn’t help be satisfied for one less problem—especially one that put her in debt to the Artificers. The Mars colony had gone dark. There was a video on the SatNet that had been sent from their facilities and Kingston Cross had been quick to send a link to it, but Ayna had not watched it yet. Her assistant stood in front of her desk, telling her the contents. One of Karim’s officers said that the supply trade with the female prison had been filled with officers that attacked them. The background was full of people fighting. The only concern about the development she had was why Kingston had thought it was worth her time. It was a concern that would have to wait.
She dismissed the boy with a wave of her hand and turned back to her LightTab, where she had Hunt’s initial report on the Blight Crystal open and was flipping between it and searching the SatNet to learn the terms she didn’t understand. Now that they had Kaiban, the research would resume in the morning. She still had hundreds of pages to read once she finished Hunt’s report. She needed more books on source and she knew where they were. Captain Hassan had dutifully left to get them for Ayna.
Her assistant burst into the room, “Captain Hassan is here with the books. Bobi is also here.”
Ayna sighed and tossed her LightTab onto the desk, placed her hands on the desk, and pushed the chair back. She stormed out of the door, crossing her arms as she saw Bobi, standing to the side of the ten guards and chests they had lugged in.
“You’ll get the books back when I am done with them. Do you want to argue?”
Bobi looked her over, “I do! You’ve backed out of previous arrangements without any warning, and now you expect me to trust you in another arrangement that involves lending you my family’s fortune?”
“I do. You gave me cause to back out of the previous arrangement. Are you going to give me a reason to back out of this one?”
Bobi cocked his head to the side, glaring at her in a way that made the guards shuffle uncomfortably, “The Artificers won’t be happy about this. They come to my library often. Do you want them to rebel?”
Ayna could see the consequences of such a riot. They would pour through the streets like they did to the Underground, when the BloodSmiths did something they didn’t like. Yes, the Artifices were dangerous when they decided to be. Even though they were untrained in combat, the Prin Guard wouldn’t be able to keep back a rebellion by the Artificers; they had far superior numbers compared to the remaining guard.
Ayna turned to Captain Hassan and nodded, “I guess if we can’t keep the books without Bobi telling the Artificers what was done, we will have to hide it.”
“We can put him with Kaiban’s husband.”
Ayna considered. Word would take longer to get to the Artificers, but would still get there.
“No. Make it look like a robbery in the Underground.”
Hassan nodded and signaled to her men. They grabbed Bobi roughly and dragged him out. Bobi’s face lost color, and he struggled against the hands that held him, “Ayna! Are you serious? You can’t do this!” He paused for a second, waiting for a response that she wouldn’t give to him, “This isn’t who you are! We’ve known each other since we were kids!”
Captain Hassan waved at her men to stop and stepped forward, pulling her Captain’s sash off and tying it around Bobi’s mouth. She gestured at the other guards, who started dragging Bobi again as he mumbled through screams and tried to talk around the improvised gag.
“Wait,” Ayna said. She took a step towards Bobi, who was now crying, his eyes red, “You don’t know who I am. We haven’t known each other, truly, since we were ten years old. I have always done what I need to do. There is nothing more important right now than finding out the secrets of these new elements, and you’ve gotten in my way. But, I will give you one last gift,” She looked at the Captain, “Make it painless.”
Hassan saluted and followed the men out.
* * *
Ayna rubbed her eyes, willing the coffee steaming from its mug to work faster. She had only gotten two hours of sleep after she spent her night reading Bobi’s books. The crisp white walls in the lab felt too clinical-- and way too bright. She leaned against the railing, sipping her coffee, as Hunt ran around the platform. His habit of straightening every tool was driving Ayna nuts, but she knew she’d appreciate his meticulous nature once the experiments were in full swing. So she sat back, resisting the urge to browse the feeds for any updates on the Bobi situation.
Someone had quickly found his body; the Prin Guard patrols knew exactly where to look. They had promptly released a public statement about the atrocious theft and put out a large bounty for the books and anyone found possessing them. Surprisingly, Hassan said they’d received several reports this morning of other violent thefts nearby. Happy coincidences, I guess.
Ayna pushed down the guilt with a gulp of burning coffee.
“I think we are ready.” Hunt said, surveying the platform with his hands on his hips.
Ayna pulled out the light tab and sent a message to Hassan, “Bring him in.”
A few seconds passed before Ayna heard the click and whir of the locks releasing on the lab doors and the mechanism pulling them open. Hassan entered, trailed by two guards that pulled Kaiban along. The man looked like he’d aged a decade from the three days beneath the states House.
He glared at Ayna, though she had no idea if he hated her for forcing him to do this or for imprisoning his husband.
It needs to be done.
There were no words to make the situation any better, so she turned to Hunt and gestured toward Kaiban. the scientist eagerly took the lead.
“Hello, sir. I am excited to begin this study properly!”
Ayna cringed, taking a sip from her mug to hide the expression.
Hunt continued, “No doubt you heard of Shara’s encounter with the crystal?”
Kaiban nodded.
“Good, good! I want to make it scream, too. It could be useful data. Are the screams real? Are there words? Is it amplification of Intuition or merely a visceral reaction to being toyed with?”
Kaiban said nothing.
“Come, come!” Hunt gestured toward the platform.
The guards gave Kaiban a shove when he didn’t move.
He stumbled forward, continuing towards the platform, hands bound in front of him.
Hunt rubbed his hands together, “Here, over here. We have a pure sample.” He gestured to the red crystal sitting in a small glass cube. He took the top off. “From Ayna’s description, it seems like Shara just attuned herself to it and was moving it when it started screaming.” He nodded at Kaiban, then the crystal.
Kaiban stepped forward until he stood in front of the box. He looked at Ayna “How much of this until we get to go home?”
Ayna shrugged. “Long enough to find something useful. Or until we get a volunteer.”
“If I volunteer, will you let Jahwo go?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Kaiban nodded, but his eye
s thinned as he looked at her, as if already dismissing that she would consider freeing his husband. He turned back to the crystal, his hands shaking as he tried to slip one hand into the container, but his shackles were in the way. “Hand it to me.”
Hunt looked frantically about, then rushed to another table, pulling on gloves that lay there. He returned, picked up the Blight crystal and hesitated before dropping it into Kaiban’s bare hands.
Kaiban closed his eyes. After a moment, Ayna thought she heard him humming a single low note. She stepped closer. The noise was coming from the crystal. A quick glance at Hunt showed a veneer of interest over wide eyes filled with fear. Ayna instinctively backed up to the railing again. Just as she placed a hand around the top bar, the crystal began to float. The humming grew louder.
“When Shara was playing with it, it was like she was pulling strands out of it.” Ayna said.
Kaiban didn’t seem to hear, but after a few moments he opened his eyes, shot her another suspicious glare and then turned back to the red gem floating a foot in front of his face. He moved his hand next to it, made a grabbing gesture in the air, and pulled.
Strings of blood-like liquid burst from it and it screamed. Hunt jumped back in shock, knocking into the table behind him. Kaiban looked at Ayna with uncertainty.
“Don’t pull more, just hold it,” she yelled over the noise. Kaiban nodded, keeping his hand where it was. A second passed and the scream grew quieter, like a background noise. Voices broke through over it, clearly speaking. Most of the words seemed foreign to Ayna, but the cadence of conversations came through clearly.
Her heart stopped when she heard a voice she recognized: her own. “I will give you one last gift—make it painless.”
Ayna sat into her chair with a huff, kicking her legs up onto the desk. Of course, they’d been recording the first test with Kaiban, and, of course, the damn crystal had done something new—-something exciting—and, of course, it was incriminating. Ayna needed some reassurance, but she was alone. Hafi would offer some words of encouragement... wouldn’t he? Perhaps even he was too far removed from his mercenary past to support what she had done. Jo certainly wouldn’t understand.
So here she sat, pulling up the partition with the recording. She played it again. Hunt and Kaiban were visible in the center of the camera’s viewpoint. She watched the surprise from Hunt that turned to excitement. The implication of the sentence “spoken” by the crystal was lost on him—so far. Kaiban was another story; his head jerked to where Ayna stood offscreen. The distrust in his eyes poured out.
No, he can’t ever be free to talk about what I did and what he heard. Neither can his husband.
She’d set them up a pleasant apartment in a part of the lab and use the lab’s security to keep them inside. Perhaps they’d never hear about Bobi and they’d definitely would tell no one anything. She hated to do it, but it had to be done. Prin could not afford destabilization, just as they were making a dent in the Xenai.
She exited the video playback, considering removing the file from the server. She could get Hunt to do the experiment again, but without her there. Perhaps the crystal had somehow latched onto her guilt, or Kaiban had been too focused on her while performing it. She had seen some unpredictable results with Source when Shara had been young and unfocused. She selected the file and hovered over the icon to delete it.
Or perhaps Kaiban somehow controlled it—forcing the crystal to pull something out of me. If so, a repeated experiment without me there could be disastrous.
She’d have to make Hunt a nice apartment, too. Just in case his oblivious faith in her ever wavered. He’d probably appreciate being so close to the work.
She clicked on the video again. An error popped up — Someone else was streaming, and it was unavailable for playback.
Who would watch at this hour?
She checked the time on the Light Tab. Hunt would never be up this late—or early. Kaiban hadn’t been given access. She clicked again. The error popped up again.
Perhaps just a bug. I’ll have Matt double check the permissions.
She forced herself not to imagine all the worst-case scenarios of who could have gotten unauthorized access. She turned back to her reports, her eyes glazing over at the technical details in Hunt’s write ups. She clicked out of them and opened up the latest on Tani’s project and tried her best not to be happy that the girl had lost a patient, prompting the Undergrounders to regain a small amount of caution about the experiment. The report showed the waitlist for the operations Tani did had lost a few people, but even so, more had signed up than had dropped off.
A knock came from her office door.
“Come in.” She closed out her connection to the server.
Kingston Cross poked his head in, “Sorry to bother you. I just finished a meeting with some of the fighters from Century—well, all of them, really. They’re leaving with the latest batch of recruits. I saw your light. Is everything okay? It’s late, even for you.”
Ayna yawned in response, then cleared her throat, “Yes, it is. There won’t be any rest for me tonight.”
Kingston slipped into the room, shutting the door behind him. He crossed and sat in the chair directly opposite Ayna. Leaning forward, he looked deep into her eyes, brows furrowed, “Bobi’s death must be hard on you. I know you were childhood friends, despite recent differences in opinions.”
Ayna pushed down the upwelling of panic. Am I so easy to read?
“I still considered him a good friend. It’s been a substantial loss.”
Kingston stood, looking her over again, “I’m sure we’ll find out who was responsible, eventually. You shouldn’t let it keep you up. You’ve got too many important things to do—doing them sleep deprived won’t help anyone.”
Ayna smiled, “Thanks. I’ll try to catch up tomorrow—uh—-tonight.”
Kingston offered a smile and a nod and headed out. With his hand on the partially opened door, he paused, “Oh, you should talk to your assistant. He seems to have left his LightTab on his desk. The building isn’t so secure that it wouldn’t go missing.”
“Thanks. We’ve had that conversation a few times.” He nodded again and left.
Ayna kicked her feet off the desk, then stood, following Kingston out. She picked up the tablet from her assistant’s desk, and the thought occurred to her. He had set up the partition for the lab.
No, no, no, he knows better.
She quickly opened it using her administrative override code and logged onto the States House server. Her heart started pounding when she saw the Lab partition folder sitting in the directory. She tapped on it, and it opened. It shouldn’t have let him even see it, let alone open it. The video lay there, ready to watch.
Great. It could have been anyone who found this and has admin override. She glanced up at the doors that lined the hallway. Every single one of them—every council member and their assistants—was now a suspect. She could have them all rounded up, but that would raise suspicion from all of them. I’ll have to have Hassan investigate quietly.
She backed out of the partition and selected it for editing. Sure enough, the idiot hadn’t removed himself from it after creating it.
I should have checked the permissions before I put anything in there, but he’s still getting fired.
49
Shara
Four days traipsing around the mountains with very little rest made every muscle in Shara’s legs ache and tremble beneath her. She grabbed onto the tree branch to her right and pulled herself up the last step of the incline. The slope leveled out and the tent peaks that she had seen from the bottom of the slope came into full view. This was the last known location of one of her trap teams.
Shara looked over what was left of the camp. The fire pit smeared out from the central point of the camp, a trail of burned material leading up to a large log. Metal plates and cups splashed out from the log. Did something go through the fire to get to the men who had been sitting comfortably around
the log? The tent behind the utensils had a slice extending from the ground to the peak of it, freeing one half of the front flap to whip away from the beam. The support had been knocked over, leaving the tent askew with the loose flap and collapsed side whipping in the cold mountain breeze.
A pile of bodies sat at the western edge of the camp, the striking contrast of the light snow fallen over them and the mountain peaks behind the stack of pale and twisted limbs. A large circle of blood had grown outwards from the pile. Small crystals were growing out of the puddle, climbing their way up the pile. An arm that had been gaping open from a gash that started at just below the shoulder and ran down to the elbow had a series of red crystals growing in it. The arm didn’t seem to be attached to a body. The uneven edges that ended the arm at the top had grown a larger crystal, which folded back into the pile, curving gently, creating an impression of a shoulder. A torso near the dismembered arm had a similar crystal sloping down from the shoulder, where the arm should have been. The crystal grew down and thinned out before ending in a jagged crown of red jewels.
Shara stepped carefully over the remnants of the camp’s chaos, toward the bodies. Her men crested the hill and stayed at the edge, looking around the camp without moving, as if ignoring the bodies meant that they were not there. Some atrocity had happened, but not to them, and they could choose not to look. Shara could not. It all meant something. It had to mean something.
She picked up a thick stick, charred on one end, and used it to poke at the crystalline formations on the corpses. The bodies gave way under the pressure of the stick. Not stiff. The layers of skin, fat and muscle reacted like any living thing would to being prodded with a stick. She looked around. One tent on the opposite edge of the camp showed no signs of being gone through or destroyed. Glancing back at her men, she saw they still stood in the same grouping, ignoring the bodies in favor of pointing to the destroyed fire. She walked to the single standing tent.
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