"You're failing, Hestian," Antoine said, his deep voice smooth as silk. "If you sign the document, this ends."
An empty moment passed. The temptation came to her. Sign. End it. Just end it. She couldn't go through that again. She shouldn't have to. She'd fought as hard as she could, hadn't she?
Hadn't she?
Did it matter? Could any human being be asked to devote so much to a cause? To condemn themselves to something like this? To pain like that? What was she accomplishing anyway? Nobody knew this was going on, save those in the room. She would inspire nobody by continuing on.
"No," she groaned.
A flicker of annoyance crossed Antoine's face. "More power," he said.
"Director, the device…"
"More. Power. Doctor." Each word dripped malicious hate.
Tia's eyes met Breivik's. There was uncertainty in them. Certainly no malice.
That was what made it even worse when his finger went to the tablet again.
Everything dissolved into pain again. Her head felt like it was burning with the heat of a star. She screamed until her throat was raw, though she could barely feel it and didn't hear it. Darkness seemed to yawn before her, threatening to pull her in toward its endless oblivion.
Just before she tipped in, the pain stopped. Through her ragged breaths, she heard Breivik speak. "The device is giving overload errors, Director. I had to shut it down."
"We can always implant a new one," he growled. His eyes turned toward her again while she was slumped over the table. "You're failing. I can see it in your eyes. Sign the amnesty and this ends."
Ordinarily, she would have glared at him. But she didn't have the energy. Though the pain was gone, its shadow still filled her heart with dread. She didn't want to suffer that again.
To her shame and horror, she felt her hand slipping forward on the desk. Her fingers extended out, moving centimeter by centimeter for the offered pen.
In the corner of her eye, her oppressor grinned. He sat back in his chair and folded his hands on the table. An anticipatory gleam filled his eyes.
Her fingers reached the pen. She slid it into the grasp of her right hand. Her other hand reached for the paper.
Am I going to do this? The thought came to her, and the immediate, instinctive answer was a resounding YES. She had to do it. She had to stop the pain. She simply had to. I can't go on! she wailed to herself in terror and despair.
It won't change anything except ending the pain. I can always testify that it was under coercion. That I was forced to, tortured into it. So many of us have suffered the same, I'm no better than them. She brought the pen up and slowly moved it toward the paper. I don't want to hurt again.
Pain still came. She felt shame at what she was thinking. She was going to surrender to them. That's what this was. A surrender. Her oppressors would take this paper, with her authentic signature, and a recording of her signing it, and present it to her people. Her family, her comrades, would know she'd been broken by them. They'd know it.
It's not them suffering here! The part of her that wanted to sign was adamant. Not signing meant more pain, and she didn't think she could take it. What good is fighting them? They'll just forge your signature if they need to!
If I surrender once, I'll keep surrendering.
For a moment, her thoughts went to Linh and the others in her cell. Ngoc, Quang, Kanda, Thuần and Mathilde, Nhung. They'd all lost that day. She'd lost too, her blood, but they lost their lives, and Linh her arm. All lost for the cause of their freedom.
If you sign this, you spit on that sacrifice. You spit on their memories.
Her hand stopped moving toward the paper. Her tormentors noticed this. "You've come so far, Hestian," Antoine said, his voice again smooth. "You know it's hopeless. End your suffering."
She ignored his words. Her mind fixed on the image of Jim. The pain she saw in his eyes whenever the past came up. He'd faced his own choice, he'd listened to his despair, and he'd cut his losses. And look at what it did to him. Look at the regret, the pain that it brought him.
"Sign the paper, Hestian. You know you will eventually, so why wait?" The smoothness was still there, but beneath it, she could hear harshness.
She swallowed, caught between the two conflicting impulses. The choice was clear. Resistance or submission?
Resist!
Within her, a flame lit back to life, fueled by her fury at her enemies. Everything Tia had left filled her tired body. She had just enough energy to push herself up and forward. Her hand balled into a fist around the pen and jabbed it down toward the table.
Antoine moved a second too quickly for her. Instead of the pen tip burying itself into his hand, it hit the plastic surface of the table.
He didn't bother giving an order. His left hand reached over and ripped the data tablet from Breivik's hands. His right hand came over and stabbed at the surface.
The pain returned, so intense she didn't feel herself all over and out of her chair to the floor. It became her existence again, all save the darkness she felt yawning ahead.
This time, she was ready for it. She tried to pull herself into that darkness, as it had to be better than what she was suffering now. But she couldn't move. She couldn't do anything.
Thankfully, this time, the darkness came for her, and she happily fell in.
* * *
Antoine was so intent on Tia's twitching body that he couldn't keep Breivik from reclaiming the tablet from his hands. The League doctor's eyes scanned the displays. "You fool!" he spat, his hand coming up to the control. The body stopped twitching.
"I didn't say you could turn it off!" Antoine shouted at him.
"She's unconscious; she's not feeling it anyway!" Breivik retorted. "Besides, you're burning the implant out!"
"You can put in another one." His tone retained its fury. That bitch, she actually tried to strike me! Damn Hestian stubbornness!
"Not if the implant takes her CNS with it!" Breivik retorted. "We've already lost subjects to such overloads! You could kill her, or reduce her to a vegetative state with brain damage, or cripple her nervous system to the point the implants won't work!"
That brought him pause. Rene would be furious, as would the Council. We can't have her dying in custody. Not yet anyway. Antoine bit into his lip and put reins on his temper. "Very well. Log the data on this exercise, and we'll try again later." He gathered the amnesty papers from the table.
"In time, it won't matter," Breivik said. "Once we can achieve thought interaction, we can make it impossible for her to refuse to sign. You will get what you need."
"That could be months from now by your own admission, and we require her signature sooner than that," Antoine answered. "Keep me informed of all testing, as usual, and I will see you later, Doctor." He took a last glance at Tia's body before stomping toward the door.
On his trip back to his office, Antoine continued to seethe over Breivik's actions. He should go to Aristide about it, but the less he had to interact with that ice-cold Leaguer, the better. The League was useful to his plans to an extent, but in the long run, he was no fool. They would come for him as quickly as they were coming for those moralist holier-than-thou hypocritical busybodies on Canaan. The time would come when he would break from them. He just had to be ready.
His temper was under control when he got to his office. He sat at his desk and set the amnesty papers to the side. Only then did he notice a message on his system. He opened it up.
Cousin, we are running out of time—Rene.
Attached to the message was a hyperlink onto the GalNet. Antoine checked it and found he was looking at the Rand City Financial Times. The headline made him bristle.
Rigault Heavy Industries Suffering Capital Shortage?
Someone's been talking, he thought. I will have to accelerate the timetable.
19
The Majha jumped into Hestia's solar system at the commercial limit, obeying the traffic control rules for the system. This gave them n
early half a day before they made orbit.
Henry was asleep when they made the jump in. After waking, he went to the bridge and met with Kaiya. He noted that her traffic-monitoring holotank showed a vessel not far away burning quickly towards them. The IFF it was giving off was government and its size classification marked it as a cutter. "Company coming?"
"They haven't hailed or given any other signal or challenge," Kaiya said. "We're on standby until they pass."
The following twenty minutes were tense for Henry. If the cutter searched the Majha they'd find the Shadow Wolf in its pod. A visual scan could confirm his ship's identity, even if they had the IFF off. Their entire operation would be compromised before they were in orbit. His eyes remained fixed on its location as it drew closer and closer.
It was still fifteen minutes before it could intercept that its course shifted ever so slightly. At first, Henry wasn't sure what it was doing. He ran the numbers in his head while observing the track. Slowly, a grin came to his face.
"They're not coming for us anymore," Kaiya noted.
"Nope. They're being clever." He held a finger toward a vessel burning out to the limit. "They burned toward us to throw that ship off the trail. By the time they see the cutter round us without stopping, they won't have time to accelerate to the limit before the cutter overtakes them."
"Better them than us," she noted. "Have you given any further thought to your departure from the system?"
"I have, but the plan's pretty much all we can do. Once we extract, we'll burn hard for the lunar L5 point."
"I'll be doing the same the moment we drop the Shadow Wolf from the pod," she said. "I'm a little worried, I don't deny. The security in-system is more active than usual."
"Yeah. Like they expect trouble." Henry's grin turned appropriately wolfish. "Smart of them, because that's just what I'm aiming to give them."
* * *
Everyone moved into position in the minutes before the Majha made orbit of Hestia. Yanik would be in command of the Shadow Wolf, with Cera on the helm and Pieter, Samina, and Linh running the engines while Oskar stood by in the infirmary. Henry went down with Miri, Piper, and Brigitte for the rescue team. For purposes of space, Felix went down in their cargo shuttle while Wu and his team flew down in a second.
The shuttles' exteriors lit up with red as they made atmospheric entry. Their entry course was carefully regulated and Piper and Miri, manning the flight controls, obeyed them to the letter. This brought them in a high spiral over Thyssenbourg.
The city grew larger as they approached. It was like many great cities in Neutral Space or indeed the Terran Coalition. Great spires of glass and steel reached into the sky by hundreds of meters. Nestled among them were smaller buildings that were no less impressive. The streets were laid in a classic grid pattern.
"Looks posh," Brigitte said. "Not quite what I imagined from hearing Tia talk."
"That's because it's the city center, Brig," Henry replied. "It's where the megacorps keep their offices, as well as supporting businesses and agencies. This is where the people who come from other worlds live and work. The Hestians' homes aren't so nice." After several seconds, he motioned again to the window. Their approach was bringing them in toward the spaceport. Outside of the far walls were smaller buildings, packed in and not so elegantly arranged. "Actual Hestians like Tia have to live in the slums, unless they're members of the planet's government. Those get the privilege of living in the city center and using the shops and stores there like the off-worlders do. Even the Hestians who work as domestic staff aren't allowed to shop in those stores."
"That makes no sense," Felix groused. "Businesses want to make money, right? Hestian money spends just as well, doesn't it?"
"They feel they earn greater overall profit by keeping the Hestians under strict control," Miri observed from the co-pilot seat. "Although I don't think some of them care. They enjoy the power."
The conversation ended as Piper brought them in for their landing. Their rented hangar was large enough for both shuttles, which sat side by side. "There's nobody to fly the shuttles back, so is the Majha crew writing them off?" she asked.
"Kaiya's sending pilots down with the next group of shuttles," Felix explained. 'They'll fly back when the Shadow Wolf makes her landing. Now everyone shush."
Felix's instruction was well-placed. Through the shuttle cockpit window, they could see the vehicle pull up. They disembarked from the shuttle in time for the uniformed personnel in the vehicle to step out. They were customs inspectors, the bane of independent traders everywhere.
To make things look good, the teams unloaded the shuttles. Each had several crate stacks of raw grain picked up on their way to Hestia, mostly from other worlds in Neutral Space. The customs inspectors were painfully thorough, inspecting each crate carefully while one of their number scanned the shuttles directly. Everyone waited with patience until they were done and left them alone. Only when they were gone did the two teams feel safe in opening up the shuttles' scan-shielded smuggling holds to pull out their gear.
The time wasted in waiting did ensure their rented vehicles arrived. Ordered by the Majha directly, three aircars pulled up, enough to carry both teams and their gear. The attendees departed without a word and they loaded up the cars. They drove away in a single line.
With customs having okayed their arrival, the security gate gave them only the most precursory check before allowing them out. The lead vehicle had Wu and three of his people. In the middle vehicle, Felix drove while Henry sat in the front. Brigette sat in the back with Piper and some of their gear. Miri drove the rear vehicle with the rest of Wu's team with her.
Traffic thickened and thinned as they went, and traffic lights worked just about the same as they did on other worlds. At some of the stops, the local businesses were close enough to see the writing on their doors and windows. In virtually every case, they included, in big lettering, the words "Corporate ID Required for Service." Some outright stated "Hestians Not Allowed" in multiple languages, while employment flyers sometimes included "Hestians Need Not Apply."
It wasn't new for Henry. He'd seen it before. The others hadn't, however, and he glanced around to see their bewildered reactions. Felix's face quickly shifted to disgust. "This is like something from a nightmare. Telling people where they can and can't live, or shop. On their own damned world too. Tia didn't do this justice."
"To be fair, this got worse after she had to flee," Henry noted quietly. "It's a way to control them. They limit the Hestians' choices to keep power over them. That way, they can mine Hestia's mineral wealth more easily. It's all they care about."
Felix glowered and said nothing else.
Their path took them to the northern part of Thyssenbourg and a housing complex for offworlders. "Our asset on-site keeps a safehouse here," he explained, not needing to say anything further. He followed Wu to a parking space outside of one of the apartment homes. Many of the spaces were empty and the three vehicles were able to park together.
The safehouse was meant for two people, with a pair of bedrooms, a pair of bathrooms, a living area, and a kitchen. Once they were all securely inside with their gear, a sweep for surveillance devices was quickly made and their safety confirmed. Felix approached the closet in the main bedroom. "Our man said he had the uniforms here… ah, there we are."
For the next half hour, everyone made ready. First, they shed their spacer jumpsuits to make room for the light tactical armor they'd hauled down in one of the packs. Over the armor, they donned the Rigault Corporate Security uniforms necessary for their plan. Their sidearms and weapons were carefully checked, and the data drives and devices handed out. As they finished their preparation, Felix spoke up. "If it all goes right, this will be easy. Let's assume it won't. Stay sharp, keep your focus, and maintain fire discipline. We're not here to fight a war. We find out what the League is doing, we get the prisoner, and we get out. Questions?"
There were none. The prior briefings during the journe
y to Hestia sufficed for them all.
Wu checked his wrist-mounted link. "We're synchronized. Everyone, let's move out."
20
Sleep brought no rest to Tia. The nightmares haunted her, dreams of Hestian children lining up to have the implant installed in their necks. She saw entire fields of her people standing in arranged lines like machines, moving about until they formed the Rigault logo while Antoine watched with a smile.
She woke in time for breakfast, such as it was. After her ordeal of the prior day, she was famished. She couldn't resist the bread roll laid out for her.
As she ate, she looked across the row of cells to the opposite cell. There was a new occupant; a younger man was there, no older than thirty, with a darker olive complexion and a face she found familiar. She went up to the bars, as far as she could with her chains stuck to the ring on the floor. After finishing her roll, she checked to see if the guards were in sight. When they weren't, she called out to him. "What's your name?"
"Quan," he replied. His eyes focused on her, searching her face as if he could remember it. "Quan Khánh."
Her mouth hung open for a moment. "Little Quan?" she asked. "Linh's cousin?"
For a moment, he seemed surprised. Then his eyes widened with recognition. "Tia? Tia Nguyen?"
She nodded. "You remember me, then?"
"Yes. Yes, I remember… you and Linh gave me and the others your books, the forbidden ones." He shook his head. "We took them to heart even after the revolution failed, when the corps raised our food prices to punish us. We read them until they fell apart, then we found new copies. I joined the Party when I was seventeen."
"Then you are Comrade Quan now."
He nodded. "Is Linh still alive? Have they killed her like the others?"
She shook her head. "The last I heard, she was fine."
Relief showed on his face. It didn't last. "You're one of the subjects for their neck implant?"
Breach of Trust: Breach of Faith Book Four Page 15