There were a number of reasons hooking up with an Alliance soldier was not a great idea at the moment, though. And despite what she said, I wasn’t really on her side — I was just against the Fathom. And despite my boasts about hunting them down, the plan in my mind was still to get away from all of this as soon as I reunited with Diane.
I could see through a window that we were landing on a very large ship. It looked like an Atlas-class destroyer — a floating city. We passed through a giant soft airlock into a large hangar. When we came to a stop, the door opened, and outside I could see Diane and Wade. “Rico!” Diane called to me.
I had this image in my head of my running up and pulling her close to me. I’ve seen it in similar situations, but it just didn’t seem that was our sort of relationship. Plus, that wasn’t me. Instead I simply walked over to her. “Are you okay?” Asking how others are doing also isn’t me, but I’m learning.
“Yes, no one was hurt at the church.” She smiled a worried smile as she said it. It was unfathomable that I would care about people I’d never seen at some church, but I knew Diane would be devastated if she thought she got more innocent people hurt. And since I believed I cared about Diane, that meant by some transitive property that I was happy no one at the church was hurt.
“Good.” I smiled. Genuine, almost.
Diane frowned. “Well, I mean none of the church people were hurt. But the people the Fathom sent after us were killed.”
I noted the passive voice. It wasn’t so much that Diane was devastated by having to kill as much as she thought she should feel that way. She knew her conscience was broken, but that’s a hard thing to repair ... I guess. Another very common thing I’m not knowledgeable about. “They were syndicate thugs working for mass murderers.”
She kept frowning. “We were syndicate thugs.” Morality is odd on killing. Optimally, you don’t kill anyone no matter the situation.
But when do you ever see an optimal situation?
Diane turned to Wade. “Thank you so much for what you did back there.”
“Just doing what I can to help ... I guess like you,” he said. “You really are quite a ... skilled lady.”
Diane’s cheeks turned red. “That’s not me at my best.”
“I’m sure,” he answered. “But I’m just glad you’re on our side.” And he smiled at her in a way that made me think of the female soldier. The rational side of me — the one usually most dominant — said this was none of my business, but somewhere inside me something primitive rumbled. I decided to push that from my mind and worry about other things.
“Come on,” Wade told us. “We’re going to meet with Redden.”
I looked desperately at Diane. I wasn’t with these people, and I don’t do meetings. She gave me a small shrug and followed Wade out of the hangar.
“I think Wade has the hots for your girl,” Sylvia whispered to me, then laughed.
I glared at her. “Do you run fast or something?”
“What?”
“Because you like to poke the bear.”
She frowned. “I think I already explained that I’m not scared of you. You’ve done some neat tricks shooting people, but I don’t want everyone to believe you’re something special, here to save us all. You are just a man, and you’re going to disappoint.”
She was probably right, and the only real question was how many would be harmed when that happened. And whether I’d care.
Sylvia was too smart to like me. I respected that. That’s why I was devising multiple plans to kill her if that somehow became relevant.
“If you want to attempt to help, though,” she said, “come on.”
We headed out of the hangar and into the ship. It looked a mix of civilians in suits and soldiers with guns — which made me just a mite uncomfortable while unarmed. We went down a hallway and into a conference room, where Diane and Wade waited along with the older Redden, who stood by a screen on the wall. He watched me very carefully. They were the cautious eyes of a man familiar with combat.
“Take a seat,” he said politely. “I’ve been informed you are now an asset for the Galactic Alliance.”
I sat down next to Diane. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about any government. I seem to be frustrating the Fathom, and now they’re all over me. I guess that makes us allies.”
“Good enough,” Redden said. He pushed a button near one of the doors that shut it and turned the lock indicator green. “I’m sealing this room for security purposes.” He sat down at the table across from me and took a long breath. “As I guess you can gather from the Fathom finding you on Acarro, we have a possible problem with spies. I’ve been told I can trust you, though.” The last words were said with great uncertainty.
Sylvia sat down on the other side of me. “I don’t trust him, and I don’t think we should work with him.” She looked at Diane. “Or her, for that matter. If we’re not interested in her knowledge about Mountain Fall anymore, then I don’t even know what we need her for. To be the Angel of Death’s handler?”
“You can call me Rico,” I stated.
“You’re both killers for Nystrom,” Redden said.
“Were,” Diane corrected him. “For me, that was quite some time ago.”
“The point is,” Redden continued, “most of those working for the Fathom are syndicate killers, so your insight could be useful. And I won’t pretend things aren’t desperate; we’ll take anyone even nominally on our side if he or she can be helpful.”
I shifted in my seat. I don’t know how people can stand meetings. “You point me at who you want killed, and I’ll consider it. How’s that?”
Redden laughed. “If it were that simple. We have an unknown entity terrorizing the universe — we’re not just going to shoot our way out of this one. But I think you can help us ...” He frowned. “If it interests you.”
“What happened with the Messenger we captured?” Wade asked. “Did we get any useful intelligence from her?”
Redden’s frown deepened. “A dead end, unfortunately. We have other leads, though.” He turned to me. “Have you heard of the Codix Federation?”
“I was in a coma for two months,” I answered, “not a thousand years.” The Codix Federation was a very rich group of planets with a number of different species. Space-faring vessels were among their more famous products — which they designed but didn’t manufacture, as that was for poorer planets to do. A lot of the computer equipment and software that runs — well, everything — was also designed by them. And they had a big entertainment industry on the planet Vueria, which wasn’t anything I cared for. I get my entertainment more actively than by staring at screens.
They had their own government and had been something like a separate state under the Galactic Alliance — perhaps the Alliance’s most powerful state. I had had business with them a number of times in the past. Those were times I was told to use more discretion than usual. Again, very rich planets — they take murder quite seriously.
“The Fathom have been bombing and terrorizing planets into submission,” Redden said, “but they can’t do that with the Codix Federation. If they want to rule a functional economy, they need those planets intact. That means they’re trying to win on those planets politically. They already own many of the politicians on the Codix Federation planets — either through bribes or intimidation. They have their Messengers there in full force, talking sweetly of how easy things will be when they give in to the Fathom — and how dangerous things will be if they ally with us.
“This is of interest for a number of reasons, beyond just the economic power the Codix Federation planets hold. We have some intelligence that some of their planets were involved in the creation of that monstrous ship the Fathom use.”
“A direct tie to the Fathom?” Wade said, a burst of hope taking form in a smile. “We finally have that?”
“If we can get onto Calipa,” Redden said. “That’s the Codix Federation planet that would have been involved in the design. Spe
cifically, we suspect the corporation Oron-Damari. The data is buried, I’m sure, but no project that large could be completely hidden.”
“So we get our people there and look for it,” Sylvia said. “That’s the move, right?”
Redden took a deep breath. “It’s not so simple. The Fathom are very interested in controlling Calipa as well. In a way, they already do. The Baixas — a violent criminal syndicate — is now out in the open there, basically having taken over enforcement for the police. We can’t just sneak some people in there and hope to break into Oron-Damari, bypassing all their security; we need political clout on Calipa to hope for any access. Plus, we’ll need the Baixas out of the way.
“Now, Calipa has an election in a couple days for its representative in the Codix Federation. The Fathom have a candidate, who has pledged to vote for the entire Codix Federation to ally with them. We placed our own candidate against him.”
I sighed. “I hate politics. This isn’t going to involve me protecting your candidate, is it?”
“No. That won’t work.” On a screen behind Redden appeared a news headline: “Candidate Found Dead of Apparent Heart Attack at Home.”
I laughed. “Well, that’s suspicious.” I was apparently the only one in the room who found that funny. Diane gave me a subtle headshake. “So ... you want me to kill their guy, then? It won’t look like a heart attack, though.”
“That wouldn’t be very democratic,” Redden said. He had a dry sense of humor. I could appreciate that. “So, the Fathom’s candidate is currently running unopposed, with only a couple days left. We have other allies on the planet — a resistance to the Fathom and their muscle, the Baixas — but right now they are too scared to publicly oppose the Fathom.”
“And that’s where Rico comes in,” Diane stated. “You need him to show the people not to be scared.”
“He has a way, so far, of humiliating the Fathom,” Redden said. “Right now most of the people on Calipa are acting like things are normal. But it is chaos. The Baixas syndicate brutalizes anyone who stands against them, and people are terrified. What we need is Rico’s help to show people the Fathom and their cronies can be opposed.”
“What could be the consequences, though?” Diane asked. “We’ve seen how the Fathom react to humiliation.”
“Again, Calipa is too important for them to treat it the way they’ve treated other, more minor planets,” Redden said. “They don’t want to control a universe in flames. Here, they’ll have to try to keep things civil when they come after us.”
I studied Redden some more. He was another difficult-to-read person, used to making tough decisions and keeping his emotions close. “Or at least you see that as a risk worth taking,” I said.
Redden’s face revealed a little more now. He didn’t like me. “There’s a lot riding on this. Not just the possibility of finding information leading us to the Fathom. There’s the psychological factor if the Fathom control all of the Codix Federation; many would consider their rule complete and this conflict over. And there is one more very important thing: We need access to the Codix Federation’s capital, Vesa. We are now certain that an archive there contains the information on the creation of Mountain Fall — enough information to lead us to it.”
Sylvia scoffed. “I’m guessing, once again, we can’t go straight there and just get that.”
“If only it were that simple,” Redden said. “Vesa has the best security in the known galaxy. It’s a completely controlled city. No one gets in without their knowledge. Right now, they are choosing to remain neutral in this conflict and have completely closed all entrances to the city — except for high-level officials from within the Codix Federation.”
“So we get one of our people elected,” Wade stated, “and that’s our way in.”
Redden nodded. “Correct. It will look like he’s going there to be our vote against the Fathom taking complete control of the Codix Federation, but then he’ll be able to access the archives — only accessible by elected officials — and hopefully we’ll get the Mountain Fall data, with the Fathom none the wiser that that was our true purpose.”
“So if I’m following all this,” Diane said, “we could possibly find out information about the Fathom and get more information on Mountain Fall, and the key is winning an election on Calipa. And that’s what you want Rico’s help with.”
I smiled. “They want to unleash me on the Baixas syndicate. Make the Galactic Alliance look strong and the Fathom weak ... basic politics.”
Another long look at me from Redden. He didn’t trust me, which just meant he wasn’t an idiot. “That would be the sum of it. We don’t think the Fathom know about the connection of the Codix Federation with Mountain Fall, but we don’t know how long that will last. And if they get the weapons cache from Mountain Fall before we do, this conflict is definitely over.”
“It’ll be hard to be subtle about this,” I told Redden.
“Yes. Hopefully the Fathom will just see this as a political thing — us trying to make sure the Codix Federation isn’t seen as completely in their control. But I would expect heavy resistance. Still, people seem to see you as a symbol of hope, so I’m hoping you can stage a proper show of force on Calipa to let people know that the Fathom’s rule is not complete and never will be.”
I shrugged. “Sounds like a job for me, I guess.” I wasn’t used to being an inspiration with my violence, but as long as that just meant selecting appropriate targets for my violence, it seemed easy enough. “I assume you have a candidate in mind for me to ‘campaign’ for?”
“We do,” Redden said. “A friend of mine, General Rusl. He’s currently at our base on Eyter but is secretly in contact with Calipa, building support with the resistance there. It’s going to take finesse to even get you on Calipa, as the Baixas thugs have taken over all the ports and are scrutinizing everyone coming in. He’ll help find a way to get you on planet, and then ... you do what you do. We’re betting a lot on you, but I’ve been told you’re worth the bet.”
“What are all these intelligence sources we’re relying on?” Wade asked.
“Not your concern,” Redden stated simply to Wade and Sylvia. “Are you two willing to back up ...” He motioned to me and Diane. “Our friends here?”
“If that’s the play,” Wade said, “I’m in.”
Sylvia looked hard at both of us. “You can count on us, at least.”
Redden looked at Diane and me. “And you will help us?”
“We all agree that the Fathom should be stopped,” Diane said. “We’ll do what we can.” She looked at me, maybe realizing it was presumptuous to speak for me.
I just nodded.
“Good.” Redden pressed some buttons on a console. “Let’s to talk to Rusl to see what plans he has for getting everyone on planet. Calipa is mainly populated by Dallians like Rusl, but there’s a sizeable human population, so you won’t stick out too much — until you want to.” Redden pressed a few more buttons, but the screen remained blank. “He should be waiting to talk to us ...” He spoke into an intercom. “Wheeler, I’m having trouble getting a channel open to Eyter.”
“We’re having communications trouble with our base there,” a voice answered. “We can’t raise anyone. We’ll see if — oh, we’re getting a call from Rusl for you. I’ll patch you through.”
The screen in the conference room switched to the video call. The Dallians are covered in fur, with faces somewhere between canine and human in appearance. Their blood is red, similar to humans’. And that was what was all over the table on the screen, where Rusl’s head sat.
“Don’t say anything,” Dip warned.
I discarded a number of glib comments I had thought of. This was kind of funny to me. When you call someone, you don’t expect to find him decapitated. That’s wacky. But everyone else in the room looked shocked or horrified, including Diane, who had her hand over her mouth. Redden was expressionless, though.
A person walked into the frame behind Rusl’s
head. He was in black combat gear and wore a white mask. He leaned close to the camera until we could see the red eyes peering from behind the mask. “Hello, General Redden.”
Redden turned to the intercom. “Wheeler, our facility on Eyter is under attack. We need to mobilize whoever is there.”
“I assure you there is no one nearby left to react,” the figure said. “My team has been thorough.” He turned his attention to me. “Hello, Rico. We have never formally met, have we?”
“No. We have not, Drav,” I answered. “Are we going to?”
“My organization has received its next contract from our new benefactors,” Drav stated, sitting next to the decapitated head, “and it looks like it’s finally time.”
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I said. “The Shade are a whole team of trained killers, and I’m just a guy who often kills whole teams of trained killers.”
Drav laughed a little. “Make it interesting. We’ll see you soon.” The feed cut.
Everyone looked stunned, including Redden, who kept staring at the screen. “Remember,” Dip told me. “He mentioned that Rusl was a friend, so this could have hit him differently. This is normally where one would express sympathy.”
“You okay?” I asked Redden.
He glared at me. “NO! I’M NOT OKAY!”
I messed that up. I felt like I should get points for trying, though.
CHAPTER 14
“I just march in there and I kill people.”
Diane was obviously thinking about something else as we sat alone in Redden’s office, waiting. She snapped out of it and looked at me. “What?”
“I know the Shade are probably considered more fearsome than me, but what they do isn’t as difficult,” I explained. “I mean, it sounds difficult — they take on high-level security to get at high-profile targets, but they’re a group. And they work much more in secret. No one sees them until they strike. What I do — though simpler — is harder. People know I’m coming. They see me coming. And they still can’t stop me.”
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