“We know they’re coming after you,” Diane said.
“Well, this time. That’s unusual for them. They don’t usually announce themselves. That’s not how they got their reputation.”
Diane stared at me for a few seconds. “Are you jealous of the people coming to kill you?”
“I’m just saying we’ve been compared in the past, and I don’t think everyone completely appreciates what I do.”
“So you think you can take them on?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t say that.”
Redden entered the room. His face was calm, but I could see there were things raging beneath, like seeing tiny ripples on the surface of a pond, indicating things thrashing about far below. “Thank you for waiting,” Redden said as he sat at the metal desk. “Obviously, there were things to handle, with ... what happened to General Rusl.”
“I’m sorry,” Diane said. She looked so sincere. She might have been.
“You need to say something, too,” Dip pestered.
“And I’m sorry for how I behaved, too,” I said. “I’m not very good with social stuff. Any basic human interaction things, really. I mean, I’m saying I’m sorry, but I don’t really even understand that concept or know if I’m capable of actually feeling sorry.”
Redden stared at me. More raging under the water. “You’re a psychopath?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s an easier way to put it.”
Redden laughed a hearty, genuine laugh. “Oh, the friends we’re making trying to save civilization.”
“Frankly, when everything is being immolated around you,” I said, “it helps to have someone on your side who won’t get all emotional about it.”
“Good point.” He looked at Diane. “And you — we don’t know much about you either. Just that you were a killer for Nystrom who later posed as a police officer. Are you a psychopath as well?”
“I try not to be.”
“Not the time for that. War is going to make psychopaths of us all.” Redden took a bottle of brown liquid out of his desk and poured himself a glass. He started to take a drink, then, as an afterthought, motioned to us to ask if we wanted some. We both shook our heads, and he drank.
“Why did you want to talk to us privately?” Diane asked.
“I don’t know who I can trust anymore,” Redden said, taking another small sip.
I laughed. “And you picked us?”
He laughed as well. “Someone else is going to join us for this.” There was a knock on the door. “And there he is.”
The door to Redden’s office opened, and in strolled Anthony Burke. “Hey, guys.” He waved at us with his bandaged hand.
I could see Diane frown. She turned to Redden. “So you’ve been working with him this whole time?”
Redden shook his head. “No. But when Rico here mentioned Anthony, I did start looking more into who our mysterious intelligence sources are. And then today he showed up.”
Anthony didn’t sit next to us but stood near a wall where he had a good view of the three of us. “Things have gotten so dire, I decided to stop being cute about this. So I stepped out of the shadows.”
Redden refilled his glass. “With things so desperate, in a way you guys are an answer to a prayer. In another way it feels like I’m making a deal with the devil.”
Diane kept a cautious eye on Anthony. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“I think we know who the devil is,” Anthony stated. “The goal is to stop the Fathom. As I’ve explained to you and now to Redden, that’s my sole interest. I’m here to help the Alliance defeat them, and then my involvement is done.”
“You’re gonna retire and pick up a hobby?” I asked. “Maybe woodworking?”
Anthony just gave me a sly smile. “You don’t have to believe me, but I think we all agree we are in a critical situation and there are bigger enemies than me. We still know so little about the Fathom.”
“It would help if that Messenger we captured was still alive,” Redden said.
Anthony shrugged. “We had to push her hard to see if we could get anything from her. It didn’t work out.”
Diane kept her focus mainly on Anthony. “So we still don’t even know anything about the people speaking for the Fathom?”
“We’ve identified a few,” Redden stated. “People who went missing from a couple different species on a couple different planets. They seem to have no identity as the Fathom’s Messengers, though; they never give a name and only speak for the Fathom, never for themselves.”
“There are rumors that the Fathom are ghosts,” Anthony said with a wry smile, “and they’re possessing the Messengers.”
Redden wasn’t amused. “I think we’ve ruled that out. We have identified an interstellar communication signal associated with the Messengers; someone is communicating with them. Oddly, we don’t see any continuous communication; we just see communication tunnels opened for short bursts at irregular intervals. Now, tracing one interstellar communication tunnel is tricky — it’s a bit like trying to find a particular person on a planet when your only source is someone standing on a moon and pointing. But it’s not just one tunnel to trace; with the Messengers, it’s always dozens of tunnels opened at the same time — I believe for the purpose of stopping this sort of trace.”
“I think they’re a dead end as an intelligence source,” Anthony said. “Right now our only lead is the Oron-Damari company on Calipa. The Fathom aren’t phantoms, as they pretend; they’ve worked with some others to build what they have. We find out about that, we find them. But even more important than finding out about the Fathom is securing Mountain Fall before they do — which again takes us to Calipa.”
“Didn’t our plans on Calipa get kind of scuttled, though?” I reminded them.
“They did,” Redden agreed. “But with possible information on the Fathom and a way to access more information on Mountain Fall at stake, we need to go through with our plan to get an ally elected on Calipa. We’re already working on getting a new candidate. We have a person in with the resistance already on Calipa who is willing to risk his life to run against the Fathom’s man. We just need a new plan to support him and get you on the planet to help.”
“As soon as Rico shows his face,” Diane said, “the Shade will be after him.”
“It’s a good sign that they announced they’re after Rico,” Anthony stated. “That means the Fathom are scared of him and trying to get him to hide. We should not oblige. We’ll just have to plan around a confrontation with the Shade. It sounds like quite a challenge, doesn’t it?” He locked eyes with me and smiled. He wasn’t even hiding his game anymore.
“Yep,” I answered. I turned to Redden. “So why this secret meeting with just us?”
“I’m putting my cards on the table,” Redden answered. “Showing what I know and how desperate we are. And to tell you the arrangement, regarding taking Mr. Burke’s help.” He glanced at Anthony, his face stone, and looked back at me. “You’ll be in charge of this operation. You tell me what you need, and we’ll make it happen.”
I didn’t like taking orders, but I also didn’t like giving them. I didn’t want to be in charge, because that meant not working alone. But even I had to admit that what I was facing wasn’t something I could handle by myself.
I looked again at Anthony’s smile and had to suppress a shiver. I turned to Diane, but she gave me nothing. This was my decision. I looked back at Redden’s mainly emotionless face. “All right. If I’m in charge, you’re not going to like the plans I come up with. But you’re going to do them anyway.”
✽ ✽ ✽
I got a lot of stares from the military and staff as I walked through the halls of the ship. Everyone knew who I was. I didn’t care for that.
“This way.” Wade was leading us. We walked into a small section of the ship with a few doors, where we were alone except for Sylvia, who was waiting for us. My first condition was that I wanted some privacy. I’ll agree to lead peopl
e, but most of the time I don’t want to have to deal with them.
“So what’s going on?” Sylvia asked. “Why were you meeting alone with Redden?”
“We’re coming up with a new plan for planet Calipa,” I said. “And I’m in charge. I’d like you two to work with me, since I already have some idea of your competency, so fewer surprises there.”
Sylvia raised an eyebrow. “You’re in charge?”
“Yes. And my plans will not be easy to implement. And I won’t want a lot of questions about them.”
Sylvia looked at Wade for support, but he kept his expression pretty neutral. “We’re supposed to follow this psychopath to our deaths?”
“Yes,” I stated. “It’s going to be dangerous, and there’s a good chance you won’t survive. If you have a problem with that, you should probably find a safer line of work that women usually do, like stripping or childbearing.”
Diane gave me a look. “Come on,” Dip commented. Sylvia, for her part, just frowned.
“Sorry,” I added. “There’s a lot going on and not an easy task ahead of us, so we’ll probably say some things we don’t mean — or things we do mean but probably shouldn’t say.”
“Like that,” Dip said.
“So what do you want us to do?” Wade asked.
“For now, we need to find a way to get onto Calipa undetected,” I said.
“We’re going ahead with the plan to help the election?” Sylvia inquired.
“Basically. Still working on the exact details.”
“And what about the Shade?” Wade asked. “They’re after you.”
“Just another thing to plan around,” I said. “I’m working on that.”
“I think Rico had better get some sleep now,” Diane stated. “He still needs to recover.”
Sylvia looked me over carefully. “Are you going to be well enough for this?”
I smiled. “What’s the other option?”
“Okay. Get some rest,” Wade said. “We’ll meet up again first thing tomorrow. We need to move quickly.” He headed for the exit.
Sylvia followed Wade. “Have fun with your girlfriend.”
Finally alone. Diane opened one of the doors and walked into a small room with a table and a bed. I followed her in and closed the door behind us.
“Maybe in the future, you do the planning, but you let me do the talking to others,” Diane said, patting me on the arm.
“Perhaps. Do you trust those two?”
“I trust that they’re enemies of the Fathom,” Diane answered. “That’s enough for now.”
I thought about asking more about her opinion of Wade but let it go. “I guess it doesn’t matter, though. First opportunity we have, we bolt and get away from all this.”
Diane’s eyes grew wide. “What?”
“Wasn’t that the plan? Back on Acarro we decided we were going to get away from all this, before that attack by the Fathom interrupted things.”
“You said you were going to help,” Diane said. “Everyone is counting on you now. You can’t just abandon them.”
I took a deep breath and leaned against a wall. “So that’s it, then? Anthony has drawn me into his web again, and I’m going to do his bidding.”
“I think with the problems we’re facing with the Fathom, that’s just the way it’s going to be for now. Too many lives are at stake. If we want to help people, this is how.”
I laughed. “I thought trying to do the right thing might be simple, but so far it’s seemed like nothing but hard decisions and compromise.”
“That’s the world we live in, Rico,” Diane said. “People have been dealing with this for ages. Ever heard of the trolley problem?”
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s a trolley?”
“It’s an old type of vehicle that follows a track — like a train but smaller,” Diane explained. “Anyway, the trolley problem is that the trolley is headed down the wrong track and is about to hit and kill five people. You are near a switch that can divert the trolley onto another track, but on that track is one person, whom you will then be choosing to kill. What do you do?”
“I assume this is a contrived situation where the only action allowed is either pulling the switch or not?” I asked.
“That’s the idea.”
I thought for a moment. “I don’t get it. I pull the switch. One life instead of five. It’s a pretty simple equation.”
“Well, for a lot of people, it’s not so simple,” Diane said. “Pulling the switch is an action — you’re making a choice to kill someone innocent, even if it’s to save more lives.”
“That’s dumb,” I said. “That’s just people putting feelings into areas where they don’t need to. It’s one life or five. Simple.”
Diane nodded. “Well, let’s make it more complicated, then. Let’s say it’s five people you don’t know on the first track, but it’s ...” She hesitated. “But it’s me on the other track. Do you still pull the switch?”
I thought for a little longer on this. “Yes. In one scenario, you’re hit by a trolley. In the other, you’re too racked with guilt over five lives being sacrificed for your own. Either way, I lose you. So I might as well save five lives.”
This seemed to surprise Diane a little, but then she smiled. “Simple equation.”
“Was that an honest answer?” Dip asked, but I ignored him.
“Anyway,” Diane continued, “I’m just trying to illustrate that the ‘correct’ choice is not always so simple. There isn’t always an answer that sits well with your conscience.”
“And what do you do in that situation?” I asked.
She smiled. “I pray. A lot.”
“We’ll see how that holds up against Anthony’s machinations.” I frowned a little. “You know, I’ve never seen Anthony this scared. I don’t even think he’s quite convinced we can pull this off. Do you understand the likely end to this is our deaths?”
That seemed to give Diane some pause. I didn’t see her as one who feared death very much, especially if she thought it was for the right cause. “Can we win, though?”
I shrugged. I looked at her face as she looked back at me. Objectively, she wasn’t the most attractive woman I had ever seen, but there was something between us I’d never had with another person. And now I was very conscious of the possibility of her death and thus of never seeing her again.
We quietly stared at each other for what had now become an awkward amount of time. It was no mystery where our minds were. I took another step toward her, into her personal space. “We talked about this,” she told me. “This isn’t what I want.”
I saw how she looked at me. I’ve seen that look in women before when I chose to be my most charming. “You seem to be in argument with yourself about that.”
The expression on her face became firmer. “We aren’t our desires.”
“Aren’t we?”
She smiled a little as she very gently pushed me back. “We both need some sleep — you especially.” Now she stepped into my personal space but to give me a hug. “This is the right thing to do,” she said into my ear. “Yes, there are some compromises we’ll have to make working for Anthony, but we have to try to help everyone. You could be saving billions of lives.”
I exited the hug and headed for the door. “I wish that meant something to me. We’ll see.” She gave me another smile, and I took one last look at her face and left the room. I entered the room beside hers, closing the door behind me. It was just like Diane’s, with a table and a bed, which I quickly plopped down on, then tensed, sensing I wasn’t alone.
“Do you just think of yourself as a failed experiment?” Anthony asked, standing in a corner of the room, somehow unseen by me as I had first entered.
“Isn’t that what I am?” I answered. “I was designed from your DNA to be the perfect leader. Instead I ended up just the perfect killer.”
“Near perfect,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure what you are now.”
I took another
long look at him, lurking in the shadows. Standing out in the open never suited him. “How did you get in here?”
He smiled. “I’m a ghost.”
“This is a problem,” Dip stated. He was right.
“You have something you want to tell me that you don’t want Diane or the others to hear,” I said. “How did I know that as convoluted as things currently are, it was all still just too straightforward for you?”
“There are some things that maybe the others aren’t prepared to hear,” Anthony said.
I glared at him. “I’m under no obligation to keep your secrets.”
He nodded. “That’s true.”
He kept smiling at me, but a lot of the confidence he always exuded just wasn’t there anymore. “Fine. What do you have to tell me?”
CHAPTER 15
“How’d you sleep?” Diane asked as she joined me in the conference room.
“As well as one can when unarmed, surrounded by people you don’t trust, and knowing Anthony is lurking about.”
“Are we telling her anything more?” Dip asked.
The decision has been made.
Wade and Sylvia entered the room. “I might have a way to get us onto Calipa,” Sylvia announced.
“Good. Let’s get to it,” I said. “I have — what? — four more days to find the Fathom and stab them to death with a pen, or I’ve broken my promise.”
“Once we get to Calipa, what’s the plan, though?” Sylvia asked. “I hear we have someone in the resistance willing to go public and run against the Fathom’s candidate, but he’s a bit of an unknown. You think we can get the public behind him?”
“I have some ideas on that,” I stated.
Diane raised an eyebrow. “What?”
I looked at all three of them staring at me expectantly while I decided how to put things. “I’ll just start with this: You’re not gonna like this idea. But I promise you ...” I smiled. “It’ll be fun.”
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