The guards at the magnetic wall saluted the major then turned their keys on their desks to allow us through. With a loud click, the pair of glass doors opened and slid backward.
“I’m sure the GG is performing its own initiative in tracking down Aleron?” I asked. “I know on our end, Preacher and Wesley have been talking to Colonel Stryfe. They’re trying to get access to a satellite over Earth in order to track his movements.”
Zoe chewed on her lower lip as we walked through the hall of cells.
“Let’s have that conversation later,” she said barely over a whisper. In a much louder voice, she continued. “I should warn you Rival Mercer has a few screws loose. He’s been down here longer than I’ve been in the Galactic Government.”
“He’s a terrorist?” Cassie asked. “What was he charged with?”
“Rival Mercer was convicted of setting off explosions in populated areas to cause havoc and chaos,” Major Valentine explained. “He has no affiliation with any known terrorist entities. He’s not a mercenary up for hire or some kind of political nut as far as we can tell. He says he just enjoys watching the world burn around him.”
Why the major refused to talk about the GG’s own initiative in hunting down Aleron was beyond me. I would have thought they’d have boots on the ground within hours of his escape, hunting him.
Any reason they wouldn’t prickled at my skin, sending a chill down my spine.
On either side of our path were white rooms with bright lights overhead. Clear glass walls let us see everything in each cell. I assumed that was on purpose. There was no privacy or reprieve for these convicts, both male and female.
Each convict was roomed with a cellmate. Men with men and women with women. They wore the same bright green jumpsuit. Their rooms were simple affairs of mattresses on the ground and a toilet and sink.
Some of the inmates gawked at us from their seats on the toilets. Others yelled at us, probably cursing us out or making cat calls, but their voices were lost in their own cell. The noise-dampening technology made it impossible to talk through the glass unless someone from the outside went to the wall panel and pressed the button to communicate.
The eyes that stared back at me from many of the inmates were eyes I knew well. These were broken people, killers, traitors, mercenaries, hit men, and hit woman of the worst kind.
Under their judging eyes, we traveled to the end of the hall where a separate cell sat on its own. This cell was different. It had not one glass wall but two. An inner chamber held a glass box with a man standing inside. He waved to us manically as if we were longtime friends.
Rival Mercer was tall with shoulder-length dark hair he wore slicked back at the moment. Like the other inmates, he wore the same bright green jumpsuit.
Major Valentine pressed her hand on a reader by his door. She then leaned down to allow the same screen to scan her eye. The glass door opened slowly for us from right to left.
“Here we go,” Major Valentine said under her breath.
Nineteen
Rival Mercer, still waving and smiling at us, was moving his mouth as if he had something to say. We, of course, couldn’t hear him.
We were in a wide white room with bright lights. The glass box Rival stood in was placed in the center of the room with a walkway all the way around the structure.
As the major went to place her hand on the glass so we could speak to Rival, I found myself wondering if Rival had any hand in helping his uncle set off the bomb that killed my parents.
Wesley said Jace Mercer was only suspected in the bombing that killed my parents but convicted for others. Half of me wanted to strangle him there and then, the other half just wanted answers.
But right now, we were here for X. We need to figure out what Rival had told Aleron about the AI to make him want her so badly.
“—And then they went up this tree to gather a bright golden piece of shiny fruit. The two creatures fought over it like they were—”
“Mercer,” Major Valentine interrupted the crazed man’s words. “Mercer, that’s enough. We need you to focus now.”
“Oh, but I am focused my dear, my dear.” Rival Mercer’s words dripped out of his mouth as if they had individually been dipped in honey. “I’m telling you about the dream I had last night. Last night or the night before? I’m not sure it matters. Time has a strange way of passing in a resort like this.”
“Rival,” I said, taking a step forward. My voice trembled a little, not from fear but a pent-up rage. “Rival, we need to know what you told Aleron Jacobs when you shared a cell with him. What did you tell him about Immortal Corp and their AI?”
“Joyyyyyyyyy is in my heart. Is it in yours? Joyyyyyyyy is in my heart. Is it in yours?” Rival sang the words softly in a familiar tune I was sure I had heard, although the words were different now.
Rival stared at us with that little smile on his face. He moved his right hand up to his chest and began tapping on his left pec as he drummed a light beat to his words.
“Joyyyyyyy is in my heart. Is it in yours?”
“That’s enough, Mercer!” Major Valentine didn’t sound as if she were in the mood to play his games. “Answer the question or I’ll have what little privilege you do possess taken away.”
Rival inhaled sharply. “So mean! And here I was thinking we were making progress in our relationship.” Rival shook his head and clicked his tongue. He looked over at me.
“Women, am I right?” he asked as if we could commiserate. “Can’t live with them, aren’t allowed to kill them for some reason. Men either, for that matter. Fun fact: I had a dream the other night where two creatures were fighting. They climbed this steel tree for a golden apple and—”
“Aleron Jacobs,” I asked again. “We have information that says you told him he needed an AI from Immortal Corp. Why? How did you know this? Why does he want the AI so badly?”
“Aleron, Aleron, Aleron.” Rival pursed his lips and squinted his eyes as if he were actually deep in thought. “That name does ring a bell. Big fellow, eats all his protein, with a scar on the left side of his face, bald?”
“Yes,” I growled, gritting my teeth.
“Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.” Rival smirked.
“I’m not playing your games, not today,” Major Valentine said. “We’ll go to half rations and that music you were earning for good cooperation is now off the table.”
While the major and Mercer negotiated, I looked over at Laine. We locked eyes and I gave her a slight nod.
She nodded back, closing her eyes, and began doing whatever process she needed to read his mind.
I didn’t envy her. After the brief interaction I had had with Mercer, I knew I wanted no part of looking into his mind.
“Okay, okay, I’ll behave,” Rival answered the major. “I just don’t get visitors often. You can’t be angry with me for trying to prolong our visit. I like you guys. There, I said it. Now I’m here looking like a fool with my heart on my sleeve and you’re not going to say it back. I—”
Rival stopped mid-sentence. He winced a little bit then scratched at his head.
“Who’s in here?” He looked at us in turn with a devilish grin. “Who’s sifting around my head? You won’t find anything I don’t want you to you know.”
Laine inhaled sharply, just loud enough for me to hear. I looked over to see her pale face.
“He’s—he’s aware somehow. I don’t know how, but I can’t get in. Maybe if I could get my hands on him,” Laine whispered in a rush.
“Was it you?” Rival asked Cassie. “I wouldn’t mind letting you inside to take a peek. I’d be willing to show you mine if you showed me yours, as they say.”
“In your dreams and I’m sure that’s exactly what you’ll do with all the free time you’re going to have on your hands.” Cassie shrugged. She looked over at the rest of us. “Come on; it’s obvious this is a waste of time. He doesn’t know what he let slip to Aleron. He’s a jawing idiot that probably said something Ale
ron picked up on about Immortal Corp. We can find Aleron on our own. We don’t need him.”
Cassie turned and began walking out the door.
“I know what you’re doing and I’m going to call your bluff,” Rival shouted from his cell. A hint of panic laced his words, telling us Cassie’s plan could work.
Laine exited the room next.
“Really wished this could have worked out.” I threw him a peace sign over my shoulder. “I wanted to hear you sing some more.”
“Well, hey.” Rival slammed the glass wall in front of him. “Let’s not be so hasty. Maybe we can talk about this.”
“You blew your chance.” Major Valentine was the last to leave the room. “Enjoy your time with you half rations in silence.”
“I made a deal with Aleron!” Rival Mercer shouted just as Major Valentine was about to close the door behind her. “He was supposed to get me out of here in exchange for the information I had on the Relic.”
That word made us all pause.
I looked to Cassie. We were both thinking the same thing. It was true, then. All the stories of the items of power long since taken from the Earth and now used today were real. There were more Relics than just the book we opened on Mars to win the battle against the Voy.
“Immortal Corp knew where one was and implanted the data in an AI for safekeeping,” Mercer shouted desperately at our backs. “Now that Immortal Corp is gone the AI is the only one that knows where it is!”
The panic in his voice told me Mercer was telling the truth.
Major Valentine looked at us for a consensus.
I nodded.
We filed back into the room.
“What and where is this Relic?” I demanded. “How do you know all of this?”
“I knew a programmer that worked for Immortal Corp,” Rival Mercer answered, relieved that we had decided to stay. “It’s amazing what a few bottles of liquor does for a tongue.”
“You got him drunk and he just told you everything you wanted to hear?” Laine asked incredulously.
“No, the alcohol was for me. I tortured the programmer until he gave me all he knew.” Mercer shrugged as if torture were a common occurrence in his line of work. “But that’s neither here nor there. What you really want to know is what this Relic is. Have you ever heard of the Fountain of Youth?”
I rolled my eyes so hard, I thought they were going to roll right out of my head.
“No, no, it’s the truth!” Mercer insisted. “But it’s not like any of the stories I have told you. The Fountain is a cup that was found here on Earth centuries ago. Whatever liquid you put in it is transformed and gives the drinker eternal life. Aleron wants to find it to create an unstoppable army on Earth.”
Everything I knew about gauging if people were telling the truth or not told me Mercer was being sincere. But I had been wrong before. Nemesis nearly convinced me he was from the future.
“Listen, I thought you were serious about this.” Major Valentine turned to leave again. “I guess you just want to rot in here.”
“The mind reader!” Rival shouted. “I’ll let the mind reader in. She’ll be able to tell you the truth.”
“What mind reader?” Major Valentine asked.
“So, funny story.” I swallowed hard with a cheesy smile. “Laine here is able to read minds. Should have told you before, I know, but there are so many moving parts here, I thought I’d save you from some of it if I could.”
Zoe gave me a look that told me she was pissed about being left out of the loop but wasn’t going to get into this right here, right now.
I also intentionally left out the whole part about Laine being an alien. I didn’t see how that could help at the moment.
“Yes, yes.” Rival nodded emphatically. “I’ll let her in and she’ll confirm what I’ve said.”
“Go ahead.” Zoe lifted an eyebrow.
I looked over to Laine, who nodded and closed her eyes in concentration.
“Ooooh, awwww, yes, right there,” Rival started cooing as he closed his own eyes. “Buy me a drink first, why don’t you?”
“Rival,” Cassie warned.
Rival quieted. I think the man knew he was on thin ice at best. We proved that we were willing to leave him behind if need be.
I looked over at Laine, who wore a puzzled expression on her face. Although her eyes were closed, she seem confused more than stressed.
Her eyes popped open with disgust.
Rival cackled.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “What did he do?”
“I’ve never met anyone with such a handle on his mental strength.” Laine glared at Rival. “He’s telling the truth as far as he knows. He also knows where Aleron is going to unlock the AI.”
“Where?” Cassie pressed.
“I can’t see it.” Laine glared again at Rival. “He’s mentally tougher than he looks.”
“Thank you, thank you.” Rival took a sweeping bow. “You’re too kind. Stop it. Stop it. Okay, go ahead. Praise me a little more.”
“He has the information we want,” Laine continued. “If I had more time and could get my hands on him, maybe I could break through.”
“There’s no time.” Rival shrugged. “Maybe you could, but I promise you I’d hold out long enough to make your efforts an act in futility. Aleron is already on his way to the location to unlock the AI and show him where the Relic is located. You need to leave now if you’re going to catch him.”
“Then tell us,” I said. “What is it that you want?”
“Aleron was supposed to free me in exchange for the information on Immortal Corp, the AI, and the Relic,” Rival picked at his nails. “He double-crossed me and left me here in the Hole. I want payback. Nobody double-crosses me and gets away with it. I want to make him bleed.”
“Absolutely not,” Major Valentine interjected. “If you think we’d take you with us, you’re more insane than it reads on your data chip.”
“Well then, I guess we’re at an impasse.” Rival shrugged, knowing he had us by the throat. “In a few days, Aleron will be creating his immortal army while we all hang out here arguing or you try torturing me again.”
“Again?” Cassie repeated.
“Oh, they did it when Aleron first escaped.” Rival wiggled his eyebrows. “I gave them nothing. I’m not going to give you anything now either, unless you take me with you.”
I caught the major’s eye and jerked my head to the door.
Together, we all left Rival in his cell. We exited the small room. Major Valentine closed the clear glass door.
Right before the door shut behind us I heard that same familiar tune Rival sang. “Joyyyyyyyyyy is in my heart. What’s in yours?”
“Are you sure of what you saw?” I asked Laine once we were alone in the hall and cut off from his ability to hear us. “Positive he knows where they’re taking X?”
“I am,” Laine said. “I saw his memories. I could almost see over his shoulder as he wrote down the location before eating the paper he used. He knows where Aleron is taking X to unlock the hidden location of the Relic she carries in her data.”
“Anyone can be broken with enough time and effort, but he has a point,” Cassie added. “We don’t have the time. Aleron could be on his way with X to the location as we speak.”
“He could have been on his way as soon as he grabbed her.” I nodded along with Cassie’s thoughts. “We have no time. We have to go now.”
I looked over at Major Valentine. Her brow was knit in lines of frustration.
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” I told her. “But it might take a maniac to catch a maniac. We can be sure that Rival stays handcuffed and gagged if he keeps talking. But this goes past me wanting to save X now. If Rival is right, then Aleron is on his way to create an immortal army. We can’t let that happen.”
The hard edge on the major’s features shifted from thoughtful to resolved.
“All right,” Major Valentine answered. “I can’t make a
ny promises, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Twenty
A trip back up the lift and we sat in the major’s office waiting for her to get permission to use Rival Mercer to find Aleron Jacobs.
Cassie, Laine, and I were in a sparsely decorated office where a Galactic Government flag hung on the wall opposite a cement sculpture of a GG dropship. We sat opposite an impressive stone desk while we waited for the major to finish her calls in another room.
“I’ve seen a lot of messed-up people in my life,” Laine mused out loud. “I’ve been in a lot of heads, but nothing ever like that.”
“What do you mean?” Cassie asked.
“Rival is insane for sure, but there was a deep level of knowledge in there as well. He was aware of my presence immediately, blocking me out from certain memories of his past. What I did see were only glimpses he allowed me to see. Most people don’t even know I’m there.”
“Just our luck,” I answered. “We get the brilliant psychopath to guide us to the murderous psychopath. You think he’s telling the truth? I mean about only wanting to get out to get vengeance on Aleron for leaving him here?”
“Not for a second.” Cassie shook her head. “He’ll try and make a run for it sooner or later. If Zoe can get permission to take him, we’ll need magnetic cuffs on him at all times. Maybe even a collar that limits how far he can go out of range.”
“Maybe I should have brought Butch after all,” I mused out loud. “She’d keep him in line.”
Before anyone could answer, the door to the office slid open. Major Valentine walked in. She didn’t look happy.
“Didn’t get the go-ahead?” I asked, already sifting through our options now.
“Oh, we got it.” Major Valentine went to the opposite side of her desk and fell more than sat in her chair. “We got all the support and permission we could ask for.”
I looked a Cassie and Laine. The other two shrugged.
“Then why the long face?” Cassie asked. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
Nemesis: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 6) Page 12