by R. K. Thorne
Adan shook his head, trying to shake off the fear. Focus, man, focus. The mail application was open, as were two spreadsheets in the background that didn’t hold anything interesting. Many, many unopened—or at least marked unread—messages awaited Persad, but one had been opened, presumably being read just before they’d arrived.
We want the schematics of the new design. No more dalliance. Stay where you are, and we won’t need to do anything drastic. We’re sending coordinates on where to deliver the information.
“Commander!” Adan snapped. “You’re gonna want to see this.”
Ellen stalked in and leaned over his shoulder. “Damn it, so… she either left to try to get away. Or they were already here? Do you see any coordinates?” She stepped back, propping a gauntleted hand on her hip.
“Hello?” called a voice from the outer room.
“Shit.” Adan quickly locked the machine and tried to replace the passwords back into their seemingly random location, hoping the chaos worked in his favor just this once. He jumped up and pulled off the gloves, shuffling toward Jenny and then regretting it.
While he’d covered his tracks, the commander had calmly waltzed back out to the main room. “Dr. Persad? Good day, ma’am.”
A long silence followed. How were they going to explain their presence in her office? The outer room, maybe, but there was no way this wasn’t an intrusion.
“What do you people want?” the woman said, her voice cold.
“Pardon our intrusion, ma’am. I’m Ellen Ryu, security chief for the athlete Jennifer Ryan Utlis. You’ve heard of her?”
“Oh, my. Well, yes, of course,” the woman said. Her voice relaxed slightly. Adan couldn’t see the doctor from this angle, only the commander’s back. “Who hasn’t?”
Adan made a face. Jenny had not been kidding about her fame here on Capital. She elbowed him.
“Forgive the intrusion, but my team wanted to be sure the premises were secure, as Ms. Utlis is with us.”
“Oh. It’s quite all right. Pardon my manners. And… did you find it adequately secure?” There seemed to be genuine curiosity in the statement.
“Yes, no interlopers so far. Although we were concerned you weren’t here.”
“I had to take a quick trip to the, uh, bathroom facilities.”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
“What can I do for you, Ms. Ryu? Can I offer you all some coffee? Are there… more of you?”
“Come on out, Ms. Utlis, team.”
Adan followed Jenny and Kael back out into the main room, stopping just inside the interior office doorway with Jenny. The dark-haired doctor eyed them curiously, beautiful and painted brown eyes exaggerated by the enhanced magnifying monocle. A small yellow light twinkled near her temple. Unlike the slick gentleman that had interrupted them earlier, she wore peacock-blue cargo overalls that were completely covered in pockets. His sort of fashion—practical. No breather. He supposed that made sense, inside this facility, especially one run by the Foundation.
“Ms. Utlis,” Dr. Persad said, extending her hand. “It’s a true, true pleasure to meet you. My son is a huge fan.” Did her voice falter a little at the word son? “We saw you compete at the Ranunculus Towers competition. Impressive as always. I hear you never lose.”
Never? Adan risked a glance at her.
Jenny smiled and bowed a few centimeters. “Thank you, Dr. Persad. I always strive to do my best. That’s all any of us can do.” She was perfectly at ease with such praise.
“And these others? Who are you, young man?”
Persad’s monocled eye pinned him to the wall. Adan froze. Damn. No cover story for him.
“Pardon my boyfriend.” Jenny smiled and casually slipped an arm around his waist as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Adan choked on a cough. His blood pressure had just doubled, he was sure of it. He glanced at Josana, whose jaw had tightened but she wasn’t yet glaring.
Jenny’s smile widened. “He’s a bit of a science buff himself and has long admired your work. So he’s a bit tongue-tied.”
“It’s an honor to meet you,” he blurted. That much was true. “You’ve done some amazing small electronics research.”
Persad smiled, amused. “I know. Thanks.”
“Which is why we’ve come, Doctor,” the commander chimed in. “Is there anywhere else we could talk?”
“No,” said Persad, smile vanishing. “This is a perfectly fine place to speak.”
“Well, this is a particularly sensitive issue, and—”
“My office is very secure, I assure you, Ms. Ryu.”
“I am sure that it is,” Ryu said, even though clearly before neither of them had seemed very sure of that point. “But Ms. Utlis has struggled with the press in the past. We must be sure even her inquiries remain confidential. Would you be willing to guarantee that?”
“Of course—”
“In writing?” Ellen gestured to Adan, who pulled the contract up off his wrist holo.
Persad squinted at it, then held up her own wrist holo. Very nice. Maybe she’d spent her budget for upgrading that ancient machine in there on her wearables. “Send it to my AI, please?”
He nodded, flicking his finger toward her. The contract flew toward her, then disappeared, only to be reborn out of her holo. Persad flipped through it but couldn’t have read much. Her AI chirped its approval, having compared the contract to her pre-approved standards.
“Very well, I’ve signed it. Here you go. Now what is this all about?”
Ryu nodded. “You’ve done some cutting-edge research recently on new… augmentations, let’s say. Could you tell us about them?”
A brick wall came down over Persad’s features. “No. I couldn’t. That’s not how this works. You tell me what you need, I tell you if I can make it for you. That’s it. You want to hear research, read the journals.”
Jenny smiled sweetly, inclining her head. “We were hoping to adapt some technology before it reaches the journals.”
Persad’s lips pressed together, her chin jutting up slightly. “I can’t tell you my latest research, and—”
“Can’t or won’t?” Ryu cut in. Adan almost snickered. Way to win her over, Commander. Maybe Patron should have put someone a little more charismatic in charge of that duty.
Glowering, Persad folded her arms. “Both. And I can’t think of how any of it could be adapted to sports anyway.”
Jenny still had an arm wrapped around him, he realized, as she withdrew it to take a step closer to Persad and bow slightly. Persad immediately eased, but not completely. Then Jen took it a step further and took one of the doctor’s hands in her own. “Madam, a mutual friend said you might have something brilliant we could use, but he couldn’t divulge the nature just yet. And he said that you also might have a problem we could solve in exchange for your services.”
Persad’s eyes widened. “A… problem?”
“But—” Jenny never got to finish her convincing.
Glass cracked sharply in the other office room, then shattered. Kael dashed toward the doorway, and Ellen had already drawn her rifle and was blocking Persad, pushing her toward the three of them.
“Over here,” Jenny hissed, dragging their shoulders down as shots rang out. “Get down. You three, back in that corner.”
Damn. Looked like he was going to owe Jenny that cigar sooner rather than later.
Persad dropped to a crouch beside him behind a steel cabinet topped with multicolored building blocks.
Kael took the other side of the door beside Ellen as the fire suddenly stopped. Jenny was checking her rifle in a crouch between Persad and the doorway.
“You’re… well-armed, for an athlete,” Persad said. “Is that legal?”
Jenny looked up and grinned, but held a finger to her lips for quiet.
A man dressed entirely in black rounded the doorway, firing into their corner. Adan should have ducked, but he froze. Josana let out a screech, throwing her arms arou
nd him.
Kael raised his rifle and slammed the butt of it into the assailant’s jaw just as a second attacker rounded the corner. Ellen fired, sizzling bolts arching into the man’s body, leaving him on the ground twitching. Hmm, set on stun? Did she hope to capture them?
Recovering slightly, Adan shrugged Josana off, groped for the pistol on his hip, and at last had the presence of mind to ready it. At this rate, he wouldn’t need it though.
Kael assaulted two more incoming while Ellen’s rifle took three others down. Hell, that had been no small number. Were those the men from the message?
Silence descended around them. Not even so much as a groan filled the void.
“That’s all of them, Commander.” Kael’s voice carried from the far room. “This place is pretty busted up, though.”
Adan glanced at Persad. Her face was grim, mouth set in a thin line, black eyes worried.
But not at all surprised.
“Are you going to call the police?” Josana straightened beside him, staring wide-eyed at the carnage. Feeling silly still crouching, he straightened too. Jenny and Persad did too, but with more of a natural ease.
“No,” Persad said quickly. “Uh, no need.”
Josana scowled, incredulous. “No need? At the very least you need a very diligent cleaning service.”
Persad’s eyelids were hooded, as if she wished an annoying pest would fly away. “I’ll call building security.”
“Good idea,” the commander said. “How about we get out of here? I think we have some… things to talk about, Dr. Persad.”
Eyes wide again, Persad’s gaze darted to each of them in turn, and he had a feeling she was wondering if she had a choice in the matter.
“Any idea who these people are, Doctor?” the commander asked, casual as brushing the dust off her armor pauldron.
Persad frowned. “Not at all.” The lie was plain in her voice; she didn’t seem to be trying much to hide it.
“Perhaps you have somewhere else safe we could go to talk?” Jenny gave her another friendly smile as she swung her rifle onto her back. Good thing she’d carried at least that much.
Maybe it was the celebrity, or maybe it was the sweetness inherent in those green eyes, but Persad’s resistance melted just enough.
“We can retire to my home. I’ll just get my computer.”
“Yes, of course, Doctor.” Ellen gestured graciously through the door. The woman headed back. Ellen watched her while she held up a hand and whispered loudly toward Kael, “Yours has a stun setting too, you know. I thought you completed that training ages ago.”
He grinned. “Yeah, but what’s the fun in that? Attacking an unarmed scientist—they deserved it. I want them to remember it in the morning.”
“They’ll feel the stun in the morning too, especially after I stun them again on the way out the door.”
“But it’s just so clinical. You’re classier than I am, Commander.” His voice took on an ironic, Capital-esque lilt at the end of it.
She snorted. “Fine, fine. As long as we’re under ten hostiles.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Persad joined them, and from the look on her face, she may have heard some of those final words. The engineer clutched her laptop and the scrap of passwords to her chest. “Got it. Let’s go.”
Dr. Persad’s apartment—because it didn’t appear that houses as Kael knew them existed on Capital—was only two buildings away, but they still made a rather obvious parade moving from the Derad Tower to the residential complex. His neck itched. He found himself trying to glance at the rooftops, always feeling like someone was watching—but the rooftops weren’t there. Half these buildings went up far above the low, puffy cloud system that had moved in.
Still. Someone was watching them.
They made it into the building and the elevator shaft unmolested, though.
“Come on inside. Let me just disarm the alarm system.” Persad shooed them further into an elegant cream-walled foyer. Leafy green plants stood in rectangular gray pots over rich wood flooring the color of coffee. She shooed them again. “Go on. Farther. It needs everyone out of this area.”
Since when did security systems act like air locks? He frowned but followed Adan further inside. Maybe it was specific to this apartment building. Or Capital. Or something Persad had custom built, for all he knew.
A familiar hissing sound pricked at his ears. He spun toward Persad, but it was too late. Adan swore behind him as he bumped into the invisible wall. Blue light ricocheted out like a coin dropped into a fountain.
The pale glow of a force field surrounded them.
Kael glanced up and froze. Outside the barrier, Persad held a tiny laser pistol to Jenny’s neck.
“Impressive, Doctor.” Ellen calmly folded her arms across her chest, looking supremely unperturbed. “I take it this isn’t a health quarantine.”
“Where is he? Who sent you?” Persad’s voice was harder than granite, eyes grim, determined.
“The Foundation,” Ryu replied. “Where is who?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know.”
“It’s true.” Jenny sounded admirably calm for having a bullet less than a foot from her jugular. “The mutual friend I mentioned, remember? We’re Foundation, we just want to help.”
“The Foundation doesn’t exist.”
Ellen retracted her helmet—a serious gesture of goodwill. Kael followed. The biochem readout had been clean seconds ago. “You know very well it does,” Ellen said, “since you work in one of its facilities. Our patron—”
“I’m supposed to just believe you? Just take you at your word for it?” She glowered.
“Last I checked our secret organization didn’t wear uniforms.”
“Nice try, but I don’t think so. You saw those men back there.”
“And what would have happened if we hadn’t been there, Doctor?” Kael tilted his head at her. “You clearly need more firepower than just that little flashlight.”
Persad scowled at him. “Proof. Or I’m calling in the inspectors.”
“Hold on, maybe I can get some.” Ellen held up a palm and drew the comm unit from the chest of her suit. She stabbed a finger at the screen and swore at it several times. For a genius, she sure could get pissed at technology.
A rainbow of color swirled on-screen as the call sought its other half for the better part of a minute. Adan cleared his throat behind Kael. Ellen tapped her foot. Persad’s narrowed eyes darted around, no doubt seeking any sign of trick.
“Y-ello?” Doug’s cheerful grin abruptly filled the little device screen. Sunshine slanted at dramatic angles across a messy desk and glinted on the gold wire of his glasses.
“Simmons, we’re here with Dr. Persad. But she appears to need some convincing of… well, who the hell we are, to be frank.”
“Simmons?” Persad said, as if she recognized the name. The gun at Jenny’s neck drooped, and Jenny relaxed a fraction but didn’t make a move to disarm Persad. Maybe that was why she was so relaxed. She probably had no doubt she could snatch that weapon if she needed to. But an elbow to the solar plexus wasn’t winning anyone over.
“Ah, yes. Convincing. Hold on one minute.” Doug rose and disappeared to the right of the screen. “Mom!”
Jenny snorted. Kael caught her eye.
“Mo-om!” Doug shouted off-screen again.
Kael raised his eyebrows. “Does… does Patron Simmons live with his mother?”
Laughter burst out of Jenny in spite of the sheer danger of the situation, and Kael twisted back to see Adan smiling. Josana had a bored look on her face. They were terrible captives—hardly taking their imprisonment seriously at all.
A woman’s sun-weathered face appeared on the screen, her chin-length wavy hair the exact shade of Doug’s. “Oh, hello there, Ellen. I’ve heard so much about you, darling. Would you be a dear and put Chayana on the line?”
Lips pursed, Ellen held up the comm so Persad could see it and shrugged.
“Chaya! Yes, hello dear. I told you I was sending some help, didn’t I?”
“Yes, well. You could’ve been a little more descriptive. Specific. Maybe said, ‘darling, they’re on their way.’ ”
Kael stifled a snicker as the engineer’s regular down-to-earth tone shifted to mimic Doug’s mother’s more refined lilt.
“I apologize. I should clearly have given them a secret password. Now, be a dear and put down the weapon.”
Persad sighed, returned the safety, and slipped the tiny pistol back into one of her many pockets. Note to self: there could be all kinds of dreck in there. She reached over and palmed off the force field, arms and shoulders drooping. The force field shimmered out of existence.
“Thanks so much, Chaya.”
“You’re lucky I even talked to them.” She blew out a breath.
“It wasn’t safe to say anything sooner than now. But these people are my son’s friends. You can definitely trust them.”
“Friends?” Persad squinted at Ellen.
Ellen brushed a stray hair back with gauntleted fingers. “More like we work for him, ma’am. Do you believe us now? I’d like to escort you back to our ship. If a Foundation laboratory isn’t safe, I doubt this apartment is any more secure.”
“No.” Persad shook her head, jaw set tight. “I can’t. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Another attack is likely. For your safety, Doctor—”
“No.” The power of the word, hard as granite, seemed to echo in the foyer.
Ellen propped a hand on her hip. “Well, why the hell not?”
“I can’t tell you. Even if you are part of the Foundation.”
“Do you want our help or not?”
“Chaya, darling,” Doug’s mom cut in. “Just tell them what you told me. It’s too important. You’re going to have to trust us.”
Persad’s mouth pressed into a thin line, her forehead creased. After a moment he realized her lower lip was quivering. Finally, after a long pause, she spoke, although her words barely reached him over the hum of the ventilation.
“They have my son.”