Asset
“[Are we going off the reservation here?]” Nora asked.
“[How do you mean?]”
“[Well they stuck us in the hospital tonight because we confirmed our place is under surveillance…and turns out, so is the hospital. Now you’re being all ominous about making people talk,]” she said. “[So are we being a little renegade here?]”
“[…Yes,]” I decided. “[But for now, we’re just going to throw our weight around and look at access logs.]”
“[You have access to their logs?]”
“[I’m sure I can persuade someone that I have a right to know who’s been visiting the wing,]” I grumbled. “[Here, you hold this.]”
I handed her the data bank we’d found. She frowned when she took it in her hands. Spreading her cascade had become second nature more quickly for her than it had for me.
“[This isn’t Adept-made,]” she noted.
“[Yup,]” I crowed. “[In the criminal investigative science, we would call that ‘exculpatory evidence’.]”
“[Oh duh. I was unconscious when I got here. I couldn’t have put it there.]”
“[More to the point, it proves whoever did make it was focused on you and me specifically as soon as we landed here,]” I said. “[Here, leave it in the room and jam the door. I don’t want anyone claiming we found that somewhere else.]”
The next few hours would be tricky…
“[Let’s go,]” I said.
“[Wait, so why are we checking the hospital logs?]” Nora asked me as we walked towards the secure wing’s checkpoint. “[Shouldn’t we bring this to Laranta or Serralinitus?]”
“[As soon as we prove to the Coalition you’re in the clear, the Coalition is going to go hunting for who actually was supporting these drones on base. Whoever it is, we’re not giving them a heads up. They can play catch-up an hour from now.]”
“[Is one hour going to make that much difference?]”
“[Not sure,]” I admitted. “[But if it might, I’m willing to take a shot in the dark.]”
“[You kinda seem cavalier right now,]” she said. “[Laranta and Serral are going to be really upset if you go off unsupervised.]”
“[What can I say? I’m upset,]” I said coolly.
“[We should at least tell Nai, right?]”
“[Already did,]” I said, approaching the Casti at the checkpoint. “Hi, I’m Caleb Hane. You’ve seen me before. I want to look at the access logs for this wing.”
The Casti in question made a sour face. “You’re only a visitor in the wing,” he said. “You’re not authorized to view that.”
“Implying that patients could?” I asked.
“What? No! You’d need clearance, or approval from an Ase.”
“You mean like a certification that would be attached to an inquiry?”
“Yes,” the Casti said, sensing what I was about to say.
“Seven two four Ak two Eim, ” I recited. Our investigation might have been kept quiet, but it did formally exist. Being part of it came with privileges. Probably not ones that Serral imagined me using on my own, but still.
The gatekeeper frowned, running the code in the checkpoint computer.
“What…?” he murmured.
“Code’s valid,” I said. “I just want to see the last few months.”
“That’s hundreds of names,” the Casti protested. “Getting actual documents will take some time, I can’t move from this station, and I’m not sure how you got this code.”
“I don’t need documents,” I said. “I just need to see the list on the computer. Feel free to contact Ase Serralinitus. In fact, do.”
“I’ll do that,” the Casti grumbled, warming up a radio.
I said.
I severed the connection, focusing on the list. Scrolling through the computer logs of all the aliens who’d come into the secure wing since Nora and I had arrived from Archo took less time than I thought. Most of the names were repeats, and I was willing to bet whoever had put the drone module had only visited the one time.
My hunch was based on the idea that the drone had been hiding for long enough that it ran out of battery and subsequently dematerialized. I was guessing on the exact timeframes, but if the drone had run out of time, then it would have to be because someone didn’t make a return trip to top off its batteries.
A smile broke across my face.
I recognized more than a few names; we’d had plenty of visitors. Nerin, Laranta, Serral, Nai. The names got more familiar the further back I went.
But one in particular stood out. They’d visited just once.
Despite what I’d said to Nora and Serral, I found myself hesitating. I had a name, reasonable suspicion, and a golden window to catch an enemy off balance. But I didn’t want to be reckless. It was possible to be too cautious, but those times were the ones you needed to be rock solid sure about exactly what you were doing, and exactly why you were taking the risk.
This was one of those times.
I was going to go AWOL on a military base, and try to find someone ready to shoot me. Why? Because the reward was so, so big compared to the risk. I could find someone with firsthand knowledge of these drones, and likely our abductors, today. Not a week from now, not another month of hunting…
Today.
It was barely a choice.
Nora and I had been expected to stay in the secure wing until tomorrow morning. So in a rare moment, our bodyguard chaperones were not there to keep us from leaving the wing. Ordinary security was present, but technically the hospital was just alternative lodging. Nora and I weren’t confined.
Just finding out who I needed to look at wasn’t enough. I needed to find out what they knew. If they’d done what I thought, they wouldn’t answer questions.
…But maybe they would ask them.
I glanced at Nora. This wouldn’t work if she came with me. Well…no, it still could. But the odds were much better if she didn’t.
“[What?]” she asked.
“[I think you might need to stay behind,]” I said. “[Wait here for Serralinitus, and send him whoever else after me.]”
“[Now you’re benching me?]”
“[Yes,]” I said. “[It will raise less suspicion if I go alone, and it will let Serralinitus catch up quicker. Plus it’s best if only one of us is in danger.]”
“[If it’s that dangerous, why not wait for Serral anyway?]”
“[Because it has to be a little dangerous,]” I said. “[It’s a feature of the plan, not a bug.]”
“[Godammit, Caleb!]” she huffed. “[…Fine! I trust you, but fuck you make it hard.]”
“[It’ll pay off in an hour,]” I promised her.
·····
I always caught odd looks walking around base, even with soldiers chaperoning me. There were just too many people on base: there was always someone seeing me for the first time.
But the longer I’d been here on Lakandt, I had reminders time and time again of the power of confidence.
Watch carefully, move with confidence, and give off an air that you believed you belonged wherever you went.
I could walk through any door that didn’t require a badge.
Probably not for long though. The more people who saw me unaccompanied, the more likely it would be someone raised a stink.
Luckily, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis wasn’t too far from the hospital, even on foot. It was a strange building, even considering it was attached to a spaceship that was perpetually ready to launch in case of an attack.
The front door didn’t require any special clearance, but going any further inside would. Not unlike the hospital’s secure wing, the building full of Coalition spies had a gatekeeper at a desk.
No reason to back down yet. I walked right up like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Could you direct me to Ase Thethul’s office? Or tell me where he could be contacted?” I asked before the clerk could ask me any questions.
“She can be contacted at her network address,” the clerk said, miffed. “Who are—”
“I’m here on behalf of Ase Serralinitus,” I said. “I have questions for Ase Thethul. The matter is pressing.”
Cascading the desk, I sensed the clerk unfasten something from the underside of the desk. Probably a gun. There was also a button pressed. Some kind of subtle security alert maybe?
I had to hope it wasn’t a proper alarm, or my plan would go up in smoke.
“Ase Thethul isn’t available at the moment,” the clerk said frostily. He was probably following a training manual, trying to keep me here until someone with a little more juice could come to his aid and sort out exactly what I was doing here.
Which was exactly my plan too. I just needed it to be the right someone…
“Serralinitus told me it would be acceptable to speak to one of the Asu under Thethul, if that helps at all,” I offered.
“Ase Serralinitus would have known clearance is necessary to enter this building,” the clerk said.
“And ordinarily, he would have made sure someone could come with me,” I agreed. “But like I said, this is pressing. Feel free to contact him, but it might take a while. He and I are both scrambling around base.”
The clerk’s eyes narrowed at me. My poker face was pretty good, but liars are only as believable as the lies they tell. And mine was a pretty tall tale.
Hopefully, it would be just unlikely enough to merit scrutiny, but also remotely possible enough to merit checking with someone.
I just had to hope I caught the right person’s attention.
“Rivga,” a Casti said, emerging from deeper inside the building. “It’s fine, I can help him.”
“You sure, Tolar?” the clerk asked.
My heart rate quickened at the name. I’d been expecting him, but until now it had just been a gamble.
“Yes,” Tolar insisted. “Caleb Hane, you’re trying to get in touch with Ase Thethul? I can help you if you’d follow me?”
“Thanks,” I said.
Before I was too far away, my cascade caught the clerk deactivating the switch they’d thrown. No alarm was good.
“You came here alone?” Tolar asked, aghast.
“Like I told the clerk,” I grimaced. “Serral has me, Nai, and half-a-dozen other Casti running around right now tracking down a bunch of information. He said it was time sensitive enough to have me run around on my own.”
“That does not sound like Ase Serralinitus…” Tolar said.
I shrugged. “I’ve been here a few months, and I lived on Serral’s base for months back on Yawhere.”
“Trust from Serralinitus isn’t cheaply won,” Tolar said.
“I know.”
“Well if it’s all the same to you, I want to confirm such with him. We can go to my office and talk.” Tolar said. “Ase Thethul isn’t in the building right now, but she should be back within the next hour or so. Is there anything you can relay from Serralinitus that I could help with in the meantime?”
“Should be fine,” I said. “If I’m going to talk to an Asu under Thethul, you’re probably the best one: you already know a bit about what Serral is helping me probe.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Yes,” Tolar said. “I was quite surprised when I heard from Berro Jo. That trip to his factory could have exposed his connection to the Coalition.”
“Not my business,” I shrugged. “Serral was actually pretty upset when no one told him about Berro Jo. He tried to ask around about the factory before we went there.”
“We?” Tolar asked. “You were present?”
“At a distance,” I nodded.
We stopped outside Tolar’s office long enough for the Casti to unlock its heavy door with both a key and a code. Security for these offices was no joke. Inside, the space was not large, but it was at least too big to be just a cubicle.
The redundant locks made a bit more sense when I saw how many stacks of paper Tolar had arranged on his desk, the shelves, and even patches of the floor.
I’d met Vorak who would have killed for even some of the secrets that must be in this room.
“Someone’s been staying busy,” I said, letting him shut the door behind me.
I was acutely aware of the fact that the door’s locks were no different on the inside; I was locked in.
Tolar dug into one of the messy piles, withdrawing a familiar metal cylinder. An air barrier machine. He flicked it on absentmindedly.
“That’s better,” he said. “So what can I help you with?”
“Just what background do you have?” I asked.
“You and Serral are hunting for Humans,” he replied. “Specifically where the Red Sails are keeping more on Archo.”
“Yeah, that’s about the sum of it,” I said. “But what Thethul can help with is the hospital.”
“Hospital?” Tolar asked.
“Yup. When Nora—she’s the other human here on Lakandt—and I first got here from Archo, she was in bad shape and totally unconscious. She slept in the base hospital’s secure wing for almost seven weeks. We have reason to suspect one of her early visitors stole medical samples from her and passed them to the Vorak.”
I materialized a copy of the access log I’d gotten from the hospital.
“And, if someone is sending human information to the Vorak, we’re pretty interested in it. These are the access logs for the secure wing for the last thirteen weeks, back to the day she and I arrived.”
“…You’re investigating people with access to the secure wing?” Tolar said. “Even to think of such is…almost unthinkable. Serral wouldn’t be going along with this unless there was tangible evidence. Just what do you have?”
“I can’t say, but Thethul is the only Ase who didn’t have anyone under her command go into the secure wing in that time window. So I wanted to consult her, or one of her Asu, who on the list stands out, or who might be able to falsify the information here.”
“Serral is hunting a spy in the Coalition then,” Tolar said. “So are you.”
“I have no idea who it could be,” I lied. “So Serral and I are moving as quickly and as quietly as possible to keep this spy from getting ahead of us.”
“That’s a shame,” Tolar said, turning to his desk. “It certainly makes my day more complicated.”
The gun went off before I ever saw it. The sound bounced around the enclosed space of the office, disorienting me. It took me a second to notice the shooting pain in my arm.
I’d been shot!
Dammit! I’d been expecting it too!
That first second told me Tolar had counter-Adept training. His opening was so explosive, it put me on the back foot. He followed up the gunshot punching and flailing so ferociously that I stumbled back in alarm. Papers flew everywhere, and in just a few seconds Tolar’s office was completely turned upside down.
Didn’t matter how good you were, some things would still catch you by surprise.
My brain was stuck on the gun too much to properly switch gears to hand fighting. I needed to kill the momentum of this thing.
Hundreds of hours of practice kicked in, complementing my already sharp reflexes. My hand snatched a heavy binder off the floor and flung it toward Tolar’s face. He flinched back, just for a moment, and that was enough to buy me a reprieve. In the blink of an eye I threw myself behind the nearest piece of cover I could: an armchair tipped over in the struggle.
It wouldn’t stop a bullet on its own, but with the chair and a materialized shield between me and Tolar, he probably couldn’t just shoot me. And me not getting shot should have been more of a win. In fact, that should have been the end of the fight there. A gunshot sounding in a building like this should have drawn everyone on this floor in seconds.
Although…psionics were telling me there weren’t many people on this floor. Tolar had either resorted to a standing backup plan, or he was improvising well.
But I didn’t know enough about his course of action yet…
Just what was his immediate goal?
“You might as well give up,” I said, hunkering down. “You can’t beat me one-versus-one, and help is on the way.”
“I don’t think it is, Human,” Tolar growled. “And I don’t think your victory is as assured as you think.”
What was that supposed to mean?
My arm was throbbing, but one wound wasn’t going to be enough of an injury to settle the disadvantage. I materialized a bandage to wrap around the bleeding when I noticed what was wrong.
I wasn’t the most disciplined when it came to Adept lifespan. I usually kept it vague. But the bandages had been designed to stick around for at least an hour. But they dissolved to nothing in my hands in less than a second.
Double checking the chair I was using as cover, my additions to make it bulletproof had similarly dematerialized.
I tested a simple creation—a knife—only for it too to fail after a heartbeat of existence.
One of my discussions with Tasser came back to me. One about blocking Adeptry, and just exactly what kind of ammunition his rifle had been shooting when we first met.
My hand went to the wound, feeling it more carefully. The ‘bullet’ wasn’t a slug at all. It was more like a thick shaft like that from a crossbow. An inch of it even stuck up through my skin and shirt.
“[You asshole,]” I cursed. “A damper-bolt? Really?”
Easily the riskiest way to prevent Adepts from using their powers. The bolts were compositionally most similar to stone. They could crumble, even dissolve. But they had an elongated grain to them too, such that they splintered easily.
And if any tiny shards broke off under my skin, I wasn’t going to be doing much Adeptry for weeks. Worst case scenario, months.
“Strike fast, leave not even a moment,” Tolar quoted.
“Shut up,” I spat. “I know the counter-Adept handbook too. You’re not that good at it.”
“You’re not that good at tradecraft,” the Asu replied harshly. “You can’t honestly have expected me to believe that drivel.”
“Nope,” I admitted. “I came here looking for you, not Thethul. Needed you to give yourself away though.”
“…The access logs,” Tolar realized. “You looked at more than the last thirteen weeks.”
“That’s right,” I nodded. “I’d materialize the next sheet of the access log, but you put a damper in me! Imagine how surprised I was to see you went into the secure wing, visiting an empty room just twelve hours before Nora and I touched down on Lakandt.”
“Then you found the drone,” Tolar growled.
“Yup. Your name already came up once in our investigation. I couldn’t prove it was you though. Not until you shot me with a [fucking] damper-bolt! Aghh! This hurts so much…”
“Quit squealing,” Tolar said. “You and I are going to sit tight while I figure out what to do with you—and don’t even think about trying to call for help.”
My chair wasn’t really bulletproof, so if he tried to shoot again…
On the other hand, damper-bolts couldn’t be fired by ordinary guns. They really could only come in single shot form. No, I didn’t need to win this fight. Quite the opposite in fact.
So what did Tolar have going for him? He seemed awfully confident that no one had heard the gunshot.
“…That air barrier is modified to block sound.” I realized. “Agh. I missed that when you turned it on.”
“True,” Tolar said. “
Oh. Oh.
A lot more things started making sense.
“[Those assholes…]” I muttered.
“Someone shared psionics with you,” I said. “Which one was it? One of the first batch must have put theirs back together again…”
“Not important,” Tolar huffed. “Just know that I managed to hide them from you, and that I’ve peeled apart the intro-module and put it back together a hundred times. I’m monitoring all the channels; I’ll know if you try to psionically call for help. Because if I think people are coming to help you, I’m going to have to get desperate.”
“As if you aren’t already,” I chuckled, trying to ignore the pain.
“Who all knows you’re here?” Tolar asked. He actually sounded more comfortable asking the question. Interrogating.
“Serral was going to hear from me by the end of the day,” I said. “About three hours of synth-daylight left.”
“Did you really come here to lure me out?” he asked.
“Yep. I didn’t think you would answer any questions directly. I figured I could trick you into asking the right ones to give yourself away.”
“Reverse interrogation,” Tolar said, hints of a smirk on his face. “Give yourself a few years, you might be good at my job.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“What about your security detail?”
“Nora and I were relocated to the hospital for the night because of the drone at the Nai’s apartment building.”
“Speaking of the Warlock,” Tolar said, “where is she?”
“Right outside the door,” I grinned.
For a moment, Tolar froze. His eyes flicked toward the office door.
I laughed. He was so tense.
The Asu bristled, and there wasn’t a painkiller in existence that would have felt better than drinking in the look on his face.
“You are so screwed,” I chuckled.
“You really think I can’t get you off base in three hours?” Tolar threatened quietly.
“What makes you think I’d let you?” I laughed. “Damper-bolt stops my Adeptry, and you’re probably the second most skilled Casti psionic, sure. But I’m five-ten with at least forty pounds on you.”
“I have orders to try to keep you alive,” Tolar said. “If you make me choose between your life and mine?”
He tightened his grip on the bolt-pistol.
“Orders…” I breathed. “Not from Laranta though. Not the Vorak either. Just who are you spying for?”
“…I wish I knew,” he muttered. “Now sit still and don’t make trouble.”
He pulled a custom computer unit from under his desk, one far smaller than any other I knew the Coalition had. Even small portable computers for the Coalition were like heavy backpacks, but Tolar’s machine was the size of modest briefcase.
Keeping one hand aiming the gun at me, he began typing on the computer. I couldn’t read the text from here, but I knew what was up anyway.
“In over your head…” I mocked. “Gotta ask mommy what to do.”
“If you sink any deeper, you’re going to start drowning,” Tolar said. “So consider who’s really ‘in over their head’.”
Oh, believe me Tolar…I know exactly.
Getting shot with a damper-bolt had thrown me for a loop, but aside from that, this was going according to expectations. The specifics barely mattered. Tolar had placed the devices supporting the drones. Tolar knew I was onto him.
So he was doing what any good soldier did: kicking it up the chain of command.
Not to Laranta, but to whoever was behind these drones and the abductions.
And that was what made all this risk-taking worthwhile. Drones could dissolve back into nothing, even accurate speculation needed to be verified, but people?
Someone had to be in charge of them. And so now I had what I needed.
The Asu had to take his eyes off me to read the message that he received back. Whatever he read didn’t surprise him too much. He started to type out a reply when I made my move.
I sent a psionic signal, knowing it would get Tolar’s attention, and I made one of my trusty flashbangs.
Getting used to conjuring eye and ear protection had not taken me long after first learning how to make a flashbang with Adeptry.
But in this enclosed space, earplugs merely blunted the worst of the bang.
I didn’t try to attack Tolar further. Nai took care of that.
She really had been outside the door.
Vorpal fire burnt through the office’s locks in a millisecond. Nai burst in, pinning Tolar’s gun arm to the ground and wrenching him onto his belly.
The look on his face was dumbfounded. It wasn’t hard to understand why. He was a good counter-Adept. But Tasser was better, and he’d taught me a lot more than Starspeak.
Damper-bolts were nasty business because of how long they could interfere with an Adept’s powers if they shattered. If they were removed carefully, the vast majority of the effect could be avoided.
Pursuant to that, Tasser had taught me Damper-bolts don’t actually prevent Adept creation. They only interfered with the stabilization period. It was that nothing the Adept wove would persist. The more mass the Adept tried to bring forth, the more pronounced the interference was.
But small-scale acute creations didn’t need to stick around long.
“Psionics,” Tolar mumbled, still not totally coherent. The words were muted to my ringing ears, but audible.
Yeah, I’d be confused too.
“Please,” I sneered. “You don’t know a fraction of what psionics are possible. You thought the transceiver channels are the only psionic communication I have?”
“You alright?” Nai asked, keeping Tolar pinned.
“Mostly,” I said. “He put a damper-bolt in me, can you believe it? How’d he even get one?”
Nora and Serral followed close behind her.
“You got shot!” Nora exclaimed, seeing my arm.
“It’s not that bad,” I said. “The bolt only goes like an inch deep.”
“Why isn’t there more blood?”
“Bolts are designed to stick around in the flesh,” I said. “I think that’s keeping the wound sealed.”
“You need to go back to the hospital,” Serral said. “We can take it from here.”
“Dyn can look at me and get the bolt out,” I said. “But I’m not going anywhere. This isn’t over.”
I nodded at Nora, indicating Tolar’s computer to her. She picked her way through the office to look at the messages Tolar had been about to reply to.
“It says…to ‘bring Caleb to the factory’,” she said. “That exactly. It mentions you by name.”
“Berro Jo’s factory,” Serral recognized. “Caleb, you are not going off base in your condition.”
“Send a reply,” I said, ignoring him. “That computer is a direct line to whoever Tolar works for. We can pass our message off as Tolar’s, claim a timeframe he’ll deliver me by, and give ourselves a few hours to put together a proper raid on the factory. We can get answers there! But only for the next few hours. If they realize Tolar has been exposed, they’ll pack up and disappear.”
“…Laranta is going to hate this,” Serral muttered. “You could have been killed.”
“Nope,” I said. “Because Tolar was told to keep me alive if possible. Whatever priorities my abductor has, they’ve been consistent so far: they didn’t want us humans to die.”
“Alright,” Serral said. “Nai, get Tolar into a cell. Quickly. If the clock is still ticking, I want to see what he’ll tell us about the factory before we go in.”
The Ase leaned over the computer, reading the message, and typing out our false response from Tolar.
Complications. Can’t get Caleb Hane off base for six hours. Situation stable. Will contact if support needed.
“Thanks,” I told Serral. “Sorry for not telling you sooner. You would have had to alert Laranta.”
“I get it,” Serral said coldly. “Time was limited and on your own, you were always going to move through the steps faster than us. I’m not happy about it, but I get it.”
Uh oh.
The words were level-headed acknowledgement of my choices, but his tone made it clear how much he was forcing himself to be professional.
He was pissed. I had to hope today’s risks hadn’t burned too much of my relationship with him. But the day wasn’t over yet…