The Golondrina tore through the sky. Vas wove around the basalt columns that were piled in geometric monoliths and mountains. The ship was only a few hundred kilometers above the surging sea and streams of red lava. Spots of green trees flashed under them, bending in their wake.
Jane had strapped herself in and refused to open her eyes.
Reyer was standing up on the top stair between Lynx and Vas. She figured that if she was going to die in such a spectacular fashion, she might as well enjoy the amazing view that came with it.
Vas was grinning. When he wasn’t, he was laughing.
Lynx was unfazed. “We’re less than one minute from target.”
“You hear that, Ciro?”
“On it, Adan!” A moment later, “Contact confirmed! Proceed!”
Vas tightened the engine nozzle as far as he could. The ship surged forward.
“Twenty seconds to target,” Lynx said.
“Lynx, new countdown procedure,” Ciro shouted. “Arrival at target minus—”
“Three seconds,” Vas yelled. He dodged between two mountains. “Make that four.”
“New countdown confirmed,” Lynx said. “Seven—six—five—”
The generator was in view now, a squat tower, nestled between the hexagonal rocks and leafy ferns.
“—four—three—two—one.”
At the same moment Lynx yelled, “Time!” Ciro called out, “Done!”
For less than a second, the imperceptible force field became visible as a ribbon of blue light curled away from the generator, signaling its failure.
As they came rushing toward it, Reyer saw the new force field bloom when the backup generator kicked in.
The Golondrina had to shoot between the failing field and the new one at an angle to make it through the rapidly shrinking hole.
Both Vas and Ciro let out a yell of triumph.
Reyer tried to relax her grip on the captain’s chair. It took a moment for her fingers to respond.
Ciro dropped the tablet he’d been using and came up behind them. “Stay low, Adan. Scanners.”
Vas laughed. “I know. Don’t worry—I can surely fly.”
“I’ll say you can.”
“Thank you, Miss Reyer.”
“Your technique is reckless, Captain.”
“And thank you, Lynx.”
From her place back on the main deck, Dr. Jane squeaked, “Are we still alive?”
“More alive than I’ve been in a while,” Vas shouted back to her. “God, that feels good.”
The three humans in the cockpit were laughing or giggling, drunk with relief and elation.
After a while, Vas took a deep breath. He tried to sound serious but couldn’t stop smiling. “Lynx, tell me when there’s local traffic I can move up into. Ciro, get Gardner’s address and find a map to get us there.”
“Yes, Captain,” Lynx said.
“I’m on it,” Ciro answered. He jumped down the steps.
Reyer put a still trembling hand on Vas’s shoulder. His eyes flickered to her face, and his smile grew wider, but he was forced to focus on the obstacles ahead.
When Alix turned to go back down to the main deck, she patted Lynx on the shoulder as well. “You did a great job too, Lynx.”
“Thank you, Miss Reyer. It’s good to be appreciated.”
The rest of the flight into the main area of Kala was dull compared to their entry, which suited everyone fine. There was only so much adrenaline a body could handle. When they found Gardner’s residence, they went in for a slow flyover while Ciro tried to look up details.
“No wife?” Reyer asked.
“No wife,” Ciro said. “No husband. No kids. He lives alone.”
“In a place like that?” Jane seemed offended.
Reyer privately agreed. The mansion wasn’t anywhere near as big as some of its neighbors, but to a girl whose only private home had been less than five hundred square feet, it was still astonishingly large.
Ciro shut down the tablet. “He’ll probably have a gardener and housekeeper. Maybe a cook. I have no way of telling if they’re there or not.”
“We’ll have to take a chance,” Alix said.
“What’s his security?” Vas called from the pilot’s seat.
“Unfortunately secure. I couldn’t scan it on our pass. We’ll have to deal with it when we get there.”
“Anything over his port?”
“No.”
“Then we’re ready to turn around and land?”
“As ready as we can be, Captain,” Reyer said.
Ciro set up Lynx as Vas maneuvered the ship over the port.
“You’re certain there’s no sensors?” Vas asked.
“None, Adan. I know what I’m doing.” Ciro rapped a knuckle on Lynx’s chest plate. “Now, you be careful out there. Look after those fools you’re with.”
“Yes, Master Ciro,” Lynx said.
Reyer held out her hand in front of Ciro until he put his multi-tool into it. She tucked it into her pocket, changed the position of her knife so it was against her low back, took a machete, and checked her e-pistol. Jane watched the ritual without a word.
Once they had landed, Vas came down from the cockpit. Reyer handed him his dao sword. He undid the buckle on his gun holster and slid the sheath onto it. As he readjusted the weight, he said, “Dr. Jane, would you like anything to defend yourself with?”
“I wouldn’t know how to use it.” She added in a slightly louder voice, “I hope I wouldn’t have to use it.”
“You know, for a pacifist, you sure like to pick fights,” Ciro said.
“I’m not a pacifist.”
Lynx fell in behind the captain and Reyer as the ramp lowered. Dr. Jane followed behind, armed only with her notebook and pen.
As they went down onto the property, Vas and Reyer peered over the open grounds. They were empty and walled-off from the neighbors. There was no sign of anyone. They had Lynx lead the way to the house, his scanning abilities being somewhat more in-depth and useful than their own.
The bot held out his arm to stop them as they were about to pass over the lawn, into the garden. In a swift movement, he dropped into a squat so he could be closer to the grass.
Ciro’s voice emanated from somewhere inside Lynx’s body. It sounded dim and echoey. “I see it, Lynx. It looks stronger to the right. Follow the line until you find the generator.”
The crew followed the robot as he walked along the grounds. They stopped beside a stone bench.
“Inside it?” Reyer asked.
“No,” Lynx said. “ There.” He pointed at the base of the bench.
Reyer knelt down. “My, my.” She pushed aside a small leafy bush that served as partial cover for the small generator, then drew her knife. She popped the outside cover and waited.
Lynx said, “Nothing appears to have been tripped.”
From his body came Ciro’s voice: “It’s a dampener as well as a force field. Get that down, Miss Reyer, and I can make your lives a lot easier.”
She looked around it. “I don’t see any traps or trips on this thing.”
“You sound disappointed,” Vas said.
“I would have expected better from a general.” Reyer used the multi-tool to tear off the secondary cover and slit the wires. Then she pried the power source free with her knife and tucked it in her pocket.
“What is that for, Miss Reyer?” Lynx asked.
Alix laughed at herself. “It’s a habit, Lynx. When you’re out fighting, you scrounge what you can to make what you need.”
“All right,” Ciro said. “The system’s only partly down, but I should be able to cripple the rest of it with the opening we’ve got. Well—hello…”
“What is it?” Vas asked.
“The force field system is only a basic commercial system, no real bells or whistles—”
“I could have told you that,” Reyer said.
“—but he has a retinal scanner as part of the pass on his door.”
“Does it require ID?” Vas asked.
“No. Retinal and hand-print. I can shut down the hand print, but we’ll have to force the retinal scan. It’ll take me a minute to track that down.”
“We’ll scan the house as we go. Keep us informed.” Vas stopped himself. “Ciro, there’s nothing else between here and the house, is there?”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“One moment.” A soft, humming noise rose around them before fading to nothing. “Not anymore. All sensors have been disabled and all cameras will be running on loop by the time you tell me how awesome I am.”
Vas rolled his eyes, but Reyer said, “You’re awesome, Ciro.”
“I know.”
“Humble too,” Jane added.
They got up to the house walls and pressed themselves against the red brick. Vas grabbed Lynx’s chest plate and pulled him down into a huddle. Reyer and Jane leaned in.
“Lynx, scan the house for anything you can find,” Vas whispered. “Security as well as heat signatures. I’ll take front. Reyer, can you handle rear?”
“I’m insulted you asked.”
“How’s your back?”
“Now I’m insulted and irritated.”
“Doctor, stay between me and Reyer. We’ll keep you safe.”
“From what? It’s suburbia!” Jane hissed.
“Gardner was a soldier,” Reyer said. “It’s hard to stop being one.”
“I guess you’d know.”
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
Emery Gardner was sitting in the overstuffed leather armchair that occupied the center of his office. He was staring morosely at the empty glass tumbler in his hand, trying to decide if it was too early to get another drink.
It was early.
But it wasn’t like he had anything else to do.
He heard a sound like tortured metal from outside his office door. “Mech? Is that you?”
A robot came into sight. He’d never seen one like it before. The thing was holding a copper-colored bot arm in his hand. Loose wires dangled from the end. “No, sir. I am Lynx.”
“What—what did you do to Mech?” the General asked.
“I decommissioned him.” Lynx threw the robot arm off to the side of the room. “It wasn’t difficult.”
In his shock, Gardner tried to stand up and back away at the same time, only to fall back into his chair. His glass dropped to the floor. A man and a woman strode through the doorway after the strange robot entered the room. Their e-pistols were already drawn and pointed at Gardner’s chest.
“Are you General Emery Gardner?” the woman asked.
Gardner nodded, then collected himself enough to say, “I am. Who—”
“Lynx!” the man said.
The robot advanced on him. Gardner started to pull his arms and body deeper into what little—if any—protection his armchair offered, but as he shifted his weight, both the man and the woman moved to get a better shot at him. He decided to stay as he was.
“Your arm, sir,” Lynx said.
“What are you going to do?” Gardner asked.
“I need your blood.”
Gardner surrendered his limb. Lynx took the sample he needed and stepped back. Neither the man nor the woman moved or spoke. The old general tried to see past the muzzles of the guns to the people behind them, to figure out if he knew them.
“I have servants,” he said. “People will be coming.”
“This house is empty. You’re alone.” The man sounded completely sure of himself.
“The plight of an introvert.” Gardner shook his head. “I don’t know what you want, but you’re welcome to it. I hope you’re not too disappointed in the pickings.”
“We’re here to talk to you, General Gardner,” the woman said. “We have no interest in your property.”
Gardner’s expression filled with dark amusement. It was as if he finally got the joke, but he found it far more disappointing than he found it funny.
“You’re here about the xenos,” he said.
There was a sound outside the door of his office.
“Not yet, Jane,” the woman called without looking away from Gardner.
“Lynx?” the man demanded.
“He is former General Emery Gardner, and he is human.”
“Check him for weapons.”
Gardner stood up in order to make the process easier. It wasn’t long before Lynx declared he was clean.
Gardner dropped his arms with a sigh. “Well, that was startling and uncomfortable. I could use a drink.”
Reyer lowered her weapon and called for Dr. Jane to come in. Vas kept his e-pistol trained on the old general as the man made his way over to the drinks cabinet.
“Lynx, check it,” the captain said.
Gardner stopped to allow the robot the chance to inspect his stock. “The only thing your bot will find that can kill you takes several years of hard drinking to do so.”
“He’s telling the truth, Captain. There are no weapons.”
“Captain?” Gardner said. “A captain from the Rising? In my house? And I thought today was going to be boring.” He pulled out a new glass and poured himself a straight scotch. “Can I interest you in some poison, Captain?” He saw Vas’s face. “Don’t be surprised. Look at it as my best attempt to threaten you with a deadly substance. No? What about you two ladies?”
“No, thank you, General,” Reyer said. “Or do you prefer Mister?”
“I’m completely indifferent. Call me whatever you want—you’re the ones with the guns. Oh, by the way, Captain, if you’re wondering where my service weapons are, the XM4 is down in the vault with my collection of antiques, and my e-pistol is in that desk over there.” He motioned with the bottle. “You can go and get it if you’d like.”
“Lynx, do it,” Vas ordered.
Gardner went back to his armchair and sat down. In spite of his nerves, he felt a little more content with the drink in his hand. Not only did he have a convenient excuse for needing another, but the robot had even forced him to stand, which was always the hardest part of getting it.
“I have the e-pistol General Gardner mentioned.” Lynx gave it to Vas, then went to stand beside the General. Vas lowered his weapon but kept it unholstered.
“There you have it, Captain,” Gardner said. “I’m unarmed, in a comfortable chair, and I have a scotch at hand. Now we can start this properly. Is this where I shout, ‘who are you people?!’”
“How many of those have you had?” Reyer asked, nodding to his glass.
“Only one. But the day is young. So, are you from the Rising?”
“That’s a complicated question you’re asking, General,” Reyer said.
“But this is about the xenos, isn’t it? That’s why you drew my blood, and why your bot announced that I was human?”
“That’s right.”
Gardner smirked at the drink in his hand. “I always thought that would be what got me. Of all the things I’ve done and seen, I knew it would be them. There’s something about them, isn’t there?” He shook his head. “God, how I hate them.”
“You sent them into our ranks as spies and assassins,” Vas said.
Gardner pried one finger off his glass to point at the captain. “Now I know for certain at least you’re from the Rising.”
“So you did do it?” Jane asked. Her voice was high with dismay. She stepped forward. “You used one of the greatest biological discoveries of all time as a weapon?”
“Great biological discovery? They’re dreadful, ghastly things! There’s nothing worse than staring into the face of a man, knowing he isn’t a man. But, yes. I did use them as weapons.”
“You seem awfully blasé about it,” Vas said. He had to work to keep his lip from curling.
“It was war, Captain. I know you’re familiar with the concept. I used what I could to get the job done. I think you would have done the same.”
“No.” Reyer’s voice was steady, but there was an intensity to it that quieted everyone else in the room. “That’s not right. You sent monsters after us. You may have comforted yourself with the idea that we would have done it too, but that can’t justify what you did. We didn’t do it. You did it. You told yourselves we were evil people, and then did evil things to us because of your own assumptions.”
Gardner swallowed another sip of scotch. It hid his expression well. “I wasn’t saying it as some kind of moral justification—that you deserved it—I was pointing out that you’re not so different than I am.”
“That’s something you decided,” Reyer said. “It has nothing to do with who we are.”
Dr. Jane said, “You must have arranged to have bodies for them to take. How many people did you murder?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Gardner said. “Most of the time it wasn’t like that at all, but when we had to create a new identity, we were very careful who we chose—”
“You were careful?” Jane’s eyes narrowed. “As if that makes it better?”
“I can see you’re determined to have your say rather than listen to me, so I won’t bother trying to help you understand.”
The doctor put her hand over her mouth for a moment. “I didn’t want to believe it, but a part of me did. Just once I want to be surprised by you people.”
The old general took a deep breath in through his nostrils. “Did you break into my house for the sole purpose of trying to make me feel guilty about old crimes?”
“No,” Vas said. “We’re more interested in your new crimes.”
“New crimes? You think I’m cheating at bingo? Or did you find out about me taking away a stroke or two off my golf score?”
“Why do you want to know where the xeno’s home planet is?”
The glass of scotch dropped away from Gardner’s lips until it was resting on the arm of the chair. “Why in god’s name would I want to know that? No—I might. I’d want to bomb it out of existence, but I doubt that most of my colleagues would let me.”
“General Gardner, did you assign a xeno going by the name of Jonathan Peak to infiltrate the Rising in order to find former Sergeant Alix Reyer?”
“No. If I did, I don’t remember it—but I think I would have remembered sending one in for…a sergeant? No. Not a sergeant. I tried to get an assassin in for a few of the generals once, but that didn’t work out.”
Alix suddenly lunged forward, but Vas caught her arm. He held onto it as he said to Gardner, “This wouldn’t be something you’d have to work hard to remember. It would’ve been less than two months ago.”
The General would have laughed, but the look on the woman’s face was still threatening enough to keep him sober. More sober, anyway. “Captain, I haven’t given an order to anyone in years. Who is this sergeant I was supposedly looking for? Alex Reyer? I’ve never heard of him.”
Vas’s eyes never left the general’s face as he pulled his com out of his pocket. “Ciro, are you in his computer yet?”
The general looked around in confusion, his eyes darting between his unwanted guests and the computer set up at his desk.
“I am. Currently scanning,” Ciro said via the com. “But this may take a while. He’s done a better job on his computer than on his house.”
Gardner scowled and opened his mouth, but Alix raised her gun, despite the fact she had to point it around the captain to aim it at him. “Object. I dare you.”
Gardner shut his mouth. A moment later, he said, “I’m not trying to hinder you. I have no reason to.”
Vas sneered. “A real patriot.”
“Oh? Would you rather I seal my lips and declare that I would never help you villainous rebels? It’s not my war anymore. I’ve seen enough of that war to know it’s not worth fighting over.”
Dr. Jane gripped her notebook and pulled it closer to her chest when she saw the expression of anguish roll over Reyer’s face.
Vas put his hand over her raised forearm and whispered into her ear, “Alix, we can’t both want to shoot him. One of us has to be the mature one right now. Is it going to be you or me?”
A hard huff of laughter escaped her bared teeth. “You.”
“Then I’m going to have to ask you to lower the gun.” He gently pressed her arm down. Vas forced himself to take a breath, then he turned back to Gardner. “Let’s try this again. You didn’t send Peak?”
“No.”
“You don’t know who Sergeant Reyer is?”
“No. Oh, dear. Won’t this be embarrassing if it’s all a mistake?” Gardner tapped the side of his glass with his finger. “Captain, why did you think I wanted to know where their home planet was?”
“Because someone has been hunting me for years!” Reyer said. She wasn’t exactly yelling. Not exactly.
The jaded demeanor dropped away from Gardner’s face, leaving nothing but soft flesh around his square jaw. He paled. “Do you know where their planet is?”
Reyer pressed her lips together.
“Who’s been looking for you?” Gardner said. “Do you know who’s been looking for you?” He steeled himself against their accusing glares. “Have you ever heard of a man named Jack Harlan?”
There was the sound of rushing boots along the hall. Jane stepped away from the door, hiding herself against the side of a bookshelf. Vas lifted his weapon as he walked over to Gardner. He grabbed the general by his collar and motioned with his gun for him to stand. The captain moved Gardner around the chair and pressed him back against the wall behind him.
“Lynx, by the door,” Reyer said.
The robot complied. She took position behind him.
Vas let go of the general long enough to press the button on his com. “Ciro, what the hell’s going on—”
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
Ciro stood up. The tech equipment dropped away from him. His ears strained at the speakers, trying to hear anything at all that would help him understand.
Shouting. Too many voices. Someone had said, “Peacekeepers!” Vas was shouting for them to stand down.
He heard Reyer’s voice over a distance. “It’s an emp! Lynx!”
The com went dead.
Ciro stood there for another two seconds before his body jerked as if he’d been jolted by the thought that he should do something. He dived to grab the tablets. With sweat-slicked hands, he struggled to find the programs he had opened to mute the security systems.
It took seconds too long—much too long—but then he saw them over the security feed. There were at least a dozen peacekeepers. A few were incapacitated. Lynx was dark and motionless on the ground. Dr. Jane was on her knees with her hands behind her head; Ciro could make out the fear on her face. One of the peacekeepers was standing on her leg with an XM4 pushing against her head, but Jane was staring at Reyer, who was laying on the ground, rolled up in agony. Four of the peacekeepers were standing over her with all their weapons pointed at her.
Adan stopped fighting. Ciro had no sound, but he could guess what his brother was yelling. Vas dropped everything and got down on his knees, while saying something to the peacekeepers by Reyer. Two of them abandoned her to go manage him.
How did this happen?
Ciro scrabbled around to get to his other tablet.
He knew how they got in without being seen—after all, he’d been the one to shut down everything that might have alerted them to the peacekeepers’ arrival.
No. What did I screw up? What did I miss?
He knew he was panicking, so when he found nothing the first time, he forced himself to go over it again. Then again.
Nothing.
There’d been no signal from the house. No call out. No alarm. Nothing had been tripped. All the systems had been muted and pulled down. There was no possible way that the peacekeepers had been called in by anyone in that house.
Ciro waded out from the wires and computers, holding nothing but the two tablets. He closed his eyes and tried to force his mind to understand.
It didn’t come from the house. It must have come from outside.
But who would have called the peacekeepers?
Someone was watching us as we came in.
The thought dropped ice into his stomach. Ciro turned to the still open ramp.
The woman was small. He took in her short-cut blond hair and dark blue eyes. She buried the handheld taser in his stomach.
Ciro’s body clenched. He couldn’t move, but his expanded awareness knew each excruciating second of pain. He saw the floor of the ship rushing toward him. Ciro slammed into the deck. When his head hit, he lost consciousness.
The woman stepped over his body and made her way to the pilot’s terminal. Five minutes later, she used the ship to open a secured line.
“Report.”
She said, “I have it, Colonel.”