November 02, 2361 AIA
Erremos
The Golondrina had arrived at Cooney’s penitentiary. As Vas brought the ship down and cut the engines, the mounting tension began to infect even Gardner. Despite the fact it was the general’s name and rank that had assured them an instant welcome, he felt a creeping desire to leave as soon as possible. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that he wasn’t wanted by the Supremacy—at least, not as far as he knew.
Behind him, Ciro whispered, “We’re sitting here, surrounded by a company of Supremacy military police, trying to act casual.”
“If this is casual for you, I worry for your health,” Gardner said. Was it hypocritical? Probably. But he was trying to diffuse some of the strain.
“We aren’t shooting anyone,” Vas said. “In this circumstance, for us, that’s casual.”
Gardner rolled his eyes and turned away from the viewport. “I hope this won’t take long. Wait here for me.”
“General.”
Reyer’s tone made Gardner stop and look around. Both her and the captain were watching him. They’re eyes were hard. Neither of them was smiling, but Ciro had a wry grin on his face.
“What?” the general asked.
“You’re not going alone,” Vas said.
“Why not?”
“I’d give up now, General,” Ciro said. “They’re both really stubborn about these kinds of things.”
“Getting you back to base is our mission—” Reyer said.
“My mission,” Vas grumbled.
“His mission,” she amended. “We won’t let you out of our sight.”
“I’m not going to try to escape, Miss Reyer,” Gardner said. “I did call you, remember?”
“Yes. Because you were the target of an unknown assassin. Remember?
“I hardly think that he’ll make an appearance here. No one knew I was coming. Not even Cooney.”
“Are you willing to bet your life on that, General?” Vas asked.
Gardner frowned. “Fine. Miss Reyer?”
Alix pushed away from the ledge near the pilot’s seat that she’d been leaning on. “I’ll be ready to go in a moment. I need to grab a few things.”
Vas stood up. “Whoa, now!” He jumped down the three steps to get to the main cabin. “I think there’s been a slight misunderstanding.”
“How so, Captain?” Gardner asked.
“I hate to press the issue, but this is my mission. This is my ship. And you’re under my charge.”
“Yes, and there’s a ridiculously large bounty on your head. And that’s a Supremacy penitentiary we’ll be walking into.” The general paused. “How easy do you want to make this for them?”
The captain scowled.
Reyer finished putting on her jacket and reached out to take the e-pistol from Adan’s hip. “Not to mention, Miss Bellerose has the perfect background for working with Gardner.”
Vas couldn’t help echoing her slight smile when he saw it. “Oh, now you’re stealing my weapon? Because I don’t feel helpless enough?”
“I have my own pistol, Adan. I’m trying to steal your concealed holster. It’s these clothes—I’ve been told I can’t just leave my gun tucked in my belt.”
Vas let out a cross between a grunt and a sigh, but he started removing the holster.
Gardner straightened his own clothes, doing his best to make it less obvious that he’d slept in them for days. “And it would be strange for a pilot I hired to follow me around while I was conducting my business.”
“All right! I get it!” Vas handed the holster to Reyer. “Any idea why my bounty is so high, General?”
“It’s not based on merit?”
The captain glared.
Emery shrugged. “I imagine Harlan might have raised your priority when he realized you were in the company of Miss Reyer.”
“And you didn’t change that while you were busy erasing information?”
“It didn’t occur to me to check. I apologize. The oversight was mine.”
“Can you take care of it now?”
“Not likely. I might be able to call in a favor—as long as word of my defection hasn’t reached the last corner of the galaxy—but your file was never a part of Project 32, so I had no direct access to it.”
Reyer finished putting on the holster and checked her weapon before tucking it out of sight. “Don’t worry, Adan. I can handle this.”
“I know.” Vas took a deep breath and repeated, “I know.” He didn’t seem to believe himself; less than a second later, he asked, “Will you be all right?”
“Yes, Captain.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “And you have a com?”
This time, she growled her answer. “Yes, Captain.”
Vas swallowed back the rest of his nagging and pulled her close to kiss her forehead.
“How touching,” Gardner murmured.
“You can back off!” Adan snapped.
“Oh, yes. Heaven forbid a man should comment.”
“I recommend you don’t take the captain’s outburst personally, General,” Lynx called from the copilot’s chair. “It’s likely he’s looking for something on which to project his irritation. By drawing his attention, you unwittingly made yourself a target.”
“And you, shut up,” Vas said.
“It seems I have relieved you as the foremost object on which to vent.”
“Better you than me, bot,” Gardner said.
The captain stood at the top of the ramp and watched as Reyer and Gardner went down into the crowd of Supremacy soldiers. They never looked back. He might have stayed there longer, but he was distracted by Ciro.
“Well, well, well.”
Vas looked over his shoulder. His brother was leaning back against the bulkhead, his hands behind his head, grinning.
“Look who’s stuck back here on the ship with me.”
Vas turned away from the ramp. “Get on some kind of computer and do whatever it takes to get that stupid bounty off my head.”
“Oh, come on. Being left behind isn’t that bad.”
“Ciro!”
“All right! I’ll see what I can do. But no promises. They caught on to what I was doing about a year ago. I think they store a copy of the Rising personnel information off the network so I can’t go in and mess with it.”
“Find the planet the computer is on, and I’ll fly you there myself.”
“Sounds good. You’ll babysit the ship while Reyer and I break in to steal it, right?”
“Master Ciro,” Lynx said. “I was doing an excellent job serving as the target. There was no reason for you to put yourself forward.”
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As Gardner walked through the penitentiary, he looked over his shoulder to make sure Reyer was still beside him. She was walking a half-step behind but managed to keep pace with him. The general had declined the offer for a guide, insisting that he knew the way. That meant they were alone, except for the few people who passed them in the halls.
“The captain,” the general said.
“What about him?” Alix’s tone wasn’t overtly harsh, but the general sensed an edge to her words.
“He seems concerned about you,” he ventured.
“He worries a lot.”
Gardner glanced over to make sure he hadn’t said anything to offend her. It was then he noticed she was scanning the building, noting every soldier and the occasional prisoners being led somewhere. He returned his attention to getting them to where they needed to be.
They had to pass several wings of holding cells and operational facilities before they arrived at Pace Cooney’s office. When they knocked, a voice called for them to enter.
The man was standing behind his desk. His posture indicated that he’d stopped mid-stride when they entered. Evidently, Pace Cooney had been trying to live up to his first name. He jerked his head in a brief nod.
“Gardner.”
“Senator.”
Cooney jerked his head again, this time to motion to Reyer. “Who’s she?”
Alix finished coming into the room and shut the door.
“She’s an associate of mine,” Gardner said. “Her name is Miss Bellerose.”
Cooney didn’t offer to shake her hand. He didn’t seem to have time for any kind of pleasantries.
“What is it you want, Gardner?” he said.
Emery walked over to one of the stark, fashionable chairs in front of the desk and sat down. He almost managed to look comfortable. Then he waved a hand to indicate that Cooney and Bellerose should sit as well.
How considerate, the senator thought. He offers me a chair in my own office. Such a gentleman.
Before the senator could get rid of his sour expression, Gardner said, “I’m afraid I need to ask you a few questions.”
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Alix noticed Cooney’s eyes flash toward her. A shaky smile made an appearance on his face. It looked strange and lonely—as if it wasn’t used to being there.
“Questions? About what?”
“About the xenos, Cooney. What else?”
The senator turned bright red. There was another glance in Reyer’s direction. This time Gardner noticed it.
“She knows, Cooney.”
The man’s abnormally large Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, but he managed to say, “What does she know?”
“More than you would guess.”
“You’ve done it, haven’t you?”
“Done what?”
“You’ve already reported us. You went to someone—you found someone who would listen to you. You turned us all in to buy your own freedom—”
“I did nothing of the kind.” The general’s interruption should have been too quiet to hear, but it stopped Cooney mid-rant. The ease of Gardner’s smile managed to crank Cooney’s nerves up another notch, even though he already looked ready to snap. Reyer wondered if he’d shatter or ricochet around the room like the spent pieces of a rubber band.
“Then who’s she?” Cooney asked.
“She’s here for my protection.”
“Why would you need protection?”
Gardner shifted in his chair. “Have you heard from Fable?”
“I got a hold of him before he went out.”
“Went out? Where?”
“Where do you think?” the senator snapped.
“I don’t know, Cooney. That’s why I asked you.”
The senator squirmed under the weight of their combined stares. With clasped hands and forced calm, he said, “After you…called us…Fable was upset. When I managed to get a hold of him, he was already packing. He said he wanted to ‘look up a few things,’ as he put it.”
“Did he now?”
“He went back to an old base of his—at least, he was trying to get back there. I haven’t heard from him since then, so I have to assume he found someone to take him.”
“Would this be the base where he kept his paper files on Project 32?”
Cooney’s lips pressed tight together. He went to rub his eyes, but before the lids closed, Reyer saw he was appraising her.
“Senator,” she said, “I promise you, I’m only here to protect General Gardner, and I already know everything about your involvement with Project 32. There’s no point in avoiding saying what needs to be said.”
“I never wanted anything to do with this.” Cooney seemed to be speaking to the room in general, but Alix had a feeling she was the intended audience. “I thought it was done and over. Now all this nonsense! I don’t like it.”
“Cooney,” Gardner said. “I don’t care about how you feel and whether you like what’s happening or not. Nobody likes it. But I do need you to answer my questions. Hopefully, if you do, we can resolve all this before it gets out of hand.”
“Resolve all what? What’s going on here, Gardner? All these years of silence, and now some fantastic story and you’re threatening us—”
“It isn’t some fantastic story!” Gardner lowered his voice. “You saw the interviews of the survivors. You think I would go through the trouble of making that up? And, yes, I am threatening you.” In a theatrical voice, he added, “Tell me what I want to know, or else!”
Alix almost smiled. Then she saw the senator’s face. He didn’t seem to think it was a joke.
“You still have it?” Pace whispered.
“Of course,” Gardner said.
“With you?”
“I have access to it if I need it.”
“But not on you?”
“How stupid do you think I am, Senator?”
“Stupid enough to keep a copy of records that will destroy us all!” Cooney hissed.
“Ah! That makes me more dangerous, no doubt. Now, tell me—Fable was going to check the paper records, wasn’t he?”
Cooney nodded.
“I see.” Gardner took a breath. “Why didn’t he call you?”
“For what?”
“For the number of xenos.”
Pace held up both his hands. “Why would I know something like that?”
“You don’t?”
“I used to know how many people I’d sent to Fable, but that’s not the same thing as knowing how many xenos there are. You know that. And it was forever ago! He hasn’t contacted me in over five years.”
“You can’t tell me anything?”
“I could look up the numbers if it’s really important to you, but if you want to know how many human-xenos there are, you’re asking the wrong man. I can’t help you.” Cooney’s face screwed down in a mean little frown. “I’ve been sitting over here, in my own corner, ignored by the rest of you. I didn’t know anything about what was going on!”
“Yes, your ignorance must be a great comfort to you. All that wonderful plausible deniability.” Gardner hauled himself to his feet. Reyer stood up as the former general went on. “I hope it keeps you safe.” Gardner turned as if to go but stopped short. “Fable is dead, by the way. He was murdered two weeks ago.” The general smiled. “Good luck.” He turned once more.
“Did you do it?”
Gardner looked back at Cooney. “Excuse me?”
“Did you kill him?”
“Did you?” Gander strode back to the desk and leaned his considerable bulk over it in order to stare into Cooney’s eyes. “Did you kill him to keep him quiet? How far would you go to keep yourself safe? Did you send that damn assassin after me?”
Cooney leaned as far back in his chair as he could. “No—what? No! General Gardner—” He swallowed. “Emery, I didn’t kill Fable. Believe me.”
Gardner slowly straightened up.
Pace let go of the breath he’d been holding. He noticed that the woman had come over to stand by the desk and wondered whom she’d come over to protect. Cooney straightened his shirt and cleared his throat. Then, in his most assuring voice—the one cultivated through years of serving as a politician—he said, “Gardner, you can trust me.”
At that moment, the com on his desk beeped.
“Sir, we’ve searched the general’s ship like you ordered,” a voice said, “but there might be a problem.”
Gardner’s hand shot out and seized the com. Cooney’s objection was choked off when he saw the muzzle of the woman’s e-pistol aimed at the side of his head.
“Call me crazy,” Reyer said, “but I don’t really feel inclined to trust him. How about you, General?”
“I feel much more inclined to trust him now that your gun is pointed at him. Be quiet a moment, would you, Cooney?” Gardner pressed down on the com’s button. When he said “go on,” his words were clipped. It would be hard to tell anything about who might have said them.
“We’ve seized everything you wanted, but in our search we…well, we uncovered a small arsenal of weapons. The pilot and other passenger refuse to comment on why they have them. I’m looking for advice on how to proceed.”
There was a pause.
Gardner said, “Cooney, do you have any advice on how they should proceed?”
The senator didn’t answer.
“What about you, Miss Bellerose?”
“He obviously found whatever he was looking for. I can’t imagine why he’d care whether we’re carrying weapons or not. I think he should tell them as much, and then tell them to leave the ship and wait in the bay. He’ll be joining them there shortly.”
Gardner handed Cooney the com. The senator’s voice trembled as he gave the order. When he was done, Reyer told Gardner to take possession of it again. She grabbed onto Cooney’s arm to help him to his feet.
“And now,” she said, “the good senator is going to escort us back to our ship.”
“How thoughtful of him,” Gardner said.
The general stayed close to Reyer and Cooney, trying to use his body to hide the uncomfortable situation from the casual inspection of passersby. Alix’s hand was locked around the senator’s arm, pulling him toward the e-pistol grinding into his ribs. She hissed a series of instructions to him as he marched in front of her; he was to nod when people met his eyes and keep walking while holding up one hand if someone tried to talk to him. The few people who did want to stop him were rebuffed without incident.
When they reached the hangar, they saw the Golondrina’s ramp was still open. Ciro was waiting at the top. Vas was down on the bay floor, arguing with a group of soldiers. One of them, a sergeant major, broke away when he saw Cooney enter. He came up to them and saluted.
“Sir.”
“Yes! Yes, Sergeant,” Cooney stammered. “Thank you. I…uh…I’ll be with you shortly.”
The sergeant didn’t stand aside. His gaze wandered over to General Gardner, whom he had assumed would be taken into custody, and the woman, who was standing much closer to Cooney than any other woman he’d ever seen. She was staring over the senator’s shoulder, watching the sergeant.
“Is everything all right, sir?” the sergeant major asked.
Cooney’s back arched away from the e-pistol pressed into his side. “Certainly!”
The sergeant’s eyes narrowed. Reyer could almost see him trying to figure out what to do. “Sir, if you could come over here for a moment.” He nodded toward his squad. One of the men was holding a box. “I think we got more than you bargained for.” The sergeant motioned to Vas, who’d stopped arguing to watch what was going on. “And this gentleman keeps warning us that we’re trespassing on MI territory. If you could verify—”
“No!” The pressure on Cooney’s flank had increased enough he felt compelled to speak. “No, Sergeant. That won’t be necessary.” The senator tried to smile. Whatever expression he managed showed teeth but looked painful. “I’m sure everything’s fine.”
Vas edged away from the other soldiers, toward his ship.
“I hope so, sir,” the sergeant major said, “but if you would just come over here…”
Reyer and the sergeant major were staring at each other now. Cooney was nothing but the pawn between them. When the sergeant saw a flash of smile, he reached for his weapon. Reyer kicked his pistol out of its holster, knocking aside his hand in the process. Before the gun landed somewhere behind the sergeant, she pulled the senator against her. The e-pistol she’d been pressing in his back was now against his temple.
The sergeant yelled for his men to lower their XM4s.
“You’re terribly insistent.” Reyer was still smiling. “He told you everything was fine.”
“That was the give-away,” the sergeant said. “The entire time I’ve worked here, Director Cooney has never said anything was fine.”
Alix laughed. “I should’ve known.” She didn’t look away from the soldiers poised in front of her, but she shouted to Adan, “Captain!”
Vas, from partway up the ramp, yelled, “Ready to go whenever you are, Miss Bellerose!”
Gardner gestured to the box. “But…whatever they took—”
“You heard the captain,” Reyer said. “I think this situation is dangerous enough without complicating it. If he says we’re ready to go, we’re ready to go.”
“Are you—”
“Get on the ship, General!”
Gardner went up the ramp.
“How is this going to work, Miss Bellerose?” the sergeant asked.
Reyer’s furiously churning mind dug out something close to a plan. “Simple, Sergeant. I’m going to take Mr. Cooney for a short ride to another part of the planet. We’ll leave him there with his com. You can use the signal to track him down and pick him up once we’re gone.”
The sergeant shook his head. “I don’t think so. How do I know you won’t take him with you?”
“Trust me, we don’t want him either.”
“You might kill him.”
“How annoying is he?”
“I can’t let you leave with him, Miss Bellerose.”
“You don’t have much choice, I’m afraid. If you try anything, he’ll die.” She nodded her head toward the box of items they’d seized. “You have what you were looking for. Is stopping us from leaving worth his life?”
The sergeant’s eyes broke away from hers when he heard Cooney sputter, “Please, Sergeant! Jus—just let them go.”
The sergeant grit his teeth, raised his hands, and backed away, one careful step at a time. Reyer moved up the ramp in the same cautious manner. When she was close to the top, she felt someone reach out and take her arm to steady her.
“Now!” Vas said.
Ciro slammed his fist down on the button to close the ramp while Vas pulled Reyer far enough away he could mug Cooney. He tied down the senator’s hands and secured a blindfold.
When that was done, the captain stood up again. The hand he put on Alix’s shoulder was shaking.
She took a breath and nodded, trying to get control of her own trembling. “I’ll cover the senator.”
“I’ll get us out of here.” Adan jumped up the steps. “We’re leaving now, Lynx.”
“Yes, sir.” The robot was already entering a route.
Vas called over his shoulder. “Ciro, what are the chances they’re going to try to take us out of the sky?”
Ciro retreated to his crowd of tablets. “All of my scans turned up nothing but lethal projectiles.”
“Oh, god!” Cooney whimpered from his place on the deck.
“Relax,” Alix said as she sat down on the middle bench. “That’s good news. It means they probably won’t use them if we have a hostage on board.” She paused. “Unless you are that annoying.”
“What?”
“Consider this a mid-year or end-of-life review by your subordinates.”
“Did you get those raises through on time, Cooney?” Gardner asked.
Ciro and Vas called to each other as they left, checking for any suspicious activity or ships that might be pursuing them. When everything was cleared, Reyer looked up at Gardner.
“What was all that?”
“Probably a half-baked plan of his.”
Vas shouted back, “They had a warrant, Gardner. It looked legitimate.”
“That means one of two things—either he took advantage of his role as our host and pushed through a site-specific order to search the ship while it was under his jurisdiction, or I’m wanted by the Supremacy, and he used that to get the warrant. I suspect it’s the former.”
“Why?” Reyer asked.
“Because he wouldn’t want the Supremacy to get a hold of what he was looking for, and if it was a general warrant, he would’ve had to turn it in.”
Ciro shook his head. “Making friends wherever you go, General.”
“I know.”
Reyer nudged Cooney with her boot. “Which was it, Senator?”
“I put the order through,” Cooney said.
“So there isn’t a warrant for Gardner’s arrest?”
“Why would there be?”
“If there wasn’t one before, it’s reasonable to assume there will be one now,” Lynx said. “Taking a senator hostage breaks several Supremacy Laws.”
Reyer watched Cooney’s face as it pulled into a grimace. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “The senator may deny the order for the warrant to go through.”
“Why would he do that?” Gardner asked.
“Because he’d have to explain why we took him hostage.”
Gardner smiled. “Ah. And he’d have to explain what he was searching the ship for.”
Alix leaned down as far as she could, ignoring the pain that shot through her back. “Think about it, Senator. This could all be a small misunderstanding.”
Cooney thought about it. He nodded.
Outside the large prison facility, there was a modest metropolis that took care of the soldiers who worked there. Otherwise, the planet was empty. They could leave him almost anywhere on the sub-continent. They found a place in the middle of a vast, tightly packed scrub forest, and landed.
Vas and Gardner escorted the senator off the ship. After the captain had unbound his hands and removed the blindfold, the general reached out, holding Cooney’s com where it could be seen, but not offering to hand it over. Pace had to reach for it. When he did, his hand was swallowed up by Gardner’s handshake.
“There we are, Senator. Let’s part on good terms, shall we? I won’t hold searching my friend’s ship against you if you don’t hold us taking you hostage against me.”
This time Cooney’s attempt at a smile came out as a sneer. “Of course, General. This was all nothing but a small misunderstanding.”
“I’m glad to hear it. After all, no matter how unwilling, you and I are on the same team. And it’s growing smaller all the time. Look after yourself, Cooney.”
They left him standing in the blazing sun and returned to the Golondrina. While Vas went up to the pilot’s seat, Gardner crashed down on the side bench next to the ramp. Reyer was sitting across from him on the middle bench.
“Do you think he’ll keep his mouth shut?” she asked. She grabbed the edge of the bench for support as the ship took off.
“I do,” Gardner said.
“And you’re all right?”
“I’m a little shaken up, but taking a hostage wasn’t nearly as stressful as being shot at by an assassin. Or being held prisoner for days on end. All things considered, this was tame. I think I’m becoming quite the adventurer.”
“Good.” Reyer raised her e-pistol and clicked off the safety. “Now give me the nan-card.”
After a brief silence, Gardner said, “Miss Reyer—”
“I know you have it, and it’s with you.” She smiled. “How stupid do you think I am, General?”
Grander made a wry face as he pulled the nan-card from his pocket and held it out.