Chiral Justice: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (The Biogenesis War Book 3)

by L. L. Richman

  Morrison’s gaze swept the dusty road ahead, and Ell saw the man squint as he looked up at the swiftly clearing sky overhead.

  {What screwed the process up was actually how they misjudged the effects that tampering would have on this world’s tectonic plates and the materials in the upper magma, just beneath its crust. The release of sulfuric acid was several orders of magnitude greater than they had anticipated, and not even seeding the atmosphere could counteract it.}

  The agent shot her a sardonic look and added with mordant humor, {That doesn’t mean that what’s bad for the colonists can’t be good for business, though.}

  Ell held his glance. {So there really is material worth mining beneath the planet’s surface?}

  {Oh yes,} Morrison assured her. {And the Akkadian Empire’s only too happy to trade with privately held mining companies—for an exorbitant fee.}

  He made a small gesture with his hand, encompassing the shantytown. {Where do you think all these people work, and who do you think they work for? The empire entices Coalition companies here with cheap Akkadian labor, and then pockets the vast majority of the profits for itself.}

  Ell shook her head but relaxed marginally at his words.

  It made sense. More, his reasoning provided a believable explanation for their presence here, and at the moment, that was all she cared about.

  Morrison drew to a stop in front of the garage, and its doors slid open. He motioned them inside.

  The skimmer was a sturdy one, and completely within character for the type of cover they had created.

  “Where are we headed?” she asked as Jonathan opened the door for Joule to jump inside.

  For answer, Morrison pushed a map over their connection.

  “There’s an abandoned hunter’s hide five klicks away from the prison.” He highlighted the spot. “It’s as close as we can get without risking detection.”

  The scrape of footsteps had Ell whipping her head around, her hand instinctively going for the knife she had strapped to the inside of her wrist.

  “It’s just me,” Thad’s voice called softly, as if he knew she’d have a bead on him.

  A second later, his shadow cleared the doorway.

  Morrison brought the big Marine to speed as Aviva stepped toward the skimmer and began running an efficient check for fuel readiness and any possible tampering that might have occurred while the vessel was in storage.

  Thad flung the rucksack from his shoulder, setting it down gently onto the packed dirt floor. Turning to Morrison, he looked around. “What else needs to be done here?”

  The agent shook his head. “Nothing. They expect us to grab the skimmer and leave. That’s the routine we’ve established over the past several months, so to do so today won’t raise any eyebrows.”

  “Except for the fact that there are three strangers tagging along with you today.”

  Jonathan’s skeptical comment earned him another sharp look from Aviva.

  “We’ve staged a few prospecting runs over the last week,” she said in a brusque tone, motioning for them to load their gear in the back. “We brought locals with us from the city, different people each time. The people in this village are used to strange faces. Morrison and I are the only constant.”

  “Sounds like you’ve thought of everything, then.” Thad wedged his duffel into a corner before taking Ell’s pack from her hands.

  “That’s what the NSA pays us to do,” Aviva pointed out, placing her hands on her hips. “And right now, they’re paying us to get you to that prison. So, do you want to stand here jawing about it, or can we go?”

  PART THREE:

  DECEIVED

  INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING

  Akkadian home fleet flagship

  Port Akkadia

  in orbit above eridu

  As the five Geminate operatives traversed Eridu’s savannah, Che Josza was busy high above the planet, attending to matters that his position demanded he oversee. Today, that meant the monthly briefing aboard a Hendijan-class battleship, the flagship for the Akkadian home fleet.

  Hands clasped behind him, he resisted the urge to rock back on his heels as the ship’s captain droned on in excruciating detail about the home fleet’s readiness. An image projected onto the holoscreens displayed a panoramic image of Port Akkadia.

  It was an impressive view, with more than seventy-five ships moored there. Unfortunately, the captain seemed intent upon enumerating the status of every last stars-cursed one of them.

  “In addition to our carriers, destroyers, battleships, and light attack cruisers, we have almost one hundred and fifty small support vessels assigned to this complement of ships.”

  Che suppressed a groan. Ancestors, please, no. If he starts in on every last attack craft….

  His expression remained fixed, while inwardly, he wondered how quickly he could break in to graciously extricate himself. Granting the citizen captain an audience with the minister of state security was a courtesy expected during Che’s visit. He didn’t want the man to lose face by cutting him off, but Che wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out.

  “These smaller vessels range in size from large cargo transports to small pinnaces, to the Hydra Mark III and Hydra Mark IV classes, our nimble and deadliest fighters.”

  Che stifled a sigh and glanced over at the man standing to his left. As the leader of Home Fleet, Citizen Admiral Li’s duties often conflicted with Che’s visits, and so it was rare that their paths crossed.

  Che caught a rare show of humor on the man’s face, his lips twitching in amusement. It was an unguarded moment the man seldom showed.

  Li quickly hid his half-smile behind a carefully blank face when he saw Che watching him, but then took pity on him and stepped forward. “Citizen Captain, I’m afraid the citizen minister is needed in the wardroom. Thank you for your update; I’m sure he appreciates all your hard work on behalf of the premier.”

  “Indeed,” Che murmured as the citizen captain bowed. Che returned it with a nod.

  The admiral waved a hand toward the bridge’s exit. “Shall we, Citizen Minister?”

  Che nodded gratefully and followed the admiral out.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow disengage from the bulkhead, falling into step beside him. His Dagger’s hand curled around the blade at her waist, brown eyes watchful in an expressionless face.

  As if feeling the weight of his regard, her gaze skimmed his before drifting to the corridor beyond. The turning of her head set the beads woven into the braids that framed her face shifting under the ship’s harsh lights.

  To most, she would appear inscrutable, but Che was not most people. Years in her proximity had gifted him the ability to read her microexpressions and the subtle cues of her body. At the moment, she was relaxed. Guarded, but relaxed.

  They entered the wardroom, where Citizen Agent Ahura waited to brief him. These meetings were routine, monthly in-person reports as befitted the sensitive nature of the information the intelligence officer curated.

  At Che’s entrance, the man looked up, moving from a command console to stand beside the room’s central holotank.

  “Citizen Minister Josza, sir.” The man nodded respectfully.

  Che thanked the citizen admiral, who bowed his way out. Dacina sealed the door, a minute dip of her head signaling that the room was now secure.

  “What do you bring me today?” Che asked.

  The man pressed his hand against the surface of the tank, and the star system sprang into ghostly relief between them.

  “A detailed snapshot of movements around the Calabi-Yau gate at our heliopause,” Ahura said. He pointed, and a small grouping of icons shuffled, like playing pieces being recalled as fresh ones were handed out.

  “The garrison changed over?” Che asked, and Ahura nodded. “Any indication why?”

  The man shrugged. “Scuttlebutt has it the Geminate Navy bumped up a refit. There’s no unusual movement, no indication this is anything other than that.”


  Che hummed thoughtfully, but then nodded, motioning for the man to continue.

  Unlike the citizen captain, Ahura knew the meaning of a high-level briefing. His update was concise, his words economical.

  “That’s it. Except… there is one more rather odd thing.” The citizen intelligence officer pursed his lips in a pensive scowl. “Each flagship commander has been ordered back to Eridu for a medical exam. That’s…” Ahura paused as if to check his notes, “fifteen citizen captains in all.”

  Che’s brows lifted. “Really? When each of their ships has a fully staffed medical department?”

  “I managed to obtain a copy of the orders. They clearly specify where they’re to go, and who they’re to see.”

  The intelligence officer dipped his chin, and a ping sounded over Che’s wire, notifying him of an incoming file.

  Bringing it up on his overlay, Che quickly scanned through its contents. The more he read, the higher his brows tried to climb.

  “They’ve been specifically ordered to see Clint Janus?” He didn’t bother tempering the incredulousness in his voice.

  His words elicited an almost imperceptible sound from his Dagger.

  Che’s gaze shot to where she stood against the bulkhead, her body still and posture held ramrod straight. Dacina never made her presence known; when she did, it was done purposely.

  She returned his gaze, expression bland, but he sensed an awareness in her stare that had not been there before.

  She knows something.

  Turning back to Ahura, Che drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the surface of the holographic tank and adopted a casual tone, as if this news hadn’t just set off all sorts of alarms.

  “Tell me. What do you think of this recall?” He used his ‘teaching voice,’ the tone he’d used to such great effect when he’d led the Junxun years ago.

  Considering that the man before him had once been a promising student, the tactic was effective. As Che had intended, it engendered the desired response. Almost reflexively, the officer fell back into the familiar byplay of teacher and student.

  The intelligence officer squinted off into the distance. After a moment, he said, “It’s been a standard year and a half since we were shut out of the Proxima Badlands. I’d say that we managed to salvage enough research from the installation An-Yang shut down to revive that program.”

  Che made an encouraging noise, rolling his hand in a silent order for the man to continue.

  Ahura, fortified by Che’s response, began to warm to the idea. “Best guess? We now have a viable bioweapon, and the citizen captains are being recalled so they can be inoculated against it.”

  As guesses went, it was a good one. An educated one. It showed that Che had chosen well when placing Ahura as chief intelligence officer over the fleet. It was even possible the man was correct.

  But Che’s gut was telling him otherwise.

  Regardless, it was neither Ahura’s burden nor his responsibility to figure out what was really going on between Janus and Dent.

  “It’s possible,” Che said, pitching the tone of his voice to suggest that exact thing, while officially refusing to acknowledge it.

  Not wanting to encourage Ahura to get himself into trouble by pursuing this any further, Che decided the best course was to abandon the topic.

  “What other news do you have for me?”

  Ahura straightened, dragging his attention back to the briefing. “That’s about it, sir. Things have been quiet since the premier’s inauguration. The Coalition and the Alliance both seem to have backed off.”

  “What of the standing orders to the fleet?”

  The officer frowned. “Premier Dent has been, somewhat… less aggressive than his predecessor. Fleet-wide, we’ve been ordered to play nice with the garrison at the gate. Same with the border we share with Khufu. To be honest, there are a lot of citizen captains who have grown weary of their patrols.”

  “Is it becoming a morale problem?”

  The man shook his head. “Not yet, though they wouldn’t say no to a little action.”

  Che cracked a smile at that. “Understandable. I’ll see what I can do, talk to Citizen Minister Hatami about ways to liven things up a bit.”

  Warren Hatami was Akkadia’s minister of defense, a solid man, if a little lacking in creativity.

  Che pushed away from the holotank. “Excellent work, as usual. I’m due planetside for a briefing soon. If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave you to it.”

  Ahura nodded. “I’ll see you next month, sir.”

  Che responded with a nod of his own.

  I hope you do, Ahura. I hope you do. Who knows what will transpire before then.

  * * *

  As they exited the wardroom and headed for the shuttle bay, Dacina remained quiet, but Che could see tension radiating from her shoulders. Something was wrong, and he needed to find out what it was.

  It wasn’t until they were ensconced in their ship, with the pinnace’s SI engaged to return them to the planet’s surface, that he felt comfortable broaching the topic.

  Che enacted full security protocols before turning to face his Dagger.

  “I saw your reaction back there, when he mentioned the recall.”

  He waited. Finally, she stirred.

  “You know I have been working to discover what was discussed between Janus and the premier.”

  Che’s brows drew down. “You think this is part of that.”

  “I do. I have my suspicions as to why, but I need time to gain proof before presenting it to you.”

  He considered her words, and then nodded. “Very well.”

  He reached for the ship’s controls, but halted when her hand fell on his arm.

  “The Garza clone. He has been in play for a week now, yes?”

  Che nodded, surprised at her change of topic.

  “His actions—the directors he was forced to appoint, under Premier Dent’s orders… they are clearly out of character for him,” she hedged.

  Once more, Che nodded.

  “Clint Janus killed the chiral agent in front of Doctor Travis and Captain Case, but not before he spoke to them. We must assume the Alliance now knows we have the technology to chirally clone humans. They will seek confirmation of this soon.”

  Her words puzzled him.

  “None of this is news.”

  “Correct. Yet sometimes patterns can only be seen when looking back at where they began to form.”

  Che felt a brief stirring of annoyance. “What are you trying to say, Dacina?”

  The Dagger’s eyes burned with a dark intensity. “I made a promise to you, my General, eighteen months ago.”

  Che knew she was referring to the incident on Hawking, where she’d taken matters into her own hands. She’d given up the location of the assault team to the Geminate—a team he’d been tasked to lead. And then, she’d covered for him, claiming he’d ordered her actions.

  Her words were all that had saved him from death—or worse—at Asher Dent’s hands.

  “I do not regret the actions I took then, and I would do the same again,” she assured him stoically. “It saved your life, and there was no time to warn you. But I gave you my word that I would not act again without your consent.”

  She bowed, and though seated, it was clear by the accompanying gesture that it was the bow of subservience. “I require that consent now.”

  A chill coursed down Che’s spine.

  “Exactly what action do you feel you need to take?”

  “The Alliance’s intelligence network is convinced we have their prime minister. They are coming for him.”

  Che sat back, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. This had always been a possibility, something he and Dent had discussed. It was why the roster guarding the Shar-Kali Facility had been doubled.

  Dacina wasn’t done.

  “The warden running Shar-Kali has made a tactical error.”

  Her words mystified him somewhat; they were almost non-sequitur. Almost…
but not quite. “And what would that be?”

  “The former minister of state security is also a resident there. The two are cellmates.”

  Che blinked, shocked that someone at Shar-Kali had been so slack.

  “Are you telling me that the warden of that prison has placed Rin Zhou Enlai in the same cell as Raphael Garza? And he didn’t think that placing two high-value prisoners together might be cause for concern?”

  A fluid movement suggested a shrug. “I cannot comment on that. It is as much a possibility that the guards were bribed to arrange such a thing by loyalists as it is laziness on the part of the warden.”

  Her words were vague, and they began to annoy him.

  “Loyalists? To Rin Zhou?” Che heard the sharpness in his own voice.

  Dacina nodded. “She has offered to help Garza escape. For a price.”

  Che had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she said next. “What would that be?”

  “He is to assist her in a coup.”

  Dacina held up a hand, forestalling his nascent protest.

  “My informants tell me that Enlai’s loyalists are strong, but would most likely fail in this attempt without assistance. Even if she secures Garza’s support, it will do her no good. He’s a prisoner himself. His hands are tied.”

  Che shook his head. “Not necessarily. If Rin Zhou’s network is as robust as you say, she could arrange to have the Alliance’s infiltration team meet with Garza.”

  Dacina’s expression remained inscrutable. “The Geminate do not involve themselves with the politics of other star nations. They will not aid the overthrow of a sitting government.”

  Che smiled thinly and shook his head. “Are you willing to bet the empire on that?”

  RECON

  Hohen Savannah

  Eridu, Akkadia

  The skimmer Aviva piloted stopped under the shade of a grove of massive umbrella trees, their intertwined canopies spreading wide above gnarled, bent trunks.