With that, she left.
PROPOSAL
Minister’s Office
Ministry of State Security
Eridu, Akkadia
“You did what?!?” Che’s pacing abruptly halted as he turned to stare incredulously at the assassin standing silently against the dark wood paneling of his office.
As had become custom, they’d instituted an informal version of a SCIF each time they conversed. The first level cut them off from all communication; the second fed innocuous yet believable conversation to any listening devices that might be pointed in the direction of his office.
Che was very glad for those precautions today; what his Dagger had done was nothing short of treason. Certainly, he could see no pathway through that would lead to anything less than his own death.
He dragged a hand roughly through his hair. “You actually spoke to Rin Zhou about this?”
She stared at him, eyes drilling into his, willing him to make connections that his mind balked at.
“Are you…” He shook his head. “Are you really suggesting that I support a revolution? Have you forgotten so quickly that I am the sole reason Rin Zhou Enlai is in prison in the first place?”
Dacina shifted. For her, the subtle movement was the equivalent of an impatient shout. “I explained to her that you hold no love for the man, and that you are committed to his downfall.”
Che made a rude sound. “There is no reality I can conceive of where Rin Zhou would allow me to live.”
“There is,” Dacina corrected him. “I have been working the channels. If we can deliver Geminate support to Enlai in our bid to install her as premier, unseating Asher Dent, then your position will remain unchanged.”
The Dagger leaned forward as Che began to shake his head. Her eyes held a rare pleading. “Hear me out. I believe this will sway you.” Expression grave, she reached out a hand.
Bemused, Che stretched out his own to meet hers, but when she uncurled her fingers, there was nothing in her palm for him to retrieve.
He began to withdraw, but Dacina’s strong fingers latched around his, initiating a secured peer-to-peer connection.
{This information is too sensitive to transfer over a wireless connection,} she insisted in his mind. {Too sensitive to speak aloud.}
A file transferred over their connection.
{I found this on the system Clint Janus had installed inside his lab.}
Che shot her a sharp glance.
He scanned the file once, quickly, and felt his face pale.
Swallowing hard, he scanned the document a second time, reading more thoroughly.
He speared her with a hard look. {And you’re certain of this? There can be no mistake.}
The Dagger shook her head. {No mistake. I overheard his conversation with the premier myself. I saw the files. I saw the vials.}
Alarm shot through Che at her admission. If she’d been caught, not only would her life be forfeit, but his as well. Everyone high-up within the government knew her to be his shadow.
“You were careful?” he pressed.
His words came out sharper than he’d intended. When her expression shifted subtly, he realized he had just offended the assassin.
Of course she’d been careful. She always was.
{Dent is ordering clones of all these military men?} he summated. {Chiral clones? To what purpose?}
Now her expression held a hint of sardonic amusement. It was as close as she would ever come to saying, “Exactly what you think it means.”
{Obelus is far more ambitious than Dent ever let on,} she hinted.
{He plans to control the entire corps?} Che guessed. {All our military might?}
The thought was staggering.
The Dagger stared unblinkingly back. {There is more.}
Her words snapped his attention from the file displayed on his overlay and back to her.
{What?} he demanded.
A second file appeared beside the first.
With some apprehension, Che toggled it open. The names listed in the document leapt out at him—his own among them. The plan was so daring, so devious, he could hardly wrap his brain around it.
He heard Dacina’s next words as if from a distance.
{Obelus is far more insidious than controlling our adversaries’ governments. He will accept nothing less than complete control over his own people. If he succeeds, he will become unstoppable.}
{And Rin Zhou knows all this?}
Dacina dipped her head. {She does. She has a core group of loyal followers ready to act on her behalf.}
“This is suicide…” Che muttered aloud. “You realize that, don’t you?”
“It is suicide if we don’t.”
COMMITMENT
Shar-Kali Correctional Facility
and Reeducation Center
Aksu Desert
“Prime Minister Garza, I invoke the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine.”
Rin Zhou’s words had Raphael jerking his head around.
After her threat to expose the special forces teams, they’d fallen into a stiff silence. Apparently, that had now come to an end.
He figured she’d try again to manipulate him. But this?
Raphael stared at the woman as if she’d lost her mind. “You want to invoke the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine?”
“Yes.” The woman stood, unruffled. “It is a moral obligation held by every civilization within the broader interstellar community. Should a star nation—”
“I know what the damn doctrine states,” the prime minister snapped, but the woman continued, talking over him.
“Should a star nation fail in its responsibility to protect its own people, either through inability or lack of willingness to do so, then the greater interstellar community is duty-bound to step in,” Rin Zhou finished.
“That doctrine has never once been invoked.”
“I beg to differ.”
The former minister leaned forward, her expression predatory. “Pre-diaspora, in the late twentieth century, in Kosovo. In the twenty-first century, in the Ivory Coast and Libya. In the late twenty-second century, it was invoked at the Europa colony, and in the early twenty-third—”
“Enough! I don’t need a history lesson.” Raphael shook his head, laughing humorlessly as he began to pace. “Oh, this is rich, coming from you. Especially after the bioterror weapon you tried to unleash at the Defense Summit.”
Rin Zhou wisely kept silent.
Raphael continued to pace.
Do it.
José’s voice sounded inside his head, causing him to break his stride.
She’s invoking that damn doctrine as a way to get us to support her coup. We don’t fund coups. It goes against Alliance policy. Raphael took a seat on his cot and buried his head in his hands.
His doppelganger sighed. Well, we aren’t exactly funding it. We’ll be fighting it.
Same difference, Raphael snarled.
It’s either that, or… His mirror twin hesitated. Or deny them control over our nation.
You’re talking suicide.
Forcing them to eliminate us, corrected José.
Same difference.
Raphael’s gut clenched. He wasn’t the type of man to shy away from the ultimate sacrifice, but he hated that such a decision might also doom three innocents. His wife. His twin daughters, who had yet to truly experience all life had to offer.
José’s voice cut in again. You saw how I tried to reach out to Cutter at the Founder’s Cup dinner. It was impossible. They have me sewn up so tight, we’ll never be free. Unless….
Raphael’s jaw clenched. Unless we give her what she’s asking for, he finished.
His twin sent a mental nod. She’s right, you know. We can’t allow Dent to get away with this, to enslave others like he did to us.
Hell, you and I know she’s the lesser evil, but that doesn’t give us the right to commit the Alliance to this course, Raphael pointed out.
Between the doctrine s
he invoked and what Dent has done to us, I think we could make a case that the man presents a clear and present danger to the settled worlds. I seriously doubt you’ll get push-back from Cutter.
José was making a compelling argument, but Raphael forced himself to step back and play devil’s advocate.
What about the governor-general? She has a responsibility to the people. This could have long-reaching repercussions. It could impact our relationship with the Coalition of Worlds for years to come.
There was a pause from the other end. When José returned, his mental tone held a deep weariness.
Do you really think any one of those governments wouldn’t support this, once they learn the truth? For that matter, do you think Asher Dent will be satisfied with just one star nation, once he’s turned the Alliance into his puppet regime?
Raphael closed his eyes. Dear god, we’re really doing this, aren’t we? He opened them and shifted his gaze back to Rin Zhou, giving a slight nod. “All right. You have a deal.”
SURPRISE INSPECTION
Shar-Kali Correctional Facility
and Reeducation Center
Aksu Desert
After the Dagger’s shocking revelation, Che knew time was their worst enemy. If this plan had any chance for success, they had to act fast. Which was why, less than an hour later, he found himself staring out a skimmer’s windscreen at clumps of switchgrass as they sped toward the prison.
On an inhale, he turned to look over at the Dagger, who was piloting the transport with a practiced hand.
“Everything is in place? You’re certain this will work?”
Dacina’s dark eyes shifted briefly to him. “It is, and I am. Do not worry, my General. All will go as planned.”
“How do you know the Alliance has sent in a special forces team, when no whisper of this has reached my ears?” Che persisted.
“Channels,” was all she said.
“This is bothersome,” Che muttered. “I’m the minister of state security. If the leader of the intelligence branch for the entire Akkadian Empire doesn’t know about this, then what else is being kept from me?”
“I told you; I intercepted it before it could go through regular agencies in order to prevent the premier’s faithful from learning about it.”
She spared him another glance. “At the moment, we stand as counter-faction to the premier’s faction. It would be a mistake to allow sensitive information to pass through standard means, despite their level of encryption. If the special forces team we plan to partner with ends up at the mercy of Asher Dent, we fail… and Akkadia falls.”
Her logic, as always, was impeccable.
“He would just as soon see them cloned and put back into play, the same as Garza,” Che murmured, acknowledging her truth. “I should have thought of that myself.”
Suddenly, he felt weary, even a bit inept.
“You’ve been busy keeping them occupied so that no one suspects,” she reminded him.
It was true. In order to bolster the appearance of his loyalty to Dent, Che had ordered Tèzhǒng operatives to attempt to obtain Micah Case and Samantha Travis.
In addition, he’d proposed similar acquisitions inside various other planetary governments, starting with the Commonwealth of Ganymede, and moving on to the Democratic Free States of Mars. As Class-A worlds, both were on the priority list that Dent had approved.
He’d also suggested to the premier the possibility of forays into Class-B space, but Dent had demurred, wanting to see progress from the bigger fish before they went any farther afield. So Che had backed off.
It was a fine line he danced between convincing the premier of his complete loyalty, and raising the man’s suspicions. Asher Dent had a very finely honed BS meter. Che had no intention of underestimating the man.
His thoughts returned to the present, and he pushed his concerns behind him as the Dagger slowed the shuttle, transmitting the security signal that would allow them access to the Shar-Kali Correctional Facility. The massive hangar doors began to slide open, tilting up slightly so as to shed the sand that had been deposited by the winds.
“As our esteemed opponents in the Geminate star system would say,” Che murmured, “ ‘it’s showtime.’ ”
* * *
The lab that had been built to accommodate Clint Janus was oddly familiar to Che, and he realized abruptly why that was; Janus had recreated the laboratory where he’d served undercover as the assistant to the Geminate Navy’s chief scientist.
Che glanced over at Dacina and caught her faint nod, confirming his guess.
She would know; he’d dispatched her to that same facility three years earlier, to keep watch over Janus as the man obtained samples and stole Alliance research. She had then sent him footage of the facility in her reports.
The Dagger had destroyed the lab when she’d blown up deGrasse Torus—yet here it stood, once again.
Che circled the lab slowly, examining every instrument as he awaited Clint Janus’s arrival. He paused when he came to an alcove at the back of the laboratory, where an immense piece of equipment stood.
The machine in question had an arm that hung ponderously out from its isocenter, the gantry that held it in place able to rotate freely on all three axes. The indentation perfectly positioned beneath it appeared to be fully retracted.
Beneath the unit, which held the very scientific title of ‘Polarized DBC 3-D Prototype B,’ was a well of bioink, suspended in a tank of hydrogel.
At its core, the machine housed a digital-to-biological converter capable of printing complex biological material from diagrams of detailed molecular structures. However, before the program could begin, the bioink reservoir would first be infused with stem cells, harvested from a preselected host. Then the two-stage process would commence.
First, a single molecule was printed using a method that produced high-fidelity structures, rapidly and continuously. The molecule was then sent through an adaptive optical centrifuge that used short pulses of linearly polarized lasers to induce a highly excited, specific rotational state. Only then did the machine send the molecule to the second stage, the more complex printing of organic structures like organs and tissue.
The result was a perfect, chiral reproduction of the original.
“So… this is where he prints his chiral clones.”
Dacina nodded. “It is.”
They both turned at the sound of footsteps approaching. The doors slid open, admitting the man Che had come to see.
He felt an irrational urge to laugh at the look of utter surprise that crossed Janus’s face when he realized who was standing inside his laboratory.
“Cit– Citizen Minister,” the scientist stuttered, stumbling to a halt. Janus’s eyes flickered to the left, and his face turned noticeably whiter when he took in the identity of the woman by Che’s side. The man swallowed hard, his Adam’s Apple bobbing up and down.
Janus jerked his eyes back over to Che. “What can I do for you, Citizen Minister?” His words were faint.
The man’s visceral reaction to the Dagger was too much; Che allowed his amusement to show.
With a smile, he gestured expansively to the room. “You can give me a tour, Citizen Doctor.”
“I was unaware one had been scheduled,” Janus said after a beat, his gaze shifting from uncomfortable to crafty.
That caught Che’s attention.
{Observe the look in his eyes,} he told Dacina.
She made a noise that sounded a bit like a mental hum. {He believes he knows something you don’t.}
Che clasped his hands at the small of his back and began to pace slowly, his gaze casting about casually as if perusing various items in the room.
“Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise inspection if I let you know about it ahead of time, now would it?”
The Dagger shifted, as planned, drawing a flinch from Janus.
Che glanced over at her as if only just now recalling her presence. “Ahh.” He breathed the word, turning back to J
anus with a bland smile. “I seem to have forgotten the unpleasantness you experienced at the hands of my tool here. Allow me to put you at ease.”
He turned to Dacina and nodded. “You are dismissed.”
The Dagger drew herself up and gave a bow of deep respect. “Citizen Minister, I live to serve.”
With military precision, she pivoted and marched out the door.
Phase one complete, Che thought. The rest is up to her. Now all I have to do is keep this arrogant, self-important prick occupied.
INSERTION
Shar-Kali Correctional Facility
and Reeducation Center
Aksu Desert
It took Thad, Jonathan, and Ell about half an hour to trace Joule’s steps to the shaft. They’d stopped once, hunkering down in the tall grasses, when a skimmer went speeding by. It disappeared in the direction of the prison, causing Thad to risk pinging Aviva.
{Any idea who that might be?}
{ We tracked them to the prison hangar. Sometimes they get special deliveries. No indication you were spotted.}
Thad motioned for the trio to continue. When they arrived, Jonathan spotted the big cat hidden beneath the sweep of a sand-raisin bush.
She stared unblinkingly out at them from deep within its dense foliage, her pelt blending in with the shadows that had grown deeper as dusk neared.
Jonathan knelt beside the bush, reaching in to retrieve the cameras strung about her neck, while Thad and Ell continued on to the shaft.
Thad could see the grille that rested at its lip, patterned in long, parallel lines that looked just wide enough for him to insert his fingers between.
He dipped into his tactical vest, withdrew one of the Bravo Charlies that Aviva had given them, and slapped the nano package onto the grate.
He and Ell both tensed, waiting for some indication that an alarm had been tripped.
Chiral Justice: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (The Biogenesis War Book 3) Page 25
