by Kal Spriggs
“Part of his plan fell apart,” I said as neutrally as I could manage.
“Yes,” Dyer took another sip. “And the planet wasn’t conquered. Do you know what just happened, there, though, what news has just reached me?”
I shook my head.
“What ancient intelligence agents called a ‘black swan.’ An interesting term that. I like words and archaic phrases; they tell you much about the mentality of a person. A black swan is something that comes out of nowhere and catches everyone by surprise. The Culmor Empire attacked Century. We still don’t have a full report, but it sounds as if they wiped out the entirety of their planetary militia, taking heavy losses in the process.”
My stomach dropped and I stared at him in shock.
“Yes, war with the alien rivals of humanity. Interstellar war like we haven’t seen in generations. Sepaso Guard Military Sector has already reported dozens of Culmor probes. Almost a thousand light-years of space where fleets will soon clash over worlds that neither side dares to colonize. All of it a waste, a pathetic, stupid waste.”
Dyer took another drink and he looked at me. “They’re playing King of the Hill. Another interesting, archaic term. I had to look it up, do you know?”
I shook my head. “Just a kid’s game, sir, I used to—”
“Used to play in the Barrens, yes,” Dyer tapped a stack of reports. “But they don’t call it that in the Barrens. They call it Emperor’s Spire. A slightly blasphemous but understandable name. But ‘King of the Hill’ is used on a number of worlds, nearby. The Mason Corvale Alliance, for instance, on the planet Mason. Which is interesting because your genetics don’t match the general template for the clone tissue and organ grafts they have here on Drakkus. But you don’t look like someone from Mason. Too tall, dark hair, the cast of your eyes. You’re not from Mason. You aren’t from Drakkus, either, but you aren’t from Mason.”
“Sir, I—”
He ignored me as he went on, “Going a bit further afield, though, there’s another world where the heritage of the inhabitants matches up a bit better. Where you could pass for a native of Drakkus, especially if you spent some time in the Barrens, away from sunlight.” He tapped the folder, “Century system. A hot, dusty dry world.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir,” I told him. “My name is Vars. My father was a pirate by the name of Wessek—”
“Who served the Crown Prince, loyally, until he messed up an operation on Century. An operation where he was supposed to kidnap two scientists and their children, but he messed things up and killed both of them and only brought the boy,” Dyer’s voice was hard. His dark eyes bored into me as if daring me to interrupt. “And then there was an accident and that boy was killed. A lab explosion. Only maybe it wasn’t an accident. Maybe it was sabotage and the boy escaped. Hard to believe a country boy from Century could survive on the streets of the Barrens, but maybe you found help?”
He flipped open a file and turned it over, showing a picture of me. Side by side was a picture of Vars. “Easy enough to dig into, Armstrong. The connections were all there. All from one little slip of the tongue, when I knew you weren’t Vars, so you had to be someone else.”
I sat there, feeling hopeless. I’d been found out. Any second now, Dyer would wave his hand and his people would slap a black bag over my head and drag me off.
“In the future, you’ll need to be more careful,” he told me. He closed the folder and then fed it into the shredder next to his desk.
I stared at him in shock. “Sir?”
“You’re intelligent, capable, and loyal to your allies. You’ve worked your way into position where you are trusted by three of the most powerful up-and-coming members of the future rulers of the Empire,” he grinned at me, “That’s what we in the Intelligence world like to call an ‘asset.’”
He gestured at the shredder. “What do I get from having you arrested? From revealing your true identity? I make Prince Ladon and his father look like idiots, because they personally signed off on the form that a foreigner used to infiltrate the Institute. Do you think they will thank me?” He snorted. “I lose a potential informant placed in a position where he can grow in trust and stature.”
“But I’m not from here, I’m not loyal to the Empire, I just want to go home!” I protested.
“Home?” Dyer tapped the folder labeled Century. “The Culmor Empire took Century. What home do you have? Your surviving family, your sister and grandmother, they served in the Century Planetary Militia. By all reports, that militia was utterly destroyed. There is a good chance that the Culmor will have gassed the planet. You have no home, William. You have a hidden life, a life you stole. But you have earned a place here. You can serve here. Your capabilities will be rewarded and, so long as your assist me, I will protect you.” His implication was clear. The second I failed to follow his orders, he would arrest me and either I’d get a fancy show trial or he’d just make me disappear.
“What do you want?” I felt hot tears burning in my eyes. At that moment, I hated him.
He smiled, “Go back to Jade Flight. Celebrate. They’ll have the end of year awards ceremony. I’m sure that your friends and you will all be recognized. Enjoy it. Work hard at your classes this next year. Build your relationships with your friends. Build their trust. Work for Prince Ladon and feed him the information he so desperately craves.”
“And?” I asked.
“And you will be my agent through it all. You will feed extra information to Prince Ladon as I order. You will watch for signs of subversion within the Institute and its officers. You will serve me and I will use you to better the Empire.” He patted the stacks of reports on his desk. “You are another pathway to knowledge, William Alexander Armstrong. A valuable, useful pathway, and as long as you remain valuable and useful and cooperative, I will make certain you are protected.
“What happens if I don’t want to do something?” I asked.
“Feeling squeamish?” Mikhail Dyer grinned. “Do you know something interesting? Entrant Jerral never confessed to hacking his implant. Even right up to his execution, he maintained his innocence in that one thing. He freely admitted to planning to kill Princess Kiyu, he even told us that the Prince had ordered it. But he insisted that he hadn’t planned to desert. That he hadn’t hacked his implant.”
He grinned at me, “You may have morals and principles, William, but you have a remarkably practical streak as well. You killed Vars, you set Wessek up. Here in the interrogation chamber, you set up Jerral for a fall, all without telling a single lie. You’re a killer and a manipulator, William. You may not like it, but you’re good at it. Do any of those deaths keep you up at night?”
I closed my eyes. “Not really.”
“As well they shouldn’t. Wessek was a pirate and a slaver. Vars was little more than a violent thug. Jerral, well, he was cut from the same cloth, another sycophant of Prince Ladon who earned his place here through doing favors. You shouldn’t mourn them. Just as you won’t mourn the others that I have you plant evidence against or report on.” He smiled, “We are going to start gaining all kinds of knowledge, William.”
He finished his drink and set the glass down on his desk. “Go back to your friends. Enjoy yourself. But make no mistake, soon enough there will be work to be done.”
I stood and went to the exit, feeling a bit unsteady. He had me and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t even run; there was nowhere left for me.
But as I stepped into the corridor outside, a bit of wan sunlight came down. He might have me now, but he didn’t know everything. He didn’t know about the quicksilver that ran through my body. He didn’t know about my sister’s digital copy and I’d wager that in the knowledge department, Shadow would give him a run for his money.
He might be trying to manipulate me, but I had friends to fall back on. I couldn’t tell them, not yet, but I knew that if and when I did, Jonna and Kiyu would have my back.
Century was gon
e. There was no home for me to return. I was on my own. But I wasn’t going to give up. Maybe my home was gone. Maybe I was the last, forsaken child of Century, but I wasn’t going to give up.
###
The End
William’s story continues with Hidden Valor, Forsaken Valor Book Three
About the Author
Kal Spriggs is a science fiction and fantasy author. He currently has many series in print: The Valor’s Child YA series, the Forsaken Valor series, The Renegades space opera and space exploration series, the Shadow Space Chronicles military science fiction and space opera series, the Fenris space opera series, and the Eoriel Saga epic fantasy series.
Kal is a US Army combat veteran who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s a graduate of a federal service academy and used a lot of his experiences from there in writing the Valor’s Child books. He lives in Colorado, and is married to his wonderful wife (who deserves mention for her patience with his writing) and also shares his home with his son, and several feline overlords. He likes hiking, skiing, and enjoying the outdoors, when he's not hunched over a keyboard writing his next novel.
