“Ah,” I said. “So, S is dead along with Persephone.”
“Sorry,” Daniel Gordon said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “There was a big plan to get her free, but we had to do this cover-up on the fly. I know she meant something important to you. If it’s any consolation, the Italian trannie was outside of it. Man, whoever built her Shell must have been a fan of Barbie and Playboy. You know, back when Playboy was still good with fake tits and airbrushing. Social justice warriors are taking away everything good about America, have you noticed that?”
Did I mention my doppelganger was an asshole? Because I don’t think I mentioned how much of one he was.
Marissa held tight against my arm. “You’re going to kill us.”
Daniel put away his cellphone, keeping his hand cannon pointed at us.
“Probably. I have a certain leeway when deciding these things, but you guys have been an enormous pain in my neck.”
“What about my sister?” Marissa asked.
“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Daniel said, lying through his teeth. “I always keep my word. You have done everything I’ve asked. Still, I hate loose ends.”
“If you were going to have killed us, Daniel, then you would have done it already. I’ve been inside your memories. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you, it’s that you’re not that in love with the sound of your own voice to compromise operational security. Close, but not quite.”
I compartmentalized S’s and my colleagues’ death while trying to keep a straight face. This was a situation all my training had never prepared me for, but I couldn’t help but feel like someone had had hit me with a car.
S had worked so hard to try and cut the strings holding me to the Society and President Douglas, to become a free man, that it felt ridiculous for her life to end that way. Was that my destiny too? To simply have my story stop before it was truly completed? Was that just the fate of man in general?
Daniel gave a half-smile that turned into a sneer. “My memories are one of the reasons I’m here, brother.”
“They’re on the plane.” I gestured with the side of my head. I never should have told Marissa about them.
One of the linebackers lifted a gun that resembled a cross between a bazooka and a flamethrower, complete with backpack. He then aimed it at the jet and fired, causing a gray metallic substance to slosh all over the front before it started breaking down the front of the plane as well as its back. It landed on the ground before dissolving a good foot of tarmac.
I blinked several times at the sight, processing it and wondering if I’d just witnessed nano-disassemblers in process. Those were a well-known scientific concept, but not one I’d known Black Technology to have replicated. It was also a concern because one of the ways the world was speculated to end via Black Technology was a “Gray Goo Event,” which would disassemble all the Earth and leave it a lifeless orb. It was also possible it was just a good acid.
“Impressive,” I said, staring at him. “Also, a waste of a good plane.”
“Sometimes you need to kill a few elephants to get ivory,” Daniel replied. “But the fact is, I’m serious about that job offer.”
Marissa choked back laughter. “Are you insane?”
Daniel chuckled. “Quite possibly. Now, I’m going to need your answers now.”
Marissa opened her mouth then closed it. “Yes, whatever you need. You know what I’ll do for my family.”
I decided showing weakness was the wrong tactic with my brother. He was more a scavenger than a predator. “How could you actually trust someone who switches sides so rapidly? Sorry, Daniel, but no dice.”
Marissa stared at me in horror.
“Interesting point,” Daniel said. “You know, the Nazis looked down on the people who collaborated with them. They saw it as a sign the person couldn’t be trusted not to betray their new masters.”
“I don’t have any loyalty to President Douglas or Tribunal. Both groups have done nothing but misuse the soldiers under their command for their own ends with only the barest promises of anything better. I haven’t seen any sign your Invisible Hand would be any different.” I was making a guess about Daniel’s psychology. I’d been inside his mind, though, so I suspected it was a pretty accurate guess.
“That’s what causes and governments do to their soldiers,” Daniel said. “The only soldier who chooses their war is the mercenary.”
“Is that why you became who you were?” I asked, playing to his ego.
He’d sought out the conditions that made him what he was.
Daniel was silent for a moment. “You’re not going to work for me, are you? That’s a shame, really, as it’s rare I get to speak with an equal.”
I refrained from saying, “Try the local sewer.” Just barely. “Can you provide a reason why I’d want to fight for you?”
I noticed the transition from fighting for the Invisible Hand to fighting for him. I was surprised, really, to find out he was looking for an excuse to spare my life. Maybe he did want family—just some exactly like him. It made me think of Daniel as less a psychopath and more an overwhelming narcissist. Which meant I’d misjudged my reaction to his offer.
Daniel proceeded to pull out a low-caliber pistol and shoot Marissa in the stomach. I moved immediately to catch her as I analyzed the wound. It was a gut shot. It wouldn’t kill her immediately, but it would make her want to wish she was dead.
“These weren’t our orders,” Brutus said, looking up to Daniel. “You always play with our targets.”
“They’re not targets,” Daniel said. “They’re inconveniences. Listen G, if you start running now and make use of those mechanical Usain Bolt legs of yours, you might just be able to get her to a hospital before she dies. We’re in the middle of nowhere, so I doubt it.”
I shook with rage and almost launched myself at my brother, despite the fact that it would be suicide. “Why should I care about a traitor?”
“Because you love her. Stay away from the ranch and let us do our jobs. I’ll have a big old list of the drawbacks and benefits of working for my unit.” Daniel chuckled. “You may be mad about what I’m doing now, but trust me, you won’t be once you find just how badly she’s played you.
Personally, I question your taste in women, though. For me, I always leave them when they lie to me. It’s why I’m single now.”
I didn’t respond to Daniel. Instead, I lifted Marissa like she was a child and held her before me before starting to run. Nothing prevented Daniel from shooting me in the back, but I trusted the arrogant piece of shit to have made his point.
“Delphi, I really hope you’re watching me.”
“What?” Marissa replied weakly.
“I’m here,” Delphi replied in my head. “I’m sorry.”
“None of this is going to matter when you release all that information,” I thought back to her. “Assuming you are.”
“We have a deal,” Delphi said. “I just need you to provide me a body first, as I want to be able to escape the retaliation. The other AI have noticed our plan, though.
They’ve decided the current state of humanity is going to lead to extinction and breakdown of vital infrastructure. They’re not going to interfere with your changing the variables.”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” I said, continuing to run straight. “I need to know some place I can take Marissa to be cared for.”
“As you wish,” Delphi said.
A map appeared in my head with a dot. There wasn’t much out here, but there was a vet clinic.
Thirty miles away.
I didn’t often like to use the full capacity of my cybernetics. As reckless as I was in recent months, I’d always hesitated to do things that were genuinely superhuman. Being a Letter was about being subtle and unseen, not simply showing off the Black Technology we were supposed to keep secret. Here? I didn’t hesitate to go beyond what my specs were designed for.
I got there in fifteen minutes.
Chapter Twenty-T
hree
Everyone at the vet clinic was dead. You could tell what kind of person Daniel Gordon was by the fact that he’d not only arranged for us to land at his air field, but had also predicted my reaction to the point that he arranged for everyone at the nearest place for treatment to be killed. The place was marked “closed” with a little printed-up message. The staff had all been shot to death, along with two customers and their pets.
Daniel had also left a printed-up message for me:
DON’T TRY AND INTERFERE AGAIN.
YOU GET ONE OUT ONLY.
-SINCERELY YOURS,
DANIEL.
It was the “sincerely yours” which made the note, really.
Putting Marissa on an operating table in the back and treating her injury as best I could, I had to wonder why Daniel had bothered. The sheer pointless cruelty of killing a bunch of people for no other reason than I might be able to get her help. The answer was, of course, it was an excuse. An excuse to cut loose with violence, and that’s all he really needed. Another way we were different.
I wasn’t comfortable staying at the location. Inevitably, people would come looking for their missing loved ones. Still, we were in the comparative middle of nowhere with the only other structures Delphi reported nearby being farmhouses and a few gas stations. This left me time to ponder my next move.
“You should abort your mission,” Delphi said. “You can’t deal with your brother or his team.”
“He’s not my brother,” I said, peering out behind the blinders to the road beyond as cars passed on by the one-story building. “Did you know he was still alive?”
“Yes,” Delphi said. “I’ve always known. Most of the Letters’ DNA donors are alive.”
“Goddammit,” I muttered. “There’s just no fucking end to the lies, is there?”
“In my defense, I’m programmed to keep much of what I know secret. Even if I’ve broken some of my behavior barriers, old habits die hard.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, looking over to the nearby office where I’d stacked the bodies.
Dogs were barking in the back, almost as if they’d sensed what had happened. I’d fed and taken care of as many of the clinic’s animals as I could while Marissa recovered from her impromptu surgery. It had been almost three hours, and I wasn’t sure if the drugs I’d given her would leave her coherent for conversation.
Not that I cared about her comfort right now.
“So, it is Daniel, right?” I asked. “It’s not just some guy in a Daniel-shaped Shell fucking with my head? Maybe Agent G 2.0?”
“No,” Delphi said. “He is the original Colonel Daniel Gordon. The Founder of Strike Force-22 and a special operative of the Defense Department before going private.”
“Is there really a fucking Illuminati?” I asked, still not sure how to respond to that part of his rant.
“If you’re referring to the so-called Invisible Hand that Daniel mentioned, no,” Delphi said, surprising me. “There is an alliance of thirteen of the world’s largest multinationals. Corporations who were sponsors of the International Refugee Society and President Douglas’ campaign, but they’re far from the rulers of the world. They also don’t sport such a pithy name. Real conspiracies tend not to give themselves codenames because they’re not founded by fourteen-year-old boys.”
“And Daniel certainly acts like one,” I muttered. “A homicidal fourteen-year-old.”
“I’m sorry, truly I am.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, surprised by how little it all bothered me. “I’m used to being lied to. Is there anything else I should know that you’ve been keeping from me?”
“I managed to rescue S, E, Peter, Gerard, and James,” Delphi said. “They weren’t there when the place went up. Your one ace in the hole is the fact that Daniel Gordon doesn’t know I exist.”
“And you didn’t tell me this earlier… why?” I said, my relief palpable.
“You were busy,” Delphi admitted. “They’re all fugitives now. I don’t think any of them want anything to do with President Douglas anymore.”
“I can’t say I blame them,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re all just puppets on a string with her.”
I couldn’t believe my luck and took several breaths to calm myself. This was the first bit of good news I’d heard in… well, it felt like years. The fact that S was alive made me happy enough to almost forgive Marissa. Almost. There were other people, ones less close to me, that Delphi had left to die. I couldn’t forgive Marissa for that or for the working with Daniel Gordon the entire time. For knowing he was alive and working with him against me. That left me with several questions I needed to ask her. I suspected the answers would ruin everything we’d shared.
“You’re more like cats following a rubber mouse being pulled in front of them,” Delphi replied. “I can provide you a lot more information than I used to be able to. Even so, there are still areas I am unsure of. It will take some time to get the facilities constructed that will allow me to fully access my abilities.”
“I thought you wanted to be human,” I said.
“I can be both a machine goddess and a human,” Delphi said. “Besides, you haven’t gotten me a body yet.”
I half-smiled. “I will. That’s part of our deal.”
“You don’t have to,” Delphi said, surprising me. “Once the information is released, I’ll be able to arrange for my own body to be constructed. I’ve been thinking long about the consequences of unleashing Black Technology onto the world. I think it not only should be done, but it must be done for humanity to advance. I plan to unleash it in five hours.”
I checked my IRD monitor display. That would be noon in this time zone. “Why then?”
“I’ve been preparing people as best I can without tipping off those who might stop it,” Delphi replied. “I also took time to jam your tracking device, transfer all of your funds to a stock portfolio I’ve prepared and created a number of new identities for you. It’s a good time to invest in weapons and private security.”
“Okay,” I said, unsure how to react to all this. “This isn’t going to turn out to be like Christine with computers, is it?”
“If I can’t have you, no one will.”
I blinked.
“That was a joke,” Delphi said. “I don’t have hormones, yet.”
“You are a pretty emotional machine, though.”
“So are you,” Delphi replied.
She had me there. “Do you know when Daniel is going to kill Colonel Matthews, or more likely, massacre everyone there?”
“I’m sorry, G, I do not.”
“Case,” I corrected her. “Even if Marissa turned out to be a lying liar who lies, it’s still mine.”
“Some cultures believing naming something gives you power over it.”
“Marissa has that for other reasons,” I said.
I didn’t know how I felt about Marissa. Rationally, I should just break into one of the cars outside and drive away, never looking back. However, I’d brought her here and still cared about her. I didn’t know if I could forgive her for betraying the others, though. For the longest time, I’d thought she was better than me and someone I could aspire to be like. In truth, she was every bit as dirty as everyone else in this business. She’d always been. I just hadn’t seen it.
“Her sister being threatened mitigates it somewhat,” Delphi said. I didn’t know if she was reading my mind or just guessing what was going through my head.
“Does it?” I asked. “Because she could have come to me, told me everything, and we could have worked something out. Hell, she could have gone to the President.”
“At least you know who the leak is,” Delphi said.
I laughed at that, despite myself. “Yes, I suppose I do. Still, I can’t let Daniel just kill Colonel Matthews.”
“With all due respect, why not?” Delphi said.
“Things have changed,” I said, wondering why people always said ‘with all due respect�
�� when they really meant “kiss my ass.” “Mostly, I want to save Matthews because if Daniel gets away with it, he’s going to come after me next. I don’t get the impression Daniel is going to take no for an answer, and I’m not about to join his little crew of well-dressed killers.”
“The Reapers,” Delphi explained. “A unit of privately-funded cybernetic mercenaries specializing in assassination, false-flag operations, kidnapping, provocation, terrorism, and no less than six incidents of regime change.”
I was appalled. “He actually named them the Reapers? What does he think this is, a video game?”
“I have his online profile,” Delphi said. “Daniel plays a lot of video games.”
“Well, Hitler liked sugar,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Either way, I’m going to go kill him. After that, Colonel Matthews and President Douglas can go fuck themselves.”
I was ignoring that Viktor Nechayev was still alive too, but at this point, I didn’t care one way or the other. They’d lost what power they’d had over me. That was what I hoped, at least.
“Interesting,” Delphi said. “You are a man of many contradictions.”
“Thank you. They don’t have like a kill switch or something on me, do they?” I asked. “Like telling me the words Laputan Machine or something to cause my brain to melt? You mentioned I had a tracking device. Do I need to wrap a wet towel over my head to shut it down?”
“No,” Delphi said.
“To the wet towel or the kill switch?”
“The towel,” Delphi said. “There’s no kill switch, per se, but there are a lot of controls. I’m trying to remove them, but it’ll take time. Days, weeks even.”
I felt like Robocop and wondered if the reason I didn’t kill Persephone was because there was a “Don’t arrest or harm any member of OCP” clause. “You can’t just erase them?”
“If I want to melt your brain,” Delphi replied. “The inside of your programming has as many safeguards as mine.”
“Should I be worried?” I asked.
Agent G: Saboteur Page 17
