“So, the prodigal returns,” Darius declared as his daughter and Gatticus stopped at the foot of his throne. The soldier who’d escorted them bowed and silently retreated to one side. “How did you manage to remain hidden all this time?”
Cassandra stared up at him, her jaw thrust out defiantly, her blue eyes hard. “If you couldn’t sense me, what makes you think any of the others could? It was not that hard to hide.”
Darius snorted. “I suppose that makes sense. Why did you come back?” As he asked that question, Darius reached out for Cassandra’s mind and rummaged through her thoughts and memories to find the answers he was looking for. “You were hiding in an abandoned warehouse,” he said, his eyes half-lidded as he focused on her mind rather than his conventional senses. “No food other than what you could steal... no clothes. No plumbing.” He smirked. “Is that what I smell?”
Cassandra said nothing to that, but he could see her lips trembling. A tear streaked down one cheek. “Still angry with me, I see.” He turned to look at Gatticus next. “How did you two meet? In fact, how are you here at all? The last time anyone saw you was just before Tanik sent you on a one-way trip into deep space.”
“Who is Tanik?” Gatticus looked to Cassandra, and she regarded him in turn with wide, blinking eyes. The android returned his gaze to the fore and shook his head.
Darius waved a hand to dismiss the question. “A mutual enemy.”
Gatticus nodded slowly.
“What do you recall from your time on the Deliverance?”
“Nothing. I remember waking up stranded in deep space with all of my recent memories corrupted by physical damage. The transport’s log showed that it had been launched from a Union carrier named the Deliverance.”
“I see,” Darius replied. “And how did you find your way out of that predicament?”
Gatticus went on to explain about creating a comm probe and getting rescued by a freelance pilot.
“Why come to Tarsus?” Darius asked.
“It seemed like a good place to get lost in the crowd. I couldn’t be sure who in the Union wanted me dead, so I couldn’t return to my old posting. After the Revenants came, I had even more reason to hide, for fear of reprisals from angry citizens.”
“And you’re not afraid anymore?” Darius asked.
“Your daughter convinced me to turn myself in with her. She said that you owed me your life, and because of that you would make sure nothing happened to me.”
“Indeed, that is true,” Darius said. “In fact, I would like to reward you with an appointment in the Empire—as soon as I determine whether you can be trusted.”
“You are welcome to scan my data core,” Gatticus suggested.
Darius nodded and gestured to the soldier who had escorted his daughter and the android from the palace gates. “Take Gatticus to the data center for scanning.”
“Yes, my lord,” the man said and hurried to Gatticus’s side at the foot of the throne. He bowed and Gatticus mimicked that gesture before turning to follow the soldier out.
As they left, Darius fixed his daughter with a stern look. “So? What have you got to say for yourself?”
Cassandra looked like she was grinding her teeth. He could feel anger and indignation rolling off her in waves. In spite of that, she bowed her head, and said, “I’m sorry for running away.”
“And?” Darius prompted.
“Sorry for disrespecting you in front of your soldiers.”
“Good.” She could harbor all the simmering anger and defiance she liked, just so long as she knew that he was an unacceptable target for those emotions. Let her take it out on her subordinates.
Darius stood up from his throne and walked down the steps to greet her properly. He couldn’t quite bring himself to hug her. Instead, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and turned her back toward the entrance of the throne room. “It’s late,” he explained. “We have a big day tomorrow with the inauguration. I assume that’s part of the reason you chose to come back now?” he asked, looking to her for confirmation as they walked through the throne room together.
Cassandra nodded but said nothing.
“Wise of you. You are just in time for me to introduce you to the galaxy as my right hand. Your authority will be second only to my own.”
“What about Dyara?” Cassandra asked.
Darius hesitated, and his upper lip twitched into a sneer at the mention of her name. “She chose to forfeit any privileges she might have had.”
Cassandra stopped walking just before they reached the doors, and Darius’s arm slid off her shoulders. “What did you do to her?”
He fixed her with a cold look. “I didn’t do anything. She left the palace by her own choice soon after you did. Unlike you, however, she has not yet recognized her mistake.”
“Maybe I should talk to her,” Cassandra said.
“Perhaps. There’ll be time to track her down after the ceremony. Right now we must rest. Tomorrow will be a very busy day.”
“What about Gatticus? When will you be done scanning him?”
Darius regarded her with eyebrows raised. “Why do you ask?”
“He... made me feel safe while we were hiding together. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep without him in the room.”
Darius frowned, disappointed by Cassandra’s weakness. “You are perfectly safe here. No harm will come to you.”
“I’d feel better if Gatticus were there, and if I don’t sleep well, I might fall asleep during the inauguration.”
“Forget Gatticus!” Darius snapped. He shook his finger in her face in lieu of a more violent response.
Cassandra flinched, and tears sprang to her eyes. “What are you going to do? Throw me into another wall?”
Darius had to work hard to keep his anger in check. “I would if I thought it would knock some sense into you.”
Cassandra held his gaze for a long moment before giving in with a nod and wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s better,” Darius growled. He gestured to the doors of the throne room, and they burst open, sending the guards on the other side sprawling. He stormed out, setting a brisk pace for Cassandra to follow. That had the added benefit of getting her out of his sight. He took deep breaths to cool his temper as he went. Cassandra knew just how to provoke him. It was as if she did it on purpose! Good thing he’d never had more children. Cassandra was more than enough to deal with.
Chapter 38
Cassandra lay awake in her bed, staring at the dark, fuzzy ceiling. Her mind raced with anxious thoughts. How was she supposed to infect her dad now? Gatticus had the virus, and he was locked up in the data center being scanned to make sure he wasn’t a threat—even though he was.
What if they found Gatticus’s hidden memories and learned about their plot to infect the Revenants? What if they found out that she was involved? Her father would lose it if he found out that she was secretly plotting against him. The frosty reception she’d got from him only reinforced her fears. He was dangerous and unpredictable. She couldn’t rely on whatever lingering affection he might feel toward her. If her father found out she was working with Tanik, he might kill her himself.
Cassandra shivered. Her chest ached, and her throat hurt. All kids were afraid of monsters. She wasn’t any different. For a long time her monster had been cancer, but now the monster was her father.
She rocked her head from side to side on her pillow. It was wet with tears. She had to get him back. She had to try. He’d risked everything to save her when he followed her into cryo storage to wait for a cure to her illness. Now it was her turn to risk everything for him.
Cassandra got out of bed and crossed her room to the door. There was no need to get dressed first. She was still wearing the clean uniform she’d put on after taking a much-needed shower. Cassandra waved the door open.
No guards were there to greet her—a sign that she’d earned her father’s trust. Her mental shield must have worked. Cassand
ra nodded to herself, encouraged that she might succeed. She was going to need her father’s trust to have any hope of infecting him with the virus tonight.
But first things first, she had to get down to the data center and convince whoever was in charge of scanning Gatticus to let him go. Her dad wanted her to step into her role as his second-in-command, inspiring fear and obedience wherever she went. Well, he was just about to get what he’d asked for.
* * *
The soldier guarding the data center stepped sideways to block the door. “The android has been isolated for scanning. You can’t take him out without an express order from the Emperor himself.”
“I am the Emperor’s daughter,” Cassandra intoned and took a menacing step toward the man. “If I say he should be released, then you will do as I command.”
The soldier crossed his arms over his chest. “Not without permission from your father.”
“Have the scans been completed?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Have they or not?” Cassandra demanded. It was a gamble, but it had been at least two hours since they’d arrived at the palace. How long could a data scan take, anyway?
“Your father gave the order to put the android in isolation, and your father has to be the one to release him.”
“The Emperor is a busy man, and you would do well to refer to him as Emperor.”
The soldier frowned. “Of course.”
“What’s your name—never mind—” Cassandra reached into his mind and snatched the answer from his thoughts. “Corporal Kellar, I’m going to count to three. If I have to say three and you still haven’t opened that door, I’m going to knock your head into that wall until your skull caves in. And you’re not going to fight back, because my father is the Emperor and if you hurt his little girl, even in self-defense, he’ll do something much worse than crack your skull. Do we understand each other?”
Corporal Kellar’s hazel eyes widened, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Yes, My Lady.” He stepped aside and keyed the door open. “The android is powered down in the archives room. Second door to the right.”
Cassandra’s gaze sharpened, and she took another step toward the Corporal. He leaned away in response. “So the scans are done,” she guessed.
“I really can’t say. I’m not privy to that information. The chief analyst is in charge, and he already went to bed. I just guard the door.”
Cassandra considered that. “If that’s the case, they might not have even started scanning him.”
“Again, I really can’t—”
“Say. Of course,” Cassandra said, cutting him off with a wave of her hand. “I’ll find out for myself.” She breezed through the door and down a long, dark aisle between stacks of blinking blue and white data cubes. The data center was deserted. She walked down the aisle until the stacks ended and a hallway with doors began. The second door to the right had a glowing plate on the door that read Archives. Cassandra tried waving the door open, but it was locked with a key code. She flicked a scowl over her shoulder, aimed for the Corporal back at the doors of the data center. Reaching around, she drew the sword from the sheath on her back and summoned a shield. The blade began glowing a dim, ghostly white, and she plunged it through the door, drawing a circle big enough for her to step through. She kicked the center, and it caved inward. Ducking through into a dark room, she found Gatticus standing right behind the door, his face and expression limned in an eerie green light from the screen of a nearby data terminal.
“Gatticus?” she asked.
But he gave no reply. His expression was blank and staring. A thick conduit snaked from his hip to the terminal. The screen was filled with scrolling green lines of text. Cassandra walked over and read what she could from the screen. The text was scrolling by too fast to read, but at the top was a static line that read: Scan 5% Complete.
She blinked in shock. If they’d started scanning him an hour ago, that meant it would take another twenty hours to finish! By then the inauguration would be over.
She couldn’t afford to wait that long, and she couldn’t take Gatticus out of the data center while he was obviously still being scanned. That will just make my dad suspicious of me. There had to be another way. Maybe she could smuggle the virus out without taking Gatticus with her. Cassandra scanned the room, looking for security cameras. She didn’t see any. Walking around in front of Gatticus, she pulled up his shirt and touched his navel to open the utility compartment. A synthskin-covered panel popped open, revealing two gleaming metal canisters, each about the size of her fist. Too big to hide in the palm of her hand, but maybe small enough to hide in one of her pockets.
She grabbed one of the canisters and shut the compartment. Slipping it into her left pocket, a conspicuous fist-sized bulge appeared. Why hadn’t she thought to bring a bag, or a jacket? Cassandra cast about, looking for something to put the virus in. She scanned the shelves in the archive room. They were filled with data cubes. If she hollowed one of them out with her sword, she could put the virus inside. She could say she was removing the cube because she wanted to learn a new skill. Cassandra walked up to the nearest shelf and used her extra-sensory implant to scan the labels of the data cubes.
She found security tapes from the palace, personnel files, Tarsian history, records of meetings... and then she hit the jackpot. One of the cubes was someone’s personal library, labeled Useful Books. Cassandra checked the contents. The cube was filled with books on business, psychology, organizational management, accounting... as well as a host of other dry topics. She made a face but pulled the cube off the shelf. Holding it carefully in one hand, she summoned the weakest shield she could and used her sword to slowly carve a chunk out of the cube. Acrid smoke poured into the room, making her gag. When she was done, she sheathed her sword and quickly stashed the piece she’d carved out under the nearest set of shelves.
She waited a few seconds for the cube to cool before putting the canister containing the virus inside. It fit well enough, but she had to hold it in with her hands, and now no one could actually check the label or the contents to figure out what was stored on the cube. Cassandra frowned. If she’d thought about that, she could have picked any old cube off the shelf.
Cassandra spared one last glance at Gatticus before hurrying out and back through the data center. When she reached the door, there were four more soldiers waiting for her, in addition to the guard she’d had to deal with earlier.
“Where’s the android?” the soldier with the most stripes asked. Cassandra wasn’t good at recognizing rank insignia, but she thought he might be a sergeant. “And what’s that in your hands?” he asked, jerking his chin to indicate the data cube she was holding.
Chapter 39
“I am the Emperor’s daughter, and you’re questioning me?”
The sergeant shrugged. “I can get the emperor himself to do it if you prefer. Are you going to answer me, or do I have to wake him up?”
“I don’t think you want to wake him,” Cassandra replied, hoping that was true. “You know how he can get.”
“Then let’s spare each other the unpleasantness. Why did you feel the need to break into the data center to see the android? And what’s in that data cube?”
“His name is Gatticus,” Cassandra replied. “And I had to break in because the guard at the door couldn’t tell me anything about the status of his scan. When I found him, I saw that his scans aren’t done yet, so I left him in the data center. I found the cube there with Gatticus. It contains some books that I’d like to feed into my neural mapper.”
“You can access the library from any terminal in the palace,” the sergeant pointed out.
“These books aren’t in the library,” Cassandra replied.
“I can’t let you withdraw sensitive information from the data center. How do I know that cube is filled with books? I can’t access its contents, ID code, or label. It could be anything.”
Cassandra’s heart was hammering in
her chest and ears, but she tried not to let that show. Instead, she fixed the man with her most defiant glare. “You can, and you will let me take whatever I want from wherever I want. Tell my father if you must, but I’m taking the cube.”
“I see.” The sergeant replied. “As you wish. The Emperor will hear about this in the morning.”
Cassandra gave the man a thin half smile and then breezed by him and his squad. She sucked in a deep breath as she went, struggling to calm her racing heart. Her palms were slick with sweat, and her legs were shaking.
But she’d done it. She had the virus. Now all she had to do was find a way to get it into her father’s room. Unfortunately, his room would probably be guarded, too, and the door would almost certainly be locked. She needed some excuse to wake him and get into his room to plant the virus.
Cassandra racked her brain for an idea as she walked through the palace to his room. Somehow, Tanik hadn’t thought to develop their plan beyond this point. He’d left her with the vague and complicated task of infecting her father without offering any specific ideas for how to do so. Cassandra thought about that as she climbed a broad, winding staircase up to her father’s room. She could have taken an elevator, but the stairs gave her more time to think.
Think, Cass! she urged herself, as if inspiration were a door that would open if only she knocked hard enough.
* * *
Cassandra came up with an idea to get the virus into her father’s room just before she reached the tenth floor. His sleeping quarters and private space encompassed the entire floor.
Instead of going up there, she stopped on the floor below and started down the corridor from the stairwell. This floor contained the sleeping quarters for the palace staff. Using her Awareness to keep track of her father, Cassandra tried to find the point directly below his bed. He was lying there now, presumably fast asleep, which gave her a window of opportunity. If she could get below him, she could cut a hole in the floor and push the canister with the virus up under his bed. There it would be safely out of sight, but still close enough to infect him while he slept.
Broken Worlds_Book 3_Civil War Page 19
