Wandering Storm

by Steven Anderson

  “It will only take me a couple of days to fix the AIs, and Colonel Gerbrandij, well, I think he already knows who has Sam and where he is. I’ll have my Sam and we’ll both be back here before my arm falls off, OK?”

  “No, it’s not OK. But I can’t stop you without using the hypospray again. Let me give you something to take with you.”

  She searched through a drawer in her room and came back with a small, flat box. “Hannah gave me these when I volunteered to follow you on this great adventure. A sort of graduation present, I guess. I think she wanted me to use them on you.” She pulled off the lid, revealing a thin sheet of paper with five black dots, each one a couple of millimeters in diameter.

  “What are they?”

  “Touch one with your fingertip to activate it. It will stick to your finger and then attach itself to whatever you touch next. It keys to your comm pin automatically.”

  “Bugs?”

  “Bugs. You had better plant one on the Colonel first chance you get. That way you can try to escape when they decide to kill you. The bug will stay active for about twelve hours and has a range of two to three kilometers, farther if it can find a network to talk to.”

  “Thanks.” I slid the box into my pocket, turned to leave, and then stopped, my back still to her. “Winona, I know you’re scared. If anything happens…well, it won’t be your fault.”

  “I know that.”

  “I love you, Winn. This is my best chance of saving Sam. I have to go down there.”

  “Gerbrandij is a monster, Duse.”

  “I still don’t think so, but if he is, I’ll get the proof we need to end him.”

  “You better run before I stop you.”

  I ran.

  My display pad chimed at me before I had gone a dozen steps.

  “Read it to me.”

  The pad whispered in my ear. “Message from Captain Rostron. “God Speed. Don’t die.” Would you like to reply?”

  “Yes. Tell her…” I paused. I wanted to tell her I was sorry, but she hated that. I wanted to say thank you, but she hated that too. “Tell her that I will do my duty.”

  “Message sent.”

  Colonel Gerbrandij and his aide were waiting at the bottom of the landing ramp. “You really did run.”

  “Yes, sir.” I pushed damp hair out of my eyes. “This is important to me. Is Major Zweig joining us?”

  “Already on board, but he and Captain van der Vlis will be returning to the shipyard later tonight. I received a message from Captain Rostron requesting that we resume our talks tomorrow afternoon. I told her that the Major would represent me while I oversee the recovery of her medical officer. That seemed to please her. I wish I knew if her pleasure was due to my efforts to recover Captain Coleridge, or not being across the table from her for the next couple of days.”

  “I think you know why it makes me happy.” I put my hand on his chest, giving him my best grateful-to-the-point-of-tears smile. I hoped he wouldn’t notice the tiny black dot clinging to the lapel of his black and gray uniform jacket.

  “It’s the right thing to do, and between you and your Captain, you haven’t left me with much choice.”

  The shuttle was set up with a main cabin with twenty seats, and a walled off section up front with a small door. Colonel Gerbrandij made sure I was comfortable, told me to enjoy the one-hour drop into Oranjestad, and then disappeared into the front cabin. All I saw through the door was a quick glimpse of a conference table, four chairs, and one unhappy Major.

  The shuttle shuddered as the shipyard shoved us out into open space and there was a slight wobble as we passed out of its artificial gravity field. I closed my eyes, listened to their meeting, and my world unraveled.

  “Well, you have her, Pieter. What will you do with her now?” Major Zweig sounded like he already knew the answer to that question, and didn’t like it.

  “Still stuck on that, Arni? I know you disapprove, but what choice did their Captain leave me? First, that ridiculous show of anger, then the meek, desperate Lieutenant knocking on my door. I’ve taken her, as you say. They are such amateurs. I keep looking for some hidden play, but I don’t think there is one. She sacrificed a perfectly good knight for no reason. This will be to our advantage, you’ll see. The Lieutenant will fix the AIs for us, making us heroes to the public, and now their Captain is down to just herself and her dark witch with the eyes that see too much.”

  “A knight. Is that what this one is to you?”

  “Knight, bishop, rook, what does it matter? More than a pawn. Her friend Killdeer is the queen in this game, but a weak one. Two fresh from the Academy Lieutenants and a line officer eager to be anywhere but here. That’s what we have up against us. Her Marine strike force is in garrison and out of the picture. You should be breathing easy. We’ll get what we need.”

  “In your head, she is a knight. I remember sitting at your home drinking your beer while you taught Felicity to play chess. She was fourteen, maybe. That’s what you called her, and she liked that, being your knight. Flick would be about the same age as that Lieutenant, wouldn’t she, and about the same build, like her mother. If they had let them live.”

  “Arni, you don’t want to go there. That’s not what this is about.”

  “Isn’t it? The Walvis faction took them and, in front of your eyes, killed them. The government was powerless. The separatists gave you vengeance and you gave them your heart. Maybe now you are looking for absolution.”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “Not so long. It twists you; I see it in your eyes. You will save this young woman’s beau and send them on their way. That is what I think you will do.”

  “You are still the romantic, even after all that we’ve been through together. Our best intel is that her husband is with the Utrecht, healing the wounds we inflicted on them last week. Let me tell you how we’ll do this. We start by letting Lieutenant Holloman do her work at the hospital, which should only take her a day or two, since she really is quite brilliant. After that, we will publicize her success as an example of KDF effectiveness in restoring public services. We’ll let her enjoy a few days of fame, media interviews, and glowing profiles in the press.”

  “Ja, it would be better if she were very attractive. The days are still dark, and the people could use a pretty girl to admire. Hero worship is good for morale. But you plan to be standing with her in the spotlight, so maybe you are the hero?”

  “Too much could go wrong doing it that way. A knight must be sacrificed if the game is to be won. The Utrecht will kill her, or so it will seem. A brutal, violent death. The public will be shocked and demand immediate justice. When the Provisional Government proves itself unable to take quick, definitive action, I will lead a joint KDF and Union strike team to eliminate the Utrecht. We know where they are, there just hasn’t been the political will to take them out. Captain Coleridge’s death will be a tragic footnote, and the public will welcome the KDF as the new, de facto government. We can eliminate or absorb the other factions at our leisure as we consolidate authority.”

  It was a long time before Major Zweig answered. “You say it, but where is your heart? Not there, I think.”

  “You’re right, my friend, I hate it. I see the path, and know it is what I should do, but I don’t want to kill her. It’s strange, considering how many innocents have died for us to get this far. But we must focus on the end game. Kastanje needs order restored and there are millions of lives in the balance. The people are hungry and desperate. They are looking for strong leadership. The government in Oranjestad is too weak to eliminate the factions and we’ve sacrificed too many good men and women to turn away now. A better world for all the people is so close. It will take only a little more blood, a little more pain, and then we can start to rebuild.”

  “You would sacrifice this knight to reach your goal, Pieter?”

 
Colonel Gerbrandij answered, speaking so softly that I had trouble hearing him. “She is not pretty, not like my Flick, but her eyes are the same. There is a playfulness in them, the same mix of innocence and defiance. And the way her mouth turned down while she was begging for her husband’s life? She looked just like her.” He sighed. “Why does she have to remind me of Flick, Arni? I thought I had let go of her years ago.”

  “You should ask God that question, but I don’t think you will like His answer.”

  “I’m not in the habit of talking to God anymore. I have a duty…”

  “Ja. You have a duty. Did you know she is pregnant? Her friend told me after one of our meetings.”

  “No, I didn’t know. We will make sure the press knows. Between that and the Utrecht kidnapping her husband, she will be quite the sympathetic character. A young, brave, Union and RuComm officer, struck down while trying to help the people of Kastanje. Her death will be a sensation. Perhaps we should erect a statue of her when this is all over.”

  “You can be a thoroughgoing bastard when you want to be, Pieter.”

  “Up there at the shipyard, especially the last few days, it was like I was starting to forget what was needed. It comes back to me as we near home. It’s like I can hear it in my head again, and the doubts start to fade.”

  His voice changed, becoming sharper and more commanding. “Push hard on their Captain tomorrow. We need to finish the planet wide surveillance system and configure the AI to drive it. It’s not any different from what they’re running on Earth right now, so she should be willing to approve it. Give her the same lie the government on Earth tells their own people if she gets stubborn, tell her that it’s just for the current state of emergency.”

  “An emergency that will never end.”

  “Lieutenant Holloman would have been ideal to set the AI up for us. A pity she’ll be cold in her grave by then, but that’s the role she must play. We’re going to have to move fast to consolidate our gains after she’s dead. Her mother is bound to show up demanding answers, and our intel on Ms. Weldon paints her as a thoroughgoing bitch if there ever was one.”

  “Yes, sir. I will get it done for you.”

  “That didn’t sound like your heart was in it, Arni.”

  “Have I ever let you down, sir?”

  “Never.”

  My fingers were shaking as I put an encrypted wrapper around the recording I’d made. I did it three times hoping one would get through. Three different wrappers, one for Storm, one for my Captain, and one for Winona. Winona had told me to use the bugs so that I’d know when they planned to kill me. I hadn’t expected it to happen at all. It had taken less than thirty minutes.

  My display pad told me that the ionizing layer created by our entry into Kastanje’s atmosphere was delaying transmission. I kept refreshing the status, waiting, listening to Colonel Gerbrandij and Major Zweig reminiscing about growing up together, time in school and the KDF, sounding like any old military friends.

  Monsters. Maybe they hadn’t always been. Maybe there was still a good man inside the Colonel, I was certain of it, but there wasn’t going to be time for me to find him. I planned to run as soon as I was away from the aerospace port. There was no way that I was going to stay in Sam’s old quarters at the hospital, never mind that my watch and display pad had already been keyed for the doors. I would be safer sleeping in an alley somewhere. The Medical AIs would have to remain broken, because fixing them would be a death sentence.

  The shuttle settled onto the pad at 15:15 local time and my messages still showed queued waiting for a connection. I tapped them again. And again. And…

  “Did you have a pleasant trip?”

  I didn’t look up. Tap. Nothing. Tap. “Trying to send a message to Captain Rostron to let her know I’ve arrived and that I’m safe.”

  “It’s the thunderstorms. The thickness of the clouds and the amount of moisture in them is attenuating your signal. It happens a lot this time of year. Keep the message queued and it should make it out eventually.”

  “Thunderstorms?” I forced myself to look at him. Kind brown eyes regarded me, looking worried and a little sad. He should be sad. Murderer.

  “A line of heavy thunderstorms is crossing the city.”

  “Raining. I don’t have an umbrella, just my uniform jacket.”

  “They’ll clear out in an hour or two and then your message will go through. It’s still warm, almost thirty degrees and one hundred percent humidity, so you aren’t likely to freeze to death. I’ll have my car take you directly to the hospital so you can settle in and speak to the rest of your team. Can you run fast?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes. Why?”

  “You’ll need to cross a few meters to get inside because of the security barricades. It won’t be bad. Why don’t we plan on meeting tomorrow for dinner? That will give me time to find out what we’re doing about Captain Coleridge and you time to work on the AI. I’ll pick you up at 20:00.”

  So normal, so natural. If I hadn’t been listening to his conversation, I’d have thought him a compassionate, caring host, almost a friend. I nodded in agreement, not knowing what else to do. I was still planning to run as soon as I was free of him.

  “Good.” He took my bag for me, and I followed meekly by his side. His aide and Major Zweig stayed with the ship, preparing to return to the shipyard. My breathing was coming in spasms, slow inhalation, sharp, hard exhalation. My fight or flight reflex was in solid flight mode and my eyes were flicking side to side trying to find a safe exit.

  Colonel Gerbrandij chuckled when we stepped outside. “Feel that heat.” He tugged on his uniform. “Already sticky. Summer in Oranjestad. You’d learn to love it if you lived here long enough.”

  I resisted the urge to whimper. There was a chime from my pocket. At least one of my messages had made it out.

  The Colonel heard it too. “See? I told you it would go through eventually. Now your Captain knows that you’re safe.”

  I got into the car with him when it arrived. It was a black, heavy looking thing, with narrow windows, and dented and cracked bodywork.

  “Not the prettiest transportation in the capital, but it might well be the safest.” We accelerated away from the curb, the car’s AI in control. “It’s been hit by buried explosives, flaming liquids, and small arms fire.” He grinned at me. “We call it ‘The Womb’ for the way it carries us in comfort and safety.”

  “Yes, sir. Those days are past?”

  “Almost, Lieutenant. If they were gone completely, your husband would be sitting here with us. If the Union will help us finish the job, the two of you will be reunited and maybe I’ll get a new car.”

  Reunited, I thought, in death. I couldn’t hide the shiver that went through me.

  “You’re afraid.”

  “Have you ever been married?” I asked, knowing the answer.

  “Yes. For a time. She died along with my daughter. Part of me died with them.”

  “Sam and I fell in love when I was sixteen. We waited. We waited for me to be old enough. We waited for me to finish the Academy and to get my commission. We waited all that time. We’ve been married thirty-six days, most of it spent on separate ships, unable to talk to each other.”

  I locked eyes with him, anger pushing the fear out of me and making my voice steady. “I will kill anyone who threatens him or tries to keep us apart. If you loved your wife, then you know exactly how I feel, and you know I will do it.”

  The corners of his mouth twisted into a tight smile. “Watching you provide economic analysis and doing technical planning, and then the way you were in my quarters and on board the shuttle, I had almost forgotten what I felt watching the recording of you ending Artem Costrano’s life. Yes, Lieutenant, I know you will do it.”

  He turned away and looked out his window at the buildings we were passing. “I love this part of t
he city. Even on a rainy Sunday afternoon, look at the life on the street. People trying to enjoy themselves for a time. There, that restaurant there, the one that looks like nothing. Did you see it? Best pannenkoeken on the planet.”

  “Is that where we’re going for dinner? I’ve never had pannenkoeken.”

  “If you like.” His head tipped and then he shook it.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No, just second guessing myself. Something I rarely do. Before we meet for dinner tomorrow, I’d like you to consider what Kastanje needs in order to rebuild–”

  “I’ve been doing that all week.”

  “– and what role you could play. Not just as an engineer or starship architect.”

  The car pulled up to the security barrier in front of the hospital. It was raining hard enough to hear it pounding on the armored roof. He was offering me a third option, something other than running for my life or being a corpse. I could sell out to the power-hungry son-of-a-bitch and help him turn the planet into an authoritarian, fascist state. The anger that had been sustaining me was starting to fade and I knew I’d be shaking again soon.

  “I will think about it, sir.” I got out of the car with my bag and ran the twenty meters to the door, splashing through puddles while the warm, heavy rain soaked through my jacket, sticking my undershirt to my skin. I stopped beneath the awning and turned. The car was still there and I knew he was watching me. I raised my hand to wave and the car pulled quickly away.

  As my anger faded, Sam flowed in, trying to reassure me. “Yeah, Sam,” I mumbled to myself. “I know you’re just fine.”

  Corporal Kim Hyun-Ok was waiting for me in the lobby wearing a white lab coat over her Union tan and brown uniform. Her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. I’d never seen it that way before. She was prettier than I remembered. I’m sure I looked like a scrawny drowned rat. She saluted me and I returned it.