Fire of the Dark Triad

by Asya Semenovich

  “Come on, guys. Seriously, relax. They haven’t had a hostage crisis for centuries. They won’t know how to react, and they will be cautious. I, on the other hand, have been studying the psychology of the subject in painful detail. I promise, they will negotiate,” he said with a dry smile. “No need to let your food get cold. It’s very good,” he made an almost undetectable pause, “I swear.”

  “Of course, you do” said Hilgor with semi-smile.

  “You actually ruined my appetite,” Reish tried to respond in the same lighthearted tone, but her voice cracked.

  “Reish, I won’t get you killed, you know that,” Nick sounded relaxed and reassuring. Professionally reassuring, thought Hilgor.

  “Sorry, but I don’t believe you – you don’t have the most convincing record, Nick,” judging by the shrill note in her voice, Reish gave up on her last attempt to remain composed. “You are dangerous. You told us that you killed people to save Lita.”

  “I didn’t kill friends,” said Nick plainly.

  “Am I a good enough friend? Nick, I don’t want any part of it. I’m the wrong person. I was supposed to die. You don’t know how it felt. I can’t take any of it again, I want off this island,” she hurriedly got up, pushing back her chair, her eyes now filled with blind panic.

  She ran toward the staircase, but by the time she reached it Nick was already there, blocking her way.

  She backed off, trying to get around him. “Let me pass.”

  “Reish, please, don’t leave,” Nick’s voice was very soft. “I don’t know how it feels to be dying, but I know how it feels when someone you love is about to die. Do you want to compare notes?”

  The sound of the surf became very distinct in the total silence on the deck.

  Nick stepped aside. “If you have to go, the flyer access is set to public.”

  She bolted down the stairs, and Hilgor relaxed. This was no cheetah – either that, or Nick was playing a game. For example, he couldn’t afford to antagonize them because he needed their cooperation for something else.

  “Nick, you are a Dark Triad too, aren’t you?” asked Hilgor very quietly.

  Nick gave him a quick look and nodded.

  “I have suspected this for a while,” said Hilgor. “You won’t kill us. I know about it all too well. We, dirty outliers, don’t have a conscience, at least not the one as defined by society, but we have a personal code of honor. Killing me and Reisch violates yours. You don’t kill friends.”

  “Right,” said Nick. “Please, try to stop her. But don’t tell her I’m a Dark Triad. If she isn’t one of us herself which I suspect, then she won’t understand what you said and will freak out even worse.”

  Hilgor got up, walked to the staircase and looked down, “Reish, wait.”

  She stopped at the bottom of the last flight and stood frozen, not even moving her head.

  Hilgor continued in a soft pondering tone, “Reish, let’s see. If we go, Nick will be locked up on kidnapping charges for the rest of his life because he tried to save Lita from torture and definite death. Just imagine that. By the way, Nick,” he glanced back at the deck, “I appreciate the ‘true’ freedom of choice you are offering,” Hilgor shook his head in reprehension. “Reish, I don’t think he’s going to kill us. And I don’t think they’re going to storm the island. It is just my personal opinion, of course. But maybe we should wait it out here for a bit.”

  She didn’t move for another moment, then turned and came back up the stairs with an air of a ruffled bird. Hilgor and Nick returned to their chairs, but they didn’t speak until after Reish appeared from the stairwell and sat at the far end of the table.

  “Reish, I am sorry. I didn’t want to scare you,” Nick said guiltily. “But I couldn’t ask for your permission. Since Kir was bugged, anything I …”

  “What?” asked Reish quickly. “What do you mean bugged? It’s theoretically impossible. Nobody can access an implant without the user’s authorization. My chip’s inputs are always on,” her tone shifted downward, and she bit her lip.

  “Reish, everything is possible given sufficient time and resources,” Hilgor made an earnest effort not to sound condescending. “I never believed in the purity of their privacy, remember?” He glanced at his wristband with mild distaste, “But you always called me too negative.”

  Reish picked up her glass and took a couple of fast gulps.

  “In any case, Nick,” continued Hilgor, “I assume you want the president to cancel Lita’s deportation. Why didn’t you state your demand in your message?”

  “And what would I have done if they happened to refuse?” Nick asked simply. “Shoot one of you to make my point, as Reish insinuated?”

  Reish coughed, having choked on her wine, but Nick just went on. “As it stands, I didn’t ask for very much. You both have extremely high profiles. The news that you’re being held at gunpoint will create a major uproar, and the government doesn’t want a scandal like this. It’ll look so uncouth these days. I assure you that they’ll resolve the situation without making it public.”

  “Ok, so let’s assume you’ll be getting a call from the president. What makes you think she won’t refuse when you plead with her in person? You aren’t just relying on charisma here, are you?” Hilgor continued in a somewhat detached tone as if he was sorting out pieces of an intriguing, but very abstract puzzle.

  Nick’s smile was rather dark, and it obviously wasn’t addressed toward Hilgor, “No, I don’t expect to plead. I have some information that the government wouldn’t want leaked at any cost.”

  Reish reached across the table and refilled her wine glass, but then she simply sat back holding it in her hand as if she had immediately forgotten about its existence.

  “So … blackmail,” there was an odd satisfaction in Hilgor’s tone. “How exciting. But, Nick, I’m confused,” which meant that there was a major flaw in Nick’s logic – Hilgor wasn’t easily confused. “Why didn’t you mention it to them before? You’re short on time, and if you just hinted on the gravity of your information, that would’ve sped things up right away, no? You could have spared us your very impressive acting too.”

  “I can’t afford anything to go through the ‘appropriate channels,’” said Nick. “The president could lose any incentive to bargain with me if she thinks that the cat might have gotten out of the bag along the way.”

  “Wait,” Reish interrupted with a wave, “security services are contacting me with a request to share my audio and video inputs.”

  “Of course, they are. They want to help you,” said Nick with a caustic grin. “They just need your consent. And if they don’t get it, then they’ll take over your implant without your permission – because the criticality of the situation warrants it, obviously. It’ll take them at least an hour, but it would be better if you switch off your implants right away, both of you. You can say later that I threatened to shoot you if you didn’t cooperate.”

  Reish twitched her shoulders and took several swallows from the glass she was still holding.

  A brief smile passed over Hilgor’s lips, and he squeezed his wristband. It blinked twice and turned solid gray. “We’re glad to help a friend. Right, Reish? And as a bonus we’ll never find out just how serious Nick was about shooting us, and it’s good for everyone.”

  “Kella, turn off power,” said Reish and finished her wine in one swig. She was about to put the glass back, but her hand jerked and almost missed the edge of the table as the loud toll of a ship’s bell suddenly went off.

  Nick got up and quickly crossed the deck towards the intercom.

  “It’s not the president … most likely it’s just her staff trying to test the waters. She wouldn’t respond blind, without some reconnaissance.” He touched the intercom controls, and a new image appeared – now it was a uniformed woman at the desk with the State Security emblem on the wall behind her.


  “Nick, we got your message,” she was clearly instructed to behave as friendly as possible, and she was positively beaming. “Please stay calm, there’s no need to harm the hostages. The president will contact you shortly.”

  “Good,” Nick nodded, “but I have another request. I would like the Defense Minister to be present at our meeting.”

  The woman obviously forgot that she was supposed to radiate a sunny disposition because her face lost any shade of its original softness. “Let me ask,” she said quickly. “I’ll be back with you in a moment.”

  Indeed, she reappeared almost instantly.

  “They’ll let us know as soon as possible. Can you confirm that you’ll release the hostages once the president is on the line?”

  “Yes, I’ll send them back in my flyer once the president and I have had a conversation.”

  “Great, I think we have an understanding. Can you focus the camera on the hostages, please? I would like to say a word of encouragement – just psychological support, nothing informational.”

  “Go ahead,” Nick lightly moved his fingers across the control pad.

  The woman apparently remembered her duty and was beaming once again, “Are you alright?” she asked in an upbeat tone.

  Both Reish and Hilgor nodded, their faces carefully neutral.

  “Please, don’t worry – this unpleasant situation will be over soon. Nick’s request is being addressed.” She appeared distracted for a moment, then looked past them and quickly added, “Nick, the Minister of Defense will be there. Are we good?”

  “Most definitely,” said Nick refocusing the camera on himself.

  “Stay tuned,” she gave him a nicely crafted smile, and the hologram disappeared.

  For a moment all three of them kept staring at the empty space over the table, and then Hilgor turned to Nick.

  “Your information has something to do with the Defense program, does it?”

  Nick winced, and slowly walked to his chair.

  “Probably not. I … don’t know. What I do know is that the Defense Minister can keep secrets – his own at the very least. I’m here for some horse-trading, Hilgor. I need a witness, but I don’t need a loose cannon in this meeting.”

  “What do you mean … you don’t know?” Hilgor abruptly stood, feeling that the pieces of the puzzle, which had just started to fit together, had changed shape right in front of his eyes. “You told us you had some critical information.”

  The intercom bell went off again, invoking the air of imminent danger.

  Nick waved Hilgor back to his seat, “I’m sorry, guys, I don’t have time to explain. But to make this work, Hilgor, I will need your bracelet, and I need you to pass me all your controls. You can say later that I forced you to give it to me.”

  “Sure, no problem,” said Hilgor, “Whatever you need,” he squeezed the bracelet and entered something on the small screen that popped up above his wrist. The bell kept ringing, messing with his concentration, and with mild irritation Hilgor thought that the house outfitters overdesigned this marine feature. He finished typing, took the band off and passed it to Nick.

  “Great,” said Nick, “thank you.” He put Hilgor’s device on the table and started rapidly sliding his fingers above its virtual interface ignoring the continuing tolling.

  “Okay,” he said, finally turning the screen off, “I am done. Don’t forget that you are my hostages.” He got up and put the bracelet in his pocket.

  “Don’t you worry, Nick,” said Hilgor lightly, “we won’t.”

  Nick walked to the intercom and accepted the call.

  This time two holographic screens appeared over the table, close to each other, and Hilgor momentarily wondered about the president’s location time zone. Even if she was woken up in the middle of the night it was impossible to tell – she seemed perfectly fresh and alert. On the other screen the Defense Minister sat back in his chair, watching the scene unblinkingly, his fingers rigidly steepled in front of his chest.

  “We are here to talk to you,” judging by the angle of her face, the president was viewing Nick’s image from her version of a similar device. She paused, smiled and added in a placating voice, “Can you please let the hostages go now?”

  “In due course,” replied Nick calmly, “but not until after you hear what I have to say. Otherwise I don’t see what’s going to stop you from disconnecting the line and sending an assault unit to arrest me.” He paused and said with a regretful shrug, “Sorry, but there is an understandable lack of trust between us at the moment.” The president and the minister exchanged glances, and Nick added reassuringly, “Don’t worry, the hostages are very comfortable. They have plenty of food and drink, and a breathtaking view of the ocean at dawn – pleasant, if a bit drawn-out picnic al fresco … and unobstructed exposure to the missiles. Now, it’s better if they don’t hear the rest of our conversation. I’ll reconnect from a room downstairs.”

  Nick turned off the holographic screens. Their glow disappeared, and the sharp shadows on his face melted away again. He opened the main doors of the cabinet, took out a bottle and briefly held it against the light of the closest lantern.

  “Here’s another good one,” he said, giving the wine an approving nod. “The sun isn’t up yet so it isn’t drinking in the morning.” Neither of them smiled, “Sorry, not funny, I know. This whole thing will be over soon, I promise.”

  He put the bottle on the table, walked to the door and in a moment disappeared down the stairs. The door smoothly shut behind his back.

  Nick touched the handle, locking it from the inside. The click was barely audible, but Nick still winced, imagining that it could be heard on the deck.

  He quickly covered the two flights down to the study, glanced around and noted that nothing had changed since his last visit several months ago. He sat down in the same lonely chair in the center of the empty floor and activated the connection. The light changed, and a freakishly realistic hologram of a meeting table appeared in the room. Life-sized renderings of the president and the minister appeared. They were seated next to each other in an extremely convincing imitation of a real face-to-face interaction. The whole thing was laughably outdated, but Nick didn’t especially mind mid-21st-century flourishes.

  He leaned over the virtual table and looked straight into the president’s eyes.

  “I have a physical copy of a recording regarding Elisabeth’s secret mission on Earth3,” he said quietly.

  That produced a reaction.

  “What recording?” the president blinked twice.

  “What mission?” the minister skipped a blink staring at the president.

  “It’s not in my implant,” said Nick. “Your Cyber Delta people did a good job on the border. No need to fire anyone.”

  It seemed that neither the president nor the minister wanted to break the silence right away, and Nick waited too, letting it ripen.

  “I know that you broke into Kir,” he said finally with a thin smile. “I’m a bit ahead of you.”

  “On Earth3?” the Defense Minister abruptly clasped his fingers and raised his eyebrows. The expression of cold disdain evaporated from his face, replaced by extreme interest. “Nick, when you asked for my presence, I thought you would blackmail me with our unfortunate mishap on M-237. I was, frankly, disappointed, considering that JJ kept his side of the deal.”

  Nick threw a quick glance in the president’s direction.

  “Of course, Madam President knows about our sabotage program on the colonies,” said the minister. “All upper echelon knows – but a mission inside the Commonwealth? Where is this recording? Let’s have a look.”

  “In a minute. I will need to turn on my chip to download and play it. But since her people already hacked my implant, let’s agree on a couple of things first … for my safety.” Nick pulled the launcher control from his pocket, and
held it up so it was fully visible, “First of all, no games with my optic and audio inputs. Any attempts, and I’ll press this button to release the missiles. And another thing to keep our conversation going,” he looked directly into the president’s eyes once again. “Tell your cyber team to get the fuck out of my implant. Tell them to stand down. You included.”

  “No.”

  “Wait, Caroline … we will lose the hostages,” the minister glanced at her with sincere surprise.

  “I don’t care about the hostages. I can’t give up the control of his chip.”

  Well, thought Nick, looking into her beautiful face, distorted with rage, she just confirmed that she was Dark Triad too. Of course, outliers couldn’t ever have such perfect bone structure, and such glowing skin, and such impossibly clear blue eyes. So she was a rare local case like him. It wasn’t surprising – her profession was also exotic, just like his as he had told Lita.

  “She can’t give up control because she can’t afford for you to see the recording. She wants to delete it the moment I download it on the chip,” Nick turned to the minister. “I don’t think that you want her to get away with this, do you? But we can compromise. If nobody but you has access to Kir, we can talk.”

  “No worries, Nick, we want to see the file, and your requests are reasonable under the current circumstances,” said the minister quickly, deftly avoiding eye contact with the president. “Madam, if you want this … incident to stay between us please do as he asks. Pass me his implant control. Don’t worry, I will disable the transmission functions, so everything here stays between three of us.”

  The president slowly nodded, staring at Nick’s face with a very strange expression, and the darkening glow in her eyes was rather scary in comparison with her usual calm confidence. She typed something in the air.

  “I had just called off the team,” she said flatly. “It will be the three of us on this line, and Viggo is the only one controlling your chip.”

  “Yes, I can confirm that,” said the minister checking his screens. “Now let’s go online and see the file.”