by Isaac Hooke
The virtual poster behind him had a new message scrawled upon it today: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
Rhea instinctively gazed at the virtual floor-to-ceiling window on her right, and the white sand beach beyond; she felt a deep longing inside.
When the mayor cleared his throat, Rhea reluctantly tore her eyes from the beach.
“Thank you.” The mayor folded his hands on his chest. “I’ve been Veil’s tool for three years now. Three years. You set me free from a prison that… trammeled my mind. I was a prisoner in my own body.”
She nodded slowly, then gestured toward the window. “Why haven’t you changed the decor?”
“This is the original decor,” Grandas said. “Veil let me keep it. Probably because it was one of the few things that grounded me. Helped me endure.” The mayor unfolded his hands. “I want to give you a medal for what you’ve done.”
“No thanks,” she told him.
The mayor raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want a medal?”
“No,” she said. “But I would appreciate it if you could get me unbanned from VidTube and the other big streaming sites. SubverseTube has a rather small audience.”
“I wish I could,” the mayor said. “But I don’t have any control over the policies of private companies. You’d have to go a bit higher up than me. I can try to petition them, if you think it would help, but they’ll probably ignore me.” He studied her a moment. “At least let me give you the key to the city.”
She sighed. “I don’t need or want it.”
“All right,” he said. “No key. But I’m still going to instruct the sentries to let you pass through the main gates without question every time. As long as you don’t bring a bunch of rioters with you, anyway.”
“Speaking of rioters, there is something else you can do for me…” Rhea said.
“The water supply?” Grandas asked.
“Good guess,” Rhea replied.
The mayor folded his hands over his suit once more. He squeezed his fingers so tightly together that the knuckles turned white. “It was Veil who made me veto the resolutions to restore the settlement’s water. I will convene an emergency meeting of the councilors when we’re done here, and I’ll rectify that. Water will be restored to Rust Town by this afternoon, if I can help it.”
“Is it true what you said earlier, while under Veil’s influence?” Rhea asked. “That we’ll only have a year’s supply if you share with the slums?”
“Afraid so,” Grandas answered. “We’re uh… in trouble.”
“Maybe the streaming sites should stop shadow-banning everyone who talks about the ocean levels,” Rhea said. “Like I told you earlier. You know, so more people are aware of the problem, and can help.”
“Again, I have no influence over the behavior of these private companies,” the mayor replied. “You have to go higher up in the government for that. And I’m not entirely sure that having more people aware of the problem would actually help. Do you really want people to start stockpiling water, hoarding it from everyone else? Panic will only cause the supply to dry up a whole lot sooner.”
“He does have a point,” Horatio said. “Humans are illogical, greedy creatures. If it becomes known that the worldwide supply of water is on the verge of collapse, people will indeed stockpile.”
“Government workers are already stockpiling supplies for themselves, no doubt,” Rhea said. “Especially those in the upper echelon.” She gazed into the mayor’s eyes. “You’re stocking up on water yourself, aren’t you?”
He lowered his gaze, relaxing his fingers. “Yes.”
“Well, at least you’re honest in private, if not public,” she told him.
“Maybe we should release footage of this encounter,” Miles said. “Show the people of Aradne what a two-faced liar their mayor is.”
“No,” Rhea said. “Assuming the footage wasn’t shadow-banned immediately, the mayor could just say it was a sophisticated deepfake.” She waited until the mayor looked at her once more, and then narrowed her eyes. “I do, however, want you to arrest the other city councilors who took part in planning the bioweapon attack against Rust Town.”
Grandas squeezed his interlocking fingers tighter once more, whitening the knuckles. “While I’m grateful for what you did, I’m not suddenly at your beck and call. I didn’t escape one master only to bow beneath another. Maybe you should’ve replaced my chip with one of your own if that’s what you wanted.”
“I’m sorry,” Rhea said. “I can see why you might bridle at even the mere hint that someone was trying to push you around, given what happened to you. I should’ve used more gentle phrasing. Let me try again: I’d appreciate it if you could bring justice to those involved with the murder of so many innocent civilians.”
Grandas sighed, setting his hands down on the desk. “You don’t understand the delicate political tightrope that is the council. We all have dirt on each other. If I try to expose them, they’ll bring out everything they have on me. And I’m talking about dirt predating Veil’s influence.”
“You’ll find a way to deal with it,” Rhea said. “Besides, you cast them as the murderers they are, any dirt they have on you will pale in comparison. Unless you’ve had people assassinated or something…”
“No, of course not,” he said a little quickly. “Well, when Veil had me, maybe. But anyway, it might prove difficult to arrest them without arresting myself, considering I was officially the ringleader of the plan.”
“Yes, but you weren’t yourself,” Rhea said.
“The hard part will be proving that.” Grandas pursed his lips. “I suppose I could submit to a mind scan. There will be evidence of the chip in my head. Broken up pieces. Assuming Veil doesn’t have me assassinated first. I’m going to have to increase my security. If you could penetrate, getting close enough to do what you did, then it’s not a stretch to imagine what someone with the funding of Veil could do.”
“I noticed the extra security robots you have.” She glanced at the pair that stood on either side of the mayor. “Probably a good idea. As long as you can ensure they never get hacked.”
“These particular robots have no comm nodes,” Grandas said. “And thus, can’t be hacked. At least not remotely.”
“Good plan,” she said.
“I can’t be hacked, either,” Horatio said. “I have several sandbox layers in between my comm node and my main systems. As soon as any sort of attack is detected, it is isolated and inoculated.”
“There are always ways, Robot,” the mayor said. “But admittedly, such an attack would be very difficult. But when it comes to my personal protection, I figure, it doesn’t hurt to exhibit an abundance of caution.”
“So you’re going to proceed with the arrests?” Rhea asked.
The mayor tilted his head. “I’ll try. But Rust Town will definitely be getting water back this afternoon. So, if there’s anything else you want to ask of me in return for what you did, now’s the time.”
She turned to go, but then paused. Glancing askance, she said: “There might be one thing. Do you know who I was?”
The mayor raised an eyebrow. “Who you were?”
“Yes,” she said. “In my past. Before I became the Warden.”
Grandas gave the others a curious glance, his eyes settling on Will.
“Don’t look at me,” Will said. “When we found her, her mind was wiped.”
“I had a mark…” Rhea said, touching her forehead. “But we sanded it away.”
The mayor nodded. “Ah.” His eyes darted to Will. “Even he knows what that mark means. You saw it before she sanded it?”
“He did it, but he refuses to tell me what it is,” Rhea said.
“For good reason.” The mayor sat back.
“Don’t tell her.” Will glanced nervously at Miles and Brinks. “It will serve only to confuse her.”
Grandas studied Rhea, and then sighed. “No. I owe her this much, for saving me.” He leaned for
ward, looking into Rhea’s eyes. “The mark you bore was a brand of sorts, to indicate your offworld status.”
“Offworld status?” she asked.
“Well, an offworld prisoner, to be precise,” he explained. “For you see, you bore the sickle and ax.” The virtual poster behind him transformed, displaying a sickle and ax crossed over one another.
Miles exhaled with a hiss.
The mayor glanced at him, and nodded. “All prisoners of Ganymede were thus branded.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “I’m from Ganymede.”
“Yes,” the mayor said. “You are a Ganymedean. Or you were.”
She glanced at Will. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“Like I said,” he told her. “It would only confuse you.”
Her eyes drifted to Miles and Brinks, who were staring at her with anger in their eyes. Those looks hurt, coming from them.
“Why was I a prisoner?” she said, quickly turning back to the mayor. “What did I do? I need to know everything.”
“That I don’t know,” the mayor replied. “I only saw you once, at a dinner. You sat at the table of Khrusos.”
“Khrusos?” she said. “Is that the name of some crime lord?”
“No,” Grandas said. “Or perhaps yes, depending on your point of view. I’m talking about the Khrusos who is president of the United Settlements. A member of the High Council that rules Earth.”
“Why would I be sitting at his table?” she asked. “Me, a woman branded with the mark of a prisoner from Ganymede?”
“I honestly don’t know,” the mayor responded. “After the war, I’d heard rumors that the President kept prisoners from Ganymede in his palace for his personal entertainment. Considering how pretty you were, I assumed it must be something along those lines.”
“You didn’t see me any other time?” she said. “Maybe on a streaming site?”
“No,” Grandas said. “I never saw you again after that day. Until we met again.”
“But Veil knew me,” Rhea said. “She must have. The Scorpion works for her, you admitted it when we talked before. And the Scorpion called me Dagger. The Dagger of Khrusos. Does that mean anything to you?”
“I’m afraid not,” the mayor said. “You have to understand… though I was chipped for three years, all the memories I have when Veil was in control are fast fading. It’s like they’ve been ripped away along with the destruction of the chip. I mostly remember those times I was in control of my own body.”
“So, I guess that means you can’t tell me who set the bounty on my head?” she tried.
“No, I can’t tell you who placed any bounties,” Grandas said. “Nor where you may find Veil. I can’t even remember how I got chipped in the first place. I’m sorry, I’ve told you all I know.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Rhea said. “It’s more than I knew before. But I’m going to hold you to your promise to restore the water supply. If it’s not back on by this afternoon, we’ll be talking again.”
“I’m sure we will,” he agreed.
Rhea nodded. She gazed one last time at the floor-to-ceiling window, and at the virtual Ganymedean sea beyond, then departed with her companions.
She knew now what she must do.
22
Rhea stood inside the glass elevator with Will and the others and gazed out across the parliamentary compound as the lift descended.
“What’s on your mind?” Will asked. “Are you mad because I didn’t tell you about your mark?”
There was indeed something on her mind, but not that. She had meant to confront Will about it later, when she could pull him aside, but hearing his voice caused the anger bubbling inside her to boil over.
She turned toward him. “You lied to me.”
He gave her an uncertain look. “Just because I didn’t tell you what the mark meant, doesn’t—”
“You told me the army of Earth destroyed the Ganymedeans to the last man, woman, and cyborg,” she explained.
“Ah.” He held her angry gaze. “Well, when I said every last man, woman and cyborg, I meant generally speaking. Of course, there were bound to be a few who were missed. Taken prisoner here and there. But trust me, there wouldn’t have been many… they were probably mostly cyborgs like yourself, as ordinary humans would’ve had a very hard time surviving the final devastating attack launched by the militaries of Earth in retaliation for the Great Calming.” The Great Calming was the morning the people of Earth had awakened to find half their cities destroyed. “But it doesn’t change the fact that the moon, and everything you might have once known, is now gone.”
“I’m going back,” she announced.
He folded his arms. “That’s probably not a good idea.”
“I want to see it for myself,” she said. “I want to see what the people of this world did to my home.”
“Rhea, listen, there’s no atmosphere,” Will said. “Even a cyborg such as yourself can’t survive there, not without an environmental suit. Unless you can convince the Europans to let you enter one of their geodesic domes… living under an artificial sky, beneath an artificial sun. Is that really how you want to spend your days?”
“I’ve made up my mind,” she replied.
Her gaze drifted to Miles and Brinks, but they were studiously avoiding her eyes. “You hate me. For what I am.”
Miles gazed at the landscape beyond the glass. “No. I don’t. I admit I used to hate all Ganymedeans for what they’d done. For destroying half of Earth. I lost… much. But how can I hate a people that we eradicated in retaliation?” The albino at last met her eyes. “We killed them all. And yes, you are from Ganymede, and you represent what they did to us. But you can’t be held you responsible for the crimes committed by your government or military. And besides, you’ve done so much for us. No, I don’t hate you. I love you.”
“As do I,” Brinks said. “You always will be our Warden, no matter what. I did feel betrayed at first, when the mayor revealed who you were. But I reminded myself you didn’t even know you were Ganymedean. Your mind was wiped. And like Miles said, you personally had nothing to do with the Great Calming. So no, I can’t blame you. There’s nothing Ganymedean left inside of you for me to blame. Or hate.”
“Good,” Rhea said. “Can I trust you two never to reveal what happened today? I need you to keep this a secret. Others, even among the Wardenites, might not take so kindly to the fact I’m a Ganymedean.”
“I will reveal it to no one,” Miles said. “Not even to the Wardenites.”
“Nor will I,” Brinks said.
Rhea smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
“But what should we tell them, when they ask why you wish to journey to Ganymede?” Miles asked.
“Tell them…” Rhea paused. “Just say I need a vacation.”
The security robots escorted them to the edge of the parliament area, and then Rhea and her party were allowed to proceed on their own.
The streets proved relatively quiet: the demonstrators would’ve returned to Rust Town a long time ago. There were no combat robots or mechs lined up on either side of the street to observe their return. Of course not. She was welcomed by the mayor. Still, she knew she was being watched: there were too many cameras recording from the sidelines for her not to be.
The people here didn’t live all that differently from those in Rust Town. Sure, they might reside in towering skyscrapers and apartment buildings versus the cargo containers and lean-tos of the slums, but they mostly stayed home all day. Delivery drones filled the skies, as well as land-based couriers. The occasional humans she saw out and about barely seemed aware of the outside world, their eyes defocused as they talked quietly to themselves—video conferencing a friend or family member, or perhaps playing some online game that used the real world as a backdrop.
She passed through the gates in the city wall and made her way back to her home base in the slums. She and her companions were scanned for chips at the Texas barriers, and then allowed insi
de. She made her way down to her quarters for some peace and quiet.
A few hours passed.
She kept the Faraday cage deactivated, so that when Renaldo tapped in, she received the call immediately.
“Check out the trending section of any streaming site,” the Wardenite said.
She did so.
Rust Town had its water supply restored. She noticed that despite all the coverage, which often focused on the slum residents cheering in the streets, there was no mention that the taps would run for only a year.
They’re celebrating prematurely.
But she supposed that, given the uncertainty of the past few weeks since the Hydra attack, a celebration wasn’t uncalled for.
The mayor also announced an investigation into the aforementioned attack. To his credit, he revealed some among the city council were among the suspects. He probably wouldn’t investigate all of those who were involved, for political reasons, but at least some justice would be dealt if he succeeded.
Will visited her shortly after the news broke. “Did you hear? The water’s back on. You did it.”
She smiled wanly. “Looking back, it seems like it was such a hard fight.”
“Wasn’t easy,” he agreed.
“Well,” Rhea said. “The water’s back on. I can leave now.”
Will cocked an eyebrow. “You weren’t joking about Ganymede, were you?”
“No,” she said.
“And Veil?” he said.
“He can’t hunt me if I’m on another planet,” Rhea replied. “Or in this case, moon.”
“How can you be so sure?” Will pressed.
“I can’t,” she admitted. “But I have no more leads at the moment. If I knew where I could find him, I’d launch a preemptive strike. But I don’t. If I stay here, I’m a target anyway. One day, Veil might simply decide to stage a direct assault, led by the Black Hands, or the Scorpion, or whatever other minions he has at his disposal. Who knows, he might even drop a bomb. I put everyone at risk by staying. So no, my mind is made up.”
“What about Khrusos?” Will asked.
“What about him?” Rhea replied.
