gaian consortium 05 - the titan trap

by Christine Pope

  “What is it?” the man behind her said, entering the house as well. He paused next to his wife and went stock still, not blinking.

  Cassidy could see some resemblance there, in the high, proud cheekbones and the shape of his face. Otherwise, Derek’s features were more like his mother’s, only stronger. Both parents had dark hair and dark eyes, although the mother’s hair was streaked with gray.

  “What is this?” Derek’s father said, voice calm, cold, as if encountering escaped-convict sons breaking into his house was something that happened to him every day. “What are you doing here?”

  Beside her, Cassidy could feel Derek tense. She recalled that he didn’t have the most cordial of relationships with his father. When he spoke, however, his tone betrayed nothing of that tension. “Hi, Dad…nice to see you, too.”

  Derek’s mother came farther into the room, even as her husband touched a control unit on the wall, shutting the door. Her eyes seemed to shimmer with tears. “Oh, Derek…I don’t believe it. How did you get here? Were you released? We weren’t informed — ”

  “I wasn’t released. I escaped.”

  Dead silence. Derek’s mother paled, and she stopped where she was, staring at her son. “What? How — ”

  “If that is so, then you have brought even more disgrace on this family,” his father cut in, tone sharp as a knife. “And I will ask you to leave before you bring the authorities down on all our heads.”

  Cassidy tried not to flinch at his words. They weren’t even intended for her — Mr. Tagawa had barely allowed a single glance in her direction — but they still hurt.

  Derek didn’t move. “I will not leave. I have evidence exonerating me. I want you to see it.”

  “I’m not the person who needs to see it. If it is valid, then take it to the authorities.”

  “The same authorities who would shoot me on sight before they’d listen to a single thing I had to say?”

  Mrs. Tagawa raised a hand. “Please. I don’t know how this happened, Derek, but if you have something you want us to see, then I think we should see it.” Her husband opened his mouth, clearly intending to gainsay her, but she went on, ignoring his protest, “It’s the least we can do.”

  “And be charged with harboring a known fugitive?”

  “Your son,” she said sternly, and there was something in the glance she sent her husband that made him subside. Then her gaze shifted to Cassidy. “And this is…?”

  “Cassidy Evans,” Derek told her. “Captain of the Avalon. She saved my life.”

  Despite the tension in the room, Cassidy still felt a little wave of warmth go over her. He’d introduced her as the captain of a ship, not bothering to mention that the Avalon was a beat-up old freighter now reduced to cosmic dust orbiting Jupiter. His parents had status, and he hadn’t wanted them to look down on her.

  His mother came forward into the kitchen and took Cassidy’s hands in hers, giving them a gentle squeeze before releasing them again. “Then thank you, Ms. Evans. There’s nothing a mother can do to show her gratitude for saving her son, but…thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Cassidy replied, knowing how awkward her response sounded. But what else could she say? “It’s nothing” didn’t really fit the bill here.

  Derek’s father, however, remained where he was. “What is this evidence?”

  “Maybe you should take a seat,” Derek told him, clearly used to his father’s abruptness.

  He stood there for a few seconds more, back ramrod straight, and then went to one of the chairs and sat down. His wife sent both Cassidy and Derek a reassuring look before going back to the family room and situating herself at one end of the sofa.

  Cassidy reached over and touched Derek’s fingers briefly. She didn’t want to say anything aloud, as she wasn’t sure he would appreciate her giving away anything as to the nature of their relationship, but she also wanted him to know that she was here for him. The briefest of nods, and then he moved past her and into the other room, where he made his way over to the vid-screen. He pulled the handheld from his pocket and aimed it at the data port on one side. Of course. Better that they see this on a large screen, rather than trying to squint at the much smaller one on the handheld.

  Moment of truth, she thought. Now she’d get to see whether he’d done some surreptitious editing on that file while she was asleep, or whether he was willing to let the recording stand as it was, was ready to have his parents see what he’d done to Conrad Waite.

  Both sound and picture faded in. The angle was a little strange, as the handheld had been sitting on the coffee table in their suite and pointed in Waite’s direction, but you could still see him sitting there, tied to the chair, perspiration dripping from his forehead.

  “…was in Cape Town, South Africa, you crazy motherfucking bastard!”

  So he’d cut some of it out, but not all. Crunch went Waite’s middle fingers, and Cassidy could see Mrs. Tagawa wince. Derek’s father, on the other hand, sat stiff and straight in his chair, expression unchanged.

  Then the recording got to where Waite said, “Too bad I didn’t kill you and frame Karras instead,” and Derek’s father finally blinked. Not much of a reaction, but it was something. Something promising? She didn’t know the man well enough to hazard a guess.

  Derek picked up the handheld and severed the connection between the vid-screen and the device. “So there you go.”

  An uneasy silence. At last Mrs. Tagawa said, voice still with shock, “You broke all his fingers?”

  “Not all of them,” Derek replied, tone indifferent. “I didn’t touch his index fingers or his thumbs.”

  “This proves nothing,” his father said. “A confession — and not much of one at that — given under duress?”

  “‘Not much of one’?” Derek repeated, sounding incredulous. “Which part of ‘I should’ve killed you and framed Karras instead’ did you not understand?”

  A frown creased Mr. Tagawa’s brow. “That is still not an outright confession.”

  “Are you really going to sit there and try to tell me you don’t believe what he was saying, that he was just lying to get me to stop?”

  “Derek,” Mrs. Tagawa said, her voice gentle, but so firm that her son subsided, although Cassidy could tell from the way his hands were knotted into fists at his sides that he was fighting with himself to keep from launching at his father. “I believe you. I never thought you capable of murdering anyone.” Her husband’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t interrupt. “And it does sound like this man was the one responsible. That said, what do you intend to do next?”

  Derek’s shoulders slumped a bit. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. I can’t go to the authorities directly, since I’m a fugitive, but I was hoping that maybe you could make a copy of this, take it to the local public attorney’s office. You’re both prominent members of the community here…it’s possible there’s someone in that office who hasn’t been corrupted, who would be willing to listen to what you have to say.”

  “Impossible,” Mr. Tagawa said, voice flat. “No one would listen to us.”

  What the hell was the man’s problem? He wasn’t even looking at Derek as he stood there by the vid-screen, features tight with an uncomfortable mixture of anger and disappointment. Even though she knew she should stay out of it, Cassidy found she couldn’t stay silent any longer. “So that’s it? Even though your son is innocent, was made a scapegoat to cover up the monstrous things they’re doing in Hunan Province, he’s just supposed to throw up his hands and go meekly back into custody? What about justice? What about what’s right?”

  The look Tagawa shot her felt roughly akin to one he might have given a cockroach he spotted crawling across his spotless floor. “Young woman, this has nothing to do with you.”

  “It sure as hell does,” she shot back. “It was my ship he hijacked to get off Titan, so I’m involved whether I wanted to be or not. At first, I wanted to kill him — but then I heard his story, and I knew he was i
nnocent. Don’t sit there and tell me that the Consortium government isn’t capable of covering up the truth, because I will laugh in your goddamn face.”

  Slowly, Derek’s father got to his feet. “I will not be spoken to in such a way in my own house, no matter what you might have done to help my son.” He clearly intended to go on, but his wife cut him off, saying,

  “That’s enough. Ms. Evans has been through a good deal, that’s clear if nothing else is, and she was helping our son when she certainly didn’t have to.” She got up and went over to stand by Derek, a gesture clearly calculated to show her husband where her loyalties lay. “If you refuse to help him, I can’t make you. On the other hand, if you try to stop me from helping him…well, you might want to consider what the consequences of such an action could be.”

  The threat was clear enough, even if she didn’t bother to spell it out. If it came to a choice between her husband and her son, she would come down on Derek’s side. Maybe she was inwardly berating herself for not doing more when he was first charged, although Cassidy wasn’t sure what any one person could have done to prevent Derek’s conviction. When the Consortium wanted something, it generally got it, even if that meant trampling on someone’s rights, or sending an innocent man to rot in MaxSec.

  “I suppose we will all do what we feel is right,” Mr. Tagawa said, clearly unmoved by her threat. “Even if our opinions do not line up.”

  Derek cleared his throat. It was obvious enough that the last thing he’d intended was to cause any additional friction between his parents, although he’d probably guessed that something like this might happen, as he appeared upset but not overly surprised. For all he knew, they’d been fighting over the subject since the day he was shipped off to MaxSec. Actually, Cassidy was somewhat startled that they were even still together. Marriages had broken apart over a lot less.

  “Look,” he said, “I only wanted to prove to you that the lies the Consortium told about me were just that…lies. I did not shoot Theo Karras. As I said before, Theo and I discovered that the dead from the Cloud were not being respectfully handled, and we got clamped down on before word could spread. As Waite himself put it, the Consortium had a situation, and it wanted it handled. The government doesn’t care about me, or Theo, or anything besides making sure no one finds out how dirty the GARP operation actually is.”

  Mr. Tagawa crossed his arms and said nothing, but his wife, dark eyes troubled, ventured, “But even though you do have something of a confession from this Conrad Waite, he said nothing about GARP or what you discovered. So how will you get the word out about that if you don’t have any evidence?”

  From the troubled expression that crossed Derek’s features, she could tell he’d already thought the same thing. “I’m not sure. Probably I’ll need to go back to China, get real concrete proof, and then…distribute it.”

  He hadn’t mentioned that plan to Cassidy, but it made sense…in a way. On the other hand, getting within a thousand kilometers of the people who had framed him probably wasn’t the wisest idea in the world. She had a feeling they wouldn’t bother with trying to frame him this time. No, they’d put a pulse bolt between his eyes and call it a day.

  “Distribute it how?” his mother asked.

  “I know someone who can help me. And that’s all I’m going to say on the subject. The less you know, the better.”

  She looked as troubled as her son, but she didn’t try to protest. “I suppose there’s no point in asking you to be careful.”

  “Oh, I’ll be careful,” he told her. “Whether that will be enough…?” The words trailed away, and he lifted his shoulders. “I guess I’ll let the universe sort that out.” His gaze moved past her and seemed to settle on Cassidy. “But we’ve been here long enough, and I don’t want to run the risk of anyone finding out about this visit. The best thing I can do is keep moving.”

  “Derek — ”

  He bent slightly and kissed his mother on the cheek. “I hope you’ll hear from me again. I hope — ” A shake of his head. “Well, I hope it will somehow all work out. But if you don’t hear from me — ”

  “I’ll assume you’re on the run and can’t risk it.” The words were spoken firmly, as if she wouldn’t allow herself to contemplate the possibility that she might not hear from him because he was dead. “Take care of yourself, Derek.”

  “I’ll do my best.” He moved away from her then, pausing just long enough to say, “Goodbye, Father.”

  Mr. Tagawa said nothing, only looked on with his jaw tight and his eyes unblinking.

  No reaction from Derek, save possibly the slightest narrowing of his eyes. He came toward Cassidy, gaze fixed on her as if his father didn’t even exist, and said, “Let’s go. We’ve spent enough time here.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  On the cab ride back to the maglev station, Cassidy had remained conspicuously silent. Derek watched her fine profile as it was silhouetted against the ’car window, the bright Tucson sunlight throwing the outlines of her nose and mouth and chin into sharp relief. It seemed clear enough that she didn’t dare broach the subject of what had just happened in his parents’ house, although whether that was because she didn’t want her words recorded by the cab’s surveillance equipment, or because she was worried what his reaction might be, he wasn’t sure.

  Probably just as well. At the moment, he didn’t think he could discuss his father without using language that might shock her. Or maybe not. She’d seen some of the rougher edges of life, probably far more than he had. Even so, she shouldn’t have to be on the receiving end of the rage Derek felt boiling within him…rage that really should have been directed at Hiro Tagawa.

  It’s your own damn fault for thinking anything would be different, he told himself, attempting to push the fury away, the desire to have the cab turn around so he could walk up to his father and give him the punch in the face he so rightly deserved. No, that would be foolish. In general, violence didn’t solve anything — breaking the fingers of Consortium operatives notwithstanding — although contemplating knocking his father out did give Derek a certain sense of satisfaction.

  They got out of the cab at the maglev station and went to retrieve their luggage. Only then did Cassidy say, “So…what next?”

  “We keep moving,” he told her. “Everywhere we go, there’s surveillance. Eventually, the Consortium’s facial-recognition software is going to catch up with us. Right now no one knows exactly where I am, so the search isn’t being pinpointed to a precise location. But sooner or later, a data point someplace is going to cross-reference with the known fugitives list, and then we’re going to have ourselves a problem.”

  “And what’s the bad news?” she quipped, although he could tell from the worried flicker in her hazel eyes that what he’d just told her had frightened her a good deal.

  “The bad news is that we can’t take a maglev to China, so fairly soon we’re going to have to figure out a way to get our biometrics altered.”

  It wasn’t quite as dire as he’d made it sound; he had a feeling their benefactor might know one or two people involved in that illicit but necessary business. First things first, though — they needed to get out of Tucson. And since it made sense to take a stratospheric flight from the West Coast, he thought they should purchase a ticket to Barstow. In that sprawling city, which had become the new population center in the southern half of California after Los Angeles succumbed to the rising oceans caused by global warming several centuries ago, he had to hope they would find someone who could make it possible for them to safely leave Normerica.

  If not…well, he wouldn’t let himself think about that now. There was always the Zephyr, still parked at the spaceport in Chicago and quietly racking up hangar fees. Maybe the best thing to do would be to send Cassidy back there, get her safely off-planet. This wasn’t her fight, and he’d dragged her into the path of danger too often as it was.

  She was looking up at him expectantly, waiting for him to answer her question about
the biometrics, or maybe she was simply waiting to hear what his true plans were. He had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say, but he went ahead and said it anyway.

  “Look, Cassidy…I think it might be better if you went back to Chicago and retrieved the ship. You can get away from Gaia — out of the system entirely — and I’ll do what I have to in China. It would be safer that way.”

  Her brows drew together, angry dark lines against her pale skin. “Just like that, huh? Now that you don’t have a use for me anymore, it’s ‘so long, Cass, it’s been great’? What if I don’t want go back to Chicago with my tail between my legs?”

  Damn it, he hadn’t been expecting that reaction. “Cassidy, that’s not what I meant — ”

  “Isn’t it? If I can’t fly you someplace or act as bait for a company hit man, then I’m superfluous, right? Just extra baggage?”

  Approximately five or six careful, reasoned replies rose to his lips…and then he realized she was too angry to listen to any of them. So he did the only thing he thought might work. He set down his suitcase, plucked hers from her hand, and then pulled her against him, kissing her thoroughly right there in the maglev station. For just the briefest instant, he felt her resist, body rigid against his, but then she relaxed, her arms going around him and her mouth opening to his.

  It was amazing what this woman could do to him, send such a rush of heat through his body that he could feel himself stiffening, pushing uncomfortably against the pants he wore, which were just slightly tighter than he would have preferred. Someone in the terminal let out a wolf-whistle, and he had no doubt that the shouts of “get a room!” were soon to follow, and so he released her gently, keeping his gaze intent on her face the whole time.

  “I don’t want to get rid of you,” he said. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you, either.”