I examined the other airlock, and sure enough, the door was sealed. Someone wanted to limit how many people could get on board, and I had a good idea who that was. An information display on the wall told me that the main command room was several decks up and in the center of the ship, where it would be best protected. I guessed that Paek would head there, looking to leave the Atoll for safety. But if I was right, he'd be looking at a very different form of escape when he got there.
I cut through the ship, jumping in long leaps and steering myself with brief touches against the guides and handholds. The Defined Payback was big, even larger than the Zenith, and it took several minutes to reach a point where I could turn inboard. I swung around the corner and crashed face-first into a BlackISE security guard.
Luckily he was floating harmlessly, either unconscious or dead, but I didn't waste time checking closely. I did take the liberty of grabbing his heavy pistol, though, in case I had a run-in with any of his friends.
I passed several more guards on my way, but they were all distinctly inactive. As I neared the command room, I crept more cautiously around corners, not knowing what I'd find. Then I heard voices up ahead and stopped, pulling myself close to a bulkhead. The sound bounced around the hard walls of the passage, and with my still-impaired hearing, I couldn't make out the words clearly, or even identify the people speaking. But the conversation was heated—that much was certain.
I tapped the button on my comm-set several times, trying to get through to someone but without response, and I gave up. The weapon I'd picked up was a type of QuenchGun, and the magpack was fully charged. I'd used something similar before and dialed down the settings to throw the needles slow enough not to blow a hole in the hull. Cradling the gun in my arms, I pushed off the bulkhead and through the door into the gloomy command center, not sure who I'd find. But if Paek was waiting, there was a good chance neither one of us would come out alive.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The first thing I saw was Paek. He was on his knees, surrounded by three people in BlackISE uniforms. That might have put him in a strong position, if any of them had been standing, but they were sprawled in ungainly poses around him—whether dead or unconscious, I couldn't tell. My hand tightened on the grip of the gun, and I had to fight not to jerk the trigger back and finish him on the spot. I touched down on the floor, and my shoes stuck to the carpeting, allowing me to walk with some stability.
"Hi, honey, I'm home."
"Joe?" Dollie stepped out from the shadows. She wore a bulky, almost black, armored p-suit that hid her curves completely, and yet somehow she still managed to look beautiful. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Nothing much. Saving the world, as usual."
"You're here to stop me?"
Paek looked relieved and let out a long breath.
"Don't get your hopes up," I said to him then stepped toward Dollie. "I can't stop you. And I've no reason to. He's a murderer and deserves everything he gets."
Dollie pointed a heavy pistol at me. "Don't come any closer, Joe. I swear, the only way you can save him is if you kill me."
"And I don't suggest you do that."
I looked around. It was Sigurd. She was dressed like Dollie's twin, and she also had a gun trained on me. And where I might hope Dollie would hesitate a little to shoot me, I had no doubt Sigurd would cut me into ribbons without blinking.
"Those are some suits you've got. Do you shop at Space Marine Surplus?"
"Tools of the trade." Sigurd stepped closer. "Now, hand me the gun. Grip first."
I activated the safety and turned the gun around, offering it to her the way she'd asked. If I'd been the Rocket Ranger, I'd have done a fancy gun flip as she reached out and killed her and Dollie in a single movement. But I didn't have camera tricks to help me and couldn't have shot Dollie any more than I could have stopped breathing.
"Why are you here?" Sigurd stuffed my pistol in her belt and pushed me toward a wall.
"I've never seen my wife execute anybody before. I thought it'd be fun to throw peanuts from the gallery."
"She's not your wife anymore."
"A technicality. And I already have the peanuts."
"You people are scum." Paek spat the words out. "And when my other BlackISE people get here, they'll execute you without drawing breath. I don't think you even have the guts to do what you came for."
Dollie's hand tightened around her gun. Paek wasn't enhancing his prospects of survivability, and I wouldn't have blamed her if she'd fired.
"Before you put a bullet in this pathetic excuse for a human being, there's something you should know. It may not change how you feel or what you do. And maybe it shouldn't." I looked at Dollie. "Want to hear it?"
She didn't respond for a minute or so. Her eyes were locked on Paek and burned with an intensity I'd never seen from her before. "Say whatever you want. It won't change anything."
"Dollie..."
Dollie cut Sigurd off with a shake of her head.
Okay, this was it. Time for me to use all my silver-tongued skills to save her. Though the truth was, I didn't care if someone put a bullet in Paek's brain or not. I just didn't want it to be Dollie.
"Paek's finished, no matter how this plays out. He's a war criminal. Responsible for thousands of deaths."
Paek jerked his head up, sending a spray of sweat into the air. "You have nothing on me."
"We have records of his communications with several ships that were pretending to be in the service of the Atolls. We also have records of those same ships attacking both USP and PAC ships and stations."
Paek's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything.
"I don't care about those people. I only care about one." Dollie still had her gun on him.
"I know. But don't you see? You don't have to do this." I took a breath to control my emotions. "If we hand over the evidence and Paek, he'll be punished. No one will argue against it now."
"Kill him, Dollie," Sigurd said. "Kill him now, while we still have a chance of getting away."
"You really think anything will happen to me?" Paek smirked, wiping some of the blood off his forehead. "You have no idea. There are far too many skeletons buried in far too many closets for that to happen."
"Unfortunately, he's right." Gabriella strutted in. She flounced deeper into the room, swaying elegantly even though she relied on the same sticky carpeting as the rest of us. She didn't look armed, but that didn't mean a thing with her.
Dollie's jaw tightened further. "I'll be happy to kill you both, believe me."
"Hello again, Joe. Hello, Samara."
I'd never heard anyone use any other name for Sigurd, not even Dollie, and I was surprised that Gabriella seemed to know who she was. My expression must have given me away because Gabriella turned her attention back to me.
"You'd be surprised at the things I know. Our paths have never crossed professionally, but I'd be stupid not to recognize the once-legendary Samara Gruden. Especially in association with your ex-wife."
"If you know anything about me, then you should know better than to stick your nose into my business." Sigurd pointed her gun at Gabriella. "Turn around and crawl back under your rock."
"Well, I can hardly do that, can I?" Gabriella reached the wall and leaned against it as though she were in a park taking in the view. "I'm here on duty. Protecting Mr. Paek."
For the first time since I'd walked in, Paek looked surprised. "I thought—"
"You thought I was enamored with your physical prowess? Please, darling, I've had far better specimens than you. I'm acting for the USP. They wanted the Contravalency Phage, and you could make that happen." Gabriella's voice deepened. "Quite frankly, it's been one of the most disgusting assignments I've ever taken."
She looked away from Paek. "I know what you all think of me, and I understand why. I've done things that all of you have cause to dislike. But that man is the most pathetic example I've ever had the misfortune to meet. He thinks he's smart, but he's all
owed himself to be manipulated at every turn. First by Atoll extremists, then the Corporates, and finally by the USP through me."
"Are you trying to pretend you've found a conscience?" Dollie spat the words through clenched teeth.
"Of course not, darling." Gabriella smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "I finally found something more repulsive than I am. You really should have helped me, Joe."
I didn't believe a word she was saying, but I wanted to know more before I made up my mind. "What's this Contravalency Phage?"
"Say anything, and I'll have you gutted and thrown out of an airlock naked," Paek said.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," Gabriella said. "Your chances of getting out of this alive are around zero.
"We all know the history of conflict between the Earthers and Atolls, don't we, children? Atoll superiority lies in their access to space—their blockade of Earth—but, more importantly, the Atolls themselves. They can grow their crystalline lattice in a matter of weeks and create something it would take months or even years for Earth people to reproduce. You're the engineer, Joe. What's the relative rate of construction?"
"Shut up," Paek barked.
"At the moment, somewhere around thirty to one. Some of the new technologies coming online might bring that down by about half." I was thinking about the asteroid construction I'd worked on or the Taikong Gaogu project, but I had no idea where she was going with this.
"That takes some beating, doesn't it? The Atolls can complete a whole new habitat in about a tenth of the time of our best efforts. That was when the USP came up with the Transformation Protocol. Remember, Joe? I mentioned that when we met on the Shokasta. The idea was to find something that would change everything, something that could turn the Atoll's strength against them if they looked like they were getting the upper hand again. Speed of Atoll construction is their biggest strength—and that's where the Phage comes in, to turn that into a weakness. I don't claim to follow the boring details, darlings, but the USP wanted some way of taking out an Atoll without simply blowing it up. Something that could be done gradually, that would take away that advantage without arousing too many suspicions.
"The Contravalency Phage does that. It breaks down the physical structure of an Atoll. Anything built using their technology is vulnerable and, once exposed, will eventually fail. But even more delicious—the Phage acts like a virus. People can carry it from one habitat to another on their clothes or on their bodies, where it will infect a new lattice without further deployment."
It was an incredible idea, almost too fantastic to believe. The stability of the Atoll crystalline technology had been unassailable for a century. If a chemical agent had been created to attack it, then the game changed completely. But somehow even more frightening was the idea that the USP had been behind it. Of course, lies came to Gabriella as easily as killing.
"I told you to keep your mouth shut." Paek's scream was painful, and he hammered his fist against his thigh repeatedly.
Gabriella grinned at him. "Fuck you, darling."
Dollie had been silent, but now she spoke. "I don't care. About any of this. I came here to kill that thing."
Gabriella shrugged. "Go ahead. I'm happy to see the filthy toad get what he deserves."
I stayed quiet until Dollie raised her gun again. "I can't let you kill him."
A brief wash of relief washed over Paek's face then vanished when Dollie didn't lower her gun even a millimeter.
"You can't stop me," Dollie hissed through clenched teeth. "Why would you even try? He took everything. Our daughter. You. Our future."
Her voice growled like the cry of a tortured spirit from the depths of Sheol, and a tear ran down her cheek. I'd been as ready to do what she was planning, but now the reality was upon us, I realized that nobody had the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. Not her or me. No matter the circumstances.
I edged closer. "There are dozens of BlackISE people outside—and god knows who else. If you kill him, you won't get a hundred meters."
"I don't care." Dollie sucked in a deep, shuddering breath, her knuckles whitening around the pistol.
I was close enough that I could have reached out and touched her. "But I do."
Dollie wouldn't look at me. Another tear crept from the corner of her eye and matted across the curve of her cheek. I dragged a breath in, but my ribs felt like a steel cage around my heart.
"Paek didn't split us up, Dollie. We did that on our own. And as for our daughter, it could have happened anyway. The doctors told us that, but we were so busy hurting each other neither of us was listening."
"Get back, Joe." Dollie sniffed, "I swear, I'll kill you if I have to."
I stepped in front of the gun. "Then you better do that."
I saw the barrel quiver, the muscles in her hand so tight they sent shivers of movement through the pistol. "You can kill me. You can kill Paek. But that won't change what happened. All it will do is kill a part of you. And if you do somehow manage to survive, you'll have to live with that forever. Is that what you want?"
"He deserves to die."
"Yes, he does. But you can't sacrifice what makes you so special to do that."
Her eyes finally caught mine. When she spoke, I could barely hear her.
"I've ruined everything. Failed at everything. I failed you. Failed our baby. I can't fail at this too."
My stomach knotted. "You haven't failed. You've succeeded at being human. And I want that to continue for a very long time. Whether you're with me or not."
Dollie blinked several times. "Do you mean that?"
I nodded, and she lowered the gun.
I heard a roar and half-turned to see Paek pushing up from the floor. I caught a flash in his hand and, in an almost lazy moment of recognition, identified it as a composite-bladed knife. He charged toward us, drawing his arm back to strike. Whether I was the target or Dollie wasn't clear, but I threw myself forward. The knife bit deep into my upper arm, and a cloud of blood burst from it, floating like smoke in the ZeeGee.
I twisted further, lashing out with my good hand and slammed my fist into his nose. I heard the bone snap, and the force of the impact bounced us apart. We both lost our grip on the carpet and floated in opposite directions. I twisted in a somersault, bringing my legs behind me, ready to dive back at him as soon as I had solid footing. Paek spun toward Gabriella and reached out for her to stop his tumble.
She grabbed his arm then jerked him around. Her other hand tore the knife from his grip, and as her arm locked around his neck, she plunged the knife up into his stomach and underneath his ribs. Paek gurgled twice then his head slumped. Gabriella dropped him, letting his body tumble lazily away.
"That's one you owe me, Joe. Don't forget it," she said, then turned and vanished from sight.
A moment later, Dollie was next to me. "Joe? Are you okay?"
I'd crumpled against the wall, and the blood was pumping out of my arm, but somehow it felt as if a load had lifted from me. Almost as though I'd killed Paek myself. "Sure. Takes more than a shaving cut to put the great Joe Ballen down. I'm cold, though."
Sigurd came over. "Christ, I'm getting slow." She shook her head and tutted. "And you're insane, Ballen. Going up against a soldier with a knife barehanded? You're lucky he didn't decapitate you."
She leaned down and tore open my sleeve. "He's losing blood. If we don't stop it, we'll lose him. And we need to get out of here. The security people could be here any minute."
Sigurd scrunched up a piece of my shirt and wadded it against the hole in my arm. "Press here tightly," she said to Dollie, who grabbed my arm and squeezed.
Sigurd rooted around the command room and came back a minute later with a roll of sticky tape. She wound several loops of it around my arm, fastening the improvised bandage in place. "You're going to need surgery, but that's the best I can do unless you brought a MediSkin dispenser.
The pain was so intense my vision blurred. "Left it in my other pants," I gasped.
Dollie looked at her then turned back to me. "I'm not leaving. You get away."
"It's okay." I squeezed Dollie's arm. "I'll be fine."
"He's coming with us." Dollie looked at Sigurd.
"How? He doesn't have a suit, and we don't have time to look for one."
"Help me to an airlock, and I'll find him a suit. If I can't, I'll help you escape."
Sigurd looked doubtful. "Let's get him up."
It wasn't easy moving through corridors. The ZeeGee helped, but my right arm was frozen, and even with the make-shift bandage I was leaving a trail of bloody smudges on every other bulkhead. Sigurd moved ahead, while Dollie helped me the best she could.
"I can't believe you're here. Why did you come, Joe?"
"Logan roped me in to searching for the Sacagawea."
"That must have been a long way from here."
I winced. "We took a wrong turn at Sirius."
A smile danced over Dollie's face, but it fell away almost immediately. "You're a terrible liar."
"I'll try harder."
We turned left down a short corridor that ended in an airlock. Two black air tanks were sitting next to the door. "This where you came in?"
"I'll check the lockers," Dollie said.
I was drifting in and out, unable to focus, but I was vaguely aware of Dollie throwing open locker doors.
"This looks too big but will have to do," she said, holding up a large suit. "I also found some reserve tanks."
I heard shouting in the distance, slid my legs into the lower suit, and then edged the upper part over my arm to avoid catching the wound. As I closed the waist, Sigurd moved over and snapped something pungent under my nose. My mind cleared when I breathed it in. It was probably more of her military supplies and highly addictive, but for now it gave me the boost I needed.
I threw open the locker doors, hoping they'd provide at least a little cover, then pulled the helmet on. I struggled because the suit was too big, but eventually I locked the collar closed.
Transformation Protocol Page 28
