A Memory in the Black (The New Aeneid Cycle)

by Michael G. Munz

  As it turned out, they made it to the Moon just fine. No one waited to kill or arrest them when they arrived. Their black ops anonymity prevented transmission of their faces—or rather, the face of Diomedes—just as they'd hoped. Though he was dead, they used his identity, his prints, and his access card to get them through each leg of their journey. Yet upon making it to the rover, they discovered that the last leg was to be the most problematic.

  "Who puts a retina scanner on a rover?" Michael asked. That they'd gotten inside just fine meant nothing. The rover wasn't going anywhere without the scanner's permission.

  "Theft between companies is more of a problem up here than you'd think. And then there's the whole black op thing, of course."

  "Well, okay, so it's my first lunar rover. Just tell me we're not completely screwed?"

  Marc went back to studying the scanner. "We're not completely screwed. Not that I know what to do about it just yet."

  Unable to think of anything helpful to say, Michael just nodded and let Marc work. His own attention quickly shifted out the window to the rest of the bay. There was no sign of trouble so far, no one bothering to care about the two men who'd apparently decided to futz around in the rover they'd boarded. A few other rovers sat in their docking ports amid fuel tanks, spacesuit racks, and other unrecognizable equipment being worked on by WSC personnel. Perhaps assuming them to be corporate VIPs, the workers had given little more than a moment's glance when he and Marc had arrived and unlocked the rover with their cards.

  It took Marc another half-hour to bypass the retina scanner.

  "Nice job," Michael said at last.

  "Don't thank me just yet. I'm not entirely sure it's not going to fail permanently in a while and utterly screw us."

  "I kinda wish you hadn't mentioned that."

  The door to the rest of the base slid open and drew Michael's attention. He stood up so fast that he nearly cracked his head on the rover's ceiling. "We've been followed."

  "What?" Marc looked up in alarm and then immediately laughed. "Um, no, I think this qualifies as being stalked."

  Felix and Caitlin stood in the bay's open doorway for a moment before the latter spotted them. With a quick word, they started in the rover's direction.

  "And we've been spotted."

  "This should be interesting. Better open the hatch before anyone asks too many questions."

  Felix appeared content to wait until they were all inside the rover to make a joke. "Okay, so spill it. Are you guys following us, or what?"

  "Hullo Michael, Marc," Caitlin added, her smile holding more than a trace of anxiety. "It was nice of you to get a ride for us."

  Michael hesitated a moment, trying to decide a way through the situation. "This really isn't something we can share with you on," he told them with a glance at Marc. "You're not being followed by anyone, are you? I mean, are you in trouble?"

  "We're okay, we're doing the following," Felix said.

  "Felix, we can't tell you where—"

  Caitlin cut Michael off before he could finish. "It's Gideon. He's on the Moon, he needs help, and we can't get to him without a rover."

  "We missed him when we followed him here but figured when we saw you that you'd be going the same—"

  "Look, I'm sorry, but Gideon's going to have to take care of himself," Michael told them. Friends or not, they had to focus on the mission, just like on Sunrise. There wasn't time for anything else. "We've got something of an urgent—"

  "So do we," Caitlin pressed. "Look, just where is it you two are plotting to take this thing?"

  With her darting gaze demanding answers, Michael shifted uncomfortably and glanced again at Marc. Obviously they couldn't tell her, and they'd already lost enough time when Diomedes. . .

  "It's not something we—" Marc began.

  "We can't tell you," Michael finished. "And there just isn't time."

  "Oh, Mother of God," Caitlin groaned. "To hell with your secrets, all of you! We know about this Omicron Complex and we need to get there before Gideon—"

  "Gideon got himself into this, he'll have to get himself out!" Michael burst. "We don't have time to help everyone!"

  "Will you bloody listen?"

  Felix yelled, "Hey!" and jerked Michael's attention to him with sheer surprise. "Let's just all calm down here, okay? I don't know if you heard what she said but Gideon's going to Omicron. Now we assume that's also where you're headed and we need a ride. If you can honestly say we're wrong about that, we'll leave you alone right now to do whatever it is that you are doing, but if not, it's in your interest to let us come along." Felix turned to Michael directly. "And I know you're a tad stressed right now, but you need to be a little nicer."

  Michael bristled, wondering for a moment at his own outburst before focusing back on the present.

  Marc beat him to it. "Why's Gideon going to Omicron?"

  "He's working for Marquand Cybernetics. They know ESA's doing something there and they want him to steal whatever he can. We have to stop him before he gets there."

  "I don't understand," said Michael.

  "For the moment, just trust us," Felix said. "We'll tell you more once we're underway, but we really are pressed for time ourselves."

  "And before you worry about telling us the location of this place, we already know," Caitlin added, holding out a palmtop with coordinates.

  Marc checked them over and nodded. "Even more chaos. So if we take you along, you stop Gideon from stealing anything? Sounds win-win, Michael."

  Michael scowled but nodded. "Do we have enough oxygen in this thing?"

  "Should be okay."

  "I guess you're with us, then." He gave Caitlin a glance. "Sorry about that just now."

  She smiled slightly and shrugged. "I've had worse."

  "The Council's going to be cranky."

  Felix grinned. "Tell Knapp I said 'hi,' then."

  Michael powered up the rover and tried to remember what he learned from his hurried crash course on Earth. "You're not helping, Felix."

  The others all took a seat as the rover pulled out of the bay and into the open moonscape. "So," Marc started, "you two want to tell us what's really going on?"

  CHAPTER 42

  Felix and Caitlin told their tale as the rover carried them from the base and into the unknown. Michael was unsurprised to learn that Diomedes had indeed killed Gideon those months ago. The idea that his sister remade him from an artificial body and stored memories, on the other hand, came completely out of nowhere.

  "Wow. Really?"

  "Well it does sound like something I might make up," Felix answered, "but yeah."

  "With the brain of that ESA bloke that Diomedes killed, even," Caitlin added.

  That had Michael turning to Marc so fast he would've driven them off the road if there were a road to leave. "You're sure?"

  "Curwen?"

  "Moon rock! Moon rock!" Felix yelled from the seat beside him.

  He hit the brakes and got them back on course. "Sorry."

  "Aye, that was his name, I think. Curwen," Caitlin said. "With whom you two are intimately familiar for some reason you've yet to share."

  Marc ignored Caitlin's implied question with a more direct one of his own. "Did Ondrea say Marquand had him killed?"

  "She implied it was coincidence," Felix said, "but given how fast I figure they'd need to act to get the brain, I don't buy it."

  "Nor I."

  "So they hire an assassin who just happened to have killed the guy they're remaking?" Marc asked in disbelief.

  "Well," said Felix, "it does have a certain symmetry to it."

  "Unless," Caitlin said suddenly, "that bit wasn't coincidence, either. What if Ondrea herself picked Diomedes, used him, and then turned him in for revenge?"

  Used him. Michael bristled at that. Wallace had used him, Ondrea had used him, the AoA. . . "Sounds risky," he said finally.

  "People driving across the Moon to a secret base don't get to find fault with 'risky,' Michael."


  "I guess not, but still."

  Felix snapped his fingers. "Maybe that's why we saw Diomedes at Gideon's place. He was after Ondrea?"

  "Just because he thought she turned him in doesn't mean she really did, though," Michael said. "This is Diomedes we're talking about, here." Should he feel bad for putting the man down so soon? Yet it was the truth, wasn't it?

  "At this point, exactly who turned him in's likely moot," Marc said. "But at least we know who probably hired him."

  "Ah, and just to whom will you be reporting that?" Caitlin tried. Michael had to smile; she reminded him of Felix. Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on the rover, which bumped and rolled across the dusty rock and uncomfortable silence.

  "And you came all the way up here just for Gideon?" Marc asked finally.

  Caitlin chuckled. "Oh, terribly subtle subject change, Marc."

  "We just kept going one more step forward," Felix said. "It's just that the last few steps were really rather, ah, big ones. Though we did get a free trip to the Moon out of the deal. Even without us trying to help Gideon I wasn't about to pass that up. Plus now we're up here, deeply mired in multiple secrets. Exciting, no?"

  "It was a mystery," Caitlin agreed. "On top of which, we owe him. Or the other Scry and I owe him rather. Felix is just foolish and barmy."

  Felix nodded. "I'm really just trying to get laid."

  "Yes, always so terribly selfish you are, ducks."

  "I'm sorry, 'laid'?" Michael asked. It earned him a laugh from Felix.

  "Decades-old slang," he explained, "for— Well actually it's really none of your business what it means."

  They continued across the lunar surface and sunk into silence for a time as they all watched out the window at the alien landscape. Michael found himself missing the trees.

  It occurred to him that six months ago he didn't know how he'd find a job or keep a roof over his head, and now he was driving across the Moon. He was Marc's protection—and sent out to aid someone else—only half a year after he was depending on Diomedes to protect him like he'd done since. . .

  He couldn't think about that right now. He had a job to do. Marc still needed to reconfigure the leech device Diomedes brought to transmit Omicron's data to Fagles. Diomedes hadn't given it to Marc until right before they'd left the Sunrise Station compartment. Even though Marc had convinced Diomedes he needed to adjust it just so it would transmit silently through Omicron's system, they'd counted themselves lucky he'd given it over even that early. The initial plan was to do the alterations on the way to the Moon, but they didn't have the privacy for that.

  Not wanting to ask about it in front of Felix and Caitlin, he instead spared a look back to see what Marc was doing. Not surprisingly, Marc was ahead of him, computer and leech linked, working on the AoA modifications.

  Caitlin caught him looking and followed his gaze to Marc. Michael turned back forward, but it wasn't long before she broke the silence. "So. I'll ask again. Just what is this secret you all share? Do keep in mind that I have the three of you in a confined space."

  "I'd say she's earned at least a little, guys," Felix said. "I mean obviously I'll vouch for her. Besides, you know how this sort of thing works: it's crazy enough that anyone who does try to tell anyone about it gets branded some conspiracy wacko anyway, right?"

  "You really haven't told her anything?" asked Marc.

  "I did take an oath, and this is me we're talking about. I haven't told her a thing, mostly."

  "Your oath included the word 'mostly'?"

  "Maybe. Probably." Felix smiled sheepishly. "I never said I was perfect!"

  "I notice how you're cleverly trying to position yourself on my side rather than answer my question yourself, ducks."

  Felix took a deep breath. "Caitlin, if I tell you in front of them, then Flynn's going to make his little whip-crack noise, and I hate that."

  Michael stared out the windshield, smirking. "Hey, leave me out of this."

  "Well you did it before," Felix insisted.

  "Whip-crack noise?" Caitlin asked in an icy tone of indeterminate seriousness. Blanking on what to say, Michael kept his mouth shut.

  "Look, lads, as amusing as this is, it's also bloody irritating being the only one in the dark. I know you're involved with something secretive, I know it's got something to do with keeping whatever ESA's doing a secret, and I know there's a council."

  "Don't look at me," Felix told them. "You let that one slip yourselves."

  "We really can't tell you," said Marc. "Aside from the fact that we've got an interest in being sure whatever's going on at Omicron doesn't get out."

  "Doesn't get out? You are just talking about information and technology, yes?"

  In the time before Marc could respond, Michael decided to answer for him. "For the most part. It's only fair to tell you that something happened at the base, and ESA's lost contact."

  "We're not really sure just why," Marc added.

  "It might be safer for you two to stay on the rover as much as possible. Even if it's completely safe, Marc and I have ESA IDs to explain why we're there. You don't."

  "Oh, don't be so sure about that," Felix said with a grin that swiftly widened. "Okay, I'm bluffing. Just wanted to see your reaction."

  "And Gideon knows us," Caitlin said. "So we hope. We may need to come in to find him, so anything you can tell us about what's going on there will make this easier."

  They bumped and rumbled along the next five seconds in silence.

  "Artificial intelligence," Marc said finally. "Remember the trip I took a couple of weeks ago? They had me up here, helping out. There was a whole group of us, mostly freelance. And I'm not supposed to tell you this, but ESA thought we might have stolen some secrets while we were here. After that, everyone but me just up and vanished."

  "You lying bastard," Felix said. "I knew something was wrong before! You said weren't in any trouble!"

  "I was guarding him," Michael said.

  "And if we'd told you, we would've had to say why I was in trouble."

  Caitlin was incredulous. "So you're going back?"

  "I've been there before. It's complicated. And no, we can't explain. You just really shouldn't know too much about this, for your own safety."

  "There's other things going on out here, too," Michael added. "We don't really know what, we just know it's bad and we can't let it get out." Felix probably wouldn't buy it completely—he needed to ask Marc just how much Felix did know—but he hoped it would placate Caitlin for the moment.

  "Who's we?" she asked.

  Both Marc and Michael remained silent.

  It wasn't the avalanche of answers she'd hoped for, but it was a start. Caitlin considered the possibility that if she pushed any further at the moment, they might clam up permanently. And Felix gave her a look that hinted to reveal more later. She let the matter drop.

  Besides, she'd gotten herself into enough of a prickly situation already. Felix was right: they'd kept going just one more step forward, carried on their own momentum. She supposed it could be argued that the little steps just added up to a great distance, but the last step was rather a whopper. Caitlin chuckled bitterly to herself. She never did know when to quit.

  Not that it mattered anymore. They were committed, and she could either keep second-guessing herself and bollocks it up, or she could just ride the horse she'd saddled.

  Yet the wait was difficult. As the time wore on, Felix shifted to the back of the rover to rest and Caitlin took his seat, preferring to keep a watch out for Gideon. Though she knew there was little chance of seeing him along the way, it at least would keep her busy and didn't hurt to try. She searched the bleak landscape. Her own silence matched the others: Felix and Marc's as they slept behind her, Michael's as he guided the rover.

  "I don't know why I'm looking out here," she said finally to break the silence. "Ondrea said he'd be hard to spot in the open."

  "How's that?"

  "Some active camou
flage system, she called it. We didn't get details."

  "You didn't?" Michael asked. "I'm surprised Felix didn't try for more."

  "Time was short, or I'm sure he would have." Well, they both would have tried. Scanning the landscape before them, she regretted not asking. Yet it couldn't be helped.

  Of course, she had managed to nick a PDA from Ondrea's bag while in her room. Perhaps the answers might be in there, but she couldn't get past the PDA's security. Caitlin half-regretted the violation. She didn't really know why she'd taken it—perhaps just as a petty swipe at the woman. Ondrea would have certainly told them everything they needed to know to help Gideon. Then again, she'd concealed things from them before.

  "Sounds like Felix," Michael agreed. He guided the rover over a small ridge. Caitlin held onto the seat as they bumped back and forth until they finally leveled out. "Frankly I'm surprised he hasn't asked me more about Diomedes yet."

  Felix was probably respecting his privacy. For all his inquisitiveness, he was good with that sort of thing. Or at finding the right time to ask, she amended, thinking of how often she'd told him secrets of her own.

  For her part, she hadn't really thought about Diomedes since they'd talked to Ondrea. Other concerns dominated her, and Caitlin couldn't bring herself to feel much of anything for the freelancer. He'd killed Gideon and he'd nearly killed Felix. Yet she long ago gathered he'd been something to Michael.

  "And how are you doing?" she asked. "With all that's happened, I mean."

  His first response was a glance so sudden that she wondered if she shouldn't have asked. Michael followed it with a tentative sigh before turning back to the journey ahead. "Guess I've been trying not to think about it too much."

  "I'm sorry. I get chatty when I'm anxious. I didn't mean to pry."

  Michael shrugged, though it was a minute before he spoke again. "Actually I keep wondering what I could've done, though. Or should've."