He forced himself to sit back in the chair, raise his chin, and looked Oswald Silver directly in the eye.
There was no question that the time in space had a rejuvenating effect upon the man. He now looked to be no more than his early forties, and his movement had the spring and energy of a young man in the prime of his health. His hair bore little trace of gray now with a deep brown showing through. And his wrinkle-free skin fairly glowed with vibrancy.
His brown eyes bore into Roddy with a deep malice.
“I suppose you'd like to know why you're here, Light. And why Delaney here, a supposed friend, seems eager to chuck you out into the void. And most importantly, why I specifically told you we weren't to leave without Deirdre on board?”
Roddy stared at him. “That'll do for a start.”
Silver snorted. “You'll know what I want you to know, Light, and nothing more. Just like it's always been. So that's what you'll get for now. I suspect that the answers to those questions will take care of any other trifling confusion you might have.”
Roddy tried to lift his bound arms from behind his back, but succeeded in doing little more than shifting uncomfortably in the cushioned seat. “Whatever.”
Silver pretended he'd not noticed Roddy's discomfort. “The answers are both simple and complex, Light. So here are the highlights. As we sit here, the world as you knew it--the entirety of the lands controlled by the Western Alliance--is under assault by technology adapted from others found in the time capsule. Every building, every road, every ground car... all of them will be destroyed. Every single living creature is dying, reduced to little more than dust.”
Roddy stared at him. “You've got to be joking.”
Silver's face remained smug. “It's no joke, Light. The plan's been in the works for years. Deirdre and I stayed behind to make sure the last few phases went off without a hitch. And then it was time to bug out and leave the condemned people, land, and objects behind.”
“I...” Roddy thought for a moment. Deirdre had been working quite a bit lately. She seemed stressed far beyond what he'd seen from her during her previous busy times on the job. It was almost as if...
Almost as if she could be working to engineer the destruction of the world. “But... why?”
“Why?” Silver laughed. “You've seen the people around you, Light. People who are sickly, stupid, and who have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Most of them were useful as little more than genetic transfer machines, getting the genetic codes for better people into the smallest number the species needed to survive. We reached that tipping point a year ago, identified the Select that would live, and ensured they were in position to survive the coming apocalypse. Everyone else has served their purpose. They're now little more than an impediment to humanity reaching its potential.” He smirked. “They won't be impediments much longer.”
Roddy stared at him, horrified. Behind him, James Delaney laughed. “You engineered... a mass genocide?”
“Pretty much.” Silver's voice carried no sense of guilt. He glared at Roddy. “Deirdre was, of course, Select. So was James. Both fine people, and both who'd need to be key members of our future society, people who'd need to lead the human renaissance. It was a fact Delaney and I recognized instantly, and we acted to ensure they'd be together forever.” He smirked at James. “They were engaged to be married.”
Roddy felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach. “What?”
Delaney's knee hit the back of the chair, and Roddy's face rushed toward the table. He tensed his muscles, barely keeping his teeth intact.
Silver's eyes lit with barely concealed glee. “Oh yes, Light. They had no reason to join themselves together publicly until the next phase of Phoenix. Both had their separate tasks to bring us to this point, and they'd need to be apart for a period of time. The reward would await them both when this time came.” He paused. Roddy could feel Delaney's seething rage behind him as if it was a roaring hot fire, waiting to consume Roddy's flesh. “And then your friend there made a mistake, one that he's regretted every day since, and the one that's the cause of the ire he's directing your way.”
“What was that mistake?”
“He told us about you, Light.”
“Me?” Roddy felt his jaw fall open. “But...” He paused. “I wasn't on the list, was I?” His tone turned angry, bitter. “I wasn't one of your damned Select.”
“No, you weren't.” Silver glared at him. “But Delaney told us about you, about some... very interesting traits you possessed. Something we'd not checked for in building our Select list. Something that usurped everything else we'd tested for. We had to... force you through, somehow, override the Select list in your case.” Roddy saw Silver's eyes glance behind him. To where his old friend stood, exuding a rage that was palpable.
And then Roddy understood. He recalled the seemingly coincidental run-ins with Deirdre. The eagerness the beautiful heiress expressed to spend time with him. The rapid courtship and the fairy tale wedding...
It had never been about love.
It had been about getting him off the planet, though he'd failed to meet whatever their “Select” characteristics might be, because of something Delaney had noticed and thought critical enough to tell Silver, never dreaming what Oswald Silver's solution to the Light problem might be.
Silver saw the recognition of the truth in Roddy's eyes and frowned. He looked at James Delaney. “Doubt you care, Delaney, but you were spot on in your observation. He's figured it out.”
Delaney muttered a word Roddy didn't recognize, but the profane intent was evident.
Roddy hadn't understood that exchange. He glared at Silver. “So let me get this straight. You decide to genocide the planet, saving only those Select few who meet your specifications, and then--”
“Not all of it,” Silver interrupted. “Well, not yet, anyway.”
Roddy wasn't sure what to make of that comment. “Delaney here meets the criteria. I don't. Delaney notices something about me and tells you. You need me alive because whatever this observed trait is that Delaney notices is far too important, and you can't just let me die off like all the others you've deemed mere chattel. So first you get him to encourage me to look into leaving Special Forces and providing private pilot services for a living because he knows the military work is slowly driving me mad.” He gritted his teeth. “Tell me, Mr. Silver. Did you tell Delaney about setting his betrothed up to seduce and marry me to force me through the exceptions process to your damned list before or after he'd gotten me into your employ, replacing him as your private pilot?”
“After,” Silver replied, smirking. “Your synopsis is spot on.” He feigned mock concern. “Are your feelings hurt about the whole thing?”
Roddy refused to take the bait. “No. But it does make Deirdre's affair less surprising.”
He felt Delaney stir behind him. “What? What affair?”
Roddy turned to face his old friend. “It seems that your former fiancée struggles with the whole fidelity thing, with or without her father's interference.” He smirked at Delaney. “Good luck with that with your whole beautiful post-Phoenix marriage, pal.”
He turned back to Silver as he heard Delaney slam his fist into the wall. “I didn't kill Audrey.”
Silver waved his hand. “Irrelevant. She would have been dead by now regardless. What is relevant is that, against my orders, you left Deirdre behind.”
Roddy opened his mouth to protest the cavalier attitude toward Audrey's death. But he realized there was no use arguing the point with Silver; the man simply didn't care. “And why is that so relevant when weighed against her murder of your lover?”
He heard Delaney startle at the news.
Silver didn't deny the accusation or address it. “It's relevant, Light, because you'll soon receive the death penalty for dereliction of duty unless and until you complete the two tasks I'm about to provide for you.” Oswald Silver's deep brown eyes bored into him, and Roddy felt a deep sense of discomfort. “T
ask number one: you'll get back aboard the ship you flew here, fly back to the surface, retrieve Deirdre, and bring her here.”
Roddy folded his arms. “Not a chance. Go ahead and kill me now. I'm not lying down into the teeth of some hellish nightmare of your creation to save that cheating bi--”
Delaney hit him in the back of the head.
Silver laughed. “You're going. And Delaney's going with you.”
He heard the sudden intake of breath from Delaney. “I'm what?” The man's voice was little more than a whisper.
“You heard me, Delaney. Take someone else with you. Hell, take two or three men with you if you'd like. I'm sure you can find someone. If Light makes no effort to locate Deirdre, or fails to retrieve her after a reasonable period of time?” Silver's eyes glowed with masochistic delight. “Chuck him out of the ship and let the Ravagers deal with him.”
Roddy turned around. The look of rage melted from James' face, replaced by one of sadistic satisfaction. “What's considered a reasonable period of time?”
“Your call.”
Delaney's grin widened.
Roddy felt an icy chill run down his back. Delaney's idea of reasonable would be anything but reasonable.
“And as for the other task, Light,” Oswald Silver said. “You'll finish that one before you leave. Worry not, though. It won't take long.”
Roddy pushed the chair back and stood up, bending his arms as best he could to get the blood flowing through the limbs once more. “I think I'd rather leave now.”
Delaney shoved him back into the chair. “Not yet, Light. If I've let you live this long, you're going to complete this task.”
Roddy glared at Silver, wishing his hands were free of the metal shackles, imagining wrapping his hands around the man's throat. “What's the other task?”
“Tell me where you grew up.”
Roddy blinked. He sensed the question was a shock to Delaney as well. “You need me to tell you something? What kind of task is that? Why didn't you ask me that on one of those week long trips when nobody else was around?”
“I doubt you would have answered my question. I needed to get you here first to ensure I'd get the answers I need. If I'd been able to get the answers before, I would have done so. And you might well be down there trying to survive like the rest of the--what did you call them?--chattel.”
Roddy considered the question and could find no logic to it. Why was it so important to know where he'd grown up? And what was the damned trait Delaney had noticed, anyway? He couldn't figure out the answer to either question. He glanced up at Silver and shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you. I can't answer that question any better here than I could back there.”
He heard the click and felt the cold metal of the gun barrel against his temple. “Refuse one more time, Light,” Delaney whispered. “Give me an excuse to splatter your brains all over the table.”
Roddy ignored Delaney and looked at Silver. “I didn't say I wouldn't answer the question. I said I can't.”
“You... can't.” Silver's tone conveyed his skepticism.
“No.” Roddy fought the urge to shake his head, not wanting give James Delaney the chance to have his trigger finger “slip” because of the movement. “I can't. I don't remember anything about my life before the day I arrived at Special Forces orientation. I don't remember my parents. I don't remember my childhood. And I have no idea where I came from.”
There was a pause. “I'm afraid he's telling the truth, sir,” Delaney whispered. “He really doesn't know.”
Silver's gazed bored into Roddy, leaving him feeling decidedly uncomfortable. “And why is that, Light? Why would you not remember anything about your earlier life?”
Roddy considered it, feeling an unnatural calm despite the fact that a man who wished him dead held a gun against his head. “If I were to guess, sir, I'd say I can't remember because someone doesn't want me to be able to answer your question.” Roddy had no idea where he'd come up with that explanation, but the words held the power of truth to them.
Silver's eyes widened. His gaze flew toward Delaney, who'd withdrawn the gun from Roddy's temple. “Damn, Delaney. You were more correct in your assessment than you ever suspected. Get to work figuring out who might have tampered with Light. Odds are they're still down there. Best to be prepared when the two of you and the rest of your team visit the surface.”
Delaney headed for the door, his stride marked with purpose. “On it.” He left and shut the door behind him.
Silver's gaze returned to Roddy. “While he's gone, we're going to have a conversation. And you're going to remember what someone's forced you to forget.” His mouth tightened. “Even if it kills you.”
Roddy opened his mouth to protest, but the words he'd wanted to utter never materialized. The sharp pain inside his head grew until it blinded him. He wanted to wrap his arms around his head, but the cuffs kept his arms painfully behind his back. He put his head to the surface of the polished wooden table, laying his left temple down and trying to shift his right shoulder up to complete his embrace of his own head, but it was futile. Nothing worked. Nothing could push the intense pain away.
There was nothing Roddy could do but scream.
—————
OSWALD SILVER
—————
“THE ATTEMPTS TO EXTRACT THE hidden memories from Roddy Light failed.”
Oswald Silver's voice was a monotone, betraying the despair he felt. It ought to be his moment of triumph. The penultimate event comprising the Phoenix Project was well underway, and he ought to be celebrating. Instead, he tried to understand how two seemingly minor details changed everything.
He stared at the image on the screen in his private quarters. There were few people who knew the speaker's true identity; he was one of them. But the speaker wouldn't risk exposure, even in private conversations with those who knew.
The shadow image shifted at his words, and the voice masking technology did little to mask the disdain. “In mere hours, you've lost Deirdre and failed to extract the required information from Light, then.” It wasn't a question, but a statement highlighting his twin failures. “These were the simplest tasks in the entire plan, Oswald. How could you fail?”
The words stung. He'd proactively taken out his anger on Light during the interrogation. That had helped. “Light learned of Deirdre's little fling, and she fled Diasteel to retrieve her lover. I ordered him to fetch her. He didn't.”
“You failed to confirm he'd followed your orders?”
“He claimed he'd brought her aboard before I arrived, and that she'd shown signs of exhaustion due to work on a time consuming project, and that he recommended I let her sleep until we reach our destination.” Best not to mention how he'd managed to cover that up. Audrey had been... fun. He'd not appreciated finding her body in the ship's bed.
“I see.” A pause. “You're certain Light's memories were wiped? Not repressed?”
“There's only one man who could answer that, and he's long dead,” Oswald snapped. “I've leveraged every technique available to me. Light doesn't want to tell me, but only because he knows I want to know. But it's clear he's not actively or passively repressing a memory. Someone tampered with him.”
“Who?”
“Delaney's done some research and has some ideas. I'm dispatching him back to the surface with Light to search for Deirdre. He'll use the opportunity to seek out potential perpetrators, and see if he can't convince that person, if found, to reverse the process.”
“Or tell us what we need to know.”
“Delaney's aware that the information is critical.”
“Delaney's primary interest in that trip is little more than killing Light. I warned you about the risks involved in shifting her interests by altering her arranged relationships. I daresay that lack of... monogamy, shall we say? Yes, I'd say that lack of monogamy and commitment, given your insistence in using her as a pawn in your games, led to her seeking out this affair. And that led to Li
ght's discovery and decision to leave his cheating wife behind, unknowingly committing her to certain death.”
“Don't say that!” Silver snapped. “She's alive. I know it.” He paused. “She has to be.”
“She does not, and you know it, Oswald. This deviation in plan is all your fault. I swear to you, Oswald: if you don't fix both of those problems, I will personally execute you with my bare hands.”
Silver gritted his teeth. “Go to hell.”
He terminated the connection.
The plans were simple. Move all the Select to assigned safe zones, including he, Deirdre, and Light here to the space station. Cleanse the lands of the Western Alliance of the chattel. Move the Select of the East to the now unoccupied lands of the West and begin rebuilding. Unleash the Ravagers upon the East and complete the global cleansing. Recall the Ravagers, and return the Select to the land in freedom, free to rebuild the world as a modern utopia.
Except that it might not happen that way now.
Oswald Silver put has face in his hands, wincing and rubbing the right side of his face and the beginnings of the bruise generated by that contact. He sighed with exasperation. After so many years, after consolidating his control over the world, he now found himself dependent on others.
Delaney better not fail.
He couldn't afford any more deviations to the plan.
If there were?
He'd never make it out of this space station alive.
Episode 3
Deviate
—————
DEIRDRE SILVER-LIGHT
—————
THE DEVASTATION RENDERED by the Ravagers had left an eerie silence around her. She noticed not the visible descent, but the sound of the stranger tumbling down the debris pile toward the waiting Hinterlands beast. Every clang of his metal suit on the debris pile reverberated through the vacuum-like silence. Every grunt the stranger uttered seemed magnified in the new world, a world emptied of substance and shape by the dark, oozing mass of Ravagers.
The Ravagers Box Set: Episodes 1-3 Page 29
