Eternity's End

by Jeffrey Carver

  It was a battle he could not hope to win. The augments had always been stronger, but he had been protected by their owners' desire for secrecy, and their belief that he would remain valuable as a guardian of information, and a powerful agent at need. He doubted they cared much about his value now.

  But perhaps he could still win the war. For himself. For those two out there. For the rest of civilized space. For his last thirty years of effort.

  // Open link... access requested... //

  Denied. Denied. Denied.

  The noise level in his skull was ballooning. He could feel the rictus on his face, the twitching of his eyes. If he could just keep control a little longer... keep the compartments of his mind separate, the barrier between the artificial and the natural, the augment and the McGinnis. If he could keep the implanted chips at bay long enough to get his guests out of here and the information with them... before the intruding signal took command and turned him, as he knew it would, into a machine that would ruthlessly kill the very people he was trying to help...

  And long enough for one more thing.

  To find a way to preserve the information in his own thoughts... in spite of the tremendous power of the augments. He heard Rufus barking somewhere outside, was aware of Rufus's presence at the edges of his mind, the chips that he himself had implanted in his dog, linked to his own. Rufus, he thought, can I do this to you? It would be risky; it could kill the dog. But what else could he do?

  He could feel the augments searching like a roving eye, trying to discover what he was doing. I'm sorry, boy. Whatever happens... I need you to do this for me... one last service...

  He made an adjustment on the interface board, hesitated only a moment, then closed the circuit. With one part of his mind, he felt a projection channel opening into the living room. In another part, he felt a burring sensation, and then something that felt like great stores of grain slipping away, down a long, long shaft...

  * * *

  Legroeder was not even aware of the sound of the dog barking in the distance until he heard a sudden yelp—and the barking abruptly stopped. Then he heard a loud, sharp voice:

  "You must leave at once!"

  Legroeder looked up with a start and saw a holoimage of McGinnis standing in front of the fireplace. A faint flicker of the fire could be seen through the image of the man.

  "What's wrong?" Legroeder asked.

  "You must leave at once!" the image of McGinnis repeated. "You are no longer safe here!"

  Legroeder and Harriet exchanged alarmed glances.

  "Excuse me," Harriet said. "We can't leave. Our flyer is disabled."

  The image faltered for a moment. "Christ, that's right." It seemed to freeze, and then spoke again. "Take my flyer! I'm releasing the controls to you now. But go. GO! Take this cube and take all the documents and HURRY!" With that, the image blinked out.

  A small compartment opened in the top of the coffee table. In it was a datacube half the size of a human fist.

  Legroeder stared at it in astonishment and indecision, then snatched up the cube. "Gather the documents!" he commanded, jumping to his feet. Pocketing the cube, he hurried to the door. He peered cautiously up and down the hallway. "McGinnis!" he shouted. "McGinnis, do you need help?" There were several closed doors. Did he dare go searching? You are no longer safe.

  "Take the documents and go!" boomed McGinnis's voice again, from hidden speakers. "If you delay, you'll lose everything!"

  Legroeder cursed, returning to Harriet. "I don't know what kind of trouble he's in, but I don't think we can help him. Let's do what he says. Let's get this packed up!"

  Harriet stuffed the last of the folders into the archive box. Her voice shook. "Legroeder, what do you think is happening?"

  His own breath was tight with fear. "I don't know," he whispered, picking up the box. "But remember Jakus? And the missile? All I know is McGinnis wants us to keep this stuff safe! Let's go!"

  * * *

  They came upon McGinnis's dog Rufus outside the house. It was lying on its side, glassy-eyed—twitching, as if with a seizure. Legroeder crouched by the dog. "Look at that!" He pointed to a tiny implant flickering rapidly behind the dog's ear. He looked up, scanning the estate and the tree line. Was the house under attack? If so, it was by an invisible foe. Legroeder rose. "I don't think we can do anything for him, either. I don't know what's going on, but we'd better get out of here."

  As if in answer, Rufus yipped twice, then was still.

  Harriet's face was white. "Which way?"

  "Around back." They hurried past the damaged rental car to the rear of the house. McGinnis's flyer was a high-powered Arcturan sports model, for which Legroeder was grateful as they climbed in. Whatever was going on, he wanted all the speed he could get. "Strap in," he said, scanning the controls.

  As the power came on, he squinted, shading his eyes from the glare of the setting sun. No sign of anything in the air; nothing moving within the security field. He wondered if he should use the autopilot. Probably not; better to risk unfamiliarity with the controls. He took a deep breath. "Lifting off." He pushed the power forward, and the flyer shot into the air. Before he had it fully under control, they were already climbing out through the forcefield boundary and were well above the house and clearing.

  The com suddenly crackled, and they heard McGinnis's voice:

  "You will have the only copies. Keep them safe! Get to El'ken if you can!

  Legroeder exchanged glances with Harriet, then banked the flyer in a circle around the clearing to find his bearings.

  * * *

  McGinnis fought for control as he watched his guests' departure on the remote scanner. He was in a life-and-death struggle now to retain the functioning of his own brain. The chips had not yet decided to kill him; they were still trying to keep him from doing what he was doing, but they were not yet certain what that was. It had taken all of his strength to give Legroeder and Mahoney their chance to get away, and to keep that information locked away from the augment-mediated portion of his brain.

  His hand shook over the control board. Jesus; he was losing it. He shut his eyes, opened them in time to see his finger press the stud to power up the defensive laser. "Damn you, no!" he whispered. It was not McGinnis aiming, but the augments. Shuddering, he wrenched control back, and in the instant that the laser fired, he deflected the aim. A lance of death stabbed up from the house...

  It missed the departing flyer.

  He slammed the power off to the laser and swiveled from the board, shaking. The information was still pouring from his mind, but not reaching his augments, not yet. Iron will. You must keep an iron will.

  The information about the Impris conspiracy was out now, and what was done with it was up to others. Maybe, with luck, they'd live long enough to follow the trail to Impris and back again to the bastards who had ruined his life and were using the ship in their web of lies. But the augments didn't know yet, not for certain. And it was crucial for the protection of Legroeder and Mahoney that they not learn—or at least not transmit the knowledge out. Their masters might suspect that he'd betrayed them in the end, but they wouldn't know, at least not until Legroeder and Mahoney were on their way.

  The thought was lost in a flash of pain that seemed to come from a million miles away. The fun and games were over; they were going to torture him to break down the barrier. He clenched his teeth and turned back to the console. Gasping, he struck the console once with his fist. It was time for the final action. He had always known this moment would come; he was well prepared. The circuits were ready. It took several steps, no mistakes: switch cover up, button jammed down, laser charged.

  And then... the code, painfully typed in, grim desperation on his lips, focusing, focusing, over my: D-E-A-D-B-O-D-Y...

  Shaking with pain, he fired the laser.

  This time, nothing happened...

  ...except the deliberate overload in the laser capacitors, exploding in the basement. A half-second later, the pyrote
chnics beneath the first floor erupted—and then billowing fire roared to life in the center of the house. There was no escape now, not with the fire-arrest system disabled, not with the door lock sealed.

  He seized the interface input cable from the console control. Reaching behind his right ear, blinded by pain, he lifted the flap of hair and jammed the connector into the augment socket. A wind howled through his brain.

  He keyed the next sequence of switches. A message on the screen began flashing:

  ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE

  MAIN MEMORY MODULE?

  TYPE "YES" FOLLOWED BY NAME AND I.D.

  TO CONFIRM.

  He could barely type now, his hand was shaking so hard. He used his left hand to steady his right, as he typed with one finger. He paused for a heartbeat to cry out a silent command, Rufus, run for safety—take what I've given you—keep it safe until... Jesus, why didn't I send you with them? Look for them when you can.

  Crying aloud, he pressed START. Good-bye, my friend...

  The erasure current was like a balm of flowing water in his skull. The pain subsided as the programming of the augments faded, as the waters washed away all of the jointly stored memories of the last thirty years, all of his memories as well as the augments'. It lasted only an instant, but an instant that seemed to go on forever...

  ...as all that was Robert McGinnis, all the memories that were his life, slipped away like sand through a broken hourglass. And when it was all gone, there would be light, as the fire roared, and peace...

  Peace.

  Chapter 8

  Further Truths

  "Did he just shoot at us?"

  Legroeder glanced over his shoulder. He thought he'd seen a laser flash. "If he did, he missed by a mile. He couldn't have been aiming for us." But if McGinnis hadn't aimed for the flyer, what had he aimed for? Legroeder scanned, but couldn't see any other craft in the sky.

  "Look down there!" Harriet shouted.

  He was just beginning to break out into a southerly heading; he banked back into an orbit around the house instead. "What is it?"

  "I thought I saw something. Fire, I think. In the house!"

  "Jesus!" He banked steeply, ignoring Harriet's gasp, and peered down at the house. There was no mistaking it: smoke was curling from a second-floor window. "The whole place is going up!"

  "We've got to do something!"

  "We can try to get back down, but I don't—"

  Whoop! Whoop! A light flashed on the console with the audible alarm, and the flyer lurched sickeningly. He fought to steady it.

  Harriet's voice was tight with fear. "What was that?"

  "His forcefield. It won't let us back in! We can't go down!" Legroeder snapped a series of switches on the console. Finally he found a remote for the forcefield, but it blinked: ACCESS DENIED. "It's demanding a password. Harriet, I don't think there's any way we're going to get back in there."

  "Let me try." Harriet began keying in everything they could think of: McGinnis. Rigger. Impris... After the fifth attempt, the screen flashed: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT! SECONDARY OVERRIDE CODE REQUIRED! "Oh, hell. Legroeder—"

  "Yah." He strained to watch the house as he maneuvered outside the forcefield. Unfortunately, the barrier was hard to see. The alarm sounded and the flyer bucked again. He took them farther out, but lower. If he could bring them down near the edge of the clearing... maybe the forcefield ended before the start of the forest. "I don't know what kind of a shield this is. I wonder if it would let us walk through..." He interrupted himself as he saw something ahead and below. "What's that?"

  "It's the dog!"

  Rufus was running in a zigzag toward the edge of the clearing. Legroeder slowed the flyer, watching, as the dog burst through the forcefield with a sparkle, bolted in alarm into the woods, then reemerged and tried to run back in through the security field. It half-slid, half-bounced off the invisible barrier. Terrified, it disappeared into the woods again. This time it didn't come back.

  "Hell!" Legroeder pulled the flyer into a savage climb. "We're not going to get in that way, either. Harriet, there's not a damn thing we can do."

  "My dear God," whispered Harriet, pointing at the house.

  There was a flicker of flame inside the windows now, and a thicker plume of smoke curling into the air. Legroeder cursed. "Let's get some altitude and see if we can call for help." He flicked the com switch. "Can you handle that?"

  Harriet didn't waste time answering, but starting calling out a Mayday. She got only static in reply. "Can you get us farther from the house?" Whatever had been blocking their com-signal before was apparently still doing so. Legroeder boosted them quickly to five hundred meters altitude. Harriet finally got through and reported the fire to a regional control center. An emotionless voice told her that units would be on their way at once. She glanced at Legroeder. "Should we wait for them to arrive?"

  Legroeder hesitated, scanning the sky for other craft. The question kept running through his mind: Why had McGinnis told them to flee? And what had started the fire? Was McGinnis under attack, and if so, by whom?

  "Legroeder?"

  He shook his head finally. "I think we'd better get the hell out of here, like he told us to. I don't know what started that fire, but if someone was coming after him, then they're pretty damn sure to come after us, too. I'm glad you didn't broadcast our names just now."

  Harriet was silent.

  "Look," Legroeder snapped. "I don't like leaving him, either. But he wanted us to take these documents and keep them safe. And we aren't going to do that if we get caught by whoever decided to take him out."

  "Okay," she said quietly.

  Legroeder was already turning the flyer away from the estate. He took one last look back. It wasn't going to make much difference when rescue teams arrived, he thought; if that forcefield didn't go down, the rescue workers would be as helpless as he and Harriet had been.

  He shook his head, pushed the throttle out to full, and was jammed back in his seat as the sport flyer accelerated.

  * * *

  The link broke with a jarring twang, but not before Major Jenkins Talbott caught the image that McGinnis had projected back into the link: fire... destruction... termination.

  Talbott cursed violently, trying to reestablish the contact. C'mon, c'mon... But there was no longer any carrier signal from the implants, even on the lowest level. The screen in front of him had turned to static—how the hell?—and all of the house monitors had shut down. Damn! McGinnis had somehow silenced his personal implants. There was only one way Talbott could think of to do that.

  The man had taken his own life. Deliberately, and probably premeditatedly.

  That can't be...

  Talbott leaned back and hollered to the tech on the other side of the cramped control room. "Jerry, 'd you do something to cut the signal from McGinnis?"

  "Not a thing," came Jerry's drawl. "What's wrong?"

  Talbott didn't answer. He scrolled back through the log. It took a few minutes of searching, but there it was, hidden in the noise: McGinnis issuing a termination command—on himself. Jezu. How could he have done such a thing? And why? Mr. Big Ex-Marine had never rebelled before—at least not until he'd let that rigger and his lawyer onto his property. What the fuck...

  Talbott hit the controls; the display in front of him switched to an overhead satellite view. It zoomed in with quick jumps until McGinnis's house emerged from the forest, smoke and flames billowing.

  "Talbott—what's going on with McGinnis?" squawked a voice in his headset. His commanding officer.

  Crap. Talbott cut from the remote link and switched over to the local.

  "Major?"

  "He killed himself and his house is burning down," Talbott snapped into the com. Christ, was there anything else that could go wrong with this operation? Maybe he'd at least taken Legroeder and the lawyer with him.

  "What?"

  "You heard me."

  "Don't move."

  Talbott wa
sn't about to move; he was glued to his seat. He pulled back a little on the satellite-zoom. About the time Colonel Paroti showed up to lean over his shoulder, he saw what else could go wrong.

  "What's that flying away from the house?" Paroti asked, stabbing at the lower left corner of the display.

  Talbott was already reaching for the e-com to call in backup. But he knew it was too late. "That's McGinnis's flyer," he muttered.

  "I thought you said McGinnis killed himself."

  "He did—I think."

  "You think?"

  "Well, I don't have the body, for chrissake. But yeah, I'm pretty sure. That may be the rigger and the lawyer, taking his flyer."

  Paroti growled. "Can we bring 'em down?"

  Talbott shook his head. "Assuming they're heading back toward the city, it would take maybe fifteen minutes to intercept." He looked up at the colonel. "They'll be in patrolled airspace by then—"

  Paroti swore. "We can't, then. Too much chance of being seen."

  "No shit. Wait a sec'..." Talbott paged back in the satellite imagery; the replay took a few seconds to load. "There." He pointed. "Yeah, there's the woman and Legroeder getting into the flyer. I wonder if McGinnis sent them away."

  Paroti smacked a fist into his hand in fury. "Damn it to shit!" He swung back to the screen. "Did they get away with any information? Or did it all go up in that house?"

  Talbott yanked off his headset and sat back angrily. All the equipment they'd gathered, all the organization, the men, the ships ready to go when the call came—and they couldn't fucking stop an unarmed flyer. "How would I know? But I'm guessing they took the records. The implant logs are garbled pretty bad, but I'm thinking McGinnis was planning to hand the records over."

  "What a fuckup! How could this happen? Christ, Jenk—what made McGinnis do it? Did he do anything we told him to?" Paroti clawed at his sideburns in agitation. Finally he moaned, "We're gonna have to tell Command. And I suppose North, too."