“And no, I’m not going to impose my will. I’m not going to pinch your heads and make you do what I say. You’re my friends! My best friends, each of you. I love each of you and would never hurt you. In fact I’d die to keep you from harm.
“I very nearly did.”
Satori was unmoved. “Mankind?” She kept her arms tightly crossed. “We’re talking about trying to kidnap the head of a secret society. You guys are all over the board.”
Jess looked at her. “The Bok know things. Probably lots of things. Things that will get us closer to understanding the Kel. No matter how removed they seem right now, the Kel are the next threat.”
“Ridiculous.”
Jess caught the outburst that almost came, not wanting to derail this developing moment. “You’re smart,” she calmed her voice, “Satori, and you’ve got to start looking at what we know. I’m going to keep saying it. This is now. This isn’t just about Anitra.” As she spoke she found herself steadily gaining conviction that this was the right thing to do. This was something that actually needed to be done.
She wanted the Bok.
Nani stepped in. “This may be our only chance to uncover what they know. And that could become critical very soon.”
Satori remained adamant. So solid Jess felt she could probably shoot her and the bullet would bounce off. It was becoming a game, fighting her every step of the way. But Jess was leading the charge—she realized that would probably always be true—and in the interest of politics knew she had to give a little ground and come back to the vote. They had to decide as a group, to be fair.
“So we need a vote,” she said. “Do we do this?”
Bianca raised a hand, just a little, out to the side, but it was indication enough. “I vote we do it.”
“Of course you do,” Satori flashed her a look of disdain.
“Remember I’m giving up a bunch too,” Bianca said meekly, defensively, and Jess looked at her with a deep appreciation.
Her friend was giving up a lot.
I love you. It was in Jessica’s eyes, and Bianca saw it.
Willet looked at Satori. “Going undercover on another world? A human world? I mean, this is what I do.” He wilted under her angry stare. “But I … I’ll go with the group.”
“You know my feelings,” said Zac.
“I’m in,” said Nani.
And with Jessica’s vote it was decided.
* *
There was just no way. Lindin had been over and over the info from the Earth “laptop”, and there was no way one man, or even a few—all the Icon could reasonably transport—could go to that exit point and make any headway against an entire world. They spoke English on Earth, which meant he could engage them in dialogue, but from everything he could tell there was no way he, an ambassador from Anitra, could hope for anything short of an insane asylum if he showed up and tried to enter into a discussion. Even with bits of unique technology to corroborate his story. Anything he offered would likely be taken away for secret study, he locked away in the process, meaning it just wasn’t a good plan. And if Jessica took the starship there, as he expected she had, there would no doubt already be chaos.
He looked at the shiny chrome device on his desk. The original Icon. The one that could take him to Earth, if he dared. Beside it the laptop, computer from Earth. On its screen the last page he’d been looking at, a discussion by the Earth agency, the Project they called themselves, owners of the computer, detailing some aspect of a secret society on Earth known as the Esehta Bok. He’d read it all. Everything, again and again, absorbing it. The last few days he’d insisted on being undisturbed, ignoring progress reports on the war to the south—unsure even if the Dominion still attacked. After initial, heated inquiries from his superiors as to the loss of the starship, cut short by the pressing demands of the war—though he knew there would be more inquiries coming, a reckoning he would have to face—as soon as he could after that he’d begun looking over all stored files, anything and everything the laptop held, anything to divine the reality of Earth and what he might expect to find there. By now he almost felt like an Earth man. Like he could walk into one of their department stores and make a purchase and eat at the food court and not be suspected of being from another world. He was as human as any of them.
Which of course kept reminding him, how was that even possible? Lindin had never wondered so greatly at that curiosity as now. Jessica was obviously human but until then it hadn’t really diverted his attention. Now it was. How could he be sitting here on Anitra and there be another world, Earth, that was nearly identical? Legends told of a far distant race, a precursor to them all, that came long before the Great Wars, before Kel and human alike. The Kel were a sort of ruling race at the time of the Wars, over Anitra and, presumably, other worlds. Had Earth been one of them? From records on the laptop it didn’t seem so. The Bok went to Earth to get away from the Wars, to escape the rule of the Kel, which meant the conflict never made it to those shores.
Which meant the Earth and Anitra had a much more distant connection. They had to, if identical humans were to be explained.
He turned from the Earth laptop to his own computer screen. His desk was a mess, covered in scribbled notes, diagrams, the laptop from Earth, the Icon, his own computer and a dozen other objects related to his search. Including, at the moment, a fresh cup of tea. He reached for that and took a sip as he brought up a video.
Jessica’s face came on, as recorded when he interviewed her and her friend, Bianca, directly after bringing them to the chalet. The frame was paused, her expression in the middle of speaking. She had a certain innocence about her that was disarming. With her messy hair and the frumpy Dominion clothes she’d been wearing at the time she managed to look helpless. Younger, even than he knew her to be. Like you wanted to help her. Take care of her. Do what you needed to get her home safely. Just like last time.
Damn!
How had he failed—twice—to contain her? He’d been lulled by her, even though each time he saw it coming.
He clicked Play.
“… mind, rationally, I expected something like that. I wasn’t sure how I could keep hiding the Skull Boy armor, and I figured sooner or later someone would find it. Somehow I managed to put it in the back of my mind. Almost like I was able to make myself forget about it, day after day. But it was there, and I knew it would have to be dealt with eventually. I just figured it would be on my terms. Only, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that the perfect moment never happens. You end up forced to act, and you either do or you don’t. Once they came knocking, I chose to act.”
In the video background Lindin’s own voice questioned her: “When these agents came, did they tell you at first that’s what they were there for? The armor, or the Icon?”
“No. I just assumed. Then, when I got in the Skull Boy armor they kidnapped Bianca and demanded “the device” in exchange. It was then I knew they were definitely on to me.”
Lindin stopped the video. The Earth-based Project had made their own dossier on Jessica, quite extensive, leading to their attempt to bring her in. The details of that planned operation were here for his reading pleasure, right up to the execution of their attempt to nab her. Of course none of that operation had been recorded as, during the attempt, the Project apparently failed miserably and Jessica stole their laptop. And their Icon. Lindin knew all too well the outcome of those events. Their Valuable Target got away and made it back to Anitra.
Where she promptly stole his starship.
Single-handedly one girl had thwarted two massive government agencies. On two different planets.
In a way he felt sympathetic to the Project agents on Earth. Like maybe if they got together they could all sit around over a drink. Maybe form a club. The “Jessica Totally Screwed Us” club. Oh, she did that to you too? Yep. Ouch. I feel your pain. Raise a glass. Here’s to bringing her to justice.
But … how could Jessica be the crafty power she appeared? By all ind
ications—having met and talked with her himself, adding to that all the info the agents gathered on her on Earth—there was no way she could be anything other than the average teenage girl she most certainly was. The Project certainly had no higher estimation of her than that. And yet, witness all she’d done. The impossible she’d managed to pull off. Everything, right up to this latest caper, stealing an entire starship.
An entire starship! He slammed a hand on his desk and nearly spilled his tea. How the hell did she even do that?!
He couldn’t believe it. No matter how many times he said it, no matter how many times he looked at the videos of the event, watching it transpire. No matter how many times he walked into the giant, yawning emptiness of the cavern where the starship once sat.
He just couldn’t believe it was real.
What was her motivation?
He knew she wanted to get home, at least she did the last time she was there, though he wasn’t so sure what drove her now.
He took another sip of tea and forwarded to the part of the video he’d watched the most.
“So you don’t see any hope for your family?” his voice asked from off-camera.
“That’s not what I mean. I love my family. But I don’t know how I can ever reconnect. Not now. I can never go back to my old life, and I don’t want them involved in this one.” She sniffed, becoming sad as she pretended to try not to think about it. What an actor. “I … have to focus on my life now. I’m too young to have to be this grown up, but I can’t change that. I hope to see them again, but for now I can’t think about them.”
He paused the video and leaned back, Jessica frozen in still-frame. Innocent, angelic face. Sitting there tearing up, looking oh-so-helpless.
You’re good.
If she were Anitran he’d put her to work right away. She’d make an excellent addition to his group.
Though, he had to admit, she did try to save them from Kang. But that, too, could’ve been driven by selfish desires. Send Kang and Zac to that other point, then hope Zac could make it to Earth then go save him with the starship. That was indeed the sort of self-centered motivation he could see driving the actions of an average teenage girl. But how did she then manage to pull them off with such god-like effect? No single person, even a trained specialist, should’ve been able to do anything she had.
So what was it? An average girl with uncanny ability? Could anyone have that much luck? Or was it something else? The Conclave, that small group of revolutionaries within the Dominion, believed her to be a prophet or a herald or something. Maybe there was some truth to that. Could she be a super being? An angel, as they said?
Unlikely.
Instance after instance of impossible good fortune. Did she merely seem to be an average girl? One with a great cover, backed by an agenda he could only guess at? Could she somehow be part of the Bok on Earth? That super-secret organization Earth’s greatest minds seemed to know nothing about?
She could be either. A lucky girl or a trained specialist with carefully laid plans. If she was the former then she just needed to be stopped. If she was the latter … if she was the latter then he wanted to know just who the hell she was and what, ultimately, she was after. Even the Project, her own government, had no more speculation on her other than that she was just an ordinary girl who got caught up in something fantastic. Only after they’d made that careful assessment did they get a chance to experience how wrong they were. One way or the other, Jessica was no ordinary girl.
But if he was to go after her …
The Earth was divided even more than Anitra. Far more complex. Jessica lived within the territory of the most powerful government, but judging by the info on the laptop that government was fraught with more subterfuge than he would’ve thought possible. It made his head spin. If he did go there, where would he go first? He was a commando once, in shape, but no longer in shape enough to run a Skull Boy from that drop point all the way to the Project’s headquarters. At least not according to the maps he had.
The Icon he held dropped over her house. And that, Jessica’s house, was the first place he could think to look. Maybe she had a secret lair. In the laptop’s documents the house was where the Project tracked her and where she spent her time. Whatever else she’d hidden, whatever else she knew, it must be there. He doubted he would find her there, she was probably with the starship, square at the center of any chaos she’d caused, but anything else she held would be there. And, perhaps, by going there, he could exploit family or some other connection to bring her to heel and get back his goddamn starship.
This is such a longshot. He ran his hands through his short, graying hair and slumped. Exhausted. Most of his determination had faded, at least for the moment. He inhaled and pulled himself straight.
Plus her house would probably be swarming with Project agents.
What bit hardest, oddly enough, was much more selfish in nature. Childish. The fact that he himself had never used an Icon. Jessica used one three times. And gave one away, for Zac to use on Kang. Lindin had never flown in his own starship. Now Jessica had. He’d never gone anywhere, and she’d been using these things like they were bus passes.
Part of him wanted to use the Icon simply because he could. Simply because he hadn’t. He looked at it on the table. Saw his reflection in it. Right there. And he realized, as he sat trying to rationalize why he should go chasing after a stolen starship with an Icon that only went one place … he realized there was no rational reason to do so. In summary, looking back over the last days of agonizing analysis and evaluation, each of his conclusions led him to the same decision:
There was nothing to be gained by going.
But he wanted to go.
And so after everything, after everything he’d done to get where he was, to rise to the rank and the privilege he had, that small part of him that did not want to finish his life having missed an opportunity—no matter how ill-advised—rose to the fore and decided.
He would make contact with another world. Their first contact, as ambassador from Anitra. He would take his chances.
He would go to Earth.
Then, with any luck—after all, why should Jessica be the only one to have that much luck?—with any luck he would find her and get his ship back.
CHAPTER 19: BALLER
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Nani said under her breath, face bent over the console in a pose she’d barely altered for what seemed like hours. Bianca and Jess were with her, alone on the bridge.
“The only easy day was yesterday,” Bianca commented, adopting a kind of a good-ol-boy twang as she spoke. She was drilled into the screen in front of her, in some ways a mirror of Nani, pouring over information just as eagerly—though Bianca’s searches were much less relevant to the task at hand. After her little “mistake” of a few days ago, her Internet boo-boo that risked flagging their presence, Bianca had gone back slowly to browsing—with permission of course—double-checking everything she intended to do, tentatively at first but growing more confident until, by now, she’d returned to full immersion. Though all it took was a glance from Jess to make her nervous all over again.
Jess could see, though, she was being careful.
She clarified her comment. “Heard that once on some special on the SEALs.” Her eyes remained glued to whatever she was scrolling through. Then, as if to be clear she would not have been watching a show on Navy special forces on purpose: “My brother was watching it, not me.” And at that she looked up. Realizing, as if having forgotten, her brother was a thing of the past. Home was a thing of the past. Rather than grow sad, however, as Jess suddenly expected her to, Bianca let it go. Now that her head was up she glanced for a bit at the Earth, not too longingly, then turned back to the screen and sank back into its depths.
Remarkably Bianca seemed committed to helping. Jess kept expecting her to change her mind and ask to be taken back but so far she showed no sign. As if, for now, she’d shifted to this new thing, happy, even a little
excited, to be a part.
Jess leaned back. For the moment she sat at one of the consoles near the edge of the domed viewscreen, gazing over the spectacular view of their homeworld. The Earth spanned the entire width of the dome, so far away yet so close, wispy white bands covering the surface in random splotches. There on the daylight side the sunlight was sharp, the shadows of clouds starkly outlined on the ground directly beneath their puffy white shapes. The proximity to those outlines was an indication just how far up the Kel starship was parked. In most cases the clouds would’ve been ten, twenty, thirty-thousand feet or higher, yet from that distance looked almost as if they and their shadows touched; white blankets laid just above the surface. Wave caps spread across the oceans here and there, making for a calm day the world over, wrapped at the edges by a thin haze of atmosphere that hugged everything close. And there, flickering at points in space; the satellites of Earth, glinting as they caught the sun, little twinkles of technology in orbit. Jess had been staring at the breathtaking scope of the stunning image for some time, peering at this or that familiar feature, wondering at the sheer volume of activity going on down there, unseen. Bianca, on the other hand, no longer paid it much of any attention. Mostly she continued surfing the information channels of Earth, even as Nani searched deeper into their objective.
Jess found herself relaxing in the relative quiet, absorbing Nani’s soft, intent tapping on the screens, balanced by Bianca’s equal focus on the latest social trends. The concentration in the room was tangible; a subtle, busy sort of quiet, leaving her long moments in which to reflect.
Rest aboard the Reaver was fitful, but after days of little to do she wasn’t tired. She was clean and fed. The ship had some sort of ionizer which made their clothes fresh and kept them fresh as well. Already she’d taken several “showers”. There were food synthesizers. She wasn’t hungry. It was all very austere, of course, showering in faint particle beams, eating what seemed like paste and wearing the same clothes day after day, but it was not uncomfortable. Just boring. What she wouldn’t give for a cheeseburger. And there were millions of them just a few hundred miles below.
Star Angel: Dawn of War (Star Angel Book 3) Page 19
