Innocence Lost

by O. J. Lowe

  He didn’t need to. He let it go, felt the smash as it hit the chain. Spread out his fingers and felt wooden splinters scatter over the backs of them. He wasn’t lifting it again, all he needed was a little bit of extra pressure and he’d have it. Getting on the bed and adding his own weight to it wasn’t viable, due to his position. Getting the cuffs’ chain under the bed post had been hard enough without being able to move his arms behind him. Nor was asking everyone else to jump. Pete pushed backwards and felt the chain slip under the post, it hit the half inch distance from the ground with a clatter and suddenly he had himself something to test his strength against.

  He pulled. Felt the tug as metal met wood, screwed his face up in concentration and tried to ignore the howling of the muscles in his arms as they started to tremble from the effort. Sweat poured down his face despite the coolness of the room

  Something gave, he heard a crack, a faint sound amidst the silence but a tiny crunch regardless. His spirits leaped, buoyed by that encouragement and he thrust himself forward, some part of him hoping it was the cuffs, not the bedpost that had given way. His arms almost bent back double, he felt his shoulders ease back into their regular position and he nearly screamed with relief as he lay there on his chest, just glad to be able to get some feeling back in his limbs.

  “Step out the room, Cadet Jacobs. An interesting technique there, to be sure. Brute force is perhaps not always the way, there always needs to be some thought to your actions. If you’re not strong enough or smart enough to do something, then you need another way to do it.”

  Pete got to his feet, walked past Dan Roberts and shrugged at him. Mouthed the word ‘sorry,’ didn’t know if he’d seen it or not and stepped to the door. He slipped a hand to the handle, not entirely sure what he was going to get on the other side. He wasn’t surprised to see them all waiting for him, even Doctor Stenner who was working on fixing up Theo’s thumb. He wasn’t surprised to see the exasperated look on her face. Theo had a face like thunder, he didn’t know why, and he didn’t want to know. He had a feeling it’d be something best left to the imagination.

  “Congratulations, Cadet Jacobs,” Takamishi said, offering him a hand. Pete shook it reluctantly, trying to ignore the aches in his back. He found it a little hard to look someone in the eye who’d just done what they had mere minutes ago. “Interesting improvisational skills in there.”

  “Well I wanted to get out,” he said. “That floor is not comfortable.” The words felt a little hollow, but it was all he wanted to say on the matter.

  “Few things in this life are,” Takamishi said. “Go hit the track. Five miles around that, then report to the mess hall.”

  Oh, come on!

  He was proud of the way he’d kept the straight face, managing to push the rising sense of disgust into his gut. Some bloody reward that turned out to be. Takamishi must have seen something, for he let out a harsh bark of laughter.

  “You might think it harsh. Those that come out after you are getting ten miles, not five” he said with a smug grin.

  Chapter Eleven. Rocastle’s Secret.

  “A lead, is a lead, is a lead. Never hesitate to follow something, no matter how tenuous, for if you have nothing else, then even the slimmest leads can be a lifeline to grasp on to in an investigation. They can be the difference. Sometimes, it is better to do something than nothing, for the brain works best in activity than being sedentary.”

  Excerpt from Unisco lecture at the academy on investigative techniques.

  Wade’s summoner rang, broke through the night like a siren and he rose to a sitting position in bed, blaster in his hands. He heard the second ring, relaxed his weapon. Ever since that attack in Ryoti and the death of Davis Teela, he’d been expecting the worst. He’d been expecting the door to come crashing through and that bloody woman to make an appearance. So far, they’d not been found. They’d kept out of sight, they’d survived, much to his relief. He didn’t fancy another round with her. Not after the previous one had resulted in them having their arses handed to them in spectacular fashion.

  With Teela dead, he’d expected them to head back to Unisco headquarters, engage their attentions to much more useful avenues of investigation. Not so. Pree had shrugged her shoulders at that suggestion. He didn’t like to defer to her, yet there’d been something compelling about her argument, even if he couldn’t remember what it was. She’d convinced him, and in Burykia they’d remained for the time being.

  He looked at his caller, dropped the X9S onto the bed next to him. Caller ID showed HQ, an interesting coincidence. Wade glanced across the room, saw Pree’s bed was empty. He scowled at that. More and more since they’d decided to stay here, it felt like she’d been vanishing for hours at a time, only to return as if she’d never been gone. He had to wonder at her intentions.

  If there were to be answers, they weren’t going to be found here. He thumbed the answer button on his summoner, saw the video image of Liam Caulker on the miniature screen. The main man himself. Since Unisco had been reformed, Caulker had been put in charge of the intelligence division. Wade didn’t know him well, an unassuming-looking man approaching middle age with a prominent bald patch and watery eyes. Just that they’d judged him the best man to put in charge.

  Why he was getting a call off him this time of morning, he didn’t know. This couldn’t be good. He shook his head, tried to brush the sleep out of his eyes. They still ached from the burns at times like these, he did his best to ignore the aggravation.

  “Good morning, Agent Wallerington,” Caulker said. He had that lilting accent from the west of Canterage that Wade found about as endearing as having teeth pulled out. “Apologies for waking you but this couldn’t wait.”

  “Not a problem, sir,” Wade said. He appreciated the comment, not that it made much difference. Unisco would disturb you in the build-up to a championship bout if they wanted to, never mind if you were sleeping. You worked for the agency, your time was theirs to do what they wanted with. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’ve had a breakthrough,” Caulker said. “Three hours ago, not a dozen miles from where you and Agent Khan are based, we had a hit on a person of interest regarding the Coppinger fiasco.”

  Wade was awake now, he hid a yawn behind his hand, and sat up a little straighter in his bed. “We have? Who?”

  “As you know, we’ve made it out mission to talk to everyone related to any known Coppinger sympathisers, just in case they know where they might be hiding out. We’ve been looking for the family of a prominent member of the organisation for a time now. Last night, she used a charge card and we got her.”

  “Who?” Wade asked. Maybe Pree had been right about staying here. They had to be somewhere, Burykia hadn’t seen much Coppinger presence since it had started, it could mean two things. Either Burykia didn’t interest them yet, or they were doing a better job of hiding their presence here. Both thoughts he found equally troubling, he didn’t know which he’d prefer to be the case. The former, maybe? Just about.

  “We’ve managed to locate the sister of Harvey Rocastle. I want you and Agent Khan to talk to her, find out if she knows anything of value about where her brother might go. Anything we can use against him.”

  Wade nodded. “It’ll be done, sir. We’ll head out as soon as we can.”

  “Good. I’ll have someone send you the address, any relevant information. Don’t disappoint me, Agent Wallerington. This could be nothing, it could be something. We won’t know until you ask.”

  As promptly as it had started, the call ended, the video image dying away from his sight. Wade shook his head. He could see why, he just didn’t see the value in it. It was Unisco protocol, at the same time, it felt like wasted effort. This wasn’t a caller who had gone to ground, and the family interrogated in case they knew something. This was so much bigger.

  He threw the covers back, went looking for his trousers. It needed to be done, he might as well make peace with that.

  Just a case of where
the hells was Pree?

  Pree had met him in the speeder bays of their motel, a mug of Willies coffee in one hand and a sandwich in the other, a bemused grin on her face. She looked altogether too chirpy for his liking, she’d had even less sleep than him and came across twice as happy. It irked him some people could do that, always had.

  “Good morning,” she said, almost singing. She took two big bites out of her sandwich. “Sleep well?”

  He grunted at her. Couldn’t say too much more.

  “That good, huh?” she asked. “You want to fly? Don’t want you falling asleep at the stick and killing us both. Plenty of people out to get us without you killing us by accident.”

  Wade ignored her. “Just got a call from Caulker?”

  “Oh yes?”

  “We’ve got a mission.”

  “Outstanding,” Pree said, through a mouthful of coffee. “Who are we tracking down now?”

  “They found Harvey Rocastle’s sister last night,” he said. “Want us to go talk to her, see if she can give us anything about where he might be.”

  “Cool,” Pree said. “Rocastle, huh? You met him, didn’t you? What was he like?”

  “Big fucking freak,” Wade said. “Not the sort of person you’d want to meet twice. He tried attacking me, this after he’d gone for two spirit callers and a dancer.”

  “I imagine that went well for him,” she said, finishing her coffee. She glanced around, hefted the cup back and tossed it into the closest trashcan, all without looking. He tried not to stare, didn’t want her to see how impressed he’d been by the blind shot.

  “Didn’t do much good in the end, did it?” Wade said. “He still got free to kill, didn’t he?”

  Pree shook her head. “What he did or didn’t do, it’s not your fault. You took him in, it’s not your fault Unisco couldn’t keep hold of him.”

  Wade nodded. “I know, I know. I did everything, short of putting him down.” He shrugged. “Maybe it…”

  “You can’t think like that,” she said quickly. “You’ve got a job, you’re beholden to the law. We can’t execute someone for what they might do, as Unisco agents. That’d just create the sort of world Claudia Coppinger says we’re trying to build.”

  “I know, I know. But shit happens when you’re trying to arrest them,” he said. He was thinking idly now, he didn’t mean a word of it. “You know what I’m saying?”

  “I’m think you’re saying that that’s power,” Pree said. “You know what the biggest crime is? Having power and not possessing the balls to use it. They say it’s all about self-control. It’s a justification. A sot to make themselves feel better. They don’t use it because they don’t want to see the way people look at them if they do. It’s about courage and the lack of it.”

  “You sound like you have experience of power,” Wade said. He slid into the speeder, turned the activation key. She smiled at him as she got in next to him. Despite her jokes about his fatigue, he knew she wasn’t worried about him crashing the vehicle. He’d never crashed anything, except the occasional party. And only then in an official capacity.

  “Everyone has power in their own way,” she said. “You think power is carrying a blaster and a badge? Having access to your kingdom’s weapon systems? Hells, you even think it’s about carrying a laser sword and being able to touch the Kjarn?”

  Wade blinked. Underneath him, the speeder pushed off from the ground, engines roaring. He twisted the steering, pointed towards the exit of the motel bays.

  “What is it, then?” he asked. “Since you’re proclaiming to be the expert?”

  “I’m claiming nothing, Wade. Just that I don’t believe in wastage. If you have something that you can use to make a difference, then is hiding it away really the best thing to do?”

  Something about her words stung. He wondered how much she knew. Hells, he didn’t know how much he knew, never mind her.

  Pree had come out of the store with six bottles of water, two giant bags of potato chips and a giant bar of chocolate which she tossed across to him. “My treat,” she said. “Since you’re looking rough.”

  He didn’t know whether to be pleased or indignant. He settled for thanking her, she shot him a grin.

  “Hey, what are partners for.” She held up her summoner, a picture on the screen. The woman didn’t look unlike Rocastle. Similar build. Similar hair. Eyes were kinder though, nor did she happen to look like a complete bastard. “Even asked the clerk if he’d seen her before. He said she came from that direction.” She pointed up ahead. “Every time.”

  “So, she comes here a lot?” He ripped open the packaging, bit out a huge chunk of chocolate with his teeth and started to chew. She’d been right, he did need the sugar. She broke a bottle of water out the pack, tossed it to him and then kept one for herself, dropping the rest of them under her seat.

  “Every couple of days to a week, does a supply run, pays in credits and then vanishes. Never seen her otherwise. Makes out she’s some sort of hermit which is interesting.”

  “Hermit, huh?” Wade looked out across the distance, followed Pree’s gesture. He could see the tops of the trees swaying gently in the distance, great thin things that looked like they’d break under pressure. Burykian barepines if he had the right of it. “Let’s go rouse her then. Nobody hides away like that.”

  “Well you’ve got the right of it there,” Pree said. She cracked a bottle of water, brought it to her lips and took a long draw, leaving moisture coating her top lip. “She’s definitely hiding from something.”

  “Or someone.” Wade shrugged. “More and more I’m starting to think this is going to be a waste of time.” He bit into the chocolate again, tore it out the paper. This wasn’t a rare occurrence. His body felt like it had been all over the places recently, demanding more and more from him than he’d been giving. He’d sleep for as many hours as he could, yet it never felt enough. The hunger was a constant companion, he’d try to ignore it but found it hard to concentrate over his complaining stomach. A temporary respite like this was just that, temporary.

  “Guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later, won’t we,” she said. “We’ve got our orders. We follow them.”

  He couldn’t argue with that. No matter how pointless this task might seem, he knew that even routine missions could yield surprising results. Life always had a way of shocking you, even when you thought you knew what was coming.

  There’d been a time in recent months when he’d worried he’d go blind. There’d been an incident, he’d wound up in a fight with Claudia Coppinger and her taccaridon, his eyes had been injured. He could remember waking in the hospital, not being able to see properly. The pain had been horrific, he hadn’t taken a direct hit, but the light had been blinding. If he closed his eyes and thought back to what little he could remember of that day, he could recall the odour of singed skin, of seared flesh and muscle. He could remember what it sounded like to hear your own eyes sizzle. The doctors had pronounced his retinas badly seared, it had sounded like a death sentence in the quiet of that hospital ward.

  Facing the prospect of being crippled, he’d had a choice to make. He could accept it, accept the pain and suffering, secure in the knowledge that modern medicine could do so much, but it couldn’t work miracles. Practically blind in one eye. Vision spotty in the other and getting worse. It would have been the end of most aspects in his life he held dear and he’d arrived at his other option. Investigate. Do what any good Unisco agent did. Find another way. Experimental treatments.

  He might have scoffed at them, had he not bumped into Ruud Baxter.

  For a long time now, he and Baxter had known each other. Back when they were rookie agents, they’d done their practice silent hunt together. That was a great memory. Some found that traumatic. Wade had found it liberating. All trainees went through it, even with the mixed message hanging above it that should they ever be the victim of a silent hunt, they’d be in bad trouble. Silent hunts were reserved for Unisco agents gone rogue
. The training was only to help with evasion should they ever find themselves in unfamiliar territory, outnumbered and outgunned. The silent hunt test had originally been called the Evasion Examination. Some names just stuck.

  His and Baxter’s friendship had remained long through those early years, they were of a similar age and they’d done some time together as partners. They’d both been in Threll when the dragon of that village had gone on the rampage. (He’d been amazed to see said dragon again, some twenty years later, under the command of one of the finalists in the Quin-C. Strange how some things worked out in the scheme of things.) He’d said as much to Baxter during the final and his old friend had chuckled mysteriously. “The Kjarn does what the Kjarn will, Wade. You cannot reason or argue with it. You are neither for it nor against it, for it is a part of all of us and to go against its designs is to go against ourselves.”

  He might once have thought it silly. These days, he didn’t know. Not after what Baxter had done to him. He’d shown him things, taken him by the hand and walked him through it all, stayed with him while it was ongoing. They hadn’t seen each other for years, he’d done all that for him.

  Now, his vision was better than ever, and he knew what he did, not just about his cousin but his entire family line. The Wallerington family had strong heritage with the Kjarn, Baxter had told him. Some families do. We’ve considered it countless times, well the old order did. Lately, it’s not been much of an issue. Most of them were here when the Fall happened. A lot of old blood was wiped out there. Hence, we look at the new. That’s what I’ve been doing. Fresh ideas. Fresh people. Scratch off some of what didn’t work, focus on what did. We are the New Vedo Order.

  He’d wanted him to join. Wade had refused. He didn’t need the stress. He’d seen what Baxter’s Vedo could do in the final of the Quin-C and it scared the living hells out of him. That sort of power shouldn’t be wielded by man. That day, he’d suspected Baxter had known what was going to happen, how many people would die, but he hadn’t warned them. He’d wanted his people to be in position to look like heroes and they’d achieved that goal. The very thought churned his stomach, made him want to purge. He couldn’t live like that. He wouldn’t live like that.