He leaned forward. Hiding his apprehension behind calm breaths, he unlocked her hands. “It’ll be alright, Carol.”
“It’s about time we made like trees and glided to the ground,” said Alesia.
Carol shot her a glance but said nothing.
Conner nodded. “Let’s get out of here. We boarded with a light flier.”
“Who’s controlling it for you?” asked Carol.
“One of the boss’s students,” said Ryan quickly. “Come on, Carol.”
“Damien, I wish…I wish we had time.” Tears appeared in Carol’s eyes.
“We don’t,” he said, “not right now.”
“Right. We should move.” She stood unsteadily and reached for his hand.
Ryan took her clammy fingers in his. He looked into her eyes as intensely as he could manage.
“Carol,” he said.
“Damien?”
“What did they take from you?”
“Everything except what mattered most.” She sighed. “They still don’t know about the boss’s daughter.”
“Sudhatho’s daughter?” Ryan’s breath caught. That was it, the secret she had been hiding. To the public, Sudhatho did not have any offspring, just like other aeons. “Good that the memory is safe. Now rest. We’ll get you out of here.”
“Thank you. Thank you, Damien.”
She leaned against him. He settled her slowly back into her seat. Alesia snapped the cuffs around Carol’s wrists an instant later.
They went to the other side of the bridge, leaving Carol in her seat.
Kamuek whistled. “Amazing. Sudhatho has a daughter,” he said, “any bet on the mother?”
“Only one,” said Ryan, “Yashelia.”
They flew north over the canal a little further north, then cut west over the low buildings of the city.
Ryan did not know what they could do with the information Carol just divulged, but it gave them somewhere to start.
Unregistered Memory, Thomas Fenstein, The Mangrove Suite
Thomas and Celsanoggi took the elevator upstairs in Lotdel Tower.
“You need to be more careful. Your arm was just regenerated,” she said.
“And how about you? You charged in to save those people even though your leg just healed.”
She shook her head. “I’m an aeon. It’s different.”
“Just because you have more power than little human me doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable. I remember Chicago too well.”
“You think I don’t?”
The doors opened, and they stepped out into the hall leading to the manager’s desk in the Mangrove Suite.
As they walked down the passage, Thomas frowned. “Then why do you have a death wish?”
“I want to help people, even if that means putting myself in danger.”
“Hey, we’re the same on that. But we’re not soldiers anymore.”
“You aren’t, sure. I never stopped.”
They passed by the manager’s desk and continued toward Thomas’ office. He glared at her as they reached the last door at the end of the hall.
“I’ve been in enough danger lately to be offended by that.”
“I heard about what happened a few months ago.” Celsanoggi avoided his gaze. “Yashelia was here.”
“She could have killed me!” He unlocked the door, and they went inside. “And you know what, I’ve been realizing ever since that girl, Rebecca, appeared, that I don’t want to be the guy who owns a brothel and lives comfortably just because he can. This place is not who I am.”
“Fine,” said Celsanoggi. “Who do you say you are?”
“I don’t know, Celsa! But it feels right to be out there, like you are, fighting the good fight, even if means just tackling someone to keep them safe.”
“This city isn’t that dangerous.”
“Sure seems like it is lately.”
“Have you considered volunteering as a firefighter?”
“Haha. You know what I want to do.”
“Your friends disagreed with you too,” she said.
“Celsa, I have military training—”
“But it isn’t enough!” she put her bandaged hands on his shoulders. “Thomas, even I shouldn’t be working as a vigilante. It’d get you killed.”
He shook his head but felt disappointment rather than anger.
“I’d hoped you would understand.”
“I do understand but Thomas, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Does protecting me matter more than protecting everyone else?” he asked.
“No!” she said, tears in her eyes.
“Looks like we agree on that, too!” he said.
She sighed. Her hands slipped from his shoulders. “I guess we do.” She frowned. “But what can we do, even together? Sudhatho is too connected, too influential.”
“Yeah, but he has a weak point,” said Thomas. “Yashelia. She was here in the garden. If we can find her, then maybe—”
A ping from Jeth reached his mind.
“What is it?” asked Celsanoggi.
“It’s Jeth. He and Rebecca ran into Yashelia out there just now. They’re okay, don’t worry.”
“We have to catch her. If we take her in, she could incriminate Sudhatho.”
Thomas nodded. “Let’s meet with Jeth.”
“I still think it’s too dangerous.”
“I know,” he said, “but I have to do this.”
“I understand.”
They left the suite without another word.
Rebecca and I went to the public workshop on the second floor of Lotdel Tower.
She carried the revolver openly in its holster.
My nerves were frayed to the breaking point after our encounter with Yashelia. The workshop was deserted. Only when Rebecca stopped by a clean table, and set the revolver on it, did I recover enough wits to question her.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, “I mean, what’s the plan?”
“The purifier weapon worked today. That wound won’t heal quickly on its own.” Rebecca took a deep breath and looked at me, face serious. “Yashelia is rogue. She can only go one place to get treated, Sudhatho’s garden.”
“That’s north, in the old New York City area.”
“Exactly,” she said, “and that gives us a chance to stop them both for good.”
“You want to kill them,” I said, mouth dry.
“Do I have any choice?” Rebecca said. “Not as I see it.”
“But we do have a choice. Enough information could bring them both down.”
“How much information? We don’t have time to hope, Jeth. This is our chance— my chance to set things right.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but instead got a message from Thomas in response to my earlier ping. He was on his way downstairs and heading in our direction, wanting to talk. Celsanoggi was with him.
Rebecca opened the cylinder of the revolver and set the five bullets carefully on the tabletop. She frowned at them.
“An electrical charge of any real voltage can stun an aeon. A bullet carrying a static charge can be lethal.” She shook her head. “The right modification could allow these bullets to carry a charge like that, but I doubt we have the tools here for that.”
“So,” I said, “if you can’t get the bullets, you won’t go after Yashelia?”
“Jeth, I’m not going to reconsider this. I need them gone. Over. Done.”
“They don’t need to die. The law is on our side, Rebecca.”
“What law, Jeth? Sudhatho is a teloite, which means he helps make the laws as well as enforce them. His people won’t remove him without damning evidence of collusion with a rogue star.”
“That evidence exists,” I said, “we just don’t have enough of it yet.”
“Keep looking then, Jeth. I’ll do what I can to keep us safe. You do what you can.”
I breathed deep, fighting frustration. Either she did not realize how dangerous going after them would be, or s
he didn’t care. In the moment, I couldn’t guess which was more likely. It didn’t matter, though, because the upshot was the same either way.
Rebecca picked up the revolver. “I’m sorry, Jeth.” She holstered the weapon, then unbuckled the belt from her waist. “I just don’t see how we can miss this chance.”
“Look, wait on it for a week,” I said.
“In a week, we won’t know where she is.”
“Please, Rebecca.”
She frowned at me, saying nothing as we left the workshop. She told me she’d spend the night sleeping on Elizabeth’s couch. At my door, I let her go.
Secure Memory, Anonymous Identity, Animal Monitor Feed
The woman boarded a train at the station near Lotdel Tower early in the morning. Despite the deepening cold, a squirrel saw her from the branches of a tree by the entrance. The team leader could have smiled at the sight.
Not often did Rebecca Waters leave home wearing bulky clothes like the heavy coat she wore that morning. Granted, she didn’t live in Lotdel Tower. Perhaps the man she had been with the previous day had gotten lucky.
Guess the weather gets to everyone eventually, she thought as her squirrel lost sight of the woman.
Curious at her destination, the team leader switched to observe the train’s northernmost stop. Anthem Central Station, near the dense part of the city once commonly called New York. She could not tell if Rebecca meant to ride the train all the way north, but she also knew Sudhatho had requested information on the woman’s movements.
Big sister is watching you, she thought as she sent the train’s status to her real boss.
Who could say why the teloite wanted to know about one seemingly ordinary immigrant woman, however much trouble she had been in lately? He paid well, though, that hadn’t been enough to stop her reporting the massacre at the blacks site. There were some lines she could not cross. That was enough for the team leader, who settled back to watch the train from afar while she activated a few sensor animals by the stations along the way.
Rebecca did not seem eager to leave the train.
She rode it all the way to the northern island.
Rebecca sent me a message the next morning while she rode the train north toward the old city.
Don’t try to follow me. When it’s over, I’ll let you know. Sudhatho and Yashelia will pay for what they’ve done.
She did not stay connected long, and I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I used the time to send a tracer to her, with hopes she would not locate it. Along with the hidden tracer I sent two words.
Good luck.
As I got breakfast alone that morning, I checked on my tracer. She had not removed it, but she had not missed it either. The tracer now relayed a view from her eyes as she rode the train.
She watched the rooftops in the distance growing and sinking. The massive, uniform towers constructed by the aeons loomed before her. Even as I saw through her eyes, a sense of foreboding in my belly, she messaged me.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Jeth. You may not like what you see today.
I frowned at my eggs and bacon, only half-aware of their presence, appetite gone.
Be careful, Rebecca.
I’m doing this for all of us, Jeth. Please, try to understand.
Information is what we need to bring down Sudhatho, I sent back. We need to be patient.
Her next message took a few minutes to arrive. I waited, unhappily watching the buildings ahead through her eyes.
I’m through with patience. More people will die if I don’t stop him.
You mean if you don’t kill him.
She did not break the connection, but all the protests I considered sounded hollow in my head.
She rode onward, taking the train to the densest part of the city from before the arrival of the aeons. It was famous, sung about in songs, envied by people all over the old world. And in that city, Sudhatho kept his fortress garden.
Secure Memory, Anonymous Identity, Animal Monitor Feed
When Rebecca’s train arrived in the heart of the city, the team leader switched immediately to watch her disembark. She made her way out of the station where a clean with an active sensor relay kept watch while appearing to only be there to sweep the street. Naturally, the team leader used the clean’s eyes as a substitute for the usual animals to trace the woman’s movements.
Rebecca crossed the street and left the clean’s field of vision. The team leader switched her senses to the nearest activated pigeon, a bird perched on a streetlight, looking the same direction Rebecca took away from the station.
The woman marched straight toward the garden, steadily closing the distance until she arrived outside. The team leader did not need to guess why Sudhatho was interested in her any longer. Rebecca stood before the gates of Sudhatho’s walled estate, surrounded by trees, both alien and native.
She said something to the guard at the gate, and then the gates opened.
Rebecca walked through into the boss’ garden.
The team leader kept watching, fascinated by the direct approach. What was she doing?
I watched the trees through her eyes as Rebecca stepped into Sudhatho’s garden. The guard, who she had sensory tweaked to be let inside, watched her dully from beside the gates. I knew she had the revolver buried under her coat, but without the aeon-killing bullets, I’d hoped she wouldn’t go. I should have known better.
She walked to the house at the center of the garden, then knocked on the tall wooden doors.
Another bit of mental trickery when the door opened, and she stepped through, passing a pair of Sudhatho’s servants, and then a cluster of private security workers. She breezed upstairs like a ghost.
She marched alone through the upper halls until she reached a large study. The door opened inward. Sudhatho’s pale-maned shadow crossed the floor in front of her. He stood behind a broad desk on the far side of the room, before an arched window.
Then Rebecca stymied the flow of images from her eyes to me.
Someone knocked on my door. “Jeth!” Thomas said loud enough to startle me through the door, “we need to talk.”
I juddered to my feet and went to the door. “More than that,” I said, “we have to move.” I wouldn’t let Rebecca kill or be killed to stop Sudhatho. I opened the door and looked at Thomas. “We need to get to the north islands.”
Secure Memory, Anonymous Identity, Animal Monitor Feed
The team leader fought her way through net security around Sudhatho’s garden. Another pigeon sufficed to provide her the view she needed. Curiosity had the better of her and she wanted to see—more importantly hear—what was happening inside the building.
Ignoring the usual restrictions, she dominated the pigeon’s action, making it fly to the large central house. It circled until it spied the woman through a high window in a central study. She mentally tweaked the bird to perch on the frame, then tuned the pigeon’s senses, trying to get an idea of what they were saying inside.
Sudhatho stood behind his desk, casting a shadow over Rebecca. He folded his hands, huge shoulders bunched, and said, “I wondered how long it would take for you to show yourself here.”
“Like you even considered little me,” she said, “I’m done hiding from you.”
“Good.” He smiled and motioned to her. “Say your piece.”
Rebecca drew the revolver in a fluid motion. She aimed it at Sudhatho. The gun roared and the pigeon took flight.
“How are supposed to get there in time?” Thomas asked, “even if I had my van, we’re over two hours south of the city.”
“A light ship,” I said. “Ryan and his team were flying around in a light ship. Give me a second.”
I reached out across the city with what sensory ability I had, though it seemed paltry next to what Rebecca could manage. I located Ryan’s network signature a few miles from Lotdel Tower and heading north.
I made mental contact.
“Ryan,” I said, “I need your help.”
<
br /> “I’m a little busy right now, Jeth. I’m going to uncover Sudhatho.”
“Tell me about it on the way,” I said, “Thomas and I need to get to New York right away.”
“From Lotdel Tower?” Ryan paused as he talked to someone else in his vicinity. “Alright, we’ll pick you up. Looks like we’re going the same way. Meet us out front.”
“Thanks,” I said.
The connection ended.
Thomas looked at me with raised eyebrows. “A light ship? We’re not gonna be exactly inconspicuous in that.”
“It’s too late for hiding.”
“Oh boy.” Thomas whistled. “We’ll need a lot of luck to survive the day.”
Celsanoggi stepped through the door into my apartment. Her lip twitched, almost smiling. “I’ll do my best to protect you,” she said and held up her sentry mask.
Thomas glanced at me sheepishly. “I figured it would be faster if I talked to you alone.”
I nodded and then went into the back room to get my shotgun. I might be after the truth, but I needed not to get killed first. We met Ryan and the light ship on the street outside moments later.
Secure Memory, Anonymous Identity, Animal Monitor Feed
As soon as Rebecca’s gunshot sounded, the team leader went scrambling to get a view of the interior. Without animals inside, she had little luck. How could there be more network critters in a black site than in Sudhatho’s own home? Easily, the team leader thought, because he knows people are watching.
Gunshots drew her attention to the front of the garden. The man who’d been on duty at the gate fell.
Two motorcycles roared into the garden through the open gate. Big wheels tore up the grass as they raced toward the mansion at the center of the garden. A gunman concealed in one of the towers closest to the gate opened fire. Damien and Miranda skidded their bikes sideways under the guards’ bullets.
The team leader recoiled from the sight of Damien. He dismounted and ran toward the front doors. Miranda raised her machine gun and released a burst at the tower.
The Cleanway Page 18
