by P. S. Power
With no training, that she knew of anyway, and a complete absence of relevant skills, the man had dominated her at every turn. Even while she’d been beating him, nearly to death. His goal had been to make her think he was her perfect slave, and he’d pulled it off. Even the other things she’d done to him, that no one would allow to happen if they had a choice, had been him playing with her.
That left her scared. A person that could do that might actually pull off just about anything.
Ben moved back into his own mind, to find that he’d been being captured on video the whole time. Kyle seemed interested, rather than upset now, and nodded at him.
“That leaves us some interesting options. Do you think you could turn her over to our side, Mr. Epson?”
The man said it like they shared a common language or something. It sounded like English, but unless Ben was supposed to flip her over, he had no clue what was meant by turning her. Except that a nice description of that came up in writing, clearly being from the man in front of him, without having to live through years of memories to get at the information. It even had Kyle’s name at the top, with an arrow to the words, so that Ben would understand where it was coming from. It was helpful, really.
There was no sound for a while, but finally, after reading it all, which took a while, he nodded, understanding now.
“Really? I doubt it. She’s very well trained to resist that kind of thing. We also have a history that’s kind of violent. That goes both ways now, which has to work against gaining her trust and cooperation.” That wasn’t all of it, and the gray haired man across from him, who clearly had to color his hair so it wouldn’t be brown, watched him carefully.
Ben thought for a bit, then went on.
“In our favor, we have control of the only null effect field, and that comes attached to me. So if she wants to use that, which she does, then she has to be willing to play nice. Her mind is kind of going. It has been, which was part of all the mistakes she made with me and Clyde. Not that I want to cut her any slack, but it really did. We also have people here that she thinks of as friends. It was a mistake on her part, doing that, but it happened, because we really aren’t the evilest people ever. So, it could work? My best guess is that it won’t. Even if we all make nice and share data for a time, she’ll end up going back to her own people, in the end.”
The other man regarded him with a bland expression, letting the part he wasn’t asking about escape him then. It wasn’t a question of Ben being able to do it, given everything, but his willingness to. Even having a government asset on their side for a while, or feeling more or less friendly in their direction, was better than not having that kind of connection.
Ben didn’t make the man speak the words, knowing that if he fought him on the idea, he’d be in for months of awkward glances and sad head shakes.
“I can try? Part of me really wants to kill her. Even now. I mean, I try to be peaceful and meditate regularly. I’ve really worked on letting it go, but I also have to relive a lot of it. Over and over. I…You get that I’m not talking about memories, right? I mean that I’m there, with it all happening. If it hurt, I feel it. If it made me sad, that’s real too. It’s like this now…”
He didn’t know if the man could really understand, but kept trying, hoping that it would make an impact.
“Like. You know, how some of the best VR experiences can fool you for a while?”
“Of course.” The man was nodding along then, as if starting to get it. A little bit. Even though he honestly wasn’t.
“Good. Imagine that it was like that, only ten times closer to reality. You’re suddenly doing something different and are in a different room, in a new body, and those are the only things that let you know that it isn’t real.” He waited, watching as the man frowned a bit, considering what that might mean for someone that had violent flashbacks. “Right. So if I think the wrong thing, I go back. For real. I can’t change it, or alter the situation and part of the time I’m not certain that it isn’t really happening for the first time. Like that. It makes forgiving someone hard.”
“I would think so. Can you do this? Will you? I shouldn’t ask, given that, but there’s no benefit to you having her as an enemy, if you can help it. Even if she’s not a good person.”
Which was only partially the case.
That Micha was also dealing with other mental problems, as well as an incredible amount of stress was all in the mix too. Ben hated that part. He didn’t want to feel bad for her. Really, he didn’t. What was going on was that he understood part of what she was going through and how it was messing with her. That was close enough to feeling sorry for the woman to be annoying, however.
After a bit he nodded.
“I’ll try. I’m not going to hide it all though. We need to get the others in on this, and… Yeah.”
Instead of going over the right way to turn a trained spy, the other man simply made a considering face, and bent his neck, in a way that was almost a bow. It showed the top of his head, which got Ben to touch his own.
“Um, your roots are starting to show. You’ll want to redo those soon.”
That got a slow grin from the other man.
“Ah, you noticed that? I’d thought I was shielding well enough. Or was it just the color?” His own hand, looking steady, but spotted and wrinkled, touched his hair.
Ben didn’t bother lying, but also didn’t make a big deal out of it.
“I lived part of your life with you. Not much, but enough to get the general idea. Neat. In the here and now it doesn’t make much difference. Not unless I ever need a history lesson. In that case, I know just who to go to.” It was tempting to grin, and try to seem smug, but he didn’t feel that way, being too worried about what was coming.
“Well! That’s different then. If you could keep that between us, for the time being? I don’t think that it would be an issue, but just in case I’d rather not invite trouble.”
That seemed close enough to right, so Ben nodded, and then let the smile come to his face.
“So, I need to get a meeting together. After dinner? The rec center?”
“I’ll be there. See you then, if not at the meal?”
“Right.” Ben got up and left, feeling starving, to be totally honest about things. A handy line in mint green showed up as soon as he got up the stairs outside the bunker complex. It didn’t lead him to the dining room however, which was interesting. Instead it went in the other direction, totally.
Ben figured that it would be Micha having gotten there somehow, but it wasn’t that. Not at all.
No, it was a large silver insect. A flying one that hovered with a low buzz, outside of green one when he got there. Waiting for Lenore. Possibly for Mags. That was a guess, since the thing wouldn’t tell him even on the psychic level. There was only one of them, and it was menacing, so not there to act as a spy for them, turning against its own robotic side in things.
There wasn’t a lot of time to work out what to do, given that the door made a noise, and the thing started to fly that way directly. That got Ben to run, full speed, while yelling.
“In! In! Swarm!”
That didn’t reflect the idea that there was only one of the things, and the door opened anyway, showing a surprised Lissa standing there, with the President’s younger daughter right behind her. He was too far away to really do anything useful. If he’d had a gun on him, he could have shot the thing, but there were fifty meters between them and the door, and of course, being in shock, Lissa didn’t slam the thing, even as the single insect came for her.
“Hit it! With your mind. Now!” It was his own voice speaking, he thought. That, or the ghost of his father. Real words though, and he didn’t think his lips had moved. Not that it was time to pay attention to that kind of thing.
Focusing, his head burning from the effort, Ben slapped at the air, trying to take the thing down. It went, thankfully, but hadn’t hit the Earth hard enough to keep it that way. The wings looked
to be damaged though, so it had to crawl toward the light green wooden door.
Now Lissa slammed it shut, with a yelp, finally getting up to speed. Not that it had taken long for everything to happen. A few seconds. The trip to the crawling silver robot didn’t take long, since it was trying to dig through the door, instead of hiding. Working as hard as possible to get inside, with single minded determination.
That gave him time to find a rock, one about the size of both of his hands, and smash the thing from behind. Throwing the stone on top of it. It mainly worked, but it was still moving, which meant he backed off to find a different rock, since there was no way he was going to put his soft, easily stung hands close to the death bug, even if it was crippled. It took three more smacks with different stones, but finally it didn’t move, and he was able to look around, expecting a large group of them to come for them.
There was nothing however. Except for Mags and several of the others running toward them. Glenda actually got there first, being faster than most people like she was.
“What? Mags just started screaming that something was wrong?” She looked down at the rocks, saw the robo-bug and nodded. “Got it. Any more?”
“No. Not incoming either. I don’t know why that one didn’t make an impact on me. I should have seen it coming, but…” Ben made a face then snorted. The whole thing was ridiculously complex, but meant something, not that he could tell what that was yet. “I was distracted. Micha has been assigned here, again. She’s coming in now. I can swear that neither she, or her new boss, had anything to do with this however. Not that I won’t be checking again. So… Interesting. Can we get this cleaned up? I don’t want anyone stung by mistake, but maybe we can look at it? There hasn’t been a lot about how the things are made, in any of the reports coming in.”
Even though that had to be one of the first things everyone that got hold of one of the things had done. Examine it, to see if there was a secret weakness that could be used to help them fight the things.
Glenda smiled and waved to one of the men in the back.
“Shovels and a metal trash can? That should be enough. Anyway… Not bad, Ben. A bit primitive, using rocks like that, but effective.”
He nodded, still looking at the thing on the ground.
“Ben smash. Oog.” His voice was subdued, but it was still funny.
The others, Lissa and Lenore came out, Mags moving to hug her little sister instantly. They actually got along pretty well, teasing from the night before aside. Ben got that now, not being shut off from them this time. Lissa tried to move in on him, for a hug, feeling scared, but Ben waved her away.
“Sorry. I need to be open right now. Um, someone hold Lissa here for a bit? She hardly ever bites, or so I’m told.” The words came across as high handed, but Dave moved in, for the free cuddles, even though a single bug wasn’t that big of an issue. After all, Ben had taken it out, all by himself. The thought was a bit sly seeming, and the man turned to look at him, fighting a smile.
Ben did it back.
“Yeah. I know. Still, that’s a real point. Why send in one? Why not ten, or a hundred? I have seen small numbers used before, once, but that was five, and in a closed room. They also failed to get their main target at the time. Even if they were going for Lenore, wouldn’t they have wanted to send in more than that? She can run away, after all.” Even if she was no faster than a normal girl, and the things were kind of quick in the air, it might work. So could a single closed door.
Thinking about it got a chain of things to hit him then. It was different, and not exactly human, the being that it was coming from, but it was interesting to see. Ben tried to find out what it was, but the intelligence didn’t have eyes, so couldn’t look down. It had sensory organs, sort of, but they were different than what Ben was used to. No eyes, or ears. Just a host of other things, that let the being understand reality. It let it predict what might happen. Not that the thing had this time. It wasn’t easy to understand, but he got enough to start nodding.
“This was a test. It was targeting Lissa, not Lenore at all.” Ben looked at the silver haired lady, and smiled. “If it’s any comfort, you were expected to win. It was about seeing how you’d fight, compared to the others. You weren’t in the field at all, so it picked you. Also, you aren’t the President’s kid. That pretty much left you and two of the cooks. Thank goodness it went for you.”
That got Lissa to make a face at him, seeming hurt.
“Why? Because I don’t matter to you?” She sounded damaged, rather than anything else, so he locked down his natural response, which was to tell her that he didn’t want dinner spoiled, obviously, and shook his head.
“Nope. Not that one. You do matter to me. If you didn’t I wouldn’t be here for you, would I? No, it’s because you matter. Get it? My brain led me here, to handle this, because you were in danger. It might not have for those others. Hopefully it would have, but… Yeah, this way it worked out.”
She looked down, still being held by Dave, who patted her back a bit, but who wasn’t actually rubbing up on her or trying anything untoward. Not that he didn’t want to. To him Lissa was just a pretty weirdo. Someone to get close to for small doses of contact, then move away from. All women kind of fell into that category for him now.
Ben got that part. Dave had killed several people for a woman once. She’d been in real trouble, and he’d loved her, but she’d just used him to get rid of her troubles and then had acted like he was horrible, having taken lives like he had. In the end it had mostly worked out, with Dave being there, with them. Altered enough that no one in the world could prove he was the man he used to be.
The name tried to come to Ben, but was blocked out. If he didn’t know it, then his friend couldn’t be betrayed by mistake, later.
Almost as if being perverse, his stomach growled at him, demanding a tribute of food. Soon, or else there would be further protest. Ben smiled at the wacky thoughts, and waved for everyone not working to come with him.
“Anyway, there’s a meeting after dinner, in the recreation center? Call it as starting about seven? Everyone is invited. You won’t need tickets to get in or anything.”
Mags hopped over to him, dragging her sister along by the hand, but didn’t touch him, she just looked at him, her face hard.
“Is this in regards to the vision I had of you and Micha getting busy in my bed?”
Ben wanted to wince, but nodded instead. There had been some things like that in Micha’s head, so it was possible that it could happen at some point.
“That’s horribly rude. Who would do that in another person’s bed? Also a thing I want to avoid pretty badly, as to the exact outcome, but yes. She’s coming back, and we have a plan, but everyone needs to be in on it.” They really didn’t, but he was going to just be up front anyway. As long as things didn’t end in death for him or his friends he was fine with it.
Not that he was, he realized. It was a nightmare, that seemed directed at him, personally. It probably hadn’t been, since very few people in all the world would care about Ben Epson in particular. Those that did were all around him at the moment. Save for about ten or so people that might be starting to see that he tended to get fairly reliable information about upcoming events. Most of them wouldn’t be trying to sabotage that, of course.
Only the ones in on the attacks in the first place would be. It was something to look into, if he got a chance.
Mags did not look happy to hear any of that, but walked on, her steps light and flowing, and only let her voice turn slightly into a growl.
“Fine, but if you get to sleep with all the spies, so do I.”
Ben had to agree that it sounded fair. He didn’t say that however, since all of them were better looking than he was. He really didn’t want the competition if he could help it.
Chapter five
There was real snow on the ground the next morning. It had happened during the night, and was enough that the whole world seemed very different when he op
ened the front door. It was better than finding a death swarm, or assassins waiting for them all, but only a little. Those could be killed, and then the day would go on unimpeded. Snow was going to mess with things, in a hundred subtle ways.
The thoughts were remarkably surly, considering that he actually enjoyed the white stuff, as a concept. It was cold and got wet when it fell down your collar and melted, but he wasn’t a kid anymore, with the requisite bi-annual snowman to build. Now if he did anything like that it would be goofing off and wasting time that could be better spent working. That, or training.
Ben had only ever done up a few of the rounded snow beasts when he was younger, since they hadn’t had enough of the fluffy ice back home for it to be a common project. The concept was one that he was aware of however, so it could be done if the others wanted. Not that anyone there was a child either. He was pretty close to the youngest, though at that moment Lenore held that spot, by about a year. Possibly two. They’d never compared birthdates. She had a real one, of course.
For him it was the day that they’d released him from the gestation tank. No one really made a big deal out of the difference, but there were some. The largest was that Ben, all clones really, came into the world far more gently. It wasn’t hours of someone else being in pain, screaming and moaning, as they cursed you for being born. It was just the release of four different latches and slowly being picked up by a professional, who promptly placed you into a warm water bath.
Not that he remembered it.
Ben waited, assuming that thinking about it would trigger a vision, or at least an imagined world where it was happening, but it didn’t. Instead he just got to move out onto the porch, his mind and senses open, even though he was still in the null field, with the others. They were right behind him, so got to laugh as he slipped, and nearly fell, his running slipper, the right one, filling with wet, fluffy, snow. That was both cold and annoying.
