by Alex Hughes
“What do you want from me?” I asked. I was going to get caught in the wheels of this, wasn’t I? We were well beyond a single murder investigation now. “Kara, you need to be sure it’s official before you do anything rash. Experiments are one thing. Anybody could break into the vault—we saw that with Bradley. It doesn’t mean—”
“These things should not exist!” she yelled at me. “Guild First is destroying everything! You can’t build a bomb and then not use it. You’ll be tempted every single day!”
A scraping sound, and then the door opened again. Stone stood there. “This isn’t a good place to have a screaming match,” Stone said quietly. “They have to be on their way by now.” He looked at me. “You want process. You want a chance to prove innocence. It’s the time. Help us bring Meyers’s murderer to light. Help us do it the right way,” he added, looking at Kara with suspicion.
I didn’t know how much he’d heard, but clearly they weren’t easy allies.
I took a breath, forcibly damping down the anger and the pain until I could think. Then: “Show me the device. This thing you found that fits the tear I found in the room.”
Stone produced it. The thing was a cube with blinking lights, on the surface very much like the horrible thing that had made me suggestible the day Bellury died a few weeks ago. I wanted to throw it to the floor and jump on it until it was little pathetic pieces. I wanted to fillet it with knives and crush it with rollers and then let Gustolf burn the pieces. Twice.
That’s about how I feel, Stone told me. Some things should never, never be used on our own people.
They should not exist, Kara added, with heat.
On second, closer look, I saw the circular inset used to control the thing, a more highly engineered, more professionally produced piece. Small resonators, little square wires, covered the thing. Dane’s research into mind-waves perverted.
I turned and deliberately said out loud, “Kara’s right. Some things should not exist.”
Stone moved farther into the room. “The only way to shut this down is to find the people behind it. We’ve got resources but you’ve got more. And honestly, it has to be someone high up in the Council to pull this off. No one else has the power. I’m asking you to help us figure out who before this escalates so we can bring them to justice before things get worse.” He looked at Kara again.
“I trust you to tell me the truth,” Kara said reluctantly. “But we won’t hold off forever.”
“I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, aren’t I? Seems to be what you specialize in, Kara. Just so we’re clear: this is a Koshna violation. This kind of technology is illegal in all fifty states for normals, and so illegal for the Guild that war will start over it if someone is caught out. This country needs another war like I need a lobotomy. I’m doing this for that reason, Kara.”
“I don’t care why you do it. This stuff needs to end,” she said. “Find me Uncle Meyers’s murderer and I will make it end.”
“I told you I would find the guy,” I said. “I told you that. Just promise me you’re not going to start a war over the information.”
She was silent.
“We need to go,” Stone said.
How in hell was I going to solve this in time to keep things from blowing up? There was far, far more at stake now than just one guy’s murder, no matter how good a guy he’d been.
There was the Guild as a whole, and more than one kind of war at stake. Who was I to stand in the way of all this?
But it had been my Guild once too. I had to try. I had to figure this out, and soon.
• • •
Turner and another three guard types brought me to a small room on the top level of the professional building. The clear glass windows had a fantastic view of the Buckhead business district, the towering buildings already starting to show their evening light schemes, office workers moving around, sitting at desks, working late.
At the end of the room staring out at the office buildings was one Thaddeus Rex, who even at rest had the carefully cultured successful-politician stance. I could almost see the photo in an editorial spread in the newspaper. Waiting in the opposite corner was head of Enforcement Tobias Nelson, who looked less regal but more dangerous.
“Adam Ward and Edgar Stone to see you,” Johanna said. “I assume you’d like someone to take notes on the pro- ceedings?”
Rex looked up. “Thank you, Johanna, but no. Not this time. You’re welcome to go home.”
I thought I felt a flash of anger from her direction, but when I looked closer she seemed perfectly composed. “Mrs. Martinez will be back tomorrow and I won’t have nearly the free time I do now. Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do for you?”
“No, I believe that’s all for now. Kind of you to fill in when my assistant fell ill. I’ll make sure to note your helpfulness on your file.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Rex.”
“Close the door on your way out?”
That almost-there flash of anger again, something I could have sworn I’d seen. But maybe it was me. Maybe it was my distrust of her because of who she reminded me of. Either could easily result in seeing things, not to mention the suggestion of madness in the place.
She closed the door behind her, and I found myself alone in a room with major Guild power players—and Stone, who’d proven over and over again he had his own agenda.
“You wanted to see us?” Stone asked. “We are in the middle of an investigation and time is short.”
Rex turned and picked up a paper from the large desk in front of him.
Nelson waited, but while his presence in Mindspace was cold and hard, his body language was uncomfortable and impatient. He was watching Rex too much.
“You’re here to rake me over the coals, aren’t you?” I asked. “Either that or mind-wipe me. Why else would you send goons to my apartment to drag me here while I’m out doing what you asked me to do in the first place?” I lowered my shields, a risk, but I’d rather see what was coming, especially in this kind of room.
Rex’s head came up then, and he looked like someone who had scraped something off his shoe. Tobias just looked angry.
“I’ve been told you have no viable suspects in the death of Del Meyers,” Rex said. “It’s been several days since I recruited you, and I told you then I expect results. What results do you have?”
“None whatsoever,” Nelson said.
“I can’t discuss ongoing investigations,” I said, because I didn’t want to discuss anything with Nelson there, just as a matter of principle. “We are making progress and expect to have an answer for you soon.” I monitored Mindspace, even the slightest change. There was a mind, maybe, outside the door. Johanna listening in?
“What about you, Stone?”
Beside me, the man adjusted his stance. I could almost see the conflict of loyalty. I honestly didn’t know if he was going to stay quiet.
I put up a light shield, enough to keep my thoughts from spilling. I knew that Kara wanted him—wanted me—to stay quiet. That she had some kind of epic family scheme going on to deal with the Tech. Though of course she hadn’t told me what it was. In fact, she’d left at the first possible opportunity.
And I also knew that if you really wanted to know the truth about something, confronting someone with information could be the best way to go. It had worked for me time and time again in the interview rooms. And it was, just barely, possible to lie to a telepath. In fact, if one did it out loud, and one was used to lying out loud, it might be very possible indeed.
And if they were really, truly going to lock me up or mind-wipe me anyway, I might as well go all in.
I dropped the shield again and let my decision crystallize where they could see it. Then I read Mindspace ever so carefully, down to the slightest wave. Down to the slightest change of a mind in front of me.
�
��We’ve found a Tech device that influences mind-waves left in both apartments,” I said freely, letting my words be a skipping stone along a pond, always moving. “We have evidence to show that you, Rex, planted them there.”
Rex did a double take. Then he turned to Nelson. “What in the hell have you done! I gave you latitude with that stuff—but it was never to be used against the Guild!”
“But—I didn’t—” Nelson sputtered.
Bingo. I used the moment of distraction to seep into Nelson’s mind.
And there it was: Nelson had been receiving security devices from Research in exchange for getting them certain parts. Certain illegal Tech parts obtained from . . . I saw a shadowy face, and an exchange.
Tobias had met with Fiske. Personally. Had been meeting with him for years.
Stone’s mind was suddenly right there with me, as he’d grabbed my arm or some such. I shared what I knew. He, in shock, moved away.
Tobias’s attention went to us then, and he moved all of his defenses against me—
Too slow. Too distracted.
I activated the sleep center of the brain and pulled back.
Rex was saying, “—so-called evidence is clearly a plant to cast doubt on the Guild First party. To be honest, I didn’t think the Cooperists had it in them.”
He looked to the side, reacted to Nelson’s collapse.
“What did you do?” he said to me in a dangerous voice.
I said, “I found your killer.”
• • •
Rex pushed a button on his desk, and the air popped as teleporters displaced the air. I found myself staring into the barrels of two guns.
Stone grabbed my arm. I could suddenly feel his anger and shock and concern. You knocked out the head of Enforcement. The head of Enforcement! They’ll execute us. They’ll do worse. He added layer upon layer of his own conflicting loyalties and what I’d told Kara.
I wrenched my arm away.
“You just made a very serious accusation,” Rex said, in a cold voice. “Nelson appears to be breathing, so I’ll give you the opportunity to explain yourself. Choose your next words carefully. They may be your last.”
I looked into the barrel of those guns and reality hit. I blinked, and talked for my life. “You’re looking for the person who manipulated two leading people in the Guild into starting a madness epidemic, or at least the suggestion of one. With illegal Tech, a device with parts supplied by a man named Garrett Fiske. Fiske is arguably the most important man in the Southeast organized crime world, and he and Nelson have met. Repeatedly. Over the last several years.”
Rex took a step forward. “How do you know this?”
“I read it from his mind,” I said, turning my attention to him, though the back of my head screamed to look at the gun. He was the danger. He. Even if I could somehow disable both guards here and get away, he had promised to track me down, and I believed he would. “You hired me because I can get into and out of the deepest part of people’s minds quickly and without them knowing. You recruited me because you wanted me to do this for you.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Stone said.
I glanced over. He was pale, adrenaline moving all too quickly. He’d set his gun on the floor and had his hands in the air.
Rex regarded us. “You saw Nelson using the device you referenced to kill Meyers? Or, I suppose, force him to kill himself?”
“No,” Stone said, and stepped into my mind to take the information he wanted. I let him. “Adam saw him meeting with a man he knows as Fiske.”
I had to step in then. “Fiske is a very dangerous man, and he’s had his hand in the underground Tech trade for a while. Furthermore, he’s had a hand in Bradley’s and in Tamika’s criminal enterprises, which threatened to publically embarrass the Guild—maybe worse. Is it such a big leap to think he’s involved here? An unstable Guild only benefits him. If the government and the Guild fight on a large scale, that only benefits him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s behind all of this.”
“And how does that benefit him?” Rex asked.
“Cherabino says he wants power. Instability gives him a vacuum to step into.” I took a breath. I’d been talking out of my ass . . . but I actually believed it. Now that I’d said it I thought maybe it was true Fiske was doing all of this for some bigger reason. “There’s no way that Nelson could be helping the Guild by cooperating with Fiske,” I said. Then added, mind to mind on a private channel, Unless those illegal shipments of yours that were getting hijacked are no longer in play.
Rex was very unhappy with having me in his mind, and shored up the beach that separated his public from his private thoughts. The Guild deserves every advantage in the cold war with the normals. I will not apologize for seeing to those advantages. But no. Those parts were purchased from a custom-order depot in Canada and smuggled across the border. Most are experimental. All are numbered and tracked internally in high-security locations with official labs. Most of the technology is there simply to give us additional information and resources. None—I repeat, none—were purchased as a result of high-level deals with criminals. And while the majority of the Council would rather not know details, they know it is going on. The Council chair has approved all dealings.
He took yet another step forward, now only feet from me, barely out of the line of fire of the guns.
Stone took a step back.
I looked, again, at the barrels of the guns. The guards seemed positively unhuman in their stillness.
“You have made a very serious accusation, and it will be dealt with appropriately,” Rex said. “Moby—that is your name, is it not?”
“Yes,” the man on the right said, pointing his gun at the floor but continuing to watch me carefully. The other one, on the left, a short-shaved guy with a scar over his ear, continued to point the gun.
“Moby, I ask you to take Tobias Nelson into custody. Put him in the secure cells, and don’t let any of his immediate reports see him. Assuming the remainder of the Council agrees, he will have a deep mind-scan beginning tonight. Under no circumstances are you to allow him to escape, do you understand? No one else in the cell, no access unless and until I authorize personally.”
Moby looked over. “Nelson, sir?”
“That’s what I said. Please be quick. Your job will be much harder if he wakes up.”
“Understood, sir.”
He went over, picked Nelson up with some difficulty, and teleported out.
“And as for you,” Rex told me, “as I said, you have leveled a very serious accusation against a respected senior member of the Guild with voting status. If—and I mean if—your claims have some validity to them, you will be rewarded. I will consider this a significant step toward paying off your debt and fulfilling your charge. The truth is welcome at the Council. However, if, as I believe is more likely, your claims are spurious, I will personally see to it that your Ability is wiped and you are released on the street with the last ten years of your life erased and no resources whatsoever to put it back together. Have I made myself clear?”
I stood only from force of habit. He was talking about undoing all of my recovery, all of my learning, everything I was, to put me back in the horrible place I’d been right when they kicked me out the first time, no resources, no knowledge of the outside world. And to do it with no Ability . . .
“That’s far worse than killing me,” I said, and immediately regretted saying it.
Rex smiled then, a cruel smile. “Davidson, take him into custody. Same rules as with Nelson. And be careful—this one’s tricky, and he has no problem rummaging around in your mind without permission.”
“We going to do this the hard way or the easy way?” Davidson asked me.
Which was how I found myself in sticky cuffs in a bear hug from a sweaty male person who was about to teleport me God knows where.
“And now for you, Stone,” I heard Rex’s voice say. “Don’t think you’re going to—”
And then the world scrambled into a kaleidoscope.
CHAPTER 16
I was in the same damn chilly cell for three hours, three echoing hours in which I had no one and nothing except my own thoughts. At least there was water this time. The floor, of course, was just as sticky and cold and uncomfortable. The sound to the other cells was turned off, though, so I didn’t have to listen to the screaming.
So instead I listened to my own thoughts telling me I was going to die—or much worse, that I was going to be unmade, made something not me. I pulled out Swartz’s voice over and over again to tell me not to overreact, to calm down. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes the panic seeped into my bones and took over.
Footsteps came down the hall, and I sat up like a startled rabbit. I went as close to the door as I could get without being shocked and looked down the hallway.
“Hello, Adam,” Jamie mouthed when she saw me. I couldn’t hear anything, but I saw the words. She had a man in uniform with a gun with her, but his body language was more wary of the surroundings than hers. I was betting she’d called in a favor with a former student.
She stepped up to the cell and pushed something in that control panel on the side of the cell. A small beep came over the cell. She said, “It’s good to see you.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked her.
“What are you?” she returned. “The student I trained would never have misstepped this badly.”
“I didn’t . . .” I trailed off.
Her eyes focused on me, and I realized all at once how much deeper the wrinkles around those eyes were. She was older—I was older—than when she’d trained me. So much older.
“Things have changed. The whole world has changed, the Guild notwithstanding, and I’m supposed to keep up with everything all at once? I don’t have a rabbit for you, Jamie. I don’t have a rabbit for anyone, it seems. My hat’s empty.”
