“Lucas lied to me,” Maddox said. “He’s the one who told me the android was named Esquire Noble. I think he was playing a trick on me.”
The Provost Officer said nothing and didn’t twitch a muscle as the projac aimed at Maddox. Finally, she said, “Describe this so-called android.”
Fearing the android might look like the Spacer ambassador, Maddox said, “It was tall with gray hair.”
She relaxed her stiffness a fraction. “Esquire Noble is stocky by our standards. His strength is also legendary.”
“Ah.”
She motioned the conscious sentry to go and help the unconscious one. The man did so while keeping his distance from Maddox.
“Where did you say the androids were again?” the woman asked.
“I fought them in the lower levels but they managed to escape,” Maddox lied. According to her description, the androids had looked like the ambassador. He didn’t want her inspecting them while he was around. The woman was trigger-happy. He needed to escape the embassy and get back to Star Watch Headquarters.
“Tell me what happened with the men outside this room,” she said. “You obviously assaulted them.”
“I did,” Maddox agreed.
“Since you freely admit your guilt—”
“Provost Officer,” Maddox said, “I was kidnapped from Woo Tower earlier this evening. Soon thereafter, the android forced me into your embassy. I have been trying to escape ever since. The men outside this room hindered me. That is why I was forced to defend myself.”
“That is a serious allegation,” she said.
“Thank you,” Maddox said.
The woman frowned. “I do not understand your reply.”
“A kidnapped person has an obvious right to defend himself. This right I used.”
“By attacking legitimate guards and assaulting a valued guest of the Lin Ru?” she asked.
“I thought you said Lucas was a Spacer national.”
She became silent as her projac lowered some. “It’s possible I spoke too hastily. Lucas was in the process of applying for Spacer status.”
“Provost Officer—”
“Yes?” she said.
Maddox had almost accused her of bias. Spacers were extraordinarily proud of their rigorous thought. She seemed touchy, and a direct accusation might have a negative effect. That wouldn’t do as long as she was the only one with a weapon.
“Taren Lucas was at a Woo Tower gaming table tonight,” Maddox told her. “Someone slipped me a drugged drink earlier. I believed Lucas had a hand in that.”
This seemed to finally get her attention. “Explain,” she said.
Maddox told her about the card game, the slipped drink and his coming to while entering the Lin Ru.
The first sentry had helped the second to his feet by now. They stood behind the woman. While keeping the projac aimed at Maddox, she stepped beside the sentries. They conferred together in Spacer cant.
Try as he might, Maddox could not understand the quickly spoken lingo.
The woman stepped away from the sentries. “What is your name?”
“I’m Captain Maddox of Star Watch Intelligence,” he said, bowing slightly.
The woman’s lips thinned before she said, “That’s preposterous.”
“I have an ID if you’d like to examine it.” As he said that, Maddox realized he’d lost his wallet.
The woman scoffed. “Are you suggesting you’re the same individual who defeated the alien Destroyer?”
Maddox nodded, understanding her unease.
She remained motionless for a moment. Then, with a swift move, she holstered the projac as her demeanor changed.
“I beg your pardon,” she said in a softer voice. “I did not realize—”
Maddox raised a hand. “It’s no trouble, Provost Officer.” He took out Lucas’s communicator. “Someone is jamming the signal. I would like to report in.”
She hesitated only a moment longer. Reaching into her jacket, she took out a unit and clicked a switch. “If you’ll try it now,” she said.
Maddox did so, calling headquarters. Major Stokes answered and agreed to send a flitter with Sergeant Riker. Maddox quietly explained one more item.
Afterward, he looked up. “The major would like a word with you, Provost Officer.”
Reluctantly, the woman accepted the communicator, listening to Stokes. She handed the comm-unit back a moment later.
“I will escort you to the roof,” she told Maddox.
He nodded. He wanted to examine Taren Lucas, the guards in the corridor and the androids in the sub-kitchens. However, he had a nasty suspicion that the androids looked exactly like the ambassador, and that could create trouble for him.
Thus, Maddox wanted out of the embassy at the soonest possible opportunity so the woman couldn’t change her mind about letting him live.
“Yes,” he told her. “Let’s head for the roof.”
-4-
Maddox stood on the roof of the Lin Ru, waiting for Riker to show up. Other Shanghai buildings surrounded the hotel, most of them taller. The stars glittered in the night sky, barely visible because of the city’s bright lights. It made Maddox wonder how he’d seen the stars earlier.
The Provost Officer stood beside him. The sentries had remained inside.
Now that he was out here, with the threat of immediate death removed, the captain decided to attempt to rectify the android situation.
“Provost Officer,” Maddox said.
She became more alert.
“Have you sent a team to inspect the androids yet?”
“You said they escaped,” she told him.
“Are you sure that’s what I said?”
“Yes. You…” She regarded him more closely. “You switched your story, didn’t you? I should have noticed. My sentries…”
“Changing the story seemed convenient at the time,” he said. “The androids were in a basement kitchen.”
She spoke into a microphone, using Spacer cant so he didn’t understand her. Looking up, she asked, “Could you be more specific regarding which kitchen?”
“It was off of a long slanting corridor.” The captain described the entrance as best as he could remember, including the giggling women and clinking glasses just before that.
“You must have come through the service entrance,” she said. “Yes, I think I know.” Once more, she spoke into her microphone.
She waited expectantly, asking a question now and again into her microphone. Maddox kept watching the sky, wondering if he’d made a mistake regarding the androids.
Finally, a flitter appeared, flashing over Woo Tower. It was a small air-car with a bubble canopy, a two-seater with extra space in back for baggage. With only a little sound, the flitter floated onto the landing pad.
“Thank you for your help, Provost Officer,” Maddox said, extending his hand.
She shook hands. Hers was narrow and fine-boned. “Just a moment, Captain,” she said, keeping hold of his fingers. “The sentries are reporting in. There are no bodies in any of the sub-kitchens. Why do you think that is?”
“There must have been a third android,” Maddox said.
She thought about that. “Yes. I suppose that’s it.”
Her grip tightened. “You are a great man, Captain Maddox. Your deed inside the World Destroyer has become legendary. I think it’s a shame Star Watch hasn’t released more information regarding your exploit.”
“I didn’t do it alone,” he said. “Without my crew, I never could have achieved the miracle.”
“We all need our crews,” she said, releasing his hand.
Maddox agreed before heading for the flitter. Soon, he climbed in. Sergeant Riker sat in the driver’s seat.
“Captain,” Riker said, nodding.
The sergeant was an older man with leathery skin, a bionic eye and a fully bionic arm. The sergeant had lost the eye and arm in a blast many years ago on a desperate mission on Altair III. Some time ago in the Destroyer
, Riker had lost the bionic arm. His latest model had a few advanced features compared to the previous arm. Riker was a salty operative, fiercely loyal but cranky at times. The Old Guard in Intelligence believed he acted as a foil for Maddox.
“Here you go, sir,” Riker said, handing over several loaded magazines.
Maddox slid one into his service pistol.
Riker adjusted the controls, taking the flitter up.
“Head to Woo Tower,” Maddox said, shoving the pistol into its holster.
“Begging your pardon, sir, but the Iron Lady would like a few words with you first.”
“In time,” Maddox said, “in time.”
“Sir—” Riker said.
“You can tell the brigadier that I was in such a hurry that you forgot to relay the message.”
“Sir—”
“Take us down, Sergeant. I want—”
“It’s time you learned to take orders better, Captain,” the brigadier said from the comm-unit in the dash.
Startled, Maddox quit peering outside and noticed Brigadier Mary O’Hara, the commander of Star Watch Intelligence, staring at him from the tiny dash screen. She had gray hair and a matronly image, and a reproving frown.
“Ma’am,” Maddox said. “This is a surprise.”
“So is your lack of judgment, Captain,” O’Hara said.
Maddox pursed his lips, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Riker gave him an I-tried-to-tell-you look. The captain was surprised he hadn’t noticed the screen being on as he’d entered. Could the drug still be having an effect on him?
“What happened tonight?” O’Hara asked him.
Maddox gave her a rundown of the situation, including his time in the Lin Ru.
“An android that looks like the Spacer ambassador,” O’Hara said. “That’s strange and ominous.”
Maddox nodded absently.
“Surely you see the connection, Captain,” O’Hara said.
“Connection?” he asked.
“With Professor Ludendorff,” she said.
“Ah. Yes, of course,” Maddox said. He should have seen it right away. The drug definitely still hindered his thinking.
During the Destroyer Incident, Starship Victory had been in the Xerxes System. The system contained a Builder pyramid. Fully functional Builder drones had appeared as well as New Men star cruisers. The New Men used the silver pyramids sprinkled throughout Human Space and in the Beyond to make one hundred light-year jumps. The pyramids contained Builder technology, as did the star cruisers. The point of the Iron Lady’s comment was Professor Ludendorff in particular. When the professor had gone to an asteroid base in the Xerxes System, he or the Builders, someone in any case, had made a switch with Ludendorff. A nearly comatose android looking like the professor had returned to Victory. Was there a connection to the Ludendorff android with the Esquire Noble one here in Shanghai?
“Have the Spacers been compromised?” O’Hara asked.
“That’s a serious allegation,” Maddox said, remembering with a grin that the Provost Officer had used the same term against him.
“You find that amusing, do you?” O’Hara asked.
“No, Ma’am,” Maddox said. “It’s dreadfully serious, if true.”
“Whoever is using androids fooled us once already. Without the assassination at headquarters—we might never have learned the truth about Ludendorff.”
An assassin among Lord High Admiral Cook’s guards had shattered the Ludendorff android’s head while in the custody of Star Watch. The act had saved the Commonwealth from giving high command to an android.
“This could be a much greater problem than I realized,” Maddox said thoughtfully. “If an android is running the Spacer embassy…”
O’Hara waited.
“If the Builders, or whoever, have slipped an android into Spacer high command, why use that android to capture me? That’s too small of a prize, considering the risk.”
“I can think of plenty of reasons why,” O’Hara said. “The most obvious is to make a switch. In fact…”
Maddox felt his heart rate accelerate. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He already had trouble with many in Star Watch. Too many distrusted him because of his hybrid nature. One of his anchors through all this had been Mary O’Hara. In many ways, she had been like a mother to him. She defended him when everyone else was ready to burn him as an unnecessary risk. Now, the Spacers, or this Esquire Noble android had cast doubt on him in the Iron Lady’s eyes.
“I suggest Star Watch give me a complete physical examination, Ma’am. If the Spacers have switched the real me with an android, I would like to know it.”
Her features had become pinched. “I do not want to order this, Captain.”
“I want you to, Ma’am. If our enemy can make us doubt each other, they’ll be halfway to victory. Without trust…”
“You’re right, Captain. I want you to head to Geneva on the double.”
“Headquarters doesn’t seem like the right place. If I’m comprised—”
“Captain, I am not in the habit of having my officers argue with me. You will proceed here at once. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“I need my best people, now more than ever. We’re finally on the offensive in ‘C’ Quadrant. That means we must be doubly on guard back here on Earth.”
“I’m on my way,” Maddox said. “Is there anything else?”
She hesitated before saying, “No. Until then, Captain.”
“Ma’am,” he said, clicking off the comm-unit afterward.
Riker glanced at him in a peculiar manner.
“You have something to say?” Maddox asked.
“Wouldn’t you know if you were an android, sir?”
Maddox took his time answering. “I’m wondering if the Ludendorff android knew it was a fake. No. It’s possible I wouldn’t know.”
“That isn’t reassuring, sir.”
Maddox shook his head. “No, it isn’t.” He positively hated the idea of being a fake. Also, if he was an android, where was the real Captain Maddox? Was that why he’d felt so fuzzy before, because he wasn’t really himself?
“Can’t you fly this thing any faster?” the captain demanded.
Riker glanced at him uneasily before accelerating, leaving the glittering lights of Shanghai far behind.
-5-
Captain Maddox sat stiffly on a hospital couch, stripped to his briefs. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. In fact, he almost seemed too lean until he moved. Then his muscles showed to startling effect.
“Now I understand why the brigadier wonders if you’re a living machine,” the doctor said in a jocular tone. “I’ve never seen anyone in such a high state of physical conditioning.”
Maddox refrained from responding. The more he dwelled on the subject, the less he liked it. Wasn’t the ancient dictum, “I think therefore I am?” He thought. Yet, he could be a pseudo-person. He found that more discomforting than ever.
“This might hurt,” the doctor told him. The older man in a white gown used a handheld device, holding it against the small of Maddox’s back. The thing hummed and an area there became cold. A moment later, Maddox could no longer feel the spot.
The doctor picked up a longish needle.
Maddox tried to ignore it, but he kept looking at the needle sideways.
“Steady now,” the doctor said. He put a warm hand on Maddox’s back and pushed the needle in the numb area.
The captain clicked his teeth together, holding himself perfectly still.
“Interesting,” the doctor muttered.
“What is it?” Maddox whispered.
“Just a minute,” the older man said. He pulled out the needle.
Maddox looked back, seeing blood in the hypodermic. “Does that mean it’s me?”
“I’ll be right back,” the doctor said, refusing to meet his gaze. The man hurried from the room, holding the hypodermic as if it were a prize.
For
just a moment while the door was open, Maddox saw Marines outside, armed and stoic-faced. This was serious business.
The captain hopped off the crinkling white paper. He reached back, probing with his fingers. The spot was still numb. He withdrew his hand and saw a speck of blood on a fingertip. In his hurry to leave, the doctor hadn’t swabbed or bandaged the area.
Maddox remedied that, although it proved awkward. Using a mirror to help him see, he pressed a bandage on the area. Then, he put on his uniform. Riker had brought him straight to the Navy hospital in Geneva at Star Watch Headquarters.
After closing the last button, Maddox began to pace. His mental unease surprised him. How could he doubt who he was? If he hadn’t seen the Ludendorff android assassinated many months ago, he wouldn’t be having such a hard time with this. The android had given every indication of being Ludendorff, even managing to infuriate just about everyone.
What had happened to the real professor? Maddox liked to think the man had survived his fate in the Xerxes System. Had the Builders scooped him up? Had Ludendorff fallen prey to the New Men stationed there? Had the professor slipped away into the Beyond, chuckling at his devilish cleverness?
The door opened.
Maddox spun around, relieved to see that it was the doctor. “Well?” he asked.
“You’re human,” the doctor said. “Uh, well…” the man hesitated awkwardly.
“I’m half human, you mean to say.”
“No. You’re fully human. But…”
“But part of me is mutated New Man.”
The doctor nodded, still unwilling to meet his gaze. “You’re free to go, Captain.”
“Just like that, eh?” Maddox asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Do you know that I’ve—? Oh, never mind.”
“Is something wrong, young man?”
Maddox shook his head, although inside he was nodding. There was something wrong, all right. He had doubted himself.
As he left the examining room and the Marine guards behind, Maddox thought about that. Causing a man to doubt his very identity could be a powerful weapon. Such a moment would be the perfect time for an enemy to strike.
The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) Page 6
