REV- Renegades

by T. R. Harris

  Ashley stared at the general with her mouth open, before saying, “You’re fucking kidding me? You think the Antaere would destroy their own Temple? You don’t know them very well, do you?”

  “It makes sense,” Zac said, his face serious and intense. “Look what’s happened since then. The tide of the war has turned…and parents are using our pictures to scare their children. Besides, it was just a building. The Antaere built it more as a way to take the pressure off them having to let their new worshippers come to Antara to bask in the glow of the Order. And if we’re right, the documents are still intact, so no actual harm was done.”

  “And you’ve come here expecting to find these hidden documents, the most precious artifacts of the Order?”

  “This set of them, anyway,” Angus said, wanting to get his two cents in.

  “And you expect to play Indiana Jones and go out looking for them here on Iz’zar? I can tell you, I haven’t heard any rumors—nothing—that the documents survived the Temple’s destruction.”

  “Of course not,” Zac snapped. “That would indicate prior knowledge of the attack.” He looked at his two companions then back to the attractive spy. “What do you know about this weapons depot the Antaere have near here?”

  Ashley recoiled. “You’re not suggesting the Antaere have hidden the documents away in there? That would be crazy. One well-place bomb and the whole place would go up. Hardly the location I’d choose to hide something ten times more valuable than the Declaration of Independence.”

  Zac looked at Gen. Smith, fire in his eyes. “Is this supposed to be your super-agent? She doesn’t seem to have much of an imagination.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who blew up the Temple of Light and set the whole Grid on fire.”

  “Calm down, you two,” Gen. Smith ordered. “It’s premature to even be considering the depot as the hiding place for the documents. First, we have to find the researcher, this Dr. Davide Caspary. I’m not about to launch another mission until we know exactly what the Corollary says.”

  Ashley’s eyes grew wide. “Caspary? You came looking for him, too? Well, you’ll be waiting around until the Final Glory for that to happen, if you believe in the Order.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Zac asked.

  “He’s dead. He was killed a little over a month ago.”

  “Shit!” Zac exclaimed. “How did it happen?”

  “A mugging and robbery. Yeah, that happens even here in Paradise.”

  Zac turned to Gen. Smith. “He had to leave notes. He’s a damn scholar, for Christ’s sake. They’re all about writing things down.”

  “And how to you suppose the three of us can get out of here to go foraging through his belongings, even if they’re still at his house?” Smitty asked out of frustration.

  “He has a wife. She still lives there,” the spy said.

  Zac pointed at Ashley as his answer.

  “I still can’t see how we can go there without raising suspicion,” said Smith.

  “Excuse me,” said Amber’s voice in the ears of the men. “The party is beginning to miss their guests of honor. I recommend you return immediately.”

  “They’re missing us at the party,” Smith said to his secret agent. “We have to get back. We’ll work on this problem later, when we have more time and privacy.”

  “No, I have an idea!” said Ashely. She turned to Smitty and Angus. “The two of you get back to the party. Leave Mr. Jones here with me.”

  “The name’s Murphy,” Zac corrected.

  The woman smirked. “I know who you are, lieutenant. The whole galaxy knows who you are.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked Gen. Smith.

  “I’m going to create a scandal. If anyone asks, tell them we’re in here. Now go. Hurry.”

  After Angus and Smith left the room, Ashley turned to a confused Zac Murphy. “Have your AI tell you when someone comes to the office.”

  “You just did; she hears what I hear.”

  “She?”

  “Yeah, we prefer it to her other avatar. Wait…someone’s in the hallway. It’s the Chancellor—”

  Ashley reached up and pulled his face to hers, planting a hard, wet kiss on his lips. The embrace lingered, longer than she expected, apparently. Her eyes opened, and she frowned, even as their lips remained glued together.

  Finally, the door to the office opened.

  “Oh my, I hope I’m not interrupting,” said Chancellor Lundquist with humor lines wrinkling the skin around his eyes.

  The two love-birds separated. “I’m so sorry, sir,” Ashley blushed.

  “It’s okay, Ms. Hunter, please carry on. And as for you, Mr. Jones…you don’t waste any time, do you?” Lundquist winked and then stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  “Okay,” said Zac, confused. “What exactly did that accomplish?”

  Ashley stepped over to the desk and picked up her jamming device.

  “It’s given us an excuse to go out on the town tomorrow, so I can show you the sites of my beloved enclave. We might even pay a visit to a grieving widow while we’re out. It’s the least we can do.”

  She turned off the jammer and placed it back under her colorful, form-fitting wrap. She smiled coyly as she left the room. Zac lingered a moment, watching Ashley from behind, and thinking this mission just got a lot more interesting….

  38

  The next morning, while Gen. Smith and Angus supervised the unloading of the small quantity of energy weapons, Ashley showed up in one of the Chancellor’s ancient Toyota 4-Runners.

  “I think Edward’s getting a kick out of playing matchmaker,” the spy said as Zac slipped into the passenger’s seat. “Be sure to buckle-up. Safety first, that’s my motto.”

  Zac looked at Ashley. “A little too much caffeine this morning?”

  “Caffeine is outlawed on Antaere worlds. It interferes with the unobstructed worship of the Order.”

  Zac’s jaw dropped open. “You’re kidding?”

  “Yeah, I am.” She grinned, revealing a perfect set of brilliant white teeth. “Remember, I’m a spy. You can’t believe anything I say.”

  Ashley steered the big SUV out of the spaceport and onto one of the main roads dissecting the Enclave. Only around forty-five thousand people lived within the compound walls, making it one of the smaller settlements. Forty years ago, when Humans first came to Iz’zar, a restriction was placed on the size of the enclave. The Antaere had been studying Humans for two hundred years prior to making contact, so they had a good idea how prolifically they bred. There was fear that over time the Humans would grow to number millions, even billions, on the colony worlds. This couldn’t be tolerated, by either the Antaere or their native hosts. The Humans had their own world, and no alien enclaves were being set up there. Besides, it was believed that once the planet accepted the Order as its world-wide religion, the Humans would return to their homeworld, with no need for the enclaves so they could be closer to the Order.

  When Humanity rejected the Antaere religion, it left the followers in the enclaves with no other option but to remain and make a life on the alien worlds. But that didn’t mean breeding their way to dominance. The Antaere made sure of that.

  Therefore, the population of the Harmony Enclave remained relatively stable. That didn’t mean Humans weren’t born and raised on Iz’zar. They were. But births and deaths were closely monitored, and couples could only have children when there was an opening to match a recent death. As a consequence, the average age of the Enclave was thirty-one, with the oldest in their late seventies. Three-quarters of all the current inhabitants had been born on Iz’zar and were therefore insulted when anyone called them immigrants.

  The Harmony Enclave was oval-shaped, and in the center were the government buildings and a small Temple to the Order. There were no sacred documents stored there, other than a few copies of the Book of Order, yet with none of the accompanying texts, and particularly none of the Corollaries.


  The Corollaries were a recent addition to the sacred texts, a collection of thirteen documents written to guide the Antaere in their handling of alien worshippers to their religion. The first several dealt mainly with logistics; how to convert, where to build temples, certain rites and ceremonies, and so forth. Other texts laid out the guidelines for what the aliens could and couldn’t see, including thousands of histories and ancient reports having to do with the wars that took place on the first five worlds the Antaere conquered. These texts were brutally straightforward, just like the Antaere. In their view, the aliens on the colony worlds did not need to know how the religion developed and the mistakes the Antaere made with the earlier ancient races, many of whom were now extinct. The later documents, including the infamous 13th Corollary, spoke of the end times—the Final Glory—when all believers in the Order would be granted eternal peace and unity. The only problem, according to what Zac and the others had heard, it was only the Antaere who would enjoy the blessing of eternal life and happiness. Everyone else would be killed.

  Zac explained this to Ashley as she guided him through the clean, yet crowded streets of Harmony Enclave.

  “And you believe this?” she asked aghast, making Zac believe she was a little more devout than she let on. “That’s…incredible.”

  “You know the Antaere,” Zac said. “Is it really? Those yellow-skinned bastards only care about themselves.”

  “And Humans don’t?”

  “Whose side are you on, Ashley?”

  She bit her lip in anger. “What I told you about where I was born and coming here six years ago…that was all bullshit. I did come here then, but I was assigned by Central Intelligence. The rest is all legend. I was born on Earth, in Buffalo, New York, if you have to know.”

  He hadn’t asked. He’d never been to Buffalo before, so he had no basis for reference whether that was good or bad.

  “I was just wondering why you find it so hard to believe the Antaere can be such cold-hearted killers?”

  “I don’t,” she huffed. “It’s just a little hard to swallow.”

  “I thought you knew all this. Weren’t you the one who sent the information to General Smith?”

  “I took a file from Dr. Caspary, encrypted it, and sent it along. I didn’t read it.”

  “Maybe you should have.”

  “Maybe….”

  With her temper still intact, Ashley pulled up to a small, single-story, freestanding building. Zac looked over at the well-kept front porch.

  “This is where Dr. Caspary’s widow lives,” Ashley explained. “Her name is Beth.”

  Zac took Ashley’s arm as she went to leave the SUV. “You know Caspary was murdered, don’t you? If the whole Temple mission was a set-up, they had to get rid of any witnesses, anyone who can claim what was really in the Final Corollary.”

  “I know that. The man gives me information he said could change the political and religious makeup of the Grid—and then he’s bludgeoned to death a year later. I’m not that dense, Mr. Murphy. I know he was killed. That’s why a struck up a friendship with Beth. People die all the time in the Enclave, but very few are murdered. As a representative of the government, I came first in an official capacity, and then as a friend. My being here will not raise suspicions.”

  “Call me Zac.” The REV smiled, glad to see a softening of Ashley’s face. “After all, we’re supposed to be an item.”

  They left the vehicle and went to the door. Beth Caspary was a plump woman in her late fifties with a pleasant face, stringy hair and an aversion to makeup. Her natural look had a warm, sincere quality to it. Zac liked her right off the bat.

  “My, Ashley Hunter, where did you find this one? I would have heard of someone this handsome in the Enclave. Is he a new arrival?”

  “He’s just visiting, Beth. I thought we’d come by and keep you company for a while.”

  “Visiting?” The woman frowned. “Not many Human visitors to Iz’zar these days. Did you come from one of the other Enclaves?”

  “Yes, from ES-7.” That was where Donovan and Kyle were stranded. It’s the only one he could think of at the moment.

  The woman remained frowning. “I hear the natives there are giving you a hard time. It’s a shame that other followers would distrust us so much, after so long among them.”

  “It’s working its way out. There will be peace soon.”

  “I hope so. We’ve been lucky here in Harmony, but still the restrictions that have been placed on us are upsetting.”

  Ashley stepped forward and took the woman by the shoulders and led her into the house. “I was telling my friend—Dan—about Davide’s studies, and how he had the honor to visit Antara.”

  “Three times,” Beth beamed. “No other Human researcher has ever been to the planet more times, and none have studied in the Hall of Records as Davide.”

  “Dan is a scholar, too. That’s why he’s here. He is to search the Temple ruins for any remains of the sacred texts.”

  Beth’s face turned hard. “That was a terrible thing. They went too far.” She looked around the room and through an open window. “I was born on Earth,” she said slyly. “But I converted. That doesn’t mean I condone the war or the way the Antaere treat the natives. However, the Temple was sacred. It wasn’t hurting anyone. I still don’t understand why those drugged-out killers would do such an awful thing.”

  “It’s a mystery, Beth, one we may never solve,’ said Ashley. “I was wondering if Dan could look over some of Davide records? It might help him sort out the remains of the sacred text from just ordinary paper.”

  “I have no problem with that, although, I must say he left things quite a mess.” She looked embarrassed as they entered Caspary’s study. “I haven’t moved anything since he died. I never went in here when he was alive; I see no reason why I would start now. I just wonder when they’ll start to work building a new Temple. It’s been long enough. We sure need one.”

  “Do you mind if I help Dan, with some of the native translations and such?”

  “Of course not, honey. You have been a good friend. As a matter of fact, I would appreciate if you in the government could just come and take this stuff away. I don’t want to go through it myself. It’s a sad reminder.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can donate some of the items to the Harmony Temple.”

  “That would be a great idea. We have so few holy documents of our own. I will fix us some tea.” Beth left the room.

  Zac leaned in close to Ashley. “Do you have any idea where he would keep his confidential records?”

  “Just so happens I do.” The room wasn’t so much a mess as it was full. There were paper documents—something you find a lot of in the enclaves—along with computer disks and datapads. Ashley moved to a closet and removed a stack of papers from in front of a file cabinet. She opened it and pointed inside the drawer.

  There was a solid metal case, welded to the back of the drawer.

  “That doesn’t look very secure,” Zac observed.

  “The cabinet is bolted into the wall. It can be removed, but not without a lot of effort.”

  There was a combination dial and latch on the top of the safe. “Do you have the combination?”

  “That I do not have.”

  Zac looked back at the door to the study. “Keep an eye out for Beth,” he instructed. Ashley didn’t move from his side but did turn half her attention toward the door.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Open it.”

  He reached in and took hold of the latch. He stared at the top of the safe, working internally to raise his blood pressure. He imagined a clock counting down, counting down to an incredible electric shock. His body cascaded, giving him a surge of energy and strength. He pulled on the latch and felt the metal give. The fact that everything was welded down gave him leverage, and the top door popped open, revealing the contents inside.

  “Holy crap,” Ashley said. “I could feel the heat from your b
ody three feet away. Was that some REV magic you just did or are you always that strong?”

  “A little cascading on demand, sweetheart. Now help me.”

  He began to pull out note books and a pair of old datapads. There were other papers in the safe, but mostly single sheets. There were also two bundles of Kalori credits, those used by the natives of Iz’zar. He took them out and carried the stacks to the desk.

  Beth entered a moment later, carrying a tray with three cups of steaming tea on it. She noticed the money right away.

  “Look what we found in the papers, Beth,” Ashely said excitedly. “It’s not a lot, but it will help.”

  “Davide left that?”

  “He sure did. Maybe just a little private savings in case of emergencies. He never got the chance to tell you about it.”

  Beth took the money. “He often spoke of his per diem payments from the university, but I never noticed any in our accounts.”

  “He was probably paid in cash. It’s all yours now, Beth.”

  The woman began to cry. “I’m sorry. Let me go collect myself.” She left the room, taking the money with her.

  Ashley and Zac tore into the notebooks, flipping pages, looking for any reference to Caspary’s last trip to Antara. Zac was desperate to learn if the scholar was working for the Antara by planting false information, or whether he actually saw what he reported?

  Ashely took a notebook while Zac took another. They were in their second set when Ashley gasped.

  “Here it is!” Zac scooted over close to her. “Dated entries, two years ago, local time. They appear to have been written after his return.”

  “Makes sense,” Zac said. “It would be dangerous to take notes on Antara, whether written or digital. You know they probably check everything in and out.”

  “They couldn’t screen his memories, though. Look, it says corollary.”

  Ashely fingered back through the notebook several pages until the first reference to the secret text was found.