Tek Secret

by William Shatner

  “How?”

  “You never quit, do you, even now? Maybe you thought I was lazy back then and couldn’t have worked to ... That’s not important. What’s important is you have to tell me where she is.”

  Leaning back in his chair, his father took a slow, wheezing breath. “We entered into an arrangement with a government intelligence agency,” he began, his weary voice taking on a droning quality. “Owen set it up initially, suggested the whole idea to a friend of his in the Office of Clandestine Operations. It’s possible, you see, to rig our more sophisticated mechanisms, program them to ... He paused, concentrating on breathing carefully in and out. “I didn’t approve of it, but I found I wasn’t up to going against Owen or Myra Ettinger.”

  “Program them how—to do what?”

  His father’s voice grew fainter. “In South America and Central America, you see, there were—”

  “I can’t catch what you’re saying.”

  “The deaths in South America—I never quite got used to that,” Bernard went on. “The OCO has relationships with certain Tek cartels down there and some of the profits are channeled into providing weapons for factions across Latin America, factions that the OCO approves of but can’t openly support.”

  “Where do you and Mechanix fit in?”

  “Owen and Myra and I, along with some OCO agents, worked out a way to modify certain of our robots and androids,” the older man said, his voice still weak. “They could be used then to ... well, you might say they served as assassins.”

  “Assassins—you mean you rigged them to explode like those kamikaze androids the Teklords use to kill each other?”

  “No, nothing that crude, nothing so obvious and traceable,” said Bernard. “But a robot butler, for example, could be rigged so that he would see to it that his master fell over a railing or drowned in the tub. A robot nurse might arrange things so that her patient seemed to have died during the night of natural—”

  “What the hell does this have to do with Alicia?”

  Bernard rested both his thin hands on his desk, linking the fingers. “She happened—it was purely by chance—to overhear her father talking to an OCO agent named Juri Treska. That was at their home. There was also a list of the proposed targets for—”

  “That’s what you call them? They’re people.”

  “Alicia saw the list.”

  “It was just before she was sent to Mentor, wasn’t it?”

  His father nodded slowly. “Yes. There was no breakdown.”

  “And what did they do to her there—a mindwipe or some kind of surgery?”

  “The OCO and Myra wanted simply to kill her. Owen and I—”

  “Oh, yes, of course, yes. You’re such a humane guy and her god damn father—sure, he loves her,” said Barry loudly. “No, Owen Bower wouldn’t let them hurt her. He’d just ship her off to that electronic bedlam and let them poke—”

  “You have to understand, son, that Owen had to do something.”

  “No, I don’t understand. He never had to let his mechanisms be used to kill people, he never had to let his own daughter—”

  “Owen felt otherwise.”

  Barry asked evenly, “Is that where she is again—back at the Mentor Centre?”

  “She was there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s confusing,” said his father. “One of the OCO agents who was there was injured and ... Myra suspects something has happened, though nobody at Mentor will admit it. She thinks Alicia escaped somehow.”

  “Then where is she?”

  “We’re not certain. There is the possibility she’s still there.” Barry asked him, “What about Roger? Did they haul him off to—”

  “No, he’s here.” He, very slowly, got to his feet. “We’ll go find him.”

  41

  MYRA ETTINGER WAS NOT pleased. “Bernard, you know how I feel about your barging into my office without—”

  “It’s too late,” he told her.

  She looked from him to his son. “You’re not looking all that well, Barry,” she said, lighting a fresh cigarette and exhaling smoke. “I’d say you left that hospital too soon and—”

  “Where’s Roger?”

  “What makes you think that I—”

  “Myra, drop it,” said Bernard. “I told him.”

  She took another long, slow drag on the tobacco cigarette. “Told him what, dear heart?”

  “Just about everything. I know you’ve got Roger held here in the Medical Wing, waiting until—”

  “You damn idiot, there was no need to blurt out every god damned—” The vidphone beside her chair buzzed. “Hold on, Bernard.” She snatched up the instrument. “Yes—what?”

  “Turn on the Newz channel,” Juri Treska told her.

  “Darling, I’m in the middle of an important conference and I really don’t have time—”

  “Just turn it on, you bitch.” The phonescreen went blank.

  Frowning, Myra poked a button on the arm of her chair.

  The vidwall screen across the room came to life. There was Natalie Dent, sitting behind a realwood desk and looking directly at them. “These assassinations,” she was saying, “the ones that have already taken place and those that are set for the upcoming weeks, were planned by the Office of Clandestine Operations and, we have strong reason to believe, also involved the active participation of several key executives of the powerful Mechanix International organization. Before I give you further details, let me repeat the list of victims and intended victims. They are Antonio Corte—”

  “Well,” said Myra after clicking off the wall. “This changes the situation, doesn’t it?” Snuffing out her cigarette, she got up.

  “It doesn’t change a damn thing,” said Barry. “You’re still going to take us to Roger.”

  “No, not really,” she said, laughing. “What I’m really going to do is get home as quickly as I can, pack a bag and head for a remote spot in Mexico. The bank accounts I’ve been building up across the border will—”

  “Myra, you’re going to do what we tell you.” Bernard fumbled in his jacket pocket and got out a lazgun. “I don’t need you to get Roger out, but I’ll feel a lot safer if you come along with us.”

  She laughed again, shook her head, and started for the door. “I don’t think, dear heart, that you have the balls to shoot me.”

  But he did.

  Alicia caught up with Jake in the forest. He was sitting on a real log beside a simulated pond that was circled by projected pines.

  Stopping a few feet from him, the young woman said, “We dredged up some more memories.”

  “So I heard.”

  The simulated leaves crackled realistically as she walked over to sit beside him. “Earlier stuff,” she explained, “also obligingly blocked off by Dr. Spearman.”

  “You don’t,” he told her, “have to tell me about any—”

  “But I want to—if you don’t mind.”

  “Go ahead, sure.”

  After nearly a minute, Alicia continued. “I don’t think I want to invite you to a screening of these new memories,” she said. “I’m pretty quick, too much so maybe, at judging people. So I’ve already decided I can trust you.”

  “Trustworthy Jake Cardigan they call me.”

  Reaching over, she took hold of his hand. “After my mother died ... my father started drinking a lot.” She looked away from Jake toward the believable pond. “That turned him ... well, nasty. He ... um ... hit me a couple times. But that’s not what bothered me the most. It was ... what he said to me.” Her hand gripped his tighter. “What people say to you, people you love, that can hurt you a hell of a lot more than ... Pausing, she shook her head and started, quietly, to cry. “Jesus, I’m just sitting here babbling clichés. Sorry.”

  A real raccoon came waddling, very cautiously, out of the holographic woods. He halted on the far side of the pond, watching them with his bandit eyes.

  Jake asked her, “What’d he say?” />
  “I was a wild kid,” Alicia said. “Always getting in trouble at school ... and a lot of other places. He told me, over and over, that ... that I’d broken my mother’s heart and made her so sick of me that ... that she died.”

  “That’s not what kills people.”

  “He said ... he said that if they’d given him a choice ... he’d sure as hell have been happier if I’d died and my mother had gone on living.” Alicia bowed her head for a few seconds, sniffling. “After awhile, I guess I started agreeing with him. Eventually he quit the heavy drinking, but he never apologized. I ... as I got older I must’ve figured if I couldn’t please him ... well, there were a lot of other men, especially older men, that I could please.” She shook her head again, laughing briefly in a thin, sad way. “You’re lucky, Jake, that you didn’t know me back then. I’d probably have gone after you.”

  Jake said nothing.

  “The first time he sent me to Spearman—I can remember now what he told me to justify that. He said it was because it was dangerous for me to know what they were planning. He, of course, trusted me, but the government people he was dealing with—he was afraid they’d kill me or lock me away somewhere. Because if I told what I knew, it would wreck their whole plan. So, because he loved me so deeply, he was sending me to Mentor to have them get rid of all the dangerous knowledge I’d accidentally picked up. Really, he swore to me, it was for my own good.”

  Jake said, “That was one of my father’s favorite phrases.”

  She said, “My visit with Spearman convinced my father that Mentor was handy for potentially dangerous situations. That’s why, when I started to remember again, he arranged for Sam Trinity to collect me for a return trip.”

  Jake asked, “Are you ready to go home?”

  “Probably by tomorrow,” she answered. “Now that, thanks to you and your friends at Newz, most of the story is out in the open—Nobody has any reason to try to keep me quiet.”

  “They’ll be too busy covering their backsides.”

  She took his hand again. “I know I’m not your client officially,” she said, “but can you do something, one more favor for me, Jake?”

  “Probably. What do you need?”

  “I’d like to go see my father, one last time this’ll be. As soon as he’s better, that is. Then I want to tell him, face to face, that I know what he did to me,” she said. “That, I really think, ought to do me a lot of good.”

  “I can escort you to wherever he is, sure. But maybe Barry’s the one who—”

  “No, not him,” she said. “This is a tough thing to say, since if it weren’t for Barry, I’d still be locked away in Mentor and I wouldn’t know any of what I know now. The thing is, well ... She shook her head. “I have to do some thinking about Barry and me and whether we’re going to continue together. I’m not exactly, am I, the same person I was the last time he saw me?”

  “Not exactly, no.”

  “That’s why I’d like you to accompany me to this showdown and—”

  Off in the woods hurrying footsteps sounded, leaves crackled and a twig snapped.

  Jake jumped to his feet, yanking out his stungun.

  “Take it easy, Jake,” called Maggie. “Don’t mow me down.” She came limping into the clearing.

  “Anything wrong?” he asked.

  “In a way.” She made her way up to them.

  Across the simulated pond the raccoon turned away and went hurrying off.

  Alicia slowly stood. “What is it, Maggie?”

  “I thought I’d best come tell you,” she said. “This just came over the vidnews. Your father died early this morning, Alicia. Natural causes.”

  Alicia lowered her head for a few seconds, then looked up at Jake. “He cheated me,” she said to him. “Now I can’t ever tell him that I knew.”

  He said, “What’s important is that you know.”

  “And I’ll have to go into mourning,” she said. “Not for him, but for the man I thought he was.”

  A Biography of William Shatner

  William Shatner (b. 1931) is a celebrated Canadian actor, author, and film director known for his irreverent charm and his star turn as Captain Kirk on the first Star Trek television series, as well as many other roles.

  Shatner was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. He majored in economics at McGill University and upon graduating took a job as the business manager at Montreal’s Mountain Playhouse, where he also pursued classical Shakespearean training. In 1954, Shatner began performing at Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival, appearing in Henry V, Oedipus Rex, and Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great—the play in which he would make his Broadway debut in 1956, as the understudy for Christopher Plummer.

  After his first film appearance, in MGM’s The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and roles in the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, Shatner was cast in NBC’s Star Trek, playing the courageous, unpredictable Captain James T. Kirk. Though cancelled in 1969 after three seasons, Star Trek became a cult hit in syndication, leading to an animated series and a number of spin-off television series and movies. Shatner starred in seven Star Trek films beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.

  Shatner went on to star as a veteran police sergeant in T. J. Hooker (1982–86) and as aging trial lawyer Denny Crane in Boston Legal (2004–08). He has also remained in the public eye with frequent television guest appearances.

  Shatner has published a number of novels, most notably TekWar (1989), a science-fiction thriller that inspired eight sequels as well as video games and a television series. His autobiography, Up Till Now, was published in 2008. He has also released three musical albums, including the infamous The Transformed Man (1968), which introduced Shatner’s unique spoken-word style, and the critically lauded Seeking Major Tom (2011).

  In 2012, Shatner returned to Broadway after a fifty-year absence, in Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It, a one-man show based on his life and work. After a three-week run in New York City, he took the show on the road, touring around the country. When he isn’t working, Shatner and his wife, Elizabeth, divide their time between Southern California and Kentucky.

  After graduating from McGill University in 1952, William Shatner began participating in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. This headshot dates from his early days with the festival. (Photo Courtesy of William Shatner.)

  Star Trek, the iconic science-fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise and its crew, led by Captain James T. Kirk, played by Shatner. The series first aired between 1966 and 1969. Shatner’s voice-over before each episode explained the starship’s mission: “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” This photo shows the crew from the original Star Trek. (Photo courtesy of Photofest, Inc.)

  Shatner’s debut musical album, The Transformed Man, was released in 1968 while he was still starring in Star Trek. The concept album combined famous pieces of poetry with pop lyrics; for instance, Shatner read Bob Dylan’s lyrics alongside Shakespeare’s verses. (Photo courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises.)

  To help the Gorilla Foundation raise awareness for their endangered species campaign, Shatner met Koko, the gorilla who became the foundation’s ambassador, in 1988. Koko can understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language and more than 2,000 English words. Shatner was awed by the strength of this imposing and powerful animal and considered meeting her a truly amazing experience. (Photo courtesy of William Shatner.)

  Shatner recorded his second musical album, Has Been, in 2004. Produced and arranged by Ben Folds, the album featured Shatner’s prose-poems as well as guest appearances from Aimee Mann, Nick Hornby, Lemon Jelly, and Joe Jackson. In 2007, choreographer Margo Sappington used the album for a ballet called Common People. Shatner filmed documentary footage of their collaboration and released a film called William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Shout! Factory, LLC.)

&nbs
p; In 2004, Shatner joined the final season of the legal drama The Practice and won an Emmy for his role as law firm partner Denny Crane. In a 2004 spin-off, Boston Legal, Shatner continued to play Crane, winning a Golden Globe and another Emmy in 2005. He was nominated for several more Emmys before the show ended in 2008. This photo shows the crew of Boston Legal. (Photo courtesy of Photofest, Inc.)

  Shatner and his wife, Elizabeth, with their horses. Shatner spends much of his spare time breeding and showing American saddlebreds and quarter horses. (Photo courtesy of Andrew McPherson.)

  Shatner with his champion American saddlebred stallion, Sultan’s Great Day. (Photo courtesy of William Shatner.)

  Acknowledgements

  The TEK tsunami continues ...

  A ripple of enthusiasm from Marvel Comics’ TekWorld, ending its first year.

  A riptide of interest and the fifth book is in print.

  A deluge of creativity and TekWar, the movies, are being readied for presentation at the beginning of 1994.

  Causing all these undercurrents are ...

  First and foremost, Ron Goulart, who has aided and abetted me in all five books.

  Fabian Nicieza at Marvel Comics and his brilliant team ... and the wonderful group of filmmakers at MCA and Atlantic Films bringing to life on the screen fantasies that, until now, resided on the pages of the Tek novels.

  And pooling everybody’s talents is Carmen LaVia, agent extraordinaire, at the Fifi Oscard Agency.

  Other invaluable surfers on our journey are Roger Cooper, Susan Allison, and Ivy Fischer Stone.

  All of you have my gratitude.

  One can only speculate on what the future holds ...

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