Jason had defeated Faust, but at a cost far more than he could face.
He struck the ground, still tightly clinging to his long-time and most beloved friend.
Nineteen
THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS were still intact after the wide-spread destruction from the battle several weeks prior. The ruined remains of the southern tower, where the final battle had mostly occurred, jutted up out of the main complex like a jagged tooth. Water damage on the lower levels had crippled power systems and environmental controls. Debris from vehicles and the collapse of the tower had damaged large areas, but the rest of the sprawling building stood mostly unharmed. Including the central audience chambers.
The remaining members of the Council were seated in their elevated boxes, their faces displayed across huge screens. A large audience had gathered for the hearing, since public outrage and grief had driven hordes of people to demand answers.
Emma Garbine sat quietly, observing the mill of bodies as the press found their places. Projections of the Council lit up far above.
The speaker, Arkine Feit, called the council into session. While old, his muscular frame and imposing figure gave him a physically compelling command of the session. Dark eyes, still cunning, and a masculine jaw and heavy brows gave him an air of authority.
“We have come together today to discuss information regarding the terrorist activities which have caused our Sector so much grief. I imagine there will be many questions from our media attendees, and it will take months to truly sort things out, but we hope to begin reparations and the long journey toward discovery by meeting today.
“First, I would like to congratulate Director Emma Garbine on her most recent promotion. Director, we look forward to working with you and know the burden to provide answers will be great. I hope we can help you in whatever way you may need.”
Far below them, opposite the vast gap from where the council sat, and where presenters and petitioners were always seated, Emma looked up at the Council calmly. Her face appeared on massive screens so she could be equally visible.
With a calmness she didn’t feel, Emma nodded her head in thanks. “I appreciate your acknowledgement of the time and effort it will take. Thank you. I’m sure we will have all the resources we require. Even now, we are working with the Techs to categorize the damage, and repairs are underway for the dam. The flooding will have completely subsided in a few more days, and we can begin the process of rebuilding. I appreciate you entrusting me to head these efforts.”
Council member Nigh interrupted. “Do we have an accurate idea of who is missing? How many lives were lost to this treachery?”
Emma nodded to the tiny woman on the screen above. “We do. The numbers are high, unfortunately. A total of 142,611 are confirmed dead. 368,004 are still missing. Efforts are underway to track down the missing people and we hope to discover many were simply displaced during the evacuation. Every effort is being made to find these people and help them with whatever food and water they may need until we can get them set up in temporary housing. We must face facts, however. There is a tremendous amount of rubble being cleared and we believe the death count will soar.”
Arkine closed his eyes, brows seemingly knitted in pain. “I see.” After a moment he said, “And what of the accused?”
“He will survive, though his recovery will take months.”
The speaker scowled darkly. Several of the Council members exchanged worried glances. “Survive? How is this possible?” said one. “He fell from a great height!” said another. Arkine digested this for a moment, then his face took on a look of harsh resolve. “How long for him to be well enough to be brought before the Council for sentencing?”
Emma pursed her lips. “He may awaken from his coma in a couple of weeks, at which time he could receive judgment over a video feed from his care unit. He cannot be moved for quite some time, so could not be physically present.”
“Let’s plan on a video sentencing, then. I want this criminal held accountable and we must show the public we act swiftly. Notify us the moment he wakes up.” He scratched absently at his grey stubble. “I almost wish we still had the death penalty. He should not have survived the fall. I want an explanation. Considering his research, it’s probable there is an unknown factor here.”
Emma didn’t comment, sensing she was not expected to do so. This allowed her to keep some secrets.
“And what of the technology? This research? Where will it go from here? There are many of us who still see this as an amazing step forward.”
Emma sighed. “Much of the research is unclear. The records were heavily guarded and controlled. Faust’s paranoia permeated much of his research. The quantum encryption he used is impossible to break. We will start piecing everything together as we are able, but it will take years to reconstruct what has been lost. The data thus far is not promising. As with everyone treated so far, there have been severe reactions and the treatment results in insanity and death.”
“I see. Do you believe this rogue research could be responsible for what happened? Should the prisoner be shown some leniency in this regard? Was his mind torn asunder and left without reason?” The members of the press stirred at this suggestion. The other Council members seemed taken off guard and a few of them did not looked pleased.
“No. The facts are inescapable. The accused acted with enough situational awareness and purpose to be clearly capable of rationalizing his decisions. The investigators will show he knew what he was doing, so his punishments are merited. Proper precautions will be taken to eliminate his influences.”
“We see you have filed your report, incomplete as it is.” Arkine turned his head, which gazed down from the massive projection to look down at the press who’d been seated in a huge section of the circular hall. “I know there are a lot of questions and I appreciate the gravity of this disaster. A full version of the report is now available for you. We will adjourn for a few hours and then take questions once you’ve had time to glance over the findings. With that said, please be back here at 13:00 for a general discussion and to open the floor to questions.”
A subdued roar of conversation arose from the members of the press as they began to talk amongst themselves. Emma quietly stepped out of her box through the doorway into the hall. Several guards stepped in to escort her. She walked briskly down to the inner-building transport, an oval pod of white metal and glass, and gave verbal instructions to be taken to her private transport. She stepped into the pod, sitting on an uncomfortable chair made of matching white material. The glass door slid closed and a gravity dampening field came into effect as the pod launched quickly down the transport shaft to where her personal antigravity vehicle awaited.
Emma sat quietly for the short trip, thoughts tumbling through her head. She stepped out of the pod when it came to an abrupt stop and made her way to her private vehicle, which hovered just outside the building. While not large, it was far more luxurious than the tiny transport pod. She sat in her comfortable chair and flicked her fingers to pull up a viewing screen. A great many people were shying away from aerial transport after the attack. A pointless fear, of course. If anything, transport had been made safer than ever with the new security protocols employed.
Her vehicle carried her toward the medical administrative complex, and she spent a few minutes filing some more of the report data and sending out directives during the trip. By the time she landed, she’d been fully updated on the small progress made this morning. The death toll had risen considerably, just as she’d predicted.
Emma sighed, massaging a couple of fingers into her temple. The year ahead would be a long one. She stepped out of her transport and into the receiving bay of the hospital. A number of robots quickly surrounded her. Knowing she couldn’t dismiss them, as they were assigned for her security, she ignored them and hurried toward a recently repaired section of the building, which had been damaged during the flood. While this lab and the medical treatment centers were far above flood level
, a nearby structure had toppled against the facility.
As she wound her way toward the central part of the complex, she approached a classified area, unknown to all but a handful of people. Marked as “off limits” to everyone accept her. She’d even managed to institute the prevention of robots from entering or leaving. The entire area had been built as an enhanced Faraday cage. Electromagnetic pulses were triggered in the hallway, so anyone entering or leaving would be subjected to them, which would disable and destroy all technology. There could be no risk of bringing anything technological into the holding cells. Not with this prisoner.
She motioned for her robot guards to stand outside the doors and then walked through the disruption fields—large panels on either side of her that swiveled in various directions as they pulsed. At the end of the hall she pressed her finger against a DNA recognition panel. The doors slid aside, and she walked through. Ever the cautious person, she proceeded to another area where a second Faraday cage enclosed a set of rooms. This set required several forms of verification, including an organic DNA key that was not hers. The DNA belonged to the prisoner and was then recombined in an encrypted sequence. The cipher for this recombination was present only in her key and matched to this one lock.
She entered the secondary location and walked up to a plain white door. It opened without challenge and she continued into a large and well-furnished set of apartments.
“Well, the conference went as expected.” She sat in one of the many comfortable chairs and faced the two men sitting opposite her.
“We assume you were able to delay.” Seven sat very still, an eerie characteristic he’d acquired as a Tech. He evinced slightly more human characteristics and charm since his interactions with Jason, but hardly what anyone would consider warm or engaging. Emma still found him to be fairly stoic and cold.
She nodded. “Yes, I found a way to prevent immediate action. We’ll have to stage several video feeds to pull off the charade, but I bought us a few weeks.”
Jason sipped some tea. He put one hand on Seven’s leg and the Tech smiled faintly. Emma couldn’t understand he attraction, but it hardly mattered. They clearly were in love.
Jason said, “I really appreciate what you’re doing. I’m so sorry to have put you in this position. Did they say what my sentence will be? I’ve kept my nannies out of the central chamber for moral reasons.”
Emma decided she wanted a cup of tea herself, leaning forward to take the second cup that was probably there for Seven, and poured from the teapot on the table that sat between them. “No. But we both know it will be permanent incarceration at the Sector Seven prison complex. I’m sorry, Jason, but life in prison for you will be something far worse than they imagine. None of them know you have the immortality drug. We’ve obscured and hidden most of what happened along with the research and, as far as they know, Faust died when Monica crushed the bastard’s skull. Not when he took over Nine and proved out much of the research.
“Unfortunately, this story means we can’t give a proper defense for your actions and it will look as if you attacked and killed Nine on top of your terrorist crimes against the city. To the Council, it looks like you launched an attack and then Nine tried to stop you. Are you sure you don’t want to just come forward with all the data? The Council may be lenient if they understand fully what happened.”
He shook his head. “No. Revealing the technology and the resulting issues will just raise more questions. We’ll have hundreds of scientists demanding the research and this will blow up all over again. If we let this happen, we’d end up with dozens of Fausts, all vying for control.”
The weight of the destruction clearly wore on him. Emma could see it in his face. Though he was physically too in control to show signs of stress like bags under his eyes or other normal human frailties, she knew his expressions well.
“Besides,” Jason said, “we all know how much death I caused. I deserve my fate.”
Seven frowned at this. “You have refused to acknowledge no other way existed. High treason and the destruction you have caused is better than wiping out humanity in favor of a single-minded race of Faust replicas. The number of lives you saved is vast.”
“I know you keep saying that, but I almost believe if we’d just have stayed hidden, I could have infested the complex and destroyed Faust without harm to anyone else.” Jason sat his tea cup down on the table, leaning toward Seven.
The Tech still showed no real expression and sat like a statue. It made Emma want to fidget to compensate and she found herself sipping the tea more quickly than she intended.
Tarien said, “No. You fail to understand. All factors that came into play led only to one outcome. Your nannites only permeated Faust and allowed you to cripple him when you were physically present. Otherwise, reaching him would have taken days. Days in which you would be exposed. You also lacked understanding of how to control or use the nannites and couldn’t hide in the cage for long. You needed to be in contact with the nannites and required my uplinks to bring flying vehicles close enough to infect and spread them. Spreading them far enough would have otherwise taken far too long. But exposure to your technology meant exposure to being located. You had to be able to defend yourself, stay free, defeat the military. We could conceive of no other way to accomplish this.”
Emma saw Jason fighting tears. Saw his jaw clench. Rather than offer a smile or a word of support, she found herself looking away.
Seven continued. “If you’d tried to wait Faust out, you would have taken too long. By the time you would be ready, Faust would have transferred to Nine and begun his enslavement. Even without being pressured, he would have taken this step quickly. With his authority bestowed by his sinister trick in the Council chambers to grant him emergency powers, coupled with his ability to access the WorldNet without buffer, he would have figured out how you had remained hidden. He would have deduced you designed new nannites outside of his control. He already knew you’d come up with an alternative. It’s how you escaped from him, after all. With his abilities, he could detect them and develop a parasitic counter. You would have lacked my aid if we had not intervened, and your natural ability to access data would have been too primitive to stop him. With you out of the way, Faust would have overrun the Techs in a matter of a days. The path we took held the highest probability of success, and we could not risk lower odds. That was the price, Jason. You alone paid it for all of humanity. It is a debt on your soul that we cannot repay. Remember what price would have been paid if you had failed.”
Jason’s face became pained and he began to weep quietly. Emma wished she could console him. But in a way, she agreed with Jason. What he had done was unfathomable. Despite Seven claiming there was no other way, Emma did not believe she could have made the decision to slaughter so many. “Maybe lower odds would have saved Monica.”
This evoked a startled and pained look in the Tech, breaking his stone-like façade. Seven put an arm on Jason’s shoulder. “We are so sorry. I know how much this hurt you personally. It is an overwhelming feeling to know we manipulated you into this, used you as a pawn to accomplish what nobody else could accomplish. We, all of us, are grateful to you for this.”
Jason smiled through his tears. “I know. And I don’t blame you or harbor resentment. I just hurt. As much as my punishment scares me, I deserve it. In a few years, maybe a decade or two, they’ll start to realize I’m not aging. Then they’ll realize something has been hidden from them. The questions will start flying and this will blow wide open. They’ll also realize my punishment is far greater than they supposed. Unless I end it myself, I will live indefinitely inside this specialized prison.”
Emma watched the exchange quietly. She set her cup down beside Jason’s, clearing her throat. An odd desire for windows struck her. Seeing natural light would somehow lift the darkness present. Emma would never risk such a thing, however, and the walls remained bare. “Yes, probably. But their discovery will give us an opening to exonerate you, s
ince the hidden information will no longer need to be kept out of their hands. It may not be forever, Jason. If I’m still around, still in a position to help, I will.” She tried to give him a reassuring smile, though it was forced. “You have a few weeks of relative freedom to spend with Seven. Take this time to charge up your resolve to see this through, even though it may take a very, very long time.”
“How’s Eve? And Ephrom?”
Emma expected this. “Quite well. Both of them were intrigued by the process once they overcame the shock and fear. They returned to work and are quite productive in the lab.”
Emma could tell he hated to ask the next question. “And, Jenn? Is she—after everything I did to her, is she going to have anything close to a normal life?”
Emma knew this would have possibly destroyed him. Fortunately, she had good news. “Actually, Jason, she’s doing well. We have used positive reinforcement therapy to address the shock and trauma. Her physical condition is a remarkable recovery, thanks to your instructions on how to rebuild her burned out neural pathways. She is certainly much less sure of herself, but we feel confident this will change in time. She has been physically enhanced per your instructions and to her specifications. The nannies you supplied did their job and then erased themselves. She is quite happy with the results and she knows it was a gift from you, though she believes it came far before your criminal behavior. She considers you a monster, but this did help her.”
Jason sighed in relief. “That’s good to hear. I am a monster, so there’s no reason she should be told otherwise. Just one more crime I deserve imprisonment over.”
Sector Seven Page 34
