by Jacob Gowans
“You want to do something tonight, Al?” Sammy asked him. “Play a game? Blastketball? I’m bored and Jeffie’s got a late shift at the data center.”
“Nah, I’m not feeling great, Sammy. Raincheck, okay?”
“Sure. Yeah.”
“In fact, I’m going to skip the subcommittee meeting. Tell the others I’ll try and make it tomorrow … if I’m feeling better.”
Sammy had the distinct impression that Al would not be feeling better tomorrow. His thoughts wandered during the subcommittee session from Jeffie to Al to the new baby to how long it had been since he’d eaten pizza. Nothing new was discussed, and when the meetings finally ended, Sammy felt more tired than he did after his regular exercise sessions with the other Psions.
Instead of heading home as he normally did, Sammy went to the cafeteria and made a pizza. He had to call in a few favors with the men and women in charge of the kitchens to do it, but when it was done it smelled just right. The cooks put it in a box and he drove it back to his house. Sammy knocked before letting himself inside. He found Al sitting in boxer shorts and an old t-shirt with four green aliens on it. One of the aliens was eating a slice of pizza. Sammy smiled at that.
Al’s face was redder and puffier than before. His eyes were watery with a tinge of red. He was either drunk or crying. Or both. It wasn’t until he spoke that Sammy knew.
“Hey,” he slurred, “how was the meeting?”
“I brought pizza.”
Al stared at the box for a long time. “I just wanna be alone, man.”
“Well, I don’t really want to go away. And, frankly, it’s my house. You can’t make me. But you can eat half of this pizza …”
Al’s teeth clenched together so hard they squeaked, and his hands balled into fists. Sammy thought things might get a little rowdy until Al’s hands relaxed. His whole body sagged. “I don’t want you seeing me like this, man. Can’t you just …” His voice cracked. “Can’t you go away?”
“I could. I probably should. But I keep thinking about when your dad made me honcho for the first time in the Arena. You remember that?”
“Not really,” Al mumbled.
Al’s answer deflated Sammy’s spirits. “Really? It was a first-to-three-victory match. I was against Marie and Kobe … you accused me of having a crush on Marie.”
Al snorted, then belched. “Oh, yeah, I do remember that.”
“You helped me get myself together.”
“So now you’re gonna do that for me?”
Sammy shook his head. “No, bro, I’m just here to eat some pizza with you. I made it myself.”
Al cleared three empty bottles of liquor off the coffee table to make room for the food. The longer they ate, the more the signs of Al’s drunken state wore off. It sometimes surprised Sammy that there was such a difference in their age. Al was almost twenty-one, but looked older. His face was getting puffy, his skin pale with a grayish tint, and the faintest of crow’s feet were creeping in at the corners of his eyes.
“I have a name for you to consider,” Sammy said.
Al raised an eyebrow. “For my daughter?”
Sammy nodded. “Mallory.”
Al snorted into his pizza. “I thought you were going to say Samantha.”
“Mallory is a portmanteau. A cross between Al and Marie.”
“That’s actually kind of clever. What does it mean?”
“I think it’s a type of duck.”
Al wagged a finger. “Mallard.” Then he grinned. “Not often that I know something you don’t.”
Sammy asked his com to look up the name Mallory. “On second thought, that’s not such a good idea. It means ‘misfortune or bad luck.’”
Al rolled his eyes. “Surprise, surprise. That’s my relationship with Marie to a T.”
“Are things really that bad?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it, Sammy.”
“You gotta talk to somebody. You know I won’t judge you. I like Marie. I like you. I have no horse in this race.”
“Bet you’d like to see me off your couch, though, right?”
Sammy laughed because it was true. “I think you’re fine until Brickert comes home. But I was wondering if you could give me some advice. What would you do differently if you could go back?”
Al stared at the wall blankly, his pizza hanging limply in his hand. “Marie, she—you know how you—I mean …” Al shook his head. “I don’t know what I’d do different. Maybe nothing … I don’t know, Sammy.” This statement made him laugh joylessly. “There’s your answer, man. I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I’m just a stupid waste of flesh. I mean, what am I good for?”
“That’s not true, Al. You’re my friend. I look up to you.”
“Please don’t. Please don’t be anything like me.”
Sammy frowned. “You gave me faith, Al. I didn’t believe in anything until I met you. I don’t know what I believe in, but I think there’s something out there … or someone. When all this is over, I want to pursue that belief and see where it leads me.”
“Me? I feel dead inside. Alone. Rotten. Lost. I don’t know where all this started, but I wish I could go back to where I didn’t feel like the whole world is on a roller coaster to hell and I’m sitting in the front car.”
They ate in silence after that. When the pizza was gone, Al leaned back into the couch and patted his stomach with heavy eyelids. “That hit the spot,” he said, yawning widely. “Thanks, Marie.”
Sammy raised an eyebrow, but Al was already dozing. “You’re welcome.” He stared at Al for a long time, wondering what on earth was going on in his friend’s mind. What switch flipped? Why can Jeffie and I fix things, but not him and Marie?
Once Al began to snore, Sammy left, taking the pizza box with him, the pieces of crust rattling around as he walked. The evening was quickly turning to night, but Sammy wasn’t tired. He considered grabbing his friends for a visit to the infirmary, but his com rang. For the second time his holo-screen said UNKNOWN CALLER. That wasn’t normal. The only people who knew his number were part of the resistance.
“Hello?” he answered. “Hello? Who is this?”
The line went dead. The scenario reminded Sammy too much of the time the fox had called him at Psion Beta headquarters on the night of his graduation. He told his com to patch him to the operator.
“Operator,” was the response.
“Hey, this is Samuel Berhane. I’ve gotten a couple of strange calls from an unknown number, I was wondering—” Another call beeped in, again from UNKNOWN CALLER. “Yeah, wait, they’re calling me again. Should I answer it?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Let me check with one of our techs.” The operator put Sammy on hold for two minutes. During that time, the connection from the unknown caller ended. “Sammy, I’ve got Harv, the lead communications officer, on the other line.”
“Put him through.”
“Hi Sammy, Harv here,” a man with a soft, high voice said. “I’m running diagnostics on your call and I can’t trace the source, okay? So that shouldn’t happen in our closed system. I would advise you not to answer the call.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Ignore the calls. I’ll monitor your line in case it comes through again. See what I can come up with. So it could be someone has mistakenly linked into our network, but that’s highly highly unlikely.”
“Any chance it’s CAG?”
“Maybe. I’ll alert Thomas and Lara, and keep you updated.”
Sammy went to his room, wishing that Jeffie wasn’t on the late shift. He could have found Kawai, but she was likely with Li. Hanging out with them would be about as much fun as watching Brickert and Natalia make out. Those two managed to make kissing look like two dogs trying to lick each other’s faces off. When he walked in the door, his com rang again.
UNKNOWN CALLER
Sammy ignored it and found his holo-tablet. Khani had sent several reports for him to read in preparation for meetings later th
at week. Glancing at his clock and seeing that it was not as late as he’d hoped, Sammy sighed and opened the files. He hadn’t been working for thirty minutes when the com rang again.
UNKNOWN CALLER
“Who are you?” Sammy asked the words on the screen.
It didn’t ring again for another hour. Sammy had fallen asleep on his bed reading a report on amphibious codes in complex systems. He hadn’t even stayed awake long enough to learn how a code could be amphibious. The ring of the com woke him with a start.
UNKNOWN CALLER
Without thinking, he answered it. “Hello,” he mumbled.
“Sammy …” The voice made Sammy sit straight up. A jolt of adrenaline flooded his body. The lisp in the S of Sammy was unmistakable.
“Trapper.”
9. Repentance
Tuesday, July 1, 2087
THEY LEFT UNDER the cover of night, hours after sundown, the cruiser protected by stealth technology. Sammy yawned. Jeffie’s gaze remained fixed on the window. “The leadership committee didn’t seem happy about letting you go. Why’s that?”
“Lots of reasons,” Sammy answered from his seat in the pilot chair. He smiled smugly as he remembered the looks of resigned disappointment on the faces of most members of the committee when he told them he had spoken to Trapper on his com. After lecturing him for over an hour about how dangerous such an action had been, a majority had agreed that he had no choice but to go to the Hive.
“I can’t believe we’re bringing Trapper … Diego … whoever,” Jeffie said. “I can’t believe we’re bringing him back. He’s creepy. Beyond creepy. He’s likely to go off at any minute.”
“That’s why I made Trapper agree to so many conditions.”
Jeffie stared past Sammy ponderously. “But why now?”
“He’s afraid.”
“Of what?”
“I have no idea.”
For a while the only sounds were the droning of the engines and the rain spattering the windows as they flew over the tropics of Central America. Each drop reminded Sammy of gunshots. Such a long time passed without speaking that Sammy wondered if Jeffie had fallen asleep.
Then suddenly she asked, “You think we could go back to being normal again? Like ever?”
Though Sammy thought he knew what she meant, he still asked, “Normal? What’s normal?”
“No more battle. No more violence. The high that comes from the adrenaline. All of that stuff gone and not missed.”
“I don’t know.”
Jeffie adjusted her co-pilot’s chair so it was a few centimeters closer to him. A smile grew on her lips and her eyes danced playfully. “Let me put it this way, Mr. Berhane: could you see yourself as a banker or a sales analyst or a plumber someday?”
“A plumber?”
Jeffie giggled and shrugged. “Well, could you?”
Sammy thought about it, yawning again.
When their eyes met again, Jeffie shook her head and smiled. “Didn’t think so. We’re in this business for life. It’s crazy. I’m crazy. First I was eager for battle when I got to Beta headquarters. Then I got a taste of it in Orlando, and it terrified me. Then the Hive happened, and something in me flipped again. Now I feel so invincible. And that feeling terrifies me. I mean, I want kids. I want marriage.” Sammy pretended not to notice how her gaze flickered back in his direction when she said this. “I want to be a part of something incredible and special. And yet I want to be normal too.”
“I still don’t know what you mean when you say a normal life.”
“You know …” Jeffie waved her hand around abstractly. “Normal. Your family was normal. So was my family before …”
“Your mom directs movies. Your brothers are pro athletes. That’s not normal.”
“Normaler than what we’d have if we ever get—”
“Normaler isn’t a word.”
Jeffie stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes.
“Think about it, though, Jeffie. Who do we know that’s normal? Who do we know that’s had a marriage work? Byron’s wife died. Al and Marie are on the rocks. Your parents—”
“Are fine, thank you very much.”
“They see each other how often? About a week out of each month?”
“… ish …” Jeffie replied reluctantly. “What are you saying? Marriage is a waste of time?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m saying nothing.” A crack of lightning on the distant horizon drew Sammy’s attention.
“I love you,” Jeffie said quietly.
Sammy winced. “Last time you said that, you apologized after.”
“Well, I retract my apology.” Jeffie grabbed Sammy’s hand and squeezed it so tight she almost hurt him. “I’m not sorry for loving you. Should I be?”
In a brief break in the clouds, Sammy saw the moon, small but bright in the sky. He yearned to be far away from Jeffie right now, away and alone. “No. I don’t think you should be. But when you say it I feel stupid.”
“Why?”
A loud beep from the console interrupted him. “WARNING. YOU ARE ENTERING A NO-FLY ZONE. THIS IS FORBIDDEN AIRSPACE. LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED IF YOU DO NOT REDIRECT YOUR CRAFT IMMEDIATELY. WARNING.”
They let go of each other’s hands so they could get to work. Sammy punched the communications controls to contact Trapper. “Do not open fire. Friendly aircraft incoming. Carrying a cargo of emeralds for delivery. Do not damage the goods.”
The warning voice cut off, and Diego’s voice came in over the radio. “Sammy, is that you?” The lack of a lisp told Sammy this was not Trapper speaking. “You thought I was going to set out a welcome mat for you?” Harsh laughter filled Sammy’s ears. “My systems are locked onto you, kid. Prepare yourself for the boom!”
As soon as Diego’s voice cut away, the cruiser’s alarms blared. Big red letters flashed from the holo-screen:
INCOMING MISSILES.
Sammy jammed the coms button. He addressed Diego as Trapper even though he knew it was Diego currently speaking to him. “Trapper, abort the attack! This is a friendly aircraft. Abort the missiles!”
“For someone as smart as yourself, I think you may need a dictionary to define the word friendly. Sadly, you have only seconds to look it up.”
“Trapper, you invited me here! Don’t shoot me down!”
“Invited? Not I. I have no intention of leaving my home. The fact that you survived our last visit is an anomaly that I mean to correct.”
Sammy looked at Jeffie in a way that told her to get ready to jump ship. He pushed the button again and said, “Trapper … if you can hear me, please respond. We’re going to land this ship, we’re walking inside that building, and we’re going to help you. Now call off those missiles!”
Diego laughed again, obviously savoring his power. “Who is Trapper?”
Outside the cockpit windshield, the missiles were visible, flares of bright orange light and white plumes of smoke streaked toward their target. The projectiles shot straight into the air, then turned until their noses were pointed at the cruiser.
“This isn’t a game. Call them off, Trapper!”
No answer came. Sammy didn’t waste time readying the hatch for an emergency bailout. Both Jeffie and Sammy shrugged out of their safety harnesses. The missiles shot toward them, closing in fast. “Trapper, don’t do this!” Sammy warned. “If you let those missiles hit me, I’m going to find you and kick your—”
The missiles suddenly dropped from the sky and plummeted into the rainforest where they crashed ignominiously into the jungle without so much as a puff of dust. “My apologies, Sammy,” a voice with a discernible lisp stated. “Set down on the lawns behind the Hive. Visitors are becoming a common occurrence these days.”
In under half an hour, Trapper welcomed Sammy and Jeffie into the upper level of his facility. “Sorry about that,” he said as they entered. “Diego still isn’t happy with the arrangement we made. I think the missiles were his way of giving you the finger.”
“
You ready to go?” Sammy asked. “We’re on a tight schedule.”
“Almost,” Trapper answered. “Come in. I need to … tidy up.” He returned to his computers as he spoke. “And when I say tidy up, I mean download all our code and delete everything I’ve done so the fox thinks I’ve been kidnapped, not defected.”
Sammy held up a hand. “Before we take you anywhere, Jeffie and I need to know how far we can trust you. How often is Diego taking control?”
“You just tried to roast us,” Jeffie added.
“Why do you think I’ve agreed to be searched, cuffed, and bound on the ride home?” Trapper told them. “Everything I know, everything I hear and see, I share with him. He gets loose, no telling what he’ll do. But I’ve grown stronger, and he’s grown weaker lately. I’ll be more help than hindrance. Fortunately, I’m going to give you something that will help even if our agreement doesn’t work out.”
Jeffie and Sammy exchanged a skeptical glance.
“Fair enough,” Sammy said. Worst case scenario, we put a bullet in him. He immediately regretted the thought. “Crazy thing is, for the last several days, I’ve been arguing with our leaders for permission to see you. Then you call me up out of the blue and confirm all my suspicions about the kill code.”
“Had you decided to fly here before we spoke over the com, Diego would have killed you. No question.”
“Why would he kill me yesterday but not today?”
“We’ve developed a very tenuous but working relationship.”
“Let’s get going.”
Trapper slid his chair around to his computer console. “Not quite ready, Sammy. Penetrating the resistance’s communications network was not easy and left lots of traceable activity on my end. And if I were to get caught doing what I’m doing right now … I can’t even imagine the sort of things the Aegis would do to me. Or the Queen.”
