Blood of Patriots (Book 4 of The Humanity Unlimited Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  Karl turned his attention to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “It’ll be fine. I can only barely feel the tentacles that the brain squid is using to control me.”

  She smacked him on the arm. “That’s not funny. Now get out of here so I can get naked.”

  “I’ve seen you naked.”

  “And you won’t be doing so again if you don’t get your pretty butt dressed and out of here.”

  He grinned at her, dressed quickly, and left with Granger.

  Jokes aside, she was worried. No one did anything so profoundly permanent without some butterflies. Still, she knew it was going to be okay. The legends said so.

  Brenda stripped down to her panties, set her neatly folded clothes on a chair, and climbed into the sarcophagus. She waited for a moment, wondering if she needed to do something, but then the door started sliding shut.

  She took one deep breath, and her awareness of the world around her vanished.

  16

  Harry was more confused than enlightened after his meeting with the secretary general. Her membership in Brenda’s organization certainly made clear to him how deeply they had their tendrils in governments and organizations around the globe.

  Part of him worried about them infiltrating Humanity Unlimited, but as he was already sharing everything he’d learned—for the most part—with them, that was just going to have to be acceptable. He couldn’t change what he couldn’t change.

  That left him with the snake at his elbow—one he also couldn’t change. Josh Queen was a tool of the oligarchy that ran the United States—the political class. He and his kind hadn’t been of and from the people of they ruled for decades, though they still mostly observed the same forms as they once did. Only those were more for show than actual belief.

  Once again, there was nothing he could do to change that. Hell, Harry’s father had pulled the wool over all their eyes just to get humanity out from under the thumbs of people like Queen. As much as Harry disliked the man who’d provided half his genetic material, he agreed with the need to leave the chains of the past on Earth.

  Which, since they now had to work together to fight the descendants of the heavy-worlder soldiers that had been trapped on Earth for a thousand years, made life interesting.

  Their guide led them to a door just down the hall from the secretary general’s office. “If you’d like to take a moment to confer before I escort you to see Ambassador Chen, you may use this room.”

  Queen instantly shook his head. “Not this one. We’ll take the elevator down one level and evict a random executive from their office. I don’t trust that this room isn’t bugged.”

  Harry was forced to agree that that kind of thing was something the UN was likely to do. A more squabbling group of backstabbing peacocks was hard to imagine. Even the US government looked upstanding in comparison.

  The problem with the United Nations was that it was a club of almost two hundred member states that would spare no expense to gain advantage for themselves. Nothing could be trusted to be what it looked like in here. Queen knew these people far better than Harry did, so he’d defer to his judgment, as crazy as that sounded.

  The UN guy acquiesced without argument, likely knowing the room in question was monitored by someone. He led them down through the stairs to a level filled with senior UN executives and their staffs. Large offices filled the exterior walls, undoubtedly showcasing offices with wide windows and excellent views.

  The interior of the room was a warren of cubicles, one of Harry’s personal nightmares. He’d dreaded his father trying to fit him into a place like this and had fled to the military to avoid that fate almost as much as he had his father.

  A few people glanced up at them, but most kept their attention on whatever work they had on their computers. Harry wondered with a smile how pissed the unfortunate executive they kicked out was going to be.

  Surprisingly, Queen didn’t lead them to an office. Instead, he found a room holding office supplies. After taking a good look around, Queen nodded. “This will do. You stand outside and make sure no one tries to listen in on us.”

  Somewhat nonplussed, the man did as instructed, leaving them alone in the supply closet.

  “What is your plan with Chen?” Queen asked after a moment. “Understanding that he’ll say or do whatever is necessary to get his people the technology they want.”

  “If I can keep him from blowing up the planet, I’ll be satisfied with that,” Harry said. “We’ve got enough on our plates already.”

  The other man nodded. “That would help us as well, and I may be able to assist in making him see the downsides of a public war of annihilation. I should meet him with you.”

  Harry put his hands on his hips and gave the other man a long, hard stare. “You’re a big part of why the US is at war. You couldn’t leave well enough alone and pushed the Chinese to the point they were prepared to use force to shut you up. Why should I expect anything different?”

  “I’m not an idiot. I can see our country is in a bind. I’m not going to make it worse.”

  “Have you ever had an argument where you knew the other person was wrong, but they just couldn’t see it?” Harry asked. “Their version of reality was incompatible with yours. I’m half afraid that’s you and me.

  “You’re so locked into the worldview that you can do no wrong that you’ll trample all over everyone else to get the prize you want. To hell with what they want or would be willing to settle for.”

  He sighed when Queen said nothing. “Fine. What’s your plan?”

  “They’re using the spaceport as a pretext for war,” Queen said, as if Harry hadn’t just torn a strip off of him. “We’ll give him the dammed thing. Then all his maneuvering for a fight has zero basis, and anyone that isn’t in their pockets will pressure them to stop the war.”

  “And how do we know that China doesn’t have more of the nations on this planet in their pockets than we can imagine?” Harry asked. “The secretary general of the United Nations is a member of the Families. They’ve been on Earth almost as long and no one knew to watch out for something that insidious. The heavy-worlders could be everywhere.”

  “What can we do about it?” Queen demanded, sounding exasperated. “We have to fight them as best we can. If we assume that they’re in a position to crush us no matter what we do, we’re screwed. Do you have a better idea?”

  Harry sighed. “Not really. What’s your price?”

  “Already paid,” the other man said. “We’re part of this damned alliance, and we’ll eventually get some technology that will give us an edge. If we can keep the Chinese—or anyone else for that matter—from getting out there and beating us to it.”

  “The universe is a big place, and there are other human civilizations out there,” Harry said. “We have to stop thinking that we’re the end-all, be-all of the universe. There’s no telling how advanced some of these other human cultures are. Or what we’ll find on the alien side of things. Someone beat the Asharim, or at least fought them to the point of collapse. We’re going to run into them sooner or later.”

  “My job is to stand up for the United States,” Queen growled. “That might not be the place you think it should be, but it’s a lot better than some of the other options. Work with me and we’ll find a balance.”

  “If you don’t stick a knife in my back,” Harry grumbled.

  “What’s life without challenges?” Queen asked with a grin. “Keep your friends even closer than your enemies. So, let’s go make Chen an unhappy bastard.”

  Chen fumed as he waited, certain that the man he was waiting for was delaying the meeting to put him on the defensive. In his place, that’s what he’d have done, but that didn’t make the delay any easier to bear.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the room opened and Rogers strode in, Queen at his heels. The latter looked smug, so it was a certainty the two had been plotting how best to thwart him and the Dragon. That could never be allowed.
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  He rose to his feet and smiled with false congeniality. “Your meeting was shorter than I anticipated,” he lied smoothly. “I was under the impression you wished to discuss the matters before us privately. As my people are at war with the United States, I think it… unwise to have Secretary Queen present.”

  “I’m hoping that as part of our discussion, I can help broker peace between the two of you,” Rogers said, dropping into a seat with such casual disregard for propriety that Chen almost winced before he stilled the urge.

  “That seems unlikely, but I suppose we must observe the forms,” he agreed, injecting a note of polite doubt into his voice.

  He resumed his seat as Queen sat beside Rogers. “The rights of my country were taken and provocation worthy of a military response given. How do you intend to just make that go away?”

  Queen laughed. “Please. We’re all alone here. Let’s at least be honest about the events in question. There has been an aggressor all right, but it was you. Not China, I now understand, but this secret organization you represent that has now seized power there. Unless we lay that out on the table, nothing we say means anything.”

  Chen shook his head sadly. “Once again you’ve placed a tinfoil hat on your head. I assure you that we have no mind-control lasers in orbit. There is no such thing as the illuminati.”

  Rogers smiled and leaned back into his chair. “Oh, that’s not true and I know it for a fact. You sent men to attack me and Jessica Cook, but you were hoping for a different person. The leader of a group like yourselves, but of wholly human extraction.

  “I gave the US the genetic sequence to find heavy-worlders. That won’t find all your people, I’m sure, but it will be more than enough to identify the origin of the bodies we left behind. Bodies which I’m sure you already know never arrived at the morgue where you expected to retrieve them.”

  Continuing his headshake, Chen smiled. “While this is a patently false observation, let us say for the sake of this discussion that everything you imply is true. My country would have even less reason to cooperate with the United States, though something could be arranged with you, Mr. Rogers.

  “If we were the descendants of travelers from space, we would undoubtedly wish to return there. All that would need be done is to provide access to a means to do so. The base in New Zealand is wrecked, but the things you call the gates work, if my intelligence is correct. To get peace and security restored, all you would need do is transfer that base to us.”

  “Perhaps,” Rogers admitted. “Perhaps not. The Asharim are still out there, but they’ve fallen. Their war with some other species didn’t work out to their advantage. In any case, I doubt your motives.

  “Still, we’re not talking about that yet. This is about the war you started with the United States by blowing up the Mars ship they’d bought from the Indian government. And about the Yucatán spaceport that you’re squatting on.”

  “You mean the spaceport that we legally own,” Chen said, refuting his claim. “We bought it.”

  “The US is prepared to accept that as legally done,” Harry said. “Keep the spaceport. It’s yours. They’ll even overlook the destruction of their ship and the loss of American lives aboard it. With that done, why would China attack the US any further? Have they attacked you in some other way?”

  Chen paused. The way the men had given up on the spaceport and other provocations was problematic. If he admitted that was all he had, then there was no longer a pretext to fight.

  Did he need one? His country was the mightiest in the world. They could crush the United States. They could take everything they wanted.

  Yet the price would be high. Without the appropriate context, other countries would be disinclined to support China. Though they were powerful, they did not yet have access to the kind of technology they could obtain among the worlds of the Masters.

  He had to be honest. He himself didn’t care one bit if the Masters had fallen. He didn’t see them as almost deities, as did others inside the Dragon. That wasn’t a point of view he could publicly admit, but it did bear on his negotiations.

  “The situation has become more complex than that,” he ventured. “With the United States engaged as a member of this so-called alliance in New Zealand, I can see through this sham. They are searching for the military power to overwhelm us. That cannot be allowed.”

  “There’s a lesson in politics for you, Rogers,” Queen said. “Accuse your opponents of what you’re doing to throw the public off the scent.”

  “There’s the small matter of your spaceship,” Rogers said, ignoring the aside. “It’s loaded with heavy-world soldiers and likely has Asharim weapons of some kind. I’m not going to let that thing keep coming toward Mars when I know you intend to attack my ship there.

  “That, however, is not part of the discussion about the US and the situation here on Earth. Let me lay it out for you, Ambassador. In ten minutes, I’ll be in front of the General Assembly telling them everything we’ve found and what you and your people are doing. Most support for this conflict will vanish, leaving you hanging in the wind.

  “Keep this conflict on the down low, break off the posturing here on Earth, and I won’t tell them about your people and what they’re doing from the shadows today. That doesn’t mean that people like Secretary Queen won’t know about you. A number already do, but they have no reason to tell the man on the street. I do. Test me and find out. The choice is yours.”

  Chen sighed. His options really were that limited. “Very well.”

  17

  Jess joined Sandra at the front of her party, Vidar and his guards right behind her. The sniper looked at the prisoner and then raised an eyebrow at Jess.

  “Kind of taking a chance, aren’t you?” the woman asked, knowing that the prisoner didn’t speak their language.

  “They already know we’re here. We might as well see where this takes us. His assistance could be invaluable, and we could hardly be in more danger.”

  “Optimist,” the other woman said darkly.

  The heavy-worlder woman that had confronted them stood about fifty meters away, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited patiently to see what the intruders to her territory were going to do.

  She was tall and muscular. Not exactly unexpected when confronting a heavy-worlder. They were designed to live on a planet with three gravities after all.

  What was surprising was how feminine her form was. Jess had expected females built for heavy gravity would be short, blocky, and not at all curvy.

  She was wrong. The woman ahead of them was definitely a woman, even if she was built like a bodybuilder. She was far less blocky than the males of her society.

  Without waiting for Sandra to say anything more, Jess strode forward until she was about five meters away from the female warrior. There she stopped, holding her hands out at her sides to show that she was not a threat.

  She started to say they came in peace but realized that wasn’t true. They’d come in response to an act of war, and she couldn’t just pretend that it hadn’t happened. No. Sometimes you had to show your strength.

  “Your attack force has been defeated,” Jess said in an even tone, using the heavy-worlder language, still shocked at how easily it came to her. “As you can see, we have your military leader in our custody. We have come to speak to your priests and determine whether we continue to fight or allow you to start over.”

  The woman nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving her leader’s face. “What say you, Leader Vidar?” Her voice was deep and serious, pitched at a melodious tenor that was deeper than most women on Earth.

  “She speaks the truth,” the prisoner rumbled. “Our attack failed, and all the priests that accompanied us perished. These people have treated us well and have come to speak to the priests under the rules of parley.”

  “My squad leader dispatched a runner to notify the temple of your arrival. Do these people understand the rules of parley? Do you order us to allow them through?”<
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  “It would be best if you explained the rules to them, just to be certain there is no misunderstanding. I and my men have given our parole and it is best that we not be seen as dictating the events that happen today, so the decision is yours.”

  The woman nodded and turned her full attention to Jess. “Those who come to parley are forbidden violence, though they are allowed to keep their weapons. In return, the People will keep their peace and allow you to depart when the parley is complete. Should you violate the terms of parley, you will be exterminated. Do you understand?”

  “The same will happen if you attack us,” Jess said. “Our failure to return will draw a heavily armed response. Let’s be polite so that we don’t have to kill one another for nothing.

  “When we depart, we take our prisoners with us unless we come to an agreement to release them. Under no circumstances will you attempt to separate us from them. We took them in battle, and they are ours until we release them of our own free will.”

  The woman hesitated but nodded. “It is agreed. Do you have any other conditions you wish to lay upon this parley?”

  “Not a condition, but I would like to know if the priests will abide by our agreement. I have heard that they were the ones that decided to attack my world. What guarantee do I have that they will not continue to scheme against us?”

  The woman laughed. “Of course they will continue to scheme against you. They are priests. What they will not do is violate the terms of this parley. If they were to do so, the warriors would not allow them to survive the betrayal. Of that, you have my word.”

  Jess smiled slightly. “It seems that you don’t have a particular fondness for your priests. If you don’t like them, why keep them?”

  The woman shrugged. “It’s the way of the People. Since we were created, we have followed the dictates of the Masters and the priests that they have appointed. So it has been, and so shall it be. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant.”