Emergence

by Ken Lozito

  “You know, you could probably just sleep in your office if you have to stay this late. It’s what I used to do.”

  Nathan smiled and then grinned. “Connor, it’s so good to see you. What brings you here at this time of night?”

  “I was on my way up to see you,” Connor said, closing the distance between them. “I spotted the lights on in your office from outside. Heading to the roof?”

  Nathan nodded. “I was, but I’ve got time to talk,” he said and gestured toward the atrium.

  “I take it Savannah isn’t waiting for you?” Connor asked.

  “No, she and Malcolm are visiting my sister,” Nathan said, rubbing his beard. “But it’s almost the middle of the night, and I know you didn’t come here to talk about Savannah. What can I do for you?”

  Connor drew in a deep breath and smiled broadly. “That’s the thing about being in charge. Somebody always wants something from you.”

  Nathan shook his head and sighed tiredly.

  “Things are different now,” Connor said.

  His friend’s sober tone wasn’t lost on Nathan. “Things were always going to change, but no one expected to find NEIIS here, and certainly not a military faction. I know we talked about this, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that both you and Sanctuary come up more often of late in many intelligence briefings at the governor’s office.”

  Connor didn’t appear surprised by this. “I imagine they’re concerned about the growth Sanctuary has seen.”

  Nathan tilted his head to the side. “If it were only that … but there are a lot of former military people flocking to the area, and that has raised some concerns.”

  “I’m not going to stage a coup, but there are some things going on that aren’t in the best interest of the colony,” Connor said and then proceeded to tell him about the spying among the different offices and through communications channels. The source of it seemed to be coming from somewhere within the colonial government.

  There was never any doubt in Nathan’s mind that Connor was being truthful, but matters like these were seldom that simple. “Connor, you’re my very good friend, and to a certain extent, I’ll always view you as my commanding officer—at least for the next few years. I can’t say for sure what will happen fifty years from now. But you often mistake how a trivial action from someone like you is perceived by someone like Governor Wolf, for example.”

  “You know, Tobias was initially concerned when we created the CDF that someone would eventually use it to exert martial control over the colony.”

  “Well, I can assure you that the CDF will always stay neutral in all colonial disputes. If history has taught us anything, it’s that militaries should never be called upon to police the citizens they’re supposed to be protecting. The CDF was created to protect the colony, not enforce its laws. As a colonial citizen, I’m not a fan of spying. It implies that people have something to hide, and that’s not what we’re supposed to be about. This colony was established to escape notions like that,” Nathan said and arched an eyebrow. “Although, the evidence you’ve gathered does shed some light on comments made by the governor’s advisors…”

  Connor frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Nathan shrugged. “Nothing you wouldn’t expect, given the concerns about Sanctuary. Now that we’re not in a wartime state, the colonial government wants input for nominations of all CDF officers from the rank of colonel on up. On the surface it appears harmless, but sometimes I just feel like they’re working to increase their influence within the CDF.”

  “They’re following an established model, but I understand your concern, I think, and I don’t have a good answer for it,” Connor said.

  “I didn’t expect you would. On the one hand, the CDF should have some civilian oversight, but given the current political climate, that same model could cause trepidation. Regardless, those are my concerns. But regarding the spying, I don’t like that at all. It’s a pathway to a dark road, I think. I can assure you we’re not spying on the colony for anyone. And I noticed you haven’t come out and accused anyone or indicated the actual evidence you have. I suspect that’s a precautionary measure so if anyone ever asked me anything, I could deny knowing specifics. Since this doesn’t fall under the CDF, I’ll offer you a bit of advice,” Nathan said, and gave Connor a knowing smile. “I think you need to build bridges in this case. You need to reach out to the other settlements and alert them to your concerns. It’s no secret that there’s some concern in New Haven and in Delphi about Sierra’s position in the colony. Franklin Mallory moved his office to Delphi as a way to assuage the unrest among his people. But the governor and her advisors are not all-powerful. There are legal channels that can be used if you suspect someone’s abusing their power.”

  “That’s just the thing. I don’t know if they’re only keeping an eye on me and the people closest to me, or if they’re doing more than that,” Connor replied.

  Nathan waited for him to continue.

  “I don’t know if it’s the governor or if it’s just some rogue group again taking the action they believe is necessary. I don’t want to start slinging accusations, but I’m not sure how much longer things can go on like this. This shouldn’t be happening.”

  Nathan raised his eyebrows. “There are a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened, but they did. I think we can let those ghosts rest.”

  Connor nodded, and Nathan noticed him glance toward one of the corridors across the atrium.

  “I need to get going, and I think I’ve taken up enough of your time,” Connor said.

  “I’m always available to you,” Nathan replied.

  They headed back toward the stairwell. “You’re a good man, Nathan. You don’t know what a relief it is to me personally knowing that the CDF is in your capable hands.”

  “I was trained by the best. You’ll always have a home in the CDF,” Nathan replied as Connor turned to go down the stairs. “I could give you a ride to your transport. It’s certainly faster than taking the stairs to the ground level.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I could use the exercise,” Connor said and quickly started down the stairs.

  Nathan headed for the roof. When the automatic doors opened, he saw a group of Field Ops security agents speaking with his soldier escorts.

  “Is there a problem?” Nathan asked.

  “An intruder tripped the silent alarm, and we’re making a sweep of the building. Did you see anyone inside who shouldn’t have been there?” the agent asked.

  “No,” Nathan replied before he thought better of it. Could they be looking for Connor? He tried to dismiss the idea out of hand, but he couldn’t. Connor would still have access to a government building. “Is there anything else, Agent?”

  The Field Ops agent regarded Nathan for a moment. “No, that will be all, General. Have a good night.”

  Nathen climbed aboard his ship. He thought about checking the access logs for the building and wondered whether he’d find Connor’s identification for entering the building. He paused and glanced out the window at the Field Ops security agents heading for the stairwell. If the agents were good at their jobs, they’d find whoever tripped the alarm. Nathan told the pilot to take off and began to wonder whether Connor had suspected that the agents were looking for him.

  4

  Connor left Nathan, heading down the stairs probably a little too fast for Nathan not to notice. He’d known the Field Ops security agents were pursuing an intruder—him—and time was running out. There was a group of them covering the roof, and several squads were heading upward in a security sweep of the bottom floors. They’d already sent tracking drones on ahead. They could clear a floor quicker that way while still providing intel to the security agents. Connor had suspected they’d rely on the tracking drones, which was why he hadn’t been seen. So far, he hadn’t been put in the position where he’d needed to actually test the obfuscation protocols in his suit that would mask his presence from the drones. That was
n’t to say the tech in his multipurpose protection suit (MPS) hadn’t been tested, but he hadn’t ever needed to use it against the tracking drones in Sierra. They did, however, work fine against the standard-issue Field Ops tracking drones at Sanctuary.

  Connor didn’t take anything for granted, which was one of the reasons he was now clutched to a handhold on an outside wall of the colonial government high-rise. The temperature outside was cool at this time of night, but he didn’t feel it in his MPS. He hadn’t expected to be scaling the wall to… escape. (He didn’t like thinking in those terms.) But he’d wanted to speak to Nathan, who just happened to be in close proximity to the data exfiltration device he’d hardwired into the computer systems. Intrusion detection systems were excellent at detecting a rogue presence on the network, but there were ways to hide one’s activities from them. Connor had retrieved the DED, but its removal triggered an alarm, which was why the security agents were there. Connor needed to trace how the ONI had received the information about the bunker site, and hopefully he’d be able to find a pattern within the data to track the other people involved. He needed to figure out who’d breached his security, and Noah should be able to glean the information Connor needed from the data collected. He just had to get it to him.

  Connor glanced downward. Ten meters below was a walkway that connected the building he was on to another high-rise. He climbed down the smooth sides of the building using the climbing configuration of the MPS, which allowed his hands and feet to adhere to the wall without damaging it. As he climbed past a window, he saw a glowing light from a tracker drone inside the room and froze. The transmitter on his suit immediately sent out a signal that overrode the tracking drone’s systems by inserting a subroutine that actively erased all evidence almost as soon as it detected him. The tracker drone hovered for a moment, then swung around and left the room. Connor smiled. At least one of Noah’s improvements to the MPS worked flawlessly. Diaz still joked about making the suit fly, which Connor had to admit would have been useful right about then. He needed to move. Fooling a tracker drone was easy, but if a Field Ops security agent saw him, things could get a little dicey.

  Connor dropped to the walkway and darted across the fifty-meter gap between the two buildings. He felt a strong gust of wind push against the suit, but the MPS had already reacted by engaging the magnetic components of his heels, keeping him attached to the walkway. Regardless, he slowed down just a bit to compensate because he didn’t relish the thought of getting blown off the walkway.

  He was halfway across when a comlink opened from Sanctuary. It was Lenora.

  “Connor, did I catch you at a bad time?”

  Connor quickly glanced behind him and saw a few heat signatures from the Field Ops security agents in an office above the walkway. If they looked out the window, they would see him. “I always have time for you. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine. She hasn’t come yet,” Lenora said, and Connor imagined her gently rubbing her hand over her swollen belly. “Dash sent me a coded message that indicated you guys had some problems earlier. It was short and didn’t say very much—just that he was on his way to meet with Noah.”

  Coded messages had become a necessity, but they were limited to simple text-based communications that would appear as gibberish to anyone else who saw them. He was glad Dash had paid attention.

  Connor had been reluctant to leave Sanctuary because Lenora was so close to her due date for the birth of their daughter, but she’d insisted. He suspected she wanted a break from him being underfoot.

  “An ONI team came to the site before I could get inside the bunker. I think you know what that means,” Connor said. He’d reached the end of the walkway and was shimmying along the side of the building when he glanced behind him and saw two heat signatures belonging to Field Ops security agents. They were looking right at him. The only thing they probably saw was a dark shape on the side of the building because the MPS concealed his body heat, but the security agents certainly had night vision.

  “Alright,” Lenora continued. “I’ll have Robert begin a trace and see if we can figure out where it came from.”

  “Good. Robert’s a good guy and should be able to figure something out. Tell him if he can’t, not to worry about it because…” His voice trailed off as he grabbed the side of the wall and slid, which threw him off balance and his feet dangled in the air. Connor swore. He wasn’t going to let himself fall four hundred feet to the ground.

  “Are you sure everything’s okay? Where are you?”

  I’m just dangling on the side of a building. Nothing to worry about, he thought. “I’m fine. I just slipped,” Connor said, and before he could arouse her suspicions any further, he told her about his conversation with Nathan. That threw her off his little deception. At the same time, he sent a signal burst to Diaz, alerting his friend that he wouldn’t make the predetermined extraction point. Tracker drones flew by him but were unable to get a lock on his position.

  “I think Nathan might be right about how to handle this. We can keep plugging the holes in our security, but that won’t fix the problem. I don’t like it. We shouldn’t have to keep things from each other,” Lenora said.

  Connor pulled himself up onto a landing and leaned back against the side of the building. There were no other high-rises on this side, and it should be easy for Diaz to make his approach undetected. “I know, but I really wanted to return to Sanctuary.”

  “Don’t worry about me. We’ll be fine. Ashley’s here, and this is important.”

  “I’ll stop worrying about you when you stop worrying about me. And I’ll let you know what I’m gonna do, but I have to go because the signal’s gonna get cut off in a few minutes.”

  “Connor,” Lenora scolded.

  Connor said a quick goodbye and cut the connection. He was going to pay for that, but he had very little choice. Glancing above, he saw several outlines of security agents on the roof of the building he was on. They were searching for him, so they must’ve realized the tracking drones weren’t working properly. He received confirmation from Diaz that he was on his way.

  The stealth recon skimmer’s approach vector appeared on Connor’s HUD, and he sent a surge of power to his legs as he ran to the edge of the overhang and launched himself into the air. For a few silent moments he flew through the air before gravity took control and he started to plummet toward the ground. But before that could happen, he slammed into something solid. The nose of the recon skimmer dipped slightly at the sudden weight, and Connor held on as Diaz swung the ship around and sped away.

  5

  “Hurry up and get in here or you’ll mess up my hair,” Diaz griped from the pilot seat of the aircraft.

  The small ship was flying at a relatively slow pace, and Connor was able to pull himself up, climbing into the passenger seat next to Diaz as the hatch closed above them. He pressed the button to retract his helmet and glanced at Diaz. The squat, barrel-chested man’s dark hair was as short-cropped as ever, and Connor resisted the urge to smack him in the head. “You look beautiful, as always. Thanks for picking me up.”

  Diaz nodded. “You know how it is. If I didn’t pick you up, Lenora would be upset. She’d tell Victoria, and then I’d be in trouble. So, here I am.”

  “Yeah, right. You just like flying this thing.”

  “It is fun and fast,” Diaz said, gliding his fingers across the flight controls appreciatively.

  The stealth recon skimmer was a small, two-person aircraft meant for atmospheric flight. It could run circles around their Hellcats, combat shuttles, and troop carriers, but it was only intended for short-range use.

  “We’ll have to race when we get back to Sanctuary,” Connor said. He liked to fly the small aircraft, too.

  Diaz glanced at him. “We’re not going back, but what about…”

  Connor knew what he was about to ask. “I spoke to Lenora and everything’s fine. I just need a short trip to one of the other cities. Possibly both of them.
”

  Diaz pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Big mistake. That’s a big mistake.”

  “What?”

  “You should be at Sanctuary.”

  “Lenora said—”

  “Don’t give me, ‘She said it was okay.’ Of course she did. I know you’re new to this whole domestic lifestyle you’ve got going on, but sometimes women don’t say what they mean,” Diaz said sagely.

  “Lenora has no problem telling me what she wants—alright, smarty-pants, what am I missing here?”

  “Lenora’s a great lady, but she’s still a woman. And a pregnant woman, at that. It’s different when they’re pregnant. She wants to believe she’s fine with you going off to do something important, but when it’s quiet and no one else is around, she wants you right by her side. They all do, especially now. When’s the baby due?”

  Connor frowned for a moment. Had he done something wrong? “Within the next two weeks. We have time.”

  Diaz gave him a sidelong glance and shook his head.

  “Think what you want, but I know Lenora. If she said she was fine, then she’s fine. In fact, she was probably tired of having me around, which means she’s enjoying having a little bit of space. Anyway, Ashley’s there, so she’ll let me know if something happens.”

  “I’m sure Victoria’s gonna go check on her anyway. Have you guys decided on a name?”

  “We have a few ideas in mind, but we’re waiting until we meet her,” Connor said.

  Diaz smiled broadly and let out a hearty laugh. “You’re gonna love being a father, especially to your little girl.” He held up one beefy hand and jutted his chin toward his palm. “You will reside right there for that little girl. And boy, do I feel sorry for her when she gets older and the boys start coming around.”

  Connor grinned. “She’s not even born yet and you’ve got her dating.”