Overthrowing Heaven-ARC Read online

  The risks, though, were huge. The idea of being captured again by someone actively working in human-nanotech research brought the memories of Aggro crashing into me and terrified me. Should anything go wrong on this mission, I could end up the captive of the security team protecting this scientist—and there definitely was such a team, or Shurkan wouldn't need someone like me. As a prisoner, I'd make an ideal adult test subject, and any scientist preparing me for experiments of this type would soon figure out that I was already infused with nanomachines.

  I could also back away and be sure that the CC wouldn't give up if I didn't sign on. This didn't have to be my problem. They'd find others willing to take the job.

  So, maybe I could walk away from this mess safely and without leaving those children to die—but did I want to?

  I needed time to think on my own, away from Shurkan, and I wanted more information. Both were available in Lobo.

  I stood and faced Suli. "We're leaving." Turning toward Shurkan, I said, "I'll consider your offer, but not here; being a prisoner is not conducive to good analysis."

  Shurkan clearly didn't like my response, but he read my attitude well enough that he paused only briefly before saying, "I completely understand. Someone will escort you back to your ship, and we'll let you stay in the Sunset's hangar for as long as you need."

  I considered arguing, but there was no point in it; he'd never let us leave until I gave him an answer.

  "Mr. Moore," Suli said, "you have to help. They can't let these crimes continue."

  "What?" I said. "Why are you getting involved? This isn't your issue. Let's go."

  She didn't move. "They clearly need your help," she said, "or more children will die and an oppressive government will continue to get away with abusing its people."

  "I appreciate that you care about children," I said, "but as I said, this is not your problem. I'll think about all this after I drop you at the gate." Turning toward Shurkan, I said, "If you won't let me take her there, would you at least have one of your ships do it? This really isn't her concern."

  She stared at me for several seconds before speaking. "I'm afraid I haven't been honest with you—or with Kiana, who knows nothing about this. I'm from Heaven, and I work for the opposition Freepeople party. We have to make the current government stop what it's doing, but there is no way we could expose this practice on our own. The EC seems more interested in assisting the administration than bringing it down. Only the CC would help us."

  I stared at her, not wanting to believe her and yet realizing that her confession explained so much of her behavior that it instantly rang as true. I was also furious at myself: She'd set me up, and I hadn't seen it coming.

  "And though we very much do want to help," Shurkan said, "we can't send in our own agents without risking exposure."

  I'd trusted someone I didn't know, and this is what happened. The temperature in the room increased; the still rational part of me understood that I, not the space, was the source of the heat as my skin flushed with rage.

  "We also couldn't send anyone to extract you from the Green Rising grove," Shurkan said, "without attracting far more attention and taking a far greater risk of violence than I felt was prudent. Priyana here is one of our friends on Heaven, and she came up with the plan to lead you to us."

  She'd seemed too calm when the CC ships had closed on us, and Lobo had confirmed that her vitals had showed no evidence of surprise. I should have figured it out then.

  Shurkan smiled. "Don't worry about what your visit here will cost you: Priyana provided a solid cover story. Officially, we received a report of a kidnapping and helped local law enforcement by searching your ship and others. You will, of course, receive a clean report, and as far as anyone else will know, we'll send you on your way with an official apology for the delay."

  I sat, not from a desire to stay but from the need to fight the anger that was rising in me. "And the men who chased us in The Take-Off—"

  "Were CC guards that we thought would capture the two of us and provide a cover for this meeting," Suli said.

  "Having to use the fleet was an unfortunate backup option," Shurkan said, "though one I must confess Priyana had considered might be necessary."

  "You could simply have asked me," I said, so angry I wanted to tear the room apart, "and saved all this trickery."

  "No," Shurkan said, "we could not. First, nothing we know of you suggests you'd willingly take a meeting with the CC. Second, we had no way to approach you without alerting those enviro-nuts to at least the possibility of something important going on. Once we did that, they'd never let go of it; they're always looking for leverage on us. We needed a way to meet with you that also gave all of us, including you, a safe way to exit cleanly when this is over."

  Even though his statements were accurate, I despised them and him, because I hate being played. I hate the way governments and megacorporations treat everyone as expendable, as human assets, as nothing more than numbers to manipulate. I hate politicians being willing to sacrifice others in their unshakable confidence that they represent the greater good.

  I also hate losing control, and I was perilously close to doing that.

  I stood and headed for the door. "Well, I'm glad for that bit of planning, because I'm leaving now."

  Suli stood and rushed after me. She grabbed my arm.

  I fought the urge to hit her and instead stood still, my fists clenched. My voice came out tight as I said, pronouncing each word slowly and distinctly, "Let go of me. Now."

  "We know where he is, Mr. Moore, Jon," she said. She released my arm but then stepped between me and the door and stared into my eyes. "We can't get to this monster on our own. We can't prove anything. But we know where he is, and we can help you locate him and even provide some local support. If we—if you—can deliver him to the CC, they can prosecute him, make him pay, and help us remove the criminals that are supporting him and replace them with a government that cares about its citizens."

  She paused, searching my face for a reaction.

  Anger still so filled me that I needed to leave.

  "Get out of my way," I said, speaking slowly.

  "Children are dying!" she said, her voice turning shrill as she yelled. "Innocent children, usually poor ones, often kids in the government's own foster-care facilities, are ending up as lab animals, creatures this so-called scientist, this amoral demon, Jorge Wei, butchers without pause. You can help us save them!"

  I pushed her aside as gently as I could. She stumbled backward. I had to get away, to clear my head, to let my body process the rage until I could think clearly again.

  I stepped toward the door, which opened as I drew within a meter of it. The same guard was waiting outside, smirking at me. I wanted to tear off his head and rub it on the fancy carpet until I'd soaked it with the bloody remains of his smirk. I raised my hands and shifted my stance. The guard's expression changed in an instant, and he shifted his weight to his rear leg, bracing himself for impact.

  "Jon," Lobo said over the comm, "please do not leave that room, and please do not fight that guard. Get control of yourself, stay there, and agree to help them."

  I froze, not believing what I'd just heard.

  The guard looked as puzzled as I felt.

  In the pause, Lobo spoke, each word so crystal clear in my ears that though I could not believe what I was hearing, I also could not doubt that it was real.

  "Please, Jon. Do it for me."

  Chapter 6

  I didn't move. I stared at the guard standing barely two meters in front of me, but I wasn't really seeing him. Lobo had asked me to do something for him—honestly asked me, not a snarky query but a straightforward request. The whole idea made no sense, but it had happened; his words were clear. Lobo was a sarcastic, annoying, twenty-five-meter-long killing machine with a perpetually bad attitude, but he was also my only friend in this sector of the universe, maybe the only friend I had.

  There was no longer any question abo
ut it: I had to help Shurkan and Suli.

  Now, I had to figure out how to change course this abruptly without alerting Shurkan that something was up.

  Suli came to my aid by stepping between me and the guard, putting her hand on my chest, and saying, "Please, Jon, don't walk out because I lied to you or the CC forced you into coming here. We were wrong to do those things, and I'm sorry, but what matters is saving the children."

  The guard relaxed and backed away. I focused on Suli as I saw a believable path forward.

  "And what happens to me if I fail, if Wei's security captures me?"

  "I don't know," Suli said, "but I'm sure we'd try—"

  "No," Shurkan said, "no one would try anything, and Jon knows it. You said you didn't want to lie to him, so let's not. Jon, unless you're a lot dumber than the data we have on you suggests, you know that if you fail, we'll deny this meeting ever happened."

  "I wanted her to hear you say it," I said, turning my back on Suli and facing Shurkan, "so she'd understand what her acts had cost me."

  Shurkan didn't respond. He stared at me, his bemused expression suggesting he knew what I would say next. I was counting on that.

  "And what it will cost you," I said. "Five million. Half now, half on delivery."

  "Is this only about money?" Suli said, her face flushing with anger.

  I shook my head. "No, but if I'm going to take the risks this mission will entail, the CC is going to pay."

  Shurkan smiled, back on familiar turf. "Four. We'll pay half up front, but you take one of my staff with you, so I can have a reliable data source, and you also agree to bring along Priyana. Her knowledge of her home region will be useful, and her presence will appease her organization, who are our partners in this undertaking."

  If I'd decided on my own to take this job, I'd walk away now. A snatch and grab of a protected executive is hard enough with a team you can trust; doing it with people who have proven to be willing to deceive you is downright dangerous. I had to do this for Lobo, however, so I considered my options. A CC rep would be a pro, someone with skills I could use—but also someone who would always pose a threat to me. The nanomachines in my cells can heal almost any injury—I know, because I've suffered a lot of them—but I don't know if they could repair a shot through my brain. Suli had been a good enough actress to deceive me, and deceit was a skill I might be able to use. Shurkan was right that her background could also come in handy. I simply couldn't trust her.

  On balance she was the lesser of the two evils, and Shurkan was clearly a negotiator.

  "I'll take Suli, because she can help. No CC rep, though; that's a deal-breaker. You seem very fond of her," I nodded toward Suli, who had moved to stand to my left, "so she can represent your interests as well."

  "I'd greatly prefer my own man be on the team," he said.

  "I'm not negotiating any longer. I said that was a deal-breaker, and it is." I paused for effect. I hoped I'd read him correctly. "Decide: Do I take only Suli, do I work alone, or do I walk away entirely?"

  "Fine, Jon, fine," he said, sighing dramatically. "We have a deal."

  I needed to get away from there and talk to Lobo in private, to learn why I was now stuck with this job. "Then we might as well get moving," I said. "From everything you've told me, the sooner I find this guy, the better."

  "I agree," Shurkan said, "but don't leave quite yet. I have some more information you'll find quite useful."

  "So send it to my ship."

  "No," he said. "For reasons that will become obvious, I'd prefer to discuss this here."

  "Then go ahead," I said.

  He tapped on the table and faced Suli. The door behind us opened, and the guard entered. "Priyana, please go with Jenkins here to Jon's ship and wait beside it."

  "What?" she said. "Like you just told Jon, we're your partners. Anything you can share with him, you can share with me. And, I have more information to review with him; you know I do."

  "Yes, our organizations are partners," he said. "but your conclusion is incorrect. The Freepeople party quite understandably has an agenda well beyond our relationship—as does our council. We both consequently do not share all information with each other. That's fine and normal; no two groups ever do. You'll have to trust me that everything I'm going to tell Jon will help him capture Wei, and nothing I will say will be to your detriment."

  "I'll have to tell my people about this," she said, "and as I told you, I still have more to discuss with Jon."

  "You would tell them about anything I do," Shurkan said, nodding his head, "which makes my point." He gestured toward the door. "Now, if you would please go with Jenkins, we won't be long. You'll have plenty of time to talk with Jon later."

  Suli stood for a moment, her body almost vibrating with the effort of controlling herself. After several seconds, she nodded her head, turned, and left. The door snicked closed.

  "Please, sit," Shurkan said, gesturing again at the chair. I finally realized that he didn't like having to look up at me in a meeting he controlled—or probably at any other time, for that matter. A better person would have sat to make him feel more comfortable.

  I wasn't in the mood to be that person.

  "Thanks, but you said this would be short, so I'll stand." I waited until he opened his mouth to speak, then interrupted him. "Before you say anything else, let's settle that down payment."

  "Really, Mr. Moore, I must—"

  "What, I'm not Jon now?"

  "You're intentionally trying to annoy me," he said.

  "Yes, but that doesn't change anything, and it's not even close to payback for what you've done to me." I took out my wallet, thumbed it to open a quarantined area and to stand ready to receive, and stared at him again. "So, the down payment?"

  He sighed theatrically and tapped on the table. "Have you never been civilized?" he said, shaking his head. "There. Satisfied?"

  My wallet vibrated its receipt. I thumbed a transfer to Lobo.

  "May we proceed?" he said.

  I held up my hand and waited, aware that seconds were passing and uncomfortable in the delay, but there was no getting around it; I wanted the money planetside before we moved on.

  "The transfer is good," Lobo said. "Your main bank on Arctul cleared it, and pieces of it are already hopping to other repositories."

  I put down my hand. "You were saying," I said.

  "I'd like your word," he said, "that you will not tell anyone what I'm about to reveal to you."

  "No."

  "Excuse me?"

  "You've done nothing to earn my trust," I said.

  "I just paid you half the fee," he said, "and you've yet to do a single thing. Surely that earns some trust."

  "No," I said, "that buys my commitment to do my best to capture Wei. I can't think of anything you could do right now that would earn my trust."

  "You are intensely frustrating to deal with," he said.

  "I've heard that. Would you like your money back?"

  He paused as if considering my offer, but we both knew he wasn't; he was in too deep, and my refusal to play by the normal bureaucratic rules had thrown him off his game.

  "No," he finally said. "Though you will not trust me, I will trust you. Decide whether to tell anyone else about this; the cost of a leak will be clear."

  "Go ahead."

  "Before we agreed to work with Pri's organization, we made one attempt to get to Wei. We couldn't afford a direct attack, so we persuaded a scientist Wei was recruiting to work for us. She joined him about six months ago and was sending us status reports on those few days when Wei allowed her out of the complex."

  "You said she 'was' sending reports. What happened?"

  "We don't know," he said. "We have no way to contact her, and we haven't heard from her in three months."

  "So you don't know—"

  "If she's still alive. Correct. If she is, however, she could almost certainly help you, and we'd like you to bring her out with Wei."

  "I can't guara
ntee that," I said. "If I take him in a public place, for example, she could still be alive but nowhere near him."

  "Fair enough," he said, "but if you get the opportunity, bring her along."

  In the Saw, we'd never leave a comrade behind. This woman wasn't on my team, but I appreciated Shurkan's goal. "Okay. How will I get her to trust me?"

  "Her name is Norita McCombs," he said. "This is her."

  The holos on both sides of him morphed into a woman almost my height, a blonde with shoulder-length hair, amber-colored skin, a surprisingly round face, light green eyes, and the lithe, athletic body that had been the dominant executive style for the past several years. The shape of her face and her unusual eyes would be easy to remember and make her simple to spot.

  "If you see her and can find a way to speak to her," Shurkan said, "ask if she has a cousin who's a pro gamer. She does not, so the question should never normally arise. When she hears it, she'll know I sent you, but she'll ask for the name of the person you're recalling. Say it's 'Ken' something or other. If anyone else overhears you, the exchange should do no harm."

  "I have it in case you don't," Lobo said.

  As if I couldn't remember a recognition protocol. First, he makes me do this, then he insults me. He and I definitely needed to talk.

  "Is that it?" I said.

  The holos vanished.

  "Yes," he said. He tapped the table and stared at me for a few seconds, as if searching for something. Whatever it was, I don't think he found it, because he finally said, "I look forward to your success."

  The door opened, and a new escort, a small, nervous man shorter than Suli and no more than two-thirds my weight, motioned to his left. Like Jenkins, he wore no name tag or uniform.

  Shurkan must have noticed the tension between me and Jenkins. Rationally, I knew he'd made a good choice to send a different and very obviously non-threatening escort to take me back to Lobo. Emotionally, however, I was frustrated and let down; part of me still wanted to vent my frustration physically, and Jenkins would have been worth hitting.