Reborn, page 13
He nodded and pulled the hatch shut, isolating her from what was about to be said aft. He had a pair of stewards who generally kept a low profile, but they had as good a clearance as anybody in TRC that handled Project Carpenter agents. They would keep quiet.
Konicek was closing things up. Vanlaere stowing bags. Valmy gestured the stewards to remain aft in the galley for now as he sat.
The three of them got settled and buckled in, even as the jet began to roll.
Things were in motion.
“Some of our allies are not Human,” he said simply by way of introduction.
Konicek gasped. Vanlaere nodded. She must have seen or known things from Daring.
“At this point, I presume Daring has gone turncoat, though I’m not sure why,” he continued. “That she stole the alien ship and did not talk to me tells me all that I need to know. I presume she is behind the disappearances of our alien friends and one of their watchers in Argentina.”
“And the ship vanished off radar in orbit?” Vanlaere asked.
“Stealth technology better than anything we have,” Valmy nodded. “I was able to locate their base on the timing of their recent arrival in 2057 and attacking any possible anomalies with some of my AIs. It still took years and a lot of Human work, weeding out all the false positives. I’d been holding that location in my back pocket against need. The only person who could have told Daring were the aliens who had been working with us.”
“Since 2057, General?” Vanlaere asked.
“He claimed to have first come in 1928, Lieutenant,” Valmy said with a grin. “Might be immortal, or at least extremely long-lived. We don’t know. But even that little told our scientists that is was possible, so they started working on how to do it.”
“Mithras,” Vanlaere stated. “He was supposed to live for several hundred years, if I recall correctly?”
“You do, Vanlaere,” Valmy said. “All of the Herakles agents had that upgrade, as do Carpenter agents.”
“We were told a doubling, sir?” she asked hesitantly.
He smiled.
“Herakles agents were selected with a different set of criteria. Three of them are dead now. Three will continue to be watched closely for a long time,” he said. “The three of us should be around at least as long.”
Valmy rather liked the recoil of shock that embraced both of his agents.
He’d selected people for personal loyalty, rather than patriotism. It had taken a much wider net to find the sorts of people that he could slowly twist around over time, when it would become clear that the US Government didn’t have their best interests in mind.
Hell, Valmy had commissioned a few studies that gave the United States less than thirty more years before it finally disintegrated, though a Civil War like the Nineteenth Century was unlikely. Just a collapse as all systems cascaded into failure like dominos.
He would need his army commanders already constructed and ready to go at that point, assuming that the labs producing them might be destroyed. Or the factories supplying chemicals.
Something that made it impossible to make more, until he could rebuild.
Valmy had a definite end-point that he’d been racing against for two decades now.
“Sir?” Vanlaere managed.
“You were not told, Vanlaere,” he acknowledged. “Specifically, because Carter Faulkener took that knowledge and started looking at a much longer horizon than his handlers would. Eventually, he decided that he didn’t want to work for TRC anymore, and became a terrorist. Note the Russian Ambassador. Fortunately, he’s dead now and no longer a threat to my plans. Our plans.”
“What are our plans, General?” Konicek asked.
Yes, the loyal soldier, fitting himself into a proper hierarchy with Valmy Bouchard at the pinnacle. Yet another reason Faulkener had had to die.
And now Daring would have to join him in hell.
“The aliens originally wanted an army of Humans to go conquer the universe,” Valmy said. “At least, that was the story I was given and what I’ve been able to research from old German and Russian archives. The ones that came here intended to force Human development rapidly ahead. As planned, they had expected the entire arc of our twentieth century developement to take more like three hundred years, maybe longer, so they needed us ready for interstellar technology on a specific date.”
“What date was that, sir?” Vanlaere asked.
“The larger alien civilization was planning to come down and invite us to join them at that point,” Valmy smiled. “Because we would have moved past our warlike, primitive selves and been more social.”
“Like Europe before the EU more or less fell apart?” she asked.
“Very much like that,” he acknowledged. “We would have presumably either destroyed ourselves or settled down.”
“And now?”
“Now, some folks have been meddling for nearly two centuries,” he said. “We are technologically far in advance of what those other outsiders were expecting. Had Daring not stolen that ship, we’d have been able to take it apart and perhaps build our own.”
“Sir, were we going to go conquer the aliens?” Konicek asked carefully.
“We were going to be in a position to negotiate a far better deal that passively accepting whatever they offered,” he replied, sidestepping the salient points.
Going to and able to were matters of intent. Valmy didn’t even know how many were out there, other than only a few looked enough like Humans to walk the streets of La Plata.
Was that why they’d needed Daring? An agent? Was that what had happened to Pham?
Were the bad aliens already here, and getting ready to do something?
The President would love nothing more than to host a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, introducing bonafide alien ambassadors. The EU and UN would want in on the act.
Valmy had no doubts that everyone would want a piece of that action.
He needed to move quickly if he was going to seize control.
Perhaps it was time, thirty years early.
“Sir?” Vanlaere asked. Must have seen something in his eyes.
“We are approaching endgame, Vanlaere,” he told her. “It might get ugly before it settles down.”
CHAPTER 33
Ernesta noted that she’d been stripped back down to comfortable clothing for indoors. Blue jeans. Plain, red T-shirt. Socks, because those boots were too warm.
Joie was there in a small chamber with a big table dominating the center. Carter as well.
“Romana Pham,” the other Human woman introduced herself.
“A lot of people have been looking for you,” Ernesta nodded. “Are you doing okay?”
The woman gaped at her. Probably everyone had forgotten to ask that, but none of them were parents, let alone grandparents. Ernesta brought an extra something to the conversation.
“I am,” Romana answered.
They all got settled.
“This is Tanerhald,” Joie introduced the other person. “He’s of the Brakhua.”
Lavender. Ernesta had a blouse almost exactly that color that she wore usually in the fall. He was small, too, but the man looked fast and sleek. Eight fingers instead of ten.
Ernesta also noted four other Humans around the outside of the chamber, standing like guards in uniforms identical to Romana’s. Armed like guards, while she didn’t even have her phone or wallet with her.
A bit over the top. It almost looked like a bad sci-fi vid, where the costumer went a touch heavy-handed with the visual metaphors.
Ernesta might have to have a chat with someone about better fashion choices later. After Joie worked her charm and magic on them first.
At least someone had provided mugs of coffee from the smell, as well as a carafe in the center of the smooth, black-finished table.
Ernesta glanced over at Carter, next to her, and gave him that special Mom look to remind him to behave. He occasionally forgot.
She could tell now by the blush that appeared. He wasn’t a bad guy. Just a goofball who didn’t always think things to their logical conclusions before jumping in.
“So, Captain Daring, we have assembled,” Tanerhald said.
“Call me Joie,” she said automatically. “Everyone else does.”
“Joie.”
“I to have to go all the way back to the beginning,” Joie said. “Well, not the beginning, but from the point when I was sent to La Plata to chase down Carter here, the first time. Before everything happened when I was forcibly retired by the TRC and Taylor Kehoe.”
Ernesta listened as Joie told the story again. She really did have a way with words, and had made enough peace with things that the anger was mostly subdued. Plus, Kehoe wasn’t here, though he had changed remarkably since she’d first grabbed him by the hair and put a pistol in his ear.
Some men learn.
“And then I appeared in a room with Romana across from me,” Joie finally finished up, having drunk an entire mug of coffee and part of a second one. Ernesta had largely been silent, save to interject a few points. Carter had wisely refrained from dirty jokes or social observations. “Then Tanerhald walked in and filled in a few points. We’re all here. How do we stop Bouchard from all the things he has been doing? How do we stop the Brakhua and others from what they have planned?”
“You would speak for the Heecha, Joie?” Tanerhald asked.
He did have a lovely voice. Deep tenor without the resonance of a baritone. Powerful, though, rather than thin like it might have sounded on a small Human male.
“Since they haven’t chosen to appear, I will presume so for now,” Joie said. “You have the comm gear that allowed us to talk to them when we were on the ground, so at some point I can ask them to join us.”
“You think they would?” Tanerhald asked bluntly.
“They wanted to keep folks from destroying my homeworld,” Joie said. “That you have Romana on your side says the same thing. At the very least, we have a commonality of purpose that should allow us to be allies. I appreciate that it might only last until we solve our common foe in Bouchard, but that must be enough for now.”
“Have the Heecha warned you?” Tanerhald asked.
“That I know too much to be allowed to remain on Earth afterwards?” Joie asked sharply. “Yes. And both of my friends here chose to undergo the same genetic modifications, knowing that if we were successful, we would all have to accept permanent exile from Earth. That was the price required. We understood that ahead of time. If I thought we could somehow find and deport everyone with the wrong knowledge, I’d help you start beaming them out now, and we could create a Human colony somewhere safely distant while we let everyone else settle in and recover.”
Ernesta liked the way Tanerhald’s eyes got a little bigger. They looked Human enough. It was the skin that was alien. And the sleekness of the bones in his head. Predatory, like a hawk.
Tanerhald’s mouth opened to speak, then closed again as he reconsidered his words. Interestingly, he turned to Romana. Ernesta watched that woman grin.
She’d heard many stories about Romana Pham. From Joie. From Carter. From Kehoe. Even Mitch had been willing to share a little, though he was not one to kiss and tell.
“You were correct,” Tanerhald told Romana.
“This is the woman I knew before, Tanerhald,” Romana said with a hint of triumph in her voice. “This is Captain Daring as she was in the good old days.”
“Bad old days,” Joie corrected her friend. “The days when violence was a first response, rather than a last one. We’ve got to change. To grow up.”
Romana gave her friend a look of surprise, but Ernesta supposed that she only remembered the badass chika, as Joie called herself. Or the depressed ex-soldier working in a coffee shop and some mornings unable to even get out of bed.
Ernesta had seen Joie growing up, if she could be rude enough to say that. Celeste and Sarah, plus the others. Strangers helping. Powerful mojo that had caused Joie to rethink everything.
And convinced Ernesta to help someone who might have been one of her worst enemies in another life.
“To grow up, Joie?” Tanerhald asked.
“Bouchard’s automatic response when I flew away with the ship was to shoot,” Joie told him. “My first response was to escape, so that the situation was contained, when it could have spiraled badly out of control. Imagine if Bouchard had been aboard, instead of me.”
Ernesta noted the shudders in Tanerhald, as well as Romana and the nameless Human guards around the walls.
“Still, it might have helped, had you taken him into custody,” Joie acknowledged. “He’s the driver behind all this, and removing him might have given us time to identify everyone else involved before they could do anything desperate.”
“You believe that we should remove him from the playing field?” Tanerhald asked.
“Eventually, it will become necessary,” Joie said.
Ernesta leaned forward now, drawing all eyes to her.
“Most of Humanity has no idea what is going on,” Ernesta reminded everyone present. “They go about their daily lives in ignorance of the things out there. Of people like you, watching in the darkness. Bouchard’s actions provoke a communal retribution that is unwarranted on any sort of ethical basis.”
She paused, eyeing Tanerhald and Romana, grateful for those silly books on first contacts that she had devoured.
Wasn’t all of science fiction busy asking one of three questions? What if? If only? And if this goes on?
“Bandi, Sora, and Hanni are neutralized,” Ernesta reminded them. “Yormevs has them in custody, along with poor Genevieve who is just an innocent here. That lab grinds to a halt, though I am certain from my other contacts that the state of cybernetic research has spread to the point that it will continue moving forward elsewhere. After all, Bandi was always trying to push the envelope, but to do so slowly enough to not be noticed by folks like you.”
“You have been modified greatly,” Tanerhald pointed out. “Genetically.”
“And the price was exile,” she countered. “Before you came along, we expected Yormevs and the Heecha to take us away, so that the rest of the world could continue to live on in ignorance. Now, the only change is that the Brakhua would be our jailers instead. Bouchard must still be stopped. Costs have already been borne and will continue. The Heecha needed Human agents. The Brakhua even more so. How can we help?”
“You assume we desire your help?” Tanerhald asked.
“You did not destroy the ship,” Ernesta pointed out. “You recruited Romana to your side. As Joie noted, at the very least we have a commonality of purpose. How do we save all the billions on Earth before they have to suffer the collective punishment for the crimes of a few?”
She leaned back and watched. The guards around the walls—the Human ones—stirred at her words. Romana did as well.
Tanerhald would still make the decision. He turned to Joie and leaned forward, tenting his hands in a most Human manner and resting his chin on them.
“What would you do, Joie?” he asked.
Ernesta let go a breath silently. If they were going to listen to Joie Daring, there was yet hope.
At least for some of them.
Bouchard still had it coming.
CHAPTER 34
Joie looked around the room she had been assigned. Her and Ernesta. Carter had a room with a pair of beds all to himself.
She was utterly exhausted from talking all afternoon.
“I can’t believe he got away,” Joie said, sitting on the one bed. “They held us in that damned beam for almost two days before they let us out? And didn’t say anything?”
“They also had a tiger by the tail, Joie,” Ernesta told her soothingly. “They didn’t realize that you might be a pussycat if they asked nicely.”
Joie had to laugh. In many ways, Ernesta had pretty much replaced the mother Joie had grown emotionally distant from over the last decade. Same age. Nothing at all alike in personality.
But a friend when she’d really needed one.
“Bouchard knows too much,” Joie said. “And he knows we’re involved, because I saw him recognize me. You were just some chika I picked up on a street corner to help, and I doubt he got a good look at Carter. Right now, we’ve got to do something.”
“We need Mitch,” Ernesta said. “And not just for someone to scrub my back in the shower. Or yours. We need his brains.”
“Agreed,” Joie said.
She stopped when a chime sounded at the door. Doorbell?
She hadn’t even checked to see if they were locked in after Romana had escorted them to these rooms to settle.
Joie rose. Ernesta moved onto a flank like a wingchick in a bar.
Romana stood there.
“Hi,” she said awkwardly.
“Should I depart so you two can talk?” Ernesta asked.
“No,” Romana said, turning to her. “You should be here. We don’t have a lot of time to catch up, and I’ve just come from a meeting with Tanerhald.”
“Come in,” Joie stepped back and gestured. “Make yourself at home.”
She wasn’t prepared for Romana to get a running start and take a flying leap onto the nearer bed.
Just like that one time in…
“Bogota?” she asked.
Romana grinned and pulled all the pillows out so she could pile them up and rest against them. Boots came off and got tossed into a corner.
Joie felt a weight slide off her shoulders that she hadn’t even appreciated was there.
“Bogota!” she laughed.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Ernesta said.
“We’d just finished a mission into Venezuela, and had some down time,” Joie said, stepping to the other bed and flopping onto it, only without the flying bit. “That was how she entered the hotel room we were going to share, before heading out and hunting for a dance hall.”
“I see,” Ernesta offered blandly.
