Reborn, page 19
“But you’ll be gone?” Sarah whispered.
Joie nodded, then felt all the emotions she had been bottling inside reach up and overwhelm her. Sarah engulfed her in a hug and just held her. Not a lot of tears, but an almost-impossible amount of shaking until she got control again.
“Will they take immigrants?” Sarah asked. “If they do take all those people away and make them live on another planet?”
“Why would you want to do that?” Joie replied, aghast.
“Because you’ll be there, and not here,” Sarah smiled. “It won’t be as much fun. Plus, all my kids are grown up. They can have their own lives if Uno and I decide to go on a long vacation.”
Joie hugged her.
Friends.
And all the ones who were there for her were breaking the law to do it.
What did that say about the state of affairs in this country? In the world?
Joie knew, but it felt like a betrayal to tell others how far short of their ideals they had fallen. Not Sarah, though. Nor the Pedros. Celeste. Many strangers.
And many friends who had volunteered to march into Hell with her.
She could do this.
Sarah gave her strength.
“Now,” Sarah said with a kiss on the cheek. “Go rescue Dos and your friend or they will be here all day.”
“Yes, Mom,” Joie grinned.
She walked over and opened the passenger door. The two men inside abruptly fell silent, like teenage boys being caught at some delinquency.
Not entirely wrong.
Dos slid out and she climbed up to take his place after a quick hug.
Stone sobered, but his face broke into a quick grin.
“This is going to be fun,” he announced as they both buckled themselves in.
Joie just grinned back. Waved at Sarah as they backed into the alley and started the run east and north.
Things were in motion.
CHAPTER 49
Taylor sat in his new office and studied things. Once Mitch had the right name and coordinates, he’d been able to find a stupid amount of information about the base, including as-builts, but nothing showing recent renovations.
Wasn’t a place Taylor had ever visited, but that made perfect sense if it was a genetics research lab. He’d been focused on the cybernetic side of TRC instead.
Old missile silo, so compact and deep. Basically, an office building going down instead of up, with a plug of triply-reinforced concrete over top. Enough to protect against anything short of a direct hit by someone with the right bomb.
Several deep silos down the south side of the hole, all empty after a new round of peace treaties twenty years ago had moved everyone back in the direction of nuclear disarmament. Lots of living space for people once you took out the need to maintain ICBMs, but he had no idea how many people might be there.
Even TRC didn’t share certain things with itself, let alone the rest of the government. Once upon a time, Taylor had put that down to good tradecraft, since they were the good guys standing on the shore holding back a rising tide of evil.
Or something equally full of shit.
Now, he could see where it had let Bouchard and a few others start building up their own, personal armies that didn’t necessarily answer to anyone else.
And frightened the shit out of some folks who really could do something about it.
How many Senators and Representatives were going to burn if all this came out? Enough?
Or were people so cynical that by the next election it would all be forgotten?
Days like this, Taylor wondered if he should just wallow in the cynicism that came with the job.
A chime at the door, then it opened.
Wasn’t Stone. That man was off with Joie borrowing a stolen truck from an unknown chop shop, if Taylor had read the tea leaves correctly. Be back in twelve hours and ready for everyone to make their attack run at Bouchard’s castle.
Tanerhald. The Brakhua captain of the other ship. Or something equivalent. Military rank, rather than elected leader of the others Joie and crew had talked about.
Taylor had only met the one. Impressive fellow, for being so small. At least compared to Humans.
“Is now a good time?” Tanerhald asked in a slightly accented English that was probably good enough for radio or the telephone.
“Sure,” Taylor nodded, gesturing to the chairs on the other side of his desk. “What can I do for you?”
“I have gotten some of the story from Romana Pham,” Tanerhald said simply. “And read reports prepared by Coeurle. Plus, Joie has filled in a few bits when she could.”
Taylor nodded. There hadn’t been time to cover everything. Not if they wanted to get to Bouchard when they still knew where he was. And could keep it quiet.
There were potential benefits to taking Bouchard’s sorry ass right off the Congressional front steps in front of every media organization in the world, but the man hadn’t pissed Taylor off that much.
Yet.
“All of you seem convinced that a full-frontal assault against what you yourself have qualified as a hardened military target, was the best way forward,” Tanerhald said. “Why is that?”
“Time is short,” Taylor explained. “Your patience is not infinite. Plus, Bouchard knows that someone is out there watching. Possibly coming for him. The longer he has time to prepare a response, the more likely it is that Joie fails and you have to resort to extraordinary measures.”
“The concept does not seem to fill you with dread, Kehoe,” he offered.
Taylor shrugged.
“Nuclear missiles have been a thing for generations,” he replied. “Enough firepower to end Earth as an inhabitable planet, if thing got out of hand. For the longest time, that threat has kept trouble to a minimum. Personal things instead of armies clashing, because it could be contained. Joie is exceptional at that. Better than any other agent I’ve ever worked with, though Bouchard has folks supposedly as good as she is now physically. Not mentally.”
“And yet, you simply accept that my kind might have to destroy your homeworld, and possibly eliminate your species, if you fail?” Tanerhald asked. “Not one of you has threatened my person in any way.”
“We all woke up one morning and realized we’d been serving evil, Tanerhald,” Taylor said. “Humans do that, but the good ones try to get on the right side and make it better. That’s Joie and the others. My engagement also contains an element of personal revenge on Bouchard. He was the one who ordered me to burn Joie in the first place. For reasons that didn’t make any sense at the time.”
“But do now?” the alien asked.
“Carter Faulkener used to be ten percent taller, and proportionally bigger,” Taylor explained. “Weighed tremendously more because of the alloy and implants. Joie hasn’t changed physically, save for the removal of the breast implants she always hated so much.”
He paused and waited for the alien to nod.
“Joie went into La Plata alone,” Taylor said. “Took Carter in single combat. She was supposed to kill him. And be so badly broken when it was all done that she died as well, or was medically retired. Something that removed her from the table as an agent, because Bouchard couldn’t regrow her arm or other parts, and didn’t want her in a position to become his enemy later, if he couldn’t suborn her now.”
“That sounds like the stories of Humans I have heard,” Tanerhald said.
“And it is not wrong,” Taylor said. “We’re violent, dangerous, and crazy. However, we are also giving and friendly in the right circumstances. Joie is trying to capture everyone so they can be safely removed to live out their days elsewhere, rather than stealing a nuclear bomb, driving it into the middle of that base, and detonating it to get everyone.”
“She would do that?” Tanerhald gasped.
“Other than the nuclear bomb part, Carter is something of an expert at using truck bombs to assassinate people,” Taylor offered. “I’m sure he could find a way to pull it off if I tasked him with it.”
The alien recoiled.
“Instead, Joie is going to try to capture him at great personal risk,” Taylor continued. “Taking all her friends. Then tracking down all the folks for you to grab, rather than just shooting them to make sure they are never a threat again. Personally, Joie thinking that way surprises me, because we never trained her for that. My guess is Amy Watanabe is responsible for it.”
“Who?”
“After I caused her to be thrown out of the Army, and become persona non grata, she had a pension and not much more,” Taylor grimaced. “Eventually, she got a job at a coffee shop in DC. Watanabe is the manager of that store. Tiny woman, not much bigger than you. Impressive as hell, too, as I had to sit across a desk from her trying to get Joie to come in from the cold. Pretty sure Watanabe is the one that turned Joie into the person she is now. I owe her a thank-you card for it, too, but can’t ever tell her why.”
“Interesting,” Tanerhald noted. “So you and she would also believe that Humans removed from Earth forever could possibly be shown the error of their ways?”
“A dead man never learns,” Taylor replied. “In the old days, sometimes it was just easier to kill them because even the living ones weren’t willing to change. Joie thinks that it can be done now. I believe her.”
“Thank you,” Tanerhald said, standing up. “You have given me much to consider. I had not truly appreciated that saving Humanity was feasible. I was more focused on saving everyone from the Humans.”
“If Joie can’t, nobody can,” Taylor said. “Simple as that.”
The alien didn’t make any comment. Just bowed his head and departed.
Taylor went back to the schematics and wondered if it was really possible that anybody was going to get out of there alive.
CHAPTER 50
Mitch was getting coffee. Decaf this time, because he wanted to sleep at some point, so he’d be sharp when all hell broke loose later. Not much he could do, but with the sorts of computer access Yormevs had gotten for him, there were a few things he wanted to try.
Everybody else was largely in their rooms or quiet spaces, meditating or however they prepared for shit like this. He was in a back corner just relaxing.
Romana walked in, looked around until she saw him, and started this way.
“No, you don’t need to get up,” she said as he started to move, so Mitch stayed in the chair.
The space could sit forty or fifty folks when all the tables were out. Coffee robots on one wall that had been expanded and modified to include food for Human, as well as Heecha and Danorak. He’d only seen Bandi, though, as the other two apparently preferred to stay in their rooms.
Bandi had mentioned that both were still young enough to be believers.
Mitch preferred the cynic.
Romana stepped close and kissed him on the top of his head, then moved to the next chair around the small square and sat.
“I talked with Ernesta,” Romana said.
Mitch started to say something and she waved him to silence.
“It’s all right, Mitch,” she said. “I don’t think we would have worked out at the time for the same reasons you and Joie wouldn’t have. That’s fine. I just wanted to say thank you for coming to find me.”
“We didn’t, though,” Mitch countered. “That was all you.”
“You were trying,” Romana said. “You came aboard with that asshole Kehoe because they were looking for me. Joie never gave up on that, even after you and I gave up on her.”
“Joie needed to become somebody else,” Mitch observed. “Not the woman she used to be, but someone bigger.”
“And I needed that as well,” Romana nodded. “They grabbed me out of that barracks because they needed a pure Human that they could recruit as an agent. Not a cybernaut like Joie or Freya. Not one of Bouchard’s new advanced people.”
“I’ve seen lists suggesting that you might have been on a short list for that,” Mitch said. “Didn’t make much sense at the time, but the context of people he could recruit does. Not sure why he didn’t.”
“I’ve always had reservations about what they did to Joie,” Romana nodded. “How they treated her. How they basically threw her out with yesterday’s trash. Pretty sure that Chelsea Vanlaere got the slot that opened when I washed out.”
Mitch felt himself blush again. Sure, he knew he was pretty good looking, but Chelsea had used him as a vector to infiltrate Joie’s team, using one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Not that he’d minded being her victim at the time.
Romana grinned, like she could maybe read his mind. A woman like that probably could. They’d been that close for a while, both concerned about saving Joie. Then noticing each other.
Mitch shrugged at might-have-beens and focused on this woman.
“So they upgraded you, huh?” he asked.
“They did,” Romana nodded. “But I’m not really supposed to talk about it. Nothing compared to what they did to Joie. Just better. And I have a small team of folks. Basically mercenaries I recruited once I could vet a few who wouldn’t freak out at who was hiring them. None are at my level, let alone Joie’s, or I would suggest taking them as well. They’ll stay here and can guard anybody Tanerhald grabs.”
“You think he’ll be able to kidnap some folks if Stone is successful?” Mitch asked.
“Long shot, I know,” Romana said. “Best fallback we’ve got at this moment. If those shields are down, scanners might work. Might not, considering the hardening down there. My concern is that they might have to get violent. Maybe blow the place up.”
“It’s more than this one base, Romy,” Mitch said. “I’m seeing hints of up to a dozen others, scattered about and doing this kind of research for TRC. Maybe not all of it is genetics like you folks, but some. We’ll need Bouchard alive.”
“Tanerhald knows that,” Romana said. “Joie does, too, but she’s operating from a different place. She wants everyone to come out of this one alive. Some of our alien friends aren’t so sure.”
“What happens if we succeed?” Mitch pressed. “If we nail Bouchard, get him and the others out, and Tanerhald is able to kill all that research by melting databases and removing the minds?”
“Then everybody gets removed from Earth forever.” She shrugged exactly like Joie would have. “Human colony on some distant world, hopefully with regular cargo runs home for videos and blue jeans, so that folks remember who they used to be.”
“You don’t think Tanerhald will reveal himself to Humanity if we succeed?” Mitch asked.
“Not for a while,” Romana replied. “I asked him that myself. Most of the alien species age much more slowly than we do, so aren’t in the same sorts of hurry as we are about doing things. They often have centuries where we have decades. Maybe in a Human generation, it will be safe to say hello. Or bring in some new, Human agents who have been trained by the aliens. Dunno. I’ll be around, after what they did to me. Same as Joie. You might want to ask them for the same treatment, if you’re serious about Ernesta. She’s got a lot of time alone after you, otherwise.”
He’d considered it. Hadn’t asked Ernesta that directly, but they’d danced around it. At the end of the day, he’d only known her for a brief time, with half of that being when she was still older than his Mom. Physically. Mentally, she still was, but now she was younger than him.
And might be forever, while he turned into an old man.
Did he want to live forever, too?
“Dunno,” he shrugged. “I’ll have to leave with the rest of you because I know too much. And, as you said, we’ll have time to think about these things standing on an alien world. You four just need to make sure you all come back safely.”
He leaned over and kissed her, just because he could. Wasn’t anything behind it.
“Four?” she asked when he leaned back.
“Carter has made the greatest strides,” Mitch said. “I’ve read most of his personnel file, dating back thirty years, and any resemblance to the man he was, even three years ago, is entirely accidental. Joie got to him then. And she’s done it again since. He’s trying to be a better person. After all the shit that generations of TRC folks have put him through, he deserves his bit of happiness.”
“Huh,” Romy said, blinking at him. “He was always That Tall Asshole.”
“Agreed,” Mitch laughed. “Kehoe heard me call him that after me learning it from you, then took it as a nickname for Mithras. But Carter is somebody else. Somebody new. That’s Joie. That’s what she’s trying to do for everybody, Bouchard included.”
Romana fell silent and studied his face. Mitch sipped his coffee.
She rose and grinned, but didn’t say anything. Just kissed him on the top of the head again and headed out without once looking back. But they’d said everything.
He finished his decaf and made his way back to his cabin, humming a little under his breath as he did.
Opening the hatch, Mitch found Ernesta in his bed. From the pile of clothes on the floor, she wasn’t wearing anything. Her lascivious smile confirmed that.
“I talked to Romana,” she said.
“So did I,” Mitch replied. “Just now.”
“She’s an amazing woman,” Ernesta offered as Mitch closed the hatch and kicked off his shoes.
“I’d like to think I have pretty good taste,” he said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed and kiss her.
CHAPTER 51
Joie counted noses. Habit from the old days. She’d been trained to generally make all the recon sweeps alone, operating solo and looking harmless as she got inside and scouted, before heading up an assault team if that was needed later.
Stone and Freya, dressed like soldiers tasked with delivering an anonymous load to a nowhere outpost. Her, Ernesta, Romana, and Carter in tight, black, tactical gear, entailing plates, armor, and straps holding all manner of whatever a special forces soldier needed in this situation. Not as much ammunition or explosives as in her old life, but she wasn’t trying to kill anyone here.
