Reborn, page 8
“Understood,” Freya nodded. “The offer is the thing to remember. You and I both took the oath because we wanted to save the world. That doesn’t stop if our own people go bad. If anything, it makes it more important.”
Joie started to say something, but the wall beside her thinned and Yormevs entered.
“Joie, you are needed elsewhere immediately,” he said simply. “Something has happened.”
CHAPTER 19
Bandi just stared at this new Human, but the man Graydon didn’t seem to be impressed. Kehoe was a little more off-put, but he’d never seen a Danorak in their native, gray coloration. Or without a wig of Human hair.
The Heecha entered, bringing Joie, but leaving the others outside somewhere.
They were aboard a Heecha ship. Bandi recognized the overall design, but he’d been away for so long that maybe this was a newer class. Something. It looked subtly wrong to his eyes.
Plus the damned smell. Sour kimchi almost cleaned out of the air, but not quite. It was amazing that nobody else noticed it.
The Heecha sat at the head of the long table. Joie and Kehoe were across. The newcomer Graydon was next to Bandi on the left.
Everyone settled.
“Tell them,” the Heecha commanded.
Bandi bit back a snarl. Turned to the Heecha.
“Does Kehoe need to be here?” he demanded instead. “Or this other?”
“It will be my mission,” Kehoe growled. “Mitch is my analyst. Joie is my agent. Talk, or be utterly damned. I don’t care.”
Bandi felt the surliness rise, but contained it. Kehoe had always been an asshole on a mission. Changing masters hadn’t changed anything relevant about the man. Hardened him, if anything.
Bandi sighed instead.
“It was brought to my attention that Bouchard made a sudden and unplanned trip to South American,” he said. “All well and good, except that he wasn’t going to Buenos Aires, like we would have expected.”
“It didn’t fit context,” Graydon interjected.
Bandi nodded. The man was right.
“It would not,” Bandi agreed. “You don’t know certain things. Nobody is supposed to know them.”
“What’s in Santiago, Chile?” Graydon asked sharply, leaning forward.
Analyst. Take data and refine it into information. Good ones could turn it into understanding. Graydon had that look about him. That made him doubly dangerous, if he was going to know everything about this shitshow.
“Nothing,” Bandi replied, waving the others off when they got restive. “It is what comes after Santiago that matters.”
“We know he’s headed there?” Joie asked.
“I have all sorts of access to things I shouldn’t.” Graydon smiled fiercely. “Running an invisible backup and restore to servers here, so I can recompile things for reporting purposes. Makes it fast, and lets me set alerts. Bouchard triggered one, but he requested a flight plan to Chile instead of Argentina. That got escalated.”
Bandi nodded sourly. Graydon might be more dangerous than Joie, in his own way. At least from what had come up over the last day or so.
Smart, while the others were generally only cunning. Lots of difference there.
“Bandi?” Joie asked.
“We happened to be on the Chilean side of the border, but working out of Argentina for political and social reasons,” he sighed. “Santiago is the closest place to get any sort of aircraft capable of flying him to the volcano.”
“Volcano?” Joie asked.
Bandi ignored the men in here and concentrated on her. She was the only nice one, anyway.
“You were correct, the first time we met, Joie,” he said in a heavy, sad voice. “We do have a ship, carefully hidden against anybody finding it. The transmitter beams that you’ve used to get around made it easy to get from there to where we needed to go. I never kept a unit assembled, because that would have given your kind enough information to possibly reverse engineer one yourselves, which would have been all kinds of bad.”
“How so?” she asked.
“You could have walked to the moon, instead of flying,” he offered. “Mars is too far away, but putting a station about halfway to closest approach would have let you step there. Or a whole chain of such stations, so you could send robots to build new stations, then just walk over and populate them. Humans break out of their homeworld so much faster than anybody back home could have imagined. That would have pissed them off.”
“Because they’d have known somebody like you was here, doing things illegally,” she nodded.
He nodded back.
“Our ship is hidden in a cave in the summit crater of Espiritu Santo, which overlies the La Engorda volcano. Way the hell up in Chile,” Bandi finally admitted, sealing his doom for all time.
As if there’d been any doubts left.
“And Bouchard figured out where?” she asked.
“Somebody like him,” Bandi replied, pointing to Graydon next to him. “Too smart for his own damned good and playing with patterns. How, I don’t know, but there is absolutely nothing of value anywhere in Chile, as far as my people and research are concerned. If somebody just kidnapped all the Danorak scientists and he doesn’t immediately go to look, then that’s the only other thing I know of with any value to you. So I told the Heecha here.”
“I have a name,” the Heecha said.
Bandi just scowled at the fucker. Kehoe and Graydon rated names. Barely.
Joie was the only one here really worth a shit, himself included.
Somewhere in hell, Faust was laughing.
“So I get to compound my crimes, Joie,” Bandi said, turning to focus on her again. “I get to make certain that a Human discovers the ship that brought me here fifty years ago. They’ll start a crucifixion when they learn that, then move up to something cruel and painful.”
“So you’re Jesus of Nazareth, now?” Kehoe asked.
“I’m the guy that was trying to get you silly monkeys out of the stone ages,” Bandi retorted sourly. “But that’s all done and gone. Joie I trust. If Bouchard gets it, you all are absolutely screwed, because I’m certain that a lot more people are watching Earth these days. That’s why we had to hide it so well. Tell me, Heecha, how well are you hidden from the Watchers?”
At least the son of a bitch had the decency to look chagrined. Bandi’d snuck down here with Sora and Hanni in 2057, after a major Party operation to provide the right opening. When the guards were still half-asleep.
If the Heecha were here, so were a bunch of others.
“Well enough, Danorak,” the creature replied tartly. “And not everyone out there objects to our actions. You’re the one who’s pushed too many too close to retaliation, however.”
“I’m just a research scientist,” Bandi said, hearing echoes of Nuremberg in his words.
The Soviets had made damned certain that he watched those films. All of them. That he understood what fate might be his, if he decided to not work for them.
Only their implosion in 1991 had allowed him to vanish without being hung as an old Nazi, regardless of the truth.
“You are an admitted criminal, caught red-handed,” the Heecha announced. “The list of your crimes boggles the mind and will run many pages when we finally bring you to a court of justice.”
“Leave a bunch of blank pages for me to fill in when we get there,” Bandi snapped. “You folks don’t know the half of it, pal. Not yet, anyway.”
“Bandi,” Joie interrupted before he got up a head of steam. “How do we stop Bouchard from stealing your ship?”
“By stealing it yourself, Joie,” he sighed. “By flying the damned thing right out of the mountain and probably inserting it into a safe orbit somewhere. If you land on the ground, the Heecha’s friends will probably just destroy everything rather than risk further technological contamination.”
“Further?” the Heecha snarled and started to rise.
Bandi rose to match him.
Joie surprised everybody by slamming an open palm down on the table top. Worked, too. Bandi nearly pissed himself in surprise. The Heecha sat right back down.
“Are you two done?” she demanded.
Bandi sat, sheepish. Took a breath.
“Everything I’ve done to date was just a week ahead of what Humans were already doing,” Bandi said. “Yes, crimes. Fine. Incarcerate me forever. All I did was compress what they’d already been doing. Two whole generations just during World War Two. Another couple before the Americans got to the Moon, using, I might add, technology they stole from my lab in Irkutsk in the first place. They’d have gotten there without us. Maybe not by now, but you people have no idea how smart this species is. I didn’t understand until I’d lived with them for several generations.”
“Bandi, assuming I do steal the ship, why orbit?” Joie asked.
“Because folks will notice,” he sighed again. “They’ll have to come down here and deal with everything, including Humans, immediately. My people won’t be able to secretly recruit an army of your kind. Nor will Bouchard.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” she asked.
It was just the two of them now. The other three were silent, as they should be. Irrelevant, in the grand scheme of things. Kehoe would do the thing where he was in charge. Graydon would tear apart all the little details and make pretty pictures of it. The Heecha was merely Bandi’s warden.
Joie would have to save them all.
After this long, he had developed an attachment to Humanity, even with all their warts and wrinkles.
“Because I finally understand Faust, Joie,” he admitted. “I have lived long enough to see what evil is and how seductive it can be. I screwed up. You are the only person I know who can salvage anything from this mess.”
CHAPTER 20
Valmy studied the night sky out the jet’s window, that endless darkness of the Gulf of Mexico before they were over land again and racing down to Chile.
If someone had finally discovered his pet aliens, it was only a matter of time before they found the ship. It should still be there. Only a deep analysis of old data from satellites watching for nuclear missile launches had noted anything, and then only in the sort of perfect vision hindsight could get you.
“Sir, everything is confirmed,” Konicek called, stepping out of a small office and entering the main cabin.
Vanlaere had been meditating a few rows aft. She came forward.
Valmy turned away from the night and studied the two agents he had with him.
More of his people were coming, but nobody else was close enough unless he delayed.
The three of them would have to risk it.
He gestured them to sit.
“In oral records, it is called the Santiago Incident,” Valmy began.
“Oral, General?” Vanlaere asked.
“We’re dealing with aliens, soldier,” he nodded. “I always assume that most of our systems are going to be compromised by them. Thus, some systems are air-gapped and never connect to the outer world. Other things are never written down, or were typed on a mechanical machine and only stored as paper. This is one of those.”
They nodded. Probably understood that they have moved into territory where even the President and Joint Chiefs didn’t need to know. A few Senators in DC were informed, but only knew enough that they could be counted on to force the Defense Department to keep funding TRC without many strings attached.
And their fervent hope that Valmy Bouchard perfected his treatments that would eventually make them young and immortal.
It was an even easier way to bribe politicians than money, once you got hold of their dreams.
Konicek and Vanlaere were suitably awed. And frightened. This was one of those secrets you took with you to the grave.
“Orbital sensors had recorded something, but nobody noticed anything until I ordered a review of the data, wrapped around a certain year,” Valmy said. “The aliens arrived to talk with us in 2057, so I went looking for evidence of how they’d arrived.”
He leaned back and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Once upon a time, he’d needed glasses. Then laser surgery. Eventually, cybereyes would have been on the menu, except that he’d found a better way.
Still, some habits die hard.
“Something happened in the mountains east of Santiago,” he continued. “An ancient volcano on the border with Argentina. An unexplainable surge of energy, followed by changes to the terrain itself.”
“Building a base?” Vanlaere asked/guessed.
“Overnight,” he replied. “Or at least in only a few weeks, as we had older images that showed a difference when they were done.”
“Has anyone ever investigated?” Konicek asked.
“No,” Valmy said flatly. “Too much risk that they might notice aircraft flying close. The best we’ve been able to do was make sure that certain espionage satellites kept that location in their footprint, scanning passively and photographing the scene regularly.”
“So we don’t know what’s there?” Vanlaere asked.
“We do not,” Valmy confirmed. “However, I have had unknown enemy agents take out two of my primary teams in the last month, without leaving any trace. Without anything else to go on, I have to gamble right now. This is why we can’t even wait for the rest of the team to get here from their various deployments. Nor could I route them to South America without giving away too much.”
“What do we expect to find there?” Vanlaere pressed.
“Possibly an alien base,” Valmy replied, watching both recoil in surprise. “With any luck, an alien starship that we can understand and steal.”
“Steal, General?” she asked.
“It belongs to the aliens near Buenos Aires, Vanlaere,” he nodded. “They’ve been here for fifty years and never told us anything at all about it, so I have nothing but supposition and circumstantial evidence. But if they were not willing to tell us about it before this, they are not in a position to argue now, if someone else has captured them. We must move first.”
“That’s why you needed a high-altitude rescue helicopter and cold weather gear waiting for us on arrival?” Konicek asked.
“Yes,” Valmy replied. “We will transition directly to the coordinates in question and force our way in. Not even the Chilean military will be allowed to assist, because they would confiscate it themselves. I will not allow that.”
They fell silent at that. He did as well, with nothing useful to say at this point until they got there and started the next phase.
Twelve hours from now, in possession of a starship he could tear apart and understand, maybe replicate, he might be the most powerful person on Earth.
Or he might be starting a war with aliens.
CHAPTER 21
Ernesta stared at the closed door and asked herself again if this was a smart idea. What she thought to gain from it.
She didn’t know.
It was the middle of the night, Guadalajara time. Joie had emerged from her meeting with Yormevs and the others then sent everybody to bed, saying that they would eat a heavy breakfast before their first mission to truly attempt to thwart Kehoe’s old boss.
Maybe that was what had brought her to this door, unable to sleep with the kind of nerves she hadn’t faced in years.
Decades, at this point.
She just knew that she didn’t want to be alone tonight. And didn’t want to miss her opportunity, were something to happen tomorrow.
There were always regrets. Sometimes, she wondered if that was the single most powerful Human emotion in existence. Certainly, it had moved more people farther than love or hatred ever had, even if they had been much more quiet about it.
She didn’t want regret.
Ernesta knocked instead, waiting on the balls of her feet for the door to open.
It was late.
Too late?
Except that it opened, sliding sideways into the wall. Mitch stood there, still dressed from earlier, though looking tired.
“Am I intruding?” Ernesta asked nervously, unable to believe the sound of her own voice.
Her, the most dangerous woman in Guadalajara. Nervous.
But Mitch smiled.
“Not yet,” he said, stepping back and to one side. “Come in and try harder?”
It took her a moment to process that.
He wanted her to intrude?
She could do that.
Ernesta crossed that threshold in the deck and the door closed behind her.
The room was dimmer than hers usually was. Lights dialed down halfway, with a clamshell laptop computer on the desk in one corner.
“Been doing more research,” he said sheepishly, grinning in a way that made him even cuter. “Trying to find out what’s going on in Chile.”
“Any luck?” she asked.
Ernesta drifted to the end of the bed, the spot closest to his desk, and sat. Mitch moved to the desk chair, but turned it around to face her.
“Hints of something in 2056,” he said. “Some weird research project initiated by Bouchard six years ago, but I can’t find any record of results. Given the systems I have access to, they were never put on the right servers. But knowing where let me find a when.”
“Would he leave it where someone else might find it?” she asked. “I rarely trust important things to computers. In fact, I have a woman mechanic on staff whose primary job is repairing old typewriters, just because the US government loves to insert their AI systems everywhere, permission or not.”
He blushed a little and shrugged. Guilty, himself.
Then he reached a hand over and closed the machine entirely. Not shutting her out of that conversation, but turning himself entirely to focus on her. It was like a spotlight had come on, his eyes boring in on hers.
“Obviously, you didn’t come here for a late night briefing,” he said. “Or did you?”
“That depends on your definitions, Mister,” Ernesta laughed. “I might have had ulterior motives. We have not had a chance to really discuss certain things. I didn’t feel like they should wait until we got back from Chile.”
