Contact Imminent, page 2
Pullman-in-miniature kicked at the snow. “No, ma’am.”
Jani sensed someone approach from behind, and turned to find Tsecha standing at her shoulder. “Dathim has told me that Shai has sent nìa Rauta Elon to see to this matter, along with her suborns, nìRau Ghos and nìRau Feres.” Tsecha turned his head to face his left, then brought up his left hand chest-high, palm facing outward. It was a High Vynshàrau gesture of dismay, of the sort he seldom employed since his outcast to Haárin. That he felt compelled to express his consternation in such a definite manner said all that needed to be said about Elon. “I recall her from my time as ambassador. The Council willed her as my security dominant; thus was I forced to tolerate her.” He broke off his posture and looked to Niall. “I should attend this matter, Colonel. Your Lieutenant Pullman should not be left alone to deal with such as Elon.”
“No, ní Tsecha. Sorry.” Niall shook his head. “While your concern is appreciated, your assistance is not required. We have Major Dubrovna to deal with nìaRauta Elon—Lieutenant Pullman is safe.” He patted his shirt pocket again, his longing for a dose of nicotine etched in every line of his face.
“You have not dealt with Elon. She is as a mine whose signal you do not know!”
“You stay here!” Niall’s voice shook the air in the small space. “Ní Tsecha. Please.” He sat forward, hands dangling between his knees, his gaze fixed on the floor as he struggled to regain his composure. “To most Chicagoans, you are still the symbol of the idomeni presence on Earth. That presence…is being questioned by some humanish at the present time, and because of that, both your dominants and mine feel that you should not be observed involving yourself in this matter.”
“OK.” Jani stepped between the two, man and idomeni, and felt the current of tension that flowed between them. “That explains why you’re keeping Tsecha holed up here.” She stared down at Niall until he raised his eyes to meet hers. “Why am I here?”
They studied one another—Jani sensed the time pass just as she discerned Niall’s examination, just as she knew how she appeared in his eyes. The strange golden cast to her brown skin. Her long-limbed gangliness. Her eyes, dark green irises surrounded by the paler sea of sclera, eyes unlike those any human being ever possessed.
Niall took a deep breath. “You know damned well why you’re here. Everywhere Tsecha goes, you’re never far behind. You’re as much associated with the idomeni presence here as he is. You’re—” He reached into his pocket, then yanked out his hand as though it burned.
“I’m the hybrid. I’m what all those questioning humanish fear they’ll see one day when they look in the mirror.” Jani swallowed a howl of frustration. “I’m not contagious, Niall. It took months of medical intervention to get me this way.”
“I know that.”
“So why—” Jani fell silent as a sharp thunk sounded from outside. Another.
They all looked to the door of the bunker as the panel slid open. A young man decked out in Service raingear blew in, escorted by a gust of chill wind.
“I’ll have those relays retimed in a minute, sir.” He swept back his hood and undid his coat fasteners as the water dripped and puddled around him. The cold had bitten his ears and nose—they flared red against his pale skin and dark hair. “I spoke with the techs down at the truck—they said the sub-Misty’s functioning normally. What we’re seeing up here is what’s really happening down there.”
“Thank you, Faber.” Niall’s face lightened, his relief at the interruption obvious. “What’s the mood like down there?”
“Irritable, sir.” Faber hung his coat in the gear alcove at the far end of the bunker. “Everyone’s wet. Cold. Waiting for something to happen.” He turned to face them and hesitated, his gaze passing over Tsecha and Jani before settling on Niall. “At the rate things are going, they’re going to be there awhile.”
“And every hour spent here translates to a month’s worth of follow-up investigation.” Niall shot Jani a questioning look. “Aren’t you supposed to be going on a trip soon?”
Jani nodded. “Outer Circle. Day after tomorrow.”
“Hmm. Looks like you may miss most of the fun.” The flatness in his voice gave away nothing. “How long will you be gone?”
“Six weeks out, same back. Week or two to do what I have to. Close to four months.”
“We’ll be well into spring by the time you get back.” Niall stood, then walked across the bunker to the gear alcove. “Probably about the time the first reports get issued.” He dragged on his field coat. “I’m going to take a walk. See what I can see from out here.” He activated the door panel and pushed through the gap without a backward glance.
“I do not believe, nìa, that he wants you to leave.”
Jani turned back to Tsecha, who had cocked his head to one side, a gesture of curiosity more humanish than Vynshàrau. “He will have to get used to the fact, inshah.”
“Yes. As will you.”
Jani hesitated. “I’m going outside.” She walked over to Faber, who stood bent over the console. “Excuse me.”
Faber straightened, then slowly lifted his gaze to look Jani in the face. “Yes, ma’am.” The top of his head only reached her shoulder, and the difference in height seemed to rattle him.
Among other things. Lance Corporal Micah Faber of Supreme Command Communication Systems, Jani decided, didn’t like her. She’d run into it more and more often as of late, this sense from some humanish that they didn’t want her to get too close. If I kissed him atop his pointy little head, would he run screaming into the rain? Given the tension around the place, maybe now wasn’t the time to experiment. “Could I borrow your coat?” she asked, knowing full well that to him the request might constitute the same sort of invasion. “I need to talk to Colonel Pierce, and my coat isn’t keeping me warm as it is.”
“Ma’am.” Faber led her back to the alcove. He lifted his coat from its hook, shook off the remaining droplets of water, then held it out for her.
Jani took the coat and flung it across her shoulders like a cape. “I promise I’ll touch it as little as possible,” she said, leaving him to redden like an alarm as she slipped out into the rain.
She found Niall huddled in the shelter of a nearby stand of evergreens. He turned when he heard her approach, but didn’t speak.
“You want to go down there, don’t you?” Jani wedged into the shelter beside him. The rain fell about them in a steady patter, but the canopy of branches slowed the flow-through to the occasional drop. “Go ahead—we’re fine up here.”
“I have been ordered to remain with you and Tsecha, and remain with you and Tsecha I will.” Niall had already flipped open the top of his nicstick case and removed a long, white cylinder. He bit down on the bulbed end—the tip flared blue-white in the cold wind. “Tell me about this trip of yours.” He stuck the other end in his mouth and took a long drag, then released a stream of smoke with a groan of relief.
Jani pulled Faber’s coat more tightly around her shoulders. “I told you about it last week, during lunch. It crossed paths with Coppélia—they must have cancelled one another out.”
“Humor me,” Niall replied, not amused.
“I’ll be paying a courtesy call on the Haárin at the Karistos enclave on Elyas. Their dominant, ná Feyó Tal, is a favorite of Tsecha’s. He wants me to deliver a gift to her.” Jani knew how inadequate the explanation sounded, but Tsecha had given her little more to go on.
Feyó requires an assistance, nìa.
“You’re leaving at a time like this to deliver a gift?” Niall exhaled another cloud of smoke, which the wind sliced to nothing. “Haárin shuttles leave Luna once a week. Let one of them play errand boy.”
“You just finished saying that I require protection to continue to work in Chicago. I think my getting away for a few months might be a good idea.”
I cannot leave this damned cold place, nìa—Shai will not allow such. But you may go, and go you must.
Niall shook his head. “On the contrary—I think it will make matters worse. You’ll be acting as the intermediary between two Haárin enclaves. How is that going to dispel the perception that you’re not human anymore?”
“But I’m not human anymore.”
“That’s news to me.”
“Only because you don’t listen.”
They lapsed into edgy silence. In the distance, dim illumination shown through the trees. Every so often a shout would carry. A flash of light from a piece of equipment.
Yes, it is dangerous here for Haárin. It is dangerous everywhere, nìa. You must go.
The bunker door opened a crack—Faber’s head emerged. “Wode’s started to move the mine, sir!”
“About damned time.” Niall extinguished his ’stick against the wet trunk of a tree and shoved the spent cylinder in his pocket.
Jani followed him into the bunker, to find Faber sitting at the console, Tsecha looming over him. She returned Faber’s coat to the alcove, then joined them.
“They just got started, sir.” Faber glanced over his shoulder at Jani before switching his attention to Niall, who had dropped into the chair next to him. “Wode’s decided to use a biobot to hoist it. He must be too worried about signal cross-up to use a standard comwave.”
“Jack up the mag on this,” Niall replied. “I want to see what’s going on.”
Faber worked comtech magic on the console. The outer edges of the image disappeared as the area of the cordon itself expanded. As if on cue, Pullman glanced up—Jani could see the droplets of rain that dotted his armor and ran down his face like sweat.
“Drop that face shield, Pull,” Niall grumbled.
“Sir.” Pullman flipped down the poly barrier. “Wode’s ready to lift the thing.”
“Will wonders never cease.” Niall braced his elbow on the edge of the console and covered his mouth with his hand, his eyes fixed on the scene playing out before them.
Wode looked even younger than Faber. Colder, too. The wind had nipped his cheeks as well as his nose, so that he looked flushed with fever. He stood thirty meters from the exposed mine, his hands gloved with the translucent sensor web that enabled him to control the cylindrical biobot. He stood still, straight, his arms bent at the elbow and hands facing in as though he held a box by the sides. Every few seconds one finger would move, then another. Each time he moved, the biobot would edge closer to the mine.
The mine itself seemed a puny thing. A blank silver oval the size of a man’s hand, it vanished like an eclipsed moon as the biobot rolled over it.
“The ’bot’s hollow,” Niall said, eyes still locked on Wode’s every move. “Once it’s settled above the mine, it will hoist it up inside.”
“Then the bottom of the ’bot will close,” Pullman added. “The mine will be encased until it can dry out. Wode figures fifteen minutes with some warm air circ, and he’ll be able to identify the signal.”
“Why’s he standing so close to the mine?” To Jani, Wode appeared like a man entranced, eyes closed, shoulders slumped, fingers twitching. “Can’t he do that from outside the cordon?”
“He says that the problem with bio signals is that they’re weaker than standard comwaves.” Pullman’s voice held a skeptical edge. “He says he has no choice.”
As they watched, one of the Vynshàrau broke away from the crowd and walked inside the cordon to stand by Wode. A young male, his thin frame padded by armor, his face covered by a shield.
“It is Feres,” Tsecha said, “Elon’s suborn.”
Niall stood and bent over the console. “Pull, what the hell is going on?”
“Feres is a witness, sir. The Vynshàrau don’t trust our transmissions. They want one of their own to watch the mine be contained.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“We tried to block it, sir, but Dubrovna overrode.”
“Well, I just trumped her. Stop everything now! Get that Vynshàrau out of there now!”
“Yes, sir!” Pullman stepped inside the cordon. “Wode, pull up now!”
Wode and Feres both turned.
Light travels faster than sound. The flash filled the image space like a miniature sun. Yellow-white. Blinding.
Then came the thunder of the explosion. The bunker shook, the light fixture trembling as though a giant set down his foot.
They had all dropped to the floor. Now Niall bounded to his feet and ran for the door. “Faber—stay behind and watch them!” he shouted as he pushed through the gap.
Jani lay on her stomach, the echo of the explosion still sounding in her ears. “Ní Tsecha?”
“I am most well, nìa.”
“Good.” She boosted to a running crouch and headed for the door, then fell to one knee as a hand gripped her coat sleeve.
“You’re not supposed to leave.” Faber’s eyes were wide. His hands encircled her arm without clamping down, as though the thought of contact repulsed him.
“Stop me.” Jani shook him off and bolted.
The rain fell harder now. Jani coursed through it, following the light and the equipment sounds. The cries.
Then she broke through a ring of trees, and the console image filled her eyes. The vehicles. The humanish. The idomeni.
She took one step. Another. Tried to avoid the shattered branches, the flecks of red in the snow. Watched medics hoist Pullman atop a gurney and cover him with a medblanket. They’re taking care with him—hurrying—That meant he lived. Please.
“What the hell are you doing here!”
Jani turned to find Niall bearing down on her from the other side of the cordon.
“Who let her in here!” He waved toward a figure in body armor. “Morton! Get her out of here now! Carry her if you have to!”
“I’m going!” Jani held up her hands like a surrendering prisoner, two steps ahead of the advancing Morton. “I said I’m going!” She broke into a run, didn’t stop until she stood amid the trees again. She looked behind her to find Morton had returned to the site. Emergency illumins flashed yellow and orange against the night sky. An ambulance siren wailed.
CHAPTER 2
Jani checked every room and alcove as she walked down the aisle of Service Medical’s Trauma Center, keeping one eye toward collision avoidance as doctors and nurses darted around her and orderlies pushed past her with skimgurnies and carts bearing equipment.
She found Niall in a waiting area within sight of the main nurses station. He sat in a darkened corner, hunched over a spent nicstick, the floor in front of his chair wet and mud-streaked from the mess shed by his boots.
He looked up as she entered. A streak of mud coated his left cheek, smoothing over his scar, erasing his sinister air. Indefinable dark stains spotted the coat he’d draped over the back of his chair, as well as the front of his fatigue shirt and trousers. They might have been blood, but it was impossible to tell in the poor lighting. “You made it out of the madhouse.”
Jani lowered into the chair next to his. “I saw Tsecha back to the enclave, then hitched a ride on one of the equipment trucks. The last ambulance had just left.” She glanced toward the hall in time to see two nurses break into a sprint. “How’s Pull?”
Niall started to speak. Stopped. Licked his lips. “Something hit his right side hard. Part of the biobot casing. A piece of Wode or Feres. Medical doesn’t know for sure yet, but there may have been a fault in his armor.” He patted his left side. “Kidney’s gone. Liver’s banged up. Even though his augmentation had kicked in, he bled…a lot.” He exhaled with a shudder. “They got to him in time. They don’t need to break out the brain boxes and make sure he’s still hitting on all boards.”
“So the tally is?”
“Two dead, Feres and that…tech.” Niall slumped back. “Twenty-seven wounded, including two Haárin and three deputy ministers.”
“I heard on the way in that Mako just left to see the PM.” Jani tried to imagine the mood in that meeting, and found she didn’t want to. She despised Admiral-General Hiroshi Mako, and though he preferred to deny it, he felt the same way about her. But a member of his Service had made an error that threatened to kneecap humanish-idomeni relations already crippled by recent tensions, and it fell to him to explain what had happened. Jani almost felt sorry for the man. Almost, but not quite. She ached for Niall, however. He was the A-G’s man-on-the-scene, and even though it hadn’t been his show to run, she knew he’d blame himself for every error and miscue. “So what went wrong?”
“Where do I fucking start?” Niall held up his closed fist, then raised his index finger. “We should never have let Diplo make the calls.” The middle finger. “We shouldn’t have allowed all those observers on-site.” Ring finger. “Like Pull said, we should have cut all the crap off at the pass by doing a remote disinter-disarm from Sheridan, and told Shai to kiss our collective ass when she howled.” He glanced at Jani sidelong. “In so many words.” He let his hand drop and lay his head back. “Of course, none of this would have happened if whoever had been in charge of the initial land clearance had done their job. A lot of brass is going to go over the side before this investigation is signed off.”
Jani rose and walked across the alcove to the vend machines, digging in her trouser pockets for tokens. “You’re using some pretty nasty training mines now compared to what they used in my day.” She found the coffee selector and ordered two cups.
“That was no trainer. It was a live and kickin’ Slager with an intact detonator sensitive enough to respond to the biobot signal. Once Wode pulled it out of the ground and enclosed it in the ’bot compartment, a heartbeat could have set it off.” Niall took the dispo cup of coffee Jani handed him, but instead of drinking it he just stared into the steam rising from the liquid. “I’m going to see his face in my sleep. Looked like a damned twelve-year-old. Should have been operating a remote control skimmer in his parents’ backyard, not a mine removal device in the woods in the middle of the night.”
