Girl From Above #4: Trust (5 page)

“I always am,” Fran drawled.

Caleb looked to me for confirmation. I inclined my head. We couldn’t trust the Nine. Whatever they were about to ask of us, there was a chance it would all be lies.

I was ready.

“
G
iven
the synthetic’s recent revelation, our plans have changed.” The man at the front of the room addressed the group with all the gravitas of someone familiar with public speaking.

Me and my crew had been led into the meeting room a few minutes earlier and told to take a seat. The guy at the front—Mister Aleksey—was your typical leadership-hungry guy. There were plenty just like him in fleet. Upstanding men and women who handed out the orders while the grunts did the dirty work. I didn’t recognize his distinctly tanned face and dark hair, but he had a look about him that screamed, “prime newsfeed slot.” The kind of guy shit didn’t stick to.

All the folks seated around the table seemed normal enough, but most people in the nine looked harmless until you got to know them. Few were ever as good and upstanding as they made themselves out to be. As a fixer, it was my job to leverage all kinds of dirt I dug up about any potential business partners. These people were blank-faced strangers, and there wasn’t much that made me more uncomfortable than doing business with folks I didn’t know.

I had the exit at my back, just the way I liked it. If shit went sideways, I could make it back to the harrier in minutes and wrench that baby free of her umbilical in another five. Fran had glanced my way, no doubt thinking the same. One stood behind me, a cool, calm presence capable of leaping across the table and killing any one of these people if they even thought about double-crossing us. Getting my brother out would be a problem. He’d sat himself at the front because he was a grade-A suck-up.

“There is no denying Chitec and fleet are positioned to cripple the gate system,” Aleksey said, addressing the room. “Given the synthetic’s information regarding the true identity of Chen Hung and how it tallies with our observations, we must act to prevent what could be a humanitarian disaster. We’re not dealing with a greed-driven man at the top of an intra-system cooperation. A man can be reasoned with, a man can be arrested and tried for his crimes. The imposter we’re dealing with is far more dangerous: a machine whose sole purpose is to destroy.”

“That’s not strictly true,” One said, her voice neutral. “He is the progenitor of the synthetics. He is attempting to ensure his survival.”

“At the expense of humanity,” Aleksey replied in a tone that suggested he didn’t appreciate One’s assessment.

“Correct.” She agreed like it wasn’t such a bad thing.

I quickly scanned the men and women peering over my shoulder at One. Most wore the typical hard-faced expressions of people working hard not to give their thoughts away. One wasn’t doing herself any favors by explaining Hung’s reasoning. They’d allowed her to get this close because they needed her, but even I was wondering if she might like to rein in her knack for astute assessments.

Aleksey tapped a podium in front of him and a holowall of the entire nine systems bloomed behind him. The map of the gate system branched out like a family tree, and right at the top was the main gate; the very gate that had recently failed, destroying the ships in transit and killing five thousand people. A dry run. Hung flexing his control. His next move would likely destroy the nine systems.

“He knows the best way to wipe us out,” I said. The group shuffled in their seats to face me. The weight of their combined glares pressed down on me and I swallowed, finding my mouth dry. Fuck knew what these people thought of my crew. We weren’t even technically a crew. From the outside, we didn’t look like much. The Fenrir Nine likely knew we’d all tried to kill each other—multiple times. Maybe that was why Bren had sat at the front, doing his best to separate himself from the
criminals.

I cleared my throat and shifted awkwardly in my seat. “Hung owns the company that rescued us from the Blackout. Chitec controls every part of gate travel. All Hung has to do is get inside their systems, turn the gates off, and the nine systems will go to shit. My guess is he hasn’t done it already because Chitec likely amped up their internal security during his dry run. Might be he’s been locked out, but it won’t last.”

Aleksey nodded, his face grim. “Indeed, Captain Shepperd.”

Hung, a synthetic. I was still processing that shit. I mean, fuck. A
machine
had killed Haley right in front of me—held his hand over her nose and mouth and watched her die. I should have seen what he was; I should have known. Silent killers had filled the entire fucking warehouse, and I’d missed the one standing right in front of me.
It
had killed Haley. Then later, it had taunted me like a man would, layering up the emotional bullshit to really drill home how Haley’s death had all been my fault. Guilt had insured I didn’t fess up. Then the synthetic that wore Chen Hung like a mask, had shipped off his one thousand buddies to hit us in the balls when we least expected it. Whatever was inside its processes, it knew how to play human beings.

Hate churned so fiercely in my gut that it burned my throat and spilled into my vision.

And that synthetic had created One.

She stood close enough behind me to snap my neck without blinking. I’d seen firsthand how efficient synthetics were at killing. I didn’t want to think of One as the same as them, which was why Fran was doing that for me. Fran got a lot of things right, besides the fuckload of things she got wrong. Was she right about One? I sure hoped not, not least because One was the only person left in the nine systems that I trusted.

“We have enough personnel, ordinance, and mobilized ships to make a significant stand against Chitec’s fleet,” Aleksey said for my benefit, as I was sure none of this was news to the others. “We even have the technology to adopt gate control once Chitec’s firewalls are down. But a frontal assault will result in war and that is something we do not wish to initiate. If we want to prevent massive losses on both sides, a full frontal assault should be avoided. We need another, cleaner way.” Aleksey settled his gaze on One but just as quickly dropped it to me. “There’s a Chitec ship inbound, summoned by Doctor Lloyd. We want the synthetic to return to Chitec with them.”

“No,” I said without missing a beat. I waited, stone-faced, for any of the fuckers to argue.

“Hear us out, Shepperd.”

I might have laughed or snarled, but I knew I smiled, because they couldn’t have asked One to go back to Chitec. “Hear you out?”

One’s hand settled on my shoulder and the touch locked me down. It was gentle, not meant to restrain. A touch of support or camaraderie and my carefully constructed walls of not giving a fuck started to crumble.

“I cannot strike directly at Chen Hung,” One told Aleksey. “I’m prohibited from harming him.”

“But isn’t it also true, according to your account, that he’s equally as impotent against you?” Aleksey replied.

“That is correct. I’ve yet to test whether I can circumvent the failsafe by using an indirect approach. I do know he couldn’t physically prevent me from leaving his towers.”

“Well then, we have an opportunity. There’s no one better to infiltrate his operation than a synthetic of his own making. One he cannot stop.”

I clamped my teeth and dropped my gaze. It wasn’t my call. One had always made her own choices. I couldn’t order her to do anything she didn’t want to do, but fuck, I wanted to order her to refuse.

Her fingers applied gentle pressure to my shoulder. “I am the most efficient and reasonable method of retrieving pertinent information while infiltrating Chen Hung’s operation.”

“We need to know what he’s planning, when, where—everything. And we believe you can feed that information back to us using a secure sub-comms link. You’ll do it?” Aleksey asked.

“Yes.”

A wry smile slid onto my lips, the one I wore when I really wanted to punch something or someone.
I just got her back. I should have flown her out of here—destination anywhere—when I had the chance.

Aleksey nodded. “One Thousand And One and Doctor Lloyd, would you please step out of the room for a few moments?”

Doc Lloyd did as he was told like a good Chitec drone. One’s hand lingered on my shoulder, long enough for a quiet to settle and the looks from the others to turn expectant. But then her light fingers slipped free and she left the room. Her absence shrunk the room around me like I was somehow smaller without her.

The people—who by now I assumed were the upper echelon of the Nine—shuffled their personal holoscreens and mumbled among themselves, until Aleksey cleared his throat and looked with purpose right at me. I wondered if he’d ever fucked up in his entire life, or if he’d always been at the front of the room, giving the orders so that others could fuck up for him.

“That brings us to the main thrust of this meeting,” he said, all business, no nervous smiles, no needless chatter. “Your recent mission to secure a large consignment of explosives was fruitful, although the loss of your tugship was of course unfortunate. The vessel,
Starscream
was it?”

I smiled a yes, wishing he’d cut the wordy crap.

“She was rather integral to our forthcoming mission, but I’m sure we can make do with your recently acquired Candelario harrier. And as we understand it, your second has command of a fleet-designated warbird, Raptor Nine-Nine-One.” A statement, not a question.

I glanced at Fran.

She nodded at Aleksey “What of it?”

“We’d like for you both—Captain Shepperd and Special Commander Francisca—to pilot the raptor, reinstated as fleet-designated, with the harrier in tow, through fleet’s checkpoints to Janus. Once docked at Janus Orbit Station, you will vacate the station and remotely trigger the explosives placed throughout the Candelario harrier.”

Holy shit.

Fran let loose a hail of vicious Spanish.

“How much of the explosives?” I asked, a bitter taste in my mouth.

“All of it.”

I couldn’t find the right words. A glance at my brother didn’t help; he was staring at the jumpgate map. Seventy tons of the Candes’ high-density explosives would rip Janus apart. Two hundred and fifty thousand people, give or take a few, lived and worked on that orbit station. Women, children, innocent civilians who happened to be unlucky enough to work alongside Chitec HQ, including the doc’s sister. No wonder they’d asked Lloyd to leave.

Fran’s face was the picture of horror. She skewed a warning glare in my direction, the kind that said all it needed to:
You are not doing this.

“That’s a fuckload of civilians taking friendly fire,” I deadpanned.

Bren twisted in his seat and settled his commander-grade glower on me. “Chen Hung rarely—if ever—leaves his towers. The one synthetic unit who can get close to him can’t directly hurt him in any way. If he suspects we’re launching an attack, he will plunge the nine systems into a second Blackout. A surgical strike like this, at the heart of Chitec, is the only way.”

I looked at my brother, at the faces around the table all peering back at me, and at Aleksey. “Then why send One at all?”

“We need sensitive internal information before we proceed. Information she can retrieve.”

Or they just wanted her at ground zero when the ship blew.

I dragged a hand down the back of my neck, brushing away a cool prickle of sweat. I had to pose as fleet, get through the gate, dock on Janus, and blow the place to shit to save lives by killing hundreds of thousands of people? My moral compass was broken at the best of times, but this just didn’t
feel
right. “I thought the Nine were meant to save people?”

“If there was another way to cripple Chitec in what is a limited amount of time, we’d pursue it. Do you know of any other solution?”

I couldn’t even save myself. What the fuck did I know about saving lives?

Aleksey didn’t wait for me to fumble an excuse and continued his speech. “It’s about saving the nine systems. Without gate travel, the infrastructure will fall apart. How many people will die then, Captain Shepperd? The entire population of the nine systems stands at ninety billion, at the last best estimate. How many will survive a second Blackout? Accurate records don’t exist from
before
, but we can safely estimate over sixty percent of the human race was wiped out. We, as a species, may not survive a second Blackout.”

As a species?
Well, that was either going a bit far or fucking terrifying. Aleksey was talking about the
greater good
—the favorite excuse of politicians and fleet commanders everywhere. It was wrong, so fucking wrong.

“And how will you get One out?” I asked and got blank faces in return. “You’re sending her into the heart of Chitec, to Chen Hung. She’s risking everything to get you this
sensitive information
.” I so wanted to call bullshit on that. “So how are you going to get her out before we blow the cargo?”

Their subtle avoidance of my eyes and silence confirmed my fears. They had no intention of getting One out. She was synthetic. Why should they care what happened to a machine? I did though, and I wouldn’t be leaving Janus without her, not even to save the nine systems or the human race. Fuck ‘em. I’d let them all die before I let her go.

“And you’re going to just waltz on in, clean up after Chitec, and take over the gates? Just like that?”

“We’ve been preparing for almost a decade. We’ve stockpiled the necessary equipment and have a highly skilled workforce in position. All we need is for Chitec to relinquish control. With
your
synthetic’s help and a surprise strike at the heart of their operation, we’ll simultaneously cripple and overpower their system-wide control. The war will begin and end with Janus.”

She’s not my synthetic. She doesn’t belong to anyone.

“Think of the greater good,” someone added. I didn’t care who. Why should I care about the greater good? It had never cared about me.

I smiled. What were these people risking? A few sleepless nights? “You can think of the greater good back here on your island while me and Fran have to look those Janus folks in the eye, knowing they’re about to die.”

Unease twisted and turned in my gut. I’d be the one pressing that trigger. Two hundred and fifty thousand people dead at the flick of a switch. I wasn’t sure I
could
do it.