Molehunt (23 page)

Anneke made Deema stand apart. She did not think Lotang would harm either of them, but an attempt on one's life can sour the best of relationships.

At one point Alisk came back. She marched up to Anneke and slapped her, hard. Anneke did not flinch but stared straight back, steely eyed.

‘Did you activate the ejector?'

‘Negative.'

‘You checked it out before coming here?'

‘Affirmative.'

‘And it was in manual model?'

Anneke nodded.

‘So the sneeze was accidental?'

‘I doubt it.'

‘Pardon? What did you say?'

‘I said I doubt it.' She knew she had to keep Deema out of the frame. ‘Reviewing my profile on Brown, it now seems to me unlikely that he would trust me to willingly follow through with his scheme. Perhaps he modified the device to be triggered when it detected the molecular signature of the first half of the symbiotic poison.'

‘You only realise this now?'

‘My apologies,' said Anneke. ‘You missed it, too.' She shot a look at Deema, looking quickly away again.

Noting the look, Alisk spat furiously at Anneke's feet. She leaned close. ‘I hope he kills you.'

Turning on her heel, she stalked out of the room.

An hour later she and Lotang reappeared. He seemed shrunken, older, as he walked stiffly to his throne and sat down. He motioned for the shackles restraining Anneke to be removed, then ordered everyone from the room.

Everyone except Anneke, Deema and Alisk.

‘It seems,' said Lotang and his voice had sunk by an octave, ‘that you have been telling the truth.' He paused, then continued. ‘A dangerous thing, the truth. Often mistaken for something else.'

‘You're letting us go?'

‘I'm thinking about it. Killing Rimmers attracts the unwelcome attention of RIM, not to mention the annoying Sentinels. Not sure which are worse.'

Anneke almost smiled. Describing Sentinels as annoying was like describing killer sharks as irritating.

‘What about –?'

‘I have been poisoned,' Lotang said flatly. ‘And you have been the vehicle of my death. My doctors tell me that the two halves of the symbiotic poison have already started to establish molecular bonds. Shortly they will start producing proteins. Nasty ones, I have no doubt. As far as they can tell I probably have about an hour to live, perhaps less.'

‘Can't they do something?'

Lotang shrugged. ‘Designer poisons … it would take days of analysis just to model the base molecule, then several hours of supercomputer time to identify the active mechanism within the poison's genome.'

‘I had no way of knowing. I'm sorry.'

‘Yes. Puzzling as it, you probably are. My enceph-aloscanner tells me that. Lies can be shielded, even the truth can be missed, but not
emotional
truth.' He glanced at Deema. ‘Emotional truth shines through all the training and obfuscations like a supernova through a galactic dust field.'

‘What will you do now?'

Lotang emitted a bitter bark of laughter. ‘Make my peace with my Creator. And maybe send you on a little errand.'

‘Your errand is the same as mine.'

‘So I thought.'

‘But there's something I need.'

‘Information.'

Anneke nodded. Lotang stared at her thoughtfully for a moment.

‘Well, why not?' he murmured, almost to himself. He straightened a little in his chair, as if a touch of purpose had come back into his life. ‘Here's what I know. It isn't much. Brown has only told me what he wants me and other … members to know.'

‘The other members of the
Majoris Corporata
?

Lotang grinned wolfishly, throwing up his hands in mock horror. ‘Have we no secrets?'

Beside him, Alisk didn't look amused. Anneke guessed that if Lotang died before he set them free then they would not be going anywhere – at least not anywhere on
this
plane of existence.

Lotang continued. ‘Brown is seeking the lost coordinates of –'

‘The Old Empire weapon caches.'

‘Excellent, Anneke. You really should go to the top of your class. However, what you do not know is that the coordinates were broken down into three parts nearly a thousand years ago and hidden in obscure parts of the galaxy. Brown has advanced to finding the first of these parts. He suspects the location of the second. For his own reasons – reasons unknown to me – he moves slowly in this matter. Perhaps he wishes to make proper preparation for the moment when he might have the most powerful collection of weaponry ever seen in the universe.'

‘And what will he do with them when he has them?'

‘I think he will sell the arsenal off piecemeal to the highest bidders. But he will be very careful. If war starts, it will damage his interests, too. He must ensure that while a balance of power is maintained, that it be ever so slightly
lopsided
. Just enough to give us the illusion that we have the upper hand, if we were ever to act pre-emptively. Were we to act …'

‘It would mean war.'

‘For a very long time.'

‘Nobody could win such a war.'

‘Brown could, but only if it were started with exquisite care.'

Anneke then saw the beauty of the plan. History showed that when the makers of war did not profit from the chaos and carnage, those in business always did. The business tycoons only had to sit back and pick up the pieces.

‘There's more, isn't there?'

‘Brown has obtained an obscure virus cultured from an inhabitant of the planet Arachnor, which circles a K-type star sixteen light years from here. Arachnor has been interdicted for centuries, no one now knows why. In its heyday, when the Old Empire ruled with an iron fist and a disruptor beam, Arachnor was a supply base. Nothing more. Why is planet of interest to Brown? Who can tell? Certainly, the Sentinels have enforced the interdiction with a single-mindedness that makes the old imperial cruelty seem like child's play.'

He's holding back
, Anneke thought.

Lotang paused. ‘Speaking of children, you should get this one home to bed. She has been through a lot.' He turned to Deema. ‘I'm sorry if we scared you, child. It was not my intention.'

‘We can go now?'

Lotang opened his mouth to speak but a commotion at the back of the room distracted him. A techie pushed his way into the room, rebuking a hunkie who tried to stop him.

‘Rofe,' snapped Lotang. ‘I gave strict instructions not to be disturbed.'

Anneke could tell Rofe was a scientist. He had a typical intellectual trait: to be oblivious to personal danger. Sometimes this quality saved their lives. Sometimes it got them killed, but perhaps it was an evolutionary process.

‘Yes, yes, I know,' Rofe said impatiently, dismissing the idea with a wave of his hands. ‘But this could not wait.'

Anneke could see the man amused Lotang, as a lion might be amused by a lamb that wanders into its den. Rofe stopped in front of the throne.

‘It could not wait?'

‘That's what I said, didn't I?'

‘Impertinence, even at this hour, Rofe, can still be punished.'

‘Would you please listen? The hour isn't as late as you think. You're not going to die. At least not yet.'

Now he had Lotang's attention.

‘I'm not?' Lotang frowned.

‘That's what I said, didn't I? It's not a poison. Well, yes, it is a poison. But it's not designed to kill you. I mean, that's not its
primary
objective. It's actually a –'

‘A slave narcotic,' said Anneke, finally comprehending the situation.

Rofe turned on her, irritated that she had stolen his thunder. ‘And who might you be, young lady?'

‘Me? I'm the prisoner.'

‘Really? Well, prisoners should be seen and not heard.'

‘That's children, not prisoners,' said Deema. Rofe peered at her, having noticed her for the first time.

‘What is this?' he asked. ‘A family reunion?'

‘Something like that,' said Lotang. ‘Now, Rofe, kindly explain.'

Rofe puffed out his chest and moved into lecturing mode. ‘It's quite simple, really. And diabolical. This thing is a work of art. Impressive.' He noticed Lotang's look and cleared his throat. ‘A slave narcotic is simple … um … not that it needs to be for you to understand it, of course …'

‘Get on with it.'

‘It has a cyclic fatality. Every three to four days the raider proteins build up. If no antidote is supplied, they start disassembling the host's proteins and suppressing all enzymatic action.'

‘Which will result in me being dead, correct?'

‘Yes.'

‘So how is that different, except for the timing?'

‘Well, the timing is what makes it different. It's not intended to kill you. Whoever introduced this poison into your body clearly intends to supply the antidote on a regular basis. No one in their right mind would bother designing something like this otherwise.'

Lotang stared at Rofe, who seemed quite happy with his discovery. ‘I see. Thank you.' He turned to Alisk. ‘Make the call to Ackie. Quickly.'

Alisk exited at a run. Lotang turned to Anneke.

‘You know what he has done?'

Anneke nodded, deciding it was not a good time to speak.

‘He has taken from me the only thing I cherish. My freedom. I am now his thing. His tool. His golem.'

‘You will suffer this?'

‘You mean, will I allow him to control me, will I be content to be his puppet?' He pursed his lips. ‘I wish to live,' he said simply. And, living, I may find a way to neutralise the poison.'

‘And if you don't?'

‘Then I will orchestrate the most horrifying death of a man since the dawn of time.' It had occurred to Lotang that the antidote could not be tortured out of Brown. He had remained obstinately silent despite Ackie's best efforts at persuasion.

Anneke's flesh crawled. Lotang's voice was as cold as a voice could go.

‘And what about us?'

He looked up. ‘I'm sorry. This changes things. You understand.'

Anneke's jaw tightened.

‘I'll give you a head start. You have one minute. I think you should start running.
Now
.'

‘S
TOP here,' Maximus said. ‘I'm getting out.' Ackie laughed. ‘You'll do as you're told.'

‘I suggest you talk with your employer.'

Something about the way Maximus said this made Ackie scowl and key his phone. A dampening field automatically surrounded Ackie, but since Maximus could read lips it made little difference.

‘Yeah, says he wants to get out. We bringin' him in or what?' He listened for a moment, his scowl changing to a look of perplexity. Putting the phone down, he tapped on the driver's partition. ‘Pull over,' he called.

The hover van veered out of the traffic and slotted into a parking bay. Ackie leaned across Maximus to open the back doors manually. He could have voice-activated the doors open, but this technological rebellion showed Maximus that Ackie was not taking orders from anyone but his boss.

Maximus climbed out. Hesitating, he locked eyes with Ackie.

‘No hard feelings, champ?'

Ackie tensed. ‘I do what I'm told. Even when I don't have a friggin' clue why.'

Maximus laughed. ‘I like you, Mr Ackie. It's better if I keep liking you. So take some advice. Call it a health warning. Take a vacation.'

Then Maximus was gone, lost in the crowd. Ackie stared at the spot where he had been. He was no coward, but he felt a chill at the base of his spine, as if he had locked horns with the Sentinels and survived.

Maximus put as much distance between himself and the hover van as possible. So far so good. He had come through alive. It had been a calculated risk but his strategic modelling of future developments required that he be legitimised in this way. Now he could claim the role of ‘injured party', which would be handy in the months ahead. For now, Maximus had the upper hand. Lotang no doubt was now hatching plots within plots, seeking a way to neutralise Maximus's nascent control of the infamous Lob Lotang, and through him, the most powerful Corporation in the galaxy.

Quesada.

The fact that Anneke Longshadow must now be as dead as the Old Empire was just, according to the old saying, icing on the cake. Whatever that meant.

Maximus felt like celebrating. This entire incident, particularly the Anneke Longshadow episode, had been a ‘venturi nexus' on the landscape of future possibilities, a bottleneck where events and probabilities jammed together so tightly that it was difficult to calculate the odds and extrapolate the most likely pathways.

At a more personal level, he was not out of the woods yet, but he was getting there. There were people to kill and history to make. He headed back to his vacuum laboratory. He considered his partially mangled body.
Renovator's nightmare
, he thought,
but it's the only real estate I have
. There was a triumphant gleam in his good eye, even though there was no spring in his step.