Provenance I - Flee The Bonds (16 page)

Francois’s head remained bowed.

Steve peered into Francois’s darkened helmet. ‘Are you okay?

‘Yes, yes I am well. It is just shock.’

‘I’m sure it is. I thought you said they didn’t test at night.’

‘I am sorry, it was a mistake.’

Steve set off after the Defenders, ‘I know.’

08:14 WED 25:10:2119

Red Zone, London, England, Sector 2

Steve clasped his hands behind his head and stared at his muddy boots. He’d arrived at SOHQ in the early hours. The order had been brief, the summons immediate.

A few hours earlier, the Commandant of RS 26 had appeared to enjoy their
tète-à-tète
. He’d glowered at Steve from behind a magisterial walnut desk, which seemed at variance to the austerity of the underground concrete bunker. Steve had stood on weary legs while the florid pomposity released a tirade of expletives in amongst a rant of how Steve’s actions had necessitated the termination of a vital test.

His explanations had gone unheard, his apologies unaccepted. It was during the Commandant’s third iteration that Steve had realised the incident would not be confined to the bunker.

The ops room viewscreen awoke with a flicker. Steve took his feet off the table and stood. He recognised Admiral Choo, but not the other olive skinned man.

‘Good morning, Commander.’

‘Good morning, sir.’

Choo clasped his hands. ‘You know why you are here.’

‘I think so, sir.’

‘Do you know Captain Lacusta?’

Steve speculated at the tanned man dressed in black. The resemblance to Jason stopped at the dark eyes and slicked back hair, ‘No, sir.’

‘He will investigate the incident at RS 26. Any questions he has, you answer.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Until the investigation is finished you will return home and stay until we call. Do you have any questions?’

‘I would like to request a meeting with Admiral Smithson.’

‘Request denied. Anything else?’

‘Why do AH74s have biofield IDs and why are SIS responsible for their lab security?’

Choo shifted in his seat. ‘Anything else?’

‘No, sir.’ Don’t they trust me?

As soon as the faces diffused into the CONSEC rings, Steve tapped the keypad and connected to Integrated Network Command.

‘Hi, Commander, how can I help you today.’

‘A Prefect went offline yesterday at romeo sierra twenty-six, Sector 2. I need to trace one of its update commands, date time stamp 24-10-2119-2302.’

‘One moment please, sir.’

The male voice returned a few seconds later. ‘The signature belongs to Captain Thibeauchet, sir.’

‘What was the command?’

‘Sorry, sir. That requires sigma authorisation.’

‘Okay thanks.’

Steve snatched out his ID card.
Francois is SIS
.

During the journey home, his mind clouded over with depressive trepidation. It was becoming dark, difficult to see.

As he passed under the last canal bridge,
Cool Breeze
came into view.

Dee stood on the stern.

Optimism surged through Steve’s aching limbs. Dee jumped onto the path and stormed towards him. Steve’s optimism evaporated. Dee’s menacing eyes remained fixed, his hands rammed into the graphite jacket’s pockets. ‘Why’d you do it, man?’

Steve pulled up. ‘Do what?’

Dee didn’t stop. His strides continued until Steve could see the rage burning behind bloodshot eyes.

‘The only person I told was you.’

‘What’s happened?’

Dee blasted his words at the towpath, ‘What’s happened man is you betrayed us! Michelle’s been taken, along with the doc. Mom called, they’ve been told to pack, one suitcase.’

‘Dee, I swear, I—’

Dee’s right fist flew towards his face. Steve knew the blow could be fatal; he’d seen Dee hit others. He also knew it would never reach him.

Steve’s left forearm shot up and made blocking contact. He twisted left and powered an arcing knife-hand into the soft tissue of Dee’s inner elbow. Dee’s arm flopped, useless. In Steve’s periphery, the second set of bone shattering knuckles hurtled in. He stabbed his elbow up into the incoming forearm, at the same time twisting and driving his fist up under Dee’s jaw.

‘Steve!’

He watched Dee fall before spinning around.

Penny stared wide-eyed, ‘What are you doing!’

Steve attempted a smile. ‘It’s nothing, just stay there.’

Behind him, Dee spat. ‘Who’s this, another one of your secrets?’

Steve spun back. ‘I didn’t betray Michelle.’

Rage quivered on Dee’s bloodied lips, ‘We trusted you!’ He scrambled to his feet. ‘This ain’t over,
Commander
, ain’t over at all.’

As Dee strode over the bridge, the crunch of gravel entered Steve’s consciousness. He turned. Penny’s arms were folded tightly across her lime puffer jacket. ‘Why did he call you Commander?’

‘It’s nothing, Pen, just some guy from work.’

Her lips trembled, her brow furrowed, ‘Why did he call you Commander!’ The amplified tone shook the still air.

Steve stepped forward, and lowered his voice, ‘Let’s go inside.’

‘No. Tell me.’

‘I’m an Advocate.’ The word hung for an instant — and then struck.

‘What?’ Her reflexive reaction failed to stem the pain draining her face. He wanted to hold her.

‘I’ve been an Advocate for six years.’

 Penny appeared to shrink inside her jacket. ‘Why?’

He reached out, but she jerked back.

‘I’m sorry. I thought, in a few years time I’d take a job in the Council and we could live together, permanently.’

Her scoff bit hard. ‘You honestly think I’d want to spend the rest of my life with an Advocate.’

Steve swallowed what she’d stirred up. ‘The Resistance threaten us all, Pen, not just Continuity.’

‘Us all!’ Hysteria crackled on her laugh. ‘You’re only interested in Continuity, the fortunate one percent.’ A glacial stare matched her voice, ‘The people you protect are responsible for the misery of everyone else.’

‘No they’re not. Those decisions were made long before we were born. PURE ensures the human race will survive.’

‘You believe that, don’t you? It’s selective eugenics, human hybrids grown from test tubes. If you can afford it.’

Her head dropped. ‘We couldn’t afford it. Mum died because the Council said cancer had been eradicated, at least for anyone that mattered. You have no idea what it’s like outside Continuity.’

‘Of course I do, but choices had to be made.’ Although she never mentioned it, Steve knew how much Penny missed her mum. Terry had said she’d cried every day for a month after the funeral. Steve had never seen her cry. Today was no exception.

She examined him with unnerving calm. ‘You mean the sterilisation of whole countries with airborne vaccines, or the ejection of prisoners into space, or the creation of superhuman freaks. Are those the choices you’re talking about?’

Steve met her stare. ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Resistance network.’

‘Don’t treat me like a fool, Steve. We all know the Council’s true intentions. Humanity will be dead long before Colossus arrives.’

Her arms fell to her sides. ‘I love you, Steve, but I can’t live your life, or lies.’

He reached out and grabbed her arm. ‘Come inside, Pen, we can work through this.’

‘No we can’t. I’m a Drone, remember.’

08:37 THU 26:10:2119

Intra Zone, Wiltshire, England, Sector 2

Before Steve could blink sleep leaden eyes, reality clamped his nauseous stomach and pushed searing bile up into his throat.

He wobbled to the galley and poured a tumbler of cooled water. The whisky had provided temporary solace, but now his mouth tasted vile. He set down the second glassful and opened the starboard portholes. Raindrops spluttered in the grimy canal, while a fuzzy dawn sun struggled through stubborn cloud.

The buzzer rang. Steve’s emotions seesawed. Penny? Dee? A flutter of optimism; a stab of apprehension.

He trudged to the stern and peered into the viewer. His eyebrows dipped closer, it was too early for puzzles.

‘Yes?’

‘Commander Arrowsbury.’ The woman in the mint-green coat wasn’t asking a question.

‘Who are you?’ The Germanic accent, the plain round face dotted with small pewter eyes and lumpy jaw left Steve in no doubt.

Her face tilted under a sodden mass of chestnut hair. ‘Can we talk, please?’

Steve sighed. ‘This is private property. Goodbye.’ He took his finger off the keypad and watched her perplexed face disappear. As he turned away, the stern door’s security screen resonated with a staccato beat. ‘Go away!’

‘I know why Jason died.’

Steve froze.

* * * *
 

The utility room spotlights glinted off her straggly wet hair. A smile crossed the lumpy jaw and dimpled rosy cheeks as she proffered her hand, ‘Hello, Steve, my name is Jannae.’

Her grip was polite, yet confident. ‘Hello, Jannae.’

She nodded. ‘You do not need that.’

Steve withdrew the Cogent from behind his back and levelled it. ‘We’ll see.’ He gestured towards the passageway. ‘After you.’ As she passed, Steve turned and tapped the bulkhead keypad. If he wasn’t leaving alive, neither was she.

He followed her into the saloon and pointed the Cogent at the settee.

She perched down and rubbed her hands. ‘Can you switch the heating on?’

‘You won’t be staying that long.’

He slumped opposite. ‘So why was Jason assassinated?’

‘I did not say he was assassinated.’

‘You said you knew why, why implies motive.’ Steve’s head pounded, ‘Don’t make me repeat the question.’

Her grey-dot eyes riveted onto his. ‘Do you think you are the only person who has someone to lose?’

He placed the Cogent on the settee.

‘Go on.’

‘A Prosecutor killed Jason.’

Steve swallowed the erupting reflux. ‘Why would SIS kill Jason?’

‘My name is Jannae Kalckburg, Gerhard is my brother. SIS detected your attempt to access Gerhard’s file.’

Ignoring the guilt-drenched implications, Steve used his MCD to authenticate her.

She was Gerhard’s sister, and a senior PSYOPS Profiler who lectured at the PSYOPS Academy. ‘You’re level twelve?’

‘I am, and I need your help.’

His anger, like his stomach, ebbed and flowed. ‘If SIS had made the connection, I’d also be dead.’

As her hand moved, Steve lunged and grabbed her wrist. The tip of the Cogent’s barrel rested on her forehead. ‘Please don’t assume I can read your mind.’

Their gaze remained locked while her hand slid into her coat, ‘I have something to show you.’

Steve’s trigger finger tightened.

Jannae removed a rolled lemon handkerchief, placed it on the table, and opened it out. ‘You recognise it, yes?’

The metal cylinder resembled a large cigar tube, about three centimetres in diameter and five times as long. Devoid of any obvious markings, the only clues to its identity were the thin lines marking its retracted wings, and the glinting needle protruding from its tapered nose.

He slumped back down. ‘It’s a Merlin, intended for use by VETTECHs to pacify animals on the new world.’

‘SIS used it to kill Jason.’

The taut skin of Steve’s knuckle scraped against his stubble.

Her phlegmatic delivery continued. ‘Not that one, that one was sent to kill you. We tracked it; it hit a tree. We do not know why it missed you.’

Steve’s memory leapt to the EM surge. ‘Who’s we?’

‘People in PYSOPS and the Judiciary who fear as I do.’

‘Go on.’

Jannae folded her arms. ‘The Council, despite what some people believe, has always tried to balance the needs of Continuity with the majority who are not. To preserve the spirit of humanity they made Continuity responsible for education, healthcare, and employment. It did not work. Instead, it created the Drones — and the Resistance.’

‘Your point being?’ Steve didn’t want to dwell on his complicity.

‘The Resistance are no longer only Drones. Those that have been displaced from Continuity by TYPEs are joining them. Soon, they will be able to launch an attack on Provenance.’

Steve’s eyelids threatened to close, ‘Since when did the Resistance have access to tech weaponry — or ships.’

‘Since SIS joined them.’

Steve sat up. He’d heard lots of rumours about SIS, but not this one. ‘Keep going.’

‘For decades SIS have fed the Council’s fear of the Resistance. The ban on pregnancy, the inferior healthcare and education. It is all part of SIS’s plan to create an archaic society. A society that will become extinct before Colossus arrives.’

A dichotomy of emotions battled inside his head. He hoped she was raving mad, but doubted he’d be that lucky. ‘Why?’

‘SIS believe that only TYPEs represent the human race. They have created a new profile model, the Exemplars. They are not restrained by ethics or humanity. Their doctrine dictates absolute supremacy over non-TYPE sevens. They are also, as you know, psychologically unstable. SIS will use the Resistance to take control of Provenance and leave orbit with only five percent of Continuity, fifty thousand people. Everyone else will be killed.’

‘There’re thousands of CONSEC aboard Provenance.’

‘CONSEC Command receive their orders from the Council, who are influenced, and threatened, by SIS.’

Steve’s gaze dropped to the Merlin. ‘What proof do you have?’

‘You have met an AH-74, yes? The Council built them for their protection, but it is SIS who control them. We think the SIS CPU is manufactured at MP 14.’

Within the quagmire of Steve’s mind he found a pool of clear water, the reason why Jannae had come to him. Her brother had worked at MP 14. ‘So SIS killed Jason because I accessed Gerhard’s CPF?’

‘They are trying to protect MP 14.’

‘Is that what Gerhard told you?’

‘No, I—’ Jannae’s head tilted. ‘Was that a trick? You know I do not know where he is.’

But you know he’s alive.
‘Why don’t you take this to CONSEC?’

‘SIS have infiltrated CONSEC and placed an artificial in every Quad. With one command, they could kill everyone.’ Jannae’s eyes wandered. ‘I tried to warn Jason.’