The Courier (San Angeles) (14 page)

“Quincy?” I did another quick scan of the park, my stomach clenched into a tight knot.

“Ahh, Quincy. I’ve had the opportunity to hear his name several times. He can be most . . . enthusiastic with his knife.”

“You’ve got that fucking right.”

“Hmmm, yes. I will ask you not to swear, Ms. Ballard. It is unbecoming of a young woman.”

“Fuck you.”

“Hmmm, yes . . . right.” He stood and waved toward the pond with his hand. “I believe we should leave the park rather quickly. Perhaps it would be best if we went this way?”

“The car’s over here,” I said, moving off in the opposite direction.

“That may be the case, Ms. Ballard, but so is your friend Quincy. If you are so anxious to meet him, then by all means . . .”

I scanned the park. I couldn’t see Quincy, but that didn’t mean
anything. My legs felt weak and breathing became difficult. Mikey seemed to be the lesser of two evils.

“I think I’ll stick with you for a while.”

“Of course. This way, please.” Michael grabbed my arm and started pulling me over the grass to the edge of the park. “Quickly, please.” Speaking into his collar again, he said, “Delay them.”

I took a quick look over my shoulder, allowing myself to be pulled along. A jogger had just stepped off the path, obviously not looking where he was going, and ran headlong into two people wearing business suits, one of them tall and thin. I couldn’t tell if it was Quincy or not. All three people ended up on the ground, strewn across the gravel path.

Before I knew it, I was being dragged into a small restaurant and pushed out the back door. Michael walked me briskly down the back lane before he slowed and let go of my arm.

“I think perhaps we cut that one a bit close, wouldn’t you agree?”

“The jogger, he—”

“Yes, one of ours. We should consider ourselves lucky he was at the right place at the right time. Now, where did you say the car was
again?”

T
HE VIEW FROM
the boardroom was magnificent. It never failed to amaze Jeremy when he walked through the door. The entire back wall opened to a massive high-resolution viewport showing a blue-green Earth sitting stationary beneath them. A storm system was developing over Bermuda, heading northwest by the look of it. The view was, of course, only an image on a screen. Developing and maintaining a real viewport the size of the wall would not only be hugely expensive, but also highly dangerous. A small piece of space debris hitting the center of a viewport that large would be catastrophic.

Jeremy Adams turned and looked at the other members of the cabinet. Most of them, like Jeremy himself, were getting on in years. None of them had been around for the last Corporate War. Neither had he. But after this meeting, they would be around for the next one.

The men and women around the table had broken into small groups, talking earnestly amongst themselves. Even a newcomer here would be able to see the dividing lines in the power structure. Yang, his tallow-colored face appearing calm despite the surprise meeting, had the largest group. His dark brown eyes darted from the door to the president’s chair. His control of the budget committee always garnered a large following, with Fredericks and her manpower cronies ranking second. Jeremy himself was in charge of the defense portfolio, a position that had become less popular with the passing of the last Corporate Wars into memory.

The noise settled down to a quiet murmur as the president walked into the room. He was the youngest president in the history of Meridian, and he had proven to be one of its best. In a room full of dark suits and ties, he looked too casual in a beige sweater and slacks. Still, he emitted an aura of control.

Jeremy had handpicked Jonathon Hemshire for this position. He had watched the young lad grow into a position of great responsibility, and had been his tutor every step of the way. It was his tutoring that had led to this day.

The president moved amongst the groups, never staying too long with one or the other, courting each group in turn. The president had the responsibilities of the entire corporation on his shoulders. Every decision was ultimately his to make. Yet without the support of the people in this room, his power would be only in name. Jeremy watched the ease with which Jonathon mingled and extricated himself from every group, a skill that had come naturally to the young man.

The president reached his chair, placing his strong hands on the back of it. “If we may begin . . .”

The groups broke up as each person went to their assigned seat. Two secretaries moved to place coffee and tea on the table before moving discreetly to the walls. The president’s own secretary,
normally seated just behind him, also moved to the dark mahogany wall and spoke quietly to the two already standing there. All three walked to the door and closed it behind them.

Jeremy watched the event unfold and smiled inwardly. He had taught his student well. The president could have easily made sure there was no one in the room except the current cabinet before he entered. Instead, he had ensured that everyone saw the secretaries leave, gently pushing home the fact that this meeting would not be documented. History would not even know that a meeting had taken place.

Which was unfortunate, since today could turn out to be quite momentous indeed.

“Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know quite a few of you were Earthside.”

There was a general murmuring of “Good evening, Mr. President,” before the room became quiet once again.

“This board is in an envious position. Let me get directly to the point. Our research into interstellar travel, which we have been pouring money into for the last decade”—he nodded toward Yang—“has made a breakthrough.”

Jeremy took a quick glance around the table. The president most definitely had all their attention now. The project had taken most of their reserves and had been a sore point amongst the cabinet for many years.

Yang leaned forward. “What kind of breakthrough are we talking about, Mr. President?”

“Several days ago, we sent one of our executive-class travelers to tour the Le Verrier mines on Neptune. When the specially modified ship reached the far side of Triton, the scientists on board initiated what they call a quantum jump. Twenty minutes later they initiated another jump, returning to Triton.”

“Returning to Triton? Where did they go?”

Jonathon ignored the question and instead touched the screen embedded into the table in front of him. The image of Earth on the wall was replaced by a view of Neptune and Triton. The image zoomed into Triton, picking up a small ship on the far side.

“This, gentlemen, is a mock-up of the event.”

The ship suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a quickly fading pinprick of light. The view changed, and the ship reappeared. Neptune and Triton were nowhere to be seen.

“The ship remained here for nineteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds, using all of its available scanning systems to collect data. It then returned.”

The ship blinked out again, leaving the telltale pinpoint of light. The view switched back to Neptune and Triton.

“All systems checked out as normal, and the ship and its three passengers returned here. The passengers are still in quarantine, but so far they appear to be fine. Their names will go into the history books as the first to explore the Andromeda Galaxy, specifically thirty AU from the P1 nucleus.”

The effect on the cabinet members was immediate, even on those who had no idea what an AU or the P1 nucleus was. Simply stating the ship had reached the Andromeda Galaxy was enough. Several of them stood so quickly their chairs bounced across the floor, impacting the richly wood-paneled wall behind them. The noise level increased until the president had to shout to be heard.

“People, please. Return to your chairs.” He waited until everyone sat and silence had returned.

Yang was the first to speak. “Mr. President, have we been able to confirm the ship went where you say it did?”

“Yes. Mr. Adams has had a team examining the data for the last three days.”

Jeremy stood and walked around the table, handing out folders to everyone present. “First, let me say that these folders will not leave this room. You may examine the data contained within as much as you wish, but they are to remain here when you leave.” He sat back in his chair. “Ten years ago, Research and Development discovered the ability to send matter instantaneously across small distances. At that time, the project and its team were moved to my portfolio. In the intervening years, the distance and amount of matter we were able to move increased exponentially. Currently, the executive-class ship is close to our upper end. Most of the ship itself was converted to hold the engines required. We kept in the standard engines for interplanetary travel, which left us room for only three people and the high-resolution scanners.”

Jeremy looked around the room at the mostly blank faces. Few registered how big the quantum engines needed to be to displace twelve executive-class suites.

“In the early stages, devices were required at both the sending and receiving ends to maintain integrity of the matter and accuracy at the destination. Once we managed to break through that barrier, the rest was a matter of increasing the object size. We believe Meridian is the only corporation or government to have this ability, which leaves us in a unique position of deciding what to do with it.”

“Mr. President?” Yang had opened his folder and was running his finger down one of the columns. “We need to bring this project out of the military’s purview and into sales. The cost of this development has been astronomical, and we desperately need to see some return on our investments.”

The president leaned back in his chair and smiled. “I’m not sure that’s the course we want to take.”

“Mr. President?”

“Meridian has built its fortunes maintaining the Sat Cities,” the
president said, “as well as providing interplanetary vehicles to the other corporations. We are not the only ones to do so. Here we have the chance to forge ahead and grab hold of a market no other company has the ability to enter. If we sell this technology, we’ll have half a dozen competitors before the year is out, and Meridian will be in the same place it always has been, a fair distance from the IBCs and SoCals of this world. I believe we, this cabinet, can bring Meridian to the front of the pack. This technology can do for us what the Cities have done for SoCal. Bring us into position number one.”

Jeremy groaned inwardly. The president had taken this step too soon. The cabinet was old and comfortable, content with the way things were. Asking them to move the company into such a drastic venture without laying enough groundwork was sure to be disastrous.

“Sir,” Yang said, “if we’re not willing to sell this technology, the larger corporations could just take it from us. We don’t have the military power to fend off an attack by IBC or SoCal.”

The president waved his hand in Jeremy’s direction. “Jeremy?”

Jeremy steepled his fingers and rested his chin on the tips. This wasn’t where he wanted to be, not so soon, but since the cards were on the table . . . “I’m afraid, Mr. Yang, that I have not been entirely truthful about my portfolio’s expenditures.”

Yang’s face started to turn red.

“Some of the funds allocated to the quantum jump project have been diverted into expanding our fleet. We have quadrupled our interplanetary fighters and trained pilots to fly them. We have also, under the guise of regular maintenance, reinforced this satellite’s hull and armaments. In other words, we have been preparing for war to protect our investment. Since the return of our successful test, several executive-class ships have been taken out of service and are being retrofitted with jump engines and battle armament. By removing the scientific gear that was aboard the test ship, we believe we
can fit a pilot and five gunners aboard. These ships are essentially weapons that can be anywhere at any time. We’re also working on a prototype personnel carrier with a jump engine. Currently, the plan is unfeasible, but with the strides we have been making in this research, we expect to have something ready in the next nine months.”

Yang stood up, his face so red that Jeremy thought it was going to explode. “You . . . you falsified records to build an army? You stole from the corporation to build your own little empire! I will see you removed from your office for this.”

The president coughed quietly. “Please sit down, Mr. Yang.”

“But, Mr. President . . .”

“I authorized the changes to his budget.”

“You have no right!”

“But I do, Mr. Yang.”

Yang sat and threw his pen down. It bounced off the folder in front of him and danced across the table.

“Please continue, Jeremy,” the president said.

Jeremy glanced at Yang before continuing. “As I was saying, we should have a transport ship ready in about nine months. The transport ship can be used to carry anything, not just military personnel. For example, our scans of Andromeda showed quantities of water and metals. Quantities enough to supply Earth and its people for generations.”

Fredericks leaned forward. “Mr. President, by withholding the technology from the other corporations and gaining access to resources no one else has, you are moving down the road to war. A war that, even with the extra resources just described by Mr. Adams, we have no hope of winning.”

“That is correct, Ms. Fredericks. However, I do not plan on doing this alone. Tomorrow morning I have meetings with three other midrange corporations. I will be recommending a friendly takeover of
their operations in exchange for access to our new resources. The transportation will, naturally, not be on the table for discussion, only access to the resources through us. If even just two of them join us, we will be able to withstand a SoCal and IBC standoff for some time. Long enough to get even more people on our side. If all three sign up, we will be in an even more powerful position.”

“You sound quite sure of yourself, Mr. President,” Yang said.

“I’m as sure as I can be, considering we are preparing for war.” The president leaned forward in his chair and looked at everyone in the room. “Let’s talk about what else we can do.”

“Before we do, sir,” Jeremy said, taking over the conversation again. “I believe that, once news of this leaks out, you will become a target for assassination. Before we go much further, we need to make sure you are protected.”

“Why don’t we discuss that when the need arises?”

“That will be too late, Mr. President. You have a meeting with the presidents of the United States and China next week. I’d like to increase our security measures to make sure you are safe.”

The president raised an eyebrow in question. “Are you saying that I haven’t been safe, Mr. Adams?”

“No, sir. But there are bound to be issues. If you still plan to make the announcement during those meetings, you will need extra security on the way home. All of the freaks will come out of the woodwork. I don’t think we need to worry about the other corporations yet, but as soon as they find out you won’t be sharing . . . In fact, I would like to convince you not to go to the meeting at all.”

What the hell? Why the argument in front of the board? Jonathon was growing too big for his britches. Had he forgotten who got him where he was?

“And stand up the top two political leaders of the world?”

“You know as well as I that they are just puppets,” Jeremy said.
“China is under Kadokawa control, and IBC has the United States president. Their meeting with you is to further their own political agendas, which will end up helping the corporations behind them.”

“True, Jeremy,” the president said. “But in the next few months, none of that will matter. We will have access to enough water alone to end all the shortages on Earth. And we can bring the water here in less than a day when the transport vessels are ready. Even now it takes months to bring ice from the outer reaches. I don’t think the leaders will stay loyal to their corporations for long, once they see where the real power is shifting to.”