The Significant (68 page)

      
“I can track it,” Isa said. “But
destroying those source codes…that’s far more difficult.” Isa closed her eyes,
sighing. “Venus’ programming is very complex, even more so now than when she
was created. She has upgraded herself and downloaded different lines of code
from different places to build herself to what she is today. To figure out a
virus that could effectively destroy the necessary codes before she finds a
means to copy them in another processor…” Isa shook her head. “And both source
code backups are never in the same location. So if we destroy one, we would not
have the time to destroy the other before she filled in her code again from the
secondary backup and we would end up chasing her around the planet until she
loaded those code off-planet.”

      
Kailynn reached up and her fingers
brushed over the Elite’s cheek.

      
“How would this affect
you
?” she whispered. Isa blinked at the
younger woman, confused. “Remus said that you would die if you tried to shut
down Venus.”

      
Isa sighed heavily, leaning into
Kailynn’s hand.

      
“One of the procedures I went through
when I became Golden Elite was to implant a failsafe into my body,” she
explained. “If Venus’ codes start deteriorating, then the processor inside me
will download all the codes into yet another backup, killing me in the process
and uploading her to the nearest processor.”

      
“How in hell does
that
work?” Kailynn gasped, her eyes incredulous.

      
“No one but Venus knows for sure,” Isa
admitted. “Dr. Busen is trying to figure it out. I’ve given him as much
information as I have. Hopefully, he can figure it out.”

      
Kailynn’s eyes averted, her hand dropping
to take Isa’s, lacing their fingers together.

      
“If we defeat Gihron,” she started.
“Sorry,
when
we defeat Gihron,” she
corrected herself, “if we beat them and
then
shut down Venus, won’t they just attack again once the planet is shut down?”

      
“No, not if I have anything to say about
it,” Isa said, shaking her head.

      
“How can you be sure, though?”

      
“When we defeat them, which we are
getting closer to accomplishing, we will discuss a peace treaty. One of my
terms will be that Gihron, and Gihron’s allies that assisted in this war, will
be prohibited from attacking Tiao for the duration of fifty years. If they do
attack, the entire Alliance will meet them full-force. Sixty-seven planets
against the Ninth Circle is no contest.”

      
“You think they will honor it?” Kailynn
asked hesitantly.

      
“Probably,” Isa said. “Of course, nothing
is certain.”

      
Isa was getting tired of the
follow-the-finger-without-moving-her-head routine. However, she obeyed Dr.
Busen and continued to follow his finger as he moved it around in her field of
vision.

      
“Thankfully, things seem to be holding
up,” he said, lowering his hand and reaching forward, feeling along her jaw
once more. “I replaced the worst of the deterioration, but we will need to
completely reconstruct everything within a year.”

      
“Can we do that in increments?” Isa asked
hopefully.

      
“I think so,” the doctor said with a nod,
dropping his hands and walking over to a cabinet, opening and pulling out a few
monitors. They were in his office, which afforded them more privacy and more
tests at Dr. Busen’s disposal. “But your headaches have been bad?”

      
“Some days it’s hard to keep my eyes
open,” Isa said, turning her head as Dr. Busen glanced in her ear. “The light
is too much.”

      
“Are you sleeping?”

      
“Not really.”

      
“Eating?”

      
“Not much.”

      
“And you wonder why you’re getting
headaches?” Dr. Busen chuckled brokenly. He backed away and picked up another
monitor with a needle on it. He removed the cap and pushed up Isa’s sleeve,
rubbing down her elbow before inserting the needle and touching a few buttons
on the screen.

      
“How is the research on the virus?” Isa
asked, trying to strike up conversation, uncomfortable with the extent of the
testing.

      
“Not well, unfortunately,” Dr. Busen
admitted, his tone distracted as he looked over the screen. “The virus is
resistant to everything we put against it. It’s now being classified as a
super-virus. We’re doing everything we can.”

      
“And the girl? From Trid?”

      
Dr. Busen sighed, clicking a few buttons
before turning his eyes to Isa.

      
“She’s not doing well,” he admitted. “The
virus is taking hold. The most I can do is try to keep her comfortable.”

      
Isa dropped her gaze to the ground, the
words causing a pain in her chest.

      
Dr. Busen removed the needle from her arm
and walked to his desk, grabbing her patient folder and leaning against his
desk, scribbling notes.

      
“Isa, do you think these headaches are at
all related to Kailynn going into hiding?”

      
Isa hesitated, looking at Dr. Busen
suspiciously.

      
“How do you know about that?”

      
Dr. Busen chuckled lightly, glancing up
from his file. “Paul told me.”

      
Isa sighed, though she was smiling. “I
thought doctors weren’t supposed to discuss their patients.”

      
“You are correct,” Dr. Busen said,
closing the file and placing it on the desk, walking to Isa and gently taking
her head, tilting it up as he looked at her eyes once more. “However, you are
not the typical patient.” He pulled down her bottom eyelids and studied her
eyes briefly before walking back to the cabinet, pulling out yet another
examination tool. “You are the leader of the planet. It is critical that your
doctors communicate with one another.”

      
Isa chuckled brokenly as Dr. Busen
wrapped the reader around her arm and pressed several buttons on the small
screen.

      
“I must be such a headache for you two,”
she teased. “What do you do? Meet up every night and go over all my medical
problems?”

      
Dr. Busen laughed. “Difficult not to when
we live together.”

      
It took Isa a few moments to process the
words.

      
“You two live together?”

      
Dr. Busen nodded, pressing another button
and watching the numbers on the screen. When he noticed the silence, he glanced
up at Isa briefly.

      
“What?”

      
“You two…”

      
“Are together? Yes.”

      
Isa’s eyes remained wide and unblinking.
Dr. Busen smiled.

      
“You didn’t know?”

      
“No,” Isa said, shaking her head. “I had
no idea.”

      
The Elite Specialist chuckled, removing
the reader from her arm and setting it next to her, picking up his file again
to enter his notes.

      
“We met when your personal care team was
being assigned,” he said. “I thought he was an arrogant asshole and we were in
a very intense rivalry for several months when it came to your care. After your
first assassination attempt, we had a very intense disagreement about who was
responsible for your primary care that ended…in an unexpected way. We’ve been
together ever since.”

      
Isa smiled.

      
“Sounds intense,” she teased. “How could
you think he was an arrogant asshole?” she asked. “He’s one of the kindest
people I know.”

      
“He is very kind. He’s also very
confident,” Dr. Busen said. “Far more than I ever was. And, he’s nearly ten
years younger than me. It came off as arrogance, not confidence. In any case, I
know better now.” He sighed and leaned against the desk. “He said that you were
reverting back to your behaviors when Colonel Amori was here.”

      
Isa dropped her gaze.

      
“He said that you subconsciously want to
make yourself weaker,” he continued, “because that’s how you felt when he was
around you. You felt weak and powerless, so you made sure you
were
weak.” He walked forward, sitting
in front of Isa. “I wish I could take away everything he did to you,” he said
quietly, “but I can’t. All I can do is try to keep you from getting that bad
again.” He hesitated. “I can only assume that you’re not eating or sleeping
because of Gihron, or Kailynn, or some combination of the two. And I am worried
that it’s going to get out of hand very quickly.”

      
Isa sighed heavily.

      
“Now that we’re doing better in the war,
we’re not far from a victory over Gihron. I’m starting to realize that that
will force me to meet at the negotiation table with Gihron’s leaders.”

      
“You mean General Decius.”

      
Isa nodded slowly.

      
“I’ve only spoken with him twice, both
over six years ago,” Isa said. “But he was Colonel Amori’s brother. What if
he…”

      
“You know, if he tries anything like what
Colonel Amori did, you can tell us. You can find a way to tell us,” he said
strongly when Isa started shaking her head.

      
“No,” she said. “If he threatens Kailynn,
I won’t dare do anything that could risk her life.”

      
“That was exactly how Colonel Amori
blackmailed you,” Dr. Busen said. “You know, now, what these people are capable
of, and you can guard against it.”

      
“No, I can’t,” Isa said, shaking her
head. “I proved that I cannot. If he’s just like his brother…”

      
“Isa,” Dr. Busen said, taking her hands
in his and looking at her seriously, “you did what you had to do.”

      
Isa looked away, sighing heavily.

      
“I cannot risk that again.”

      
“What do you want to do, then?”

      
“I want to have a way to shut down
Venus,” she said seriously.

      
“I’m doing all that I can,” Dr. Busen
said. “There is a lot of information missing. I’ve looked through all the
Syndicate files—”

      
“No, you haven’t,” Isa said, shaking her
head. “Several files that were highly guarded were seized from Maki’s residence
when he was killed.” She took her hands from Dr. Busen’s grasp and pulled the
collar of her uniform down. “He did a lot of research on her evolution and the
biometrics. He was running tests on whether my heart would stop if he tried
several different means of destroying her codes.” She reached under the collar
of her uniform and to her breast. “Unfortunately, he did not know much
medicine, nor did he have time to complete his tests before he was killed.”

      
She extracted her hand from her bra,
holding a very small, portable drive. She held it between them.

      
“He gave me this the night he died,” she
said. “This is all of the research that he knew would be dangerous if it was
seized by the wrong person. I do not have a computer that works away from
Venus’ systems anymore. You do.”

      
She extended the chip to him and he
stared at it before chuckling and taking it.

      
“That’s a safe place for it,” he teased.

      
Isa smiled.

      
“I’ve kept it on my person,” she
explained. “I had to be sure it was safe.”

      
“How was Maki running tests on whether
your heart would stop?” Dr. Busen asked, looking at the drive once more.

      
“He was using my previous NCB chair,” she
explained. “It used to be linked to my body. It knew my biometric rhythms from
Opium mode.”

      
“Where is the NCB chair now?”

      
“Safely stored in his bunker. Chronus
made sure that the area was secure when the Officials seized everything in his
home. Chronus and the others are working on getting the NCB chair to a
different location so as not to raise suspicion.”