The Significant (72 page)

      
Colonel Amori leaned back in his seat,
smiling arrogantly.

      
“You are a force to be reckoned with,
aren’t you?” he murmured. He sighed heavily, tilting his head. “Why not just
allow Gihron to keep its social system in tact?”

      
“Because it is dangerous to the
Alliance.”

      
“What makes it so different from Tiao?”

      
“I believe my people have the basic right
to food and shelter,” Isa said darkly. Colonel Amori let out a bark of
laughter, shaking his head.

      
“Is that so?” he challenged. “What about
the Trid district?”

      
“Trid is an entirely different matter,”
Isa said simply.

      
Colonel Amori pursed his lips.

      
“I could say that about our grunts, too,”
he said. “I could wave the question away and say it was an entirely different
matter, and that you couldn’t possibly understand, but I’m not afraid of what
the lower class represents.”

      
“And what is that?”

      
“Fear,” he answered. “I know that that is
what you use Trid for—fear to keep your classes in line and working, keeping
the economy running and the planet appearing strong. It’s the same with our
grunts.” He leaned forward once more. “It seems we are not so different after
all.”

      
“Politics are politics no matter where
you are in the Altereye System,” Isa said, her voice cool and calm.

      
“I’m glad you understand that,” he
murmured. “Which is why you should understand why I cannot condone tearing
apart Gihron’s society merely to allow our ships to trade goods.”

      
“If that is the case,” Isa started, “then
perhaps our negotiations have ended.”

      
“No, Elite Isa, they have not,” Colonel
Amori said dangerously. “They’ve only begun.”

      
“I cannot change the rules agreed to by
the Alliance. The numbers in military forces were carefully calculated and
agreed upon,” Isa said strongly. “They are Venus’ Law. They are absolute.”

      
Colonel Amori gave her a half smile.

      
“If you’re so keen on the rules, why do
you break them yourself?”

      
Isa stared at the Colonel. After studying
the dangerous look in his brown eyes, she started to feel worry settle in her
stomach. Her mind raced, trying to think of what he had seen that would make
him believe she did not obey Venus.

      
She did obey the computer.

      
Apart from being with Remus.

      
“What do you mean?” Isa asked, keeping
her voice steady.

      
“Nothing, of course.” He stood and bowed
his head. “I will take my leave now. We will resume our negotiations tomorrow.”

      
“I will not be at the Syndicate
tomorrow.”

      
“I know,” Colonel Amori said. “But I find
your office cold and depressing. I would rather meet with you here.”

      
“It is unprofessional, I will not allow
it.”

      
“I will be here tomorrow.”

      
He turned and walked out of the level.
Isa groaned and her head fell back on the couch, frustrated.

      
Even though Isa was sure she had been
very careful to keep her relationship with Remus a secret from the Colonel, she
was worried that he had found out somehow. The next day, before the Colonel
appeared at her house, she called Remus and told him to come over for the
negotiations. She said they needed to be firmer in their discussions and that
she would rather break ties with Gihron and leave them in their corner of the
Altereye System than drag on the negotiations.

      
The Silver Elite came over and asked her
why she was upset, but she did not have time to discuss the possibility of
Colonel Amori knowing about their relationship before the Gihron leader
appeared at her door.

      
Rayal answered the door with a bow of his
head and then promptly excused himself from the room.

      
The negotiations that day were very
short. Colonel Amori did not seem interested in discussing anything with Remus
in the room. Isa, however, refused to speak with the planetary leader alone. He
was in her home, a place she preferred to keep free from political matters, and
she needed to show that she had the power in that situation.

      
Once again, Colonel Amori and Isa were in
a deadlock with their stances on the trade agreement.

      
Twice, Isa tried to dismiss the Gihoric
Colonel, but he refused. He said he would contact his brother and discuss a
course of action with him.

      
For two weeks, Isa did not see Colonel
Amori. Her frustration continued to build, however, when she did not hear from
him.

      
She was also very careful about how she
associated with Remus. She had managed to keep their relationship secret for
nearly fifteen years, and she was not about to get careless. There was
something about the Colonel’s demeanor that told her he would resort to dirty
tricks to get his way. Therefore, she kept the Silver Elite at a distance, much
to Remus’ confusion.

      
Another emergency came up when Kreon
sounded a distress signal for the Alliance. One of their power reactors had
gone into catastrophic meltdown and Isa’s attention was focused entirely on
getting the people of her closest ally the assistance they needed. Remus had
fallen ill just one day before the emergency occurred, so she was left handling
the problem on her own. She deployed her troops to help secure and evacuate the
area around the reactor and then sent aid by means of food and supplies for
those displaced, as well as four of her most-qualified technicians to organize
repairs.

      
When it seemed the problem was properly
contained, Isa had almost forgotten about Colonel Amori. She never saw him, and
he had not called her to tell her about his brother’s decision.

      
Remus came to her home when the reactor
was reported as stable and shared a drink with her. Her frustrations and stress
about Kreon and Colonel Amori caused her to seek Remus intimately. She wanted
him to take control of her life, even if it was only within the confines of her
bedroom. They had not had sex in weeks, and both were hungry for contact.

      
She fell into a sound sleep next to
Remus, who also slept deeply, still recovering from the strange virus that had
taken hold of his system.

      
As she slept, she dreamt she was swimming
in warm, serene waters. The feeling of weightlessness and calm surrounded her,
and she allowed herself to enjoy the dream.

      
Until she felt her limbs become heavy,
and she began to slip under the surface of the water. She struggled to breathe
as water pressed hard against her nose and mouth. She struggled and flailed
violently, panic setting in as she began to drown.

      
Her eyes snapped open and she realized
the drowning feeling had been due to the hand clamped over her nose and mouth.

      
“Shh, shh…” a dark voice whispered in her
ear. “This will be so much easier for you if you don’t struggle.”

      
Isa started flailing violently, reaching
out to hit Remus, trying to wake up the Silver Elite.

      
“Don’t bruise the poor man, now,” the
voice laughed. “He’s not gonna wake up for a while.”

      
Isa’s eyes focused on the shadowy figure
over her and her hand swung, punching him violently in the jaw and rolling her
off the bed in the same motion. She quickly turned over and started to stand
when the body collided with hers, grabbing her wrists and flipping her over. As
she kicked, he pressed his hand deeply into the back of her neck and a pulse of
pain shot through her, her muscles freezing in their tensed positions. She
could not move. She was paralyzed.

      
Her eyes moved about the room and she saw
the man’s face come into her field of vision once more. His bright smile and
dark eyes were in contrast with one another, and his cold, dark voice sent a
terrible tremor of fear down her spine.

      
“I told you it would be better if you
didn’t struggle,” he said with a light laugh. He turned her onto her back, her
muscles still refusing to move, no matter how she struggled. Once she was on
her back, he straddled her, leaning down and crossing his arms over her
collarbone, pinning her.

      
“Allow me to explain how this is going to
work,” Colonel Amori said darkly. “These terms are non-negotiable, and you
will
obey them.”

      
“The hell I will!” Isa spat, her teeth
locked together. “I’ll have you executed for this.”

      
“Will you?” he challenged. “My dear Isa,
you seem to think that you have the upper hand, when, in reality, I have you
completely cornered.” He leaned closer to the Elite. “What do you think Venus
would do if she knew you were fucking your Silver Elite?”

      
Isa said nothing. Her mind was working
around the situation, trying to figure out how to alert someone that she was in
danger and get the Colonel taken into custody for use of force and political
coercion.

      
“No? Is that not enough for you?” Colonel
Amori asked. “How about this, then?” He reached into his front coat pocket and
pulled out two black devices. One was a portable drive of a sort that Isa had
never seen before. The other was a small handle with a button in the middle.
“Do you see this?” He shook the one with the button. “I have two of these. This
particular one won’t cause as much damage as the other, but I assure you, they
will both work.”

      
Isa stared at the device, trying to
figure out what it was.

      
“Your brother seeks war against us?” she
growled. “If you harm me, the entire Alliance will destroy your planet without
hesitation.”

      
“My dear, you misunderstand me. Decius is
not privy to any of this. He never was. And I have no intention of hurting
you,” he said. “I need you too much.”

      
Isa glared at the other politician,
trying to move her arms and legs, but the needle pressing into her neck was
effectively keeping her body paralyzed.

      
“I need you to help me destroy the
Alliance and Venus.”

      
Isa stared at Colonel Amori with wide
eyes.

      
“Are you insane?” she hissed. “I would
never
help you. You could threaten me
all you want, but you will never destroy Venus, and the Alliance will come to
my aid to destroy you.”

      
“Assuming that you call them,” he said,
shaking the device in his hand. “Do you really think I was sitting around this
entire time? I’ve been hard at work, securing my control over you and Tiao.” He
put the device in her face. “This holds the life of your Silver Elite, all of
your Bronze Elites, and your caretaker.”

      
She looked at the device.

      
“What have you done to them?”

      
“I’m sure that you’ve heard of
microbionics?” he asked. “Those tiny little robots used in medical practice?”

      
“Those were outlawed twenty years ago,”
Isa said coldly, fear seeping into her gut.

      
“In the Alliance, yes,” Colonel Amori
agreed. “But we are not in the Alliance. I happen to be a brilliant programmer.
I’ve developed them to be smart, well, as smart as a machine can be. Certain
microbionic cells were injected into each of your colleagues and your
caretaker. And this little button,” he barely tapped it with his finger,
causing Isa to tense, “will activate all of them. First, the ones in your
caretaker will eat him alive from the inside out. Some of them have already
tried, I suspect, since your caretaker fell ill last week. But the best ones,
the microbionic cells I injected into Remus and into your brainless Bronze
Elites are far more sophisticated. Those ones will attach to the spinal cord
and they will
control
all of them to
kill you.”

      
Isa stared at the device.

      
“I wonder what you would do in that
situation,” Colonel Amori mused. “Imagine it. You’re working in your cold,
depressing office and Remus comes into see you, only it’s not Remus.” He shook
the device again. “It’s
me
. And he
comes after you, with every intention to kill you. Of course, he won’t
understand why. He’ll probably be screaming at you, telling you he doesn’t
understand what’s happening, even as he raises a gun to kill you. I wonder…”
Colonel Amori smiled darkly, his face barely parted from Isa’s, “how strong are
the survival instincts of an Elite? Will you let him kill you? Or will you put
a bullet in his brain? Pop!” He tapped the end of the device on Isa’s forehead.
“Right between the eyes.”