Zero Recall (62 page)

“The Baga, the Jreet, and
the Huouyt.  They just walked right in, kicked ass, and walked right out.  They
didn’t even need stitches.  Killed twelve Dhasha, if you believe the Baga.”

“You can’t believe the
Baga.”

“Your Huouyt said it was
more along the lines of twenty.”

Joe flinched.  “Jer’ait
never lies about how many kills he’s made.”

“I know.”

“Where’s Jer’ait?” Joe
said.

“Jer’ait disappeared,”
Rat told him.  “Nobody knows but Daviin, and he’s not telling.”

“Where’s Flea?”

Rat’s face darkened. 
“Phoenix got him transferred.  She broke up your groundteam, Joe.  Daviin’s the
only one who could tell them to piss off and get away with it.”  Then she
cocked her head.  “Well, Jer’ait could probably get away with it, but he was
long gone by the time Phoenix started making her ultimatums.”

Joe felt a headache
building, as well as a new pain in his chest.  “She got Corps Director.”

Rat nodded.  “She put
together the only two teams that survived Neskfaat.  Not only that, but our
teams each took out six princes.  Seven, if you count the one your three killed
getting to you, but officially they only gave you six assignments, so
Headquarters isn’t gonna recognize it.  Cheap bastards.  You know they never
gave Flea his
kasja
money?”

Joe looked up sharply. 
“What?”

Rat nodded grimly. 
“Never got around to it.  Never got around to giving your team any of its
kasjas.
 
I tried to bring it up with the awards committee, but Phoenix overruled me.”

Joe shook his head and
looked away, clenching his fists in fury.  His artificial right hand still felt
odd, but it reacted to his whims well enough to suit him.

Rat stood up and patted
him gently on the chest.  “I’ll take you up on the sex thing later.  Right now,
though, I’m gonna go find your Voran before he meets up with my Welu and they
decide their non-violence pact doesn’t carry to anonymous hospital corridors.”

“You sent him to get a nurse,”
Joe said, automatically feeling a pang of worry.

“Oh, I know,” Rat said. 
“But he’s lost.  A Jreet couldn’t find his way to a door in a one-roomed
house.  You rest.  I’ll find him.”

“Thanks,” Joe said,
leaning back.  He tried to relax, but the injustices of the past few days were
haunting him.

“I’ll send a nurse with
more drugs, too,” Rat said.  “You look like you need them.”

CHAPTER 31:  Wrapping up the Plan

“And only one will
survive?”

“Yes,” Forgotten said. 
“That’s the one you want.”

“Interesting,” Rri’jan
said.  He glanced at his watch.  “Two and a half hours.  Had you been planning
this before I captured you?”

“You did not capture me,”
Forgotten said.  “And, while I did have some general ideas, I began the
majority of my planning the moment you stepped onto my ship.”

Rri’jan checked his watch
again.  “But only two and a half hours?  You don’t need more time?  Perhaps, if
I gave you a few rotations to think about it, you could come up with a better
plan.”

“No,” Forgotten said. 
“There is no better plan.”

“Less than three hours? 
Surely you don’t expect me to risk my seat on a plan that you began telling me
before you’d even finished it.”

“No,” Forgotten said,
“I’d finished it before I began speaking.”

Rri’jan’s horizontal slit
of a mouth opened, then closed again.  “You were speaking within ten tics of my
arrival.”

“Correct.”

Rri’jan was silent for
some time.  “And this will only take a turn.”

“Less than, to produce a prince-killing
groundteam.”

“And I’ll have my
Tribunal seat afterwards,” Rri’jan said.  “You realize, if you’re deceiving me,
Forgotten, I will hunt you down and make you feel pain even you have never
thought possible.”

“Deceiving you?  When you
hold my entire species for ransom?”  Forgotten snorted.

“Very well,” Rri’jan
said, standing.  He wrapped his cloth-of-silver cape around his shoulders,
obviously a bit disconcerted.  “I planned on being here much longer than this.”

“You’re dealing with a
Geuji, Rri’jan.  Please remember that.” 

Rri’jan looked up at him,
his electric eyes unable to disguise the fact he was impressed.  “And the
plan?  What do I need to do to set it into motion?”

“Just as I said. 
Nothing.  I’ll take care of all the details.  I’ve already sent messages to my
contacts.  The wheels are in motion.  All you must do is sit back and watch.”

Rri’jan glanced out the
window, eying the armada that floated around them.  He looked back,
satisfaction on his face.  “This has been a very productive meeting, Geuji.”

“I am happy with the
outcome,” Forgotten replied.

“Indeed.”  Rri’jan made a
respectful bow.  “I’ll see you in one turn.”

“You won’t find me,”
Forgotten said.

Rri’jan hesitated, his
face showing his irritation.  “You’ll have no need to hide if I order the Geuji
freed.”

“Nonetheless,” Forgotten
said, “You won’t find me.”

Rri’jan gave him a
disgusted look, then departed.

“So who was that?” the
smuggler asked, when Forgotten unlocked the chamber that hid him.

“A business associate,”
Forgotten said.  “I was expecting him.”

“Is that why you just
locked me in a room for two hours after luring me here with the promise of
riches?” Syuri snapped.

“Actually, it was more
like three.  And yes.  The last thing you want is for him to see your face.”

The Jahul grunted. 
“Fine.  Self-righteous slime-mold.  So what happened to this job you offered
me?  Two mil?  Or’d you just give it away to that jackass who couldn’t see my
face?”

Forgotten found the
Jahul’s spunkiness amusing.  The self-proclaimed pirate also had the strongest
innate empathy Forgotten had ever seen in a Jahul.  Syuri had sensed the
visitor despite Forgotten’s every effort to mask it.  Forgotten had the
unnerving feeling the Jahul could also sense some of his own emotions, even
shielded.  That’s why he needed him.

“I want you to deliver
some exotic foods to Aez.”

The Jahul stared at him. 
“You have
got
to be kidding me. 
Food?
  You want me to deliver
food?
”

“It will be to the Aezi
gladiator halls, so there will be some risk involved.  Especially since their
Voran captive recently freed himself and is probably lurking in the very halls
where you will need to make your deliveries.”

Syuri scrunched his
sticky Jahul face.  “How about you give me another assignment, one on some
Ueshi pleasure planet or something.  I’d rather deal with an entire Ueshi
syndicate than a lone Voran Jreet.  I hate Jreet, especially
those
Jreet.  Vorans are so pig-headed.”

“The Voran will not hurt
you.”

“Hurt me?”  Syuri
scoffed.  “I’m doing business with his
enemies
.  Who, by the way, are
self-righteous, out-of-control zealots.  I’ve been listening to the rumors
going around.  I’ve got
sources,
Forgotten.  They’re gonna kill everyone
in the Old Territory, you know that?  Have you ever
been
to Aez? 
They’re all insane.  Violent furgs, all as crazy as that Tribunal member leading
them.” 

“Are you done ranting,
now?” Forgotten asked, amused.

“No,” the Jahul said,
making a cutting motion with his horny front limb.  “They’re sending out
raiding armadas, catching outsiders and dragging them home, just like the
old
days
, Forgotten.  Back before Congress.  They’re stringing up disbelievers
in the main square of every Aezi city and letting them die of the elements. 
Everyone they can get hold of.  And if they’re Jreet—they’re throwing them in
the gladiatorial ring with kreenit.  Just to watch them die!  And last rotation,
they pulled all their people out of the Sentinels.  You know what that
means
,
you ignorant corpse-rot?” 

“Enlighten me.”

“It means Prazeil’s about
to declare war.  On Vora and Welu.  And probably the rest of the planets in
that sector.  Do you have any
idea
of the kind of bloodbath that would
be?” 

“I’m sure you’ll be happy
to tell me.”

“They’d take out Poen,”
Syuri snapped.  “All those Ooreiki souls…
poof
!  They do that…the whole
Old Territory would explode on itself, you get me?”

“I think so.”

“Faelor would go down,”
Syuri insisted.  “The Bajna can’t fight Jreet, not even with their war machines. 
Then where would Congress be?” 

“I could probably make a
guess,” Forgotten said.

“
Gone
, that’s
where!”  Syuri waved a disgusted hand.  “Eighty percent of our banking goes
through that planet, you ignorant slime-mold.  Sweet Hagra, you ask me, we
should be moving this whole operation to the other side of the
galaxy
. 
The Old Territory is unstable.”

“But I have a delivery to
make to Aez.”

“Monsters,” the Jahul
went on, oblivious.  “Aez is filled with monsters.  And you want me to help
feed
them?  That Voran catches me feeding them and he’ll tear off my limbs and use
my inner chambers for canteens.  He’d think I was working for them!”

Forgotten said, “I’m sure
you’ll be fine.”

#

When the top five
highest-ranking Peacemakers died in five separate accidents, leaving Jer’ait to
inherit the Peacemaster’s position, everyone knew foul play had been involved,
but no one had the
zora
to accuse him.

The first thing Jer’ait
did upon gaining his Peacemaster position was to erase all vestiges of the
Geuji’s prediction of Joe’s future.  There were surprisingly few
references—Yua’nev had wanted to keep the Peacemaker’s prior knowledge of Aez
as far from the media as possible, lest he be implicated as a possible
conspirator.

The second thing that
Jer’ait did was replace the open positions of the Eleventh Hjai with
Peacemakers that deserved them, regardless of species.  The same day, he sent
missives to every Huouyt family head explaining his decision and what would
happen if it was not respected.

Then he began researching
the Geuji.  Everything he could find on Jemria, the only Geuji to have escaped
from the basement of the Space Academy.  Not, he found, because he had planned
some grand scheme, but because his spore had wound up on the inside of an Ueshi
Space Academy recruit’s headcom.  The Ueshi had done exceedingly well in her
flight and war-games, and once she realized what she had on her hands, she
testified that she had blackmailed the Geuji to help her complete training and
win in Jahul gaming dens.

Yet the Geuji, against
all odds, without any mobility whatsoever, had turned the tables and convinced
the Ueshi to free him of his servitude and install him in his first ship, thus
beginning three centuries of life on the run.  Peacemakers had been hunting him
since the very night the Ueshi freed him.  Though his species had never been
entered into Congress, though he broke no laws, though he had done nothing
wrong, his file had been marked ‘Dead or Alive’ for over three centuries.

He was never given a
chance,
Jer’ait thought, troubled.

An instant later, his
secretary, Orbil, hit the CALL button. 
“Peacemaster?”
the Ooreiki Sixth
Hjai asked nervously. 
“They’re requesting your presence in the Regency.”

Jer’ait felt his breja
ripple at mention of the Regency.  “Why?” 

“There was an attack
on Representative Mekkval on his home planet of Jakun 5.  A representative of
the Peacemakers is being requested by the Tribunal.”

Jer’ait froze, the next
step in the Geuji’s plan suddenly clicking into focus.  Mekkval maintained a
deep den on Jakun, perceived by Congress to be impenetrable.  He had retreated
to it once the hostilities had started, to keep his own heirs from joining the rebellion.
 “Was Representative Mekkval killed?” he demanded.

His secretary hesitated
as he collected the information. 
“No, sir.  Wounded.”

Jer’ait, who had been
fearing the worst, hesitated.  Cocking his head, he said, “
Wounded
,
Orbil?”  Then that would mean…

…the Geuji had failed.

“Yes, sir.  By a Jreet,
sir.” 

Jer’ait narrowed his
eyes, remembering Rat’s team.  “Was it a
Welu
Jreet, Orbil?”

Another pause.  “Yes
sir.  A group of six renegade Congies.  Survivors from Neskfaat.  They’re
saying it was war-trauma.”

Jer’ait considered for
several long moments.

The fact it was Rat’s
team left no doubt in his mind that the Geuji had been involved.  Yet, if the
Geuji had intended Mekkval to die, Mekkval would be dead.  He had seen that
much on Neskfaat.

“Would you like me to
transfer them to an Eleventh Hjai to take the summons instead, sir?”
Orbil
asked, after Jer’ait did not respond for some time.

As long as Jer’ait stayed
within the Peacemaker Sanctuary of Koliinaat, the Watcher could not transport
him anywhere.  Thus, the politicians actually had to
ask
for his
attendance.  It was one of the balances of power that the Geuji had worked into
the original design of Koliinaat, when Aliphei and the Regency commissioned it
in the 100
^th
Age of the Ooreiki.

The design of Koliinaat
was one of many things the Geuji had done before they were captured that left
Jer’ait discomfited.  Upon ascending the seat of the Peacemaster, he had spent
long hours researching the Space Academy basement’s long-term guests.  As it
turned out, most of Congress’s greatest advancements had been instigated by the
Geuji:  Nanos—everything that Congress now used in its ships, medicine, and
weaponry.  Ruvmestin generators—continuous, clean, essentially unlimited
energy.  Faster than light travel—something so advanced that not even
present-day technicians could decipher the why of it; they just built all ships
to ancient Geuji design and trusted it worked.  Teleportation—which only
remained possible on Koliinaat because all other technology was lost.  Ekhtas—the
greatest weapon known to the universe.  And, of course, the ultimate Geuji
creation—Koliinaat and its Watcher.  A completely artificial planet with
omnipotent, omnipresent,
sentient
artificial intelligence that directed
billions of individual affairs per second.