Three days of darkness, p.20
Three Days of Darkness, page 20
part #3 of Ross 128 First Contact Series
“Tell me about the Echo. How does she fly so damn fast?”
“I know . . . nothing about that ship. I’m not an engineer.” He spat some blood on the floor.
Winter raised his eyebrows and Georg, not missing a beat, grabbed Atteberry’s right thumb and folded it back against the joint. He shrieked in pain until he shouted, “Okay! Okay, I’ll tell you what I did, what I saw.” Georg released his grip and flashed a mouthful of chipped teeth.
For the next ten minutes, Atteberry sputtered out what he remembered from the rescue mission to Luna. Winter interrupted him only once, when he recalled how Mary left the alien ship and Kate had remained aboard. He leaned against the office wall, expressionless.
After several moments of silence, he asked, “What about the voyage home from Luna? How did the Echo evade the firepower of the Sara Waltz?”
Atteberry hesitated until Georg stepped toward him. “I don’t understand how it happened,” he said, his voice rising. “All I saw. . . Mary did something and apparently that made us invisible to your ship. Someone said we’d shifted out of space prime but I can’t remember.”
“And where did Mary get this power? Is it from the alien?”
“Yes, I’m telling you that’s why she needs this operation we’re supposed to do this morning.”
“Where is the alien now?”
“I have no idea.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I—I’m not! Clayton Carter and the others kept talking about faster than light technology, but I know nothing about that.”
Winter curled his lip. “But you understand subspace communications. And the girl does too, yes?”
Atteberry remained silent.
“I’d like to discover what else she knows, and that’s why I’m taking her to Munich for a . . . cleansing.”
“What’s that?”
“You may recognize it as mind-scraping. It’s a tricky procedure, but we extract the knowledge we require from her brain, while leaving her substantial memories intact.”
Fear crossed Atteberry’s face.
“Yes, now you understand, Herr Professor. We both want the same thing. Dr. Palmer was preparing a similar procedure until he chose not to cooperate. You see, there’s no need for us to fight. We should solve this problem together.”
“I don’t . . .” He shook his head in disbelief. Was Winter offering him a fresh chance to save Mary’s life? He understood mind-scraping and the damage it inflicted on people’s brains, but if a chance existed to siphon off the alien mind and restore Mary’s health, he couldn’t object. Perhaps the Prussians had found a less invasive way.
“Regardless,” Winter continued. “I’m done with you.” Then to Georg, “Return him to the others, secure him there, and go eat.”
Georg grunted and lifted Atteberry out of the chair, pushing him through the office door. Janet lay on the concrete floor, her cuffed arms above her attached to a thick pipe. She looked up as Atteberry approached. Mary remained unconscious on the cot, covered in a thin blanket. Helga rested on a stool by the window. The guard slung some chain around his cuffs and secured him to the pipe beside Janet. He gave them a yank, and marched out the warehouse, nodding at Helga.
“What’d he do, Jim?”
Atteberry sighed. “He wanted to learn about the Echo, but I don’t know how the thing flies. And he focused on Mary and how she made the ship disappear. He plans to scrape her mind and extract that information without damaging her own memories. That’ll help her get better, won’t it?” He watched her shift around. Janet’s face looked ragged and worn now. Deep bruises blossomed on her cheeks. Not quite the way he remembered her, but he didn’t care.
“Mary still sleeping?”
“Yeah,” Janet said in a lowered voice, she added, “We can’t let him take her to Munich.”
“Why not?”
She struggled to find the words. “Because mind-scraping is torture, Jim. There is no clean method. One reason Palmer needed the TSA’s quantum computer was to capture the alien memories while preserving Mary’s brain. That doesn’t happen in scraping. The process destroys fundamental brain activity.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If he goes through with this, and Mary somehow survives the flight to Europe, he plans to extract what he wants and leave her in a vegetative state.” She paused. “I’ve seen how it’s done, Jim. There’s nothing left of the . . . patient.”
“That’s why he’s never mentioned the need for the quantum memory.” He hung his head and inhaled. “We have to stop him.” He tugged at the chain holding his cuffed hands to the pipe.
“We must do more than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Winter isn’t the only motherfucker after her. No one can scrape her mind, Jim. And there’s only one way to prevent that.”
“Right, get out of this place, find another doctor and save her.”
“No.”
“Then what?” Dread again bubbled in his gut.
Janet paused and set her mouth. “Mary herself must die.”
Before he could process the words, his daughter stirred from her cot. “Dad?”
“I’m here, Mares.”
“I—We overheard your conversation.”
His shoulders slumped, and he threw Janet a horrified look. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that. I won’t let them kill you, Mares.”
“Please, Dad, listen.” Mary struggled to raise her head and face him. “Janet’s right. Mom’s right.”
“Hm?”
“You must kill us . . . before it’s too late.”
TWENTY-TWO
Winter
Winter emerged from the interrogation room with a wry smile on his face. He waved Helga over to join him outside the office door. The woman towered over him, keeping a sharp eye on Mary and the others. He liked that.
“How is the fraulein?”
Helga screwed her face up and said, “The girl is a resilient creature, Herr Winter. Drops in and out of consciousness. I’ve pumped her with painkillers and medicine, and vital signs are stabilizing.”
“Can she travel?”
“No, she is far too weak. Her bio-signs are not sufficiently strong.”
“But stable, yes?”
“Yes, Herr Winter, however, not improving. We must wait another few hours.”
He spat and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. That wouldn’t do. “I would prefer to interview her now.”
Helga bristled. “I cannot recommend that. She is incapable of being questioned.”
“Then get her in shape with more stimulant. I should like to speak with her now.”
“But—”
He stared into her deep green eyes. “No ‘buts’”, he asserted calmly. “Pump her up and bring her to me.”
“Yes, Herr Winter, right away.”
She marched back to the corner and opened a med kit, poked around, and retrieved a hypospray. The father protested, asking questions, but Frau Chamberlain remained silent. The once powerful mercenary that caused so much torment over the years slumped on the floor, beaten.
Winter returned to the office and drew his indie-comm from a pocket. After scrolling through the messages, he stopped and opened one from Cornelia: Med team in place. Too dangerous to use Sara W. shuttle. Must take a charter. Arranging now. Will keep you apprised.
He pursed his lips and considered the timing. He trusted Cornelia and made a mental note to see her again socially upon his return. Perhaps they could still repair their fractured relationship despite the difference in corporate status. Perhaps he had broken it off prematurely. His mind drifted to their weekend in Paris a couple years ago.
Helga rapped softly on the doorjamb. She held Mary by the waist and guided her onto the chair, then prepared to leave.
Winter intervened. “Please, Helga, remain here with the girl.”
“Thank you, Herr Winter,” she said, her face softening. She grabbed another chair from outside the room and placed it beside the fraulein.
Mary lifted her head, gazed at Helga with confusion, and turned to him. “I’m not . . . where are we?” She surveyed the room, mumbling.
“Hit her again with the stimulant, please.”
Helga hesitated.
“I won’t ask a second time.”
She pulled the hypospray from her shirt pocket, placed it on the girl’s neck and pressed the plunger. Mary blinked rapidly and, in a moment, shook her head as if fighting off a shiver, then fixed her gaze on Winter. Helga scanned her vitals on a portable data slate.
“Welcome back.”
“Where are we?”
“Fear not, Fraulein Mary. You’re among friends here.” He rolled his tongue over his teeth. “I will ask a few questions, and you shall answer them.”
She glared at him, then attempted to get out of the chair, but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight, and she collapsed back down. Helga placed her hand over hers.
“But—we need to leave for the surgery. Dad . . . there’s a surgeon from New Houston coming. We have to hurry.”
“Yes, and the medical team is standing by. But before that, I must learn certain things. As a precaution, you understand.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“Please, Fraulein, I shall ask the questions. Time is of the essence and if we’re to save you, I require complete cooperation.”
She lowered her eyes. “Okay.”
Winter circled around in front of her, tenting his fingers. “Danke, now I should like to learn what happened on the alien vessel when you and Braddock were abducted.”
Mary’s mouth fell open. “No . . .”
“Please, Mary, it’s for your own good. The surgeons must hear everything.”
“We can’t.”
Winter considered his next words. “Let me clarify the situation then. If you don’t explain what happened, I shall relieve my frustration on your father. Do you understand that?”
Mary’s face remained unchanged but her eyes softened.
“So tell me exactly what happened when the creature seized you.”
She gulped. “We weren’t taken against our will. The alien, Keechik, saved us.”
“How so?”
“Kate and I were running out of oxygen, trying to find an entrance into that ship . . . a portal or hatch . . . anything. I passed out and when I woke up, I was inside the vessel.”
“And the Braddock woman?”
“Yes. We were separated at first because—”
Her head dropped. Helga stroked her hand and said, “It’s all right, Mary, you’re doing fine.”
Tears filled her eyes. “He attached me to a neural device, and I interfaced with . . . a strange network. Keechik’s entire record, all his memories, all his knowledge transferred into me.”
“Curious. Why?”
“He’s the last of his kind. All he wished to—” she swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “He wanted to preserve his civilization’s history.”
“Why you and not Braddock?”
“I’m eidetic. I can’t forget something once I’ve seen it. His memories are as fresh to me now as my own, as if I’ve lived . . . we’ve lived multiple lives.”
Winter continued pacing, hands behind his back. “So you have absorbed everything the alien knows, yes?”
“Yes. I mean, I’m trying to understand everything, but my brain . . . I can’t process it. Our memories are merging, but it’s all jumbled. I’m struggling to figure out what’s me and what’s him.”
“Fascinating!”
“Please, we must get the surgery done or both of us will die.”
“Where is the alien ship now?”
Mary blinked a few times, then said, “We cannot say. The real Keechik is still on it, I believe.”
“But where?”
Mary’s voice raised. “I don’t know!” She slumped over.
Winter glanced at Helga.
“More stimulant, please.”
She implored him to stop, but he focused on getting the answers he needed. She sighed and pumped the hypospray into Mary’s neck again. The girl twitched and shook.
“Now then,” he continued, “if this alien’s mind is part of you, is that how you shifted space-time?”
“How do. . .?”
“Ah, I know more than you realize.”
She bit her lip.
“And you can still do this? Don’t lie, Fraulein.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Winter stopped pacing and bent down in front of her, glaring. He grabbed her chin. It felt cold and clammy. “Tell me, do you understand how the alien ship travels faster than the speed of light?”
She nodded, tears pooling, her face turning white.
Winter hadn’t counted on this, but in his hand was all the knowledge required to establish the Consortium as man’s future. All he needed to do was extract it before her body decayed.
“But I can’t—we can’t survive without the operation.”
“Of course, Fraulein, I understand.” Winter’s indie-comm pinged, and he punched open the message from Cornelia: Charter standing by. SF Int’l. Hangar 13. He motioned to the bio-signs device. Helga glanced at it and pursed her lips.
“Can she travel now?”
“I—I wouldn’t risk it yet, Herr Winter.”
He straightened his back, and stroked Mary’s sweat-laden hair. In a gentle voice, slow and deliberate, he said, “More stimulant. Then we shall go.”
Janet
Atteberry looked to her with hate-filled eyes. “What do you think he’s doing?”
He spoke in a low voice, even though Helga remained in Winter’s office and Georg hadn’t returned from lunch. As if it mattered. Despite several attempts to find a weak spot in their chains and mag-cuffs, he and Janet weren’t going anywhere.
“She’s too important an asset to harm, so he’s likely asking lots of questions, trying to figure out what she knows, what else she can do.” Janet shifted on the floor and grimaced. “The way she’s half out of it, though, I doubt he’s learning much.”
She explored the inside of her broken mouth with her tongue, imagining her face had swollen into a grotesque caricature. She threw a brief, apologetic smile, then continued testing the cuffs. He was determined to save Mary, that was clear. But Janet understood the larger stakes. Her assessment—and Mary’s agreement—that she must die rather than go through whatever experimentation Winter had planned was the only goal now. Palmer was the surgeon capable of understanding the procedure that might save her life, so Winter likely had something more planned for her in Munich. Mind-scraping, to be sure, but what else?
She shrugged. Wouldn’t matter. Once the fucker got what he wanted, he’d discard whatever remained of Mary’s body and brain like dinner scraps. No way could she let that happen. Yet, if they somehow escaped this mess, assuming the worst, she’d turn around and put a bullet in Mary’s head and not think twice. Mary’s life, and the knowledge she held, would be sacrificed for the good of the planet and human race. Madness, certainly, but the Prussians could not be allowed to dictate scientific evolution.
She had to die.
We need to drink.
No. If she’s going to escape, she’d have to do it by herself and keep Jim out of it. Despite the messed-up feelings, she didn’t trust him for this.
“What’re you thinking about, Jim?”
In the old days, he struggled with telling the truth, but perhaps he’d changed. Their shared history and current predicament interfered with her ability to process his actions. He wanted to protect Mary, but if anyone had the know-how to escape successfully, it was Janet.
“I want to save Mary, even if it means she dies naturally in my arms with me.”
She squirmed and said, “Believe it or not, this is difficult for me, too. After all, she’s still my daughter.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “Sure, I get it. We don’t have any sort of relationship, and I’d never claim to be a parent to her, but please understand how I’ve struggled with my choices, too. Putting my values and principles before her welfare. Before you.”
“What is this, some kind of last-minute expression of remorse? Guilt?”
“I had no choice, Jim.”
He fumed. “Bullshit. You could have said ‘no’ to whoever you worked for. You could’ve dropped out of that sordid business, or at least have been honest with us. But no, you simply disappeared in the night without a word like a goddamn shadow.”
Silence enveloped their corner of the warehouse. Helga’s voice rose from the office, but her words were indistinguishable, spoken in a foreign language. Then the metal door to the street swung open and Georg entered. He sauntered toward them, grabbed Helga’s stool and sat, watching them, picking his teeth.
Janet continued working the cuffs even though Atteberry no longer tried. Despite the circumstances, she would never give up. “This may seem ridiculous, but if we’re finally having an honest conversation, I’m telling you, I had no choice but to leave.”
“Janet, for the love of god, what were we supposed to think?” He lowered his voice, but Georg remained obtuse, unconcerned. “Why didn’t you tell me, or leave a note, or call? Those days were so dark. I went crazy with worry. Mary pulled out a mitt full of hair follicles one by one in some bizarre response to being abandoned. Took months for her to adjust. All you needed to do was tell us you were okay.” He shifted his leg, flinched, and continued. “Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter. That was all in the past and we’ve moved on. But don’t you dare say you had no choice.”
Janet frowned, debating whether to respond. The spider scratched and picked at her mind, reminding her of its omniscience. She shook it off. Then, glancing away, she whispered in a ghostly, unrecognizable voice, “They threatened to kill her in front of me, Jim.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to leave you. I tried negotiating with them, find a desk job or do something peripheral, but they wouldn’t listen. Said they needed me for the field . . . what I’d signed on for in the first place, and what I was good at.”
“Wait, they did what?”
“The squad leader was in on it. I’d find little clues that they’d been in the house, in Mary’s room. At her school. I suspected one of her teachers was watching me. Anyway, as you say, all in the past but understand, they swore me to secrecy, and to never contact you or Mary again. Even years later, I still found gruesome reminders of the deal. Photos in my kit. Video of Mary playing in the yard . . . things like that.”
“I know . . . nothing about that ship. I’m not an engineer.” He spat some blood on the floor.
Winter raised his eyebrows and Georg, not missing a beat, grabbed Atteberry’s right thumb and folded it back against the joint. He shrieked in pain until he shouted, “Okay! Okay, I’ll tell you what I did, what I saw.” Georg released his grip and flashed a mouthful of chipped teeth.
For the next ten minutes, Atteberry sputtered out what he remembered from the rescue mission to Luna. Winter interrupted him only once, when he recalled how Mary left the alien ship and Kate had remained aboard. He leaned against the office wall, expressionless.
After several moments of silence, he asked, “What about the voyage home from Luna? How did the Echo evade the firepower of the Sara Waltz?”
Atteberry hesitated until Georg stepped toward him. “I don’t understand how it happened,” he said, his voice rising. “All I saw. . . Mary did something and apparently that made us invisible to your ship. Someone said we’d shifted out of space prime but I can’t remember.”
“And where did Mary get this power? Is it from the alien?”
“Yes, I’m telling you that’s why she needs this operation we’re supposed to do this morning.”
“Where is the alien now?”
“I have no idea.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I—I’m not! Clayton Carter and the others kept talking about faster than light technology, but I know nothing about that.”
Winter curled his lip. “But you understand subspace communications. And the girl does too, yes?”
Atteberry remained silent.
“I’d like to discover what else she knows, and that’s why I’m taking her to Munich for a . . . cleansing.”
“What’s that?”
“You may recognize it as mind-scraping. It’s a tricky procedure, but we extract the knowledge we require from her brain, while leaving her substantial memories intact.”
Fear crossed Atteberry’s face.
“Yes, now you understand, Herr Professor. We both want the same thing. Dr. Palmer was preparing a similar procedure until he chose not to cooperate. You see, there’s no need for us to fight. We should solve this problem together.”
“I don’t . . .” He shook his head in disbelief. Was Winter offering him a fresh chance to save Mary’s life? He understood mind-scraping and the damage it inflicted on people’s brains, but if a chance existed to siphon off the alien mind and restore Mary’s health, he couldn’t object. Perhaps the Prussians had found a less invasive way.
“Regardless,” Winter continued. “I’m done with you.” Then to Georg, “Return him to the others, secure him there, and go eat.”
Georg grunted and lifted Atteberry out of the chair, pushing him through the office door. Janet lay on the concrete floor, her cuffed arms above her attached to a thick pipe. She looked up as Atteberry approached. Mary remained unconscious on the cot, covered in a thin blanket. Helga rested on a stool by the window. The guard slung some chain around his cuffs and secured him to the pipe beside Janet. He gave them a yank, and marched out the warehouse, nodding at Helga.
“What’d he do, Jim?”
Atteberry sighed. “He wanted to learn about the Echo, but I don’t know how the thing flies. And he focused on Mary and how she made the ship disappear. He plans to scrape her mind and extract that information without damaging her own memories. That’ll help her get better, won’t it?” He watched her shift around. Janet’s face looked ragged and worn now. Deep bruises blossomed on her cheeks. Not quite the way he remembered her, but he didn’t care.
“Mary still sleeping?”
“Yeah,” Janet said in a lowered voice, she added, “We can’t let him take her to Munich.”
“Why not?”
She struggled to find the words. “Because mind-scraping is torture, Jim. There is no clean method. One reason Palmer needed the TSA’s quantum computer was to capture the alien memories while preserving Mary’s brain. That doesn’t happen in scraping. The process destroys fundamental brain activity.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If he goes through with this, and Mary somehow survives the flight to Europe, he plans to extract what he wants and leave her in a vegetative state.” She paused. “I’ve seen how it’s done, Jim. There’s nothing left of the . . . patient.”
“That’s why he’s never mentioned the need for the quantum memory.” He hung his head and inhaled. “We have to stop him.” He tugged at the chain holding his cuffed hands to the pipe.
“We must do more than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Winter isn’t the only motherfucker after her. No one can scrape her mind, Jim. And there’s only one way to prevent that.”
“Right, get out of this place, find another doctor and save her.”
“No.”
“Then what?” Dread again bubbled in his gut.
Janet paused and set her mouth. “Mary herself must die.”
Before he could process the words, his daughter stirred from her cot. “Dad?”
“I’m here, Mares.”
“I—We overheard your conversation.”
His shoulders slumped, and he threw Janet a horrified look. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that. I won’t let them kill you, Mares.”
“Please, Dad, listen.” Mary struggled to raise her head and face him. “Janet’s right. Mom’s right.”
“Hm?”
“You must kill us . . . before it’s too late.”
TWENTY-TWO
Winter
Winter emerged from the interrogation room with a wry smile on his face. He waved Helga over to join him outside the office door. The woman towered over him, keeping a sharp eye on Mary and the others. He liked that.
“How is the fraulein?”
Helga screwed her face up and said, “The girl is a resilient creature, Herr Winter. Drops in and out of consciousness. I’ve pumped her with painkillers and medicine, and vital signs are stabilizing.”
“Can she travel?”
“No, she is far too weak. Her bio-signs are not sufficiently strong.”
“But stable, yes?”
“Yes, Herr Winter, however, not improving. We must wait another few hours.”
He spat and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. That wouldn’t do. “I would prefer to interview her now.”
Helga bristled. “I cannot recommend that. She is incapable of being questioned.”
“Then get her in shape with more stimulant. I should like to speak with her now.”
“But—”
He stared into her deep green eyes. “No ‘buts’”, he asserted calmly. “Pump her up and bring her to me.”
“Yes, Herr Winter, right away.”
She marched back to the corner and opened a med kit, poked around, and retrieved a hypospray. The father protested, asking questions, but Frau Chamberlain remained silent. The once powerful mercenary that caused so much torment over the years slumped on the floor, beaten.
Winter returned to the office and drew his indie-comm from a pocket. After scrolling through the messages, he stopped and opened one from Cornelia: Med team in place. Too dangerous to use Sara W. shuttle. Must take a charter. Arranging now. Will keep you apprised.
He pursed his lips and considered the timing. He trusted Cornelia and made a mental note to see her again socially upon his return. Perhaps they could still repair their fractured relationship despite the difference in corporate status. Perhaps he had broken it off prematurely. His mind drifted to their weekend in Paris a couple years ago.
Helga rapped softly on the doorjamb. She held Mary by the waist and guided her onto the chair, then prepared to leave.
Winter intervened. “Please, Helga, remain here with the girl.”
“Thank you, Herr Winter,” she said, her face softening. She grabbed another chair from outside the room and placed it beside the fraulein.
Mary lifted her head, gazed at Helga with confusion, and turned to him. “I’m not . . . where are we?” She surveyed the room, mumbling.
“Hit her again with the stimulant, please.”
Helga hesitated.
“I won’t ask a second time.”
She pulled the hypospray from her shirt pocket, placed it on the girl’s neck and pressed the plunger. Mary blinked rapidly and, in a moment, shook her head as if fighting off a shiver, then fixed her gaze on Winter. Helga scanned her vitals on a portable data slate.
“Welcome back.”
“Where are we?”
“Fear not, Fraulein Mary. You’re among friends here.” He rolled his tongue over his teeth. “I will ask a few questions, and you shall answer them.”
She glared at him, then attempted to get out of the chair, but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight, and she collapsed back down. Helga placed her hand over hers.
“But—we need to leave for the surgery. Dad . . . there’s a surgeon from New Houston coming. We have to hurry.”
“Yes, and the medical team is standing by. But before that, I must learn certain things. As a precaution, you understand.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“Please, Fraulein, I shall ask the questions. Time is of the essence and if we’re to save you, I require complete cooperation.”
She lowered her eyes. “Okay.”
Winter circled around in front of her, tenting his fingers. “Danke, now I should like to learn what happened on the alien vessel when you and Braddock were abducted.”
Mary’s mouth fell open. “No . . .”
“Please, Mary, it’s for your own good. The surgeons must hear everything.”
“We can’t.”
Winter considered his next words. “Let me clarify the situation then. If you don’t explain what happened, I shall relieve my frustration on your father. Do you understand that?”
Mary’s face remained unchanged but her eyes softened.
“So tell me exactly what happened when the creature seized you.”
She gulped. “We weren’t taken against our will. The alien, Keechik, saved us.”
“How so?”
“Kate and I were running out of oxygen, trying to find an entrance into that ship . . . a portal or hatch . . . anything. I passed out and when I woke up, I was inside the vessel.”
“And the Braddock woman?”
“Yes. We were separated at first because—”
Her head dropped. Helga stroked her hand and said, “It’s all right, Mary, you’re doing fine.”
Tears filled her eyes. “He attached me to a neural device, and I interfaced with . . . a strange network. Keechik’s entire record, all his memories, all his knowledge transferred into me.”
“Curious. Why?”
“He’s the last of his kind. All he wished to—” she swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “He wanted to preserve his civilization’s history.”
“Why you and not Braddock?”
“I’m eidetic. I can’t forget something once I’ve seen it. His memories are as fresh to me now as my own, as if I’ve lived . . . we’ve lived multiple lives.”
Winter continued pacing, hands behind his back. “So you have absorbed everything the alien knows, yes?”
“Yes. I mean, I’m trying to understand everything, but my brain . . . I can’t process it. Our memories are merging, but it’s all jumbled. I’m struggling to figure out what’s me and what’s him.”
“Fascinating!”
“Please, we must get the surgery done or both of us will die.”
“Where is the alien ship now?”
Mary blinked a few times, then said, “We cannot say. The real Keechik is still on it, I believe.”
“But where?”
Mary’s voice raised. “I don’t know!” She slumped over.
Winter glanced at Helga.
“More stimulant, please.”
She implored him to stop, but he focused on getting the answers he needed. She sighed and pumped the hypospray into Mary’s neck again. The girl twitched and shook.
“Now then,” he continued, “if this alien’s mind is part of you, is that how you shifted space-time?”
“How do. . .?”
“Ah, I know more than you realize.”
She bit her lip.
“And you can still do this? Don’t lie, Fraulein.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Winter stopped pacing and bent down in front of her, glaring. He grabbed her chin. It felt cold and clammy. “Tell me, do you understand how the alien ship travels faster than the speed of light?”
She nodded, tears pooling, her face turning white.
Winter hadn’t counted on this, but in his hand was all the knowledge required to establish the Consortium as man’s future. All he needed to do was extract it before her body decayed.
“But I can’t—we can’t survive without the operation.”
“Of course, Fraulein, I understand.” Winter’s indie-comm pinged, and he punched open the message from Cornelia: Charter standing by. SF Int’l. Hangar 13. He motioned to the bio-signs device. Helga glanced at it and pursed her lips.
“Can she travel now?”
“I—I wouldn’t risk it yet, Herr Winter.”
He straightened his back, and stroked Mary’s sweat-laden hair. In a gentle voice, slow and deliberate, he said, “More stimulant. Then we shall go.”
Janet
Atteberry looked to her with hate-filled eyes. “What do you think he’s doing?”
He spoke in a low voice, even though Helga remained in Winter’s office and Georg hadn’t returned from lunch. As if it mattered. Despite several attempts to find a weak spot in their chains and mag-cuffs, he and Janet weren’t going anywhere.
“She’s too important an asset to harm, so he’s likely asking lots of questions, trying to figure out what she knows, what else she can do.” Janet shifted on the floor and grimaced. “The way she’s half out of it, though, I doubt he’s learning much.”
She explored the inside of her broken mouth with her tongue, imagining her face had swollen into a grotesque caricature. She threw a brief, apologetic smile, then continued testing the cuffs. He was determined to save Mary, that was clear. But Janet understood the larger stakes. Her assessment—and Mary’s agreement—that she must die rather than go through whatever experimentation Winter had planned was the only goal now. Palmer was the surgeon capable of understanding the procedure that might save her life, so Winter likely had something more planned for her in Munich. Mind-scraping, to be sure, but what else?
She shrugged. Wouldn’t matter. Once the fucker got what he wanted, he’d discard whatever remained of Mary’s body and brain like dinner scraps. No way could she let that happen. Yet, if they somehow escaped this mess, assuming the worst, she’d turn around and put a bullet in Mary’s head and not think twice. Mary’s life, and the knowledge she held, would be sacrificed for the good of the planet and human race. Madness, certainly, but the Prussians could not be allowed to dictate scientific evolution.
She had to die.
We need to drink.
No. If she’s going to escape, she’d have to do it by herself and keep Jim out of it. Despite the messed-up feelings, she didn’t trust him for this.
“What’re you thinking about, Jim?”
In the old days, he struggled with telling the truth, but perhaps he’d changed. Their shared history and current predicament interfered with her ability to process his actions. He wanted to protect Mary, but if anyone had the know-how to escape successfully, it was Janet.
“I want to save Mary, even if it means she dies naturally in my arms with me.”
She squirmed and said, “Believe it or not, this is difficult for me, too. After all, she’s still my daughter.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “Sure, I get it. We don’t have any sort of relationship, and I’d never claim to be a parent to her, but please understand how I’ve struggled with my choices, too. Putting my values and principles before her welfare. Before you.”
“What is this, some kind of last-minute expression of remorse? Guilt?”
“I had no choice, Jim.”
He fumed. “Bullshit. You could have said ‘no’ to whoever you worked for. You could’ve dropped out of that sordid business, or at least have been honest with us. But no, you simply disappeared in the night without a word like a goddamn shadow.”
Silence enveloped their corner of the warehouse. Helga’s voice rose from the office, but her words were indistinguishable, spoken in a foreign language. Then the metal door to the street swung open and Georg entered. He sauntered toward them, grabbed Helga’s stool and sat, watching them, picking his teeth.
Janet continued working the cuffs even though Atteberry no longer tried. Despite the circumstances, she would never give up. “This may seem ridiculous, but if we’re finally having an honest conversation, I’m telling you, I had no choice but to leave.”
“Janet, for the love of god, what were we supposed to think?” He lowered his voice, but Georg remained obtuse, unconcerned. “Why didn’t you tell me, or leave a note, or call? Those days were so dark. I went crazy with worry. Mary pulled out a mitt full of hair follicles one by one in some bizarre response to being abandoned. Took months for her to adjust. All you needed to do was tell us you were okay.” He shifted his leg, flinched, and continued. “Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter. That was all in the past and we’ve moved on. But don’t you dare say you had no choice.”
Janet frowned, debating whether to respond. The spider scratched and picked at her mind, reminding her of its omniscience. She shook it off. Then, glancing away, she whispered in a ghostly, unrecognizable voice, “They threatened to kill her in front of me, Jim.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to leave you. I tried negotiating with them, find a desk job or do something peripheral, but they wouldn’t listen. Said they needed me for the field . . . what I’d signed on for in the first place, and what I was good at.”
“Wait, they did what?”
“The squad leader was in on it. I’d find little clues that they’d been in the house, in Mary’s room. At her school. I suspected one of her teachers was watching me. Anyway, as you say, all in the past but understand, they swore me to secrecy, and to never contact you or Mary again. Even years later, I still found gruesome reminders of the deal. Photos in my kit. Video of Mary playing in the yard . . . things like that.”
