Overthrowing heaven, p.24
Overthrowing Heaven, page 24
I stayed silent and crept closer.
“If I see anyone,” the voice said, “we’ll shoot both your collaborators. If you mange to hit me, the guy below me will kill this woman, and the rest of my team will take out the other one.”
I considered explaining that Matahi was innocent, but that would only waste time. They wouldn’t believe me, and even if they did, it wouldn’t help Pri.
“Do we need to prove we’re serious?” the voice said. “I doubt we require both of them to make this work.”
“No,” I said. I pitched my voice low and hoped the mask muffled it further. “Your proposal?”
“You give us Wei, and we give you the two women. A swap.”
“No,” Pri screamed. “Kill that bastard!”
“That’s always an option,” the voice said, “but you’ll be killing three people if you do.”
I hated hostage exchanges. They were easy to rig, dangerous for everyone involved, and often ended in heartache.
When I didn’t respond, the voice continued, “Look, we don’t need these two, so we’ll swap straight up. They might yell at me for not catching all of you, but as long as I bring home Wei, I’m set. Our time is running out, though; my team is fighting another group on the street, and we’re trying not to kill anyone, but soon we’ll either have to leave the area or leave a pile of corpses.”
This guy knew what he was doing and attacked it with a practiced common sense. Wei’s people had sent a serious rescue team.
“Okay,” I said.
“No!” Pri said.
A hand snaked around the far side of her head, shoved a piece of cloth into her open mouth, and vanished.
“Sorry,” the voice said, “but she wasn’t helping.”
I hated seeing Pri suffer, but I had to agree with him, so I didn’t argue. “Bring the other one up so I can see her head, also,” I said. “I’ll bring Wei. Double-cross me, and I’ll destroy your entire team.”
“Whatever,” the voice said. “I just want Wei.”
I ran back into Lobo. “If I don’t come back with Pri and Matahi,” I said, “demolish this building and everyone in it.”
“That would be a pleasure indeed,” he said, “but are these two really worth it? You already have Wei, and he’s all you need to succeed. We can leave, drop him with the CC, and get out of this affair a great deal richer than we were when we began it.”
“You asked me to do this,” I said, “so you wanted something from him. Will you get it before we take him to the CC?”
“I’ve already starting talking to him,” Lobo said, “but I haven’t gotten what I wanted. I should, though, be able to finish on the way to Shurkan, provided you let me continue interrogating him.”
“We are seriously running out of time,” the voice said. “Your other teammate’s here. Are we doing this or not?”
“Yes,” I yelled. To Lobo over the machine frequency, I said, “Pri and Matahi are worth it. Pri’s suffered enough, and Matahi has nothing to do with any of this. Open the door.”
Wei was standing in the far corner of the room. He turned his head as I entered. “You’ve failed so quickly?” he said. He shook his head slowly. “You never should have messed with me.”
I punched him in the stomach hard enough to make him double over, grabbed his hair, and led him out of Lobo. He clutched his belly as he walked. For both our sakes, I was glad he stayed quiet.
Matahi’s head was now also visible over the rooftop. Her expression hadn’t changed, but her eyes couldn’t stay still; she controlled herself well, but her panic was obvious. Pri glared at me, her face taut with anger.
I ignored both of them.
When we were a meter away from the stairwell, I straightened Wei and put the barrel of my rifle against the back of his skull. I held his neck with my other hand. I crouched behind him, both to disguise my height and to use him as a shield.
“Here he is,” I said. “Send them up.”
“Why’s he holding his stomach?” the voice said.
“He pissed me off,” I said, “so I punched him.”
I thought I heard a chuckle, but then the man said, “Sir, are you healthy?”
“Yes, you jerk,” Wei said. “Now get me out of here.”
“Yes, sir,” the voice said.
Pri and Matahi walked up together, their hands bound, Matahi’s in front and tied to Pri’s in back. Two rifle barrels pointed at them from the stairwell.
“Stop, you two,” the voice said. “Take another step, and we shoot you.”
Pri and Matahi froze.
“Send him down,” the voice continued. “Sit him on the edge of the side of the stairwell. You can cover him, and we can cover them. When we pull him in, he’ll block our shots at them. Everybody goes home.”
“Deal,” I said. Over the comm, I said to Lobo, “If you see a rifle or a body part appear once Wei starts down, shoot it.”
A high-speed gun popped out of the near side of Lobo and aimed in our direction. “Affirmative,” he said.
I sat Wei on the edge of the stairwell.
He rotated so his legs hung into it.
I kept the rifle barrel in contact with his head.
“Now,” the voice said, “you two, walk forward.”
“Do it,” I said.
Pri shuffled away from the stairwell entrance, Matahi unavoidably following her closely, as I pushed Wei over its edge.
Someone grabbed and lowered him as Pri and Matahi made it a few meters closer to Lobo.
“I see anyone or anything come up here,” I said, “and I’ll destroy it.”
“Not our plan,” the voice said. “We have enough work below. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, but if you’re not out of here soon, my bosses might change the deal.”
I backed over to Pri and Matahi, pulled a knife from my boot sheath, and cut the ties that bound them. I pulled the gag from Pri’s mouth. Before she could speak, I pointed at Lobo and said, “Get inside.”
“You shouldn’t have made the trade,” Pri said.
“I’m not leaving my home,” Matahi said.
I backed up and pointed my rifle at the two of them. “Shut up,” I said. “Get inside the ship, or I’ll put you both to sleep and carry you there.”
“Wei’s people are winning the conflict below,” Lobo said over the comm. “You don’t have much time before they decide they can afford to come after us.”
When Pri and Matahi didn’t budge, I aimed directly at Pri’s head.
“Your choice,” I said. “Decide.”
Chapter 33
Matahi moved first. She’d seen me shoot her men, so she had no reason to doubt I’d do the same to her. Pri stared at me for several seconds, then followed Matahi inside Lobo.
I jumped in after them and pointed to the front of Lobo.
He closed the hatch and took off as soon as we were inside.
“Full countersurveillance run?” Lobo said.
I hung back and over the machine frequency said to him, “Yes. We have to assume they’re monitoring this rooftop, and the camo won’t stop sats from tracking you.”
“Most of their sats are now better friends with me than with their owners,” Lobo said, “but I take your point. I can’t be sure I’ve gotten to them all, so I’ll have to invest the rest of the day and most of the night in making sure no one is tracking us.”
“Do it,” I said. “It’s not like we have any other option.”
“What about our new guest?” Lobo said. “Other than your obvious fascination with her, is there any reason she’s aboard?”
“My feelings have nothing to do with this,” I said. The moment the words left me I wondered how true they were, but I continued as if I believed them completely. “I brought her because I wasn’t willing to risk her life when she’s done nothing wrong.”
“You constantly insist on minimizing collateral damage,” Lobo said.
“Yes. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Maybe so,” Lobo said, “but it’s sure not the way I’m programmed, and I don’t believe it’s the way you were trained, either.”
“No, no it’s not,” I said, “but you don’t always have to follow your training.”
“Exactly what I’ve been trying to explain to you for as long as we’ve known each other,” Lobo said.
“I didn’t mean ‘you’ literally,” I said. “I was referring to people.”
“Then maybe you should expand your definitions,” Lobo said, “or at least your conceptions.”
“When are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Matahi said from the front of Lobo.
“Yeah,” Pri said, “I’m looking forward to hearing your explanation.”
“So am I,” Lobo said. “You, two angry women, and an ethically gray zone. If I could eat snack foods, I’d warm up some tasty treats to munch while I enjoyed the show.”
I shook my head. “Maybe I should have left them both.”
“It’s never too late,” Lobo said.
“I didn’t mean it,” I said. “I do wish you didn’t enjoy this so much.”
“Schadenfreude,” Lobo said in a singsong tone. “It’s not just for humans anymore.”
“Why do I talk to you about things like this?” I said to Lobo.
“Because I’m the only one who even comes close to understanding you,” Lobo said. “It’s a bitch, isn’t it?”
“Indeed,” I said. “Why don’t you stop nattering at me and worry about making sure we’re safe?”
“I can do both simultaneously and with ease,” Lobo said. “Why halve my fun?”
“Please,” I said, “let me deal with this without interruption.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said.
I stashed my rifle in a weapons locker Lobo opened, then joined Pri and Matahi up front.
They were standing in opposite corners of the far wall, each staring at me as if the other wasn’t there.
I didn’t want to see the look in Matahi’s eyes, but I’d put it off as long as I could. I removed the bag mask and watched as she immediately recognized me.
Her eyes betrayed her anger, but when she spoke a few seconds later, her voice was flat, her control perfect. “At least I now understand what you wanted from me, Moore. No wonder you couldn’t tell me.”
“That’s not exactly it,” I said.
“So what else exactly did you want from her?” Pri said.
Both of them glared at me.
I hadn’t done anything that felt wrong, I’d made the best choices I could at each turn, and there I was, standing in Lobo, trapped with two women furious at me and no clue what to do about it. Living alone back in the trees on Arctul was looking better and better.
“Let me explain,” I said.
“Please do,” Matahi said.
“I’m looking forward to this,” Pri said.
They nodded in agreement.
How did they end up on the same side? Why was no one on my side?
I tried for the moment to ignore Pri and faced Matahi first. I wasn’t happy with what I had to say, but there was no point in lying to her any longer. “I hired you so that I could learn where you lived and do recon on your house in case we had to snatch Wei from there. Wei is a bad man, a very bad man, and some people have hired me to stop him from committing any more crimes. I’m sorry I used you, but I have to stop him.”
She started to speak, but I held up my hand and said, “Please.”
I faced Pri. “I came to appreciate there was a great deal more to her than I had ever expected. I liked her. I still do. Nothing beyond conversation happened. I saved your life and hers because I wasn’t willing to sacrifice you two to capture Wei. You deserve to live and see Joachim.” Even as I said it I didn’t believe she’d ever again see her son, but I’d told her I’d try to rescue him, so I would. “She,” I pointed to Matahi, “was innocent in all of this and shouldn’t have to pay for our attack.” I threw up my hands in frustration. “Look, I could have finished my mission, made a great deal of money, and left this system safely. All I had to do was leave and let those men kill you.”
“It was certainly an option worth considering,” Lobo said.
I ignored him.
“I didn’t do that,” I said, “and I saved your lives.”
“The only reason I was in that situation,” Matahi said, “was that you put me there.”
“I was willing to die to make that animal pay for his crimes,” Pri said. “You had no right to overrule my choice about my life.”
“You may have wanted to die,” Matahi said, “but I sure didn’t. I’m not mad that Moore saved me; I’m pissed that he trashed my house and tried to kidnap my client.”
“Do you have any idea what that client does?” Pri said.
“He leads the design team that creates the animals on Wonder Island,” Matahi said. “You may be one of those fanatic back-to-nature types who detests all forms of animal engineering, but that’s not my problem. They produce amazing creations; where’s the crime in that?”
“You really don’t know what Wei does?” Pri said.
Matahi sighed in frustration. “I told you what his job is,” she said. “What else do you want?”
“Other people do the bioengineering,” Pri said. “Their work is a cover for Wei’s real research.”
“Which is what?” Matahi said.
Pri looked at me and widened her eyes in question.
“Go ahead,” I said. “She’s in it now. She might as well know why we did what we did.”
Pri explained Wei’s work to Matahi. She began with a cold description of the banned nanotech-human research, but she quickly moved to the children and then to Wei’s kidnapping of Joachim. By the time she’d finished, tears were running down her cheeks, and Matahi was shaking her head, her eyes wet, her breathing loud and rapid.
“I couldn’t have known,” Matahi said. “I didn’t know. If I had, I might have killed him myself. I certainly would have turned him in to the police, and I would never, ever have accepted him as a client. Even thinking about our time together makes me sick.”
“The problem,” Pri said, “is that you can’t go to the police. No one can, because Heaven’s government is protecting and financing him. That’s what we’re here to do: take him to the Central Coalition leadership, which will try him and publicly expose both his awful research and the government’s role in it.”
“And you had to attack him in my house?” Matahi said.
“There was no other place we could get to him,” I said. “The island is a fortress, and we don’t know how to find him there. We tested his team when he was on his way to you, and their protection was strong enough that we would have had to get very lucky to snatch him before support arrived. Even knowing his route is difficult.”
“So you killed my men but not me?”
“No,” I said. “You’ve got it wrong. We didn’t kill anyone—at least, I don’t think we did. We tranked them all. Some sustained injuries as they fell, but unless someone was very unlucky, everyone we shot, including the people on your security staff, should ultimately be fine.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me first?” Matahi said. “I would have helped you.”
“We couldn’t know that,” I said.
“And you could instead have chosen to warn him or even lead his security team to us,” Pri said.
Matahi considered our comments, then said, “So what’s next?”
“All we can know for sure,” Pri said, “is that now Wei will be even more careful than before. I can’t believe he’ll be coming back to see you,” she nodded toward Matahi, “any time soon, so we’re back to the beginning, probably worse than that.” Pri shook her head. “Wei’s continuing to experiment on children, and we’re stuck.”
“Let me help,” Matahi said. “There must be something I can do. I feel terrible about being nice to that piece of garbage. I don’t want him hurting children—not yours, not anyone’s. If I can convince him I had nothing to do with your attack—and I didn’t, so surely I can make him see that—then maybe I could persuade him to come see me again.”
“That’s nice of you,” Pri said, “but this isn’t your fight.”
“It is now,” Matahi said. “After all, you two pulled me into it.”
“I don’t think you’ll be able to convince Wei to visit you,” I said. “Even if he believes you were completely innocent, his security team will know you left with me. They’ll want to interrogate you, and I can’t risk you telling them about us or about any of this mess.”
I pointed back down the hall. “Lobo,” Matahi raised her eyebrows in question, so I added, “my ship’s AI, will open small chambers for you two to rest. I need to spend some time alone thinking.”
“That’s it?” Pri said. “That’s your plan for what we do next?”
I nodded and headed to my quarters. “I wish I had more to tell you,” I said, “but right now, I don’t.”
“I do,” Lobo said over the machine frequency as the door to my room opened.
I stepped inside and waited. He loved to grandstand, and I wasn’t in the mood for it.
“I have news,” he said.
Chapter 34
When Lobo didn’t continue, I finally asked, “So what’s the news?”
“You have an interview with the Wonder Island security team tomorrow morning,” he said.
“Why now?” I said. “Do you think they’re on to us?”
“To answer your second question first,” Lobo said, “though it is certainly possible, we have no reason to believe they are. Logic suggests that this opportunity is a direct consequence of your attack on Matahi’s house. You injured multiple people on Wei’s team, and from what I could pick up from the sensors you dropped, some of them are going to be out of commission for at least multiple days. It makes sense that his security unit would want to replace those missing guards, particularly in the wake of the attack.”
“If that’s the case, they’ll move existing trained staff to cover Wei, then use me for less sensitive work.”
“That’s my opinion as well,” Lobo said.
“Of course, they could always have made the connection between my application and the attack,” I said. “If they did, I’d be walking into a trap.”
