Dwyer took a moment to compose himself, clenching his hands so the way his fingers trembled didn’t show, then followed Quinn up into the bridge.
Anger and worry isolated Alkad from the mundanities of the drive back to the hotel. She hadn’t thought this fast and hard since the days she was working on the Alchemist theory. Options were closing all around her, like the sound of prison doors slamming shut.
The meeting with two of Opia’s vice presidents had been a typical sounding-you-out session. All very cordial, and achieving very little. They had agreed on the principle of the company finding her a starship and crew, which at some yet-to-be-specified time would be equipped with specialist defence systems for duties in the Dorados’ defence force.
The one hold she had over them was the prospect that this would be the first order by the Dorados council; and if all went smoothly, more would follow. Possibly a great deal more.
Greed had taken root. She had seen it so many times before in the industrialists who had been supplying Garissa’s navy.
They would have followed her requests, ignoring the oddities of the situation. She was convinced of it. Then just as the meeting was winding down the Tonala government announced a state of emergency. New Georgia’s SD platforms had opened fire on three ships, one of which belonged to Tonala. Such an action, the Defence Ministry insisted, proved beyond any doubt that the possessed had captured Jesup, that the New Georgia government was lying, and possibly even possessed itself.
Once again Nyvan’s national factions were at war with each other.
The Opia executives loaded a program for a crestfallen expression into their neural nanonics. Sorry, but the contract would have to go into suspension. Temporarily. Just until Tonalan might has reigned triumphant.
The car drew up underneath the sweeping portico of the Mercedes Hotel. Ngong was first out, scouring the broad street for threats. Now they had him and Gelai protecting them, Alkad had dispensed with the security firm Voi had hired; although they’d kept the company’s car with its armoured bodywork and secure circuitry.
There wasn’t much traffic on the street. The team of men shovelling snow had vanished, leaving the dilapidated mechanoids to struggle on by themselves. Ngong nodded and beckoned. Alkad eased herself off the seat and scurried over to the lobby’s rotating door, Gelai a pace behind her the whole time. They had told her of the Organization’s ships during the trip back. It baffled Alkad how Capone had ever heard of her. But there was no disguising Gelai’s rising concern.
The five of them bundled into the penthouse lift, which rose smoothly. Only the annoying flicker of the light panel betrayed Gelai and Ngong for what they were.
Alkad ignored the lighting. The state of emergency was dangerous. It wouldn’t be long before Tonala retaliated against New Georgia’s SD network. Those starships docked above Nyvan would be pressed into service, if the captains didn’t simply ignore the quarantine and leave. She would soon be trapped here without any transport and the Capone Organization closing in. Unless she did something fast, she would belong to the possessed one way or the other, and with her came the Alchemist.
The spectre of what the device could do to the Confederation if it was used on a target other than Omuta’s star was now preying on her mind. What if it was used against Jupiter? The Edenist habitats would die, Earth would be deprived of the He
There had never been any conceivable prospect of this before. I was always in control. Mother Mary forgive my arrogance.
She cast a sideways glance at Voi, who was looking as irritable as always with the lift’s progress. Voi would never entertain any change in their mission priorities. The concept of failure was not allowed for.
Like me at that age.
I have to get off this planet, she realized abruptly. I have to reopen the options again. I can’t let it end like this.
The lift’s floor indicator said they were three floors below the penthouse when Gelai and Ngong exchanged a questioning glance.
“What’s the matter?” Voi asked.
“We can’t sense Omain, or Lodi,” Gelai said.
Alkad immediately tried to datavise Lodi. There was no response. She ordered the lift to stop. “Is there anyone up there?”
“No,” Gelai said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Of all the facets of possession, the perception ability fascinated Alkad the most. She’d only just started considering the mechanism of possession. The whole concept would ultimately mean quantum cosmology having to be completely restructured again. So far, she’d made very little theoretical progress.
“I told him to stay put,” Voi said indignantly.
“If his neural nanonics aren’t responding, then this is rather more serious than him simply wandering off,” Alkad told her.
Voi pulled a face, unconvinced.
Alkad ordered the lift to restart.
Gelai and Ngong were standing in front of the doors when they opened on the penthouse vestibule. Trickles of static skipped over their clothes as they readied themselves for trouble.
“Oh, Mary,” Eriba said. The double doors to the penthouse had been smashed apart.
Gelai waved the others back as she edged cautiously into the living room. Alkad heard an intake of breath.
The body Omain had been possessing was lying across one of the big settees, covered with deep scorch marks. Snow was blowing in through a gaping hole in the window.
Ngong hurriedly checked the other rooms. “No body. He’s not here,” he told them.
“Oh, Mother Mary, now what?” Alkad exclaimed. “Gelai, have you got any idea who did this?”
“None. Aside from the obvious that it was some possessed.”
“They know about us,” Voi said. “And now Lodi’s been possessed, they know too much about us. We must leave immediately.”
“Yes,” Alkad said reluctantly. “I suppose so. We’d better go directly to the spaceport, see if we can hook up with a starship there.”
“Won’t they know we’re going to do that?” Eriba said.
“What else can we do? This planet can’t help us anymore.”
One of the processor blocks on the table let out a bleep. Its AV projector sparkled.
Alkad looked straight into it. And she was looking out through a set of eyes at a man dressed in a traditional Cossack costume.
“Can you hear me, Dr Mzu?” he asked.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is Baranovich, not that it particularly matters. The important fact here is that I have agreed to work for Mr Capone’s Organization.”
“Oh, shit,” Eriba groaned.
Baranovich smiled and held a small circular mirror up. Alkad could see Lodi’s frightened face reflected in the surface.
“So,” Baranovich said. “As you can see, we have not harmed your comrade. This is his datavise you are receiving. If he was possessed, he would be unable to do this. No? Say something, Lodi.”
“Voi? Dr Mzu? I’m sorry. I couldn’t—Look there are only seven of them. Omain tried . . .” Something hissed loudly behind him. The image blurred. Then he blinked.
“A brave boy.” Baranovich clapped Lodi on the shoulder. “The Organization has a place for those with such integrity. I would hate to see another come to use this body.”
“You might have to,” Alkad said. “I cannot consider swapping a lone man for the device, no matter how well I know him. There have been far bigger sacrifices made to get me to this point. I would be betraying those who
