Yul took pleasure in Mathias’s discomfort and glared at him like a sullen wolf. “Having fun mopping up your mess? What of your new bug friend?”
“You leave tomorrow for Namith,” Mathias grunted briskly. “Goss will take you there.”
“Goss? Odd. He looked rather preoccupied of late.”
Mathias waved a clenched fist. “Nothing our technicians can’t fix.”
Yul glanced at his own injuries. Mathias waved that off too. “My team down in med bay will fix you up.”
“The wonders of modern science.”
“You are to spy on Hresh’s operation. Fill me in on any details I request. Sybcore Labs, he calls it. Sybcore is a blatant front. I suspect the embezzler has a secret operation running from there. Find out as much as you can. What’s Hresh doing there? Where are his real research labs? How is he funding his operation? It galls me to think he has used my resources to promote his own ends. My intelligence network reports nothing more.”
“If he’s thwarted you thus far, he’ll continue to thwart you.”
“If you’re caught, you reveal nothing of me. No link to tie you to me. I will deny your every claim. I accept no culpability for your mistakes. If you fail this recon mission, expect pain beyond your wildest dreams.”
“Naturally,” said Yul through pursed lips.
“We’ve traced Hresh’s supply ships going from Namith to remote worlds like Vegron in the Dim Zone. You’re going out again.”
“No fucking way!”
Mathias ignored the outburst. “Relax. I didn’t say out ‘there’, as in the Dim Zone specifically. Namith, for starters. That you survived the encounter with the Zikri is nothing less than extraordinary. Almost as extraordinary as the presence of these remarkable pods. We may have all we need for this operation, with that bulb you kindly donated to us. It has spawned other potentialities.”
Yul jeered. “Why don’t you get Goss or one of your cyborgs to go down and play spy?”
“Full synthetics are detectable by surveillance equipment. Minimal hybrids like yourself, do slip under the radar. Rarely are they on watch lists. We need trained muscle down there. Experienced men.” He watched Yul, eyeing him like a fresh fish. “A man like you.”
A thousand thoughts raced through Yul’s mind. When would he be free of this man’s intrigue?
“Hresh was experimenting with splicing alien biology into the mechnobot technology. We still have some of his original schematics before he turned traitor. We’ve been trying to implement some of his edgy science, as you saw—with marginal success. Hresh got wind of our little expedition out to Xeses. I think he had planned his own excursions to dredge up life out in the Dim Zone—which leads me to believe that at this moment he’s attempting nothing less than to mimic our own research here.”
Yul chewed his lip with vengeance brewing in his heart.
Mathias thought for some time. “I think it’s adequate recompense for the botched mission and the destruction of my ships.” he would have thought no differently if he were in Mathias’s shoes.
Mathias gestured as he gazed out the window on the multicoloured lights of the darkening city. “Should you fail to report in...” Pain drove into Yul’s side as one of the marines thumbed a switch. Yul doubled over. He sagged, clutching at his gut. “I may have to send out regular pain reminders for you, just for the fun of it. I’ve a key code sequence to give you, that my hackers managed to flesh together. It’ll get you into the main installation at Sybcore; from there, you’re on your own. Use your imagination.”
It was all too painfully clear for Yul.
* * *
Massaging his temples, Mathias spoke to Goss in his private chamber. He sighed. “Vrean’s a proud, sullen man. He may need some ‘coaxing’ on this job, I fear.”
“Even with the implants?”
“I’ve seen men like him,” affirmed Mathias, fingering his chin. “Rabid dogs, like crazed beasts they fight to the end, even if it kills them.”
“I know the exact person you need—Miss Cloye.”
“Is she good?”
Goss grinned. “The best. Better, because I know her so well.”
Mathias turned to him, his eyes glinting. “Summon her then. Orders are to terminate Vrean if he becomes unruly. Otherwise keep an eye on him and see that he does his job.”
“Roger that.”
Chapter 5
Goss piloted the Prosaic, a light craft, toward the Pegasus station orbiting the world of Namith. He docked the ship in the designated bay near the passenger transhub then motioned to the craft’s exit hatch which would grant Yul entry to the heavily trafficked platform. The trip to the warehouse outside Paranith City was only a short jaunt.
Yul blinked. “Aren’t you going to drop me off?”
“Find your own way,” growled Goss. “I’m not your chauffeur. Here’s 200 credits to book passage to the city—added to your indenture.” He tossed four luminous coins to Yul. “Don’t screw this up. Remember the pain inducer. If it was me, I’d have killed you, Mathias be damned.”
Yul ducked through the hatch to the passenger depot, his black bag of gear slung over a shoulder, and disappeared amidst the throng down the main moving conveyor. A wall of sound hit him and he turned to watch Goss’s ship’s thrusters flare and the ship head off back to Phallanor. Goss hadn’t taken him down directly because Mathias wanted nothing to do with him—or perhaps Goss was just being a prick. Yul’s back muscles stiffened.
As the babel of human voices settled within his consciousness, he loosed a breath. How long had it been since he had been amongst a crowd of free people? The transfer boards lit up
