Hoshe bowed to the creature, feeling enormously sorry for it. You poor desperate thing, if you had to get addicted to anything, it should never be humans, we’re not worth it. “Hello, Qatux, thank you for seeing me,” he said formally.
Qatux raised its head. “Hoshe Finn,” it sighed as air gusted through the pale wrinkles of flesh that made up its mouth region. “Thank you for returning.” Two of its eyes turned in sequence to gaze at the shell. “Is this her?”
“Yes.” Hoshe’s e-butler sent a code to the shell’s array, and the top dilated. Isabella was floating in a clear gel, eyes closed, slim tubes reaching in through her nostrils. Hundreds of fiber-optic strands had been inserted into her shaven skull, forming a white gossamer crown. Long incisions on her arms, legs, and torso were covered with strips of healskin that were even paler than her Nordic skin. She looked so peaceful she was almost angelic. A vicious contrast to when she’d last been conscious.
“Her power cells have been removed,” Hoshe said, “and the weapons neutralized. She’s perfectly harmless now.”
“I understand.”
“The suspension shell array can raise her consciousness to whatever level you want. If you need her to be awake, nerve blocks can prevent her from moving.” Somehow, he felt as if he were betraying the human girl by surrendering her to the alien in such a helpless state.
“That will not be necessary. A neural cycle approximating deep sleep is all I require.”
“Very well. We need to know what is in her brain, why she did what she did. Paula suspects there is some kind of alien presence, or conditioning.”
“A valuable thing to learn. I have never tasted the memories of a living human brain before. I thank you for this gift.”
“It’s not a gift,” Hoshe said sternly, marveling that he found the courage to be so forthright. “This is a service we ask you to provide, which benefits you in kind. Even so, we need complete reliability from you in this case.”
“And you shall have it, Hoshe,” the soft voice wheezed.
“How long do you think it will take?”
“That cannot be answered accurately until I have begun my examination. From what Paula has told me, the method of subornation does not appear to be a subtle one.”
“Is there…” Hoshe scratched at the back of his neck, embarrassed to ask. “Any danger it could take you over?”
“A mental virus? Moving from host to host, replicating and spreading. No, Hoshe, you need not worry. We Raiel have faced such incorporeal entities before. Our mentalities are not susceptible to such assaults. Even so, I will take care.”
“Thank you.” Hoshe bowed again, suddenly desperate to ask when and where the Raiel had encountered such things. The wall behind him parted to let him out into the funereal street. And that was it. He just wished he had more faith in the alien junkie.
***
It was dawn at the Tulip Mansion. Justine sat in the big octagonal conservatory in a mauve sweatshirt and baggy jeans, curled up on her battered leather couch as if it were a child’s comfort toy. She couldn’t stop her hands from stroking her belly, giving reassurance. To herself or her child, she wasn’t sure which.
Gore walked in, dressed in a simple white shirt and dark brown pants. He leaned over the couch and gave Justine a light kiss. She gripped his forearm. “Thanks, Dad.”
He gave a shrug, as close to embarrassment as she’d seen him in the last two hundred years. “Nothing to it. His wetwiring was all cheap black market shit. You could have beaten him off with a wet towel.”
“I was in a wet towel,” she said sardonically.
“Well, there you go then, you didn’t even need me.”
There was a small cough, and Justine looked up to see Paula standing at the entrance. “Senator, I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“No thanks to your bunch of asshole incompetents,” Gore snapped. “What kind of piss-poor operation are you running? I’m not surprised Columbia kicked you out of the navy if this is an example of your results.”
“Dad,” Justine scolded.
“Your father is correct,” Paula said. “The lapse in security is completely unacceptable. It appears that the Starflyer agent was waiting in your fridge; most of the food inside had been consumed. He must have been in there when the Senate Security team installed the upgrade. They will be suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.”
“And that will help how, exactly?”
“Dad, just drop it.”
“Ha.” Gore waved a hand in disgust. “Thanks to the Investigator’s screwup I’ve got to put up with every news show on the unisphere showing the recording of me walking around Park Avenue with my dick hanging out.”
“And executing the assassin,” Paula said.
Justine gave the mansion’s array an order, and the octagonal room’s glass walls vanished behind a gray haze.
“That motherfucker was trying to kill my daughter; he’s already killed my son, and countless others. You think I’m upset about killing him?”
“No. But the NYPD must show due process.”
“I talked to the detectives on the scene. If they want to know anything else they’ve got my lawyer’s unisphere address.”
“Enough,” Justine snapped. “Both of you. I’m shaky enough without you two shouting at each other in front of me. The big question is if we now have enough evidence to force the Senate to take notice of the Starflyer.”
“The proof is certainly building,” Paula said. “We’ve exposed Tarlo, which will help convince the Halgarths that this is not some personal power struggle. And people will be curious who sent the assassin against you, Senator.”
“Damn right,” Justine said. She’d already had several calls from her fellow senators, and one from Patricia Kantil, who’d expressed the President’s concern at the incident. “They’ll expect a report from Senate Security.”
“So what are you going to say?” Gore asked.
“It still depends on Nigel Sheldon,” Paula said. She peered in at the crescent-shaped aquarium, watching the fish gliding around. “If we announce the Starflyer’s existence based on the evidence we have, we have to have at least one Dynasty supporting us. If the Sheldon Dynasty goes against us, we’ll have lost every advantage we have. I know Admiral Kime believes it is real, but he has his hands tied by corrupted evidence.”
“Wilson knows it’s real?” Gore asked. “That’s got to be a big bonus.”
“But I don’t understand Sheldon’s position,” Paula said. “Everything he has done points to him being concerned for the Commonwealth. Yet Thompson was convinced it was his office that had blocked the Far Away cargo inspections I’d been pressing for.”
“I’m sorry,” Justine said. “But I still can’t lock that down.”
“Confront him,” Gore said. “Put him in a position where he has to make a hard choice. That should tell us who he’s playing for.”
“That seems reasonable,” Paula said. “We still don’t know exactly how the Starflyer controls humans. I’m expecting an answer to that shortly.”
“I hope you’re not relying on Senate Security to supply it,” Gore said.
Justine gave him a fierce look.
“No. We secured Isabella Halgarth. Her mind is being examined by the Raiel for me.”
“Oh,” Gore said, slightly taken aback. “Okay, that’s a decent pedigree.”
“Do you have any ideas how we can approach Sheldon?” Paula asked.
Gore gave Justine a hard look.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yeah, you. Nobody in the Commonwealth is going to say no to meeting you right now.”
“I’m not sure we should be exposing the Senator to any further possible confrontation with Starflyer agents,” Paula said.
“Hear hear,” Justine muttered.
“Campbell,” Gore said quickly. “Use him. He’s senior enough to get a direct line to Nigel.”