“I’ll do what I can, Mr. Trubble. Share whatever files Graves had on you.”
“A gift with a hook, Captain? Why would you scratch my back if I haven’t scratched yours?”
“You’ve scratched one hell of an itch, actually. The New Man’s plan would have resulted in massive trauma and death for a lot of residents had their implants suddenly been switched off and their true memories restored.” Her eyes searched mine. “You played a huge part in stopping that disaster. It’s what you do best.”
The music played, but we slowed to a halt as she took my hand in her gloved ones and rolled back my cuff. She scanned my wrist with a thin ultraviolet beam from her holoband.
“Right now this is all you need to know about who you were.”
Under the black light, two letters were revealed, framed by a shield. I’d seen the emblem of the Secret Service enough to recognize it on sight.
“The emblem serves not only as an identifier, but an access code as well. You have priority access to just about anything jacked to the Secret Service’s mainframe. But if you utilize it, they will be able to track you. So use it wisely.”
Like that was ever going to happen. Having a Secret Service stamp on your wrist was a lot like wearing a live death adder for a holoband. Not that I’d know personally, but either way a man wouldn’t want the experience.
“Nice to know you’re throwing me an ace, Captain.” We picked up where we left off, though the music faded in the background. My feet moved automatically as my mind tried to reel itself in.
“One good turn deserves another, Mr. Trubble. It’s good to have someone you can count on when things get hairy. With all that’s going to go down in this town, I might have to call on you for a favor myself someday.”
“I’m a Troubleshooter, darling. When folks got no one else to turn to, they give me a call.”
She smiled. She had the kind of smile which made you think of sunlight even when there’s not a ray in the sky. “Then I suppose you only have one last thing to do.”
“Yeah. Order a drink. Then order another drink.”
“I’m talking about the feeling you have right now. That tangle of knots in your gut that won’t unravel. The feeling that business is unfinished.”
“And I guess you’re gonna tell me what that is?”
“The answer is in your memories. Which for you shouldn’t be hard to find.”
As soon as the music stopped she separated smoothly and walked away without a backward glance, quickly lost in the swaying bodies and swirling smoke. But her words stayed on my mind. Because I can remember anything except my past.
And damned if she wasn’t right.
Chapter 21:The Last Itch
“Hello, Frankie.”
Frankie Newman turned slightly at the sound of my voice. “I’ve been expecting you, Troubleshooter.”
We were at the edge of the Docks, where the water stretched out toward the barrier that separated the Haven from the truth. He looked that direction, where the glow on the horizon announced the sun was about to rise.
Somewhere out there I’d battled the Savant and won, but lost my memory and maybe my soul in the process. Black, choppy waves had closed over me while he laughed hysterically, bleeding from the slugs I’d put in him. No doubt at the joke he and I had both become.
I’d gotten those memories back. Which only reminded me of the more important ones I lost. The memories of who I was before I came to New Haven. The ones that were trapped inside of a synoid body. I’d gotten a few answers from all that happened, but they only led to more questions. Things always spin in circles. The universe moves that way.
“You know, it took me a minute to figure it out. I had to go through my memories and really study what went down. Like when we first saw you here in the Docks. I thought you were doing a little social work. But really, I caught you in the middle of hypnotizing some new recruits to join the ranks of your Specters, didn’t I? You always had one helluva voice, Frankie.”
He said nothing, just turned to look me in the eye.
“Then the words the Savant said to the New Man. ‘You are just an apprentice.’ It was you, Frankie. You were his apprentice. The one person he at least halfway trusted. It was you all along. The mole who sold Dr. Faraday’s code to Selene, then turned on her too. Quite a piece of work.”
His mouth twisted in a sour grin. “You’re on a roll. Continue.”
“Hunter Valentino told me the best puppet is the one whose strings you can’t see. The New Man was just a puppet, wasn’t it? A puppet under your control, while you went along like you were his servant. Course the name should have rang my bells from the start. Mighty careless of you to call your synoid the ‘New Man’, Newman.”
“It seems your powers of deduction haven’t been completely stunted. I congratulate you. Not that you’ll have time to enjoy your little moment of triumph. You’ll be dead before the sun rises.”
“I kinda doubt that, Frankie. But since you don’t, tell me — how’d you do it? Dr. Faraday told me he never finished the prototype. He didn’t seem the trusting type. So how’d you get the inside loop?”
“Glenn Faraday suffered from a contemptible belief in his own genius. It never occurred to him anyone else was as smart, or clever. Yet there were a few in the Secret Service whose mental abilities rivaled his own. I was one.”
He smiled. “You were another. How do you think you cracked that code so quickly? It’s the nanoaccelerators. They open the mind to areas previously inhibited. They also do a handy job of speeding up the body’s natural defenses, like the healing process. I understand you were shot recently. You don’t appear the worse for it.”
I recalled when I ditched the sling Angel had rigged up for me. I flexed the arm automatically, and damned if there wasn’t a twinge of pain. I didn’t bother unwrapping the hand I’d sliced. I could already feel the smooth scar line as if the cut had happened a month ago.
“You were their top code breaker, a numerical prodigy who also happened to be especially gifted at cold-blooded assassination. My gift lay in hypnotic suggestion.”
I stared. “You’re an SS agent?”
“Do you think you were the only one they sent? I infiltrated the Haven before they sent you. How do you think they received their surveillance reports? My mission was to observe and report. It amused me to take a role as Dr. Faraday’s assistant. He’d talk above my head as if I couldn’t understand everything he spoke of.”
“So you took him out the picture with his own creation.”
“It was only fitting. He’d made modifications to synoid technology which surpassed even Maximilian Industries. I was able to duplicate some of those processes when I finished the New Man. Communication was transferred via a mental link from me to the synoid, allowing me to control it from any location.”
“But why, Newman? You were trying to start a process that would have destroyed the entire Haven. What was in it for you?”
Frankie stared at me as if I’d missed the obvious. “Completion of the mission, of course. I had my orders. When Dr. Faraday discovered your assignment and abducted you, then the capture of the thermal orb became the priority. I was to recover it, use it to disrupt the Command Hub, and escape in the chaos. New Haven was collateral damage.”
“Collateral damage? Do you hear yourself? You’re talking about people’s lives!”
His face twisted with a sneer. “Listen to you. You don’t even know who you are. The only reason I had to act was because you were compromised. You would have done the job yourself — yeah, and smiled after it was finished. Killing was the only thing that made you smile. Killing and Natalie. And what a piece of work she is. So don’t talk to me about people’s lives. You’ve taken so many lives you’ve lost count.”