"Don't you understand yet?" Ben Belkassem snarled so fiercely Tannis stepped back. "She's not crazy-not the way you thought! Tisiphone is real!"
Tannis and Keita exchanged quick glances, then turned wary eyes upon the inspector, as if they expected him to begin gibbering any moment, and he forced his anger and frustration back down.
"You weren't listening to me earlier," he said urgently. "I told you what she did to Alexsov. She didn't question him, she read his mind. Call it telepathy, call it rogue psi talents, call it any damned thing you want, but she did it!"
Keita sank back in his chair, Tannis drove her hands deep into her pockets and hunched her shoulders, and Ben Belkassem nodded slowly.
"Exactly. You may think Tisiphone is a product of Alicia's own mind-I don't. I sat across a dinner table and talked to her, for God's sake! I don't know what she is, but she's real, and she really can read minds … among other things. Think about how Alicia broke out of the hospital and stole Megarea. Think about how she tracked down the pirates, damn it!"
"All right," Keita said at last. "All right, let's grant that Alicia-or this Tisiphone-can read minds. If she didn't get it from Alexsov, where could she have gotten it since?"
"From Rendlemann." Ben Belkassem pointed at Shu. "Remember what she said about what happened to him when Megarea took out Procyon's AI? That was Tisiphone. It had to be."
"Oh, come on!" Keita protested. "The man was linked to a crashed AI!"
"Oh?" Ben Belkassem turned to Tannis. "What normally happens to a cyber synth operator when that happens, Major?"
"Catatonia," Tannis said promptly. "He goes out like a light." "Then why did they have to sedate Rendlemann to hold him down?"
"Crap!" Tannis breathed. "He's right, Uncle Arthur- that's totally outside the profile. If Alley really can read minds now …"
There was a long moment of silence, and then Keita sighed.
"All right. Suppose she can-and did. Why the sudden concern?"
"If she knows about Treadwell, she's going to go for him," Ben Belkassem said flatly.
"Wait-just wait a minute!" Tannis protested. "What do you mean 'go for him'?"
"I mean she and Megarea-and Tisiphone-will try to kill him. She doesn't know we got any of Howell's staff alive. As far as she knows, she's the only person who knows the whole truth, and everyone thinks she's crazy. She thinks no one would believe her-that she has to get him herself."
"But she can't," Tannis said reasonably. "Treadwell's on the Soissons command fortress-she knows that."
"And she doesn't care. My God, it was all I could do to stop her from going after Howell by herself!"
"But it would be suicide. Alley would never do anything like that. I know her."
"You knew her," Ben Belkassem corrected grimly. He folded his hands tightly and stared down at them, choosing his words with care. "She's not crazy the way you thought she was, but- " He paused and inhaled deeply. "Major Gateau, Sir Arthur, there's something else going on inside her now. It wasn't there at Soissons. There's a … fanaticism. I saw it after Wyvern. She was fine before she found out about Alexsov and Brinkman, but then-"
"What are you saying, Ferhat?" Keita asked quietly.
"I'm saying she doesn't care about anything but destroying the 'pirates.' Nothing else is real to her anymore. She'll kill herself to get them … and she'll kill anyone else who stands in her way."
"Not Alley," Tannis whispered, but it wasn't a protest. She was pleading, and Ben Belkassem hated himself as he nodded. Keita stared at the inspector, and his mouth tightened.
"If you're right-I'm not certain you are, but if you're right-there are nine thousand other people on that fortress."
"I know."
"But could she even get through the defenses?" Suares asked.
"She already got through them once. She cut right through the middle of Howell's entire squadron. I don't know if she can get through them again. I wouldn't bet against it … but I doubt she could get back out alive."
"She wouldn't want to." Tears sounded in Tannis's voice. "Not Alley. Not after killing nine thousand innocent people." A sob caught in her throat. "If she could do that, she's turned into something she wouldn't want to live."
"She'll ram," Keita said softly. "She'll take the fort out with her Fasset drive. It's all she's got that could do the job."
"We have to warn them," Suares said. "If we have Treadwell taken into custody, removed from the fortress, and tell her so-"
"We can't." Ben Belkassem smiled bitterly. "We don't have a starcom, and nothing we've got is as fast as Megarea."
"No," Keita said slowly, "but …" His voice trailed off, then he nodded decisively and stood. "We do have a dispatch boat. That's almost as fast, and she wormholed out of here almost directly away from Franconia. I doubt she had time to pre-plot it, either, so God only knows where she'll come out. I'll have Admiral Leibniz run the figures, but she's got to decelerate and reorient herself before she can even start for Soissons. If we leave immediately, we should beat her there with time to spare."
"And do what, Uncle Arthur?" Tannis asked in a tiny voice.
"I don't know, Tannis." He sighed. "I just don't know."
Chapter Thirty-four
The shrill bell jarred her sleeping brain. She sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, then glared at the chronometer and punched the com button.
"Horth. What is it, damn it?!"
"Sorry to disturb you, Admiral," her chief of staff said, "but Perimeter Tracking's just picked up two incoming drive signatures."
"So?" Vice Admiral Horth managed not to snarl. "We've got thirty, forty arrivals a day in this system."
"Yes, ma'am, but these two both look like Fleet drives. Neither is scheduled, and they're coming in very, very fast on reciprocal bearings. If they're headed for rendezvous here, they must be planning crash turnovers."
"Crash turnovers?" Horth swung her feet out of bed and fumbled for her slippers with them. "What sort of vectors are we talking about?"
"The more distant bogey's turning just over fourteen hundred lights and bears roughly oh-seven-three by three-five-oh, ma'am; the closer one is making; twelve-sixty lights from two-fivefive by oh-oh-three. Unless they change heading after they break sublight, they'll meet right at Soissons."
Horth frowned in surprise. Two Fleet units headed for rendezvous here and no one had even mentioned them to Traffic Control? But then the speeds registered. Twelve hundred times light-speed was moving it even for a dispatch boat, but nothing moved at fourteen hundred lights except-
She forgot her slippers and reached for her uniform.
"ETAs?' she snapped.
"If they both go for minimum distance turnover from Franconia's Powell limit, Bogey One- the closer one- will drop sublight at approximately ten-forty-one hours, ma'am. Bogey Two will do the same at eleven-forty-six."
"Um." Horth slid out of her nightgown and started climbing into clothes. "All right. Alert all fortress commanders. We've got time, but I want all forts on standby by ten hundred hours. Then get hold of Admiral Marat. See if he's completed that estimate of the alpha synth's capabilities and get it to me ASAP." She zipped her blouse and reached for her tunic. "Is Admiral Gomez back from Ithuriel with the Capital Squadron?"
"No, ma'am. The maneuvers aren't due to end until late tomorrow."
"Damn. Admiral Brinkman?"
"He's already aboard Orbit One for your morning conference, ma'am."
"Ask him to join me in PriCon immediately, but I don't see any reason to wake the governor general so soon."
"Yes, ma'am."
Horth grunted and cut the circuit, and her face was worried. They hadn't managed to keep that lunatic from stealing the alpha synth. Somehow, even after all the fire control upgrades since, she didn't think they'd do a lot better keeping her out.