Dust on the walls and shelves. Weapons all live on racks.
“How long have you been here?” he asked.
“Four months,” Jill replied. “All bases are mobile now. We can’t afford to stay in one place for too long these days.”
“Why isn’t that man under guard?” A voice belted over the constant buzzing of the room. A red-faced Stephen approached with his right hand on his holstered sidearm.
“Thirty degree angle left, right arm clothesline?”
It is only Stephen. He has twigs for legs. Go low.
Stephen got close and poked a finger into his face. “We don’t take to deserters kindly around here.”
Roen held his ground and gave Stephen an even look, half prepared to defend himself. The two stood still for several moments. In the back of his head, he heard that old Wild West music playing and imagined a tumbleweed rolling past them. Then finally, the end of Stephen’s mouth twitched upward; he grinned. “It’s good to see you again, Roen. I see you haven’t let yourself go.”
“Not all the way,” Roen grinned back. “And I see you still can’t hold a poker face.” Stephen was one of the few people in the organization who Roen would take a bullet for. He thought of the Field Marshal of the Prophus forces as a father figure and, along with Jill and Dylan, he was the only person Roen felt guilty for abandoning.
Stephen turned and motioned for Roen to follow. “So how’s that fact-finding mission of yours coming along?” He was also one of the few to take Roen’s conspiracies seriously.
Roen was more than happy to share the information. “The Genjix are planning something big. We know they are heavily invested in ProGenesis, trying to procreate our kind, but I believe that is only a means to an end. Their research divisions have been sourcing raw materials that have nothing to do with the reproduction process. They recently completed a heavy water refinery in Siberia, and they’ve snapped up every ounce of certain rare metals they can get their hands on in South Africa. It’s a large puzzle. One that I haven’t put together yet. I believe a large part of their refining is done in the States and routed to China.”
Unlike most of Command, Stephen actually seemed interested in Roen’s findings. “We found scattered reports that correlate with what you just said, though our intelligence gathering is only a shadow of what it was a few years ago. You have any theories on what they’re up to?”
Roen shook his head. “Something Sean told me at the Decennial stuck in my mind. It was about not caring if the Quasing return home or not. Then we discovered those mutated algae in that Newfoundland research facility two years ago. I traced the empty chemical barrels to a testing lab in Mongolia. The CO2 emissions in the fields there were off the charts. It got me thinking…”
They reached a set of double doors. Stephen stopped and turned to him. “You might want to stick around. We have intel you might find interesting. Besides, we can use your gun. Lord knows we’re short on quality men these days. What do you say?”
“Sorry, sir,” Roen shrugged. “I operate better without that bitch Keeper always yelling at me. By the way, where are you finding these new recruits? The two kids up front, their voices are still cracking.”
“Not much more inexperienced than when Tao found you. Give them time.”
Our need to recruit younger and more inexperienced reminds me of the final year of the Third Reich. They were drafting children off the streets.
“And why is Dylan in China?” Roen asked. “No Prophus should go anywhere close to that continent these days.”
“That’s where the good action is these days,” Stephen shrugged. “The Genjix have free rein there. They consider the States too restrictive. The Atlantis was providing support for him when it was crippled.” He grimaced. “Eighty-three hosts, a hundred and ninety-four crew, not to mention a three billion dollar sub.”
“We didn’t actually pay for it,” Roen said. “We stole it from them.”
“Still a three billion dollar asset lost.”
“What’s the situation now with the Atlantis?” Jill asked.
“Still being towed,” Stephen said. “The South Sea Fleet forced the sub to the surface but was unable to cut in. They won’t be able to, short of blowing it up. They’re towing it to the Fuzhou Naval Base. From what I hear, all the maneuvering thrusters on the Atlantis are working against the tow. It’ll take them a few days.”
“Why didn’t they just sink her and be done with it?” Roen asked.
Stephen shook his head. “The Genjix, at a very high cost, have been capturing Quasing rather then send them to the Eternal Sea. The ProGenesis experiments demand a lot of host test subjects. Dylan discovered that the Genjix have been stashing all their prisoners in an internment camp in Tibet. It’s the logical place for the prisoners on Atlantis to go. We’re going to try to break them out there instead of in China.”
“Is that why Dylan was in China? He was searching for the internment camp?” Roen asked.
Stephen shook his head. “Discovery of the camp was just gravy.” He leaned in close. “You want to know why? He was following up on your intel.” Stephen’s face broke into a wide grin when he saw the shocked look on Roen’s face. “You didn’t actually think that mole you were using to check up on Jill actually worked for you, did you?”
Roen was speechless. “You… were spying on me!”
Stephen laughed. “Let’s say we used you as an unpaid intelligence consultant.”
“Tao, oh my god! I was contracting for free!”
I have always considered Stephen’s Quasing, Camr, my equal. It seemed I have underestimated him.
Stephen winked. “Do you want to know what he found?”
Roen nodded.
Stephen opened the double doors. “Follow me.”
The three of them entered a small room with nine people huddled around a large round table. Roen didn’t recognize all of them, but the three he did told him that he was in rare company.
The Keeper looked up from the map they were fussing over and scowled. “Who let that traitor in here? Put him in cuffs right now.”
Two guards as young-looking as the ones Roen had met at the entrance appeared. Immediately, an escape plan involving a pretty rough firefight popped into his head. Unfortunately, the plan entailed taking Stephen hostage and shooting the Keeper. Roen put a hand on his sidearm and the two guards raised their rifles. At least they were holding them right this time.
This is certainly going to be interesting if you draw. And no, you are not allowed to shoot the Keeper. Try being civil.
“Technically,” Roen shrugged as casually as a person could with two rifles trained on him, “I’m a deserter, not a traitor, and I’d like to see these kindergartners try.”
Your interpretation of civil needs a bit of work.
The Keeper had aged quite a bit since he had last seen her, and she wasn’t that young to begin with. Her host, Meredith Frances, was a distant Astor through marriage. She and the Keeper had been the head of the Prophus longer than anyone could remember.
The Keeper was the only Quasing from the original Grand Council to side with the Prophus, and she had held the honored post of the Historian of the Ship since they first journeyed from Quasar. She was the closest thing the Prophus had to a head of government. Unfortunately for Roen, she hadn’t thought much of him even before he left. Now she thought even less of him. It didn’t bother Roen that much though. He hated the Keeper’s guts.
You did get her heir killed.
“On a mission. She tried to have me arrested for disobeying orders.”
You did disobey orders.
“I was a hundred meters away from the entire Genjix Council. It was worth the risk.”