“Until I knifed him.” She smiled grimly. “He wasn't too happy with that.”
Elk studied her. “If it all went bad, he was going to make you the leak.” He stated. “You had top creds here.”
“Occurred to me.” Jess agreed quietly. “But we didn't much care about consequences at that point. Just dying right.”
“Lot of people were lost here.” Bezette spoke up for the first time, in a soft, slightly husky tone.
“Too many.” Jess said. “Far too damn many.”
“But it would have been far more if you hadn't come back, Agent.” Alters rebutted gently. “Tell you what. Let us review the centops security monitor feed, and then we can talk about what happens next.”
Jess nodded, and stood. “Fine.” She said. “I'll be in my quarters if you want me.” She headed for the door.
“Drake.” Alters called out.
Jess stopped, and paused at the door, her hand on the sill.
“What do you think now, about that whole bio alt thing?” The commander asked. “Seems like a crazy idea to us.”
Finally, Jess smiled a real smile back at them. “Best thing that ever happened to me.” She stated bluntly. “Bricker was right. You won't ever get something like me from that, but I wouldn't trade my tech for any other on the planet.” She hit the door latch and went through it, leaving them three men behind.
“Huh.” Elk mused. “Didn't expect that answer.” He glanced at Alters. “Want to have a talk with this thing while the comp is spooling?”
“I do.” Alters said, in a musing tone. “I really do.”
**
Dev entered the room with Doctor Dan at her heels, his hand planted firmly on her shoulder. She paused on seeing the three men sitting there, then she went to the table and sat down.
“I think we just intended to see Tech NM-Dev-1.” Alters said, mildly.
“I never paid attention to anyone else's intentions before. I'm not aiming to start now.” Doctor Dan took a seat next to Dev and folded his hands. “Dev can speak for herself, but if you think you're going throw an interrogation at her, you've got me to deal with.”
“Oh we do?” Alters stared at him in fascination. “And you are...?”
“Ah.” Doctor Dan leaned back and hiked one knee up, circling it with his hands. “Currently? Daniel J. Kurok, Chief geneticist and senior administrator of LifeForce, Bio station 2.”
“Ah.” Alters nodded and sat down, as though that explained Kurok's presence. “You made her.”
“I did.” Kurok agreed. “But more to the point, I”m legally responsible for Dev.”
“I'm sure you have all your legalities in place, Doctor, but this is really an Interforce matter.” Elk said, politely.
“Ah.” Kurok mimicked Alters earlier grunt. “Well in that case, consider me DJ Kurok, senior tech, Field class 32.” He smiled at them. “Alex was kind enough to recommission me, to make traveling the halls easier. I didn't think he expected the eventual outcome of that.” He pointed at his collar. “So these aren't fake. I earned them the hard way.”
The three officers stared at him for a moment in silence. “Well.” Alters finally said. “I guess you can stay then, since it's likely we're not going to make you leave.”
Doctor Dan smiled his gentle smile at them. “Brilliant answer. Carry on.”
Dev had been sitting quietly, listening to it all. She found herself extremely glad to have her mentor at her side, and it was very interesting to hear him speak about both of his identities. “Thanks, Doctor Dan.”
He patted her hand. “Now, go on. Ask away.” He instructed Alters. “I assume you haven't seen the sec vid yet or we probably would not be bothering with this session.”
“It's spooling.” Elk agreed. “We really just wanted to talk to her about her experience here.”
Dev folded her hands. “I have had an excellent experience here.” She stated. “I've gotten to do a great deal of work, and I think my participation has been a positive one.” She cleared her throat. “Where would you like me to start?”
The three officers exchanged looks again. “Well.” Alters cleared his own throat. “How about at the beginning?”
**
“Holy shit.” Elk turned and looked at Alters as the door closed behind their erstwhile interviewees. “Is she for real?”
“Can't wait to see those vids.” Alters had his chin resting on his fist. “She's a lot smarter than I thought she'd be. That's a serious brain in there.”
“No kidding.” Bezette mused. “I saw the original vids from the Gibraltar run. I thought it was a joke, you know? Someone screwed around with the recorder, but then we got the intel from the other side on the blowout. That kid can fly.”
“So Drake pegged it.” Alters chuckled. “Bricker was right. But can they duplicate that? She's a developmental, that doc said. A one off.”
“Guessing he can.” Elk said. “He knows what it takes better than anyone does. Better than any of us, anyway.” He shook his head. “DJ Kurok. Who'd have guessed? Never did know what happened to him after he mustered out.”
“You knew him back then?” Alters asked, curiously.
Elk shook his head. “Not so much. He was Justin Drake's tech. Justy raved about him. Never had another partner like him, from what he said, before he retired. Always thought there was a story there. Justy wasn't emotional about much but he always was about DJ.”
“He came from the other side.” Bezette spoke up. “That was the big deal about him – he got swiped as a juv in a capture in the dev station over there. They brought him over, someone had the big idea to see if he could be turned, put him in psych, they figured he might do for field school.”
“What?” Alters said. “From the other side? Were they nuts?”
“Nope, that's why they paired him with Justin.” Elk nodded. “Family bleeds Interforce colors, you know? Someone in psych told me there was no such thing as un-turnable but Drakes were the closest thing to it. Solid as granite to the point of pigheaded blind devotion to the cause.”
“Drake.” Bezette sighed. “Family full of wildcats and wide eyed insanity. Glad they kill on our side though, tell you what.”
“Tell you what.” Alters agreed. “So did Kurok turn out to be trustworthy?”
“Hm.” Elk drummed his thumbs on the table. “Now that I'm remembering all this... I think they weren't ever sure if he totally bought into the force, but what he did buy into was Justin Drake. So maybe it all worked out that way. He was a damn good tech, from what I heard.”
“Justin left a lot of enemies on that side.” Bezette stated. “He knew he had limited time out. Never cared, though. Too bad they got him – heard his shooter got a medal for it.”
“Based on these..” Alters held up the plas. “His kid paid them back for it in typical double Drake fashion.”
**
Jess was lying on her back in her bed, hands folded over her stomach and eyes closed when she heard Dev enter her own quarters next door.
It felt impossibly good to just be relaxing, having someone else be in charge of the chaos for a while. She was mildly curious as to what would end up happening to her, but where once that would have given her a gut ball of anxiety now she felt almost nothing about it.
Would they muster her? Jess doubted it. No matter what the ins and outs of what they'd been through she knew she'd done what she could and the bottom line was, the base was still intact, and still theirs.
So it would be, what it would be. Jess turned her head as the door between their quarters opened, and Dev entered. She came over and sat down on the edge of Jess's bed, and returned her smile. “Hello.”
“Hello, Devvie. You're a sight for sore eyes.”
Dev leaned closer. “Are your eyes sore too?” She asked in a concerned tone. “What does med do for that?”
Jess chuckled. “That's just one of those stupid archaic sayings, Dev. It means I'm glad to see you.” She reached out a hand and touched Dev's leg. “They grill ya?”