“That’s true.” Jess agreed.
“Hm. Well then.” Bain “I have decided to inform everyone that Bricker was making that request on my orders.” He said. “I never mind taking credit for someone elses insane ideas so long as they prove out, hm?”
“I see.” Jess said, slowly.
‘So then this becomes my idea, and my plan.” Bain gave Dev a s mile. “Since it has already proven to be a success. We will instruct LIfeSource to continue on developing this program, and will hopefully be able to use it’s results in the future.”
Dev shifted a little. “Excuse me, sir.” She said. “Is it really a good idea to presume success based on so limited an evidence?”
Both Jess and Bain stared at her.
“Do you doubt your abilities, my young friend?” Bain asked.
“Yes.” Dev said. “I havent’ seen that much of them. “ She explained. “I trust the programming they gave me, but you are risking a lot on untested skills.”
Jess half turned in her seat so she was facing Dev. “You don’t want to stay here?”
Dev met her eyes. “I do.” She said. “But I don’t want to disappoint you.”
Jess felt the lengthening silence as she studied the young, intense face next to her. Finally she took a breath. “I’ll take my chances.” She said, shifting to look back at Bain, who was watching them both with an expression of bemused interest. “If you do this, you need to do it all the way. Give her full status. Let everyone know. Then they’ll stop taking shots at her.”
Bain tapped his fingertips together again. “Agent Drake.” He said. “I certainly can send any amount of directives but I think it will take more than that for your new comrade to be accepted.” He gave her a meaningful look, one scrubby gray eyebrow hiking up.
Jess looked away, then back at him. “You do your part, I’ll do mine.”
Bain smiled. “Deal.” He said. “Now, about that mission?”
Jess settled back in her seat. “We can’t do a frontal assault again. They’ll be keyed to it. I’ll need to insert.”
Bain nodded.
“Send me all the intel.” Jess finally said. “I’ll work up something.”
“Splendid.” The old man gave her a fond look. “Now, for a more pleasant subject. In recognition of your performance in this morning’s rescue I have added a senior level achievement to your records.”
Jess’s eyebrows rose.
“And I have advanced a benefit and comfort package to your colleague.” Bain pointed a forefinger at Dev. “Since I know she came from the crèche with very little. Enjoy it, my dear.”
Dev had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded good. “Thank you sir.” She said. “I will continue trying to do my best.”
Bain leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “Thank you.” He said. “People, we were in a serious crisis point yesterday. I’m glad we made our way through it, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Intelligence showed us that in this case, Agent Drake, there was no leak of information regarding your attack.”
“Not that I could tell, no.” Jess agreed. “But does that mean we snuffed the leak, or they’re just in hiding, biding their time?”
Bain inclined his head.
“The key is, who turned Joshua.” Jess continued. “Was it someone on the outside or someone on the inside.” She looked Bain in the eye. “I don’t think Bricker had the brains for it.”
Bain smiled faintly. “He was my nephew.”
Only years of field service let Jess remain in her chair and not roll onto the floor. She knew her eyes had widened and she clamped her jaw to keep it from dropping.
“My sister’s son.” Bain went on, in a reflective tone. “She gave him over when he was five. I never thought he really did have the brains for it either, but he made it through the course.” He sniffed. “I agree with you, Drake. I don’t think he was the leak, and he wasn’t the one who turned tech Joshua.”
“So that person’s still here, if it was an inside job.”
“You think it was.”
Jess gazed at him. “I spent almost every waking moment with him for nine years on the outside of this facility. No one outside got close to him.”
“Hm.”
“But inside?” Jess went on. “That was different.”
Bain sighed. “I have security doing an investigation on it.” He admitted. “Very low key.” He turned to Dev. “You will let us know, won’t you my dear, if anyone asks you to do something against us?”
“Yes.” Dev answered immediately. “That’s wrong.”
“Is that what your programming tells you?” He cocked his head slightly.
Dev thought about that for a minute. “They gave me the rules.” She said, after a bit. “But this .. I think that’s an in here thing.” She touched her chest. “It feels wrong.”
“Hm.” Bain nodded in approval. “Very good.” He focused back on Jess. “Be on your way, Drake. I’m sure you have things to settle. I’ll have intelligence send you an info pack, and will expect your review in the very near term.”
Jess nodded and stood. “Thanks.” She said. “I’ll let you know what I think.”
Bain chuckled. “Of that I have no doubt.” He sat back as they left, resting his elbows on the chair arm and twiddled his thumbs. “Dj?”
Doctor Dan came out from behind the big console behind them and came around to sit in the chair his bio alt had so recently vacated. “Well?”
“Damn fine job.” Bain told him straightforwardly. “Now, tell me the truth. This wasn’t a last minute rush thing.”
The scientist shook his head. “No.” He said. “I’d been planning to introduce the idea to you, so I’d done the prep with Dev.” He added. “The last set of tech skills, yes, that was a rush. We had to write that on the fly, but I had the schema outlines already done.”
Bain nodded. “I think she’ll do well She has an interesting mix of intelligence and given knowledge.”
“She’s a good design.” Doctor Dan agreed. “She won’t turn, by the way. They’ll have to kill her first. The one thing about the way I engineered her logic structure that wasn’t entirely logical.”
“You understand that at a gut level.” Bain smiled faintly at him.
“Yes.” He smiled just as faintly back. “I’ll miss Dev. I really enjoyed watching her progress.”
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine with Drake.” Bain stood up. “She’s already taken up a protective stance over your protégée as well as having been sufficiently distracted to allow her to get past that recent disaster.”
“She’s good people.” Doctor Dan said, as he joined Bain and they both disappeared behind the console, through a hidden door and into a quiet hallway. “I think Dev will do very well with her.”
“Hm.” Bain eyed him. “Sure you don’t want a job?”
Doctor Dan smiled a little. “I have a job.”
Bain snorted.
**
“So I suppose I really am staying.” Dev said, as they walked along the corridor. “That was a very interesting meeting.”
“I told you that you were staying.” Jess chuckled. “Yeah, it was.” She admitted. “We’ll have to go back and see what kind of swag we got. I’m glad he put you in for something.” She stepped into the lift, and waited for Dev to join her. “Let’s start at the top, and work our way down.”
“I’m not sure what that means.” Dev confessed. “But it sounds nice.”
“Here’s the roof.” Jess led the way out of the lift to a huge open space, with solid glass covering all of it. Overhead the thick, dark clouds were drifting, and once they’d cleared the lift encasement they could see all around them out to the horizon.