Peace and War - Omnibus (92 page)

'Señora Smith!' A voice came from everywhere. 'To open that door, it requires a,
el gato …
a jack. It will take two minutes, or three.'

'You have two minutes.' She looked at her watch. 'Starting now.'

Ray slumped and suddenly collapsed, rolling out on his back. His head hit the floor with a solid whack.

She made a disgusted noise. 'Coward.' Then a few seconds later, she herself staggered, and then sat down hard on the floor. Wavering, she held the pistol with both hands and shot Ray in the chest four times.

M
y place in the BOQ had two rooms – a bedroom and an 'office,' a gray cubicle with just enough room for a cooler, two hard chairs, and a small table in front of a simple comm console.

On the table, a glass of wine and my last meal: a gray pill. I had a yellow legal tablet and a pen, but couldn't think of anything to say that wasn't obvious.

The phone rang. I let it go three times, and said hello.

It was Jefferson – my psychiatric nemesis, come to save me in the eleventh hour. The instant he hangs up, I resolved, I'm taking the pill.

But like the room and the pill, Jefferson was gray, more gray than black. I hadn't seen anybody that color since my mother had called to tell me Aunt Franci had died. 'What's wrong?' I said.

'Ray's dead. He was killed by an assassin they sent after Blaze.'

"'They"? The Hammer of God?' The wavering silver bar at the top of the screen meant the encryption was working; we could say anything. 'We assume she's one of them. Spencer's drilling her out now for a jack.'

'How do you know she was after Amelia?'

'She had her picture; was nosing around the hotel here – Julian, she killed Ray just for the hell of it, after she'd killed another man. She walked right through the security screen at the clinic, with a gun and a knife of some plastic. We're scared shitless that she's not here alone.' 'God. They tracked us to Mexico?'

'Can you get up here? Blaze needs your protection – we
all
need you!'

I actually felt my jaw drop. 'You need
me
to come up and be a soldier?' All those professional snipers and convicted murderers.

S
pencer unplugged his jack and walked to the window. He raised the blinds and squinted at the rising sun, yawning. He turned to the woman who was bound to a wheelchair with locked restraints.

'Señora,' he said, 'you are crazy nuts.'

Jefferson had unjacked a minute before. 'That would be my professional opinion, too.'

'What you've done is completely illegal and immoral,' she said. 'Violating a person's soul.'

'Gavrila,' Jefferson said, 'if you have a soul, I couldn't find it in there.' She jerked at her bonds and the wheelchair rocked toward him.

'She does have a point, though,' he said to Spencer. 'We can't very well turn her over to the police.'

'I will, as you Americans say, keep her under observation indefinitely. Once she's well, she's free to go.' He scratched the stubble on his chin. 'At least until the middle of September. You believe that, too?'

'I can't do the math. But Julian and Blaze can, and they don't have any doubts.'

'It's the Hammer of God coming down,' Gavrila said. 'Nothing you can do will stop it.'

'Oh, shut up. Can we put her someplace?'

'I have what you would call a "rubber room." No lunatic has ever escaped from it.' He went to the intercom and arranged for a man named Luis to take her there.

He sat down and looked at her. 'Poor Lalo; poor Ray. They didn't suspect what a monster you were.'

'Of course not. Men just see me as a receptacle for their lust. Why should they fear a
cunt
?'

'You're going to find out a lot about that,' Jefferson said.

'Go ahead and threaten me. I'm not afraid of rape.'

'This is more intimate than rape. We're going to introduce you to some friends. If you do have a soul, they'll find it.'

She didn't say anything. She knew what he meant; she knew about the Twenty from being jacked with him. For the first time, she looked a little frightened.

There was a knock on the door, but it wasn't Luis. 'Julian,' Jefferson said, and gestured. 'Here she is.'

Julian studied her. 'She's the same woman we saw in the monitor at St Bart's? Hard to believe.' She was staring at him with an odd expression. 'What?'

'She recognizes you,' Jefferson said. 'When Ingram tried to kidnap Blaze off the train, you followed them. She thought you were with Ingram.'

Julian walked over to her. 'Take a good look. I want you to dream about me.'

'I'm so frightened,' she said.

'You came here to kill my lover, and instead killed an old friend. And another man. They say you didn't blink.' He reached slowly toward her. She tried to dodge, but he grabbed her throat.

'Julian…'

'Oh, don't worry.' The wheels on the chair were locked. He pushed slowly on her throat and she tipped back. He held her at the balance point. 'You're going to find everyone here so nice. They just want to help you.' He let go, and the wheelchair fell over with a jarring crash. She grunted.

'I'm not one of them, though.' He got down on his hands and knees, his face directly over hers. 'I'm not nice, and I don't want to help you.'

'That's not going to work with her, Julian.'

'It's not for her. It's for me.' She tried to spit at him, but missed. He stood up and casually flipped the wheelchair into an upright position.

'This isn't like you.'

'
I'm
not like me. Marty didn't say anything about my losing the ability to
jack!
'

'You didn't know that could happen with the memory manipulation?'

'No. Because I didn't
ask
.'

Jefferson nodded. 'That's why you and I haven't been scheduled together lately. You might have asked me about it.'

Luis came into the room and they didn't say anything while Spencer instructed him and he rolled Gavrila out.

'I think it's more sinister than that, more manipulative,' Julian said. 'I think Marty needed somebody who'd been a mechanic, knows soldiering, but is immune to being humanized.' He gestured with a thumb at Spencer. 'He knows everything now?'

'The essentials.'

'I think Marty wants me this way in case there's a need for violence. Just like you – when you called me to come protect Blaze, you implied the same.'

'Well, it's just that–'

'And you're right, too! I'm so fucking mad that I
could
kill someone. Isn't that crazy?'

'Julian…?'

'Oh, you don't use the word "crazy."' He lowered his voice. 'But it's odd, isn't it? I've sort of come full circle.'

'That could be temporary, too. You have every right to be angry.'

Julian sat down and clasped his hands together, as if to restrain them. 'What did you learn from her? Are there other assassins in town, headed here?'

'The only other one she actually knew was Ingram. We do know the name of the man above her, though, and he must be close to the top. It's a General Blaisdell. He's also the one who ordered the suppression of your paper and had Blaze's partner killed.'

'He's in Washington?'

'The Pentagon. He's the undersecretary of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA.'

Julian almost laughed. 'DARPA kills research all the time. I've never heard of them killing a
researcher
before.'

'He knows she came to Guadalajara, and that she was coming to a jack clinic, but that's all.'

'How many clinics are there?'

'One hundred thirty-eight,' Spencer said. 'And when Professor Harding had her work done here, the only connections to her real name are my own office records and the … what did you call the thing you signed?'

'Power of attorney.'

'Yes, that's buried in a law office's files, and even so, there shouldn't be anything connecting it with this clinic.'

 'I wouldn't get too complacent,' Julian said. 'If Blaisdell wants to, he can find us the same way she did. We left some kind of trail. The Mexican police could probably place us in Guadalajara – maybe even right here – and they could be bribed pretty easily. Begging your pardon, Dr Spencer.'

He shrugged. '
Es verdad
.'

'So we suspect anyone who comes through that door. But what about Amelia, Blaze – is she nearby?'

'Maybe a quarter of a mile,' Jefferson said. 'I'll take you there.'

'No. They might be following either of us. Let's not double their odds. Just write down the name of the place. I'll take two cabs.'

'Do you want to surprise her?'

'What does that mean? She's staying with someone?'

'No, no. Yeah, but it's Ellie Morgan. Nothing to get all bothered about.'

'Who's
bothered?
It was just a question.'

'All I meant was, should I call and say you're coming?'

'Sorry. I'm in a state. Go ahead and give her a … wait, no. The phone might be tapped.'

'Not possible,' Spencer said.

'Humor me?' He looked at the address Jefferson had written down. 'Good, I'll take a cab to the
mercado
. Lose myself in the crowd and then dive into the subway.'

'Your caution verges on paranoia,' Spencer said.

'Verges? I'm well over the edge, actually. Wouldn't you be paranoid if one of your best friends just ripped out half your life – and some Pentagon general is sending assassins down after your lover'.

'It's like they say,' Jefferson said. 'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't someone after you.'

H
aving said I was going to the market, instead I took a cab out to T-town and then the subway back into the city. No such thing as being too careful.

I slipped from a side street into the courtyard of Amelia's motel. Ellie Morgan answered the door.

'She's asleep,' she said in a half-whisper, 'but I know she'd want to be woken up.' They had adjoining rooms. I went through and she eased the door closed behind me.

Amelia was warm and soft from sleep and smelled of lavender from the bath salts she liked.

'Marty told me what happened,' she said. 'It must be horrible, like losing one of your senses.'

I couldn't answer that. I just held her close for a moment longer. 'You know about the woman and … and Ray,' she stammered. 'I've been there. I spoke to her.'

'The doctor was going to jack her.'

'They did that, a high-risk speed installation. She's Hammer of God, same cell as Ingram.' I told her about the general in the Pentagon. 'I don't think you're safe here. Nowhere in Guadalajara. She traced us from St Bart's right to the clinic door, through low-orbit spy satellites.'

'Our country uses satellites to spy on its own people?'

'Well, the satellites go all around the world. They just don't bother to turn them off over the US.' There was a coffee machine set into the wall. I kept talking while I set it up. 'I don't think this Blaisdell knows exactly where we are. Otherwise we probably would have had a SWAT team instead of a lone assassin, or at least a team backing her up.'

'Did the satellites actually see us as individuals, or just the bus?'

'The bus and the truck.'

'So I could walk out of here and go to the train station, and just slip away to some random part of Mexico.'

'I don't know. She had a picture of you, so we have to assume that Blaisdell can give a copy to the next hit man. They might be able to bribe someone, and you'd have every policeman in Mexico looking for you.'

'Nice to feel wanted.'

'Maybe you should come back to Portobello with me. Hole up in Building 31 until it's safe. Marty can have orders cut for you, probably with a couple of hours' notice.'

'That's good.' She stretched and yawned. 'I just have a few hours to go on this proof. I'd like to have you go over it; then we can send it out through an airport phone just before we leave.'

'Good. It'll be a relief to do some physics for a change.'

Amelia had written a good concise argument. I added a long footnote about the appropriateness of pseudo-operator theory in this regime.

I also read Ellie's version for the popular press. To me it seemed unconvincing – no math – but I supposed it would be best to bow to her expertise and keep my mouth shut. Ellie had intuited my unease, though, and had remarked that not using mathematics was like writing about religion without mentioning God, but editors believed that ninety percent of their readers would quit at the first equation.

I had called Marty. He was in surgery, but an assistant called back and said that orders would be waiting for Amelia at the gate. He also passed along the unsurprising news that Lieutenant Thurman was not going to be among the humanized. We'd hoped that the peaceful mental environment, being jacked with people from my converted platoon, would eliminate the stress that was causing his migraines. But no, they just came on later and stronger. So like me, he'd have to sit this one out. Unlike me, he was virtually under house arrest, since the few minutes he did spent jacked were enough for him to learn far too much.

I looked forward to talking to him, since we were no longer bureaucrat-and-flunky. We suddenly had a lot in common, involuntary ex-mechanics.

I also suddenly had a lot more in common with Amelia. If there was any advantage in my losing the ability to be jacked, that was it: it erased the main barrier between us. Cripples together, from my point of view, but together nonetheless.

It felt so good working with her, just being in the same room with her, it was hard for me to believe that the day before, I'd been ready to take the pill.

Well, I wasn't 'me' anymore. I supposed I could put off finding out who I was until after September 14. By then, it might be immaterial – I might be immaterial! A plasma, anyhow.

While Amelia was packing her small bag, I called the airport for the flight number, and verified that they had pay phones with long-distance data links. But then I realized that if Amelia had orders waiting down in Portobello, we could probably deadhead down in a military flight. I called D'Orso Field and, sure enough, Amelia was 'Captain Blaze Harding.' There was a flight leaving in ninety minutes, a cargo flyboy with plenty of room if we didn't mind sitting on benches.