The Synthesis and the Animus (The Phantom of the Earth Book 3) (17 page)

Beimeni City

Phanes, Underground Central

2,500 meters deep

Isabelle gathered a Janzer division—one which she cut off from Marstone and Atticus—and marched across Artemis Square to the First Ward. They took an elevator up to Captain Barão’s floor, and she strutted along the wide skywalk, then into a corridor. She slid her fingers along the smooth marble wall, savoring the moment. Atticus still thought she lived by his rules, fool that he was. One day she would reveal the extent of his error. Until then, she would do her job. Her reign would go that much smoother if she eliminated the BP threat now.

She hoped to find Captain Barão in his unit and save herself a trip to Palaestra, but she would go where she must to confront the so-called People’s Captain. Atticus might need Broden Barão to sway the citizenry, but she most certainly did not.

After overriding the unit’s security systems, she ordered the Janzers to conduct a search. One of them removed a Granville sphere from his pack, held it in his palm, and tilted his head, communicating with it. Sheets of light and radiation emanated from the sphere, and a holographic map of the unit formed in a real-time rendition. The Janzer divided the search among his division, depending on the indications of interest the map generated.

Isabelle sashayed about the great room, into the kitchen, and through the master bedroom, where Supreme Scientist Damosel Rhea slept. Isabelle didn’t disturb her. She ordered the Janzers to move silently while she searched the bedroom. Wooden ornaments. A crystal chandelier. Glyphs along the trim. She looped through the great room and onto the terrace. The Janzers scurried to and fro, using ultraviolet viewers, alloy detectors, infrared scanners, organic and inorganic analyzers. They deactivated Merrell, the Barão keeper bot.

They left no molecule unturned.

“What’re you hiding?” Isabelle said.

She paced along a narrow corridor lined with holograms—one of Captain Barão standing with Lord Nero and Lady Verena on Venus, another of Captain Barão and Miss Damosel at Palaestra Lake, and another of Captain Barão and Atticus in Masimovian Tower. She swiped her hand through the hologram of the captain and the chancellor, then heard footsteps.

“Madam Director,” a Janzer said softly, “I think we found something in the great room.”

She went with him. Another Janzer held two coins, oxidized. She gripped them between her fingers and rubbed them. The alloy flaked off in her hand. She couldn’t make out the language or carvings etched on either side.

“I don’t think those are benari coins,” the Janzer said, his voice just above a whisper. “The composition doesn’t match the official blend.”

“What’re they made of?”

“Oxidized lanthanum.”

The Janzer telekinetically parted the coins. One revealed a bloody cryptor within, similar to other BP coins Isabelle had found in the possession of other traitors.

She sent the cryptor through the air into a Janzer’s palm, while another moved the tip of a moist knob over the dried blood.

“It matches Captain Broden Barão’s DNA,” the Janzer said.

“I
knew
it!” Isabelle closed her eyes and connected to Marstone. She transmitted to Antosha.

We have a problem. Inside Captain Barão’s unit are two coins that match the BP composition and a cryptor with the captain’s blood inside the coin.

Is he present?

No.

Miss Damosel?

Asleep.

Good. Leave the evidence where you found it. Nothing’s changed—

Captain Barão’s alignment with the BP was never part of the plan. Everything’s changed!

That you found BP coins in the captain’s den doesn’t mean he’s their ally. It means they’ve contacted him. The traitors are pervasive. No doubt they contact many officials. The sickness has spread far under Chancellor Masimovian, and curing it will take more effort than we previously understood.

You’ve been gone for a long time, this level of treachery cannot stand.

Remain true to the plan. We will not fail—

“What in Reassortment’s name do you think you’re doing?” Captain Broden Barão swore.

Lady Isabelle turned toward the doorway, her chameleon cape twisting around her. The traitorous captain stood before her. She noted the way his eyes darted to the coins and the cryptor in the Janzer’s hand, then back to her. She could not sense his musings the way she should be able to. Either he’d grown more powerful with the ZPF upon his return from Vigna, as Antosha had suggested during the Mark ceremony, or he used a recaller to deceive her.

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Captain.” She called her Janzers back into the great room. They surrounded her and Captain Barão and activated their pulse guns. “Why don’t you tell me about these.” She held out her hand, and a Janzer dropped the coins into it.

“I’ve never seen those before.”

“Don’t lie to me, Captain.”

“Do you have a communiqué?”

“I’m Lady of the First Ward. I don’t need one.”

“Do you serve Chancellor Masimovian?”

Isabelle rolled her eyes. “You have no ground to stand on. This is treason.”

Supreme Scientist Damosel Rhea emerged from the hallway. Her cheeks looked red, her hair tousled. “What’s going on here?”

“A misunderstanding,” Captain Barão said. “I’ve just sent a message to the Office of the Chancellor to personally thank Chancellor Masimovian for sending Lady Isabelle to offer her … protection.”

“From what?” Damy said. She yawned and rubbed her face.

Captain Barão didn’t respond. He turned to Isabelle, who caught his threat but sensed no message from him in the ZPF or with Marstone. It seemed doubtful he would contact the chancellor, or his office, even if he could shield his mind from hers. The captain was hiding something, not only from her but from his eternal partner as well. This reminded her so much of Atticus’s behavior that she wanted to arrest him right here and now. All the politics and procedures that might stop her from doing so were the same ones the chancellor used to mistreat his maidens, the ministry, the people, and most importantly—his own eternal partner.
May I rid our world of these heathen men
, she thought,
and rule the people with Antosha, who would never treat me so poorly.

“Please, Madam Scientist, open your hand.”

Damy furrowed her brow. Isabelle nodded toward her arm.

Cautiously, Damy reached out. Isabelle dropped the used cryptor onto the supreme scientist’s palm. “It contains your eternal partner’s blood. Perhaps you know why.”

“She’s never seen that before,” the captain said, reaching for Damy’s hand.

Damy turned away from him. Isabelle smiled.

Damy narrowed her eyes. “You broke into our home because Brody went to the Fountain of Youth? He’s still entitled to athanasia, is he not?”

Isabelle handed Damy the oxidized coins. Alloy flakes floated around Damy. “I don’t know what this is,” she said.

“Let me enlighten you.” Isabelle activated the unit’s Granville panel, displaying holographic images of the manufacturing plant Zorian Selendia had shown her: men and women in stolen biomats pouring liquid alloy into sheets of coin-sized molds. Isabelle halted the scene. She zoomed in on one of the completed coins.

Damy gasped. “What’re you suggesting, Madam Director?”

Isabelle disabled the Granville panel, which turned a polished taupe. “I’m arresting Captain Barão.”

“On what charges?” Damy’s bronze skin turned a shade of gray. Captain Barão reached for her, but she pushed his hands away.

“Conduct unbecoming a strike team captain, to start,” Isabelle said. “Did you still plan on contacting the chancellor, Captain Barão?”

The Janzers gripped Captain Barão’s arms to cuff him. Another placed a Converse Collar around his neck.

“You can’t do this!” Damy said. “He’s a strike team captain and a supreme scientist, he has rights, the accusation must be brought before the ministry, and the chancellor—”

“Will thank me for apprehending a terrorist.” Lady Isabelle nodded to the Janzers.

A pair held Damy back while another two finished securing Captain Barão. While Damy screamed and pushed the Janzers away from her and demanded the chancellor and ministry be notified at once, the captain didn’t fight or even speak. It reminded Isabelle of when she’d arrested Minister Orosiris in Navita City prior to her attack on the false BP stronghold. The minister, it turned out, hadn’t been lying; he had no idea the BP had burrowed a phantom cavern beside his territory, and the chancellor had allowed his reinstatement. This time, however, Isabelle had proof. Contact with the BP!

When she ushered Captain Barão into the hallway, she took one last glance into the terrorist’s home before the entryway reformed. His eternal partner was still shouting and fighting the Janzers, who blocked her way.

“Sedate her—” Isabelle said.

“Hurt her in any way, my lady,” Captain Barão began, as calm as the city’s spas. He shook loose of the Janzers’ grasp. “I’ll see to it you receive the next Warning.” The Janzers reestablished their hold over him.

Isabelle laughed. “Is that your shield, Captain?”

“Damosel,” said the captain, ignoring Isabelle, “Damy, please, stop,
stop.
” Tears and snot ran down his eternal partner’s face. She halted, looking at him from bloodshot eyes.

“What?” she asked. “Why?”

“I don’t anticipate I’ll be gone for long, my love,” he said, eyeing Isabelle. “The supreme director has shoddy information.”

“This is wrong, Brody—”

Lady Isabelle raised her hand, signaling the Janzers.

They rushed out of the apartment unit, sealed and locked the entrance, then pulled Captain Barão to the elevators.

Palaestra City

Palaestra, Underground Northeast

2,500 meters deep

The morning’s colorful Granville sun filled Palaestra Square’s golden marble, emphasizing the illusion of steps created by holographic artists at the four corners. In the middle, Marshlandic performers, dressed in tanned capes stenciled with Beimenian glyphs, set up their stage for the evening’s festivities. Antosha watched it all from the terrace of the First Ward apartment unit he’d purchased, in accordance with the chancellor’s Twentieth Precept. His maroon silk robe splayed over the onyx ground. A crisp Palaestran wind blew through his black-and-silver hair.
The sheep shall gather here
, he thought,
and I will spit on them all
.

“You’re falling in love with her,” Lady Isabelle said.

Antosha sighed. He turned to face his paramour. “What lies has Marstone been telling you, my dove?”

“Don’t let her destroy us.”

Isabelle looked the most concerned he’d seen her since the day she’d warned him the chancellor had ordered Captain Barão to seize him. Dark rings circled her eyes, her porcelain skin appeared lined,
wrinkled,
it seemed. Pitiful.

“Don’t despair over nonsense. Gwendolyn Horvearth provides the means we require to reach the ends.” He reached for her, but she backed away. “Don’t forget, it was you who suggested I help her in the Harpoons, you who called her the perfect accomplice in our plans with Captain—”

Lady Isabelle slapped him. “I didn’t tell you to fuck her!”

Antosha grimaced and placed a hand against his cheek. He turned to the balustrade, placed his hands on the railing, and squeezed so tight he bent the bar.

“What should I do?” Antosha said. “The Bicentennial nears, we must move forward, Gwen must fulfill her role, and the man frozen near absolute zero
must
awaken.” Antosha looked into her lavender eyes. This time when he put his hand on hers, she accepted his grasp. “Come with me, sweet belle.”

He led her inside his unit and activated the Granville panels upon the wall. The Earth’s surface was rendered all around them, a sinuous river, a colorful mountain range in summer, a city with skyscrapers taller than Masimovian Tower. “You and I will lead the people to the surface, not Gwendolyn, not Broden, not Atticus, not Damosel, not Avalonia or Decca or Charles or Furongielle or Genevieve or any of the supreme scientists who focus endlessly on conversion and expansion without any real knowledge of power
.
”

“Captain Barão is working with the BP,” Isabelle said. “Neither you nor the chancellor would allow me to act, then I discover you’re off in the West, fucking that whore—”

“Who will help us take Captain Barão down!”

Isabelle caressed Antosha’s forehead, pushing his hair away from his liquid-silver eye with the back of her forefinger. “The evidence I’ve collected against the captain would justify any action. He’s ours already.”

“Even so, that is not real power, and you, my dove,” he caressed her cheek, “should not settle for anything less.”

“You would have me release him?”

Antosha nodded. “I would have you achieve
hyperpower
. The chancellor thinks that his refined developmental system and Lower Level death machine created a perfected race, but what he’s done is ensure humanity’s extinction.”

She leaned her face into his palm. “He thinks that without this system he’s created, we wouldn’t have lasted this long inside the Earth, much less expanded throughout the continent, from Gaia to Gallia.” She held Antosha’s hand. Her eyes looked glossy. “The slob has ordered me to reduce the population growth rate to five percent rather than eight percent from a birthrate of fifteen percent this year. Do you know what that means?”

Antosha performed the calculations in his extended consciousness. “With forty and a half million births this year, instead of sending nineteen million Harpoon candidates to the Lower Level, you’d have to send—”