Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) (28 page)

Jane slouched in her chair. “I know that feeling. Sometimes I feel like I’m being mind-controlled by my dad. It’s like he’s in my head giving me orders even when he’s not around, and my thoughts are actually his.”
Knock it off. I’m not turning this into another Dad conversation.
“But anyway, what’s happening to you now is different. It seems to be telling you to… betray us.”

“I would never do that,” Adam said firmly. “I swear, Jane, I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

What am I supposed to say?
She wished Adam wouldn’t talk like that. “Yeah, I know.” She kept her tone casual in an attempt to steer things back toward normality. “Hey, the first thing we’re doing once we get outta here is finding one of those super-advanced body scanners and checking you for a brain chip.”

How’re we supposed to leave with no power? Where can we go that’d be safe?

Jane got up. The familiar black dots surged across her vision. She grabbed the back of the seat to steady herself. Her knees buckled, and she felt herself sinking…

Her focus returned. Adam supported her, his arms around her. Jane vaguely remembered him calling her name.

She quickly left his embrace. “Just a head rush. Stood up too quickly, that’s all. Devin’s been back there long enough. I’m gonna go tell him off now.”

Jane left the cockpit and walked into the living quarters. Her brother sat on the ground against a wall, staring at a hologram projected from his slate.

“What’re you doing?” she asked.

“Catching up on the news again.” Devin dully tossed the slate away.

Jane picked it up, wondering why he was so upset. The hologram displayed a reporter standing outside a courthouse. She tentatively pressed “Play.”

“Although the defendant is still at large, the tribunal has reached a verdict concerning the attempted murder of Victor Colt. Due to the heinous nature of his crime, Devin Colt has been sentenced to death.”

Stunned, Jane sank to the floor beside her brother.

“The execution has been scheduled for two weeks from today. The authorities have been granted permission to perform the execution upon arrest if Devin Colt is not apprehended by that time.”

They were going to
kill
him. She knew his life had been in danger from the moment he ran from Quasar, but hearing it passed off as justice made it worse—and real.

She stopped the hologram and whispered, “They can’t.”

Devin leaned his head against the wall. “I’m not surprised. They have evidence, witnesses… Hell, they could’ve dredged up motive. Everyone knows I never got along with him. Play the previous one.”

Jane peered into her brother’s face, trying to figure out what his expression meant. It was somehow rage and resignation, loss and utter defeat. She’d never seen him like that. She didn’t know what else to do, so she played the previous video.

A hologram of Sarah appeared. “Devin Colt always scared me. He was so charming, and I was foolish enough to believe him when he said he’d changed. By the time I realized what a monster he really was, it was too late. I tried to work up the courage to leave him, but I was too frightened.” She looked down, as though suppressing tears. “I wish I’d said something to someone. Maybe they would’ve noticed there was something wrong with him, and none of this would have happened. Please understand, I only agreed to marry him because I was afraid of what he’d do to me if I refused. I want nothing to do with him, and I hope they catch him soon.”

Jane smoldered with fury. “
Bitch
. She’s not real anyway. Your Sarah would kick her ass if she saw this.”

“She
is
my Sarah.” Devin’s voice was low. “She’s the only Sarah there ever was. I fell for an illusion.”

What?
Jane’s body shook. She wasn’t sure whether it was from the weakness fast enveloping her body or the intense sorrow bruising her heart. To keep still, she hugged her knees, unable to find it in herself to ask her questions.

Devin seemed to read them in her expression. “I found Kron. He’s not involved with No Name. He was tracking their activities, and he showed me some of their files. I knew something was wrong when I found out that Sarah’s identity was faked. I shouldn’t have tried to deny it, should’ve believed the obvious and spared us all a lot of grief. I saw her test program, saw how her expressions, her voice—even some of her words—were taken from watching the way other women behaved, combined to create a perfect lie.”

The madness behind his eyes made Jane shudder. She didn’t dare speak as her own eyes welled up at the sight of her brother’s pain. He sounded as though he’d given up on everything, as though… he wanted to die.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Devin sounded disgusted. “I didn’t lose anyone. Sarah never existed, so how could I lose her? It’s kind of funny if you think about it. I’m engaged to a one-year-old. That’s what Kron said. And he laughed. He laughed away as he watched my world shatter.”

There were no tears in his eyes and no quiver in his voice, only a flat statement of fact. Jane nevertheless sensed his agony. A rush of fury engulfed her. “
I’ll kill him
.”

Devin looked away. “He’s already dead. Shot through the head, his brilliant brains splattered across the images of the women who became Sarah.”

Normally, Jane would’ve known her brother couldn’t kill anyone in cold blood, but the unfamiliar iciness in his voice, the stillness in his face, the madness—she was at a loss as to how to answer.

“I didn’t do it.” Devin smiled wryly. “But I might as well have. They’ll pin it on me, and I don’t blame them. I did run into his office waving a gun. No Name’s all about perfection, right? The perfect singer. The perfect love. And now, I’m their perfect murderer.”

Jane’s question burst from her lips: “What happened?”

“He was about to tell me everything. He mentioned something called the ‘Pandora Project’ and then…” Devin pointed his finger like a gun. “
Bang
.” He flicked his wrist.

“Was it the internal defenses again?”

“Yeah. No Name’s favorite modus operandi. I guess Kron was a liability, and they were waiting for someone like me to come along so they could off him without drawing attention to themselves.”

“Wait, how could they have known you were there? The Gag Warriors shut down the cameras. Riley said you’d be invisible!”

“Unlike Sarah, they’re not perfect.”

“Forget Sarah!” Jane’s fury returned even as she felt herself fading. “She was never real anyway, so forget all about her! What we have to do now is
clear your name
. Show those idiots who call themselves ‘justice’ you didn’t do it!”

“Maybe I did.” Devin’s voice was almost a whisper. “Dad’s good as dead because of me. Hell, even Kron’s dead because of me. All because I tried to save a girl who never existed.”

“Devin…”

“I don’t care anymore.” His tone turned harsh. “Sarah was my one shot at happiness, my one way out of this numb misery I call life. She never existed. That chance never existed, and I was
stupid
to believe anything could change. I have no future, no hope… nothing.”

“You’ve got me!” The darkness invaded into Jane’s vision again. “I… I’ll always…”

“
Jane
!” Devin reached toward his sister as she slumped to the floor. He was too late to catch her. Her eyes were closed and her breath shallow. One arm lay across her stomach. He noticed a reddish scar on her wrist and pushed her sleeve back. Burns covered her forearm, some sickeningly discolored.

Shit. The chemical—it
was
toxic.

Adam scrambled into the room. He knelt beside Jane, put a hand on her shoulder, and shook her. “Jane, wake up! Jane!”

How long had she been sick? How much pain had she hidden behind those cocky smirks? If Devin had paid attention to her instead of obsessing over Sarah, he would’ve noticed her weakness was more than fatigue. “I should’ve taken her to a hospital the moment we landed on Fragan.”

“Don’t blame yourself.” Adam put a hand on Jane’s forehead and brushed her hair out of her face. “She’s ice cold.”

Jane’s eyelids fluttered. “Adam?” They fell shut, as though she didn’t have the strength to keep them open. “Where’s Devin?”

Devin took her hand in his. “I’m right here, Pony.”

The corner of her mouth flickered, as if she was trying to smile. “Devin, don’t be sad. You’ll always have me.”

“I know.” He picked her up. Her body hung limply in his arms, and he felt no warmth in her skin.

“I’m fine.” Her voice was faint. “I need some sleep, that’s all.”

Devin placed her in the hammock. “I’m getting you help.”

Jane’s eyes popped open. “Don’t you dare!” She barely lifted her head before sinking back. “You know we can’t… What about justice, Devin? What about…”

Her eyes closed, and her head lolled to the side. She looked like her own ghost, and she suddenly seemed so fragile.

I should never have listened to her protests. I only did because it meant I could keep looking for Sarah.

Devin backed away, feeling as though his very presence endangered her. “This is my fault.”

Adam approached the hammock. “I didn’t know she was sick either.”

Devin started to leave the room. He knew what he had to do. “Take care of her. I’ll figure something out.”

Concern crossed Adam’s face. “She wouldn’t want you doing anything that would put you in harm’s way. She loves you too much for that. You have no reason to blame yourself. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Devin stopped. “How could you know that? You barely know me. In fact, why did you believe me in the first place, when I said I was framed?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Devin recognized the idealistic nonsense filling the kid’s head and wanted to shake the blind faith out of him. He left in silence.

He entered the cockpit and looked down at the useless control screen. The ship was dead in space, floating aimlessly through the void. Even if he could pilot it, less than a day’s worth of power remained. Where would he go? No Name had infiltrated two of the IC’s most powerful companies and attacked their big shots, the ones with the best security. They’d hacked an entire float and destroyed a building full of soldiers under the nose of a Megatooth warship.

And Jane had been poisoned.

Fuck
.

A thought entered his mind as he recalled something Kron had said, the possibility that…
I’m probably wrong
. Even if Devin were right, there was nothing he could do about it—nothing that wouldn’t make things worse. When it came to the Pandora Project, knowledge was lethal. Perhaps it was best to dismiss the notion.

He returned to the living quarters and stood in the doorway. Adam wrapped a blanket around Jane and kissed her softly on the forehead.
Damn, he really loves her. Poor kid.

The look in Adam’s eyes said he would be there for her, no matter what, looking out for her even if she didn’t think she needed him. Devin hoped the kid truly was who he appeared to be. As long as he was, Jane would be all right. If he wasn’t… Well, she’d still be better off with him than on the run with her fugitive brother.

The brother whose carelessness nearly killed her.

That’s it. Time to end this.

Chapter 16

The Interrogation

A
n abrupt lurch woke Jane.
Her hammock swayed. The ship must have bumped into something. She pushed through the crushing weariness and sat up.

Adam leaned against the wall, asleep on the floor beside her.

Must’ve been out a while.
“Adam? Adam!”

Adam blinked. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.”

Devin entered and looked at Jane with a strange sadness.

What’s wrong?

“Hey, Pony.” His voice was quiet. “I’m glad you’re awake. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Rhythmic marching boots pounded the decking. Jane bolted from the hammock and stumbled out of the living quarters. Her vision blacked out, and she fell.

Devin caught her. When her eyesight returned, she saw the open door of the Stargazer and the airtight tunnel attached to a larger ship. The boots belonged to four crimson-clad soldiers, led by a regal-looking woman in a red commander’s uniform: Commander Vega of the
Granite Flame
.

“Devin, what did you do?
What did you do
?” She tried to run, but Devin held her back. “Let me go! I’ll get us outta here! I’ll make us disappear!”

“Jane, stop! It’s no use!”

“They’ll
kill
you! We’ve gotta go! We’ve gotta…” Jane felt herself sink. Darkness covered her vision.

When she came to, she found that Adam held her. Devin waited by the ship’s door.

Jane tried to escape. “
Let me go
! I’ve gotta get to the cockpit! I’ve gotta get us outta here!”

The soldiers entered, and one of them handcuffed Devin.

Commander Vega clasped her hands behind her back and lifted her chin. “Devin Colt, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of your father and for the murder of Dr. Revelin Kron. You have been sentenced to death, and you are to be taken back to Kydera Major for processing.”

Jane couldn’t find the strength to say aloud the cries in her head:
You can’t! He’s innocent! No Name’s still out there! You’ve gotta to let him go!

Devin looked at Commander Vega. “My sister’s very ill. Please see that she receives medical attention.”

Commander Vega nodded and waved a hand at the soldiers.

Jane wanted to cry out, to fight, but her body sank again. She could barely see through the black veil before her vision.

Devin glanced over his shoulder as they led him away. “It’s fine, Pony. They’ll take care of you.”

A heavy cold consumed Jane, and the darkness returned.

Commander Vega usually left interrogations to her subordinates, but she wanted to handle Devin Colt’s interrogation herself. After ensuring that her cybernetics team rigorously monitored the
Granite Flame’s
central computer for potential hacks, she left the bridge in the hands of her second-in-command and went down to the brig.

She entered the small interrogation room and sat down at the steel-gray table across from her prisoner, whose hands were chained before him. High-tech heart rate monitors and movement-scanning machines surrounded him. Behind him, a large screen displayed the results. Commander Vega had only ordered them to be employed due to protocol; her intuition was the only lie detector she’d ever needed.

Colt stared blankly at the wall. “Is Jane all right?”

“She’s unconscious but stable.” Commander Vega sensed an unusual melancholy about him, and he suddenly looked very young—too young to die. Something about the situation felt off, but she wouldn’t let that keep her from objectivity.
He’s a murderer.
“Your sister was poisoned by a toxic chemical. If my medical team hadn’t reached her when they did, she would have died within a day, and you would have been responsible for her death, as well.”

“I didn’t even know she was sick. She was so strong…” Colt shook his head. “And so stubborn.”

Commander Vega clasped her hands and placed them on the table. “Why was she with you?”

“I kidnapped her. Needed a human shield, remember?” He was clearly lying, sarcastic even.

“I want the truth.”

“That’s the only truth there is.” His stare seemed to challenge her, daring her to elicit a different answer.

I shouldn’t waste my time on the matter.
“What about Adam Palmer? Why was he with you?”

Colt broke his stare. “Found him on Travan Float. Jane wasn’t having a mental breakdown when she said he’d been kidnapped.”

Travan Float…
Commander Vega mentally ran through the facts. “A recent report from one of the Fringe patrols stated that Travan Float lost control of its internal defenses and robotic units. A space battle followed, between various unrelated mercenary and pirate ships that appeared to have no motive. Were you involved with that?”

Colt nodded. “They were after us. It started after we broke into a storage unit and found Adam drugged in there.”

“Adam Palmer has been on Dalarune since the day before you shot your father.” From the records, Commander Vega knew he had to be lying again. The lie detectors told her he was not. People had been known to overcome the machines before. Given his past as an ISARK informant, he might have training in that area.

Nevertheless, she pursued her questions. “Your father was a great man. He gave you everything—life, opportunities, even cleaned up after your indiscretions. Why did you want to kill him?”

Colt looked her in the eye. “I didn’t.”

Commander Vega felt her jaw tighten. “You have already been convicted, and there is no use in lying. But I am the one who has been pursuing you, and I want to know what would drive you commit such an atrocity.”

“I didn’t. I swear. I went to talk to him, and he lowered the shades in his office. Anything that was seen from the outside was a computer-generated video.” Colt lifted the corner of his mouth into a humorless smile. “They can make fakes very convincing these days.”

How far will you go?
“Your gun was found at the scene.”

“Someone installed it in the internal defense system.”

“The forensics report said the blast’s trajectory was consistent with being fired point-blank at Victor Colt’s forehead.”

“It was forged.”

You have an answer for everything, don’t you?
Irate frustration chipped Commander Vega’s composure. The lies were as insulting as they were blatant. Yet that off feeling prevented her from being sure they
were
lies. For the first time since she’d been given command of the
Granite Flame
, she felt uncertain.

She looked past Devin Colt at the screen showing the lie detectors’ results. According to his heart rate and eye movements, he told the truth, but again, the machines had been outwitted in the past.

Stubborn bastard. Next topic, then.
Commander Vega unclasped her hands and rested her back against her chair. “What about Dr. Kron? Why did you murder him?”

Colt leaned toward her. “I haven’t murdered anyone. I’ve only killed when I had to.”

Commander Vega stiffened. “I read your ISARK file. You hunted that man like an animal, and you killed him in cold blood.”

“That’s not what I did.”

She realized she digressed and returned to her intended subject. “You were seen in BD Tech’s Fragan facility carrying a weapon, the same weapon we confiscated upon your arrest. The security team was alerted to your presence by an anonymous tip and found you fleeing the scene of Dr. Kron’s murder. What were you doing there?”

“I went to get answers. I wanted to know—” Colt broke off and examined her face, as though trying to read her. “Have you heard of an entity called No Name?”

“
I
will be asking the questions,” Commander Vega snapped. “To what are you referring?”

“The IC cyberpolice have been tracking them for years. Kron was tracking them too. They’re like phantoms in the Net. No one knows who they are or how much they’ve done, but they’re powerful.’”

“How is this relevant?”

“I thought Kron was behind No Name. I tried to make him tell me what he knew. He was about to tell me, and they shot him. Just like they shot my father.”

Commander Vega bristled. “How dare you. Isn’t it bad enough your sister almost died because of what you’ve done? Why can’t you take responsibility instead of blaming a fantasy?”

Colt didn’t blink. “It’s no fantasy. This is their way of getting rid of me because I found out what they’re doing. I know you won’t believe me, but you asked for the truth, and I’m giving it to you.”

Commander Vega had much more to say, but she’d come with a purpose and couldn’t allow her personal irritation to get in the way. “Dr. Kron had ties to several amateur programmers ten years ago.” She kept her words objective. “They were talented hackers who had previously refused BD Tech’s attempts to recruit them, and they all died or vanished under mysterious circumstances. Do you know anything about that?”

Colt nodded. “Some think they were working on artificial intelligence. The Collective believes No Name is involved in something similar.”

“The murdered programmers were members of the Collective. They were also involved with a well-known cybercriminal with the alias ‘Mastermind.’”

“That was Kron. That’s why I thought he was No Name.” Colt looked down and knit his dark eyebrows in thought. “He was using them for the Pandora Project… He was mining the Collective for talent.”

“What are you talking about?”

Colt met Commander Vega’s gaze. “Right before he died, Kron mentioned something called the ‘Pandora Project.’ Someone tracked No Name’s origins to the BD Tech facility on Fragan. Kron may not have been No Name, but he must’ve been involved in its origins, and they killed him and those programmers to cover it up.”

Commander Vega’s frustration grew to a dangerous level. “Your conspiracy theories will do you no good.”

“I have no reason to lie.”

“You have no reason to tell the truth either.”

“Yes, I do.” Colt spoke intensely. “Whatever happens to me, I want No Name stopped. You should too. They’re the ones who sent those Barracudas to Viate-5.”

“That’s enough!” Commander Vega stood. “Seventeen good men and women died that day because of you!”

“How could I have been behind it? I was in that building too. My
kid sister
was in there!”

Commander Vega scowled. “You didn’t care when you used her as a human shield and let her slowly die right in front of you.”

Colt looked as though he’d been punched. He opened his mouth, then closed it, as though he had something he wanted to tell her, but couldn’t. “I didn’t send those Barracudas.”

Commander Vega slammed her hands on the table. “You must have been involved. How else could
you
have escaped when my people were
massacred
?”

“We barely made it. It was No Name, the same ones who have been behind
everything.
They were covering their tracks. Why else would they have attacked right when your troops went in? That building stood abandoned for five years!”

Commander Vega glared at him. It made sense.
A little too much sense.

“And what about Travan Float?” he pressed. “Do you really think Madam Wrath would care enough about one person to kill her own thugs in an attempt to gun me down?”

Commander Vega strode for the exit. “This is a waste of time. I
will
find the truth, with or without your cooperation.”

The door closed behind her. Her mind filled with doubts that, try as she might, she couldn’t dismiss. Records and evidence told her that Devin Colt was a mentally unstable liar. The lie detectors’ results meant nothing. He had once spent almost a year living a deception, as part of an undercover operation.

The intuition that had never failed her before told Commander Vega he’d been honest and that she was missing something. All the same, facts were facts. Disputing them was irrational.

She made her way into the medical sector. Jane Colt lay unconscious on a hospital bed. The girl had been so desperate for her brother to escape. She must have gone with him willingly, volunteered to be his human shield on Viate-5.
Foolish girl. Loyalty can be a fault.

She could have had Jane Colt arrested for aiding and abetting a fugitive, but as far as she was concerned, the girl’s only crime was loving her brother. Commander Vega was prepared to argue vehemently against anyone who suggested she be considered an accomplice.

Adam Palmer sat in a chair beside the hospital bed. He held the girl’s hand and watched over her as she slept. He seemed to glow with sweet innocence. Commander Vega approached. Even if her prisoner had thrown her intuition, the boy would be an easy read. “Palmer.”

Palmer stood quickly. “Yes, Commander?”

“What were you doing on that Stargazer with Jane Colt and her brother? When did you leave Dalarune?”

“Commander, I was never on Dalarune. The last thing I remember before waking up on Travan Float is entering my dorm room at the seminary. That was almost a week ago. Jane and her brother found me, and I went with them because I wanted to know who took me and why.”

He was telling the truth—she was certain of it. There was no more to say. Commander Vega started to leave.

Palmer caught up to her. “Commander?”