Chrono Inquisitor (Gods Be Damned) (39 page)

I looked up at her and shook my head. “Yeah, it might, but that leads me to problem number two, you fucking infected me with that virus and made it impossible for me to turn on a member of E3, especially its fucking founder. So, as logical as all that sounds, and as much as I’m utterly pissed at you, the option of turning you over isn’t even in the cards. It’s not even in the fucking deck.”

She got on her knees in front of me. “Then help me figure out who orchestrated Julius’s murder.” She was on the verge of begging, which caught me off guard.

She never begged.

Never.

“Nora may have infected him with the thugs, but we know Inquisitor Noble was the catalyst.”

“How so?”

“The
BabbleBru. Immunos are programmed to ignore it because of ChronoGen protocols, so that Inquisitors can use it, but the thugs are meant to eliminate it. Except in Julius’s case, the thugs thought it was an attack. I don’t know why I didn’t check the injection gloves before now. We thought Noble or someone else had given Julius the thugs. I think it’s safe to say that it was Nora after all, but that someone has been experimenting with them here.”

“Someone in your organization.”

“Like I said, a war is brewing.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have to understand, I didn’t create E3 to start a fight with ChronoGen, or to destroy anything.”

“Then why did you?”

“To get you back.”

“Get me back? You started a terrorist organization, to get me back? I’m not the one who left.”

“I may have walked out of our relationship physically and legally, but you walked out of it emotionally way before I did. You allowed your job to rule your life. You let it change you. I thought that if I could make your job obsolete, well, maybe then you would see what you’d become.”

I clapped my hands sarcastically. “Well, I have to give you some props, going to that kind of extreme to win someone’s affections. You’ve got some crazy fucking notion of love.”

“Stop being a smart-dumbass. E3 isn’t a terrorist organization.”

“Really? Because the fact that buildings are being blown up and people murdered, begs to differ.”

“You’ve known me for most of my life. Do you seriously think I’d do something like that? That I’d condone such actions?”

“I’ve killed people, and you don’t seem to have a problem with that.”

“Could you be serious for a fucking second?”

“Said the terrorist.”

“Forget it,” Sam said, and headed for the exit. “The Horsemen can have your ass, dead or alive, for all I care.”

I thought of letting her walk out the door, but then my dad’s words arose from the grave.
“I’ve spent every day since, watching your mother walk out that door, over and over again, hoping that someday I’d get a second chance, but I never did.”

I leapt to my feet. “Sam, wait.” I ran to her and got there just as she reached the door. I positioned myself in front of her, blocking her departure.

“You’re absolutely right. I’m an asshole. But I’m also an asshole capable of learning from my past mistakes. I already let you walk out that door one too many times. I’m not going to let it happen again.”

I got down on my knees. “I may be too late, and my words may mean nothing to you, but I have to try. At this point I can only hope my actions will reflect my intentions.”

I took her hand in mine. “Sam, I’m sorry. I screwed up, too many times to count. You know I don’t believe in fate, destiny, kismet, whatever you want to call it, and yet, somehow, I believe in us. That there is something in this universe, which continues to draw us together. I have no doubt that if I had let you walk out that door, that at some point in the future, our paths would have crossed again. But you know what? I don’t want to waste any more time not being with you. I love you Samsara Manisha Matsuzaki, and I want to be with you, now, and forever, as long as that may be.”

Tears flowed like they had the day I’d proposed, maybe even more so.

“Took you long enough, you rock headed idiot,” she said giving me a slightly painful, playful punch.

She pulled me to my feet. We kissed and hugged.

“Now are you done wasting time?” she asked.

“I’m all ears. What were you trying to tell me about a war?”

“E3 aren’t terrorists. At least not everyone, that is. Its purpose is to be a humanitarian organization. Our mission is to allow open access to technology to anyone who needs it.”

“Now, I’m not trying to argue,” I said, holding up my hand. “But if you give free access to baptisms, this world is going to go to hell faster than a hummingbird beats its wings. There has to be checks and balances.”

“Are we going to go down this road again? We don’t have time. My point is, there’s a crack in the organization. Certain members have become radical in their ideas to bring it about. They want to start a war with ChronoGen. All the bombings and attacks are the result of a small branch of E3, using the name of
my
organization to enact their own vision. I don’t condoned what they’re doing. Especially since they’re doing it in the name of E3.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m saying. People are people. Giving them all that they could ever want is just going to make them want something more. Humans won’t ever be fully satisfied. It’s a pipe dream, Sam, can’t you see that? No matter what you do, there always has to be someone in charge, someone keeping everyone else in line. It’s not only human, it’s life. Period.”

“Not if we can make people more than human. Not if we can make them gods in their own right. Our myte and baptism technology comes from the Celestials, but they’re keeping control of it. Kremalakin was one of them. They’re responsible for all the bloodshed. They’re holding us back, keeping us beneath them. That’s what I’m trying to do, what E3 is really about. I’m trying to make it so we can be at their level.”

“They aren’t gods, and you can’t make people into gods. Even if you could, how would that make anything better? All you’d be doing is making the struggles of life more epic in scale. Look at the Celestials, they’re a perfect example. They’re more advanced than us, and yet if what you’re saying is true, they’re not any more enlightened than the average human. Look at any polytheistic religion, the gods were simply fucked up humans with superpowers. They still bickered, fought, and tried to kill each other, all the while wreaking havoc on the little guys.”

“For one thing, those are simply man made myths and notions of what gods could be. I’m talking about absolute equality. If everyone had the same capabilities and limitations, they wouldn’t be able to do any of those things. Fighting would be pointless if everyone were truly equal. Think of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. If you couldn’t hurt someone in any way, and they couldn’t hurt you, how could there be a conflict. And besides, each of our godselves could have their own universe. That’s what I’m talking about, Travis. I’m talking about utilizing the technology the Celestials gave us, and taking it even further, making us better than them. We can do it if we’re given enough time and not being held back.”

I shook my head. “It’s still crazy to think of turning people into gods.”

“Is it? A hundred years ago people thought telepathy or thought transference was supernatural or a hoax, and now look, we talk to each other every day without moving our lips, and you and I are now able to share our thoughts and our feelings. I’m on the front lines of this. We can put the same programs within a machine and make it do what we want with our thoughts. Telekinesis.”

“Okay, okay, great, but those things don’t make a person a god.”

“What does? Immortality? The Celestials say they’re thousands of years old. We’re working and getting close to that. Strength? We can make a person stronger than any other animal on the planet. You have no idea what’s going on in ChronoGen labs around the world. I’ve seen things that would make your head spin. I’ve seen a man fight not only a bear, but a lion and tiger as well. At the same time. He killed the bear with a single punch, then snapped the lion’s neck. To end the spectacle he ripped the tiger’s front legs off. That was just the first round of testing. Next he wrestled five gorillas and beat them all to a bloody pulp. For the final feat he tackled and brought down an elephant weighing just over five thousand kilograms.”

I shook my head and laughed. “I’ve seen such videos, they’re either a hoax, or the guys were actually augmented with artificial limbs. Like the Horsemen.”

“I’m serious. Yes, there are fake videos circulating, but what I saw was real, and the man wasn’t mechanically augmented, he was genetically engineered, as in, biologically enhanced, all in the name of science and self-made evolution. The Celestials and Richards are trying to push the boundaries of what we’re capable of. I think they’re planning to turn us into slaves.”

“That doesn’t make any sense though. From what you told me, they’re digital beings. Why would they need us? They’re beyond physical bodies. Besides,
ChronoGen wouldn’t be stupid enough to meddle with that shit. All it’d take is a single Republic or Empire finding out about that, and the company would be seized, torn to shreds, and divvied up for ethical violations.”

“Wow!” she said. “You’re even more ignorant than I imagined.
ChronoGen controls all the Republics, and the Celestials control ChronoGen. We’re already slaves to them. They practically own the whole fucking world. Look at every leader. Not a single one doesn’t own at least some stock in the company. They’re all puppets. Don’t you see that? Look at you.”

“What about me?”

“Um, there’s the little fact that Inquisitors are above the law in every country that ChronoGen does business with. It’s part of the contract they make leaders sign upon receiving their silver stock portfolios.”

“I’ve heard this lecture before. Just a few hours ago in fact. Speaking of which, tell that to Ranger Stevenson and President Collins. Since it seems you’ve forgotten, I tried to leave this cursed resort the moment I found Beit dead. I was fucking blackmailed into staying. Turns out my shit ass deputy decided to try and take some souvenirs home with him, and because, well, I brought him into the Republic, I’m fucking responsible for his shit. So, it was either stay and try to solve the case, or lose my job and spend the next few years in prison. More and more, I’m thinking I made a mistake.”

Sam was starting to look like she’d made a mistake as well. “And I’m starting to think you’ll never change. If it had been any other Inquisitor, you would have been let go. They kept you here so that the Horsemen could apprehend you themselves.”

“Fuck!”

I sighed.

“I’m sorry, Sam. I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Can a man truly change? They say a tiger can’t change its stripes. Guess I can’t either, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to keep trying”

She kissed me. “You know what? I’m the one that’s made the mistake. I shouldn’t be expecting you to change. I either love you as you are, or I don’t. And I do love you. I don’t like everything about you, but I do love you, Travis Enki Ryker Yan.”

I kissed her. “How about this, my dear sweet, Sam? No more passing blame, not on each other, not on ourselves. We are who we are, and we find a way to accept that. From now on we simply do what we can to make the other one happy, and no more building up expectations.”

“Do you think it’ll work?”

“All we can do is try. Kali, set a Priority One, above any other already in place, don’t let me forget how much I love this woman, hear me?”

“You sentimental sap,” Sam said. “You forgot, Kali isn’t inside your head at the moment.”

I had, and I hadn’t even noticed that she hadn’t responded.

“You’re one to talk,” I said.

She hugged me, and I hugged her back. We stood there holding each other for what seemed like eternity. I didn’t want to let go, but eventually we did.

“Now what do ya say,” I said. “How about we solve this case once and for all?”

“What are you doing about Kali and Death?”

“Kali says Death is her prisoner.”

“And you think she can actually control him? I wouldn’t want a Celestial in my head.”

“I wouldn’t either, except he gave me some ideas about using your thugs to make sure that neither him, nor any other Celestial can do anything to me. Care to help me make some new thugs?”

“Let’s see what you have in mind.”

“Sam and Travis,” I said. “Together again. Watch out world, the unstoppable duo is back in action.”

“I forgot how much of a goofball you can be,” Sam said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

“So did I. Maybe you’re some kind of drug and I’m on a contact high.”

I kissed her, again, and again, and again, until she laughed and pushed me away.

“You’d think we were teenagers,” she said.

“Maybe the next time we bathe, we should opt to physically look the part. I hear it boosts your sex drive.”

“Like you need any boost, you perverted old man.”

“But I’m your perverted old man.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

She slapped me on the ass, so I grabbed hers in return.

“No more of that now, we have work to do,” she said.