Crashland (42 page)

“And some peacekeepers knowingly or unknowingly undermine the peace,” Forest said, nodding. The pistol was still in his hand. “The irony is not lost on me. Some might say that the definition of peace has ever been a movable one, but that excuses nothing. OneEarth is a perfect system of governance that people have tried and failed to subvert since its inception. For each faction trying to take over the world, there is another trying to stop them. I am in one of the latter factions.”

“So you say,” said Clair.

In reply, Forest offered her the pistol. She stared at it for a moment, then shook her head.

“You keep it. I'm sick of guns.”

“What about the big lug?” Devin looked from Forest to Clair and back again. “Is she one of the bad guys too, like Drader?”

“No,” said Forest. “She is her own agent.”

Jesse's voice rang out in Clair's ear.

“Clair? Can you hear me? We're going now.”

Clair's attention shifted to the interface linking her to Jesse, via Devin's twin-link.

“Bit busy here right now,” she bumped back.

“Is that Forest with you? Is everything okay?”

“Yes. Don't worry about me. Just go. Let me know when you get there.”

“Uh . . . all right. That was the deal, I guess. Don't forget what I said earlier: he
likes
you.”

Trevin loomed in-frame and raised a stagey thumbs-up. Light flashed and the signal died. The d-mat booth was working. In a moment, Jesse and Trevin would be in transit. A couple of minutes later, they would be in space.

“Was that Jesse you were talking to?” asked Forest. She hadn't realized she was speaking aloud. “Where is he? What is he doing?”

“Finishing what we started,” she said, not wanting to go into any specifics in case someone else was listening. She might already have said too much. “If you hadn't escaped, it would've been done already.”

“I escaped because that was the only way I could think of to force you to return to the muster,” he said. “It is too dangerous for you out there without our protection. Sending Jesse was a wise strategy. Does this mean a target has been confirmed?”

“Yes,” said Devin. “No thanks to you.”

“Excuse me, I have a question,” said Nobody unexpectedly. He pressed against the bars with one hand upraised. “What did PK Forest mean when he said that PK Sargent was her own agent?”

Forest glanced at the only remaining person in the cellblock, apart from Clair, Devin, Sargent, and himself, as though surprised to see anyone there at all.

“You did not escape with the others,” Forest said, “but I do not know you. Unless you are not the person you appear to be . . . ?”

“At your service,” said Nobody.

“Real name Cameron Lee,” said Devin. “Our very own domesticated dupe.”

“He's helping us, on behalf of all of him,” said Clair. “Or at least not getting in our way anymore.”

“I asked you about Sargent,” Nobody prodded.

Forest looked uncertain. He glanced at Nelly and the two thugs, still out cold in their cell, then up at the ceiling. Checking who was listening, Clair thought. Coming to a decision whether to proceed or not.

“You suggested earlier, Devin, that PK Sargent and I have been who we say we are all along,” Forest said, letting the gun hang down at his side. “That is not true. My friend PK Sargent has not been herself for a long time. She was taken during our jump through Net One in New York. I have seen flashes of her at odd times, but never for long. I fear very little of her remains now.”

Clair thought of all the times she had seen Sargent watching or stalking her, and all the odd questions she had asked.

“If she is a dupe,” said Devin, “why on earth didn't you do something about it?”

Flick
. Forest glanced at Clair, and suddenly she understood. She put her hands over her mouth, hardly daring it to be true but
knowing
it was true, in her heart and in her mind. Only one explanation covered so many odd moments and discrepancies. It was the only possible explanation.

“Because she's not a dupe,” Clair said. “She's Q.”

“Q?”

“Yes,” said Forest.

Devin gaped at them both in amazement.

“How?” he asked.

“When she was in Wallace's station,” Clair said, seeing it all so clearly now. “She had access to all that information.”

Forest nodded. “Maybe it was not her immediate intention to transfer to permanent human form, but the experimental data Wallace had collected was available to her when she did decide. The opportunity was hard to find, after the crash. When Net One presented her with both a means and a suitable subject, she took it.”

“
This
is why we couldn't find her,” said Devin, clapping both palms to his forehead. “She had left the Air entirely. She was in Sargent all the time.”

“Yes. I believe she has an inert backup off the Air somewhere, but that is accessed only in direst need—such as when she was reactivated on Ons Island.”

Clair had guessed that too. Sargent's apparent return from the dead wasn't a matter of the PKs breaking the law, but of Q bringing herself back when her stolen body was inconveniently killed.

“That's not the way duping works,” said Devin. “Sargent would have been wiped completely if it was. But it's not Improvement, either, because that takes days to kick in. You think this is something new?”

“Yes,” said Forest. “She is smarter than us. She always has been. What keeps her at our level is her inexperience. I am unsurprised that she came up with something more suited to her needs in such a short time.”

“Why Sargent?” asked Clair, remembering with dismay the worried peacekeeper who had babbled about three meals and grilled her regarding Zep because she didn't want her girlfriend to be dead. She didn't deserve to be written over like Libby had been. “What did she have that Tilly Kozlova's body didn't?”

“She had access to you,” said Forest.

“Why? To spy on me?”

“Exactly. Q has been watching you closely ever since she broke parity and brought you back. Not just watching you: interacting with you, and placing you in situations that put you under extreme pressure.”

“Washington,” said Devin, his expression very grim as he turned to look at Clair. This time he was ahead of her. “The barrages. And Antarctica.”

Forest nodded. “No evidence was ever recovered to indicate that dupes were responsible for either crisis. The same still holds for the kidnapping of your mother. I believe that Q has been behind these incidents, and perhaps others, too.”

“Why?” asked Clair. Dismay blossomed into alarm. “No, wait. I know this, too.
Friendship has to be earned
. That was the last thing she said to me. She's been testing me. She's been trying to decide if I'm worthy.”

“If she's been testing you,” said Devin, worrying at his right ear, “she's been testing all of us. You're a proxy for the human race, Clair—in which case knocking her out was a pretty bad idea.”

“But I didn't
know
.” Clair rushed past Forest and out the open cell door. Sargent's inert body was three cells along. Clair peered in at her, appalled by the thought that this hidden truth could have ramifications far beyond her relationship with Q. “She asked me about herself when we were cleaning up. I can't remember what I said.
I can't remember
.”

“How long have
you
known?” Devin asked Forest.

“My suspicions were raised on the seastead. She threatened to turn off the powersats, which is not something a peacekeeper would say. It is beyond our capabilities—but not beyond hers.”

“You kept it quiet.”

“It seemed prudent to do so. Encouraging Q to trust Clair again has always been one of our objectives.”

She whirled on him. “So you could use her to put everything back together?”

“It was my hope that she would volunteer.”

“And if she didn't?” asked Devin. “A bullet in the back of the head before she broke out again?”

Forest looked horrified. “I am not a monster.”

“Maybe,” said Clair, “but your face is too good at lying.”

His expression relaxed into its usual blankness. “Why do you think that I
could
have killed her? You saw what happened when the dupes tried: she just came right back. I chose to keep her identity to myself in the hope that she would do the right thing, knowing that anything else I did might make the situation much worse.”

“Yeah, well, I guess we'll never know.” Devin shrugged. “Told you they wanted the same thing as us, Clair.”

“Everyone knows,” said Nobody.

It took Clair a moment to realize what he meant. Nobody wasn't talking about Forest's intentions being revealed. He was talking about Q.

She raised her right index finger and poked Devin in the chest. “Who have you told? Who has Trevin told?”

“T's still in transit, so he can't tell anyone. But I did notify RADICAL that the entity has been found.”

“Why?”

“Agnessa is watching this live,” he said with a wounded expression. “If WHOLE knows, I want my people to know. It's too important. And I bet Forest here has told the rest of the PKs too, now that he has no choice. While he kept the secret to himself, the situation could be contained. Now, it's anyone's guess what will happen.”

Clair checked her popularity stats. The number of people observing her, and therefore the Q situation, was growing so fast the numbers were a blur.

“The bullet option is off the table,” Clair said, putting herself protectively in front of Q's cell. “I won't let you harm her.”

“It's a shame she's not awake right now,” Devin said. “Your spirited defense would surely win her over.”

The sound of fighting came from outside the prison. Clair assumed it was one of Agnessa's minions with the key until the WHOLE leader said, “PKs are on the move. So are the dupes. Our gates are under attack.”

“We are receiving reports of suborbital launches,” said Forest.

“Some of them are ours,” said Devin. “The rest are probably dupes.”

“PKs too,” said Agnessa. “LM Kingdon has just pushed through an emergency order authorizing deadly force against anyone resisting the rapid response teams she's sending. She says the muster is the source of the dupes. Needless to say, we're not going to take that lying down.”

“Why did you say anything?” Clair asked Forest. “Why couldn't you keep it secret a little longer?”

“To keep the peace,” he said.

“By starting a war over Q?”

“Conflict here was inevitable. That was what PK Drader wanted—to bring the peacekeepers and the dupes together until another flashpoint was reached, another flashpoint that would justify harsher crackdowns of civil liberties. Now the eyes of the world are on us for a very different reason. People can see what this conflict is really about. The pursuit of Q is the pursuit of power. Those hungriest for it have just revealed themselves. It is not too late for lovers of peace to stand against them.”

His lenses were active. Clair was certain every word was being broadcast all over the world.

LM Kingdon had just been name-checked in the context of a conspiracy to take over the world. Kingdon's profile was already broadcasting a denial, promising an official statement within minutes, but there was no taking PK Forest's suggestion back from the public record.

His expression didn't change, but he looked satisfied.

“You know,” said Devin, “you're a little short to be a revolutionary.”

“I assure you that I am quite the opposite.”

“Maybe, but on which count?”

Clair, at ground zero, felt less than amused.

“The dupes are still out there, remember?” she said. “Let's not throw any parties until they're dealt with.”

At that moment, her lenses stirred.

“WE'RE HERE,” SAID
Jesse. Clair saw a black backdrop in his corner of her infield. There were no visible stars. Angular shapes moved in ways that defied terrestrial gravity. “It's going to take us a moment to put the gear together.”

“Just let me clarify something,” said Trevin, leaning into shot. “Are we destroying this thing or hacking into it? Because I can see advantages in doing the latter.”

“That wasn't the plan,” said Jesse. “This is where the dupes' original patterns are stored. Destroying it is the only way to stop them forever. They'll be like cockroaches, otherwise. They'll keep coming back. Do this now, or we might as well surrender.”

“There's no need to be a drama queen. I'm just suggesting—”

“I know what you're suggesting, and I say it's already been decided. Clair?”

She closed her eyes, thinking of Zep and Libby. For so long, it seemed, she had dreamed of saving them. This was her last chance to do it. When the satellite was destroyed, the last copy of their patterns would be erased and they would be gone forever.

But did she have the right to put the world at risk simply to save her best friend? Q had done just that, and everything had ended up worse as a result.

Libby and Zep and both of Jesse's parents . . . and who knew how many other lost teenagers like Tilly Kozlova . . . versus the fate of OneEarth and civilization as she knew it?

There was only one possible decision.

She wished she had squeezed Libby's hand just a little tighter at the crashlander ball, the last time the two of them had been together.

Good-bye
, she thought.
For real this time
.

She opened her eyes and imagined the whole world watching her. No one outside the muster knew where Jesse and Trevin were, so there was no harm in telling everyone what she had in mind. Nothing could stop the plan now. No
one
.