Ghosts of Empire (Book 4 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (16 page)

“That presents something of a conundrum,” he said. “Coordinator West would prefer that these conversations remain private, yet I’d like to accommodate you.”

Kelsey dug a combat remote from a pouch on her belt. “If you could open up an authorized channel for this device, I could maintain contact with the guards without placing a large hole in your privacy. No one else can use it. I can narrow it down to a single frequency and it will warn me if anyone else is on it.”

He took the remote and examined it curiously. “What is it?”

“It’s a combat remote. It allows me to extend my senses into dangerous places—like ambushes—and target my enemies without exposing myself.”

His expression told her he was impressed. “You must do more fighting than I’d imagined possible. Forgive me, but you aren’t the most imposing of people, Kelsey.”

She felt the corners of her mouth tugging upward. “You’d be surprised.”

“I’ll speak with my people on allowing this device access. I don’t want any of you to feel as though this is an ambush. Excuse me for a moment.”

William went back out of the room, conspicuously leaving the doors open. Kelsey reestablished communication with the marines. More importantly, she reconnected with the high-powered link in one of the marine’s backpacks.

It had the strength to connect her implants with the pinnace and its scanners. With them, she could watch every approach to the building.

Jared would take the lead in the negotiations. She’d focus on making sure no one attacked them while he was busy. She wanted to trust that these people wished them no harm, but they were part of the Rebel Empire. Both of them had implants and could be deeply in the AIs’ pockets.

She’d stay on high alert. If they had betrayal on their minds, she’d make them regret it.

Her mind crept back to the unexpected ability the Ned Quincy program had demonstrated in contacting her and observing her environment. That had her even more on edge. It was changing. She needed to understand what that meant and put a stop to it if it was dangerous. One more thing to worry about.

* * * * *

Olivia settled into one of the comfortable chairs and devoted her attention to Admiral Mertz. She’d selected a juice from the western continent. William always had the best selection. The others followed her lead.

“The exchange shouldn’t take more than a few hours,” she said. “Shall we discuss how we proceed from here?”

“I thought that was settled,” Mertz said. “We would send the Fleet personnel from the station to you in exchange for our people. I don’t have a lot of leeway to offer you the outright freedom that you want.”

“I need to convince the ruling council to approve that deal,” she said. “As you know, getting others to agree to a plan they don’t want to hear is never easy. I’m not actually speaking to that, though. I’m talking about an itinerary while you’re here. I assume you’ll want to see your people.”

William came back in from the hall and closed the doors. He and Miss Bandar joined them near the fireplace.

She shot him a message through her implants.
What’s going on?

Miss Bandar spotted the privacy shielding. She requested an exception for her to maintain communication with their people. I agreed. I also consulted with my head of security about the scans he took as our guests entered the building.

Olivia waited a moment and then mentally sighed.
Don’t make me beg. What did you find?

Miss Bandar is heavily enhanced. Graphene sheathing on her bones, artificial muscles, and other internal equipment that isn’t completely clear. Olivia, as far as I can tell, she really
is
a Marine Raider.

That set Olivia back on her mental heels. Her clandestine research indicated the AIs had decided the Raiders were too dangerous after the rebellion. They were entirely too capable. As far as she knew, the Empire didn’t even make the equipment for that kind of enhancement anymore.

This only deepened the mystery about her guests.

The mental communication had only taken a few moments. Admiral Mertz was just now responding to her statement. “Absolutely. I’d like to see them as soon as possible.”

Miss Bandar cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind, Admiral, I’d like to see if Lord Hawthorne could show me around the city.”

The nobleman smiled widely. “Finally, a task I’m suited for. I know all the most interesting places in the capital. We have some wonderful architecture and cultural sites.”

Olivia nodded. “That sounds like an excellent division of labor. We can return here for dinner. Then you can make the decision to either stay the evening or return to your ship.”

They spoke for a while longer, but the conversation kept coming back around to the prisoners. It was as if they were an itch that Mertz couldn’t scratch. Finally, she decided they just needed to go see them.

She rose to her feet. “Perhaps you’d like to go see your people now? I’ll take you to see the prisoners in the hospital first. A number of them arrived with serious injuries, though most have recovered and been returned to their fellows. Maybe a half dozen of the most badly injured are still under care. I’d be happy to return them to you as a gesture of goodwill.”

“If they can be safely transported, we would appreciate that.”

“Consider it done, then.”

She led the way out. Her official air car had a boxy appearance, due to its heavily armored nature, but she knew from experience that it could go much faster than most people thought possible. It had advanced grav drives and compensators.

Compact screens kept the atmosphere from creating much drag, so it could go as fast as many atmospheric interceptors. She’d never been aboard when that kind of speed was necessary, but her pilot had confided to her that it was a rush to fly so fast.

Her personal guards and Mertz’s marines postured at one another, but got into the car without any actual trouble. She sat across from him as they rose into the air and headed for the city.

“We’ll land directly on the roof of the hospital,” she said. “I suspected we’d be coming, so I made arrangements to go right in.”

“How many people died after they arrived?”

“Many were badly injured,” she said with some sympathy. “We did what we could, but several dozen died anyway. We have their bodies ready to go back with you. I assume you know how many people we have in custody.”

He nodded. “We recovered the bodies after the battle and know who wasn’t there. We’ll do an identification on everyone as they come back. If someone remains unaccounted for, there will be questions.”

“Understandable. We have implant recordings of them coming off the cutters. Your experts will be able to tell that we haven’t tampered with the vids. We won’t be keeping any of your people from you. Again, you have my word.”

She watched him look out over the city and let the silence grow longer. She could see how he took in the vast sprawl of the city. Her suspicions grew as she watched how he reacted. It was as though he’d never seen an urban center this large.

The air car made good time to the hospital. Her driver had no doubt called ahead to clear the way. And, even though most people would probably never notice them, there were other cars keeping pace with them, just in case there was trouble.

The car landed on the roof long enough for the passengers to exit, then it flew away. It would circle until she called for it. She led Admiral Mertz into the busy facility. A trio of doctors in white coats met them just inside.

One stepped forward and bowed. “Coordinator West, I’m Doctor Janice Hauptman, head of the surgical department at Adams Memorial. These are my associates, Doctors Mather and Jimenez. We’ve been overseeing the treatment of our guests.”

Olivia bowed slightly in return. “Doctors. This is Fleet Admiral Jared Mertz. I’ll defer to him about what to see.”

Mertz extended a hand. “Doctors. Thank you for your care of my people. Might I inquire about who they are and their condition?”

“Of course,” Doctor Hauptman said. “We tried to get some medical information from those who could talk, but they were uniformly uninformative. Most gave us a name and serial number. Nothing more. Here is a list.”

Mertz took the tablet from her and scanned the list. “You have several without names. I assume that’s because they’re too injured to speak?”

Hauptman nodded. “Yes. Three of them have been unconscious since they arrived. They are in critical condition, even with full support. I’m guardedly optimistic about two of them making some kind of recovery. The third is still too injured to know.”

He nodded, his expression somber. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to see them first. I might be able to provide their names for you.”

They traveled as a group to the intensive care ward. The first woman was so heavily bandaged that Olivia couldn’t clearly make out her face. She lay in a bed surrounded with life support machines. Tubes and wires crisscrossed her body.

“Why can’t you regenerate her,” she asked Doctor Hauptman.

“Her injuries are so severe that she’s been through six brief sessions in the regenerator. I’m hopeful that she will be strong enough for a longer stint tomorrow. If we can get her to the point she can tolerate full-time treatment, she’ll make it.”

Mertz turned to them. “This is Petty Officer Margret Powers. Do you think she’ll recover?”

Doctor Hauptman nodded. “I do. As will the young man beside her.”

They turned to another young person in much the same condition. Mertz identified him as Able Spacer Thomas Rinaldi.

Doctor Hauptman showed them to a third ward. “This gentleman is in the worst condition. He’d lost his legs prior to arrival and suffered a tremendous amount of internal damage. Frankly, I’m astonished he survived the trip down from orbit. His life or death is almost out of my hands. All we can do is care for him as best we can while his body decides whether to live or die.”

Mertz stared at the man for a long time. “His name is Paul Cooley.”

Chapter Fifteen

Kelsey watched the city pass slowly beneath William’s air car. It had an air of decay about it. Few of the buildings were clean, and some even looked abandoned. It had few of the mega structures that she’d seen in the vids of Terra.

And even though she had no evidence to base her suspicions on, she thought it had been this way even before the AI attacked the planet.

After a few minutes, she turned her attention to the Rebel Empire nobleman. “If you don’t mind my asking, what was behind the suppression on Harrison’s World? I know the basic facts, but what specific events occurred?”

He leaned back in his seat and looked at her with a thoughtful expression. “I’m not privy to all the details, mind you, but I know the general outline. The system lord discovered a movement afoot to usurp its rule. To say that it reacted strongly, well, that’s self-evident.”

“So I’d heard. But, how could it know what was going on down here on Harrison’s World? Boxer Station is not close by and an AI isn’t capable of dropping in for a visit.”

“The Lord had its ways of observing the general populace. It was plugged into every computer system on the planet, I’m sure. It must’ve heard something it didn’t like. I’d imagine that it used persons of proven loyalty to verify everything. That’s all supposition, of course. I have no idea of what really happened. Olivia would know more.”

“It seems like it could’ve used those loyalists to take the conspirators into custody,” Kelsey said. “It’s a huge jump to bombarding the planet.”

He nodded. “It was quite shocking. We haven’t even begun to recover. The Lord obliterated the capital and every spaceport. Unfortunately, those also had large cities around them. We lost more than a third of our population in that one afternoon.”

Kelsey could see the pain he felt clearly written on his face. “You must’ve lost so many friends. I’m sorry.”

William smiled wanly. “You didn’t do anything. The Lord made the decision.” He took a deep breath. “In any case, what’s done is done. Tell me what you think of the city?”

She scrunched her face a little. “It seems as though it could use a good washing. Sorry.”

“Plainly stated, but true. A decade ago, this was the largest manufacturing center on the planet. Mostly run by the middle orders and staffed by the lower. They didn’t have to keep things in the most pristine condition. Functional was the byword. We still haven’t recovered enough to begin making progress on it.”

“It must’ve been quite a challenge to turn it into the capital of the planet.”

He snorted. “You have no idea. My fellow lords never had to directly rule over the common people. They had an entire bureaucracy in the old capital that carried out their instructions and shielded them from any distasteful contact with the grubby merchants and workers. Or, heaven forbid, the criminal elements.

“My family came from the merchant classes of the Empire before the revolution. We still have many connections to that kind of people. That spared us the devastation the other ruling families suffered. Their estates were centered around the old capital. Ours was here.”

He gestured at the cityscape flowing past his elegant vehicle. “This city is not a haven for the higher orders. These people blame us as much as they do the system lord. After all, they don’t know about our AI leaders.”

She thought she heard a mocking undertone to that last, but she wasn’t sure. Perhaps he wasn’t enamored with a machine ruling him.

“Where would you suggest we go first?”

He pursed his lips. “I can think of a number of interesting places.”

“Dealer’s choice. You have some assumptions about what kind of person I am. Surprise me.”

William smiled. “I know just the place.”

* * * * *

Abigail barely noticed as Nelson unstrapped the prisoner that they’d just finished questioning. The first woman had cracked, but she’d held out far longer than Abigail had anticipated. And then there’d been the need to verify the tall tale she’d told. With three others telling the same basic story, Abigail had to believe it was true.