Manifestations (42 page)

‘I see. When do you think that will happen?’

‘In the next cycle. Current projection is in less than three hours.’

Pinter nodded. ‘That doesn’t give us much time then, does it?’

‘What do you intend to do?’ Ryu asked.

‘To be honest I haven’t given it much thought.’

‘You must have,’ Ryu insisted.

‘A commander lives by his contingencies. I have strategies for each of the scenarios, but I don’t believe the Prime should make too many plans.’

‘Are you accusing me of —’

Ryu was cut off by Geof exclaiming, ‘Look at this!’ He cleared the screens to black and then lay down four images. Shen Li, Morritz Kay, Risom Cawthorne and the cargo manifest of the train he had escaped from West on. ‘ Your suspicion was right, Prime. It was carrying a shipment of baubles from Kay’s micro-fac.’

‘This is too much coincidence for my liking,’ Pinter said.

‘I would like permission to ask Peter Lazarus to inspect one of them,’ Geof said.

‘You suspect it may have something to do with psionics?’ Ryu asked.

‘I want to know for sure that it doesn’t.’

The Prime and the Colonel waited for each other. With the seesaw of their status neither was sure who should speak. With a dismissive gesture, Ryu indicated for Geof to proceed. ‘But let me speak to him first.’

‘I’ll open the connection and have a sample sent to his tower.’

~ * ~

Peter Lazarus was lying alone in his room with the lights out. He had showered and lay with his shirt off, letting the cuts and bruises air-dry. His symbiot told them he wasn’t asleep.

After the confrontation with Risom the three residents of the needle kept to themselves. Arthur had been hospitalised and was sedated in his bed, recovering from a graft to his ribs. Gock now routinely kept away from the psis.

‘What are you thinking about, Mister Lazarus?’ Ryu asked him.

The psi didn’t speak.

‘Are you disappointed that your escape attempt failed?’

‘I wasn’t trying to escape,’ Pete said quietly.

‘Your saviour didn’t save you. Tell me, Mister Lazarus, was Pierre Jnr at Magnus Towers?’

‘I... I’m not sure.’

‘Would you tell us if you were? Arthur Grimaldi told us he was there.’ Pete didn’t answer. ‘I see we will have to start again on your conditioning,’ the Prime said.

‘Did you contact me for a confession, Prime?’ Lazarus asked bitterly. ‘Then fine. I did it. I tried to escape. I am in league with Pierre Jnr. He’s here in the room with me now.’

Ryu smiled and prompted Geof to take over.

‘Pete, it’s Geof here. I need your help with something.’

‘And you would trust me?’

‘You know me, Pete. We can trust each other.’

The psi was silent. He lay quietly before straightening up and throwing the connection with Geof onto the window screens.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘How are you feeling?’ Geof asked.

‘Surprisingly well. I’m sorry Risom got away.’

‘Nobody blames you.’

‘Nobody?’ Geof didn’t answer. ‘How are you, Geof? Where are you?’

‘I shouldn’t tell you where I am. I’m good.’

‘You don’t trust me enough to tell me even that.’

‘It’s not me, I follow the Command.’

‘And the Command says not to trust telepaths. What else do they say about me, Geof? The ones who have me on trial?’ Pete asked.

‘Nothing that makes sense.’

‘I mean, you don’t know, do you? I don’t know for sure. Maybe Pierre has been controlling me all this time. But why would he send me to Services to chase him?’

‘Maybe you were a probe?’ Geof suggested.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Pierre Jnr might have sent you in to gather information on Services and then he collected what he wanted at the manifestation.’

‘I’m everybody’s pawn,’ Pete said.

‘And I’m afraid I now need you to be a guinea pig. I’m sending something over for you to look at.’

Geof shared a still image of a metal ball with many-faceted sides that caught the light. ‘Do you know what this is?’

‘No,’ Pete said. ‘I’ve never seen it. Why?’

‘Risom was wearing one.’ The image zoomed out to show that it came from a surveillance camera that had caught Risom on the train. The bauble was hanging on a cord around his neck.

‘I didn’t notice. What is it?’ Pete asked.

‘I don’t know what it is, but I know who is making them.’

‘You’re being cryptic,’ Pete said.

‘I can’t say much, Pete. I know who made the first one, but I don’t know what it does.’

~ * ~

The Colonel and Ryu watched the interaction on the window screens. The Prime drew Pinter to one side.

‘What are your intentions if you become Prime?’ Ryu asked him.

‘I will do as the Will wishes.’

‘Of course, but you must announce a plan of action for them to support.’

‘There are still basically two major problems facing the WU. We don’t have a means of defeating either at this point in time.’

‘You would make peace?’

‘I’m saying the choice is not ours to make.’

‘You would accept defeat?’

‘Does one fire their guns into a hurricane? No. So why do something useless for show? You believe it is a sign of weakness to stop fighting. I see it as a sign of madness to carry on.’ Pinter smiled at him. ‘Let’s live to fight another day.’

‘If we don’t win, we face the destruction of the World Union. And I didn’t put you in charge to take away my position,’ Ryu said.

‘Nor did I take the mission to depose you. But the Will is the Will. Besides ... you could have listened to my advice.’

~ * ~

The cameras followed Peter Lazarus as he left his room and collected the small box that Geof sent to the delivery shute. Inside it was a chrome-plated ball. Pete touched it and then stumbled backward to find a seat.

‘What is it, Pete? Are you okay?’ Geof asked. The two commanders came back to stand behind him.

‘I’m okay,’ the psi said. ‘It was just a shock.’

‘What was? What is it?’ Geof asked.

‘It’s ...’ The psi was taking long, deep breaths. ‘It’s incredible. I can feel so far ...’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Geof, do you know what this is? It’s an amplifier,’ Pete said.

Geof flicked his eyes to the Prime and then to Pinter. They nodded for him to keep talking.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It extends my mental range.’

‘I want to try something,’ Geof said. ‘Just stay as you are and let me know if you sense any change.’

Geof put his side of the connection on freeze and looked at Ryu Shima and the Colonel. ‘We should see if it has a compounding effect. What happens if we put another close to him.’

‘You’ve got a theory?’

‘Yes.’

‘I think I know where you are going with this. Continue.’

Geof organised for another bauble to be delivered to the needle that was in closest proximity to the needle Lazarus was in.

Pinter made an annoyed sound with his tongue. ‘I knew Risom’s attack was too coordinated. How could he have known Lazarus would try to stop him killing Nigel Westgate, and then force him to escape through Magnus Towers? The explosives must have already been planted.’

‘He didn’t know we would send Lazarus. Risom might have known we had him on the islands.’

‘I think whatever this is,’ the Colonel nodded at Geof with his chin, ‘implies that the attack on the towers might have been preplanned.’

‘And it was all a distraction to get their hands on these baubles?’

~ * ~

‘Oh ...’ the psi moaned. They turned their attention back to the feed from Pete’s needle.

‘What is it doing?’ Geof asked him.

‘I can hear the thoughts of two people over there.’ He pointed without looking. ‘They are discussing politics and their names are Lauren Rockliffe and Luke McGee.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Geof said, verifying the data. ‘Yes. That’s right.’ Ryu sent a message through for him to break the connection and Pinter was making a hand gesture that indicated the same.

‘This is an incredible feeling, Geof,’ Pete cooed. ‘I feel enormous.’

‘I’m sorry, Pete. We have to discontinue this conversation. I have a priority shift. I have to ask you to return the bauble to the delivery shute.’

‘Why can’t I —’

‘We have to stop talking now. Goodbye, Pete.’

Geof shut down the feed. The windows returned to transparency, the lights of Yantz switching on for the night.

‘Why did you make me pull out?’ Geof asked.

‘We couldn’t allow you to keep talking to him. He is a psi,’ the Prime answered.

‘But Pete is on our side. He didn’t hide anything from us.’

‘Peter Lazarus is a telepath. He can never be on our side.’

‘Colonel, help me here. This isn’t right.’

‘It is the Will,’ Pinter said.

‘The Will is changing.’

‘But it hasn’t yet. If you want it to change, then go make it change. If you believe it, convince others. You have as much right as the rest of us, but this is not the place for these discussions.’

‘I have never gone against the Will before,’ Geof quavered.

‘But it is the Will’s will for you to do so. That is how it works. It’s not a dictatorship, Geof. If you don’t feel you can complete your assignment, then step aside and someone else will.’

‘Colonel, it’s not that. I just don’t think we are taking the right approach. Not every psi has to be our enemy.’

‘Geof, you have the right to believe what you like, but you must make the choice of whether to obey the Will or not.’

‘Colonel!’

‘I can’t have anyone who is going to hesitate when I give an order.’

Geof felt a knot in his guts, and weight all over his body as he tried to stand up. ‘I am hesitating.’

‘Then you are dismissed.’ Geof was in shock and couldn’t move. ‘Go now, or I’ll be forced to have you restricted.’

Geof was instantly cut from the conversation. His stream was tagged as ‘No Access’.

He sat very still. There had to be something he could do. Geof wasn’t used to this. It wasn’t fear or anger that was affecting him, it was indecision. The best way forward seemed unclear. Even the concept of forward was escaping him.

‘Stand up, Ozenbach,’ Pinter ordered. Geof’s body responded to the command, even if his mind didn’t. ‘You are to return to your accommodation and continue working on the Kronos problem. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘You are not to speak of, or reveal, anything that has transpired here. Is that clear?’

‘Yes. Of course.’

Pinter stood waiting for Geof to move. ‘Ozenbach, you need to go before I have you removed.’

‘Wait ... I ...’ Geof had no defence. He was hesitating. He was questioning the orders. He looked at the silence of his queue, the emptiness of the disconnection with the Pierre problem and then he remembered the file. From his pack he took a preloaded dossier and held it out for the Prime to take.

‘What is this?’

‘It’s from your brother. He says it is important.’

‘Have you looked at it?’

Geof nodded.

‘And?’

‘I don’t know if it is Pierre Jnr or not but there is an anomaly in STOC that we have seen before.’

‘You think he is there?’ Pinter asked.

‘Or he has been.’

Pinter paused. ‘I’m sorry about this, Geof. It has been a privilege and an education. I just can’t have people who hesitate.’

‘I understand.’ Geof straightened up and saluted.

‘Dismissed,’ the Colonel said and watched the weaver get into the elevator and head up to the landing deck. When his symbiot verified that Geof had squibbed from the needle, Pinter turned back to face Ryu Shima, who was watching him intently. ‘If you don’t think I was right, then you can say so. If you withdraw your support for me, then I’ll no longer be a rival to your position. Then you could reinstate Ozenbach.’

‘I won’t do that.’

‘No. I didn’t think you would.’

‘Our situation seems hopeless,’ Ryu said.

‘I don’t disagree with you,’ the Colonel said. They both sat down to think. ‘I think our enemy has been on the field longer than we have. They could have any number of tactics we don’t know about.’

‘This one with the baubles isn’t enough?’

‘Perhaps. It does change the game.’ Pinter couldn’t help but think of it all as a game. Which card would be turned over next, and how could he make use of it.

‘Game? Do you not take this threat seriously?’ Ryu asked.

‘Of course I do. But it is still a game. It has rules and we have an opponent. You assume that all games are fun. I just think of them as situations I can either win or lose.’