Psion Omega (Psion series Book 5) (15 page)

“The kill order always comes from the fox. And
always goes through me. Each person who’s had the solution also has a number,
so I attached the number to the code and …
boom
.
Goodbye. So long. Fare thee well.”

“So let’s do it right now!” Jeffie said. “Start
putting in codes and end this war!”

Trapper aimed his one good eye on Jeffie. “You think
there won’t be repercussions if I try to execute a kill order without the fox’s
approval? Wrong. The solution may not be in
me
,
but the fox has other ways to quickly cover his tracks. You think the Hive
isn’t wired? Give it a try. Goodbye. So long. Fare thee well.”

“Then what good will the code do us?” Sammy asked.

“There is always another way. The fox is a clean
man. You know that, Sammy, you met him. He likes to tidy up after himself. Once
his plans for the war are realized and the NWG has fallen, he wants to clean
up.”

“A mass kill order?” Sammy asked. “All of them at
once?”

A shudder passed through Trapper, but he nodded.
“Rid the world of Thirteens, Aegis, and Hybrids in one fell swoop. The perfect
clean up.”

“Minus all the blown up bits,” Jeffie added. “The
fox will need to hire a few janitors for that.”

“You’re more talkative this time around, aren’t
you?”

“My boyfriend’s not bleeding to death this time
around.”

Sammy rubbed his temples, thinking, calculating.
“How do we use the kill code without the fox’s knowledge?”

“We don’t. Eventually he will know. The key is to do
it in such a way that by the time he realizes it, it’s too late.”

“How?”

Trapper checked the time. “The kill rooms. The
white
rooms. There are two of them. One
in Rio, one in Orlando. In the very bowels of the earth.”

Sammy remembered the N Tower in Rio he’d been taken
to. The white button on the elevator panel.

“In case something happens to me, and Diego gets
control, I’m giving you this.” From Trapper’s pocket he produced a cube. His
hands shook and for an instant his grip tightened, his face grimaced, and Sammy
thought he might not hand it over. But then it was in Sammy’s hand, safe.

“A data cube with everything you need to know.”

“What’s the catch?” Sammy asked. “I could leave
right now and break our agreement.”

Trapper tapped his skull. “Without the keyword, you
can’t use the data cube. You need me alive and well through the day of the
mission. By then I’ll have proven to you that I’m valuable and … somewhat
rehabilitated. Hopefully, one day, you’ll even be able to excise the
demon
out of me.”

“I don’t get it,” Sammy said. “Why is Diego allowing
you to do this? I still remember what you—he—whoever did at the
ETC. I still have Byron’s memories.”

At the mention of Byron’s name, Trapper’s expression
changed to one of fury. He lunged at Sammy, moving so quickly that Sammy didn’t
have time to get his shields up to blast him away. Trapper’s hands went to
Sammy’s throat and squeezed as he knocked Sammy backward to the floor. Sammy
tried to choke out a few choice words, but he couldn’t breathe.

Jeffie didn’t waste time blasting Trapper off Sammy.
Trapper hit the floor hard and skidded until his back slammed into the wall.
Then she ran over to the panel where they knew Trapper kept the sleeping gas,
the gas he’d used on himself during their last visit. Sammy rolled and
scrambled over to Trapper who put his hands up shakily. “It’s me.
It’s me!
I’m in control.”

“How do we know?” Jeffie held the canister ready to
spray Trapper.

“Say something,” Sammy told him.

“Something,” Trapper said with his pronounced lisp.

Sammy relaxed and let Trapper up. “It’s him.” He
leaned against the wall, near the very spot where he’d once sat next to Jeffie
while his leg leaked blood onto the floor from fish bites. Jeffie dropped the
canister to the floor.

“This is insane,” she muttered.

“I’m sorry!” Trapper cried. “Sometimes he just …
pounces. You asked me a question about the fox. The answer is I don’t know
what—” Trapper’s face turned into a grinning grimace and his eye and lips
twitched violently. “Let me tell them!”

“No!” he roared at himself in Diego’s voice.

“
Let me tell
them!
” Trapper screamed back. Finally his struggle ended and his face
relaxed. “Something’s happened to the fox. We think he’s been killed or
replaced.”

“By whom?” Sammy asked.

“How many people do you think are close enough to
him to do such a thing?”

An alarm beeped from Trapper’s console. He stared at
his screens for a long moment, then began to curse and hit himself with brutal
swings.

“What?” Sammy asked.

“She’s on her way!”

“How does she know we’re here?”

“I don’t—somehow! It doesn’t matter! You have
to go!”

“
We
have
to go!” Jeffie corrected. “You’re coming too.”

“The plan has changed. If I don’t finish clearing my
tracks, she’ll figure out what the white room is and what you plan to do with
it. Everything you need to know is on the cube. Get out, wait until she lands,
then take off as soon as I give the signal.”

“Won’t she see our cruiser?”

“If she flies straight to the landing pad on the
roof, she won’t. The building obstructs the view. But if she decides to fly around
…”

Jeffie marched to the door.

“Listen to me for a second!” Trapper shouted.
“Without me, you’ll need to turn someone who has the solution in their system
and
level six clearance.”

“An Aegis or Thirteen?” Sammy asked doubtfully.

“Not an Aegis. And Thirteens won’t likely turn. Your
best bet is a—a—” Trapper clamped his hands over his mouth and his
eye began to water. He muffled protests into the offending hand and finally bit
it so hard it bled. When he let go, he grunted in pain. A flash of fury appeared
in his eye. Sammy tensed up and prepared to blast, but the moment passed and
Trapper’s calm returned. “A Dark agent.”

“What is a Dark agent?”

“It’s what you would have become had your anomaly
been discovered in CAG territory instead of South Africa. It’s where they send
all the anomalies … except the Thirteens. They call it
Extraction/Implantation.”

Sammy thought of Stripe, and a blowtorch ignited,
expanding the darkness inside him like a balloon reacting to heated air. The
painful memory of a crocodile bite in his leg caused him to wince until it
passed. Jeffie noticed but made no comment, and he was grateful.

“You’ll need to infiltrate the
Extraction/Implantation site,” Trapper continued. “Figure out a way to smuggle
a Dark agent out. Without someone who’s had the solution … your mission is
hopeless.”

“Can you give us intel on how to get into the Dark
facility?” Jeffie asked, hand on the door.

“It’s on the cube.” Trapper’s fingers raced across a
console as his eye watched his myriad screens. A beep came from one of the
computer towers. “I still wouldn’t pin your hopes on surviving the war.”

“Even with Sammy on our side?” Jeffie asked.

For a moment, Trapper smiled. And when he did, he
almost looked normal. He almost reminded Sammy of the handsome young man he’d
come to know through Commander Byron’s memories. Pity surged through Sammy so
powerfully that he felt it down his spine and across his shoulders like a
ripple of discomfort.

“Go,” Trapper said. “Get in your cruiser and take
off the moment I give you the signal. Now!”

Jeffie ran out, but before Sammy cleared the room,
Trapper yanked him back and slammed the door, locking it.

“What are you—” Sammy started to say.

“We have a few more minutes than I let on before the
Queen arrives.”

Jeffie pounded on the door and yelled.

Trapper leaned in close and whispered in Sammy’s
ear. “I saw what you did to my brothers in Detroit.”

“I didn’t—I just—”

“You can’t use it again. If you do, it will weaken
your will. The dreams will start soon if they haven’t already. The cave.”

Sammy’s pulse quickened and sweat moistened his
brow.
Dreams.
“What cave, Trapper?
What are you talking—”

“The anomaly is not something you can
compartmentalize. It is not a switch you can flip nor a pill you can take and
wait for its effects to wear off. Each time you embrace it, you weaken
your—”

“How can you say that? Look at you—”

“Shut up! Just shut up. Are you blind? Yes, look at
me. Look at my face.”

Sammy stared at the floor, ashamed of himself. “I’m
strong enough to resist it.”

“LOOK AT ME!” Trapper waited until Sammy obeyed the
order. “It can’t be done. Let the idea go.”

“I can’t just let it go. It saves lives.”

“And takes them.”

“I can control it!”

Trapper’s eye stopped quivering and fixed on Sammy.
“Play clip 91a020b1.”

On the screen nearest to them, Sammy saw himself
hitting Brickert in the face while Brickert lay slumped on the floor. Sammy
turned away, afraid he might vomit. A burst of laughter escaped Trapper.

“That’s what you call control? That feeling of sheer
power, so raw and mighty, in your blood, your bones, your sinews. I couldn’t
deny it. Once I had a taste, it called to me. Beckoned me back for another
sample of the rage … the energy. I fought it. Resisted. By the time I found the
cave, I didn’t stand a chance.” Trapper’s eye grew wide. “All of us find it.
All of us.”

“What does that mean? What cave?”

“You’ll see. I know what you felt. What you feel.
Only because of my disorder am I able to separate the two. Me and the Thirteen.
Me and Diego. You …” He looked Sammy up and down with his eye. “You will have
no such luck.”

“How many times did you use it?” Sammy asked.
“Before you couldn’t stop?”

“Stop?” Trapper growled a chuckle. “You make it
sound like a drug. It’s not. It’s an essence that infuses itself into you. A
state of being. You transform into it. It’s been over thirty years, so I don’t
remember all the specifics. Trapper, me—this person you are talking
to—I am the exception. But still those choices have ruined my life. Do
not think you can toy with it or use it and walk away unscathed.”

Sammy sighed and rubbed his head.

“You love that girl, don’t you?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“You do. You look at her the way I looked at
Emerald. If that’s the case, never use the anomaly again. You will become a
threat to the world. And in the end, they’ll have to put you down. But how much
damage would you wreak before you die?”

“What if it means the difference between her living
and dying?”

“Then let her die.”

Familiar words played in Sammy’s mind. He didn’t
know where he’d heard them, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened. The
voice was one he knew he should recognize, but didn’t. It was a feather in the
wind, drifting barely out of reach every time he tried to snag it. The voice
said, “
You will see more death. Some of
them will be people whom you love
.”

Another alarm beeped from the console. Trapper’s eye
studied it for only a second, then he pushed Sammy away. “Go. She will be here
in minutes.”

“I can take the Queen.”

Trapper shook his head. “She can blast now. Who
knows what else she’s done to herself.”

Sammy’s heart beat faster and his neck grew hot.
“When? How?”

“I don’t have time to explain, but it’s true. She is
obsessed with you. Now go. I will do what I can, but Diego will try to undo
it.”

“Trapper … you’re going to die, aren’t you?”

“LEAVE!” Trapper tapped the data cube in Sammy’s
hand. “
Repentance
. Remember that
keyword. Now I need all the time I can get to fix this.”

* * * * *

The Queen woke to the sound of an alarm. Her clock told her it was an
obscene hour of the morning. Her blurry eyes searched the room for the source
of the noise. It took several seconds to realize it came from her com. She
fumbled for it and put it on. The holo-screen projected the following text:

Intrusion at the Hive. 0351

“Details,” she ordered her com.

Two missiles fired. Deactivated
before impact. Deactivation order code matches code assigned to .

Incoming update … Stand by.

Status update: Unreported test of
Hive defense systems.

“Computer, patch through the audio feed from the
Hive black box.”

“No audio detected,” the computer answered.

“Is the box functional?”