The Machine Awakes (30 page)

And nobody had any reason to suspect the JMC was doing anything other than extracting gas, right?

Kodiak wondered what had changed. Fleet personnel were regular visitors to the refinery. Kodiak and Cait were no different.

Something had forced the JMC's hand.

The events on Earth, it had to be. The assassination of the two Fleet Admirals. The JMC was involved, and now they were making their move. They'd allowed Kodiak and Cait to visit under the pretense of cooperation, perhaps a ploy to buy just a little more time for whatever the hell they were planning next.

But something bugged Kodiak. Why were they still alive? If the JMC was turning against the Fleet, they could have eliminated the both of them as soon as they'd arrived. If the JMC was trying to keep their operation secret, they could just have met them off the shuttle, given them the jolly tour and the corporate spiel, and whisked them back to Earth, right?

No, there was something else. They were still alive for a reason. Hostages? Perhaps. Or were they being kept for interrogation? Kodiak thought that was a possibility, although he wasn't sure there was much he or Cait knew that would be useful. The JMC's operation was tightly integrated with the Fleet's. Chances were the JMC knew more about the Fleet's workings and the war than he or Cait did.

Kodiak glanced over his shoulder. The man at the back of their train had Cait slung over one shoulder, her head and arms hanging down the front. That they'd stunned her almost immediately was important. They
knew
about her—about her abilities. They knew she was dangerous, so they'd taken her out.

Kodiak turned back to the front. He licked the back of his teeth, realizing just what this meant. He glanced behind him again. Looked at the uniforms, the weapons. The servitor leading the way was JMC, but the others didn't fit.

Which meant the JMC wasn't operating alone. They were cooperating with another group.

The Morning Star.

That was why they were still alive. They wanted
her.

Kodiak thought again about the comm on his collar and the servitors ready and waiting for his command back at the shuttle.

Then the servitor leading the group stopped. They'd reached a large arched door; the servitor punched a code on a wall panel and the door opened. The machine led them through.

The chamber beyond was a huge, long room, a galleried space more like the kind of factory floor Kodiak had expected to see inside the refinery. The gunmetal gray walls were lined with computer terminals and control consoles. Some stations had seats, some didn't, but there wasn't anyone in the huge chamber.

Running down the center of the space were five large tetrahedrons. They were, Kodiak estimated, four meters square at the base and tapered up to a point around five meters high, above which a large chimney descended from the ceiling high above, leaving a gap of maybe a meter between its opening and the polygonal structure below, a gap that was filled with a faint pinkish glow. The sides of the structures were studded with control panels, and there was a large window on one of the sides, which showed nothing but a stronger pink glow from inside the machine. There was no particular sound, nothing that was any different from the general background hum of an artificial environment common to any such station or facility. The group stood at one end of the long gallery, the five machines standing in a line between them and the other side of the room. Directly opposite, on the other side of the gallery, was a large archway, and beyond, another chamber that looked identical to the one in which they stood.

“Please wait here,” said the servitor. Then it holstered its gun and walked briskly through the arch. The man carrying Cait swung her off his shoulder and leaned her against one wall, while the other kept Kodiak covered with his weapon.

Kodiak moved toward Cait. The armed man flicked his weapon at him, but Kodiak turned to him, his hands spread wide. Kodiak stared at the man's goggled eyes, not willing to back down. After a few moments, the man seemed to get the message and he motioned with his gun. Kodiak nodded and went to Cait's side.

He rolled her head and checked her pulse. It was good and strong, and at his touch Cait exhaled deeply and opened her eyes.

Kodiak smiled. “Hey, welcome back.”

Cait shifted against the wall, then hissed in pain. “What hit me?”

Kodiak glanced over his shoulder at the men watching them. “We met some friends of yours, I think.”

Cait screwed her face up in confusion. “I … what?”

Kodiak frowned. “Just get your strength back.” He stood and glanced at their guards, then nodded at the machines in the middle of the room. “So what's this place?” he asked. The guards didn't answer, so Kodiak, hands on his hips, took a step toward the nearest machine.

“Don't move,” said one of the guards, his voice muffled from behind his mask. Kodiak glanced down at Cait, who was watching the exchange. Then he craned his neck to look at the ceiling. It was a very long way up.

He turned to their guards and nodded at the one nearest. “So how long has the Morning Star been working with the JMC? Must admit, that's probably not the spirit of free enterprise that the Fleet had in mind when it let the company buy the Jovian system.”

The guards turned their masked faces toward each other, but didn't answer.

From her position leaning against the wall, Cait spoke. “Of course. Advanced technology. Everything from servitors like Glass to removing my tag, to broadcasting the signal. All tech the Fleet itself doesn't have.”

Kodiak turned to face her. “And certainly not tech the Morning Star has.”

“We do now.”

Cait looked up at the new voice. Kodiak turned.

From the opposite archway a woman walked toward them, flanked by two more armed, masked men, the JMC servitor following behind. She was wearing the same combat gear as her men, but her mask was hanging loosely around her neck and her gun was slung over her back. She walked toward them slowly, then stopped in front of the two agents, hands on her hips. She nodded at Kodiak, her lips twisted into a cruel smile.

“You must be Special Agent Von Kodiak,” she said. “I've heard so much about you. Thank you for bringing our acolyte back to the fold. The plan was to bring her back here with us until your little investigation put our operation back a little. But now you've saved us a lot of trouble. For that, you have our thanks.” She gave a little bow. “We can now proceed on schedule.”

Kodiak glanced at Cait. Cait had fixed the woman with a death stare, but the woman just laughed. She stepped closer and took Cait's face in her hand, squeezing it as she pulled the young woman's face up to her own.

“Don't be afraid, my child. Yours is a glorious task. I would gladly place myself in your position, but it cannot be.”

“I'm sorry, I don't think we've been introduced,” said Kodiak. He held out his hand, like he wanted to shake. The woman turned around and looked down at it, her smile gone. She looked at Kodiak, meeting his eyes, and Kodiak felt a coldness creeping up in his chest. This woman was dangerous. She was a
believer.

“I am Samantha Flood,” she said. “High Priestess of the Morning Light and servant of the Fallen One.”

She stepped closer. Kodiak kept his hand out.

Flood cocked her head and smiled. “Thank you for bringing the Pilot to us,” she said. “The Fallen One will reward you well.”

Kodiak frowned. He looked at Cait and saw the hatred there melt into something else, equally primal. Fear.

Flood began to laugh. “But not in this life. Maybe the next.”

The servitor behind her raised its staser and fired, and Kodiak fell to the hard refinery floor.

 

31

Cait watched as Kodiak
hit the deck, then quickly looked up and to her left as she caught another movement in the corner of her eye. In the dull reflection of the deactivated computer terminal displays that stood against the wall was the fragile image of Glass. It looked like he was standing right by her.

Okay. Okay, okay, okay.

Don't worry, Ms. Smith. I'll look after Mr. Kodiak. He's alive. Stunned. I made sure of that.

Cait took a breath, held it, then let it out. She felt like shit after the stun bolt and wasn't even sure she could stand without help. She felt helpless. Alone. Alone with the ghost of a man she wasn't sure she could really trust, not after what he'd done to her.

But what choice did she really have? If she couldn't even stand, she could hardly fight. And what did he mean, I made sure of that? Glass made sure Kodiak was stunned, instead of killed?

Perhaps Cait wasn't so alone after all. She tried moving—just a little, seeing what worked and what hurt. The answer to both questions was: a lot. But that was something.

Cait glanced over at the others. Flood stepped over Kodiak's body and huddled together with her acolytes in some kind of discussion.

We need to get out of here, she thought. We need to get back to the shuttle, get the servitors into action. They'd brought them for back-up, after all. Except Cait didn't have a comm on her borrowed uniform. Only Kodiak could call them, and he was out for the count.

The servitors won't be any use here,
said the image of Glass.
They're JMC tech and are no longer under your control.

Oh, shit. Cait shuffled on the floor, willing the strength to return to her body, willing the electric power that lived within her to come back. Even as she thought that, her body ached. Damn, a staser stun bolt was nasty.

We
can
get out of this, Ms. Smith. I'm helping you as best I can, but very soon I'm going to need
your
help.

What? My help? As Cait watched Flood and the others have their conference, she frowned, confusion clouding her mind. What on Earth could she do to help Glass, a man—a
servitor
—who now just seemed to exist in her own imagination?

And what about her brother? What about Tyler? Cait felt a heat build behind her eyes, and when she blinked, she felt the streaks of tears run down her cheeks. She was here for
him,
wasn't she? The assassinations, the mystery coordinates, it all came back to him. Wherever he was, he was at the heart of it all. He had to be.

He had to be.

Cait felt the fear well inside her. Tyler was all she had left. He was all she wanted.

She was doing this all for him.

Glass held up a hand, and he nodded.
Yes. I know. He's near. I'm working on it. If everything goes according to plan, you'll see him soon. But I need you to keep calm and keep focused. You can do it, Ms. Smith, I know you can. You're a warrior, top of the class, Alpha One. And you're more than that, too. Your abilities and powers are unique. It is those abilities that I need to use, very soon.

Cait blinked and managed to wipe her face, rub her eyes with shaky hands. When they fell away, she saw Flood standing right in front of her, her eyes narrow as she studied Cait's face.

“Talking to someone, are we?” asked Flood. “Is there someone else in there with you?”

Cait felt her face grow hot, felt the fear inside turn to anger, to hatred. She gritted her teeth and stared at Flood. Not backing down. Never giving up. She was a warrior on a mission. And no one was going to stop her.

At this, Flood just smiled, tilting her head. “Don't worry, my golden child, we'll burn them out of you. Soon there will only be one mind for you to join with. The glorious fate I bestow upon the golden child. You are truly blessed.”

As Cait watched, a tear sprang from the corner of Flood's eye and trailed down her cheek. Cait leaned forward as best she could.

“Go to hell.”

Flood struck her across the face. Cait tasted the pepper tang of blood and spat a slimy gob onto the floor. When she rolled her head back around to Flood, she saw the High Priestess wipe her own tears away, nodding.

“I understand, golden child,” she said, the smile on her lips. “I understand.”

Then she stood abruptly, checked something on her wrist computer, and indicated to her acolytes. “Time to move,” she said. Then she pointed at Kodiak's body and jutted her chin at the JMC servitor. “Dump this in the waste disposal, then return to the control room. We'll meet you there.”

The servitor nodded in acknowledgment, its expression eerily blank. With the staser still in its hand, it knelt and lifted Kodiak's body onto its shoulder. Then it walked out, carrying the load like it was nothing.

“Let's go,” said Flood. The two men guarding Cait reached down to grab her arms. Cait tried to pull against them, but she was still weak from the stun blast. Flood, on her way to the exit, noticed and walked back over to her. Cait flinched involuntarily, wary of being struck again by the zealot.

“You're not going to give me any trouble now, are you?” Flood asked. “You feel fear and hate. I understand, golden child, I truly do. And the Fallen One will love you all the more for it. You and He will become one, the Master and his Pilot.”

At this, Flood's eyes seemed to glaze over—she was still looking at Cait, but her gaze was unfocused.

“You've sure been drinking the Kool-Aid, haven't you?” asked Cait. Flood's focus seemed to snap back at this comment, her expression faltering for a moment.

Cait yelled and with almighty effort pulled one arm free of her guard. Her body lit up in pain, every muscle fiber screaming, but jaw clenched she pushed through it as she lunged for Flood. But she was too slow, too weak. Flood took a quick step backwards, out of range, as Cait's movement was quickly arrested by one of the guards, who caught her by one arm and gave her a quick jab to the stomach for her trouble. Cait wheezed as the air was pushed out of her lungs, and she hung limply from her captors. She spit bile on the floor. Then her head was yanked up by Flood, the terrorist's fingers digging hard into her face.