Toxic (52 page)

J
ave’s T-J set down on the summit of the Dubai tower just as the sun was starting its course through a sky adorned with a couple of nighttime clouds lagging behind. The emissary went immediately towards the descent tube. He didn’t stop at the operations room floor. The flow stabilized him several levels below, at the entrance to the domain under the charge of the Säzkari. The reptilian was busy at work on an open human corpse. The organs were floating just above their carnal wrapping, which was levitating on the table equipped with an agrav field generator in multi-plane mode. A red network reminded him of the roots of a plant. Jave recognized arteries and veins of a smaller diameter. Seen from this angle, humans seemed more similar to him than he would have imagined. A different kind of jumble was on the upper shelf. From a dense central trunk that ran along the back separated thousands of blue rootlets. An important mass with a clumsily spherical form was at one of its far ends. The emissary guessed that it was the brain.

The Säzkari turned away from his work. “What can I do for you, Your Excellency?”

He raised the visor of his augmented reality mount. His tongue quickly slipped in and out of a cup. A reptilian’s main sensory organ had to stay moist.

“I need an analysis done.”

“What type? I have other priorities right now.”

“The type that would be best to keep between us.”

Rare were the Säzkaris capable of taking care of patients of other species. Multi-racial employers such as combinates courted them with a clear preference for generalists with experience with people outside of the Collective. Naakrit had succeeded at snagging the abilities of a talented general practitioner. The Lynian remembered elements in the file handed to him by the Merchant Princes before his departure.

The reptilian doctor placed a surgical knife on the chrome tray. “I would have to defer to the Primark. That’s the rules,” he specified.

“Your contract is finishing soon, am I right?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with things.”

“As an emissary and therefore legal representative of the Combinate under contract with this company, I am authorized to make you an offer.”

“I’m banned from practicing medicine on several hundred of the worlds in the Commercial Collective, and even the Combinate can’t do anything about that.”

“You’re right. However...”

The Säzkari raised a hand. His claws were stained with blood. “Do you know what I did?”

“My opinion is of no matter. The documentation on your feats is quite explicit. These details are not a problem for the Merchant Princes.”

“Continue.”

“The Combinate itself administers several planets and organizes expeditions across the three galaxies.”

“Setting out on these long-distance trips doesn’t really appeal to me. And besides, this will be my last mission. I’ve earned enough to ensure myself a comfortable life.”

“The difficulty in which my employer finds himself,” Jave continued, “is related to the training of practitioners who are competent enough to implement the correct biomedical strategies on the ground.”

“A teacher’s position?”

The Säzkari’s green pupils dilated and his eye slits stretched. Jave even thought he saw his scales quiver. The materialization of an old dream would cause such a reaction, particularly when the person in question thought that the opportunity had been lost forever.

“You analyze the sample that I will provide you, with complete discretion, and you will start a new career when you return to the Collective. You will pass on your invaluable knowledge to future generations of mission bio-specialists.”

The Lynian produced a flexible screen.

“Here is a contract in good faith and due form. If you sign it, you will also place yourself in my service. Any jobs that I confide in you will be executed beyond the authority of the Primark and even outside of the realm of the mercenaries’ company.”

“What are you up to really?”

“Sign and you will find out. You will have to make your decision right now.”

“Are there things other than this one that I will have to hide from the Primark?”

“Very likely, though you won’t be hiding anything from him. You will be acting under the protection of a legal contract under my full authority, which he won’t question. The Primark tries to maintain excellent relationships with the Merchant Princes, and with me.”

“According to company regulations, he can tear up my contract for treason.”

“Unlikely. You are a very precious resource and truth be told, the only one available within thousands of octans. He will deal with a situation in which he will have to share you with me.”

Jave handed him the polymer sheet. The reptilian sat down to go through the document. When he got to the end, he raised his head towards the Lynian. He had put particular detail into the extras, such as the luxurious principal residence and the many benefits offered by the Combinate. There was no doubt as to the verdict.

“These are generous conditions.”

“The Merchant Princes are rich and don’t hesitate to pay for rare talents.”

“Yes, clearly, do you know something...”

The Säzkari got back to reading. When he got to the end, he signed it. His forked tongue flicked the bottom of the sheet, which would register the unique molecular composition of the beneficiary. His biological signature locked the document, therefore sealing the agreement.

Jave didn’t waste time. He produced a vial, which he placed on a tray.

“You are going to analyze this for me and me alone.”

“What is it?”

“For a minute, I thought I had discovered the cure that would give humans back their commercial value.”

The news drew a stunned whistle from him. “Are you trying to replace Naakrit?”

“Me? No. What would I do with billions of these products?”

“The Combinate...” the Säzkari reflected.

Jave didn’t say otherwise.

“I think that it’s something else.”

“Ideas? Guesses?”

“None,” Jave lied, preferring to stay silent about his many experiences. The reptilian would do his part and some results would corroborate, or at least he hoped.

The emissary went up to the control room, satisfied with the positive turn of events. He stopped at his quarters to drop off the Säzkari’s contract. He was planning to inform Naakrit about it as fast as possible. The latter was supervising the current operations. He moved his claws across his display and whistled orders. The drones continued to sweep the Great Lakes region. The capture count went beyond two million units and the mega-transporter was preparing to honor a new delivery. Jave noticed a second vessel of this type when he approached the station. On the tarmac at Dubai Airport, the procession of cryo-coffins seemed endless. The domes of the two manufacturing centers were delivering healthy products at a constant pace.

One of the screens showed Kuhn at the head of an assault group. The real-time feed came from a botcam in a T-J’s cargo hold. It was heading towards the island-continent in the southern hemisphere that humans called Australia. However, there weren’t significant population groups in this area.

“I want to verify a hypothesis,” Naakrit informed him, “without going into the details.”

Kjet’s team had also just been alerted in the preparation room. The loyal lieutenant reported for duty. The operations chief dragged his purple shell towards the trio. His pincers clicked as he started his presentation.

“We have located a short transmission in the south of Florida. We only have two drones in place. They are few, but the African campaign and the transfer of captured products to Dubai are taking up an increasing portion of our resources. However, a preliminary recon has allowed us to clear up a part of the mystery.”

The multi-source feeds on the display were replaced by the image of a single camp in the middle of the swamps. Dilapidated buildings surrounded a sort of rectangular pit. The large number of blue dots surprised the emissary.

“There is a large concentration of infected products far from an urban center.”

“In fact,” the Arthrosian confirmed, “humans are confining them in that enclosure. On the other hand, you can see that they are all full.”

Naakrit enlarged an area of the areal image by touching a button on the armrest of his chair.

“What are they making?”

They noticed an enclosure surrounded by a wire fence, three small cages and bodies. By the dozens. Three people were piling them onto a sort of board with wheels.

“It might be a ritual. We don’t have information, but whatever they’re doing, we have established the presence of a working radio in the camp as well as another one further to the south, which we weren’t able to locate. The pair of drones was patrolling to the north, at the limit of detection caused by the planet’s curve.”

“And the satellite uplinks?”

“The one that we positioned above the North American continent is undergoing scheduled maintenance. The logistics station team disconnected its systems.”

Jave digested the news. The radio sources were suddenly multiplying, putting the primitive and fragile human communication network in danger.

“Were you able to record the transmissions?”

“Of course. They transmitted without codes.”

The Arthrosian displayed an audio feed band and activated the playback.

“Jon? Are you there? It’s Annie, I’m still alive! Jon! Answer me! I’m begging you!”

The response came after a minute of nothing.

“Annie, most important of all, don’t use this radio. That’s important. I miss you. I love you, little sister.”

And then:

“Jon! Jon! Where are you?”

“For the love of God, don’t use the radio!”

The recording stopped. The aliens remained confused as to the ending.

“We think it’s a sort of personal message,” the operations chief proposed.

“Personal?” Naakrit asked with surprise.

“The semantic analysis suggests it, in any case.”

The software had underlined the incriminating verbal evidence such as “little sister” and “I love you.” Jave agreed. The guess seemed correct to him. But that still didn’t explain the obvious and useless discretion. As if that wasn’t enough, the humans were putting themselves in even more danger: they were making their position more complicated with reckless behavior. Naakrit’s tongue stirred and then he addressed the emissary.

“You were at the expedition to the first radio source, so you’re going to accompany officer Kjet in Florida. What did your exploration of the clues in South America reveal?”

The Lynian summarized his encounter with Miguel evasively.

“The operator who responded to the name of Miguel succumbed to the bite from a spoiled product. I didn’t have the time to get valuable information out of him. He was quite delirious.”

“And the soldier?”

“Also dead.”

“Well that’s the end of that chapter. I’m counting on your talent to obtain more convincing results. And watch out; the area is swarming with infected. Humans could use the same tactics as at Site B to inconvenience you.”

The emissary and Kjet walked towards the preparation room. On the way, Jave took the chance to ask about the reptilian’s progress.

“Are you having any progress on the escape of the black-skinned human?”

“
Njet
. We still haven’t captured the person responsible; he is sand between our fingers.”

They walked through the airlock and Jave’s PAS identified its pilot. It opened before him. The Lynian got in and proceeded with the pre-system launch checklist. His talent projected its sheet of questions in the back of his mind, awaiting the Säzkari’s first results. The product, far from achieving the expected miracle, linked the three subjects in one way or another.

“Don’t worry, Your Excellency. We are going to wipe out the infected creatures easily.”

“I know. I was thinking.”

W
hen Clayton spread open the curtains, with an AK over his shoulder, Elaine rejoiced at the end of a wait that had become never-ending. The time had finally come to leave this “paradise.” Her joy was short-lived, dampened by the anxiousness on the face of her savior. He started by hesitantly explaining to her that he couldn’t guarantee their safety.

“You know the camp, the places to avoid and the sure routes. Everything will go well.”

She thanked him for his help, without forgetting to whisper to him that he was acting like a brave man, and even a hero. Normally, a calm tone and soft voice mitigated patients’ worries and calmed their anxieties before an operation. That wouldn’t be enough. The Everglades farmer needed to become a knight in shining armor that would stop at nothing or almost nothing to defend her.

“Let’s go find Annie,” she suggested before kissing him, placing her hand on his forearm.

Enthused by the attention and the heat of her palm on his skin, Clayton took the lead until reaching Annie’s alcove.

Their accomplice had prepared a bag of belongings, which drew a remark from their solid bodyguard. “Women,” he sighed, “always travelling with bags of useless things.”

Elaine’s teeth clenched, but she heeded the advice previously given to her by her new friend: hold your tongue.