I stared in horror at Clarke, who was sitting across from me on the couch in SC-1. We were hurtling through the Pacific south of Tasmania. We’d passed the Tasman Sea, past Blue Downs, and were approaching the Indian Ocean. Then we’d alter course to a northwesterly direction toward The Vault.
Sahar was angry. She had the closest thing to a look of disgust on her face that I’d yet seen. “What do you mean, blow them all to hell?”
Clarke sighed. “They’ve turned more right wing. More militarized than the rest of the BSF. They have admirals who support them. Some warsubs are even on their side. They’ve taken over most of the BSFRL facilities!”
I thought about what had just happened while stealing Component Two from Aurora Rex. “Is that why three ships showed up when you called the emergency?”
“They were protecting each other, yes. Aurora is part of the splinter group. It’s why the Staging System was there. The other two warsubs were there for backup.”
I recalled XO Smith asking me if I was “here for them.” I stared at Clarke. “Not everyone is on their side, obviously.”
He nodded. “We get regular reports from sailors on their warsubs, reporting what their superiors are doing. Smith is loyal to us.”
“How many warsubs do they have?”
“Forty. Not a huge number, but they’re developing dangerous weaponry. The Water Pick is an example. We can’t let them have it. My mission is to steal it and destroy the leadership at The Vault.”
Sahar snapped, “You’re betraying us?”
He looked surprised. “Not at all. I’m working with you. I’m helping to steal it.”
“For us?”
“And for me. For the BSF. We’ll both get it.”
She looked perplexed. “Do you still support our independence?”
“Yes, of course.”
I shook my head. “You can’t have it both ways, Commodore. You can’t give the BSF the particle beam and then declare independence for the colonies. It doesn’t make sense.”
He said, “The bigger threat is the BSFIF. They are a danger. We can’t let them control more warsubs or develop more dangerous weapons. Every day they attract more officers.”
“Under what pretense?”
He cursed under his breath. “The same bullshit, Mac. Right-wing stuff. Hating the immigration situation. Refugees due to climate change on the surface. Putting the ‘Great’ back in Great Britain. That sort of nonsense. It comes up again and again in history. Doesn’t matter the country. I have a chance with you to stamp it out. We can do it, together.”
“Why didn’t you just tell us?”
“Would you have brought me?”
Silence descended, and I didn’t know how to answer. I thought it over for a moment, then I made a sudden decision. “Why did you try to kill me?”
—••—
His face was blank. Then he managed: “I beg your pardon?”
“When the airlock system trapped us. Me, Renée, and Sahar. You tampered with the program. Locked us in there.”
“When?” The news had flummoxed him, and if he was acting, it was a magnificent display.
“Just before we left Trieste.”
He shook his head slowly; his eyes were on mine and never strayed. “Mac, I promise you, I didn’t do it. Why do you think so?”
“Someone hacked the airlock from the computer in your living compartment.”
“Then someone has framed me, Mac.” He tilted his head. “And knowing this, you still brought me on the mission? But why?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I’m not scared of you. Or maybe I just want to keep my enemies closer.”
“So you can keep watch on them.” He chuckled. “A smart strategy, but it wasn’t me.”
I took a deep breath and mulled it over.
But Sahar was not done. “Commodore, you can’t go and just kill everyone! I won’t be a part of that!”
“We’re going to steal the particle beam components. Then I’ll help you declare independence, which I promised. But I have to give the weapon to the BSF and kill as many BSFIF leaders as I can. We have to stamp out this cancer in the BSF. Once that’s done, I’m fully with you and the independence movement.”
I stared at him. “We’re taking the weapon to Trieste. The first component is already there, and we now have the second too.”
“And of course Trieste will have it, Mac. But BSF engineers will want to get their hands on it, to make their own version.”
“You think Alyssna will allow the BSF to come in and take what she knows? Or that I’ll even allow that?”
His eyes flashed and his face suddenly grew hard. “Without me you wouldn’t have either component! I got us in the lab at Churchill and also on board Aurora. Of course you’ll allow it.”
“Don’t tell me what I’ll allow.”
Meg had been watching the entire exchange from the pilot’s cabin. She turned the controls over to Renée and stepped toward us. “You see what I was worried about, Truman?”
“I’m not betraying you, dammit,” Clarke said. “I’m still helping you steal this weapon!”
“But at the same time you’re also saying you’re going to take it from us.” Her eyebrows raised.
“We’ll work together and share the weapon. That’s what I’m saying.”
I sighed. “Why do you think we’d do that?” I stared at him for a long moment. “That’s like turning it over to the enemy. We won’t do that.”
“But the BSF is not the enemy.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Clarke. You were on the side of independence. You told Sahar you’d help her. Now you want to turn a dangerous weapon over to them.”
“They already have it.”
“No they don’t. The BSFIF has it. You already said that. We have an opportunity now to take if from them and keep the rest of the fleet from getting it.”
“I have my orders, Mac. I’m a Commodore. I’ll do what’s best for the BSF.”
Sahar’s face had gone white. She had watched the exchange in horror. “But you promised you’d help us achieve independence.”
“I will. Once I finish this job.” His expression was one of determination. “I’m trustworthy, Sahar. I promise you.”
“But what you’re saying is a total contradiction.”
He frowned. “No, it’s not. Turning the weapon over to the BSF is not a contradiction to declaring independence for Churchill.”
“But . . . ” she trailed off. “But they could threaten to use The Water Pick on us! They could threaten our people. And you want to give them this? It’s . . . ” She shook her head. “It just doesn’t equate with what you’ve promised me.”
“We can have both, Sahar.” He watched her for a long moment. “The BSF’s major threat right now is the Imperial Force splinter group. We want the weapon to use against them, not against Churchill.”
“Until we reveal ourselves. If we tell them we want to leave and be part of Oceania!”
“I think things will be fine.” He crossed his arms. “Things will work out. You’ll see.”
She scowled. “You promised me.”
“And I’m sticking to that promise. How can you think otherwise?”
“Because you want to help the BSF!”
“They’re not your enemy.”
“They will be, once we declare independence. They’ll occupy us.” She gestured at me and Meg. “I saw what happened in Trieste after The Battle in 2129.”
Clarke sighed. “I’m going to be there to help. I promise.”
Sahar stared at him, fuming. Meg’s face was dark, as if she was signaling, I told you all so.
I didn’t know how to react. Cliff was watching from the engineering hatch. He must have heard the commotion and come to find out what was going on. He was staring at me, and his expression was serious. Like me, he took any threat to Trieste personally.
Clarke said, “I told you where I came from.”
“The accent is hard to miss,” I muttered.
“From Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye. We’ve dealt with oppression in the past, let me tell you. The English have oppressed Scotland since time began, almost. They stamped out our freedom. Crushed our spirit. And now climate change has obliterated my homeland. Our shores are different. The fish are no longer near Kilmuir. Most of the town is underwater. That’s my history, Mac. Underwater! Gone! My family is living a past that no longer exists. For centuries we could trace our roots back through time. To all the major events in the history of Scotland working against and with the Great Kingdom! But now that’s all gone, destroyed by global warming and the scourge of unrelenting water and heat. Famine. Economies everywhere are crashing. I knew it as a child, and it’s worse now! And when I was a younger man, I found myself in Trieste, working with Frank McClusky. I appreciated his fierce sense of independence.”
“And yet you ended up with the BSF?” I prodded.
“When the CIA killed your dad. Yes. Because I wanted to work from within. Until the day came that I could help.”
“But now you want it both ways. You want to help both organizations.”
He jerked to his feet and shouted, “To defeat these right-wing bastards! These people who want to establish an authoritarian regime over us. The BSFIF. They’re the real threat!”
“Until they’re not.”
He stared at me, his face red. “What does that mean?”
I shrugged. “When they’re gone, the next threat will be the big one. That’ll be Oceania and Churchill. And Trieste. What will you do then?”
“What kind of threat? What do you mean?”
“Will you use your weapon against us? The Water Pick? Or worse?”
He sneered. “Or maybe you’ll use your Isomer Bombs against us.”
I feigned ignorance. “Those belong to Germany. Not us.”
He swore. “And what are those bombs back there?” He gestured savagely to the aft compartments. “Your Doctor Hyland brought five on board. I know they’re not nukes! And I know one blew up Seascape, the largest threat to you, last summer. Mysterious, wouldn’t you say?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I faked a half smile. “Is this something your bosses have ordered you to secure for the BSF as well?”
That stopped him, and he stood there, chest heaving. The rest of us were watching him in silence. Then he continued in a forced, pained voice, “You’ve baited me. Good job, Mac.” He exhaled, and it was savage. Then, “That is a new technology that surprised everyone. Of course the BSF wants it.”
“And you’re going to try to steal that, too?”
He stared at me from a dark cloud of fury. Face red, fists clenched, veins popping on his temples. Then he visibly deflated. “Yes, Mac. They told me to find out about the Isomer Bomb too.”
—••—
I looked away. This was a dilemma. We needed him to help infiltrate The Vault, but clearly his other motivations were going to cause enormous difficulties for Trieste. Sahar looked hurt and annoyed, and Meg was simply furious. She was shaking her head and staring at the man standing between the couches in the living area of SC-1.
“You’re betraying us,” she said in a low voice. “Did you also betray my dad? Is that how he died?”
The statement shocked Clarke. “No! We worked together, along with Richard and Jessica. The attack was maybe predictable, but when it came we had no defense. It was still too early in the movement. I left too, and vowed to prepare for another attempt, far in the future.”
“Which is now, as you said,” Meg snapped. “But instead, you’re also helping the military which will occupy and force Churchill into submission. And you want to steal an Isomer Bomb! What do you think that’s for, Clarke? To just put in a closet and never use? The BSF will want to use it against someone!”
“It’s just to maintain the balance of power, which Sahar has mentioned many times before. We can’t let one nation have such a weapon and not also have it. It gives others too much control over the oceans.”
Meg continued to fume as she stared at the man. Then she spun on her heel and retreated to engineering, but not before fixing me with an angry glare.
I sighed. She’d been right about the man all along. I’d tried to be objective, but his motivations were cloudy and conflicted. And I still had to process the fact that he claimed innocence for the airlock attack against me in Trieste.
The Vault was 9,300 kilometers away. We’d be there in roughly twenty-one hours. And in that time we had to somehow work up a plan to steal the neutral beam and keep Clarke at arm’s length. At the same time, he wanted to assassinate the BSFIF’s command structure, steal the weapon from us, and learn more about the mysterious Isomer Bomb.
Or, I realized, take Max Hyland. Clarke had recognized the man’s importance.
Damn.