Feldman closed the door to his office and leaned against it, letting his burning eyes close. This exacerbated the pounding in his temples, so he opened them again and stared at his desk, which seemed to float at the end of a long, narrow tunnel. He wondered, for just a moment, if he were having a stroke.
He dismissed this idea. Death might come today, but it would not be so easy.
“Ari, mute the window,” he said. In the more welcome gloom, he added, “Have Dinnie Warner report to my office.” He proceeded to his desk and the work waiting there.
This involved little more than calling up a display of the carnage that was NISS. In the last hour, communications with Rhyder had gone sporadic, then stopped altogether, as station civilians rioted, interfering with signals and distracting his security team from its mission of apprehending Sam Altair.
Feldman was reduced to getting his information from the news services. The prime minister, and other government heads, had honored Feldman’s request to black out most of the more damaging reports, but reporters the world over were gleeful as they showed short takes of Arkady’s second announcement that NISS was now under civilian control. There were hints of a radical new technology developed by the rebel alliances, and a few minutes ago, Feldman heard the first reports that Sun’s security officers on NISS were mysteriously appearing on the wide expanse near Stonehenge, with no idea how they’d gotten there.
Ari sent him a ping. “Dr. Warner has arrived, sir.”
“Send her in.”
He watched the news display until she reached his desk. He raised his head then, happy to see her flinch from his gaze. Usually, her penchant for dark clothes contrasted with the spiky blonde hair to give her a tough, competent bravado. Now she looked like a pale wraith dressed in mourning.
There was a price for everything, and Dinnie Warner knew it.
He stood, brushing his fingers over his desk before addressing her. “Has your research revealed any correlation between Andrew Green and Sam Altair before they met yesterday in our laboratory?”
She stood stiff, not quite looking at him. “No sir, I could not find anything. However, based on Mr. Green’s access to neutrino detection, I am certain that he saw the first occurrence in March. He and Moira Sherman both had unusual search requests centered on Belfast in the days immediately following.”
“You did not think to look for this when you were vetting Mr. Green for employment?”
“No sir.” He could see that she wanted to protest it wasn’t her job to do that. He hoped she understood that it wasn’t the point.
He turned from her, to pace a few steps behind his desk, thinking. “Altair’s appearance came at a crucial juncture. I am curious as to how he, or the rebels, obtained information about the NISS Project.”
He glanced up at her silence. “Can you enlighten me, Dr. Warner?”
“I?” Her jaw was hard as she lifted her chin. “I’m afraid I can’t.”
“But I think you can.” He wandered back to his desk, unhurried, to bring up a hologram. “You know this man?”
He liked the hate in her eyes.
“He’s my brother.”
“He’s assigned to the Western Brigade in Galway?”
“Yes.”
“He provides you with information?”
“No sir. We seldom talk. We ... are not close.”
He resumed his pace. “There is always a chain, doctor. A chain of information that grows as it passes from person to person, until it reaches the one person who is in the right place, at the right time, to make use of it. This particular chain wends its way from the spaceport in Galway, to this building, to this department, then on to a traveler from another dimension, to a notorious rebel, and hence, to the space station.”
He stopped and smiled at her, his hands relaxed in the pockets of his pants. “This particular chain travels through you.”
Her jaw moved as she swallowed, but she said nothing.
“In my career,” he said, “I have crossed paths with many traitors. Some of them caused significant damage to Sun’s mission, and to me personally. But you, Dr. Warner, are the best of them. You are the one who succeeded in bringing me to ruin.”
Her eyes touched on his at last. For a brief moment of truth, he read her joy. “If that is true, sir,” she said, “I can only say it was a happy confluence of events that allowed it to happen.”
He was glad for her spark. It made her a more worthy adversary, and took some of the sting out of losing. He nodded and brought his hands out of his pockets. One hand reached inside his jacket. “Thank you, Dr. Warner. That will be all.”
It was his favorite bullet gun, and it took Warner a few moments to realize she’d been shot. Her body reacted with immediate recoil, and her face registered the first shock of pain. But he saw the realization dawn in her eyes as she watched him. She fell backwards, living long enough to bring her bloody hands in front of her face, and count the cost charged to her account.
~~~
After the last Sun guard vanished from sight, Andy turned and presented CERBO to Sam with a little bow. “That’s the lot,” he said. “NISS is officially a civilian station, thanks to you.”
Sam grinned. It had taken a while, but he’d finally gotten into the spirit of the thing, as the Sunnies were sent packing in groups of twenty. He was especially tickled with the idea of sending them to Stonehenge. They’d chosen it for practicality, since in this world, no one was allowed at the site, and the area was large and flat. But Sam felt there was some kind of cosmic justice playing out, and he let it relieve his soul a little.
A crowd had gathered to watch, and now they broke into applause and cheering. On the public screens surrounding them, the video of Arkady’s declaration of their independence was playing over and over. Several people were already talking about making this date a colony holiday, to be celebrated with pomp, speeches, and picnics on the outer rim.
Arkady came over and shook his hand. “We owe you big, Sam. Thank you for getting involved.”
“I have a feeling our worlds will have to work together in the future,” Sam said. “I think we’re off to the right start, here. Although how you’re going to hold onto it, I don’t know. I have the impression that none of your governments are open to granting people freedoms.”
“They aren’t. But Sun is a bitch even to their friends, and there’s a certain cache that comes with beating them. I intend to use it.”
“Good luck to you.”
“For now,” Arkady said, nodding to the approaching Ned, “I understand we have another mission to do.”
“Yep,” Ned said. “Feldman’s holding on to some stuff that ain’t his, there’s a big surprise. I promised Sam we’d help get them back, and I don’t think we should be waiting around for long.”
“Don’t want to give Feldman time to lose them,” Pete said, from behind Sam.
Sam raised a brow. “How many are planning on going?”
“We’ve had to beat the volunteers back,” Arkady said. “Everyone wants to see Feldman eat shit.”
Sarah shook her head. “This is not a joy ride. It’s probably the most protected place on your planet. We’ll be lucky to come out alive.”
“Exactly,” Sam said. “In fact, I think it’s best if I go alone.”
Ned held up a hand to silence the babble of questions this brought. He fixed Sam with a thoughtful stare and crossed his arms. “Explain.”
“My first concern,” Sam said, “is that I don’t have a plan for forcing Feldman to return our items. He knew the original Sam well enough to know that I won’t kill him. There’s no point even threatening that. We’ve nothing to use for blackmail, as he’s already lost a very public battle. He’s essentially ruined, although I wouldn’t put it past him to have a contingency plan.”
“Basically, I don’t know what we’d accomplish if a large, armed group of us shows up in his office. But say it’s just me, with an open comm line broadcasting video and audio of our meeting. I’ll make sure he knows our meeting is being broadcast. If he refuses to return the chip, the whole world will know that Sun has stolen it.”
Ned shrugged. “The whole world might not care. People will want that technology.”
“People will not get the technology if Sun has it,” Sam said. “I’ve already given it to the people of your world, by giving it to you. In fact, I’m considering not going home until you’ve got an actual prototype built, because frankly, CERBO is the only advantage you have over Sun.”
Everyone was silent as Ned thought it through. His frown showed he wasn’t happy with the plan, but finally, he nodded. “I want to go with you, though. You need at least one person to watch your back. I can handle the recording too, so you can concentrate on handling Feldman.”
Sarah nodded emphatically at this, and Sam smiled as he squeezed her hand. “You’re on,” he said. “But that brings up another point. I think it would be foolish to take CERBO back into Sun HQ, and give Feldman another chance at taking it. Andy can operate CERBO from here, to drop us off and pick us up. I have a blood marker that CERBO can trace. Andy already knows how that works. If you’re coming, I suggest we put a marker in you, as well.”
“So no matter what happens down there, Andy can always bring us back?” Ned asked.
“That’s it.”
“So where,” Karen asked, “are you going, exactly? None of us know where in the building Feldman’s office is.”
“I do,” Sarah said. When this brought several blank stares, she raised an eyebrow. “Well, I do.”
“How?” Sam asked.
She brought up a display of Sun Headquarters. “While I was a prisoner in that little room, I wrote a bunny to help me build a map of the building. I hate not knowing where I am.”
“Wait.” Ned shook his head. “You wrote a bunny? What does that mean?”
“It’s a piece of computer code. We call them bunnies, because we can send them hopping through a system for us. And because if you’re not careful, they can multiply.” Amid snickers, Sarah zoomed her display out to show a grid of Sun Headquarters. She pointed. “Feldman’s office is right here. Eighty-fifth floor, east end of the building.”
“If you ever need a job ...” Arkady shook his head.
“Don’t work for the other guy!” Karen said.
Ned clapped his hands together. “Let’s get moving. What do you need for this blood marker?”
“Just your basic chemistry lab,” Sarah said. “I can do it for you.”
“This way,” a man called out, and they followed him around a corner. People began talking about cleaning up the station while they waited for the action to start. Arkady assembled a team to work on the video feed and prepare to once again hijack the public broadcast frequencies. Sam watched as Andy worked out the coordinates for Feldman’s office.
“Are you really thinking of staying around a while?” Andy asked.
“Haven’t discussed it with Sarah yet,” Sam said. “I’m going to hear about that later, I can promise you.”
Andy laughed. “I bet.”
“But it’s your biggest advantage, and you won’t have it for long. Feldman’s been holding that chip for a few days now. I’m sure he’s had a team looking at it.”
“No doubt.”
“Provided we can access all the components, we can build one of these things in a few days.”
Andy glanced up. “What was your original time frame for this mission? When are you expected back home?”
“I was hoping we’d be gone for one day. We allowed for three.”
“You’ve been here five.”
Sam nodded.
“What is your team doing?”
“Waiting. We do have a fail-safe in place, that retrieves us after seven days. We have our own problems with secrecy, you see. Only five people in our world know about the two universes.”
Andy whistled, and Sam propped himself onto the table, giving in to the need to confess.
“The truth is, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back. Just one person knew of this mission, Sarah’s uncle, Jamie Andrews. He’s a Nobel laureate, and quite respected. The three of us head a research consortium, somewhat similar,” he shuddered, “to Sun. Without the drama and control, I hope.”
“But given what’s happened here, and the reality of the political climate, I’m afraid we’ve put our world into terrible danger. Sun’s leaders will not ignore us, now that they know how to find us.”
Andy rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Blimey. You do have a mess on your hands.”
“We won’t be able to ignore it. When we get back, we’ll have to go to our world leaders. I don’t know what they’ll do.”
“You have to protect your world from us,” Andy said, his voice deep with conviction. “Sun is the greatest danger, but not the only one. What if they try to invade?”
Sam stared at his hands, rubbing them together in slow circles. He didn’t answer.
“How can you keep helping us, knowing we might destroy your world?” Andy asked.
Sam looked up, then. “Because you’re the reasonable voices in this world. You’re our biggest hope, Andy. You have to save your world, for our sake, as well as yours.”
“The stakes are higher than ever then, aren’t they?” Arkady said from behind Sam. “I couldn’t help overhearing.” He pulled a chair over. “Your video feed is ready. I’d like to wire you. Ned, too, in case you get separated.”
“Okay.”
“Sam, you’re doing the right thing,” Arkady said. “Secrecy is a killer on this world. Everything we do needs to be out in the open. Full public knowledge will be our most powerful weapon. Even more than CERBO.”
“It will have to be that way on our world, too,” Sam said. “We are both going to have stunned populations when all this comes out.”
“They’ll live.”
“That’s the idea.”