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Chapter 66
By AC
"They're not here, sir," came Lydon's voice over the speakerphone. "My men have gone over the airport carefully."
Ven nodded. The clock on his wall said it was close to noon; time was running out. He said. "Obviously they couldn't hide there, so it must be a planned meeting place. Probably they intend to escape the District. Remain there, and have every available patrolman start a search centred from the Airport."
"No. I have a better idea..." Lydon outlined his plan to Ven.
"Difficult," Ven said when he finished. "But I agree, that would be better. No personal scores, Lydon. Just get the interface here alive and well."
"Yes sir." There was a hint of fear in Lydon's voice.
Ven cut the connection. At that moment, someone knocked on his office door. "Yes?"
An aide opened the door, a file in his hand. "Master Ven? We've been examining those objects we took off the prisoners."
"And?" Ven leaned forward.
"Three of the devices appear to be some kind of weapon. One of the technicians was paralyzed when he touched the control."
"Paralyzed?" Ven stood.
"The doctors think it may be temporary. The details of the analysis are here." He handed the file to Ven.
Ven glanced through it, then read it again, slowly and more carefully. "All three had these devices."
"Yes sir, but the woman had two more devices. One appears to be some kind of medical device." The aide had a sheepish grin. "It -- ah -- even diagnosed my hemorrhoids."
"The other object is no larger than an keycard, but we think it's a lot more complicated. We don't know what it's supposed to do."
"Hm." Ven thought a moment. "Perhaps I was a little hasty in dismissing her. Have this woman brought to me."
Central District's airport was not what Cisia had expected. The lobby was clean and well-lit, the air carefully regulated remaining cool and fresh. And the place was packed with people. Cisia had never seen so many in one spot.
Phoenix and Nakano stood beside her, doing their best to look inconspicuous. Cisia wasn't sure how well their act was working, but at least no one noticed them yet.
A good thing, too. Cisia was seeing more and more uniformed people in the lobby and at all exits. She pulled her coat closer. "I don't like this."
"Neither do I," Phoenix said. "We're sitting ducks here."
"Just keep calm, kid." Nakano replied. "Here comes Anika."
Anika walked towards them. "Okay. Good news is that Darian's plane is fuelled and ready. Bad news is nobody else has shown up."
"Do you think Talehn and Paula succeeded?" Cisia asked.
"If they had, they would have been here by now. They're either still working on it or..." Anika paused.
Cisia shivered. "But I'm sure they're okay," Anika added quickly.
"And Darian?" Phoenix said.
Anika was silent for a moment. "I haven't heard anything from him. But I think he might have done what he said -- at least I haven't seen anybody from the Syndicate here." Her voice caught.
Cisia put a hand on her arm. "He'll be okay."
"Thanks."
Cisia looked at the others. Nakano was studying his shoes, but Phoenix was staring at someone. "Hate to break this up, but we can't wait any longer." He pointed to one exit where another uniformed man had joined the two already there.
Cisia looked... and recognized the officer from the previous night's shootout. At the same time, the officer looked at her, and their eyes met. He said something to the patrolmen beside him, and they started to walk toward them.
Anika saw them too. "Lydon... Just great. We can't start a firefight here; somebody could get hurt. Let's go." They started walking to a free exit.
Which ceased to be free as two patrolmen filled the doorway. Cisia turned and saw more officers closing in on all sides.
"Looks like we don't have a choice," Anika said. "Try not to hit anybody other than the officers," she said, reaching her gun. Cisia found herself surrounded by the three, their bodies like shields.
Before they could draw their guns, the patrolmen drew theirs. Anika and Nakano stopped -- somehow Cisia sensed that they knew the fight was lost.
Phoenix was not so rational. He drew his gun and got off one shot. Screams issued from the crowd as a patrolman went down. His partner returned fire, and Phoenix yelled as the bullet nicked his hand. His gun dropped to the floor.
The circle closed. Cisia's heart sank as Lydon walked up to them.
"Cisia is the only one we need alive. The rest of you are expendable. So please--" His expression turned malicious. "--feel free to resist arrest."
"We won't give you the pleasure," Anika said, her voice laced with bitterness as one officer removed her sidearm and cuffed her.
Lydon smiled and reached for his cell phone.
"Too bad we can't have some fun with her," said one gaurd.
"Yeah, but Ven wants to talk with her soonest, and you know he's been edgy lately."
Paula listened to this exchange, nervous, frightened, as they pushed her down the corridor. Eventually, they put her inside an office, where Ven sat behind a wide desk flanked by a computer terminal. On the desk was two objects. With a start, Paula recognized her quancomp and the first aid unit.
"Thank you," he said to the gaurds. "You may go."
Paula heard the door shut behind her as the gaurds left.
"Have a seat." Ven took an urn from a side table and filled two cups. "Coffee?"
Paula rubbed her shoulder, still sore after the treatment the gaurds gave her. "No thanks."
"In case you're thinking of escape, you should probably recognize this--" Ven pulled a stunner out of his pocket. "Nice little device. I didn't know a biologist needed weapons."
/She does if she walks among savages,/ Paula thought, but didn't voice her opinions. This was probably her one chance and insults would get her nowhere.
"Now," Ven sat down, sipping his coffee. "My technicians can only guess at the nature of these two devices. Their opinion is that these things are advanced tools. Though this--" he held up the quancomp "-- has them mystified entirely."
"It's a quantum computer," Paula said. "And if you'll give it to me--"
"Uh huh". Ven shook his head. "To continue: I value the opinions of my technicians. So perhaps you really are from another world. So: why are you here?"
As succinctly as she could, and without giving anything away that could jeopardize Cisia and the others, Paula told Ven about herself, the Survey, her reasons for coming to the Central District and her eventual meeting with Cisia, Darian and company.
"Once we realized the depth of the situation, we decided to come here, to talk to you," she finished. "You've got to stop using Ether as a power source."
Ven laughed. "Really! Just like that, and what would we use instead?"
"On every world in the Compact, we've learned to tap the energies that are bound up in spacetime itself. I think the local life here has learned to do the same thing by itself, possibly by--" Paula stopped herself. Now was not the time for a biology lecture.
"The point is we can give you the technology needed to harness this energy. You wouldn't need to use human beings as interfaces anymore, and most importantly, you would not be killing the planet's ecology or the planetary mind."
Ven finished off his coffee. "I still don't accept the notion of a planetary mind. If it exists, why hasn't tried to contact us."
"It has, but humans can't access the Ether networks like the native life. The mind tried altering humans at the genetic level, and that created your mages."
Ven's expression told her she wasn't getting through. "Look," she said. "Everything I'm telling you can be proven. The proof's in the quancomp. Just let me access it and --"
"No." Ven said. "This doesn't look like a weapon, but one of my techs was paralyzed by one. How do I know that your quancomp isn't really another weapon?"
Paula sighed. "It's not a weapon. I promise. Please, trust me just for a moment."
Ven paused, as if thinking it over. At that moment the lights flickered and Ven's phone rang.
Ven walked over and pushed a button. "Yes?"
"This is Lydon. We have them -- alive."
"Excellent. Bring Cisia here -- Did you say /them/?"
"Yes. Cisia's protectors. They surrendered with minimal resistance. As I expected."
Paula's heart sank. On the one hand she was grateful that Anika and the others were alive. But on the other--
"Bring them here. We'll hold them until we have Cisia inside the Reactor. After that, I will leave their punishment to your discretion. Get Cisia here, top priority." He cut the connection.
Paula stood. "After everything I've told you you're still going to use Cisia as your-- your sacrifice?"
"Even if what you're saying is true -- and I doubt that -- we can't just stop. Do you know what will happen if a city this size loses power even for a few hours?"
Paula shook her head.
"Eight years ago we suffered that very fate. Within minutes there were riots in every part of the District. The global economy was wrecked, disease ran rampant; thousands died from hunger and exposure." His face softened a bit. "I still have nightmares about those days.
"We - I - had to declare martial law, a state from which this city did not entirely recover. I didn't like doing it, but it was the only way to keep this city from dying. And I will do anything and sacrifice anybody to keep it from happening again."
He walked toward the door. "Maybe someday we can afford to accept your technology, but for now, Cisia has to go into the Reactor, or else a lot of people are going to die."
"But-- but that's what Dalasius wants!" Paula exclaimed.
Ven stopped. His eyes shot icicles. "What do you know about Dalasius?"
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