Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps (12 page)

Blood lost him, then, because she felt the touch again, and this time she recognized it. She swept her gaze around the audience, around, until … He had dyed his hair brown, and surgery had changed his features more than age, but when she saw his eyes, she knew him. Even through her blocks she heard his soundless laughter. Monkey. It is you. How have you been? Hao. And you? What are you up to Monkey? What do you have to do with this? Everything, I’m afraid End of the line, Blood. You took the wrong track. I’ll give you one more chance to get of of it. I can help you disappear. But this is the end of it.

“Ms. Alexander?” Kevin repeated for the third time. She finally looked up, gathering her thoughts, focusing on the myriad bright slices of sail and pennant that shifted out over the blue-silver surface of Lake Geneva.

“The senator asked me to speak with you,” he repeated.

“Where is he?”

“He wanted to be here, but I insisted he stay out of it. He doesn’t need to know the answers to the questions I’m going to ask you.”

“Ah. Plausible deniability.”

“Something like that.”

“Maybe you don’t want to know either, little boy.”

“It is, of course, my job. So I’ll take my chances. Let me start with the New Zealand thing-“

“He’s bluffing,” she said sharply. “That was clean, I know it.”

“Couldn’t you be wrong?”

“No. It was clean.”

“Then how does he know about it?”

She shrugged.

“He has teeps with him. They could have picked the story from several minds.”

“So it wasn’t all that clean.”

She quirked her mouth.

“You’re a lawyer, right? Didn’t I hear that you’ve handled cases using teeps? Then you know that kind of evidence is completely inadmissible without corroborating data. And I’m telling you, there is none.” She pressed her fists together . “Same with everything else he says. He has a teep working with him, a P 12-“

“How do you know that?”

“What?”

“That he’s a P12?”

She rolled her eyes.

“It’s a guess, based on what he can do. Do you want to hear this?”

“Sorry.”

“He can know some of these things, but he can’t prove any of it. I’m sure.”

Kevin ticked his finger on the marble balustrade.

“Then he can’t—2’ He paused to think about it. “He isn’t doing what we think he is, then. The hearings aren’t the point. What is he up to?”

Blood leaned back.

“I don’t know.” She looked more intently at him. “You have a strange mind, you know that? Mechanical, almost . Too-something. Almost doesn’t feel real.”

“That’s rather impolite, don’t you think?”

“I can’t help it. A normal couldn’t understand. This close, I can no more avoid seeing the shape of your mind than the shape of your nose. Does that bother you?”

“No. What I meant was–well, you wouldn’t tell me I had a big nose or ugly eyes, would you? And yet you tell me I have an unattractive mind.”

“I didn’t say I find it unattractive. What do you think you would see if you could see my mind?”

He considered.

“Wild horses. Knives. A whirlwind. I don’t know. You certainly don’t look like someone who ought to be wearing a uniform.”

She shrugged.

“I have something I have to do. It happens to coincide with what the senator is doing. I have to wear this uniform for it all to work.” She reached for his face with her gloved hand. He flinched away, just slightly, and she sighed and lowered it. “So, what do we have? Hearings that must be a cover for something else. Something his teeps are doing?”

“Maybe. Listen, can you see the `shape’ of Lai’s mind?”

“Yes.”

“Do you sense any deception coming from him?”

Blood shook her head.

“No. But that might be a screen put up by one of his teeps. I don’t think so, though-I don’t think even a P12 could do that to me. But I suppose it’s possible.”

“I’m not a teep, but I’m pretty good at reading people, and I don’t think he’s bluffing either. Which probably means someone else is using him. Which means … what does it mean?”

“I don’t know,” Blood said. “But I’m going to find out.”

Kevin had never met Alice Kimbrell-Crawford before, but he recognized her immediately, despite her disheveled hair, the streaks in her no-streak makeup, her red eyes. Leaving Lee’s office, she passed him in the corridor, obviously in a hurry. He knocked on the door she had just closed.

“Lee?”

“Get out.”

“Lee, it’s Kevin Vacit. It’s important.”

“I said get out.”

Instead he stepped in, and closed the door. The lights were set to minimum, and Lee Crawford was just a shadow behind his huge desk.

“Whaddyou want?”

“Lee-the hearing?”

“Th’ hell withit.”

“Lee, have you been drinking?”

The senator rose unsteadily, lifting a bottle of bourbon from behind the desk as he did so.

“Drinkin’? No. I’ve been changin’ my blood for something better .” He lifted the bottle and threw back another few swallows, stumbled over to the leather sofa, and wobbled down onto it. “Damn legs, don’t work worth a damn anymore. Time was-time was=’ He coughed. “You get old. Things stop working. People die. People leave-” He looked up at Kevin, a spark of anger in his eye. “What do you think of me now, eh? The great Crawford? The Moon hero, the teep savior-” “

“I think you’re drunk. That’s about the size of it.”

Lee wagged a finger at him.

“I know about you. I looked into you. Zuni Indian-“

“No, only part-“

“Everyone’s part somethin’ these days. Part this, part that. ‘S a good thing. People think they’re pure they start killin’ each other. I didn’ mean nothin’-except you were like me. Grew up dirt-poor. Made somethin’ of yourself. Pulled somethin’ out of that bastard, the universe, that he never ever intended you to have. Am I right?”

Kevin was silent for a moment.

“Something like that.”

“Yeah. I can sense it. I can feel it. That’s why you’re still here. Tom didn’t have that little rich kid. But I liked him, anyhow. Can you believe that? I loved him, even after him and Alice-” He choked off a hoarse laugh and then took another drink. “I’ll miss him more than her.”

“Maybe that’s why she did it.”

Lee rose jerkily to his feet and stalked over to Kevin, stood there swaying in front of him.

“You little shit,” he whispered. “You little-” He swayed another second or two. “Shit. How dare you be right?”

“Why did you marry her?”

“Liked her. Part of the game. Good wife for a hero, all’s well that ends well. Loved my first wife, look how that turned out. Thought it might go better this way. But damn-I think, in the end, I loved Alice, too. Funny how that kinda thing sneaks up on you.” He stumbled back to the couch, then turned his dimming eyes up to Kevin. “Thumb that switch, will ya? That ‘un by the desk.” Kevin found the small plate and pressed it. Above, the ceiling became space and stars. “Where are they, you think?” Crawford wondered. “I know they’re there. When I was a little boy, I used to shine my flashlight at this star or that, thinkin’ one day they’d see my message. All this other stuff teeps, the Mars colony, everything-it’s all just markin’ time. The real thing is out there, the aliens that’ll finally make us Human.” He looked at Kevin. “You know what I mean?”

“I think so, Senator.”

“It’s the only thing I really dream about. I’m gonna be around when it happens. I’m gonna be there. The bastard can’t stop me. Before I die, I’ll see them, face-to-face.” He took another swallow, sputtered on it. “We’ll show him, won’t we, Kevin? Show that bastard. I did pretty good today, didn’t I? Made Lai look pretty silly. I’ve still got some left.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’re a good kid, Kevin. If I’d ever had a son-“

“Let me put this up, Lee.” The bourbon bottle had dropped from Crawford’s hands. What little remained in it was leaking onto the polished slate floor.

“Show ‘im,” Crawford mumbled, throwing his arm over his face. He might have been weeping. Kevin put the bottle up, then returned to where Crawford had begun to snore. He turned him on his belly, in case he should become sick, and sat there beside him for a moment, the legend that stank of rotted corn and charcoal filtering.

“Don’t wont’, Senator,” he said. “We’ll show him. You just rest.”

CHAPTER 4

Blood glanced around the Senate chamber. Where are you, Monkey? She couldn’t feel him at all, today, but he could do that, if he wanted. Make himself a pane of glass. She didn’t see him, either, but he might be disguised as anyone. Lai was getting his notes in order.

Kevin Vacit was right. Something was up. But what? Could it be so simple as getting the media stirred up? That didn’t feel right, not with Monkey involved. Monkey was better than that. For years he had been the biggest thorn in her side, there again, gone again, clever and slippery as ever. If he was here now, where she might get her hands on him, he must be playing for very high stakes indeed. And if he was here today, it would be a mistake. Ten MRA agents were planted in the crowd. Plainclothes. Good ones. The room fell silent as Lai stood. She stole a glance at Lee Crawford, who looked a little green, and at Kevin, who seemed to be searching the crowd as much as she.

“I call to order,” Lai said. “I would like to continue my questioning of Ms. Alexander, if it please the Senate.”

Blood nodded.

“I’m ready. Senator.”

“Very well. Ms. Alexander, can you tell us where you were on August 16, 2132?”

“Of course. I was on train 1116 from Amsterdam to Prague. We had information that a family of illegals was trying to reach India.”

“Why India?” Something was strange. She couldn’t place it at first. “Ms. Alexander? Why India?”

“Hmm? Because they give refuge to illegals. Though an EA member state, they aren’t signatories to the Crawford-Tokash act.”

“I see. So you were chasing this `dangerous criminal’-Didier Krijgsman, a traffic flow analyst-his wife, Mary, and their ten-year-old son, Len. Is that right?”

She had it now. The minds in the room were silent. Even her own operatives. Someone-or several someones-were blanketing the proceedings. Why?

“The law is very clear,” she said. “They broke it. I was trying-“

Who could have told Lai about Prague? There were no witnesses , only Teal and the rookie-She stabbed her eyes around the room.

“Ms. Alexander? You were saying?”

She saw Daria, six rows back, and sent her scan there, brutish, cutting through the film of silence like a knife through paper. Felt Daria’s hand, lifting something. Then she saw it all.

“Ms. Alexander-“

“Senator Lai, get down.” She shouted at the top of her lungs, at the same moment springing up from her seat. Daria’s dismayed face settled into a mask of determination, and her hand jerked up.

Blood would never get there in time. But she didn’t have to. The line was drawn, two eyes triangulating , and she punched her leg against her seat, launching herself into space, just as the weapon flashed. A wind blew through her, a strange feeling, and she hung for what seemed a long time in the suddenly bright air before slapping into the seats. Pain filled her in a great rush, then, and screaming. She could not sort out the vocal from the shrieking of minds, but it didn’t matter. Agony continued to uncurl. She couldn’t even tell where she had been hit. Blood! It cut through everything. Got you, Monkey. Got you, damn it. Jesus, Blood. Jesus. Come against me, you lose. You’re the one dying! Damn it, Blood, 1 didn’t want …

“Ambulance!” Someone was screaming. Mind images of herself fell on her like rain. She was broken, lying across the seats, a hole punched through her chest.

You wanted to make it look like MRA did ix The rookie here, in plainclothes, but she would be caught trying to escape, and then they would discover she was ate of our agents. They’d think we killed Lai because he really had sane evidence. But now they’ll dig deeper, find out she’s one of your little rebels.

‘Just hang on, Blood They’ve sent for an ambulance. (laughter) You lose. You know I loved you, right? (pause. sick feeling) No. How could I? God, don’t die, Blood. If only you’d said something. Skip it. We made better enemies than friends. Come here, though, I want to tell you something’.

Everything else was slipping away. Only Monkey remained his fee as she remembered it, young, full of laughing mischief. Come here. Let me give you a kiss. He came, closer, and when he was close enough, she seized him. Something was pulling her down-she had a weird image of herself flowing into a straw, a thirsty god sucking on the other end. Blood no! Come along, old friend Let’s see this together. Let’s go see the Sorcerer. Down, farther, her thoughts tearing away from her one by one. It was as if she were made of fireffies, and now they were all free, spinning out into the maelstrom. And Monkey, terrified at last, squirming in her embrace, howling. The last of her began to fall away, and Monkey went with it.

Then her grip loosened. He rocketed up, out of the vortex, seeking fife. She watched him go, no longer caring. Her last remembrance as the lights vanished was of her daughter, Brenna, and her last satisfaction was in knowing that Monkey would never know he was her father. 77ie Night, the Wind… The Night.

UP wire service, 3 September 2133 In a desperate move to discredit the MRA, rogue telepaths last week tried to assassinate Senator Philip Lai. The attempt was made by Daria Beaudain, a rogue telepath who had infiltrated the ranks of the MRA. A full investigation has been launched into the matter, and there is some suggestion of involvement on the part of certain members of the Senate. Senator Lai expressed his remorse over the death of Desa Alexander, who heroically sacrificed her life for his, even as he was accusing her of murder. Said Senator Lai, “A truly moral man knows when to admit he has made a mistake. I may not be truly moral, but I do strive to be, and I here, now, humbly admit a terrible error. One that cost the life of a courageous woman, and for which I can never forgive myself. I allowed myself to be deceived by people I thought I could trust. I have scrutinized the alleged evidence they supplied me, and now judge it to be unquestionably false. I only hope the public can forgive me my haste to judge. The experience has left me wiser and much, much sadder.”