Killswitch (42 page)

As many wealthy people as there were in the Federation and League combined, there were very few who owned private starships. For those who did, it remained the ultimate statement in wealth and privilege.

"Your disappearance greatly damaged Takawashi's prestige within the League government and military," Ramoja continued. "He had warned that it was a possibility within your first ten years of life. After that, however, he firmly expected that your loyalty toward the League and its principles would be firmly entrenched. When you left, he lost face, and the powers that be lost confidence with his predictions. I believe that Jane had been merely one of several side-projects up until that point. Afterwards, however, he felt compelled, by ego as much as the technical challenge, to work toward a solution to the problem you posed."

"A GI's loyalty," Sandy muttered.

"Exactly. And to control her loyalty, you first must control her mind. I believe he donated Jane to the FIA because he knew they would use her. That they might use her against the League would never have bothered him-Takawashi was always far too bound up in his personal quests to waste time with such pointless distractions as patriotism. He knew the FIA would use Jane, and doubtless he was curious to see her effectiveness. He maintained covert links to the FIA with which to monitor her activities, that being a condition of the deal. Which was how he knew she would be here. Perhaps the FIA even agreed to hand her back after two years, I cannot say."

"Maybe there's more than just Jane," Sandy remarked. "Maybe Takawashi gave them several. Maybe lots. Maybe Jane's just the first."

Ramoja nodded. "Clearly possible. Cognizant's records are more closely guarded than many branches of the ISO. We have no way of knowing just how many prototypes were made."

"He couldn't hide Jane away before," Sandy said with suspicion. "Why does he feel he can do so now?"

Ramoja took a breath, and shoved both hands into the pockets of his army pants. "League recruitment has largely survived the immediate purge of the new regime," he said, with an expression that hinted at unhappy resignation. "Cognizant has been building facilities in systems far removed from easy scrutiny. They have worked their way into the new government's favour as they did with the old."

"Wonderful system you work for," Sandy remarked sourly.

"Perfection of the system is not a prerequisite for loyalty," Ramoja said sharply. "If it were, neither of us would choose the jobs we hold. If the system is flawed, then fixing it is merely another part of the job. Our loyalty comes from our commitment to the values that underpin the system, not the system itself."

"Or because someone high up in League military command decided they wanted a GI who would believe exactly what they wanted her to believe," Sandy remarked, eyes hard with anger. "What a fucking joke. Another great chapter in the League's commitment to the rights of its synthetic citizens. The war's ended, and we're still just a fucking commodity to them. A military asset." Ramoja stared away at a wall, his jaw set hard. Ambassador Yao looked at his shiny shoes upon the floorboards.

"I hadn't thought it was possible," Yao ventured timidly. "I mean, I'm just a layman ... but to create a GI of the level of intellect that you two possess ... and to control her personality and brain function from the first day onwards? Surely that control would ... would destroy the very creativity that is her ... and your ... greatest asset?"

"It would seem to fly in the face of all established psych theory," Ramoja said tautly. "Jane may yet evolve, I suppose. But to be where she is now, at barely a year-and-a-half's age, is worrisome."

"If Takawashi were to abruptly meet with misfortune," Sandy said blankly, "it would all die with him." Yao blinked at her. Ramoja frowned, incredulously.

"And this is your official position, is it?" he asked. "In your new role as an enlightened, democratic authority sworn to uphold human rights and the rule of law?"

Sandy fixed him with a hard stare. "This is mind-control, Major. It's illegal in both League and Federation to apply it to straights. Somehow though, the League doesn't have a problem applying it to GIs. What if it progresses?"

"Tape-teach doesn't work on straight humans like it does on GIs," Ramoja contradicted firmly. "Straights are naturally evolving. You can't just brainwash an organic mind indefinitely, it doesn't work."

"It wasn't supposed to work on GIs either," Sandy retorted. "Not this way. Either the people behind this have to be exposed, or it's got to be ended. One way or the other, this is just too dangerous right now."

"Commander," Yao protested, "the technology isn't the problem, so long as the regulatory mechanisms are functioning ..."

"Yeah, I know the usual League spiel, Ambassador. And how wonderfully are the League's regulatory mechanisms working now?"

Yao swallowed. "I will not discuss an ultimatum from a simple Federation functionary-no disrespect intended-to interfere with matters of League internal policy in exchange for the continued functioning of the League Embassy on Callay. Furthermore, I can't believe that Director Ibrahim would include such a tangential demand into his list of requests in sending you here."

"He didn't," said Ramoja, studying Sandy with contemplative eyes. "She's just voicing her opinion. Again."

"Yeah, well at least I care enough to have one," Sandy retorted. "I want full documentary evidence. All the dealings this Embassy had with Takawashi. All the communications files, all the intel you received from ISO back League-side. That is a part of Ibrahim's demands."

"You'll get as much as you need to convince Captain Reichardt and his people of what really went on," Ramoja responded calmly, his manner as impenetrable as his arms-folded stance. "That's all Callay's security requires. Director Ibrahim and President Neiland will be happy enough with that. The rest is League property."

"I'll decide what's enough here, thanks ..."

"I'll tell you," came a new voice from down the adjoining hall. Rhian appeared at the corner, as Ramoja gave a frowning look over his shoulder. Rhian's head was bandaged, and she wore a loose, grey tracksuit, very unlike her usual, glamorous self. The front was unzipped, in the manner of someone recently out of bed, and her feet were bare. She steadied herself against the corner, and gazed at the small group gathered in the entrance hall. Her gaze, Sandy thought, appeared slightly unsteady. "I got into their files," she told Sandy. "There's lots of stuff about Takawashi. It wasn't the Major's fault, Cap. Nor Mr. Yao's. They were under orders. But they knew Jane was going to kill Admiral Duong, and couldn't stop it because Takawashi's faction had instructed them not to."

"That's enough, Lieutenant!" Ramoja barked. Behind her left shoulder, Sandy could all but feel the female reg begin to tense.

"Takawashi was very excited about Jane," Rhian continued, walking upon weary, bare feet across the expensive Indian carpet. "He said she appeared to exceed any of his expectations. Apparently his superiors were very excited. I got the impression they said something that referred to mass production and new League rebuilding strategies, but I couldn't be sure. Maybe someone in the CSA can tell."

Rhian stopped in front of Ramoja. Ramoja gripped her shoulder with a firm hand. "Lieutenant Chu," he said. The effort in his voice, to keep calm and controlled, was evident. "You've been shot in the head. You're still under partial sedation. I think you should go back and lie down. The doctor said your skull had been well and truly rattled. Do you understand?"

Rhian blinked at him, almost dreamily. "Do you remember what you said to me a few days ago, Major? That you knew my loyalty was divided, and how you thought I should take some time to think about it? Well, I've thought about it."

Sandy simply watched, barely able to breathe. Combat-reflex was attempting to impinge upon her vision, and the throbbing ache in her thumb was receding.

"Rhian," said Ramoja, in a softening tone. There was real affection in his voice, whatever the evident strain. A comforting surety. Charisma. "Rhian, I know how much you like Tanusha. I know how much you love Cassandra. Truthfully, I've always expected that you would wish to join with her in service of Callay and the Federation one day-honestly, I'll show you my reports to ISO command, I predicted that one day it would happen. But now should not be that day, Rhian. This is the wrong moment. This would cause complications. And you owe us more than that, Rhian. You owe us more, for everything we've given you, for all the tolerance we've shown in letting you keep on in our service despite knowing that your true loyalties were shifting. You can't do this to us. It wouldn't be right."

Rhian frowned at him for a long moment. Slim and apparently vulnerable, before her CO's athletic, square-shouldered build. That, like so much about Rhian, was deceptive. Then she looked at Sandy. Sandy just waited. She knew she could not intervene. She had recruited one of her old team mates into Callayan service before, so eager had she been to be reunited. That eagerness had killed him. Of course, Vanessa insisted otherwise, but ... well, she just knew that she could not intervene again. The choice had to be Rhian's. Nothing else would work.

"Wouldn't be right," Rhian repeated, as if to herself. "What's right?"

Ramoja smiled. "Ah, Rhian. Always asking the right questions."

"I'm serious," Rhian persisted. Ramoja's smile faded. That wasn't like Rhian, to challenge so directly. "What's right? Is it right to treat GIs as a tool to win wars? I like being a soldier. I'll fight for a cause I believe in. But now Takawashi's faction want to make GIs who don't have any cause? Who just do what they're told?"

"That's always been the case, Rhian," Ramoja said warningly. "You know that. The League's survival has depended on it, however unpalatable the policy."

"Well, sure," Rhian conceded with a faint shrug, "but I mean, regs are regs." With a faintly anxious glance at the reg standing behind Sandy's shoulder. Sandy doubted she was offended. "We're so much better at fighting than them. I remember you saying once that we had a responsibility to protect everyone back in the League. But don't we have a responsibility to protect everyone here too? And everyone everywhere else? I don't see how an army of ten thousand Janes makes anyone safe, here or there. I think there's just a few people doing this to serve themselves. I think they need to be stopped."

"And we can do that, Rhian," Ramoja soothed, putting the other hand upon her opposite shoulder. "I agree with you. But we can do that from here. Within the system, where we have access to those who matter."

Rhian shook her head, adamantly. "No. I'm a soldier. I don't like diplomacy much. I think you stop people by stopping them. Like this." And she made a wall with one hand, and a fist with the other. Smacked the fist into the wall, definitively. Her eyes searched Ramoja's face, in search of understanding, but found only concern. "I don't mean killing them. But if that's all they understand, you have to at least threaten it. It's like a bluff. Like in a game of cards. If you don't mean it, then it's not worth doing. I've seen the diplomacy here. I don't think it's working. No one stopped Takawashi, did they? I want to stop him. I think I can do that better with Sandy than I can here."

Ramoja took a deep breath. "Rhian, you made an unauthorised access of Embassy storage. I can't let you walk out of here with that information. That would be stealing League secrets, and I know you know that's wrong."

"And we helped get Callay blockaded," Rhian replied calmly. "So where does that leave us?"

"I won't allow it, Rhian."

Rhian took Ramoja gently by both wrists, and removed his hands from her shoulders. Ramoja performed a fast reversal, but in a blur of motion Rhian was faster, and retained a grip on his forearms. Ramoja stared in consternation.

"Mustafa," said Sandy, in the slow, profound stillness of combatreflex. "Don't do it. ISO commissioned you. You're a good soldier, but you're Intel, not Dark Star."

"Major, please!" Yao backed two steps along the wall, bumping into a decorative cabinet. "Let her go, we can discuss the protocols later ..."

"Rhian," Ramoja said reasonably, "I'll let you go if you first void your memory storage of the data files you stole."

"It's Callay's right to see them," Rhian replied, just as reasonably. "It's well within Callay's natural security parameters."

"You're not a lawyer, Lieutenant. That's not yours to decide."

"You're not a lawyer either."

The GIs' respective stances were unmistakable, feet subtly positioned and posture squared. Undrugged and healthy, Sandy would have bet on Rhian any day-tape-teach was supposed to negate the need for practice, but Sandy knew better. Experience in any skill made a huge difference, even for GIs, and particularly in free-form, unpredictable skillsets like combat. Rhian's combat experience was vastly superior to Ramoja's, despite their similar (Sandy suspected) ages. But Rhian was drugged, and dazed.

There came then the light, fast thudding of footsteps. GIs-too fast and lithe to be straights. Sandy recognised the tactical disadvantage immediately, with a reg at her shoulder, and made three rapid feints of shoulder, foot and head within a split second, tangling the reg's more predictable reflex responses. The final left elbow struck within that blur of motion, the GI's head snapping back with a force that would have decapitated a straight, then crumpling to the ground unconscious. And, reg or not, Sandy made a mental note to apologise later-she simply couldn't afford that presence at her rear when her front required full attention.

Neither Ramoja nor Rhian so much as moved an eyelid, gazing at each other with a strange silent intensity. Rhian's slim hands held Ramoja's forearms. Ramoja made no attempt to remove them. At GI speeds, starting postures were hardly crucial. What mattered was what happened next. Five GIs in plain fatigues appeared from the cross corridor, weapons levelled down the entrance hall. One darted forward to pull Ambassador Yao back, out of the firing line.

"No weapons," said Ramoja. "No one is going to fire in here. I forbid it." The GIs put their weapons away without a moment's hesitation, so as not to hinder their movement. That, the nuances of posture, plus the way their eyes took in the scene, told Sandy that they were all regs. Sandy opened an uplink to an external, presecured network point, and opened a shielded channel. Made contact, gave a simple command, and disconnected.