Psion Omega (Psion series Book 5) (22 page)

Beads of sweat
dripped down Brickert’s bright red cheeks. He puffed for air and wobbled, but
Dr. Rosmir was right there, ready to catch Brickert if necessary.

“I got it,”
Brickert said. “Just—”

Another ball came
at Brickert and nearly caught him in the side of the head, but Brickert jerked
back and let it sail past. Unfortunately the motion was too quick for him in
his frail state, and he tumbled backward into Rosmir’s arms.

“I think that’s
enough for today,” the doctor stated. “Machine off.”

Sammy clapped
slowly and loudly as he approached. “Looking better every day, bro. How long
did you go for?”

“Almost an hour,”
Brickert answered.

“Well … more like
half an hour,” Rosmir said, smiling, “but improvement every day. That’s what
matters.”

“Improvement
against tennis balls,” Brickert said. “Big deal. Bullets are faster.”

“Got a date yet for
when you’re out of here?” Sammy asked.

“It’s not that he
can’t leave,” Rosmir said, “it’s easier to keep him here since we’re working
with him in rehab two to four times a day. Plus the tests, monitoring his bone
and tooth repairs …”

“I get it,” Sammy
said. He turned to Brickert. “How about food? Can he come out for lunch? I’ll
bring him right back with not a scratch on him.” His tone made it clear to
Rosmir how ridiculous Sammy thought it was that he had to ask permission to
take Brickert to the cafeteria.

Rosmir waved his
hands and tried not to laugh. “Go.”

As soon as they
were out of earshot of the doctors and nurses, Brickert turned to Sammy.
“Thanks. I’ve been going stir crazy for the last two weeks, I’ll tell you.”

“No problem. I’ve
been meaning to come by more, but everything’s been crazy. Planning missions,
doing those therapy sessions with Croz, keeping Jeffie happy. I still feel like
I need to be around more.” Sammy held his breath as he started up Lemon, but
this time the car didn’t give him any problems.

“Natalia comes by
every day. Keeps me updated. I still can’t believe Al and Marie. Splitting up.
They still haven’t named their daughter.”

This surprised
Sammy. “You kidding? It’s been two months.”

“Marie’s family has
a tradition where the grandparents choose the first baby’s name. I guess it
goes back about ten generations. She won’t consent to anything until the war’s
over and her parents have met her daughter. Al, of course, is pissed.”

“So what do they
call her?”

“Baby girl.”

“What a mess.”

Brickert played
with a string hanging off his sleeve. “Everything’s a mess right now.
Strawberry wishes she’d never joined Psion Beta. Al and Marie hate each other.
I can’t fight worth a lick. Every time I think about the Thirteens I break out
in a sweat.”

“Strawberry, huh? I
thought she’d get over that. She told me she wants to go into fashion or
something.”

“She’s good at it
too. Berry’s the only one left in her recruiting class. She thinks she’s
next—like the group was cursed or something. Scares me a little too. If
Berry survives all this, I guarantee you she’ll quit and never look back.”

“And you?” Sammy
asked.

Brickert snorted.
“I said I’m having sweats, not peeing myself—” Sammy winced at that
comment, “—or designing dresses in my head. I want to get back in the
game as soon as I can. Just so long as you don’t put me in charge of anything.”

“Why’s that?”

The look on
Brickert’s face told Sammy the answer should be obvious. “I’ve proven I’m not
leadership material. I’m lucky Natalia and Strawberry survived.” He stared
downward and dropped his voice to a murmur. “Hefani … it was me who got him
killed, I’ll tell you. It was me.”

“It wasn’t your
fault.”

Brickert shook his
head. “If you had been in charge of a team and someone got killed, you would
blame yourself. Don’t say otherwise.”

Sammy opened his
mouth to argue, but Brickert was right. “It’s—it’s not leadership,
Brickert. Things happened. Natalia told us how Hefani kept putting in the code
incorrectly. There are some things you can’t control.”

“I shouldn’t have
let my team take our eyes off the screens. It only took a few seconds …”

“I’ve made
mistakes, too, Brick.”

“Have your mistakes
gotten people killed? Or almost killed?”

Sammy stared at
Brickert, his best friend, and wondered how he could have ever raised a hand
against him. The guilt was still there, it would always be there. “Brickert, I
… I have to tell you something.”

“What?”

Sammy swallowed and
found his throat was filled with sand. “I’ve made mistakes.” His voice almost
failed him. The words were right there.
I
nearly killed you. That was my worst mistake
. He meant to say them, but
instead he muttered, “In Akureyri. I—I thought I was calling the
Thirteens’ bluff, but they killed a girl without a second thought. I should
have known better.”

Brickert nodded,
but Sammy’s words didn’t improve his mood.

“It was your first
time as a team leader—” He stopped when he saw the tears running down
Brickert’s face.

For a long while
Brickert shook in silence. Finally he sniffed and said in a thick voice, “I
froze up. Should have called for help sooner, but I was worried about the gas.
Caught off guard. I might have saved Hefani if I’d—a better job.”

“Hefani was dead
the second he was shot. Your actions saved Natalia and Strawberry. Think about
that.”

“Berry saved
Natalia. I was gone.”

“So you can give
yourself all the blame and none of the credit? Sounds fair.”

Brickert sighed. “I
don’t know. I wish I was you, Sammy. Wish I had your moxie. Your smarts. People
meet you and they immediately want to follow you. I’m just the other
guy—”

“Brickert …”

“And I’m fine with
that, I’ll tell you. I really am. But I just wish I could have a little bit of
what you are.”

Sammy couldn’t
think of anything to say except, “Thanks.”

Just as they
arrived at the cafeteria, Sammy got a call from Thomas. He wanted Sammy to come
down to the air tower for an emergency meeting.

“It can’t wait?”
Sammy asked, looking at Brickert. “It’s Saturday.”

“No,” Thomas
responded. “That’s what
emergency
means.”

Sammy rolled his
eyes. “Be there in five.”

Brickert frowned.
“Gotta go?”

“Go where?” Jeffie
asked behind them. “Another meeting?”

“I can’t imagine
what it’s like to be so important,” Kawai teased. “Can you, Jeffie?”

“To be so powerful
…”

Sammy shook his
head, grinning. “These emergency meetings are getting old. I gotta go. See you
guys tonight.”

In the air control
tower Thomas and Lara were already present along with a few others. When Sammy
saw Dr. Khani Nguyen preparing a presentation he knew he was in for an
interesting meeting. She rarely came to the leadership committee meetings, but
when she did, it always portended some kind of drama. Her gaze met Sammy’s and
she gave a curt nod.

Weeks ago, during a
particularly long meeting, Sammy had confronted Khani about some of her data.
She responded by calling him a
Pretensai
,
which he could only assume meant that she questioned his Anomaly Eleven. Justice,
who had overheard the exchange, found the remark wildly hilarious, and now
called Sammy “Pretensai” every chance he got.

Lara opened the
meeting with a few announcements and then gave Khani the floor. Khani took over
with her usual smugness. After straightening her glasses, she turned on her
holo-projector. “My team has now had ample opportunity to study the data cube
which Trapper, a.k.a. Diego, gave Sammy at the Hive. We believe we have mined
enough data to help the leadership committee formulate an effective offensive
strategy in conjunction with the NWG. Most of what I will discuss revolves
around the kill code and two so-called
white
rooms
.”

Despite how
ardently Khani had argued that no such kill code existed, she still managed to
convey all this information with a tone that suggested superiority and infinite
knowledge. “The kill code can be used to target and eliminate every CAG
operative and personnel who has consumed the substance referred to as the
solution
. This substance will cause a
chemical reaction inside the body that culminates in a violent explosion. The
explosion will be lethal enough to injure, possibly even kill, those within a
small enough radius relative to the victim.

“Notes from
Trapper, a.k.a. Diego, inform us that the figure known as the fox intended to
use the kill code to eliminate all the Thirteens, Hybrids, Aegis, and others
deeply involved in the Thirteen organization. To do this, he built two rooms,
one in Rio de Janeiro and one in Orlando. Accessing both rooms is necessary to
effectively use the kill code on a broad scale. Now, as for gaining access to
the said white rooms, that’s where things start getting tricky.”

Khani brought up a
holographic image of two identical towers: the one in Orlando and the one in
Rio. “Both white rooms are in the sublevels of the towers below the red and
black levels. Only one elevator in each tower descends to the three sublevels.”

Her hologram
highlighted the special elevators that went down to the sublevels from the main
lobby.

“The purpose of
these rooms raised several questions in my mind, along with my colleagues. Why
not just use the Hive to activate the code? Why build special rooms for it? Our
analysis of the data gave us the answers. Control. While individuals can be
targeted from the Hive alone, the kill code used en masse can only be achieved
from the white rooms. Trapper’s notes say that its activation will terminate
the lives of over a thousand anomalies and CAG operatives.

“With so much at
stake, the fox maintains maximum control over the rooms and the kill code.
While these towers are extremely similar, and were built only months apart,
there are a few key differences that will, or at least should, impact the way
the missions are planned in subcommittees.

“The Rio de Janeiro
N Tower was built first, and the fox made some improvements on the Orlando
tower. Thus your teams will have a few more options for accessing the white
room in Rio than in Orlando. The biggest difference between the two buildings
is in the foundations. In downtown Rio, these massive skyscrapers like the N
Tower and its surrounding buildings are interconnected via service tunnels. It
is possible to use these tunnels to gain access to the elevator shaft connected
to the black, red, and white floors. However, getting the white door open is
not so easy. It only opens to Trapper, a.k.a. Diego, or the fox. However, it
can be recoded to accept anyone with a level 6 clearance.”

“Dark agents,”
Sammy added.

Khani scowled at
him as though she didn’t appreciate the interruption. “Yes, and most Thirteens.
The data cube contains the programming to recode the door. All we need to do is
get it into the data slot and provide someone with the clearance.

“The tower in
Orlando, unfortunately, is not so simple. The fox took more precautions with
this building. The door cannot be recoded, only he can open it.”

“We have no chance
of getting him to open it,” Commander Byron stated. “Are you saying this
mission is impossible?”

“Would you people
stop interrupting me!” Khani declared. “I wouldn’t be wasting your time with
all this information if it were impossible. It is possible to breach the door
using a plasma blade inserted at one specific point, a built-in weakness as
Trapper termed it in his notes. However, the procedure must be very precise or,
again, the kill code cannot be activated in the room. If the breach is done
correctly, the data cube can override the system and open the door.”

“We only got one
data cube,” one of the Hudec brothers stated; Sammy couldn’t tell which.

Khani glared at him
as she would a disobedient monkey in a zoo. “Believe it or not, I’ve made …
duplicates
.” Then she rolled her
shoulders and continued. “The other difficulty is that the Orlando N Tower does
not share a greater foundation with other buildings. There are no service ways
to use to infiltrate the building. The only way to access the elevator that
reaches the white floor is getting a Thirteen’s fingerprint and using it to
activate the panel with the white button.”

“Sounds like we
have our work cut out for us,” Thomas stated. “Thank you, Khani.”

“I’m not finished,”
she said. “The problems go beyond what I’ve stated. Your coms will be worthless
once you get into the sublevels of the towers. This presents a problem because
the activation of the kill code needs to be coordinated, happening within one
minute of each other. If one tower activates their side without the other, the
system will lockdown for an hour.”

“Is network
penetration out of the question?” Justice asked. “Break into their systems and
activate the kill code outside the white room?