Chapter 39

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The next morning, Sage, Athlete, and Juliet approached the embassy the same way they’d left it. They walked casually onto the observation platform, the giant spinner looking as colossal as ever on their left, as they made their way past it.

There were quite a few alien sight-seers on the platform today. At least several hundred, Sage estimated, which was all for the best. The tourists were leaning against the railing, strolling arm in arm, and frequenting the stalls along the safe side of the platform. They left the stalls with blown glass replicas of the spinners, tiny figurines carved from Seltan minerals, or any of a hundred other souvenirs of their trip.

Sage felt less and less sanguine about this job as they approached the door to the embassy. Technically Faal’s involvement probably increased his chance of success, but it also drastically increased the cost of failure.

Whatever Claire thought of him, he couldn’t bear to leave her to Faal’s mercy. And he wasn’t stupid – he knew that Faal was playing more than one game. There was a decent chance that Faal would try to double-cross him and Claire would be lost anyway. However, there was also a decent chance that he would keep the terms he had agreed upon. The Merith were an aggressive and somewhat solitary race, but most of them abided by a stringent honor code. Sage hoped Faal was high-class enough to be one of them.

They made it to the door of the embassy without protest, or indeed, anyone seeming to notice. So far, so good.

Sage’s bag hung from one shoulder and he casually swung it around to rest against his torso. This put the tablet inside the bag within hailing distance of the door. Now to find out whether Basher had realized his token was hacked and changed the settings on these doors.

Sage was not in suspense long. The door buzzed faintly and Athlete immediately pulled it open. The authentication code worked, then.

Athlete held his new pulse gun in two hands and quickly swept the corridor. “Empty.”

Sage and Juliet entered behind him. This corridor branched off to a stairway on the right and Sage remembered traversing them with a fevered and nearly unconscious Claire. Going down these stairs would lead to the bottom floor of the embassy, where the containment cells and the medical quarters were. If they went up the stairs, they would be on the top floor of the embassy, where the negotiation room and most of the Spo offices were located. Needless to say, they would avoid the top floor. If they went left and bypassed the stairs they would enter the domicile portion of the embassy, where the private suites and guest rooms were located.

“Go Juliet,” he said. They’d memorized the map, of course, and decided to split up their targets. Juliet would have the (hopefully) safer job of getting to the medical quarters and obtaining the ink. Sage and Athlete would try to get the computer on this level.

Juliet ghosted silently down the stairs.

Sage took a deep breath and moved past the stairs. At almost any cost, they wanted to avoid setting off an alarm. That would make their exit nearly impossible.

Behind the stairs, the corridor took a sharp right turn. Sage peeked around the corner for the blink of an eye and pulled back. “Empty,” he said.

Nat’s door was the fifth one on the right and they got to it quietly but quickly. Sage again held his bag near the door. After three seconds it buzzed.

A voice came from within. “Sam, leave me alone. I told you I don’t want to go to the negotiation. Senator Fontley doesn’t want us there anyway.”

Sage froze. She was in there.

He and Athlete jerked back, and Sage desperately held his bag to the door on the other side of the hallway. When it buzzed, he and Athlete piled into the empty room and Sage let the door slide shut behind him.

He listened intently, but he didn’t hear the girl’s door open after all.

So.

Sage tried to think. Clearly this girl, Natsuki, hadn’t gone to the negotiation as planned. And apparently she had no plans to go. And yet they had to get in there.

Athlete gestured with his gun to the hallway and Sage knew what he meant. Lure her out and then shoot her. Not complicated.

Sage shook his head. Their pulse guns, while technically less lethal than standard pellet guns, were calibrated for the bulk of a two-hundred pound Spo. If a tiny Asian girl got that blast, she could very well die.

Claire would hate him forever if they killed another human.

Which left the other option Sage had pondered. In his bag, along with the tablet for hacking the doors, he had Claire’s glasses.

He also had a set of conventional lock picks (identical to the set he’d slipped into Claire’s pocket), and a reinforced quilted bag for the computer they were to steal.

He got out the glasses and put them on. He faced into the empty suite, away from Athlete, so as not to alarm the computer-girl at first.

She responded right away.

Claire! Where are you? That room looks like...

“This is not Claire,” Sage said. “She was kidnapped by Faal last night.”

What? But Faal is here, he’s in the negotiation room.

“And does he seem cheerful?”

Oh. Poor Claire! Thank you for telling me. I’ll alert Basher right away.

“Stop.” Sage tried to inject command into his voice, but it was hard when he couldn’t see the object. “If you alert Basher, Nat will get hurt.”

Sage spun slowly to show Athlete waiting by the door. He gestured with his hand, for Athlete to hold up his gun. “We are in the embassy, as you guessed. We are right across the hall from your sister’s room.”

Sage briefly explained Claire’s predicament and Faal’s offer. “So you see, I have no choice but to take you with us, but you get to decide how it works. We can unlock the door to your sister’s room and shoot her before she manages to warn anyone. We can shoot our way out, injuring who knows how many more. Or… you can quietly get her to leave the room for a few minutes. The only variable in the equation is Nat’s health when we leave.”

This was about seventy percent bluff, but he’d found humans were usually bad tacticians when a family member was involved. There was also a very good chance that she’d pretend to play along while also alerting Basher. Either way, he and Athlete had to get out of here as fast as possible now that he’d alerted Akemi to their presence.

She said a very bad word. Then:

Why don’t I just tell Basher to hold onto Faal while someone goes to retrieve Claire?

“Because that will get Claire a few hours of reprieve, a few weeks at most. If you think Faal won’t pursue her all the way to Earth, you’re wrong. This will get her six months.”

She didn’t reply and Sage counted to twenty. “Okay, enough time. We’re coming over.”

Shut up. Nat’s coming out.

Sure enough, Sage heard the door open and soft footsteps down the hall. He didn’t ask Akemi what excuse she’d used. When he judged that Nat had had time to get out of the hallway, Sage opened their door.

A quick peek assured him she was gone. They crossed the hall and Athlete stood just inside the suite door while Sage went to the computer. The spherical biocomputer looked completely out of place in a bedroom – its place was in the piloting room of Spo spacecraft.

Did you know about this experiment? Were you one of the doctors who killed me?

Sage barely paused. “No, I wasn’t. I did my fair share of terrible things, but you were not one of them.”

Well, take comfort, she said sarcastically. I daresay you have many more terrible things yet to accomplish.

Sage nodded as he examined the computer. “You’re right.”

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