Metak Fatigue Part 26

He winced. "I didn't want to run out on you, Barney, but there was something I had to do." "Like convince Keith Morrow to turn himself in?" asked O'Dell.

Roads looked uncomfortable. "It wasn't that simple." "I can imagine." The RUSAMC captain moved across the room to examine the crate. "But thanks anyway."

Roads frowned and wiped a hand across his face. To Barney he seemed slightly dazed, as though he had only just woken from a deep sleep. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

He looked at her. "Never been better, never been worse." For a moment, she thought he was about to move closer, perhaps to touch her, but he didn't. "We need to talk," he said. "Here) " "Alone, if possible."

She looked over her shoulder at O'Dell. "Martin, do you mind?" "Not at all.

I'll get the squad and organise the crate.

You can talk outside while we do that, if you like." "Actually, I'd prefer to go elsewhere," Roads said. "Away-4rom here." He glanced at Barney. "Do you want to come for a walk?"

Barney studied him closely, searching for any sign of deception. All she saw was weariness etched bone-deep. For the first time, he actually looked close to his real age. Unlike Morrow, however, she was sure it was genuine.

There was something about him that made her think twice. A tension she couldn't fathom."I guess so," she said. "But no funny business. I haven't forgiven you yet."

"Understandable. At least give me a chance to explain." To O'Dell he said: "If we're not back before YOU leave -"

"Don't worry." O'Dell tossed Barney a key from his pocket. "Take the jeep.

I'll hitch a lift with the squad. We can swap notes later, when you're ready."

Barney fingered the key apprehensively for a moment. "Thanks, Martin," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Any time." The RUSAMC captain smiled warmly. "I'll see you two "Definitely," she replied, hurrying to where Roads waited for her. A slight limp didn't impede his progress as he turned and made for the exit. "Probably," he said.

Ignoring the look of curiosity she cast at him, he led them out of the bar and into the rain.

Roads gave directions while Barney drove. She handled the unfamiliar controls of the RUSAMC vehicle cautiously at first, but with growing confidence. The powerful electric engine growled as she put her foot to the accelerator, propelling them swiftly through the wilderness of the harbour.

She could sense Roads' need to talk, but let him make the move. She knew him well enough - or hoped she did - to understand that he would talk when the time was right. "I've been out of touch the last day or so," he finally said. "Have I missed anything exciting?"

"This and that," she said, thinking he was trying to lighten the mood. Then she noticed that he was serious. "How far behind are you?"

"Too far. Morrow's network crashed when the Mole exploded. You must have noticed that, because his version of PolNet went down too." "We did wonder what was going on." "So did 1. Then Raoul contacted me on an emergency band and filled me in. That's when I discharged myself from the medical unit and came down here."

She pulled a face. "Have I told you how annoyed I am about that yet?" "You don't need to." He half-smiled. "But you weren't around to talk to at the time, and I didn't want to leave a message. It was bound to have been misinterpreted. " "Probably." She turned a corner he indicated. "I was at Mayor's House when you left, sitting in on the close of the emergency session.

Have you heard about that?" "No. They wouldn't tell me anything in the RSD medical unit, except to keep still."

Barney smiled at the image, then took a deep breath and began at the beginning.

The aborted a.s.sa.s.sination attempt and the siege of Mayor's House had dominated the news, of course. In the chaos that had followed Cati's attack on General Stedman, the Mayor had over-reacted disgracefully - a fact he had admitted in a special sitting of the Council, held an hour after the siege had been broken. A serious battle between RSD and the MSA had only been averted by the RUSAMC's second Cherubim prototype, which had confronted the Mayor in his private chambers and forced him to negotiate.

Barney had watched from the security control room while the Council, four of General Stedman's aides and every department head of Kennedy Polis had viewed O'Dell's recording of Roads' confrontation with DeKurzak. The liaison officer's confession, and hisultimate demise, had been played unedited from beginning to end, with only a small break midway to discuss the ramifications of the news.

The Mayor had sat through the recording with his hands tightly folded, his face pale. When it had finished, he had called an hour-long recess to discuss the situation with Stedman's aides.

It was during that time, O'Dell had told her, that he had been played the additional feed Roads had sent. "I still can't work out how you knew," she said. "There's no mention anywhere in the footage you took of DeKurzak." "No, there isn't." Roads looked at his hands. "I followed a hunch, and it paid off." "A pretty big hunch, calling the Mayor a traitor." "It worked, though, didn't it? DeKurzak couldn't have been working on his own. Yes, he was Cati's controller, and- yes, he had his own long-term goals - but in the short term, he was just another p.a.w.n caught up in the Mayor's little game." "Easy to say in retrospect," she commented. "It didn't hit me until DeKurzak told Betheras Cati was needed at Mayor's House," Roads said. "The only messages crossing the city the night of the siege were Keith's, Stedman's, and the coded signals leaving Mayor's House by landline. The Mayor was communicating with him all the time, so the Mayor knew what he was doing. "Once I'd made that connection, the rest fell into place. It explained Packard's sudden reversal of policy after the arrival of Stedman's envoy, and the siege of Mayor's House he instigated. The Mayor only let the Reunited States into the city in order to kick them out later, by force if necessary. And DeKurzak was an integral part of that plan. That's why the Mayor supported his every move."

Barney drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "DeKurzak admitted that he was planning to shaft the Mayor, at some point." "To a.s.sume control himself, I presume." "I still can't work out why, though. He'd lose his power base the moment he opened the Wall - and he'd have to, just to survive. The city wouldn't last, otherwise. " "Did you actually see the second feed I sent?"

Roads asked.

She shook her head. "No, but Martin told me what was in it." "He obviously didn't tell you everything. You haven't brought up Betheras yet." "I don't follow you."

Roads' eyes didn't leave her. "DeKurzak and Betheras were working together.

Did you ever wonder what Betheras stood to gain?" "I a.s.sumed he was an interventionist, as Martin calls it, gunning for military solutions rather than negotiation." "He may have been once," Roads said, "but not this time.

That would have put him and DeKurzak at odds. No, I think he - perhaps both of them - were wrecking the Rea.s.similation so that one of the Reunited States'

enemies could move in instead."

Barney absorbed this in silence. The possibility made her head reel. "f.u.c.king h.e.l.l." "That's what I thought," Roads said. "But it makes sense. Kennedy has enormous strategic value. It stands to reason that someone else would want it." "Who? I didn't know there was anyone else out there." "There are at least two other major nations," Roads explained, "and we lie midway between the States andone of them. I learned about the New Mexican Alliance from Martin's files, although I never suspected that hostilities had reached this point. Betheras had probably been spying for them for some time, and came to Kennedy with the original envoy specifically to look for allies. Whether or not he found DeKurzak then, and they worked together throughout the whole of Cati's spree, we can only guess. All we know for certain is that they came to some sort of agreement at the end." "Both of them hoping to give the Mayor an excuse to throw Stedman out of the city," Barney said, continuing the thought. "Then, when the dust had settled down, and everyone had got used to the idea of opening the city, Betheras' friends could make a more tempting offer." "No doubt DeKurzak stood to gain a lot out of it," Roads said. "Power, or money."

, "No doubt both of them did." Barney shook her head. "And they deserved everything they got," "Betheras is dead too?" Roads asked. "No. He's still in intensive care, in a coma. Here's hoping the sonofab.i.t.c.h doesn't pull through."

Roads grimaced. "Is there any evidence he tampered with the Mole's programming, given he worked for Project Cherubim?" "Martin doubts it. The specialists think the Mole's internal conflict was genuine, not faked. What's possible, though, is that Betheras gave advice, supposedly to fix the conflict, that actually made it worse, such as when the Mole was ordered to kill Cati." "Logical," Roads said. "The more the Mole misbehaved, the greater the damage done to Stedman when its origins were discovered." - Barney nodded, remembering the events on Patriot Bridge. After the confrontation with Cati, the explosion that had destroyed the Mole had torn a large chunk out of the bridge. She, along with O'Dell and the rest of her squad, had been lucky to escape the hail of debris that had fallen from the maintenance tower.

And luckier still that the section of the bridge below them hadn't collapsed under the strain. "You haven't finished telling me what happened at the emergency session," Roads said, bringing her back to the present.

She forced herself to continue the story. Whatever he had to say was obvious going to wait a little longer.

The Mayor had returned from his discussion with Stedman's aides to table a motion that a number of judicial decisions be added to the public record.

Given the timing of the crimes and the need to minimise public unrest, plus the fact that at least two of the suspects were known to be dead or dying, the need for a trial could be circ.u.mvented by the Council's emergency powers. That way, the cases could be closed, the trouble forgotten, and more important matters dealt with without further delay.

- It was a shrewd move on the Mayor's part, even without the knowledge of the second feed taken into account. Between the Mole, Cati and the RUSA, the Council had suddenly realised how vulnerable the city was while the Rea.s.similation issue remained unresolved. DeKurzak's apparent betrayal - and his own involvement with the RUSAMC - had hammered home the fact that the sooner the situation was dealt with, the better it would be for everyone.

Knowing what Roads had said about the true relations.h.i.+p between DeKurzak and Packard, however, she could guess what had really happened in the private chambers. The Mayor hadn't been discussing options; he had received an ultimatum. Betheras was to be sacrificed in order to draw attention away from the person who had sent the Mole in the first place - whichwas Stedman himself. That way the RUSA could avoid a public backlash. If Packard didn't do as he was told, then the truth would come out about his relations.h.i.+p with DeKurzak, and he would lose everything.

Making DeKurzak a scapegoat allowed Packard a way out of a very sticky situation, even if it did mean letting the Rea.s.similation go ahead after all.

To keep his own involvement secret, he rushed the motion past the council so quickly that no-one had time to ask themselves why they were letting Stedman off so easily.

The Council debated the motion for less than an hour. With the support of Senior Councillor Norris and the other Rea.s.similationists, it was voted in with a twothirds majority. Half an hour after that, the fait accompli had become a part of official city history. "And the motion was ... ?" asked Roads.

She knew it by heart: "Betheras and DeKurzak were found guilty of espionage, murder, conspiracy to commit murder and treason. Everybody else caught in the crossfire - including Margaret and Roger - were acquitted of all charges."

"And me?"

She took great pleasure in saying: "Innocent of murder and conspiracy to commit murder."

Roads sat in silence for a moment. His face was grim. "Aren't you pleased?"

she asked, disappointed by his reaction. "You're off the hook. You can come out of hiding any time you like, now."

He didn't reply immediately. Instead he pointed through the windscreen at the ruins of what had once been a row of shops and said: "Stop there. We'll walk the rest of the way."

Barney pulled the jeep to a halt where he had indicated. "Why here?" she asked.

"Humour me."

Roads climbed out of the seat, feeling every sore bone from his neck to his ankles. The rain had eased, but the wind was strong enough to make speech awkward. The noise it made reminded him of distant times: of tents on battlefields, of nights waiting for orders, of the betrayals both small and large that his life seemed mostly composed of. The feel of cold air whipping across his exposed scalp made him long for freedom, for flight.

At that moment, more than at any time previously, he could imagine how Cati had felt.

It took them several minutes to reach the end of the freeway - time he was grateful for, to think. The area was sealed from the general public by Major Crime tape. A pair of RSD officers maintained a cursory watch from the shelter of an abandoned tollbooth. Seeing Roads and Barney, the pair waved them through. Slowly, cautious of the ribbon of pain down the muscles of his left thigh, Roads crossed the pot-holes and shattered tarmac of the freeway, and walked onto the bridge.

He brought them to a halt a hundred metres from the sh.o.r.e and leaned against the western guard-rail to watch the water rolling below. He couldn't remember being dragged from it, although he vividly recalled nearly drowning. But for the timely intervention of a RUSAMC soldier - whose name he didn't even know - he might well have joined the rubbish on the river's bottom. A fish's meal snagged on a rusted cae-wreck; just another piece of flotsam left over from the twentieth century.

Barney stood next to him with her hands in the pockets of her new coat, not too close but not too far away either. He supposed that her old coat had been singed or torn, just as his had. The sun sank in front of them, dipping gradually through gaps in the clouds tokiss the distant horizon. To their left and above, clearly visible as a dark, twisted scar in the superstructure of the bridge, was the place where the Mole had detonated. Several of the thick suspension cables that had once terminated at the summit of the maintenance tower had been severed by the blast. Most had fallen away from the roadway and into the river, where their truncated ends dragged into the river; two cables, however, had fallen into the infrastructure, causing considerable damage. "You almost died this time, you know," Barney said, braving the wind with an echo of his own thoughts. "First Blindeye, then Danny Chong, then -"

"I know," he said. "But that's not the reason I brought you here." "Why then?"

"They'll demolish the bridge for sure, now," he said. "This could be my last chance to see it relatively whole." "I guess that's understandable." Barney glanced at him curiously, clearly uncertain where his mood was taking her.

"It's always been fairly unsafe.- His eyes traced the path of the dangling cables. "Even if they do decide to rebuild, only the pylons will be salvageable. Construction from scratch is often more difficult than reconstruction - or rea.s.similation, if you prefer.

And rea.s.similation is more difficult -" "Than dissolution?" Barney interrupted, picking up the metaphor instantly. "Always." Roads nodded. "I remember when I first arrived here. Kennedy seemed like heaven compared to the rest of the country. With Keith's help, I managed to forge an ID card and found a job in security. That earned me a regular food supply for the first time in over ten years, but it also gave me something to do. I had a life, Barney . . ." He turned to meet her gaze. "I don't know if I can make you understand how important that was to me.

Everything I'd ever loved was gone. My home was ten thousand kilometres away, on the other side of an ocean that had once seemed insignificant. My implants were dead, and their very existence threatened to destroy me. I needed something temporary to fill the gap, and Kennedy was it. To watch it dissolve over the years . . ." He stopped to find the right words, and failed. "It's hard for me to talk about these things." "I can imagine," Barney said. "The important thing is that you're trying."

He wanted to touch her, but didn't allow himself to. "Everything has its breaking point if you push it far enough," he said instead. "Patriot Bridge, Kennedy Polis, the Mole, Cati - and me. That's one reason I disappeared. I've lived the last thirty years alone and anonymous, and part of me prefers it that way."

The surprise in her eyes was obvious, but it didn't show in her voice. "Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? You're saying you don't want me around any more?" "No. I'm saying that, after everything that's happened in the last month, I need a change of scenery."

Barney's face tightened further. "And you came to say goodbye?" "No. Not necessarily." "Then what, Phil?"

Roads squinted at the sun, trying to burn out the confusion in his mind. The western sky deepened slowly to red. In another time, the rumble of aeroplanes and orbital shuttles would have marred the stillness of the scene. Roads hadn't heard the sound of jet engines or even seen Kennedy's terminal for decades. The RUSA appeared to have concentrated its strength in land-based transportation, maybe from a shortage of aviation fuel.He wondered how long it would be before any nation recovered enough to even contemplate international flights; years, possibly decades, would pa.s.s.

Sydney seemed as far away as ever. "Did you ever find Katiya?" he asked, changing the subject deliberately.

She followed his gaze, then shook her head. "We dredged the river yesterday morning. Her body, and Cati's, must have drifted downstream. They'll turn up in one of the locks soon enough."

Roads nodded. "And the Rea.s.similation? Is that going ahead as planned?" "More or less. Stedman has made a few speeches promising all sorts of things, but the changes will be slow coming. He's leaving a full squadron here to oversee the amalgamation with the MSA. RSD will continue as normal, as a local department of the States' police force. If all goes well, the Gate will be open permanently in a month or two." "Slower than I thought," Roads mused.

"But still too fast for some." "More demonstrations?" "Not many. Just people talking. It still doesn't feet real - and probably won't for some time. That's the general impression I get." "They'll catch up," Roads said. "They have to."

"Don't get me wrong, though," she added. "There are a lot of people - like me, I guess - who are curious. Stedman's had a lot to say about life in the Reunited States. It doesn't sound so bad." She forced a smile with some conviction. "I can see why Morrow was so happy to turn himself in. The States are clearly a more attractive option for someone like him." "Infinitely,"

Roads said. "He really could live for centuries, so a stint in jail isn't going to bother him.

He'll be right where he wants to be at the end of it: in the heart of Philadelphia, ready to reconnect with the datapool around him. And once he does that, his potential for expansion is limited only by the size of the Reunited States itself. As they expand and spread, so will he." "Unless they kill him, of course," Barney added.

Roads studied her for a moment. No, she hadn't guessed. That didn't surprise him: she still hadn't fully accepted what Morrow was - and part of him wanted to keep it that way. But he had no choice. It was crucial that she know the truth about him before he could expect her to make a decision.

Taking a deep breath, he said: "You don't really believe that's Keith in the crate, do you?"

At first she didn't think he was serious. He could see that in her face. "Are you telling me it isn't?" she asked. "Because if you are, Martin's not going to be amused when he finds out." "No, no. Keith Morrow is in the crate, in a sense. But it's not him." In response to a sceptical look, he explained further: "Look at it this way: Keith is a computer program. A very sophisticated one, of course, that has far outgrown its original specialised hardware. And a program can be copied ...

Barney opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. "It's a copy in the box, edited to fit his original processor," Roads elaborated. "His current form is in a quite different facility on the other side of town."

Eventually she found the words she was looking for: "And you let him do this?"

"Worse than that," Roads said, before he could have second thoughts. "I helped him pull it off. That's themain reason I disappeared so suddenly, and couldn't tell you where I'd gone. I couldn't say no to Keith, and you wouldn't have approved." "You're right about that," she said, scowling. "What else could I do?" he protested. "I owe him at least as much as I owe you. Without each other, neither of us would have made it to Kennedy Polis intact. He would have been salvaged for spare parts, and I would have fallen to pieces." "But you said you had nothing to do with him any more -" she began. "I know," he broke in. "We drifted apart over the years, but we still kept in touch. There was always an agreement between us that whenever one needed help the other would respond. Hence all that business after PolNet collapsed - and earlier, when we went to him looking for information about the Mole." "But what about after the Mole blew up?" Barney protested. "We almost lost you when Morrow's version of PoNet crashed. You couldn't call for help; it was purely by chance that someone found you drifting in the river and pulled you out before you drowned. What made him change his mind about helping you then?" "He didn't have a choice, actually,"

Roads said. "When the Mole self-destructed, its central processing core went with it. The explosion destroyed a fair amount of Keith's auxiliary equipment in the bar, thus rendering him incapable of supporting the PolNet program any longer."

Barney's eyes, wide before, narrowed. The ramifications of this statement didn't elude her. "You mean he had it all the time?" "Without knowing what it was, of course. It was just a puzzling piece of tech someone found in his territory weeks ago. He planned to examine it more closely when he had the time, but the Mole's own activities kept him preoccupied." "And it almost blew him up as a result." Barney's lips whitened. "Perhaps there is a G.o.d, after all." "Why?" Roads asked. "He wasn't really hurting anyone, not directly. If he'd had truly sinister motives, he would have taken over Kennedy long ago."

She turned on him. "That d.a.m.ned thing almost killed you -" she began, but cut herself off.

Roads waited for her to continue. When she didn't, he continued his confession. "Anyway, that's why Raoul called me. Keith needed someone he could rely on to repair the damage after the Mole's artificial intelligence blew up.

His back-up had to be a.s.sembled, tested, prepared for him to inhabit. The explosion ruined his chance of making a quick getaway. I was the only person he could trust to do the grunt work."

He tried to catch her eye, but she looked away. "I was hoping you would understand, at least," he said, ,and maybe even forgive me, eventually, if you could." He leaned closer. "What do you think, Barney? Can you?" "That depends," she said, her voice soft but intense. "On what?" "On what you plan to do next." Barney turned to face him. "If you leave me here without telling me where you're going again, then I'll be justifiably p.i.s.sed off." "I understand that," he said, measuring every word with care. "But my options are limited. The city's in the hands of a puppet government with no real power, and a Mayor who's even more p.i.s.sed off with me than you are. " "But what about Margaret?" Barney pressed. "She came out of this fairly well. She'll do everything she can to protect you.""But she can't fight the law she's supposed to uphold. Remember: Packard's motion to the Council only clears me of murder and conspiracy; it says nothing about Humanity crimes, so they can still haul me in on that if they want.

"Besides, this business has just brought to a head what was building anyway; I couldn't go on pretending to be a well-preserved sixty-year-old forever. Even if I can clear my name completely, somehow, the rumours will persist in the upper ranks. I never wanted to be a hero or a villain, and here in the city I'll always be regarded as both." "But if you leave," Barney said, 'where will you go?" "I don't know for sure. The original Keith is planning to move soon, to escape Outside via the old maglev tunnels we came in through. I could join him for a while. Or I could wander aimlessly like I did before I came here, until I find somewhere else safe to live. Or "Or?" she prompted. "Or I could take up Martin's offer, if it's still open, and travel with him to Philadelphia when he goes back."

Barney thought about it for a long moment. "That's not a bad idea, you know,"

she eventually said, stating what he had only half-admitted to himself. "No?"

"Think about it, Phil. You'd be close to Morrow's duplicate, and away from all the scandal. I'm sure Martin could arrange for your implants to be kept a secret. He could probably even give you work to do, if you wanted it. You know how military service operates, having held a rank in the old days." Her eyes lit up as another possibility occurred to her. "No, wait. I've got an even better idea: if you don't want to work for the Reunited States, then the Mayor might be convinced to give you temporary status as a trade envoy."

"Just to get rid of me?" "Yes, partly." Barney almost smiled in the deepening sunset. "But he'd still need someone to keep an eye on you, of course."

Roads felt a knot inside him slip loose. "And I'll always need an a.s.sistant.11 "Partner," she shot back. "Keeping you organised and out of trouble deserves at least that much, don't you think?" "Definitely." Roads reached out and placed his good hand on Barney's shoulder. She accepted the gesture with equanimity, neither moving closer nor pulling away. He opened his mouth to speak, but she preempted him again: "Is that what you've been working yourself up to say? That you'd like me to come with you?" "Yes." He couldn't meet her gaze.

He felt as vulnerable as a schoolboy on his first date - which was absurd for a man in his ninth decade. "If you want to, that is."

She responded instantly: "Why wouldn't I?" "Well . . ." He shrugged. "This is your home, for a start. " "And yours, too." "Only for the last few decades."

"Likewise." "But you were born here " All the more reason to leave, then.

It'll broaden my horizons." Her gaze remained fixed on him, undeterred. "I'm not like DeKurzak. Kennedy isn't the only city in the world that matters."

"But you've never been outside "Exactly," she said, "and it scares the s.h.i.+t out of me, to be honest. But I can rise above that. I don't intend to pick a fight with anything like Cati without making certain I'm armed to the teeth first. I don't go for stupidmachismo stunts like some people I could mention." She prodded him in the ribs, making him wince. "As for my reasons for going ... they're a little more complex. I'm not a love-struck teenager infatuated with an older man. I think our relations.h.i.+p can be more than that, given a chance. If I do decide to go, it'll be for that reason. Because I want to explore that possibility. I don't have to justify my decision any more than that, so don't expect me to, okay?" "Wouldn't dream of it." Roads met her intensity with a smile, admiring her bravado and accepting her feelings on the matter without questioning them, even though he was certain they weren't quite so clear-cut. His own weren't, especially about pressing the Mayor for favours. "Besides," she added, "I haven't said I'm going to, yet." "At least you're interested," he said, with genuine feeling. "Just don't wait too long. Martin leaves in five days." "So soon?" Roads raised an eyebrow. "I thought he'd stick around to make sure the Rea.s.similation goes smoothly." "Why? It's not his problem. He caee here to deal with the Head, and that's all. The paperwork can be left to the politicians." "True," said Roads. Although he felt slightly guilty about abandoning the city in such a mess, it wasn't his job, either, to midwife Kennedy through its difficult rebirth. It had to do it itself, or fail trying.

He had only himself to worry about. His indenture to the city was over.

"Martin's missing his son, I think," Barney said. She stepped away from the rail and looked pointedly back to the sh.o.r.e. The wind had stiffened as evening fell around them. "And he's probably wondering where his jeep has got to."

Roads nodded, taking the hint. It was time to head back. There remained, however, one final issue to deal with before he could cut free of the previous week's events.

"You go on ahead," he said, giving her shoulder a quick squeeze. I'll catch you up in a minute. "You're sure? I don't mind waiting." "No. I just need some time alone."