Twenty-three
Executor General Gorlon Hague awaited his scheduled
appointment with the Colonial investigator, Lee Wokan, in his office.
Shesel made a brief appearance to deliver in person news already
infiltrating through the city's official channels. "It does appear to be
Myla," she said. "The child has left the Hive system at hyperlight
velocities with an accompanying fleet of Hive war and mining vehicles. I
do not understand how."
"Don't try."
"She is being pursued by Hive, Alliance, and alien
craft," Shesel said. "Thousands of them."
"The situation is not as yet hopeless," Gorlon said.
"We may be able to establish communications. I would imagine she'd
respond best to a woman's voice. Your voice, Shesel. When the time
arrives, you will contact her and tell her that Jeremy is being sent to
her to mediate. Feign a technical problem and sever communications if she
interrogates you for information. She may suspect a trap, but she will
not let the boy die."
"Can you be certain of that?" Shesel said. Shesel
did not doubt his evaluation of the situation, but she had been trained to
challenge him and, at his request, to draw from him a clear and detailed
sequence of logic.
"Jeremy is her last tie with her human persona.
Jeremy is her only hope of rescuing her sanity. She has undoubtedly
outgrown the child she was, but she won't abandon her heritage altogether,
not as frightened and confused as she must be."
Shesel acknowledged her assignment and turned to
leave.
"One other matter."
Shesel turned back with a frown.
"Does Einsik still run the bio labs for the Nats?"
"He does."
"Ask Einsik to prepare a clone based upon Myla Rhodes
DNA structure stored in the personnel files. I want the clone aged twelve
apparent years, physiologically and psychologically, with minimal
environmental and social programming. Tell Einsik I will answer no
questions regarding this matter and I will brook no argument. Order him
to simply do as I say."
"He will not risk so much," Shesel said bluntly.
"Then tell him, if you must. Khalin is in possession
of the Dalikor technology. He may well have used it. Explain to him that
we have the means of destroying the autonomous avatar, but until that
happens, I need Lee Wokan's suspicions diverted. To do that, I need Myla Rhodes
physically present here
in Bolphan, and I need the records to show she has been recently retrieved
from a life capsule orbiting Immamat where she abandoned the transport. I
need medical records showing evidence of brain-damage or amnesia of some
type to cover the girl's feral condition. Tell Einsik the lives of
everyone on Bolphan are at stake, including his own."
Shesel rushed from the office to do his bidding.
"Boris," Gorlon spoke on internal channels.
"Speak, Executor General."
"As soon as I establish contact with Myla Rhodes,
Jeremy Kael is to be sent directly to her. The Hive must ensure Jeremy's
safe delivery. I will give the command to detonate the implant when I am
certain the two are together. They must wait for my command."
"The Hive states that such is the limit to our
standing agreement and future association."
Silence gathered in the office. "What is the Hive
doing?"
"Forces are being gathered to destroy the assailant,"
Boris said.
"How much of their available force?"
"All of it," Boris said. “The entire Hive.”
A force one hundred times larger than the one that took
on over one hundred and fifty heavily defended human worlds during the
Hive War, Hague calculated, all of it pitted against an apparent human
child. Myla could not hope to survive the Hive force, nor the Alliances
fifth generation military armada, or the far more formidable alien fleet
still to be reckoned with. Or dare he consider the possibility that Myla
Rhodes had teamed with an entity of unknown origin possessing even greater
power than humanity and its machinery could muster?
"History again," Gorlon murmured. "We are always at
the heart of history."
And he clutched his mechanical fists in unbearable
tension.
"Boris," he said.
"What is Khalin Nome doing at this
moment?"
Boris paused momentarily.
"The Overlord is weeping."
Hague then waited in stoic silence for Lee Wokan.
When Lee made his appearance and the door closed behind him, the CI agent
bowed politely. "Executor General."
"Sir."
"Tell me what you know of Myla Rhodes," Lee said.
"A child, twelve years of age, daughter of Katrina
and Adrian Rhodes, prominent leaders of the Naturalist movement in the Covonian
colony. They were killed by a Hive military patrol on one of the nearby
moons. We've never figured out why. Political assassination, some
suspect."
"Naturalists are particularly vulnerable," Lee Wokan
said dryly. "Who could hope to kill a Technocrat sealed within your great
Ark?"
"Aside from the fact that the Naturalists are free to
replace their numbers and do so with surprising speed and efficiency,"
Gorlon reminded him.
"The Nat child survived the assassination attempt,"
Lee said. "How was that possible?"
"The Rhodes family was followed by Jeremy Kael, a
young Tech adopted by the Rhodes after the death of his own family."
"Naturalists as well?"
"Yes. Murdered here on Covonia. Myla Rhodes is a
precocious child, nothing more. She cannot be responsible for what has
happened. Khalin Nome is enamored of the girl. The Overlord is showing
signs of his age. He will be stepping down from power soon."
"Detail from your own perspective the sequence of
events involving Myla Rhodes following the crash landing of the alien
vessel."
Gorlon recounted events, from Khalin's meeting with
the girl at the Ark to Jeremy's capture in the outer system. "Khalin
tried to get the girl to wear an avatar for her own protection. She
refused. Myla Rhodes
is now, in all probability, dead. If she survived, she orbits Immamat in an
escape pod. Now that the Hive's focus of attention is elsewhere, I'm
sending in a search party in hopes of retrieving her, hopefully alive. If
we recover her body, at least we can put a stop to this terrifying
paranoia."
Lee Wokan took a deep, calming breath. "The Hive
believe the girl responsible for the destruction of a military node and
the hijacking of a veritable fleet of assorted military and utilitarian
machinery."
"The Hive calculate whatever factors seem
superficially apparent. I can show you children’s puzzles they cannot
solve."
"Maybe the Alliance is equally stupid,” Lee countered
in subdued anger. “The only scenarios with which we have to work are
insane and equally catastrophic in their implications. And they
expect me to sort out this mess to their satisfaction."
Gorlon had no choice but to let the man stew in his
own uncertainty. "I pray the girl is not involved," he said softly. "If
she's stranded near Immamat, I'll find her. Or a body."
“Please do so, by all means.”
Lee Wokan turned away and left the office as abruptly
as he had arrived. Gorlon sat staring at the empty space left in his
wake.
The clone would only work briefly to divert Wokan's
suspicions. Wokan would order a medical examination of the living girl,
or an autopsy of her corpse. Even a cursory examination would reveal the
deception, but it would buy the time he desperately needed to destroy Myla
Rhodes. More than his own life or even the survival of Covonia was at
stake. Should the girl blossom to her full potential, all of humanity was
at risk.
Gorlon requested a second audience with Council Prime
Executive Basil Whalyk of the Covonian Ruling Council later in the day.
Basil offered a wane smile as he entered the room.
"I repeat my request with even greater urgency,
Basil. I need to be in control of this crisis."
Basil Whalyk shook his head mournfully. "To act upon
your request now would be a vote of no confidence to Khalin's office. It
would imply discord, a problem of some sort we are hiding from the
Alliance. I would prefer to stand united in their eyes at this time."
Basil didn't know what was at stake, and Gorlon had
no way to tell him. "Then I will at least need the Council's support in
acting on Khalin's behalf. Nome is not rational where the welfare of the
child is concerned."
"You will have the backing of the Council to render
decisions of noncritical impact in Khalin's behalf. Do not assume
executive authority.”
"I require access to the Overlord's data storage," he
said as unobtrusively as possible.
Basil considered the request. "Only the Overlord has
access to files associated with that office. I cannot supersede that
authority."
"Yes, sir. Thank you for the clarification."
Gorlon left Basil's office raging with frustration,
having accomplished nothing.
