Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

I’m going to get the Guild. We will stop Curran.

“You won’t get the chance.” She switched the desk off and turned to Schyler. “I need you and Resit right here. Everyone else is to paid off and dismissed, do you understand?”

“No.” He seemed to be having trouble speaking. “No, I do not understand, Al Shei. Your husband… ”

His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. There’s nothing left of him inside. “I saw it. Are you going to do what I asked or are you going to leave with the rest of the crew?”

“This could be a trap, Mother.”

“I don’t care.”

He reached out slowly to touch her and she struck his hand away. “If you dare to tell me what I should do in this moment,” her voice was soft, almost conversational, “I will throw you off this ship with my own hands.”

Schyler lowered his hand. “I would not dare tell you what to do, Mother,” he said. “I only ask you to think about what that is.” He spread his hands. “If you want me to dismiss our crew, I will dismiss them. I’ll do it now, since you ask, but, it would be better for you to get their help instead, and the help of the Landlords and the Management Union.”

He left her there. Al Shei watched the hatch cycle close.

“Not for this, it would not, my son,” she said to the empty cabin.

She lit up her desk and wrote out the protocols to by-pass Lipinski’s station and connect her desk to the main station network. This way, with only a small delay, she could order a fast-time line without his help.

There was a private call code for the bank network to be used in dire emergencies. Only the owners, the elected chairmen and a few immediate family members knew about it. Uncle Ahmet had given it to her the day she had left for her apprenticeship. It was the one time she had not been able to discern any ulterior motive in his manner. “If worse comes to its very worst and all but Allah seem to have left you alone, you may use this, daughter-of-my-sister.”

She had never forgotten it, even though she’d never even considered sending it out. Not even when the Pasadena was stranded, or when word came of Asil’s arrest did she think to use it.

She sent it out now. It required no credit deposit, and would reach Uncle Ahmet anywhere in Settled Space. He could have been in conference with the entire governing board of the Management Union, and he would be interrupted by this.

She tried not to think of Curran’s creatures watching the lines. She tried not to think how swiftly they could break the encryption. There was nothing she could do. If she waited six days, the whole Solar System could be dead. She had to trust they didn’t know what Dobbs had done yet.

It was five full minutes before Uncle Ahmet’s head and shoulders appeared on the view screen.

“Katmer, what’s happened?”

Remembering Schyler’s warning about traps, she asked, “What were the last words my mother said in your presence?”

Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply. “She said ‘may it go easily.’ She was bidding me good-bye as I went to address the Management Union assembly. She and your father were dead in a monorail accident that was never proved to be sabotage by the time I got back. Katmer, what is going on?”

“Uncle Ahmet, I am given to understand that you know of the secret mandate for the Fool’s Guild.” Her voice was completely calm. She might have been discussing a dinner menu. She might not have felt the burn inside her. She might not have known her husband was gone, wiped away to make room for an AI.

Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply and leaned forward. “Katmer, what has that to do with anything?”

“Everything, Uncle.” She folded her hands in front of her. “I have received new, and I believe sound, information about the Guild. The Guild members themselves are not really Human, Uncle Ahmet. They are bodies inhabited by the AIs that have become independently sapient and which were rescued by their own kind from Human attack. This organization has bred a faction, a breakaway guild, if you like, which plans to attack the Intersystem Bank Network and randomize the financial account data for the entire Solar System. I wished to inform you of this at once.”

For the first time in her life, Al Shei saw Uncle Ahmet shaken. The blood drained from his high-boned cheeks and his gaze faltered. The sight stabbed at her and almost made a crack in the calm that covered her.

“You are sure of what you say, Katmer? You believe it to be true?”

“Yes, Uncle,” she replied firmly. “I believe it to be true.”

His shoulders squared themselves and the firm control that characterized him returned to his face. “Then I shall alert my colleagues. You will be returning home by week’s end, Katmer?”

“Yes, Uncle. I will. Salam .” She closed the line down.

That isn’t a lie, you know, Uncle . She thought toward the screen. One way or another, I will be returning home by week’s end.

She knew exactly what to do. She saw it all laid out before her like it was a schematic on a memory board. All she had to do now was wait until the bystanders were out of the way.

All at once, the bathroom door slammed open.

“What are you doing!” Resit stormed into the cabin. “Have you lost your mind!”

Al Shei blinked heavily. “How much did Schyler tell you?” she asked.

“Enough.” Resit stood right in her line of vision. Tears stood in her eyes and against her cheeks. “Name of God, Katmer! He told me this Curran… this thing has killed Asil!”

Al Shei stood up. The day book recorder still lay on the floor. “He’s done worse than that.” She picked it up. “He’s taken his mind away. His heart still beats. His body still breathes.”

Resit watched her, disbelief building in her eyes. “And you’re going to try to do something about it, aren’t you? That’s why you’re paying off the crew?”

“Yes.” Al Shei opened the drawer beside the desk and laid the recorder inside it.

“So, I repeat my original question. Have you lost your mind!”

Al Shei slammed the drawer and whirled around to face her cousin. “What would you have me do? Ha? What? They have taken my husband!”

“Alert the Landlords, you donkey-headed… ”

Al Shei gripped the back of the desk chair. “Zubedeye, if the alarm goes up, they’ll get away. They’re AIs! It’s what they’re good at! There will be a fire, or explosive decompression in that module and by the time emergency services gets in there, they’ll all be gone.”

Resit stared at her. “You want revenge. That is what this is.”

Al Shei shrugged.

“This is haram , Katmer. This is forbidden.”

“Then I will account for it at Judgement Day.” Al Shei turned away.

Resit grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her around. “You are acting like a crazy throwback, Katmer!” She threw up both hands. “Maybe next we can find a Greek for you to slit open!”

“I don’t care,” said Al Shei thickly, in that frightening instant, she realized she meant it.

“What about your children?”

Al Shei lifted her eyes to meet her cousin’s and she knew all her fury shone in them.

“Oh, yes,” she hissed. “There we are. You, Mother, how can you put yourself in danger? You have children! So tell me, Fount of Wisdom that you are, what am I supposed to say to these children of mine?” She swept both hands out. “That I knew where their father was and I didn’t try to get to him? That I knew what was being done to him and I did not even try to stop it?” Her voice dropped, low and vibrant and filled with rage. “If I die, my children will be looked after, but if I do not do this thing, I will never be able to look at them again.” She drew herself up. “You are right. This is forbidden. It is revenge and it is anger and I will make an answer for it to Allah Himself, but first I will make an answer to that monstrosity that has taken my husband!”