Jak Koke - Stranger souls

A look from Axler stopped him. "Why didn't you want to come with us?" she asked.

Ryan found that he could move his mouth. "You know me?" he said.

Axler's hard shell softened slightly. "Yes," she said.

"How?"

"We've pulled some runs together. You don't remember?"

Ryan avoided answering that question. He didn't want to reveal any more than he had to. "What were you rescuing me from?" he asked.

"That information has not been made completely available to me," Axler said. "Jane only feeds us what we need to know. Better for us, better for her, I guess." Axler gave a little laugh and a smile settled into the hard lines on her face. "All I do know is that you were working undercover inside Aztechnology. I always thought you were a crazy fragger.

"A while back," Axler continued, "we extracted a research scientist from Fuchi and transferred him to the Azzies. The name of the target was T.W. Saint John-a genetic expert or some such drek. It was you, though we didn't know it at the time. We transported the body in a fake cryogenic chamber.

"Didn't learn that it was you until Jane filled us in yesterday, just before this run. I've pieced it together like this… Somehow you infiltrated Fuchi under the Saint John identity, probably replacing the real researcher. Then Jane hired us to get you out of Fuchi and into Aztechnology, and got the Azzies to pay handsomely for the whole run. She probably knew they already wanted Saint John, and chose that identity, merely tweaking the photos and records to make your cover believable. Jane can do some pretty fragging amazing things in the Matrix.

"Your cover must've been blown somehow, and the Azzies brought you down here to the delta clinic."

"How long ago was this transfer from Fuchi?"

"No more than three months."

"And you knew me before that?" "Yup. We go way back." Grind gave a harsh laugh at that. "What?"

"I can't believe you don't remember the night we…" Axler gave him a knowing smile.

"Really?" Ryan found her physically attractive, but she seemed too frosty to let anyone inside.

Axler shook her head. "No, just a stupid joke," she said. "But I'm not drekking you about going way back. We've known each other for over five years, which is a long, long time in this biz.

'The first time I met you," Axler went on, "you pulled me out of drek up to my Nikons. I was only nineteen. I'd been running for Jane two years already, and I thought I was invincible. But I let my emotions cloud my judgment, stopping to help a young kid.

"I wasn't going to stop at first, but he kept yelling for help. Screaming that he was dying. He was a fragging bystander, an innocent who'd caught a stray round, probably one of mine. The opposition was dead and backup was several minutes away. I had plenty of time to slap a patch on him."

Ryan watched Axler's fists tighten and her teeth clench together. "Or so I thought. The boy was an illusion designed to delay me while their security mage targeted my heart with his laser sight. A fragging Mossberg CMDT shotgun. Would have blown a fist-sized hole in my chest at that range. Except that you'd come with me. You saw the illusion for what it was and nailed the mage with a narco-dart. Saved my hoop."

Axler sighed. "It's funny, before the run I'd argued with Jane about letting you come along. I told her you'd be a liability. That I didn't need your help. McFaren and Dhin and I could handle it. Grind joined the team later.

"I didn't want to trust you, but now I know why you came. You came to evaluate and teach, working for whoever Jane works for. I don't know how or why, but after that run Jane started giving us higher-paying jobs. More dangerous, more intricate. And much more lucrative.

"Sometimes you would come along, and when you did, we all learned. You had combat skills we'd never seen before; you knew about infiltration and undercover work. You're

one of the best physical adepts I've ever worked with. You told us you followed the Silent Way, using magic for stealth and spying, disguise and behind-the-scenes operations. I must say it was a pleasure anytime you joined our team."

Ryan had been concentrating on Axler's story. It felt true, but he didn't remember it. the feeling was right, but the details were lost in his mind. So where are my physical adept abilities now that my memory is gone? he wondered. And who do I work for? Jane? And what about Thomas Roxborough? Where does he fit in?

What did they do to me at that clinic?

"I think we can trust him," said McFaren coming out of his "sleep." "He seems more confused than insincere." He winked at Ryan. "I've been watching your aura," he said. Then he turned to Axler. "Also, we've lost the mages who were following. Temporarily at least."

"Good," she said.

McFaren nodded, then his head fell against his chest again, though his breathing was different than before so that Ryan thought he might actually be sleeping this time.

"When can I speak with Jane-in-the-box?" Ryan asked.

Axler unlocked Ryan's cuffs. "Soon," she said. "She'll be sending a plane to our base. You're one of the only people I know of who has ever actually met Jane in person."

As if on cue, Jane's voice came over the speakers. "Got the codes," she said. "New identities everyone. Scan and commit to memory. You have approximately twelve minutes."

"Twelve minutes to what?" Ryan asked, directing his question to no one in particular.

"Border crossing," Axler said. "Out of Aztlan and into the Panama Canal Zone."

"Are they going to let us out?"

Axler smiled. "Doubtful," she said. "But Jane has a plan, I'm sure. Don't you, Jane?"

"Always," came the voice from the speakers. "And this one is particularly clever… but it's also tricky and complicated. Pay close attention."

"We're all here, Mr. Roxborough," came Meyer's voice, cutting into Roxborough's privacy like a sharp weapon. "We can proceed as soon as you're ready."

Roxborough clamped down on his desire and shut down the pleasure program. That would have to wait until after his business was completed. He moved his awareness so that he looked through the board room's surveillance system. He wanted to assess the mood of the participants before activating his simulacrum.

Meyer and Riese sat in their respective chairs. Meyer's long elven face looked only slightly less bored than normal as he leafed through some ancient book on the arcane. An actual physical book, Roxborough thought, savoring the musty smell of it through the room's olfactory receptors. How quaint.

Unlike Meyer, Riese was edgy. Her petite body held a barely confined rage as she muttered into her pocket computer. Franklinson was also present, looking nervous and frightened despite his huge size. Franklinson was a troll and the clinic's head of security. He wore the traditional tan Aztechnology uniform with the Jaguar Guard shoulder flash that held a tiny silver pin of Quetzalcoatl to denote his rank of major. Franklinson's record was remarkable; Roxborough trusted him implicitly. Roxborough tried to reassure himself that Franklinson's nervousness didn't necessarily imply that Ryan Mercury was completely unrecoverable.

I've seen enough, thought Roxborough. He activated the room's hologenerators and appeared in his seat at the head of the cherry wood table. At the sound of the hologenerators, everyone turned toward his chair. "Good afternoon," he said, as his simulacrum solidified. "We have a crisis, I take it. Franklinson, what is the status?"

"We've lost the infiltrators," the troll said. "And the man they took." Franklinson gave Roxborough an inquisitive stare, which said that he didn't like being kept in the dark about any potentially sensitive situations at a site he was in charge of keeping secure. Roxborough didn't think it was crucial that Franklinson know the exact nature of all the experiments. They had had that discussion one too many times and neither had budged.