Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

Harriet drew a sharp breath. Centrist Strength .

The Corellay/McGinnis voice became hollow and strained: “They had visions of using my military expertise…”

The story that emerged was a confusing one. But after all she had learned from El’ken and McGinnis, Harriet was able to fit the pieces together fairly readily.

Centrist Strength was building an underground military force on Faber Eridani. No surprise; they seemed bent on achieving power through intimidation masquerading as self-defense. Their stated motives were ambiguous: they claimed to be working for the destiny of the Centrist Worlds, reawakening the leaders of Faber Eridani and other worlds to the once-common vision of a grand-scale exploration of the galaxy. So far, so good. But for a group dedicated to the destiny of the Centrist Worlds, they had far too many surreptitious dealings with a pirate group called the Free Kyber Republic—a group diametrically opposed to the expansion of the Centrist Worlds. According to McGinnis, Centrist Strength had decided that any human expansion—and the power and profit that would flow from it—was better than none. And any means would do to achieve it.

But who was behind their secret military buildup here? Over a period of some years, McGinnis had made cautious investigative forays into the system to which his implants were connected. And he’d learned some names.

It was a long list, funneling down into data-storage as McGinnis spoke them aloud. Some individuals were clearly implicated; others were connected to Centrist Strength only through shadowy intermediaries and front organizations. It was through those indirect connections that the more familiar names appeared, just at the periphery of clear culpability. Among them were officials of the RiggerGuild and Spacing Authority.

It had taken many careful traceroutes, but McGinnis had found the chain of evidence. The Spacing Commissioner’s office had quietly signed off on a transfer of retired Spacing Authority armaments—not directly, but through carefully laundered transactions—to the private arsenal of Centrist Strength.

Harriet found herself holding her breath. Was Commissioner North involved in a paramilitary conspiracy? If so, who were his real bosses?

Corellay stroked her wand through the air, leaving a ghostly image of McGinnis’s face, surrounded by a curtain of emotional fire—and in the fire the faces of his enemies, an image of the forces assailing him through his implants.

“This is their final attempt to coerce me,” said McGinnis with a strained voice. “ ’Kill the visitors. Destroy the Impris records. Do not let them leave!’ This is the order I finally had to openly disobey.”

Corellay urged Harriet and Dendridan back into the holo, as the images intensified: indistinct faces barking commands at McGinnis. Harriet felt McGinnis’s anger, held back and masked as long as humanly possible. “For thirty years,” McGinnis whispered, “I’ve kept my true thoughts hidden from my implants. For thirty years, I’ve deceived them.” Harriet felt the rage pounding in her own temples as she saw McGinnis painstakingly ignoring the orders to destroy the Impris records while seeming to comply with them.

Harriet prayed she would never have to face such a battle. She could not imagine how the man could deceive implants lurking right inside his own skull. The control that must have taken…

But the images were slipping now toward the fatal end. The implants had learned of McGinnis’s deception, and were using all their power to regain control. The voice grew short and raspy. “ Not much time—Jesus, it hurts! They’re trying to make me kill you! Take this information. Use it!” Harriet felt her own breath grow ragged with fear.

“I must destroy this place now! Disconnect—forever—!”

Corellay cried out, and Harriet felt a shocking blow of pain as real flames erupted from the walls, and then emptiness as McGinnis’s face dissolved in a sparkling cloud of glitter.

Corellay waved them out of the holo. As Harriet and Dendridan staggered away, Corellay’s voice became her own again. “Here ends that section of the data-upload. But there are images that follow—of explosion, fire—” flames engulfing the holo “—and the vision now is from the viewpoint of the dog, Rufus, outside the house.”

On the cot, the real Rufus was whimpering now, his legs twitching as he tried to run.

The last image Corellay painted was of the dog running in terror from the burning house. Then the holo faded, and she spoke soberly into the recording equipment. “This concludes the Robert McGinnis reading. I present this interpretation with a confidence level of nine. This is Counselor Corellay.” The Kell lowered the wand and stood swaying, her eyes closed. “You may turn off the recording.”

Harriet groped for a chair, overcome with emotion. There was a great emptiness in her, from McGinnis’s death. For a time, she felt as if nothing could change that emptiness; it was so real, so painful.

And then the details of the revelations began to filter back into place in her mind. And she began to recoil with horror at what the conspirators had done…

Riding back in the Narseil van, Harriet and Peter debated where to go next with the information. A notarized copy of the recording had already been placed for safekeeping on the worldnet. Another copy had been transmitted to El’ken, the Narseil historian.

“I think,” said Dendridan, glancing thoughtfully out the window, “that if there was any doubt about whether you still need our protection at the embassy, it is gone now. You’ve just implicated one of the most powerful officials on this planet in a conspiracy to conceal the truth. About Impris —and about the Narseil.” He turned to Harriet, and there was a sharp gleam in his eye. “We’ll most certainly grant you every protection we can.”

Harriet nodded her thanks. A certain satisfaction was starting to settle in. She now had an important piece of evidence that would help to exonerate Legroeder, if he ever returned. The interpreter’s confidence rating of nine was very high, almost as strong in court as direct verbal testimony. But the evidence against North and the other officials was still shy of what they would need to convict anyone.

“We’ve got to go after North,” said Peter. “If we unmask North, the whole conspiracy will unravel.”

Harriet agreed. But how to go after him? North was in power, and she was in hiding. Whose word would carry the greater weight? Still, it was all recorded and notarized, and ready to be released on a moment’s notice. Perhaps it could be used to force North’s hand.

“Excuse me,” said Dendridan, craning his neck suddenly to look behind the van and up. “But I think we’re about to have an emergency. Driver, could you speed up, please?”

Peter angled a glance into the security monitors. “What’s that? Is this your time sen—? Hold on. Yes, I think someone’s following us from overhead. It’s a flyer.”

Dendridan seemed to look inward. “And they’re about to give chase. Begin evasive driving, please.”

Peter grimaced as he tied his compad into the security monitors. “I’m trying to get a registration on it. It’s too far away.”

“It won’t be for long,” Dendridan murmured.

Peter seemed to read the Narseil’s tone of voice. He glanced at Harriet with eyes aflame, then said to the driver, “You might want to speed up a lot .”

Harriet shut her eyes and held her breath as the sudden acceleration slammed her back into her seat. Dear God .

“Don’t worry, Harriet. I’m sure we can shake them,” said Peter, in a voice that was not at all reassuring.