Charles Gannon - Raising Caine

Riordan closed his eyes, asked the next awful question. “Who’s taking care of Connor?”

“Trevor mostly, but Connor spends a lot of time with my family. We — we’re doing the best we can by him. But it’s hard. He’s a tough lad, but with his mother dozens of light-years away in the care of exosapients—” He raised his hand in an appeal to the skies. Let it fall again.

And Caine thought: I’ve got to get home. Now. But Riordan pushed that gut-reflex down with a principled riposte: No: you’ve got to take care of business, first. And while you do, you’ve got to get enough leverage to make sure that those nine human beings on board the corvette don’t pay for their loyalty to you by spending half of their natural lives as gagged canaries in semi-gilded security cages. Caine could not meet Downing’s eyes. “Tell Connor I’m coming home as soon as I can. I promise.”

“I will, Caine. You have my word on it.”

“Good. I’d like to have your word on one more thing, Richard.”

Downing immediately became wary. “And what is that?”

“Since you received Yiithrii’ah’aash’s message about what happened on Disparity, you know about Keith Macmillan, right?”

Downing looked, and sounded, like he was swallowing glass. “I do.”

“He has a daughter. Katie.”

“I know. I pulled his dossier.”

“So you know about the quid pro quo that the Ktor used to turn him: his cooperation in exchange for her life.”

Richard’s eyes were hard, unblinking. “They are right bastards.”

Caine wasn’t sure whether Downing was referring to the Ktor, their megacorporate lackeys, or both. And didn’t care, at the moment. “If my guess is right, they didn’t give Katie a full cure; Dora overheard one of the Ktor say as much. And frankly, that’s exactly what I’d expect of them: to let the disease come back, clean up all their loose ends.”

“I agree. And it’s an awful situation. But what do you want me to do?”

Caine leaned forward. “I want you to use your authority, your power, to make it right.”

Downing leaned away sharply. “Caine, assuming that I could get permission to—”

“Fuck permission. You’ve got the leads you need. Macmillan was approached in a hospital waiting room. That gives you a place and a face. And that face is sure to be all over the security cameras. I suspect that face didn’t arrive at the hospital by public transport, so that face is also connected to a vehicle. You track down that vehicle, and that face. You grab that face from whatever well-appointed apartment or sybaritic retreat it happens to be occupying and you put a bag over it. And you take that bag off when you have that face in a cold, well-lit room and you squeeze that mother-fucker for everything he knows. Someplace, there is a connection between that face — that malicious bastard — and whatever cure he slipped into Katie. I’ll even bet there are still some samples out there, just waiting to be used to turn some other desperate parent into a traitor. So you find that face, and that drug, and you save that poor girl’s life.”

“Caine, what you’re asking — I can’t just—”

“Richard, I will not listen to your bullshit. Not this time. This is a little girl who was a victim of our enemies. The timing makes it a near-certainty that they bred the cancer that was in her. And then they turned her father against everything else he loved to save her. You will do this, you will save that girl, or I will hold you — I will hold our side — responsible. Do you understand?” When Downing hesitated, Riordan lifted his hand to the table. He deposited its contents — a holstered CoBro liquimix sidearm — immediately to his right. “I asked: do you understand ?”

Downing leaned even further away, eyes wide. “Bloody hell, Caine, what’s come over—?”

“I am going to ask this. One. More. Time. Do you understand ?”

“Yes, yes, of course. But I—”

“No buts, Richard. And no excuses or backsliding or consulting with your superiors. If you don’t save her, then I will — and then I become your worst problem. Your worst problem. Do the right thing and — who knows? — we might actually become real friends. But I’m giving you a choice, right here, and right now: you can obey your precious rules and regulations and intelligence protocols and let Keith’s little girl die, or you can stand up for basic human compassion and loyalty, and resolve not to allow these monsters to screw with our children.” Caine felt his face grow suddenly hot. “With our children , for fuck’s sake.” Riordan rose so swiftly that his chair fell over. He spun and stalked away. If Downing called after him, he wasn’t aware of it.

Because all he could hear, again and again, was what Dora had told him about Macmillan’s death, about what the Ktor commander on Disparity had said: “Family is our strength, but it is your weakness.” Riordan walked through the dust and postcombat debris littering the marshalling area of Site One, and thought: and you Ktor actually believe that, too. Because part of the price you’ve paid for all your enhancements is love. But that love — and the loyalty it breeds — is not just our best virtue:

It is the weapon I will use to destroy you.

Dramatis Personae

The Humans

(Traditional Chinese and Japanese names list family names first.)

Qwara Betul: Archivist/recorder; legation to Beta Aquilae

Piet Brackman: First Pilot, SS Arbitrage

Joe Buckley: Quartermaster/Purser; legation to Beta Aquilae

Oleg Danysh: Physicist; legation to Beta Aquilae

Richard Downing: Director, Institute of Reconnaissance, Intelligence Security; Riordan’s handler:

Philip Friel: Engineer, legation to Beta Aquilae

Etienne Gaspard: Ambassador Plenitpotentiary, legation to Beta Aquilae; CTR Consul

Hirano Mizuki: Planetology/exobiome expert; legation to Beta Aquilae

Trent Howarth: Staff Sergeant, NZSAS; security staff for legation to Beta Aquilae

Ben Hwang: Biologist and senior scientist; legation to Beta Aquilae

Emil Kozakowski: Former master of the SS Arbitrage ; (former) employee of CoDevCo

Morgan Lymbery: Aerospace and drive expert; legation to Beta Aquilae

Keith Macmillan: Warrant Officer Class 2, British Army/IRIS; legation to Beta Aquilae

Tina Melah: Engineer; legation to Beta Aquilae

Miles O’Garran: Master CPO, SEAL/IRIS; security staff for legation to Beta Aquilae

Caine Riordan: Commander, IRIS/USSF; security chief of legation to Beta Aquilae

Christopher “Tygg” Robin: Lieutenant, SAAS/IRIS; security staff of legation to Beta Aquilae

Bannor Rulaine: Major, US Special Forces/IRIS; security staff for legation to Beta Aquilae

Melissa Sleeman: Advanced science and technology expert; legation to Beta Aquilae

Vassily Sukhinin: Chief negotiator and Deputy Director of IRIS, Sigma Draconis; CTR Consul

Ayana Tagawa: Executive Officer of SS Arbitrage

Karam Tsaami: Pilot; legation to Beta Aquilae

Jorge Velho: Captain of SS Arbitrage

Dora Veriden: Personal security for Ambassador Gaspard; legation to Beta Aquilae

Peter Wu: Lieutenant, Taiwanese Army/IRIS; security staff for legation to Beta Aquilae

Xue Heng: EMT and assistant quartermaster; legation to Beta Aquilae

The Ktor

Ulpreln Balkether: Evolved; Crew of Red Lurker

Vranut Balkether: Evolved; Crew of Red Lurker

Zurur Deosketer: Evolved; Crew of Red Lurker

Tegrese Hreteyarkus: Evolved; Crew of Red Lurker

Pehthrum: Intendant; Crew of Red Lurker