David Williams - The Burning Skies

“ About what?”

“ About how I can beat them.”

“ You’ll have to find your own way through on that.”

“ You don’t care who wins?”

“ All I care about is perfecting my role as voyeur.”

“ But you’re blind in here.”

“ I see the crisis of the age in you, Claire. I can see what’s going on out there all too well. I know the capabilities of the respective players better than anyone else. All the scenarios that might have gone down after that spaceplane, after the Praetorian agents arrested me at Cheyenne and began the purge of CICom, all the ways in which the game might have played out across these last four days—it has been four days, hasn’t it?”

She nods.

“ I should imagine that things happened very quickly once they downed your plane, didn’t they?”

She nods.

“ So … the Rain is clearly still a factor, or you wouldn’t be so desperate to talk about them. But they haven’t won. Otherwise they’d be opening that door, laughing at me.”

She nods.

“ This base has yet to see major combat—I think I would be aware of that much at least. So the third world war that the Rain were trying to bring about didn’t happen. They did try to bring it about, didn’t they?”

“ They tried. But—”

“ So inevitable, given the way they think. They set it up so beautifully with the downing of the Elevator. Each superpower would naturally suspect the other side—and those on its own side. The escalation toward war, the increasing tension, the lockdowns—all of it allowing the Rain to move in toward the Throne and the East’s leaders. Again the paradox, no? Security specialists think they’re creating multiple levels of access, while they’re really building labyrinths within which minotaurs can hide. The less you see of the deeper recesses of whatever bunker you’re guarding, the less likely you are to know what’s really going on in there.”

“ And the Rain—”

“ Their commandos would have torn their way through the president’s outer defenses like a scalpel. But without your support, it doesn’t surprise me that they failed. Particularly in the president’s bunker, where they would have met the Praetorian Core, the best soldiers the world has ever known. Until the Rain, of course. But the president always chooses redoubts within which he can bring numbers to bear and within which he can evade pursuers. Something the Rain didn’t know. Something I did. Without my help—without yours—it would have been touch and go. My guess is the Rain hit teams went down on the very threshold of their targets. They would have hoped to try again, during the war itself. But what I don’t understand is how war was averted.”

“ Because of me. And because forces loyal to the president broke up the attacks of the Rain’s proxies.”

“ Ah yes,” says Sinclair. “The proxy strategy. How high up did the rot go within SpaceCom?”

“ I don’t know. Very close to the top. Maybe all the way.”

“ Was Szilard killed by the Rain? Or implicated by the Throne?”

“ Neither.”

“ Neither?” Sinclair’s face creases. “The Rain did storm his flagship, didn’t they?”

“ They did. He was on a different ship.”

“ Selling them a counterfeit—not easy. They wouldn’t have missed him if they’d had another team up there in reserve. Well, congratulations to Jharek. He’s not known as the Lizard for nothing. So he wasn’t placed under arrest by the Throne for all of SpaceCom’s indiscretions?”

“ Not yet.”

“ Not yet?”

“ Even if the Praetorians don’t find concrete evidence of Szilard’s specific involvement—even if it was just one of SpaceCom’s factions—it seems to me the Throne would be well advised to just execute the head of SpaceCom to be on the safe side.”

“ Andrew prefers to keep his enemies close at hand, Claire. That’s one of the keys to his success. Yet now he’s maneuvering between the Rain’s remaining hit teams and the continual pressure from his own hardliners to attack the Eurasians. Not to mention the possibility that the East may go ahead and strike anyway. His only stalwart supporters are Stephanie Montrose and the rest of InfoCom. True?”

“ True. But then again, he thought you were loyal too.”

“ Stephanie’s all data and no imagination. She’s reliable. But even with her help the Throne remains very much embattled.”

“ I agree.”

“ How much of the Rain is left?”

“ I think they’re at about half strength.”

“ Probably more than that, if you consider that they almost certainly held back their best triads. Their strategic reserve. They’ll be deep into their next move by now. Are you deep into yours?”

“ Yes.”

“ Gazing upon your face again is such a joy, Claire. But this is the first time you’ve ever truly seen me. Am I a disappointment?”

“ No,” she whispers. “No, you’re not.”

“ The initial attacks on the Throne will have told the Rain all they need to know about how he thinks and moves. The other players in the Inner Cabinet will be like dogs when the leader of the pack is wounded. The Throne’s options are narrowing.”

“ They are.”

“ What he’s facing is the Rain equipped with the knowledge they need to win, while he has no safe ground to fall back on within the U.S. zone.”

“ Leaving him with only one real option.”

“ I agree.” Sinclair pauses. “And yet, what an option. Will he rise to it?”

“ He’s already set it in motion,” she replies.

Sinclair nods his head. “Ah, Andrew. Do you know—he may yet prevail. Odd how so powerful a man remains so daring tactically. Despite all his limitations, he remains in my estimation the greatest figure of our time. If you’d ever met him, Claire, you’d understand that.”

“ I may yet.”

“ Meet him?”

“ Who knows?”

“ Will you join him?”

“ I don’t know.”

“ You should join me.”

“ You’d enslave humanity to things that aren’t human.”

“ You’re not human, Claire.”

“ More so than you.”

“ You still don’t understand what you’ve become. Nor do you understand what you’re taking on. Autumn Rain has no single razor as good as you. But they are far more skilled at taking down prey. They’ll maneuver you into a position where you can’t bring the full range of your powers to bear. They’ll turn your own designs back upon your face.”

“ Let them try.”