David Williams - The Burning Skies

“ Don’t even go there.”

“ The conditioning may have backfired on you. But the rest of it didn’t matter. You and Lynx and Carson were the originals: three Praetorians who’d kicked ass together for so long you could practically complete each other’s sentences. What better subject matter for the initial experiment? What better prototypes for the world’s most dangerous hit team?”

“ The Manilishi’s telling you this?” asks Sarmax.

“ Yeah. And I’m pretty sure the third part of the handler’s book says the same damn thing. Along with all the specifics.”

“ The crown jewels, huh?”

“ The exact nature of the Autumn Rain experiments, Leo.”

“ The compiling of which drove the handler mad.”

“ That may be its basic condition.”

“ We were flatlined,” says Sarmax. All those years ago. That’s all I know. They took out our lights together: meshed us on the zone, crashed our systems, and then woke us at the same fucking time and after that we were fucking linked in some way. I don’t think it worked out quite as well as they wanted, though. I think they were thinking they were going to get some kind of group-mind effect, and it wasn’t anywhere near that precise. But our reflexes were off the charts. And we could sense when the others were near. I know that Lynx and Carson are heading toward each other behind the Moon right now. I know they know I’m back here. I know that—”

“ It has to do with consciousness.”

“ Yes. Obviously.”

“ It was a specific process.”

“ Or more than one.”

“ Was it used on me?”

But Sarmax only smiles.

“ Or am I Rain myself?” asks Spencer. “Goddamn it, Leo—”

“ You’re just a guy who ended up running with the big dogs. Far as I know, anyway. Carson managed to hook you up to the Manilishi, but that was only thanks to software the Throne gave him to implant in you.”

“ Rain software.”

“ Presumably.”

“ From the original tests?”

“ Who knows? I’m just telling you what I was told. But the master process—whatever it was—was refined with the second team. They weren’t like us. They weren’t modified. They were—”

“— created . For that purpose.”

“ They were hell on bloody wheels, Spencer. They put us in the fucking shade.”

“ And now they’re in the shade forever.”

“ She told you that?”

“ And more besides.”

The final descent is under way. The last of the engines are firing.

“ You shouldn’t have trusted Sinclair,” she says. But Carson just grins. “Who said I trust him?”

“ Then why the fuck are you carrying out his orders?”

“ Sinclair came to me two days before the Elevator went down. He restored what the Praetorians had stripped from me. My memory of those times. The training I’d received. The training I’d given. Said he was worried that his protégés were getting out of hand. Said he might need me to run some interference. Sarmax had left the service with his memories intact. His little secret. Arranged by Sinclair without the Throne’s knowledge. After the Elevator blew, I went to Leo. We struck a deal. We dealt Lynx in on the way back to Earth.”

“ And after the naughty little children were defeated, why didn’t you just seize everything on that ship on the way back?”

“ Because we needed you to find and destroy the rest of those fucks. Seizing control of everything with them still out there would have made us the target.”

“ If Sinclair’s in prison, then how are you in touch with him?”

“ I don’t need to be.”

“ What?”

“ You still don’t get it, Claire, do you? Sinclair’s sitting in his fucking cell watching the universe spin around him.”

“ He’s reading minds too?”

“ Have you sensed him? On any level?”

She shakes her head. “Not as far as I know. All I’ve got is Spencer’s and a shade or two of yours. Have you?”

“ I don’t think it works that way,” says Carson. “It works like this: when he restored my memory, Sinclair explained to me exactly what would happen . Exactly what levers I would need to pull—and when. He laid the whole thing out—said how it would go down if I gave it the right set of shoves. Said it all led up to something that’s coming up, something past which he can’t see. He’s on a whole different level, maybe even your level, and I don’t even pretend to understand—”

“ That’s why you’re so crazy to be dealing with him.”

“ That’s why I need your help.”

“ He went through the Rain process himself. He must have.”

“ I’m convinced he saw it as the best way to get the drop on Harrison,” says Carson.

“ Is he really on this ship?”

“ Harrison? Absolutely. And by the way, he’s going to remain president, no matter what the head of SpaceCom thinks.”

“ As a figurehead.”

“ As an expedient.”

“ A temporary one?”

“ Everything is, Claire.”

They look at each other.

“ Because that’s the core of it,” says Carson. “Harrison and Sinclair. Lifelong partners, lifelong rivals, and the guy you thought of as the old man always had to play second fiddle. He and the president cooked up the Autumn Rain scheme together, back when they were both admirals.”

“ Before they ruled the country.”

“ Why so surprised?”

“ Morat told me it was after Harrison assumed power.”

“ Second-generation team— your team—sure. Not the first. Not us. Besides, Morat was a low-grade punk. He never knew the half of it. How the fuck do you think Harrison and Sinclair took over? Me and Lynx and Sarmax took out everyone opposed to them. But Sinclair was keeping his own options open the whole time. And by augmenting himself , he must have figured he’d be ready if the shit ever hit the fan.”

“ But why did he let them put him in the L5 prison?”

“ I’m pretty sure he thinks that’s the safest place to be.”

“ I’d rather be within some kind of rock when the shooting starts,” she says.

“ Makes two of us,” he replies.

She nods. The ship drops toward the Moon.