David Williams - Mirrored Heavens

“He figured that out?”

“I’m afraid he did.”

“When?”

“Somewhere between when the shooting stopped and the debriefing. There were just too many loose ends for him not to guess. Like I just said, Carson: this was one of the most complex runs I’ve ever seen. And Lynx is as furious as I’ve ever seen him.”

“I can’t say I blame him,” says the Operative. “What razor wants to learn that his mech is actually running him? That his mech isn’t just a mech but is also a razor? Shit, that’d wreck my day. I can’t imagine what it must have done to Lynx’s.”

“He’ll get over it. But in the meantime he’s being kept away from you.”

“Permission to speak frankly?”

“Are you ever anything but?”

“You guys are blowing things out of proportion. We’ve had the mech-as-razor variation going for a while now. We’ve had it playing merry hell with anybody who thinks they know which end of a Praetorian pairing to attack first.”

“That’s not what everybody’s taken issue with.”

“Then what’s their problem?”

“The reversal pairing is primarily a defensive posture. But you turned the formula on its head. By using it to run Sarmax you almost let things get completely out of hand. You were flirting with disaster the whole way through.”

“But it worked.”

“It worked. Indeed. And for that reason I give it my assent.”

“Nothing succeeds like success?”

“Not around here it doesn’t. At the end of the day, they’re not going to be able to argue with results. But they’re going to want to keep a close eye on you from now on.”

“That sounds like micromanagement.”

“Call it what you want. Though I’m sure we won’t keep you on such a short leash as to make you useless.”

“And what about Lynx and Sarmax?”

“I think I can persuade everyone that there’s no sense in breaking up a winning team.”

“So the three of us will still be working together.”

“Absolutely. The Rain’s still out there. We need you to take the fight to them.”

“Where?”

“We’ve got something in mind in the Earth orbits.”

“ You’ve got something in mind? Or do you mean the Rain do?”

“I mean both. The situation remains on knife-edge. Tonight you showed the ultimate resilience. But the Throne showed the ultimate restraint. It’s imperative you understand that, Carson. The president will not falter from his determination to reach accommodation with the East. He will not turn this cold war hot. He will destroy both the traitors who became the Rain and the traitors within SpaceCom who sought to bargain with them. He will recover all that he has lost. And you will help him to do all of this.”

“I could ask for nothing more,” replies the Operative.

Which is just as well. Because now everything’s folding into a single mind in the highlands of New Guinea. A mind that’s swung open into universe. Yet somewhere in that universe is a body that can barely contain that mind. And the woman who possesses both finally understands why her struggle’s only just beginning. Why absolute defeat merely sows the seeds of total victory. Why those she loved were taken from her twice. Why she’s heading back toward equator.

Where she’ll find a way off the bottom of this well.

And out into those mirrored heavens.