Charles Gannon - Fire With Fire

“Caine, are you quite-?”

Caine, feeling foolish, shook his head and yanked open the door to the staircase. Maybe Trevor was right; maybe it was all some after-effect of having nearly been vacced a few hours ago.

But it sure hadn’t felt that way.

He started down the stairs.

CIRCE

The tall man, who wore his sunglasses even in this dim room, made a gesture of annoyance and leaned back. To his left, a small cube with one open side emitted vapors and a pungent, musky stench. Near his right hand, a bowl of olives stood forgotten.

“This is most inconvenient,” he murmured.

His assistant, unsure if the utterance had been meant for him, or was simply his superior thinking out loud, asked, “You mean, that Riordan chose not to enter the elevator?”

The man paused as if mildly surprised to rediscover that he was not alone in the room. “No. It is not his failure to enter that troubles me. It was his reason.”

The assistant looked at the screen: the three men-Riordan, Downing, Corcoran-had disappeared into the staircase. “But how could you possibly know why he-?”

“I know,” said the man sharply. “How I know does not concern you. But you should report to your superiors that, in Riordan’s case, my abilities will be less efficacious now.”

“Mr. Astor-Smath will want to know why.”

The other man sneered. “And so the quizzical dog tasks his master to tutor him in cosmology. Very well, relate this: your employer has now had me exert my abilities many times in Riordan’s immediate vicinity. Consequently, Riordan is starting to detect the onset of the Reifications.”

“Reifications? What do you mean? Is that what you call your-?”

“You are familiar with the principle of quantum entanglement or-perhaps more suitable to your perception-Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’?”

“Yes, of course.” The assistant overcame the impulse to cross his fingers as he answered.

“Very well. Now imagine what might be achieved if it was possible to impose a limited amount of order on that statistically-predictable chaos for just one moment, and in a small volume of space.”

“So you can focus-I mean, ‘reify’-the phenomena of quantum entanglement to produce a desired outcome?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“But how-?”

“For now, all you need to understand is that when a person has been proximal to numerous Reifications, that person may begin to have the ability to detect their onset. A crude analogy would be how some animals know when they are approaching a magnetic field.”

“Is that because the Reification manifests as a wave front, or a-?”

“Silence. You now know enough to explain why Riordan could be harder to kill.”

“But surely, the occasional accommodations you have provided for Mr. Astor-Smath have not affected-”

“‘Occasional,’ you say? Let me remind you of just how ‘occasional’ the Reifications have been.” The tall man flicked olive pits off the table with his long-nailed finger to punctuate each incident: “First there was the sustained influence required to ensure that the second engineer on board the Tyne would carry out his suicidal sabotage of its engines. Then there was the disabling of the enemy’s security systems and independent power plant in Alexandria. And let us not forget the need to compel the attackers to wear the self-destruct vests provided by your employer. Then, in the space of three days, two Reifications were required to kill Nolan Corcoran and Arvid Tarasenko. I have also learned, within the hour, that my colleagues failed to assassinate Riordan with a technical malfunction at the Convocation Station. And now, he avoided the elevator which would have dropped him to his death-along with two other troublesome adversaries. You call this battery of requested accommodations occasional?”

The assistant shrugged. “Well, it was necessary: your success rate has not been as high as you guaranteed. But be assured that Mr. Astor-Smath has been happy to overlook that.”

The man turned his shaded eyes upon his smaller assistant. “You are certainly not implying that these failures were in any way my fault.”

“Oh no, no; I was just-”

“Your employer has involved me in actions that were routinely inelegant, rash, and unprofessional. Had your employer been less intemperate, he would have fared far better, and Riordan would not be sensing the Reifications. Indeed, he would be dead.”

“Is there any way to distract Riordan during future attempts? To ensure that he misses the warning signs of-?”

“The only warning you should be interested in,” said the tall man quietly, “is the one I am giving you now: cease your inquiries regarding the nature of Reification.”

“My apologies,” answered the assistant, whose anxiety compelled him to babble on. “I do not understand why Riordan is still important to us, anyway. He revealed all his crucial information at the Parthenon Dialogues: he is no longer worth killing.”

The tall man smiled. “You could not be more wrong.”

“Then what dangerous secrets does he still know?”

“Riordan knows things-or will-that he does not yet know he knows.”

“What?” said the assistant.

But the tall man with the sunglasses had rediscovered the olives and evidently, forgotten about the presence-and possibly the existence-of his assistant.

MENTOR

Downing emerged from his debriefing and motioned for Caine and Trevor to follow him into a nearby conference room. Upon entering, he flipped on the white-noise generators and ran his RF detector around the room’s perimeter.

“Clean?” asked Trevor, setting down the box he had brought on board the Dornaani ship.

Downing nodded, motioned them to seats. Well, there’s no use beating around the bush. “Caine, I have an Executive Order to induct you into the United States Space Force.”

“Induct me?” Riordan’s smile was bemused rather than sardonic. “I wasn’t aware there was a draft in effect.”

“There isn’t.”

“Meaning that you don’t actually have compulsory powers in this matter.”

“Caine, don’t make me-”

“Richard, I’m going to save us all the embarrassment of letting you finish that sentence. My answer is this: ‘I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States of America.’ Now, where do I sign?”

Just like that. Caine had agreed without a flinch or a blink. Just like that. “Caine, I didn’t expect-”

“Richard, our relationship-such as it is-has no bearing on this moment. The threats to our world-to our species-are no longer hypothetical, but real. And when my country-in the person of the President, no less-asks me to serve, I say ‘yes.’ Without delay. Now, where are the papers?”

“I’ll give them to you later. For now, let’s go through what’s going to happen once you sign them. Firstly, you will immediately commence twenty-nine days of combined Advanced Basic and OCS training.”

Trevor smiled. “Are we making ‘four-week wonders’ now, Uncle Richard?”

“I’m not joking, Trev. He will complete the course in twenty-nine days-”

“Uncle Richard, I’m sorry, but not even you have that kind of clout. Basic qualification and commission cannot run concurrently, and are, by order of the Joint Chiefs, confirmed at a minimum of-”

“Commander.” Richard hated doing it, but addressing Trevor by his rank rather than his first name stopped his godson in mid-word. “In time, or under immediate threat, of war, the concurrency limitation can be waived. Particularly when an Executive Order is involved. Furthermore, Mr. Riordan has already spent some time in the military-”