Chapter 14
Lucas Stone
It had been close. Dammit, it had been really close. He hadn’t been expecting the other scientist to do anything. Hell, the man had looked mild in the extreme. He’d not given away any indications that he was a) highly trained, and that b) he was after Jane. Yet he’d clearly been after her, which made Lucas sick to think he’d left her alone in the room with him.
Lucas swallowed hard, looked down at the man, and then back across at Jane. She was resting with her back against the wall, one hand on her stomach and one hand on her mouth. She’d thrown up yet again. He was starting to get the impression that whenever her implant took full control of her body, the consequences weren’t just fatigue and the fact Jane could end up fighting off half the Galaxy, nope, she would also inevitably end up throwing up.
Before he could do anything, the Director clicked several buttons on one of the clean consoles, and a small containment field flickered into place over the mess. In another second it was simply disintegrated clean off. If you asked Lucas, that was a huge waste of energy, but perhaps the Director didn’t like the idea of his expensive computer equipment being fouled up.
“What’s going on?” Priya asked again. She had a certain note of uncertainty and fear in her voice that Lucas had never heard before. It was the kind of note that told Lucas – no, reminded him – that underneath the acerbic personality, there was a real person. Yes, Priya always put on a nasty face, but deep down she was still capable of fear and surprise.
The Director, despite the fact his race were insect-like and had an exoskeleton, still managed to look pale, as if the shock had sunk deep into his carapace. In fact, the only person that didn’t appear to be completely confused was Jane. She just leaned against that wall, looking mildly sick and sniffing occasionally.
“Put a security field up around him,” Lucas pushed his words out, realizing that he had to act. This situation had just taken a turn for the worse, and Lucas couldn’t guarantee that there weren’t more spies or enemies lurking around the ship.
“I do not understand why he did that,” the Director said as his pincers clicked across the console. “Adam Thomson was a good man. He was never late for work,” the Director added as if that alone conclusively proved his positive character assessment.
Priya closed her eyes and shook her head bitterly, then she glanced at Jane. Lucas watched the move carefully and though he tried to fight the urge, he found his hand gripping harder over his gun.
“Who is she?” Priya asked so quietly that it was almost a whisper.
Jane looked up slowly, warily.
“If he wanted her dead, why didn’t he just use the containment field when we were out of the room?” Priya narrowed her eyes visibly.
“I don’t think the… implant,” he said quietly, “would have let him. Every single time it sensed a threat, it interfered with your field and the computers. Perhaps the electro blade was his backup plan.”
Priya took a steadying breath. “What’s going on, Lucas?” she asked again, this time turning to him fully.
He couldn’t answer.
“Whatever is going on, I suggest that we act quickly.” The Director slowed his pincers down, as he visibly started to calm. “I do not think this situation it is as simple as we once believed.” He shot a look at Jane.
Lucas felt like laughing and pointing out that he’d never believed the situation was simple. In fact, if anything, this unexpected incident reaffirmed what he already knew about this situation: it was desperately dangerous.
He faced Jane and saw that she now had two hands clutched over her mouth, and though she didn’t look like she was immediately going to be sick, she appeared overcome. He realized that while he didn’t have any idea what was going on, it wouldn’t be a touch on what Jane was going through. Less than 24 hours ago she’d still been under the impression that she was normal and that nothing extraordinary could ever happen to her.
“Lucas Stone, I do not believe it is safe for you here anymore,” the Director walked up to him, his head angled toward Jane, but one of his pincers pointing right at Lucas.
Lucas just nodded.
“I will load the details of my contact into your armor. Then, though it may contravene many Galactic Force protocols, I suggest you get on your ship, and you run,” the Director finally turned his head around to face Lucas.
“But we need to find out what is going on first. We need to find out why Adam… why he did that. For all we know, he works for Shadow One, and he’s actually on our side,” Priya clutched a hand to her chest as she spoke uncharacteristically emphatically.
Lucas couldn’t help but narrow his eyes as he stared back at her. Shadow One was the intelligence division of the Galactic Force. The hush-hush, only-ever-whispered-about intelligence service that had agents scattered throughout the Galaxy in an attempt to find out information wherever and whenever necessary.
“Maybe…” Priya slid her gaze warily toward Jane and then shot it back to Lucas, “he…” it was obvious she didn’t want to say it, not in front of Jane at least.
Lucas knew exactly what Priya was trying to suggest. Jane was a threat, a risk. Adam, knowing this, had tried to deal with her as best he could.
Lucas crossed his arms firmly.
He didn’t have any solid evidence to prove his suspicion, but he just… he couldn’t believe Jane was the bad one here. Maybe it was her personality, maybe it was her genuine surprise at the situation, and maybe it was something more, but Lucas was having trouble concluding Jane was the real enemy. Also, he’d seen Specimen 14 back on Earth, and Lucas had no trouble in imagining that abomination was the genuine enemy.
“Lucas Stone, I do not believe we have much time, I have just received several more communiqués from the Galactic Force asking us to send evidence to prove that we have disintegrated specimen… Jane. None of them bear the proper watermark, and I believe all them are faked,” the Director said as his pincers clicked across the console.
Apparently, Specimen 14 wasn’t going to be so easily fooled.
“Lucas, we still don’t—” Priya tried.
“It doesn’t matter, Priya; I’ve made up my mind,” he said clearly. “Jane,” he turned to her, “we have to go.”
“Lucas,” Priya tried again, “this is just foolish. You don’t know—”
It was true, he didn’t know, but that didn’t stop him from putting up a hand. “Just leave it.”
“I can clear your ship from here,” the Director said, “I can also upload information to your armor.”
“Do it,” Lucas snapped quickly.
He was aware that Jane kept on watching him, and she had a careful look on her face. As a tingle rushed up his back, he got the distinct impression that the implant was most definitely watching him as well. If it didn’t like what he did, if it didn’t like what he said, if it seemed for one moment that Lucas was about to side with Priya, he knew the implant would act. And he could now appreciate there would be no stopping it.
While on many levels Priya was right and Lucas should aim to keep Jane here while they studied her more, he knew that wouldn’t work. Any threat to Jane, and the implant would whisk her away. If Lucas wanted to find out what was going on, he had to stay with Jane, and that meant trusting her, or at least never acting against her.
Lucas couldn’t put all of this into words and simply tell Priya, so he just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “I have to stay with Jane,” he managed.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jane take a small breath, a look of relief brightening her cheeks.
“I have completed the upload to your armor, Lucas Stone, though I must warn you, the computer has found abnormalities in your living matrix: something has altered your implant, increasing its memory storage exponentially,” the Director let out a puff of air, and it was clear that he was surprised.
The Paran database. While he’d been aware the Artifact had made changes to his armor, he hadn
’t guessed it was that significant. There was no time right now to find out more, though.
The computer suddenly gave several warning beeps.
The Director made a strange hissing and clicking noise. “The Galactic Force, it seems, is attempting to take remote control of this computer processor using Security Protocol A 39. I suggest you leave right now, Lucas Stone, as I do not know how long we have.”
Priya, giving him one final glance, turned and ran up to one of the consoles next to the Director, and the two of them started to type frantically.
Then Lucas turned to Jane. “We have to go.”
She nodded.
They ran.