The Impossible Future: Complete set Frank Kennedy (freenovel24 .TXT) 📖

Especially after her discovery.

As a condition of R&D employment, they restricted her amp to internal circastream only. No communications beyond SkyTower. All new data planted to her stack existed only inside the barricade.

Then she swam. Backstroke at first, butterfly next. After a spell, she became disenchanted with the repetition. She slipped an air cavern over her head then dived to the bottom. She wanted music both grand and sweeping. She wanted Sibelius. Ophelia tapped her stack but realized she forgot to plant his works there – always, she listened to him instream. She double-tapped her amp to find a resource beyond, forgetting about the rules.

After ten minutes listening to Sibelius did Ophelia realize she was violating her terms of employment. She tried other comm links, including circastreams with friends and former colleagues. She communicated with ease. How had no one spotted this flaw? For ten months, she swam. For ten months, she delivered Bouchet secrets to other presidiums and deepened her financials.

Now, with time running out for her hybrids, she swam again, hoping the flaw remained undetected. Her amp was not as restricted today, but Ophelia assumed instream communications were being monitored until the siege ended. One slip, and she’d never leave alive. She was relieved to discover the security hole still existed.

She worked quickly. She contacted the system transport Emil put on hold. The pilot of the Passaic Dawn was a CTP contract hire, not a fulltime Bouchet navigator. All he cared about was the job and the pay. No loyalty to Emil. An easier negotiation.

Ophelia gave him instructions, made certain he programmed in the ship’s coordinates and fed the proof back to her. He did so merrily when she transferred 15-K credits to his business account.

“Be there,” she told him. “The next time I signal, you will have forty seconds to act, or I will rescind the credits.”

“I will be there,” he said. “How many passengers?”

“You will know soon enough. Mr. Bouchet appreciates discretion.”

She disconnected the pilot. Her air cavern held eight more minutes supply. Ophelia felt a tingle of additional tension as she prepared her next move. The ship’s arrival wouldn’t matter if this communication proved unsuccessful. The trick was being able to find him amid the clutter of military-assigned amp stacks. Sexton Marshall showed her the techniques and provided her with authorization codes months ago, a necessity for maintaining their quiet alliance.

She opened a holocube at twelve feet below water. Stream filters trickled down as if sliding on ice. She spoke to the glass.

“Open InterStream diode. Command authorization 1-12-Tomelin-X-Invidious-TellSync.”

When the action completed, she said: “Find UG property First Specialist Valentin Bouchet. Identify by registry code.”

The result came back in seconds: Q#Z,1,06.

“Initiate contact with UG authorization stack for Bouchet.Valentin. Q#Z,1,06. Override internal security field. Command authorization Classification.G3Tomelin.”

She waited for the field, knowing this was her riskiest move. In her years in his father’s employ, she saw Valentin twice, both times at a distance, never sharing a word. Even on the Scramjet from Seneca, they were strangers. But he had to know how important she was to the hybrids. Ophelia’s concern: Was he irrevocably loyal to his new brother?

The field opened, and she waited. Valentin did not tap his amp. She didn’t want to theorize. Instead, she spoke, knowing her message would plant itself on his stack. He’d see it right after.

“Valentin, this is Dr. Ophelia Tomelin. Please listen carefully. You, your brother, and Rayna are about to be taken. The Major and your parents have reached a deal. You are to be charged with murder in collusion with Augustus Perrone. You will be stripped of uniform and imprisoned for two years. James and Rayna will be shot on sight. If you resist, the soldiers have orders to kill you as well.

“I will provide refuge for James and Rayna far from Earth. I am trusting you will help me. I am sending you information on a rescue ship. Provide this data to James and Rayna along with a route to the platform. Valentin, I have known you for years though we have never spoken. I believe in you. Give your brother a chance. I will protect him. I will give him purpose and freedom. I place my faith in you now.”

She checked her remaining oxygen and continued. “You have four minutes should you choose a direct response. If you choose silence, I will be left to hope you make the honorable decision.”

Ophelia waited and stewed over her last encounter with the Bouchets. Yes, Frances, they DO make a statistical difference, she thought. No, Emil, this is NOT for the best. Yes, Frances, he IS more than a calculation. No, Frances, I will be a GREAT teacher.

She twitched as a vibration struck her amp. Valentin responded.

She listened. She raged.

She surrendered.

Just before her air cavern timed out, Ophelia concluded her plan was certain to fail.

55

V ALENTIN STOPPED TRYING TO MAKE his father proud after he spit on Emil during his fourteenth birthday celebration and left behind the six hundred invited guests. He spent a night of debauchery down in the city with his friends and later reported to Hinton Station for deployment. He hated the way they parted, and even hundreds of light-years away, he never gave up on the idea of a happy reunion.

But every decision he made thereafter, from the split-second in combat to the long, philosophical contemplations of his future, Valentin held firm to a simple notion: Father will never try to shape me again.

Now, he understood the folly of it all. His father designed him before birth and ensured a legacy for centuries to come. I will always be in your debt, Valentin thought, and I will always rue the day I became your son. He found peace in one idea of the inevitable: You will turn to ash