Chains of Freedom (43 page)

They started back towards the main control room. Suddenly, Topaz stopped. He wet his dry lips with his tongue. "RJ, there's something I've been wanting to tell you . . ." She turned to look at him, and he lost his nerve.

"I'm listening," RJ said after a pause that was all together too long.

Topaz immediately went to the wall and started to run his hand methodically over it. "Now I know it's here somewhere."

RJ smiled indulgently and leaned against the other wall. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him. "What are you looking for?" RJ asked, shaking her head. "And, more important, what were you about to say?"

He continued to study the wall closely, but started to speak. "Do you believe in Fate?" he asked, then didn't give her a chance to answer. "Some people believe that everything that happens in life is just . . . well, coincidence. But I don't see how it could be. Do you?" Again, he didn't let her answer. "I mean, when something as random as meeting a beautiful, dark-haired girl in a bar one night winds up changing the whole world, maybe even the universe . . . I begin to wonder if we have any real control over our lives at all." He fell silent, still checking the wall.

RJ thought about what he had said, and could find nothing in her life that would prove his theory wrong. What were the odds against her being on one side of this thing, and J-6 on the other? What were the odds on a man running blind from prison and running smack into the only person who could help him in his plans against the Reliance? She had kicked Whitey Baldor in the balls because he was the biggest guy in the bar. She'd wanted to make an impression on Alsterase quickly, and it worked. But that big jerk had fallen in love with her somewhere along the way, and risked everything to be with her.

"Well, girl?" Topaz asked, expectantly.

"Some things are more realistically explained that way than any other," she said with a crooked grin. "Now, tell me where all of this is going?"

Topaz was wondering whether or not to tell her when Poley suddenly appeared. He decided that now was not the time. It was only his vanity that had prompted him, anyway.

"Ah, Poley! Came looking for me, didn't you, Tin Pants?"

"I knew where you were. I came to be with you," Poley said.

Topaz turned from his wall searching long enough to look at Poley and raise his eyebrows in mild surprise.

RJ knew what had caught Topaz' ear. "He says he has affection for me. He told me that a couple of weeks ago."

"Well, I'll be damned!" Topaz looked from one to the other, and shook his head. Then he returned to his wall-searching.

"It's not really strange if you think about it. Poley has the ability to learn. He was programmed with our father's basic personality traits, but he is capable of developing his own." RJ put an arm around the robot.

Topaz listened and smiled. It was obvious that RJ also had affection for Poley. It was quite natural that she should, really. She had been raised by herself, far away from other people, much less children. Stewart would have been a busy man, with not much time to devote to a child. Poley would have been the one to take care of her needs as well as be her a companion. Poley would have been new in those days, and growing in his own way. So, for all practical purposes, they had been raised as brother and sister.

They had grown up without aging, and perhaps the bond between them was made stronger by the fact that when everyone else was gone, they would still have each other.

And Topaz would always have them. He smiled and then he found a crack in the wall. "God damn it! Would you look at that! The bloody place is going to hell in a hand basket! I must fix this immediately!" And with that, he was off and running down the hall.

RJ looked carefully at the tiny crack and shook her head. Whatever he had to say, it couldn't have been very important.

Poley looked at the crack, and then at RJ. "It's not structural."

Jessica stared at her console. She didn't like what she was reading. First, there had been the raids on the caravans, then the assassination of a key government official, then there were more raids, including the big one on an installation. Then the prison breaks, followed by David Grant's transmission to the entire zone despite the Reliance's best efforts to scramble it. Now there was unrest among the work units. In some places, unrest had grown into out-and-out rebellion. They were able to put down these isolated incidents, but it was costing them a lot of manpower and a lot of production. Law and order were decaying everywhere, and she was powerless to do anything about it.

And if all that weren't enough, Right was on his knees at her feet, begging and drooling yet again.

"Please, Jessy. I'll do anything," he pleaded. "Anything at all."

"I've told you, Right," she sighed. "I'm depressed."

"I got you twenty brand-new rocket launchers and a Z-47 laser cannon. I got them right from Earth Central supply. Not, I might add, without considerable risk." He started to undo her shirt."It's been so long, Jessy."

"Three days is not that long, Right," Jessica said firmly. "Don't whine, Right. You know I hate it when you whine. And kindly stop drooling on my slacks." She sighed. "If I let you, will you go away and leave me alone?"

He nodded eagerly.

"All right. But I'm telling you right now, I don't want it, and I'm not going to do anything."

"I don't care. Just take your pants off."

She complied and sat back down, picked up a chart and started going over it.

"Aw, come on, Jessy."

"I told you not to whine," she said, then worked on ignoring him.

He didn't care. He wanted her anyway. He dropped his own pants and moved to enter her. She let him do it, but she just sat there on the edge of her chair, her chart in one hand.

"God damn you, you bitch!" he gasped out. "I should have never fucked you in the first place. I don't know why I even want you."

Then Jessica's control snapped. The chart was allowed to drop to the floor, and she wrapped herself around him. The next thing he knew, she had him on the desk.

"Ah! This is better, Jessy!"

"Shut up, you bastard," she gasped, "and just do it!"

"I love you, Jessy," he whispered against her throat.

"Then you're a bigger fool than I thought you were," but she kissed him as she said it.

A few minutes later, the door opened. "Senator Kirk . . ." The young lieutenant stopped in his tracks, his face beet red. "Ah, I'm sorry . . ." He started to leave.

"Don't go, we're almost done," Jessica said, and she was.

"You cold cunt," Right hissed. He got up quickly and pulled his pants on.

"I'm sorry," the lieutenant said again.

"You will be," Right mumbled.

Jessica took her time dressing. Finally, she sat down and started to straighten her desk. "So, what is it, lieutenant?"

"Right, get a wet towel, and clean my desk off."

"At once, Senator," Right grated out.

"Professor Parker is here to see you, Senator."

"Well, send him in!" She rubbed her hands together as he left, and Right started to clean her desk.

"This could be good news."

Right just mumbled something totally incoherent, and went to dispose of the towel.

Parker entered the room.

"I hope you have good news for me."

"I do. The GSH has been born, and all is progressing as you wished."

"Splendid!"

"Do you still want me to deal with its brain in the manner you described?" he asked.

"He would be of little use to me if you didn't." Her tone was dismissive, and Parker didn't wait to be asked to leave.

"Damn you, Jessy . . ." Right started.

"I'm sorry," she moved to him, and hugged him warmly. "I'm not depressed now, and I'll lock the door this time."

"You could have saved those people, RJ!" David screamed accusingly. "We had a troop within spitting distance!"

"It's not time to activate troops. It's time to lay back and be quiet." RJ answered his anger with pure calm, which only made him all the madder.

"So, hundreds of defenseless civilians died because they listened to us!" David ranted.

"I don't remember you telling anyone that they should throw themselves on Reliance troops," Topaz said dispassionately.

"I told people that they needed to rise up. They listened, and now they're dead," David countered.

"I refuse to be held accountable for the random actions of work units. I certainly refuse to risk troops because of them." RJ was starting to have a little trouble remaining cool. David was getting more and more antagonistic with each passing day. "Troops don't function well in the cold. They have to wear more clothing, they need more food, and their reaction time is cut in half. Why don't you look at this from a positive point of view? As long as the Reliance is busy trying to neutralize civilian uprisings, they can't be looking for us. It does our position a world of good."

"People are dying out there!" David insisted in a horrified tone.

"Don't tell me about people dying. I've seen more of that than you can imagine. The name of the game is war, David. As I said before, the points are counted in cadavers. So far we're winning."

"I refuse to count dead people like points in a game!" David screamed.

"Then maybe you should get the hell out." It was Mickey who said it, but they all thought it.

"Who asked your opinion, little man?" David spat back.

"He has as much at stake as you do, and therefore has as much right to his opinion," RJ said. She had finally reached the boiling point. "Your problem is that you think you can be my conscience as well as your own. We can't afford the luxury of my having a conscience, too. I can only think about the big picture. The greater good."

David nodded his head submissively. "So, what do I tell the people?"

"Tell them that the people of Kingsford died with dignity and honor. Say that they died helping to free us all," RJ said.

"Shouldn't I apologize?"

"No!" Topaz couldn't believe he had learned so little from the tapes he'd viewed. "To apologize is to admit fault. We didn't do anything wrong. Even if we had, it would be political suicide to admit it. No one wants a leader who makes mistakes."

David looked at RJ. She nodded in agreement.

"All right," David agreed.

David stepped into his spot. Sandra gave him his cue. "Fellow citizens, once again I break through the bonds of Reliance security to speak to you . . ."

"What's wrong?" Whitey whispered in RJ's ear.

She shrugged. "I can't really put it into words. I feel something from David. Something I don't like." Even as she finished speaking, the words left David's mouth.

"It was never my intent to send anyone to their death. Some of you have misunderstood my last message. Those people in Kingsford died in a futile attempt to stop the Reliance alone. I sincerely apologize if my ill spoken words lead to their tragic end . . ."

"Cut transmission," RJ ordered. She looked at Topaz, who had already done it.

Topaz looked at RJ and shook his head. Even he hadn't expected anything like this.

Jessica had just finished watching David Grant's little show. She smiled broadly. "So, RJ has to deal with incompetent fools, too." She laughed and went to work.

"What the hell did you do?" David demanded at RJ.

RJ turned to face him, her features a mask of anger.

"You sentimental fool," she hissed. "There is a reason for everything I do. Why do you think I had you make that first speech? I knew it would create civilian uprisings. Any extra troops she could get would be used up on that, and our men could be that much safer in their positions. You have risked everything for your own precious brand of morality."

David realized with horror what she was saying. "You used me. You used them. How can you live with that?"

"Get off your high horse, David. A few civilians got killed. So what? They did their part for the cause. Because of you, we are going to lose
troops
. Trained, armed troops. Troops that could have helped us conquer the Reliance and get this war over with a hell of a lot sooner. In the end, you have just caused a hell of a lot more death than I ever shall." She was finished with him; there was work to be done.

"Marge, send a message to all units. Tell them to expect double patrols."

"At once," the computer droned.

David looked around the room. No one, including Sandra, whom he had more or less assumed he had wrapped around his little finger, was going to side with him. He didn't understand it. He was right, and RJ was wrong, and surely everyone could see that.