Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5) (10 page)

“Earth
First and the US government have both taken shots at me since my arrival,” Stu
ranted. “Both organizations are complicit in this continuing outrage. Those
rape gangs could be
prevented
. Instead of spending hundreds of millions
a day on troops, why not dig a well for a couple thousand?”

“The
locals didn’t want any permanent—”

“Screw
what they want. If they can’t protect their guests, they lose the right to
object.”

Stu
pointed to the closest camera. “Earth First should change its name to Hypocrite
First. If you’re really concerned with making this planet a decent place to
live, you should start with the women.”

Guards
piled on Stu, pinning his arms. He shook the first couple holds, but too many
men weighed him down. He shouted, “Protect the Earth, but rape your mother?
It’s the same thing.”

Onesemo
mumbled, “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d let me stay with him.”

A
member of the security detail activated an EMP device, and the drones dropped
from the air.

“Sorry,
sir. This is for your own good.” Guards stuffed Stu into the lead vehicle, and
tires squealed as the caravan fled.

Laura was busy at her
apartment, directing caterers and her mother. She wanted the atmosphere for the
date to be perfect. When the control wand for her apartment chimed, she discovered
the Internet alert about her client. The clip was labeled as an uncensored celebrity
rant, and Stu’s emotional reaction to a Ballbusters episode was trending higher
than his video with the panda language. She cursed and pressed the button to
hear it. The video broke her heart.
He wants to see the unicorns, and we’ve
killed them all.

She
called up the head of corporate security and reamed him for allowing the media
access.

Maurier
said, “I accept full responsibility, ma’am. We have Llewellyn on lockdown, but
how are we going to manage this fiasco?”

“Don’t
change a thing other than the video title,” Laura advised. “Change it to
‘Ambassador Llewellyn Asserts Rape Is Never Acceptable.’ Let our news crews do
a story on it. Buy a copy of the footage for our stalker site on him. This
quote just won us eight more jurors.”
All we need now is the foreman, and
this is a lock.
He was a mechanical engineer who would respect things like ballistic
evidence and materials specifications.

“Yes,
ma’am.”

As
she terminated the connection, the wand buzzed with an incoming call. The federal
prosecutor, Isaiah Parrish, bellowed, “What are you trying to pull?”

“My
client spoke extemporaneously about an episode of a popular show. Everyone else
on the planet has already seen it. I don’t see the problem, Izzy.”

Isaiah
huffed disapproval. “He accused my government of being in league with Earth
First and trying to kill him.”

“Is
he wrong?”

“We
were justified in firing on him!” Izzy ranted for a while, threatening to add
slander to the charges and put her client in solitary confinement.

She
polished her nails until he ran out of steam. “Or you could turn this to your
advantage.”

“What
do you mean?” A budding politician, Izzy was hooked.

“Use
the public accusation as waiver of his right to remain silent. Now he has to
talk about his landing and the Icarus device on the stand.”
Which should win
over the jury foreman.

“Thanks,
baby cakes, I owe you,” he said, hanging up.

She
shuddered.
Baby cakes? Ugh. Now I’m going to hear that phrase every time I
have to talk to him.

Kaguya
called out from the steamy kitchen, “Is there a problem?”

“Just
a bump. Stewart made a little gaffe tonight. He said something Mira Hollis has
been preaching for years. However, people are listening to
him
.”

Her
mother came out of the room, wiping her hands. “Because he’s a man?”

“A
good man,” Laura said softly. “We need to take the meal to him. Security has
him locked in the doghouse. I’ll signal you if I need time alone with Stewart.”

“Let
me borrow the wand, dear. I need to make arrangements,” her mother said.

Distracted,
Laura unlocked and handed over the remote control for the apartment. She walked
to the mirror, adjusted her lipstick, and cinched her pants. Instead of her
usual patterned-snakeskin, she wore thin, white slacks with a black thong. Her
underwear would be clearly visible under the right light.

Kaguya
tapped the screen a few times and sighed. “I thought so.”

“What?”

“Koku
warned me there was a disruption in your behavior patterns.”
Grandfather’s
pet AI is shadowing me on this mission? Creepy.

Kaguya
held up the display on the longevity app for her daughter to see. “You’ve
gained twenty years on your life expectancy since you met him.”

“So?”

“You’re
in love.”

Laura
checked the app and reran the hormone levels. The device told her what she
already knew. “I’m so fucked.”
I can’t be a spy or a lawyer if my emotions
are tied in a knot.

“It’s
okay,
Tsukiko. It happens to the best of us.” She put an arm around her
daughter.

For the first time in her life,
Laura had something other than her mother to lose, and it scared the hell out
of her. That Samoan guard had almost ruined everything tonight with his big
mouth. “We have to move up the timetable.” She had a narrow window of
opportunity if she could seduce Stewart tonight.

****

Laura’s entourage had arrived at Stu’s apartment at eight only
to find him gone. After a few calls, she strode into the secure ward of the
hospital with special permission from Lena Maurier. “I came as soon as I
heard.”

“Corporate security is claiming I
said those things because I have a fever. I still mean every word!” Grumpy, Stu
sat on the bed in his thin, blue gown and no pants.

Easy access
, she thought.

Dr. Maurier whispered, “He does
have a low-grade fever, and we’re keeping an eye on it. Did he come in physical
contact with anyone recently other than Mo? We’ve spent the last half hour
clearing his closest guards.”

Biting her lower lip, Laura admitted,
“Me, briefly. But I have weekly inoculations for all the latest viruses.”

“How long since your latest
treatment?” the doctor demanded.

“The day before my flight to LA,”
Laura replied. “I could schedule another tomorrow.”

“The damage has already been done.
I need to narrow the list of possible contagions if we’re going to treat him
before primary symptom manifest. Would you submit a sample of your blood and
allow us to perform a contact graph?” The doctor held out a clipboard with a
place at the bottom for a thumbprint.

Everyone stared at her. A contact
graph would use public and Fortune video logs to trace every person she had
touched or breathed close to since her last clean bill of health. This
procedure was standard for tracking and treating new diseases. Laura stalled.
“Stewart, have you eaten dinner yet? I brought everything with me in warming
trays.”

Stu smiled. “I’d like that.”

His doctor shook her head.
“Absolutely not. I’d have to run an analysis on everyone who handled the food
as well.”

That would be the kitchen crew
and delivery staff from three restaurants. Damn.
“Mother’s not here to sign
her permission because she didn’t have clearance. We’ll just order hospital
food.”

Narrowing his eyes, Stu grabbed her
badge, “Zeiss? Your last name is Zeiss?”

“Yes,” she admitted, pulling the
badge back.

“Like the commander?”

Laura wanted to run out of the
room. This was not the way she wanted him to find out. “We can talk about where
my name came from over dessert.”
When I’ve had you alone for a while.

The doctor shoved the clipboard at
her again. “Time is of the essence.”

To eliminate the pest, she thumbed
permission and said, “Point me to your lab, and I’ll give the blood sample.”

“No need,” the doctor said, producing
a vial and microsyringe. Since Laura’s shirt had no sleeves, Lena gripped her
left wrist and told Stu, “Distract her. It’ll be over in a moment.”

Stu held her right hand. “What does
the S stand for in your middle name?”

“My grandmother’s idea of a joke.
Ouch.” The needle stung because the sample was removed so quickly.

The doctor slapped a sterile patch
over the red mark. “All done.” She brought up a wall projection. “Priority one
to every search request for this patient for the next four hours.”

“Come on,” Stu cajoled. “It can’t
be worse than Angus. My friend Joan couldn’t pronounce it and called me ‘Anus’
for two years.”

He pulled her hand close to his
heart, and she melted. “Gran thought wicked names added character and gave the
press something to gossip about.”

“The press follows you, too? I
didn’t know lawyers were stalker bait, even ones as beautiful as you.”

A cluster of primary contacts
appeared on a timeline, working back from the present. Bodyguards, lawyers, and
family filled the screen. Tree diagrams immediately formed from each of them.
Because they all had the courtroom in common, each tree ended in a common
clump.

Stu stroked her face, distracting
her. “I’m sorry I blew the meeting with your mom and put you through the
vampire treatment. I’ll try to make it up to you later.”

Oh, you will.
Laura actually
licked her lips. Earnest young men were the best. Their adoration made her feel
like a goddess. “Anything you need, I’m happy to provide.”

Lena Maurier gasped and muttered a
curse in French. One of the nodes on the screen turned bright red. So many
connections formed that the tiny bubbles were unreadable. Only the splotches of
exotic colors were visible. “Half of these people are carriers. Confirm the
source of this link.” Seventeen stalker cameras reported the same image—Laura
grabbing a shirtless man’s behind the first night of the trial.

“You kissed him with tongue.
Anything he had, Stewart may have been exposed to. You’re worse than Typhoid Laura.”

“Derek has nano treatments more
often than me,” Laura blurted.

“Why is that?” asked Lena.

“His job.”

Stu was frowning at the enlarged
image of Laura groping and deep-kissing the man on the screen. “What does he
do?”

“I’ll call him and find out when
his last cleaning was,” Laura said, accessing the private link on the back of
her badge because she had no sleeves available.

The impatient doctor found a
channel with subtitles. “Derek is a stripper and registered sex worker. Do you
realize the danger you’ve put the ambassador in? We need to quarantine both of
you until we sort this out. I’ve only gone back three days, and already the
hospital grid has run out of computing power. With five hundred people per
show, we’ll be tracking possibilities for a week.”

Laura could feel Stu’s
disappointment through their touch.
Like he just lost his best friend.

“Derek will come in and give blood,
too. Everything will be all right,” she said, hitting the call button.

“I trusted you,” he whispered.

“You won’t get sick,” Laura
insisted. “The doc won’t let you. I’ll pay for everything.”

He glanced at the loop on the
wall—her kissing the half-naked sex worker and slipping a tip into his pocket.
“I don’t care about the disease. I thought you were … that you liked me. Mo
called you awful names, and I defended you. It looks like he was looking after
my interests after all.”

“It’s not like that,” Laura said.

Tapping the wall, the doctor said,
“Search sexual partners for Laura Zeiss.”

Her heart dropped through her
stomach. “Please. No.”

Bubbles filled the wall almost as
fast as the stripper’s contagion analysis until the computer crashed.

Stu dropped her hand and placed his
over his chest. The headlines were as damning as they were florid.

“I can explain,” Laura said weakly.

Pale, Stu pointed at the one name
that appeared in every story—Mori. “You’re what they warned me about. You were
sent to spy on me and kill me.”

Tears poured from Laura’s eyes for
the first time since she was eight. “I’m not a killer.”

“Just a spy then?” he asked. He
swallowed hard. “Madam, your services will no longer be needed.”

While his guard escorted
Laura Zeiss out of the hospital, Stu disconnected his IV and went for a walk
down the hall. His mood was so dark that he ignored the ringing of the first
two phones he passed. The third phone, he answered, “Llewellyn.”

Oleander
replied, “Thank God. When your monitors flat-lined, we panicked. Joan says your
aura is very dark.”

His
teammates had been monitoring him with their Out-of-Body talent. “Someone got
too close and infected me with something nasty. The doc caught it in time.” Stu
strained to keep the grief out of his voice.
If I had been under Laura’s
spell for an hour longer, I might have kissed her even with the chance of death
.
“I’ll be in perfect health for the execution.”

“That’s not funny,” Oleander said.

“What did you find out about the
attack?”

“The communication array was legitimate.
We went over the schematics and checked the manufacturer specs for every part.
Someone put a Trojan horse in the controls,” Oleander replied.

“Why would it use
synchrotron radiation?” he asked, stumbling over
the large word.

“Officially?
It can be used to probe the nexus to get a better picture, like the scientists
did for the artifact during the first star-drive test. It could also be used to
detect an arriving starship, like sonar.”

“Who knew this type of radiation
was
Sanctuary’s
weak spot?”

“No idea yet. We’re following
several leads. Commander Zeiss says an analyst could have reverse-engineered
our flight path to deduce it, but the person would need to have the
Simplification talent and Quantum Computing. We need a list of people who
watched the telescope data.”

“Right. I might have an idea for
that. What are the other leads?” White spots dotted the walls, probably afterimages
from the lights.

“Both Earth First and the array’s launch
facility are in Brazil,” Oleander explained.

“How much longer do you need me to provide
this diversion?” Stu wiped perspiration from his forehead. The beads of sweat were
running into his eyes and blurring his vision.

“Get to Brazil as soon as you can. We’ll
follow you at a distance to make sure you stay safe. If we send a contact,
they’ll use the name of your teddy bear.”

Admiral Woolsey.
“I need
access to
…
contraband to convince
the jury, though.”

“What did you have in mind?”

He told her and suggested a drop
location in the sign above a courthouse bench. “Put it in the letter ‘o’ under
the bird’s nest.”

Oleander hung up abruptly, warning
him that natives were nearby.

Security found Stu soon after, flat
on his ass by the gift shop. He informed the unseen Joan, “Have to visit my
mom’s house after I see the unicorns. Deliver all the presents to good
children. Don’t let the witch kiss me.”

“He’s delirious,” the guard
concluded.

He dreamed that the witch tied him
to a throne and turned his arm to ice. The frost slowly spread over his entire
body. When her plastic lips covered his, he could breathe again. Soon, her
scent and heat meant more than the air. He only felt alive under her touch.

He awoke Wednesday wearing an oxygen
mask, longing for the witch of his dreams.

****

Thursday morning, in the jury room, the prosecutor greeted
him as Ambassador Llewellyn for the first time.

Stu asked, “Why the change of
heart?”

“In three days, we couldn’t
disprove your claim,” Isaiah Parrish said with polished charm.

“So why am I here? You want me to
juggle again?”
Because that’s what this is—a circus.

Parrish shook his head. “Perhaps
our job would be easier if you told us one thing that no one outside
Sanctuary
could know.”

“Nice try. Any technology must be
shared with everyone at once. Nobody gets a head start. However, I posted
something to my fan site on the way in today.”

The jurors wasted no time bringing
up the site on their sleeves and knees. The bailiff used the wall screen to
display a series of seven photos from Stu’s baby album. The last photo was of a
five-year-old on his father’s shoulder, in front of one of the giant
space-habitat windows. The cracked surface of Labyrinth loomed in the
background. Young Stewart had his arms spread wide as if he were flying. His
mother, Mercy, gazed up at him, proud but a little worried. “Yuki snapped it
for us. A small handful of people on your planet had access to the Labyrinth
images from our telescope. They can confirm the authenticity of the topographic
features visible in this picture.”

The prosecutor frowned and ducked
into his office. They waited for ten minutes while he made a call.

Hopefully, Oleander can find out
who was on the access list to see our Labyrinth orbit.
Stu didn’t know how
she planned to collect the data, but people in sneak suits generally had their
ways.

Parrish returned, tucking a small
notebook into his chest shirt pocket. “Very well. We’ll move on to the weapons
charges.” After swearing him in, the prosecutor asked Stu, “Why did your people
try to destroy this planet with an Icarus device? Revenge?”

“What Icarus device?”

“In your shuttle.”

“
Ascension
was destroyed. Do
you mean my escape pod, the one that you shot down last Friday?”

“In self-defense. Yes.”

“You should question whoever told
you there was an Icarus device in my escape pod. If he’s an expert, and honest,
I can make him recant.”

Parrish peeked at his pad. “Three
experts testified to the existence of the device yesterday.”

“As Lincoln said, ‘You can call a
tail a leg, but that doesn’t make it one.’”

The prosecutor ignored him. “Were
you sent to get revenge for the court-martial of the Zeisses, the alleged
destruction of your shuttle, or some other political agenda?”

“None of the above.” Stu addressed
the jury directly. “If I can’t wreck the testimony of all three of those
so-called experts, I’ll sign a confession.”

“This is not a trial. You have no
right to cross-examine,” Parrish insisted.

“Can any of those experts fly a
starship or even tell you what powered my pod?”

“There wasn’t enough of it left.”

“So, no,” Stu concluded. “This
process is about finding the truth. You aren’t asking the right questions to
find that. Let me question the three witnesses, and I’ll prove it.”

The jury voted to recall the first
witness, the man who made initial contact on the radar screen.

****

Two hours later, the naval NCO responsible was on the stand,
an African American by the name of Ensign Freeman. Stu sat on the table atop a
stack of office paper. He had scribbled messages on each. He now stared at the
ensign. “Skin is fascinating. I have a Maori friend and one from India, but neither is as dark as you, Mr. Freeman. Yet all of you would be called black by some
ignorant racist.”

Bristling, the ensign said, “Is
there a question, sir?”

“Why are you so bigoted?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Why did you shoot at my craft? I
was broadcasting ‘friend’ on UN Space Agency frequencies.”

“We received a high-confidence tip
that an Icarus attack was imminent.”

“From whom?”

When the ensign said, “Above my pay
grade, sir.”

Stu held up a piece of paper for
the jury. “Above my pay grade = I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

He continued. “Is it fair to say
that as far as you were concerned, an anonymous source told you where and when
I would be arriving?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That you were ordered to use
lethal force on someone who had never shown hostile intent.”

“You had an Icarus field, sir.
That’s grounds.”

“Circular logic,” Stu declared.
“How did you
know
I had a field?”

“The cloud blew up, sir. The ground
crew confirmed the signature afterward.”

“You have precognitive talents?”

“Sir?”

“How could you tell this fact at
the moment you shot at me,
before
either confirmation occurred?”

The ensign squirmed in his seat.
“The jets on patrol had a visual on an unusual glow, sir.”

“From how many kilometers away?”

“Maybe five miles.”

“Still haven’t converted to the
metric system? Oh, dear. My craft was smaller than a Volkswagen bug,” Stu
stated. “Could you see the engine in a VW at five miles?”

“It glowed, sir.”

“What happens to the bottom of a
capsule when it enters Earth atmosphere?” Stu held up the answer “I don’t know”
to the jury an instant before the ensign echoed the phrase.

The man in the jury who had enjoyed
the juggling trick laughed.

“Basic aeronautics, Ensign:
any
fast-moving craft entering the atmosphere will light up like a meteorite.”

“You appeared out of nowhere,” the
naval officer asserted.

“In science, each effect has a
cause. Past the age of two and peek-a-boo, we all learn that things don’t stop
existing when we can no longer see them. If I were hostile and invisible, why
did I appear two miles off your coast and broadcast my presence?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“What field strength did your
Icarus detectors register?”

“There wasn’t enough time.”

Stu nodded. “How long would a
sympathetic field triangulation have taken?” He held up a sign to the jury that
said “128 seconds,” together with a citation from a twenty-year-old textbook.

“I’m not sure. Maybe three
minutes.”

The jury mumbled.

“You didn’t get A’s in your field
theory class, did you?” Stu asked.

“I never took a theory class.”

“Part of my responsibility on
Sanctuary
is repairing live drive units. I’ve had extensive theory and practice to
underwrite my Page talent. Several people have testified to this.” Turning to
the witness, Stu asked, “Have you ever even
seen
an Icarus field, Ensign?”

“No, but I know what one looks like
on the detector.”

Stu held up a sign that said, “I’ve
seen one on TV.” Almost all the jurors smiled or chuckled.

The prosecutor said, “No more
signs, Ambassador.”

Holding up his empty hands, Stu
said, “So to summarize, you have no qualifications, and you didn’t see anything
you testified to. You couldn’t have known my intent or the existence of a field
of any kind. Therefore, you operated in direct contravention of international
law.”

Pleading to the jury, the ensign
said, “He was moving so fast, LA would have been destroyed if I didn’t fire as
soon as radar painted him.”

“No further questions,” Stu said,
dismissing him. “The second alleged witness?”

****

The second witness took longer to locate. The jet pilot
arrived in a dress air force uniform, and Stu suspected she had been prepped
extensively. She had auburn hair and freckles. “Captain Enright,” Stu read.
“Sounds Irish.”

She smiled. “My parents were.”

“You aren’t prejudiced against me
because of my English heritage?” Stu asked.

“No.”

“Hmm … I didn’t hear a ‘sir.’ There
must be another reason you don’t respect me,” Stu mused. “Did you apply to
become a space pilot?”

“Yes, but they only take five
applicants a year.”

Stu frowned. “Oh, that old rivalry.
You weren’t good enough, so star pilots are all assholes.”

“Not all, sir. Just the ones I’ve
met.” She won the jury over.

“So my job wouldn’t be grounds for
you to refuse a drink with me later?”

“I don’t drink with murderers.”

“Ouch. Perjury already.”

“What?” the young woman objected.

“Tell me who I murdered, and I’ll
withdraw the charge.”

“Nobody yet, because we stopped
you.”

“Another confused psychic,” Stu
said. “We should make her wear a wizard’s hat instead of a uniform. Captain
Enright, on what grounds did you testify that I carried an Icarus device?”

“You blew up the cloud.”

“Did you see a field?”

Enright raised a finger, ready for
the question. “No, but the explosion caused a flameout in my jet, and I had to
eject. The cloud was there before you entered and gone after. Ergo, you blew it
up.”

Stu smiled. “I’ve always wanted a
date with a woman who can use the word ‘ergo’ in conversation.”

“Screw you.”

“Hostile witness,” Stu announced.

The prosecutor raised his eyebrows.
“Stay relevant.”

“Wasn’t ejecting terribly
irresponsible of you? LA is one of the largest, most densely populated regions
on the planet, and you launched your plane at them like a missile.”

She paled. “Any pilot would have
done the same.”

“
I
didn’t.” Stu let that
statement steep for a moment in the room. “When you shot out my thrusters and
most of my fuel in an illegal attempt to murder me, I could have bailed. Because
of the obvious danger to civilians, I kept fighting to land the craft.”

“You needed to get your bomb
closer,” she insisted.

“If you keep testifying to things
you have no knowledge of, I
will
have you jailed.”

Parrish interrupted. “Ambassador,
I’m the only one who can threaten here.”

“An interesting job description.”
When the prosecutor opened his mouth to object further, Stu raised his hands.
“I’ll cut to the chase. Captain Enright, for a craft going my speed, could I
have survived impact.”

“Probably not.”

“So by any reasonable standard, I
had to do what?”

“Slow down,” she replied. “But
endangering the coast with an Icarus field was not the answer.”

“How big was this alleged Icarus
field?”

Unsure, the woman said, “I’m not an
expert.”