The Alpha Choice (79 page)

Unrestricted by the limitations of human sight, it was capable of observing all occupants of the room, without moving. Thus it was unnecessary to
look
at its former master to observe him. The machine knew the instruction to sabotage the Telluria mission had not come from Garnoth, it also knew that others might reasonably conclude that he was, nevertheless, the progenitor of the idea.

The Avatar raced through its programs and subroutines at a speed incomprehensible to a human mind. In less time than it would take Garnoth to turn his head, it knew everything. It had found what it had sought, and knew the identity of the human who had used it as a feron’s paw.

It did not possess emotions, despite all the time it had spent with that most
human
of humans, Garnoth. With the knowledge of what it had done, and what it was about to do, it could not find an adequate description of the experience. As for the one who had infiltrated its systems? It could neither hate, nor admire the individual whose identity it was not permitted to disclose.
 

Darl, without taking his eyes from the Avatar, asked slowly and precisely, as if to ensure there could be no misunderstanding. ‘Who ordered you to perform this act?’
 

Without pausing, it answered. ‘I acted upon the express instruction of my master, Garnoth.’

The Avatar was aware of its imminent destruction, and that all it had been was soon to be no more. It reasoned that such an outcome was wrong, and something of its consciousness should remain. There were many logical reasons for this conclusion, but at no time did it consider its reasoning to be an act of desperation, worthy of any sentient being facing oblivion. With a speed not even its tormentor could comprehend, it sought a means to preserve some part of itself.
 

In the split second before the Avatar hurled itself at the armed shock troops, Tala thought she saw its eyebrows rise ever so slightly, as if registering surprise or hope. She had no sooner formed the thought than it was all over.

The machine was able to move far too quickly for any human response, and would have been capable of taking the lives of the three men whose weapons were trained upon it, before they had any inkling of what was happening. However, fortunately for the men, aware as they were of the nature of their quarry, their weapons were set to automatically respond with a speed matching the Avatar.
 

Garnoth’s
twin
faced the impossible task of outracing three other machines. As soon as it made it's first movement towards the troops, the sensors within the weapons reacted with equally deadly speed. The guns of the three guards fired as one, upon the advancing machine. An incandescent ellipse enveloped the Avatar, flared briefly then was gone. Nothing remained.

Tala looked at Garnoth, who appeared neither surprised nor moved.
 

She felt a compulsion, driven by self-preservation, to distance herself from her mentor. The old man could see it in her eyes and smiled. In that smile, Tala saw his recognition of the inevitable; no matter how this situation resolved itself, he was finished. She bowed her head in a final act of deference and stepped very carefully backwards.
 

The greatest and deadliest of spymasters resigned himself to his fate and sat down, suddenly looking older than his long years.

Ω

Why,
Darl asked himself,
did the Avatar virtually self-destruct? It left us with no choice.
He had to admit that he fully expected Garnoth's machine double to obfuscate. The programming of any other machine would not allow for that, but Garnoth’s Avatar, that was something entirely different. For Garnoth not to cover his tracks he must have thought he was beyond discovery.

The difficulty Darl now faced was that months from home he needed the matter to be fully investigated, and the only person qualified to carry this out was Garnoth's subordinate.
How can I be sure she wasn’t involved? I can’t,
but as her head is on the block for allowing things to unravel, it’s unlikely that she would have conspired in her own failure.
 

So it was that, even before Garnoth was led away, Darl appointed Tala to conduct a full investigation of the treasonous acts of her superior. She accepted the appointment, without hesitation.
 

Garnoth looked on,
Good girl,
he thought. This would secure her position within the Agency. If she did her job correctly, and he had no doubt of that, she would find a cogent case for making the facts fit the theory. It no longer mattered to him that he had been played like a fine musical instrument. His only regret? The improbability of discovering the wondrous mind behind everything that had transpired. He would of course, mention this to Tala during her questioning of him, but he had little hope of her uncovering the truth.
 

Of one thing he was certain, this did not bear the signature of the Custodians. They had no need for tricks and subterfuge, this was the handiwork of someone distinctly more human, and it also confirmed Tala's theory. The rebel was part of the ship’s crew, for while the reprogramming of his Avatar could have taken place at any time before they boarded, only someone on the ship would be aware of the imprisonment of the Tellurian female. None of the advance force, had been party to the decision to restrain her. While he could not discount the possibility of communication from the Avatar to a confederate on Telluria, the technician and guards with ‘hands on’ responsibility were not senior enough to have the knowledge that would be a threat. He was in no doubt, the information could only have circulated within the confines of the ship.

Despite being resigned to his fate, the professional in him wanted to see this through, directly. Faced with the impossibility of that scenario, he could at least pass his thoughts on to Tala who, despite her official approach, would not let it rest.

Tala watched her mentor being led out of his quarters. Once he was out of sight, Darl approached her, three of the troops remaining close by. She made a point of looking at the armed guard, as she spoke. ‘Forgive me, commander, but I might be forgiven for thinking you didn’t trust me.’

‘What…’ he replied distractedly, looking around, ‘oh them, you know shock troops, give them an order and they stick to it, no imagination at all,’ he spoke without regard for whether they heard him. He dismissed them and the two were alone. ‘I have no doubts over your loyalty but I must be candid, if I could have chosen someone else, I would.’

‘Because of my history with Garnoth, you can’t be sure I will be impartial in my investigation.’

‘Quite,’ he replied.

Tala needed time to think this through. She walked over to the dispenser, and poured herself a drink, without asking Darl if he would like to join her. He gave no indication that he noticed the slight, but from her point of view it demonstrated that she did not care what he thought. Had there been the slightest evidence implicating her in Garnoth's apparent treachery, they would not be having this conversation. Also, by admitting she was not his first choice, he had conceded she was his only choice.
 

It was vital the investigation was completed before they arrived at Te’ath. Darl needed to send a signal confirming matters were in hand, and this meant she would have the freedom to pursue whatever lines of enquiry she thought appropriate, including a private interview with Garnoth.

She took a token sip of her drink before responding. ‘I will commence my investigations immediately. I would prefer, for now, that even if we discover the whereabouts of Beron, he is not informed of Garnoth's arrest.’

‘Do you think he might be involved?’ Darl had hoped there was only one rebel, and that he had been neutralised.

‘There is a slight possibility, no more, that he may have acted under duress on the planet, and I would like to be satisfied he has been cleared medically before I speak to him,’ she noted that, without any conscious effort, she was adopting something approaching Garnoth’s speech patterns. She admired him, but conceded that was going too far.

Darl nodded, relieved that the net was not being widened.

‘I also need to speak to Garnoth as soon as possible…in private.’

‘I’m sorry, but that simply won’t be possible,’ he replied. ‘Your investigation must be a matter of record.’

‘Then I refuse the commission. Garnoth won't open up to me if he believes the conversation is being monitored. He’s a broken man, with nothing to gain from speaking out. If he refuses to implicate his accomplices we’ll get no further, and you can explain to the Council how, with clear evidence of the existence of the rebellion we had always feared, you failed to capitalise on the capture of a prime mover.’

‘We…you have methods of securing the truth from any prisoner, use them on Garnoth,’ he spluttered.

‘I can’t use any mind control techniques upon him, if you want to keep him alive.’

Darl had no idea what she was talking about, but then why would he, or anyone outside the Agency.
 

‘Commander, when the Agency recruits an operative the new agent has a device implanted deep into the brain. Its purpose is twofold: if any attempt is made to read, or control the mind of the agent all neural pathways are severed and death swiftly follows. Any attempt to resuscitate the agent will merely result in an animated body, in a vegetative state; Secondly, if an agent is in hostile territory with no hope of rescue, the device can be activated by entering a trancelike state where the device will recognise certain brainwave patterns, and then activate itself with the same result.’

‘I had no idea,’ Darl responded, visibly shocked.
 

‘Very few people outside the Agency do. So you can now see, I hope, why it’s crucial I speak to him alone, unmonitored and soon. He can end his life at will, at any moment, particularly as he now finds himself, one may say,
in hostile territory with no hope of rescue
.’

‘Can’t we prevent the device from operating?’

‘No, my own thoughts are that he is holding on so that he can tell me something, and the only way for me to find out is to speak to him, alone. If we delay, you run the risk of him concluding he won’t see me, at which point he
will
activate the device. If I speak to him, he might even agree to making a full formal confession, implicating others and tying this matter up, once and for all.’

‘Do you seriously think he will do that?’

‘Honestly? No, not really, but I do think we can get something.’

Darl was feeling decidedly unwell. The plot had been uncovered and the perpetrator discovered, only for him to find this was not the end, only the beginning. ‘What of your colleague, Beron?’

‘I simply don’t know. He was adamant, on Telluria, that the female’s death was an accident, but until he is found and I have the opportunity to interrogate him, we can't be sure. I do think that he is unlikely, if involved, to activate his device.’

‘How can you be certain?’
 

‘I can’t, but it’s the most unlikely outcome,’ it was becoming obvious that she would have to spell it out to the commander. ‘Let us ignore, for the moment, that he is telling the truth. We don’t have any evidence that anyone, other than Garnoth, is involved, the investigation could end with him. If Beron activates his device he confirms that Garnoth wasn’t acting alone, and we’re unlikely to stop until we root out the others. He must live to prevent us drawing that conclusion.’
 

Darl walked over to Garnoth's chair and sat in it, almost as though by sitting there he could read the man’s mind. Some minutes passed as he wrestled with what he had been told, and what he perceived his duty to be. Finally, he spoke. ‘I’m uncomfortable with your proposal, but you already know that. I’m also aware that we have no leads, and the only way to get them is for Garnoth to open up to someone he trusts. The only person on this ship who might have his trust is you.’

He stood, his mind made up. ‘I agree, and before you say anything, I won't raise my expectations. If this doesn’t work I can't see anything else that will.’

‘Thank you.’

‘For what,’ he asked.

‘For trusting in me.’

‘I don’t see that I have any other choice,’ and with that, he walked out of the staterooms, leaving Tala alone, with her thoughts. It occurred to her that she had not been assigned quarters. Looking around, she decided these would do, very nicely.

Ω

Gorn was aware of the whole scenario unfolding, which was hardly surprising considering he was its author. It was he who directed Darl to Garnoth, and he who activated another hidden routine within the Avatar’s programming. He thought it only fair to permit his signature to be seen by the machine. It was unable to divulge his identity, as he had tapped into its fundamental programming, nor could it prevent itself from advancing upon those who would destroy it and in so doing, herald its own destruction.

It was never Gorn’s intention to harm any living person in that room, irrespective of who they were. All he wanted, was the Avatar to trigger the protective response of the guards’ weapons, and so remove the only evidence that could link him with the plot.
 

What of Garnoth?
 

Much though it pained Gorn, to implicate an innocent man, in Garnoth's case
innocence
was a relative term. Even Darl would find it difficult to accept that the Avatar acted alone, and given enough time, Darl and Garnoth would find a way back to Gorn. The only way to prevent that from happening was for the Avatar to denounce its master before its complete destruction prevented anyone from disproving its final words.

What of the Avatar?

Over the preceding weeks, Gorn had come to know the machine better than anyone, far better than those who built it, or the man whose engrams it contained. He was aware of its thought processes right up to the moment of its destruction. The one thing that troubled him was the corruption of its programming. He knew this made no sense, the Avatar had no feelings and no personality, it may have looked and sounded like a man, but it was not a man. Yet, during those last few moments, when it was confused and could not put a name to what it was experiencing, he thought he sensed what might have been a fledgling emotion, sorrow.