The Far Shores (The Central Series) (74 page)

“Overwhelmed with
interest,” Dr. Graaf said sadly. “I can hardly wait.”

“Excellent, Doctor. If
you will come with us, then...”

“I am so not happy with this.”

“Poor baby.”

“I’m serious. This is
fucked. This is not at all what I wanted.”

“My heart bleeds for
you. Really.”

“Don’t be a bitch.”
Rebecca sighed and then sparked her lighter, attempting to light the joint that
she had been staring at for the last couple minutes. Alice rolled her eyes and
then cupped her hands to shield the lighter from the wind. Rebecca inhaled,
coughed smoke, and then nodded. “Thanks. You know, all I wanted was to be a
school councilor. Not an Auditor. Not in charge of anything. I just wanted to
help some kids, talk out their problems with them. That’s it. Is that so much
to ask?”

“Apparently.” Rebecca
leaned against the wall behind the trash dumpster in back of the Administrative
building where the Committee-at-Large was meeting, not appearing particularly
concerned about potentially dirtying her tailored blue skirt suit. “I can’t
believe I found you out here, by the way. You sure you should be getting stoned
right now?”

Rebecca attempted to
blow a smoke ring, but the wind spoiled her efforts.

“Maybe they’ll notice
and fire me. What do you think?”

“I think Anastasia
Martynova nominated you three hours ago, the Thule Cartel seconded, and you won
on the first ballot. Lord North withdrew his name when your candidacy was
announced. So I think you might have to try a bit harder to get kicked out of
office, Director.”

Rebecca gave her a sour
face.

“Don’t call me that. I
haven’t even been confirmed yet. And even when I’m confirmed – if I decide to
go ahead with it – I
still
don’t want you to call me that.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re
gonna be the cool informal boss. Just one of the girls. Maybe you could
institute Casual Fridays or something, just to get the point across.”

Rebecca flicked ash into
the wind.

“Why are you giving me
shit, Alice? You know I don’t want to do this…”

“What I know is that I
trust you,” Alice said, shrugging. “I know that I have half the Auditors I
need, less than half of what I want, and more problems than they could address
in a lifetime. Central is unsettled – nah, scratch that. Central is on the edge
of revolution and civil war. If Anastasia Martynova hadn’t shown up at the Far
Shores when she did, then the Anathema probably would have attacked Central
again, rather than retreating. For the first time in a generation, the Hegemony
and the Black Sun are virtually unified, under the thumb of two of the most
dangerous and effective Operators in history. The Academy is reeling. We’ve
lost – even been betrayed by, depending on your perspective – the man that most
of us looked to for leadership. We’ve been outmaneuvered by the cartels, conned
by the Far Shores, and beaten up by the Anathema. I’ve been through my diaries,
Becca, and I can’t find any mention of more desperate times. We could lose
everything in a heartbeat, particularly if we don’t get a strong hand at the
helm, someone people will listen to and follow, before the next crisis hits.
That’s what I know.”

Rebecca took a final
drag, then tossed the roach out into the wet grass.

“Nice speech.”

“Thanks. I thought it
was pretty good myself.”

“Why not you?” Rebecca
asked, grabbing Alice’s hand. “Why can’t you do this?”

Alice shook off her
grip.

“Who would vote for me?”
Alice asked scornfully. “Those people don’t respect or like me – they are
afraid of me. That’s perfect for my job, but terrible for yours. I wouldn’t
want to live in a Central that I ran, and you wouldn’t either.”

“Yeah, I guess. But,
still…”

“Look, Becca, you are
perfect for the job. You’re an empath, a born leader. Hell, even when Gaul was
in charge,” Alice said, both of them wincing at the mention of the name, “you
were the real boss half the time, and everybody knows it. If you think I’m
going to tell you that we’d be better off with you playing child psychologist,
then you’re insane.”

Rebecca held her hands
up in surrender.

“Okay, okay. I get you.
Of course, if I do take the job, you know that I get to order you around,
right?”

“You’ve been doing that
forever,” Alice said with a smirk. “What’s new?”

“Speaking of ordering
you around, what kind of Auditor force am I inheriting?”

“Not so hot,” Alice
admitted with a shake of her head. “Xia is Xia – he was out in the field
yesterday. Michael is physically okay, though I can tell what happened with the
kids is eating him. You might want to have a little chat with him when you get
a free moment. You seem to have put Haley back together, so there’s that.
Min-jun’s okay, that kid never complains. I haven’t seen Katya since we hit the
Far Shores, and even if I do, it will be to tell her that she’s out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t get me
wrong – the girl’s deadly. But she was never ours in the first place. She was
insubordinate, unreliable, and far too concerned with Alex’s well-being. She
belongs to Anastasia, pure and simple, and it was a mistake to take her on, our
number issue and her abilities notwithstanding. Martynova’s arrival at the Far
Shores was just too convenient, and it’s not the first time she’s been in
perfect position to come to the rescue. I can’t use Katya, as bad as I need her
skill set.”

“That’s a shame. She’ll
be hard to replace.”

“No kidding.”

“And then there’s Alex,”
Rebecca said wistfully. “That’s a mess in and of itself. I don’t like to
think…”

“You shouldn’t think
about it,” Alice said abruptly, shaking her head. “No one has ever come back
from the Outer Dark. If he does – and that’s a big if – I don’t expect him to
be on our side anymore.”

“That’s…that’s dark. And
not a possibility I considered. Fuck.” Rebecca hugged herself, looking
uncomfortable in a jacket and matching skirt. “Eerie’s a goddamn mess, you
know. I’ve tried to make time for her, but she’s barely talked in two sessions.
I still don’t have a clear idea of what happened.”

“You saw Vivik’s helpful
little broadcast,” Alice brooded. “You saw what Alistair did. I’d be surprised
if Alex survived the night. Assuming he did…well, I guess I’d prefer not to
consider the possibilities. Look, Becca, it bothers me, too. All of it. But
dwelling on our losses won’t fix anything.”

“Yeah. You may be
right.”

Rebecca gave her a sad
look, and Alice had difficulty returning it, despite herself.

“You want to ask about
Mitsuru.”

Rebecca clenched her
jaw, grinding her teeth, her face contorted with emotion.

“You’re damn right I do.
That was...that was a hell of a call you made, you know. And that you were
prepared for it...”

“Gaul warned me. What
else could I do?” Alice asked, holding her hands out helplessly. “You saw the
precognitive work, and the post-operative analysis, the same as I did. She lost
control of her Black Protocol, maybe because of injury, or because she simply
couldn’t control it any longer. Either way, if those nanites had touched the
World Tree, that was it.”

“I know,” Rebecca said,
tearing up. “I know it. The end of everything. The Ecofage would have had
access to everything – reality, Central, the works. No going back from that. No
way to stop it. But, still, it’s so awful. I tried to protect her, tried to fix
her...”

“’Becca, you did your
best. I know it, and you know it, too. She was too damaged for us to put her
back together. Maybe we were crazy to try, but we did. All of us did. If Karim
hadn’t taken that shot, we wouldn’t be here to have this conversation, because
there wouldn’t be any here, in all likelihood. Some doors, once you open them,
there’s no going back. Mitzi knew the risks.”

“Yeah.” Rebecca wiped
her eyes, sniffled. “Did you find her? A body? Anything?”

“No,” Alice said,
looking uncomfortable. “Maybe the nanites consumed her before they were
neutralized?”

“That seems wrong. They
never touched her before, just everything else.”

“Maybe after she
was...you know. Dead. Maybe it was different.”

“Maybe.”

“You gonna do a
funeral?”

“Not yet. I don’t know.
Mitsuru didn’t leave behind a lot of friends. Alex might have cared, but
he’s...not around. I don’t think anyone will notice either way.”

“Probably right.”

They watched the evening
colors deepen in silence for a moment.

“Damn it,” Rebecca said,
balling her fists, “she was my friend.”

Alice didn’t say
anything.

“It breaks my heart,”
Rebecca blurted, wiping wet eyes. “Mitsuru deserved better.”

“Be glad you didn’t have
to make the call,” Alice said darkly. “I liked Mitzi, you know. She reminded me
of myself.”

“Maybe too much.”

“Maybe.”

“I can’t help but wonder
if it had to be this way,” Rebecca admitted. “Maybe there was something else
that I could have done to help her?”

“You’ll drive yourself
crazy, thinking like that,” Alice said. “Anyway, it wasn’t your call. Mitzi is
on me.”

“That’s not true. She
was my friend, and my project. When Alistair betrayed us, I should have focused
more attention on her, maybe even pushed for her to be pulled from the field. I
knew she was hurting, and we all knew that she had trouble controlling her
protocol. I should have intervened.”

“Without Mitzi, we would
have failed to shut the World Tree down,” Alice reminded Rebecca gently. “I
feel bad about what happened – maybe even worse than you – but you have to know
that none of us ever had a choice. It was up to Mitzi to pull herself together.
We did our best to give her time and the opportunity to get it under control,
but we couldn’t do that for her.”

“I suppose. But for it
to end this way...”

“Water under the bridge,
Becca. Move past it.”

“How can I?” Rebecca
demanded, tears trickling from her eyes. “Alex and Mitsuru trusted me, and I
failed both of them. Completely. For all I know, both of them are dead
already.”

“It’s bad enough as it
is,” Alice advised. “You don’t need to make it worse with assumptions. Alex was
alive the last time anyone saw him. That’s what we know.”

“He’s just a kid, though,”
Rebecca said miserably, running her hands through hair that needed to be
washed. “This is all so colossally unfair. We’ve got to do
something
about
Alex, right?”

“We will,” Alice assured
her. “As soon as we know what the situation is, we will act on it. I promise.
We aren’t going to let this go, Rebecca. Me and you, we’re gonna take this
fight to the Anathema,” Alice explained, her eyes bright and her expression
steely, “and we are going to settle accounts with everyone who caused this –
Alistair, John Parson, that vampire girl, the whole lot. I am done playing
defense, and I am done losing people on my watch. We will even the score,
Rebecca. For Mitzi and Alex both.”

Rebecca sobbed, and
Alice looked away, giving her a moment to compose herself.

“Look – this isn’t what
you should be thinking about right now,” Alice said, taking Rebecca by the
shoulders. “Worry about the kids later. Let me worry about the Auditors, the
Anathema, and the World Tree – all that nonsense. You take care of the
Committee, put the Administration back together, and we’ll go from there,
okay?”

Rebecca nodded slowly,
digging a tissue from her suit pocket.

“Okay. Yeah. There’s
really no other option, is there? Time to suck it up and get political.”

“That’s the spirit,”
Alice said approvingly. “Go charm ’em. And while you’re there…”

“Yes?”

“Tell Gaul that he’s got
a lot to answer for.” Alice smiled grimly. “And I’m gonna come to ask a few
friendly questions, real soon.”

***

Eerie opened the door to the club
room slowly, sticking her head inside to make sure it was empty before she entered,
Derrida trotting in behind her. She was wearing a very full backpack, and her
knitting basket was nearly overflowing – even Derrida wore a harness with a saddlebag
on either side. She set the backpack on one chair and her basket on another,
and then set up her laptop on the table in the center of the room. The club
room was designed for a dozen or more people, so there was plenty of room. It
took nearly fifteen minutes of stringing cords and arranging sophisticated,
self-designed peripherals before she powered up the computer.

The boot screen flashed
by, replaced by the familiar icons of her custom operating system. Eerie keyed
in several commands, then sat in an available chair to watch lines of green
code scroll across the screen, pausing occasionally to make small changes or to
rub Derrida’s patient head. Another half hour passed before she was satisfied
with the results.

She removed the cloth
that covered her basket and reviewed the contents. Her knitting supplies had
been replaced with an ample supply of Pixy Stix, Kool-Aid packets, lollipops,
jelly beans, licorice, and gummy animals of both sweet and sour varieties.
Wedged beside them was the knit cap she had made for Alex. Eerie lingered over
that, holding it to her chest thoughtfully and staring off into space, before
placing it firmly on her head. From her backpack, she took a pair of knitted
gloves and a long rainbow-striped scarf that hung almost to her knees, both of
which she added to her thoughtfully selected outfit. It was too warm for the
current weather at the Academy, but she wasn’t sure of the weather where she
was going, so she chose her most comfortable sneakers and heaviest black
tights, along with cutoff jeans, a layered pair of camisoles, and her oversized
Pittsburg Penguins hoodie. She double-checked the remaining contents of her
backpack – an ultra-thin laptop, a pair of high-fidelity headphones, an LED
flashlight, sunglasses with plastic orange frames, a set of toiletries, spare underwear,
and a miniature sewing kit – then zipped it closed. She took another moment to
confirm that Derrida’s satchels were filled with dog food, a blanket, a
Frisbee, and a small amount of water.