Regan's Reach 4: Avarice (34 page)

"Yes, yes, I never intended to keep
secrets," he blurted, "I never even knew about that . . . that,
thing."

"So how did you find it?"
Charlotte asked.

"I was  . . ." his voiced trailed
away.

"Yes . . .?" Regan prompted.

"I was playing with . . . my message .
. . for the Rexis leadership."

[He's hiding something Regan.] Ham subbed.

[You think?]

[Look at him, he's a sniveling weasel.]

"What is this message you speak of, Perin,
and how did you come upon this?" Ham held up the more advanced of the two
objects.

Perin was plainly uncomfortable and kept
looking up at the image on screen. "Can I please sit down, I will tell you
everything."

Regan let the request hang in the air a
moment and then nodded to the chair. Perin wasted no time stumbling gratefully
away from the mark on the floor and falling into it. He took a moment to
recover his composure and they waited.

"My Uncle Maynard, a senior senate
member, gave me a special message to convey to the delegation from Rexis. I'm
not sure of the detail but I understand it was a proposal for peace, a plan to
move forward together, something that the current leadership of Regis would not
have supported and it is stored in that data processor I was carrying. It was a
pleasant burden to carry, even though if it had been discovered by the
leadership of my delegation I would likely have been tried for treason. It was
a message full of promise and hope, but with the loss of the ship it came to
nothing. I took it out in my room, contemplating what to do with it and I
accidentally activated its wireless signal. The signal must have been received
by that device, but it was not my intention. A small drawer opened from the
wall and the device was resting on the shelf. It activated in some way and then
I heard sounds, a voice I think, but in a language I didn't understand. Of
course I couldn't respond and I quickly switched off my own signal. I was
panicked about what I'd done."

Perin stopped at that point, whether to
gather his thoughts or because he was distressed it was hard to tell but
nevertheless Regan prompted him to continue.

"I was backed against the wall, as far
as I could get from the device when suddenly it started to hum, and then a man
appeared, a small man, or at least an image of a man, and it talked to me but I
couldn't understand a word. It seemed to gesture to my device, and then to its
own, and then to mine again. I guessed it wanted me to activate my device again
and I don't know why, but I did, and then the man turned to a mist that seemed
to flow toward my device and then his device seemed to go dead." Perin
stopped at that point and then looked at Ham. "And then you were at the
door looking angry . . ." He hesitated as if considering a terrible
thought. "I thought I was dead!"

"You very nearly were." Ham
added.

"You say you couldn't understand
anything?" Regan asked, "And yet you were able to communicate
obviously."

"By sign language only . . . I guessed
he wanted me to activate my device again, that's all."

"Can you remember anything of the
words he spoke?"

"Only a sound, I think it was a
name."

He had all their attention now and the
focus unnerved him. "I didn't intend any of this."

Regan tried to smile. "No, of course
not, now think Perin, what was the sound - and how do you know it was a
name?"

"Because he pointed to himself as he
said the word, just as I had done in giving my name like this." He
demonstrated, pointing to his chest and saying, "Perin."

"So what did he say was his name, Perin?"

"I'm not sure but he pointed to
himself and said something like, Rrrrubusss."

"I knew it!" A passive observer
until now, Hilary suddenly burst into triumphant life. "Ha ha, there you
go Charlie; I win the bet, ta daaa!"

Regan ignored the interjection, her
attention being more on Ham's response and she watched as he slowly placed the
two devices on the console. Then he stood there looking at them with clear and
obvious malice.

Ham turned to Perin. "You say he
appeared to transfer to your device - a device which holds a message?"

Perin looked confused. "Transfer -
what do you mean? I can only say it appeared the image I could see dissolved
and flew to my device like a mist, and then the other device went cold."

"Cold?"

"The lights went out and it stopped
buzzing."

Ham stared at the older of the two objects,
the one clearly from Regis, and then at Regan. "So it appears that bastard
Reubus might actually be in there. He could be in both and we can't be sure
without checking. The question is why? Perhaps he hoped Perin would be a Trojan
horse that would carry him to the planet?"

"He would be taking a chance."
Regan replied, "I think we should assume he copied himself in there to
increase his chances of success. In any case, I should go in and confront
him."

Ham shook his head. "No way Regan - I
should confront him, there must be a reason he has done this and he fears me.
He'll explain things to me, one way or the other and I'd rather you weren't
there. I want to know the truth."

Something about Perin’s manner as he
followed the exchange caught Charlotte's attention and she jerked upright.

"Regan." She suddenly interrupted.
"I've been watching Perin, he's up to something."

The focus shifted back to the young man,
all eyes turning his way; he couldn't understand what Charlotte had said but he
looked startled at the attention. "What? What did she say about me?"

Charlotte ignored the translation Hilary
was relaying and simply explained to Regan. "I saw his eyes light up as
you were discussing accessing your device - why was he excited?"

Regan turned slowly back to Perin, fixing
him with a glare that made him reach behind to the chair for support. "It
seems you would like Ham to access your device, am I correct? Now why might
that be the case Perin?"

He looked around wildly, desperately
searching for support but found none. "I - I meant nothing . . ." he
began to protest but already Ham was on him, wrenching him from the chair in
one powerful motion and dumping him on the crosshairs. Then he stepped back,
crossed his arms, lowered his head and closed his eyes as if concentrating and
about to take some action. It happened so quickly everyone was stunned and
Regan hardly had time to call out before Perin himself halted things with a
scream of panic.

"It has a virus! . . . The device
holds a virus!" then he collapsed, whimpering, to the floor.

Regan and Ham exchanged anxious looks and
backed away from the vials.

Ham looked at her accusingly, "You see
Regan, and you were so quick to want to go in there? You just don't think
sometimes, anything could have happened to you."

"Me! Don't tell me you weren't ready
to go in; you know you were and I'm not the only rash one here."

"Guys, guys," Charlotte
interrupted the squabble, "let's just be glad no one went in, whatever
that means anyway." She looked uncomfortably at the tubes resting on the
console and then stepped away herself creating distance of her own; nothing
about a virus sounded good. "The question is, what do we do with these
things now, I mean, if you're right one of them holds this Reubus character
doesn't it, and he's most likely a murderer?"

Jared stepped to the chair and picked up
the tubes, examining them carefully. "Reubus could be in both of them,"
he said, "we just don't know. And if he has copied to the one with the
virus then that Reubus is possibly dead, but we can't know that for certain
either."

"Jared," Regan barked,
"don't you dare go in there."

"I have no intention of doing that Mother."
Instead he clasped his hands together, the two processors squeezed tightly between
them. There was a sudden flash - and a loud crack of electrical energy - and then
he dropped the tubes, still smoldering, to the floor. Just as quickly a shimmer
appeared over them and the objects disappeared as Ham displaced them to vacuum.
Jared smiled at Regan. "Mother, you never ask the enemy why they did it,
that just gives them time and opportunity to escape, and you never restrain or
leave them in case they also escape, and you never leave them for a delayed
death with a bomb and a timer for the same reason, and finally. . .", he
turned and looked at Ham with a big smile on his face.

Ham laughed, ". . . A shot to the back
is just as effective as a shot to the front." He filled in the last part
with a huge smile of his own. "You have learned well grasshopper, I'm proud
of you."

Regan screwed up her face in frustration.
"You two and your ideas - I don't know; now how do we find out what Reubus
was up to?"

"We go to Gliese and kick it out of
him Regan, just as soon as we get this job done." Ham was enthusiastic.
"We can jump there any time, after all."

Her concern was obvious as she thought
about the implications. "Now I'm really worried about the guys in Gliese,
what's Reubus up to Ham?" She shook her head in disbelief. "I still
can't believe he would actually kill someone, just to get to Orion, but if he
did and he's capable of killing here what does that mean for Marin and Leah? If
they get in his way with Aaron, will he try to dispatch them too?"

"Don't worry about them babe, they're
quite capable of looking after themselves and remember, I'm there with them."

"As am I," Hilary added, "and
Regan, I'm not surprised at this, Reubus wants your position and those business
interests at home just aren't enough for him; he's decided if he can't have you
as a partner, he'll supplant you. Regan, he wants everything."

"Well he's not going to get it!"
She dropped into the nearest chair to think and they knew enough not to
interrupt. It took only a minute and then a look of clarity came to her.

"This is what we're going to do. Charlie,
you can begin plans for disembarking your colonists now along with the other
vessels as soon as we're in orbit. That should be in about two days so take
charge of that please, with Hilary's support. I understand there are welcoming
celebrations planned so we will all stay for those. But as soon as the
celebrations are over here, we'll leave for Gliese in the STEIN Traveler. With Marin
and Leah there I'm concerned what Reubus may try to do. We can't give him the
leverage of holding our precious friends."

[Ham, you and I should also do a quick jump
to Gliese before the ceremonies, just to check things out. We can gather
intelligence.]

"Mom?" Jared asked "I want
to go with you to Gliese."

"I think we can accommodate that Jared
my boy, and how are those hands?"

Jared held up blackened palms and gave a
tight smile that was more a wince. Regan shook her head. "Come with me
then, let's sort out those burns and please remember, you are not an
android."

"Err, Regan?" Charlotte asked.
"What about me?"

Regan stopped and smiled, reaching up a
hand to touch Charlotte's hair. "Charlotte, you have been absolutely fantastic,
I'm going to need you to stay here in Orion until the colonists are settled, I
have great plans for you . . . and how attached are you to that hair?" She
laughed at Charlotte’s expression then turned to Hilary. "Darl, maybe you
could make the special offer to Charlie, I think you know what I mean; but
right now I need to look after Jared." And with that Regan started for the
elevator doors, Jared in tow.

Hilary broke into a huge smile and eerily
reached out an extended avatar arm to pat Charlotte’s head. "Leave Charlie
to me Regan, I know she isn't too concerned about appearances."

"I'm not?" Charlotte swatted
through the arm. "And what on earth are you talking about?"

"Oh don't worry sweetie," Hilary
laughed, "we're just playing with your head."

As the elevator doors closed Charlotte
could hear Regan burst out laughing.

* * *

The Medlab on The Behemoth

Charlotte didn't need much persuading, she was
a convert now and the heady rush of life in 'the team' was addictive. Anything
that could enhance the experience she wanted and following only the briefest of
explanations she agreed to Hilary's proposal. After all, as Hilary explained,
the neural web procedure was well proven now on billions of humanoids in
Gliese, and Leah also had one. When she had asked whether Jared and Regan had a
neural web Hilary explained that they operated somewhat differently and left it
at that. Charlotte didn't press, and anyway the procedure proposed for her
meant she could be on her feet in two days for the welcoming and the 'web'
thingy could continue to do its integration while she worked apparently; all
good. She had made her way across to the Behemoth without delay and gave the
operation hardly a thought until she lay back on the gurney in the Medlab; then
finally nerves set in. She did feel the small prick in her arm from the slender
appendage stretching up from the floor but she never got to see the arm that
jabbed her. And neither did she hear the conversation between Ham and Hilary
that followed.