Part 27 (2/2)
The words froze Nathan, disbelief twisting through his thoughts. It was swiftly followed by a rage that tunneled his vision, and Nathan had to work at showing fear instead of fury. That's what Erik would expect from him, in the guise Nathan lived with. ”Did you use the master override?”
”Do you think I don't know how to put down a dog? We can still track some of their positions, but they aren't all dead.”
”Explain yourself.”
”Ciari was here.” The woman's name fell from Erik's lips like a curse. ”She had some asinine offer that they could save us if we stayed. She didn't die when I issued the ma.s.s termination order and was teleported out before we could shoot her. We know that a few hundred Strykers died in the Americas and some here in The Hague, but all the rest were showing live signals on the security grid before we lost contact. I doubt any of those Strykers are dead.”
Nathan felt his fingernails bite into the palms of his hands. ”I'm to a.s.sume your version of using a panic switch is to uplink with me? What do you think I can do about this problem?”
”Your family created this d.a.m.n technology and sold it to the world when psions were first discovered. I'm hoping you have an override that can fix this problem. You Sercas don't give up anything for free.”
It was a rather astute a.s.sumption, even if Nathan couldn't outright acknowledge the underhanded way his family functioned. Moving to his seat, Nathan kept his attention on the uplink.
”What are your plans right now, Erik?”
”If you can't give us a way to kill the Strykers, then the World Court is leaving tonight for Paris. We aren't safe anymore if the Strykers decide to rebel and come after us.”
”Like the rest of the world?”
”Don't act like you won't be joining us on that shuttle, Nathan.” Erik frowned, weariness pulling at his mouth. ”Why are you still in London anyway?”
”My Syndicate requires a firm hand to wind it down on such short notice. I'm waiting to hear from the Athes.”
”You'll be waiting a long time,” Erik said flatly. ”The city towers in Sapporo fell. Sydney is dead.”
Nathan tapped his fingers against his desk. He'd been so focused on transferring the contents of the seed bank and his Warhounds that he missed the news coming out of j.a.pan. ”When did this happen?”
”Within the last few hours.”
”I hadn't heard. What about Elion?”
”He's still in Paris. I don't know if anyone's informed him of his grandfather's death. If they haven't, Travis will when we arrive.”
”When do you expect to leave?”
”Right now, if you have nothing to give us.”
Nathan stared at Erik in silence for a long moment, weighing his options. ”I may have something.”
Erik let out a deep breath, mouth twisting, despite the relief seeping into his eyes. ”Why am I not surprised?”
”My family guards its secrets the same way the World Court guards theirs. We're just better at it. I'll take a shuttle and be at The Hague soon to see what can be done.”
”We'll await your arrival.”
The uplink cut off and Nathan leaned back in his seat, grinding his teeth, free now to let his true emotions show. He had no doubt that Lucas was behind the failure of the neurotrackers. His son knew the intricacies of the technology, both its strengths and carefully guarded weaknesses, just as well as he did. Releasing the Strykers from the chains that had bound them since their emergence after the Border Wars meant the Silence Law was void. His family's genetic secret was fair game now, and if Ciari was in The Hague, Nathan only had one option left to him regarding the World Court.
He had no qualms about taking it.
Again, Nathan found that the hard decisions were left to him. He didn't regret the decisions that had let him live this long, to see this happen. The only thing he regretted was his family and the way he couldn't use his children to further his own life. Being born a Cla.s.s I triad psion meant his body was just looking for a way to kill his mind. Dying was slower for him than for most psions because of his social status, but he could no longer expect that to hold true.
Gideon was on his way to the Ark, safe from Lucas's machinations, but also out of reach of Nathan. Lucas, Samantha, and Kristen were hidden somewhere on Earth, fighting for a goal that Nathan didn't understand. The one thing Nathan wanted, he could no longer bargain for, not with the neurotrackers disabled and the Silence Law broken. Jason Garret was out of reach now unless Nathan opened his own mind and used his powers to their absolute limits to find the Stryker. The effort would surely kill him.
Nathan wasn't that desperate.
He reached for the controls on his desk, fingers skating over the touch panel. The uplink came through in an instant. ”Ready my shuttle.”
THIRTY-SIX.
SEPTEMBER 2379.
THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS.
Erik stared at the security feed monitoring the defenses surrounding the Peace Palace. He couldn't see the streets beyond the wall, they were so crowded with people. Quads on the perimeter were all that existed between them and the fury of a people that the government hadn't deigned to save.
The Strykers were gone, the World Court's dogs having fully slipped their collars for the first time in 250 years. The bitterness, the fear, was difficult to cope with. The only people left to protect them were human, and there was no guarantee how long the military would continue to believe the lie that they would have a place on the Ark to guard the new world on Mars Colony.
”I think it's time we leave,” Travis said, eyeing the vidscreen from where he stood with a cl.u.s.ter of other judges. ”Enough of those chosen have heeded the transfer orders. If any are left behind, then their failure to keep to the schedule is on them. We gave enough warning for people to muster out. It's not in our best interest to remain any longer.”
”I'm inclined to agree,” Nathan said. He stood beside Erik in the courtroom before the judicial bench, both men focused on the security feed. ”There is nothing I can do about the neurotrackers, not after what fail-safes my Syndicate had didn't work. The last of the inventory from the seed bank is being put on a shuttle right now for a launch. The entirety of the supplies left to us will be safely out of reach. The most essential part of this plan is safe.”
”They can't be safe if we're missing half of what we were charged with keeping track of,” Erik said. ”It makes me wonder what happened to those missing supplies. It makes me wonder who betrayed us. The Strykers shouldn't have been able to get free.”
”I did warn you, Erik. Our attempts at owners.h.i.+p weren't enough over the years if this is the result,” Anchali said from where she sat on a chair, both hands resting on top of her cane. ”They bypa.s.sed our control and this is the result of our failure to keep them leashed.”
”We had humans working all throughout the Strykers Syndicate. We had monitoring systems in place that infiltrated not only every psion office but their own bodies. This should have been impossible.”
”Impossible or not, why haven't they tried to kill us?” Cherise Molyneux demanded. ”Reports have come in from all over the world that Strykers left their posts guarding the city towers and retreated to the streets, taking half the military with them. They haven't murdered the people who held their contracts.”
”Yet” was Anchali's sharp retort. ”Their timing, I must say, was perfect. Unfortunately, we don't have the time or the means to track them down and kill them, and thus our only option is retreat.”
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