Charon (36 page)

 
"Marek Kreegan of Lilith," I responded. "He's dead, you know."

 
Her head shot up.
"Dead!
How?"

 
"A Confederacy assassin got him, it seems."

 
"You see, then?"

 
I shook my head. "No, I don't see at all. What's all this leading to?"

 
"The Four Lords, the entire Brethren, need people who can identify and kill these assassins before they themselves are killed. They've tried every way in the universe to crack the system, and been frustrated every time. Even Kreegan couldn't help them, for no assassin ever knows enough of the security system, which is changing anyway all the time, to break it So, the Brethren figured, if they couldn't expose the system, they'd breed their own. Assassin killers, you might say."

 
I had to laugh.
"You
are an assassin killer?"

 
She shook her head.
"No, not me.
Kira.
She's amazing, Park.
Amazing.
She learns almost anything from one lesson, and never forgets. She's got total control of her— our—body.
Total.
She is an analytical killing
machine,
and brilliant" She was saying this admiringly, but as if she were talking about someone else entirely. It was eerie. And, of course, it raised more questions than it solved.

 
If Zala were telling the truth, then Koril already
knew
what she was—he'd have to. And Korman probably would, too. Why didn't they? Or if they did, why
all the
charade? Something definitely smelled funny now, and Zala was the first suspect. She hadn't exactly proved reliable in the past

 
"Zala, why two of you?"
I asked.
"Why
both
you and Kira?"

 
"Oh, that's supposed to be a safeguard if we were caught
They
couldn't psych Kira, only me. They couldn't wipe her—only me."

 
"That only makes sense if you don't know about her yourself," I pointed out. "And of course you
had
to know."

 
"Oh, sure.
But she's real strong. I don't really understand it, but Kira says that there's really only one of us, at least as far as memories and stuff is concerned. She can shut me off, and sometimes she does. One time I can remember a lot of things, then I can't—and sometimes I don't even know what I used to know until I know it again, if that makes any sense."

 
Oddly enough, it did, and it rang true. I had no idea of the biology of it—I certainly would have said two such personalities in one brain
was
impossible if an example wasn't sitting in front of me. But somehow, those syndicate biologists had done it.
A master assassin, at least as good as the Confederacy's.
Maybe better, I reflected sourly. There certainly was a mortality rate in my business, and sometimes it was impossible to explain. But
if
this dominant personality had all the keys to the memory core, a total understanding and command of what went on in there—which was more than anybody else did—it could literally reserve sections to itself. And add sections as needed too, I reflected. So you could get to know Zala, and hypno her, and put her under psych or mind control, and it wouldn't make a damned bit of difference.

 
"Kira seems to be satisfied to let you live your life, though," I pointed out "Most of the time she just seems along for the ride."

 
Zala nodded. "That's right. But she's not asleep or anything like that. She's right here with me. She says that's the way we were—well,
designed,
although that makes us seem like some kind of creepy machine."

 
I nodded. "So when I talk to you I'm talking to her—but when
you
talk to
me
it can be just you."

 
"That's about it," she agreed.

 
"And so how'd you wind up here, on Charon?"

 
"Well, Kira says it looked like a flute, but not anymore. They never really told us. They just came in one day and arrested me,
that's
all.
Oh!"
She suddenly started, and then I watched that strange transformation take place in her.

 
Unlike my earlier perception, it really was more of a mental than a physical thing, yet you could
see
it clearly. What happened was more
than a complete change of personality behind those big, brown eyes—
Zala's hidden attributes were clearly displayed. In the Zala
persona
she looked weak and ordinary, but as Kira the tremendous muscles and the strength in them, matching the new strength in the eyes, seemed to stand out. Although nothing really changed, the transformation was startling.

 
"Hello, Kira," I said.

 
"Lacoch," she responded, her voice lower and very cool, almost inhuman in its lack of tone. "I think it is time we talked directly."

 
I relaxed back on my tail. "I'll agree to
that.
Uh—tell me. Does Zala know what's going on when you are you?"

 
"When I permit," she replied. "I am permitting now. There seems no reason not to."

 
"And when you don't—permit?"

 
"Then it's like she is asleep."

 
"Fair enough.
You're willing to answer the rest of my questions?"

 
"We'll see. There is no penalty in asking."

 
I had this odd feeling that
I
was trapped in the room, not her. She had an unsettling effect on me from the start "First of all, did Zala tell the truth?"

 
"She told no falsehoods," Kira responded, which was not really answering the question. I took note of that fact and went on.

 
"This breeding of special agents like
yourself—
it was entirely on Takanna?"

 
She nodded. "Spread the project and you spread the risk of detection. There is no need to cover up now, since the project was discovered and has probably been obliterated by now anyway."

 
That was interesting. "Do you know how it was finally penetrated?"

 
She shook her head negatively. "I suspect that it was not. I believe it was leaked—closed down by the Four Lords themselves. Zala was not penetrated. We were betrayed.
A very few of us have been taken and sent here before by the Confederacy.
But the Confederacy should not have known about me. The project was ended and totally destroyed years before I was caught.
Ended by the Four Lords themselves.
I have no direct evidence, but I believe that I am here also at the Lords' direction. Perhaps all remaining of my kind are."'

 
I thought about that. "Then in effect you were called in to the boss in the only way they could call you in."

 
"It is the only possible explanation."

 
"All right, then, tell me—if that's true, why didn't the current or former Lord of Charon know anything about you? Korman thought you were a Confederacy assassin. Koril says he didn't even know of you until I drew attention your way. And Koril's staff says they were very curious about you—but also had no idea as to your true nature.
Why didn't they know,
Za . . . Kira?"

 
"At the moment, only three possibilities come to mind," she replied. "Either Koril or Matuze
didn't
know, and only one was pretending, or bpth do not know and this project was either not passed on to the new Lords who took over since for some reason, or they had some purpose in keeping this information from them."

 
"Nobody contacted you?"

 
"Yes, I
was
contacted.
In Bourget."

 
"By who?"

 
"Yatek Morah."

 
I felt the old blood flowing again.
Now
we were getting somewhere.

 
"When was this?"

 
"Less than two days after we arrived."

 
"Less than two days!
But we were there five months before he showed himself!"

 
She nodded. "He instructed me in the use of the
\va
— while you were working mostly. He'd come almost every day at the start, then less often as the lessons became less instruction and more practice, as you should understand."

 
Yeah, I sure did. "Did you ask him what all this was for?"

 
"I asked him if he had a mission for me. He told me that the mission would come later, that I was now only to practice."

 
"And you never pressed him?"

 
"I do not question the orders of my superiors." It wasn't
a brag
, just a fact stated in that same fiat, emotionless tone as the rest.

 
"So you were still without instructions that morning at Bourget?"

 
"I was. I expected to be contacted, and even made an effort to contact Morah, but he brushed me aside. I am still without orders."

 
"You were never in the cult?"

 
"No. I tried, certainly—but I was not permitted. None would even admit its existence, and it was well hidden. Of course, it was no trick to determine who was involved and where those meetings were, but since I was still learning the powers myself I had no desire to meet a superior challenge in them until I felt I was ready."

 
I nodded idly, mostly to myself. It all made a crazy kind of sense, but all the pieces didn't fit. Damn it,
did
Koril know, or didn't he? And, regardless, had
Korman
known, at least at the start? Morah certainly had. I needed more information—and fast.

 
"Tell me, Kira, who do you work for now? Whose instructions will you, must you take?"

 
She immediately saw the point of the question. "It is not so simple on Charon, which is why I wait and live through Zala. Here, as back home, there are factions in the Brethren, but there I was clearly on one side. Here are two coequal forces, it seems to me. Matuze ousted Koril, who was one of my Lords. Matuze has control now, but may or may not maintain it. Morah has helped me, for Matuze's faction. But realistically, I must serve Lord Koril. I am here. I have no orders, no instructions, from Morah, and I am not likely to get any. If I do not ally myself with Lord Koril against Lord Matuze, I will be killed. Logic, therefore, dictates that I serve Lord Koril. I am at his service."

 
The statement was so cold and emotionless I could hardly suppress a shudder. Here was someone without any sense of morality, scruples, even loyalty. It made absolutely no difference to her who she worked for.

 
It was time to talk to Koril.

 
"You've seen the recording," I said.
"Any reaction?"

 
Koril sat back and looked thoughtful. "I vaguely remember the project," he responded after a long pause.
"Very vaguely.
It was started long before I was sent here, of course. But it was never considered successful. I swear to you I thought the whole operation was shut down and abandoned years ago. And this double mind thing—hell, it's unbelievable to
me."

 
He sounded sincere, and I wanted to believe him.
Very much.

 
"Still,
somebody
knew," I pointed out. "She—and others—have been working for the Brethren for years. Who knows how many and over how long? And somebody ordered it shut down. Turned her in, in fact, and arranged somehow to send her here."

 
Koril seemed deep in thought and only half talking to me. "The more I think about it, the more I can see a possible scenario. The project was closed down, if I remember, because its products scared the hefl out of the Four Lords—particularly their top people back home. Killing machines . . . What the Zala persona said rang a bell. No loyalty. No emotions. The bottom line
was,
no controls. Anything that—inhuman—could be used not only against the Confederacy but also against other power centers of the Brethren. Hell, it was supposedly shut down about the time I got sent here. I only got told about it when I was on the Synod by an old planetary boss who liked to reminisce."

 
"But that was forty or more years ago," I noted. "She's not nearly two-thirds that old."

 
He nodded. "And that, my friend, means that somebody has kept the thing going
after
it was ordered closed.
Somebody who kept the secret from just about everybody except his own immediate family.
It would give that person a tremendous edge."

 
"She said something about the Triana family," I said.