Living in Syn (30 page)

Mission
walked to Paradox, even though it was more than six miles away.  It gave him
time to think.  After dinner with Carson, he followed up on several more leads
and finally decided that he needed to talk to General Snowden.  Easier said
than done.  Mission underestimated the depth of his perceived failure on New
Angeles.  It took threats about going public with the Tanya Ricci episode to
get his attention.  Mission used Tanya because he figured it was the only piece
of the story he could tell without being charged with treason.

Snowden
finally told him to show up at the Pentagon in ten days.  Mission said he
wanted a neutral site and they eventually agreed on Paradox.  Unfortunately,
Chandler Hunt said he would have Mission arrested if he set foot on the
premises.  Fortunately, Professor Matlin felt differently and set aside a room
for him.

Mission
sat in the room and considered it's interior.  A nice enough place, a
conference table for eight, and a medium sized vue screen.  More than
adequate.  The door opened and Matlin's assistant showed General Snowden in
along with two other military types.  The General did not offer his hand, but
nodded in his direction and said, "Mission.  These are two of my staff,
Captain Rainey and Lieutenant Priest."

Mission
nodded at the two of them.  Both of them displayed the proud carriage of a
professional soldier.  Rainey went out of her way to de-emphasize the fact that
she was a woman.  Her expression was severe.  She carried a notebook and seemed
impatient that the meeting hadn't started yet.  Priest looked to be the young,
energetic type, eager to do things right, eager to seek advancement, eager to
see some combat.  His head was virtually shaved and Mission bet he worked out
twice a day. Boo-yah!

They sat
down with Mission on one side of the table and the three officers on the
other.  Snowden sat in the center of his side of the table and Rainey and
Priest flanked him.. They each  scooted their chairs away from Snowden.  
Uneasiness flagged Mission's consciousness, but he had a meeting to conduct.

The
General looked at him and said, "Well?  This is your meeting.  What the
hell do you want?"

Mission
looked at him for several seconds and said, "First of all, I want you to
tell me that Carson's not a part of all this."

"You're
really going to have to back up, Mission.  What are you talking about?"

"I'm
saying that you commissioned the combat syns.  Your own little idea about
securing Planet's Row?"

Snowden
shook his head.  "Mission, I know things are going badly for you right
now, but you ... "

"You
know what put me on the trail?  Tanya.  Why would she panic in the boardroom? 
She's a calm, logical syn.  It's because you knew her secret and she knew you
had the proof.  She thought you were going to serve her up as a sacrifice.  But
that wouldn't be enough to make a case, until I remembered what you said. 
About this being of the utmost urgency.  That's really strange.  Utmost
urgency, but you let one officer struggle with it for six months with no help
at all.   That's why I figure Carson to be innocent.  He kept tugging at it and
you knew you couldn't get him to stop."

Snowden
smiled.  "What a wonderful line of conjecture.  Who in the hell would
believe this crap?"

Mission
smiled even more.  "You mentioned that things aren't going my way.  So bad
in fact, that I'm willing to risk it all.  I'll send reports to your superior
Major General Steele, the President, and all the international news services. 
Some info might get me charged with treason.  But some will be fit for public
dissemination.  Enough I think to see you rot in military prison and to see
your whole operation exposed.  Call my bluff.  I have nothing to lose."

Snowden
leaned across the table.  "You didn't come here to accuse me.  What do you
want out of this?"

"I
want the Army to make a monetary settlement to Pioneer and turn over the custom
video chips and combat programming.  All within a week.  Concurrent with that,
you retire and everyone walks away fat and happy."

Snowden
shook his head.  "You really are insane.  You need help before you pull a
life sentence for treason."

As
Mission leaned back from the table, he noticed that Rainey and Priest moved
even further away from the General.  The uneasiness resurfaced to explode into
his mind.  He recognized the maneuver that made it impossible to cover both of
them at the same time.  Mission jumped out of his seat as the two of them made
their move.

Mission,
taking a page from Tanya Ricci, brought the table up with him and flipped it to
the right to blanket Priest, but he used a single thrust of his right hand to cut
the table in half.  At the same time, Rainey slung a chair out of her way and into
the wall to disintegrate on impact. They were both syns.  Mission wheeled in a
near 180 as he snapped off two shots. The first hit Rainey square on the bridge
of her nose.  The impact threw her against the wall and her face burned as she
screamed.  The second shot, directly into his right eye, caught Priest as he charged.
The ion shot touched his brain and he flew across the room, directly into
Rainey, slamming her back into the wall.  Priest's motor systems went crazy,
digging the skin off Rainey and tearing up the wall behind her.

Priest
stopped still and Rainey, her eyes scorched blind, cut him in half with one
swing of her arm to step free back into the room.  She screamed intense
rhythmic bursts of high pitched mayhem.  She swung her arms madly and Mission
moved back and forth, trying to position himself for a final shot.

Rainey moved
closer to Snowden and as he tried to move away, her right arm caught him at the
juncture of his neck and jawline.  The force threw him to the ground, a broken
and lifeless doll.

She
moved closer to Mission as he fired shot after shot.  He burned the hell out of
her, but didn't stop her.  In desperation, her dove under her arms and snatched
her ankle with his left hand.  The 20,000 volts completed their circuit and
Rainey's life along with it. 

Mission
stood up and wondered what in the hell was happening.  Then he realized the
smoke from the burning skin set off the sprinklers in the room.   He couldn't
believe it.  Two killer syns down and he didn't suffer a scratch.  He looked at
Snowden's blank eyes and broken neck.  Bastard.  Probably better for everyone.
Better than the disgrace of a court martial. Better for the Army. They would
release a PR statement and come away smelling like roses. But now he needed to
talk to General Steele.  No!  Even worse!  Now he needed to talk to Chandler
Hunt.

Chandler
Hunt gnashed his teeth and they showed strikingly white against his purple
face.  He stabbed his finger at the Professor and said,  "I told you I
never wanted him at Paradox again.  So naturally you lend him our conference
room.  Which he shoots a dozen times with a blaster.  What in the hell is going
on here?"

Professor
Matlin said, "Now Chandler, you need to reevaluate your entire attitude
toward this ... "

Mission
stood up, soaking wet from the sprinklers and said, "Professor, if I may. 
I know this is an emotionally charged moment, so if we could all just step back
and I’ll try to set the tone for this meeting.  Chandler, I say this from the
bottom of my heart.  Fuck you!"

Chandler
rose to his feet screaming, but he couldn't shout over Mission who yelled,
"You sold me out, you whiney little bitch!  As long as I bailed your ass
out of an ugly situation, I was your man.  Then the minute the Army squeezed
the least little bit, you threw me in the garbage heap and asked if anyone knew
who I was."

He sat
down and wiped off some water trickling down his forehead.  He pointed at
Chandler and said, "You owe me $60,000 a piece for those syns and I want
the transfer effected before I leave this building."  He patted his shirt
pocket and said, "Mini-cam.  Been dying to try it out.  The headlines will
look great. 
Paradox Synthetics Murder General Jeremy Snowden
."

Chandler
said, "Fine. Walk to accounting, get your blood money and get out right
now."
       Mission's stare narrowed to the focus of a laser beam.  "You idiot,
you just don't get it.  This is my meeting, and if you don't sit down and play
by my rules, I'll take this company away from you and push it into the ocean. 
I'll drink beer and laugh while it sinks under the tide."

Mission
pushed his chair back and propped his feet up on the table. He extended his
index finger.  "First, I want Montag back here to help by tomorrow
morning.  Second, he and your assistant Paul will search the financials until
they uncover the links between the military expenditures and the combat syn
modifications."

"Third,
I will settle the matter of the renegade synthetic commune in the Free Zone for
compensation from Paradox which I will enumerate.  Fourth, I will propose and
then negotiate terms of a final and binding settlement between Paradox,
Pioneer, New Angeles, and the United States Army."

He stood
up to leave and said,  "And Chandler.  If I feel like it, I'll park in
your space.  Now walk me to accounting."

Chandler
started to speak and Mission cut him off, shaking his head. He patted his shirt
pocket for effect. “Synthetics assassinate Army General. How far up in
government and industry does the trail lead? How much did Chandler Hunt know
and when? Again, walk me to accounting.”

That
evening, Mission reclined on the sofa with a beer in his hand.  He heard the
computer make a query but Susan handled it and he paid no further attention. 
Then the doorbell rang and Susan called from the other room, asking Mission to
open the door.    

As he
turned the knob, he saw Carson standing there, then his right cross exploding
in his face, and finally, Carson jumping on top of him, banging his head rather
methodically against the floor.

"You
son of a bitch.  You set him up behind my back and then killed him in cold
blood."

Susan
snaked her arm around Carson's neck and with a violent twist she pulled him off
Mission and onto the floor.  She screamed,  "What the hell is it with you
two?  Didn't you get enough phys-ed in grammar school?"

Carson
brushed himself off and pointed at Mission.  "He murdered the
General."

Mission
screamed.  "You know me Car.  You know I don't do it that way.  Sit down
and I'll tell you what happened."

Once
Mission went through the narrative, Carson said, "And to think I called
you a friend.  Don't you think this would be a lot easier to believe if you had
come to me up front?"

"You're
an investigator, Carson.  If the roles were reversed, would you come to me? 
You know you wouldn't.  One, because I might be involved.  Two, because I'm so
damned loyal to my boss that I might tip him off, just because I'm positive
he's innocent."

Mission
thumped the coffee table for emphasis.  "You know you would have played it
the way I did."

You're a
bastard, Mission."

"Yeah,
well luckily the situation called for one.  I didn't want him to die.  I asked
him to retire, which really let him off too easy.”  Mission felt his nose to
see if it was broken. It wasn’t but it still made him wince.

Carson
had his head in his hands. “It makes no sense.”

He
looked up and his expression begged for understanding. “You guys saw him in the
meetings. He was aggressive in forcing Paradox to admit that a combat model was
possible, in identifying the trail of the 300 altered syns. He pushed for us to
build the team to investigate NA.”

They
were all silent. Then Susan looked up. “The teacher. The General commissioned
the combat models, but he never counted on a teacher that turned them rogue.”

Now
Mission looked up. “Could be. Now he has a situation, these super assassins
that he can’t control. The three of us were his ticket out. We handle the mess
for him.”

He
looked at Carson and nodded. “It fits.”

Carson
had his face back in his hands. “…Maybe. I don’t know….Maybe.”

They
watched him for a few moments. Mission nodded toward Carson and said, “ I still
call you my friend."

Carson
rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Yeah, well maybe someday, I can say
the same about you."

"I
still need you for the Winwood."

 "Don't
worry about that one.  I'll do that for selfish reasons."

Susan
wore a look of suspicion.  "What's this about the Winwood?  You've
discovered the connection with the combat models."

Mission
looked at her and said, "Yes, but there's unfinished business there. 
Business that I’ll settle."

Susan
shook her head.  "I suppose I'd take this personally if I didn't know
you've always carried a death wish.  When did you plan to talk this over with
me?"

"Well,
a little bit later than right now."

She got
up and started out of the room.  "Carson's right, you are a bastard."

As she
reached the door to the bedroom she whirled around and said, "Suddenly my
day at work makes sense.  Chandler burst into my office with the Professor
trailing behind.  Hunt told me that if I didn't put you on a leash and keep you
the hell away from Paradox, I could look for another job."

Mission
shook his head.  "He's the one with the death wish.  What did you
say?"

"I
said that you were responsible for your actions and if he has a problem with
you, he should talk to you."

Mission
beamed and she said, "Wipe that grin off your face or I'll hold you down
while Car kicks you....  Then I told him if he presumed to interfere with my
private life, he could have my resignation.  At that point, the Professor
pulled him out of the room.  About three hours later, Chandler called and
apologized. Profusely."

"And
you said?"

"I
told him it was perfectly alright, and then I may have said something about
little boys and their egos."

Mission
looked around the room and sighed, "This has been a very long day.  What
if I take us out to dinner?  We can relax, have some good food, wash it down
with a few drinks."

Carson slowly
shook his head. "Not tonight."

As they
watched Carson walk away, Mission slipped his hand into Susan's and she
eventually decided to accept it.  As they headed toward Susan's aircar, Mission
felt like they finally turned the corner.