The Cold Steel Mind (38 page)

‘We’re two kilometres from the spaceport.’ The pilot’s voice in Aneka’s earphones had a matter-of-fact tone, as though discussing the weather. ‘Any closer and they’ll be asking what we’re doing here.’

‘It’s close enough. Height?’

‘Seven hundred metres.’

She checked the time: seven-fifty. ‘Open the door.’

One side of the vertol aircraft opened up and the wind whipped at Aneka’s hair as she looked out towards the spaceport in the distance. From here it was a complex of white shapes: high walls surrounding the landing pads, tall control towers jutting up from the centre. Aneka was laid out on the floor of the cargo bay, her rifle on a bipod in front of her. She lowered her eye to the sight out of habit, but the image from the targeting system filled her vision entirely, zooming rapidly in. A second of alignment and she could see the pad Quint was about to use, the shuttle there waiting for him.

From this angle it was not going to be the easiest of shots. He would appear from behind the wall for maybe five seconds before he walked onto the shuttle. She would have to acquire the target, set her aim, and fire in that time, but she did have one advantage.

‘Snow Queen to Snow Eagle,’ Winter’s voice said over the comm-link. ‘Black King is on the move.’

Aneka settled herself, stilling her breathing entirely and replying inside her head. ‘Snow Eagle to Snow Queen. Confirm status.’

A man in combat armour appeared in her viewfinder. Not Quint, this man was a mercenary, a bodyguard. Behind him, Quint followed on, flanked by two women in white mini-dresses, both blondes. Aneka could imagine the looks in their eyes; blank, emotionless, just like Shannon’s had been. There were two more mercs bringing up the rear, but Aneka was now focussed on Quint. Range two thousand, two hundred and thirteen metres. Wind was not a problem, nor was flight time of the projectile. She tracked upwards, making the estimation of where his head would be as he reached the bottom of the steps up to the shuttle. Three seconds.

‘Snow Eagle,’ Winter said, ‘Status is go.’

Letting herself sink into the shot, learning the slight motion of the vertol and timing it just right. Quint’s lank hair appeared in the centre of her scope. She paused for a tenth of a second as the vertol shifted slightly upwards and then down, and then she squeezed the trigger. Blood exploded across the back of the forward bodyguard. The two blondes kept walking, oblivious to their falling master as his body tilted forwards onto the steps.

Aneka rolled onto her back, looking up at the ceiling of the cabin. ‘Get us out of here.’

Capstone Hospital, Yorkbridge.

Aneka stood outside another Polyglass window, this time looking in at Shannon. Ella was pressed firmly against her right side, Drake stood on her left. He had his arm in a sling and a bruise on his face which suggested he had been hit by the butt of a rifle. The two agents who had been guarding them had been less lucky; both were in a morgue in the southern part of the city.

‘I’m sorry,’ Aneka said.

‘For what?’ Drake replied. ‘She’s not dead, or one of that bastard’s mindless dolls. The doctors say that they can rebuild her mind. It’s all in there, just…’ His voice choked off.

‘I could’ve been faster.’

‘Yes.’ He gave a humourless laugh. ‘I could have stopped five armed men from taking her. We both know that’s so much gopi, and we’re both in denial over what we
could
have done.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka’s eyes stayed on Shannon. The vibrant, intelligent woman was gone, replaced by a blonde shell which lay there staring at the ceiling. Was her mind still full of the thoughts of others? Or had that been suppressed along with what had made Shannon into Shannon?

‘I just wish I could have five minutes alone with the perverted bastard who did this,’ Drake said.

‘He’s not going to be doing this to anyone ever again,’ Aneka replied.

‘They told me he’d got away.’

Aneka turned away from the window and looked at Drake. ‘Trust me. He’s not in a position to break another woman like this.’

Drake looked back into her eyes, saw the hardness in them, and knew what she had done. ‘Good,’ he said.

Elrane Medical Facility, Yorkbridge, 14.1.525 FSC.

‘She’s been asking for you for the last three days,’ the man in the white coat said. Unlike the doctors Aneka was used to, this one’s coat was Plastex and he was wearing an Ultraskin bodysuit beneath it which resembled a shipsuit. ‘I read the report on what happened to her…’

Aneka felt like she could hear the accusation in his voice. ‘Why’s she in restraints?’

‘It’s the only way we could be sure you’d be safe going in there. She’s on drugs to suppress her psionic talents as well, that’s why she’s looking doped. I’m afraid it affects the cognitive functions quite badly; she may not make much sense.’

‘So why use the drugs?’

The Doctor grunted. ‘On her first night in here she managed to push suggestions on a junior doctor and two guards.’

‘Trying to escape?’

‘No.’ He looked in at the figure sitting in a steel chair behind soundproof Polyglass. She was writhing, slowly twisting and turning, rubbing her thighs together, her arms shifting under the straight jacket they had her locked into. ‘She had all three of them on her. We had to tranquilise her before she would let them go, and the expression of… frustrated loss. We’re hoping you might be able to get through to her.’

‘I’ll talk to her,’ Aneka replied, ‘but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. Delaney was a sadistic hedonist before and I doubt anything I can say is going to change that.’

‘She’s being transferred to an off-world facility tonight,’ the Doctor said. ‘I feel we need to try everything we can.’ Shrugging, Aneka headed for the door at the side of the observation window. ‘We’ll be monitoring. If anything goes wrong we can be in the room in a minute.’

‘Did you bring it?’ Delaney asked as soon as Aneka appeared in the doorway. Her blue eyes peered out from the curtain of her blonde hair, still bright despite the drugs.

‘Bring what, Delaney?’

‘The… thing. The thing you used. The thing I need…’

‘No, I didn’t. After what your boss did to Shannon I’m inclined to feel no sympathy for you.’

Sinking back in her chair, Delaney’s mass of golden-blonde hair slid away from her face and she pouted. ‘You got what you wanted. Give me what I want.’

‘You need to come down off that. It’s not good for you.’

‘It’s
wonderful,
’ Delaney replied in a purr. Her voice turned hard. ‘I need it.’

‘Become comfortable with disappointment. I have. Quint left Shannon as a senseless lump of meat.’

‘If he’d finished with her she’d be worse. He’ll get me out of here, y’know?’

‘Unlikely.’

‘He’ll come for me and there’s nothing you can…’

Aneka leaned forwards, her lips beside Delaney’s ear. ‘I already did.’ She straightened up and turned towards the door. ‘He’s not coming, Delaney. Get over it. And celibacy might be a good idea for a while. Go cold turkey… Not that you know what a turkey is, but you get the picture.’

‘Jansen!’ Delaney shrieked as Aneka walked out through the door. ‘Jansen, give it to me! Jansen!’

Aneka let the door shut behind her, cutting off the screams. She looked at the man in the white coat. ‘I can’t help her, Doctor. Addicts have to help themselves.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 15.1.525 FSC.

‘You want to see if Kat and Dillon are free tonight?’ Ella asked as she pulled on a T-shirt. It did not take much pulling on, being short enough to expose the lower parts of her breasts.

‘Not really,’ Aneka replied. She was still in bed, the sheets pulled up to her waist.

‘We could go shopping?’ Aneka made a face. Well, she was never that fond of shopping… On the other hand, she had not been very fond of anything for the last couple of days. ‘For food. We could go to the market. Stay in tonight and have a nice meal…’

‘I’m not really in the mood, love.’

She had not been in the mood for much. Even sex that morning had been lacklustre. It was like she was doing it to keep Ella happy, which it did not, of course. Ella was fairly sure she knew what the problem was; Aneka had been getting worse ever since coming back from killing Quint, but it was Delaney who had really pushed her over the edge. ‘You did what you had to do, Aneka.’

‘I blew a man’s head apart.’

‘A really bad man.’

‘I watched the blood exploding over his bodyguard’s back. I turned a woman into a sex addict…’

‘To get the information you needed to save another one. Shannon would be…’

‘Shannon is a vegetable. I didn’t save her.’

‘She’s going to recover, Aneka.’

Aneka looked at her. ‘Not because of what I did. All I did was destroy a woman’s mind.’

Ella sighed. This was going to take an intervention.

17.1.525 FSC.

‘Someone is requesting entrance to the apartment,’ the flat’s computer announced.

Aneka looked up at the ceiling from where she was lying on one of the cream-coloured sofas. ‘Who is it?’

‘Unknown identification.’

Unknown identification? Right. There was only one person that could be. ‘Tell them I’m not taking visitors.’

‘Confirmed.’

Aneka settled back on the couch, closing her eyes. She had let Ella go in to the university alone that morning. There was no danger now with Quint dead and Delaney en route to an orbital prison around another planet. She wanted to be on her own, alone with her thoughts, or so she thought. The problem was that her thoughts were full of blood and Delaney’s screams.

‘But you told me I could come here to study any time I liked.’

Aneka jerked upright, her head turning fast enough that she should have hurt her neck. Winter was standing in the doorway clad in the same ‘schoolgirl’ outfit she had worn at the university. One hand was on her cocked hip.

‘Whatever it is, I don’t need it right now, Winter,’ Aneka told her.

The schoolgirl act vanished in an instant. ‘Yes you do. On your feet and get dressed. We’re going out.’

‘Where?’

‘Need to know. Move.’

Capstone Hospital.

‘Shannon’s on the tenth floor,’ Aneka said as they rode a lift to the twelfth. ‘Why are we going up there?’

‘You’ll see,’ Winter replied. She had put on her naive student act the whole trip on the subway, but alone in the elevator car she was back to being serious. It was something of a relief; people had given Aneka some odd looks on the train. Like they had never seen a woman escorting what appeared to be a younger one before. Age was not supposed to be a factor in relationships these days, but maybe Winter looked
too
young.

‘I hate cryptic intelligence operatives,’ Aneka commented.

‘Luckily I’m not an operative. It’s been a few years since I did field work.’

‘Huh. How exactly does someone become “Winter?”’ The name was more of a title, like ‘M’ and ‘Q’ in the James Bond books. There had, apparently, been a Winter running the Federation’s security agencies since their inception.

The doors of the lift slid open. ‘An answer for another time,’ Winter replied. ‘This way.’ She led out onto a corridor and turned left under a sign which read ‘Neuro-cognitive Treatment.’ Ten metres down she stepped up to a door marked ‘Authorised Personnel Only’ which opened for her, of course, and Aneka found herself in a large room with comfortable sofas dotted around it. There were a couple of nurses in there, but they remained standing near the walls. The main occupants were women, fifteen of them, all blonde with large breasts.

One of the blondes turned her head as they entered, smiling at Aneka. Her eyes did not have the blank look that Shannon had, but somehow what was there was worse. ‘May I serve you?’ the woman asked, her voice soft and husky. The look in her eyes was begging Aneka to say yes.

‘Uh, no, thank you, I’m fine.’ The woman nodded happily, not disappointed despite the beseeching look that had been there a second earlier.

‘We took them off Quint’s yacht,’ Winter said, her voice low. ‘We’ve matched four to missing persons’ cases, but the rest remain unidentified. They don’t know who they are. Some have been surgically altered, mostly breast enhancement, but some other alterations. Quint apparently liked them to look a certain way.’

‘This is what he was planning for Shannon.’

Winter nodded. ‘Their minds were wiped and then reconstructed into perfect, subservient sex dolls. Living robots. The doctors say they can be restored to almost normal function with proper treatment from a skilled psychic and a lot of psychiatric help. The current argument is about whether that should be done.’

‘I’m sorry? You can’t leave them like this!’

‘It’s not my decision, Aneka. However, I understand the problem. One of them matches a woman who went missing over thirty years ago. They’ll probably never be able to erase thirty years of memories entirely without leaving her virtually comatose. Thirty years of memories of whatever that twisted bastard has been doing to her, or she can stay like this and be cared for. Neither is exactly a perfect option.’

The spy mistress turned to face Aneka. ‘This is what you saved Miss Patton from. I’m told her treatment will be relatively easy. Full recovery will take longer, but she has a strong mind or she wouldn’t have survived being a telepath for as long as she has.’

‘I killed a man and tortured a woman. I don’t torture people, and I’m not an assassin.’

‘Quint has ruined more people’s lives than these fifteen women, and he would have caused far more damage if you hadn’t stopped him. Sometimes we need to use extreme measures to protect ourselves, our world. And you
know
that, Aneka.’

‘Delaney…’

Winter waved a dismissive hand. ‘Mistress Delaney is a sadist. She delights in taking innocent people and twisting them until they break. What you did to her was necessary, and it could even be considered poetic justice. I’ve said this before, but I’ll repeat it now. This world isn’t perfect and it needs people like you and me. People who know that sometimes you have to do bad things to bad people so that all the good people can go on living their happy, oblivious lives.’