The Lethal Agent (The Extraction Files Book 2) (29 page)

LRF-RB-102

SEPTEMBER 13, 2232

An ecomm from Mable came in. Theo leapt at an opportunity for even a momentary break from his boring line-up of deep space probes.

Then he read it.

TO: DR. THEO KAUFMAN

FROM: DR. MAGGIE KAUFMAN

MSG: AP TO FIC. SLIGHT. FOUR ON 196. COMM SA.

What the hell was that nonsense supposed to mean? Slight was the first word that hit him. It would mean little to anyone outside CPI, but to Theo and those in the know, it was the worst of the four.

Four on 196.

Aida’s planet? As in Perkins-196?

AP. Aida Perkins.

In one long, eternal moment, the frightening meaning of Mable’s message formed in his mind. Aida had a bug, a Slight. There were somehow bugs on her planet. Aida went to FIC, though Theo knew well it wasn’t to have Calvin’s embryo implanted.

Comm SA. Silas Arrenstein. Clear enough.

But what was he supposed to say? Why couldn’t Mable comm him herself?

Theo’s tablet buzzed with another incoming ecomm.

TO: DR. THEO KAUFMAN

FROM: DR. MAGGIE KAUFMAN

MSG: HOME. NOW.

Finally, an ecomm he could understand. Theo closed out of his files, turned off the screen, and tucked his tablet under his arm as he walked out of his office.

Dr. Lehmon watched as he passed and left the department. Theo hit the main corridor at a light jog he kept all the way to the personal-quarters sector.

Screw the Scholars and their raised eyebrows as he loped past. They moved at a snail’s pace, absorbed in their tablets. They were blue-suited robots hindering his movement along the corridor.

In the crowd, he saw Mable approaching, at least a quarter-mile down the corridor, heading toward the apartment. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were down.

Theo wanted to call out to her, to let her know he’d received her messages, but there were too many others. She was too far away.

He quickened his pace and wove through the crowd as fast as his feet would carry him. His movement must have caught her eye. She looked up at him and started running.

Theo was only vaguely aware that he had passed the door to the apartment. Instead, he kept moving, barreling forward until he collided with Mable. His arms flew around her waist and hers wrapped around his neck.

Things with Mable had been less tense lately. She’d been more open, asked him more questions, let him into her life in whole new ways. But still, this was something bad. Theo knew her immediate need to see him wasn’t a sudden demolition of the walls she’d built up. Something had cracked her.

In a single motion, Theo spun her around and moved her toward the apartment door. He scanned his palm and they poured inside, his hand on the small of her back. She moved with him, her shoulder pressed to his chest, unified as they entered their little piece of home.

“What happened?” he asked as she turned, her arms around his neck, her face against his chest. Through the fabric of her body suit, he could feel her shaking. Theo held her all the tighter. “Tell me what happened,” he prompted her again.

“She had a Slight,” came the words, small and quiet.

He knew that much already. A Slight left Aida with a grim prognosis, but Theo didn’t understand the connection. Why was she so shaken? What really happened?

“You extracted it,” he said as the realization slammed against him like a meteor.

Mable nodded against his chest and gripped the body suit at the back of his shoulders. In all likelihood, she’d just killed his sister.

A knife slipped into his heart.

“I need you to tell me what happened. Is she okay?”

Mable peeled away from him and stared at her hands, fingers spread wide, like the answer might be there. “He couldn’t do it. I had to do it. She was bleeding. There was blood everywhere.” Her eyes never left her hands. She saw something there—blood maybe—that Theo couldn’t.

When at last she looked up at him, her eyes were pools of sorrow. “It didn’t sever her brain stem, but she didn’t wake up. It might have poisoned her before I got it out. Calvin closed the incision and—”

“Poisoned? Incision? You cut her open?” Theo considered she might be playing a trick on him, but the horror on her face was real.

Mable snapped out of it, blinking madly several times before looking around. “We need to comm Arrenstein.”

“Mable. Tell me. Is she going to wake up?” Theo wrung his hands together as he waited for the answer.

But she only shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know. We just have to wait.” Mable held her hand out, and when he didn’t move, she pulled his tablet from under his arm and set it on her desk.

Dr. Arrenstein’s face hovered in the space above a moment later.

“You all right?” he asked with tired eyes. “It’s four in the morning. What time is it there? You can’t comm me like this. You’ll blow your alias.”

“Yeah, we’re fine. It’s uh, 1345. Sorry to wake you up, but this is big.” Mable set her hands on either side of the desk and spoke without pretense. “Did you know the lead Planetary Systems researcher was Theo’s sister?”

Dr. Arrenstein’s eyes widened as he struggled to process the new information.

“No. Nick checked. He said there weren’t any other Kaufmans on the LRF.”

“She’s a Perkins now, but anyway. My point is, she’s had three bugs already. I just extracted a Slight from her.”

“Jesus Christ. Three?”

“Well, four now.”

“Why didn’t Vince notify me?” Dr. Arrenstein rubbed his eyes. “What’s her status?”

Mable looked back at Theo, her gaze hard, before she returned to address Dr. Arrenstein. “She didn’t wake up. Her vitals are stable, but there’s no reason she should still be unconscious.”

“Where’s the bug?”

“Uh, I stepped on it, and then it dissolved.”

Dr. Arrenstein nodded like he’d expected it. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Maggie. Let me know if she does wake up. If not, I’ll make the arrangements to have her body sent back to Quincy.”

Theo couldn’t hear any more. “She’s not your science project,” he yelled as he stepped into Dr. Arrenstein’s viewing area.

Mable put a hand to his chest to silence him. “There’s more,” she continued. “Aida was researching a planet in the Cignus region.”

“Okay?”

“I’m sending you the files. The planet had several hundred native species, four of them I think you’ll recognize.” Mable waited for it to hit him.

His eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open. “There are bugs on her planet?”

“All four. The local wildlife has a chemical defense mechanism, some sort of toxin to avoid predation. That’s how—”

“That’s how they kill the host,” Dr. Arrenstein finished for her. “I’ll notify Masry and get back to you. Good work. And tell Kaufman I’m sorry about his sister.”

Theo clenched his fists. The holograph display disappeared.

He was alone with Mable again.

She turned to face him, her blonde hair sweeping across her forehead. “You all right?” she asked, her hand on his forearm with a light squeeze.

Theo was many things, horrified, pissed off, afraid. He was far from all right. He shook his head.

“I’m sorry about Aida,” she said. Theo knew Mable and Aida had hit it off. In fact, she probably knew Aida better than he did. They’d spent so little time together as adults.

Theo gritted his teeth and tried to swallow his anger. It wasn’t Mable’s fault. She’d only done what was necessary. Mable didn’t kill his sister, a bug did. He said it in his head over and over.

“Maybe she’ll wake up,” Mable offered.

“Can I go see her?”

“Not right now. Calvin closed her incision, we cleaned up her office. She’s sitting at her desk, so if she wakes up, she won’t know anything happened. If not, it’ll just look like she died in her sleep.”

Theo felt waves of grief welling up already. While he’d spent the morning staring at useless probe specs, Mable and Calvin had been trying to save Aida. And now, after the fact, there was nothing he could do. Nothing except wait.

LRF-PS-100

SEPTEMBER 13, 2232

Aida woke to the sound of the alarm on her tablet. She lifted her head off her desk and looked around her office, in shock that she’d fallen asleep at work.

That wasn’t like her at all.

To quiet the alarm, she tapped on the tablet screen and saw her appointment reminder.

FIC.

Fertility and Implantation Clinic.

Her embryo. Her child.

How many of her eggs had been discarded to isolate this one? How many of her future children were cast aside for the superior traits present in this one?

If she didn’t go, this child would never live. She would be killing her own child.

If she did, she would be with Sal forever. She would be locked into a loveless, lightless existence.

Aida pushed from her chair in a hurry. She was already late. She marched her high heels into Calvin’s office and found him reading from his tablet, making occasional motions with his finger.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked, arms crossed at the door.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled wide, like it had been weeks since he’d seen her, rather than hours. “Anything at all,” he offered.

“Do you think Filmore will send a colony to 196?”

Calvin chuckled. “That’s what you want to know?”

“It is.”

He stroked his jaw with his hand, looking more tired than she’d ever seen him. “It’s hard to say. Niemeyer made a pretty strong case. I think it could go either way.”

Aida could see there was something he wasn’t saying.

“Would you be open to looking at new planets?” she asked. “Would you start over?”

“Of course. You’re the Lead. I would do anything you asked.” Aida couldn’t help but smile, knowing his loyalty had little to do with her position.

She wanted to kiss him, to cross the narrow room and put her lips on his cheek. Instead, she said, “Thank you. You can take the rest of the day off. Would you tell the others?”

“I already sent Kaufman home. I’ll tell Niemeyer. Have plans for the rest of the day?” His eyes bored into her like a drill, desperate for her answer.

Aida knew what he wanted to know.

“Yes, I have an appointment at FIC. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling well, so I’ll have to reschedule.”

Calvin nodded, as if he had expected it. “For when?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe after a colony has been successful for a few years,” she said, stealing his usual sly smile.

“You’re not serious.” He was unable to keep the sheer joy from his face.

Aida laughed. “I’m very serious. I have work to do.”

Calvin crossed the room in a single step. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against him. “Is that the real reason?”

“Of course it is,” she purred. Her heart slammed in her chest as it pressed against his. “I’m a Scholar,” she reminded him, her lips mere inches from his ear. “I’m just not a very good one.”

Calvin tipped her over his arm and kissed the exposed skin of her neck, as if he hadn’t already tasted every inch of her. “Whatever you are, I’ll take it.”

Aida smiled from ear to ear, unable to keep it hidden. She happily drowned in his presence, his closeness. Even if they had to keep their relationship a secret for the rest of their lives, even if she never had any children, she would be satisfied. A life with Calvin was worth losing everything else.

She pushed against his chest and managed to get free of him. “Now, get back to work, Dr. Hill.”

Calvin laughed and answered, “As you wish, Dr. Perkins. I’ll let you know if we get word from Filmore.”

“Thank you. And I’ll be by around 2000 for dinner.”

“Damn, so bossy,” he teased her. “Want to invite the Kaufmans?”

“Yes, please.” She smiled. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

Aida retied the bun at the back of her head where so many hairs had escaped. For the next few hours, she would have to play the good Scholar. She had a few loose ends to tie up.