Wildcard (8 page)

More dogs were arriving, having heard the
first growling. They stayed away from the Sergeant. Not all were so
friendly or easily cowed. But none barked or attacked. LuvRay
stood, touched several of the dogs on the head, then briefly played
with one. The dogs seemed satisfied that the men were permissible
and loped off.

They moved toward the only manmade edifice
inside the fence, a tiny square building, little more than a door.
There was barely enough space for 2 people to fit inside at the
same time.

“How did you do that, LuvRay?”

“No can…make see?”

“You can’t explain it.”

“Yes. Must speak at them. I no can teach.
Become dog in they pack, then become the…rule dog.”

“The alpha. You knew the danger early.”

“I felt when we cross road, taked rocks
then. Dogs no lie, never. No understand. If lie at them, they
believe.”

The Sergeant pondered. “A bit of a slant,
but how do you know what to do in danger situations?”

“How you know?”

The Sergeant thought for a second. “I have
deep training in heuristic military analysis. I evaluate without
thinking based on having spent so much time in training
simulations. I also have Eastern martial arts training, a lot. Kai
Tan Pe, a teacher of mine, taught me a skill called mind
reflection. You can know if someone has negative or violent intent
towards you. Very effective if they don’t know. But you need line
of sight. For unseen dangers, I have heightened, highly trained
reflexes.”

“I do what I feel,” said LuvRay. “Is enough
most time. Why dogs feared you?”

The Sergeant pondered. “I’m genetically
incapable of fear. It probably has something to do with that.”

The Sergeant leaned his head back, spoke to
himself.

“Who you speak?”

“I’m talking to Trident,” said the Sergeant.
“The battle computer I told you about in the briefing. Here.” He
handed LuvRay a wrist device. “Put this on. You’ll need it to
communicate.”

LuvRay examined it, then clipped it around
his wrist with a frown. The Sergeant slipped off his pack, pulled
out a device that he placed over his eye. It was a round metal
frame with an odd colored shimmering disc inside. “All right,
Trident, pick the lock.” The Sergeant bent down on his knees,
looking at a tiny hole on the door, which had no handle. He held
himself still.

“What you do?”

“Trident is building a nanotic key to pick
the lock. It’s too small to see, but it threads out of this optical
device. I have to hold my head completely still once it starts, so
I can’t even talk then.”

“Why your eye?” LuvRay tilted hid head,
curious.

“I need to see something, a groove inside.
If I slip, then the system alarms will go off.”

The door popped open, and the Sergeant moved
his head, swiveling to keep it at the same relative distance and
orientation as the door swung open, giving Trident time to pull the
nano-key free without touching the sides. Then he sat back.

“Why you tell me secrets at battle? If I am
enemy you on tomorrow?”

“Loyalty demands honesty. It doesn’t matter,
you couldn’t defeat me with the knowledge. They’re just tactics,
anyway.”

“But you hided thing at the General.”

The Sergeant turned, looked at LuvRay. “We
will tell you. There are reasons we cannot yet.”

LuvRay accepted this.

“Let’s go down.”

They descended the stairs, 20 flights.
Another door, and the Sergeant did the nano-key again. The door
popped open, revealing a small room with stacks and stacks of
identical silver boxes built into the walls.

One wall had a computer. The Sergeant looked
around, nodded, then walked to the computer. He sat down, typed a
few things. An onscreen box said “pass-code?”

“LuvRay, I have to go back up. This building
is transmission shielded. I can stand in the door and reach you and
the other team simultaneously. I will radio you in 90 seconds with
the pass-code. You simply repeat it there.” He pointed to a
microphone. “Got it?”

LuvRay nodded. The Sergeant flipped the
microphone switch on, then began running upstairs. 90 seconds
later, LuvRay’s wrist device spoke, the Sergeant’s voice. A very
long string of numbers and letters which LuvRay repeated
faithfully. The onscreen box went away, and a small coverplate on
the computer slid open. LuvRay told the Sergeant.

“Good. 50 seconds, I’m back.”

The Sergeant came in, pulled out a card, and
slid it into a slot. He sat down, turned off the microphone, and
typed at the computer for a time. He told Trident quite a bit of
information. 30 minutes later, he stood.

“Let’s go.”

“Was easy.”

“We’re not home yet. But, yeah, it was
pretty easy.”

The Sergeant did the nano-key trick to
relock the door, and they climbed the stairs.They exited the
building, and moved back towards the hole in the fence. A man
stepped from behind a tree, and noticed LuvRay, who had the
lead.

The Sergeant yelled an Asian word. The man
stopped, confused, then turned to him. The Sergeant’s hand pulled a
knife from a leg sheath, and brought it forward in the same fluid
motion, spinning towards the man. “Go, LuvRay. Get out of
here.”

A burst of fire raked the Sergeant and he
was down. The man leaned forward fractionally as he fired and the
knife missed his left eye by centimeters, striking his forehead,
the point of it sticking in the bone and holding. The man dropped,
firing wildly. His face was covered in blood and he couldn’t
see.

LuvRay slipped behind the assailant to avoid
the gunfire, kicked the gun from his hands, and killed him with the
Sergeant’s knife. He looked into the eyes as he died, wiping them
of blood to do so. He said something to the dying man, then touched
his forehead. He padded over to the Sergeant.

His artery was exploded from the bullet. He
pressed his fingers on it, and gave Trident instructions to get
LuvRay home.

He looked at LuvRay. “What did you say to
him?”

“Ghano dhuwa. Go to peace. Is Indian.”

“Listen. I can hold my life for about two
more minutes, max.”

“You want I carry you doctor?”

“No. There’s nothing to do for me. The wound
is too severe.”

“Goodbye. You no finish next mission. I am
sorry.”

“You should leave, LuvRay. Forget about
me.”

“No do. I stay, help die.”

“I don’t need your help to die. Go.”

“No you. Always stay if anything die. Indian
way, my tribe.”

“What if more men arrive?”

“No happen. I feel. You are no afraid die.
Why?”

“Death is relative.”

“Yes.” LuvRay thought so, too, but sensed
the Sergeant meant it in a different way.

“I’ve set it up so that you can return to
the plane. Trident will pilot without me. Take this with you.” He
unclipped his wrist device. “Trident, initiate nanotic
decomposition on death.” He waved the wrist device over his body,
then handed it to LuvRay.

“Ready to go boss,” Trident said.

“I stay until you are die.”

“No need. Please.”

“Is not for you. Is for me. Must. I
learn.”

“Suit yourself, but go soon.” The Sergeant
took his fingers away from the artery.

The General scheduled the mission debrief a
few hours after LuvRay got back from America. RJ, LuvRay, and Karl
waited inside the briefing room. The General instructed them to
relax until he arrived. He walked in, the Sergeant at his side.

“What?” Karl said.

“That’s…but…” RJ said. “You died. You were a
grown man yesterday.”

The Sergeant grinned. “Yeah. We probably
need to explain some things.”

Karl was happy, although it unsettled him.
He had liked working with the Sergeant and was glad to see him
again, even if he looked like a teenage boy. He was older behind
the eyes.

“Sergeant, voudriez vous mettre des verres
du brandy?”

“Sir.” The Sergeant opened the wall slot,
pulled out five glasses and a bottle of brandy older than the
United States. He poured five short glasses, set one down in front
of the General. As he handed the glasses to the other men, he held
the glass until they made eye contact with him. Karl stood, took
the glass. LuvRay sat, accepting his with a slightly cocked
head.

This was not a boy, though he looked like
one. He moved slowly, mastering the pace of the situation, proving
that the young body was not a weakening factor. It was not an act
of machismo. He was reestablishing command. He seemed more
dangerous than the previous Sergeant, able to deceive people into
thinking he was not capable if he wanted.

“Felications, messieurs, the mission was
excellent. You have transferred the files to Juniper and we should
begin to see results within a few days.” The General raised his
glass in a toast.

“We will tell you what this is and why,” the
Sergeant said, referring to his younger body. “First, though, I
want to congratulate you on the mission. Aside from the death of
S-1, it was a complete success.”

“Something was wrong that mission,” said
Karl.

“Agree.” LuvRay nodded his head slowly.

“You didn’t need us,” Karl said.

“No, I didn’t.” The young Sergeant corrected
himself, “He didn’t need you, I mean. He told me why, though. It
was to build the team. The General didn’t want to, it was risky and
would have been much simpler for him to do it alone. He died
because of it. Trident?”

“We believe something detected your presence
at IKG Psinetics. It knew you were not the threat by the data you
took. It communicated, we don’t know how, with the encased facility
in Wyoming. The man arrived on the scene, and killed the
Sergeant.”

“He included us just to make the team
stronger?” RJ asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It will as you begin to understand the
greater mission,” the Sergeant said. “That was only the initial
phase. Now, another history lesson. I am a biopid.” He pronounced
it to rhyme with myopic. “So was S-1, so is the General, and so are
you, Karl.

“A biopid is a genetically enhanced clone.
There are many variations and many things that can be done in this
arena. Many have been. The general public knows nothing of it. The
General was created to be a military mastermind. He was cloned from
Napoleon. I was created to be the perfect soldier. RJ, you, too,
are a clone, though you are pre-biopid. Some gene manipulation was
done. You’re supposed to be lucky, which is probably why you like
gambling.”

“What about LuvRay?” RJ asked.

“No. He is what he is. We don’t know what
your particular bias is, Karl. That was part of the mission, to get
your genetic code and give it to Juniper for analysis. Yours, too,
RJ. Though we don’t care so much about yours. The General didn’t
want to get yours, but S-1 talked him into it.”

“Why are there two of you, Sergeant?”

“We have backups, five of them, in the event
of my death. The replacements are staggered in age.”

The General told them about the program,
which he had created some years back. He seemed quite proud of it.
The Sergeants were raised, studying the tactics of the originals,
with conferences, watching playbacks of briefings, and linking live
to missions. They lived in a group of icehouses. He pronounced it
ass ’ouses causing Sublime to laugh so hard that he had to cover
his face. The General ignored him.

Karl turned to the Sergeant. “How do you
compare to the first Sergeant?”

“Good question. I’ll be smaller, but
heavier, because of increased muscle density, with faster reflexes,
though those are still developing. I have much less real engagement
experience, though I have done deep simulation training. Most of
the improvements made are not major.”

“I have compiled a human suitable report on
the biopid program,” Juniper said. “Would you care to see it?”

“Human suitable?” Karl asked.

“Yes. Our actual reports are far too long
for humans, reaching thousands, or even millions of pages. We
condense them for you.”

“Yeah, I’ll get copies of that to anybody
who wants it,” said the Sergeant. “Read the report and you can ask
questions after. It is very thorough, so it should answer most of
your questions.”

“OK. What do we do now?” Sublime asked.

“We wait. Except LuvRay, who begins looking
for Martha. LuvRay, thoughts on that?”

“I go last place anyone seed Martha. Where
is?”

“Saw, not seed. Grenoble. Who do you want
with you?”

“Sergeant. You take me Gren…Grenu…”

“Grenoble.” The Sergeant chuckled. “Done.
Anything else?”

“Done?”

“It means I’ll take you to Grenoble. Do you
need anything else?”

“Clothes of her is good.”

“I have this.” Karl took off a necklace
threaded through the square hole of a Chinese coin. “She gave it to
me when I was a boy.” He looked at it before handing it over. “She
said it would keep me safe.”

LuvRay looked at the thing, didn’t take it.
“You are give? You no want keep?”

“Of course I want to keep it. It means more
to me than anything I own. But I want to see her again more than
that. Take it. Will it help?”

“This is a best object for finding. It is
trotay.”

“What’s a trotay?” Sublime asked.

“Is Indian word, a thing given on bond, on
connect two people. I find Martha from bond.” He took it, held it
in his fist against his chest, looked straight ahead with unfocused
eyes for a minute, then turned to Karl.

“Yes,” he said. “I find her.”

The General appreciated the new world order,
the way power went these days. The old methods of raising an army
and invasions and so forth were fascinating. But they were useless
against modern weaponry. Not real power, anymore. The game had
become far more subtle, what was controlled more ineffable. Who
could tell where the power really was today? He liked it. It was a
highly suitable mode for a Frenchman de nobility.