Chapter Forty Two

“What happened? He just… he just…” Saffia was leaning against the corridor wall, staring hard at the closed and locked door. Her breath was coming quickly and she looked extremely pale and more than a little green.

Kem, who was really getting annoyed with this almost constant nausea, was sitting on the ground, back against the opposite wall.

“He had his Neumanns programmed to commit suicide. They set off an Ebola-programme.”

“A what?” Saffia asked, incredulously.

“You must have heard of them. Ebola-programmes. Suicide programmes that remove all evidence of identity.”

“I’d… I’d heard of them, of course, but I didn’t think they actually existed,” Saffia was finally calming down, although her face was still grey.

“I’ve seen it once before.”

“But, what sort of person puts that sort of programme into their Neumanns?”

“I don’t think he knew it was there. I think his employer put it there to protect his or her interests.”

“That’s disgusting. Who would do that? Who would destroy someone else’s life just to cover themselves?”

“Someone who would employ a psychopathic assassin?” Kem suggested, levelly.

Saffia looked back at him, then closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.

“I got his ident-card. He was right, you know. His name is on here. Either he’s supremely confident, or he has very, very good cover. And trust me on this one, Saffia. Nobody has cover this good.”

“Can we use it to find out who his employer?”

“We haven’t got time. We need to get out of here. This place is compromised and we don’t know what Barnes’s employer will send after us now. I don’t think I could do it anyway. I don’t have access to the kind of power I’d need to break into ident-card records. I don’t think Juh could do it either, although if anyone could, it would be him. He’s got all kinds of little gadgets hidden in his office.”

“We’ve got access to that kind of computing power,” Saffia interrupted, quietly.

Kem, who had been mumbling gently to himself, almost talking to himself and forgetting about Saffia, stumbled over his words.

“Where?”

“In Lize’s office. She had the best system she could get.”

Kem thought back to the AI he had interrogated the first time he had met Saffia and realised that she was correct. Lize’s system would provide everything he needed and more. With that system, he was confident he could get anywhere. Probably.

“It’s worth a try. We’ll have to make it quick, though. That will probably be watched as well.”

“They can’t be watching everywhere we go. We have to get a break at some point.”

“I think that we’ve had all the breaks we’re going to get. It’s just going to get harder and harder.”

He looked Saffia in the eyes She stared back at him, refusing to break contact. Finally, she stood up, pulled Kem to his feet and kissed him firmly.

“We can’t sit around here then. Let’s get going.”

Sitting on the v-tram, heading up the building towards Lize’s offices made Kem very uncomfortable. It was only partly the fact that they might be being watched by people who might wish them ill. They had discussed this before setting out and had eventually agreed that entering through the front entrance was going to be no more or less dangerous than entering through any other. Kem’s argument was that if one entrance was going to be watched, they all would be. Saffia, although dubious and more than a little nervous, agreed that he was probably right.

However, it was Saffia’s argument, which Kem had discovered to be just as incontrovertible, that they were going somewhere where it was entirely possible that one or both of them would be recognised and so they should pretend to be who they appeared to be, i.e. Lize and Saffia, to anyone they met that was causing him the biggest trouble. However, he hadn’t really blanched until Saffia had insisted that he wear a skirt and make-up. He had tried to argue against it, but Saffia had insisted that Lize would have done exactly that. Amazingly enough, half way back to the Arcology, Kem had suddenly come to the realisation that he had forgotten what he was wearing and, actually found the skirt quite comfortable. On this body it just seemed right, there wasn’t any other way to explain it. Although he kept catching whiffs of the perfume in the make-up and he was definitely a lot more conscious about that.

In the end, none of their worries came to fruition, or at least, nobody to tried either engage them in conversation or shoot them. The only time Kem was recognised as Lize was by the h-tram AI that shuttled them to their destination.

The front office was cold and dark when they slipped through the front entrance. Saffia had a bizarre sensation in her stomach, a roiling, churning feeling, half as if she were going to throw up and half as if she were starving, as she looked around her. The bareness of the office seeming to act as a physical reminder of Lize’s death.

Once inside, they made their way to Lize’s main office. As they walked down the corridor leading to it, they shivered. Kem because of a half-remembered dream and Saffia because this would be the first time back in her lover’s inner sanctum since her death and Kem’s re-birth.

The door slowly swung back, as silent as ever, revealing the dark, burgundy and wood interior. They paused on the threshold, each expecting the other to enter the room first, each as reluctant as the other.

After a moment, Saffia took a deep, slow breath, closed her eyes, as if to help her make the crossing, and stepped into the room. Looking around, she spotted signs of Lize all around her. The desk was littered with little personal things. A holo still of the two of them. A couple of items of make-up that she always left out. A dirty cup left on the coffee table in her relaxation corner. The sort of thing that was always around after she had been working. The most surprising thing was the fine layer of dust that lay over everything. What had happened to the cleaning ‘bots? Why hadn’t they tidied the place up? She voiced her concerns to Kem.

“The police will have turned them off to preserve evidence,” he explained. “They never remember to turn them back on again. It’s almost as if they don’t think that it’s their responsibility. They’d probably argue that they may want to come back at some point to check for evidence, but I think they’re essentially lazy.”

He went over to the desk and, with a glance towards Saffia, he pulled out the chair and sat in it. He activated the computer and then pulled a data-crystal containing Julia’s personality from his pocket and slid it into the reader. There were a few moments of activity that was reflected in a multi-coloured flashing of lights on the holo-display, before Julia’s avatar was activated. Immediately, Kem could see an improvement, even over his own system. The image was sharper, brighter and completely realistic. Holo-screens flashed up behind her, flickering with countless random images of people and places, pausing occasionally long enough for Kem and Saffia to see what was happening.

“Fucking hell, Kem,” she said. “This is absolutely amazing. You really should have got me into one of these sooner. I can do anything. Did you know there’s a fourteen year old boy in Tokyoto writing a love letter to his best friend. Oh, he’s just deleted it. Would you like to read it? There’s a woman in Alexandria who is using a Simlex to pretend that she is a fabulously wealthy holo-actress. Her medical readouts are showing near fatal de-hydration. She’s been in the Simlex for nearly four weeks now.”

Kem was shocked by her swearing. This was the first time he had ever heard it and drove home the significant up-grade in her capacity more strongly than this random gabbling was doing. “Julia?” he asked, trying to get her attention.

She gabbled on for a little while longer – a boy flirting with a girl in a chat-sim, but using a female avatar – not realising that the girl he was flirting with was another boy as well; a man writing a suicide note before attaching a live wire to his neck-jack; a girl sitting watching a re-run of Strongman and Cramp. Slowly, however, she brought herself back to where she was meant to be.

“I’m sorry, I got carried away. It’s wonderful. Is this what a god feels like?”

“I refuse to pander to a computer with a Messiah complex,” Kem told her, firmly. “You aren’t a god. Gods don’t have off buttons.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sure,” Julia replied, voice heavy with sarcasm. “Come on then, what do you want me to do?”

“I’d like you to trace Barnes’s ident-card, see what you can come up with about him,” Kem told her.

“Okay, let me see it.”

Kem removed the data-crystal and replaced it with the card.

“Give me a little while. It’ll take some time to track down what your after.”

“Even in your new omniscient state?” Kem asked, returning her sarcasm.

“Especially in this state. I have to filter out the noise from all this crap I’m receiving and then work out what I need. And having to explain to you what I’m doing, only slows the operation. I thought you were in a hurry.”

“Sorry. Go ahead. Don’t mind me.”

Her avatar flicked off.

“Was your original AI that annoying?” Kem asked Saffia.

Saffia who had been sitting watching the exchange with amusement, looked across the width of the desk at Kem and smiled.

“I think she’s just excited. Leave her alone.”

“I bet you think it’s sweet, don’t you? A happy computer.”

“Don’t you? Are you trying to tell me that you don’t consider Julia a friend? If you’d been able to, you’d have set her loose in this system ages ago.”

Kem didn’t reply, although the corners of his mouth turned up in a gentle acknowledgement of Saffia’s assessment of the situation. Then Julia’s avatar flicked back into life, a serious look on her face.

“I’m back, Kem. Sorry it took so long.”

Kem was about to make another sarcastic comment, when he realised that she was being serious. She thought it had taken a long time.

“Did you find out who his employer is?” he asked instead.

“I did. He’s receiving payments from EarthFirst. And you should see the amounts he was getting, they’re pretty phenomenal.”

“How much?” Kem asked.

“Well, for the last three jobs – which I assume were you, Lize and you again, he was getting three million each.”

“That’s not bad,” he said, impressed despite himself. He had never really thought of himself as being worth that much.

“I thought that EarthFirst were fairly minor,” Saffia said. “Where are they getting that sort of money from?”

“Obviously somebody’s bankrolling them. Let me think about for a minute.”

Kem stood up and started to pace back and forth across the room, deep in thought.

“Okay,” he said, eventually. “How does this sound... Whoever is bankrolling EarthFirst is indecently rich. This narrows down our list of potential targets fairly swiftly. It also answers some questions. One of the things that worried me about the attack on Lize was how her assassin managed to get into the office. Somebody with this kind of money can probably afford the best hackers to get into the system and work out a way of subverting the access mechanism. Does this make sense so far?”

“It sounds okay to me,” Saffia affirmed.

“Good. How do the staff get into the offices when they arrive?”

“All of their retinal images are stored on the AI’s memory. All Executive Committee staff members have their retinal images recorded as standard policy.”

“So, would it be possible to hack into them and add another one?”

“I’d have thought so, it’s not my area of expertise,” Saffia said.

“Julia, can you take the retinal image recorded onto Barnes’s ident-card and check it against the list of employees.”

“Give me a moment, Kem… No. There’s no one working here who matches.”

“Shit,” Kem said. “That’s that idea screwed. I expect the police would have checked that anyway.”

He proceeded pacing up and down again for a while longer, face screwed up in concentration.

“Saffia… did you ever have to send anyone to see another member of the Executive Committee?”

“Yes, it happened all of the time. Communications that we couldn’t trust to email or Simlex meeting were often delivered by hand.”

“And how did they identify themselves when they got to wherever they were going?”

Understanding dawned on Saffia.

“Their retinal scans gave them access to any of the other offices as well as this one. You think his scans were put into someone else’s files?”

“It seems possible, doesn’t it? Julia?”

“Already checking, chief.”

A few moments passed before Julia returned to them. Kem felt his heart starting to race and sweat start to break out on his forehead.

“Got it, Kem. You’re right. He’s listed as a ‘Special Operative’ working for Nicholas Bateman.”

“Bateman? I’d have thought his system would have been the hardest to hack. I mean, he would employ… the best… programmers. Oh shit. Saffia does the AI log each entrance and exit?”

“It should do, yes,” Saffia confirmed, her eyes huge as her thoughts followed Kem’s.

“I’m so hoping that I’m wrong, but can you check and see if Barnes ever visited Bateman’s offices?”

“Yes. Yes, he did. And they’ve reached a peak over this last few weeks, never when you would expect him to be in NovoCastria, either.”

“Shit, this is getting worse. Run a check on Bateman’s banking. Has there been any payments that could correspond to the payments that Barnes received.”

“Okay, boss. This might take a while, I have no doubt that his accounts will be seriously convoluted.”

Her avatar disappeared again and Kem and Saffia were left looking at each other in silence.

Eventually, Kem spoke up.

“This is far too big for me. I’m used to working on nasty little divorce cases and tracing missing pets. Getting stabbed, swapping bodies with a woman and then trying to overthrow the Executive Committee is a little out of my league.”

“Well, these last few months haven’t exactly been normal for me, either,” Saffia retorted.

They looked at each other for a moment, then Saffia started to giggle.

“You’ve been rubbing your eyes and you’ve really smudged your make-up,” she said.

“Oh, like I’m worried about that,” Kem said, before feeling the laughter start to overcome him. “We’re just about to discover that the man who practically runs the planet single-handed is an insane mass-murderer and you’re worried about how my make-up looks?”

They held onto each other as their near-hysterical laughter ripped through them. Just as one was starting to calm down, they would catch each others eye, which sent them off into more paroxysms.

In the midst of the hilarity, Julia’s avatar re-manifested.

“Got it,” she said. “It took a fair bit of work, but I’ve managed to trace the payments from Barnes to a company that is fully owned by Bateman and doesn’t seem to actually do anything, except exist to allow this money to pass through it.”

Kem and Saffia stared at Julia and then each other, all traces of humour wiped out. It was at that moment that Kem’s comp-pad started to buzz.

Chapter Forty Three

Kem pulled his comp-pad from its bag and switched it on, turning to its com-net mode. The screen flickered and then steadied, showing an image of a face that was tear-stained and haggard.

“Anji? What’s wrong?” he asked.

She stared for a moment, before visibly pulling herself together.

“Kem? I’m sorry, I wasn’t prepared to see you looking like that. I keep forgetting...”

She paused a moment, as if drawing a breath.

“Juh’s missing,” she told him, her voice catching.

“What? How long?”

“He went to visit Chief Executive Bateman yesterday and hasn’t been seen since he left there. He didn’t catch the Train back across the Atlantic and… and…” The tears, that she had been holding back since at least the start of the conversation, finally broke through and she collapsed into deep, agonised sobbing. Kem sat and stared helplessly at the screen, desperately wanting to put his arms around her, hating the distance that separated them, forcing him to watch helplessly.

Hating, also, his new-found knowledge that Anji’s worst fears were probably true. They might even be underestimated. He saw visions of Juh’s body melting into a disgusting mass inside his head and no matter what he did, he couldn’t dislodge them. He hoped his external demeanour wasn’t betraying his internal terror. Kem recognised that a part of that terror was fear for his own future which suddenly seemed to be approaching a conclusion far faster than he had thought possible. Bateman? Why? And how was he going to stop him? Kem wanted to run away, as far away as possible and curl up in a tight ball in the hope that Bateman would stop looking for him. A futile wish, he knew. He had a friend who was, at best, in desperate danger and he had put him there.

“I’ll sort it out, Anji,” Kem heard himself saying and was surprised by how calm and sensible his voice sounded, even to himself. If he could keep his head when all around him were losing theirs, he quoted to himself, he obviously didn’t understand the situation. He felt an insane urge to giggle growing at that thought. If he started, he feared that he would never stop. Forcefully, he suppressed the desire and tried to focus on the distraught woman on the screen.

“I promise, I’ll bring him back to you, Anji.”

“Really? You’ll get him for me? Do you know what’s happened to him?”

“Not exactly, but I think it’s got something to do with my investigation and I’ve just made a major breakthrough. If I sort that out, I’m certain that I’ll find Juh.”

“Please, Kem. Bring him back. My baby needs its father.”

That certainly helped to relieve the pressure Kem was feeling.

“I’ll find him for you Anji. I know you’ve never really trusted me before, but you have to now. Get some rest. You look exhausted and that can’t be good for the baby. I want you both in the best of health when I bring Juh back.”

He pulled his face into what he hoped would appear to be the semblance of a brave and confident smile. It felt numb, so he couldn’t be entirely certain. However, Anji smiled tightly in return, said ‘goodbye’ and disconnected the com-net, so it must have had the desired effect.

“Fuck!” Kem screamed at the top of his voice, throwing his comp-pad across the room so it bounced off the wall and then skittered into a corner.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Saffia asked, quietly. “Juh’s dead.”

“Of course he fucking is. He walked into Bateman’s office without suspecting a thing. That is fucking it. I am going to rip that fucking bastard in two. I don’t give a damn about bringing him to justice. That fucker is above justice. He controls the fucking idea of justice. He makes a joke of the whole fucking thing.”

“So, what are you going to do? Walk in there and shoot everyone who gets in your way?”

Kem span around and glared at Saffia.

“Sounds like a fucking good plan to me,” he growled.

Saffia walked across to him, slowly and deliberately. She lifted her hand, once again, slowly and deliberately and, putting the full weight of her body behind it, slapped Kem across the face.

“Where the fuck do you get all the testosterone from?” she yelled. “Are you that eager to get yourself killed as well? That’s really going to help Juh. Not to mention Anji and her kid. Not to mention me. Do you think that he’s going to let any of us escape with our lives? We need to bring him down and we need to do it in a way he can’t control.”

It was the shock of being hit that brought him around. The slap seemed to bring him to his senses again. He hadn’t even realised that he needed them returning to him. He had been so close to collapsing on the floor in terror and exhaustion – the day had been a very long one so far – and had tried to combat it with naked physical aggression. Neither of which were particularly effective or, he admitted to himself, particularly suited to him. He hadn’t been good at fighting even when he was in his own body.

Rubbing his cheek, gingerly, he asked, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He paced back and forth across the room, deep in thought. Eventually, his face cleared and he looked up, first at Saffia and then at Julia’s avatar.

“Julia, can you create a simulation of my own face and voice?”

In answer, Julia’s face morphed into a perfect representation of Kem’s.

“Will this do?” she asked in Kem’s voice.

Kem stared at the face. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling looking at it. There was a sense of kinship with it, although it was distant, as if it was someone he once knew a very long time ago. The voice sounded strange to his ears and he was about to speak to say that, when Saffia said ‘that’s perfect.’ He stared at her in surprise. If it sounded false to his own ears, surely anyone else would be able to spot it immediately. Wouldn’t they?

“Thank you, Saffia,” the face said again. “Although it’s not exactly difficult. I have a lot of images of Kem on file.”

Kem picked up his comp-pad, checked it for damage and was satisfied that it had received nothing worse than a few new dents. He pulled up the data from his investigations on it and then connected it to the port in the AI.

“I need to speak to Sammy Johnson. But, I don’t want him to know what has happened to me. I want you to feed that image into the com-net and have it repeat everything I say to it.”

“Not a problem. Shall I call him now?”

“Yes, please.”

Kem was slightly disturbed to hear himself being echoed by his own male voice. Or at least, what he was prepared to accept as the voice that people heard when he spoke. But, he would be manage. At least long enough to tell Sammy what he needed.

After a few seconds, during which Kem found himself holding his breath, Sammy answered.

“Kem?” he said, surprised. “I thought you were dead.”

“Well, as they say, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. It’s a good story, but I haven’t got time to go into it right now. I’ve got something else for you, something better.”

“I should bloody well hope so. It’s going to have to go some to beat your announcement about the reality of re-incarnation.”

Kem laughed.

“You don’t know the half of it,” he said. “It’s about Nicholas Bateman”

“More stuff about Bateman?” Johnson said, sounding nowhere near as surprised or excited as Kem thought he would.

“What? You already know about him?” Kem asked in surprise.

“We’ve heard about some kid who was working there, doing some sort of intern job and got a cup of coffee or something thrown at him and there’s a couple of other things. We’re half expecting him to step down any day now, needing rest after being over-worked.”

“Well, I’ve got something that’s a bit bigger than him being over-worked.”

“Well, what is it then? If I didn’t think it was really you before, I do now. You really know how to wind me up.”

“Okay. How about if I told you that Bateman was responsible for the attempted murders of his step-daughter and me. And that it ties in to the sabotage of the New Argo.”

“Sabotage of the New Argo? That’s a bit of a shot in the dark, isn’t it? How did you get from you and Lize Carr being attacked to that?”

“Trust me, it makes sense when you see it.”

“If it’s true, you’re right, this is an immense story. If your winding me up, I’ll rip your head off. Where can we meet?”

“We can’t. I’m going to have to send you the information. But there is one thing I need you to promise me.”

“What?”

“You hold onto the information, before releasing it. I need it to be released at an exact time, otherwise the whole thing is screwed up.”

“What whole thing?”

“I can’t tell you that just yet. But it’ll make a great follow up and you’ll have the exclusive.”

Johnson sighed deeply.

“Ok, Logan, you bastard. But it had better be good.”

Chapter Forty Four

Kem had been to NYA a few times in the past, but he could never get over the shock he felt as he left the North Atlantic Train Tunnel Terminal. Whereas NovoCastria was large and blocky and felt quite enclosed, NYA was open and airy. The five districts of what used to be New York had been enclosed in Blish-Domes, clear buckyball constructions that allowed light through and were, to a certain extent, gas permeable. A couple of hundred years ago, when the city had been properly enclosed, it had been thought that this was the way all of the newer arcologies were going to go, as opposed to the NovoCastria and Canberra style of arcology. However, it was quickly realised that it was going to be a very rare occurrence. The cost of constructing buckminster-fullerene domes of the size necessary to cover the districts was ridiculous. It was rumoured that NYA was still paying the interest.

However, it had an interesting effect on Kem. Even after spending time in the open air as he had been, NYA still felt more like being outside than anything he had ever come across. No matter how much he loved NovoCastria, there was still nothing like real sunlight playing over his skin. Not that there was a lot of that at the moment. The entirety of the Blish-dome was covered in snow and, although it was mid-morning, all the street lights were lit. A dim light was filtering through the snow, but nowhere near enough to see by. There were a few chinks in the covering, allowing the light to come through in golden shafts that picked out spots on the buildings or the ground. Looking around him, Kem saw that one particularly large patch allowed the sun to shine through causing the highly polished steel art-deco arches on the spire of the Chrysler Building to gleam brightly. He wondered if it was deliberate. After all, it was the centre of Bateman’s activities. His lair. Kem wouldn’t have been surprised if he had ordered the dome to be cleared in just that spot to allow just that effect. He allowed a moment of introspection at that thought, but decided that he would probably have thought that, even if he didn’t know what he did about the man. From his meetings with Bateman, he had decided that he was hugely egotistical. But then, he’d have to be to do what he had done. Both legally and extra-legally.

Seeing his destination made him pause rather more than any worries that he may have had about whether he was judging Bateman unfairly or not. He was about to attempt something that was ridiculously suicidal. Despite his promises to Anji, he knew that chances of getting Juh out were minimal. It would probably be best, if he failed, not to come out either. He wasn’t sure if he would to be able to face Anji. Still, there was nothing he could do about it now. He was committed. There was absolutely no turning back now. He was working on a very tight schedule, which didn’t allow him much time to stand gawking at the city.

Bringing himself back to his surroundings, he saw an h-tram stop ahead of him and a bright yellow h-tram pulling up to it. He ran for it, pulling himself on just as the doors were sliding closed.

Sitting down in one of the available seats, he checked through his bag. Yes, it was all still there. Not that any of it was really necessary, except perhaps for the comp-pad.

After changing h-tram a couple of times, Kem eventually arrived at the corner of Lexington and 42^nd. He stared up at the building that lay in front of him. Bizarrely, although he knew that it was a lot shorter than NovoCastria it seemed to be a lot higher, stretching up to touch the sky, with nothing but a thin dome to get in its way. He was also overcome with a feeling of history. This had to be one of the oldest buildings still standing. NYA had managed to keep it in a lot better state than NovoCastria had done for its ancient monuments. The events this building must have seen. Well it was going to see one more today. Hopefully, it would be what Kem intended, although, he rather doubted it. Pulling the jacket of his trouser suit tighter around himself, as if to fend off the cold, although it was only a nervous twitch, the temperature was pleasantly warm, he walked over to the entrance – it was so old, that he had to physically push his way around a revolving door – and went inside.

The lobby was beautiful. Kem’s breath was snatched away by the sight. He had been used to the relative austerity of the offices that Lize had inhabited. Apart from her own room, they had been utilitarian and functional. This was entirely different, however. The splendour of the room was almost impossible for him to take in. Surely it was all artificial? Nothing like this actually existed, did it? He walked over to the wall and ran his hand over it. It was smooth and cold, veins of colour running through it that seemed to give it an illusion of depth. Beautiful reds and yellows that seemed to follow a pattern ran from floor to ceiling. Following the veins up to the ceiling, Kem saw a mural on the ceiling, depicting people working and what looked to be some sort of ancient aeroplane. The people who designed this place certainly knew how to make a building interesting. Still, Kem wasn’t here to sightsee, unlike the other people who were milling around, making holos of everything left, right and centre, usually with a loved one obscuring half of the thing they were holographing.

Slowly, Kem walked across to the reception desk. A drone looked up at him.

“Can I help you, miss?” it asked.

“I think that Bateman would like to speak to me,” Kem told it.

“Really? Do you have an appointment to see Chief Executive Bateman?” it replied, emphasising the ‘Chief Executive’.

“Not as such. No. However, trust me on this one. He’ll be fascinated to see me.”

“Chief Executive Bateman is very busy. He is not able to see people who just walk in off the street.”

“He will be able to make time to see me. My name is Kem Logan.”

The drone looked at him, a bored expression on his face. Then, with an air of indulgence, it pulled a keyboard across to it and tapped in his name. After a moment, it looked back at him, a look of surprise on its face.

“Can you prove who you are, Miss Logan?”

“That’s Mr Logan,” Kem said, as he pulled his wallet from his jacket. He opened the wallet, pulled out several cards and laid them on the desk in front of the drone.

“This is my old ident-card, Lize Carr’s card, Carline Ling’s card. Oh, and also Jacq Barnes’s card. I think that last one will really interest Bateman.”

He drone called across a second and quickly explained the situation to it.

“If you’ll just come this way, Mr Logan,” the second drone said and ushered him towards one of the many lifts that were on each side of the lobby. Inside it, yet another drone, dressed in a smart, black morning suit and white kid gloves looked at him a moment, before pressing a button.

The lift ascended swiftly and silently, obviously modern, although still with the old trappings that marked the entire building.

Upon reaching the seventy-first floor, the lift came to a halt. The door slid open and Kem stepped out, to find himself greeted by Rae Cowley, flanked by a very large drone. This was the point if he discovered whether or not he had judged Bateman correctly. He may have ordered this drone to kill him where he stood. He thought, he desperately hoped, that Bateman would want to see him one last time.

Looking around the reception area, Kem felt the fear that had been threatening to overwhelm him ever since he had stepped off the train rise again and almost engulf him. Kem could feel himself going weak at the knees and tears starting to prickle at the corners of his eyes. He realised that he had been completely wrong. This was the end. Right here, right now. He wouldn’t be able to confront Bateman, to see his plan come to fruition. If it was going to - standing here like this made him realise that it was entirely probable that there were very large flaws in his plan. If he could get himself into this situation, thinking that it would work, then it was very likely that he had overlooked something important.

Kem giggled nervously.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Logan. It is… interesting to meet you. Chief Executive Bateman has indicated that he would like to meet you. However, he has asked that I search you for weapons. So, if you wouldn’t mind…?”

The drone came forward and politely motioned for Kem to lift his arms. He did so and Kem was quickly and expertly frisked. It pulled out his comp-pad and passed it across to Rae. He looked at it and then him and then placed it on a desk on the far side of the room.

“Thank you. If you’d care to follow me, the Chief Executive will see you now,” Rae said to him.

The top of the building was as beautiful as the bottom. Walking down the short corridor, Kem took in the beauty of the place. Apart from all the nauseating paintings of Bateman in idiotically heroic, macho poses, he could almost imagine that this was hundreds of years ago.

As he approached the end of the corridor, the drone swung the door open and Rae motioned for Kem to enter.

He looked across the length of the room to see Bateman staring fixedly into space. He stood inside the door and waited, quietly. Eventually, Bateman blinked a couple of times and removed the plug from his neck socket. He looked around and almost seemed surprised to see Kem for a few moments. Kem could almost see mists parting from behind his eyes as his brain got into gear.

“Good morning, Mr Logan,” Bateman said to him. “Please take a seat. Let us discuss our difficulties like civilised human beings.”

Chapter Forty Five

Looking around the room as he crossed it, Kem was surprised by the similarity between it and Lize’s office. It was a different colour and, obviously, the layout was different, but there were still things about it that suggested a congruence of purpose to the two rooms. Both had enormous desks that seemed specifically designed to intimidate anyone entering the room. Both desks stood in front of huge picture windows. Both rooms had an aura about them, as if they were at the centre of a huge, almost physical web of power. There was one major difference, however. Kem had been certain that he was going to be leaving Lize’s office. If this room was the centre of a web, then Kem was well and truly a captured fly.

“Good Morning, Chief Executive,” Kem replied, hoping that the fearful quaver in his voice was only audible to himself.

“Ha. I’m glad you remember who I am. For all the trouble you have caused me, one would think that you thought me nothing more than one of your philandering husbands.”

“Trust me when I say I had no idea who was behind it all until yesterday afternoon.”

“Oh, I’m certain you didn’t. I thought that I had covered all of my tracks adequately. I assume that Mr Barnes was the source of your information?”

Kem was astounded that he felt so calm. Here he was, sitting in the office of the man who had basically confessed to being the cause of so many murders and he was discussing tactics. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he was offered a cup of tea.

“Indirectly, yes he did. Your Ebola-programme was effective in stopping him speaking, but I managed to track down most of the information I needed by using his ident-card.”

“I always thought that his supreme self-confidence would end up being his downfall.”

“And yours?”

There was a lull in the conversation, as Bateman’s eyes flitted across the jack plug once again. Kem wondered what he was experiencing in sim that was so fascinating.

“Ha. Well, that remains to be seen,” Bateman said, apparently unaware of the pause.

“It does indeed,” Kem replied. “Why did you do it? Why did you have the New Argo sabotaged? Why did you kill all of those people?”

“Oh, come now, Mr. Logan. Surely, after being such a thorn in my side you have some idea?”

“As I said, I had no idea it was you until yesterday. I haven’t really had much chance to formulate any theories. To be perfectly honest, it’s taking most of my brain power to stop myself from freezing up in terror.”

“Ha. Mr Logan, let me assure that you have very little to be afraid of. In fact, I’m impressed with you. You have done something that almost nobody else has ever done in all my time in office. You have beaten my will. I wanted you dead and yet you managed to find a way to overcome it. You ignored my suggestions that you drop the investigation. You continued when others would have forgotten about it. Everything you have done over the past few months has shown me that you are an asset. Whilst others may be guilty of wasting otherwise useful assets – something that I have to admit, I have been guilty of myself, in the not too distant past – I usually try to utilise them and make them helpful rather than a hindrance. Would you like a job, Mr Logan?”

Kem almost burst out laughing. It was only with a very powerful force of will that he prevented himself from doing so.

“You still haven’t told me why you did what you did.”

“And you are evading my question, Mr Logan.”

“And you are evading mine, Chief Executive Bateman.”

They locked eyes for a moment, but Bateman once again became momentarily distracted by his jack plug, hand straying towards it.. Returning to the moment, he laughed aloud.

“And I thought that I was the politician,” he said. “Very well, Mr Logan. I shall tell you exactly why I arranged the sabotage of the New Argo. Every other death that I have engineered since then has merely been cleaning up, making sure that no-one will be able to track it to me.”

He inclined his head in Kem’s direction.

“Obviously, I wasn’t entirely successful. However…” he paused, but this time, his focus stayed on Kem. When he resumed speaking, his tone was cold and hard. “The reason I had to stop the colonisation programme was because they were going to be too far away. There was no way the Executive Committee would be able to control them. There was no way I would be able to control them. The people must do what I tell them to do, think what I tell them to think, speak what I tell them to speak. If they are thirty light years away, they won’t do that.”

“Why did you allow them to reach their destination? Why didn’t you destroy it immediately? Or in mid-flight?”

Bateman smiled gently. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, it was the smile of someone who had done something unpleasant and succeeded in getting away with it and revelled in the memory of it.

“If they disappeared mid-flight, I would never have known if I had been successful. I needed the ship to reach its destination. It was my first assignment on joining the Executive Committee and I was going to do it well. Once they reached their destination… it was out of my hands. Not my problem any more. And, of course, if it was destroyed immediately, it would have made instant martyrs of the colonists and another ship would have been built straight away. I’ve had thirty-five years to make the people forget, to make them stop caring. And they did. How quickly did the destruction of the New Argo stop being news? Was it a fortnight? A week? What ever it was, it wasn’t very long. There’s a new ship being prepared for launch, but people don’t care anymore. They are happy to stay here and be looked after. They aren’t adult anymore, they are merely grown-up babies. No-one will want to go and so it will disappear.”

Kem sat and stared at the old man sitting across from him, utterly shocked.

“So, Kem, how about it? Do you want a job? I’ll even give you a new body. A male body. You can even pick it out yourself.”

For a horrendous second, Kem visualised himself walking around again in a male body. A handsome, strong, masculine person, even better than he had been. Then he looked across at the man offering him this thing that he thought he would have desired more than anything else in the world. And he found, to his amazement, that really, he cared more about stopping this horrendous, evil creature sitting opposite him than he did about getting a new penis.

“Why are you offering me this? What’s in it for you?” he asked, stalling for time. Surely, it was nearly time.

“You’re skills and abilities. You have managed to avoid death several times, something that no-one has managed before. Usually, when I decide that I want someone out of the way, it happens. This is the sort of ability that I need in an employee. So, I have decided, rather than kill you, I will subvert you. And, as a sign of my goodwill, I will give you a male body.”

Kem’s mind was working hard, trying to untangle the meaning behind Bateman’s words. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. The realisation chilled him to the core.

“You want this body. You’re going to transfer yourself into it. That’s why you put her in charge of the colonisation committee – you wanted to be able to start again from the same point.”

Bateman stared at Kem for a moment and then started laughing. It was a deep, booming laugh, a really amused laugh.

“I’m sorry, Mr Logan. I shouldn’t laugh, but this is one of the funniest things I have heard in a long time. Perhaps I should hire you as my fool rather than anything else.”

Kem felt himself bristle. If there was one thing he really hated, it was being patronised.

“Ha. No. I had no intention of taking her body. When I arranged for her to become a member of the Executive Committee, I assume that she would be easily manipulated to become an extension of my will. I was wrong. I think that was probably the error that has culminated in this meeting. No, I decided that when she proved to be somewhat… intractable to sideline her until I could find someone who could take her position. You were right in one respect, however. I do intend taking someone on the Executive Committee. Or at least, someone who will be on the Committee shortly. I think that my PA, Rae Cowley, is ready to move further up the political ladder. And just at a time when a seat has become available due to the terrible and untimely death of my daughter after a serious illness. You are a very intelligent person, Mr Logan, although you have a slightly over-active imagination. It would be a shame to see such a fine brain go to waste. However, I am growing tired of making you an offer which you keep ignoring. For the last time, do you want a job or not?”

“What time is it?” Kem asked, knowing how much of a risk he was taking to antagonise Bateman further.

“Why do you need to know the time? Does it make any difference to how you will reply?” Bateman asked, exasperatedly.

“It might do, Chief Executive, it might do.”

“Ha. It’s ten forty. Does that make it too early to accept my offer or too late?”

Kem breathed a silent sigh of relief. It was almost time. He only had to keep him going for a little while longer and then it would all be over.

“Just one more question, before I reply to your exceptionally generous offer, Chief Executive.”

He paused and looked across the desk at Bateman, wondering if he was really going too far. Bateman stared at him and grunted assent.

“What really happened to Juh Collins?”

“I killed him, of course. I beat him to death on the floor just in front of where you are sitting. If you look carefully, you may be able to see a bloodstain or two. I had made an error in thinking that he was the brains behind the operation, but when he told me all he knew, I realised my mistake and killed him. You had manipulated him very well, Mr Logan, to put him up in front of you to hide your activities.”

Kem felt tears drop from his eyes and roll down his cheeks. That was it then. He almost wished that he had brought a Screamer with him. His real weapon was going to be much stronger, but much less lethal. Unfortunately.

Bateman looked at Kem strangely.

“Why are you crying?” he asked. “I thought that you were a man in there.”

Kem sniffed, took his spectacles off and rubbed an arm across his eyes.

“Fuck you, Bateman. I wouldn’t accept anything from you. I wouldn’t accept a glass of water if I was dying of thirst. I’d be too worried it was poisoned. You destroy everything you touch. You are a sick , twisted, evil, old bastard and I’m so glad that I’ve destroyed you.”

Bateman stood up and drew himself up to his full height, glaring down at Kem.

“What do you mean, you’ve destroyed me? I think you will find that it is very much the other way around. How dare you use that insolent tone towards me. I’m glad Barnes failed to kill you, I’m going to take great pleasure in doing it myself. I don’t know how an insignificant speck of dirt like you has caused me so many problems for so long.”

“Before you do that, may I suggest that you put your holo-screen to channel 98. I think you might see something there to interest you.”

Caught off guard by Kem’s sudden lack of fear, Bateman paused, his murderous impulse reined in for a moment. He growled a command at the AI and it called up the channel.

“…is believed to be suffering from stress. It is believed that this is because of the attempted murder of his step-daughter, Executive Lize Carr, combined with having to undertake part of her work as well as his own – an already heavy load which observers have been saying for some time is perhaps too much for a man of Chief Executive Bateman’s age.

“Executive Sakei, who is stepping in as acting Chief Executive until such time as Chief Executive Bateman is once again able to take up his position, gave a short statement to the press.

“‘It is my belief that Nick Bateman is the best man for this role and I hope that he is better very soon. The thoughts of all of his colleagues on the Committee go out to him at this very difficult time. However, we should not dwell on his current problems. Instead, we should remember his many triumphs – starting with the successful launch of the New Argo. Despite it’s tragic conclusion, this was Nicks first great achievement and showed the path to greatness he was set to follow; his heading of the task-force that brought the leaders of the Seventh Reichian Terrorist Organisation to justice; his current negotiations with the Muslim-Christian Alliance that were so close to conclusion and I shall take great pride in completing in Nick’s name. Finally, there is his strong leadership of the committee for the new colonisation project that he insisted on overseeing after Executive Carr was so cruelly struck down…’”

Bateman stared at the screen, unbelieving.

“Why wasn’t I warned?” he whispered. “I knew that bastard Sakei would stab me in the back. I should have had him killed a long time ago.”

He stabbed a button on the intercom.

“Rae? Close the building. Prepare a defensive position. Do not allow anyone to enter.”

“I’m sorry, sir. Executive Sakei has already spoken with me and told me exactly what this is all about. I am afraid that I am handing in my resignation, with immediate effect. I’m just surprised that I didn’t see it before.”

Bateman stared at the intercom in shock. Then, slowly and deliberately, he sat down in his chair, picked up the jack plug and inserted it into his neck socket.

***

Once again, Bateman was floating, disembodied in his office, watching himself throttling that traitorous scientist, Williams. He needed a different approach, he knew that he didn’t have much time now, although he wasn’t certain exactly what the problem was. Every time he tried to remember what happened, his mind shied away from it, as if it was too painful to bring to the forefront of his memory.

He had an idea – there was one point of view that he hadn’t experienced yet. It was obvious really, now that he had realised it, he wasn’t certain why he hadn’t thought of it earlier. He thought a command to the AI and the room span for a moment. He was looking up at himself now and, for the first time, realised that he hadn’t been as calm as he thought he had. He had a rather bizarre fixed grimace on his face. But, perhaps it was just the effect of being in this position. After all, he was now seeing the whole thing from Williams’s perspective.

The pressure around his neck was increasing and it was getting painfully uncomfortable, distracting him from his study of the situation, so he sent a command that dulled the pain messages from his neck.

That was better, he could concentrate now, Actually, it all felt rather pleasant, it was as if he was becoming enveloped in a large, soft blanket that was slowly muffling all sensations. The strangest thing was the way that his vision was slowly fading, colour seemed to be draining away. This was surely going to help his research no end. Yes, this was definitely going to be the way to go in future. And it was just so pleasant, the whole fading away feeling. Definitely.

***

Kem warily stood up from his chair, watching Bateman intently.

“Bateman?” he asked, softly.

When he was ignored, he tiptoed around the edge of the desk and stood at Bateman’s side, carefully looking for any sign of movement from the old man. Kem waved his hand in front of Bateman’s eyes. When that didn’t cause a flicker, he prodded him gently. Bateman slumped over to the side, prevented from falling to the floor only by his head hitting the table.

Suddenly, the office doors burst open and several police drones rushed into the room, Screamers drawn. Kem leapt back from the desk and raised his arms above his head.

The commander came across to him.

“Miss? I was given to understand that a Mr Kem Logan was in here? Who are you.”

“Haven’t you been briefed about what’s going on? I’m Kem Logan.”

The drone looked at him, curiously.

“I think you’d better come with us until we get all of this sorted out,” it finally decided.

“Of course. I don’t know what’s happened to Bateman, but I think he’s dead.”

“We’ll take care of him, Miss,” the drone told him, confidently. “If you’d just go with one of the officers?”

As he was escorted from the room, a hand placed gently, but firmly upon his shoulder, Kem glanced back to see the commander examining Bateman. He walked down the corridor and saw Rae sitting in the reception area, head in his hands, being questioned. Kem wondered what Rae would do now. Kem could see him attempting to continue his political career, there were now, after all two seats on the Executive Committee that would need filling. After this, Kem doubted that he’d be successful, but it was probably worth a try. Probably.

Epilogue One

Spring finally arrived, although it seemed to get later and later every year. It was the first time that Kem had been able to sit outside since he first arrived at the mansion and he was taking full advantage of it, enjoying the sun as it bathed him. Next to the table he was sitting at, stood a cherry tree, covered in blossom, sending its delicious scent out to wrap them up in a powerful perfume. The flowers were slowly drifting to the ground in the gentle breeze. Beneath the tree was a pink shadow of settled petals.

Kem was dressed in a long, woollen dress – the one that Saffia had picked out for him that first time. He had felt his face redden with shame when he had first put it on that morning, remembering that day.

However, the pleasure that it gave Saffia to see him dressed in this way – as well as the surprise in her face the first time she saw him in something other than black cotton underwear – always brought a smile to Kem’s face that dispelled any doubts he had about his clothing. But there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He tried to ignore it, but it was getting harder to do. A suspicion was forming in his mind, that he would have to face up to soon.

Saffia came through the French windows. She was carefully carrying a tray, on which stood two glasses and a bottle in an ice bucket.

“Champagne,” she said. “To celebrate.”

Kem smiled a half smile and tried not to look to disappointed. He picked up one of the long-stemmed glasses and took a small sip. Immediately and involuntarily, his face screwed up.

“What’s wrong?” Saffia asked.

“I, er… don’t actually like champagne,” he told her.

Saffia paused.

“Lize and I always used to have champagne when we were celebrating a victory. Let’s face it, this is one hell of a victory.”

Suddenly, everything crystallised. Kem knew exactly what had been bothering him. Unfortunately, a sinking sensation followed the realisation as he found out what it was he had to do to rectify it.

“I’m sorry. No, I can’t,” he told her, feeling tears catching at the corners of his eyes. “I don’t like champagne. I’ve never liked it. And, let’s face it, this isn’t much of a victory for me. Okay, so Bateman’s dead and his plans are wrecked, but my best friend is dead as well and his wife hates me. I didn’t really save anyone. And I’ve hurt so many people… Even you, although you try to hide it. You’re still hurting. And you’re trying to compensate by turning me into Lize.”

Kem was crying openly now and Saffia was following suit.

“How can you say that?” she asked, softly. “I… I love you.”

“I don’t think you do, not really. You love what you can see. You say that I’m different to Lize, but it’s still her you see when you wake up in the morning. And everything else… the skirt, the lingerie, the champagne… you’re just trying to get me to be her. I can’t do that.”

“The lingerie was your idea,” Saffia objected, but realising that she was clutching at straws.

“But I did it for you, to excite you. And whose lingerie was it I wore?. Nothing I do will make you forget her and I’ll always be competing with her. She isn’t the ghost. It’s me. And, as long as I’m here, you can’t let her go.”

“What are you saying?” Saffia whispered.

“You know what I’m saying. I have to go away. We can’t see each other again.”

Saffia stared at Kem, unable to speak.

“I want you to do something for me. I want you to look after Anji and her son. I hope that one day she’ll be able to forgive me for what I did, but I’m not going to be around to see it.”

Kem stood up.

“I’ll never forget you. I think that you’ve helped to make me a better man, as a woman, than I ever was before. I don’t think I’d change back now, even if I could. I know this is hard. It would be so much easier for me to stay here…”

“So, why don’t you?” Saffia interrupted.

“I can’t. It’s just not right. Not for either of us. I’m so… so sorry. I promise you, you’ll be okay. It’ll hurt for a while, but you’ll get better. You’ll find someone else, a real woman. Someone who will mean as much to you as Lize does.”

“How do you know?”

Kem held her at arms length for a moment, before pulling her to him and hugging her tightly. He whispered ‘goodbye’ and then walked back into the house, not looking behind him.

Epilogue Two: Arrival (II)

“What’s happening, Julia?” Saffia asked.

“The crew are waking up and running through their initial routines. They’ll be opening up their com-unit at any moment and then they’ll wake up the colonists.”

“They’re going to get a real surprise, then.”

“Well, it has been thirty years. They have to expect some advances in technology.”

Saffia glanced at the two people sitting next to her, staring intently at the screen and ignoring the conversation between the woman and the avatar. For one, it was going to be a moment of redemption and forgiveness, after thirty years and her eyes were shining brightly with tears, the sunlight glinting off her silver-grey hair. For the other, it was a chance to see a person he had heard about often from his mother and step-mother, but never actually met.

There was an electronic crackle as the communications line opened and then a man, whose voice hadn’t been heard for thirty years, spoke.

“This is Commander Wess Harland of the colony ship Nicholas Bateman. We have arrived at the planet. Our AI is reporting no malfunctions on board and we are ready to commence waking the passengers.”

“Commander Harland, this is Chief Executive Julia AI. Congratulations on your successful journey. If you’d switch on your in-board cameras, we’ll be able to communicate better.”

There was a short, sharp imprecation from Harland and a muttered command to have the AI re-check for malfunctions.

“Don’t worry, Commander. We made a breakthrough in communications technology that allowed instantaneous messaging five years ago. Please switch on your in-board cameras.”

There was another electronic fuzz and then a small window on the holo screen appeared, showing the interior of the flight deck of the ship, as well as a very surprised, not to mention tousle-headed, Commander Harland.

“Has a decision been made about what to call the new planet?”

“Not yet, we’ve made a shortlist and we’ll be polling the colonists. We should have a final decision before too long.”

As she talked to Harland, Julia also continued talking to Saffia and the others.

“They’re waking up the passengers now. Do you want to see?” Julia asked.

“Yes please,” Anji said.

A second window opened up, showing the colonists as they were woken, most seemed to be drunk, weaving about or slumped against the bulkheads, but they were slowly recovering from the effects of the enforced thirty year sleep.

The three of them scanned the image carefully. Suddenly, Anji pointed to a woman with long, scarlet hair.

“Is that him?” she asked.

Julia tightened the focus and, sure enough, the familiar features that Saffia had never forgotten once in the last thirty years sprang into view.

“He looks so young,” she said, feeling the tears start to fall. This time, however, they differed to the tears she shed the last time she had seen that face. This time they were tears of happiness.

***

It was a blazing hot day on Secunda, the planet that had been known as Gamma-Six. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The grass was tall, thick and lush. Bees and insects buzzed around busily from plant to plant. It was an almost perfect idyll.

Suddenly, the silence was shattered as a silver-grey dart speared through the air. It slowed and finally came to a halt, hovering ten metres above the ground. Gently, it came to rest and for a few minutes everything was silent. A dark rectangle appeared in the flank of the landing-ship and slid away, allowing steps to unfold. People slowly started to disembark, looking around in amazement and wonder. Some of the last to leave the ship were a tall, well-built, handsome man with deep-set eyes and a rather short, slender woman with shoulder length scarlet hair. She stood at the bottom of the steps, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Now this was fresh air. Rae Cowley called to her and she opened her eyes again and looked around. Kem Logan smiled happily. At long last, she was home.

THE END.