Archon's Queen (40 page)

Anna exhaled on it, making it chirp.

“All right then, you’re not intoxicated. Do you need assistance?”

“Been awake almost twenty hours, constable… Just comin’ ‘ome.”

“Which one’s yours?”

She gave James’s door number. “It’s not my flat. I live with my boyfriend.”

Electronic noises came from another constable a few yards away as he looked her up in the system. He gave a nonchalant nod to his partner, who relaxed. Her file was still clean.

Minutes later, she wobbled up to Doctor Mardling’s door and hit the buzzer. The greyish-white panel slid to the side, revealing a bare chested and weary James Mardling in long flannel pajamas. The delirious frown became a smile at who had stolen him from sleep at five in the morning.

“James! I need help!” She all but tackled him through the door. “They’ve taken Faye. They’re going to kidnap Penny and Spawny as well if I don’t do what they ask.”

He rubbed his eyes. “Calm yourself, Anna. The girl should be able to go home now.”

“You made him confess?”

“Of course.” He chuckled. “Men like that do not develop a conscience at random and give themselves up.” James’s grin fell flat. “I had half a mind to make him embellish what he’d done to her, but his collection of holo-disks could not hold a candle to my imagination. That little friend of yours was not his first.”

Anna fumed. “You should’ve let me kill him.”

He patted her shoulder. “The girl whacked him over the head with a porcelain cat to get away. Gave him a slight bump, less than he deserved; however, I suspect he will get far worse in jail. You need some sleep.”

“James, there’s no time.” She pulled on him. “They took Faye!”

“You… need… sleep.”

His words echoed through her mind in a repeating circle. The next thing Anna knew, she was on the couch under a blanket, boots and socks off. The overcast gloom from the windows offered little clue as to the hour. Fog hung between her ears. She sat up and stretched, momentarily confused by weak red lines around her ankles. Her finger traced the mark, and soreness brought everything back in flashes. Anna bounded to her feet and sprinted towards shifting blue-orange light in the rear hallway.

James sat at a desk of gleaming silver and glass, manipulating images of blobs, atoms, and bits of brain. Holograms floated, twisting and growing as his fingers brushed the light. He was working, though almost everything hovering there went way over her head.

She swooned into the doorframe and wiped her eyes. “What time is it?”

He swiveled around to face her, smiling at the sight of her. “A touch past noon.”

“Oh, shit. Faye…”

On his feet before she could fall, James guided her to a small green bench at the back of his office and took a seat next to her, holding her hands together.

“You were utterly exhausted. Take a breath and tell me what happened.”

“I went back to Coventry Tower to get Faye. I saw a news bit about that nonce confessing, and wanted to bring her home, but the CSB took her.”

“What?” James let go of her and leapt up, pacing. “Why the devil would they do that? It makes no sense for them to pay attention to a small girl. She is neither a political matter nor psionic.”

Anna recounted her brief abduction. The retelling of it sounded lifeless in her woozy state. Nonetheless, the more she talked, the redder James got. By the time she reached to the point where she’d come to on the boat, the look in his eyes was terrifying. He seemed to take notice of her fear and forced a disingenuous smile. She went to him, clinging.

“They want me to kill this man. They said if I did it, they’d leave me off the register. If I don’t, they’ll take Faye, and Penny, and Spawny and shut them away somewhere forever.”

He pondered, at last shaking his head. “No, I doubt they will harm your little friend. We should step up my plan to relocate.”

“James… I can’t just leave her to them, Gordon told me they could do whatever they wanted. They will kill her, I know it… and I can’t leave Penny in Coventry.” Her head returned to his shoulder. “You’ve saved me from that awful place… I want to go with you, but I can’t leave her there.”

Doctor Mardling glanced at the wall. “Lord Thompson is a moderate. He is pushing an agenda of more lenient treatment of psionics. Rumor is that his son has the gift, but no one has proved or disproved it. He represents a true possibility for change, Anna. If he were to die, it could spell disaster for every psionic in the UK.”

“I don’t want to kill him, but what choice do I have? I’m not sure leaving Britain is a good idea… it’s all I’ve ever known.”

“As much as it pains me to leave”―he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper―“it is my home too, after all”―he raised his voice―“it would be less risky for us all.”

“How do you figure that?” Anna gripped the carpet with her toes, feeling lost.

“In the Colonies, the government does not possess the insufferable paranoia of King William. They have psionic constables as well. It would be far easier to get on there and not arouse undue suspicion. Would you not find it a lesser task not to have to hide your nature?”

“Colony? You mean the UCF?” Anna tilted her head.

“Is that what they call themselves now?” James rolled his eyes. “Certainly the little girl is better off in custody than on the street. She is not psionic, so they have no reason to harm her. You should ignore Thompson and take this opportunity to come with me where they cannot reach you. It is sad, but sometimes the world is a sad place.”

“I suppose it might be better there…” Anna wandered back to the sofa and fell on it. “I can’t toddle off to the far side of the pond and leave them in that grotty shithole. She’s always been there for me, I…”

James studied the ceiling for a moment.

“Besides, you’ve eliminated the reason Faye couldn’t return home. I don’t want to leave her to those bastards. There’s got to be something we can do!”

“Agent Gordon, is it?” His hand ran through her hair. “Perhaps there is at that…”

James scurried around his work area, knocking stacked datapads from his desk in a feverish search for a blank holodisk. He popped it into a writer and waved Anna to join him.

“Pull up that chair.”

She padded over, sitting as close as she could. James rested one hand on the optical writer and cradled the other around her head. The warmth on the back of her neck made her shiver.

“Doctor Mardling―”

“James,” he said, smiling.

She glanced down, matching his smile and blushing. “James, what are you doing?”

“I think you should pay Thompson a visit. Now think about your meeting with that tosser, Gordon.”

His words filtered into her mind. Lightheadedness crept over her. James’s eyes seemed to glow as the room around him blurred. Once more, she was restrained in the chair, screaming at the silent echoes around her. The scene played through her memory as if on fast forward, slowing down only when Gordon spoke of his plan for her. When the remembering ceased, her consciousness returned to James’s study. She broke down in sobs, trying to rub the soreness out of her wrists.

James held her tight. “Anna, It’s okay, Anna. Everything will be just fine.”

ord Connor Thompson’s estate sat northwest of the city center, far enough removed that the land allowed a copious front lawn with a reflecting pool. Anna glanced at a massive marble statue of a man on a horse, hanging inexplicably above the water. When it shimmered into a frolicking marble nymph, she knew it to be a hologram; multi-ton statues do not float in midair. Her nerves had gotten the better of her, despite her concealment atop the brick wall. She lay flat on her stomach in the shade of a trio of huge evergreen shrubs at the corner. The perimeter barricade was wide and tall enough to hide her from patrols going past on the ground, so long as she stay prone and motionless. The swaying branches blocked direct view from the house.

For an hour, she remained still. Cold from the bricks seeped through her clothes as she studied the pattern of patrol teams circling the grounds. The rain had taken a holiday for the past two days, leaving the wall and the grounds as dry as they were likely to ever be. According to the datapad, the perimeter was rimmed with sensors, which would trigger alarms if they lost power. If she got any closer, her body heat would give her away.

A private security company operated here, each group consisted of two men and an artificial dog. She had little doubt the hound bot used nightvision and perhaps thermal; the men would be easy enough to get past, but her pseudo-invisibility did not work on things that had no brain.

She slid to the ground outside; convinced going through the yard would be foolish. Off the property, the only observation occurred at the front and rear access gates. The rear offered the best chance of entry, monitored only by a single live guard. After sneaking around the side, she crouched in the shadow of a disused stable and checked the time on her NetMini. If the information Gordon provided was accurate, a cleaning crew should arrive in minutes. Lord Thompson was a backer of the Labour Party, insisting on providing jobs to people rather than machines. Instrumental in the prohibitive bureaucracy on purchasing non-sentient dolls, he made a public show of hiring real people for every function in his estate.

A day and a half of research had taught her the schedules of everyone involved with the estate. It brought her back to her time working for Carroll. As odd as it was to plot the infiltration of a governmental residence, it made her feel alive again. She advanced as close as she could, lurking in the shadowy alcove of a building across the street, waiting. Right on time, a white van whirred into place and pulled into a tiny parking lot by the rear gate. Anna squinted at a post-mounted camera pointed at the area, sensing the electricity inside and forcing it away. Three men and three women in white jumpsuits got out. One man, the oldest looking of the lot, moved to the security booth and got into a conversation with the guard. The others gathered supplies from the rear and side doors. A short Indian woman remained at back end after unloading two wearable vacuums.

The lights on the camera winked out, attracting the attention of the guard to his booth. Anna sprinted across the street during the distraction. She ran up behind the straggler, grasping her around the neck and covering her mouth.