“Well, that right there—”
“But that’s not all there was to it,” McGinnis interrupted. “That much would have come out eventually, if there hadn’t been someone who wanted it hidden, badly enough to see to it that history was rewritten.”
“And who might that have been?” Harriet asked.
McGinnis rested the documents on the table with care. “I don’t know—if I can tell you—that.” He seemed to be struggling again, a grimace creasing his face. “I can show you what information was hidden. But by whom is… difficult.” He drew one slow breath after another, until the grimace faded. “If we had the time, I could take you through some of the ways the truth was obliterated in the public record—or altered enough that it might as well have been obliterated. But to really understand that time period… you’d have to visit a historian I know.”
Harriet cocked her head with interest.
“A Narseil. By the name of El’ken.”
Legroeder stared at McGinnis in astonishment. The Narseil historian El’ken. Even Legroeder had heard of him. “But if the Narseil were framed for the loss of the ship—”
“You won’t necessarily receive a warm welcome. Even a century later, El’ken hasn’t forgotten, or forgiven. The breach has never really healed. But for reasons of his research, El’ken lives here in this system, out in the first belt. Asteroid named Arco Iris. I’ll give you a reference, if you like.”
“But why would someone go to such trouble to discredit the Narseil? It makes no sense.”
McGinnis, eyebrows raised, seemed about to nod in agreement; then his movement froze, and he squeezed his eyes shut in obvious pain. A warbling chime sounded somewhere, and he seemed to be struggling against an urge to turn his head.
Harriet reached out her hand. “Mr. McGinnis—”
“No,” he whispered, his face pale. The chime continued, insistently. McGinnis stood up awkwardly. “If you’ll… excuse me… for just a moment…”
Legroeder felt an inexplicable urge to reach out, to stop him. He felt his hands clench as McGinnis disappeared into the hallway. A moment later, he heard the sound of a door locking.
He and Harriet stared at each other. Legroeder’s heart was hammering; he didn’t know why. He swallowed and picked up the Fandrang report again. Across the table, Harriet did likewise. But neither of them could read long without their gazes being drawn to the back of the room.
Robert McGinnis locked the door to his office and tested it with a shaking hand, then lowered himself into his desk chair. He drew a slow breath as he turned on the neural-interface panel. His head was throbbing from the inner struggle. The chime had been a summons from his security monitor. He was under assault, this time not just from his own implants, but from the outside. The enemy had been blocking his outside transmissions earlier; now they were trying to force their own way in through his security shields. Not a physical attack, of course. No, this was much worse…
There was so much he had wanted to say… about criminals in government, and the Kyber, and their meddling with all of space commerce… but he couldn’t risk, because the barrier he’d built between his thoughts and the implants was beginning to fail. And now it was too late to say it directly to Legroeder and Mahoney. But perhaps there was another way.
This was all happening far faster than he’d anticipated. The enemy must have glimpsed enough through his mental barriers to at least suspect his intentions. Now they would do everything in their power to stop him—everything short of revealing themselves to the rest of the world. But he, McGinnis, was expendable. This was the battle he had been dreading. A battle to the death.
It was a battle he could not hope to win. The augments had always been stronger, but he had been protected by their owners’ desire for secrecy, and their belief that he would remain valuable as a guardian of information, and a powerful agent at need. He doubted they cared much about his value now.
But perhaps he could still win the war. For himself. For those two out there. For the rest of civilized space. For his last thirty years of effort.
// Open link… access requested… //
Denied. Denied. Denied.
The noise level in his skull was ballooning. He could feel the rictus on his face, the twitching of his eyes. If he could just keep control a little longer… keep the compartments of his mind separate, the barrier between the artificial and the natural, the augment and the McGinnis. If he could keep the implanted chips at bay long enough to get his guests out of here and the information with them… before the intruding signal took command and turned him, as he knew it would, into a machine that would ruthlessly kill the very people he was trying to help…
And long enough for one more thing.
To find a way to preserve the information in his own thoughts… in spite of the tremendous power of the augments. He heard Rufus barking somewhere outside, was aware of Rufus’s presence at the edges of his mind, the chips that he himself had implanted in his dog, linked to his own. Rufus, he thought, can I do this to you? It would be risky; it could kill the dog. But what else could he do?
He could feel the augments searching like a roving eye, trying to discover what he was doing. I’m sorry, boy. Whatever happens… I need you to do this for me… one last service…
He made an adjustment on the interface board, hesitated only a moment, then closed the circuit. With one part of his mind, he felt a projection channel opening into the living room. In another part, he felt a burring sensation, and then something that felt like great stores of grain slipping away, down a long, long shaft…
Legroeder was not even aware of the sound of the dog barking in the distance until he heard a sudden yelp—and the barking abruptly stopped. Then he heard a loud, sharp voice:
“You must leave at once!”
Legroeder looked up with a start and saw a holoimage of McGinnis standing in front of the fireplace. A faint flicker of the fire could be seen through the image of the man.
“What’s wrong?” Legroeder asked.
“You must leave at once!” the image of McGinnis repeated. “You are no longer safe here!”
Legroeder and Harriet exchanged alarmed glances.
“Excuse me,” Harriet said. “We can’t leave. Our flyer is disabled.”
The image faltered for a moment. “Christ, that’s right.” It seemed to freeze, and then spoke again. “Take my flyer! I’m releasing the controls to you now. But go. GO! Take this cube and take all the documents and HURRY!” With that, the image blinked out.
A small compartment opened in the top of the coffee table. In it was a datacube half the size of a human fist.
Legroeder stared at it in astonishment and indecision, then snatched up the cube. “Gather the documents!” he commanded, jumping to his feet. Pocketing the cube, he hurried to the door. He peered cautiously up and down the hallway. “McGinnis!” he shouted. “McGinnis, do you need help?” There were several closed doors. Did he dare go searching? You are no longer safe.
“Take the documents and go!” boomed McGinnis’s voice again, from hidden speakers. “If you delay, you’ll lose everything!”
Legroeder cursed, returning to Harriet. “I don’t know what kind of trouble he’s in, but I don’t think we can help him. Let’s do what he says. Let’s get this packed up!”