“Shouldn’t you two be planning your new invasion of Earth?”
Harley waved a dismissive hand. “Zhao’s got that, don’t worry.”
“When do you launch?”
Harley looked at Jaidev. “Four hours,” the engineer from India said. He seemed worn down, far older than his years. Planning invasions must do that to a man.
“You don’t seem all that enthusiastic.”
Jaidev flopped down on the chair across from Harley. “Too many unknowns.”
Jaidev had never had much time for Dale Scott, and vice versa. Dale found the ISRO man arrogant and too certain that he was the smartest individual in the habitat. Jaidev no doubt found Dale too irreverent and untrustworthy.
Nothing had happened to change that . . . yet here he was, apparently open to a conversation. So Dale ventured a question: “Such as whether to send Sanjay Bhat?”
Now Harley Drake sat down, too.
The Sanjay situation was the secondary cause for Dale’s pique: His time with the Revenant had been brutally cut short. They had just managed to make a connection, some bizarre link through Keanu, Dale believed. But then Zhao had a question, and while that was being dealt with, Sanjay’s girlfriend interrupted the whole affair.
Not that Dale had anything against women. Being too attentive to women had hurt him in the military, at NASA and pretty much everywhere he’d gone. Hell, he could make the argument he wouldn’t have wound up on Keanu if not for his involvement with Valya Makarova in Bangalore.
But he preferred women who understood the larger realities. Such as the fact that her boyfriend had actually been killed. Whatever relationship they had had was over, defunct, history. Maren whatever-her-name-was had no further claim on Sanjay’s time—or his heart.
Especially since, as Dale and everyone knew . . . his time was limited. Like all Revenants, the man had been reborn for a specific purpose, to communicate a message . . . not to play kissy-face.
Harley smiled. “What do you think, Dale? Knowing what you do, would you send him?”
Dale’s impulse was to say, Absolutely—this in spite of his eagerness to work with Sanjay. But he wanted to see what cards Jaidev and Harley would play. “What do you two want?”
“I’m for it,” Harley said. “Jaidev is a big negative.”
Dale turned to Jaidev. “Why?”
The engineer shifted in his chair, as if he resented being questioned by an outcast. “We’ve spent too much time training the team. The vesicle is smaller than the ones we flew in; resources are strained.”
“Oh, come on, you’ve got the magic printers and Keanu tech!” Dale said. “You’re going to send this thing to Earth on a fast burn, right? It’s not going to take four days. That’s a false argument.”
Drake laughed. “He’s got you there, Jay.”
“All right,” Jaidev said. “I’m not sure Sanjay can be trusted.”
“He could be a Reiver-powered Revenant?”
“Something like that.”
“That’s unlikely to the point of non-existence,” Dale said. “Even less likely than the chances that your two ships are going to take down the Reivers on Earth.”
Jaidev sat up straighter, as if Dale had just poked him. Good; now he’s paying attention. “We think we have a good chance—”
“Or we wouldn’t be risking it,” Harley finished.
“Look,” Dale said, “I’m arguing against my own interests here—”
“What possible interest could you have in this?” Jaidev spat. “You’ve been off in the wilderness for sixteen years! A week ago I wanted you in jail, and I’m still not sure that’s where you shouldn’t be!”
Harley Drake, who had turned into a mature man of reason during the past twenty years, placed a soothing hand on Jaidev’s arm. “We talked about this, Jay. We were wrong to lock him up—”
“And no good at it, if you’ll recall,” Dale said.
“Dale knew things we didn’t,” Harley said. “And I think he still does.” He faced Dale. “Continue, please.”
“I know the history of the Revenants as well as anyone,” Dale said. “They were always sent as communicators. They always had a purpose. Sanjay’s purpose is to help you with your invasion. It can’t be anything else.”
“Not to talk us out of it?” Jaidev said.
“Has he?”
“No,” the engineer said. “But he hasn’t offered any particular insights, either.” He frowned. “You were the one who said the Reivers might be building some big damn weapon. Shouldn’t Sanjay be telling us if it exists, where it is, how we can beat it?”
“Maybe,” Dale said. “Or maybe Keanu knows it’s nothing to worry about . . . that you already have the ability to evade it or destroy it.”
Jaidev closed his eyes briefly. “This is all guesswork.”
Now Harley slid forward. “And this is what I’ve been trying to tell you,” he said to Jaidev. “Military operations aren’t engineering. There are never any certainties; the figures never add up.”
“‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy,’” Dale said, surprised that he remembered the old quote from Air Command and Staff College.
“All you can do is make the best plans—which we have—then trust your instincts.” He turned to Dale again. “And my instinct says, go with Sanjay. One thing we can be sure of is that Keanu or the Architects don’t like the Reivers. Why would they bring our man back if not to get rid of them?”
Jaidev stood up. “I’m still not sure.”
“You’ll never be sure,” Harley said. “You want a vote?”
Jaidev snorted. “On the principle that ten average people are smarter than one brilliant one? No, thanks.”
“So what are you going to do?” Dale called after him.
Jaidev turned just long enough to say, “You’ll find out.” Then he pointed to Harley. “And get him out of here.”
“Since when did you become Jaidev’s errand boy?”
Harley was escorting Dale to the passage that led to the tunnel.
“I can see where you might think that,” Harley said, with the smooth, unexcited manner that had served him so well at NASA. “But we voted, and it was unanimous.”
“Get me out of the habitat.”
“Call it taking you back where you really want to be.”
“Even after you picked my brain about Sanjay.”
“I can welcome your opinion, especially when I agree with it, even as I dislike your presence.”
“You’re a complicated man, Drake. Or confused.”
“Cautious.”
They were almost at the exit. Dale knew he could sneak back in any time he wanted; Harley and Jaidev knew that, too. But it would just make it difficult, and given the pressure of time, impossible to take action in a situation like that. “I really need to talk to Sanjay.”
“Not going to happen.”
“He’s a Revenant, goddammit, Harley. And you know I’ve got my own connection to Keanu.”
“Good for you and so what?”
Dale grabbed Harley’s shoulders. “He felt it. I felt it! It means something.”
“It means shit. For God’s sake, one of you is twenty minutes out of the Beehive and the other is . . . dizzy from hunger and not right in the head.”
Rather than slam Harley against the nearest wall, Dale let go of him. “You’re so fucking wrong—”
“No,” Harley said. “You had your say and I listened. But don’t push it. Our whole survival—maybe even the future of the human race—depends on what we do, so it has to be right. You opted out of it a long time ago, and you can’t just walk back in now . . . not with some mumbo jumbo about communion with Keanu. It’s not happening.”
Dale was already walking away. Fuck Harley, fuck Jaidev.
Fuck them all.