The doctor clearly wanted to thaw Ludendorff, something Maddox had no intention of doing. It had taken too much work to gain control of the professor. He wasn’t going to give Ludendorff a second chance. He didn’t like to give false hopes to anyone. Sometimes, though, any kind of hope was better than none at all. Especially if that motivated the person to do what Maddox wanted them to do.
“It may come down to thawing Ludendorff,” the captain said, “depending on what you find with Meta.”
Dana raised her eyebrows. “I’ll do it then,” she said.
Maddox nodded. Could he finally discover the identity of the mysterious teacher?
***
As Dana spoke quietly, Meta closed her eyes, trying to relax as she lay on a couch. It bothered her that anyone had ever been able to twist her thoughts. She also hated having been Kane’s captive for so long. It was something she’d been trying to forget. She kept wondering if Maddox secretly held it against her.
“Meta,” Dana said.
“Hmm…?”
“I’m going to ask you a few questions. It doesn’t matter how you answer.”
“Okay.”
“This is just between you and me. We’ve been friends a long time in rough situations. We’ve always known that we had each other’s back.”
“That’s true,” Meta said in a sleepy voice.
Dana began to drone on. She touched on topics they both enjoyed. The doctor spoke about Loki Prime, asked some questions about the frigid weather on Wolf Prime and drifted to the journey through space with Kane.
Meta felt herself slipping into a half-awake state. If anyone other than Dana had been doing this, she would have resisted. It seemed as if she dreamed in a hazy sort of way. The questions became more troubling. Meta’s brow furrowed as her memories returned to the star cruiser in Wolf Prime orbit.
The deadly ship had seemed empty, which Meta had found strange at the time. Per Lomax had been so arrogant. He’d become angry with Kane much too easily. It had been bizarre.
Dana’s voice droned on in Meta’s ear. Her memories took her back to the star cruiser. Meta moved down a corridor to the teacher’s chamber. Then, everything became hazy and indistinct.
Fear welled up in Meta. She cried out on the couch.
“No, no, don’t be afraid,” a friendly woman said.
“I am, though,” Meta said. She no longer realized the voice belonged to Dana. The knowledge had become dream-indistinct. “I hate this place.”
“Why do you fear?”
“He’s going to enter my mind,” Meta said. “He’s going to twist my thoughts.”
“Who is?”
“The teacher. I hate him. He’s a vile manipulator.”
“Would you like to punch him in the face?”
“I would love that,” Meta said. “Even better, I’d like to break his scrawny neck.”
“How can you do that if you don’t know what he looks like?”
“That’s right,” Meta said. “That’s a good point.”
“Keep walking down the corridor. Go to the teacher so you can see what he looks like.”
Meta cringed. “No…please don’t make me go there.”
“No one is going to make you. You’re doing this in order to trick him.”
“I don’t understand,” Meta said.
“You’re the assassin. You can pretend better than anyone can. You’ll get to know him, his habits—”
“I don’t want to be a secret killer,” Meta said, interrupting. “It hurts too much.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to go home. I want to be with Maddox. I don’t want to have these awful feelings inside me anymore.”
“I know how to make the bad feelings go away.”
“Tell me, please,” Meta pleaded. “I’ll do anything to get rid of them.”
“You have to take a good hard look at the teacher. Then you’re going to tell me what he looks like, and I’ll tell Maddox.”
“What will the captain do about it?” Meta asked.
“What do you think the captain will do?”
On the couch, Meta smiled savagely. “Maddox will kill the teacher.”
“The teacher’s death will free you from the bad feelings.”
“Do you really think so?” Meta asked in a timid voice.
There was a pause that seemed to lengthen. Could the speaker be hesitating? “Yes, Meta. The teacher’s death will free you from the bad feelings. I’m certain.”
“Okay,” Meta whispered. “I’ll try to look at the manipulator one more time.”
And she did. Meta slid down the tube of her memories, down, down, down to the time in the star cruiser. She found herself walking down a corridor, approaching an evil hatch. The corridors were gleaming silver, so bright, so very bright. Her steps slowed. She didn’t want to go in there.
Then, the hatch slid open into darkness. The teacher stepped out of the darkness into the silver light. In that moment, Meta could see him, and she described the man to Dana.
The teacher wore Earth clothes, a bent old man in a suit. He held a cane with a quivering, wrinkled hand. His head seemed too heavy for his frail frame. The skin looked waxy as if it belonged to a mannequin. The blue eyes were alive with burning curiosity, however. A New Man stepped up behind the oldster, waiting. The New Man wore a silver suit, and he obeyed the frail human, acting instantly at each grumbled command.
Soon after describing the teacher, Meta fell into a deep sleep. She didn’t see Dana get up and hurry into the corridor.
***
“This doesn’t make sense,” Maddox said, after listening to Dana. “The description fits Strand, the chief of Nerva Security on Earth. What was Strand doing on a star cruiser in Wolf Prime orbit?”
“Nerva Security?” asked Dana. “Strand works for Octavian Nerva?”
“That’s right.”
“Is Strand a Methuselah Man?” Dana asked.
Maddox snapped his fingers. There was the connection with Ludendorff. Did that mean the Methuselah People worked with the New Men? Or did it mean the Methuselah People had something to do with the Thomas Moore Society colonists one hundred and fifty years ago? Had the Methuselah People initially created the beginning New Men? Why stop there? If Strand was on a star cruiser and he worked for Octavian Nerva, why couldn’t Octavian have used the Cestus Hauling Company to send secret shipments to the fledging Throne World long ago? That might explain how a tiny, cut-off colony world could expand into an industrial giant in a few generations.
“What I’d like to know,” Maddox said, “is how Strand beat us to Wolf Prime.”
“What do you mean?”
Maddox told the doctor about his run-in with Strand and Octavian in Monte Carlo before he’d left for the Oort cloud and later Wolf Prime.
“Interesting,” Dana said. “The way I see it, there’s two ways Strand could have beaten you. One, he hid on Kane’s scout, hitching a ride to Wolf Prime.”
“I’ve already thought of that,” Maddox said. “What’s the other way?”
“The Strand Meta saw was a clone of the one in Monte Carlo. You’ve told me before that Octavian Nerva keeps clone guards on his premises even though that’s against Commonwealth laws.”
Maddox sat down, staring up at the ceiling. “What do we know about the Methuselah People?” Maddox asked the doctor.
“They live longer. They seldom got colds, flus or other sicknesses, and they—”
“When I met him,” Maddox said, interrupting, “Strand was incurably sick yet he still had unnatural vitality. Is that why he helps the New Men?”
“I don’t know.”
Maddox eyed Dana as his thoughts shifted. “Would a Methuselah Man become a slarn trapper on Wolf Prime?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” the doctor said.
“That strikes me as odd. Ludendorff employing a man like Villars also seemed strange. Maybe they’ve worked with each other a long time.”
“Villars wasn’t on the original expedition when I was with the professor,” Dana said.
Maddox gave the doctor a careful scrutiny.