That sinks in. We experienced how dangerous the crystal is when it feels it’s in danger.
Joe says. “If they carved off samples…”
Inevitably we all look Kumar’s way. “Please continue,” he says. “This is new to me.”
Ulyanova resumes. “Around what is left of tractor, we find four of our dead and both Wait Staff. One visitor is in pieces, turned glass—other badly injured. Soon, he, too, is dead. All are covered in powder. Two soldiers are also glass.”
DJ taps his head, then looks to me. “Hear any other Russians?”
“No.” I watch the starshina.
“We carry remains to another tractor. Not touch pieces. Then—one last bolt. My helm loses suck. I breathe powder and blood before troopers put me in safety bag.”
Litvinov looks haggard. “Unique orders from orbit,” he says. “Collect all dead. Collect visitor body. Nobody allowed to inspect.”
“Gurus,” Kumar says.
“But they look human!” Vera says.
“They usually present as one form,” Kumar says. “But can easily look human if they wish. Master Sergeant Venn has seen at least one such. However, I believe nobody, until that moment, had ever seen a dead Guru.”
“If they can be whatever they want to be,” Jacobi says, “they can look like a corpse, right? Fake us out?”
“And this one had turned glass, anyway,” Ishida reminds us.
A brief pause as we absorb more awkward implications.
“What would the tea do to them?” DJ asks. “They’re not part of our old family, like Antags—or are they?”
Nobody wanders up that sidetrack, but I’ve already figured it out. The crystals and the tea can be adjusted to do more than just absorb enemies. It can also link them into the bug network, with none of the advantages. A deep and dangerous espionage.
“Did Mushran arrange all that?” Borden asks Kumar. “Was there a plan to expose Gurus and humans to the tea together? To get a Guru to turn glass?”
Kumar considers. “I cannot deny that such a plan was a possibility, but I was not told of it, even after I arrived on Mars.”
“What happened to the casualties? The Wait Staff bodies?” Ishikawa asks.
“They were shuttled to Earth,” Litvinov says.
“More shit to turn Virginia Beach into black glass,” DJ says.
“Sacrificing Russians!” Litvinov adds, giving DJ a warning glare.
Kumar folds his arms and grips his elbows, as if he’s suddenly cold. “That must be when Ulyanova became important to the Antagonists,” he says. Admirably restating the obvious, or just bringing the point home to slow Skyrines?
We don’t bring back our dead. Scrap and stain forever. What changed, and who changed it? I try to imagine Ulyanova and Litvinov’s Russian troops on the Red, traveling in the presence of Gurus who look human—with a box full of Ice Moon Tea. Close, breathing the same air. Going into a trap designed to mix them all together, just to see what happens. Was Joe already involved? Conspiring with rebel Antags to undercut Wait Staff on both sides, screwing with those monsters who found advantage in sending us far, far out to fight and die? Joe would have loved that. A real upgrade.
But I don’t interrupt.
“Is Mushran really dead?” Ishida asks.
“He was in our Oscar,” DJ says. “I didn’t see him after we were dumped into the tanks.”
“Nobody saw him after that,” Litvinov says.
“Maybe he was a Guru after all,” Ishida says.
“Not possible,” Kumar says.
“How would you have known?” Ishida asks.
Kumar looks away. “Perhaps I would not,” he admits.
My thoughts are almost too dense and rapid to hold on to, so I keep my attention on Ulyanova. The starshina seems to be warming to her situation as a strategic asset.
“You’ve known about this how long?” I ask Joe.
“Parts of it since last season,” he says. “After I sent you home. But not the Guru bits.”
“Planned it?”
“Not me,” Joe says.
“Very likely, Mushran and a very few others in Division Four,” Kumar says.
“But not you?” Jacobi asks.
“Not me,” Kumar says.
Back to Joe. “You returned to Earth for a few months,” I say, “but avoided me—I was in Madigan, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you hopped a command shuttle to Mars. Who arranged that?”
“You saved the coin we found in the first Drifter,” Joe says. “Hidden up your ass, as I recall. I took it back to Mars to open the second Drifter station. But for some reason, you seem to think I’ve been deceptive.” He gets right up in my face. My turn to feel the burn. “Maybe you were the one who drew me in!”
“Fuck you,” I say.
“Shut it,” Borden says.
“We’ve known each other since day two, Vinnie, when I helped bury your fucking secrets. Look at me! I’m as confused and twisted as you are,” Joe says, then backs off. “You give me way too much credit.”
Borden pulls her way up between us. “Let’s put two and two together,” she says. “Mushran had to establish several things. One was that the Antags actually had their own Gurus—the ones they call Keepers—and that they were substantially the same as ours, maybe working to the same ends. He kept Kumar out of that loop. Kumar’s job was to track Wait Staff and Gurus on Earth, figure out how they were reacting. Right?”
“That is so,” Kumar says.
“Even before that, Mushran needed to confirm that the tea really gave you and Johnson and Kazak access to special knowledge and didn’t just make you see stuff. With that confirmation, Kumar and I arranged to get you out of Madigan and back to Mars.
“After Mushran had established an element of trust with rebel Antags, he told them what had happened to some of our Skyrines. In turn, they relayed to him that they, too, were aware of the crystal archives.”
DJ cocks his head. “We’re like detectives in the last chapter of a fucking mystery!”
This actually draws out a smile from Borden, the first we’ve seen in a while.
“We could use some more clues,” Ishida says. We’ve forgotten that not everyone in our group has the big picture, but now is not the time to fill in those details, and maybe they’ll pick them up as we move forward.
“On Titan, the one you call Bird Girl was channeling an Antag who turned glass. Isn’t that how it works?”
Makes sense to DJ and me.
“Keepers probably relayed that intelligence to Gurus on Earth,” she says. “Division Four noticed that Wait Staff and Gurus were paying lots more attention to suspicious communications, looking for exchanges between humans and Antags.” She looks to Kumar.
Kumar says, “When we weren’t doing our best to kill each other.”
“But how did Division Four, or the Antags, learn that Gurus could be hooked in?” I ask.
“I am not sure Mushran knew that was possible,” Kumar says.
“So it was just dumb luck?” Jacobi asks.
“I don’t think so,” Joe says, hot on the trail. Watching him, I remember what he was like as a teenager, and have my doubts he is deep in the conspiracy. After all, the source of my only info on these matters is the Guru at Madigan—and Gurus lie, right? “The rebel Antags must have discovered that the tea could link their soldiers to Keepers—give them access to shit from deep inside a Keeper’s mind, no filters, no sham. Gurus feared that prospect more than having humans dialed into ancient history. Mushran may have then set in motion the encounter on Mars.”
Joe grabs my shoulder and spins me around. I’m being grabbed a lot lately, but I don’t resist. Maybe I deserve this. “You’ve been blaming me since you came back from Madigan,” he says. “And maybe I knew stuff I couldn’t tell you right away. I put you into play, sure. But I never got clued into the big picture, just bits and pieces—orders with thin or no explanations. I doubt Mushran ever trusted any Skyrine. At the beginning, I had no idea you’d be so important. But it made things a lot easier.”