“So, that means they don’t care for the cargoes?”
The briefer glanced at Mack, with a slight smile.
“They do care for the cargoes, but they have remotely piloted drones and retrieval bots capable of operating at a low-level of autonomy to handle them. Most of the bots are ground only, and the drones act as deterrents for any of the canyons’ denizens that might want to use them for their own amusement.”
“They do that?” Cutter seemed intrigued, sitting forward to study the creatures on the screen.
To Delight’s interest, Mack didn’t try to pull Cutter back. He just kept quiet watch on her…and the rest of the room.
The briefer nodded.
“The cats do,” she confirmed. “They might be made of crystal, but they do like to play with things until they stop moving.”
Cutter nodded, settling back under Mack’s arm, and appearing quite at home, there.
Those two do have it bad, Delight observed.
“So why not just send the automated retrieval in after this cargo?” she asked.
“Because the automatons can’t defend a living package from the creatures,” the briefer answered. “In order to retrieve the child, they had to send in someone who could fly fast, negotiate the air currents and the canyon itself and deal with any creatures it didn’t see in time to dodge.”
“What d’you mean deal with the creatures?” Delight asked.
“I mean the Crystal Canyon flyers aren’t just known for their fast flying. Whatever triggered their ability to discern the shifts of refraction that enables them to discern the difference between crystal wall and crystal critter, also triggered latent defensive abilities.”
“Such as…” Mack sounded worried, and Delight didn’t blame him; she was pretty worried herself.
“Some have slightly modified vocal cords and throat structures that enable them to project a wave of sound capable of shattering crystal.”
“Banshees?”
Delight rolled her eyes. Trust Cutter to ask the ridiculous.
“That is what the corporations call them.” The briefer didn’t bat an eye. “They are rare and tend to be identified early, given an infant’s inability to discern a reasonable demand.”
That caused a chuckle from those in the room who had children, and the briefer’s lips flickered upward in response.
“And the others?” Cutter wanted to know, and Delight stifled another groan.
Now? The girl has to show an interest, now?
“The others have a psychic ability to do the same,” the briefer answered, “But how they manage it varies. Some are telekinetic, agitating the air around their enemies in a destructive burst…or agitating the crystal making up their enemies’ bodies, and others exert a form of control or confusion over the creatures.”
“So, what is it?” Cutter snarked. “Control or confusion?”
“The companies don’t appear to have documented that, yet…or, if they have, the data isn’t where we can reach it.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Hence Penny’s presence on Togaresh, Delight thought. It’s not just for her health.
It never was, and she knew that, but Pen had done the hard yards, and Delight had hoped the company was letting the agent lie low without risking her refuge.
And, if it was you, would you expect the same? she asked herself, already knowing the answer.
Just as Odyssey agents didn’t… She glanced at Mack with a sneer of distaste…usually get to retire, so they rarely had leave or any quiet moments where they weren’t helping humanity make some kind of advance against its more evil tendencies.
It’s what most of them signed up for.
And many continued the battle for lifetimes longer than most humans ever chose to live.
Like me, she thought, and shoved the thought away, but couldn’t stop her mind from adding, Or Jeremy.
“Your mission…” The words snapped her attention back to the briefing, and she realized just how much of Odyssey’s creature she’d become. The mission was all.
The briefer continued on oblivious. “Your mission is to find the flyer and find Penny Blackworth and secure them…and to do that before the corporations of Togaresh can.”
Delight frowned. What had she missed?
“And why is that?” Cutter asked.
Delight relaxed. If Cutter was asking then Mack’s apprentice had missed the same thing she had.
“Because the flyer found the child, rescued it, then vanished into the canyons.”
“But why would she do that?” Cutter continued.
“From what Penny could hack of her orders, the flyer was supposed to verify the wreckage and the absence of survivors. The flyer reached the crash site, then didn’t call back in.”
“And you think it was because she found the child.” Mack put in.
“And rescued it,” the briefer repeated, “Which, if the parents were who their samples say they were would have signed the flyer’s death warrant, since the companies can’t afford for that kind of asset or information to get out.”
Tens sighed, sounding tired. “Perhaps if you’d tell us who the parents were?”
The briefer shook her head. “Their names would mean nothing to you…”
“Try me.” Tens delivered the instruction in tones that brooked no refusal.
The briefer glanced at Delight, and she nodded.
With this crew it was always best to give them the data. ‘A’, because it would stop them from going looking for it themselves, and both Tens and Cutter were more than capable of ripping into Odyssey’s databases if they thought it necessary; and B because they sometimes brought something to the party Odyssey didn’t know they needed.
“Professors Jamie McDonald and Anita Curtis-McDonald,” the briefer provided.
Delight saw when Tens stilled, but the briefer missed the cue.
“They were leading experts in—” she began, but Tens cut her off.
“The genetic heritage and legacy of psi, and crystal tech,” he provided.
“You knew of them?” The briefer sounded as astonished as Delight felt.
“I knew them,” Tens confirmed, his eyes bleak. “This is not the end I would have wished for either.”
It made Delight wonder who these people had been to him…and how far back in his past, because both Tens and Mack went back to when Odyssey had been Oberon and possibly before, and she’d never heard of the professors.
How much before? she wondered, but didn’t ask. There were more important matters afoot.
“Did the flyer know?” she asked, and the briefer gave her a solemn nod.
“From what our agent on the ground has been able to glean, the flyer was one of their more experienced assets...and would have been well aware of what the discovery of the child meant for her future.”
“They’d have killed her?” Cutter was shocked, then she narrowed her eyes. “So, these companies, they’re not much better than you are?”
Mack grimaced and tightened his arm around the woman. He was scowling slightly and Delight stifled a chuckle.
However smitten the man was, there were still some things he didn’t find endearing about the girl.
Cutter drove her elbow into his ribs, then winced, since Mack’s body armor wasn’t forgiving. Tens snickered, and Cutter’s scowl grew deeper, making Delight wonder just how much trouble the girl was going to be.
“To answer your question, the companies on Togaresh are much less morally inclined,” the briefer answered. “They would have terminated the flyer to eliminate the risk of any knowledge of the professors’ child from leaking.”
“But…why?” There was anguish in Cutter’s voice and Delight couldn’t blame her.
She was feeling a little upset herself, not horrified, per se; she’d seen too many variations of humanity’s cruelty to its own for that, but disappointed to find such ruthless ethics in a company Odyssey had helped get its start. Odyssey needed to fix it, even if she didn’t know how.
“We’ll deal with them,” she said, surprised to find herself reassuring Cutter.
The girl gave her a jaded look, and Delight returned her attention to the briefer.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand the girl’s attitude, but that didn’t mean she had to like it—and her patience was growing thin.
“Do we know where the flyer is?” she asked, appearing to ignore the roll of Cutter’s eyes, but slipping into her implant. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it.”
