WSIM24B Ch. 21

WSIM 24B Chapter 21

I opened my eyes on a Halygon ship, in a stasis pod. I'd heard the soft ping which indicated that I was ready to be released from my sleep coffin.

I was quite familiar with the view by now. There was a heavy, tinted glass plate directly above my face. The rest of the pod's cover was solid, covered by digital readouts of my vital functions, monitors, timers and such. I thought that I saw movement through the face plate, but I couldn't tell for sure.

There was a second ping, followed by a series of short beeps, as someone activated the release. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the gloating face - or faces - of Captain Teck's crew. The pod lid lifted... and I blinked - twice.

- "Pilgrim." she said, softly.

- "Nika?"

- "You're safe. We're both safe."

***

Colonel Renfro was there, too, with a squad of armed ISEC agents and Halygon techs. They'd taken Captain Teck from his pod, cuffed and blindfolded him. Then they took him away.

- "Welcome back, son." he said to me.

- "Where... where are we?"

- "On Attica - the planet you left from. Thanks to Nika, here. I'll let her explain it to you, while I have a few words with Teck. You just rest easy, and let the medtechs run a few tests. I'll see you back at the base."

- "Yes, Sir." And with that, he was off.

I looked up, to see Nika smiling back at me.

"I thought you were dead." I said.

- "I thought I was, too. But then... wait - let the medtechs work. I'll tell you everything as soon as they're done."

- "We're really safe."

- "Yes, we are." Nika laid her hand on my shoulder, and squeezed it gently.

Then she stepped back to let the techs do their thing. I don't know what they were testing for that the stasis pod wouldn't reveal, but it was best to just lie back and enjoy the moment.

I'd thought that I was about to be humiliated, tortured, and finally killed. I'd expected Tasha, or Will, or Faraz, to open my pod, with Anna and Teck smirking in the background. For months I'd been trying not to dwell on it, or to imagine what they might do to me - but I have plenty of imagination.

The techs stuck sensors on my forehead, on my chest, in my mouth and in my ears. Fortunately, they couldn't reach my ass while I was in the pod.

Fortunato. Lucky. I had to start thinking in standard English again, rather than Italian or Spanish. I was still alive - and 22 years old again. At least, my body was; in my head, I was 47. And a widower. The former Duke of Valentinois, and Duke of Romagna - though it wasn't going to matter at all to anyone but me.

- "Implant stopped working." said one techie. "Long time ago, from the look of it."

- "Which one?"

- "Standard contraceptive and STD preventive."

- "Oh," I said. "That stopped working fifteen years ago."

The two techs were wearing masks and goggles, but I could see their eyes. They looked at me, then at each other, and back at me again.

"It's okay." I said. "I'm still a little groggy." Who knows what kind of security clearance they had.

They continued with their tests, while I thought of Nika. She looked... well, fabulous. Even better than I remembered.

- "Were you seriously ill, recently?"

Fourteen years ago, I suppose. How long was that, outside the Sim? Could they tell that I'd had malaria? I'd have to tell Renfro, and he could decide whether to share that information or not, or whether anything needed to be done about it.

They poked and prodded me, and frowned at their readings, for fifteen or twenty minutes. I bore it all patiently - that is, I tried to ignore them while I wondered how we'd come to this. I was still alive, and so was Nika. I probably wasn't going to die in the next few days.

- "Let's get you into a chair." said Nika. She and the medtechs helped me out of the pod. My twenty-two year old body had been lying on its back for the past twenty-five years - or forty-some days, in this here and now. The real world - however strange that sounded to me.

I was passed over to two ISEC agents, both male, who helped me out of the Halygon, and down the ramp. There was a groundcar parked at the end of the dock, and they loaded me into the back seat. Nika climbed in beside me.

She smiled at me, but gave me the hand signal for silence. It didn't matter that the ISEC agents would know it; it just meant that we weren't going to say anything important in front of them. For the length of our drive, I kept my mouth shut. The driver glanced at me frequently in the rear-view mirror. I found that I didn't like the expression on his face - or that of his colleague.

The view out the window was vaguely familiar. But I was far more interested in the sights beside me. Long, straight brown hair, beautiful brown eyes, fine nose, tempting lips... my partner was an alluring woman, just as she was quick-thinking, resourceful, and multi-talented. I tried not to stare too much, so as not to embarrass her.

Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up outside what looked to be a warehouse. More agents were on guard. IDs were scanned, and the car was given clearance. We drove around to the back of the building, where more guards waited. IDs were scanned a second time, and a skill-testing question was correctly answered.

I was transferred to the chair again, and wheeled into the building. Inside, it was more like a barracks, or fortified command post, than a warehouse. We rode an elevator down two floors, and I was taken into a sterile room with a single bed and a chair. I didn't miss the large picture window on one wall. It had to be a two-way mirror; what kind of view could there be, underground? They obviously wanted the occupant of this room to know, for sure, that they were being observed.

- "Nika?" I said.

- "I'll explain as much as I can, Pilgrim." she said.

That was only semi-reassuring. She hadn't said that she would explain everything.

The agents helped me into bed, and cuffed me to the siderail. Then they left. Obviously I hadn't misread the expressions on their faces. I wasn't returning from a successful mission; I was a suspect until proven otherwise.

"I'm sorry." said Nika. "Let me tell you what happened, and it will help you understand."

- "Okay."

Nika sat on the chair, but she pulled it up close to the bed. Then she flashed me another hand signal: someone was listening to us.

- "Listening? Or recording?" I only mouthed the words, and turned my head so that only Nika could see me properly.

She signalled again. Number two.

- "The last time I saw you," she said, "we were having sex up against a barn. I wanted to smell of sex so that they would think we were lovers. Then we both went inside the house that Teck had brought us to - the day after they ambushed that party on the road."

- "Yes. It was Cesare Borgia."

- "WHAT?"

- "It was a historical simulation, Nika. The day we 'landed' was the coronation of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI. August 11^th, 1492."

- "Holy shit!"

- "Yep. But go on with your story. Mine is... a bit longer."

- "Okay. Wow... well, the next morning... they killed me. Where were you?"

It wasn't an entirely innocent question. Did Nika not trust me, after all we'd been through together? I can only assume that a person's perspective changes when they get murdered.

- "Captain Teck told me to go help Will and Faraz with the horses. There was something... off, about the way he said it. If you remember that barn, you may also remember that there were gaps between the planks. I peeked in. Will and Faraz weren't doing anything with the horses. They were waiting - for me."

- "Really?"

- "I went back to the house, but heard Captain Teck coming out with Tasha and Anna. I knew then that something bad was going on. They headed for the barn. I snuck into the house. And I found you."

Nika's eyes went wide. "You did?"

- "I'll never forget it. You were lying on your stomach. There was a bloodstain, low down on the back of your shirt. I thought that I was going to throw up, but I flipped you over. You'd been stabbed just under the breast as well, and in the throat."

- "Holy shit."

I could only nod. "I know. But I couldn't think of anything I could do against them. They had swords, horses, crossbows - and you saw Faraz. I was out the window, running for my life, before they came back into the house."

- "Where did you go?"

- "I just ran. I ditched the tracker implant that you cut out of me - remember? Then I ran. I had that little pouch of coins we took from that dead guy. Three days later, I got to Rome."

- "Rome? Like... the Rome? Italy?"

- "That's right. The one where they keep the Pope. But what happened to you? After..."

- "After they stabbed me? I felt the pain." she said. "I felt my life slipping away. It was the strangest sensation. I knew what was happening, and I couldn't do a damned thing to stop it. And then I woke up."

- "Really?"

- "I heard the ping, and realized that I was back in the stasis pod. Do you remember when we went into them?"

I had to think for a moment. It had been twenty-five years ago, after all.

- "The day we 'landed', I think."

- "That's right." said Nika. "And did you figure out the disparity in time between out here and inside the Sim?"

- "Inside was twenty-five years. Outside... wasn't it forty-eight days?"

- "Thirty-eight." she said. "One year in the Sim equates to one and a half days in the real world. And one day in the Sim is only six minutes out here."

- "Wow."

- "So I had been in the Sim for less than three days before they killed me. That worked out to all of fifteen minutes in the pod - which meant that I wasn't fully sedated. Not even close. Even with that, I got lucky. Very lucky. Do you remember who was left on the Halygon when we left?"

- "The pilot. And a medtech. Female."

- "That's right. And I got lucky because they were both stupid, and extremely horny."

- "What?"

- "Captain Teck warned them to be alert, because you and I would be out of the Sim within a few days. He told them that it would be a matter of minutes before we were back in the pods. They misunderstood. They thought that they had days before anything happened, and that they would have several minutes' additional warning before we re-appeared. So they went off to have sex."

- "You're kidding."

- "No. Stupid and horny. They got the notification that I was back. The pilot had to put his pants back on, and they came out to open my pod."

- "What? Why didn't they just lock you in and sedate you?"

- "I told you. Stupid and horny. They thought that they could stun me, and have some fun with my body before they put me back into the pod."

- "That's unbelievable."

- "It was their first time working for Captain Teck. He needed a new Halygon pilot and a medtech. I can only guess that he didn't interview them all that carefully."

I could only shake my head. "You were lucky."

- "Sure was. She opened my pod, while he stood there with one hand on the stun gun and the other holding up his pants. They got a big surprise when it turned out that I wasn't all that groggy. I had them both stunned in about four seconds." Nika smiled at the memory. "I locked them in the brig, and sent a coded message for Colonel Renfro. I had just finished that when I heard another pod ping. I thought it was going to be you."

- "No." I said. "Anna."

She raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"

- "Because I killed her."

- "You did? How?"

- "It was about two weeks after I reached Rome. I fell in with some Spaniards, and got work as a guard in the Pope's Palace. I saw Anna, dressed as a noblewoman. I followed her. I thought she was there to kill the Pope, but she was actually planning to kidnap him. Faraz and Will were there, too, but they got away. A little more than two weeks in the Sim would be... what - an hour and a half here?"

- "Very good." said Nika. "How did you kill her?"

- "With a sword. It was very messy."

- "Good."

- "I thought you might appreciate that part."

- "I do. I also enjoyed locking her pod and sedating her. Do you know anything about the others?"

I nodded. "Will died in May, the next year. May 29^th, to be exact."

- "Did you kill him too?"

- "No. He saw me walking in Rome, and tried to stab me in the back. A friend warned me, and I got away with a concussion. It took a collective effort to bring him down."

- "That fits." said Nika. "He re-appeared here about twenty-four hours after Anna."

- "Faraz died in 1499. Late February. He tried to kill me in the French King's gardens. It took three of us to finish him off."

- "That fits, too. He turned up ten days after the start of Teck's mission. I don't suppose you know anything about the others?"

- "I don't know anything about Teck. But Tasha died at the end of April, 1510. It might make you feel better to know that she was hit by three crossbow bolts."

- "You were there for that, too?" said Nika. "Wow... and yes, it does make me feel better."

- "Nika - it wasn't until Tasha confronted me that I realized that you weren't actually dead. She thought that she had me at her mercy, and she was taunting me, saying that both of us would be tortured, and... abused - and then killed."

She looked at me, her face impassive. "I know, Pilgrim. Colonel Renfro had a squad on their way to us the same day I contacted him. They sent a Halygon pilot, too. We got back to Attica almost two weeks ago. The original pilot and his medtech girlfriend sang like canaries. So did Will. So yes, I know. We both would have been raped and tortured before being killed."

- "It's a sobering thought. I've been thinking about it for much of the last seven years."

- "Did you really survive there for twenty-five years?" she asked.

- "I did."

- "How? How did you do it?"

There was something about the way she said it that caught my attention. I glanced at the big two-way mirror. Nika had admitted that we were being recorded, but... something was off.

- "You don't believe me, do you? You don't think that I could survive on my own? What is it? You think that I made a deal with Admiral Colenso and went to work with Teck? After they murdered you?"

Nika had enough courage to look me in the eye.

- "I don't believe that, Pilgrim. It was your idea to cut the trackers out of our backs. But... the Colonel is worried that you might have been forced to come to some sort of..."

- "Accommodation? Arrangement?"

- "I don't know."

I glared at the mirror. "Twenty-five years of fighting and scrapping to stay alive, so that I could nail those bastards for what they did to you, and then I found out that it didn't matter. You and I were both supposed to suffer and die, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Now here's my miraculous reprieve, only to learn that my own side doesn't trust me."

- "They're just being cautious, Pilgrim. You know that they have ways to find out."

- "Yeah. I just hope that they start with Anna. Or Faraz, and Tasha. Ask them how they died." I glared at the mirror again. "And then get the fuck off my back!"

I lay back in bed, and closed my eyes.

- "End of interview." said Nika.

- "You think?" I snapped.

She stood up.

- "I believe you." she whispered. "I'm sorry."

***

I was too angry to sleep. Nika had said 'they have ways'; 'they', rather than 'we'. That was a small consolation. Otherwise, I was seriously ticked off.

They fed me in the morning. My two 'guards' uncuffed me, and took me to a washroom, where I was told to shit, shower and shave. Then they led me to an interrogation room, where they cuffed me to the table.

Nika came in shortly after that. The first thing she did was to unlock the cuffs.

- "Colonel's orders." she said.

- "He's coming?"

- "No. He interrogated Teck through the night. He also let the others see that we have him, in case that loosens any of their tongues. He asked me to interview you. It... it'll be recorded, so that he can review it later. I'm sorry, Pilgrim; I wish that we could do this in more comfortable surroundings. But let's start with what I can do for you: is there anything you'd like to eat, or drink?"

- "I haven't had a cup of coffee in twenty-five years."

- "That's easy. Anything else?"

- "A baked potato. For some reason, I'm craving a baked potato."

She laughed. "That's what you want?"

- "For now."

The coffee was terrible - just like the crap we used to drink when we were students. It helped to bring back memories, which I was going to need. My body was twenty-two years old again, even if the mind inside it was forty-seven.

Nika simply asked me to tell her my story.

- "All of it?"

- "As much as you can. I'll stop you when I have questions."

I talked for three hours, getting as far in my tale as Pope Alexander sending Alberini to help me escape from the French. I told Nika about Gina, but left out Paulina and Elena, and the mysterious silent girl at the pond.

She gave me a break for lunch, and delivered the promised baked potato, along with a small steak in mushroom sauce, and some honest-to-goodness Brussels sprouts.

- "Thank you. For the food."

She understood. I was still annoyed by being treated like a possible member of Teck's gang. I was even more ticked off when Nika was replaced, in the afternoon, by two desk jockeys who obviously had a transcript of my story on their comms. They took turns consulting their notes and peppering me with questions, trying to trip me up and catch me in a lie.

- "What was the name of the church where you met Pedro Ramires?"

- "I didn't meet him in a church. That was Miguel de Corella and Diego Ramires. Pedro was waiting in a bar."

- "Who introduced you to the Pope?"

- "Nobody. I barged into his private quarters, and killed Anna right in front of him."

- "You say that Lucrezia Borgia was fourteen when you first met her."

- "No. Twelve." And even then she was smarter than you two assholes, I thought - but I left that unsaid, because if I insulted them, they were perfectly capable of continuing to ask me stupid questions all day and all night. Plus they might be able to interfere with the supply of baked potatoes to yours truly.

Nika returned, to take me for dinner in the cafeteria, where I was allowed to sit at a table like an ISEC agent, rather than a prisoner. Unfortunately, they weren't finished fucking with me. Nika used hand signals to spell out 'wire', and tapped her chest, between her breasts.

She was recording our conversation, and letting me know that it wasn't her idea. Of course, that could be an elaborate ploy for her to gain my trust, so that she could betray me later. But as I looked into her eyes, I felt differently.

For almost eighteen years I'd believed that she was dead, murdered by Anna and Tasha. Another seven years had gone by for me, but for Nika, it had only been 38 days. I was most likely the last guy she'd had sex with - and it had been fairly intense. I found it hard to believe that she would turn against me so quickly.

Colonel Renfro, on the other hand... he was an advocate of trial by fire. Before he took me on as a protege, he'd taken me back to the detention/punishment camp, and made me fight the sadistic trainers who'd beaten the shit out of me for a month. This type of subterfuge was right up his alley.

- "You did well." said Nika.

- "Just telling the truth."

- "Hopefully they get that."

- "Mmm."

- "You're still my partner, Pilgrim. I believe you."

- "Thanks."

- "Can I get you anything else? Another baked potato? Ice cream? They didn't have that in 1492, I'll bet."