Kingdom of Cages(186)

That just made Denshyar smile. “Yes, notify the Authority. The nearest city is eighteen months away, and there is not one shipper within a month’s proximity that will raise a force against their own.” She leaned close to the screen. “We are coming, Father. You had better be ready to make room for us.”

Denshyar vanished, replaced immediately by Shontio. “I’m sorry about that. They kicked us off.”

Father Mihran’s mouth worked back and forth for a moment before he answered. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Director. We must ask you to send notification to the Authority immediately.”

“Yes, Father.” Shontio nodded.

“You will continue monitoring the situation while we take up the question of what to do.”

“Question!” The word burst unbidden out of Dionte. How could there be any question? It was not possible. The scenario was clear. “We must remove the threat from the Called. They must be decimated until they can no longer maintain their own infrastructure, and those that remain must accept Conscience implants.”

Father Mihran looked up at her sharply. His hand touched the edge of the screen, muting the outgoing signal. “That is an inappropriate comment, Daughter, especially in front of the director. We respect your opinion, but this is not your field.”

“Father, there is no other course.” Her hands separated, and Dionte realized she did not even remember bringing them together. But the certainty remained. Father Mihran must know it too. Surely he could not deny what he knew. “We are being invaded! They are going to destroy us, and when they do, they destroy the future!”

“Daughter,” snapped Father Mihran. “We must ask you to excuse us while we analyze the available data for this emergency. Your situation will be considered again as soon as this crisis has passed.”

Dionte opened her mouth and closed it again. She stood, bowed sharply to the committee, turned on her heel, and strode out of the room. She did not stop or even slow down until she reached her station in the laboratory. Behind the transparent walls, she threw herself into her chair and buried her face in her hands.

It’s falling apart. They don’t see it. Why don’t they see? She wanted to cry, to scream, to rip her own implant out of her head. It wasn’t working. Worse, the imbalances were becoming more frequent and she didn’t know why. Was it the intensity of her emotions? Lack of appropriate input?

Dependence? Addiction to my own endorphins?

Dionte dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. What do I do? What do I do?

Tell your family, urged her Conscience.

You can’t, said her own mind. They’ll readjust you, confine you until it’s too late. The Authority is here now. They are going to take Pandora, and Father Mihran is not going to be able to stop them. You have to work out what they’re going to do.

You can’t leave your family to face this on their own. They aren’t ready.

Tears streaming from her eyes, Dionte pressed her hands against her command board, opening all her subsystems to Aleph’s information flows, to try to understand what she had just learned and its effects on all of her plans that had come before. The myriad possibilities enfolded her like a welcome dream and she let herself fall into them.

“Dionte?”

The word reached Dionte deep inside her personal dream. She shrugged it off as unimportant. She pressed her hands closer to the board. So many paths to track, so much information to sort through. But the Authority approached overhead, threatening to land, and Tam had disappeared. They would trample the world if they were not stopped, and he would be lost to her forever. Loss, lost, so much to lose…

“Dionte!”

The outer world jerked into place over the inner and Dionte saw Gossett, one of the newer Guardians and a second cousin of hers, standing in front of her, with one hand on her board’s disconnect key. He held his square face stiffly, and Dionte did not even bother to try to decipher his expression.

“Do not ever”—she surged to her feet—“cut me off during a deep search.”

“You go too deep, Dionte,” said Gossett, taking one small step back. “I’ve been standing here calling your name for five minutes. You have a message.”

“I’m sorry.” Dionte touched Gossett’s hand, subvocalizing the command that would open his Conscience to hers through his data display.

But Gossett shook her hand off, and Dionte clenched it into a fist. That was right. Gossett did not have the proper bonds yet. Of the Guardians, only Hagin and Basante did, and Basante was dead. She could not correct the one condition, so she would have to correct the other as soon as possible. As soon as the Authority invasion was repelled, as soon as Tam was back with her. She rubbed her fingertips together. New possibilities sparked inside her. She needed them. She needed all the possibilities to be clear to her now. Uncertainty meant death.