Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) Read online

  Jane glanced at the robe lying on her table. “And you?”

  “Mine’s the easy part.” Adam released her and approached the table. “All I’m doing is taking on a role I would’ve prepared for anyway. You could call it an accelerated course.” He’d sounded as though he tried to shrug it off, but fear had clouded his countenance.

  Jane had wanted to say something along the lines of, “Are you sure you can do this?” Adam could barely tell a lie, let alone commit fraud. She hadn’t wanted to add to his anxiety, so she’d kept the question to herself.

  Her expression must have asked it anyway, for Adam had tried to reassure her. “I’ll be all right.” He picked up the robe. “I know I’m a terrible liar, but they won’t see my face beneath the hood. Even if they sense something wrong, they’ll take one look at my forged credentials and let me in.”

  You’re such a paradox. You wouldn’t even skip class back when things were normal, but you shot a man without hesitation, and you’ve been conspiring to commit a number of felonies.

  Adam seemed to notice her perplexed expression. “What is it?”

  Jane leaned against the side of her couch. “You’ve got quite the criminal mind for someone so religious. Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s great. It’s just that you’ve always said you couldn’t break the rules even if no one cared because you have your Absolute to answer to.”

  Adam tucked the robe into the bag slung across his shoulder. “When the road splits between what’s legal and what’s right, the choice is simple enough. In that sense, I’m no different from you.”

  Jane raised her eyebrows. “But I have no one watching me. I’ve heard it said that if there’s no higher power, anything goes. I guess that’s why I’m perfectly okay with being bad—I’m godless.”

  Adam walked toward her. “You’re not godless. It doesn’t matter what you believe in, Jane, as long as you believe truly, for I know you mean the best. The Absolute wouldn’t care what group you count yourself as being part of, or by what name you call your divine being. That kind of pettiness belongs to the human world. Unfortunately, many of the Via don’t realize it—they take the Book too literally. I believe the Absolute is always there for you, whether or not you acknowledge the presence of a deity.”

  Jane tilted her mouth. “So I’m not going to hell for being a blaspheming heretic?”

  Adam put his hands on her shoulders. “Of course not. In a way, you’re as religious as I am, just subconsciously. The morality you hold on to—that’s what matters. You already answer to a higher power, only you see it as coming from within.”

  She cocked her head. “That makes no sense.”

  “Yes, it does.” He let go and smiled. “Well, it does to me.”

  Jane had felt her brain twist into knots. “You have got to be the most… liberal, nebulous religious person ever!” I don’t understand you.

  Waiting for Adam to arrive with Devin, Jane found herself talking to that higher power she didn’t believe in for about the millionth time, begging the Absolute to let her plan work. In her pocket, her hand moved from the stunner she’d been gripping to a third item she’d brought: the Via pendant Adam had given her, which she’d inexplicably grabbed on her way out.

  Some of her apprehension dissipated when Adam, in his forest-green Counselor robes, stepped onto the landing pad. He pushed a hovering white casket. Two guards followed, and irritation replaced her nervousness. Why the hell do they need to guard someone who’s supposed to be dead?

  Jane did her best to look mournful as she approached. Seeing the casket made that easy. She still wasn’t sure if the plan had actually worked. Adam wasn’t exactly a medical professional… “Hello, Counselor.”

  Adam nodded in acknowledgement. “Miss Colt.”

  She turned to the guards. “You can leave now.”

  “I’m afraid we must accompany the body onto the ship,” one of the guards replied. “Policy dictates that we must be present until the burial is performed.”

  Jane bit her lip. No one had told her there would be official witnesses. Isn’t it enough that you tried to kill my brother, you bastards?

  “I understand.” She let her doubts occupy her mind. The tears came. “Please, sir, my brother was all I had left, and now he’s gone too. I want to say good-bye to him alone, in private. He’s already dead. He can’t run anymore.”

  The guard held himself erect. “I’m sorry, Miss Colt. I’m afraid we cannot make any exceptions.”

  Riley called from the ship, “Hurry up!”

  The Pandora cabal had to be winning the cyber battle. They could alert the authorities to the scanner hack at any moment.

  Jane blinked to make a few teardrops fall. “Please, sir, why can’t you let me mourn in peace?”

  The guard’s countenance remained stern. “We have policies, Miss Colt.”

  Damn, you’re heartless. She blinked again.

  The guard stiffened. “I’m afraid—”

  “Ah, screw it!” Jane grabbed her stunner and fired straight at his chest. The guard convulsed as he fell. Despite her penchant for violent rhetoric, that was the first time she’d seriously—and intentionally—attacked someone. She stared at the unconscious guard with a mixture of astonishment and wicked satisfaction.

  By the time she looked up, Adam had ditched his robe. He had the other guard’s arm folded up against his own. She watched, surprised, as Adam dropped his weight down on the guard’s arm and twisted to the side. The guard lost his balance.

  Jane aimed her stunner. “Move!”

  Adam jumped back, and she zapped the guard. “What was that?”

  Adam stared at the guard. “I don’t know… improvising? He was reaching for his gun.”

  About a dozen guards ran across the landing pad. “Halt!”

  Here we go. Jane waited for the guards to come a little closer. She gave Adam a nod, and then grabbed the flash grenade from her pocket. She flipped a switch on its side and channeled all her rage into throwing it.

  She dropped to the ground, closing her eyes and covering her ears as the grenade went off mid-flight. The piercing screech cut through the air, along with a light so bright she could see it through her eyelids.

  She opened her eyes and stood. Everything seemed muted, as though she heard the world from underwater. Muffling her hearing somehow stifled her fear. The guards who hadn’t been knocked out, those who had been quick enough to drop like she had and avoid the blast radius, ran at her.

  All right, you shitheaded sons-of-bitches. You asked for it.

  She ruthlessly fired her stunner, taking a horrible kind of pleasure in the power it gave her. One guard crumpled from a blast to the leg. Another was knocked out entirely.

  Her weapon fell from her hand as a stun blast hit her arm, causing it to go numb.

  “Jane, run!” Adam haphazardly fired a laser gun. He must have taken it from one of the unconscious guards.

  Jane sprinted toward the casket. She shook her arm, wishing the feeling would hurry up and return. Needles seemed to pierce her hand as she grabbed the white handle and pushed the casket toward the ship. Her hearing cleared. Blasts whizzed around her. She didn’t dare look back.

  As she shoved the casket into the ship, she heard Adam cry out. She whirled and saw him halfway up the ramp behind her, clutching his shoulder. “Adam!”

  “I’m fine. Go!”

  Jane rushed into the cockpit and took the controls. As soon as the ship’s door slammed shut, she revved up the engines. “Riley, now!”

  She pushed the steering bars forward and took off—along with every Blue Tang on the Lyrona continent.

  Riley jumped. “Triumph! Take that, BD Tech! You evil corporation freaks! Oh, yeah? You wanna have control over all your products? Put creepy shiznit in every machine you’ve ever
made so you can take over whenever? Guess what, assholes, you’ve been demonized!” He stumbled against the wall in his jubilation.

  Jane laughed. “Nice work, Riley!”

  She wove her counterfeit Blue Tang around to mix it in with the real ones, which the Citizen Zero demons were commanding to fly at random.

  Good enough. She steered the ship into the stars.

  A familiar red Megatooth warship loomed before her. She wished she could engage lightspeed, but doing so with the other ships so close would mean collision. I’m invisible. Even if they spot me, I’m just like the others.

  Through the square window beside the main viewscreen, Commander Vega noticed one Blue Tang that wasn’t like the others. The others zipped around in chaotic, insect-like trajectories, whereas the one she watched seemed to have a course.

  She’d received an order to pursue an unmarked Blue Tang leaving from the direction of Kydera City. Since there were so many Blue Tangs, Admiral Landler had given her details: The prison had been alerted to a hack following Devin Colt’s execution, and it was possible he was alive and attempting to flee.

  Instead of indignation or infuriation, an unexpected sense of relief enveloped her. She had little desire to obey the order, not when so many uncertainties pricked her mind, and the possibility of wasted lives threatened.

  “Commander!”

  She turned to the navigation officer. “Yes?”

  The officer pointed out the window. “This Blue Tang appears to be the target. Deploy Bettas?”

  Commander Vega looked down at him with disdain. “Which Blue Tang are you referring to?”

  “The unmarked one!”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “Officer, several of these ships are unmarked. Do not risk harming civilians on a mere guess.”

  “But—”

  “Are you challenging me?”

  “No, Commander. But which should we pursue?”

  Commander Vega glanced at the viewscreen. The Blue Tang that had caught her and the officer’s attention did not show up. It’s veiled from our scopes. The fugitives must be inside. Nevertheless, she directed the officer to another unmarked Blue Tang heading in the opposite direction and snapped at him when he started to protest.

  The communications officer called, “Commander! We are receiving an anonymous transmission. I am unable to trace where the signal is coming from.”

  Is it the fugitives? The demons controlling the Blue Tangs? Either way, the need for information justified the risks of allowing an anonymous transmission. “Put it through, but monitor it. Cybernetics, keep a close watch on our system. If anything looks suspicious, shut down the central computer and revert all systems to manual control.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  Words typed out across the viewscreen:

  I am the one the Networld calls the Seer. I have followed the activities of the entity called No Name for years. This has not been easy, because No Name is very good at hiding its presence. Due to its recent actions involving Devin Victor Colt and Jane Winterreise Colt, I can now prove that it was behind the attack on Dr. Revelin Elroy Kron. I have determined that you are the most suitable person to receive this information. If you continue your investigation, you will be able to prove that No Name was also responsible for the attacks on Victor Alexander Colt, the Flame Team of the RKSS Granite Flame, and numerous others of whom you are not currently aware.

  Documents appeared on the viewscreen. Commander Vega narrowed her eyes. The truth they purportedly revealed read like a bizarre conspiracy theory. She needed a cybercrimes team to review them before she could be certain they were valid. If they were, then the Seer had been incredibly conscientious. She wondered how he could have obtained all that information.

  Her skepticism turned to outrage as she realized what it would mean if the Seer’s claims were true. It wasn’t her job to investigate the outlandish allegations of anonymous eccentrics, but she was too involved in the current situation to walk away.

  She would get to the bottom of it all—protocol be damned.

  She must’ve let us go.

  The thought brought Jane relief and encouragement. Maybe Commander Vega was asking the right questions. Maybe she could help somehow. Maybe…

  But at present, Jane needed to get to the Wiosper system and beat the truth out of Jim X’s lazy head. No one pursued her ship, so she programmed the autopilot and raced toward her brother’s casket.

  She pressed the controls to open it. Devin lay with eyes closed, hands folded across his stomach. He was almost as pale as his white prison uniform.

  Jane shook him. “Devin! Wake up!”

  Riley peered over her shoulder. “Uh… You need the antidote, remember?”

  “Oh, right.” She ran into the living quarters.

  Adam stood in the corner with his back to her, his head bowed. He held the thick metal syringe containing the antidote in one hand. With his other, he grasped his bunched-up white shirt in a fist against his shoulder.

  Jane remembered with alarm that he’d been hit. “Are you all right?”

  “What?” Adam turned with an oddly blank expression. He glanced at his shoulder. “Oh, this? It’s—It’s nothing. A scratch. Was grazed, that’s all.”

  He didn’t seem to be in pain. Jane didn’t see any blood, so he couldn’t have been hurt badly. But something must have been wrong for him to be so—

  “Yo, can we wake him already?” Riley’s question interrupted her thought.

  Adam handed Jane the syringe. She took it but didn’t leave. “Adam—”

  “Hurry up!” Riley yelled. “You said we had limited time before… Just hurry up!”

  Shit! How long’s Devin been out? Too long, and his almost-death would become permanent.

  Jane darted back to the casket. She held the syringe over Devin’s arm, less than an inch above where his vein was supposed to be. She pressed a button on the syringe’s side. A set of tiny lasers unfolded from the syringe’s side and swept their bright green lights across his skin, scanning for the right spot. After a few seconds, the lasers converged to a point. She carefully pressed the needle into the green dot and injected the antidote. Come on; come on…

  Adam wandered out of the living quarters as though sleepwalking. Jane wondered if he’d been hurt worse than he let on.

  Devin inhaled sharply and opened his eyes.

  “Devin!” She threw her arms around her brother. “I told you, bro! I told you I’d save you!”

  “J—Jane?”

  Jane let go. “Bet you never saw that coming!”

  Devin stared at her. He climbed out of the casket and looked around as though disoriented.

  Riley waved rapidly. “Hi, Devin!”

  Devin spun toward him. “Riley?”

  Riley put his hands in his pockets and slouched. “I wasn’t gonna let them kill you.”

  “What happened?”

  “Uh… We busted you out.”

  “You did what?”

  Jane recognized the look on Devin’s face. She crossed her arms. “Don’t. You have no right to tell us off for breaking the law or whatever. We had no choice! We weren’t gonna leave you there!”

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Devin said sternly. “You should’ve stayed out of it and—”

  “And what, you idiot?” Long-suppressed rage fueled a rant Jane had kept unspoken for ages. “What the hell, Devin? You knew they were gonna kill you, so why the hell did you go and turn yourself in?” She shoved him. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through—what we’ve all been through—trying to get you out? I went off to the shadiest holes in this blasted galaxy to get this freaking ship while Riley hacked every Blue Tang in Lyrona and Adam crammed his head with Counselor stuff that’s supposed to take years to ma
ster. All for you, you jerk. All because for some stupid reason we care about your sorry ass!”

  “Jane—”

  “And what the hell was that in the prison?” She shoved him again. “How dare you treat me like some feeble little girl who’d hate you because of some dark secret? Like I’m one of those melodramatic ninnies who beg for the truth and turn away the minute they hear it? Do you really think I’m that stupid? It was bad enough wondering if our insane plan would even work without hearing your freaking deathbed confessions. Do you have any idea what—what…” She ran out of words of anger and threw her arms around him. “Holy shit, bro, I’m so glad you’re all right!”

  Devin returned her embrace. Violent sobs rose up Jane’s chest. She didn’t know if her tears were of joy or fear or wrath or all three. She hated to make a scene and tried to stop, reminding herself over and over that everything was okay. He’s safe. They can’t take him from me now. If they try, I’ll stop them again.

  After what felt like an eternity of gasping and heaving, Jane felt herself relax. She released her brother.

  Devin kissed her on the forehead. “Thanks, Jane. Thanks for not giving up on me. And… you too, Riley, and Adam. I… just… thanks.”

  “Now we’re even.” Riley sounded as if he was trying too hard to seem chill.

  Devin looked past Jane. “Adam? You okay?”

  Jane turned. “Adam?”

  Adam still clutched his shirt with that dazed look. “What? Oh… I’m fine…”

  She approached him. “C’mon. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Nothing… I’m fine…”

  “Adam…”

  His mask fell away. He collapsed against the wall, shaking. His eyes filled with horror and pain, as though he was watching his world collapse.