Epic: Book 02 - Outlaw Trigger (26 page)

“
Time to reorganize?” Clarke almost laughed. “The Eighth are decimated! There’s no way we could have held our position.”

“
You couldn’t, but I could’ve.”

Clarke’s nostrils flared. “You will
not
speak again, lieutenant.”

“
We could have held it!”

“
I will not be challenged whilst you vent your wrath for Nicole!”

Silence. The entire troop bay was hit with the worst kind of tension. Nobody uttered a sound.

Clarke stared Scott down as the younger man turned to the far wall. “You are relieved until I see fit for you to return,” Clarke said. “Until I see fit.
Not
you.”

Scott said nothing in reply.

Dostoevsky, Max, Oleg, and Varvara were picked up on the beach, their assault on the Cruiser a unified failure. Though none of them were injured, they undoubtedly would not have survived had they carried on without the Eighth. Though they immediately picked up on the tension in the
Pariah
, they made no mention of it. Instead, they took their seats and waited while the cursed transport returned to The Machine.

_{* * *}

Scott was the first to leave the
Pariah
when it docked. He clutched his helmet in his hand; his sweat-dried hair was a wreck. The cut on his cheek had coagulated into a lump of dark red blood. Its dried drippings trailed down his face.

“
Remmy,” Becan said as he jogged to catch up. “Remmy, please, stop for a second.”

Jayden was close behind. David stayed with Esther by the ship.

Scott heard the Irishman, but made no effort to stop.

“
Remmy…”

Before Scott could go farther, Becan hurried to get ahead of him. He stepped backward as Scott kept his pace.

“
Please Remmy, it’s me. I don’t want to hurt yeh.”

“
Get out of my way, McCrae.”

“
This isn’t the way to go abou’ this.”

Suddenly, Scott slammed his helmet to the ground and grabbed the Irishman by the collar. “The way to go
about
this…” Scott snarled in a voice Becan had never heard before. After several seconds of uneasy quiet, Scott released Becan’s armor. He glared for several moments, then stormed past. His statement was left unfinished.

Becan stepped aside and watched as Scott marched toward the exit; the rest of the unit stared from behind. For several seconds the Irishman stood still. Then he turned to Scott’s helmet.

The helmet lay abandoned on the floor of the hangar, where Scott had hammered it down. The visor was completely shattered, and a crack was split down the EDEN logo—the letters on its front cut in two.

Becan stared at the helmet for several moments, then returned his gaze to the door for one final glimpse of the lieutenant. But it was too late. The doorway to the hangar was vacant.

Scott Remington was already gone.

14

Monday, August 8
^th
, 0011 NE

EDEN Command

“
My thanks to all of you for attending this meeting,” said Benjamin Archer. “I’m sure when the president asked me to investigate the
Novosibirsk
matter further, none of you expected results quite this soon. In truth, I hadn’t either.”

Torokin watched Archer make his initial speech in front of the conference room. It was early in the morning—earlier than normal for an impromptu meeting. But none of the other judges complained. For the very first time, it appeared that progress with the
Novosibirsk
situation was being made.

“
In my brief examination of
Novosibirsk
, I’ve uncovered some information that…for lack of a better word, astounds me. As you all know, yesterday we were able to determine that General Thoor may have used the Bakma assault as a stepping stone to thin out EDEN’s influence at his base. I’ve used that as my basis for investigation, and I found results immediately.”

Archer handed a stack of papers to the judge on his right. “Allow me to explain the papers you’re receiving now.”

Torokin watched as Archer’s report made its way around the table. Not only did Archer look the part of a prince, but he acted it, too. The blond-haired judge had grabbed the reigns of the High Command and was running with them. It didn’t matter that Archer had a knack for Xenobiology—Torokin didn’t like this one bit.

“
I’d hypothesized that General Thoor was using the Bakma in the assault to weed out EDEN soldiers. His intention? To restock
Novosibirsk
, not with EDEN, but with Nightmen. He longs for control, and his role as a former Nightman captain gives him more than enough influence to wield it.”

President Pauling leaned back as he listened. A copy of Archer’s papers sat before him.

“
On pages one through seven of my report,” Archer said, “you will see an extensive psychological profile on Ignatius van Thoor. I’d encourage you all to examine it thoroughly, but for now I’ll save you the time and paraphrase. General Thoor is military brilliance exemplified. But he also suffers from an egomaniacal self-perception. In the mind of Ignatius van Thoor, power is of the utmost importance.

“
Take a moment to examine his history. Read the remarks of his superiors while he was young in the Nightman order. Read the remarks of those under him now. Three words will consistently emerge. Proud. Ruthless. Relentless. He is the perfect dictator. He is a symbol of autocratic tyranny at its most destructive, because he is controlled. His ambitions do not overflow. He allows them to be released as they suit his needs. He sets his sights on a goal, and he stays his course until that goal is fulfilled, never acting on the emotion of a moment. He is tactical in his tyranny.”

Archer placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Being tactical is precisely what he is doing now. Beginning on page seven, you’ll see a telling series of statistics…nine pages’ worth. You’ll see every log of every alien incursion that
Novosibirsk
has handled in the past four and a half years.” He glanced down at one of the papers and read aloud.

“
February 5
^th
, year 0007. Ceratopian Cruiser. Handled by the unit known as the Seventh. Forty percent casualties, zero Nightmen involved.

“
February 7
^th
.
Bakma
Carrier. Handled by the Third. Zero casualties, five Nightmen involved.

“
February 26
^th
. Ceratopian advance on Moscow. Handled by the First, Seventh, and Fourteenth. Over sixty percent casualties—zero Nightmen involved. So bad was it, in fact, that the Fourteenth were completely decimated, and consequently restocked—with three Nightmen officers.

“
There is a trend here,” Archer went on. “Notice the Nightmen’s involvement relative to the varying degrees of risk. If the intruding species is Bakma…the Nightmen are dispatched. If it’s a Ceratopian vessel of any significance whatsoever…EDEN are. We all know the vast difference between the Ceratopians and the Bakma. He has purposely assigned EDEN the operations with higher risks of fatality. He hasn’t
just
started to weed us out. He’s been weeding us out for years. And he’s got just enough inconsistency thrown in to pass it off as coincidence. “

Murmurs grew around the table.

“
I believe it’s his way of removing EDEN from the equation, without us suspecting a thing. The more soldiers EDEN loses, the more Nightmen are put in their place. Records show that the Nightman population in
Novosibirsk
has increased by almost fifty percent over the past two years, and it’s not slowing. And in truth…we don’t know
how
many Nightmen he has. We can only tally the Nightmen who are doubly registered as EDEN soldiers—we may have lost the majority already. It’s improbable, but not impossible.”

Torokin looked over to Grinkov, who in return gave him a pointed stare. This was big. This was the first concrete evidence EDEN had of Thoor undermining their influence. This was not going to be ignored.

Castellnou was the first to make sure of it.

“
I told you!” he said, leaping from his chair and pointing at Pauling. “You have insisted that we let Thoor do what he pleases, that he is a special situation! Now we
see
how special he is!”

Richard Lena followed suit. “We’ve said, time and time again, that we can’t let him go on like this.” Chatter broke throughout the room.

“
Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Pauling said, wiping his brow. “Please…let us at least think this through…”

“
Enough thinking!” shouted Castellnou. “We think too much! It is time to
do
!”

“
Gentlemen,” said Judge Blake, “we need a course of action. Right now we’ve got nothing.” He turned his head to Archer. “Judge Archer, can you come up with a procedure for this? A proposal? Something for us to look at and consider?”

“
I can.”

Torokin stared at Blake in disbelief. Without even thinking it through, he entered the verbal fray. “Why do you give this task to only Archer? Is this not something that involves
all
of us?”

“
With all due respect, Leonid, we have collectively failed. Archer has the wind at his back. God forbid we take away his momentum.”

“
Then maybe Archer should be president. He gets to make all the decisions.”

Both Grinkov and Lena raised their eyebrows at Torokin’s remark. Archer watched in silence.

“
That was uncalled for,” Blake said. “If you’re envious of Judge Archer’s work, then maybe you should have taken a more proactive stance against Thoor yourself.”

“
He has done nothing but restate what we already knew. Did any man here doubt that Thoor had his own priorities? Did anyone think that he cared whatsoever about EDEN’s goals? Why does this matter now? If Thoor wants
Novosibirsk
, let him have it. What does it matter to us?”

“
It
matters
because
Novosibirsk
is ours. It belongs to EDEN.”

“
But it fights the same war! Do you care more about EDEN or Earth?”

Judge Carol June, the American with the auburn shag haircut, interrupted him. “We’re making progress, Torokin. Why are you against that?”

Torokin pointed his glare at her. “I am not against progress. I am against one man alone deciding which way we should go.”

“
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention,” she answered, “but that one man is pulling his weight. Maybe you should give it a try.”

“
Dura,”
Torokin spat at her. Grinkov’s eyebrows shot up at the Russian remark. “This should be something
we
discuss. Don’t give all the decisions to one man.”

“
Leonid,” Grinkov whispered as he leaned close to Torokin, “what is wrong with you? They are not letting him make all the decisions—he is only coming up with a proposal.”

Torokin averted his focus to respond. “He has been here for barely a week and we are worshipping him.”

“
No, we are not. He is only coming up with a proposal. Why are you acting like this?”

“
Because I don’t like him!” he whispered passionately. “I can’t tell you why. I just
don’t
!”

“
Judge Archer,” Pauling said, interrupting the hushed exchange. “Come up with a proposal. We’ll decide what to do with it when you’re through.”

“
Mr. President…” urged Torokin.

“
That’s my decision,” Pauling said firmly, turning to Torokin. “End of discussion.”

The Russian judge growled under his breath.

“
This has been a lot to digest. Benjamin, is there anything else you discovered that we need to talk about?”

Archer shook his head, though his eyes lingered on Torokin. “No, sir. Those were for the most part all of my findings.”

“
We’ll convene again when your proposal is finished.”

It took no second command for Torokin to leave. As soon as the president dismissed them, the ex-Vector shoved back his chair and stormed out of the conference room. Grinkov and Lena were hot on his heels.

“
Leonid,” Grinkov said. “Please, wait.”

“
What do you want?” Torokin asked, still walking.

“
Tell me why you are so upset. What did Archer do?”

“
He’s done everything. That’s why I’m upset.”

Keeping pace behind them, Lena interjected. “Wait a minute, what’s going on? Is something wrong with Archer?”

“
I do not know,” Grinkov shrugged. “I don’t know what the problem is.”

“
Leonid?”

Torokin turned around in the hallway. “There is something about him. I can’t tell you what it is, because I do not know. But there is something that makes me feel wrong. Even when I spoke with him earlier, before all of this, I felt it. I do not like a politician, not at all.”

“
Look, I’m not crazy about someone replacing Darryl either, but the bottom line is that ‘Sir Benjamin’ is making ground. Isn’t that
good
?”

“
I don’t know. Is it good?” Torokin turned around to walk again. “He came in without a discussion. Rath gave him to Pauling, and Pauling appointed him judge. The rest of us had nothing to say. And now look at him.”