Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

"I need to get word to my father," he said. "Laserlines aren't getting through, but we need to send something, anything. And we need to send it repeatedly, nonstop, a continuous broadcast. Maybe we'll hit a pocket where the interference is thin. Maybe someone will hear us and relay it through. Maybe it won't work, but we have to try."

He waited for her to respond, to say something, anything.

Finally when she spoke, her voice was trembling. "What will they do when they reach Earth, Lem?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. But they won't do it for long. I'm going to destroy it. With or without my father's help, I am going to destroy it."

CHAPTER 9

Announcement

Victor stepped through the doorway and into the small furnished apartment. It was a company suite, located underground in Juke's tunnel system and normally reserved for employees from Earth when they visited corporate headquarters. The lights came on, and an image of the Imbrium skyline at night appeared on the wall where a window should be.

"Someone will bring you your meals," said Simona. "If you get hungry before then, there's a kitchenette and a fully stocked pantry. Help yourself."

"What about Imala? Are you putting her up somewhere as well? She can't go back to her apartment. She helped me escape. The authorities might be looking for her."

"You needn't worry about Ms. Bootstamp. Mr. Jukes will provide for her. The police won't be a problem."

"Meaning what? Ukko controls the police?"

Simona ignored the question. "I'll bring you some fresh clothes. Stay presentable and keep the room neat. You'll probably have visitors."

"Who?"

"Specialists. Scientists. People with questions."

"I told you everything I know."

"Mr. Jukes will want to verify your claims with his own people."

"Prescott and Yanyu are already working on that."

"Mr. Jukes has specialists in all fields. He'll want many of them to talk to you."

"Every moment counts," said Victor. "Why is everyone dragging their feet on this? Did I not make it clear what's at stake here? Militaries need time to prepare."

"Mr. Jukes is an intelligent man, Victor. I assure you he knows what he's doing."

Victor shook his head. More delays. More inaction.

Simona stepped back out into the hallway. "This door will remain locked at all times. If you need anything, use the holopad there on the nightstand. Someone will assist you."

"So I'm a prisoner here?"

"We're keeping you here for your own safety. The LTD doesn't know you're here, and we want to keep it that way." She punched the code into the wall and sealed the door without another word.

That evening a group of technicians came and administered a lie detector test. Victor didn't object; he had nothing to hide. Once they had all the patches and sensors on him, however, he began to worry that the machine would misinterpret his brain activity somehow and conclude he was deceiving them. Then he feared that all the anxiety he felt over this possibility would skew the results even further. When the machine finished, the technicians said nothing and packed up the equipment.

"What were the results?" he asked.

"Don't know," said the tech. "We administer the test. Someone else reads it."

The test must have strengthened his case because the next morning small groups of people began visiting him every hour. Engineers. Psychologists. Biologists. Victor answered their questions as best as he could, though more often than not he had no answer to give. No, he hadn't seen the ship up close. No, he didn't know how many hormigas were inside.

He could tell many of them were skeptical. They listened intently and took studious notes, but some had a hard time hiding their disbelief and disdain. A few of them returned for a second, third, and fourth time, repeating the same questions over and over again.

By the fourth day Victor was losing his patience. "I've already answered these questions multiple times," he told them. "I know what you're doing. You're trying to catch me in a lie. You're throwing in details I didn't give you to see if I'll notice or change my story. You're desperately looking for signs of deception because some of you are so pompous and wrapped up in your own self-importance that you can't accept the fact that a man without all your college degrees could possibly know something you don't."