The Second Sphere

The Four Provinces was much like the night before. There was a man at the bar, a drive to at his neck, downing whatever enhancements made him feel good. As I passed, he burrowed a pair of deep-set brown eyes into my face. Dawkins was at the other end of the bar wiping down masks.

I didn’t need to be there. Technically, I didn’t owe Dawkins any explanations for what happened the previous night. However, there was something inside that drew me back to the dreary bar. Perhaps it was regret. Whatever it was, I stood in front of the man I continued to blackmail, ostensibly with my hat in my hand to explain what happened.

I took the stool across from him. Dawkins raised his head, contemptuous flat-lined lips split his face. He looked down the bar at the man sitting there, then at me.

“This Newberry thing was your doing?” he asked.

“It’s complicated,” I said.

“I knew you were an asshole, Orion, but I didn’t think you were that low.”

“Extenuating circumstances,” I said.

“Aye,” was all he said.

“If I told you, you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try it,” he said.

“You know what Newberry and I were talking about the other day?”

“You mean last night?” he asked. “No, Mr. Newberry and I didn’t do a debrief.”

I wasn’t sure whether I could tell Dawkins the whole story. Not in front of a witness. “Someone else is behind what happened to him. And it’s not the Laslow Corporation.”

“I don’t think you want to say that name very loud around here,” Dawkins said. His head swung back down the bar to take a gander at the man.

“Someone important?” I asked.

Dawkins picked up several more drives from the worn bins behind him and put them on the bar in front of me.

“Having you around here is bad for business, Orion.”

“This isn’t some Laslow-GR beef. This is bigger than that.”

“Course. The Laslow Corporation fucks up and you want your GR moles to bail you out.”

Before I realized it, a hand grabbed my neck and thrust my head forward. The bar flew toward me until it stopped my head. The pain shook me deeply.

“Enough of this shit,” a voice said. “This son of a bitch doesn’t deserve to take another breath.”

I had to think fast. “I’ve got Newberry’s chip back at Laslow, which says that he was infected by some kind of goddamned biological agent,” I said. “Yesterday, I found a bunch of interviews he did about how the TSG is holding on to some heavy secrets, maybe change the way people see the GR.” I took a breath. “I just want to know if anyone you know heard about what Victor Newberry was working on,” I said.

The man let my head up. I turned to face him. He wasn’t as withered as I perceived him to be.

I turned back and Dawkins folded his thick arms across his chest. “Seems like when you start talking to people, their lives start getting fucked up, Orion. Seems like you’ve got a bad case of the GR-doesn’t-want-to-have-shite-to-do-with-you no mores.”

“Newberry had some intel that we found on him after he was killed,” I said as the man stepped toward me. “It could work out for you.”

“You mean you found it after you killed him?” Dawkins asked.

I knew how it looked; like just another assassination. But all he needed to do was listen to my words instead of projecting what he thought he knew the truth to be.

“So, that’s it?” I admit that I felt a pang of anger for his derision. There were so many times that I could’ve brought the man to his knees, punished him for his allegiance to the enemy. But I let him slide. And now he exerted physical pressure to coerce me. “I own you, Dawkins. I made you. You’d be in a rendition facility on Mars if it wasn’t for me.”

Dawkins laughed. “I don’t give a shite what you say you did for me. I know you only did it for yourself. That’s all you ever did anything for. So why don’t you piss off. Get the fuck out of my bar.”

The man grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and lifted me from the stool. I could’ve fought back, given the man a little taste. But something told me not to.

“This can help you,” I said. “This can help your movement.”

“I’m happy that you’re starting to realize the fucked up role that TSG has been playing all these years, but that doesn’t change shite. I’ve got a side, Orion, and you aren’t on it. You got me?”

I’d hit a wall. “Yeah, I got you,” I said.

“It’s nothing personal, Orion.” He picked up a drive and started it to wipe it with careful, hard strokes. “No, I take that back. It’s fucking personal.”

The anonymous man began to drag me out of the bar. I held my ground for a moment and took the copy of the chip with the interviews out of my pocket and set it on the bar.

“Take a look at it,” I said. “See whether you think I’m bullshitting.” But Dawkins walked away without saying anything.

I let the man guide me to the door by the scruff of the neck. When he tossed me out of the door, I left the Four Provinces and didn’t look back. There was no reason to look back any more. All I could do was look forward. My entire career at the Laslow Corporation was built on moles, keeping them active, and getting them to feed us key information. Now, I was about two lose two reliable source with no new ones anywhere near me. At some point, I’d have to work on that. But not now, not until I’d figured out what the hell was going on.

At home, I sprawled on the couch and thought about Lila. If I had sense, I’d get on the Source, connect with her and explain everything. But I didn’t have sense. There was just selfishness. I lay on the shore of the gulf between us and watched it get bigger. She’d probably heard about Victor Newberry. I didn’t want to explain the events that led to his death, nor did I want to tell her that there wasn’t a chance I’d be able to go home.

For that moment, I needed Love.

There were only half a dozen credits on my drive. Now that Cody was about to be gone from my life, I wondered how I’d get more. I went back to the living room and took a few doses. I let the world wash away. I let the memory of my daughter stay where it was, on the other side of the solar system, in a distant land I thought I’d never see again.