The Second Sphere

Back in my office, I leaned over my desk, my knuckles planted on the flat, faux-wooden surface. A gnawing uncertainty lashed at my stomach. Worse, the back of my throat burned, a subtle reminder that my supply of Love was out. I saw the day burning in front of me.

Our prisoner’s lack of cooperation had bought him a one-way trip to Mars. From there, he’d never return. But that didn’t comfort me. He’d said my name and would, no doubt, continue to say it. What my name meant to him, I wasn’t sure. But it didn’t matter what it meant; all that mattered was that he said it.

Malinda was rather understanding of the whole thing. She hadn’t run to Bryant and poured her guts out. I had some time. When he got a chance to read the transcript from the interview, he’d see my name. That was where the uncertainty crept in. On the other hand, maybe the GR did its own intelligence work. I’d spent plenty of time taking down cells and talking to key people. It was possible that my name and face got back to the right people.

My thoughts were quickly broken by a message coming through on the link-up. It was Luis. There was a hardened expression on his face. He blinked repeatedly as though there was something in his eyes.

“Come down to see me as soon as you can, Orion. We’ve got some things to talk about.” It wasn’t a request as much as an order. Before Luis disconnected, I was out of my seat and headed down to his office.

The squints didn’t look up from their work as I came through the PMBE division. A swarm of people milled about, some working together on link-ups, some engaged in discussions in front of large images of data. I took a full lap around the lab before I realized that Luis was in his office talking to someone.

I knocked on the door before I entered. Luis’ eyes lit up as I stepped in the room, but returned to a placid, lake blue after a moment. The man with whom he spoke left the room, giving me the once over before he exited. Luis gestured for me to sit across from him. There was an image that I couldn’t see on his link-up. He closed his eyes and the image disappeared.

“Orion. I’m glad you came down. Listen...” He was flustered, fumbling over the words.

“Luis...” The buzz in my head was loud. I needed a dose.

“It’s about what was just found on the throwaway that attacked our troop this morning.”

“And?” I asked as I shifted in my seat.

“We found information about you, Orion,” he said.

“What do you mean, you found information about me?” I asked.

“We found a strand of coding that linked the insertion of the virus to your link-up.” I blinked. I had to admit it. I thought he was bluffing when he first said it.

“Me?”

On the other side of that folly was the truth. Crystal clarity overtook my vision, and all I could do was stare at Luis’ face, watching the shimmering facts on the other side of him. I tried to will my reality into his chip, make him see my position, convince him that I hadn’t done anything wrong. He squinted at me; then he leaned back in his chair. His eyes went on to wander other places in the cramped, messy office.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“There’s nothing you can do.”

“Great,” I said.

“I wanted to give you a heads-up. I wanted to hold on to…” His voice faded. “And whoever took this off my computer...” He sighed and framed his face with his right index finger and thumb.

“What? ” My pulse beat, a little thump in my neck.

“I think someone else already has this information,” he said.

“How the hell do you know that?” I asked.

“When I first read through this, after one of my people brought it to me, I put it into a place where I was pretty sure that no one could find it. It was deep. I put it there and got up to get some lunch. When I got in just now, I wanted to take a look at it again, make sure I wasn’t missing anything. And well, I found that things were out of place.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, it felt like my link-up had been ransacked, as though someone had flipped everything over.” Luis leaned across the desk. “They got it, Orion. A copy of this was made.”

“Shit,” I said. In my head, I scribbled down plans and quickly erased them. Different plots came to me, hit a wall, and disappeared.

“I wish I could tell you who has the information now or what they’re going to do with it,” he said. “But there was no marker indicating who entered my space. Not that I have any recommendations for what you might do if you knew.”

“Whoever stole this from you? If you sit on this too long, well, they’re going to think that maybe you had something to do with it, too, Luis. They’ll think you’re covering it up.”

“You’re right,” Luis said.

“If you can just give me a few hours.”

“I’ll send you what I have,” he said.

“I appreciate you giving me a heads up.”

Luis nodded. “I’m sorry, Orion. I really am,” he said.

Someone had created a secret life for me. They would lob those lies like Molotov cocktails. It wasn’t just my name that would be tarnished; it was my life that would be crushed.