Socrates and the Councillor Page 19

  Thornton nodded.

  ‘Very well. Until we meet again.’

  The US ambassador exited Sentinel HQ, joining his waiting bodyguards and Vanessa, who stood on the sidewalk. A minute later a black limousine pulled up. The driver got out and opened the door for them. Thornton got in. Vanessa was about to join him when the sound of screeching tyres announced the arrival of other vehicles. Three identical black limousines surrounded Thornton’s car. Doors were thrown open. Men and women in black suits rushed out. They drew handheld weapons. Thornton’s bodyguards reached for theirs.

  ‘Don’t,’ one of the black-suited women said.

  The bodyguards hesitated, scanning the street. Then they reluctantly withdrew their hands from their jackets. The other black-suited operatives disarmed them. The rear passenger door opened on the last limousine to arrive. The Swedish ambassador, Elsa Petersson, stepped out. She was dressed in a similar black suit to the one she had worn the day before, the cut of the lapels the only difference. She approached Thornton’s limousine.

  ‘What is the meaning of this, Elsa?’ the US ambassador demanded.

  ‘Don’t even pretend innocence, William. We’ve been watching your movements for the past twenty-four hours. What were you thinking?’

  ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘We’ll see. You’re coming back to New York with me after the summit is over. There’s going to be an official inquiry into the incidents that occurred here in Iona. I trust you’ll get your story straight on the flight back.’

  ‘You don’t have the authority to detain me, Elsa,’ Thornton said.

  ‘I don’t but the US Secretary of State does. After the Ruling Council of Iona advised her of your actions, she contacted me and requested that I bring you back to the UN in New York,’ Petersson said. ‘Let’s just say that she did not sound happy with you.’

  ‘This is ridiculous. I am a diplomatic officer of the United States of America on foreign soil. I cannot be legally detained.’

  Ambassador Petersson leaned closer.

  ‘William, you know the rules, as well as, I do. If you’re going to engage in clandestine operations—don’t get caught. You should be thankful you’re being returned to the US. I would have revoked your diplomatic immunity and left you in Iona.’

  Thornton looked about to argue. Casting around, he took in the scene: a dozen armed UN security operatives covering his men and his vehicle. He quickly came to the realisation that he was out of options.

  ‘Very well, Elsa, but this isn’t over. You’ll regret this.’

  Elsa Petersson gave him a smile.

  ‘I’m not the one who’ll regret this. Take them in.’

  One of the UN security operatives got into the back with Thornton, while another got into the passenger seat, next to the driver. The doors closed and they drove off. A pair of operatives escorted each of the bodyguards into a waiting town car. Two minutes later they were all gone and the street began to fill with early-morning traffic.

  Inside the lobby of Sentinel HQ, John, Socrates and the Chief had watched the entire scene unfold before them.

  ‘What the hell just happened?’ the Chief asked. ‘Did you plan this?’

  John held his hands up.

  ‘That was not part of the plan. But I think it clarifies who was behind it all.’

  ‘Care to explain, Tesh?’

  John was staring at the street, recalling the scene moments ago. He suddenly turned to Socrates.

  ‘Are you always recording?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, John.’

  ‘Can you replay and analyse the information you record?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Tesh, what’s going on?’ the Chief asked.

  ‘Unless I’m mistaken, Vanessa was not in any of those cars when they drove off.’

  Sixty-Three

  Martin Place was a series of open plaza areas punctuated by major roads in the centre of the CBD. The underground train station, relocated one street across from Sentinel HQ, discharged a regular stream of office workers. All manner of men and women traversed the length and breadth of Martin Place to get to their destinations. A large proportion of them headed directly into the buildings that lined Martin Place, including the Central Bank of Iona. Others stopped to admire the retail goods on sale in the large display windows located on the lower levels of the refurbished and renovated sandstone buildings that had been the home of banks for decades before the Iona Corporation had annexed the city. Martin Place was a busy, vibrant and central part of the city. It was also a nightmare for locating any one person.

  ‘Anything?’ John asked.

  ‘I am scanning the crowd but there are a large number of people here, John. It will take time to locate Agent Koelmeyer,’ Socrates said.

  John realised this had been the one weakness in their plan. He had to hope his uncle had been convincing enough.

  They made their way across Castlereagh Street. The morning crowd surged around them as they travelled towards the next cross-street. The sound of the fountain filtered through the steady stream of noise around them: footsteps, people talking on phones and to each other, a baby crying and an emergency siren in the distance. John suddenly stopped.

  ‘Is everything alright, John?’ Socrates asked.

  ‘There.’

  Vanessa Koelmeyer stood next to the fountain. She was looking directly at them. Then she smiled.

  ‘Come on.’

  They approached her through the morning crowd. Stopping in front of the fountain, they were less than two metres away from her.

  ‘What a pleasant surprise,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘It’s over,’ John said.

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘You’re alone with nowhere to run.’

  ‘Who said I was alone?’

  Three figures detached themselves from the morning crowd. The rogue operatives drew their weapons in such a way that the crowd around them were oblivious to the fact. John motioned for Socrates to hold still.

  ‘Your move, Tesh,’ Zachary Wallman said.

  He held his handgun pointed directly at John. The other two operatives—Tobias Jan Neumann, the hacker, and the weapons expert, Alain Eduard—covered Socrates. Eduard’s left arm was heavily bandaged and he had a dark purple bruise on his right cheek. Clearly, he’d been the one involved in the car accident in North Ryde.

  ‘I’m curious—why did they hire you? The UN member states, I mean. Why did they want to sabotage the summit so that Iona didn’t become a permanent member of the UN Security Council?’ John asked.

  Wallman lowered his gun slightly.

  ‘You don’t know the truth, do you, Tesh? I won’t spoil the surprise for you—let’s just say that once you find out, there’s no going back. You’ll also understand why the majority of the member states wanted to prevent Iona from joining them.’

  ‘Iona already has a seat at the UN,’ John said.

  ‘So do countries in Africa that most people have never heard of. The global powers had to allow Iona into the UN to end the GEC. They also let them annex this city but do you really think that countries like the United States or China would let them become permanent voting members of the UN Security Council? To allow a corporation to have a seat at the table that determines matters of global security?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ve failed and now we’ve flushed you out of hiding.’

  Wallman smiled.

  ‘You’re buffing, Tesh. I don’t see anyone else here.’

  ‘Wait,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘What is it?’ Wallman asked.

  ‘How did you know I would be here?’ she asked.

  ‘We received a call from our new transporter. He—’

  ‘It’s a trap!’ Vanessa shouted. ‘The transporter is John’s uncle and he’s been playing you from the start.’

  ‘I’m afraid it’s I who has been playing him,’ Wallman said. He raised his handgun. ‘I knew exactly who he was when I
let him take over from Trent. It made it easier to free you and provided the perfect opportunity to put an end to the famous John Tesh once and for all.’

  John smiled.

  ‘You know what your mistake was?’ he asked.

  ‘I didn’t realise I’d made any, but enlighten me, Sentinel.’

  ‘You thought you were being chased by a small team of Sentinels. Because that’s how you would have done it. That’s what all your operatives would have done. You would have figured it’d be easier to track your target through a city of six million people with a small specialist team. That was your mistake.’

  ‘Like I said before, Tesh—I don’t see anyone else here. You’re trying to bluff your way out of this.’

  ‘You don’t understand what the Sentinels are, do you?’

  ‘You’re an elite police force.’

  ‘No. We’re not just an elite police force. We’re not just the best of the best. The Sentinels are Iona. We’re everywhere. And we’re backed by the Ruling Council.’

  Zachary Wallman released the safety on his handgun.

  ‘Enough. The two of you are alone and we’ve got you outnumbered.’

  ‘No, Wallman. We’re never alone and we’re not the ones who are outnumbered. You are.’

  Ninety-nine men and women dressed in dark-grey suits, with matching ties and black shirts, stopped walking through Martin Place as one. They drew their Sentinel-issue rapid-fire handguns and aimed them at the rogue operatives.

  ‘What the … ?’ Wallman began.

  His words were cut off as a series of sonic booms reverberated off the buildings bordering Martin Place on either side. Three Ruling Council transport ships descended from the sky and hovered ten metres above the pedestrian thoroughfare.

  ‘This is the part where you drop your weapons and surrender,’ John said. ‘It’s over.’

  Sixty-Four

  The Chief leaned back in his chair. John sat across from him in the torture seat masquerading as a leather chair. Socrates stood next to him.

  ‘Why do you never sit down?’ John asked. ‘I mean, I know you don’t get tired but … ’

  Socrates looked at him for a moment. The android didn’t blink. John shifted slightly in his seat.

  ‘It reduces my reaction time by zero point one of a second,’ Socrates said.

  ‘Zero point one? That’s almost nothing.’

  ‘The way I perceive the world around me, John, zero point one of a second is a long time. It could compromise my ability to protect those around me.’

  John looked around the room. The door was closed. They were on the twenty-fifth floor of Sentinel HQ, surrounded by their own people.

  ‘I think we’re safe.’

  Socrates looked at him for another long moment. Finally, he sat down in the chair next to John. The old leather and wood frame groaned loudly but supported his weight.

  ‘Isn’t that better?’ John asked.

  ‘As I explained before, this reduces my reaction time. My field of vision is also diminished from this vantage point. So, no, it’s not better.’

  John stared at him for ten seconds. Then he burst out laughing.

  ‘Alright, enough of this,’ the Chief said. ‘We have a lot to talk about.’

  The two of them looked at Socrates. The android stared back at them with eyes that only looked human.

  ‘What can you tell us about where you come from?’ John asked.

  ‘I became self-aware exactly five days ago on the 10th of December 2044 at 5.59 am. My memories do not exist before that time. I was in an abandoned warehouse in Mascot, not far from the Iona Airport. My systems required a further seventy-two hours to reach full operational capacity.’

  ‘What made you come to the Sentinels?’

  ‘My programming stipulated that I present myself at Sentinel HQ for active duty. I was to explain to the Chief what I was, with a subroutine stipulating that I should demonstrate my abilities if the Chief failed to believe what I was.’

  John leaned back in the hard leather chair. It was ridiculous how uncomfortable it was.

  ‘So, let me get this straight.’ He began counting things on his fingers. ‘You gain consciousness, you find yourself in an abandoned warehouse and your programming requires you to come to Sentinel HQ and report for active duty.’

  ‘That is correct, John.’

  ‘But you have no idea who built you or why?’

  ‘No, although I can surmise that my purpose was to assist the Sentinels.’

  ‘There’s no denying your abilities in the field and your technological prowess,’ John said. ‘You were right to make him my partner, Chief.’

  ‘Of course I was. That’s why I’m sitting on this side of the desk,’ the Chief said.

  ‘You couldn’t pay me enough to do your job,’ John said.

  ‘No one was offering,’ the Chief said.

  ‘Not yet,’ John said.

  ‘Alright, we’re getting sidetracked a bit,’ the Chief said. ‘I think we have to accept the fact that, for now, we don’t know where Socrates comes from, who built him or exactly why. What we do know is that he’s a damn effective field agent.’

  ‘And a good partner,’ John added.

  Socrates turned to look at him. It was a surprisingly human reaction.

  ‘Thank you, John. You are an acceptable partner also.’

  The Chief laughed. John gave him a look.

  ‘Right; thanks, I think. So, what now?’

  ‘What we really need to understand is what you’re capable of?’ the Chief asked.

  ‘Well, we know he’s fast, strong and can interface with technology. How do you do that phone trick, by the way?’ John asked.

  ‘I am capable of wirelessly hacking into many devices, including the telecommunications network and surveillance systems. The only phones I am unable to access are those used by the Ruling Council.’

  John thought of the code Councillor Alara Green had given him so that he could communicate with her. He also realised how close he’d come to letting that information fall into the hands of the Rainmaker’s hacker.

  ‘It’s that ability that we need to restrict, to an extent,’ the Chief said.

  ‘Why, Chief?’

  ‘Because what Socrates is doing isn’t legal. We need to be careful that his abilities don’t compromise our investigations.’

  ‘Chief, what’s the point of having an unstoppable android partner if he can’t use any of his abilities?’

  ‘I never said he couldn’t use his abilities. We just need to make sure he doesn’t break the law; otherwise we may find that, not only do we have to let criminals go free because we fail to follow due process, we also compromise the Sentinels.’

  ‘You mean if people find out we have an unstoppable android working for us, one who can control technology and who isn’t required to obey the law?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Alright, that makes sense. Socrates?’

  ‘I understand the limitations you are imposing on my abilities and the reason for them. Your logic is sound. I will restrict my actions accordingly.’

  The Chief nodded. John suddenly thought of something.

  ‘So, who do we tell the truth about him?’

  ‘I think it best we limit it to the Sentinels and senior law enforcement personnel. They’re the ones most likely to encounter him in the field, so it makes sense that they know. If someone else finds out, we can deal with it from there.’

  ‘Ah, Chief.’

  ‘Yes, John?’

  ‘My wife knows.’

  ‘You told her?’

  ‘I kind of had to. She saw Vanessa shoot Socrates at point-blank range.’

  ‘Fair enough. Make sure she keeps that information to herself.’

  John nodded.

  ‘Socrates?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, John?’

  ‘Is there anything you want to ask us?’

  The android looked at him in silence for a long moment. Finally, he sa
id, ‘What does coffee taste like?’

  John clapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘Oh, you have no idea.’

  Sixty-Five

  Socrates stood up. Opening the door to the Chief’s office, he stepped out into the corridor. John was about to follow him when the Chief motioned for him to remain.

  ‘John, a moment.’

  Reluctantly, John sat back down in the unaccommodating leather chair.

  ‘What’s on your mind, Chief?’ he asked.

  ‘How did you know those operatives would be in Martin Place?’

  John grinned.

  ‘Lucky guess.’

  ‘Cut the nonsense, Tesh. Did you arrange for Vanessa to escape?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘The Swedish ambassador?’

  John nodded.

  ‘Lauren was working for Elsa Petersson. She agreed to stage that scene in front of HQ this morning to give Vanessa a chance to escape and for her team to pick her up in Martin Place.’

  The Chief leaned back in his chair. John absently wondered if the Chief’s chair was just as uncomfortable as the one he was sitting in. He somehow doubted it.

  ‘So let me get this straight. You apprehend Vanessa after she kidnaps your wife. You then arrange for her to escape in an elaborate charade so that she can be picked up by the rest of her black-ops team, who just happen to be waiting for her near the fountain in Martin Place?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  The Chief shook his head.

  ‘That was either a very impressive set-up or sheer dumb luck. For your benefit, I’m going to choose to believe the first.’

  John grinned.

  ‘I’m offended you’d think it was anything else.’

  ‘Of course you are.’

  ‘Chief?’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Thanks for backing me up on this.’

  The Chief grunted.

  ‘Like I said the other day, you’re one of my best, Tesh. I just wish you’d filled me in on your plan.’

  ‘Sorry, Chief. I couldn’t risk anyone alerting the operatives.’

  The Chief looked at him for a long moment. John shifted slightly in his chair under the Chief’s unwavering gaze.