Justice Keepers Saga - Books 10-12

Chapter 6-1

The flight back to Leyria had been a solitary affair for Harry. Three days on a starship, with no one to talk to but Melissa, and she was tight-lipped about the assignment she had been given. There was a part of him that wanted to go with her, but Harry didn"t even suggest it. Melissa could take care of herself; she was a fully-trained Justice Keeper now. And he wasn"t a hero anymore. If he had ever been.

He had taken an hour to settle in, unpack his things, set the damn robot to cleaning his house and relax. Then he had put out a message on the Interlink. Leyrian social media wasn"t so different from its Earth counterparts. It turned out that since Harry had never bothered to make accounts of his own, other people had done it for him after they saw his fight with Isara. That was all over the Link now. It wasn"t hard to get some of those accounts to tweet or share or whatever – to put the word out that he would be giving a talk in downtown Denabria this afternoon.

Sunlight came through the glass ceiling of the civic centre, glinting off the metal frame that supported it. Below that slanted roof, at least two dozen people filled almost every one of the chairs that faced a lectern. They were young and old, men and women, some formally dressed, others in casual clothes. But they all had one thing in common: they had all come here to see Harry Carlson.

Which made them idiots, but then, he had agreed to this. It was time to fulfill his end of the bargain.

Harry stood at the back of the room in a gray suit with a purple shirt and matching tie. Earth fashions, but if he had to go on stage, he wanted attire that brought out his self-confidence. This would do.

Closing his eyes, Harry took a moment to collect himself. “You can do this,” he whispered. “It"s just like all those times you had to address a room full of surly beat cops. Only easier.”

He started down the aisle between the chairs.

People twisted around in their seats to watch him as he passed. You could tell that they were expecting something grand. The worst part was that Harry would probably have to rise to those expectations. It was part of the job now.

Harry stepped up behind the lectern, thrust his chin out and studied them all for a very long moment. “What you have heard is true,” he said at last. “I wield the power of the Overseers.”

He raised his left hand, summoning a crackling force-field with the N"Jal. People gasped at the sight. Some of them exchanged glances. Well, there was nothing quite like a competent showman for keeping a crowd engaged.

Harry let his arm drop and gripped the lectern with both hands, leaning forward to stare intently at his audience. “It"s time to expose the false gods for what they really are,” he said. “Liars! Deceivers!”

There were murmurs of approval from the crowd.

“The Overseers,” Harry went on, “were never gods! They were demons who toyed with us for their own ends. We are all part of some grand experiment they"re conducting, and I say it"s time for these lab rats to fight back!”

One young man jumped up and shouted, “No more lies!” Several others echoed him. Harry"s words seemed to resonate with the young people – impassioned speeches usually did – but he could tell that some of the older members of his audience were more skeptical. And good for them! It pleased him to know that some people weren"t taken in by the first loudmouth who crossed their path.

An older man – a handsome fellow with tanned skin, gray hair and thick glasses – sat in the front row with hands folded over his round belly. When the noise died down, he spoke up. “You say the Overseers are false gods,” he said. “But you use their technology. Do you not see a contradiction there?”

Harry hated himself for what he was about to do.

With a great deal of care, he rolled up his sleeves to make it clear that he was not carrying a multi-tool on his person. Then, extending his left hand toward the audience, he used the N"Jal to project a hologram over his upturned palm. A simple image of Leyria orbiting its parent star.

“I am the Deliverer,” Harry said. “You have seen with your own eyes. You know. Hundreds of people across dozens of worlds have tried to use Overseer technology, and every single one of them was unable to control it. But their technology serves me.”

He closed his hand and the hologram vanished.

The old man who had challenged him now sat back in his chair with arms crossed. “So, you can control their technology,” he said. “Well, forgive me, Mr. Deliverer, but that hardly proves you"re some kind of messiah.”

An older woman with curly hair stood up and frowned at Harry. “You"re too late anyway,” she added. “It"s been centuries since anyone on this planet has worshipped the Overseers as gods. The Covenant of Layat put an end to that.”

Harry waggled a finger at her like a professor giving a lecture. “Ah,” he countered. “But you"re forgetting the Antaurans. They very much do worship the Overseers, and they are your allies now.”

doMurmurs of discontent told him that not everyone in this room was happy with that situation. Well, he wasn"t going to try to change their minds. Leyria and Antaur would not be going to war any time soon. People could grumble all they wanted as long as they didn"t start killing each other.

“Who cares what the Antaurans believe?” someone shouted.

Setting his jaw with determination – fighting his way past his reservations – Harry nodded slowly. “I"ll tell you why you should care,” he began. “The Overseers want us to fight each other. I don"t know why. It"s part of their experiment.”

That got people talking.

“It doesn"t matter what you believe,” Harry pressed on. “If the Overseers command the Antaurans to fight, they"ll do it. You don"t have to be religious to find yourself in the middle of a religious war. And as for the treaty…Well, what are words on paper compared to the will of the gods?

“I can"t tell you what the Ragnosians will do now that they have access to our side of the galaxy, but I have no doubt that the Overseers will find a way to manipulate them. They"ve been doing it for centuries. Grecken Slade is one of their agents. He spent years corrupting the Justice Keepers, putting his people in key positions.”

They were frightened now. Harry could tell.

Once again, Harry lifted his hand, and this time, sparks crackled in the air. “The Covenant of Layat promised you that someone would come to cast down the false gods and expose their lies,” he said. “I am that person! And the time for change is now!”

“I

“He did what?” Larani spluttered.

A hologram of Gabi Valtez stood before her in white pants and a red blouse. Today, the other woman had her hair up in a long ponytail, and there was an intensity in her dark eyes. “He called himself the Deliverer and tried to turn his…congregation…” The disdain she invested into that word would chill any woman"s blood. “Against the Overseers.”

Even in the privacy of her quarters aboard the Night Flyer – a small room with two green couches and a screen of SmartGlass on the wall – Larani cringed at the thought that someone might overhear this conversation. Particularly Melissa. The girl would not take it well if she found out that Larani was keeping tabs on her father. “It"s Claire,” she said. “Somehow, this is related to the deal he made to save her life.”

Gabi"s hologram took a step back and looked down at the floor under its feet. “I don"t see how it could be,” she replied. “Even if our suspicions about this pact between Harry and the Overseers prove accurate, why would he turn people against them?”

“That I can"t say.”

“Perhaps we should turn this over to LIS.”

Tapping her lips with one finger, Larani shut her eyes as she considered that. “No,” she said after a moment. “I don"t know very many people in the Intelligence Service. I"d rather keep this between us.”

“You may not have a choice in the matter.”

“Oh?”

With a sigh, Gabi turned around. The hologram flickered, and when it reappeared, she was facing Larani again. “Your people aren"t subtle enough to keep an eye on Harry without alerting him to their presence,” she said. “And as a civilian, I no longer have the resources of LIS at my disposal.”

Larani sat down on the arm of one sofa. Her body seemed to deflate as if someone had sucked the energy right out of her. Truth be told, she felt that way sometimes: wrung out and exhausted. “You may be right,” she admitted. “But I would rather have someone I trust monitoring the situation.”

“Should we be monitoring this situation?”

“ShouldThat gave her pause.

Larani trusted the other woman…to a point. She and Gabrina may have found comfort in each other"s arms, but that didn"t make them close. Companion have mercy on her, when had trust become so difficult? There was a time, not so long ago, when she would have never questioned the loyalty of anyone in the LIS. So, what had changed? Was it Slade? Was it discovering just how many moles he had planted in her organization? She and Gabi were usually on the same page, but the other woman"s question was not sitting well. “Whatever do you mean?”

anyoneGabi answered her with a shrug. “I don"t agree with what Harry"s doing,” she said. “But religious freedom is a basic human right. If he fancies himself the next Layat, do we have any authority to stop him?”

Crossing her arms in a huff, Larani stood up and paced a tight circle around the hologram. “I don"t want to stop him,” she said. “I just want plenty of warning when this scheme of his blows up in all of our faces.”

The other woman wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Fair enough,” Gabi said. “I"ll keep my eyes peeled.”

The SlipGate chamber in the lower decks of the Night Flyer was pretty much the same as every other one of its kind that Jack had seen: gray walls with no fixtures of any kind except a single console and the Gate itself. That console was operated by a man in a blue uniform who watched the Gate as if he thought venomous snakes might come through at any moment.

Jack didn"t blame him. The metal triangle was silent, but something about the way light reflected off its shimmering surface drew the eye. The damn thing was just plain unnerving. But maybe that was his growing fear of the Overseers and their vague plans for humanity. “Think she"ll be here soon?”

No sooner did he finish saying that than a voice came through the speaker. “Night Flyer, this is Denabrian Gate terminal,” a woman said. “We have a passenger waiting to come aboard. Forwarding the authorization code now.”