Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Once they were back in the car, Sin asked, "Do I want to know what that was about in there, Riss?"
She glanced back at Zan, then gave Sin her full attention. "A protein is a thing made out of smaller building blocks. That makes bends in the structure. The shapes of those bends determine the effects a protein has, biologically speaking."
"And?" Sin pressed. "Tell me if you can't talk about it."
"And," she went on, "I showed you an image of an active protein bend the other day.
" She clearly meant the one Zan had downloaded.
"I find it interesting, though, how the biological side isn't the only one.
Also, did you know that most proteins have many, many important parts to them? Almost like a puzzle."
The piece. She was talking around the coding that made it difficult for her to talk about a contract. Rissa was telling him this was related to the same drug she'd been smuggling. The one Ingénues had been dying for.
"Is there anything else I need to know?" he asked.
She smiled. "I don't often fail, Sinclair."
Often. Not never. She'd said 'often,' which made him think she'd just given them a less than perfect answer to their little problem.
Sin wanted to ask if it would work or what she'd done, but he had a feeling he still wouldn't understand, even if she spelled it out for him, so he decided to simply trust her.
"So we're still good?" he asked instead.
"Yes," she said proudly. "We're still good."
Only then did Sin pass Rissa the drive Benedict had given him. Like she had with the cable, the Ingénue reached under her hood to insert it into one of her many data ports. Glancing over, he watched as her eyes lost focus and then slowly closed. A moment later, she blinked them back open.
Withdrawing the drive, she held it out. "This should not fall into the wrong hands," she said softly.
"Zan." Sin gestured to the drive. "Can you get rid of that for me? Wipe it, fry it, or smash it. Don't really care, but the Praetor said to make it disappear."
"Can do," Zan said as he took the tiny device from her hands.
"So how long will you need to answer that?" Sin asked, daring to look over at her.
"I already have," Rissa said, but there was no pride in her voice. "Tell the Praetor that the answer is no, unless he is willing to sacrifice many lives."
"He wouldn't," Sin snapped before his mind could even catch up.
"I know," Rissa assured him. "And thus, the answer is no."
"Do I want to know the question?" Sin asked.
For a little too long, she sat quietly, staring at her clasped hands in her lap. Then, "He wants to know if there's a way to stop the conflict within the church."
"And we can't," Sin realized. "So how do we make this better?"
"We help those who cannot help themselves," she breathed, the words almost too soft to hear.
But the guys did, so Zan asked, "We, huh? You do know the only priest here is Sin, right?"
Rissa turned, her silver eyes narrowed. "A division in the Legion is not only a concern to priests. It will affect everyone on Tyche. It will change our government and our laws. Depending upon which side wins, it could even mean dividing people into castes."
"Oh," Zan mumbled.
"And there's no way to stop it?" Sin asked.
"No," Rissa said again. "It could be quelled, but then the dissent would simply run rampant out of sight until it exploded.
The opposition could be removed, but that would only give them a stronger power base.
The only possible way to stop the division in the Legion, at this time, is to either terminate anyone who cannot be converted—which violates most rules of ethics—or to accept that humans do not always agree.
I would recommend bringing this problem into the open, allowing both sides to voice their views, and hoping enough people can be swayed to the desired side.
Then, if the dissenting faction is small enough, conflict would be the least desirable of all other options. "
"What kind of conflict are we talking about?" Sin asked just as he turned the car into the OutLink parking lot.
She looked at him with nothing but concern in her eyes. "That truly depends on which faction is the dissenting and which is in control. From what the Praetor included, it seems he is not sure."
"Shit," Sin breathed, finding a spot and parking the car. "Ok, Princess, I have to take you back again. Hopefully, this will be the last time."
Rissa turned in her seat to face him. "I have lived in the Enclave for my entire life. I know I am safe inside there. Bored, but safe. Can your church say the same?"
"Yeah," Zan murmured from the back seat, "But Rissa, hating one wrong doesn't inherently make the other acceptable."
"If the division in the Legion is as serious as Praetor Benedict thinks, then getting me out will only make things worse. Worry about your church first, Sin. Protect those who cannot protect themselves. I will be fine."
"Riss..." he said, catching her hand. "You don't deserve this."
"Neither do you," she agreed, "but you cannot be in two places at once. I no longer want to leave the Enclave, Legate. I am comfortable there."
"And you know I can't force my help on you," he said, nodding his head. "Then we'll do it your way, Ingénue."
Tossing a warning look at Zan, Sin climbed out of the car and headed around to the passenger side.
The moment the door was open, Rissa reverted back to her perfectly obedient self.
He wanted to tell her she was wrong. His urge was to convince her to change her mind.
The problem was that inside the car, Zan was listening, and out here, OutLink could.
That meant she'd gotten the last word once again.
For now. He wasn't about to give up on her, but from what she was saying, he had bigger problems to worry about.
Big enough and important enough ones that his Ingénue seemed to believe they had to be handled first. That, more than anything else, made his guts clench with worry.
Between the upcoming inquiry about the dead priest, the countless times he'd caught someone either watching or following his Ingénue, and her prediction, it was all adding up to one very big thing.
Somehow, the issues with the church were tied to the issues with the Ingénue, but why? More importantly, how?
Using the cure as a miracle couldn't be all there was to this. If Joshua wanted to make himself a miracle, then he already had the formula for this cure. But why was the head of Pharmacon's security force trailing her? Why had an organized group—which included a priest—attacked her?
None of this was adding up.
All of the pieces were so close, but they didn't quite fit. That meant he was missing something, but what? And how devastating would it be when he found out?
Sin took Rissa back to the receiving room where a new technician was waiting for them.
This time, a woman. She grabbed Rissa's arm a little too forcefully and all but dragged her through the doors to the back.
Naturally, Rissa didn't complain, but Sin wanted to.
If there was anything to convince him his angel's safety was just as important as the mess building in his church, well, that was it.
Storming back to the car, he decided that somehow, he would manage to fix both things. By the grace of God, he'd find a way. The only real question was what he was willing to risk to do it, because turning his back on God was out of the question.
As he threw himself into the driver's seat of the car, Zan said, "I reviewed those security tapes." The kid sounded rattled.
"Bad?" he asked.
Zan climbed through the gap to slide into the passenger seat. "Yeah. One of the girls wiped her mind and just dropped. Throughout the entire scene, she's lying there like a corpse—eyes open and everything."
"Because she was," Sin said, refusing to soften this for him. "OutLink has a flaw in their coding, and the girls are dying instead of simply erasing their minds."
"Not like that would be any better," Zan grumbled. "Sin, they took her body. In the other one, the girl moved off screen and never returned. And yet in both of these videos, the attackers are different."
"So multiple groups," Sin realized.
"And styles," Zan clarified. "The first group hit them hard, triggering the girl to wipe. The second group snuck up on them and grabbed the girl. Maybe they learned? Hired different thugs?"
"Maybe."
Sin started the car and aimed for the road that would take him back to his apartment complex.
"But why take the girl?" he asked. "The head of Pharmacon's security forces was following Rissa.
We know that for sure. Was it merely a coincidence or is he a part of this?
If so, then why would Pharmacon be attacking brains for a molecule they already own? "
"Because they can't prove they own it?" Zan guessed.
Sin nodded and kept going. "Ok, so who has it? The Ingénue are inadvertently smuggling it to Dhatri Pharmaceuticals for someone. Who? Joshua? Rissa says he wants to make a miracle cure, so that would make sense. The rest of this? Not at all."
"But if Joshua is fanatical about his interpretation of the first precept, then why would he want to make a cure?
" Zan asked. "No, you're right, this doesn't make sense.
If Pharmacon owns it, why would they attack the people they hired to carry it?
Unless there's some plan to use that as a reason why they can't make it? I mean, that's possible…"
"I guess," Sin said, not truly convinced. "I just don't buy it. If this thing is stolen like Rissa thinks, then what are the chances Pharmacon didn't get the cops involved?"
"Mm…" Zan seemed to mull that over. "Police would mean a record. A record means proof it exists."
"And if they don't even want to risk getting a patent—which is public record—then Pharmacon definitely wouldn't want the police involved," Sin realized.
"Sounds plausible," Zan agreed. "I mean, corporate espionage is pretty common, and this data—regardless of who is sending it—is definitely illegal. There's no other reason for the jackings."
"Except Joshua," Sin realized. "The bitch who handled Rissa's last data transfer said the Censor was adamant they match the piece. They're starting production tomorrow."
"Sounds to me like Rissa's right," Zan said. "Joshua is somehow involved with this. Either he stole the chemical, lucked out and the person who stole it contacted him, or something else. Either way, he's encouraging the transfer of illegal data to make this thing."
"Shit," Sin breathed as things finally began to make sense.
"Joshua got his hands on a drug that was stolen so he can make a miracle that can't be traced!
Rissa said something about the new patent only being on a part of it, so I bet that's to hide it.
Pharmacon screwed up because they don't want the public to know there's a cure.
Their stocks would crash if it got out they weren't planning to make it.
The public would turn against them. Dhatri, however, wants to make a cure so they can get a slice of the cybernetic drug market.
To do that, they're willing to work with stolen research and pay off the church to get away with it.
" But he paused. "Except it still doesn't explain why a priest attacked her. Zan, we're still missing something."
"Well, fuck," Zan breathed. "So what is Pharmacon doing in all of this?"
And something clicked into place. "It's Pharmacon trying to stop the downloads!
" Sin gasped. "Caleb didn't attack us because she'd already finished downloading, Zan.
Pharmacon wants to make sure no one has this information, and they don't care if these girls die to keep it safe, but once it's out of their heads, they don't give a shit about the Ingénue.
" He leaned his head back and groaned. "It's the only thing that makes sense.
Shit, and I can't even ask Rissa to check the records in there. "
"Next time," Zan said.
Sin just shook his head. "Going to be a while before I get a next time with her. I'm about to be tried for taking out that priest, Zan. Means a few days away from her."
"Right." The kid's brow furrowed. "Why would a priest be trying to jack the data the Censor wants?"
"No idea," Sin told him. "And that's the problem.
Every time I think I've got this figured out, I'm wrong.
The problem is, I can't stop it if I have no fucking clue what I'm stopping.
What I do know is that we have at least two different groups attacking these women.
Maybe even three. But why? And more importantly, why right now? "
"So talk to Benedict," Zan told him. "Drop me off, and when you take the car back to the Legion, tell him all of this. Tell him about the videos. Tell him everything about Rissa, Sin." And he looked over. "I mean everything."
"Yeah," Sin agreed. "I will, if only because I don't know what else to do, and he's going to need to know her answer before my trial."