Zero World by Jason M. Hough Read Free Book Online Page B

with wealth and prestige beyond anyone’s dreams. She’ll be a curiosity, a celebrity like no other. Perhaps even heralded as some kind of messiah.
    “What a brilliant, crazy, ambitious play.” Caswell grunted in admiration, and then he brought Alice Vale’s image back to his screen. He found he could view her as an adversary now, and a formidable one at that. In her face now he saw the drive, the ambition, and perhaps a hint of the ruthless selfishness that drove her to take these actions. He’d mistaken it all before as pure intellectual intensity.
    She must be stopped, Peter. I’m sure you can understand why, but let me make this very clear: She could ruin this place. Contaminate it in more ways than what is obvious. Perhaps she has already. Her weapons knowledge alone is very dangerous, but this goes way beyond that.
    This is a sovereign world, full of unique cultures and intelligent human life. We should have done what the rest of her crew advocated: study them, make contact when the time was right, take every possible measure not to alter their course. This world is not yet spacefaring, and we should have waited until they were ready to meet us before introducing ourselves. We should have chosen what we told them very carefully. Forall we know they’re vicious and bloodthirsty, and perhaps Alice Vale has told them where we are. She has the information required to educate them on every major weapon program embarked upon by humanity in the last two centuries. The sorts of things we’ve taken great pains to remove from Earth, and prevent ever being built again. And there was the weapon she and the rest of the
Venturi
crew were working on, which goes far beyond anything that came before. If she gives it to them, the results could be catastrophic. For Duplica, and possibly even for Earth.
    Your mission is to eliminate Alice Vale. Secondarily, destroy any artifacts of Earth she brought along, most especially that data trove.
    With any luck she never even made landfall. Or if she did, they saw her as completely mental and threw her in an asylum. Whatever the case, do the job and get away with minimal impact. For all our sakes leave nothing behind.
    Due to the circumstances of this mission, I’ve set up a delayed IA reversion trigger. Upon landing on Duplica, you’ll have fourteen days to complete your objectives.
    A timer appeared on-screen below Monique’s face and held steady at fourteen days, zero hours, zero minutes, zero seconds.
    Be back aboard your ship in eight days, since it’ll take you six to reach the wormhole again. If that is not possible, then at a minimum get off the ground before the timer hits zero. Log your results in the secure drop, lock in the reverse course, and sedate yourself. It should have just enough fuel to get you back to this side and we’ll be waiting to pick you up.
    I know this will test you to the very limit, Peter, but I have every confidence. It’s not so unlike one of your holidays, right? You’re the perfect man for the job.
    Good luck, IA6.
    ~Monique Pendleton, IH6, out.

    These details are classified per your contract with Archon Corporation. Any attempt to speak, write, or otherwise divulge your objectives will trigger immediate reversion. Thought-access lock ends.
    He spent the days that followed studying video logs recorded aboard the station. As a nonscientist it helped him immensely to hear their discussions, their debates and hypotheses. Before the betrayal that would kill them, the crew of the
Venturi
had done a remarkable job during their brief visit to the world. At the time they had no idea if they would ever return home to share their discovery, making their efforts all the more impressive.
    No matter. Whatever the tipping point had been, it had happened and Alice had embarked on this scheme.
    She’d rigged a bomb. And a clever one at that. Killed the rest of her crew and departed with that data trove and, presumably, supplies to the planet below.
    On a whim