Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame (18 page)

‘Technically,’ she commented after another citizen had demanded the same thing on screen as all the others had, ‘they aren’t terrorists. The Jenlay and the Herosians are at war, so they’d be classified as spies. Not that a Herosian spy could move around the city unnoticed anyway.’

‘According to Front Line,’ Dillon said, his tone sullen, ‘the Herosians have developed a sophisticated holographic technology from recovered Xinti tech. That’s how they’re disguising themselves.’

‘What utter gopi,’ Justine replied. ‘You can’t disguise someone like that.’

The big man shrugged. ‘I didn’t say it sounded right, I just said that was the current idea.’

‘Sorry. This whole business is getting on my nerves. Maybe I spent too long alone on Odanari, but I never thought the Jenlay were this stupid.’

‘We’ve spent five centuries scared of robots,’ Katelyn replied. ‘We really are that stupid.’

‘Everyone is when they’re scared of… well, dying,’ Aneka said. ‘No one knows where these spies are, so they’re making up stories to explain how this could possibly be happening.’

‘And right now,’ Ella put in, ‘they’d rather believe anything than that Jenlay are setting the bombs. If Jenlay are doing it, then
anyone
could be an agent.’

13.11.530 FSC.

Four Peacekeepers with carbines led by an FSA agent in a black suit stood on the doorstep looking slightly uncomfortable about being there. Janna opened the door, smiled at them, and said, ‘Good morning. What can I do for the Peacekeepers?’ She was wearing her smallest bikini and that resulted in the five men looking even more uncomfortable.

‘Agent Winnell, FSA,’ the man in the suit said, his implant transmitting his identity as he said it. ‘We’ve had a report of unusual activity here and we’re required to check the premises…’

Janna’s eyes shifted to the surrounding houses. A curtain moved, dropping back to hide whoever had been watching. ‘I’ll be sure to thank our neighbours for their concern. You’d better come in. We’ve nothing to hide, but things are a little disorganised. Most of us had to move out of Mid-town. The previous owner, Doctor Gilroy, has moved to another planet.’

The men trooped in, the Peacekeepers fanning out to check the bedrooms as Winnell followed Janna into the lounge where Katelyn and Dillon were watching the news flanked by Cassandra and Al’s drone. The latter pair did not move as the newcomer walked in, continuing to stare, glassy-eyed, at the wall screen. Neither of them was wearing clothes.

‘This is Katelyn and Dillon,’ Janna said, ‘two more refugees. Actually, I’m a little surprised to see you here given that our other three residents are FSA agents.’

Winnell sighed, though it sounded a little exaggerated. ‘Agent Truelove is in charge of hunting down these insurgents. When the tip came through she couldn’t be partial about it so we got sent down to deal with it immediately. Who are the other two?’

‘You mean “what,”’ Dillon responded. ‘I’m surprised. He’s a custom build we had made for Kat, but she’s a good old Eroticon series. Most people recognise them.’

‘They’re… sexbots?’

‘Dillon grew up on the Rim,’ Katelyn said. ‘They’re a lot more common out there. I was a bit dubious, but… Oh, the things she can do with her tongue…’

Dillon tapped Cassandra on the shoulder. ‘Go say hello to the nice man, Sandra.’

Cassandra went from immobile, inactive body to supple seductress in an instant. She rose from the couch as though on strings and began prowling toward the agent. Her eyes, however, remained slightly dead. There was a little light in them, but not quite the right sort for a Jenlay.

‘Uh… no,’ Winnell said, holding up his hands. ‘That’s fine. Now you mention it, I do recognise the model. She can stay right where she is.’ And Cassandra stopped in mid-stride, her face shifting to a blank expression in an instant.

‘Don’t know what you’re missing,’ Dillon told him, but the agent was saved from having to reply by one of the Peacekeepers.

‘There’s nothing here, sir,’ the armoured figure said as he walked into the lounge. He paused, taking in the scene, and then added, ‘We’ll wait outside.’

‘Right,’ Winnell said and then turned back to Janna. ‘You don’t know where your daughter is, do you, Miss Narrows?’

‘By now? She’ll be on Shadataga with Gillian and Aneka. I’m hoping we’ll be able to talk soon, but with relations the way they are…’

‘Yeah. Sorry to have bothered you.’

Aneka and Ella reappeared from over the back wall a few minutes later as Cassandra and Al were dressing. Janna smiled at them. ‘The house across the circle outside, to the left,’ she said. ‘Don’t you think Cassandra and Al did an amazing job there?’

‘I figured it was that house,’ Aneka replied, ‘and yes, they did. And having two live feeds of what was happening in case we had to intervene was very useful.’

‘I must admit,’ Cassandra said, shimmying a tube dress into place around her hips, ‘that having the body of a well-known sexbot has never seemed quite so fortunate.’

‘I don’t get how you can just go blank like that,’ Katelyn said. ‘I mean, it was like there was nothing in there but a dumb computer.’

‘I’m not a fabulous actress, but I have more control over my expressions and movement than a Jenlay. Much of my
appearance
of intelligence is the result of the designer’s attempts to make me look like the perfect partner. Switching a couple of those off gives a pleasing result.’ Happy with her dress, she assumed a thoughtful expression and added, ‘And I
was
a dumb sexbot before I woke up.’

‘I find that
very
difficult to believe,’ Al said in his smooth, darkly tinted voice.

Cassandra smiled across at him. ‘You say the sweetest things.’

High Yorkbridge, 15.11.530 FSC.

It had been quiet for a day or two, which had resulted in some of the people massing outside the embassy getting bored and leaving. No one seemed to be especially displeased about that, but it did mean that the ones remaining were the loudest and most belligerent.

There were Peacekeepers there too. None of them exactly looked pleased to be guarding an embassy some of them would probably have liked to see rased to the ground, but it was their jobs. Each of them had taken an oath to uphold the laws of the Federation, and even if the Federation no longer really existed, the laws did. So there they were, armed with blaster carbines set on stun and thankful that their combat suits kept them comfortable in the warm sun. New Earth had little in the way of seasons, and it was warm pretty much all the time. Not great for those doing guard duty.

Philip Trent was, thankfully, almost at the end of his shift. Soon he would be able to go back to his station house, take off the stupid uniform, get into some comfortable clothes, and go out for the evening with his girlfriend. He had met her maybe two weeks earlier and she had made him go on three dates before going back to his place for the night. They were still at the stage where the novelty of a new body to play with was enough that they did not need to get inventive. When they did he was probably going to get dumped, because he was not an inventive man, but for now things were just perfect.

Trent was contemplating exactly how they would go about banging each other into a stupor tonight when he saw the woman walking out of the crowd in front of him. Something about her seemed odd and he raised his carbine a little, but he could not quite make out what was wrong…

She was dressed in a heavy, faux-leather jacket, which did not fit with the weather. Her face was pretty, but that could have described most of the population. Except for her eyes. He saw her eyes and knew that he had figured out what it was that was so strange. Her eyes were blank, dead, almost as if they belonged to a robot.

The woman turned and raised her head. ‘Death to the Jenlay!’ she screamed at the top of her lungs, and then the world seemed to explode into bright light.

Tristar Township.

‘There were three more of them,’ Truelove said. ‘Same MO, all in public places. Lone person walks into the area, yells an anti-Jenlay slogan, and explodes. High-energy explosive with a signature which suggests a Herosian military source was used, with five-millimetre metal balls embedded in it.’

‘Suicide bomber standard equipment,’ Aneka commented.

‘Why?’ Ella asked. ‘I mean, why would someone
do
something like that?’

‘Suicide bombing is a terror weapon, but it’s also the kind of thing you use when you don’t have anywhere else to go. You need people so dedicated to the cause that they’re willing to die for it, and there are very few ways to stop someone who’s that determined to kill people. How many casualties?’

‘Fifteen dead at the embassy,’ Truelove replied, ‘three of them Peacekeepers. Another twenty-three injured. Ten dead and fifty-one injured at the other sites. That’s excluding the bombers. We found one ID implant in good enough condition to extract the data from it. Bettina Milby, mother of two. Went missing three days ago, but the Peacekeepers are so overworked at the moment that they hadn’t got round to trying to find her. We also found one witness who saw her before she blew herself up. He said she looked weird, like she was a robot or something.’

‘Quint,’ Aneka said, spitting the word out.

‘He’s dead,’ Ella replied, frowning.

‘Yes, but he couldn’t be the only psychic who can reprogram people.’

‘No,’ Truelove agreed, ‘he isn’t. It’s illegal, immoral, and repugnant, but far from impossible.’

Ella swallowed. ‘So they get kidnapped and programmed to blow themselves up in populated areas. That’s… Why am I even surprised by this kind of thing anymore?’

‘It’s good that you are, love,’ Aneka told her. ‘When you get to be as cynical as I am, I’ll be worried.’

‘Well,’ Truelove said, ‘this has had one slightly positive effect. Elroy has declared a state of emergency. There’s a night-time curfew in effect, people are to move about only when necessary, and there are to be no gatherings of more than three people. It means the siege of the embassy is over.’

‘When
that
is a positive thing,’ Janna commented from her place nearby, ‘I
know
we’re in trouble.’

18.11.530 FSC.

There had been five more bombs and six more suicide bombs in three days. Casualties had been kept to a minimum by the curfew and other emergency measures, but a couple of the underground lines through the city were now unusable and people were starting to hole up in their homes. Panic was starting to set in. That was when Cassandra made her breakthrough.

‘Working with the security camera feeds Winter supplied,’ the android explained, ‘Al and I have identified five people who may well be involved in the suicide bombings.’

She turned her head to look at the wall screen and five images clipped from video frames appeared. ‘The one at the bottom was present at all the explosions. I believe that this is the psychic. He needs to be present to maintain control of his victims. Some combination of two of the other four are always present with him, presumably acting as bodyguards and lookouts.’

Truelove’s eyes had gone unfocussed as soon as the images had appeared. She frowned. ‘None of them are in any of our databases.
None
of our databases.’

‘That shouldn’t be possible,’ Sharissa supplied. ‘Well… If they were from outside the Federation, maybe.’

‘They should still have been identified when they reached their first Federation planet. I think they’ve been erased. Very few people could arrange that.’

‘Like the head of the Federal Security Agency?’ Aneka suggested.

‘Like him, yes.’

High Yorkbridge.

‘Truelove has identified your psychic and four of your operatives,’ Pierce said. He was smiling as though it did not matter, but Part frowned.

‘How?’

‘They were sloppy. They appeared at the suicide bombings. Facial recognition tagged them.’ Pierce’s eyes narrowed. ‘I was unaware that she was using such a broad field of information and it’s surprising that she was able to find them so quickly, but she has watch notices out for them.’

‘You didn’t stop her?’

‘This campaign has been a suitable distraction and has had the side effects I was hoping for. The population are panicking. They are scared to leave their homes. When Elroy demonstrates his weakness, they will turn to those willing to show strength. Let Truelove find your men. They have that contingency covered, don’t they?’

Part gave a slow nod, unwilling to speak and betray his feelings on the matter.

‘Then everything is going according to plan. We’ll need something to keep Winter’s people occupied when we’re ready to deploy Aqua Regia. I have that covered. Now we just need to wait.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 20.11.530 FSC.

The tower block had taken severe damage from one of the impacts that had all but destroyed the islands. It was on the edge of the city, near the beach Aneka, Ella, Dillon, and Katelyn would go to on weekends, which had been a bad place to be when the Herosians had come. Now it was three solid storeys and two more which were little more than walls held together with faith.

Truelove watched it through a set of binoculars, seeing no sign of life. ‘We’re sure this is the place?’

‘We tracked one of them here after the last bomb went off,’ Sharissa replied, strapping on her last piece of ablative, laser-resistant armour. ‘Our eyes in the sky say there are seven Jenlay in there. Third floor, north side.’

‘I’d prefer to go in with you.’

‘You’re staying here with Janine,’ Sharissa told her. She picked up a laser carbine and added, ‘You’re coordinating our attack. That’s what prospective heads of the FSA do.’

‘Sit around and send other people into danger?’

‘Yes. Just ask Aneka.’

‘Do I have to like it?’

‘No, you just have to do it. Give the word.’

Truelove’s fingers tightened around her binoculars. Her implant activated her microphone. ‘This is Agent Truelove. All teams prepare to breach.’ Then she cut off the radio and added, ‘Be careful. Janna will never forgive me if you’re so much as bruised.’