Cassandra Kresnov 04: 23 Years on Fire (59 page)

“Somewhere they have a trap waiting,” said Vanessa, eyes fixed on doorways. They communicated only at a whisper, unable to use uplink formulation for the same reason they couldn’t use tacnet. Being in a communications unfriendly environment was getting old.

“I’m not sure it follows they’re definitely chasing me,” Cai said with a faint frown.

“You accessed docking matrix from gridpoint CF-92, like I said?” Ari asked. Cai nodded. “And immediately my mole reported a feedback spike on that grid, and two minutes later we hear footsteps coming down the best corridor access to CF-92. Somehow they know what to look for when you access the net.”

“Best you stop for now,” Vanessa suggested. Her stomach grumbled. Being on a big, empty space station was like being stranded in a giant steel desert. Most services to these parts had been switched off, excluding air. No water ran through the pipes, and the nearest food was only available from retail outlets a kilometer away, or warehouses, both guarded and visible.

“I’ve been on this station for several months,” Cai replied. He looked concerned, possibly even worried. That was a first. “They’ve never been able to trace my interface before.”

“Yeah,” said Ari, staring intently at the surrounding walls. “I wonder. That League ship, the ghostie. Any other League ships visiting while you’ve been here?”

“No,” said Cai. He and Ari looked at each other for a long moment.

Vanessa got a chill that had nothing to do with the cold. Ari thought that super advanced League warship had been sent all this way to warn the station about Cai? That brought a thousand questions to mind.

“Shit, Ari!” she whispered in frustration. “Who the hell is he? I can’t think my way out of a tactical situation if I don’t even know what we’re stuck in! And like it or not, I am ranking military here, however advanced he is!”

“Perhaps we should tell her,” Cai suggested.

“No.” Ari shook his head, adamant. “Ricey I’m sorry. You can kick my ass later.”

“You better believe it,” she muttered.

“But I think I’ve got some idea what’s going on out here,” he continued. “Why Chancelry’s making GIs out here, where GI technology came from. We’re getting chased right now. If they catch one of us . . .”

“Yeah, yeah,” she growled.

“Tell me,” Cai interrupted. “You three seem too smart and too senior to just get yourselves trapped on this hostile station. Do you have support? Out there?” With a nod toward distant, empty space.

“Now who’s asking for secrets,” Vanessa said drily. A thought occurred to her. “Do you?”

Cai smiled a little, and shrugged. It was a subtle smile, with a hint of irony. The kind of expression only the most mentally developed GIs would offer. Like Sandy.

“Well, whether you guys will talk to me or not,” she said, “I’ve only got one plan when people come after me.”

“Ha,” said Rhian, checking weapons and ammo. “Thought so.”

Ari blinked, looking from one to the other. “You’re going to attack them?”

“Not all of them,” Vanessa replied. “Just the ones that matter.”

The ambush was easier than she’d thought. With their pursuers tracking Cai’s network access points as they moved through the station, it was a simple enough matter for Ari to find a way to fool the network receptors to thinking Cai was somewhere he wasn’t. Almost immediately the pursuit deviated in that direction, with flankers to guard the main corridors to prevent any backtracking. A simple study of the schematic told Vanessa the logical spot for that, and she made sure she got there first.

Rhian did it herself. There was no cover for any more than one person, and the others were needed to make sure they themselves weren’t flanked in the maze of corridors and empty rooms and service crawlways. Vanessa didn’t see exactly what she did, just heard a fast commotion, then peered down her corridor to see Rhian already dragging one body, boots disappearing around a corner.

One last check to see the corridor remained clear, then Vanessa ran in, meeting Ari at the ambush cross-corridor, Ari tapping his ear then pointing outward, indicating his jamming had worked; no one else had heard these two go down. No, three, Vanessa saw as she ducked into the side room where Rhian was dragging bodies, two already in, a third lolling unconscious outside. Ari grabbed that one, then Cai came in from his end of the corridors.

Vanessa checked vitals—two concussions, one severe, and one with a knife in the throat, fast dying and very messy.

“Fucking stupid patterns,” Rhian pronounced, all business as she went through their clothes for anything useful. “Two is standard for that spot, three’s overkill, I had to stretch with the knife or he would have shot me.”

Vanessa checked the dying man’s vitals . . . and found with the position of the knife, missing the jugular, he might yet survive. Maybe. “Fuck it,” she muttered. Killing hadn’t been the plan. Yet.

She glanced at Rhian, ruffling through IDs, gear, passing an ear com to Ari in case he could do something with it. Rhian was a mum now. It had changed her, for sure. But today, she was all combat GI, no doubt still deep in combat reflex. Some things wouldn’t change. Couldn’t.

Cai stood guard at the door, leaving it open. His hearing would detect anyone approaching before they heard anything themselves.

“Rhi, help with the knife. If we get a bandage on it, he might make it.”

“Oh, we’re doing that, are we?” Rhian asked blandly, moving to help. “We’re caring?”

“Fuck it, Rhi, just get the knife.” Vanessa held the head still while Rhian pulled, then used it to slice off some uniform to use as bandage. The man kicked and spluttered, blood bubbling between his lips. “You miss on purpose?”

Rhian pressed the cloth down, then cut more to tie it with, giving no indication she might reply.

“Ricey,” said Ari, fiddling with the ear com, “you got some idea of what Chancelry’s doing down on Pantala?” Vanessa shot him a hard look. “If you were a GI, how’d you feel about the people who were part of that?”

“So we’re doing that, are we?” Vanessa said sarcastically. “We’re going all revenge crazy and bloodthirsty? Or are we doing our fucking jobs?”

Rhian finished tying the bandages, looking a little subdued. Vanessa had never seen Rhian belligerent before, not even in combat. She understood that. But they were all pros, or she and Rhian were, and God knew what Cai was. Pros did it right or not at all, and blood lust only turned you into an amateur. Unless you were Sandy.

The less-concussed man was waking up, groggily. Vanessa pointed her pistol at him, more to get his attention than from any concern. “Hey,” she said. “You awake?”

An awkward nod. His hands felt to his weapons, finding nothing.

“What corporation?” No reply. “Quickly, or I’ll start blowing bits off.”

“Dhamsel,” the man mumbled. Put a hand to his head, wincing. “Hey, who’s doing . . . stop that.”

Vanessa blinked, then looked at Cai. Cai seemed to be concentrating. “You in?” she asked him. Cai said nothing.

“Fucking wireless direct access,” Ari muttered incredulously. “Even Sandy can’t just barrier hack a security pro like that.”

“Who are you chasing?” Vanessa persisted. “Who told you what to chase?”

“Man,” muttered the Dhamsel Corporation man, “I don’t fucking know. I’m just a grunt, yeah?”

“Welcome to the club,” said Rhian.

“Who are you after?” Vanessa snapped, raising her voice.

“A GI! A GI like you, right? You are one, yeah? Can smell the fucking synthetic blood from here.”

“Thinks I’m a GI,” Vanessa said to Rhian.

“Be flattered,” said Rhian. “I always am.”

“Well it’s either you or her,” said the man. “’Cause it’s not him, he doesn’t look like it.” Looking at Ari.

“Well fuck you, too,” said Ari.

“Not him?” Vanessa asked, pointing at Cai. The man looked, frowning, then looked back.

“What are you fucking talking about? Who?”

“Him. There. By the door.”

“I don’t know who you’re fucking with, lady. There’s no one there.”

Vanessa was puzzled for a moment. Then heard Ari mutter, “Oh, no fucking way.” Then her eyes widened. She stepped over the man, who raised hands to defend himself, but she swatted them aside, knelt beside him, grabbed his head and pointed his face directly at Cai.

“There. Look right there. What do you see?”

“See?” The man was now frightened and confused. “What are you trying to pull?”

“Oh, good God,” said Rhian. Rhian was not given to great exclamations of any kind. Vanessa stared at Cai. Cai was still concentrating. Now he seemed to roll his eyes, with a flicker of disgust, and suddenly the man was unconscious again.

“That’s impossible,” Vanessa said flatly. It wasn’t smart to disbelieve what you’d just seen, but she was tired of being baffled. It didn’t suit her. “No one has the technology to do real-time visual override. It’s a technogeek myth, the holy grail of Ari’s crowd. It barely works on undefended subjects with a week’s preparation, sure as hell not real-time against a conscious security pro working for an arms corporation.”

Cai shrugged. “Well then, there you are. It’s not possible. We’d best move before their friends notice they’re missing, I’ve got most of his files. We can do some good things from here.”

And suddenly she saw it. Why Ari was so in awe of this man. What could make all this impossibility possible. She’d just seen him do something no human technology could allow. No
human
technology.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she exclaimed, angry at herself for not having seen it sooner. “You’re Talee.”

Silence in the room.

“So where are the tentacles?” Rhian asked. Vanessa nearly laughed.

Cai sighed. “No, I’m human. But humans didn’t make me. Talee did.”

“Why?” Vanessa demanded. It was all very fascinating, but there were people trying to kill her and she was more interested in the tactical applications. “What’s your mission?”

“Scout,” said Cai. “Recon. I can make myself invisible to heavily uplinked individuals; there aren’t many places I can’t go.”

“We shouldn’t be talking about this,” said Ari, fingers pressing the bridge of his nose, wincing. “We should all just shut up and . . .”

“No, it’s all right,” said Cai. “I’m allowed to make myself known in extreme circumstances, I deem that . . .”

“No, just shut up for a second,” Ari interrupted, walking between them. “Please. I’ve been saying for years GI brain tech is so obviously not human, no one believed me, not even Sandy . . . in fact, especially not Sandy . . .”

“Because you’re a paranoid conspiracy theorist,” Rhian said helpfully.

“. . . and we just shouldn’t talk about it,” Ari continued, “because this blows everything out of the water. This is why League will fucking blow Droze off the map if they find out Sandy knows, they’ll nuke this station too, just to get us, if they know we know. This knowledge is dangerous, do you get that?”

“So what do you want to do?” Vanessa demanded. “Pretend we don’t know? I’m not a big picture strategist like you and Sandy, I just know what I know. And I’m going to use it to kick some ass!”

Ari rolled his eyes. “Damn, could you use some subtlety just once? I’m going to have to say it out loud, aren’t I? What if this guy . . .” jerking a thumb at Cai, “. . . would rather commit suicide and take us all with him rather than let that secret get out?”

Everyone looked at Cai. Cai looked faintly affronted. “Do I look suicidal?”

“Does anyone?” said Rhian.

“Well if you argue like that,” said Cai, “then there’s nothing I can do to convince you. You’ll just have to trust that I’m not. Quite honestly, I’m not that sort of guy. And neither are my employers.”

“Maybe they should be,” said Ari, with sinister intensity. “Maybe even they don’t realise just what a mess this is.”

Cai smiled. “I think they do. And it’s worse than you know, trust me.”

“You have backup out there?” Vanessa demanded of him. “Since we’re being honest with each other?”

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Let’s just say we’re not alone,” Vanessa confirmed.

“Me neither,” said Cai. That gave Vanessa another chill. He was talking about a Talee ship. Somewhere out there, beyond the solar system rim, where the dust and debris of the middle-system dust cloud made for good cover. Spacers told spooky stories about Talee hiding and spying on them. Cai was talking about one that was his friend.

“Maybe yours and mine should get together so we don’t make any unfortunate mistakes.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Cai. “Mine will know exactly where yours is.”

“I don’t doubt,” Ari murmured.

“Great,” said Vanessa. “Your ships can see a pea in orbit from a billion clicks, and you can disappear before a person’s eyes by hacking their brain. If they’re prepared to nuke the station to get us now we know you exist, let’s take it from them first. The bridge is probably the only place we’re safe now, anyway.”

Ari stared at her. “You’re not serious.”

“No I’m not serious,” Vanessa said drily. “I’m just talking because I like the sound of my own voice. Can you see my lips moving?”

“Are you really just going to attack them?” Danya asked.

Sandy sat against a wall before windows in a derelict apartment, fifteen floors up. They were in Whalen sector, ten kilometers southwest of the Rimtown. Here amidst the crumbling urban sprawl they had a mediocre view over Heldig Corporation’s perimeter from four Ks out. Any tower with a better view would have been suspect, and even now Sandy sat low to hide her silhouette in the dust stained window.

“That depends,” she said, peering through the scanner she’d acquired from Kiet’s equipment store. Her own visual zoom was too restricted at this range, particularly at night. A lot of the corporate zone’s lights were off. Clearly they were nervous of surveillance.

“On what?”

“Whether I can find a way in or not.

“Cassandra, I know you’re a top soldier and everything . . .”

“Call me Sandy.”

“But, I mean, these are the corporations.” Danya’s expression was pained. “Even you can’t beat them all. What about all those reinforcements?”

He was right, there were a lot of reinforcements. Shuttles had been landing from God-knew-where—Batu Mehra probably, and Tivu. Even one reentry shuttle, direct from orbit, that had come down on landing pads atop Heldig Corporation’s HQ roof. Pantala was an arms factory world, and there were a lot of weapons here. But after her brush with Chancelry’s defences, Sandy had doubts about the training of the people using them.