Freedom Incorporated (30 page)

Jen inhaled sharply.
“No…”

*

The Raven flinched when
the message arrived, it was ill timed and he nearly ignored it
until after the swoop. But it was marked with the highest priority
and it came straight from the bounty co-ordinator so he quietly
placed his foot back on the supporting beam. Another two seconds
and he’d have placed a black boot firmly through the ceiling and
gone crashing into Jennifer Cameron’s living room.

A scowl of
irritation ploughed across his usually expressionless face, but it
evaporated when he read the message. Greed wasn’t something he
allowed to seep into his mind. And today was no exception, but he
did want the money, he needed it. The Raven licked his dry lips
with a dry tongue, his viscous saliva only chapping them more. It
was tempting to accept. One million Credits was more than enough to
cover the upgrade he so desperately desired. Upgrades for cyborgs
weren’t easy to
get
, being illegal. It was a lengthy procedure even though it no
longer required open-skull surgery. He had to place his head in a
vice and wait while strong magnets and electrical currents
rearranged the putty-like molecules in his computer. Engineers had
specifically designed cyborg computers for those types of upgrades.
There were no wires or silicon in the core of his computer; it was
PermaGel, the same substance that made the nano-net possible. As
computer scientists and engineers made advances in computer
architecture, they could rewire the nano-circuits in the Raven’s
mind to keep pace with technology. They would plunge a needle into
his temple and inject a solution to liquidify a portion of his
computer, readying it for something more sophisticated, more
erudite. But the torturous upgrade was a small price to pay for the
resulting boost in performance. Already massively
multi-parallelled, in many ways it resembled an accurate version of
the human brain, encapsulating the best technology that sprung from
the neuron-net experiments with the leaps and bounds made in
super-pipelining. It made the earlier models pale by comparison.
He’d had two upgrades since his becoming and each had cost a
fortune. Global Integrated Systems were secretly sponsoring the
back-alley operator that did the upgrades, but they couldn’t openly
advertise for clientele because of the backlash in public support –
people didn’t want cyborgs to access upgrade resources.

He wanted that
upgrade, and Roche’s offer would make it possible. A glimmer of
suspicion crossed his mind at the time the message had been sent,
but he meticulously scanned the credentials and they all checked
out. The message even fit her pattern of sloppy English, which he
confirmed by running a quick scan through her previous
e-mails.
It’s her all right.
He shrugged.
If she wants
to work early then that’s her prerogative.
He slunk out of the roof-space, taking the demands of the
message seriously. ‘Immediately’ meant he shouldn’t create more
corpses before tackling the new assignment.
So, Jennifer Margaret Cameron, today is your lucky day. And
as for you, Mr Sutherland, I’ll be back for you.

*

“
Dude!” Cookie
looked aghast. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“
That wasn’t a
good idea,” Samantha admitted.

“
No,” Jen
agreed. “You should
’
ve chosen someone else. Anybody else.”

Dan didn’t
think so, though he would find it difficult to convince them of
his
view
point
. T
he
itchy feeling that portended bad things had passed, leaving him to
believe he’d averted an imminent strike. “That’s the only person he
definitely
won’t
kill. He’ll likely do one of two things: verify the offer’s
correctness, or apprehend
him
alive. The Raven might be determined, but he’s not
stupid.”
At least I hope he’s
not.

All three
looked at him with dubious expression
s
.

“
Trust me,
will you?” He appealed to Jen.

She nodded, but
hesitantly. “Okay, I just hope you know what you’re doing. You
should’ve told us before doing something like that; we deserve veto
rights when it impacts us directly.”

“
Okay, in
future I will.” Inwardly, given the chance, he doubted he would
have done anything differently. He alone knew just how horrifyingly
close the Raven had come, and while he felt sure of his ability to
deal with the threat, he didn’t know how much of his confidence he
should attribute to Zyclone.

The computer beeped,
snaring Cookie’s attention. He returned to jabbing the
keyboard.

“
Can you erase
every indication that our message was ever written?”

Cookie cocked his head to
one side. “Every?” He wasn’t sure anybody but the system
administrator could do that. “I’ll give it a shot. I can erase the
obvious, but if they have a backup log, and maybe a backup-backup
in an obscure location, I might overlook it.”

Dan nodded, accepting it
on face value. “Either way, we’ve bought ourselves a few hours at
most. We have to get out of here, now.”

“
Where do you
propose we go?” Jen asked, mentally cataloguing the things she’d
want to take in preparation for a new beginning.

“
We’ll go to
my place until we can find more permanent accommodation for you.”
Dan again peeked out the balcony window
;
it was
the
only outward sign that he was still nervous with the Raven
in
the
vicinity. He
knew the cyborg had probably portaled to America by now, but his
presence lingered. “Get your stuff.” Dan motioned with his head.
“Pack bare essentials only, enough for a couple of days. You’ll
want to travel light.”

Samantha
obeyed without further comment, trundling into the master bedroom
to pack a duffle bag for herself and another for Cookie. Jen
hovered for long enough to smile bravely at the man who was risking
his own safety to protect a bunch of criminals. She’d returned to
wondering why he was doing so much for them.
What’s in it for him?
That question
continued to pester her while she gathered
her
personal effects. She also changed
clothes and neatly folded the skirt and top that belonged to Dan’s
sister.
Christine wasn’t
it?
She placed them on top of her brimming
overnight bag.
That’s it,
she thought, looking sadly around her
bedroom.
If I’ve forgotten anything, I’ll
have to buy it or do without.

She heard exasperated
curses coming from the master bedroom so she dumped her bag in the
living room and went to help Samantha. “You need a
hand?”

Samantha’s
nerves were fraying and the stress of the evening was showing
clearly in her eyes. They looked seconds away from brimming with
tears. “No, I’m just
fine.
” She was fighting with an
age-stiffened strap on the duffel bag.

“
Hey, leave
that,” Jen said,
protecting
Samantha from
the source of her immediate frustration. She
rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder before pulling her into a
supportive embrace. Jen was surprised to feel her shiver. “It’s
going to be okay,” she cooed, soothingly rubbing her hands up and
down Samantha’s back. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

“
How do you
know?”

Jen inhaled deeply,
squirming to think of an answer. “I can just feel it. Dan’s a good
man,” – more doubt tugged at the cautious part of her mind – “…I
think. He’s going to help us settle somewhere new.”

“
What about
uni?” Samantha was one year from finishing her degree in social
science, just like Jen, except Samantha was majoring in
history.

Jen hadn’t
considered that. She could barely believe she’d been in a lecture
theatre earlier that day
.
S
he checked
her watch; it was approaching one in the morning.
Well, yesterday.
Her
studies seemed so far removed from the bizarre reality her life had
become. “I don’t know. Maybe we can get advanced standing and
finish at another university.” She doubted it. If they needed a
clean break from their current lives, applying for advanced
standing would go against the rules. On the other hand, even if
they’d finished their degrees they wouldn’t be able to use them
after
switching
identities
. “Maybe our new identities will
already have degrees.”

Sam
antha
crossly shook her head. “No, I want to earn it. I’d
rather
have
credit
and finish my degree properly.”

“
We’ll look
into it.” Jen wondered where they’d end up.
On the coast?
She fervently hoped
so.
With a boat?
She doubted it.
Not unless we win the
lottery in the next few days.
Determination
gritted her teeth.
But
f
irst we have to
give UniForce the slip.
“Come on, are
you packed?”

“
Nearly.”
Samantha broke their huddle and tossed a few more items of
underwear into her bag. “I wish we’d done the laundry
yesterday.”

“
Yeah, me
too.” Jen helped by carrying Cookie’s bag, dumping it next to
hers.

Dan and Cookie hadn’t
moved. The bounty hunter was still looking out the window and the
hacker was still hunching over his terminal.

“
What about
my
LectroLogic
?”
That was the series name Global
Integrated Systems had assigned to his model of computer.
Cookie refused to budge. “I can’t just leave it
here.”

“
Bring the
computer and keyboard, but leave the monitor,” Dan suggested. The
monitor was thin and light but it was still an awkward size. “I’ve
got a seventeen inch XRM at home, you can use that.” The computer
itself was barely larger than the plugs that connected to it and,
though heavy for its size, it had the dimensions of a dainty
shoe.

“
Okay,” Cookie
said reluctantly. “Just give me a few minutes. I’ve
got
ta
start a few
apps or our tunnel won’t be there when we’re up and running later.”
A taskbar of scanners popped up on his screen. Of the nine circular
indicators, seven were red and two were green. With a whir of
activity
and enough
flicker
ing to send
an epileptic into a fit
,
Cookie set
the
appropriate parameters and launched the remaining applications.
After five minutes only two red dots remained.

The others
waited in silence, having nothing further to say. Samantha thought
it seemed a sad way to leave their abode.
But when the shit hits the fan, what’re you gonna
do?
she thought, tuning her spirit
toward
the positive in
the
ir
situation.
I can be whoever I want… I
can recreate myself.
She was a bit stung
that she couldn’t say farewell to her other friends, but she shoved
that thought as far from her mind as she could and focussed on the
good things instead.
Raindrops on roses
and whiskers on kittens…

“
Okay, I’m
done.” Cookie stood while waiting for the computer to gracefully
shut down. His fractal-bacteria screen oozed to a shade of algae
brown when the signal from the box faded and he yanked the plugs
roughly from their sockets before bundling the computer to his
chest like a father would cradle a child. “What now?”

“
Do you have
any chips you’ve never used?” Dan asked.

“
I have one,”
Cookie offered, “but it’s not linked to any active accounts so you
can’t do anything with it.”

“
How about
chips you haven’t used for a long time?”

Cookie nodded
emphatically. “Yeah, heaps,” – he fished into his pocket for his
chip selector – “but they’re all in here, so we’d have to break it
open
if you want more than
one
.”

“
He doesn’t
get out much,” Samantha offered by way of explanation.

“
I can see
why,” Dan muttered so softly under his breath that nobody caught
his fleeting words.

“
I have one I
haven’t used for over a year. I’ve been saving it for an
emergency,” Samantha said, then added in a whisper, “I suppose this
qualifies.”

“
But I don’t,”
Jen said ruefully.

“
I know.” Dan
looked displeased while
trying to
think
of an alternative. “And you
definitely can’t use the identify you used
in
Albury.”

Cookie, with
his analytical mind, generated the solution. “It’s simple! I go
through with Samantha and come back on a different chip, bringing
Samantha’s selector
with
me
. Then I switch to a third chip and Jen
can
use
another of
Samantha’s instead of her own.”