Stone Blade (27 page)

“Getting in should be simple,” said Ferrel, “He's got a retscanner but it has an external access point. Not sure why he bothered.”

***

Loglain's manor showed some activity when the First arrived but it soon settled. Micah and Kidwell watched cautiously. Several guards made a sweep around the house, checked their comms and left. As dusk fell Micah saw a blur close by Loglain's door.

Around mid-evening the door opened and a disguised Loglain stepped out. Kidwell touched Micah's shoulder and started after the First. Not long afterward Micah's chrono vibrated.

“I'm in solid.” Ferrel's voice came from close to the doorway. “The lock is open and I've got the monitor on a feedback loop. You need to find the central station, though. I don't know if I found all the monitors. I'm also watching the kitchen, this entry, the common room and the library. I think there's a guardroom and a servant's room but they're not monitored. Burnit.”

“Polar. Main comm?”

“I own it!”

Micah moved as cautiously and as silently as a shadow as he swept the house. He located the monitors; when he waved at one Ferrel blipped him. He located two servants' rooms, one empty and the other not. The lady inside sipped tea and read her Writ as a holovee blared news.

The guardroom presented a problem. Micah saw the guard inside; if Ferrel hadn't neutralized the surveillance monitors Micah would never have reached the room, but he needed the guard gone. He could easily stun or kill the man but Micah didn't want to leave a trace. Not even a headache. He backed away and located a monitor. He pointed toward the guard, mimed a finger-snap beside his ear and pointed toward the common room. His chrono vibrated and he hid himself.

The guard left with his blaster drawn. Micah waited for him to pass and entered the guardroom. The guard had a thermaflask of tea and a cup already poured. Micah dropped a dose of Doze into the man's tea and several more into the flask. Not long after that the guard returned, face set in puzzlement. He checked his monitors and took a sip of tea.

Micah watched carefully. The guard started to nod, woke himself, then took a sip of tea to wake up. Before long he slept soundly. Micah motioned Ferrel in. Before long both of them sat in the guardroom with the sleeping guard. Ferrel shed his mercury suit with a sigh of relief.

“Give me a little time,” said Ferrel, “I'll own this whole house!”

Micah's chrono vibrated twice, paused, then twice again.

“That's trouble,” said Micah.

Ferrel looked at the now-dissected monitors and then at Micah.

“Finish here,” said Micah, “I'll take it.”

By Micah's calculation Loglain would be just over halfway to the bar. Loglain owned several vehicles but he would certainly recognize them. Micah pondered a moment and started down the street. More people than Loglain owned hovers and soon Micah had one. He wasted no time heading for Kidwell's last position.

A quick blip showed Kidwell's current position. Micah parked his stolen hover and left on foot. Knowing Loglain's ultimate destination and the best route there let Micah make good time.

He soon saw the problem. Two others followed either Loglain or Kidwell. They did a credible job following their quarry but they didn't keep in contact with each other. That suggested a plan.

Micah timed his approach so that he and the shadow would reach a turn after the others passed it. Micah stopped and tripped the man. The man caught himself short of a fall and turned an angry glare on Micah. Micah darted around the building and into an alley. The other man followed and met Micah's fist and fingers. Micah frisked the man quickly and took his wallet, badge, shoes and comm. The last item he ground into debris beneath his heel.

By the time Micah found Kidwell again Loglain had almost reached the bar. Micah trailed the second shadow and waited. He wanted to know what happened when Loglain reached his destination.

Loglain slouched against the building and gazed in disbelief at what lay before him. The bar was closed, of course, with several types of warning posted: fire safety and investigation, Brethren and 'Temporarily closed' by the owner. The man shadowing Loglain pointed something at him and fiddled with it. Holocaster!

Micah crept up behind the man and struck. Before the man could register surprise strong fingers choked the sound out of his throat and a hard, low blow to his back knocked the fight out of him. Micah dragged him deeper into the darkness, rendered him further unconscious and relieved him of his possessions.

***

Loglain walked slowly toward home with disbelief evident in each step. He barely maintained his disguise and Micah caught an occasional angry muttering. He signaled Kidwell to maintain surveillance and himself took a more direct route.

Back at Loglain's manor Ferrel had the maid and several other guards deeply unconscious.

“She made chog for the crew,” explained Ferrel, “I Dozed it. They all had a cup together and when it hit I gave 'em all some Blackout.”

Micah nodded. He suspected more but Ferrel kept quiet.

“Give me one of the small bottles,” said Micah, “Our First was in quite a state when I saw him last.”

Micah worked a long, thin needle past the bottle's stopper. He injected a hefty dose of Babble. They also had one of the larger bottles but Micah had plans for it.

***

Loglain walked straight to his study. Micah and Ferrel heard him muttering angrily all the while. Then he went to the fresher to wash off the last of his disguise. Micah and Ferrel sat waiting for him when he came back. Loglain settled into his desk, attention far away, when Micah spoke.

“Hello, brother.”

Startled, Loglain froze. Then he looked at a button.

“Don't,” advised Ferrel sharply, “That would not serve you. No one is here to help you, First.”

The blood drained from Loglain's face.

“Did you have a good walk, brother,” asked Micah harshly, “Was it refreshing?” Micah placed the badges he found in two wallets on Loglain's desk along with the holocaster. “Several friends were with you, brother. Would you care to see what they saw?”

Loglain's hands shook as he examined the badges and he absolutely wilted when he viewed the holos of himself.

“There... There is...” stammered Loglain.

“I'm certain there is an explanation, brother,” supplied Micah. He reached into his pocket, extracted the bottle and placed it before the cringing man. “Perhaps this will expedite matters. Refresh yourself, brother.”

“G... G'g...” Loglain mewled a wretched sound and made no move toward the bottle.

“I said refresh yourself, brother.” Micah removed the cork and slid the bottle closer. “We are well aware of your... Fondness.”

With eyes wide and bleary and his nose full of the liquor's sharp scent, Loglain took the bottle and finished half of it with one pull.

“That's better, brother,” said Ferrel gently, “Don't you agree?”

“These are sinful times,” said Micah, “The wretched are about us and the people are looking for direction.” Micah stared hard at Loglain. “More despicable, though, is a serpent in our midst. Do you not agree, brother?”

Loglain's face grew slack as the Babble took effect.

“What does he want now?” Loglain spoke with a whiny defiance mixed with desperation. “I've done what he asked. What now? What more?”

“What do you think, brother?” Micah shot Ferrel a quick glance. Interrogating under Babble was tricky business but any of their other drugs would react badly to vinostim.

“I followed my instructions. Against all I believed I followed his orders. He said it was for the greater good. He said it was best. He said he'd keep... He'd keep...”

“Speak, brother,” barked Micah.

Loglain looked up. Suspicion now shaded his expression.

“We are here to help, brother,” said Ferrel, “You need not be alone. Some believe you are not past salvation.”

“Others are not convinced,” said Micah with ice in his voice, “Whose instructions do you follow, Loglain?”

“T-tollison,” whimpered Loglain, “Fourth Tollison, Order of...”

“Enough,” said Micah, “Speak facts!”

Loglain finished the small bottle.

“My instructions came from him. H-he presented me... He presented...”

“Evidence of your despicable acts,” suppled Micah. He held Loglain's eyes until the other dropped his stare. “What instructions were you given?”

With the second shot of Babble kicking in Loglain crumbled. He started gibbering. He finally mustered his frayed wits and began giving details. Micah had little use for most of the information but he recorded it for Ramsey.

At last, with Loglain and the bottle empty, Micah showed some sign of kindness.

“Very good, brother. Confession cleanses the soul. You may yet find redemption.”

Grateful tears trickled down Loglain's cheeks.

“Log into your terminal, brother,” said Ferrel.

“They will monitor it.”

“Then consider it part of your penance,” snapped Micah.

Loglain complied meekly. When he finished Ferrel produced the larger bottle.

“Be at peace, brother,” said Ferrel, “Your assistance will be taken into account.”

“Leave now,” ordered Micah coldly, “Do not speak of this. You will not be believed and you will find only woe and trouble.”

Defeated, Loglain took his bottle and slunk toward his bedroom.

“That,” said Kidwell, entering the study and locking the door behind her, “was rough. You have some bastard blood in you, Micah. I'm not sure I like you right now.”

Micah sighed. “Right now I don't like me either. But it worked.” He held up his recorder. “We'll blip this to Ted tonight.”

“Not yet, though,” said Ferrel, “My friends, we've hit double-jack tonight! I think I've located our mysterious LINC traces.”

Micah and Kidwell bent over the terminal and Ferrel explained.

“We are not the only ones logged in late tonight. Don't look at me that way, Micah. I turned invisible as soon as I carved a back door. We're not alone and we're not the only ones burning where we shouldn't be. User qmaas is mucking around the sysaccess area and not doing a very subtle job of it.”

“Quincy Maas,” supplied Kidwell, “First to the Circle. Is that a sewer I smell under the Dome?”

“What's he doing,” asked Micah.

“Accessing sysaccess and LINC. And something else Loglain doesn't have rights to view. Yet”

“Can you trace it?”

Ferrel spared Micah a frown. “Give me at least a few seconds, burnit! I'm working!”

Micah searched the room while Ferrel worked. He found several controversial books - by Unity standards - and a few more un-First-like items.

“Vera.”

Kidwell looked up just in time to catch what Micah tossed.

“Interesting,” she said, examining the pack of drugsticks, “Imported and very expensive. I think I will, thank you.”

“Rut! Bloody,” swore Ferrel, “Connection terminated before I could trace it. No no, don't worry. Normal transfer completion. I can't say anything else other than that it was an external squirt.”

“Anything on Tollison?”

“Closely associated with First Juch. Mediocre appraisals from any supervisor who logged one. Promoted anyway.”

Kidwell nodded. Juch occupied an uncertain place in the power structure she and Ionoski had developed.

“One possibility,” speculated Micah, “Tollison has some goods on Juch. It would explain his promotions handily.”

“Or,” said Kidwell, “he could be Juch's dirty hidden hand. That also covers Morr and fits quite nicely. Tollison is one of several to whom Morr reports regularly.”

Micah nodded.

“Anything else of immediate interest Charlie,” asked Micah.

“Compressing the last of it now,” said Ferrel.

Ferrel transferred the data to his pocket terminal. They'd blip it to Ionoski as soon as they left.

***

Morning the next day found Micah outside First Juch's modest estate. He'd monitor the First's daily routine. Kidwell would do the same for Tollison. Ferrel, who spent a lot of time cackling over his terminal, planned to spend some quality time at a datamart. 

By noon boredom nibbled Micah's concentration. By the time Juch left for home Micah wanted to bite the man's fancy hover in half. Micah had a hoverbike rented and he trailed the First home inconspicuously. When Juch retired for the evening Micah itched to enter the place.

***

“Nothing,” said Kidwell, “Nothing suspicious, that is. Unless he waits until the small hours he doesn't do a thing outside office hours.”

“Then we keep digging,” said Micah unnecessarily, “Unless you think Loglain was lying.”

“He wasn't,” said Ferrel, “Or was. Not relevant. We may not need to dig that hard, my brother.” Ferrel looked innocently away. “I had First-level access today.”

“What did you do?” Micah knew from Ferrel's manner that he'd accomplished something today. Working it out of him would take some time, though.

“It seems the government is fond of its privacy. They had quite a few undedicated encryption tunnels.”

“What did you do, Charlie?”

“Well, in theory, if you have an undedicated tunnel and you only fork a copy you won't set off any major security.”

“What. Did. You. Do.” Micah emphasized each word and Kidwell suppressed laughter at him.

“I modded it into a multiplex echo. Then I killed the original and forged its hash.” Ferrel displayed his satisfaction. “Unless they actually decompile the tunnel they'll never even notice. I also put a few monitors on Juch, Tollison and Morr. They'll dump to my account and auto-compress on delivery. By this time tomorrow we'll own their data!”

“Can they trace the account?”

“Not to me.” Ferrel oozed smugness. “The worst they'll do is trace it to the datamart and delete it.”

“And if they do?”

“We'll lose the information. I have a standard low-access account but I put in a rogue connection slirp. I can access it from any terminal on the net. So can you two once I get you the keys.” Ferrel buffed his nails on his shirt. “I even put in a log inverter. My outside connections will look internally initiated. Unless they decompile that they'll never catch it.”