The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (9 page)

“
Yes.”

“
When? What was done?”

The brow band
flashed. “Three years ago, this unit experienced a malfunction in
the host control interface.”

“
How was it repaired?”

“
A software patch was installed.”

“
Software patch!” Trevare and Kole said in unison, and Kole
reached over to bang his fist against Trevare’s in some sort of
congratulatory ritual, she assumed.

“
How does that help?” she asked.

“
Well, it’s more than we knew five minutes ago. Ask him if it
can be uninstalled.”

Tassin looked
up at Sabre again. “Cyber, can the software patch be removed?”

“
Yes.”

“
How?”

“
A Myon Two control unit technician can uninstall
it.”

She frowned.
“I order you to remove it.”

“
Unable to comply.”

“
Why not?”

“
Erasure of the software patch is forbidden. It requires
high-level access codes.”

She slumped,
turning back to Trevare and Kole. “So what do I do now?”

“
The only people who have that kind of access are cyber techs,”
Kole said.

“
Then I need to find a cyber tech and make him remove this
software patch.”

Kole shook his
head. “Impossible. I think they swear an oath or something.”

Trevare
glanced at him. “He might if you held a laser to his head.”

Tassin nodded.
“The tech on Ferrinon did.”

“
He was just a low-level host repair tech. I don’t think a
repair tech could fix a control unit problem,” Kole
said.

“
Then we need to find a high-level control unit
tech.”

“
Easier said than done; the security on Myon Two is
airtight.”

“
But there’s a world they go to on holiday,” Trevare said.
“It’s called Dojan Five, in the same solar system as Myon Two.
There’s way less security there. If you grab a senior tech, he’ll
be able to remove the patch, I reckon. Look, usually it’s
impossible even for a tech to disable a cyber, because the control
unit is hardwired into the host brain and it can’t be reprogrammed
to release him. The core programming must be inaccessible, even
with high-level codes, or someone would have done it by now. It
might be possible for a control unit tech to modify it and maybe
even erase parts of it, but not the actual interface, which gives
the control unit domination over the host brain. People have tried
to free cyber hosts before, and it’s never worked. But this guy’s
hardware was damaged, right? That’s why the unit lost control of
him. So if you remove the patch they uploaded to fix the problem,
he should be free again.”

Kole inclined
his head, looking thoughtful. “It’s certainly a scenario that’s
never happened before, because the control unit is impossible to
break without killing the host – or at least, everyone thought it
was impossible until now. This was one hell of a freak accident.
Maybe his control unit was always flawed, and that’s why it
broke.”

“
Maybe,” Trevare said. “It doesn’t matter, though; the point
is, he can be freed, and, unless the tech you grab knows why the
patch was installed, he’ll probably remove it to save his skin.
He’ll think removing it would just make the cyber
malfunction.”

“
Which could make him dangerous,” Kole pointed out.

“
True, but that’s what the override is for, although there’s
never been a case where a cyber has become dangerous because of a
malfunction – in fact, I’ve never heard of a cyber malfunctioning,
come to think of it. The override is primarily used for transfers,
to ensure the new owner can’t use the cyber to kill the guy he just
bought him from, or, if they do the transfer the other way, to kill
the guy who just bought him. Either way, whoever doesn’t own the
cyber before the funds are transferred has the
override.”

“
Yeah,” Kole nodded. “The only time I’ve heard of an override
being used for anything else was when an owner flipped out and
ordered his cyber to murder innocent civilians. Then enforcers were
called in to arrest the guy and get his override, and they ended up
killing him.”

“
Well he’s fair game if he uses a cyber to commit mass murder,”
Trevare remarked.

“
Do enforcers have overrides that work on all cybers?” Tassin
asked.

“
God, no! That would make owning a cyber pointless, wouldn’t
it? There’s no such thing as a general override. They’re always
keyed to a particular brow band, and they can’t be hacked,
either.”

“
Hard coded,” Kole agreed.

“
So you can’t hack something that’s hard coded?” she
enquired.

“
Well, you can,” Trevare said, leaning back and clasping his
hands behind his head, “but what would be the point? No one knows
what code overrides what cyber. So, let’s say you hack your own
override – and only someone who owns a cyber has one – and you
change the code. You don’t know whose cyber that code belongs
to.”

“
What about if you found out the code of your enemy’s cyber and
changed your override’s code to disable his cyber?”

“
How would you get his cyber’s code?”

“
From his override?”

Trevare
chuckled. “I suppose it’s possible, in theory, but anyone who
doesn’t keep his override locked up in a super-secure place is an
idiot. A lot of people give their override to the cyber it controls
for safekeeping.”

“
But if he malfunctions…”

“
As I said, that’s never happened.”

“
I heard an override will self-destruct if you try to tamper
with it,” Kole said.

“
That would make sense.” Trevare nodded. “That would eliminate
any risk at all.”

“
The guys at Myon Two have thought of everything, I
reckon.”

“
Couldn’t you capture the code, somehow?” Tassin asked. “I
mean, if you had a receiver? Wouldn’t that tell you the code
without tampering with the override?”

Trevare
grinned. “She’s a smart girl, this one. Beauty and brains! I love
it.” He sobered. “Again, in theory, that would work, but you’d need
to know the frequency in order to get the code, and that’s highly
classified. To find the frequency through trial and error would
take… years, probably. There are a massive number of frequencies to
search, and you’d have to change your receiver’s frequency by a
micro-wavelength each time. And even if you found it, you’d still
have the huge problem of getting your hands on the other guy’s
override. Nah, no one’s ever tried it. If you want to kill a guy
who owns a cyber, the best way is to get your own, or hire an
assassin. I mean, even a guy who has cyber protection isn’t
completely invulnerable.”

“
Pretty close, though,” Kole remarked.

Tassin sighed.
“This is all very interesting, but it’s not helping with my
problem.”

“
You only have one option, the way I see it,” Trevare said.
“You’ve got to go to Dojan Five and kidnap a high-level control
unit tech and make him remove the patch.”

She nodded.
“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

“
Sure, why not?” Kole looked a bit sour. “I’m deep in the shit
with Myon Two now, anyway. Why not add kidnapping to the
list?”

“
I’d be really grateful,” Tassin said.

Trevare shot
Kole an unreadable smile. “She’d be really grateful.”

“
I heard.” The hacker turned to face his screen again. “I’ll
see who’s on holiday right now.”

“
How did your identity change go?” she asked.

“
All done. Transferred my funds and even made a profit.” He
typed on his keyboard. “Let’s see… Well, there’s one bigwig on
Dojan right now. A guy called Previd Malatar. He’s a department
head… Yup, head of control unit research. Maybe not ideal, because
he’s such a bigwig he’ll be missed soon and searched for
diligently, but there isn’t another contech going on holiday on
Dojan for another month.”

“
I can’t wait that long.”

“
Yeah, didn’t think so. Still, we have a cyber, I guess, and
that makes stuff like this so much easier.”

“
We’re going to use Sabre to grab him?”

“
That’s the idea. We might as well use him. We’re doing it for
him, after all.”

She nodded. “I
guess so. When can we go?”

“
Not just yet. I want the furore to die down a bit, and
besides, I still have stuff to do here.”

“
Tomorrow?”

He shot her an
amused look. “Maybe.”

“
Please?”

“
Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“
Two cherries.”

“
How can I say no to that?”

She smiled. “I
hope you won’t.”

“
I wouldn’t,” Trevare said.

****

Tassin
followed Kole out of the ship and onto the spaceport apron on the
resort world of Dojan Five. Numerous shiny leisure craft were
parked around the edge of the spaceport, and Striker did not look
out of place amongst them, being an expensive leisure craft
herself, although armed, unlike most of the others. Her armaments
were well concealed, however. Sabre walked a pace behind Tassin,
and they passed through the port without a problem, due to Kole’s
new false identity. He hired an air-car, and they headed for the
resort where the Myon Two department head, Previd Malatar, was
staying. Tassin was glad she had found and befriended the hacker;
she would have been lost without him. He was not quite so pleased
with their association, due to the trouble it had caused him, she
knew. She wondered why he continued to help her.

Kole parked
the air-car outside a plush resort and they passed through a
glamorous black marble foyer where a giant golden palm tree seemed
to uphold the ceiling and uniformed employees tended to the needs
of well-dressed guests. They crossed a massive, bright lounge full
of tinkling water features, lush tropical plants and soft blue
couches around low wooden coffee tables. They exited through
sliding doors in a glass wall into the gardens at the back, where
palm trees shaded loungers and waiters served drinks to the people
who splashed in the pool and lay under the umbrellas around it.
Kole had hacked into the hotel’s database, and, according to that,
Previd was not currently in his room. The hacker had an image of
him, which he had shown to Tassin. The technician was a short, wiry
man with a receding hairline and a bulbous nose, and she gazed
around in search of him as they wandered amongst the hotel’s
patrons.

“
There he is,” Kole muttered, pointing.

Tassin looked
in the direction he indicated and spotted the scrawny executive
sprawled on a lounger, shirtless, a bright blue drink in one hand.
Kole led the way back to the hotel’s glass-walled rear entrance,
which Previd would have to pass through to return to his room.

“
Now we wait.”

About an hour
later, Previd finished his drink, rose and donned a loud pink
shirt, then headed for the hotel, and Tassin turned to the
cyber.

“
Cyber, when that man passes us, I want you to take him
prisoner, and prevent him from making an outcry.
Understand?”

His blank eyes
stared through her. “Understood.”

Tassin chewed
her lip as Previd approached. He smiled and winked at a couple of
bikini-clad girls, who giggled. She tensed as the technician drew
close to where she, Kole and Sabre stood. Kole pretended to read a
brochure he had picked up off the reception desk earlier, and she
hoped the three of them did not look too conspicuous, being fully
dressed in a tropical leisure resort, with an armed cyber, to boot.
As the senior technician was about to pass through the doors beside
them, Sabre stepped forward. Previd gaped at him in the instant
before the cyber pulled him into a throat hold, clamping a hand
over his mouth. Previd mumbled and flailed, but Sabre dragged him
to her side. Kole turned and led the way around the side of the
hotel, since they could not pass through it while dragging the
struggling Myon Two department head.

They piled
into the air-car in the parking lot and the hacker guided it into a
skyway, heading for the spaceport. Previd sat quietly beside Sabre,
which, she assumed, meant he knew the futility of trying to fight.
Most people did in this modern society, but Myon Two techs probably
more than most. He did not look all that scared, though, which
bothered her.

In the ship,
Sabre pushed Previd onto a sofa in the lounge and Kole ordered
Striker to take off.

The tech
frowned at Tassin. “What do you want?”

“
My cyber had a software patch installed three years ago.
You’re going to remove it.”

Previd studied
Sabre, who had assumed a guard stance beside her. “And if I
don’t?”

“
We start blowing bits off you.”

“
I see. What does the patch do?”

“
That’s none of your business. Just remove it.”

He shrugged.
“All right, whatever you say. I’ll need his serial number to update
his software.”

Tassin looked
at Kole. Previd’s agreement seemed too easy, but then, perhaps he
was just exceptionally cowardly. He still did not look all that
scared, though, and she was unable to shake off her disquiet. She
wished Sabre was able to tell her what to do. He would know the
dangers of this plan, if any. “That doesn’t sound like a good
idea.”