The Chiral Conspiracy – A Military Science Fiction Thriller: A Biogenesis War Prequel (The Biogenesis War Book 0)

by L. L. Richman

  Sam paused, trying to recall a mental picture of the woman dressed in the black uniform.

  “She was with the company Merki hired to work last night’s event, I think,” she said slowly. “Dressed all in black, holding a serving tray.”

  “Anything else I can give them on her?” Cass asked. “I’m betting there were lots of people dressed like that last night.”

  Sam shook her head, giving Cass an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Brown hair, brown complexion. Brown eyes, maybe, although I was a bit too far away to see. Part of her hair was braided, I think, too.”

  Cass shrugged and smiled. “Hey, it’s more than what he had to go on, five minutes ago.”

  She passed the information on to Rafe and then straightened with a determined look on her face. “Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about that schedule we were discussing earlier….”

  Sam twisted her mouth into a wry smile and shook her head.

  “You mean the part where you want to take down more than one tube at a time, to move the refit along,” she said with a stern look.

  Cass held out a restraining hand. “Hang on. Before you tell me it’s too dangerous, let me lay it all out for you, yeah?”

  “Okay,” Sam agreed.

  That was all the encouragement Cass needed. She launched into a detailed explanation about redundancies and shift handoffs.

  “I was thinking, if we started on opposite ends of the habitat, then there’d be no risk of a shield failure….”

  Sam nodded along, but found herself oddly distracted. Her thoughts kept returning to Peres’s disappearance, like metal filings to a magnet. Something about the whole thing bothered her.

  She played back their brief encounter, turning it over in her head repeatedly, as if it were a worry-stone. In her mind’s eye, she kept seeing not one, but three people—Peres, Clint Janus, and a mysterious, brown-haired woman.

  TWELVE

  Midland City Center

  Midland

  Rafe held the door open for Ell as they exited the coffee house. “What’s the plan after we meet Asato?” Rafe asked her. “Anything else I can do to help move the search along?”

  Ell shook her head, dodging a cyclist with a messenger bag.

  “Not really. I only have the two witnesses Janus told me about to chase down. Unless they saw something he didn’t and can give us a lead I can follow, I’ll head back and help Quinn with the net searches. Hopefully we can rely on local law enforcement to shake a few trees.”

  He hid a sigh behind another sip of coffee. He didn’t much relish having to tell deGrasse their prized scientist couldn’t be found.

  “What are the odds he’s still alive?” he asked in a low voice. “Couldn’t he be in hiding? Or maybe they kidnapped him to give him a shakedown, or—”

  “Or we do a sensor sweep of Olympic Lake and find him at the bottom with blocks of ceramacrete tied to his ankles,” Ell finished for him.

  Rafe grimaced. “Or that,” he agreed. He shot her a quizzical look. “So both witnesses are here for the symposium?”

  She shook her head. “One of them is. The other isn’t.”

  “That’s odd. Why was she at a reception for an event she wasn’t attending?” he wondered.

  “According to the security kiosk, she checked in as a guest of the other woman. They were together when Janus saw them talking to Peres,” Ell informed him.

  “Together, huh,” Rafe rubbed the flat of his palm against his jawline, and slid her a sidelong look. “Hope you’re not interviewing them together.”

  Ell snorted. “Not my first rodeo, Major.” She slid a stern look his way. “You forget, I’m the one who went through New Quantico. Me, cop. You, pilot. Remember?”

  Rafe laughed, lifting his hands in surrender. “Yeah, sorry. Couldn’t help it. I—”

  He held up a hand as he saw a comm coming in from Cass.

  “Hang on a minute,” he told Ell before accepting the connection.

  {What’s up, love? Miss me already?}

  Rafe closed the connection with Cass and grabbed Ell’s elbow, pulling her to a stop in the middle of the street and forcing the flow of pedestrians to part around them. Her eyes narrowed briefly in confusion until she saw the secure, peer-to-peer request pop up on her overlay.

  Tilting his head, he indicated they should move to one side so they weren’t blocking foot traffic.

  {That was Cass,} he sent. {Did you notice the blonde who came in as we left?}

  She sent him a mental nod.

  {You just met one of our witnesses.}

  He saw her eyes widen in comprehension as he shared Sam Travis’s description of the mysterious woman with her.

  {Okay,} Ell said, eyes dancing back and forth in thought. {We talk to Asato, ask for help scaring up information on the cartel, and then I’ll double back and speak with Travis once she and Cass are finished.}

  Rafe nodded and they resumed walking. A quick glance told him something was bothering her.

  “Want to tell me what else is on your mind?” he murmured quietly as they submitted their names to the security kiosk at City Center.

  “Just thinking this might be the first bit of actionable intel we’ve had in this case,” she said, voice equally soft. “There’s something about that description Travis gave that’s nudging the back of my brain….”

  Her voice trailed off, but before Rafe could question her further about it, he heard the voice of Chester, Hawking’s police SI. The prototype was one of several Synthetic Intelligences now housed in humanoid frames and deployed throughout the cylinder’s law enforcement offices.

  Like the ones the Navy was field-testing in a few select Marine platoons, this one’s features had been purposely altered to avoid the reaction so many people had to the uncanny valley of creatures that appeared nearly lifelike.

  “Major Zander,” the SI greeted as it ambled toward them. “Special Agent Cyr. The Police Chief is waiting. This way, please.”

  Their meeting with Asato proved to be short. It turned out there’d been no cartel activity in months. “I’m not saying the cartel’s not active on Hawking,” the police chief added. “We just haven’t seen any sign of them.”

  She promised they’d add the unknown woman to the BOLO on Peres. Local law enforcement would be on the lookout for both, and would notify Ell immediately if either was spotted.

  As Rafe and Ell exited, he shot the NCIC agent a glance. “Going to tell me now what was bothering you about Travis’s description?”

  Ell hummed thoughtfully. “I’d be willing to lay odds she’s not a catering employee.”

  Rafe guessed where she was headed. “Anyone could have faked that kind of outfit, stood against the wall, and blended in.”

  Ell shot him a knowing glance. “Exactly. Catering staff at functions like that tend to be like the furniture. Flyover material, until you want to find a place to dump the empty glass in your hand.”

  “So it’s a dead end, then,” he mused.

  “No pun intended, but essentially, yes. Except for—”

  There was a pause, and Rafe saw a pensive look cross Ell’s face. He waited patiently for her to voice whatever it was that was on her mind.

  “She said she thought she saw…braids in the woman’s hair?” Ell queried. “Not that her hair was braided?”

  “According to Cass, yes. Why, does that stand out to you in some way?” he asked.

  Ell hummed again. “It rings a bell, something I’m forgetting but feel like I should know for some reason.”

  She shook her head, a frustrated expression crossing her face. “I’ll put Quinn on it and see what he can find.”

  THIRTEEN

  Merki Institute

  Midland

  Ell knew it was a bit inefficient to go back and forth between the Institute and the City Center complex, but the day was pleasant and the walk between locations a short one.

  Cass and Sam Travis were still deep in conversation when she’d stopped
back by the coffee house. Loath to interrupt, she’d moved on.

  Unfortunately, Linnet was away from the Institute when Ell arrived. Ell gave herself a mental slap for not contacting the woman ahead of time and assuming she was at the symposium. Linnet answered Ell’s ping readily, and promised to contact her the moment she returned from her meeting.

  While at the Institute, Ell managed to convince Mieks to part with last night’s security feed—a small, but significant win. Unfortunately, the catering company had been a bust.

  None of the people hired to work the event matched Travis’s description of the woman.

  Mieks gave Ell a cold stare when asked if she’d seen anyone matching that description.

  “We’re done here, Miss Cyr,” the woman said abruptly. “The Institute has been more than helpful. If you need anything else, take it up with our legal department.”

  Ell let out an annoyed breath as the woman stalked away. “Well, that went well,” she muttered to herself as she walked to the lifts.

  She was on her way down to the Institute’s lobby when she spied Clint Janus. She hurried from the lift, calling his name.

  For a moment, it looked like the man was going to ignore her. He moved to enter a different lift, but she sidestepped, planting herself in front of him.

  Realizing he could no longer avoid her, the man plastered on a smile. “Miss Cyr.”

  “Doctor, if you could spare a moment,” she began, but he quickly interrupted.

  “I’m afraid this is a bad time,” Janus said, but she overrode him, her palm rising to cut him off.

  “And I’m afraid this can’t wait. A witness has described a person of interest to us, and I need to know if you happened to see this woman as well,” she stated firmly.

  Janus swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the motion. “Well, when you put it that way….”

  The hand she used to forestall him now moved in a gesture of invitation. “How about we step over here where we can speak more privately? I promise it’ll only take a moment.”

  He followed her silently several meters away from the bank of lifts. “A person of interest, you say? Is that code for suspect?”

  She knew he was trying for joviality, but the slight waver in his tone told her it was backed by nerves.

  “You don’t need to worry about possible repercussions, Doctor,” she assured him. “I assure you, whatever you’ve seen, whatever you tell us, will remain confidential. The…suspect, as you put it, will never know.”

  He nodded jerkily, his gaze on the lobby behind Ell, as if assuring himself no one he knew saw him speaking with her.

  “I have to tell you, if your witness was Doctor Travis, she has a history of seeing things that aren’t there,” he said suddenly.

  His strange comment piqued her curiosity. “Oh?”

  Janus’s eyes shifted. “Yes, well. Back in medical school, I accidentally dialed the wrong drug into a nanoinjector, and she accused me of trying to kill the patient.”

  “I’m…sure that was just hyperbole, sir.”

  Janus’s mouth twisted into a bitter sneer. “She brought me up on charges, Agent Cyr. Does that sound like a rational person to you?”

  This conversation was not going the way Ell had envisioned, but it did explain why Janus had tried to cast suspicion on Travis last night.

  She couldn’t allow his animosity to impact the investigation. Besides, if Peres had been made to disappear and Janus were to spread the word that Travis was an eyewitness, it could endanger the woman.

  “We’re veering off topic, Doctor.” She sharpened her tone. “And it would be a mistake to assume Doctor Travis is our witness. Do I make myself clear?”

  Janus slammed his mouth closed and visibly collected himself.

  “What would you like to know?” he asked.

  She described the woman dressed like a waiter. “Take your time, Doctor. Think back to last night. Does she match anyone you may have seen?”

  Janus made a show of drawing his brows together and glancing down at his feet. His breath gusted out of him as he slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Agent. I can’t think of a single person.”

  Ell’s lips thinned. She’d expected him to protest that every server had been dressed that way last night, but he hadn’t.

  I suppose the man really could be so self-absorbed that ‘the help’ simply isn’t on his radar…. Still, she found it a bit odd.

  Having no other reason to detain him, she stepped away.

  “Thank you for your time, Doctor.” She smiled, lifting her hands, palms up. “See? Told you it’d be quick and painless.”

  Janus offered a thin smile but his quick departure made it clear he wanted away from her presence. With a shake of her head, Ell watched him depart, and then turned and exited the building.

  Realizing the lunch hour had come and gone while she was haggling with Mieks and dragging information from Janus, Ell detoured to a nearby food truck to grab a burger. Spying an unoccupied bench, she sat down to eat and pinged Quinn to give him an update.

  {Hey boss, how’s Midland?}

  Ell licked a spot of mustard off her thumb while looking around for a second napkin. {Sunny. Warm.} Not finding one, she did her best to wipe her hands with the shredded remains of the original. {Sticky.}

  {Sticky?} His perplexed tone elicited a laugh out of her.

  {Never mind. Any more on the cartel from your end? Asato told us things have been quiet from a LEO standpoint.}

  Quinn sent her a mental head-shake. {Not a single scrap of information, other than what I sent you last night. It’s as if the trail just vanishes.}

  {Does that strike you as odd?} she asked.

  {Maybe?} Quinn’s mental tone sounded uncertain. {I have spider bots combing through the same data hourly. If anything shifts or something new crops up, I’ll let you know.}.

  Ell grimaced, but sent him a mental nod as she wadded up both napkin and empty wrapper, and then rose to find the nearest recycler.

  {Good enough,} she told him. {I just left the Institute. They’re sending you a feed from last night’s event.}

  {Already came in,} he told her. {Anything in particular you want me to look for?}

  {Yeah,} she said, and quickly sketched in the information Cass had relayed on the woman Sam Travis had seen.

  {Hmmm.} Quinn’s voice sounded thoughtful. Ell waited, but when he didn’t follow up, she prodded him.

  {Spill,} she ordered. {What’s going through that big brain of yours?}

  {Braids?} he asked, and Ell stopped in her tracks when she heard him repeat the same thing she’d said to Rafe. When he continued, his words had the fine hair on the back of her neck rising.

  {Was she sure they were braids…and not beads?}

  FOURTEEN

  Undisclosed location

  Midland

  {They’re looking for you.}

  The words didn’t exactly catch the woman off guard. In her profession, hardly a day passed when someone, somewhere in the settled worlds, was looking for her. She said as much to the person on the other end.

  That earned her an exasperated look. {I think a little concern is warranted, don’t you, when someone asks if I’ve seen someone who fits your exact description?}

  The woman closed her eyes, summoning the calm required to deal with the irascible person. {Details, please. I need them, if I’m to handle this properly.}

  The individual made an impatient noise, but then complied. {Someone, likely Linnet Thompson, saw you leaving on Peres’s heels.}

  {Noted. And now that you have told me, this is no longer your concern.} She let an edge of warning creep into her tone as the statement settled between them.

  It was enough. {Fine,} she heard, and then the connection severed.

  She rose gracefully to her feet in the shadows of the simple hostel room she’d appropriated from its former occupant. Using her usual combination of electronic relays and SI cutouts, she searched Midland’s pubnet for information on L
innet Thompson. Minutes later, she had what she needed.

  Plan in place, she slipped silently from the room.

  FIFTEEN

  Downtown Midland

  The noontime sun was beating down on Ell as she made her way back to City Center. As she joined a small group of people at the corner waiting for traffic to clear, her wire notified her of an incoming call, one that originated outside the habitat.

  The ident flashing on her HUD had a Navy tag, but its origin was curiously blank, and its encryption level was high. Suspecting who this might be and mentally cursing a certain major for passing her ID token on to them, she accepted the connection.

  {Special Agent Cyr,} a male voice sounded in her head. {This is Colonel Fraley. Major Zander said you were assisting us with our missing scientist.}

  {Yes, sir,} she responded. {We’re still unable to locate him, although we’re chasing some leads right now. I’m sorry, sir, but from what we’ve learned so far…it doesn’t look promising.}

  There was a pause on the other end as the colonel processed her words. {Damn,} he responded, his tone filled with regret. {I was afraid of this. Zander told you of our deadline? We’re moving out in two days. If he’s not here, well….}

  {Understood, sir. The major was careful not to say why Peres is needed back, or where. Because of that, I’ve been treading a fine line between pushing hard for information and playing things close to the chest,} she added. {I didn’t want to call undue attention to his work.}

  {Good call, Agent Cyr.} Fraley made a noise that suggested a heavy sigh. {Keep trying, please. And—thank you for the update.}

  * * *

  Amara Toland was reviewing the latest report on the portable gate’s deployment when Fraley popped his head around the corner of her open office door.

  “Got a minute?” he asked. Something about the expression on his face had Amara swiping her holo off and pushing back from her desk. She motioned him in and rose.