Leo didn't reply, but he did clink his glass to hers. Then, he drained the delicious, fruity, full-bodied merlot within.
"Oh, that is delightful!" Annabelle exclaimed as she set her glass back on the bar. "I don't usually drink merlot... I mean, it's usually so boring, but this one is amazing!"
Leo was about to join Annabelle in discussing the wine they had just tasted, but he felt his anxiety chirp within him when the sound of doors opening and loud, quick footsteps echoed from the hallway behind the bar.
Leo kept his eyes on the hallway as the steps got louder, but he still caught sight of Alice hurriedly chugging her wine in his peripheral vision. As the sound of the footsteps intensified, a large, muscular young woman dressed in black leather emerged from the hallway. She had a distracted look on her face and ignored them as she walked around the bar.
Leo expected her to continue towards the exit, but as he watched her, she suddenly stopped, sniffed the air a few times, then turned toward him and spoke.
"Interesting bouquet. An exotic varietal. A bit past it's prime, however. Aged far too long... Instead of the moist earthiness I would expect from that vintage, all I'm getting is useless, putrid, filth. Disgusting!"
Leo kept silent. Was she talking about the wine, or him? Was she crazy, or just rude?
The woman turned to Annabelle. "And your bitch... I'll bet she used to be very pretty... Looks like she stuck her nose in the wrong place, though..."
"Shut your fucking mouth!" Leo roared. The woman could say whatever she wanted about him, but the insult to Annabelle had stoked a primal anger within him.
Then, Leo felt Annabelle's hand upon his shoulder. "Relax Leo. Some people are just mean... Words don't mean anything to me..."
Leo controlled his anger as the woman leered at him for a few seconds. Then, she turned and casually left the shop.
"What was that about?" Annabelle asked after the woman left.
"I don't know, but she needs to watch her mouth," Leo grunted.
Annabelle frowned. "Well, whatever her deal is, I can tell you one thing for certain... She is armed to the teeth."
Alice chimed in seriously. "You scanned her?"
Annabelle nodded. "Yeah. It's weird, though. I don't remember ever having a tactical implant. I think Idi..."
Annabelle was interrupted, however, when a deep, booming voice came from the hallway, followed shortly after by a large, caramel-skinned man. He donned a black leather trenchcoat, dark sunglasses, and spoke in a heavy Oberonian accent with a hefty sprinkling of local slang.
"Ignore the lady, Leo. She's straight barmy, her. A few nuts and bolts too loose to be straight up. Pays well-to-do, ya dig? And that's the ticket in my land here."
Leo extended his hand over the bar, which the man warmly accepted. "Randell... Good to see you."
"And you, my lad," Randell replied. "How long it been, now? twenty times around the blue?"
"Something like that."
"Well, no bother. Now, introduce me to these fine stems and tossles!" Randell laughingly requested. He then nodded to Annabelle and Alice, both of whom answered confidently.
"Darcy Annabelle Persephone the Third. But please call me Annabelle."
"Alice... Just Alice."
Randell looked them both up and down and nodded approvingly, although his eyes did linger on Annabelle's scarred face. Leo was slightly surprised at the small nagging irritation he felt when he saw Randell's eyes move on to glide over Annabelle's bosom.
"Now, this pontifically righteous vagabond han'na kidnapped you? To be sure?" Randell asked with concern.
"No," Alice answered with a smile. "If anything, it's the other way around."
Randell flashed a glowing smile at Alice. "Well... To be 'napped by one as beautiful as you... There are worse doings one could bear..."
Leo's eyes traveled to Sila, and he could see her expression darken as Randell and Alice spoke.
Suddenly, with a quick snap of her wrist, she slapped Randell upside his head.
"You dog! Leave your eyes where they belong!" she loudly admonished.
Randell raised his hands in defense and began rubbing the side of his head. "My sweet! Never mind the harmless bumblings of an old man! I cannuh mean harm!"
Leo did his best to hide his impatience, but he had tensed up, and Randell took notice.
"Some at amiss?" Randell asked as he turned his attention back to Leo.
Leo readied himself for the upcoming exchange. He had thought deeply about how best to handle Randell when they finally did meet. He needed to be careful about how much information he revealed.
"I need your help. I had something very, very strange happen with a file I was reading, and I need to know what happened to it. We also might be interested in some particularly 'essential' provisions."
Randell's eyes flashed brightly, and his lips turned up into a knowing smile. "Ah, kay. Help to be had here, to be sure. Folla me to the back room yeh ruffian and angels."
Randell gestured to the dark hallway, then turned and began to walk down it. Leo was quick to follow.
"Damn. My wine tasting..." Annabelle whined as she looked longingly at the bottles on the bar.
"No worries," Sila replied. "I'll save it for you. And don't worry about paying. It's on the house, my dear."
"Thank you, Sila," Annabelle graciously replied. Then, she stood up and followed Leo and Alice around the bar and down the dark hallway.
"You have an interesting way of speaking, Randell," Alice remarked as they walked towards a titanium door at the end of the hallway, which Randell was already in the process of opening. "Reminds me of my time on Orpheum Rock. It took me a month before I could understand the people there."
"Ah, yes! Orpheum!" Randell exclaimed as he finally got the thick titanium door open. "Not but dust and pain on that little rock. Wouldn't imagine a valkyrie like you would call such a place home. Whatabouts were you into on that poor island?"
Randell gestured for the trio to follow him into the dark room past the door, which they did slowly and carefully, staying alert for any possible threats.
"This and that," Alice answered.
From the corner of the dark room, Randell replied knowingly. "Ah, yes. This n' that... I play the game myself from time to time. LIGHT!"
With a blinding flash, the room was illuminated in bright white light. Leo had been in the cold, titanium room before, so he was prepared for the myriad of technology that suddenly became visible.
A plethora of devices lined numerous shelves throughout the titanium-walled, octagonal room. In the center, several consoles sat atop metal podiums that surrounded two medical-grade examination chairs. Above the chairs, six large robotic arms hung limply from the center of the ceiling. Leo knew from experience that the large lockers against the opposite wall held a small arsenal of weapons, any of which could be purchased for the right price.
"Okay, dokay," Randell mumbled as he extracted a small rectangular device from one of the shelves. "Let's see what's a'play..."
Randell raised the device in his hand and began scanning each of them in turn, starting with Leo.
"Interesting, to be sure. Nothing at all. Completely raw... Implants be damned, it seem... Aha! Radiation did wrecking to ya lymph nodes, that means yo' implants happen' to be fried, ye? Then they were removed, prolla by a tickled medi A.I. based on the other treatmen'. Some speshy nanites were used to repair a bucket o' large wounds..."
Leo was having a hard time understanding Randell and decided it was time to end his little charade. "You can drop the fake accent now, Randell. No one is going to overhear us in here. You're not gonna blow your cover..."
Randell's face quickly fell into an expression of exaggerated offense. "Wha? What ye' be talking of, Leo? Think a man canna change the way he talk on the drop uva scanner?"
Leo frowned and crossed his arms. "Seriously, Randell. I need to be able to understand you if you're gonna be of any help to us..."
Randell gave a dark loo
k at Alice and Annabelle. Leo understood his concerns.
"If you trust me, you can trust them. We've been through hell together..." Leo declared.
Randell shook his head. When he replied, his lilting accent was gone. "So have I, boy. You're lucky I don't send you away for calling me out like that... Thanks for not doing it in front of Sila, though. She still doesn't know who I really am..."
Annabelle stepped forward and chimed in. "Your secret is safe with us... Nice job on the accent, by the way. You had me completely fooled. You ever try acting? You'd be good at it..."
Randell turned to Annabelle and smirked. "Aye. I've done my fair share of 'acting' over the years..."
Leo was silent as Randell ran his scans. He supposed he could ask him not to, but it would end up saving time if Randell were allowed to learn all he could from the scans, rather than questioning them.
Randell said nothing more as he scanned Leo, but when he began to examine Annabelle, he frowned and began to fiddle with his scanner.
"Yeah, about that," Annabelle said apologetically. "Unfortunately, you're not gonna be able to scan me. Sorry."
A knowing look came over Randell's face as he looked at the data on his scanner. "High-level privacy implant, right? It'd have to pretty advanced to keep me out. Who'd you get it from?"
"My father," Annabelle answered.
"Interesting, I coulda got it cheaper, to be sure..." Randell admonished as he turned to Alice and began to scan her. "So, the same thing that happened to Leo also happened to this pretty lady. Oh, jeez, your spine, your poor, poor spine."
Randell raised his eyebrows. "But you're not completely raw, are you? You must have swung by the bank for a new I.D. implant. Good, at least one of you can pay me. Ah, and there's something else... It's inactive, and it's just a fragment, but it's there... They must have missed it..."
Without warning, Randell dropped his scanner and, with a flash of movement, drew a small pistol from a holster inside his leather trenchcoat.
He trained the pistol on Alice. "Council trash... Don't even imagine moving!"
Leo slowly raised his hands in the air and was happy to see Alice follow suit. They had briefly discussed the possibility that Randell would discover her affiliation with the Council and the possible adverse reaction he might have.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you, Operative bitch," Randell demanded as he edged away.
Alice looked at Randell coldly. Leo was impressed, for she showed no hint of fear. "Well, for one... If you kill me, other operatives will come looking for me. They'll track my ship to Rithe Island, and they'll use camera footage to track my movements. Then, they'll track me here to your shop and kill or capture you and your lovely wife when they discover your operation."
Beads of sweat began to build on Randell's forehead, and he kept his weapon trained on Alice as he glanced at Leo. "What the hell, man? You know about her. I see that plain as night. You're the last person I would expect to join the Council. Why the hell would you bring her here?"
Leo held Randell's gaze. "It's complicated. You should know that Alice isn't a real operative. I know operatives better than anyone, and she is different. She saved my ass from some psychos on Osiris. I would've been dead for sure if she hadn't shown up."
"Psychos on Osiris..." Randell replied. "I've heard some things about that. Whispers... Other places too..."
Leo raised his eyebrows. "Well, it's true. Alice agreed to bring me here so you can tell me about a tablet that holds my Council file. Either the tablet was programmed as an attempt to manipulate me, or it was hacked by a very dangerous woman, and I need to know which it is. Alice needs my help, so she is helping me in the hope that I will return the favor. Part of that is agreeing to leave you and your business alone. She doesn't give a shit about what you're doing here, We've got bigger fish to fry."
"Is she blackmailing you?" Randell demanded.
"No."
Alice lowered her hands and crossed them in front of her chest. "Listen, we don't have time for this. I don't give a shit about your operation here, apart from the fact that you might be able to help us. If you want to kill me and get yourself killed in the process, then pull the trigger. But if you want to make a large sum of money and earn the permanent gratitude of the Council, then you need to help us. Death, or profit. Your choice."
Randell debated his options in silence, but didn't seem to be prepared to make a choice, and he didn't lower his weapon.
"C'mon Randell! We're not here to bust you!" Leo implored. "It wasn't Alice's idea to come here. It was mine, and I just want you to look at something for me and tell me what you find. It's a simple, risk-free job. Better yet, it's a well-paying job. You can name your price!"
Beads of sweat ran down Randell's forehead, and his lips worked silently. After thirty seconds of tense silence, he finally let out a long sigh, lowered his gun, and holstered it inside his leather trenchcoat.
"Name my price... Well, I figured if the Council ever found me here, my number would be up. I guess that may still be true, and I guess I'll find out. For now, show me what you got, and we'll let sleeping pups lie."
Leo exhaled with relief as Randell holstered his weapon.
Then, he extracted his file from his satchel, walked over to Randell, and carefully handed it to him. Randell accepted the tablet gingerly and moved next to one of the consoles in the middle of the room, then began typing away.
Leo was on edge as Randell held the tablet in the air and one of the robotic arms mounted to the ceiling jerked toward it and seized it. As Randell typed away on the console, three of the other robotic arms slid smoothly along the ceiling to grasp different devices off the shelves. Then, they returned to the center of the room and oriented the tools around the tablet.
Randell nodded approvingly. "Okay, ready to go. What exactly are we looking for?"
Leo took a deep breath as he tried to calm the rapid beating of his heart. "It's my Origin Council file..." He then went on to explain his strange experience with the file.
Once Leo was finished, Randell stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Interesting..."
Randell made a quick input on the console, then the robotic arms began to rotate slowly around the tablet in a kind of robotic ballet. Results from the scans started to display on the console, and Randell quickly interpreted them.
"Well, the obvious thing here is that this tablet is definitely Origin Council, fourth-gen tech. The cubic-parallel circuitry is a dead giveaway, and the structure of the nano-polymers reinforces that finding... The motherboard was fused to the processor and memory.."
Leo gritted his teeth. "I need to know if a change to the system files caused it. Maybe you could find a timestamp on the files that were manipulated to determine that. If it was external sabotage, like a virus, I need to know who did it, or it least, how they did it."
Randell kept his eyes locked on the rapid stream of data. "Okay, Leo. Chill. It must've happened after you activated it. You started looking at the files, and then you triggered some code that bypassed the base protocols and activated some sort of malware. That's the obvious method I can see causing this type of damage. It could be a processor leak, but there's no way to know for sure until I extract the memory and recover what I can from it. Patience, please."
Leo nodded and watched with deep interest as Randell began typing feverishly on the console. Two more robotic arms responded to his inputs, seized two tools off the shelves, then began to disassemble the tablet.
Leo watched the robots work but was distracted as he felt Annabelle walk up next to him and lean against him. After sharing a look with her, he tore his eyes away from her to check on Alice.
Alice stood still with her arms crossed and a look of concern on her face. When Leo caught her eye, she nodded and turned her focus back to the robots doing their work. Leo watched her for a few seconds, then followed suit.
The robots made quick work of the disassembly and extracted the tablet's memory chip within a minute. On
ce removed, one of the other robotic arms retrieved yet another device and held it steady as the memory chip was inserted into it.
"Here we go, now for the fun stuff..." Randell said with excitement as more data began to stream across his console screen. "Okay, so the memory has been corrupted nearly beyond repair. Luckily for you, one of my biggest money-makers is restoring corrupted data. I can make quick work of this..."
Randell began combing the scrambled data on the tablet's memory chip. Leo watched him go through the data, piece by piece, and it looked like indecipherable gibberish, but Randell's expression told him otherwise.
Randell's voice became very excited as he translated data. "This is big! Very, very big. Extremely. Monumentally. Big! Much of it is covered up and scrambled, but it's still all here... Oh, my sails, there is so much stuff here. And it all got smashed by a wrecking ball through a wormhole..."
Leo was confused by Randell's description. "What the hell are you talking about? Standard! Use Solar Standard man, c'mon!"
Randell gave a slight turn of his head and let out a big smile, then tried to elucidate his findings more simply.
"Something, I don't know what, but something entirely nutso found this tablet and tore through it, like a worm eating an apple. I guess it's a nano-virus of some sort, but I don't know if that's even the right word to describe it. Maybe 'cancer' is a better word. I think it's physical, some synthetic nanoparticle that encountered the tablet..."
Randell wiped the sweat from his forehead, then continued. "It replicated your DNA somehow and had its way with this poor thing. It could have some insanely elegant and productive code that manipulated the tablet's own nano-tech to reassemble in the form of the... cancer. I think you picked it up directly, but I don't know for sure. Maybe I could figure that out if you give me a few days..."
Leo was stunned by the findings, but he still wasn't entirely sure what they meant. "Randell, are you saying this thing was hit with some kind of advanced nano-virus? Is it possible it was programmed by the Council or did it come from someone else?"
Randell laughed and shook his head as he turned away from his console and looked at Leo with amazement.
The Ganymede Legacy Page 27
