She sifted through the multitude of feeds, seeking out those that centered on the villa complex where she had spent the first night on Mars. But being a highly secure private facility, there were no feeds coming from within. She would have to go deeper and try and gain access through the comms network, seek out an audio signal.
It was then that she sensed another entity in the system. She couldn’t be sure, since the neural lace did not have the fidelity for such forensic investigation, but she knew the telltale signature—she had sensed it before. There was another node-runner in the system.
For an instant, Luca froze. Her old fears came flooding back, paralyzing her. She retreated from the data-stream and took a moment to get a grip. Was she mistaken? Perhaps it was Aria? But no, in her heart she knew the data signal had the unmistakable cadence of human interaction. If what she had just sensed really was a node-runner, then that meant they were here, somewhere close. And it also meant there was nowhere safe from the relentless pursuit of the VanHeilding Corporation.
Luca deactivated the neural lace, removed it from her head, and flung it on the desk. A deep feeling of despair washed over her. She put her head in her hands and wept for the loss of her brief moment of contentment here at the institute. She had thought she was safe, thought she was free, but now, in an instant, it turned out to be yet another lie. There would be no escape. At best, all she could do was try and stay one step ahead.
She wiped her face with her hands, took a breath, and picked up the neural lace again. She needed to warn her family. She activated the device and entered the data-stream one more time.
17
The Festival of Lights
“You’re leaving? So soon?” said Scott on hearing Dr. Stephanie Rayman’s announcement. They had left the confines of the villa complex and ventured into the city to experience the famous Festival of Lights. This evening would be the main event, a spectacular, immersive 3D lightshow taking place in the massive central dome—the city’s cultural and social heart.
The dome was a five-hundred-meter diameter open space, bounded on all sides by cafes, bars, eateries, and a multitude of tourist traps where expensive trinkets could be purchased to remember your trip to the Red Planet. The central concourse was thronged with people, some standing, some sitting on the floor in groups, all waiting for the spectacle to begin.
Scott, Miranda, Steph, and Cyrus had taken up residence around a table outside a cafe-bar that afforded them an excellent view. They had just given their order to a service droid when Steph announced that she was leaving for Earth in two sols.
“I have to take that ship. The transfer window will close soon, Mars and Earth will be too far apart, and that means no more commercial flights for several months.”
Cyrus glanced around. “There are worse places to be stuck for a few months.”
“Yeah, I know, but I need to get back to reality. I do have a life outside of being shot at.”
“I wish Luca were here—to see you before you go.” Miranda had taken Luca’s sudden departure over to the science institute with Xenon very hard. Her initial reaction was to chase after her, bring her back. But Scott dissuaded her, arguing that Luca was perfectly safe there, probably safer than anywhere else, and that she was entitled to live her life however she wanted. Needless to say, this did not go down very well with Miranda, and an argument ensued. Eventually, when all the accumulated frustrations of the past few months had finally be expunged, they agreed that maybe what they needed to do was to chill out and enjoy their new surroundings. Luca would show up again when she was good and ready.
“I’m sure we’ll catch up soon. Maybe on a call from the ship on the way home.”
Miranda nodded. “Gonna miss you, Steph.”
“Now don’t get all sloppy on me. I’m not gone yet.”
There was a noticeable change in the mood of the crowd. The background chatter began dialing down to a murmur. The show was about to begin.
The illumination in the vast domed space dimmed until they were almost in complete darkness, and the crowd became silent. High above, at the apex of the dome, a bright, incandescent ball of light appeared. It slowly grew in size as a deep, sonorous voice began a narration.
“Before the beginning, there was darkness—then there was light.”
With that, the bright ball of light exploded into a billion stars radiating out to fill the entire space. The crowd let out a collective exclamation of amazement. Scott reached up and tried to grab one of the tiny stars that floated just above his head, but only grabbed air instead.
Interspersed within this galaxy of stars, multicolored nebulae began to form, blossoming out of the darkness and bathing the assembled onlookers in a rainbow of colors. The star field slowly rotated as the narrator announced, “Let us embark on a journey. A journey through the center of the universe.”
The star field moved as if the assembled crowd were traveling through it, picking up speed, until each star was now a streak of light, flashing past at incredible speed. Again, the onlookers gasped in wonder.
“Wow,” said Cyrus. “Now that’s something you don’t see everysol.”
The headlong rush through the universe slowed and zeroed in on a spiral galaxy, then moved through the stars to an alien solar system, visiting each of its exotic planets one by one. The show then moved on farther, visiting quasars, pulsars, blazars, and even black holes.
Around two hours later, the show ended as it had begun—in a blaze of light, leaving a small cluster of stars nesting high up in the dome roof. The crowd cheered and clapped and then settled into riotous chatter as the lights came up.
“That was incredible.” Miranda was still shaking her head in amazement, glancing up at the dome roof to see the last of the stars. She seemed genuinely happy, and Scott could feel the tension of the last few months draining out of him. He smiled back at her and found her giving him a look, one he had not seen in a long time. She shifted in her seat and moved a little closer, then wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Scott instinctively reached around to the small of her back, and before his mind had time to ruin the moment, they kissed, and the outside world disappeared.
When they finally pulled apart, Scott could sense an awkward silence from across the table. He glanced over.
“Hallelujah.” Steph raised her glass in a mock toast and downed her drink in one go. “I was wondering how long it would take for you guys to park all the bullshit.”
Scott laughed. Miranda grinned.
“Say, Cyrus?” Steph elbowed the engineer in the ribs. “Weren’t you going to show me some amazing Mars artifact in some place here on the plaza?”
Cyrus looked a little confused. Steph elbowed him again.
“Oh, yeah…that’s right. Eh…I think it’s quite near here.” He pointed off in the distance, over the heads of the crowd.
Steph got to her feet. “Come on then, better show me now or I won’t get the chance again.” She turned to Scott and Miranda and gave a wink. “See you when I see you.”
Scott didn’t protest this exit, even though Steph was making it perfectly clear what she was up to. Miranda gripped him tighter. He turned back to gaze at her. No words were needed.
But the moment was cut short as Miranda suddenly untangled herself and tapped the side of her temple to activate her comms. She looked up at Scott, wide-eyed. “It’s Luca.”
Scott sighed, inwardly. He was happy she was making contact, but less so about her timing. “What’s she saying?”
Miranda jerked a hand up to silence him, concentrating on the call. “Are you sure? When? Goddamnit, just when I thought this crap was over. Okay, okay, I got it. Fine, we’re fine.” The call ended, and she looked over at Scott.
Scott raised his eyebrows in a question. “So?”
“She thinks there are node-runners here…on Mars, possibly in the city.”
“I don’t believe it. How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but she seems pretty convinced.
Anyway, we’re not safe here, out in the open. We need to get back to the villa complex.”
“Better let Cyrus and Steph know.” Scott glanced in the direction they had taken.
“Yeah.” She gave him an apologetic grin. “Bad timing, eh?”
Scott smiled and gently pulled her close. “Oh, I don’t know. I was wondering how I was going to get you back to my place.”
18
Easy Target
After Sebastian VanHeilding’s ship had landed and César had given them the all-clear, they transferred into the ship’s rover, a well-appointed, six-wheeled vehicle designed, like the rest of the craft, for luxury and comfort. Aaron Judge, his head of security, took the helm alongside Sebastian. César sat in the main cabin flanked by three security crew. They carried light, non-lethal plasma weapons. Anything more purposeful was forbidden in the city, and there was no point in taking the risk, since they were not planning on needing such force. This would be quick and quiet, with no unnecessary drama.
However, the terrain was more unforgiving than they had initially thought, so it was hard and slow-going. It took them nearly an hour before they finally managed to find their way onto the main highway. After that they made good time, slowed down only by the increased volume of traffic entering the city for the festival.
But they could only go so far by surface rover, since such vehicles were not allowed inside the city due to the risk of contamination. Once they reached the city’s western gate, they would have to leave the rover in one of the vast underground parks and then rely on Jezero’s own autonomous transport pod network.
The first test of their newfound identities came as they approached the western city gate. Here, all vehicles were scanned, identified, and issued a parking designation—this they could not avoid. César sat in the main cabin, jacked-in, eyes rolled back inside his head. He was scanning the data-stream, making sure their digital deception held up. But they passed through without incident. Sebastian took this to be a good omen: the plan was working, the prize would soon be his.
Once safely inside the city, the node-runner commandeered a transport pod, keeping it off-grid and under his control. Sebastian now watched the city slip by through the side window. It was taking them to a mothballed VanHeilding Corporation facility in an old industrial sector of Jezero. That area would be completely deserted now, especially with everyone at the festival, so it was a perfect place to establish a base of operations.
Outside, the city lights swept past, bathing the interior of the pod in garish pinks and purples. The people all seemed to be moving in the same direction, lured to the center by the promise of a spectacle.
But all throughout this journey into the city, César had continued to voice his concerns that the two node-runners back on the ship were running hot. He needed to take the load off them, and soon. It would be a disaster if one were to burn out on this mission—that would be game over for Sebastian and his hopes of rising through the family ranks.
“We’re here,” Aaron announced, pointing out a set of utility doors that had scissored open in the front of a dilapidated-looking building. The pod entered in through the gap and down a short ramp to the facility’s basement entrance.
They disembarked from the pod and took an elevator to what used to be a luxury private apartment on the third floor—kept ready for the pleasure of any high-ranking family members who happened to be visiting. Now, though, it had lost most of its opulence; only a scattering of furniture remained. It did, however, have power and a functioning holo-table, giving them excellent access to the citywide network. The apartment activated automatically as they entered.
Without saying a word, César sat down on a long, low bench beside the holo-table and jacked-in to the data-stream. It was now all up to him to find her. How long that would take was anyone’s guess. But she was out there somewhere, and if anyone could find her it would be César. Sebastian had to admit, this guy was good.
With nothing to do now but wait, Sebastian opened the doors to the balcony and gazed out to the edge of the dome that housed this sector of the city. Through its translucent membrane he could make out the brightly illuminated forms of several other adjacent domes. But one stood out more than most: the great central dome that dominated the Jezero City skyline, now a kaleidoscope of color—the Festival of Lights had begun.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to Sebastian, César finally spoke. “I’m getting a lock on something now.” He relayed a feed of his dive into the data-steam onto the holo-table.
Sebastian turned back inside the apartment and moved closer to the table to study the projection that now blossomed out across its surface. It was a confused mess of flashing images and garbled sounds. But it grew in clarity, culminating in a bright flash of a human face.
César suddenly pulled off the neural lace, jolting himself out of the data-stream. He was breathing hard, his face flushed.
“What? Was that her? Where is she?” Sebastian demanded.
The node-runner took a moment to get his heart rate down before attempting vocal communication. “She’s…in the data-stream.” He looked up at Sebastian and then to Aaron. “I think she sensed my presence.”
Sebastian considered this for a moment. “Are you sure it was her? Could it have been one of the node-runners from the ship, or the QI, Aria?”
“No, it was definitely a human mind, not one of us, and definitely not artificial.”
“What’s she doing in there?” Aaron’s face looked grave.
Sebastian waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter what’s she doing. What matters is where she is—physically.”
It was now César’s turn to look grave. “She’s located in the science institute, around two hundred kilometers north of the city.”
“That’s Xenon’s facility,” said Aaron, shaking his head. “We’ll never get in there without being spotted. Way too much security.”
“Damnit, we need to find a way in and get her.” Sebastian thumped the holo-table, sending a quiver through the now frozen projection. “We haven’t come all this way just to give up now.”
César shook his head. “There’s no way we can get in there and keep the ship hidden. We just don’t have the neural bandwidth for a hack of that complexity.”
“I’ve just checked with the ship.” Aaron held a hand to his temple, listening to an internal comms link. “No security alert issued on the grid. She may not know we’re here. Or if she does, she hasn’t done anything yet.”
Sebastian remained quiet for a moment, thinking. He was close, so close. There had to be a way. He turned to the node-runner again. “What’s your feeling, César? Have we been exposed?”
“Hard to say.” César stood up now. “Even if she has sensed a runner in the data-stream, that doesn’t mean she knows our location. She may think we’re still off-planet, on a ship in orbit. Also, she seems…weak, like a novice. Again, nothing like the awesome neural power she’s supposed to be.”
Sebastian remained silent for a moment, looking out across the city again. “I think she’s afraid and running scared. We can still do this. All we need to do is find a way to flush her out of Xenon’s institute.” He spun back around to the node-runner. “Can you find where the rest of her family are? We may be able to use them as leverage.”
César took a long, slow breath, nodded, and jacked-in again. After several minutes, a fuzzy 3D rendering of the central plaza blossomed out from the holo-table. Four highlighted, ghostly human forms could be identified clustered around a table just at the edge of the plaza.
“There, that’s them.” Aaron poked a finger at the projection, then glanced over at Sebastian.
“If we could snatch one or two of her family from there,” said Sebastian, waving a finger at the holo-table, “then we could offer her a deal. Their lives for hers.”
Aaron examined the projection as he contemplated how exactly this could be executed. “Tricky, in such a crowded area. Too many people.”
&
nbsp; But before anyone had time to reply, two figures began to move away, leaving the plaza area. Sebastian leaned in to get a better look. “Someone’s on the move.”
Aaron checked the data analysis. “Looks like Dr. Stephanie Rayman and Cyrus Sanato.”
“Dr. Rayman would be perfect.” Sebastian stood up, looking over at Aaron. “According to Luca’s profile she has a strong emotional attachment to her, almost to the point of regarding her as a surrogate mother.”
“She would certainly be a much easier target,” said Aaron. “The parents are fighters, especially the mother, who’s highly skilled and very dangerous.” He jerked a finger at the projection. “And it looks like they’re leaving the central dome, heading away from the crowds.” Aaron glanced back at Sebastian.
“Okay, I have an idea on how we take them quietly without a fuss.” Sebastian then turned to César. “I need you to commandeer another transport pod.”
19
Takedown
Cyrus and Steph threaded their way through the crowded plaza toward a short, broad connecting tunnel that would bring them into a sector commonly called the cultural quarter. It was smaller in size than the main plaza, but more architecturally impressive since it was home to museums, galleries, theaters, and well as the more upmarket bars and cafes.
“So where is this…thing you’re taking me to see?” Steph seemed a little dismissive of the quest they were currently embarking on.
“Not far.” He gestured ahead at a futuristic building that looked as if it had been grown from some organic compound—which to some extent, it had. “At the festival exhibition building. The one that looks like an internal organ.” He glanced back at Steph. “Actually, I didn’t think you were all that interested in seeing it.”
Exodus: Sci-Fi Thriller (The Belt Book 5) Page 10
