Joel kicked back his seat and pretended to relax. He knew it was good for Molly for him to just hang nearby. Even if she didn’t understand that herself right now.
Aboard The Empress
Joel, Jack, and Pieter sat quietly, spread out through the main cabin of The Empress. Pieter had several holoscreens open and seemed to be continuing the work he had started as soon as they had access to Scamp’s data.
Molly gazed out of the window, her thoughts dancing from sensations of anxiety, to sadness, to determination, and back again.
“Molly?” Crash interrupted her thoughts through her audio implant.
Molly hit her audio device. “’Sup?”
“We’ve got a call coming in via the ship’s quiet link. It’s Giles, calling from The Scamp Princess.”
“Okay, patch him through.” She sat up in her seat and took a deep breath.
“Hi, Molly.” Giles’s voice announced himself in her ear. He sounded uncomfortable.
“Giles, hi. Everything okay?”
“Well, yes. Although not really. I heard about Sean, of course.”
Molly leaned her head backwards against her headrest, her gaze flicking to the ceiling. “Yes, we’re on our way to his last known location now.”
“Good. Oz told you I offered my services?”
Molly assumed that was a question, even though his intonation suggested otherwise. “He did. Thank you.”
“Okay. Well, erm, the other thing is, we’ve had a lead on the talisman thing. So, erm… if you’ve cleared Scamp for duty, would you mind if Arlene and I went and chased this lead down?”
Molly processed the request for a moment. Her mind scrambled for any reasons for or against. Anything that wasn’t insurmountable. Then she hit one.
“What about the part where I needed you at the university to make sure everything is handled there?”
“Oh… erm. Right. Of course.”
There was a silence on the line. Molly felt Joel looking over at her but chose to remain focused on one conversation at a time. She knew he’d only interject in favor of Giles.
She spoke again. “How long do you think it will take?”
“Well, you know how these things are…”
“I have an idea,” she said.
“What if I promise to be back before the semester starts up again?”
“Yes, that would be fine. But stay in touch with Paige, and make sure that she can make any decisions that need making for the school.”
“Right you are. Thanks Molly. And… good luck.”
“You too, Giles. Good hunting.”
She could hear him breathing on the line for a second or two longer. She wondered if he might have something else to say. And then the line went dead. She turned her head and gazed out the window, watching the stars shift around them. She didn’t have the brain power to allocate any to Professor Kurns right now. She needed to stay laser focused on finding Sean.
Chapter 3
Bates residence
Philip sat peacefully on the patio, reading a spy thriller.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, he tutted, swiping to the next page on his holo.
Just then, his wrist buzzed, alerting him to an incoming call. He accepted it, seeing who it was. “Hi, Tray, how are you?” he asked brightly.
“Hi, Philip. Good. All good. It’s a work call.”
“Okay, go ahead,” Philip responded in a more muted tone.
“Well, you asked for me to give you a heads up if there was anything unusual going on around the Royale asset?”
“Yes. You got something?”
“Yeah, seems he’s gone off grid,” Tray said.
“On a mission?”
“Probably. Knowing him.”
“Anything happening with the Federation?” Philip asked.
“That’s above my clearance.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. But if you hear anything…”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
“Okay thanks, Tray.”
“No problem,” Tray responded. “See you on the course next week.”
“Yes, see you then,” Philip said brightly again. He closed the holo call and sat in silence for a few seconds before pulling up a new screen.
He typed the command.
>> Connect FED.
>> Return.
A new screen appeared. This one was slightly red in tone and had nothing but a black screen and a flashing cursor.
He typed the following:
>> ArchAngel://Agent 5673#delta. Suspected 978 infringement.
>> Is Royale on a dark op for you folks?
He waited, watching the flashing cursor. He hated this bit. He rarely used the interface for obvious reasons, but every time he had reason to, it had been because there was an imminent threat to planetary security, and ArchAngel was a known ally who would occasionally intervene.
This wasn’t exactly a planetary matter. Although, if his suspicions were right, it would certainly be something the Federation would want to be involved in.
He hated the waiting, though.
He tried to relax and enjoy the fresh air and the sun starting to go down, but his eyes were compulsively drawn back to the red-hued screen and the damn flashing cursor.
He sighed, watching the flashing.
Finally, something happened.
>>> What is the nature of the infringement?
Philip considered how he might type the explanation and then resigned himself to the reality that to speak it would be more efficient.
>> Can we speak?
A link appeared. Philip clicked it and felt his audio implant connect into the new protocol.
“Hello?” he asked quietly.
“Hello, Philip. What is the nature of the infringement?”
“Well, it’s not exactly that. But it is rather sensitive.”
“How so?” ArchAngel’s computer-generated voice spoke into his audio implant.
“Well, it’s my wife. She’s been tracking Molly, I think, and I wanted to know why. And we saw that Royale was in cahoots with her, so I had a buddy of mine let me know if anything strange happened around Royale, rather than trying to interfere. Anyway, he’s just let me know that Sean went dark last week. No one’s seen or heard from him since. I wondered if you had him on a mission.”
There was a slight pause before ArchAngel responded. “No, we don’t. Let me try and find him.”
There was a longer pause before ArchAngel spoke again. “I can’t get a read on him. Turns out the team he was posted with hasn’t seen him. They’re on a mission to find him right now.”
“You mean Molly’s team?”
“That’s correct.”
“What can you tell me?” Philip’s voice cracked with anxiety, wondering if his actions had put Molly in danger.
“They’re retracing his steps. I’ve pulled news footage from the area. Processing now.” Another pause. “Okay. We have a hit. Sean seems to have been kidnapped from a trading outpost. Along with a girl.”
“Molly?”
“No, Molly is with her team on The Empress.”
“Is she in danger?”
“She does a dangerous job. But imminently? Not that we know of. Hang on.”
The line cracked and then went quiet, as if there was a low white-noise feed being broadcast.
ArchAngel returned to the call. “It seems your wife has been probing the servers that Molly and her team use. Lance has requested you and Mrs. Bates come up here for a conversation.”
Philip stood up in excitement. “I knew she was up to something!”
“She has indeed been very busy it seems. Can you get her up here?”
“I can do my best. Will you send coordinates? We only have standard space cars with the agency.”
“We’ll come into the system then. I’ll send coordinates when we get there.”
“Okay, great. How long do you think?”
/>
“Twelve hours max. Probably less. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Great. I’ll need time to coordinate persuading Carol.”
“I understand. I hear she has some personal problems with the general.”
“Yes. Something like that. Don’t worry. I can make it happen. I’ll stand by for your ETA and coordinates.”
“Very good. ArchAngel out.”
And with that, the line disconnected, and the red holoscreen folded itself up back into Philip’s holo. He sat back down, contemplating how on Esataria he was going to pull this off.
Aboard The Empress
Molly’s thoughts tripped idly around her mind as she used the downtime to rest. Her brain felt frazzled from the emotional pressure of the last several days, and though she was always in stressful situations, this was certainly different.
On so many levels.
Oz ventured to talk to her again, now that everything seemed to be under control.
You doing okay?
Yeah. What’s up?
Well, since your endorphins and cortisol levels seemed to have returned to normal, I wondered if we might talk about these potential cyber attacks.
What?
Remember? The probes I’ve been detecting and fending off my most used hubs down on Estaria.
Oh. Shit. Yeah, sorry Oz. It completely went from my mind since Sean disappeared.
It’s okay. I understand not everyone has super-enhanced capacity courtesy of the Federation.
Molly smiled to herself. She glanced over at Joel to see if he was reacting to her, but his eyes were closed and his chair tipped back.
So, where are we with it?
Well, I just got another alert that another server was being probed. Not hacked. Just that someone is probably monitoring the in and outflow of packets from it.
What can that tell them?
Not much. Other than there is data flowing. If they’re able to track the data, that may become an issue. But I’m taking precautions, and since we’re going to be out of range anyway, it’s not going to be an issue until we get back.
But it’s good for us to consider it now?
Yes.
So, who would want to track the data and not interpret it?
I’ve yet to ascertain that. Judging by the methods they’re using, it doesn’t look like it’s any run of the mill type of hackers. I’m ruling out corporates, lone rangers, and kids. It’s far too subtle for that.
So, who does that leave?
Maybe foreign intelligence. But you’d think they’d be a bit more brazen in trying to get whatever they’re after. The only other party that we’re aware of who might have these kinds of capabilities would be Estarian local intelligence.
You mean Estarian domestic spies?
Exactly.
Molly’s brow creased up. That’s… odd.
Yeah. But it’s not as if we haven’t been causing a stir in their systems, the medical companies, their financial systems. Plus, they could easily have seen our influence on those subsidiaries that you took control of. That’s not including the university.
So, you’re saying that whoever is paying attention will likely be aware of all of these different projects?
Unfortunately, yes. They’ve shown up at about twenty percent of the servers and hubs that I’ve used for moving or extracting data. Despite my attempts to silo our operations, they’re either monitoring the whole Estarian network or…
Or?
They have a beat on my fingerprint. The syntax of the code that I use.
How can they do that?
It’s not hard once you’ve got a big enough sample. It would be like taking a big ass sample of Hemingway and being able to compare it to Dickens and Dostoyevsky. There are tells. Isolate the tells, and then it’s easy to scan for those combinations.
Shit. Can you try and hide it? Like modulate your style?
I could. Maybe. But it will take me maybe ten times longer to process anything out there.
Well, maybe we need to do that just to be careful. Remind me to have us circle back to this when we get back to base.
Okay.
Molly sat mulling the issue for some time. Joel stirred next to her. He stretched and then brought his chair upright.
“You okay?” he asked.
Molly blurted out the exact thought that was on her mind. “Why would covert ops on Estaria care about what we’re doing?”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?”
“Oz and I were talking about the strange probing that has been going on around his hubs planet-side. They stopped for a while, but then he just got an alert again.”
Joel rubbed his eyes, thinking. “You don’t think it could just be routine?”
Molly shook her head. “Doesn’t feel like it. Plus, it doesn’t account for how we’ve had twenty percent of our hubs looked at.”
“So, we’re being targeted?”
“Yeah. Oz thinks the only folks with the tech to do what they’re doing are local clandestine services.”
Joel shifted in his seat. “Odd. You think someone is still after you?”
Molly shrugged. “Everyone that was a threat thinks that I’m dead.”
Joel nodded. “Yeah. Everyone on Estaria. Except anyone associated with the university.”
Molly stopped. “Good point… and good luck controlling that can of worms. But we’ve taken precautions there, and both Oz and ArchAngel are keeping an eye on factions that might want to attack. They just don’t have this kind of access to tech, though. The only other people would be my parents. But the tech thing holds there too, of course.”
Joel chuckled. “True. Though I don’t see them wanting to probe your missions. I mean, it’s not like they work for the military or anything, right?”
“Well, no, of course not.” Molly sighed. “I mean, they wouldn’t know what a mission was, but…”
Joel detected an unease in her tone. “What is it?”
“Well, you don’t know my mom. If she wants to know what I’m up to, she’d go to extraordinary lengths.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t have these kinds of capabilities.”
“True.” Molly smiled. “Yeah. No, of course not. That would be silly.”
Joel chuckled. “I’m sure you’re just worrying about nothing. And Oz is going to be able to block these advances, right?”
Molly nodded definitely. “Yeah. Already done.”
“Okay. So nothing to worry about.” Joel settled back into his chair and closed his eyes again. “I’m sure whoever it is will lose interest. And if they don’t, we’ll find them when we get back.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Molly looked out of the window again. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Aboard The Empress
Several hours had passed since the team had departed Gaitune. They’d been navigating their way from one waypoint coordinate to another, retracing Scamp’s steps for any kind of clue.
So far nothing had turned up to leave them any wiser.
Crash brought The Empress to a halt at another set of coordinates and then dropped his hands from the controls. He turned his head to look at Pieter.
Pieter felt his frustration and put one finger up. “Okay. Gimme a minute here. I’m working as fast as I can.”
Brock noticed Crash’s impatience. Although he didn’t protest or complain, Brock could tell he was getting tired of having to pull up every so often.
Brock tried to get his attention, but Crash’s gaze remained on the hardworking Pieter and his multiple holoscreens he’d set up in an array over one of the rear consoles. Finally, he resigned himself to speaking. “Dude. Can I get you a mocha or something while we wait?”
Crash didn’t move. “No thanks.”
“Well… why don’t you have a walk? Stretch your legs?”
Crash sighed, looked out at the starscape on the main screen, then heaved himself up. “Fine,” he ag
reed. He wandered out of the cockpit, glancing at the holoscreens as he wandered past Pieter.
“You’re doing great,” Brock whispered to Pieter. “He just gets grouchy when he’s tired and not making progress.”
Pieter glanced up briefly and smiled before continuing what he was doing on the screens. He looked like he was working under pressure. Brock sat back in his own chair, leaving him to get on with it.
Just then, a quiet alert activated on his console. Emma’s voice chirped up. “Brock, it’s Giles again. He’s calling from The Scamp Princess, in flight on a course to the Ferrai Quadrant.”
“Ferrai Quadrant? That guy gets around. Okay, cool. Put him through.” Brock waited to hear the line shift before he spoke. “Hey, Giles?”
“Hi. Brock, right?”
“Yeah. How you doing?”
“All good, thanks. How are you?”
“Doing all right. You wanna speak to Molly again?”
Giles’s voice faltered. “Erm, yeah—No. Not necessary. If you don’t mind passing on a message that is…”
Brock and Pieter exchanged a brief glance before Brock responded. “Sure. No problem. Shoot.” Brock leaned forward, his elbows on the arms of the chair, listening intently.
“It’s Anne,” Giles explained. “I thought Molly should know. She snuck aboard The Scamp Princess and is now on the mission with us.”
Brock burst out laughing. “You’re kidding? You’ve got a stowaway?” he confirmed.
“I wish I were kidding.”
“Oh man. Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“So, how the fuck did this happen?” Brock asked.
They heard Giles sigh heavily on the other end of the line. “Well, it seems—and Emma may be able to help with this—but from what Paige could figure out, our little Estarian friend is actually capable of fuzzing out her own image on cameras and electronic feeds.”
“No shit!”
“I shit you not.”
“Fuck,” Brock said. “So, this is going to be an issue.”
“Potentially. I recommended putting a bell around her neck. Arlene didn’t go for it, but I think after a few days, she may come around to the suggestion.”
“Wow. Okay. I’ll let Molly know. Obviously, nothing we can do about it yet, but…”
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 174
