by Tony Corden
While she watched she communicated subvocally with Gèng, “I thought the day it would take Meredith to match velocities with the Annoyance would be enough to deal with whatever Nathan tried next. I was going to blow the ship up as she came alongside but I’ll need more time if I have to work out where my mother is and somehow get the location and code of the AI. Can you start thinking of some ways to edit the star charts we received to add some additional steps to the puzzle? Maybe add some data to the eight systems and include some clues to help decide which ones are the correct pieces of data. Whatever we add needs to be solvable and logical, but it can be obscure. I figure we need to spread out the search for at least a week if we can. Also, see if you can find a different ancient chess puzzle and change the code. Ask John to get to the Annoyance and work out a way to wire a bomb to the keypad of the Captain’s room. The bomb needs to be independent of the ship’s security measures so that the change of ownership won’t disarm it or give away knowledge of it. John also needs the information about the chip in Mum’s head in case they somehow set it off with the scans they have planned. Let him know that she will need to be back in the Pod by nine tonight.”
As she discussed things with Gèng, Leah began looking through the menus for the most expensive meal she could find, adding a different wine to each course. She knew it was a little petty but enjoyed it nonetheless. Soon the waitress came to collect the order, and as Leah watched her leave she noticed the receptionist lead a couple toward the Kodoman table.
“Gèng, are you able to identify the new couple sitting at the Kodoman table?”
“I will extract the image and initiate a comparative search of well-known associates and hopefully discover their identity. If that fails, I will expand the search using other parameters.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
Soon the receptionist led a single woman to the table, followed minutes later by an older man.
Almost immediately Gèng said, “The last person who arrived is a long-term associate. He’s a French financier named Arnaud Guerin.”
Leah watched as Arnaud greeted each of the others ending with Meredith. He carefully kissed both her cheeks, and after a brief embrace he sat beside her. Just then, Leah’s entree arrived with a large bottle of ridiculously expensive champagne. The last two table guests came together. Both were men, and though she couldn’t put a name to either of them, she recognised one of them from the box in the vault labelled 63–100002–WARNBOLRSTH.
Leah watched the eight as she ate her meal. She knew she was getting no sustenance from the meal, but the flavours were terrific. She hardly touched the drinks but continued to have a new bottle opened for every course, as well as some ridiculously priced sparkling water. Interestingly, as soon as the others had arrived the Kodomans had ignored her completely. She assumed they didn’t want anyone to know she was there.
Gèng was able to identify the other guests as the meal progressed. The man from the box was Leo Barnsworth, a second-generation member of the new English nobility and known as the second Earl Barnsworth. His father had been instrumental in the resurgence of English nationalism and the restoration of partial power to the monarchy. Leo was the current CEO of the Barnsworth Group which owned, or controlled, almost eight per cent of the top five hundred worlds in the multiverse.
The first couple who had arrived were Aleta and Jaap Van den Heuvel, both ranked in the top 200 of the Who’s Who of the multiverse rankings. Aleta was the heir of Jaeger Neuro Industries which was one of the world’s major suppliers of personal AIs. The single woman was Alison Neilson. Alison was a high profile gamer who specialised in dominating the high-scores in numerous single-player adventure worlds and holding a top-three ranking in the multiplayer horror-world Evil Blood. She was the daughter of William Neilson, who was the American Union Ambassador to the United Nations and co-chair of the Standards and Oversight Committee of the United Nations Commission for Virtual Security. The man who arrived with Leo Barnsworth was Egan Anagnos, a Greek billionaire who had made his money by providing secure, state of the art, servers for many of the multiverse’s premier worlds.
Leah finished her dessert before the Kodoman table had begun their main course. She watched them for a few moments until the waitress came to clear the dishes.
“Miss Atherleah, I hope you enjoyed your meal. Would you like a coffee or digestive to end your meal?”
“No, thank you. I don’t suppose I can order something for everyone in the restaurant as I leave?”
“You may do so, but unfortunately that would be charged to you personally rather than the member who invited you to dine. His invitation only covers what you order for yourself.”
“Can I take away the food and drinks I haven’t been able to finish?”
“Certainly, we can have them delivered directly to your personal world.”
“In that case, I will add a digestive. What is your most expensive after-dinner drink?”
“We do have a six-litre bottle of scotch commonly known as the Macallan ‘M’. The whole bottle costs 149,000 VCr.”
“That’s brilliant! Please bring me a glass and then have the rest delivered to my personal world.”
After sipping the drink for several minutes, Leah stood to leave. She glanced over at the Kodoman table before turning toward the exit. Both Nathan and Meredith ignored her, but her movement attracted the attention of Arnaud Guerin. He must have said something for the rest turned to look at her. She grinned briefly in their direction and then turned to leave, only to find Roger waiting.
He said, “Miss Atherleah, I trust you enjoyed your meal and will agree that Café Florian and Club Ascendant have fulfilled their obligations to you.”
“Indeed they have Roger, and if I am ever asked, I shall have only good things to say about Club Ascendant and its staff.”
“Excellent. If you follow me, I will see you to the exit portal.”
Leah stepped quickly so she could walk beside Roger as they left the room.
As they approached the portal, he said, “Although I would normally express the wish that a guest might dine with us again, I am hesitant to hope for your return. The only reasons I can think of that might bring you back would see you once again in some danger.”
Leah smiled and thanked Roger for his help before stepping back through the portal to the Tower. Once again, she sensed her transit through the cyber-verse even through the programmed portal visual effects.
3
December 14, 2073 - Part 3
THE STORK TOWER
Arriving back in the Tower, Gèng was waiting at the portal and walked with Leah as she made her way quickly toward the Cosmos Online portal to the Annoyance. Gèng said, “John has begun working on the explosive device, and I have prepared a series of additional steps to add to the puzzle to increase its overall complexity. You will need to make the changes yourself. You have an hour and eight minutes real time until your planned translation from Plankian space. In addition to the coding, you will need to make some changes to the ship’s inventory and records using the owner permissions if you expect to hide the work you and John will be doing.”
COSMOS ONLINE
Leah nodded, and after listening to an overview of the changes, she stepped through onto the Annoyance. After checking what John was doing, she hurried to the bridge and began working through the additions Gèng had prepared. Gèng had added several levels of logic barriers to prevent immediate access to all of the star charts and inserted another three layers between the variables and the final chess moves. Gèng had also highlighted whole sections of the star charts for Leah to delete. These deletions would hopefully prevent anyone from making the same generalisations about resource-seeding in the game.
Twenty minutes before translation, John entered the bridge and announced the explosives set and armed. Minutes later, Leah finished and used her owner status to remove evidence of the changes and to remove the fission device John had prepared from the ship records. During this t
ime Gèng had reviewed the possible paths the Annoyance could take after translation, including an evaluation of the best time for translation. She allowed for some manoeuvring and any change that would increase the difficulty for a ship wanting to match its course.
At 11.28 Leah translated from Plankian space and immediately applied an acceleration of 9g. The result of the early translation and the high acceleration set the Annoyance on a path which took the Annoyance close to one of the outer gas giants. The gas giant’s gravity would change the Annoyance’s course to thread the needle between one of the inner planets and its moon. It would then fly close to Epsilon Serpentis before heading out of the system. Gèng calculated that it was unlikely a ship was in a position to match vectors until after the Annoyance had passed the star. At 11.30 Gèng received a message which designated the starter system as Hydra, an unaligned system in Anguidian space.
At 11.38 Leah stopped all acceleration and applied thrusters to send the Annoyance into a spinning tumble as it moved on its ballistic path toward the star. She removed the owner’s chip, and then she and John made their way to the hold of the Annoyance. Leah entered one of the four Pulsar Class fighters while John sat in the pilot seat of the Quasar Quad Fighter. John had fully loaded both fighters with ordinance, and they carefully exited the hold before setting both fighters on slightly divergent ballistic pathways to the Annoyance’s. They shut the craft down and then exited Cosmos Online.
Leah had asked Gèng to choose a suitable meeting point and as Leah arrived in the Tower. Gèng was waiting and said, “There are no truly safe places on the station. I suggest you send Meredith a location on one side of the station and then change the location just before the meeting. I think it best if you meet close to the where new players exit onto the concourse.”
“What do you think of changing my avatar, so I’m not easily recognisable?”
“It’s a great idea, but you don’t have time for the new species orientation and your suit wouldn’t transform for the new avatar?”
“Same old avatar it is then. Where will I meet Meredith?”
“As soon as you exit onto the concourse, turn left, and there is a restaurant franchise called Café Komodo. I’ve made a booking for you under the name Alice. I’ve told Meredith to meet at the Infinity Café which is on the other side of the station. As soon as you enter Cosmos Online, I’ll change the meeting place to a midway point then change it again as you enter the station.”
“Ask John to set up some overwatch. I’m fairly sure Meredith will try and kill me after the meeting.”
Leah made her way to a new Cosmos Online Airlock that Gèng had prepared and which was labelled ‘Avatar 3’. Inside was the simple, clean white room she had been in during the setup of her two previous Avatars. The same woman appeared as before and said, “Welcome Atherleah! Your current package only allows two avatars. To upgrade the number of available avatars to four will cost you 200 VCr. Are you interested in this?”
“Yes. And I would like to keep the same persona please.”
“Where would you like to start?”
“The main concourse of the Space Station on Hydra please.”
“Certainly! All your transferable items are located in the next room. Please take them with you. You will need to book a room to keep them in if you plan to leave any here when using your other avatars. Enjoy your day.”
Leah changed into her suit and made sure she had her weapons ready and the owner’s card for the Annoyance, then stepped out onto the concourse. Immediately she noted the increased number of Anguidians, the lizard analogue race. Besides them were the usual mix of the other races including a generous number of humans. The Anguidians were covered in thumbnail-sized scales in a variety of colours, and each of them was heavily armed. Not only did each have an assortment of knives and firearms, but each digit ended in a razor-sharp retractable claw. Anguidian suits allowed for the claws to be extended beyond the surface of the suit to enable their use as weapons even in vacuum.
Leah quickly turned left and headed for Café Komodo, which she could see just down the corridor. She’d only taken a few steps when she noticed a pair of large, similarly outfitted Anguidians scrutinising the area around the portal. As they glanced at her, their eyes lit with recognition, and they stepped away from the bulkhead they’d been leaning against and headed in her direction. She decided to ignore them for the moment and continued on her walk to the café, occasionally glancing at a screen in her suit which showed what was happening behind her. The two watchers took up station several metres behind her, and she could see one communicating through a device. She communicated with Gèng, “Let John know I’m being followed.”
Leah then made her way into the café and sat facing the door. The two Anguidians entered and took station near the entrance. Almost immediately, some of the other customers began to hurriedly finish off their meals. Some just left the food, paid and exited. Within minutes, two more similarly dressed Anguidians entered and moved toward the rear of the café. The few remaining customers quickly fled, and Leah was left alone with the four lizards and several staff who stood stiffly behind the counter.
Leah beckoned one of the staff over. The waitress was a smaller Anguidian who was almost trembling as she came to Leah’s table. Leah said, “Hi, sorry about the bozos but I need to speak with their boss and thought this might be a safe place. I imagine now that I got that wrong. Could I have a large latte with an extra shot and some type of pastry, maybe a muffin if you have one?”
Without saying anything the waitress nodded hesitantly and left. As she walked away, Gèng noted, “Social media on the concourse is trending about the presence of high-level enforcers from Clan D’Morte seen at Café Komodo. A quick search shows the head of Clan D’Morte to be an Anguidian called Mórrígan. Some have suggested that this is an avatar used by Meredith, but it hasn’t been confirmed until now. Your presence in the café was reported, and people are referencing the Meredith connection. Clan D’Morte is the third largest player-run Anguidian clan and is affiliated with one of the strongest NPC Anguidian political families. Both the clan and NPC family have an isolationist and militaristic agenda, both of which are attractive to the majority of Anguidians.”
Before Leah could respond, three more lizards entered the café. Two were of similar build to the other four while the last one was obviously female and slightly smaller and leaner than the others. Leah said, “Mórrígan, I assume. Please have a seat. Can I get you something? A fly or some other edible insect perhaps? Maybe a bowl of water?”
One of the larger Anguidians moved a saddle-shaped seat with a grove for the tail into the place opposite Leah, and the female sat down.
“I am Mórrígan, and your stupidity in changing venues has meant we will make the exchange in full view of the public.”
“Not really. It’s the presence of your entourage which gave everything away. If you weren’t so frightened of everyone you could have come alone, and no one would have been the wiser. But seriously, can I get you something? Each time you’ve set the place I’ve gone away thinking how rude you are not to offer me anything and I don’t want to make the same mistake. I’m having coffee and a muffin. What would you like?”
Mórrígan glared at Leah for a moment, then said, “I want nothing from you. Now hand over the card.”
Leah palmed the card and placed it on the table covering it with her hand. “I assume you have the location and passphrase written down. If so, then we exchange at the same time. If not then I’ll give you this when you’ve shared the information.”
“No need to be simultaneous. I can take the card whenever I want. I’ll just pry it from your dead fingers if I have to. Your mother was tasked with playing Survival. The passphrase is ‘your daughter is a thieving bitch’. Now pass the card over.”
Leah passed the card over, and Mórrígan stood before saying, “This isn’t over Atherleah. This is just the first taste of you giving in and having to do what I want. In the end, jus
t before I destroy you, you will beg to be my slave, and you will want to do whatever I ask. I look forward to destroying you piece by piece.”
Before Leah could respond, Mórrígan turned away and spoke to the enforcers, “Kill her when she leaves the café.” Mórrígan quickly exited to the concourse.
Leah sat quietly waiting for her coffee. She sat and drank it slowly. When she was almost finished she said, “Gèng, can you see a way out of this where I don’t have to fight these guys?”
“Not without help. Social media has another four Clan D’Morte soldiers waiting outside the café.”
Leah finished her coffee and had called for the bill when Gèng said, “I’ve a message from John. He says to wait a few minutes. He is on the concourse and will be there in less than two minutes.” Leah took her time paying and then continued to sit as she waited for John’s signal.
Her suit connected her to John as he approached the café. He said, “How do you want to do this? I’ve just purchased some of the foam containment bombs that Red used and a dozen micro-explosive drones.”
“Can you manoeuvre the drones and have them covertly attach to each Anguidian?”
“I think so. I’ll have four wait near the exit, ready for the lizards inside to leave. What level of destruction should I set the explosives at?”
“Enough to kill.”
“Will do. I’ll send you the signal to trigger detonation, or do you want me to do it?”
“Send it to me. I’d like you to stay hidden, and I’m sure it’ll upset the challenge system if you trigger the bombs.”
