“I do love me some fraternizing,” Lex said.
They each continued their meal for a moment or two.
“So this makes it official, doesn’t it?” he said. “Once we’re being photographed together, that makes us an item. Aren’t those the rules of the gossip page?”
“I don’t know that it’s terribly healthy to live our lives by the rules set forth by people looking for clicks and views.”
“Okay, then let’s look at it this way. It’s been three months since the last lingering thread of a relationship between me and Mitch snapped. Since then, you’re the only one who’s been able to get me out of my head and my apartment without enticing me with the prospect of an adrenaline-soaked thrill ride. Unless this is a Lex Pity Party, it seems like we’re a thing.”
She offered the tiniest hint of a smirk. “I suppose it does seem that way.”
“If we were a thing, would that cause problems? You being my boss and all?”
“I run this organization very transparently. It isn’t as though my influence can cause you to win races. So long as you don’t expect me to provide you with unearned opportunities, I don’t believe there is any concern of impropriety.”
“So that just leaves the question of if you’re into it.”
She sighed. “Are we ‘a thing.’ Am I ‘into it.’ You talk like we’re still in high school.”
“I’m being coy and charming. Plus shielding myself from rejection by being playful enough to plausibly deny I was serious.”
“I prefer when a man is direct and open.”
He stuffed a tikki patty in his mouth. “I think that was pretty direct what I just said.”
“Let me demonstrate my meaning,” she said.
Preethy leaned across the table and pressed her lips to his. Any clever thoughts and comments he might have been planning dissolved as his brain helpfully devoted all his focus to the unexpected sign of affection. When she backed away, his silence lingered as the hormonal haze slowly lifted.
“Oh… that kind of direct,” he said once his wits returned enough for something as complex as speech.
“I thought it might get the point across.” She licked her lips and leaned back. “Pihu? I think perhaps I would like some aloo tikki as well. You season them very nicely.”
#
At precisely 12:45 p.m., Lex and Preethy paid their bill and left the restaurant. The paparazzo who had snapped the first few pictures would have been kicking himself if he’d known what he was missing. Aside from the kiss, the second half of the meal had been a veritable clinic on flirtatiousness. They’d shared their food, told some decidedly unbusinesslike stories, and now were huddled into the shade of Lex’s parasol together. Squee was doing her very best to find a way to stretch herself across all four of their shoulders and was being admirably successful.
“If I’d known how you felt, I would have awkwardly teased at asking you out until you got frustrated and made the first move weeks ago,” Lex said.
“I’m a patient woman. One cannot rush things,” she said. “We both had more pressing matters to attend to.”
A soft chime rang out from both Lex’s pocket and Preethy’s purse. She fetched her device.
“Speaking of more pressing matters, it would appear the communications network is back up. We have a press junket in a bit less than half an hour, after all.”
“Great… Hey, what exactly am I supposed to say?”
“By now you know what they want to hear. You are excited to have the opportunity at a championship after squandering it at the Tremor Grand Prix. The competition is fiercer in ORIC than in any other league in the galaxy. And if you would, I’d like you to talk up your rivalry with Richard Tester.”
“Richard Tester…” Lex rumbled.
“Yes. Like that precisely.”
“I’m telling you, I think that guy’s cheating.”
“Our rules are a good deal more relaxed than in other leagues. We’ve nearly eliminated cheating by making most forms of cheating legal.”
“Well, he came up with something new then.” Lex said. “His up-close maneuvering and throttle timing are nuts. I’ve gone over the race telemetry. He’s shifting right on the red line every time.”
“So are you.”
“Yeah, but I’m Lex Alexander. He’s Richard Tester.”
“You haven’t cornered the market on reflex and intuition. And if I may make a suggestion, leave the accusations out of the press junket. It makes you seem petty and desperate, like you’re trying to justify the possibility of coming in second to him for a third time.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want that,” he said flatly. His slidepad chirped again. “Place your bets. More spam?” He pulled out the device and groaned. “It’s a message from Mitch.” He tapped the screen. “You think she’s got spies on me to see when something puts a smile on my face so she can wipe it off?”
“Try not to be too hard on her. You aren’t the only one who ended a relationship. She’s sure to be hurting.”
“I’m really not in the mood to feel sympathy, Preethy.” A short text transcript of a video call printed out on his screen. “‘Lex, what the hell is this? Call me. I’m attaching the message I just got like eighteen bazillion copies of,’” he read.
“Oh dear,” Preethy said.
Lex tapped the attachment. It was a screen shot of one of the messages. Though it was subtly different from what Lex had received, there was little doubt it was from a similar source. The subject read Lex’s location is established. Contact regarding Lex. And unlike him, Michella had opened the message. It was brief and equally mysterious.
“‘Lex is an essential component in The Task,’” he read. “‘Provided is proof of our deep knowledge of otherwise unknowable Lex information. This should prove our close association with Lex and dispel any concerns that might prevent the delivery of or contact with Lex.’ And there’s a picture right below…”
He trailed off and his eyes widened as he scrolled up enough to reveal an attached image.
“What’s wrong, Lex?” Preethy asked. “It just looks like a union logo.”
“Yeah… It just looks like that,” Lex said steadily.
The image displayed a blue shield with the letters GCC in the center. It appeared to be a slightly faded tattoo on very pale skin. He’d seen it once before. To his knowledge, he was the only human being alive today who had.
“I’ve got to try something,” he said.
He selected all of his spam messages, then deselected one. Another quick tap deleted the bulk of his spam box. A single new message showed up over the course of the next few seconds, offering him natural male enhancement for discount prices. It was a far cry from the billions upon billions that had been pouring in by the second before.
“You said the DDoS attack was over, right?” he said.
“Obviously, if the network is back up.”
“Are you aware of anyone else getting hammered by spam messages like I was?”
“No.”
“And now that I’m not getting them, things went back to normal. Is it possible that because I was getting so much spam, I was the whole reason for the network outage?”
“I suppose so. You’re certainly the first person I’ve ever heard of who succeeded in filling the spam folder.”
“And Mitch is getting similar messages in similar quantities… I’ve got to call her.”
“I think you should.” Preethy summoned a parasol drone. “I’ll continue ahead and get the junket ready. Contact me as soon as you are able so I know if I need to postpone it.”
“Will do.”
She hurried away, high heels clacking on the hot stone of the walkway. Squee briefly considered chasing her but decided remaining on Lex’s shoulders was the best option. Lex tapped Michella’s contact and waited for the connection. The “connecting” circle had barely finished a single revolution before he was treated to a tumbling view of
Michella’s slidepad being maneuvered to her face.
“Trev, what’s going on?” she demanded.
“I was hoping you’d know.”
“Why would I know why I’m getting enough messages with your name on them to cripple Golana’s information infrastructure? I got a visit from three VectorCorp representatives a half hour ago because they suspect I had something to do with it.”
“It happened to me, too. I didn’t open the message, but the subject was similar.”
“I swear, if you’re hiding something from me…”
“Why would I hide something from you? You’re an investigative reporter. It seems like the only way to get you to pay attention to anything is to try to hide it from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s not supposed to mean anything. You already know everything that I know. We were both getting trillions of messages, and as far as I can tell, no one else was. I’d say that’s not a coincidence.”
“You’re damn right it isn’t. And what’s with the picture?”
“You tell me.”
“What do you mean ‘you tell me’? It was in a message with your name all over it.”
“Do I have to go through the whole ‘you’re a reporter and you can’t help but dig’ thing again? I assume you’ve looked it up already.”
“I did. It’s an insignia from the Golana Celestial Corps. An engineering society that formed during the early settlement of Golana. They existed for about eighty years and as far as I can tell haven’t done anything of historical relevance beyond standard terraforming, transit development, and infrastructure. More to the point, they don’t have anything to do with you or me besides dealing with our home planet. So I ask you, what’s with the picture?”
“How do I talk about this… Remember the duplicate challenge coin?”
“The one you said you got because of time travel? Time travel that you said you couldn’t tell me much of anything about because it didn’t matter anymore because that whole future was locked away now or some nonsense like that?”
“Yes. That one.”
“Are you about to tell me that something about that future does matter and you should have told me about it then like I wanted you to? Which, by the way, is an example of you hiding something from me after you just went off, twice, about how you didn’t hide things from be because—”
“Right! Yes! Fine! I’m an idiot! This has been established. And I’m not going to tell you something in that future matters. I’m just going to tell you that the image may or may not have been a notable element of that particular trip.”
“Damn it, Trev.”
“Look, the only people I know of who saw that symbol were me, Coal, and Ma. Have you called Ma?”
“The call was denied. I got a system message saying that communications in the sector had been voluntarily shut down.”
“When did you get that?”
“All six of the times I’ve tried calling since communication was restored.”
“You think maybe she and Karter are getting something similar happening to them?”
“It would certainly stand to reason.”
Lex squeezed the slidepad tightly, as though if he punished it enough, it would stop delivering information that would complicate his life. It wasn’t as effective as he would have liked.
“I don’t think we’re getting an answer unless we start digging.”
“Or we could just wait. Our communication came back, there’s no reason to suppose the same thing won’t happen to Ma and Karter.”
“Trev, every time anything like this happens, it turns out to be an excellent story, and also it nearly kills us. Regardless if this one is either or both of those situations, I’d like to get ahead of it. Now I can’t very well pay Ma and Karter a visit. As I recall, the only one ever to pay them a visit they weren’t expecting was you.”
“Nah. VectorCorp punched an Asteroid Wrecker through the moat once, and the Neo-Luddites snuck in under false pretenses. But I see what you’re getting at. If I can’t get ahold of them by the end of the day, I’ll head out to Big Sigma and see what’s up.”
“Whoever is doing this has the resources to cripple two global communications networks at least, and you’re going to give them some time? Trev, we need to move on this now.”
He tried to fish something out of his brain that could justify burying his head in the sand and hoping for the best. For once, his life was heading in the precise direction he’d dreamed it would. He had his racing career back, even if it was turning out to be more of a challenge than he’d expected. He had the prospect of a new relationship. Money wasn’t tight. He had his health. And for once, no one seemed to be trying to kill him or the people he cared about. It would be absolutely delightful if the universe could sort out its own problems for once. But, as tended to be his assessment every time he had to turn his attentions to an unwanted detour from his life’s desired trajectory, he knew Michella was right.
“Fine. Give me a couple of hours to see if I can put my life on pause, and I’ll see if I can get ahold of Ma or Karter.”
“Good. I’ll start digging on my end. Get back to me when you find something. I’ll do the same.”
Michella broke the connection. Lex longed for the ancient era of communication when someone could signal their frustration with a given call by slamming down a receiver. The vast majority of technological improvements were inarguably superior these days to what they’d been several hundred years ago, but he would dearly love the opportunity to do something more cathartic than smear his thumb on a screen when he was done with a call.
Squee, perhaps detecting he needed something to pull him out of his own mind, stuck her snoot in his ear. He stifled a laugh and nudged her away.
“Okay. Okay. Time to dance like a monkey for the press, then figure out which of the seemingly endless sequence of enemies I’ve made over my life has decided to start screwing with my life this time. Joy.”
#
After nearly two hours of doing his very best to appear like a fully focused, dynamic front man for an entire racing league, Lex pulled Preethy aside to explain what had happened.
“… And that’s where we are right now,” he said, completing the briefing with the practiced skill of someone who had been forced to summarize a lot of crazy stories over his life.
Through the whole of his telling, Preethy had listened with a calm and detached expression. The two of them were in an autocar, riding to the hangar where his faithful ship was docked. Squee had spent the time industriously covering his shirt with a healthy layer of black and white hair. Now that he was finished, Preethy drummed her fingers on her purse and took a slow breath through her nose.
“The timing is not ideal, but I suppose fate is seldom obliging. What help can I provide?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re going to find out. If possible, I’d like to avoid getting you or anyone else too involved. Whoever’s doing this didn’t target you. At least, not directly. So I’m hoping it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t need to spill over into your life.”
“If it affects you, it affects me. But I won’t attempt to insert myself to complicate matters. Just know that, even if you were merely an employee, I would be dedicated to your safety. Now that we are involved, I am even more dedicated.”
“Aww… I just officially became your boyfriend a few hours ago and you already want to keep me from dying.”
“I imagine it will take a few more months before I find myself second-guessing myself on that point.”
“Knowing me, it’ll probably be days. But I’ll take it while I can get it.”
“The championship race is still in seven days.”
“Hopefully I’ll get to the bottom of this before then.”
She pulled her datapad from her purse and tapped the screen. “Louise, would you please pull and summarize the most recent revision of the
policies regarding racer safety and event scheduling?”
“Right away, Ms. Misra,” came a weary but dutiful reply.
“This is a live event, and it has been scheduled since the mess from the Indra Station mishap was cleaned up. It is, without hyperbole, the most significant event on the planet this year. If you are not present for the event, I cannot postpone it on your behalf. Tickets are sold, reservations are made. Half of the racers are coming from off planet, shipping their equipment. It would be financially irresponsible, it would draw undue attention and credible concern toward our relationship, and it would potentially harm the careers of half of our racers.”
“I’m not asking you to postpone. I wouldn’t expect you to.”
“You are also one of our top three racers and one of our top five draws.”
“Just top five?” he said.
“Several of the lower-ranked racers have toy and game contracts, which have raised their cachet considerably. Please try to focus.”
“Right, right.”
“The point is, your absence from the final will be comparatively less exciting, but is the lesser of two evils financially and publicity-wise. I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but I will do so regardless. Do what you need to do to keep yourself and your loved ones safe, but do whatever you can to return in time and in shape to compete.”
“Trust me. The galaxy would have to be at stake to keep me from cashing in my second chance at a championship.” Lex gave himself a mental pat on the back for not interjecting “again” after the galactic threat remark.
The autocar dropped them down into the shaded section of the courtyard outside the hangar.
“Shall I take care of Squee in your absence?” Preethy said.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to make that happen.”
Squee, as if to hammer the point home, poked the door latch with her nose and hopped down to let herself into the hangar.
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