Shattered Truth

by Michael Anderle

  “I know,” Jia murmured. “It’s just a lot to take in. Today we’re in the CFM. I wouldn’t be surprised if next month, we end up on Mars or the Moon.”

  “Here’s to hoping. It’d be nice to see some of the parts of the UTC once more on someone else’s dime.” Erik gave her a grin. If Jia joined him in his personal investigation, they undoubtedly would end up somewhere other than Earth. The kind of men who could reach out dozens of lightyears to kill an Army unit weren’t all hiding in one small office in Neo SoCal.

  The metroplex was the start of the investigation, not the end.

  Jia’s eyes looked haunted. “Even if it’s chasing criminals and terrorists?”

  “I spent thirty years chasing terrorists and insurgents,” Erik answered. “But I liked a lot of the people and places I got to know and visit. Not going to say they were all great, but when you’re a soldier, you learn to appreciate the little things wherever you are. Every battle might be one you’re not coming back from, just like a cop might not know if they’ll be coming home alive.”

  Jia looked down, her breathing shallow. “I don’t care if I’m as delusional as that terrorist. I want to make a difference, and I will make a difference.”

  “A single person can always make a difference,” Erik agreed. “It’s just that often, other people don’t want a person to realize they can.”

  The door slid open, and Antonio stepped through with a concerned look on his face. “You were right. Damn. We would have missed it if you hadn’t told us to check. That was close. Too close.”

  Erik frowned. “The energy fluctuations?”

  Antonio nodded. “Someone was probing the system. The computer guys rattled off some technobabble at me, but the gist, from what I understood, is that the hackers were good enough that they looked like one of our people in the system. We’ve got it under control, and as best we can tell, they didn’t compromise any systems, but if they’d had just a few more minutes to mess with the system, they could have potentially wreaked havoc. Maybe even released her from her cell whenever they wanted.”

  BAM! Jia slapped the edge of the table. “The terrorists must be carefully watching the station. How did they time the hack otherwise? It’s not like Caron could let them know she was being interrogated at that exact moment.”

  Erik squared his shoulders, his jaw tightening as he considered the possibilities. “Not only that, but they would have had to know to watch for me. It’s not like the CFM announced it.”

  Antonio grimaced. “We didn’t keep it a state secret, but you’re right. There’s been no formal announcement or press release about you coming to help investigate this. You think there’s a leak?”

  Erik shook his head. “There’s a lot about Caron that doesn’t make sense, but if her friends had that kind of access, they would probably use a different plan.”

  “They had it set up beforehand,” Jia suggested. “They intended to ask for Erik from the beginning, and given how easily she let herself be caught, it wasn’t as a fallback. He’s integral to their plan somehow. It just all seems…”

  “What?”

  Jia sighed. “Too elaborate just for a simple distraction? There’s more here. I just can’t figure out what it is.”

  Antonio nodded, his expression grim. “I get it. Feeling that and knowing what it is are two different things. For now, can you two stick around a few more days while we sort all this out?”

  “Anything we can do to a stop a terrorist,” Erik offered.

  Erik and Jia exchanged light chatter about the case while returning to the MX 60, then they were silent until they pulled out of the underground parking garage.

  “What if there is a leak?” Jia asked as they ascended into a new lane. “It’s not impossible, and it would explain a lot.”

  Erik settled the flitter into a nice, open spot in the traffic. “It occurred to me, but I didn’t want to accuse Antonio to his face of having corrupt cops in his department. Mind you, he probably does, but no reason to piss him off without proof, and frankly, I’m not sure it has to be anything more than someone looking the other way. Not sure it has to be terrorist-level corruption.”

  “But if there are Grayhead cops, that might explain why they chose the CFM,” she countered. “I don’t want to believe there are cops that would aid such ideologically addled terrorists, but I wouldn’t have believed a few months ago that a councilman and a police chief would be linked to organized crime and murders.”

  “Perhaps,” Emma offered. “But public records reviews suggest the overall crime of this area is lower than what you see in Neo SoCal, even if a disproportionate amount of that is concentrated in the Shadow Zone. This might just be, as Erik would put it, a softer target. It’s an actual metroplex with enough population that an incident here would be considered of major importance.”

  “Maybe their digital forensics guys can trace the hack.” Erik shrugged. “Nothing much else for us to do. We’re not here to help investigate. We just came so I could talk to her. I figure we hit the hotel and wait on standby until Antonio or his partner calls us.”

  Jia looked down, her attention fixed on one of the rearview camera displays. The detention center grew more distant with each passing second.

  “Problem?” Erik asked.

  “Nothing. I just don’t like puzzles where all the pieces don’t fit.” Jia managed a weak smile. “Perhaps I should have picked a less frustrating career.”

  Erik grinned. “Probably.”

  She shook her head. “That would give my mom and Mei too much satisfaction if I admitted it.”

  “So,” Erik stated, “you are stuck being a detective.”

  “Probably.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  October 4, 2228, Central Florida Metroplex, Hotel del Sol

  Jia scoffed as she stared out the wide windows in Erik’s room. A beautiful crystal-blue lake ringed by trees extended below her, filled with swimmers near the shore and boats and flitters farther out. The bright sunlight glinted off the water, and it made her regret not having visited an ocean or lake back home for a while.

  Uptowner biases hurt even the people holding them.

  “It’s not fair,” she muttered. “It’s just not fair.”

  Erik looked up from the data window he had been reading. “Do what? What’s not fair?”

  “My room doesn’t have a view.” Jia folded her arms. “Not literally. I have windows, obviously, but all I can see are other hotels and office buildings.” She nodded at his window. “Not this beautiful scene.”

  “You could just change the window display,” Erik suggested. “Have a fake lake and swimmers.”

  “It’s not real. It’s not as satisfying.” Jia laughed. “Funny, that. It’s not like produced meat. The thing I see isn’t different just because it’s fake, but somehow knowing it’s not real bothers me. This isn’t some sort of Purist thing. I just feel that way. I always have.”

  “I’m not much of a Purist, and I think the same way.” Erik closed the window, stood, and then stretched. “I think most people do. If people didn’t care about reality, we would all just stay in VR all the time, but most people still choose not to, because on some level they feel what you just described. They need something real. They’re even willing to fight for something real.”

  The lights in the room died. A second later, dim red emergency lights flicked on. The bright sunlight streaming in from outside killed any chance at darkness, but Jia’s stomach tightened.

  She moved over to a touchscreen near the entrance. The blackened display remained blank.

  “Trouble,” Emma announced through their PNIUs. “I know you prefer I don’t take extreme measures autonomously, but I was forced to.”

  “What’s going on?” Erik barked.

  Jia frowned and moved toward the window. The people in the lake swam for the shore. A large flitter buzzed the lake.

  “Multiple unidentified masked and armed men were approaching me in the parking garage,”
Emma explained. “Sensors indicated they were carrying explosives. I tinted the windows to conceal the lack of a human driver and fled. They opened fire with small arms. You should be happy to know that Miguel’s upgrades prevented any serious damage.”

  Erik growled. “I guess they’re making their move. Too bad you have my TR-7. Are they chasing you now?”

  “No, they fired a few times, then ran toward the hotel entrance.”

  “The terrorists?” Jia’s hand whipped to her stun pistol. “I don’t understand. Why would…” She grimaced. “We picked their target? That seems unlikely.”

  Erik let out a bitter laugh. “I agree.”

  “Leave the room immediately,” Emma shouted. “Run down the hallway toward the main elevator. Someone just attempted to lock the doors to both of your rooms and erase your biometric signatures.”

  Jia and Erik exchanged looks. Neither said anything as they barreled out of the room into the hallway. Erik snatched his duster from the open closet on the way out. A few seconds later, explosions ripped into both in Erik’s room and Jia’s on the opposite side. The entire building shook as debris and flames spewed into the hallway. The force of the blast knocked the detectives to the floor. Small fragments of the door and wall showered them.

  “What the HELL?” Erik growled. He stood and brushed off the debris before slipping on his coat.

  Jia pushed herself up, her heart racing. She stared at the burning hall and the half-destroyed doorways to his room. Like the room, dim red emergency lighting illuminated the hallway. “Emma, do you know if there were people in the rooms next to us?”

  The doors to the nearest rooms were scorched but intact, but she had no way of knowing if the walls had survived.

  “I verified, just to be sure. The rooms on either side of yours were reserved after you checked in, but no one ever checked into them. There are people in other rooms nearby, presumably trapped like they intended you to be. I’m now getting some interference, and having trouble maintaining a link to the system.”

  Jia let out a sigh of relief.

  “I’m still waiting to hear what happened,” Erik grumbled.

  “After making my escape, I observed three medium-sized cargo flitters coming in at unsafe speeds. I assumed they were targeting me, but they bypassed me and headed toward the hotel. That was when I saw one of them roll down the window, and a man leaned out with a missile launcher. I assumed from the angle of the first vehicle that a strike on your room was their intent.”

  “The flitter on the lake.” Jia slapped a hand to her forehead. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “It just got worse,” Emma interjected. “The flitters have landed at different places around the hotel. Heavily armed men are deploying and rushing the hotel. I’ve contacted CFM, and they were already aware of an incident.”

  “I would hope so, after those explosions. The Lady’s messing with us today, for sure.” Erik pulled out his gun and checked the ammo. “Assassins always have a backup plan. I don’t know if I should be angry or impressed.”

  Jia pulled out her stun pistol. “Isn’t this a lot of trouble to go to for a distraction?”

  “I bet they want to kill a few cops as a distraction before they try whatever else they have in mind. It could just be a way of showing their power, a sort of propaganda thing.” Erik shrugged. “I saw stuff like this in the Army all the time. In this case, they’ll try to kill two high-profile cops to show how worthless the regular authorities are. We need to get out of here.” He pointed toward a nearby stairwell. “Glad we’re not in a Neo SoCal tower right now.” He looked up and down the hallway. “Emma, park yourself somewhere far away. The armor and material upgrades can take bullets, but they can’t take missiles.”

  “Noted. Just tell me when you want me to come and pick you up.”

  Erik and Jia sprinted toward the stairwell, the red emergency lighting and lack of windows in the narrow hallway giving the area a sinister cast. Smoke continued to pour from the lingering fires. No one emerged from their rooms.

  “No alarms,” Jia observed. “The power went out before the attack, but the emergency lighting’s working, so they didn’t EMP the entire place.”

  “Emma was watching our door and room,” Erik mused. “Didn’t even ask her to do that. The terrorists must be hacking the hotel systems.” They took a right at a corner. “Fire suppression system isn’t turned on.”

  “A place like this has to have backup power,” Jia replied

  The fires licked at the air, growing weaker, the natural fire-retardant nature of the wall and floor materials doing their work even without the active fire suppression system.

  Scorched and warped walls and flooring would remain, but the building wouldn’t burn down without additional terrorist efforts. Given the technical expertise already demonstrated, the terrorists had likely been counting on that.

  Static erupted from their PNIUs. “I’ve…trouble…link…jamming,” Emma transmitted, the signal garbled almost beyond understanding.

  “Emma, stay put,” Erik replied. “We don’t want to expose you until we absolutely have to.” He arrived at the stairwell door. “These bastards are much better prepared than I thought they would be.” Erik’s voice had gone dark. “Too bad. Ready?”

  Jia raised her pistol and nodded to him. Erik threw open the door.

  Two men in loose, featureless black masks were running up the stairs, rifles in hand. Jia fired two quick shots. The stun bolts struck the men square in their chests. One man fell to a landing a couple of floors down, his rifle skittering down the stairs. The other tumbled down the stairs following the first rifle, the thud of his heavy body rebounding up the stairwell.

  Erik ran into the stairwell, his pistol pointed down, waiting for more men. Shouts echoed from below, but no one risked another assault.

  “They knew enough about where we were to target our hotel and our specific rooms.” He gritted his teeth. “Which means they could have their entire group down there.” He nodded toward the stairs going up. “We should play it smart and hit the roof. It’ll cut down the risk to civilians.”

  Jia edged into the stairwell, her heart racing as she continued pointing her gun down, expecting dozens of terrorists to boil up and open fire. “But they’re jamming Emma.”

  “C’mon. I’m more worried about people getting hit by stray bullets in the crossfire.” Erik bounded up the stairs. “We have to presume they’ve got everyone locked down still, and the rooms aren’t bulletproof.”

  Jia hurried after him, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds and listening for any other footfalls. “They won’t be able to maintain it forever.”

  “They don’t have to. They just have to maintain it long enough to keep the halls, elevators, and stairs clear until they finish us off.” Erik continued moving up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  “Good point.” Jia huffed. “If this was about killing random people, they would have just fired indiscriminately into the lake or hotel. With those missiles, they could have killed dozens, if not hundreds of people in seconds.”

  A door opened on the next landing. Three masked terrorists rushed out and pointed their weapons. One man’s head exploded from Erik’s first shot. Another jerked back as Jia’s stun bolt hit him. The third man took Erik’s second round in the chest. His body pitched forward, bouncing off the guardrail of the stairs before plummeting downward and landing with a sickening crunch.

  “Keep going,” Erik shouted and motioned forward. He kept his gun pointed at the door. The two remaining bodies had jammed it open.

  Jia ran past Erik, an ache building in her legs. Her partner waited a few more seconds before heading up the stairs behind her.

  “I’m glad we didn’t pick a hotel that was fifty stories tall.” Erik panted out. “I had to do a few raids like that in the service, but it’s a lot easier when you’re wearing an exoskeleton.”

  Jia tried to laugh, but her already ragged breathing made it hard. They
arrived at the top of the stairs, where an emergency door led to the roof. She pointed her weapon down, waiting for more enemies.

  Erik slapped the open panel, but nothing happened. He growled, “If I had the TR-7, I could probably shoot it open.”

  “We could go back and grab some of their rifles,” Jia suggested.

  Erik shook his head. “No. At least here, we're not going to get swarmed. They even sent guys above us for a pincer. They’re trying hard, and they’re smarter than the standard Shadow Zone fools we’ve been dealing with.”

  The normal lights flickered back on, and the open panel next to the door lit up as well. Erik placed his hand there and the door slid open. An alarm rang as the detectives stepped into the bright Florida morning sun, the lake visible on one side and buildings all other sides. Flitters filled the sky, all moving away from the area, slowed because of the huge number of vehicles fleeing without using the normal automated system or standard lanes.

  “Nice, clear view. We can flag Emma down from here.” Erik looked around. “Even if they’re jamming her, she’ll still be able to see us with her visual sensors.”

  The alarm died, and a loud screech followed. Erik and Jia clapped their hands over their ears.

  “Attention, Detective Erik Blackwell,” announced a man, his deep voice coming from speakers in the stairwell and around the exterior of the hotel, including the roof. “You’ve hurt and killed our brothers, but you can’t escape. If you leave this building, we will kill everyone inside. The Evolved Six now control all exits, and we are collecting hostages. If you claim to value the lives of the people you allegedly protect and serve, you will come to the main lobby within ten minutes, or hostages will start dying.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “Those monsters!” Jia spat, her stomach twisting. “You can’t just go down there. They’ll kill you.”

  “I don’t have a choice.” Erik’s free hand curled into a fist. “You should flag Emma down. I’m heading down there. We’ve got zero reasons to believe they’re bluffing, and we don’t have a lot of time.”