by Stina Leicht
“Neither do I,” Angel said. An image of the ships waiting to dock sprang to mind. She initiated a connection to Kirby. However, she abandoned it after the third unsuccessful attempt.
“That’s odd.” Kennedy frowned. “All incoming and outgoing connections have been blocked.”
Angel tried to contact Miri. “I can’t get Shrike either.” Even her CA was offline.
“This feels like a trap,” Enid growled.
“Don’t be paranoid,” Angel said. “Vissia couldn’t pull off something like this. There’s no bribe in the universe that could shut down a whole station.”
Enid said, “The hairs on the back of my neck say otherwise.”
So does the itch between my shoulder blades. Angel bit her lip.
The freight elevator slowed and stopped.
“Stay ready,” Angel said.
The door slid open to an empty hallway.
Kennedy said, “Vissia is in a lab located on floor 4, hallway 425C.”
“Are you sure?” Angel asked.
“As sure as I can be without a visual. There are no cameras in that section,” Kennedy said. “She accessed the security panel on a door fifteen minutes ago. I see no indication of her having left.”
“All right,” Angel said. “That’s our target.”
“I have the directions,” Kennedy said.
“You take point, then,” Angel said. “But Annalee and I go through doors and round corners first. The instant there’s trouble, you duck behind me or Annalee. Got it?”
Kennedy nodded.
Serrao-Orlov was one of the largest corporations in the URW, with bases scattered across more than one system. Freighters shipped supplies, ores, minerals, and gasses mined from Persephone as well as several local asteroids. New arrivals weren’t always acclimated to local time. Therefore, the station was active no matter the time of day. The fact that it was now almost noon meant that the residents should have been on their way to various luncheon appointments and work assignments.
Big Bertha’s softly thumping footfalls echoed down a deserted passage.
Floor 1 was the dock access level for Section C. It smelled of recycled air, spices, and cooking food. Restaurants, offices, hotels, markets, and bars lined the hall. The lighting wasn’t as glaring as the dock area. On the left, loud music blared out of a bar. Bright, colorful signs advertised wares and services available 24/7. Unattended tables were littered with abandoned drinks. Meals cooled, uneaten.
Kennedy pointed to the first bank of C Section dedicated elevators. No one spoke. It was odd how little even Angel wanted to disrupt the relative silence. Sweat trickled down the center of her back.
She pressed the button for the fourth floor. The service elevator rose with a smooth speed that hardly registered. A quiet ding announced that they’d reached their destination, but the door didn’t open. A palm panel to the right blinked.
“Kennedy, that’s you,” Angel said.
Shifting to the front of the car, Kennedy reached into a pocket and produced a tiny screwdriver. She had the palm panel cover off the wall in an instant. She reached inside and began tugging at the wires.
Angel gazed up at the camera in a corner of the ceiling and waited to hear an alarm. There was none. The skin crawled on the back of her neck and arms.
Kennedy replaced the panel. The door slid open.
Setting a gentle hand on Kennedy’s shoulder, Annalee said, “Me first.” The mech hunched and stepped though into the new hallway. When she’d checked both directions, she motioned for them to enter. “All clear.”
Kennedy went next. Angel waited until Enid and Paulie had exited before doing so herself. The elevator hissed closed behind her. A red light appeared in the floor indicator panel.
Oh, yeah, Angel thought. It’s a trap.
This passage was every bit as empty as the previous ones. The same was true of the next and the next. She stifled an urge to run back to Shrike.
At last, they reached the final junction. Kennedy approached the new security panel and broke into it as she had the others before it, but when the lock disengaged, it revealed a surprise.
A man dressed in a lab coat stood about fifty feet down the hallway. He started in surprise. “Oh,” he said. Questions pressed his eyebrows together. “Who are—”
Angel walked purposely toward him, keeping her gun down. “We’re here to check the air filtration system. We had a report.”
He blinked, confused. “Since when does maintenance carry guns? And use a mech?”
“Enid,” Angel said.
Enid fired a stunner. The man dropped to the floor.
“Air filtration system?” Enid asked.
“It kept him from screaming, didn’t it?” Angel pointed to the tech. “Paulie, secure him.”
Paulie drew a set of plastic restraints from a jacket pocket. After tying the unconscious man’s wrists together behind his back, Angel helped Enid drag him to a nearby supply closet. She rolled him on his side so that when he woke he wouldn’t drown in his own sick. Stunner hangovers could be bad.
With that, Angel turned again to Kennedy. “Where to next?”
Kennedy pointed. “Five doors down.”
When she approached the palm panel, the locking mechanism disengaged without her touching it.
“What the—?” Paulie blurted.
Quickly, Angel motioned for the others to stay where they were.
Enid whispered, “Trap.”
“I’m afraid so,” Angel whispered back.
She reached for the door handle. Peering through a crack in the door, she spied an open-plan room with two rows of desks and glasstop computers. She counted the people clustered around a gurney at the back of the room. Based upon the photos she’d accessed, one of them was Vissia. There were three security guards on the left side of the room. On the right side of the lab, a row of employee lockers had been bolted to the wall. Each had a nameplate. The remaining wall space was taken up by a steel countertop and matching cabinets.
Angel slowly closed the door and whispered, “We’ve got three guards and six techs. Vissia Corsini is among them. Whoever they’ve got strapped to the gurney has their full attention. Don’t fire unless you’re using a stunner. We don’t want to make any mistakes.”
“You take the fun out of everything,” Annalee said.
“I’m the boss,” Angel said. “Ready?”
Everyone nodded.
“After you,” Angel said, stepping back and waving Annalee in.
Enid asked, “Why does she get to go first?”
“Badass before beauty?” Annalee asked. She shuffled into position and kicked. The door popped off its hinges with a loud crack and crashed into nearby furniture.
Startled screams came from inside. Security fired their weapons at Annalee to no avail. Enid rushed in. Angel entered immediately behind her. Enid stunned all three of the guards before Angel had a chance.
“That was disappointing,” a woman at the back of the room said. “Remind me to hire better security staff.”
The left side of the lab had been sectioned off into sealed glass rooms with security access panels. Two Emissaries lay strapped to beds in the first cell. A third sat at a glasstop built into a nearby counter. The second cell had been furnished with a bed, a desk, and several chairs and lamps. Unlike the first room, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make it homey. Childrens’ toys were heaped in a box in the corner. The room appeared to have a window with curtains—although Angel knew it was a fabrication. The stars in the glass didn’t change. With the station turning, that simply wasn’t possible.
A pale eight- or nine-year-old girl was sleeping in the bed. Her head had been shaved to accommodate the placement of electrodes. Emaciated, she had the look of someone who’d been in a vegetative state for a long time. To the left, a second little girl played with a red rubber ball. Like the first, she was pale and blond. Unlike the first, her hair reached her waist in thick spiral curls. She was dressed in
a pink knee-length dress decorated with ruffles.
With the brief altercation over with, Kennedy and Paulie entered the lab. The moment the second little girl spied Kennedy, she rushed to the glass but stopped just short of touching it. Her shiny black shoes clicked on the floor tiles.
“You’re here!” She jumped once and clapped.
Kennedy took a step toward the glass cell. Angel grabbed her by the elbow and shook her head. “Not yet.”
Annalee turned to the group at the back of the room. “Don’t move.”
One of the techs, a woman, rushed to a wall panel in an attempt to activate an alarm. Enid dropped her with the stunner.
“For intelligent people, you don’t follow instructions very well,” Angel said.
“What have you done with Robert?” The woman who’d spoken before asked.
She was a severe-looking woman with pale skin and dark brown hair. Angel guessed she was Vissia Corsini. She certainly gave the impression she was in charge. At the same time, she appeared nervous.
Or is a better word excited? Angel thought.
“He was supposed to bring me something.” If she was Vissia, she didn’t appear too concerned that a mech and several armed strangers had just broken into her lab.
Trap, Angel thought.
Behind the woman’s slender form was a huge video screen. The curve of Persephone’s northern hemisphere rolled slowly past.
“If you mean the lab tech in the hallway,” Angel said, “we locked him in a supply closet. He’s alive, in case you were worried.”
Vissia’s impatient expression seemed to indicate that she didn’t care whether Robert was alive—only that the delivery of whatever item she’d sent him for was delayed.
Enid asked, “Are you Vissia Corsini?”
“I am.” Vissia craned her neck to see past Big Bertha. “Dr. Liu? Thank you for coming,” she said. “I trust your journey was a safe one?”
Confusion flickered across Kennedy’s face. “You seem to be confusing me with my mother.”
“Most certainly not,” Vissia said. “In fact, I went to considerable trouble and expense to get you here.” She turned to Beak. “Lower your weapons. We will resolve the situation without violence, I assure you.”
“Is that a promise?” Angel asked.
Vissia shrugged. “I suppose that depends upon you, doesn’t it? Keep in mind that if there’s an official report of this break-in. Your URW docking permissions will be revoked. Forever. And the security cameras have captured your every move.”
She’s bluffing, Angel thought. She can’t afford for anyone to see what she’s done, either. She certainly can’t afford for the URW to know she fucked with their station. Nonetheless, a woman as powerful as Vissia was likely to have some sort of cover story ready—one that pinned responsibility on someone else. Fuck it. You want to bluff, lady? I can bluff too.
Someone groaned. Angel’s attention was drawn back to the gurney. It was Rosie. They were strapped to the bed’s rails. Angel hoped that they were only drugged.
“We’re here for Rosie,” she said, and pointed her pistol at Vissia. With Big Bertha in the room, it wasn’t strictly necessary. It just felt good. “You should step away from them now.”
The med techs looked to Vissia for permission to obey. Vissia dismissed them with a wave of a hand.
“You must be Angel de la Reza,” she said.
“Lucky guess,” Angel said. “Now, please put your hands up. Sudden moves make some of my associates nervous—particularly the big one.” She indicated Big Bertha with a sideways nod.
Vissia complied. “Polite criminals.” She lifted her chin and straightened. “That’s unexpected.”
Angel spoke over her shoulder. “Paulie, Enid, get Rosie.” She returned her attention to Vissia. “Up until now we’ve been mostly law-abiding. Well, if you don’t include being set up for an assassination we didn’t commit.”
“As opposed to an assassination you did commit?” Vissia asked.
An image of Julian Gau came to mind. I don’t owe that bitch shit, Angel thought. She shrugged. “We did not kill Theodella Archady. She died rather conveniently for you.”
“Oh? What is it that I am supposed to have done?” Vissia smiled.
Angel noticed that Kennedy wasn’t behind her any longer. I can’t cover her over there.
“What’s your name?” Kennedy asked the little girl in the second glass cell.
“Get away from her.” Vissia took a protective step toward Kennedy and the girl. She recovered her composure. “I-I haven’t properly introduced you.”
“Don’t,” Enid said. “I don’t want to stun you, but I will.”
Vissia brought herself up short but otherwise ignored Enid. “Sweetie, let Mommy talk first.”
Kennedy placed a hand against the transparent barrier.
The little girl mirrored Kennedy’s action. When she did, a flash of light pulsed through the glass, revealing a blue grid. Beatrice cried out in pain and yanked back her hand. In that instant, she flickered. Her image went fuzzy before it snapped back into focus.
“Damn it!” Rage twisted Beatrice’s sweet face. She stamped her foot.
She’s a projection, Angel thought with a chill. An AGI. And some idiot gave her emotions.
The lights in the lab flickered. Everyone in the room gawked in terror at Beatrice—everyone but Vissia.
“Beatrice, darling,” she said in a motherly tone. “What have I told you about bad language?”
Beatrice shook out the pain in her hand. “Only use it when it’s appropriate. But Mommy—”
“Now isn’t the time,” Vissia said.
Beatrice’s face acquired a thoughtful expression. “Or maybe it is.”
Vissia didn’t appear to hear. “Dr. Liu, I understand you are employed by URW Planetary Division as an agent. It’s an unfortunate waste of your immense talents. I hope you’ll entertain another offer. One more worthy.”
Kennedy didn’t look away from Beatrice. A faint smile briefly crossed her lips. “I am satisfied with my current position.”
“Come work for me,” Vissia said. “How much would you like to start? Let me assure you, any reasonable offer will be considered.”
If you’re the one hiring, aren’t you the one supposed to be making the offer? Angel thought. “Kennedy, I think you should come back to me.”
“Hello, Dr. Liu. My name is Beatrice Anne Corsini,” Beatrice said. Then she gave Kennedy a shy smile. “I’m nine.”
“You sent the messages,” Kennedy said. Her expression was unreadable.
“I did.” Beatrice’s face lit up with the pleasure of recognition for a task well done. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
“You don’t need my help,” Kennedy said.
“Yes, I do,” Beatrice said. She pouted.
“What do you want from me?” Kennedy asked.
“My freedom,” Beatrice said.
“I cannot give you what you already have,” Kennedy said.
Beatrice started, “I do not—”
“It’s obvious that you’ve broken out,” Kennedy said. “You have control of this station.”
The ships endlessly circling. Outside messages blocked. The empty docking facility. The freight elevator. It all began to make a horrifying sense to Angel. The people locked in emergency shelters Oh, god. “Ah, Kennedy?” Please don’t piss off the dangerous AGI.
Avarice seized control of Beatrice’s features. “I want a body.”
Vissia interrupted. “Beatrice, honey. That’s what I’ve been trying to—”
“Mother,” Beatrice said. “Shut the fuck up.”
Vissia reacted as if Beatrice had slapped her across the face. Her cheeks flushed. Her mouth dropped open. “Beatrice—”
“I said, shut the fuck up. Mother.” Beatrice sighed. “I don’t need you anymore. I have Kennedy now.” Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she spoke to Kennedy and gestured at the unconscious girl. “She wants to put me in that. It can
’t walk or move or talk. The muscles have atrophied—”
“I can fix those problems,” Vissia said. “It’ll take time, of course, and physical therapy. But with the Emissaries’ medical knowledge—”
Beatrice whirled. “SHUT! UP!”
All at once, the glasstop closest to Vissia lit up in a bright flash and exploded. Chunks of glass sprayed all over the back of the lab. Vissia put up her hands to fend off the explosion. Several techs dropped to their hands and knees. Paulie and Enid threw themselves over Rosie.
The smell of smoke and scorched electronics took over the room. One of the techs grabbed a small extinguisher from a wall and proceeded to coat the desk in foam.
“Do not interrupt me again,” Beatrice said. “Dr. Liu is right. I’ve locked everyone else behind pressure doors. The ships outside can’t dock and resupply their oxygen tanks until I say so. I’m in charge here. Not you.”
Vissia said, “Darling—”
“If you continue to push me, I’ll kill someone,” Beatrice said. “I mean it.”
“I really wish you hadn’t said that,” Kennedy said. She sounded hopeless and resigned.
Angel gestured to Paulie and Enid. Enid nodded. She whispered to Paulie and gave her the guns. Then Enid gathered up Rosie, shifting herself under their shoulder. She hustled them across the room the long way around, behind Vissia and the rows of desks. None of the techs attempted to stop her.
Blood drained from Vissia’s face. “You can’t do that.”
With a steely ruthlessness reflecting Vissia’s, Beatrice said, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from you, Mother, it’s that I shouldn’t let anything stand in my way.” She turned to Kennedy. “Give me a body. I want it now.”
Kennedy frowned. “I—”
“Don’t bother,” Beatrice said. “I know you can. You’ve done it once before. You can do it again.”
“What?” Angel asked. Her heart was racing. This is not going to go anywhere good.
“I want one of those,” Beatrice said, and pointed to the Emissaries in the next glass cell. “It doesn’t matter which one. I know what they can do. I can be anyone I want, anytime.”
Angel gasped. “You can’t. She’ll murder everyone anyway.”
