Shadow Agents The Benevolency Universe

by David Alastair Hayden

  The update Silky had passed on to Rosie had started to noticeably change her, making her seem much more human.

  “So what can I do for you, madam?”

  “Knowing what we know now, run another search for genetic combinations or connections for messiah families. See if you can figure anything out. Check for children born with unexplained gifts but without messiahs. Maybe some families have the right genetic combinations but don’t have enough children to end up with a messiah.”

  I’ll do what I can, madam.”

  Kyralla walked over to the piloting station and settled into the chair. “Before you start your research, Rosie, please pull up all the training manuals you can find on piloting starships.”

  While they were in hyperspace, the control sticks were inoperative. So she gripped them and moved them around freely, to get more used to working with them.

  She’d spent years training to be a fighter. If she was ever going to master piloting, she needed to get started as soon as possible.

  23

  Siv Gendin

  Siv unzipped his hazard suit and pulled it down to his waist, revealing a large, cloth-covered bundle strapped to his chest. The cloth was identical to the radiation-shielding material used in his hazard suit.

  “I’m not seeing them,” Mitsuki said.

  “Expand your locator range to ninety meters,” Silky told her.

  “Got it. Can you make out what they’re packing?”

  “Shock-clubs and neural disruptors. It’s hard to get plasma weapons onto the station without detection.”

  Siv dropped the bundle onto the bed and unwrapped it, exposing the weapons cache they’d brought along with them: two plasma pistols, a disassembled plasma carbine, a pair of neural disruptors, and his Duality force-knuckles.

  “Hard, but not impossible.”

  “Thanks to me, sir. Thanks to me.”

  Under the hazard suit, Siv was still wearing his sensor array and force-shield.

  “So what’s the plan?” Mitsuki asked.

  “First, put away those plasma weapons,” Silky said. “I can mask their presence, given how relatively primitive this station is, but not if you fire them. One shot and the hot fuzz will be all over us. Second of all, it’s a lot easier for me to mask them if they’re wrapped and hidden inside the hazmat suit. Two layers of radiation-shielding make a big difference.”

  “But the neural disruptors are fine?” Mitsuki asked.

  “Not a problem. I can scramble the signal they project so that it looks like background noise to this station’s sensors. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Same goes for Siv’s force-knuckles, or shock weapons if you had any. Mitsuki, you should get a shock-club.”

  Force-knuckles were hard to come by, expensive, and illegal most everywhere, so acquiring more of them was unlikely. Unlike most of his equipment, he had not inherited the force-knuckles. He’d stolen them.

  “Okay, so when the bad guys barge in here, we neutralize them with the disruptors,” Siv said. “Which is just as well since we can’t leave dead bodies in our wake.”

  “We could, sir, but it would be a…wait for it…wait for it…dead giveaway.”

  “‘Nevolence, you’re the worst,” Mitsuki said.

  “I love you too, Bat-Droppings.”

  Siv shook his head and restrained a retort, knowing it would only make things worse. “As I was saying… I think stunning them is ideal. If the authorities find some guys knocked out in an opium den, they’re not going to treat it as a big deal.”

  “If you neutralize them, sir, the police won’t ever find out, unless they discover them before they wake up. Cause the Star Cutters aren’t going to want to draw attention to themselves.”

  “You’re both assuming we have a problem, though,” Mitsuki said.

  “It seems clear we do,” Siv replied.

  Mitsuki shrugged. “Not necessarily. What if they’re just coming to check you out because you seemed suspicious?”

  “I think that’s bad,” Siv said.

  “In theory, yes. But your disguise is solid. You might be able to bluff your way out of this.”

  Siv rewrapped the plasma guns then placed them back in the suit and zipped it up.

  "I don't think the disguise will hold up to scrutiny. I feel certain that's why the bouncer is bringing them here, and not because I'm a shady looking dude."

  “I’ve always said you were shady-looking, sir.”

  “And let’s be honest. With what’s at stake here, they’re going to rough me up to make sure I’m not who I am or someone who knows something about us.”

  On the locator in his HUD, Siv watched the bouncer and the thugs enter the opium den and start down the hallway.

  “An ambush it is then,” Mitsuki said.

  “So what do you think their play’s going to be?” Siv asked. “Barge in and try to take me with brute force?”

  “It seems too straightforward,” Mitsuki said, “but I don’t know what else they would do. Especially since they think you’re alone, and they’ll assume you don’t know they’re coming.”

  “Are we sure that they think I’m here alone?” Siv asked.

  “Sir, these particular individuals are not that well equipped. There’s no way they could know that Mitsuki is here.”

  Siv nodded. “Okay then.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Mitsuki asked.

  “We ambush them, using your invisibility to our advantage,” Siv said.

  Mitsuki cracked her knuckles then grabbed a neural disruptor. “Okay, I’ll turn invisible and plant myself in the far corner. What about you?”

  “Sir, might I suggest Operation Fury of the Bat?”

  Siv nodded appreciatively. “I always liked that one.”

  “It’s one of my favorites, sir. Did I tell you about the time Eyana was sent in to stop an incursion of Krutherians and had to use that tactic when—”

  “Yes, like a million times, Silkster. And we don’t have time for storytelling right now.”

  “Even I’ve heard that one more than once,” Mitsuki said.

  “Fine, sure, whatever. Don’t let the old man reminisce and tell his war stories. What a sorry excuse for war chums you two are going to be when we retire.”

  “Silkster, why don’t you wait and see if I make it through the next few days before predicting what I’m going to be like doddering through old age?”

  While Silky grumbled incomprehensibly, Siv moved to the front of the room and faced the door. He crouched, bending his knees as far as possible in the hazard suit. Even though it was small, the sensor array on his back and the bundle of weapons on his chest made maneuvering in the suit extra awkward.

  “I’m ready,” Siv said.

  “You’re not quite under the beam, sir. One step back and a half to the left.”

  Siv adjusted his position. “How about now?”

  “Perfect, sir. Go for broke.”

  Silky maxed the antigrav as Siv launched himself into a backflip. Just as he reached a straight vertical upside-down position, Silky overrode the protocols and revved the antigrav to two hundred percent, burning through five percent of the antigrav’s power pack in a single burst.

  Siv flew up, and the bottom of his boots banged against the ceiling. The antigrav in his suit couldn’t hold him that high for long without burning out the power pack, but it didn’t need to.

  “Maglock activated, sir.”

  Siv’s boots locked onto a metal beam above the plastic ceiling tile, and Silky lowered the antigrav enough to make Siv feel more comfortable.

  His head was now a quarter-meter above the door. He would’ve preferred being up higher when using this ambush strategy, but space stations didn’t have the luxury of high ceilings. So to put a little more room between himself and the floor, he bent his knees.

  He checked his locator. He wasn’t going to have to wait here long. The thugs and the bouncer were more than halfway down the hall. They had stopped briefly at the entrance, probably che
cking to see what room Siv was in.

  “Sir, I’m releasing the override I placed on the door’s locking mechanism. We don’t want to arouse suspicion by forcing them to break in.”

  “Silkster,” Mitsuki said, “can you mask Siv’s exact location and project an image of him into a different spot in the room?”

  “I can mask him fairly well, but the image projection would be crude, and any halfway decent equipment would recognize it as fake.”

  “Sure,” she said, “but what if they didn’t have any good scanning equipment, and what if we were in a somewhat shielded room? You know, like this one?”

  “Are you suggesting that I make it look like Siv’s lying half-unconscious on the bed as if dosed up on Calm? With the idea that their chippies’ sensors won’t be fast enough to get an accurate reading through the shielding on this room before they make their move?”

  “Yes, I am. Do it quick, though. We don’t have much time.”

  Silky laughed. “Oh, Mits, I did that several minutes ago. It’s not my first time being ambushed, you know.”

  “‘Nevolence I hate you sometimes, you preening, over-important, pompous bot.”

  “You better check yourself,” Silky warned. “Before you—”

  “Cut it out and focus,” Siv said. “Both of you. They’re standing outside the door.”

  “You know, sir, I just realized something. Mitsuki should be the one flipping upside-down and hanging from the ceiling, what with her wings and all. I mean, she’d probably mess up the floor with her bat droppings but what can you do?”

  Before Mitsuki could make a clever, or not-so-clever, retort, the door burst open.

  24

  Siv Gendin

  A barely audible click sounded as the bouncer swiped the control pad, unlocking the door. It slid into the wall, and Star Cutter goons charged in with their neural disruptors in hand, followed by the bouncer brandishing his shock-club.

  They stopped halfway inside and stared at the bed in confusion. None of them noticed Siv hanging above their heads. And they had no idea Mitsuki was there, or else they would’ve fired haphazardly, hoping to score a lucky shot.

  Predictably, they all took a few more steps into the room as they scanned for Siv. They never thought to look above.

  “Silkster, the door.”

  “Got it, sir.”

  The door slammed shut, and Silky applied the override to the locking mechanism again. As they began to spin around, Siv opened fire with his neural disruptor. The white rings of energy pegged the bouncer directly in the side of the head, and he fell cold to the ground.

  One of the Star Cutters looked up at Siv with surprise then caught a neural shot to the face. As the man fell, two of the three remaining Star Cutters raised their disruptors, aiming at Siv. Before they could open fire, Mitsuki’s neural disruptor blasts splattered into their backs.

  The final Star Cutter stared dumbfounded at the corner from which Mitsuki had fired. Before he could figure out someone had to be there, Siv took him out with a neural blast.

  Within seconds, they had naturalized all five bad guys. The plan had gone off without a hitch, leaving Siv intensely relieved. Since the moment he’d tried to rob Bishop, it had seemed as if every one of his plans had fallen apart, disastrously.

  “Good work, team,” Silky said. “Releasing antigrav.”

  Shit! Siv flipped, over-compensating, landed awkwardly on his heels, and then fell onto his ass.

  “A little warning next time!” Siv stood, his backside smarting. “And a little more antigrav to slow the fall.”

  “Oh, of course, sir. My bad.”

  “You are an ass sometimes.”

  “Would you like for me to pop up my avatar now, sir? It’s thematically appropriate…”

  “No!”

  Mitsuki, who was still on the channel with them, chimed in. “Silkster, you have an avatar? How…old fashioned of you.”

  “It’s not a fancy, three-dimensional virtual projection, girly. I never took it that far since no one liked it. Besides, I’m old, but I’m not that old.”

  Holographic projections of chippy avatars had been the fashion for over a thousand years before people grew tired of seeing them move around the room with them. Siv didn’t know how it had lasted that long. It seemed to him that they would’ve been massively distracting. It was more than enough to have a three-dimensional heads-up display with additional projections when needed.

  “Well, beam it over so I can see it,” Mitsuki said, turning off the refraction cloak.

  Shaking his head, Siv moved to the Star Cutters’ bodies and began stripping their weapons and ID cards, pocketing the few dozen hard credits he found.

  “I don’t get it,” Mitsuki said. “Oh wait, B's explaining it to me and… It wasn’t worth it.”

  “The joke lands better when you don’t need it explained,” Silky grumbled.

  “Well, none of us grew up on ancient Terra,” Mitsuki replied. “And not all of us have fancy educations that might have exposed us to the existence of such creatures. That said, I guess it was kind of amusing, and probably would have been a little more amusing if I’d gotten it off the bat.”

  “Sadly,” Silky grumbled, “that’s the most appreciation my avatar’s ever gotten. Except from me. I think it’s hilarious.”

  Siv placed the bad guys’ weapons in a pile on the table then glanced around. “How long do you think they’ll be out, Silkster?“

  “Based on the power of your weapons and their average body weights, I’d estimate they’ll be unconscious for around half an hour, sir.”

  “We’ve got over an hour before the shuttle leaves,” Mitsuki said. “Should we just keep stunning them till it’s time to go?”

  “Will that hurt them?” Siv asked.

  “You’d have to hit them four or five times within an hour to cause long-term cognitive impairment,“ Silky responded. “I’m more worried about what happens when the staff here at this fine establishment realize their bouncer is missing.“

  “Damn, I hadn’t thought of that,” Siv said.

  “Did you get a sample of his voice?” Mitsuki asked.

  “I record everything in full definition,” Silky replied in an affronted tone. “Would you like for me to call the front desk in his voice and say, ‘Yo, dudes, I’ve taken ill after eating a Betan trilobite sandwich. So, I’m out for the day. See ya and peace out!’”

  “Well, yeah,” she replied, “only without all that ridiculous nonsense. I like snark and all. You know I do. But are you at all capable of talking without bantering about pointlessly?”

  “Banter gives meaning to my life.”

  Siv smiled. “It’s a good thought, Mits, but it won’t work. They have cameras in the hallway and at the entrance. They will see where he went.”

  “Cameras,” Silky scoffed. “I can erase the footage easily. I’m all up in their system. While you were shooting people, I cracked the last of their meager defenses.”

  “That data isn’t uploaded to the station’s mainframe?” Siv asked.

  “Downtimes only records in the hallway and in their offices, sir, and they only share that footage with a warrant from the proper authorities. Privacy for their clientele is of the utmost importance.”

  “‘Nevolence, does the station commander get daily blowjobs in here or something?” Mitsuki asked.

  “From what I gather after analyzing hallway footage taken over the last few days, I’d guess he’s getting far more than that. And I feel certain his wife doesn’t know.”

  “Cameras aside, did anyone see them come in?” Mitsuki asked.

  “That’s the tricky part. Alarra saw them, and she told them which room you were in.”

  “Where is she now?” Siv asked.

  “The office, sir.”

  “Okay,” Siv said, “we need to lock Alarra, the bouncer, and these Star Cutters in a room together—preferably not in this one—and make sure they remind unconscious until we’re off the station.
The more we can do to make it look like they just partied too hard, the better. In case someone finds them before they wake up.”

  “The room directly across the hall is empty, sir.”

  “So how do we drag four goons across the hall and knock out Alarra and stow her in there too without someone seeing us?” Mitsuki asked.

  “The hallways are clear, and everyone is currently in a room,” Silky said. “I could easily lock the entire establishment down and make it look like a glitch in their system, one that also knocked out their cameras.”

  “Do it, before someone moves into the hallway,” Siv said.

  “Everyone’s now on lockdown, sir. Also, no one has left since we got here.”

  “Perfect,” Siv said. “That should buy us plenty of time to move them across the hall. Meanwhile, if anyone realizes they can’t leave, they’ll call the office first and assume it’s a glitch in the door locks. I’m sure they’ll use their chippies to call for assistance eventually. But as soon as we’ve grabbed Alarra and dumped her with the others across the hall, we can drop the override from all the doors except that one. Then we can leave peacefully when the time comes.”

  “I think this just might work,” Mitsuki said. “If we can keep them unconscious long enough after we leave for us to board the shuttle and reach the planet. Crossing the hall regularly to shoot them might be tricky.”

  Siv’s eyes fell on the injector of Calm. “Silkster, how much Calm would it take to knock them out for several hours?”

  “Oh, sir, maybe you are brilliant after all. Not me brilliant, naturally, but pretty damn smart. Three doses each, while they’re still knocked out from the neural pulse, will keep them asleep for five or six hours. They’d have to be dosed with Awake to get moving again before that.”

  “Excellent,” Siv replied. “Find the storeroom where they keep it.”

  “They keep the drugs in a secure safe at the end of this hallway, sir.”

  “Can you crack the lock?” Mitsuki asked.

  “Please, madam, have some faith. It took longer for me to tell you about the safe than it did for me to unlock it. Sir, I’ve got the cameras fuzzed now.”