by Laura Lam
They puzzle through it, carefully unpeeling the new layers, trying to find a way to break the firewall. It’s going too slowly, but they have to keep calm and avoid mistakes.
‘I think I got it,’ Charlie says. ‘This new firewall they plopped down is hyper secure, but they haven’t updated to the latest version. Too hasty. This version has a stack-based buffer overflow in their DNS client resolver. Just give me a minute. Still means it’ll be hard to get out intel quickly, but at least it’d start.’
‘Almost everyone in Sudice already has Pythia, right? And we have their names and ways to ping them from the intel dump.’
Charlie’s eyes widen. ‘Brilliant.’
‘I’ve missed something,’ Dax says.
‘We can relay the information through their implants. It’ll be the first point of contact, then it’ll relay out from there. I’ll also target that damn press junket.’
She creates a quick exploit code to attack the flaw. The problem is, they haven’t been able to prepare for this or run simulations. If this doesn’t work, they won’t have a second chance. They won’t be able to access implants before Pythia digs its claws into Pacifica.
She gives Carina a nervous look. Carina nods. It looks as good to her as it could.
Charlie blasts through the last bit of code, and there: the connection is completely open. Charlie turns to the others. The whites of her eyes are bloodshot, and there are cuts from flying debris on her cheeks.
‘Send it,’ Kivon says. He smiles, and blood from a split upper lip coats his teeth.
‘Sorry, cousin.’ Charlie gives a little shrug and begins the upload.
‘Let Sudice burn,’ Carina whispers.
FORTY FOUR
KIM
Omni Hotel, San Francisco, California, Pacifica
‘Stop fidgeting,’ Aliyah hisses under her breath. ‘You’re completely failing at acting natural.’
‘How can you be so calm?’ Kim demands. One of the other women at their table – Donna Harker, the CEO of Silvercloud Solutions – gives them a look out of the corner of her eye. Kim takes a deep breath, digging her hands into the skirt of her dress.
‘Inside I’m screaming.’ Aliyah smiles serenely. She leans closer, pretending to refold her napkin. ‘No word?’
‘Not a peep. Totally blocked.’ Kim tries not to think about the fact the Trust could all be dead. She only saw Roz very briefly during canapes, and as soon as she disappeared, Kim’s stomach dropped. She should have tried to put a sedative in Roz’s champagne, risks be damned.
Old Mr Mantel, the brother of Gregory Mantel’s late father, is up on the podium, droning on. Kim has managed to block Aliyah’s and her own implants from downloading the upgrade, but the thought of so many people having tech in their heads they didn’t consent to makes her sick.
Come on, Carina. Don’t let us down.
The old man continues to espouse the virtues of Sudice, how they are the forefront of any innovation within Pacifica since the Great Upheaval. Everyone else in the room is praying for the speech to end, but Kim and Aliyah hope it goes on for as long as possible.
Kim crosses her fingers under the table, begging every female scientist for help, despite not believing in any sort of afterlife. Aliyah reaches out and takes her wrist, squeezing for reassurance.
Old Mantel finishes his speech to applause. Kim has hardly heard a word of it. Mantel steps onto the stage, his hair so gelled it reflects off the light from the glowing chandeliers.
‘Thank you. I’m sure if my father were here today, he’d be so pleased to see Sudice still on the cutting edge of technology. My eternal thanks to everyone for coming this evening. You’ve seen our excellent new replicators, which will be featured in all new builds from this point forward, and our latest model of hovercar. However, in a few minutes, we’ll be unveiling our routine brain implant upgrades. It’ll include faster downloads, smoother integration into VR and Zealscapes, and more. I’m so excited to see how you find it, as our early feedback has been unanimously positive!’
More applause. Yes, Kim wants to say. Because you already snuck Pythia onto those early reviewers, so it’d never even occur to them to question their reactions. She wishes she could stand up and scream at them all, tell them this is a trap and Pythia is a lie. She’d only be escorted from the building, sacked from her job and unable to help anyone.
Mantel continues, the large logo for Sudice behind him. There’s the tiniest flicker on his wallscreen, so quick Kim isn’t sure if it’s real. Mantel’s hesitation makes her lean forward in her seat.
Mantel tries to recover, but with a screech, his mic cuts out. Behind him, the logos disappear, replaced instead by a young girl, dead, open, mismatched eyes seeing nothing at all.
‘Nettie,’ Aliyah whispers.
‘They did it. They fucking did it,’ Kim says. The CEO of Silvercloud hears her, but in that moment, Kim doesn’t care one bit. Kim sets her ocular and auditory implants to brain record. She knows she can do it safely for up to twenty minutes, and she’ll want to relive this moment.
The image zooms out and shows Roz, lifting the section of the girl’s skull. Roz asks her the emotions she feels regarding certain images. The girl says she feels nothing. Then she dies.
The image wavers. Someone appears on screen, features obscured by a scrambler mask. A shifting kaleidoscope of generic faces stare at the dumbstruck audience of the Omni Hotel.
‘This is what they’ve hidden from you, from the very start,’ the figure says. Despite the disguised voice, Kim knows it’s Carina. Her shoulders are tight. The server room of Sudice flickers behind her. In the lower corner, Kim spies a blur of dark-blonde hair. She’d bet her entire fortune that’s the top of Roz’s head. Did Carina kill her?
‘All of this information was released by a Sudice employee from the inside. Someone who could no longer stand by idly as untold crimes happened in this supposedly crime-free country of Pacifica. This person entrusted it to me, and with the help of some friends, we send this to you. The only things we have omitted are our own personal details, and details of Sudice employees who were not involved in these crimes.’
The advertisement for Pythia plays on the large screen. Kim winces as she watches. ‘Make the right choices,’ the voiceover says, firm and confident. ‘Let Pythia™, the optional Sudice upgrade, guide you on your path.’
The mask’s features flicker again. A man with green eyes. A woman with a tattoo of a dragon on one cheek. An androgynous person, as pale as the moon. ‘Are you wondering why you never saw this advertisement? They binned it. Do not, under any circumstances, download the Sudice implant upgrade. Pythia is not optional. Pythia is mind control. Its main goal is to rewrite personalities. They tried to do it to me, and it almost broke me. They will try to do it to you, too. Sudice has been working on this deliberately for years. Mantel knew of this. At least a few officials in Pacifica government knew this would happen. We are unsure how widespread it is.
‘Watch. Listen. Don’t turn away from this. We can only deliver the message. What the people do with it is up to each and every one of you.’
The screen goes dark. At the first few words, Mantel tried to slip from the stage. His bodyguards surround him, paving the way to the exit. It’s useless on their part; he’ll be picked up immediately. There is nowhere left to hide.
Behind Mantel’s bowed head, all of his crimes appear. Nettie’s death. The scant details of the other people involved in Dr Roz Elliot’s Pythia plans. Memos showing many people in the higher echelons of Sudice knew exactly what it would do. Nondisclosure agreements. And earlier crimes, dozens of them, dating back to Sudice’s start during the Great Upheaval. Fraud. Extortion. Tax evasion. More missing people. So many crimes. Too many to ignore.
The silent audience erupts into frightened or excited murmurings. The journalists are one step away from rubbing their hands together with glee, fingers wriggling as they tap into the algorithms that the media bots will use to generate headlines. D
onna Harker jerks next to Kim. ‘This isn’t just happening here,’ she says, her voice shaking. ‘It’s everywhere. Every wallscreen. Every implant. Within Pacifica and in the rest of North America. At least.’
‘Why, Dr Harker,’ Kim says, mildly. ‘Do you have anything to fear?’
Dr Harker gives her a wild-eyed stare and stands up, grabbing her things. Many others are also making a getaway. By the call of sirens outside, they won’t get far.
Kim wonders if there’s anything in those flashing images on the screen that will implicate her and Aliyah. They worked on criminals. It wasn’t technically illegal, but it was on the dark side of morally grey. She hated every moment of it, but that doesn’t matter. She still did it. So did Aliyah, and Carina, and Mark. If Kim comes under fire for it, then so be it. Helping to undo these wrongs, even in a small way, was completely worth it.
Aliyah grips her hand under the table. ‘I know one of the workers here. He might be able to get us out,’ she says under her breath. ‘The Trust are going to need our help now more than ever.’
In the melee of Sudice breaking down entirely, Kim and Aliyah slip away.
FORTY FIVE
CARINA
Sudice headquarters, San Francisco, California, Pacifica
The information is still uploading, spreading like a virus throughout Pacifica, the rest of the formerly United States, and soon, the whole world. Their job is done. Almost.
‘We did it,’ Charlie says. ‘We actually pulled it off.’ She sounds unbelievably tired.
‘And that is definitely our cue to leave,’ Dax says. ‘Police will be here in moments, and we desperately need to get Raf better medical attention.’
Kivon carries Raf. Charlie wraps up the code, but leaves the wallscreens up. Dax grabs some of the kit, and his medical supplies.
Carina doesn’t move. She stares down at Roz, who moves and rolls her eyes up at her former mentee, her co-worker, her rival, her enemy.
The numbness breaks like a dam. Carina feels everything. She turns to the Trust. ‘You go ahead, I’ll follow in a moment.’
‘Carina—’ Dax starts.
‘Don’t,’ Carina cuts him off. Roz begins to moan, trying to move away from Carina, trapped by her bonds. ‘This is between me and her.’
The rest of the Trust look at them both, then they turn and walk away. Dax goes last. ‘Two minutes,’ he says. Carina nods.
Carina crouches in front of Roz. The med spray has stopped her bleeding. The burns are still a livid red, covered with a sticky, pale layer of culture.
Roz stares at Carina, unblinking. She doesn’t beg, she doesn’t fight against her bonds any more. Carina’s eyes burn, and her fingers twitch.
Roz seems resigned. If she dies, Roz won’t have to face Sudice and lose the career she’s given up her morality to gain. She won’t need to answer the endless questions from Sudice, or be put on trial with her face blasted on all the media casts. If she survives, everyone will know her for the monster she is. Then she’ll be put in stasis, frozen like the subjects used for phase two of SynMaps.
The need to kill rises up in Carina again. It would be a just death. Roz fits her profile so perfectly – a criminal who has done unspeakable things. She killed Nettie. She killed Mark. She tried to kill Carina and the Trust. How many others? Roz is probably responsible for more deaths than Carina’s father, either directly or indirectly. And, had this all worked in Roz’s favour, she’d be responsible for so many more.
Carina raises her hands to Roz’s ruined neck. ‘The things I would do to you, if I had all the time in the world, all my tools at my disposal,’ she murmurs, almost gently. ‘There have been so many times I’ve imagined this. It’s a pity I never brought you forth in the Zealscape, but then I didn’t know all you’d actually done to me. And I promised I’d make you pay for what you did to Nettie and to Dax. Would anyone miss you? Would anyone come penalize me, considering the whole world has now seen your sins?’
She takes her hands away from Roz’s neck.
Roz closes her eyes. ‘Spare me the long, rambling speech and simply do it already.’ Her breathing is ragged, and the burns still weep a little beneath their bio bandages.
Carina takes out that knife still tucked into the small of her back, bringing it up to Roz’s face, slicing just beneath her eye on the unburned side of her face. Roz winces.
‘Do it quick.’
Oh, how she wants to. If only she could take that metal edge and slice it across Roz’s throat. She’d be better at it since her first kill. She’s had lots of practice in her mind.
‘You don’t deserve to die quickly.’ Carina deepens Roz’s cut. A few drops of blood well from torn skin. Carina licks her lips. Her heartbeat echoes in her ears. She still wants it, but she doesn’t need it. She’s stronger than it, and killing no longer defines her.
Dax wanted Carina to choose the harder option of living. Now she’s choosing it for herself.
‘Kill me,’ Roz says. ‘You have to kill me.’
‘No, Roz. I don’t.’ Carina throws the knife behind her.
Roz screams, rocking her head from side to side. ‘Don’t leave me here! Don’t do this to me!’
‘You did all this to yourself, Roz.’
Roz’s screams turn to muffled sobs. Carina leaves her staring at the wallscreen, a witness to Sudice’s crimes.
The Trust make it to the hovercar just before the police arrive.
No one asks Carina what happened in the lab. They’ll find out soon enough when Roz is put on trial. It’s quenched something in her, leaving Roz alive, in a way she thought only killing could. She is stronger than her urges. Even if the code she’s working on never undoes what Roz did to her, maybe she can come to terms with who she is now. Her heart still pounds, but it’s different to that night at the silo. She tilts her head back and laughs, low and controlled.
Dax gives her a look out of the corner of his eye. ‘You didn’t do it.’
‘She’ll be frozen soon enough.’
Dax nods. ‘So she will.’
Her laugh does not put the others at ease. Charlie clears her throat. Kivon keeps his eye on the sky. Dax is using the better medical supplies in the hovercar to work on Raf. He’s still in terrible shape, but Dax says he shouldn’t be in any immediate danger. They should really drop him at a hospital, but Dax thinks he can patch him up on his own, even with limited supplies. The bullet missed the vital organs, but Raf has some internal bleeding. Kivon bows towards his chest, bandaged, muscled shoulders heaving with silent sobs. Dax pats him on the shoulder comfortingly. ‘He’ll be all right.’
‘He’d better,’ Kivon says, voice thick.
They take off, weaving away, and watch Sudice, lit up by flashing lights, police sirens wailing in the night. Lights in nearby apartment buildings switch on, people peering out at the stark glass-and-chrome Sudice tower. Wallscreens flicker in each window, still transmitting the information the Trust sent out.
‘Welcome to life after Sudice, world,’ Charlie says, softly.
They take off and circle the city. Charlie works on wiping all their VeriChips and giving them new identities, just in case. They contact Kim on her subfrequency. She tells them she’s left the Omni, and sends them the access codes to an empty property she owns in the city. It should be safe enough for them to consider their next plan. Kim says she and Aliyah can get Dax more medical supplies, too.
‘Kim,’ Dax says. ‘Where’s Tam?’
‘Still at Clavell’s. We’ll go to his in a day or two, once the worst of the dust settles. Don’t worry. We’ll work together and see what we can do. I hope we can wake her up.’
Dax sniffs. ‘I hope so, too.’
Carina clutches her arms around her torso, head bent. She’s bruised and scratched. Her neck hurts from the Stunner. Yet she’s whole, alive, and the rest of the Trust are as well. She’s still amazed, having expected that surely at least one of them would die, but it seems they’ll all survive to fight another day. Or stop
fighting and quietly disappear.
Pacifica and Sudice won’t let them fade away easily. It’ll be another game of cat and mouse. There’s only the hope that the company will have too many other things to worry about to put their full force behind searching.
Kim’s hideout is a house on historical Bradford Street, one of the steepest hills in San Francisco. The house is forest green, three storeys and in a faux Art Deco style, like most of the other houses on the street. Nothing about it stands out. They circle and then park the hovercar a few streets along and walk the rest of the way, slipping into the house. There is a cherry tree out front, full of buds just about to flower.
The inside of the house is almost completely empty. It’s all polished hardwood floors and feature fireplaces. As they lock the door behind them, the security alarm beeps reassuringly. Carina only hopes they’re safe here. She has no more energy to run.
Dax continues helping Raf, setting him up in one of the bedrooms while Kivon brings in blankets from the hovercar, making Raf a nest and sitting by his side. Eventually Dax comes out to patch up Charlie and Carina’s minor wounds. Afterwards, they all sit around Raf, staring into space. They should order food, but no one is hungry. They turn on a wallscreen. Every channel flashes news of Sudice falling.
It’s the triumph the members of the Trust have been working for, some of them for years. Yet looking around at them all, to Carina they all simply seem tired and drained, and a little wary. What happens now?
Carina can’t bear to look at the newscasts any more. There’s a little patio out back. She goes outside, wishing for something to drink. So many lights are on in the windows, despite the fact that it’s three in the morning. People are glued to wallscreens, sifting through all the information the Trust have blasted around the world.
Kim and Aliyah arrive. Carina forces herself up and joins the others. They’re still dressed in their finery, but they both look exhausted and worried. Kim holds up a bottle. ‘I brought bourbon. Real bourbon, none of the synth stuff.’
Charlie grabs it, hugging it to her. ‘Bless you.’
