by Selina Brown
Denn was nodding. “Good idea. I’ll ring them now.”
Jamie nodded his approval as Denn used his Voice to notify security. This was where it would get interesting. Was security going to check it out, or just pacify Denn?
“Hi, it’s Denn. We’re working late tonig…”
Jamie snorted, as if security didn’t know that already. Still, he reasoned, at least Denn was informative.
“…the way home to Ara’s. We spotted an unidentified and unregistered vessel on the ocean.” Denn was lifting his GPS and looking out to the vessel. He gave the coordinates. “Oh, you’ve seen it. Great. Could you let us know what you find? We’ll be up all night.”
Jamie was pleased. Security was telling Denn that they had already sent out a patrol boat with several guards and that they would send a security team to the installation too, as a precaution. It was a pleasure to work with effective professionals. Jamie had vetted all the teams; however, with the level of deception growing, it was hard to be one hundred percent certain of anyone. He saw Denn pull out and start driving to drop Ara home.
He called up Jones, his number two protection guard on this watch. “Make sure Ara gets home and stays home. I’m going to check out the disturbance.”
“Right. Do you want me to join you after and leave babysitting to the second team?”
Jamie was aware that, while he wasn’t impulsive like Ara was at times, he could be too autonomous. Tonight wasn’t one of those nights. “Yes and join me by the boat house in thirty.”
“See you then.”
It was silly, but even now Jamie felt a thrill going off to check what he hoped was dangerous but not dangerous at the same time. He grinned as he turned his over lander around and drove to the boathouse. He sent in a quick report and summary of what he wanted to do. Peter contacted him. “Hey, do you want some wings?”
“I thought you were on duty at the CIC?”
“Finished, but I’m wide awake and ready for anything.”
Jamie laughed. “Alright, ultra-quiet wings. I think the disturbance is a diversion. They’ll be acting like dumb arse fishermen or someone in trouble who forgot their beacon.”
“Roger that… Ah, Sam says there’s activity in the north east quadrant, boss.”
“Ah, second thoughts bring the mole.” The mole was a machine designed and tested by Ara for Wilds. It was Peter who saw its usefulness when they found the tunnels. She had wanted the liquid metal to “mesh” with the organic component but had not been successful to date. Thank Maya for not helping her. Curse the Natal who had given her the idea.
“RT.”
Jamie headed down a dirt road to his left, and followed it to the end to the boathouse. Peter could fly or drive anything. And while Korbet said he couldn’t warn Ara, he hadn’t said anything about investigating. This would be a test of the honeypot idea. If Ara was actually just the draw card, the lure, she shouldn’t need to see or do anything. Her stumbling on the Establishment meeting was purely accidental. Jesran had dealt with that scare very well. But then Ara hadn’t said anything regarding Maya during that incident. Jamie realized they would have to start extracting from Ara using Lyon methodology. Aggressors, like Jamie, could extract any information. It would be painful for her, but he had to stop worrying about that. Maybe stumbling on the Establishment hadn’t been accidental. Not for the first time Jamie cursed. None of their risk/mission assessment plans included Maya and the CU lying or concealing from them. It was a mistake, he was sure. It dismayed Jamie to know Maya could be a complete bitch.
He saw the boathouse ahead and slowed to drive into the woods and bush. After shutting down the engine, he packed up a small bag and stepped out to change in dark, tight-fitting clothes. Jones tried to sneak up on him but he turned at the last moment holding up a dagger.
“Shit, boss. I had a bet!”
“Then be quieter.” Actually, Jones was a freak of nature, he was large but mouse quiet. Jamie almost laughed at Ara’s attempts to be mouse quiet over the years. She had never succeeded; the desire to open her mouth and talk was too great. Plus she was usually stomping around forgetting to use her energy to “lighten” up. Mostly it was because her mind was on some project, tangled with complicated multi-leveled algorithms, transequations and transceptions that made Jamie’s head ache. She was developing an interest in GEL technology now and was looking into courses.
As Jones changed clothes, they waited for the signal. They both received a frontal node buzz and headed silently to the boat shed. Jamie went in first, annoyed he could hear his footsteps but not Jones’s. It had been luck that Jamie heard the rustle of leaves. He had a reputation to maintain and while it wasn’t getting harder—he kept himself fit and trained—it was becoming challenging as those he employed worked hard to win their bets. He opened a trapdoor and headed down the narrow ladder into the network of tunnels they discovered. They were too similar to Saratoga’s to be a coincidence and scans proved they were not natural.
Jones closed the trapdoor and Jamie rubbed his eye to slide his night vision lens over his eyeball. He preferred the dual lens but needed his normal vision for the mole. They moved down several tunnels and saw the mole overhead. It was a long carriage where they’d lie in position and Peter would drive them over the roof of the tunnel. It was a special liquid metal Jamie hated using, but there was nowhere to hide in the tunnels so being stuck to the roof seemed like the best plan.
Jamie reached his part of the carriage and lifted his arms, jumping up to touch the base. The dark liquid metal, already looking like the same material as the tunnel, slid over him, sliding and lifting, hardening to lever Jamie into position. Soon enough he was in a horizontal position, with a small display blinking in front of him. Technically, they could separate and walk around, melding into the walls, but the tunnels were smooth and completely round. Peter had put some devices and lights on the bottom of the carriages so that they looked like some security device for the tunnel. It was a ploy to give them time to get away, or disengage from the roof to fight. Jamie preferred not to think of all the practice sessions, where they had all looked foolish trying to recover from being ejected from the mole.
As they moved, he felt a slight rumble around him, while the display blinked and revealed their route. He groaned.
“Problem, boss?”
“Just watch where you’re going.”
“Sure, just follow the tunnel.”
Jamie grumbled, feeling sick already. “There’s a junction ahead, take the left.”
“Tablets are in a small pouch, boss.”
Jamie thanked him and used his right hand to open the small compartment and pull out the medic pouch. Peter usually made sure there were tablets to avoid mole sickness. Never had he been sick from any kind of travel. Peter had even taken him up in several aircraft over the years making aerobatic moves and Jamie had just laughed with the sheer joy of it. But this, this was boring and annoying.
A half hour later, the rumbling stopped and he heard voices beneath them. His little monitor showed they didn’t even look up but Peter usually tried to stop around corners rather than in the straight sections after their scans picked up movement. Their orbital and planet scans couldn’t penetrate the bedrock, and Jamie thought Maya had that same problem, except she should be able to send out teeny tiny robots. This was just another reason why Jamie thought it more likely Ara was here as bait. But then Maya could just have sentries sitting deactivated, and activating only when movement was detected. That led to the argument that someone else was using Maya, and therefore Ara, in an altogether different way. Something that had to do with the Chaos Beings, the Snakes, Function Tests, Natal, Amatal, Trickster, and the Consociation of Eight.
“Pure-Gens, boss. Follow or stay on mission?”
Jamie debated with himself. “Break the mole. You and Jones carry on; I’ll follow the PuGs.”
“Roger that.”
There’d been no questioning of his orders because he’d made the right c
hoice. The PuGs were mostly likely going to one of the social rooms they’d mapped. He also realized he was justifying his decision. Jamie hated to admit it but carrying on to the target destination also meant entering the venting system in the mole. He wasn’t claustrophobic but he found the experience unbearable.
He took control over his carriage, tapping in his code, as Peter separated the units. He used the control panel and dropped to the ground as Jones’s part connected to Peter’s and they moved off like some kind of worm. Jamie lay down and the mole slid up the curved wall, back to the top, with Jamie being turned inside like a roast on a spit. His stomach churned and he shoved another tablet into his mouth. He headed out to follow the PuGs.
After several turns and twists, they stopped at a silver hatch with GEL pad tech. One of the PuGs touched it and the hatch mechanism noisily ran a cycle to open into halves, with each half sliding to either side. They stepped through and the hatch closed. Jamie’s display showed the venting system just ahead and above him. All he had to do was to use the mole’s burrowing and steering system and slide in. There was room for only one mole width-wise and, to ensure they didn’t activate alarms or block the air flow, they had to allow the mole to open at either end. At least in the mole Jamie knew he could free himself, or pretend not to be in a tight tunnel. But once he could see the vent tunnel ahead, he would freak out and no doubt all his effort would be to listen to some useless gossip.
Swearing at himself, he backed up and made a series of maneuvers to turn. After an hour of following the tracking device, he found one mole out of a hatch, while his indicators told him Peter was inside the vent. Crazy bastard. Jamie had to wait with Jones, who was embarrassed. Jamie opened his channel to Jones’s mole.
“Don’t be. I couldn’t do it either. We need to ask for volunteers. It’s time to check out all the labs.”
Peter connected Jamie. “Ah, sorry boss. You need to get in here. Code orange.”
“Shit. Right. I’ll head in.”
Jones dropped down and Jamie steered in, not even hesitating. The mole had to burrow through the bedrock, and then access the tunnel, liquefying the rock, after which the liquid metal would bundle and slide it along the outer hull, and leave a plug at the end. They had tried to break the grates to the vents but couldn’t determine material, a dark red color, or codes with strange symbols. Peter’s voice sounded panicked so Jamie shoved down his fear and continued focusing on Peter and the mission. With the airflow, and seeing the long, dark tunnel ahead, Jamie decided to let his heart race, and body tense, trying to get used to the experience. Ride it rather than resist. After ten minutes it was working.
Jamie saw light ahead.
It was hard not to drive the mole faster to the end, but rounding a bend he saw Peter’s mole, more of a tube, with no Peter inside. Jamie stopped the mole and shoved up the display unit. It barely made a noise as it was sucked into the liquid metal. He began to crawl through the front of his mole, into Peter’s and out the other end. He continued to crawl and saw a grate ahead. That was odd. Jamie backed up until he saw a tunnel veering off ahead. Peter must have made it with his mole, and then backed it up. Jamie partially climbed and partially slid through the hole and started crawling. He could see electrical tubes and lights ahead. He had been expecting to find Peter’s feet. Carefully, he crawled to the opening and peered down.
“Well, fuck me.”
No wonder Maya hadn’t been able to penetrate this area, and now it opened the discussions back up to include that Maya was being deceived. So perhaps someone was—he spotted Peter who was well hidden on one of the many ramps above the massive cavern. Jamie looked down and saw that he could drop to the ledge and then jump to the ramp. With no easy holds, he struggled to turn his long body but managed to slide out and down before he released his hands and fell. He tried to keep his knees unlocked and hit the ledge. Jamie crouched and then stood ready to jump across to the metal-grated walkway to join Peter.
“Hey, boss. No need to be quiet. We’re up in some kind of maintenance junction. The hatch—where Jones is—to this cavern is actually a lift and it comes out down below us, well below us, at least forty stories. It’s a good thing you didn’t bring any of Ara’s Robotica units, they would have been detected.”
Jamie stared at him. “How do you know?”
‘Because while I was here Maya must have sent a unit in, and it was destroyed.” He pointed to his left and Jamie looked seeing a smoldering ruin well below them. People were moving around to remove it. “Someone actually went into that tube and dragged it out so it wouldn’t have transmitted any data, if it could have through the bedrock. I’m guessing the mole Ara made is undetectable because she got the idea from that chamber that whisked her away on her hundredth. These giant dudes have to be the Natal?”
Jamie nodded.
“I’ve also noted similar tech in the short time I’ve been here to the mole. So, what’s happening here?”
Jamie scratched his chin, wondering if Ara was actually more to do with the Natal than Maya. He rubbed above his right eye and leaned on the barrier, staring down at the bustle of activity. Giant, red machine men were working alongside smaller beings. Most of the smaller beings looked like one of the many Aryan races. “I believe we’ve stumbled on the Natal’s operation to test Ara. The Function Test control room so to speak.”
It was Peter’s turn to stare hard at Jamie. “How do you know that?”
Jamie grinned and pointed. “See that massive display with Ara’s image on it? There’s writing next to it.”
Peter nodded, turned and squinted, his head dropping to his arms, and then groaned. “You’ve activated your zoom lens.” He stood up, rubbed over his eye and read the information.
“Log 1, Event, Function Test number, Progress column. Ah, tests one, three, and five have been assigned; they are deliberating on function tests two and six. They are designing test eight and it’s at phase one; four, seven, and nine are unassigned. Shit, think of the time and resources!”
“It looks like test three is in two parts as well. It looks like they’ve also assigned a year per function test with a start date several hundred years from now.”
“So no rush then?”
Jamie shrugged. “Pure-Gens have a slow life while we have to squeeze more things in. The function tests evidently take a long time to set up.” Jamie thought back to when he first heard Cobra, Viper, and Krait talking about them in Perza Space Station.
“Alright. Who’s that other woman?”
Jamie stared down at the image of the light brown-haired beauty. There was no data with her image. “Nyx I presume. She may be there for another reason. We have to—”
“I know, set up a new team. Send them in here to monitor.”
Jamie slapped him on the back. “Good idea.”
Peter was studying the image of Nyx again. “Hey, it says… I can only just make it out… Ah, location unknown. And there’s a tracking notation with it.”
All attention was on Ara then.
“Hmmm, and there’s jewelry,” Peter said.
“What?”
“An image of a necklace. It looks weird.”
Jamie peered down, immediately thinking of Ara’s strange necklace that Maya had the Cardinal Unit attach to her neck and tried to adjust his vision. “That’s Ara’s.”
“Say what? She hasn’t worn that?”
“No, it’s in her body.” That seemed to confirm something was going on between Maya and the Natal. Who had priority over the Cardinal Unit? They had always assumed it was Maya, but the Natal looked to be in charge.
‘Yuk.”
Jamie chuckled and pulled Peter down when a Natal looked up towards them. They were motionless as could be and the Natal looked back at his station. Jamie couldn’t make up the symbols and data flowing across the screen. The Natal looked up and again when Jamie adjusted his lens.
“Shit. Disconnect your lenses. I think they are picking up the signals.” Jamie wondered if M
aya was going to try to nudge Ara to get down there. He had to stop that, thinking of Ara in … but that was stupid. The Natal were going to a lot of trouble to set up the Function Tests. They wouldn’t just kill her. Whatever spurred the Snakes to use these tests, the care and planning indicated that the tests were taken seriously. The Snakes may have triggered the tests but they weren’t the architects.
“So, the Natal are blocking Maya, which might suggest that the Maya is independent of the Natal but has equal say or more, say in Iota?”
Jamie nodded and said, “Fair reasoning.” From Ara’s fortified mental musings, which he’d realized over the years he had access to, he knew that there were other test sites and other Maya with Cardinal Units. Jamie smirked thinking about Trickster who had, Jamie believed, bluffed. He was sure Trickster had no option but to accept Ara’s mental connection to Jamie. It was a relief because thus far Trickster was a powerful anomaly who seemed to be able to come and go using special transportal technology beyond their technology. “We better get back.”
Peter nodded and headed back.
Jamie took one more glance over the huge cavity and stopped dead. He was sure he saw one of the Snakes down there—no, the hair was too white, and … was that … Korbet? Peter called him, and the two males Jamie had been trying to identify entered some tunnel, so Jamie joined Peter, ready to give him a leg up. His inner voice was too loud and he needed to focus on getting out safely first. “We’d better resort to old tech.”
“Pen and paper, boss?”
Jamie grinned at him. “Yep, I have a feeling those bastards will pick up any device we might use.” But a chill ran through him thinking of the pad and pen Simon had given him just before his final test, along with several comments Jamie had heard throughout his working life. He knew he wasn’t privy to all the secrets, and he was just the Sentinel for Ara, but he worried that they were withholding information that he might need. He’d talk to Diane when he returned. He put a foot on Peter’s hands. “Use our contact to ask Ara to make us a mole NaPP.”
