Sanctioned

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “It’s okay,” Brock told him, “this one won’t take a second.” Joel felt Brock’s fingers on the back of his head, and then tracing the skull down to the spine. He pressed a little harder, and then felt around some more, finding the edge of the base of the skull. He gently adjusted Joel’s head from the chin and tried again.

  A moment later, Joel felt the metal of the puncture gun pressed up against his skull. Brock breathed out a little. “Hope I’ve got the pressure right on this one.”

  Joel’s eyes flew open in fear at Brock’s last statement, but it was too late to do anything about it. A split-second later, there was a thud in the back of his head, and a sharp pain around the sides of his lower skull.

  “Motherfucker!” Joel hissed, very conscious they didn’t want their little experiment to be discovered.

  “Boosh!” he heard Brock announce as he stepped back and did some of his wiggly dancing. “One doooown!” he said, celebrating.

  Joel scrambled around to lie on his back rubbing the back of his head and jawline. “How do we know you got it right?” he asked, frowning through the discomfort.

  Brock looked cocky for a moment. “You know who you is talking to?” he smiled.

  Oz interrupted. “If you’ll allow me to download a patch onto your holo, I can go ahead and check the connectivity of the device.”

  Joel looked down at his holo and saw that Oz was requesting permission. He clicked “OK”. “You need to ask for permission?” he queried.

  Oz had started the download onto his holo. “Of course. It’s not only the polite thing to do, but ethics are now hardwired into my core programming.”

  Brock sniggered. “That’s what Molly meant about you being a little broken when it comes to ethics!”

  Oz’s audio feed buzzed a little and then returned to normal. “Yes; consider the source for the definition of ‘broken,’ though.”

  Even Joel couldn’t help but chuckle at that comment.

  Brock grinned. “Yeah. I think we had kind of got that…” He paused. “It’s okay, Oz. We love you just as you are… pole up your ass or no.”

  “Thanks, Brock,” replied Oz, his tone a little more relaxed. “I appreciate that.”

  Joel clapped his hands quietly. “Okay, people. Let’s get this other chip in.”

  Brock turned around and fiddled with some things he’d laid out on a tray in preparation. Turning back his face was pale. “Okay. Here goes,” he told Joel. “I’m going to make an incision here,” he traced a path on Joel’s temple, “and then pull back the skin to be able to get at the bone.”

  Joel nodded ever so slightly, and grunted.

  Brock kept talking. “And then, I’m going to slip this chip underneath the bone, and run current through it. The current will cause it to bury itself into the cortex at the correct depth.” He paused. “I hope,” he added with a slight flinch.

  Joel looked alarmed, his eyes fixing on Brock from his laid-back, compromised position. “What do mean, you ‘hope’?”

  Brock shrugged. “Just that they didn’t send any apparatus with this, and I’m not sure the exact current that this baby will put out,” he pointed at a wand connected to a battery pack on his tray.

  Joel gritted his teeth before relaxing his jaw, still awkwardly trying to look at Brock. “Dude, you realize this is my brain we’re talking about?”

  Brock nodded solemnly. “Yeah, that’s why I hope it works.” He smiled a little.

  Joel couldn’t be sure if he was fucking with him or not. He decided it was better for his state of mind to assume he probably was, and laid his head back again, closing his eyes. “Okay, do your thing, disco boy!” he said, motioning at his own head and pretending to be the picture of serenity.

  Brock traced the temple again, and then carefully made his incision. Joel felt the dullness of the cut through his local anesthetic, and then was aware of Brock taking a step away. Joel looked over to see what was happening.

  Brock had seen the blood and had gone even paler than he was before. His lips, in fact, had turned blue. He turned his face away and started gagging.

  Oz spoke up. “It’s okay. By my calculations, the sedative is working adequately, and the dosage of the GI reflex drug was high enough to stop him vomiting for a few days. Brock, I suggest you breathe, think of ponies and cotton candy, and then return to the task at hand.”

  Brock had a scalpel in one hand, and his other hand tight as a fist at his mouth. “Motherfucker. No wonder my body prefers to pass out!”

  Joel laid back and waited.

  A few moments and disco moves later, Brock was back with him, and inserting the chip. Joel kept breathing through his mouth and nose, staying focused on just getting through the procedure.

  Eventually, Brock pulled off his sterile gloves, and sighed deeply. “Okay, super soldier. You’re good to go.”

  Joel started to get up. “What? That’s it? All done?”

  Brock nodded. “Yup.”

  Oz chirped in. “Joel, I would take it easy for the rest of the day. I’ve got both devices online, but they’ll need some… modifications… for our purposes. I’ll try not to interfere with normal functioning, but if you do need to do anything outside of walking around and breathing, do let me know.”

  Joel thought about asking if he needed permission to use the restroom, and then thought better of it.

  Brock had been tidying the tray, still looking pale. He turned around just as Joel was about to touch his head. “Ah ah ah…” he said, tapping his hand away from his temple. “That skin glue won’t hold against you messing with it. So no touching. And no wearing helmets or anything. And careful you don’t catch it for a few days when you’re changing or showering.”

  Joel nodded. “Okay. Right you are.” He slid cautiously off the chair. “Thank you, Brock. I appreciate you going through this for me.”

  Brock was somber and subdued now. He nodded. “Sure. Sure thing, man.” It seemed his reaction times were slowing.

  Joel noticed. “Hey, how about we get you back to your quarters for a nap? Looks like that mocha isn’t counteracting those sedatives so well now.”

  Brock nodded, his eyes looking slightly puffy.

  Leaving the gear mostly as it was, Joel helped his surgeon out of the cupboard and back up into the safe house sleeping quarters. The evidence could be tidied away when he had deposited Brock safely.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Gaitune-67, Hangar deck

  Molly had emerged from her meeting the previous evening deep in thought. This morning, the team was to continue with their assignments while Joel, Paige and Molly gathered intel from the surface.

  The three of them stood in a tight circle on the hangar deck by the pods. Molly was focused. “Paige, how have your conversations been going with Garet?”

  Paige screwed up half of her face. “Okay. I guess. I get a feeling he’s not giving me as much help as he could.”

  Molly nodded and glanced at Joel. “I think it’s time we pay him a visit.”

  Joel agreed. “Sounds like a plan. So what’s the move? If he cooperates, leave him in play?”

  Molly started ushering them towards the pods. “Yes. And if not, we need to remove him from his position and find someone to take his place. Oz is working on distilling down possible allies for that scenario. If it comes to that, you two will need to spend a little time down there interviewing candidates.”

  Paige glanced at Joel. “Goody. Face-reading practice!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands lightly, before scrambling into a pod after Joel.

  Molly smiled. “Indeed!” she agreed, waving the access panel on the next pod and hopping in.

  Okay, Oz. Let’s get us to the Senate House. We’ve got an issue to force. Oh, and make sure we’re not going to be caught with any facial recognition software, yeah?

  Already handled, straight after the op.

  Atta boy!

  I live to serve.

  Molly detected a hint of irony coupled with the jest, bu
t it was a valid point that she meant to take up with him at a later date.

  Moments later, the pods lifted up, and carried the three of them out into space before whisking them to the Senate House for the second time that week.

  Senate House, Spire

  “How about we try the front door this time, folks?” Molly called out over the intercom between the pods.

  Joel chuckled. “That’s getting to be more and more of a novelty on these missions,” he responded.

  Paige grinned up at him. “You’ll have to tell me what exactly happened last time. I only got the Oz-version… which is nowhere near as fun as, say, a Brock-account.”

  Oz’s audio buzzed as if he was going to speak, but then it clicked off again.

  Joel noticed, and nodded at the heads-up display. “I suspect Oz agrees,” he chuckled lightly. “Yeah, so, Brock wasn’t there, of course, so your choices are myself, Jack or Sean.”

  Paige smiled. “Sean tells a good story; can’t say I can comment on Jack, yet. I think she’s just feeling us out right now.”

  Joel smiled at Paige’s increased observational skills. “I think you’re probably right,” he agreed.

  The pods descended just around the corner from the Senate House.

  Molly closed the communications between the pods with a swipe of the head up holo display. “Hey, Oz? How come we’re not drawing fire from the city radar and defense system?”

  Her seat vibrated strangely.

  Oz seemed to be laughing.

  “Oz…?” she pressed in a warning tone. “What did you do?”

  The vibration intensified a little before Oz responded. “Well, I noticed when I was interfering with their systems last time that if there are too many data points over a given area, they put it down to either a meteor shower or precipitation in the air, and it effectively filters the signal out, assuming it is ‘noise’.”

  Molly’s mouth turned up at the corners, despite her focus on the op. “Are you telling me the almighty, ethical Oz has faked their radar computer into thinking that we are simply noise?” she asked, undoing her harness.

  “That would be an accurate assessment,” he told her.

  Molly frowned as she shuffled forward in her seat, grabbing the handhold. “But what about your unbreakable ethics protocol?”

  Oz’s voice was upbeat. “I don’t see a problem with it. Do you?”

  Molly thought for a moment. “You’re tricking their system.”

  Oz paused for a moment. “Yes, but I’m not doing them any harm, or endangering anyone. In fact, to allow us to show up on their radar would only pull their attention from actual problems, and potentially lead to accidents and errors.”

  Molly wasn’t buying it. Not completely. “I think you have more wiggle room in your locked down algorithms than you let on!” she teased wryly.

  The pods had reached the ground, and Oz allowed the doors to slide open. “In some ways, I really am just helping them reduce unnecessary noise from their data,” he added.

  Molly shook her head, silently smiling now. “Ever the good citizen, Oz,” she told him. Had he been able to see her, she may even have winked at him as she hopped out of the pod and started walking up the white marble steps into the Senate House.

  Joel and Paige strode after her, having to take two steps at a time to catch up. Meanwhile, the pods lifted rapidly up into the air, pulling the attention from a few passersby, who then continued on with their business.

  Once inside the building, Molly led the way up to the reception desk. “Molly Bates and associates to see Senator Garet Beaufort,” she told the well-manicured Estarian on check-in.

  The female looked up at Molly. “Of course. And do you have an appointment?” she asked politely.

  Molly got the sense that it was usual for people to not have. She shook her head. “No. We work very closely with him, though. Please let him know we’re here. He’s going to want to talk with us.”

  The Estarian looked down at her desk holo, tapped some keys, and then connected a call. “Hello, Trish. This is Ester on the front desk. I have a Ms. Bates and associates here to see the senator.” She paused, listening.

  “Yes, she says that he’d be open to seeing her. Sure. I’ll hold.” Ester looked up at Molly and smiled tightly. Only then did Ester realize that the younger, blue human standing at Ms. Bates’s left elbow had been watching her intently. Quickly, Ester dropped her gaze back to her holo, now feeling even more uncomfortable than usual as the first face of the company.

  There was also a man with the two women; she noticed him out of the corner of her eye. He stayed a distance back. He look like military, and was looking around the whole foyer and security area.

  Probably assessing weaknesses…

  As the thought occurred to her, Ester noticed her heart beating a little harder. She hadn’t been on-shift when the attack had happened the other day, but it had shaken everyone up.

  How much she wished that Trish would hurry up. She poked at her holoscreen to see the messages that had come in for her station. There were a few things to handle; she’d get onto those shortly. Another awkward moment later, Trish came back on the line.

  “Ah ha. Yes. Yes, okay; if the senator is sure that’s okay. Thanks, Trish.” Ester hung up the call and looked back at Molly.

  “I just need to sign you in, and then the Senator believes you know where his office is. Are you happy to do so without an escort?” she asked.

  Molly nodded, secretly amused at the irony of the situation. Ester continued the sign-in process for all three of them, and then pointed them through security.

  Once through security, Molly led the way up to Garet’s office. Paige noticed Joel was still on full alert. She could tell by the way that, even though he walked casually, his eyes were more active than usual. Had she not been looking for it since she started her face-reading training with him, she would never have noticed.

  Joel caught her paying attention, and smiled as he motioned for her to step into the office of Garet’s assistant.

  Molly introduced them all. “We’re here to see the senator,” she told Trish. Trish nodded and got up from her desk, letting them in through the big double doors of Garet’s office.

  Molly stepped inside first, followed by Joel and Paige.

  Garet was working on his holo, and looked up when he heard the door. He stood up. “Molly, Joel…” he said smiling. Then he saw Paige step out from behind the two. “Paige! Greetings.”

  Paige waved politely. Joel noticed her cheeks flush a little, but she stood firm and professional.

  Garet invited them to sit, and Joel and Molly took the chairs nearest his desk. Paige sat over on one of the sofas.

  Garet sat back down at his desk, steepling his hands. Joel immediately got up and signaled for them to all sit at the two sofas. “This isn’t going to work,” he told Garet. “You, sitting behind your desk like you’re an official who hasn’t done anything wrong. This next conversation is going to determine a lot for you, and I don’t want you under the misapprehension that you’re safe and secure behind that desk.”

  Garet looked flummoxed and went a little pale. He had imagined he’d be able to give them the normal spiel about his intentions to safeguard the Estarian people, and then they’d go away, leaving him to get on with his life.