Ghost Black

by Matthew S. Cox

  “You were pretty zonked when I got here. I got the full view on my way in.”

  “Uhh, sorry. I feel safe with her…”

  Risa reached across the table and held her hand. “Not safe enough to go outside.” There’s one way to find out. Heitzenroeder is still out there. If the detonator was already rigged when he sold it to us, we need to have a chat. She thought about her eyes, about the nonfunctional Wraith, her lack of night vision or targeting optics. Unless he’s hiding in the tunnels, I’ll be fine.

  “Something’s different about you.” Genevieve looked up. “Holy crap! Your eyes!” She sprang from her seat and grabbed Risa’s head in both hands. “Bit! You got your eyes back.”

  Risa grinned. “Took you long enough to notice.”

  “Lot on my mind.” Genevieve hugged the breath out of her. “Oh… No wonder you seem so much happier. You look like you’re seventeen again.”

  “I’m not, but thanks.” Her eyebrows drew together. “You’re the first person not to assume I’d gotten realistic artificials the same color as my original eyes.”

  Genevieve tapped a finger on Risa’s cheek, below her left eye. “There’s a tiny little spot of yellow-gold under the pupil.”

  “Wow.” Risa laughed.

  “I’m observant. Guess it makes up for my awful luck. Comes in handy when playing with bombs.” Genevieve held her hand up. “Which I am never doing again. I want to take an e-learn course and get a degree or certification. Some kind of electronics work. Net school I can do from anywhere… if I can find a way to pay for it.”

  “Gen.” Risa grabbed her ‘sister’s’ hand. “I’m going to track down whoever tried to kill you and deal with it. I can’t stand seeing you like this.”

  “Like what? Not ready to run off and blow up Corporates?”

  “Afraid to set foot outside. You used to be so fearless. Larger than life.” Risa looked down. “Always laughing… like no matter what happened around us you were in on some happy secret.”

  Genevieve shrank in on herself. “Guess I got old or something. Grew up. One too many close calls.”

  “I can’t handle having two girls in my life scared of their own shadows.” Risa took a long sip of coffee. “Not when I know I can help at least one of them. Might as well get some use out of all this hardware.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid for me.” Genevieve hugged her before returning to her seat and grasping the cinnamon latte. “I can probably handle a move to Aurelia’s apartment, but―”

  “You’ll shut yourself inside there too.” Risa stood. “Not happening. Give me a couple hours.”

  “Be careful.”

  Risa walked out of the kitchen. “You know me.”

  “I do. That’s why I’m worried.”

  She made it to within three steps of the door before remembering she lacked boots or laser pistols. After a quick jog to retrieve her footwear and weapons harness, Risa drained the last of her cappuccino and went outside.

  Via her headware, she sent a text-only message to Garrison: ‹Running an errand for a friend. Please keep an eye on Kree. Don’t worry, no fireworks involved.›

  12

  Fools and Shadows

  Risa walked among the people of Primus City, her confidence restored at having her ballistic stealth armor. Fabric clothing might be comfortable in a physical sense, but it would be a while before she could truly enjoy it.

  Cramped subterranean streets packed with small merchant stalls, prostitutes, chem-merchants, and an uncountable number of people were not for the skittish. Her gloss-black suit attracted an unusual amount of attention. About a third of the people who afforded her more than the customary one-second ‘oh, there’s someone there’ glance seemed worried at what she was up to. Even without glowing purple eyes, some still saw a tí-zhèn. The rest admired every curve.

  Maybe I should use this stuff like it was designed for and wear clothes over it. She picked up her pace, not wanting a repeat of the shuttleport attack. Normal people hope to get through a day without a headache. I’d be happy not having to kill anyone. According to Pavo’s grumbling about his light duty assignment, he and Aurelia had been put on patrol around the Tier 2 Mall. The worst issues they had to deal with that close to the surface usually involved gangers with a credit skimmer sniffing for NetMinis, or a shoplifting teenager who ‘did it for the lols’ even though they could afford to buy whatever they stole.

  The major downside to Primus of course, was the utter lack of PubTran cars. A handful of people operated manual-drive taxis, but most of them clustered in the Tier 2 Mall waiting to ambush tourists… and in some cases, ‘ambush’ went well past metaphor.

  Thirty-nine minutes after leaving Pavo’s apartment on Tier 4, Risa emerged from an inter-tier stairwell at the southernmost point of the mall area, into a ‘street’ wide enough for cars, though no one bothered. Farther south, the level became a residential district for the well off, despite that no one truly considered wealthy remained in Primus. The few executives required to show a physical presence in the surrounding offices commuted. Despite that, the rent within easy walking distance of the mall remained out of reach of most citizens, leaving the surrounding streets empty―except for private armed security.

  She headed north past rows of shops, taken by whim at the sight of a Cyberwave outlet, the only ‘chain’ cyberware store on Mars. Most were sole proprietorships, small quasi-legal operations that kept their heads down. Deep enough into the lower tunnels, one would eventually find a cyber-doc willing to sell or do almost anything. Cyberwave didn’t deal in any parts deemed too risky, nor did it run showrooms as large as official Intera emporiums on Earth. She couldn’t help but think of white orchid cyberlimbs on the heels of the word Intera. Celebrities with replacement limbs all opted for one of those… at two-million apiece, they offered as much status as function.

  Still, Cyberwave happened to be right in front of her, and they might have something basic she needed. Risa ducked under the glowing holographic letters forming the store’s name, into a puke-green room with four rows of various demonstration model parts set up inside bullet-resistant cases. Pressed for time, she headed right for the clerk.

  A teen with an erratic explosion of medium-long pink hair, and a dull green tunic top lifted his head to get a better look at her. He maintained perfect eye-to-tit contact when she reached the checkout terminal. According to a thin strip of grey plastic on the left breast of his shirt, she had the joy of being ogled by Sanjay.

  “Welcome to Cyberwave. Can I help you find anything?”

  “I’m up here, Sanjay.”

  He made eye contact. “Uhh, sorry. Is that what I think it is?”

  Hands on her hips, she raised an eyebrow. “Consider carefully your next words.”

  “The armor.” He gestured at her chest. “That’s armor right? Kinetic-hardening anti-ballistic suit?”

  She relaxed―a little. “Maybe. What do you have in wearable units with support for magnification optics, targeting, night vision, metallurgical scan, thermal, and maybe ultrasonic?”

  “Shit, you know where you are, right?” Sanjay gestured at the backwards letters of the outdoor sign. “This is the Cyberburger of tech. If you can afford that suit, what the heck are you doing here?”

  Risa smiled. “Opportunistic hope.”

  He sighed. “If this place had all of that in one unit, it would be as big as a Senshelmet, and”―he lowered his voice―“overpriced. I have a technical skate though…” He tapped on the terminal. A few seconds later, a disc-shaped hoverbot glided over with a box on top of it. “This was made for gaming.” He took the box, set it on the glass counter, and opened it. “But, it just so happens that it works perfectly fine for real guns too.”

  A silver device approximating the shape of an ultra-thin headband sat in white foam within the square box. A row of four one-millimeter metallic green squares lined the front―holo projectors.

  Risa smirked. “Why the sidestep? Firearms are legal.�
��

  Sanjay lifted the headset out of the box and held it up to her. “Liability issue. Corporate doesn’t want to get sued. This way, they can say the ‘product was being used in a manner inconsistent with its intended purpose,’ which puts the liability on the person.”

  “Riiight.” She examined it for a second before finding the power button. When she put it on, it let her see an ‘initial configuration menu’ in a floating amber panel. Despite the actual display being less than an inch across, from her point of view, it looked like a full-sized holo-panel. She navigated the menu with eye flicks, flying through the setup process to create the wireless link to her headware. The device’s optics offered a four-time zoom as well as the most rudimentary of targeting support. “Ugh, this thing is IPv12 4.1. Is there an upgrade? They hacked that wireless last year. Everyone within a hundred meters will know what I’m looking at.”

  “Uhh, one sec. Let me check.” Sanjay poked at his holo-terminal.

  “I’m testing. Don’t panic.” Risa pulled one of her Hotaru-6 laser pistols from her harness and hit the little button above the trigger guard to open it for sync mode. Sorry little buddy. Not quite the military grade stuff you’re used to… The pistol beeped, as did the headset. Five seconds later, whenever she pointed the pistol at anything in her field of vision, she got two crosshairs―one from her headware, fed right into her visual cortex, the other as a hologram in front of her eye. Oh, that’s only a little annoying.

  “There’s an upgrade to the firmware available for download via the manufacturer’s virtual office,” said Sanjay. “Teradyne. Can’t miss it.”

  Her muscles locked when a younger teen boy somewhere behind her screamed and ran out the door. She sighed, re-holstered her weapon, and pulled the headset off. “This thing is pretty much a toy, but my options are limited. How much?”

  “Sorry, it’s not part of our Cyberwave Surf Special… Ͼ630.”

  I’ll regret not having it. Not like it’s expensive. “Okay.” She put it back on and pulled her NetMini. Once Sanjay processed the order, she waved it over the reader. “Thanks.”

  He bagged the box containing the packing foam and charging cradle, and handed her a dark-blue bag with a paler blue Cyberwave logo. “Thanks for shopping at Cyberwave.”

  Sanjay sounded about as enthused as Risa felt.

  She took the bag and headed for the exit. The double sliding door parted at her approach. A split second after her foot hit the ground outside, a shadow to her left moved in. Instinct triggered her speedware. The sense of a leaping body dragged to a ponderous mass gliding toward her. Virtual hours spent in Tamashī’s martial arts simulation paid off. Risa spun into her attacker, seizing his arm as she curled under it and pulled. Her back to him, she twisted around in a maneuver that flung him onto his chest before pinioning his arm to the side with a knee at the back of his neck; the hold could break it if she applied enough pressure.

  Another shadow moved from the other side. Risa twisted in that direction, reflexively thrusting her arm out like a spear at the attacker’s face. The instant the tips of her Nano claws touched solid material, her brain processed the design and shape of a Mars Defense Force helmet. Eyes wide, Risa pulled her attack before her Nano claws pierced into the wearer’s skull. She stared past five transparent blue blades at blood that had sprayed from her deploying claws, trickling down the featureless slab of crimson composite armor. Little camera dots at the top corners glowed. Risa shifted her gaze to the woman’s chest, and the nametag: Imari, A.

  “Ugh,” said Pavo from the ground.

  “Oh, hi!” Risa smiled, and lowered her arm. “I was looking for you guys.”

  “Holy shit! She killed two cops!” yelled the boy who’d run screaming from the store.

  Risa lowered her arm and retracted her claws before helping Pavo up. “Sorry about that… I just saw someone jumping at me… not who.”

  “Fuck,” said Aurelia. Her helmet opened, faceplate retracting up over the top, exposing cheeks almost as white as Risa’s. “I think I just pissed myself.”

  Pavo rolled his shoulder, rubbing it. His helmet opened as well. “That kid said someone was robbing the Cyberwave.”

  Risa pointed at the headset. “I was calibrating the Hotaru… and what happened to ‘MDF, don’t move?’”

  Aurelia closed her eyes. “That usually gets us shot at by anyone stupid enough to try and rob a store on Tier 2.”

  “Not the smartest of people.” Pavo chuckled. “Damn you’re fast.”

  “Are you gonna arrest that bitch?” yelled the boy.

  Pavo took in a breath, held it, and let it out through a placid smile. “I got this.”

  While he walked over to the ‘good Samaritan,’ Aurelia leaned on the wall and removed her helmet, brushing a finger over the four tiny gouges on the faceplate.

  “Damn. You okay?” Risa offered a hand. “Really, I didn’t realize who was trying to jump me.”

  “All I saw was a fuckin’ black blur. If you wanted to kill me, that would’ve been that. My head would’ve been off before I even knew you had claws.”

  Risa looked down. “I wouldn’t have killed you. Even if you were a pair of idiots looking for an easy mark.”

  “You wouldn’t… but what if it was some psycho aug?” She breathed into her hands. “Crap, maybe I do have some mental damage.”

  Risa clasped her hands together, bag and box bouncing off her knees. “Most people who get tortured for a few hours with a knife can’t even function. You’re tough.”

  Aurelia smiled at her, and took a few breaths. “Thanks.”

  Pavo sauntered over, thumbs hooked on his belt. “Well that’s taken care of. Poor kid thought he was gonna get a reward.” He shook his head. “So, felt the urge to shop?”

  “Actually, I was coming here to find you guys. Store was random opportunity. Coffee?” She gestured across the mall at a Morning Bean.

  “I don’t want caffeine right now, but I’ll go for one of their chocolate things.” Aurelia pushed off the wall. She took three steps before spinning around and pointing at Risa. “Holy shit! What did you do?”

  Risa smiled and tilted her head up to show off her eyes. “What do you think?”

  “Are they Interas? AC9s?” Aurelia leaned in close. “Wow, they look so real.”

  “That’s because they are real,” said Pavo.

  The three fell in step, headed to the coffee place. Risa related the story of meeting Raziel in Araphel, how he’d kept the eyes she’d foolishly given up at eighteen after intercepting them from the ‘parts market,’ and about how the ‘angel’ she thought she’d been hearing turned out to be the AI godfather of all cyberspace cowboys. By the time she finished, they’d taken a table in the café. The barista comped Pavo and Aurelia’s orders since they were on duty, though Risa had to pay for hers.

  “Okay, so what happened?” Aurelia stirred her drink; she’d changed her mind and gotten a dark chocolate mocha. “Something happened if you’re out here looking for us.”

  Risa slid a vanilla chai back and forth across the table between her hands. “I need to find someone who doesn’t like being found. It’s about Genevieve.”

  Aurelia’s expression hardened. “What happened to her?”

  “Nothing new… can I talk off the record?”

  Both Pavo and Aurelia fiddled with their helmets.

  “Almost seven years ago, someone arranged for a sabotaged detonator to fall into her hands. They rigged it to go off instantly when the countdown was triggered.”

  Aurelia glared at nothing in particular. “You found out who did it?”

  “No. Gen got a hold of a data tile she thought contained sensitive information about someone high up on the food chain in the Front. Before she could decrypt it, boom. I… we all thought she was dead. I found her in Araphel, hiding. She’s got horrible luck, so she always triple checks everything. She found the sabotage when she tested the detonator. She faked her own death thinking our commander was trying to k
ill her.”

  “Maris?” asked Pavo. “Didn’t Tamashī say Garrison was the one who’d met… Oh shit. You’re looking for Heitzenroeder, aren’t you?”

  Risa sipped her coffee. “Yeah. It wasn’t Maris, and it wasn’t Garrison. The trail’s cold. He’s all I got left.”

  “That son of a bitch tried to kill Genny?” Aurelia fumed.

  “Genny?” asked Risa and Pavo at the same time.

  “Shut up.” Aurelia grumbled.

  Pavo swung his left arm up in front of himself and typed on his forearm guard. In a few seconds, the holographic head of a thin man in his early thirties appeared with short blond-tipped hair that darkened toward the roots, and piercing ice-blue eyes. Between the glint in his stare and cocky, smirking grin, he practically dared the planet to get in his way. A shading of black tattoos crept out of the neckline of his shirt. A second Defense Force booking image showed him shirtless, a tattoo of raven’s wings across his shoulders.

  “He’s off the grid. No official record or legal name,” said Pavo. “Heitzenroeder, as he is known among certain circles, is believed to be a native of Earth who emigrated to Mars at an unknown age. Defense Force intel is fairly limited on him up until he emerged as the figurehead of a gang known as the Jesters.”

  Risa blinked. “The Jesters?”

  “Yep.” Two taps of Pavo’s finger dispelled the image of the man, replacing it with text too small for her to read backwards. “His crew blurs the line between street gang and criminal enterprise. They’re nowhere near as widespread as the Syndicate, and they’re a lot more organized and armed than your run-of-the-mill gang. Still, they’re a lot closer to thugs than anything.”

  “Sounds like I need to pay this guy a short visit.” Risa took another sip. “As soon as I finish this. It’s too good to rush. So where is he?”

  “I didn’t know you liked chai,” said Aurelia, raising an eyebrow.

  Risa shrugged. “Never had it before, but I’ve had three cups of coffee already today.”