Silver Shark (Kinsmen Series)

by Ilona Andrews

  "Open," she said.

  The door swung open, and Tonya and the man in his forties bowed, letting the older one through the door first. Claire wiped her hands on the kitchen towel and walked up to greet them.

  The older man examined her, taking her measure. Age whitened his hair, and he walked leaning on a cane, by the eyes that looked at her from under the thick eyebrows remained sharp. He was carrying a satchel. The other man hovered protectively over him. She didn't recognize either of them.

  Tonya approached. "Retainer Shannon, we are sorry to call on you so early in the morning, but our need is great. This is Doreem Nagi, our Building Elder, and Charles Monn."

  Claire inclined her head, touching her forehead in a sign of respect. "Thank you for looking after my mother."

  Doreem nodded to her.

  "We seek your help," Tonya said.

  "Please sit down." Claire led them to the couches. Everyone took a seat.

  Charles reached into his shirt and pulled out a small tablet. On it an image of a blond teenage boy glowed. The boy's face wore the familiar Uley expression: a flat mask, betraying nothing.

  "This is Edu," Charles said. "He's fourteen."

  The image slid, turning into a portrait of a teenage girl. "Lada."

  Another image, another child. "Karim."

  "They are children from our building, refugees like us," Tonya said.

  "They got into a fight at school," Charles said. "With some local kids. One of the local boys involved claimed that his dagger was stolen in the commotion. The dagger was found on the boy's desk the next day with a broken blade. The dagger is a family heirloom. The school is willing to overlook the fight, but the child's family is upset."

  "The security forces took the dagger," Tonya added. "For trace testing."

  "The children were questioned," Charles said. "None of the three is admitting to theft and neither are they denying it. They aren't speaking to authorities."

  It was a familiar tactic: when in trouble, say nothing. "I see."

  "If traces of their DNA are found on the dagger, they will be charged with theft and destruction of property. The charge violates their probation. The children will be taken from their families and deported," Charles said.

  "Did they steal the dagger?" Claire asked.

  "Yes," Doreem said. "Edu took it to punish the other child. Edu is my grandson. Karim and Lada helped."

  "I see."

  "We've offered to make reparation to the boy's family," Charles said. "In exchange for dropping the inquest. They declined."

  "We ask you to..." Tonya fell silent and glanced at Charles. They looked at their hands, uncomfortable.

  "We need your help," he said. "The results of the testing must be negative."

  "You want me to log into the bionet and alter the trace analysis?"

  "Yes." Tonya exhaled.

  Claire leaned back. The Security Forces Database would be under a layered protection protocol of at least level three or higher. Cutting into it would be a nightmare.

  "You are asking me to break into a security installation. It will be very well protected. There are defenses to be overcome. The precise manipulation of data will require time. It's a lot harder to alter data than to erase it."

  "We've collected credits," Charles said. "From the families. We will gladly pay -"

  He saw the look on her face and clamped his mouth shut.

  "We have insulted you," Doreem said. His sharp eyes stabbed at her. "We ask forgiveness."

  "Apologies," Charles bowed his head.

  They thought that because she had left the building, she wouldn't understand. They thought she only cared about money. She understood. Every refugee from the building had conspired to save the children. That's what a community did in times of trouble.

  "Please continue," Charles asked.

  "Think of the data as being guarded by a pack of dogs," Claire said. "The AI defenses. If the pack sees me, they will attack and bark all together, making a lot of noise. This noise will bring men with guns, the actual psychers. To be able to do what you ask me to do, I will need help. I will need decoys that will draw the pack away from me."

  "We have people," Charles said. "They are not combat-grade, but they can move through the bionet."

  "They are utility repair people." Tonya said. "They used to check the bionet installations for the failing sectors."

  Low-level psychers, with the mental talent too slight to be affected by the PPP. She'd encountered their type on the bionet before: they could move through it but they had never fought on it.

  Claire sighed. "If we're discovered, every person involved will be deported. The children may survive. We will not. Melko will murder all of us."

  "We understand," Charles said. "I'm one of those who will be going in with you. We can't do anything more than run, but we'll risk ourselves for the children. We will do everything we can to help you. If you choose to do this."

  In her mind Claire was back in her mother's apartment, sitting by the bed, holding her mother's hand. The medic had given her less than twenty-four hours, and Intelligence permitted her this last visitation. She remembered everything in crystal clear detail. The dark spray of black marks on her mother's face. The smile on her mother's lips. Her mother's hair, clean and braided away from her face. Her mother's voice. "I'm content, sweetheart. I'm tired, and it's time to go. Don't cry. I didn't suffer. They say the passing will be peaceful."

  Logging into bionet meant risking everything. Her job. Her life. Other lives she took with her.

  The debt had to be repaid. If she succeeded, she would give three children another chance at life. If she failed...

  She had to succeed.

  "When was the dagger taken for testing?"

  "Last night," Charles answered.

  "What time last night?"

  "At the end of the school day," Tonya said.

  "Take the credits you gathered and rent a large hotel room in the largest hotel you can find," she said. "If asked, tell them you are having a meeting to welcome new refugees in the community. If not asked, say nothing. Pick someone who can pass for a native and have them purchase a portable liquid interface hub, Grade Five or higher. We will need the bionet cognizance units as well. If asked why, say that you are planning a game party on the bionet. We will need a medic and we will need protection for our bodies while we're logged in. Don't involve anyone who can't be trusted to stay quiet. This needs to be done tonight, before the lab personnel return to work on Monday."

  *** *** ***

  Claire walked down the polished tile of Hotel Aldebaran's sixteenth floor hallway. Charles had chosen well - the three towers of Aldebaran catered to businessmen and families. People strolled back and forth, parents with children heading toward the hotel's pools, tourists going out to explore the city. Nobody paid her any mind.

  She approached the door marked 1672 and rapped her knuckles on the plasti-steel. It swung open and Charles let her inside. The suite's main room was wide and devoid of furniture. A three-foot tall hub sat in the middle of the room, an ornate metal pedestal in a shape of three nude women, each supporting the container of dark-grey liquid interface with her left hand and fondling herself with the right.

  Claire raised her eyebrows.

  "It was on sale," Charles said.

  Doreem sat in the lone chair in the corner. He nodded to her. To the left of him stood a young man with a strong resemblance to Karim, one of the children in trouble.

  "Kosta," Charles said. "He's Karim's brother and one of your team."

  Kosta looked barely eighteen.

  "This is Zinaida," Charles said, bowing slightly to an older woman with startling blue eyes. She nodded back.

  "Nonna." A young nervous woman with pale brown hair.

  "Saim." Charles pointed at a thin dark-skinned man in his early twenties.

  "Mittali." A young woman with very dark hair and light olive skin.

  "This is our medic." A blond man in his mid-
thirties raised his hand from the portable medi-bot. "Tonya will be assisting him."

  Tonya inclined her head.

  "Thomas, Sergei, and Helen will watch over us while we're under."

  The two men and a woman raised their hands.

  They had brought everything she'd asked for. Claire took the bag off her shoulder, removed her sandals, and sat on the rug before the hub. "Join me."

  The five members of her team sat in a circle around the hub.

  "How many times have you connected?" she asked.

  "Seventeen," Charles said.

  "Twenty-two," Zinaida said.

  "Eight," Saim said.

  "Eight also," Mittali added.

  "Four," Nonna said.

  "Twice," Kosta said.

  "Any connections in the hostile environment?"

  No answer. She had expected as much.

  "Bionet can be overwhelming," Claire said. "However, our minds do their best to cope by transforming it into a familiar environment. Our mind interprets things for us and you must listen to your instincts. If something gives you a bad feeling, it's likely a trap. If you see a monster, it's likely an AI defense or an enemy psycher. You will see strange things on the bionet. Creatures that grow blades. Plants that shoot lightning. You must remember to trust your instincts. If something feels dangerous, it is. Be afraid and be cautious, and you will survive."

  "But how do we fight?" Kosta asked.

  "You don't. I will take care of the fighting." Claire smiled gently. "Your mission is different. There are two types of threats on bionet: passive and active. Passive threats are the AI defenses. They remain dormant until an intruder appears. Active threats are psychers like us, humans who patrol the bionet. They are the greatest danger. You will know them because they may look very frightening or appear out of place. For example, if you perceive bionet as a grassy plain and you see a medium-size predator running at you, it's likely an AI defense. If you see a bovine the size of a house that's sprouting tentacles and tusks, it's likely an psycher."

  Claire paused to make sure she had their attention. "If you see a psycher, do not engage. He will kill you. If you see one, and he gives chase, you must run away as fast as you can and disconnect as soon as you are able. Remember, you can only disconnect within a short distance of the hub. Don't be afraid to lead a psycher to the hub. We will destroy it after the mission. Do you understand?"

  Heads nodded.

  "It's highly likely that you may see me as something terrifying as well. During the mission, I may change my shape in reaction to threats. Don't be alarmed."

  "Will you grow tentacles and tusks?" Saim asked, with a hint of humor in his eyes.

  "If I have to. We will be going into a secure sector; however, a security forces laboratory is unlikely to have an active defense. It doesn't contain any of the financial or valuable data hacker psychers usually want, so there is no need for a psycher to actively control it. The laboratory will have passive defenses instead. There are three types. First, the loop traps. These are bionet connections designed to lock a mind into a loop in an effort to keep it from reaching its destination. People typically see these as quick sand, swamp, iced over water, and so on. If you are caught in a loop, do not panic. Clear your mind and imagine yourself escaping. If that doesn't work, picture falling through the trap and landing by the hub. That usually initiates the expelling protocol. You will land by the hub and will have to log off.

  "The second type of trap is the damage events. Falling rocks, geysers of molten lava, mud slides, and so on. These are the coded defenses. They will activate when triggered but they have a limited range. If you are caught in one of these, you will take damage. Sometimes severe damage. Your mind may develop lesions or become 'bruised.' You may see something that looks like a glowing worm or a tangle of luminescent threads. Sometimes the world will abruptly darken or become too bright to see the objects. If you experience visual anomalies after a damage event, you must tell me immediately. Remember that your range is shorter than mine. I can broadcast my thoughts from a large distance, which means you will hear me but I may not hear you. If you take damage and I do not respond, you must log off as soon as possible."

  She waited for everyone to nod.

  "The third type of traps are the chasers. The chasers are the defense entities produced by the AI. They are usually perceived as something alive: dogs, insects, sharks. The chasers will actively pursue you. If a large number of the chasers are destroyed, the AI will sound the perimeter alarm, which will bring a living psycher responsible for the security of the sector on our heads. This is something we want to avoid at all costs."

  "Why?" Saim asked. "I mean can't you just fight him or her off?"

  "Right now all of us are guilty of conspiring to alter data. It is a non-violent offense," Claire said. "If we confront a psycher, I may have to kill her. Terminating a human mind of a Rada citizen is a death sentence for everyone in this room."

  Sudden silence claimed the room.

  Claire was the first to break it. "This is why I need you. Your purpose is to follow me until we encounter chasers. As soon as chasers find us, each of you must engage one of them and lead them away. You must scatter and take them with you to keep the AI from sounding the alarm. You don't have to fight. You just have to run and keep them occupied to let me accomplish my task without having to destroy them. Even if all you do is make circles around the hub, as long as they are following you, I will be able to do everything I need to do."

  "How will we know when you're done and it's safe to log off?" Charles asked.

  "You will hear a signal. If you don't hear anything or if you become lost, don't worry, I will come and get you. One more thing: don't get bitten. We'll be facing Security Force chasers. Their bite will leave a mark on your mind. Eventually it will dissipate - usually in a few weeks - but until then if you log into the bionet, anyone there with you will instantly know that you've tried to break the law. If you are unsure, now is the time to take a step back."

  Nonna swallowed and got up. "I'm sorry. I can't. I just can't."

  "It's alright," Claire told her. "Nobody here will judge you. It's fine."

  The young woman backed out of the circle and went into the other room.

  "Anyone else?"

  Nobody moved.

  "We're ready," Charles said.

  Claire took a deep breath and began to dismantle the shell over her mind.

  Five minutes later the last vestiges of the shell crumbled in her mind. It felt unbelievable. It felt as if she had been carrying a heavy burden, and chained to it for so long, she had forgotten it was there. Now it was gone. Claire felt light, so indescribably light.... Her mind soared like a bird, stretching, touching her team's minds, establishing a link.

  The five stared at her.

  "Wow," Kosta whispered.

  Claire sent a focused thought. "Lay down and try to relax."

  "I've heard that before," Mittali murmured.

  Saim laughed nervously.

  They lay on their backs, their heads toward the hub. Tonya approached, carrying bionet cognizance units, half-bands of ornate, inert plastic, each sealed in its own transparent wrapper. Claire rose and approached Charles. "Are you ready?"

  He swallowed. "Yes."

  Claire took the first unit, tore the plastic sleeve, and pulled it out. The steel-colored half-band had three holes: a large oval space on the left and two oblong narrow openings on the right. A thin sheet of disposable plastic sheathed the inner side of the unit. Claire peeled it off, revealing adhesive underneath, carefully positioned the unit over the right half of Charles's forehead, just above the eye, and pressed it down. The plastic adhered to the skin. Charles clenched his teeth.

  "Relax." Claire dipped her fingers into the basin of liquid interface in the hub. The mix of metal and synthetic neurons nipped at her skin with sharp electric teeth.

  "Once you are in, don't move. Wait for me."

  She pulled the interface away from the
hub. It stretched in spider-thin strands from her hand. Claire touched Charles's skin, letting the interface drip into the first opening of the unit. The dark-grey liquid filled the hole in the plastic, forging connections through the skin. Claire touched the left opening, letting it fill, then the right. Charles blinked. The band ensured that connections were made to the right areas of the brain. The filaments of the interface thickened, as more liquid flowed from the hub, reinforcing the connection.

  Charles closed his eyes. His body straightened, aligning, and relaxed. He was in.

  Claire moved on to Zinaida.

  *** *** ***

  "Am I doing it right?" Tonya murmured.

  "You're fine," Claire said, feeling the prickling of the liquid interface at it filled the last opening in the cognizance unit. "Thank you."

  She closed her eyes. Darkness flowed over her, as the synthetic neurons made connections with her mind. She lunged down a dark circular tunnel, faster and faster. She had done this thousands of times over the years and she knew what awaited her on the other end - sometimes it was a bleak cliff or severe steppe, but in the past two years it had been the dark forest, uniform tree trunks and pale green leaves.

  She welcomed it. She yearned for it. She missed the chase, the thrill of the battle, the infinite possibilities the bionet offered. It probably said volumes about the hypocrisy of her morals, but in this moment Claire didn't care.

  Light exploded and she landed, falling into a practiced crouch.

  The ground under her was intense, shocking green. Bright yellow flowers, their petals thin and long, all but glowed in the silky grass. Claire raised her head.

  Jungle breathed at her. Tall grasses with blade-shaped silvery leaves surrounded dark bushes, their foliage splaying out in wide rosettes. A patch of hair-thin stalks tipped by lavender crests of petals thrust through the spaces between wide oyster-shell plants, the inside of their leaves a blinding turquoise. Massive trees, a dozen meters wide, thrust to the sky, spreading their crown so high above, looking at them made her dizzy. Vines dripped from their branches in thick ropes, bearing large blossoms with triangular petals of deepest crimson. Ferns coiled by the thick roots. Emerald green moss cushioned the bark, interrupted by bubbles of some orange-red plants and ridges of lemon-yellow mushrooms.