by Jaxon Reed
“Huh. That’s convenient for a criminal.”
“Come on, I want to install this on the meat packers’ building before sundown.”
-+-
They took Wilcox’s car and hopped over the short distance to hover over the meat packing plant.
Looking over the rooftop, Boggs said, “Nowhere to land down there, Sarge. Looks like their deliveries are all down on the street.”
Wilcox nodded. One small pad for parking was currently filled, most likely by the human supervisor’s vehicle, she thought. Every other part of the roof was styled in old school gables and tiles, canted sharply for rain runoff.
“Look at that,” Collier said, pointing. “What is that? A steeple? An antenna?”
Wilcox said, “I think it’s a lightning rod. That might be just the place, considering it’s even higher than the roof.”
“Let’s just hope a storm doesn’t come along and zap that thing out. Our technology guys will be ticked,” Collier said.
“I’m not climbing that thing,” Boggs said, preemptively.
Wilcox said, “You won’t have to. I think I can hover us nearby. Let me get closer.”
She carefully moved the car next to the thin rod rising above the roof. Wilcox stopped and held them motionless, then mentally overrode the car’s safety feature and popped the top.
A slight breeze blew this high up, but nothing too bad. She was able to hold the car steady.
“Take the camera and activate its magnet, Boggs. Attach it on top of the rod, and it’ll look like it belongs there.”
As Boggs carefully leaned out of his seat with the camera, Wilcox added, “And don’t drop it.”
“Are we sure this is legal?” Collier said.
Wilcox said, “What would be illegal about it?”
“I dunno. It’s surveillance, isn’t it?”
“It’s public surveillance. There’s no right to privacy in public.”
“But we’re using somebody else’s property to plant a camera.”
Wilcox shrugged.
She said, “There’s a certain latitude allowed in law enforcement. I’ll take the blame for it if we get in trouble.”
As they spoke, and unnoticed by anybody in their vehicle, a black sports car lifted off from a building several blocks away. It disappeared before heading into the city.
Boggs said, “Okay, I got it. It’s firmly attached.”
“Great,” Wilcox said. “Let’s go home and see what it catches.”
35
The great spaceport for Octavia, serving the needs of the Navy as well as civilian travel and imports, existed almost as a city unto itself.
It sat situated near Montplair, with the side closest to the giant naval headquarters city dedicated to military traffic. Sailors, Marines, food, medical and other supplies went up to the fleet in orbit, almost all if it teleported by PLAIR. On rare occasion, a transport would lift off and go up the old fashioned way.
The other half of the giant spaceport was devoted to traditional travel needs. Civilian passengers embarked and disembarked, going through decontamination before porting up to ships ready to take them to dozens of habitable worlds scattered throughout the Milky Way.
With the war’s end, the volume of traffic correspondingly decreased on the Navy’s side while increasing on the civilian’s. Once traffic routes were reestablished with both former and current League planets, the flow of goods and people entering and leaving Diego easily doubled and continued growing over time.
Spreading out from the civilian side like giant spider legs, air streams with dedicated cargo and passenger vehicles flew in and out.
Less expensive but still vital terrestrial traffic likewise entered loading areas via honeycombed streets and roadways before leaving along the same paths.
Concern since the war about decentralization led to the building of additional spaceports around the globe near other major cities on Diego.
Most planets maintained one spaceport for the simplicity of regulating one port of entry. All cargo and passengers would teleport down to one spot and go through customs and sanitization to ensure no outside organisms were brought into the ecosystem.
From that one point they could catch transportation to other spots on the globe. If they were sufficiently important enough, or they could afford the fee, many could choose terrestrial ports to instantly jump somewhere else on the world.
But the war with the League offered politicians and city planners an opportunity to witness firsthand what happens when a hostile fleet of warships shows up in orbit. A planet’s spaceport became one of the first things captured, as Boggs and Wilcox could attest having partaken in such missions themselves.
Someone in Parliament decided Diego should have at least four spaceports. That way if one were captured the others would still be operable.
In subsequent committee hearings, Naval planners and other experts calmly assured Members of Parliament that the number of spaceports on a planet did not really matter should an attack occur. With modern weaponry such as solar torpedoes, an entire planet’s infrastructure would be devastated instantly, no matter how spread out it was on the surface.
The MPs ignored the experts’ advice and authorized expenditures to build not four, but six additional spaceports around the globe.
However, in an ironic twist, PLAIR did not consider the additional spaceports very useful. The main one still sufficed in its dual role for military and civilian purposes. So far, she only ported cargo and humans to and from the other spaceports by request. If a passenger on a cruise liner for instance expressed no preference, PLAIR would port them down to Octavia and be done with it.
Octavia, with its tens of thousands of square kilometers, remained the heart of Diego. It was where most people wanted to go when visiting.
Floating in the air out of traffic and invisible, a lone sports car hovered on the civilian side of the giant spaceport.
“We’re looking for a loaded, solitary individual. They make the easiest marks,” Stormy said to the two men in her back seat.
“So what are we doing here?” Edge said, wiping down his heavy gun with a cloth. He could not see the weapon, but he could feel it. “Are we embarrassing the leadership or are we out to score more tokens?”
“Both. With this hit, we’ll be able to buy personal camo units for all three of us. After that, the sky’s the limit. We might even be able to get close enough to the Chancellor to take her out. Or whoever wins the election. Anyway, personal camo units are what we need.
“I have information that a Mr. Miani will be arriving tonight aboard the Pompadour. Miani is an importer. His business is purchasing things cheap on one planet and selling them at a profit on other planets.”
“A filthy capitalist,” Marx said. “He should give his money away instead of selling at a profit.”
“But then he wouldn’t have any more money, Marxie,” Edge protested.
Marx sniffed. He said, “You’re too stupid to understand. And I told you, I chose the name Marx in honor of Karl Marx, not Marxie. Stop calling me that.”
Edge had listened to several hours’ worth of rants by Marxie about the evils of capitalism, and he still did not fully understand why the smaller man considered that system of government to be so much better than others.
To him, capitalism was easy. Buy low, sell for a profit, take part of the money to live on and buy low again.
Marxism, with its tenants proscribing the individual accumulation of wealth and the dissemination of earnings from those who had it to those who did not, by force if necessary, did not sit well with Edge.
Granted, they were taking money they needed from the wealthy right now. But that was simple robbery. Government mandated robbery was another thing, as far as Edge could tell.
He had gone round and round with the other man on these points, and Marx was tired of explaining.
But, Edge did not appreciate being called stupid.
He said, “From what I can
tell, Marxism only serves to impoverish the people and centralize political power with a small group of elites.”
Marx glared at him, but of course no one could see anybody else since they were all invisible.
Down below a gaudily dressed man exited the main civilian doorway for the spaceport and looked around, gathering his bearings.
Stormy said, “There he is. Rich people like to travel in silk purple suits like that. He’ll be taking an autocab soon. Let’s go.”
She swooped down in the invisible car and entered the spaceport’s perimeter.
Unbeknownst to the car’s occupants, a host of alarms sounded inside the spaceport’s control center when they closed in.
36
In the Parliamentary battle over the funding of new spaceports around Diego, one MP managed to add a rider on the bill that eventually passed.
Gwendolyn Kumar’s district included most of Plairmont. She reasoned that if the Republic was going to spend so much money building new spaceports, they should also invest heavily in security upgrades to the main one. This was especially critical, she argued, since the spaceport served a dual military and civilian purpose.
Her amendment passed out of committee and later was approved by all of Parliament. The bill was signed by Chancellor Cole, and the additional improved security measures for Octavia’s spaceport were implemented simultaneously with the construction of new facilities elsewhere on the planet.
Thus, when Stormy guided her sports car across the Octavia Intragalactic Spaceport’s outer boundaries, a batch of sensors designed to detect vehicles including those cloaked while using camo units lit up in warning.
Bob Perkins, Head of Security, jerked up in his chair as the holoboard in his small office deep under the civilian passenger gates came to life, flashing red.
He had dark brown hair with auburn traces, and was in his late 40s. His skin was lighter than it should be because he rarely saw any sun, spending most of his time underground.
PLAIR’s voice emitted from a speaker in the ceiling as klaxons sounded elsewhere.
“Security breach. A camouflaged vehicle has entered the spaceport’s airspace. Security breach.”
Perkins said, “Okay. Okay. Uh . . . what’s going on? Why would a camo . . . wait a minute. I bet it’s that Black Goggles Gang. Okay, shut the entire port down, both sides, PLAIR.”
“Will do, Director Perkins.”
Throughout the vast building, lights flashed red. All doors leading in and out swished shut and locked. Passengers looked around in confusion. Ports up to orbiting ships, as well as ports down, halted. The entire complex paused in all its normal functions.
“Sensors indicate the vehicle has landed, Director Perkins.”
“Okay, okay. Thanks, PLAIR. Uh, they can’t get inside, can they?”
This was Perkins’s first time to face an external threat such as this, in five years of working security for the spaceport.
In addition, it was the first time the new enhanced sensors had sounded a warning while on his watch. He felt uncomfortable since this sort of thing had never happened before, at least not while he was around.
PLAIR said, “That is correct, Director Perkins. However, armed assailants can still threaten passengers outside the terminals.”
The AI, meanwhile, had calculated the odds at 87 percent that this was the same group that had threatened civilians previously in the city.
Additional calculations suggested a strong possibility of trouble even if this turned out to be a different group. No one entered restricted airspace invisibly without ill intentions, as far as her programming was concerned.
She said, “I strongly suggest we divert available guard bots to the main entrance. I will leave some inside but we need to address the exterior threat with superior force, based on factors involved in prior incidents.”
“Okay. Sure. Okay.”
Perkins felt superfluous. PLAIR did not need him, just like she did not really need a pilot for the ships she guided through the stars on interstellar teleportation jumps.
But for the sake of a human backup, and having a set of human eyes and ears onsite, and a human mind to make human decisions when life and death were on the line, jobs like his persisted.
For that, he was grateful. Serving as Director of Security for a facility important enough to be guarded by PLAIR herself paid the bills and let him raise a family in a comfortable suburb outside the main city.
Few serious incidents had occurred during his tenure, and for that he felt grateful as well. However, this could easily become the most serious of them all.
He gulped.
A large unmarked door in the hallway near the main entrance swished open, and the spaceport’s small army of guard bots tromped out. They held blaster rifles close to their chests, aimed up at an angle.
These were the fearsome X99s, proven battle worthy and hard to destroy. Everyone on the concourse scrambled to get out of their way.
Again, MP Kumar was responsible for the added expense of adding upgraded guard bots for the big spaceport.
In her speech to Parliament on the bill, Kumar said, “If we are going to secure OIS, it needs to be fully secure. And for that, we need the latest in guard bots.”
Most on the committee nodded. The additional expenditure was approved, because without her support the entire bill was jeopardized. The MPs who stood to get brand new spaceports built in their own districts were more than willing to authorize additional funds for upgraded security in Octavia’s.
Thanks to MP Kumar, a phalanx of guard bots representing the very latest in Republican technology marched through the corridors of the spaceport, heading toward the main entrance.
At the same time, the Black Goggles Gang exited their invisible car, armed with heavy rifles and missile launchers.
They appeared suddenly, becoming fully visible the minute they stepped out from under the sports car’s canopy.
Stormy pointed at Miani some 50 meters away, who stared back at them in bewilderment along with other passengers waiting for autocabs.
“You there! Drop your bag!”
To help emphasize her point, Edge opened fire on the crowd, sending people screaming as they ran or dropped to the ground.
ThuppaThuppaThuppaThuppa!
Not to be outdone, Marx stepped in front of Edge and opened fire with his own rifle.
ThuppaThuppa!
The main doors swished open and a dozen X99s ran out, four abreast. They were followed by a dozen more. Then another dozen.
Instantly they homed in on the threat: three individuals with heavy weaponry, spraying the crowd with fire.
The first four in front aimed and shot back with uncanny precision.
Thoop! Thoop! Thoop! Thoop!
Marx’s body jerked as the bolts slammed into him, burning holes through his chest and head.
Residual fire popped through his corpse and hit Edge. He grunted and fell to the ground injured.
Stormy jumped back into the car under the cover of invisibility.
“Get in!”
Edge looked up over Marx’s body at the rapidly approaching X99s. He reached for his heavy gun, dropped in the fire.
Thoop!
A bolt bounced off the downed weapon.
“Leave it!” Stormy said. “Get in!”
He crouched and sprang into the car, landing hard in the back seat and splattering blood.
Stormy pulled out an incineration grenade, tossing it from the car and onto Marx’s body.
Thoom!
The corpse burst into flames.
She closed the canopy and shot up into the sky, invisible to the X99s down below.
37
Wilcox landed her car on top of the Phantom’s building in Eastside. She popped the top and exited along with Boggs and Collier.
On the way inside, her implant flashed in her mind’s eye.
She activated the neural net connection and said, “What’s up, Boss?”
Fonte
neaux said, “Turn on the news. Our friends were at it again at the spaceport, but they didn’t get very far this time.”
Walking in, Wilcox made a motion in the air and the holo came on. An artificial anchor excitedly reported on the latest events.
“Authorities believe these were members of the Black Goggle Gang. One was killed instantly by security droids at the spaceport firing back on their position. We warn you, the images you are about to see might be disturbing . . .”
“Alright,” Wilcox said. “We installed a rooftop camera giving us a view of the entire area. We ought be able to figure out which building they’re using.”
“They’ll probably come flying in while using the camo unit.”
“Right. But, they have to get out of the car at some point. Anyway, we’ll see what we can see.”
“Okay. Lots of agents are heading to the airport, but I’ll redirect some to Eastside for you, just in case.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey Sarge! You should see this!”
“Hold on,” Wilcox said.
Boggs pointed to a holo connected to the 360 degree camera on the meat packer’s plant.
He said, “A door opened on the roof of that building for no reason. It’s closing now.”
Collier said, “That’s big enough for a car.”
Wilcox said, “Hey, Boss. I think we’ve got something. We’re going to check it out. I’m sending over the address.”
“Got it. I will direct an additional 20 agents to that building. They are en route. I’ll also alert OPD and get you some uniforms over there.”
-+-
“So years ago, back in the old days . . .” Desmond McNeese said.
