Deep Core

by F X Holden

  “So he can keep this job, I really appreciate it.”

  “Seriously, it’s OK, he’s a good guy.”

  “Si. And he wants to pay you back for everything you do for him, but this thing he has with you right now, this Capitol trip. He can’t keep doing that AJ.”

  “I understand Maria,” AJ said. “It was his idea, not mine.”

  “I know, he told me,” Maria said. “His heart is good. But whatever this is, he doesn’t tell me, but whatever this is, it makes him sick. You have no idea.”

  AJ thought about Leon in the Capitol, talking fast, hyper-vigilant, pulling a knife on a couple of people coming out of a diner. Yeah, maybe I do know, he thought. But he said, “You’re right. But we’re done.”

  “Good.”

  “It wasn’t anything criminal, Maria,” AJ said hurriedly.

  “OK, good. He wouldn’t tell me.”

  “No, I get that, I get you were probably worried, but it was just a personal problem. It’s sorted out now, so you tell him just to look after himself.”

  She sighed, “He took a big tranq. I can’t tell him nothing today, but when I can, I will.”

  “Hey look,” AJ said. “I know he paid for his own flight to the Capitol. I offered to pay but he wouldn’t…”

  “It’s OK,” Maria said. “But thank you. He wanted to do this for you. The money is alright.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Sure.”

  She said goodbye and cut the call. AJ tapped his earbud to power it down, and then paused, remembered Leon warned him it was probably being intercepted. Had he said anything? Well, he’d confirmed Leon had been in the Capitol, if they didn’t already know that. But what else? OK, he had told her it wasn’t something criminal, and that it was over as far as he was concerned. If they heard that, they’d be happy, right? It was what he was supposed to be thinking. That Winter and McMaster were on the case, and they would work with the family to ‘manage’ Warnecke into a better facility.

  AJ took his hand away from his earbud. Maybe Leon being away a couple days was a good thing. He wouldn’t be around, hyping the situation up. AJ could just let it flow, and it would probably, hopefully, resolve itself. After all, it would soon be mid-morning and he was still alive. Power of positive thinking, AJ, he told himself. The rain comes before the rainbow.

  Then he looked down and saw the new chapter of the manuscript about the FO Exploit and realized he wasn’t back in the flow just yet.

  AJ decided the best way to deal with Winter and Warnecke and McMaster was to stay alert, but not panic. He focused on running his Farley research in the background, extrapolating from this latest information, while in the foreground he was doing the job at Sol Vista he was paid to do. He covered five residences by two o’clock, and plugged a leaking eave in The Hub. He hit two more apartments in the late afternoon, so he was pretty much up to date with the maintenance program even with Leon being away. He managed not to cross paths with Warnecke before he clocked off either, which was a bonus.

  He called Cassie, but for whatever reason, decided not to tell her about the latest document under his door. It was more fun talking shit and planning their long weekend trip.

  “You need more pillion time on the planer, get you to loosen up a bit,” Cassie teased him. “You want to head up the coast this Friday night? I thought maybe we could hit Kwethluk by about nine p.m., find somewhere to stay. Is there surf up there?”

  “No sea gate,” he said. “But there’s a lake outside the dome, we could go ice yachting. We should bring the decks, there’s probably something skateable in Kwethluk too.”

  “Cool, you book a place for us, or shall I?” she asked.

  “I can book it,” he offered. “But, like, you want your own room or…”

  “Seriously? AJ, I just asked you to come away with me for a romantic weekend. You think I want separate rooms?”

  “No. Right,” he said.

  That night he pushed through the whole night on a hormone boost, staying in a drift state while he worked the Farley thing, trying to recreate the man’s thinking for himself from the fragments Farley had included in other papers. He’d even explored a theory that the text itself might be hiding encrypted code. It took several hours just to eliminate that theory. So all he had were scenarios without probabilities – he was missing essential data. Even just a single new fragment of Q-code that Warnecke might have been working on would give him somewhere to start. At one point he found himself talking out loud to himself, just like a citizen might.

  “Just ask Warnecke you fool, the manuscript says he has more proof!”

  “And let him know we’re working on this? He’ll shoot himself! Worse, he’ll shoot us!”

  The next morning at work, the first residence he called at had a dead dishwasher, so he had to pull it out, check if he could fix it (he couldn’t) and book a tech to assist. Shaking his head - like why did they need to put a damn quantum processor in every appliance these days? It was a dishwasher FFS, not the in-flight computer for an interstellar freighter. Then he decided to check the automated watering system for leaks.

  A lot of residents were out enjoying the garden and most wanted a chat. AJ didn’t mind, he needed the distraction. It was a nice day. So of course, it was no surprise he rounded a corner and saw Warnecke there. He paused. Warnecke hadn’t seen him yet, was standing looking around the garden like he was trying to find something or someone. The last time, when he had pulled his gun, he had it tucked into the waistband behind his back. AJ could see it wasn’t there today, and he wasn’t holding it. What the hell, he couldn’t avoid the guy in a place a small as Sol Vista. He took a big breath and preloaded an adrenaline kick just in case. Let’s see where this goes.

  “Hey Citizen Warnecke,” he said as he walked up behind him. “You lost something, or someone?”

  He was expecting Warnecke’s usual bitter reply, but the guy turned around, and looked a little sheepish. “Well, I don’t know. Sorry, I forgot your name?”

  “AJ,” AJ said, sticking out his hand. “Were you looking for me?”

  Warnecke was wringing his hands, and then seemed to realize he was, and stuck them in his pockets. “I don’t know. It’s embarrassing. Look, I have this project I’m working on. I think I brought some of it in here with me yesterday – a chapter of it - but I can’t remember. I vaguely recall I was looking for you?”

  “You left me a chapter,” AJ said. “Yesterday.” He decided he wouldn’t mention the first part of the manuscript Warnecke gave him, just the latest, because Winter had the first part. He couldn’t give that back. But it looked like he had a chance here to give the new chapter back to Warnecke. He’d cached it, so he didn’t need it anymore.

  “Oh, right,” Warnecke said, a little relieved. “I thought I meant to bring it over here, but then I couldn’t…” He tapped his head, annoyed at himself. No, not annoyed, the guy looked distressed.

  “Don’t worry,” AJ said automatically, “We all forget stuff. I’ve got it.”

  “Right… can I have it back?” Warnecke asked.

  “Yeah, it’s in my workshop,” AJ said, pointing up the path. When they got there, he stepped past Warnecke and opened the door, “Come on in. You want a coffee? I only got pseudo, but if you want some…” AJ relaxed a little. This time with Warnecke it was going the right way for once.

  Warnecke followed him in, looking around like it was the first time he’d been there.

  “Take a seat,” AJ said, pointing at Leon’s chair. “Coffee? You take sweetener, whitener?”

  “Sure. No, just black thanks,” Warnecke said, clearly looking for the page he’d left.

  AJ turned on the water heater and then reached up to the shelf where he’d put Warnecke’s document. He took down the page, peeled Warnecke’s note off it, and handed it back to him. Warnecke rolled it open and flicked through it.

  “This is all?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” AJ said, leaning forward to look at it, �
�That’s what came under the door yesterday. It’s yours, right?” AJ felt bad play acting like that, but Warnecke was offering him a way out of this latest dilemma so he was taking it.

  “Yes, it’s just…”

  “Yeah?”

  The old guy’s eyes teared up. He was suddenly not the gruff old man with a grudge against the world. He was a confused old man who seemed to have lost his place in it. He patted the page with one hand. “This… this is so important. This project. It’s why I came to this place … to try to finish it. Before I lose it, lose myself,” he said. “For his memory. Nothing else matters.”

  AJ made him a coffee and handed it to him. Warnecke took the cup with one hand, not letting go of the page with the other.

  “OK, I get it,” AJ said. “It’s important to you.”

  Warnecke looked at him, or through him. The hand holding the coffee cup was shaking.

  “No, you don’t get it,” he said. “I know I’m losing my marbles. I finished this too late. Way too late. I have to get it done, I need to get it done, and he has to…” Warnecke looked fierce now. “I have to get it out. And he has to face what we did. People deserve to know…”

  “This would be Congressman Winter?” AJ asked.

  “Winter! Yeah, he … he …” Warnecke ground to a halt. “I remember now. You work for him! I asked you to take this to him. I gave you … his private ID, right?” He was jabbing a finger in the air at AJ. “Have you done it? Have you told him?”

  AJ wasn’t fazed, “I don’t work for Congressman Winter. This is the second time you gave me a document for him. As a favor to you, I did take the first document to him. He said he’d get in touch with you about it.” AJ pointed at the document in Warnecke’s quivering hand. “I haven’t done anything except read that one, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

  Warnecke looked confused again, “He said he’d contact me?” He tapped his earbud and stared unfocused at a wall, then back at AJ. “He hasn’t. No one called me.”

  “I’m sorry,” AJ said. “I did what you asked.”

  Warnecke put his head in his hands, “I don’t understand. How can he … did you read them?” He waved the document, “This one? The one you gave Winter? Did you read them?”

  AJ turned back to the boiling water, thinking, OK, how far down this rabbit hole should I go? “I think I’ll have a coffee too,” AJ said, buying himself some time. He reached for a cup, set it out and spooned in the coffee while the water boiled, then poured himself a cup, Warnecke sitting impatiently, frowning. Gave himself some whitener.

  “I read both documents,” AJ said. “It’s intriguing stuff.”

  “Intriguing? It’s earth-shattering!” Warnecke exclaimed. He took a slug of his coffee. “I’m talking Core Death and you say ‘intriguing’? My friend, he was a quantum programmer, he had this theory, right? Amazing idea, breakthrough stuff. But he never got to take it all the way – he died. So I took it one step further. I made it work. It changes everything,”

  AJ leaned back, “Core death, you say?” he asked.

  “Don’t patronize me,” Warnecke snapped, back to form. Then he softened again. “You think I’m spouting nonsense.”

  AJ pulled his thoughts together. Scientific curiosity was starting to gnaw at him. Drop it AJ! he told himself. Do Not Engage. “Not at all. But this is between you and the Congressman,” AJ said. “I’m just a maintenance tech, Citizen Warnecke. Not a cop. Not hired security. Unless you have a stuck door or a defunct scrubber, I really can’t help you.”

  “OK, OK,” Warnecke said, looking at AJ, then away, then back again. “Let’s say I believe you. Let’s say I was just a resident here, asking a favor.”

  “I already did…”

  “Another favor,” he said quickly. “A small one.” He flapped the document he’d put under the door. “I’m having a hard time pulling this together.” He sounded frustrated. “It’s all written, but it needs a second set of eyes on it, someone to edit it. I been staring at it so long, I’m going blind.”

  “I don’t know,” AJ said. “You spoke about a crime a while ago. I don’t want to get involved in anything.”

  “Please!” the old man pleaded. “I’m out of time…” he looked at AJ, a desperate look in his eyes. “I need to get a distributable copy ready. Before my mind is completely gone.”

  “Look…” AJ said. He realized his curiosity was getting the better of him. On the one hand, he’d told Winter and Leon and Cassie he just wanted to get out from the middle of all this. On the other hand, he was being sucked in by the mystery of it all, could feel the guy’s pain, and feel himself being drawn in deeper.

  “It’s important,” Warnecke said. “You’ll see why, when you read it all. Not just to me, it’s important to … everyone. I can’t do it alone. You’ll help me, right?”

  AJ had a dozen alternative responses queued and then stood outside himself realizing they weren’t needed. It wasn’t complicated. There was a door open here, and he could shut it, or he could walk through it.

  “Sure,” AJ told him. “I can try to help you. When I’m done with work today.”

  “Why not now?” Warnecke asked, “This can’t wait…”

  “Sorry,” AJ said firmly. He wanted time to reconsider, in case this was a dumb idea. Run a risk analysis on his whole situation now he had his full bandwidth back. Maybe throw it around with Leon. “We are a guy down, probably for the rest of the week, at least. Look, I’ll come by your place tonight, when I get a chance, but it won’t be before the end of the day.”

  Warnecke wasn’t happy, but at least he had a promise. “Alright, but don’t leave it too late,” he said, sounding genuinely worried. “Every damn hour that goes by, another marble falls to the floor.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” AJ told him, taking his empty cup from him. “You drop ‘em, we pick ‘em up for you.” He pointed at Warnecke’s earbud. “Dictate yourself a reminder, so you don’t get surprised when I come knocking.”

  He made some house calls and cleaned some tools, killing a few hours while he thought it through. Call Leon? No, he’d just make AJ even more paranoid about Winter. You go in there AJ, look at that manuscript, there’s no going back. You don’t and you’ll live your life not knowing if maybe, just maybe, there was some truth in Warnecke’s wild claims. What if you walked into Warnecke’s place and there it all was, Farley’s basic research, his code, all of it, and this threat of Core Death was suddenly real. You’re going to just ignore that?

  His risk analysis threw up a few hundred scenarios and rated them with probabilities – most were near zero, particularly any that implied Warnecke had managed to hack the Core. He set a threshold of 30 percent for scenarios that he should take seriously, and a special flag on any scenarios which ended in bodily harm, dismemberment or death for AJ.80966. None of those was currently above 18 percent so he decided to stick with his ‘don’t panic’ mindset. In fact, maybe he didn’t need to face Warnecke after all. He could ignore the guy, hope he forgot.

  But scientific curiosity won. And his bandwidth was near max, probably for the first and only time in his life. It was costing him dearly in lost income, so it was screaming at him to be put to use. It was a short walk to number 96. He didn’t need to knock, Warnecke had seen him approach but stood inside his door and looked at him skeptically. “Well, you took your time, but at least you showed.”

  “Nice to see you too again sir,” AJ said. A good start – at least it seemed he remembered their earlier conversation.

  Warnecke stepped aside to let AJ in. He kept the place clean and tidy between official cleaning visits, AJ could see that. So someone had house trained him.

  “You keep a nice house,” AJ said. “You married long?”

  “To the navy, yeah,” Warnecke said. “You keep things in their place, or you get your ass kicked, is how I learned.”

  “OK, you were in the navy. That’s where you learned mechanical engineering after university?” AJ said,
walking around looking at pictures. He hadn’t stayed long enough to poke around last time. A framed printed photo on a wall of Warnecke in his navy uniform, scowling at the camera. There was another middle-aged man in an Orkutsk Garrison uniform, with his arm around a woman, so he guessed that was the son who was off world right now. A picture of what looked like a young woman in icefields survival gear, goggles and breathing mask obscuring her face – the ‘loner’ daughter perhaps. And there were pictures of the two grandkids at various ages, and their partners. No great-grandkids that AJ could see. And there was also a small table with pictures of a woman he guessed must have been Warnecke’s wife. She went from young and rosy-cheeked to frail and exoskeleton bound in the pictures. AJ decided he’d save that question for another day. Being limited to only 30 years outside the Core had its advantages. Growing old must suck.

  “You done your homework,” Warnecke said.

  “Not really, you told me you were a Q-programmer like Congressman Winter, and your grandkids told me you were an engineer, on Planer teams,” AJ explained. “You helped me fix the scrubber the day you moved in.”

  “Sounds like me,” Warnecke allowed. “Even the cybers on those crews called me the Oracle, they tell you that?”

  “Your grandkids said,” AJ smiled. “You going to make me a coffee, or we just going to stand here getting dry throats?”

  Warnecke looked at him sly, “You don’t drink beer?”

  “Not at work,” AJ told him.

  “Well, you aint at work if you’re helping me with my project,” Warnecke said, going to his cooler. “So stop your coffee nonsense.” He pulled two beers from his cooler and handed one to AJ. Black Ice Porter. Of course. “Sit,” he commanded and pointed to his sofa, moving some old print books aside on his coffee table. Each one was probably worth a week’s salary for AJ.

  Warnecke disappeared into a back room, and came back with a stack of pages, already rolled out flat. Some were red striped, some green, some double white. It looked like they’d been shuffled by … well, shuffled by someone in distress. Warnecke slapped them down on the table next to his beer.