by M. D. Cooper
That was the beauty of knowing some of the dirty little ins and outs about the corporate environment. She knew exactly which weaknesses to exploit.
Okay. Time to get to work.
Reece keyed in multiple searches, one right after the other, letting them all run simultaneously. She searched for all the names in question, from Sage to Nizhoni, and even the Wimzer guy Sage had expressed such distaste for. She also searched for terms like “alcohol,” “whiskey,” and “distillery.”
Then she compressed all three hundred and twenty-eight contracts and exported them onto an external device without accessing any of them.
Even if someone noticed unusual activity, which they wouldn’t because of Trey’s subterfuge, and the fact that she’d done it on-site, the nature of the activity would remain unknown.
She wasn’t out of the woods yet. Each of those files had a tracker in it, designed to send up an alert if the file was opened from an offsite location. She’d have to deal with that before she could review any of the documents.
She returned to the temporary office with the external device tucked in her belt with her pulse pistol. If anyone checked, it would appear she’d been there the entire time, thanks to a program that entered commands at regular intervals to spoof her location.
An hour later, Trey came to find her.
“Get the files?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Keep them safe. I’ll introduce you to our new assistants on our way out.”
“Okay. And then you’ll tell me what your big strategy is?”
“Sure.”
When they arrived at Tabitha and Brockerick’s shared office, the pair was diligently working in silence. After an introduction and some polite exchanges, Reece and Trey let them get back to their work.
Reece held her breath most of the way out. Although she’d been careful, and though she was sure of what she was doing, some small part of her wondered if somehow, some way, Rexcare knew what she was up to, and would send out a security force to take her and Trey down before they could leave the building.
But they made it out of, with no one giving them any more attention than usual. When Reece’s feet hit the sidewalk, she finally breathed freely again.
“Let’s go back to your place,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“You know…I was just there,” Trey grumbled.
* * * * *
“What made you think Rexcare was hiding information?” Trey asked, sitting in the cramped living room of his apartment.
Dex sat on Reece’s shoulder as she fed him a packet of nuts and seeds she’d brought for him.
“Schramm’s reluctance to tell me exactly why Nizhoni’s whiskey was important to Rexcare. It doesn’t make sense that he’d withhold crucial information, and there’s no way that’s an irrelevant detail. Stars, he told us more about Dr. Fitzmiller when there was a risk of the Guard squashing all of us.”
Trey rubbed his palms together slowly, looking thoughtful. “So you wanted the contracts to help us figure it out. I’m guessing we’ll look at Nizhoni’s first, and then look for any links between whiskey and medicine.”
“Ah, you’re catching on. You might make a good fixer after all. The answer is in the contracts, somewhere. It always is.”
“One benefit of living in a corporate system, I guess,” Trey mused. “The legal trail.”
She nodded while disconnecting the living room table—which doubled as a holoprojector—from the apartment’s network. Once certain that it was isolated, she inserted the external memory device into the table’s port. “Let’s see what’s between Rexcare and Nizhoni.”
As Nizhoni had said, Rexcare paid her for the option of using ten percent of her annual yield. They’d been doing so for the past six years and had never exercised that option. As it was, Nizhoni had received a million credits each year for absolutely nothing but guaranteeing that Rexcare could extend the contract, five years at a time, for as long as H&P remained in business.
A million credits was an astonishing sum to pay to a relatively small operation like H&P.
“It says nothing about the purpose for the whiskey,” Trey said.
“No. But they don’t have to tell her why they want it. Or might someday want it.”
Trey brought up the list of contracts and started scrolling through the ones that mentioned ‘whiskey’ or other related words.
“Hang on,” he said. “What’s this one about enzymatic compounds?”
“I don’t know. Advanced chemistry isn’t my thing. What is it?”
He leaned closer, reading. “It doesn’t mention whiskey, but it talks about a process for extracting enzymes created during the distillation process. A Dr. Miral has apparently been working on this process for six years.”
They looked at each other. He said, “That’s exactly how long Rexcare has been paying Nizhoni.”
“Yeah, this seems significant. Where is this Dr. Miral? Please say she’s on Akon.” Reece didn’t want to go off on some spacefaring adventure again.
“She is. North of the commercial center. District 143.”
She stood. “We need to talk to her.”
“Slow down there, Rocket,” Trey said. “Let’s finish the fact-finding first.”
She scowled, but he was right. She just hated to sit on the first major lead they’d found.
Dex jumped off her shoulder to the table, then onto Trey’s shoulder. He sent her a dirty look that suggested he hadn’t appreciated her sudden movement, or that fact that she’d run out of nuts and seeds to feed him.
“Sorry, Dex,” she said, then returned her attention to Trey. “Are there any other—”
Trey sat up straight, his head tilted to the side. “Shhh. I hear something.”
She wanted to ask ‘what?’ but he’d just shushed her. She bit her lip and remained silent.
Trey put a hand on Dex and leaped to his feet, running to the kitchen and throwing a cabinet open. “Oh, shit. We gotta go.”
“What?” she finally asked.
“Run!” he shouted.
When someone told Reece to run while wearing a look of horror, she ran. She bypassed the elevator and bolted down the flight of stairs to ground level and right out the door of the apartment complex.
Then she realized that Trey wasn’t right behind her. Thirty anxiety-drenched seconds later, he arrived, with Dex on one shoulder and a bag over the other.
“You stopped for your luggage?” she asked in disbelief.
Trey opened his mouth, but a muffled boom cut him off. The sound wasn’t so much loud as it was deep, going through Reece’s body like an invisible wave. The ground wobbled beneath her feet and then everything returned to normal, except suddenly quieter.
They stared at each other for a long moment, then they began running for the metro station.
* * * * *
They couldn’t speak out loud on the metro. As it was, Trey was already getting too many odd looks. He didn’t have his cosmetic overlays on, and a mouse monkey sat on his shoulder. He was as conspicuous as it got.
She knew of pulse bombs, of course, but she hadn’t seen what he had in the kitchen, nor had she personally experienced a pulse bomb going off before.
He frowned.
He sighed, drawing the attention of a woman who kept eyeing him uneasily.
Reece learned forward, partially blocking the woman’s view of Trey. The last thing they needed was for some prejudiced jerk to start something with them. She wanted to get back to her house without any trouble or any particular notice, so they could assess their situation. She second-guessed their choice of the metro. It was quicker than a taxi, but it exposed them more.
Too late to change their minds now.
She wanted to contact Schramm and have him put his people on the trail, but she couldn’t be sure that Rexcare hadn’t been involved.
They couldn’t afford to trust anyone.
She stifled a groan, rubbing her eyes. Just when she’d thought she’d gotten things on track, it had all blown up instead.
She probably shouldn’t think in those particular terms while on board a metro train.
Who could she count on, besides Trey? Aunt Ruth. Kippy. Marky. That was it, really, for Akon.
Kind of sad, actually.
She hated not knowing anything. She needed to change that.
Finally, they arrived at her stop and hustled to her house. When they got in, she realized Dex and Rio would have another showdown. She’d almost forgotten about the monkey. He’d been so quiet on the ride, while she’d been entirely preoccupied.
The two animals would have to work things out for themselves.
As they got inside, she engaged the security system with maximum sensitivity. A quick look around and a note on the counter revealed that Aunt Ruth had gone out. Not trusting that Ruth was safe, she messaged her aunt using the word mustard, and received a message in reply containing ‘pickles’.
“Aunt Ruth is safe, come on,” she said to Trey, leading him upstairs. Just outside her bedroom stood a door with more security on it than the house itself had. After passing in her codes, Reece swung the door open and stepped in.
Trey followed, whistling low. “Now I see what you spend your salary on.”
She had rifles, handguns, semiautomatics, tear gas, flak jackets, the flechette gun she’d bought on Iaguti, and much more.
“Arm yourself,” she said as she put on a light cuirass. “We’re going to hole up here, until we have a better plan.”
“Let’s form one quickly,” he said. “You have no armor at all for someone my size.”
Instead, he grabbed a pair of pistols and shoved them into his belt, then reached for a pair of kinetic rifles.
She liked that he could pick out the best items at a glance.
“We should put Dex and Rio in the bathroom up here,” she decided. “It’ll be the safest place for them.”
“Not if your psycho cat decides to attack Dex,” Trey retorted. “Rio could rip Dex to shreds if he wanted to.”
“Rio’s a lover, not a fighter. He’ll probably cower on the floor of the shower while Dex tastes the soap and figures out how to work the faucet.”
She found Rio hiding under her bed. “Hey, buddy. Sorry about this, but I don’t want you near the windows. It’ll be okay.”
She crawled halfway under the bed and gently scooped him out. “Is Dex already in there?” she called to Trey, who was rummaging around in the weapon locker.
“Yep. Good luck.”
She opened the bathroom door and gently shooed Rio in. “Sorry, buddy. Hang in there.”
Closing the door quickly, she hoped for the best.
Back in the weapons locker, Reece grabbed a large, long bag and began packing weapons into it.
“Looks like you have a plan,” Trey said.
“Only a vague one. We need to get somewhere defensible. Something underground, preferably. A suburban house is not something we can easily defend.”
Their eyes met.
“Nizhoni’s,” they said in unison.
Trey grabbed another bag and started shoving weapons into it.
Reece felt better for having a destination in mind. She’d feel better about not putting Aunt Ruth in danger by being home, too.
She bit her lip and contacted Marky via her overlays.
The response came almost immediately.
Reece wished that were an option.
She closed the connection and contacted Kippy. He didn’t answer, so she left a message.
She hesitated, then closed the connection. She wanted to say more, but couldn’t find the right words.
A sound to her left made her pivot, ready for a fight, but it was just the water reclamation tank doing an hourly stir. She let out a breath and reminded herself not to be so jumpy.
When she rejoined Trey, he was wearing one of the big weapons bags over his shoulder and reaching for the other.
“What’s the story?” he asked.
“Marky’s got a car on the way. I’m going to pack some things.”
“I’ll go watch the downstairs windows.”
She nodded. “Good idea.”
After throwing some clothes into a bag, Reece went downstairs and crammed in a bunch of food supplement bars and nutritional supplements. Then she delivered a bowl of water, some snacks for Dex, and a bowl of food for Rio to the bathroom.
“I’m going to hope you’re smart enough to use the litter box,” she said to Dex. “Trey says he’s trained you to use one. Sorry you have to share with Rio. Kippy will be here before long.”
Then she felt like an idiot. Even though Dex looked at her with bright, inquisitive eyes and chittered in response, he didn’t understand a word of what she’d said.
She glimpsed Rio hiding in the shower stall. “Sorry, pal. I’ll make it up to you.”
When she got back downstairs, Trey gestured to the door. “Car just arrived.”
She reached for her Rikulf Specials. Sure, it was conspicuous to leave her house with guns in her hands, but she wasn’t going to risk not having them if she needed them.
They jumped into the car and the woman driving sped away from the house. Three blocks down, Reece instructed the driver to pull over. The woman got out, and Reece slipped into the driver’s seat.
Beside her, guns in hand, Trey asked, “So why is it that you have to be a licensed driver to drive in urban areas? It’s much nicer to be able to drive your own car.”
“Corporate bullshit.” She scanned their surroundings carefully, watching for potential threats. “People wanted driverless cars. The technology’s simple enough, and it would have allowed people to own their own cars rather than rely on the metro and taxis.”
“Let me guess,” Trey said. “There’s more money to be had in owning taxi companies than in selling driverless cars.”
“You nailed it. The loophole is the agricultural sectors. There’s no profit in long drives like that, so we finally did get driverless cars in the form of autotaxis, but they’re so regulated that only corporations can own them.”
“The corporate economy at work,” he remarked dryly.
/> “Some parts work, some don’t. We’ve been down this road before. Show me something that’s better.”
“Wish I could.”
Since she was driving in an unlicensed, highly illegal state, Reece was very careful not to attract attention. The punishment for getting caught would be both expensive and highly inconvenient. Nobody took that risk.
Once they got out of the city, Reece went as fast as the car would take her.
“You sure you should drive this fast?” Trey asked.
“Looks like it. It’s going okay so far.”
“That answer doesn’t fill me with a feeling of safety and confidence.”
Reece smiled faintly, in spite of the situation.
A half hour later, she pulled the car up to the front door of Hatchet and Pipe, and was confronted with a pair of pistol-wielding guards.
They recognized her and immediately stood down. “Apologies,” the lead guard said. “Didn’t expect you back.”
“Glad to see you’re ready to defend, if needed. That might become important.” Reece looked over her shoulder to Trey, who was pulling the long weapons holsters from the car while she retrieved her bag. “Need help?”
“No, don’t trouble yourself, just leave these huge, heavy things to me.”
She smirked. “I’ll hold the door for you.”
“Don’t hurt yourself or anything.”
The guards didn’t seem to know what to make of this exchange and wisely remained silent.
When they walked into the foyer, Nizhoni emerged, saying, “Hey? What’s going on.”
She stopped in her tracks when she saw Reece and Trey. “Oh, bloody fucking hell. Not you two again.”
“Surprise,” Reece said. “We’re going to be your houseguests for a little while.”
THE TEST
DATE: 05.06.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Agriculture Sector Six, Akonwara
REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance
