Hand of Raziel (Daughter of Mars Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  She pulled her hand away from the glass long enough to give him a thumbs-up.

  “Good news then.” Pavo flashed a mischievous grin. “Managed to get a hold of a set of military-grade speedware. We had a dead assassin in the evidence room who decided to spontaneously vanish.”

  Risa shivered, thinking of the wires crawling around beneath her skin. Behind Pavo, the man in the white coat worked at a console, connecting parts from a corpse into her nervous system. At least NSK hardware was top of the line. Their speedware had to be worth a few million credits. How did Pavo get that out without getting burned? She had a feeling she knew what the bad news would be, and gave Pavo a look of dread mixed with gratitude.

  “Bad news is Doc here doesn’t work for free. This is a dangerous favor, what with the cost of the parts, the amount of work you needed, and the little issue of two governments having a bounty on your head. We both owe him… Unless you got a million-five sitting around?”

  She shot him a flat look.

  “Yeah. Figured. Anyway, he knows you’re not Cat-6. Crazy people get caught. I also told him you don’t do assassinations.”

  Risa held her hands out to the sides, wobbling her palms, then made finger horns at her temples.

  “Okay, exception if the target’s an evil fuck.”

  She nodded, and tapped her left wrist with one finger.

  Pavo gave her an amused smile, staring at her until she smacked the glass with both hands.

  “You’ve been in there about fourteen hours.”

  Risa continued glaring, and pointed at her mouth.

  “Can’t eat yet.”

  She folded her arms, tapping a foot on nothing while floating. After a long glare, she traced a smile over her lips.

  “Oh, you’re wondering why I have this look on my face.” Pavo laughed, and swung around to glance at the doc.

  Text raced along the left side of her vision, a power-up test of her NIU coming back online. Whatever it said, it shot by too fast to read. Within two seconds, she once again had the ever-present time display at the lower-left corner. A cartoony man with brown hair, ancient looking armor, mirrored shield, and a sword strolled into view from the corner of her eye. The obvious digital image left her stunned as he strode into the middle of her field of vision. He saluted her with his blade, winked, and vanished.

  What in the name of hell was that? She tried to sigh, but gel came out. Probably whatever company made my headware being cute.

  She hung there waiting for something else to happen. The instant she decided to relax, her implant rang with an inbound call. Pavo’s face appeared amid the ring of dots, his virtual self mimicked the same giant shit-eating grin he wore in the real world.

  「I found it odd you vid me when I’m carrying you and your lips are an inch from my ear. When you can’t talk, you start doing the whole hand-signal thing.」

  「Very funny. I’m high as hell right now. Things are moving around inside me, and I think I can taste the flow of time. You have no idea how fucking weird this feels. I should be unconscious for this I bet. And he had my board turned off.」

  Pavo said something to the medic. 「Nah, he needs you awake to test the NIU connections. You just got a six-stage upgrade over that cheap-ass wiring you had before.」

  The tangled mass of her old neuralware collapsed in on itself, decaying before her eyes as invisible nanobots broke it down.

  「So, what does he want me to do?」

  Pavo shrugged. 「Steal some shit probably. Doc’s got some vices, needs cash. Either way, it’s gotta wait. Garrison’s already fuming at the ass about us being so late. We got a job to do once you can walk again. Nothing quite as noble as rescuing three dozen slave miners though.」

  「You gonna share the details or just stare at my tits?」

  He made it a point to ogle her for a moment. 「We’re up to play nursemaid to a deck jockey. MLF needs a bankroll.」

  「Oh, all that buildup, I was expecting something hard.」She winked.

  「Hang on.」 He glanced back at the doc for a moment, nodding his way through a one-sided conversation. 「Time to go nap-nap. Wiring’s all done up, now he’s gonna rebuild the muscle mass and nerve tissue you cooked off. Says you really don’t want to be awake for that.」

  「See you soon.」 She inhaled deep and started to look down, but jerked her head up and pressed both palms on the glass a second before he hung up. 「Pavo?」

  One eyebrow climbed. 「Yeah?」

  「You’ll stay with me, right?」 Warmth collected in her cheeks. Where did that come from?

  He seemed amused. 「Yeah. Sure.」

  ine-year-old Risa huddled in the dark corner of a subterranean concourse. Months of living in the vent ducts had left her coated in black dust and grime. She eyed a rag-clad man working a small electric grill. The smell of cooking meat had lured her out of the vents. If not for the open courtyard between her and the food, she’d already be eating. It didn’t matter what kind of meat it was.

  Eventually, hunger overwhelmed the crippling fear that the soldiers were waiting for her. She forced herself to stand and padded out into the crowd. No one paid her any attention until she tried to sneak up to the chef from a blind angle.

  He whirled around fast enough to scare a squeal out of her as he grabbed her wrist. His triumphant expression at catching a thief crashed to a guilty frown. One look at her protruding ribs, perpetual shivering, and lack of clothing, made him slouch. Without a word, he handed her two thin metal skewers with pounded-flat meat coated in red spices.

  Risa smiled up at him and ran back to the vents with her treasure, one hand on her almost-disintegrated underpants to keep them from falling.

  A man in green fatigues blocked her path.

  He smiled. “Poor thing… what are you doing out here all alone?”

  The dream cracked. Adult Risa looked up from her too-short vantage point at Garrison. “You didn’t find me here. This isn’t right.”

  “You can’t keep hiding, Risa.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “Time to come out of the vents.”

  Her eyes opened. A patch of the otherwise dark hospital ceiling glowed soft blue in the castoff light from a diagnostic holo-panel hovering near the wall at the left of her Comforgel pad. A snug medical smock clung to her, tight around her neck, biceps, and thighs. Her body no longer hurt, but she felt exhausted. The sound of breathing made her look to the right. Pavo slumped in a large padded chair by the window, asleep. According to the clock on the little nightstand, it was five minutes past midnight. Sensing her consciousness, her internal clock came on, showing 12:07.

  If not for the desperate press of her bladder, she would’ve been happy to fall back asleep.

  When she tried to sit up, she wound up flying off the end of the bed. Striking the floor on her chest didn’t hurt as much as she thought it should.

  “Risa?” Pavo scrambled out of the chair. “What the hell was that?”

  “I…” She pushed herself up. “I have no idea.”

  He grasped her arm and helped her stand. “You just flipped off the―”

  “I know; I was there.” She went to wipe her face, but her hand slapped her in the eye. “Ow, motherfucker.”

  Pavo failed to suppress a snicker. “Maybe I should carry you?”

  Her face got warm. “I can walk.”

  She made it three steps before her body flung itself to the floor. For a few seconds, she flailed in a spastic fit before managing to get to her knees.

  “That NSK wiring will take some getting used to.” He covered his mouth with a hand.

  An attempt to stand launched her airborne. He lunged in, catching her before she fell flat on her back. It took her concentrating on moving as slow as possible to baby-step her way into the bathroom and sit on the toilet. Pavo closed the door for her.

  Wriggling out of the smock proved to be a challenge. Almost every time she tried to move without concentrating on the gesture, the speedware exaggerated it into a wild
swing. Twenty minutes later, with a dozen bruises and her smock back on, she tiptoed to the bed.

  “I haven’t had that rough a time in a bathroom since―”

  Risa held a hand up. “Don’t finish that sentence.”

  He raised both eyebrows, shrugging. “What? I was just going to make a joke about bad food.”

  Her stomach churned. Ugh. Men. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “Oh, you’re up?” asked a flat male voice.

  Risa turned toward the sound―or at least tried to. Her body whipped into the pirouette of a psychotic ballerina on several military-grade booster chems. She crashed into the wall, spinning like a top, and collapsed in a heap. A metal orb as big as a human head glided over, emerald light shining through seams and gaps in its outer hull. A blue dot, about an inch across, in the center pulsed in time with the voice.

  “It appears you are having seizures. Please remain still for a scan.”

  She glared at it, but didn’t move. It hovered close, circled her once, and floated back up to about head height.

  “I am unable to detect any abnormalities. Transmitting video to the doctor for an evaluation. Please stand by.”

  Risa closed her eyes and thought about speedware. A control interface opened across the backs of her eyelids. The diagnostic report showed everything operational, but displayed a calibration error. Her brain was still thinking in terms of the cheap wiring.

  “I’m fine,” she muttered. “I need to run a calibration.”

  The orb glided down to her eye level. “The doctor agrees with your assessment.”

  “Thanks.” She shook her head at the orb bot as it glided away, and glanced at Pavo. “Mind helping me up?”

  He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Sure.”

  The speedware flung her into him. She clamped on. “Uhh…”

  Pavo stood still. “No problem.”

  “Thanks for staying.” She pushed away, balancing on her feet. “Damn, I feel like a baby learning to walk again.”

  “Garrison called.”

  Risa crept to the bed. “Garrison can wait. If he thinks I’m doing anything like this, he’s the one that’s Cat-6.”

  Pavo followed her. “He doesn’t know. Figured you didn’t want anyone to know you had a weakness.”

  “Very funny.” She sat on the edge. “Need your help with the calibration.”

  He folded his arms. “Shoot.”

  “Not yet. I can’t dodge bullets right now. You got something thin that won’t break if you drop it?”

  “I didn’t mean literally.” He chuckled and took out his MDF identification, holding a wallet-sized faux-leather slab up in two fingers. “This work?”

  “Perfect.” She held her hand out, thumb an inch away from her palm. “Drop it so I can try to grab it.”

  “Oh, this game? You know it’s impossible right?” He held the ID over her open hand.

  “Yeah… for people without speedware.” Her gaze flicked to the menu hovering over the world, selecting the button for ‘calibrate start.’ “Okay. Drop it.”

  The ID slipped through her hand and slapped on the floor. He picked it up and repeated. Her fingers nipped the top edge. By the sixth time, she caught it dead center.

  “Okay, fine motor control is good.” She stretched to her right and grabbed the pillow, tossing it to him. “Here. Whack me on the head with that.”

  “What are we, six?” He put the ID away.

  “No, but I have a feeling you wouldn’t want to punch me.” She winked.

  “Only for fear of what you’d do to me afterwards.” He hefted the pillow.

  Was that a joke? The corners of her eyes warmed and she gazed at her lap. Everyone’s afraid of me.

  Whap.

  The pillow to the face knocked her flat.

  “I wasn’t ready.” She growled and sat up.

  “All’s fair.” He swung again.

  She tried to use the speedware to evade it, and slammed herself into the Comforgel pad hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs.

  Her attempt to speak came out as a wheeze. After three breaths, she sat up. “Again.”

  Four swings later, she found herself able to slither around the passing pillow without letting it touch her and without flinging herself off the bed. The new speedware increased the noticeable effect of slowed time, making the world all but stop. Pavo’s pillow strike froze in the air; bullets would be brought to a crawl at that level of boost.

  Risa stared at her hands. “I can’t believe this. It doesn’t even burn.”

  “It will if you overdo it.” He tossed the pillow back to the head end of the bed. “Course, you got more of a window before you ‘overdo’ it with that stuff. The adaptive neural matrix is also better at preventing nerve degeneration. A lot of NSK operatives make it well into their seventies and show no signs of twitchout.”

  “This must’ve cost a fortune.” She crawled back under the blankets. “I’m almost afraid to ask what the doc wants.”

  “He’s not in any hurry.” Pavo flopped on the chair. “The Nippon Shōgyō Kumiai don’t usually sell that particular system. Internal use only. If I were you, I’d stay out of Japan. If they found you with it, they’d kill you to take it back.”

  “Hah.” She cuddled into the pillow. “Me? Japan? That would require going to Earth.”

  That’ll never happen.

  rimus Mons was the second largest city controlled by the United Coalition Front on Mars, not that anyone would be able to tell from a passing glance. From the outside, Primus appeared to be an enormous freestanding starport, against which grey bubble-shaped domes crowded like suckling piglets. The city itself sprawled beneath. Generations of Marsborn tunneled ever deeper underground. True citizens of Mars knew it to be the first settlement built by humans before atmospheric retention fields or terraforming changed the planet. Years ago, many claimed it the grandest, but Arcadia took that title after the technology to build above ground had matured.

  The first human settlement was not Arcadia, the beautiful shining gem of azure force fields and sweeping arcs of silver, like the UCF claimed. Nor was it the city of Obeshchaniye, or “Promise,” as the ACC told their citizens. Hidden beneath a false hologram of verdant greens and gleaming buildings, the crown jewel of the Allied Corporate Council was as much a lie as either government told the people of Earth.

  They had even attempted to declare Neu Berlin, a more modern city with residents that verged on content, as having pre-dated Obeshchaniye, saying it had been formerly kept top secret for military reasons to explain why the fact wasn’t public knowledge already. The amount of propaganda Risa had been exposed to long ago made her assume anything any government said was a lie. Her only truth was that Mars belonged to the people who lived there, not to a bunch of senators or corporate executives on another planet.

  She was ready to die to give it to them.

  Shadows lengthened over the dull red Martian soil as the shuttle circled an unassuming cluster of buildings. The surface portion of Primus Mons didn’t appear much like a city at all; someone who didn’t know they looked at the entrance of a subterranean metropolis could mistake it for a simple refueling station. With the sun behind the main starport facility, two violet specks appeared on the window amid the reflection of her face. Ground crews scurried around within great clouds of dust as the shuttle’s forward motion came to a halt. All forty-three passengers on the Elysium-to-Primus shuttle floated an inch or three above their seats as the craft fell in a short vertical drop onto the landing pad.

  Risa left her hands in the pockets of the long coat Pavo bought her. The Mars Defense Force rarely hassled people for carrying weapons, but concealing them would make her less memorable in a crowd. Neither she nor Pavo made a move, waiting for everyone seated behind them to jostle past, avoiding the congested scramble to the door in the tight aisles of beige carpet.

  Once the way cleared, they followed the exodus down the boarding tube and into the gre
at circular starport. The cavernous space on the outer ring echoed with the jingles of advert bots, street peddlers, the general din of people, and the occasional shout of a child or MDF trooper. Via wireless network connection, her cybernetic eyes created a layout of the facility in a virtual holographic panel, updated in real time from the city’s network.

  “Where are we meeting her?”

  Pavo took a three-step turnabout, continuing to move in the same direction while surveying the area. He brushed up against her as he faced forward again. “In a lounge. Eiphos 3.”

  Primus Starport’s tourist information service had little to say about Eiphos 3 aside from it having food, drinks, and frequent ‘intimate evenings’ with Earth-famous entertainment. Intimate in the sense that they limited the audience to a crowd of a hundred instead of the usual hundred thousand. A string of mediocre-to-passable reviews ran into the thousands, putting the cuisine at a solid 2.9 out of 5. She took the shortcut across the central hub, swinging left at the artificial park and arriving once more in the outer ring three shops away.

  “You seem like your old self,” said Pavo, exaggerating his effort to keep up with her stride. “As hilarious as it was, I’m glad you’re not flinging yourself into walls anymore.”

  Risa grumbled.

  A minute later, they stopped by a silver and black storefront. Violet holographic letters scrolled in midair over the door, spelling out ‘Eiphos 3’ in a diaphanous, wavering script. Whimsical spaceships and cartoon aliens flew through and around the letters.

  His mirth left him, riding a sigh. “Sorry. You know, I don’t think this job is gonna be much of a test.” He pulled the door open for her. “Should be a milk run.”

  “I wouldn’t mind a vacation.” She ducked in and waited for him to follow. “Who’s the contact?”