One Dark Future

by Michael Anderle

  “You misunderstand. I’m not saying Konig was a mercenary, just most of those on this submarine.” Alina tapped her PNIU with a slight frown. “It’d be helpful in the future for you to coordinate false identities with me if you’re going to claim something unusual and high-profile. The Parliamentary Security cover story is ending up having unexpected legs, and now some of the media are on the story. They’re trying to spin this whole thing into an MP assassination attempt. There’s some MP who was on a very private vacation, and he’s had to pop up and explain he wasn’t at the resort, and it’s become a mess.”

  “I am the—” Emma began.

  “We did what we had to,” Erik interrupted. “I don’t make apologies for that. Sometimes we don’t have time to play things subtly, like when assassins are wasting our investigation targets and trying to escape.”

  He wasn’t mad at Emma for making the call, and Alina needed to be reminded that if she wanted their help, she had to let them do things their way—rogue AI and all.

  They wouldn’t be able to save the UTC if they had to worry about keeping things quiet. Sometimes he wondered if they could solve the conspiracy problem by just blasting a request to all corners of the OmniNet for any information on Molino and related incidents.

  “Understood,” Alina replied after hesitating for a couple of seconds. “But you should understand our position that it makes things more complicated. That’s all I’m saying. Remember, we’re on the same side.” She offered him a disarming smile before tapping the side of her leg. “But setting all that aside, we know something big went on down here. What little we can dig up quickly on our end suggests more of a relationship between Konig and certain Vand-related activities than initially suspected, and there are tentative connections between the three involving possible conspiracy-linked activities in the past.”

  Jia frowned. “So, whoever Konig was, he’s not from another government or a freelance conspiracy-hunting faction. This wasn’t a public service.”

  Alina shook her head and shrugged. “He could be someone like that on first blush, but Konig’s dealt with them so much, I find it hard to believe. Based on what you sent along and what happened, this smells like some sort of internal struggle.”

  “What if Sophia Vand was the leader?” Jia rubbed her chin. “From what you’ve said, there’s obviously still conspiracy activity, but if Vand was a major player at the top or the leader, her death could have set off some sort of a full-scale civil war. Factions vying for power, that sort of thing. That would be consistent with what we saw on Venus involving her and the potential targeting.”

  “And Vand said something implying she thought someone else might have sent us.” Erik nodded at Alina. “A woman. As time goes on, I find it less likely she was talking about you.”

  “Yes, you mentioned that before,” Alina replied with a thoughtful look. “And I can’t say I disagree with your conclusion. To be honest, I doubt I was enough on her radar for her to think to mention me, so you might be right. It also makes me wonder about the destroyed Brotherhood factory, and how much of that was intended.” She frowned. “They could have bloodied our noses if we tried to send people in. They had to know the ID would try to recover it mostly intact. Otherwise, we could have had the Army annihilate it, and they wouldn’t even have had to bother to destroy it themselves. But if a faction did it to weaken another, that might explain it.”

  “It doesn’t matter for now,” Jia concluded. She looked toward where the prisoners were with a scowl. “If all we have now are mercs, it’s not like this sub’s going to give us much. They already blanked the nav data, and it’s probably a merc sub anyway. We already know Konig was probably more important, but he’s dead and in itty-bitty pieces. It’s hard to interrogate a dead man’s pieces.”

  Alina wagged a finger. “You’re forgetting the data rod. That was important enough for him to bring it with him when he was fleeing—as far as he knew—for his life.”

  “It’s trashed. It’s a miracle it didn’t shatter.” Jia kicked at the hard floor with her boot. “The only reason there’s anything left of it is that Konig didn’t use a plasma grenade. We already tried to plug it into an IO port and see what Emma could pull off, and she didn’t have any luck and said there wasn’t anything she could deal with.”

  “There are other options,” Alina replied. “Emma’s impressive, but she’s not the be-all, end-all of data recovery.”

  Emma appeared in front of Alina and stared at the agent incredulously. “There’s fundamental matrix damage to the data rod, including issues with quantum decoherence. Fancy technology can only do so much to change the laws of physics.”

  “Before we had HTPs, they said humanity would never travel faster than light. But we don’t need to go there. The ID has a few tricks even you don’t know about.” Alina grinned, enjoying having one up on the AI far too much. “We’ve learned the hard way about relying on taking data rods undamaged, and we’ve developed specialty equipment the civilian sector doesn’t have. I don’t know where it all comes from, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of it isn’t reverse-engineered Navigator tech. The laws of physics are still being defined.”

  “You’re saying you can recover data?” Emma folded her arms. “I guarantee it’s all but impossible with the level of damage. The Navigators were impressive, but they weren’t gods.” She snorted. “Note they’re all dead now.”

  “You’re right if we’re talking about recovering all the data, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can get. We’ll pull something off that data rod, and between that and looking more into Konig, I’m sure we’ll find more leads. The smallest piece of information might give us a new trail, especially when combined with what we already know about Sophia Vand.”

  Emma stepped away in silence, her eyes narrowed in irritation. “If you say so. I won’t begrudge your success, even though I’m dubious of it.”

  “Don’t be that way.” Alina offered an almost mocking smile. “Sometimes even us fleshbags can be impressive.”

  “Where does that leave us?” Jia asked. “What if there is a civil war going on inside the conspiracy, and it didn’t end just with Vand? Does that help or hurt us? That might lead to more desperate plans. They were already willing to kill tens of thousands of people on Venus. The bomb was a bluff, but it might not be next time. What might they pull next?”

  “Whatever’s going on might lead to that sort of problem, but it will almost certainly lead to more openings for us,” Alina replied. “And the quicker we take them out, the less risk there is to everybody.” She ran her finger along the bulkhead and lifted it to her face, staring at the dust. “Desperate times might lead to dangerous and desperate plans, but it’ll also lead to a breakdown in operational security. They’re bleeding, and they’re going to start bleeding even more. All we have to do is follow the trail of blood to the source to finish the rest of them off.”

  Erik walked toward Alina, nodding. “Then let’s press our advantage. We need to be coming at them constantly from all angles.”

  “I agree, and I’m getting agents pulled from other assignments to help follow up different leads. For now, though, let’s get you two back to Neo SoCal, and all your spoils of war delivered to a safer place.” Alina gave a merry smile. “Don’t worry. Despite what I said, by your standards, this was a clean op. Everyone who’s dead was likely a conspiracy tool or a mercenary. It’s hard to complain about that.”

  “What about the guards?” Jia asked with a frown. “At least one of them got shot.”

  “The resort reported only injuries and no fatalities to the staff. Don’t worry, Atalanta. You and Perseus kicked ass and saved innocent lives this time.”

  Jia furrowed her brow, clearly confused. “Atalanta?”

  “I thought you knew your Greek mythology?” Alina sighed and clucked her tongue in open disapproval.

  “I know some.” Jia shrugged. “But I can’t know everything. Not all of us are as obsessed with the subject
as you.”

  “Atalanta was the only woman Argonaut,” Alina explained. “For now, you and Perseus—” she nodded at Erik—“have earned some rest.”

  Julia tilted her head as she retrieved the video feed from the smart lenses of her deceased operatives. They’d been in contact with Konig right before they died. Right before the convenient jamming had obscured what had happened in their final minutes of life.

  Based on the other information she’d collected, it was easy to guess what had happened, and she didn’t care about seeing it personally.

  The reports from the resort leaked by the staff and the government made it clear that negotiations had broken down. She’d been worried about the possibility, but she couldn’t bring herself to be surprised.

  Julia was grateful to the Last Soldier and the Warrior Princess for taking down Konig. While she couldn’t confirm the pair had killed the man, she had no doubt they were the mysterious Parliamentary Security agents who had shown up.

  If they were not, then she was pleased with whoever’d helped nonetheless. Every death of an enemy she didn’t have to directly expend resources on was a net victory.

  The government officially declared there had been no terrorist incident at the undersea resort, and they’d listed three casualties in what they were describing as non-terrorist murder incident, including her agents Gallegos and Sillen, with Konig as the suspected killer. She’d hoped to convert him to her side as she had Gallegos and Sillen, but his almost certain involvement with their deaths pointed to another disturbing though seemingly inevitable possibility.

  Julia waved a hand, and holograms of the surviving members of the Core appeared in front of her. One or more of those people had plotted against her.

  It wasn’t the simple and boring clash of influence that all members of the Core had participated in for over a century, but something more fundamental. Killing her operatives in such a brutal manner wasn’t a mere inconvenience or a slap in the face. It was a declaration of war by a hidden enemy.

  Julia respected their brutality as well as their ability to escape detection. She would need to proceed with more caution going forward until she could be sure who it was. Killing members of the Core was something she didn’t take lightly.

  Perhaps her enemy blamed her for Sophia’s death. It was an amusing irony that although Julia had been trying to kill Sophia, her direct plans to that effect had been thwarted, and it was Sophia’s stubborn nature that had ultimately led to her demise.

  “Who is it?” Julia whispered to herself.

  Farad, Ivan, Constance, and Shoji were the most likely suspects. They’d clashed the most with her in the past, and some of them even had been involved in alliances.

  Julia walked over to Shoji’s hologram, narrowing her eyes. He’d been the most receptive to her temporary alliance offers, and she’d always been careful when dealing with him.

  The man’s effete air was a cover for a personality perhaps more ruthless than almost anyone else’s in the Core besides her. If he’d carried the ambition in his heart, he might have taken control of the Core before Julia made any moves.

  It didn’t matter what she suspected. For now, it was supposition. Eliminating Core members unnecessarily would weaken her position and threaten her eventual control over the UTC. She needed to confirm her true enemy.

  Julia dismissed the holograms with the wave of her hand and strolled over to a nearby couch, her heart rate increasing. She despised her weakness, despised the fear that crept in. Attempting to disrupt her operations was a minor concern; the real problem concerned what Gallegos and Sillen had been carrying.

  The government hadn’t mentioned anything about recovering a data rod, but Julia’s people had managed to gain access to surveillance footage from the resort that showed Konig fleeing the facility with a briefcase. Assuming he was captured by the government, that meant they now had at least some information on her most important project.

  Julia lowered herself to the edge of the couch and took a deep breath. She needed to keep her perspective. Worrying about what might occur was less important than what was likely to occur.

  In the best-case scenario, the data rod was destroyed, but a more likely scenario was that it hadn’t been, and the CID and ID would soon learn about what she’d tried so hard to conceal from anyone, including the rest of the Core. She’d even gone so far as to use Sophia’s foundation against her.

  It was deliciously amusing.

  But did the government recovering the rod matter? Nothing on the rod directly linked the project to her, and more to the point, even if they decoded it right away and decided to take immediate action, it’d be too late to do anything.

  One of the last major Ascended Brotherhood raids had set back the one project that might help the government stop her.

  Julia smiled broadly and took calming breaths. As long as nothing went wrong in the next few weeks, she would win.

  Chapter Thirty

  May 5, 2230, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Apartment of Malcolm Constantine

  It was a difficult lesson, but Jia accepted a new painful truth about the universe.

  Just as one shouldn’t look directly into the sun, one shouldn’t stare directly into the bright deadliness of Malcolm’s yellow Hawaiian shirt without risking their sanity.

  She squinted and averted her eyes, wondering if he’d added nanotech to the fabric.

  “Come on, guys.” Malcolm gestured to trays of crackers, cheese, and fruit sitting on a table next to bottles of beer. “This is our victory party. Eat. Drink. Be merry! For tomorrow we may die! More likely you than me, but you know…” He shrugged at the joke. “Eat, drink, and be merry!”

  Erik eyed the beer with suspicion before picking up a bottle with a shrug. “I thought you said you had something important to talk about concerning the mission?” He waved the beer at the table. “You didn’t mention a party.”

  “That was a little lie. I’m working on upping my skills with ghost-style manipulation.” Malcolm grinned. “And I figured once you got here and saw the setup, you’d agree we could have a little party to celebrate our awesome mission success.” He punched at the air. “Go, Team Argonauts!”

  Jia’s brow lifted, and she peered at Malcolm intently. “’Team Argonauts?’ Are you Alina in disguise?”

  Jia was only half-joking. If her sister Mei took off a mask in the middle of the dinner and revealed she’d been Alina her entire life, it would make perfect sense.

  “I just figured we could use a team name.” Malcolm wandered over to the table. “Team names build morale, and to be honest, I’m bored because Camila’s off-planet for a while doing whatever ghosts do.”

  “No to Team Argonauts.” Jia shook her finger at him. “And don’t pick up Alina’s habit of calling us mythological names. Sometimes it amuses me, and sometimes it irritates me. Don’t ask me to explain why.”

  “Just saying.” Malcolm sighed. “Team names can be fun.”

  Emma materialized next to the table. Mercifully, she was back to her standard white maxi dress, rather than trying to match Malcolm’s fashion crimes. Considering her holographic capabilities, she could achieve monstrosities that would require Navigator tech to produce in physical form.

  “So, your girlfriend is gone,” Emma commented. “I was wondering. The timing of the victory party seemed interesting, given how long it’s been since we returned from the resort.”

  “A week is a long time?” Malcolm lifted a beer and popped off the cap. “And I’m feeling pretty good about being such a big player this time. I feel like I really helped you guys a lot, and even better, I did all that without risking my life. No offense, but I consider that last part kind of a plus.”

  Jia laughed. “I don’t know if that’s something to be proud of.”

  “I’m not a danger junkie like you two.” Malcolm swallowed a swig of beer. “I just want to do my part to make the UTC a better place and not die in the process. I don’t think that’s crazy.”r />
  “I’m not a danger junkie.” Jia inclined her head toward Erik. “He’s not even a danger junkie, exactly. He’s just strangely fearless.”

  “Both of you are.”

  Erik offered a shallow nod in the middle of downing half a bottle.

  Jia wasn’t sure about that. It was more training than emotional control that had changed her from a person afraid to fire her stun pistol to a ruthless dispatcher of terrorists and Tin Men. Then again, the same could be said of Erik.

  “I’ll admit,” Emma began, “Mr. Constantine, that your aid was useful in this regard in improving the timeline of systems infiltration and my flexibility to do certain things. It’s not inappropriate for you to take some pride in it, and insofar as a fleshbag is going to be personally useful to me in a manner other than what Erik and Jia did for me, I applaud your efforts.”

  “Aww,” Malcolm replied, hugging the air. “If you weren’t a little crystal, I’d kiss you.”

  Emma’s face twisted in disgust. “Then I applaud the universe for ensuring I have the form I have.”

  Jia picked up a slice of cheddar, popped it in her mouth, and chewed slowly, ruminating on everything that had happened at the resort.

  Their initial time there might have been recon, but it was recon she’d spent with Erik and having more time to think. She had a feeling they needed to have a deeper conversation about certain things and not dodge it with talk about the conspiracy or missions.

  She didn’t want to have that conversation at Malcolm’s place over cheese, crackers, and beer, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a conversation she was sick of putting off.

  Erik polished off his beer and set the empty bottle on the table. “I still want to know what the hell was on that data rod. They might not have expected us to be there, but they left a big, nasty trail. What was so important that a guy needed to kill those guys and try to escape the way he did?”