Activated

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  Eugene assumed that she was talking about him trying to run down all the intel she had asked for. It was going to be politically tricky that’s for sure.

  Guss stepped back onto the pavement and waved. “I’m glad to have bumped into you, Molly Bates,” Guss gushed. “It’s a comfort knowing someone as qualified as you is on the case.”

  Paige glanced at Molly through the open car door window, as if to comment on the attitude turnaround in Guss.

  Molly, feeling the weight of Paige’s stare, and guessing why, chose to ignore it out of politeness. It was something they might giggle about later, once they were safely out of earshot.

  They made their goodbyes once more and Molly finally got into the car to head back to the hangar. Any moment away from the safety of the ship, Molly was exposed. And now was the not the time to get embroiled in a media showdown, or an old murder investigation.

  Especially since on this occasion, she was innocent. Mostly.

  Spaceport, Hangar 08771A, Outskirts of Uptarlung

  Molly was moving fast, and Paige fell in to helping her load the equipment into the ship. “Let’s just get these loaded and then close the main doors. The fewer people see we’re here, the better.”

  Paige picked up a box, and heaved it onto their KrateMaster. She frowned a little. “Why don’t we just leave it in the car?”

  Molly didn’t pause to think. “I might be able to make a start on organizing at least some of it when we’re en route.” She checked to make sure the five boxes they’d stacked were adequately balanced before starting to move the whole stack. “If it’s in the car, and in that other compartment, we can’t get access to it until we reach Gaitune.”

  “Oh, I see,” Paige nodded. She trotted after Molly, who wheeled the stack towards the hangar. When they came to the ridge into the hangar, Paige helped lift one end of the archaic crate mover onto the ridge as Molly pushed from behind.

  Their stack of crates accelerated once they were on the level ground of the hanger floor. Molly grinned dryly. “Shame they didn’t offer us their antigrav boards, eh?”

  Paige laughed. “Yeah, I think Brock would have loved to have seen that!”

  “Yo!” Crash came jogging down the length of the hangar. “Lemme help you with that.”

  “Ah, thanks,” Molly stood up straighter. “If you guys can handle that, I’ll organize some of those other boxes. Maybe we don’t need to bring all of them in.”

  “Sure,” Paige said.

  Crash made a nod in Molly’s direction, as Paige watched her disappear out to the car again. “You guys are back sooner than I thought you would be…” Crash said to Paige. “Given you were at a lab, that is.”

  Paige smiled, understanding exactly what he meant. “Yeah, she was all business. I was more intrigued by the place than she was. We basically just grabbed the intel and supplies, and came straight back.”

  Crash looked mildly surprised. “What? No tour? No nostalgia?”

  Paige shook her head. “Nada.”

  “Wow,” he bobbed his head. “Probably smart, though. She was on another news report this morning. We need to keep her out of sight, if we can.”

  The two continued wheeling the stack of crates along the side of the ship to the tailgate.

  ***

  Molly had stepped outside. The air was fresh and comfortable, even without her atmosuit jacket on. The breeze whipped gently across her face, catching her hair. She dragged the stray strands from out of her eyes and looped them behind her ear.

  As she moved her hand, something caught her eye over on the far side of the hangar from where she stood. She did a double take. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but she could have sworn she felt a person there, just for a second.

  She shook her head.

  Seeing things, she thought to herself.

  It’s all that inter-realm meditating.

  She ignored Oz’s dig.

  She continued on to the car, her back now to that side of the hangar. She was just about to open a few of the boxes to figure out how to stack them, when she was distracted.

  Someone was watching her.

  She could feel it.

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She reached down to her holo to see if she could send a message to someone, but then remembered she had Oz.

  Oz. I think someone is here. If anything happens, be ready to send an SOS to Paige, Crash, and Joel.

  Okay. I’ve got messages drafted.

  With that confirmation, Molly turned around carefully. There was no one nearby. She started to walk down towards the far side of the hangar.

  Movement again. This time a man appeared from behind the hangar wall. He didn’t seem threatening. He just stood to show himself and looked around, as if he were staying out of sight of everyone but her.

  Molly watched him, taking in the details she could see. Big, muscular arms. Tall. Brick shit-house like. Tattoos. Probably ex-military. She’s seen enough of those types in her time. If she had to guess friend or foe, she’d probably go with neither right now. There was no way she could take him. Not even with her martial arts expertise. Her mind raced, flitting through her options.

  Without reaching with her hand, she tried to feel by pressing her arm against her side if she had her gun on her belt.

  Shit. Nope.

  She wouldn’t have been able to take it into the lab, so it was still on the ship.

  Going to have to try this the old-fashioned way.

  What’s the old-fashioned way?

  “Hi,” she called out gently; not loud enough to draw any attention to them, in case people were around the other hangars.

  The guy motioned with his head, beckoning her to come over.

  She stepped away from the car and started to move in his direction. She moved slowly, hesitant to move out of plain sight; she didn’t want to make it too easy for him to jump her.

  She stopped a few paces back so she would still be visible to anyone who might be around. She could always scream.

  “Molly Bates?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Sean Royale. I work with your friend Garet Beaufort.”

  He noticed her shoulders drop, and her face become less stoney.

  “Garet sent me to touch base with you, to loop you in on some details. I work for him privately. Outside The Syndicate.”

  He glanced around before continuing. ”He has information about this outbreak, and you’re going to need some help.”

  Molly was still wary. She hung back. “What kind of help?” she asked. “What do you know?”

  He looked around furtively again. “Can we do this inside?”

  She hesitated, then looked inside the hangar. The others were up there. Crash might be helpful, if they needed to take this guy down. But it would be putting both of them in danger.

  She paused.

  “Sure,” she said.

  Heck, inside or outside didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he was a vampire, and inviting him in was going to put anyone in any more danger than they were already in. Vampire. She rolled her eyes internally, remembering she would still have to have a conversation with Joel about that.

  She signaled to him to lead the way. “Down to the bottom,” she instructed, and then followed. She waited until they were well inside before she started talking.

  “My team is just loading some things onto the ship. Want to head up there and grab a mocha with us, and tell us what’s going on?”

  “Sure. I’ve got some time. Andus’s people think I’m on the other side of Spire right now.

  Molly looked at him quizzically.

  “Long story,” he said flatly.

  The two strode down to the tailgate and up the ramp onto the ship. Molly noticed as she made the introductions to Crash and Paige that all her concerns about him being a threat had evaporated.

  “So, you’re ex-military?” she asked, as they sat in the makeshift kitchen, the mocha machine churning out one cup of nectar
at a time.

  “Yeah,” he said, sitting squarely at the table, hands perhaps deliberately visible to put them at ease. “Was my whole life,” he continued, “until I was retired by a downsizing initiative out in another system. Recently recalled, though.”

  Paige looked confused. “I thought Molly said that you’re working with Garet?”

  He nodded. “Yes. That’s right. But he doesn’t know the whole story. We need to keep it like that.”

  Paige’s frown got a little deeper. Sean explained, “For his own safety, more than anything. He’s in a very delicate position, and can easily be leveraged. We can’t risk putting the rest of the operation in jeopardy. But yes, I also work for him, to help him fight the good fight where he can. And keep him as safe as I can… given the situation.”

  Molly’s mind was racing trying to guess all the different moving pieces to what was going on. Sean seemed to pick up on that.

  “Look,” he said, turning to Molly now, “I’m not able to bring you in on everything. At least, not yet. But what I can tell you is that there is a media initiative to make it unsafe for you to be here, Molly. On Estaria.”

  It was Molly’s turn to frown. “Why?” she asked, wanting the specifics.

  “Because you are the only person who can possibly figure out this toxin thing. And because it is in certain peoples’ interests to have this toxin become a problem.”

  Paige gasped, horrified that people would deliberately have thousands of people killed for political ends. “Oh, my ancestors!”

  Sean agreed. “Yeah, its pretty horrific. But our best course of action to save those lives is to have Molly create the antidote, and also stop whoever has the toxin blend now from deploying it en masse.”

  Molly noticed he used the word blend.

  Someone else who knows more than he’s letting on?

  Abso-fucking-lutely.

  Sean kept talking, his eyes trying to convey his sincerity, and his hand-waving seeming to punctuate his honesty. “Have you put together that these outbreaks of violence in different areas in the city are related to the toxin?”

  Molly and Paige looked at each other.

  “You said there was something wiggy about that!” Paige exclaimed.

  “No, we hadn’t. Not exactly,” admitted Molly slowly, trying to understand what he was telling them. “So you’re saying that this toxin induces aggressive outbursts?”

  Crash placed a mug of mocha in front of Sean, and Sean nodded his thanks while he kept talking.

  “Yes. About twenty hours before death. It’s just a matter of time before the media starts putting it together. Because of the longish lag time between the outburst and death, it’s going to take a few more days for the pattern to become clear to the authorities. We thought that if you had a heads up on the symptoms though, it might help you isolate the toxin components and come up with a fix.”

  Molly had pulled up her holo and was taking notes. “Uh huh. Yes,” she agreed. “That’s helpful, actually. Are there any other symptoms? And any differences between oggs, Estarians and humans?”

  “Not that we’re aware of,” he shared, taking a sip of his mocha. “We understand that it affects all races equally, and without discrimination.”

  Paige made the appropriate faces and noises of sympathy for the victims. Crash meanwhile had placed mugs of mocha in front of both Molly and Paige and was standing at the machine making his. “Damn awful stuff,” he chimed in.

  Molly was still looking at Sean quizzically. “You keep saying ‘we’. You mean… you and Garet?”

  Sean shook his head, grinning now. “No, I mean me and some other good guys.” Molly wondered if he were enjoying the opportunity to create some enigma. It can’t have been something he would have experienced much in his line of work, Molly guessed.

  Sean filled them in on some of the work that Garet was trying to do, and said that he sends his best wishes.

  “Sounds like he’s walking a very tight and dangerous line,” commented Paige. Molly wasn’t sure, but there seemed to be a tinge of ‘I told you so’ in her voice.

  Sean picked up on this, and encouraged it. “It is. But he won’t be dissuaded.”

  Damn it. He’s building rapport with Paige. He’s a slick operator, this one.

  I’m guessing advanced trainings in all manner of things.

  I’m thinking you’re right. Heck, he’d give Joel a run for his money.

  Sean was still talking, looking intently at Paige. “I just do what I can from the shadows to make sure that he’s more useful to them alive than dead. It’s a full time job, the political babysitting!”

  “Ha! We should get Joel in on this gig,” Molly chuckled, tickled by the image. She put on her movie announcer voice, “GI Joel - babysitter. The most deadly game in town.” The group roared with laughter.

  Crash even had to wipe a tear from his eye. “What a hoot!” he exclaimed.

  Sean was laughing with them. “Yeah, it’s pretty accurate. It’s like any of these things, though: it’s all plain sailing until something shifts and the shit hits the fan.”

  “Plus,” he added. “Garet is constantly throwing wrenches in the works in our attempts at keeping him safe. He just won’t be told.”

  Paige nodded knowingly. “Sounds like he’s gotten a little more reckless, since getting this second chance at life.” She got up and placed her now empty mocha cup in the plastic crate especially for carrying them down to the basement and washing them out.

  “Yeah,” Sean mused. “Oh, but one thing I could use your help with at some point, is setting up a secure drop point so that you can pick up packets of intel as he collects it. If you can come up with a sweet system that lets him pass it to you for either safe keeping or using, he might be able to make an even bigger impact.”

  He paused, not knowing who to direct this request to. “It’d need to be 100% secure, and under the radar of Andus. Or anyone else who might be watching.”

  Molly was taking a sip of mocha, and swallowed before answering. “Hmm, leave it with me. I’ll need to think of the best way to do that. I’m assuming every device and access point he has is bugged?”

  Sean nodded.

  Molly spun around awkwardly on her crate, and ditched her mug in the washing bin too. “Might need to look at something that connects through a public network, then. I’ll get back to you on that.”

  “Okay, great. Anyway, I should make tracks.” He finished his mocha and stood up to place his cup in the same crate. “But I’m glad we got the chance to connect.”

  Paige took his mug and placed it in the crate for him.

  Molly stood up and offered her hand out to shake. “Thanks for the intel,” she told him. “It’s going to help in solving this.” He took her hand and shook it, his grip a little tighter than she was used to.

  “Sure thing,” he replied. “And if you need anything, just leave a message on this server.” He typed something into his holo and then bounced his wristband against hers. “Don’t try and contact me directly; there’re no guarantees your thread wont be traced. But this server is secure.” He nodded at her holo before continuing. “I’ll be around, working on this to avert as much as we can, so no doubt we’ll confer down the line. Do let me know when you have the antidote figured out, yeah?”