The Radical Factor (Stone Blade Book 3)

by James Matt Cox

  "Truth," said Micah, "and not that different from ours. Ted absolutely must have this! I'll put ten standing that someone in Strategy and Planning goes suborbital over it."

  After they encrypted the summaries and conclusion and blipped it to Ionoski another thought hit Micah.

  "Heaven's flames! Tune up my 'pad, Charlie. We have another burn to do."

  The next day at work Micah projected an air of distraction and preoccupation. He still did his job, just not as well and with a few embarrassing repeated tasks. Parnaud threatened a reprimand when he discovered Micah hadn't quite finished his day's tasks by quitting time and admonished him to complete them quickly. Micah did so after the others left, but carelessly left his datapad jacked into the net. He knew he'd have another reprimand when the chronically-neat Parnaud discovered it but no matter.

  ***

  "I'm in," said Ferrel.

  This time the two of them sat at a datamart deep within the city. Micah checked their backtrail carefully on the journey to it and snarled it twice.

  "And?"

  "I'm in, my brother. Need you ask more? I have a list of transfers within the past two years. That's as far as I could go without hitting the deep archives and it's a lot of data besides. I'm also running comparisons against common curricula, just in case Navy has its own spy school. Initial read indicates that Merchant to Naval transfers do better afterward but that's not solid. Call it two sigmas."

  "Any transfers from Naval to Merchant?"

  "Working on that too. There aren't as many of those but it looks like... Rut! Feces!!" Ferrel worked his warez furiously. "I just hit something thermal! I hope your 'pad isn't close to something flammable; I had to send the kill code."

  Micah instantly scanned the datamart. No one had arrived or departed within the last five minutes. Ferrel jacked out and powered down quickly and the two of them left. Out of sight of the datamart they split. Micah sent Kidwell the emergency blip, ran a rat path, checked his backtrail obsessively and changed faces. Then he repeated. No pursuit. Finally satisfied, he headed for their safehouse in the downzone.

  "What the hades happened?"

  Micah arrived last. Ferrel had a glass, Kidwell that and a 'stick. They both sat watching Ferrel's datapad.

  "I don't know," said Ferrel, "but it was no party hat, six-sigmas. Multiple penetration traces, stealthed grapples, sticky noses and a swarm of vornets faster than I've ever seen!"

  "Do you think they figured us," asked Kidwell.

  "For truth hon, I can't say absolutely that they didn't. Those warez felt optimized and my delicate duff was tingling all the way here. I think I spiked the worst of it, though. I used a variation of their own metavirus. If it hit right neither academy will be having class tomorrow."

  "What about our gear," asked Micah. He mentally ran down the list of things they had at their house that the Mekhajan shouldn't.

  "I grabbed all the data and some of the stuff. I popped the rest and planted a WIPEOuT fogger. Obviously I left the spiders in place. Hopefully that's wasted precaution."

  "No blather on that. Best safe, though."

  "Polar. What about Ted?"

  "I blipped him," said Ferrel, "after I changed the first... Hell's frost that was fast!"

  The spiders planted at their former residence showed nine intrusion-suited figures appearing suddenly and swarming within the house. After they cleared the rooms most of them removed their hoods. They moved with military precision and spoke little as they investigated the meager contents there.

  One of the men swore foully when he discovered the melted, fused and useless pile of equipment Kidwell popped. Another one puzzled a moment over the fogger. Micah checked his chrono and began a mental count. If they didn't bring in complex chemical analysis gear within the next three minutes and seventeen seconds the WIPEOuT gas, invisible and odorless, would have time to degrade any biological or genetic evidence they left behind. The time ticked slowly until Micah could heave a sigh of relief.

  The intruders gave no information to identify themselves but Micah didn't particularly care who they were. They were good and only that mattered! After their initial rough search the men organized themselves and began one in depth. One by one Ferrel ordered the spiders to hide and self-destruct and before long their last bit of surveillance vanished.

  ***

  Micah approached Ionoski's offices with lunches for both of them. Ionoski had customers there already so Micah sat and waited, idly chatting with his receptionist. When the last customer left Ionoski called Micah inside and activated a garble. Micah detailed what happened and handed him the datacube.

  "Good job, even with the ultimate end result. You're right, too. It probably isn't their whole Intel training but it is the point of entry. We can't fully exploit that right now but we will.

  "Katie and Dave haven't had any problems so they're staying in place for now. They have some good results too. You can review them once you're aboard the Nerissa. What they found so far is most relevant to Davies' work but you three may spot something.

  "As you can see my business is doing well. I'm turning a decent profit but ten times that in information. I haven't had time to cross-correlate anything of mine with what you found but I'm sure Charles will manage it. Best buy him a good dessert now, though."

  Micah smiled at that.

  "I want you three going low and slow," continued Ionoski, "I have a way to exfiltrate you but Charlie will need to do some work. Blip me once you're safe and we can plan some specific moves."

  Micah had several ideas of his own on how to leave Mek-Bellos undetected but he discarded them when he heard Ionoski's. The backup team hadn't been idle! Using the newly-enhanced scan suite on the former Jenni Silver they monitored and built up an comprehensive datastore on the insystem traffic and the patterns to and from Mek-Bellos.

  In addition to four major starports, the system itself had numerous orbital and deep-space stations as well as two massive asteroid belts, complete with miners, supply stations and transit hubs, all of which differed from those of the League not at all! Ionoski planned to take full advantage of that fact. When he told Micah his plan Micah knew it would likely trigger severe measures once their report reached their superiors!

  ***

  "What exactly constitutes a 'decent' profit," wondered Ferrel.

  "I don't know, Charlie. Are you in yet?"

  This time the two of them occupied a carrel in Bellovis' largest public library.

  "I mean I understand that he's primarily interested in information but profit is profit! No matter how little or how infrequent."

  "I know. Are you in yet?" Micah checked the exits and crowds as he spoke.

  "We touched on this during training," continued Ferrel, "Once the shade shop covers its initial cost and starts turning a profit the agents starting it receive a cut. I'm just curious as to when that will happen."

  "Charrrrrrrr-lie..."

  "We're cryo, my brother. Go find a book or something. We're in solid on the beam. I have a query running in the background and a perfectly legal monitoring module exactly where I need it."

  That Ferrel spoke while he burned gave truth to his words. He did have spiral tunnels between several machines here and others at sister libraries. In addition to the simple query he had a low-level monitor attached, through devious means, to the spinal link between the starport and the Bellovis chapter of the Brothers of the Open Tent.

  Ferrel stopped talking when the traffic on the starport link heated up. He fired probes into both ends and launched promotion modules. The Tent security twitched but didn't activate. Two starships had just arrived and the link began filling with ID query and verification requests. Ferrel narrowed the pipe and waited.

  Before long the query-veri's slowed almost to a halt, backed up and stalled. Ferrel released his block and the requests flooded the municipal net. It lagged horribly and began reporting errors and re-sends. Ferrel captured several of those, forked them and soon had solid secur
e connections into the municipal net. Before the backlog cleared he forked and stealthed his connection so that when the original request terminated he still had a solid link.

  "Nice," said Micah.

  Ferrel smiled but didn't reply. He promoted himself within the municipal net and quickly located the ID records. Once again he blocked the starport pipe, waited and flooded the system. This time he rode the surge into the ID cores, cut a cheap door and burned and altered what they needed.

  "You do realize you and Vera owe me a nice meal and dessert for this."

  "Just don't break the Mint," said Micah.

  By the time they left the library both of them had port- and system-cleared IDs with another one for Kidwell. Plus pre-paid tickets at a discount!

  ***

  After a meal that cost well more than they saved on the tickets, Micah, Ferrel and Kidwell entered the starport. Before they boarded their ship Micah dropped a keycard into a delivery tube and keyed Ionoski's address. The card fitted the locker containing the rest of their illicit gear. Doing so made Micah nervous but they shouldn't need it and Ionoski, Siffai or Barstein might. At least they still had their datapads and terminals.

  After a long trip to the proper concourse they boarded a dingy, dirty, hot, battered and crowded shuttle that smelled bad. Kidwell wrinkled her nose several times and refused the in-flight tea. Micah drank his and Ferrel's. The stuff wasn't bad but it certainly wasn't good either. Once the craft attained and left orbit Micah settled back for a nap.

  Docking woke Micah. Neither of the others had slept. Unsurprising: he knew Kidwell wouldn't and that Ferrel wouldn't let her stay awake alone.

  "Could you really sleep through an asteroid strike," she asked.

  "Six-sigmas. Just turn up the tunes and lash down the tea."

  They debarked the shuttle via a dilapidated boarding tube that led to a concourse little better than the shuttle. Most of the other passengers headed purposefully into the bowels of the asteroid station. Micah, Kidwell and Ferrel joined the small part of the crowd that didn't.

  Safely ensconced in a semi-spacious lounge with food service along one wall and a bar along the other, Micah found a comm kiosk and entered the code Ionoski gave him. Four minutes later it flashed an acknowledgement and a time. He smiled and rejoined the other two.

  "Polarity," he said, "We have time for a snack!"

  Ferrel snorted, paid a few coins and jacked into the station's net. Kidwell lifted an eyebrow at Micah's suggestion of more tea and shook her head. Then she did lean back and relax.

  A few minutes after the specified time Davies and Blankenship entered the lounge. Davies checked something at a kiosk and they left. Micah and the other two followed them and traversed another rickety boarding tube into a much cleaner and less crowded shuttle. In strap-down time plus two minutes they were en route to the Nerissa.

  Chapter 9. Strange Fashions

  al'Vooshi winced when he walked into the infidel's room. Even though he wore earpads the subsonics still set his teeth on edge. After he deactivated the noise generators, subsonics, optical strobes and thermal variators he turned on the room lights.

  "Well infidel, are you ready to talk now?"

  The man's jaw trembled and drool ran down the side of his face. His eyes held a distant, unfocused look and his body twitched slightly. al'Vooshi measured and administered an extra dose just to loosen the man's tongue.

  "Stone, Micah. Common..."

  al'Vooshi slapped the infidel hard and for no other reason than frustration. No man had the right to resist the question so! Stone's head snapped to the side and lolled back slackly. Now his drool had small ribbons of blood threading through it.

  "Ahh, Stone Micah J. you test me. The Feast of the Flight begins ere long. I have children and a wife, Stone Micah. If you do not speak I fear I shall not see them again until the Rapture of Dhu at the end of times. Think of your children, Micah Stone, if you have any. Would you not wish to see the joy on their faces upon your return? Free yourself of pain, Micah Stone, and allow me the joy of seeing my sons and daughters. Before Dhu I vow you have resisted admirably! May He grant you all such mercies as infidels may receive, if only you will talk to me. Dhu may yet show you some small mercy. Speak!"

  The infidel's eyes fuzzed into and out of focus and his mouth twitched, almost smile-like. Then his jaw worked and he drew a breath.

  "Comm... monwealth... of... Caustik... May... Liberty... Reign..."

  This time al'Vooshi held his temper firmly in check. Instead of uselessly striking the man again he took out the proper instruments and began administering the question. Stone's body flinched and twitched but his babble didn't change.

  Deep in al'Vooshi's heart and far too faint to acknowledge, yet, the seeds of doubt sprouted and began to grow.

  ***

  Safely aboard the Nerissa, Davies gave Micah and the others thirty minutes to freshen up before calling a meeting.

  "First of all thank you and thank Ted for this ship," said Davies, "Especially after the refit. I have a decent lab now and I've found out a lot about that bacterium. You do remember, yes?"

  No blather whatsoever!!

  Davies called up an enhanced holo. "This is the basic bacterium: bacillus Imperialis capillus 4491. In and of itself it is relatively harmless. It's ubiquitous in one form or another on every world touched by the Imperium. It's very hardy and can survive in a wide range of environments. Some of its waste products do have an affinity for nerve or brain chemistry but not harmfully so."

  "You said it could only thrive on a narrow range of planets and soil chemistry," said Kidwell.

  "I did and I'll clarify further. Patience please. Different planets mean differences in metabolism and by-products. Minor differences but critical in some cases." He called up a genetic diagram along with the next holo. "Here is the nasty one. I finally managed a full sequence on the bacteriophage, the virus, living within our particular beastie. It is very fragile and cannot exist outside its bacterial host, and it can only exist within a narrow range of them. That's where the 'narrow range' and chemistry come in.

  "Other variants of 4491 will not host the virus and will actively reject it. Mek-Taniston happens to have the right combination of factors to make its native bacteria good for the virus. It's not optimal but it's ruddy close. When it can exist, though, it assists the bacterial host in breaking down and processing nutrients. It also modifies the waste products and that's where things go narsty. 4491's ordinary waste product already has an affinity for brains and nerves. The viral modification alters these compounds in very specific ways."

  Micah felt an idea trying to form but quashed it instantly!

  "Exactly," said Davies with a look to Micah, "The really insidious part is that the virus is not natural. It is synthetic." He let that sink in a moment. "This virus was specifically tailored to produce perception-altering effects. I think. I'm not six-sigmas on that but I am at least four. I've seen viral modification like this before.

  "According to the tests I've conducted so far I believe the compounds it produces have something to do with happiness and aggression. That's two triggers out of a dozen more subtle ones I haven't traced yet. But I'm still working on it."

  "That is horrible," said Kidwell, "Are you saying that wine makes people into happy killers?"

  "No! No, no, no. If it was that simple I'd be finished with the report and drinking chog. The actual neurochemical effects are hundreds of times more subtle than that." He looked at Micah again. "We're not talking about one-drink juice troopers. I can say that for certain but I'll have to trace and model the other triggers before I can say any more."

  "How much would an average-sized person need to consume to bring on the effects," asked Micah.

  "Not a lot but not a little either. Three- to five hundred milliliters would absolutely exhibit effects. More would amplify them but lesser amounts might. Like I said I haven't done enough yet for all the answers. Hades! If I hadn't seen this before I wouldn't even
know there were questions, but I've had experience."

  The others looked at him expectantly.

  "I've done an extensive study on Imperium bioweapons and bioweapon technology. That includes their favorite bacteria to use, the effects they tried to attain and what to do about them when you find them. After the disaster on Maldrake IV lots of people studied them."

  Micah and Kidwell nodded. Maldrake IV was the last Imperium site discovered within League space. After the first-look team located the base and built the research labs they, with recently-arrived scientific backup, breached the site. A lot of traffic arrived and departed before they discovered that it was an advanced bioweapon development lab and that their worst discoveries survived both the Collapse and the Interim. The archives, discovered too late and too long taken to translate, detailed the class of weapons under development.

  It took the Navy, the Patrol, the Healer's Guild and even the Tech Guild to stop the resulting outbreaks. The microbes infected their hosts and stayed quiescent for up to a year before spreading and causing death. The League quarantined three entire sectors and interdicted another seventeen systems before they had the plagues fully contained.

  Less people died than could have but far more than should have. The resulting protocols designed to prevent such a pandemic bore the name of that infamous system. Once League medics developed inoculations and treatments all four Guilds, the Navy and every news agency within the League took measures to spread both the news and the medicines. Rumor said they even contacted the Consortium via the Kensie Free Systems and Coral Nebula Federation.

  "No blather," said Davies as he read their expressions, "The good news is that 4491 isn't airborne and never will be. It doesn't weaponize well that way. Quite the opposite, in fact. During the late Imperium, just before the collapse, some of the simpler 4491 strains were developed for use in their biodigester recycler technology."