Expert Assistance

by Robert Collins

“Cut it,” Jake said.

  “We’re gonna warn ‘em, right?” Evvie asked.

  “No.”

  She looked indignant. “Well, why not?”

  “First off, how are we going to warn them? They’re both working. Second, if we do warn them, what could they do? It’s not like there’s places to hide, or an outgoing ship at the spaceport they can catch. Finally, if we warn them and they do anything, Maxis will start wondering how they found out. Maybe he starts poking around for bugs. If he finds the one in the meeting room, he’ll probably start looking for who planted it. It won’t take his goons very long to find us if they really look.”

  “So what are we gonna do?”

  “’We’ aren’t going to do anything. You will carry on with your broadcast. No improvised warnings, either. I will think up some way to deal with this situation, and I will resolve it.”

  She glared at him for a moment, then lowered her head and shoulders. “If you say so.” She turned and left the bridge.

  Jake leaned back in his chair for a minute to think. “Odin, could you forge a local data file? Make it appear authentic?”

  “Yes.”

  “How about a security video?”

  “I can delete sections and insert new ones. I cannot reliably create a new video for insertion, especially if it involves human interactions. There are too many variables that could undermine my effort.”

  “Oh. Wait. We’ve got the holoroom. And video equipment.”

  “That would be a far more successful approach.”

  “Right. Get to work on scanning that control room. I’ll do some tinkering, compose an outline, and prep a mechabug.”

  ***

  Clarissa jerked awake when Morton returned. She glanced around the room to see what time it was. A readout on one of the screens read “11:30.” She tried to focus her mind on the task at hand. She was still in a chair, her wrists still bound, and she was still in security control under some sort of arrest.

  “You’re awake,” Morton said. He smiled. “Good. I thought you were going to think about what I said.”

  Clarissa stared at him. She wanted to say something witty to him, but nothing came immediately to her. She decided instead to keep quiet.

  “Now, I can have you back in your quarters right now if you just cooperate. Maybe the boss’ll be nice and let you and Danny stay together. But you gotta tell me what’s going on. Who’s trying to mess things up, huh?”

  “Your boss is,” she replied.

  He shook his head. “Now, we both know that’s not... Hey!” He turned around, apparently looking for something. Just as he seemed to find whatever it was, his body relaxed. He closed his eyes and fell to the floor. Seconds later Jake materialized next to the guard.

  “I knew you’d find out,” she told him.

  “About what, precisely?”

  Her mind was still a little foggy. “What do you mean?”

  “Your relationship with Maxis.”

  “I didn’t have a relationship...” Her train of thought slammed on it brakes. “Oh, no. That’s how he knew it was me.”

  “Would mind letting me in on this part of your past?”

  “Um, could you untie me first?”

  “No.”

  She frowned, then sighed. “Okay, Jake. It was nothing, really. When we were seniors he had a crush on me. He and I went out on a couple dates. I thought he was a creep. The next guy I went out with was Dan, and we’ve been together ever since. Now will you untie me? My arms are falling asleep.”

  He nodded, bent down, and freed her. He took a bracelet off his left wrist and handed it to her as she stood up. “Put this on.”

  She nodded towards Morton. “What about him?”

  “He’ll be sleeping all night.”

  She put the bracelet on. He spoke into his, and a few seconds later they were in the teleport room of his ship. “You can’t hide me up here,” she said.

  “We’re not going to hide you.” He took off his bracelet, then hers.

  “Then what are you up to?”

  He smiled. “Time for the first episode of ‘Antioch Two’s Goofiest Home Videos.’” He waved to the doorway. “You’re going to be the star, and I’ll be Morton. C’mon.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “I hope there isn’t anything else about you and Maxis that you haven’t told me.”

  ***

  The next morning Jake and Evvie were back on the upper level of the bridge listening in on another executive meeting. They could tell that the atmosphere in the room was tense from shrill tone that had crept into Maxis voice.

  “This morning when I went in to question Clarissa, I found this in the security log. You’ll notice this confession on your screens. Read it.”

  “What does it say?” Evvie asked.

  “Seems Clarissa admitted to stirring things up,” Jake answered, “only it wasn’t her idea.”

  “Whose idea was it?”

  “Anyone notice my name as the instigator of this?” Maxis yelled.

  “It...it has to be a forgery,” Thorne said.

  “You think so? Show them.”

  “Yes, sir,” Morton said.

  Jake and Evvie heard the audio of what seemed to be a recording made by a security camera. The audio was of Clarissa orally stating her confession, the transcript of which had been on the executives’ screens. Occasionally Morton would ask her a question or request a clarification. A third of the way through the recording the audio cut out.

  “The date stamp has this being made from 11:30 to ten past midnight,” Morton said. “The only problem is that right around 11:30 I was knocked out by a mechabug that injected me with some kind of sleep inducer. I was out all night.”

  “So it’s a fake,” one of the executives said.

  “Of course it is,” Maxis snapped.

  “You think one of us did that?”

  “Only Mister Maxis and Mister Thorne could have altered this data,” Morton said.

  The sound of a chair being pushed back came through the bug. “Hold on one minute!” Thorne’s voice shook with rage. “It seems clear to me that our systems have been compromised. I have nothing to gain from this forgery.”

  “Maybe not,” Maxis countered, “but unless you can find out who compromised our systems, I have to conclude that you were behind this.”

  “And you...” Thorne took in a very loud breath. “Whoever had penetrated our system has done a good job so far. They’ve got us yelling at each other over this bogus confession. I strongly suggest that we make a real effort to locate these crackers and stop them before they do more serious damage to us.”

  “Um, sir,” the woman executive called Tina said, “I believe Mister Thorne is right. Somebody’s playing with us. They might even be behind those troublesome workers and their march.”

  “I haven’t found any evidence of tampering,” Morton said.

  “Just because you haven’t found it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

  “This arguing is getting us nowhere,” a second male executive said. “I think we should focus on the situation.” There was an instant of silence, followed by the sounds of people sitting down. “Okay. First on the task list: what do we do about this Rosen woman? Do we bring her in again?”

  “And have a repeat of last night?” Thorne asked.

  “Do we discipline her?”

  “For what?”

  “Undermining my...our authority,” Maxis said.

  “Technically, she hasn’t,” Thorne told the others, “and if she has, what do we do about it? We don’t have prison facilities. We don’t even have a holding cell.”

  “We confine her to her quarters.”

  “Soon lots of workers are gonna act up to get that punishment. We can’t dock her pay or take away privileges. About all we can do is speed up our increase in schedules on the workforce. Once we’ve maximized that option that goes off the table.”

  “So what do you suggest?”r />
  “Ease up on everyone except those workers that took part in the march.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Jake said to Evvie.

  “Why not?”

  “It pits our friends against the other workers.”

  “I don’t think that’s a valid strategy,” the second executive said after a moment’s quiet. “I could radicalize those that get the increased workload, and that brings us back the dilemma of dealing with the Rosen woman, only on a larger scale.”

  Jake blew out a relieved breath. “Good point, there, buddy.”

  “Then, if there’s no acceptable options,” Thorne said, “I say we do nothing. If we can’t do anything that makes the situation worse or makes us look bad, then the best thing we can do is nothing.”

  “We aren’t going to do nothing.” Maxis firmly put a hand on the meeting room table. “You are going to look for this cracker. Morton, make sure no more marches take place. The rest of you, send word down to your people that this sort of unrest will not be tolerated, and can lead to harsh measures. That’s all.”

  Everyone rose from their seats. “Thorne, a moment.” Once the others had left the room Maxis spoke to his right-hand man in a distinctly level tone. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

  Thorne’s tone matched his boss. “Sordius, I’m not up to anything.”

  “You know I got you your position.”

  “And I’m grateful.”

  “So find this system cracker, or I’ll have to do something.”

  “I am still your friend, but I won’t take the blame for things I haven’t done.”

  There were several moments of silence. They were ended by the sound of one man slapping the other’s shoulders. “Do your job, then. Be my friend.”

  “Sure.”

  Maxis patted Thorne’s shoulder again, and the two left the room. Odin switched off the audio from the bug.

  “I think we have a winner,” Jake said with some glee.

  “A winner?” Evvie asked.

  “Thorne.”

  “What’s he won?”

  “A conscience. Get back to work, Evvie. Odin, pull up the data on how Maxis’ family got control of this world. I think it’s time we shared this with more than just our friends in the ALG.”

  ***

  Jake knew that owning a teleport carried with it certain ethics. They weren’t rules as such, since his was the only private non-passenger starship so equipped, and he wasn’t working for any government that might have its own regulations. There were some things that he ordinarily wouldn’t do. The first item on that list was teleporting into people’s rooms without an invitation.

  On the other hand, every job was different and would have their own set of rules and priorities. In this particular case, the priority was breaking down Thorne’s loyalty to Maxis and getting him on the side of the revolution. While he could have Odin send down files, Jake knew there was a chance that Thorne wouldn’t see them right away, much less draw the “right” conclusions. He could have sent a message, but despite their penetration there was still the possibility of the message being traced. There was no other way to open a dialog except to teleport into Thorne’s room and talk to him.

  To that end Jake considered wearing some sort of mask, another type of disguise, or something to alter his natural voice. He found three reasons not to. The first was that if Thorne wanted to discover Jake’s identity he could do a scan, search a database, and learn it; a disguise wouldn’t hide his identity for long. Second, Thorne might not be willing to trust someone who hid his face from him, and trust was important. The third reason was that it was the sort of dumb cliché’ that the Rosens or Evvie might resort to if they were carrying this mission out.

  Not that Jake was entirely trusting of Thorne; after all, he was on the wrong side of the revolution right at the moment. Jake made certain to arm himself before he teleported down. Nothing lethal, of course, but just enough to convince Thorne that funny business would not be tolerated.

  Jake went down about an hour after the standard time that everyone on Antioch Two was supposed to go to sleep. Sure enough, there was Thorne, alone in his bed snoozing away. He waited for Odin to raise the light level in the room to medium-low before getting closer to the other man.

  As the lights came up Jake got his first good look at Thorne. The man was tall, sturdily built, and handsome, a complete opposite of the picture of a corporate flunky. However, two items did suggest to Jake that Thorne’s life was that of an underling. First was the obvious fact that this stud was sleeping alone; no way that could happen unless his social life was a threat to his boss. Second was that even asleep Thorne had a concerned expression on his face. Jake knew that worry could only creep up during sleep on people who had no control over their lives.

  In short, he thought, Thorne really is the perfect choice for this approach.

  Jake approached the bed slowly and quietly as soon as the room had brightened a little. Once beside the bed he drew his stunner and poked it in Thorne’s ear. “Wake up!” he shouted.

  Thorne practically leapt out of bed. “What?”

  Jake stepped back and smiled. “Hello.” He pointed the weapon at Thorne. “Please don’t call out.”

  Thorne rubbed his eyes. “You’re not one of the guards. Who are you?”

  “I heard you were looking for me, so I thought I’d take the initiative.”

  “Looking for you?” Thorne took a few moments to think. “You’re the one who’s broken into our systems?”

  “More or less.”

  “Wait. How did you know we’re looking for you?”

  “Oh, I think you can figure that one out without my help.”

  Thorne sighed. “A bug.” He sat up. “What is it you want?”

  “Whoa!” In sitting up Thorne threw off his blanket, revealing that he slept in the least amount of underwear a man could. Jake put his left hand over his face. “That’s a little too much personal data for me, buddy. Put that blanket back on you, or put on some pants.”

  “You’re the intruder.”

  “Yeah, but not that kind of intruder.”

  Thorne gathered up the blanket and covered his lower half with it. “Happy?”

  Jake dropped his left hand. “Thanks.”

  “Now, what the Hell do you want?”

  “Well, as I said, I overheard that you’re looking for me. I thought I’d come to you and let you know one reason why I’m up to what I’m up to.”

  “Okay, pal, enlighten me.”

  “Well, you do know how Maxis’ granddad got ahold of this planet, don’t you?”

  “Sure. He bought it cheap from some corporation. Once he investigated Antioch Two he discovered what he’d found.”

  Jake let out a laugh and shook his head. “And they say we live in a cynical age. Gosh, that naiveté is, oh, I don’t know, just so precious.”

  “What?”

  “Mister Thorne, you’ve been had. You and everyone else on this rock-ball. Morgan Maxi was a planetary surveyor who lied to his employers about this planet. He told them it was a worthless place about to be teeming with life, instead of a dead chunk of rock and water containing several generations worth of loot. He and his son bought it cheap, and the family’s been milking their boon for all it’s worth ever since.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I thought you’d say that, so I took the trouble of having some files planted on your personal database.”

  “What files?”

  “Maxi’s report to his employers. His employment record. The real purchase agreement. Oh, I also put in a few interesting news pieces on Grandpa Maxi. Seems that if he hadn’t made this world his private refuge, he’d have gone to court on a few worlds.”

  Thorne glanced away from Jake for a moment, then looked back at him. “Why tell me this? Why not go to the Earth authorities?”

  “Legal loopholes, and the terms of my employment. Besides, you’ve struck me as a smart guy. T
ake this morning’s meeting. You were spot on when you suggested that the executives do nothing. Guys like you either know the score, or can figure it out.

  “I think you’d agree with me that things are crappy for the workers around here. Once you look over all that data, you’ll see that you and the other executives aren’t doing as well as you should, either. The only people ahead in this game are Sordius and the suits off-world that he’s paying off.”

  Thorne glanced away again. “What if I tell Sordius about you?”

  “There are no security cams in here. What proof do you have that I was even here? That data?” Jake shook his head. “Copies of all that data are sitting in very secure files that only Sordius has access to. You can find it off-world if you look, but I imagine he’ll wonder why you have it. Did you break into his database? Are you trying to dig up dirt on him and his family? What would it be doing there?

  “No, I think telling him is a bad idea. I’d erase those files once you finish looking at them.”

  “Maybe I’ll erase them before.”

  “Oh, I made certain you can’t remove them until you open them, and once opened they won’t close for a few minutes. I didn’t want us going through the hassle of finding all that and handing it to you, only do have you junk it without even a peek at it.”

  “Okay, pal, say I do take a look. What am I supposed to do? Join you in your little resistance movement?”

  Jake shook his head. “Nah. If I were you, I’d let that data percolate. Combine it with what you know about operations. Consider the implications if certain things were told to certain authorities.

  “Well, I think that’s all for now. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a busy day tomorrow. We’ll talk again soon.” With that, Jake allowed Odin to teleport him out of Thorne’s room, leaving the other man to ponder what he’s said. Jake was fairly confident that the man would not get as good a night’s sleep as he would.

  ***

  A few days later another protest march was to be held. This one was to specifically call for reduced hours, profit-sharing, and better contacts with off-worlders. Jake and Evvie sat on the upper level of the bridge to monitor the action.

  This time, though, there were a few things different. The first was that Jake sent down to the Rosens earpieces for the clandestine comm unit he’d sent them previously. Jake was worried that this time around the marchers might run into more serious trouble. He didn’t want them to respond to any situation unwisely. He gave the Rosens the earpieces and told them, “Do exactly as I tell you, or you’re on your own.”