“And what is it you want?” he asked.
“I want my friend Jade back,” she said, her mouth dry. “And I’ll give you Alice Xie for her.”
“Hmmm. See, now, that’s where the rub is at, isn’t it?” Schaeffer held her gaze, his eyes hard and cold. “Because I already have an Alice Xie. Which is how I know you have an Alice Xie. And since you have her, you know some company secrets that we are not quite yet ready to go wide with. Now, before you think that I’ve been a bit fussy about all this, I can promise you, if our marketing gurus got wind of you stealing our thunder before we go to market—well, sweetheart, you ain’t seen nothing yet. You think you’ve got nothing left to lose, and I’ve seen people in your same position before with a similar attitude. Let me tell you straight up—there is always something more for you to lose. I can promise you that.”
Mesa nodded, weighing his words. She looked out across the stretch of green grass, seeking any movements through the tree line and finding none. “I give you Alice, and you do whatever you need to do to get my head back on straight and make sure I’m free of your little industrial-espionage bullshit. You give me Jade.”
“Those are some remarkable lengths you’re willing to go to for a girl you don’t know that well.”
“She’s my friend.”
Schaeffer took a long pull from his coffee cup as she spoke. “Mmmm, see, that’s interesting. Is she your friend, or is she Alice’s friend?” He wiped a small dot of foam from his upper lip with the back of his hand.
“What?” Mesa asked, caught off guard.
“Huh. I guess that means Alice didn’t tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Her finger curled around the trigger of the gun still hidden by her tote bag. A tight voice insisted that she pull it. She fought to stay herself from shooting him, despite the powerful urge.
Schaeffer gave her a small smile full of mock pity. “Seems your sweet, dear, good friend Jade is actually in cahoots with Alice. In fact, seems she was sent to spy on you and make sure Alice started poking through. She was supposed to help round up the other data carriers, get our old girl reunited with her bad self and made whole. It’s kind of funny you call her a friend, because she is really not your friend.”
“You don’t know anything about us.”
“You mean like how you and her got… oh, let’s say… familiar with one another.”
Mesa’s cheeks burned.
“But then you traded up to Kaizhou. Hey, how’s he doing, by the way?”
Her eyes stung, and the blush deepened until her whole face felt aflame. Her heart knocked against her breastbone in violent spasms, missing entire beats. The gun felt weightless, and she spun as the world canted sideways and her finger tightened on the trigger.
A small boy ran by, chased by a young girl with long black pigtails. Their shrieks snapped Mesa back, but seeing Schaeffer’s smiling face sent a shiver through her.
“Ah, that’s right,” he said, sounding not the least bit remorseful. He pulled the coffee to his lips and took another long, appreciative sip, his eyes never leaving Mesa’s.
“You know, I think maybe we could have come to an arrangement on this,” he said, “if we weren’t so far down this path already. I’ve cost you, and you’ve cost me. I can’t help but think there may be some bad blood between us, mostly on your side, of course. I know you’re young and you don’t understand the economics of all this. You’re all wrapped up in the emotions of it all. I get that—I do.
“I’m just not sure that, one,” he said, ticking the points off on his fingers as he spoke, “you would be a very reliable business partner. And, two, the expense of all this has been very taxing. I can’t simply roll over and cut you a deal. It wouldn’t be a very shrewd investment, you see? You are the living embodiment of what we call a volatile market. One day, you’re high; the next day, you’re low. We don’t know how you’ll perform in the long run. So, no. I don’t think I can take you up on your offer.”
“I understand,” she said, gathering all the composure she was capable of. “I suppose it’s on to plan B.”
He watched her with an expression of mild amusement, then his hand went to his stomach. A scarlet circle blossomed above his hip, covering his fingers with red. He seemed genuinely surprised that he had been shot.
The children and tourists had moved on, and Mesa found herself alone with Schaeffer in the garden, beneath the cherry tree. She stood, using her body to block the view of the gun in case any passersby came near. She leaned over Schaeffer, pretending she were about to kiss him.
He tried to speak, but his lips curled around gasping noises. Blood bubbled in the corners of his mouth. She thought about the angle of his wound and the closeness—the bullet was probably lodged in his spine.
Bent over the man, she fired twice more, directly into his chest. She felt his last breath against her neck and face, carried on a gentle breeze that ruffled the white petals of the tree’s blossoms.
Mesa dumped the gun back in the tote then turned heel, quickly surveying the garden. She was the only soul in sight, and she headed back toward the trail, quickly forgetting the unease she had felt over murdering the man minutes before.
Alice’s words still hung over her, though, damning her.
This is who we are.
Chapter 25
Rameez broke code, rebuilding it with algorithms of his own design, ghosting the system full on. Racing through tangents of ones and zeros, data hounding them, he felt completely at ease and in his element for the first time in a long while. Hacking was what he was good at.
Mesa, it seemed, had found her own unique capabilities, and he trusted her enough to not be totally disturbed by her new skill set. Or Alice’s old skill set, maybe. Whatever. She’d pulled his fat out of the fire, literally, and he was grateful. Compartmentalization was another of his skills he was proud of.
He weaved his own web deep within the securiweb of Los Angeles, tracking Schaeffer and keeping a very close eye on Mesa. He kept her off the grid, making her invisible. She was free to go wherever and do whatever she needed. Including, apparently, shooting a powerful business executive multiple times in a public park.
“Fuck,” he groaned, wiping out all the traces of his friend that he could reach—drones, nanosurvelliance, discreet visual actuators, business security, traffic cameras, DRMR captures, bio-fi resonances, and active retinal recorders. He piggybacked her ident and made her the equivalent of a black hole. The absence or omission of a presence could tip off a careful observer, the way astronomers could infer the existence of celestial bodies without laying eyes on an actual planet. However, Rameez doubted anyone would be as diligent as he was, but to obfuscate matters, he inserted code that digitally squeezed the image ever so slightly, just enough to make Mesa’s erasure from the records less apparent.
“You’d have really gone with him?” he asked across the secure commNet while he worked.
“If he’d have bitten, then yeah.”
“I’m working on getting you access to Alabaster. The ship is docked at a private sky park at Quail Lake. Getting to it is easy enough. Some simple biometric hacks, and you’re through the gate automatons. Ship security is quite a bit tighter.”
“I’m on my way back downtown now. I need everything in place by the time I get there.”
“I’ll be ready,” he promised. “I’m setting up a car rental now for you. You’ve got about an hour’s drive to the sky park.”
“Thanks, Rameez,” she said.
“What he said about Jade, though… are you sure this is worth it?”
“She’s our friend, Rameez. I need to know what they’ve done to her.”
After a long moment’s pause, he said, “I’ll ping you when everything’s ready.”
Mesa rested her head again
st the window, watching the traffic pass by in a blur. The bus was empty, save for an elderly man in a wheelchair. He was encased in a cloudy plastic tent adorned with PRC flags and bumper stickers with the kind of trite slogans fools mistook for wisdom. Things like Shit Happens or Who Would Jesus Bomb?
She read over the collection of stickers, using the distraction as an excuse to keep her mind off greater issues. Although she couldn’t see the man inside, he made all kinds of noises. He wheezed, gasped, groaned, swore, muttered, and occasionally shouted. At one point, the tent shook violently then settled, and the swearing renewed.
What was Jade’s mission? she asked Alice.
She didn’t bother to doubt Schaeffer’s words or question her friend’s apparent duplicity. Alice didn’t bother to object or cajole her into believing otherwise. Soon enough, the memories opened to her as their shared connection deepened and Alice invaded another portion of her mind.
Her short-term goals were simply to observe. In time, our data packet, and those of the other memorialists, would have self-initiated an offload to a secure server for recompilation.
We were archive hosts then, Mesa said.
Yes, Alice said. My escape hatch wasn’t perfect, but it would have worked if not for Schaeffer.
In some ways, it’s hard to blame him for all of it. You turned yourself into a virus. The implications of that alone are staggering.
He tried to kill me.
Mesa felt the burn rise in her cheeks. She forced herself to calm, folding her hands together in her lap, atop the tote bag. Whereas, you actually did kill me. And it still wasn’t enough for you. You don’t even realize what a monster you are, do you?
Monsters never do, sweetie. That’s what makes them interesting.
This isn’t a joke, Mesa said.
My motivations are selfish but hardly as nefarious as you presume. And you give Schaeffer too much credit. Do you really believe he was eliminating all of my archive remnants out of nobility or simple altruism? Don’t be such a pathetic, naïve little child.
Mesa eyed herself in the reflection in the window, wondering if she could make out any signs of Alice in her own eyes.
Your ambitions opened a Pandora’s box, Alice. What you’ve done–that wasn’t selfish. It was the realization that humanity can make the world even worse off than ever before. I understand that Schaeffer didn’t have any grand nobility in stopping you. He was interested in profit, because you showed him the way to get rich. This isn’t about you or me. Not anymore. This body-shifting crap, it’s hardly as banal as your selfish whims to escape your old life and go into hiding. It’s a weapon. Tell me you see that much, at least.
Alice’s churlish smiled lit up Mesa’s hippocampus. The silky, ghostly voice inside her head said, I’m glad to see you demonstrating that you are not quite so stupid after all.
Don’t try to goad me, bitch, Mesa said. The bottom line is, this is all on you. This is your fault. Your selfishness is an inspiration to all the asshats of the world, dipshits like Schaeffer and the other goons as Daedalus. Have you even stopped to think about what they can do with this?
Alice smiled wider, an ugly tear in the back corner of Mesa’s mind. Perhaps they can use it to treat coma patients and give them a second chance at a better life.
Now who’s being naïve?
You used to appreciate the sanctity of memory, Alice said, forcing Mesa to recall the better days spent with her enclave. Do you realize how long mankind has sought to capture those fleeting moments in life and to make them permanent? Paintings, statues, art, DRMR. Death can be merely an option now.
To what end? And for who? You call me naïve, but you wrap your own selfish goals in ridiculous justifications and try to sound smart. This isn’t about philosophy or immortality. It’s about dividing and conquering. Schaeffer has already proved that. That’s your sanctimonious legacy.
All raze and ruin then, is that it? Alice said.
Mesa’s self-control was slipping, and her fingers tightened against one another. Oh, get off it. Having the ability to do something doesn’t give you the right to do it, or even mean that you should. Sometimes you need to know a little bit fucking better and look beyond yourself.
Maybe you should put that on a bumper sticker. Slap it on the old man’s tent over there.
And you want to call me a pathetic little child, huh? Mesa said.
Alice’s scoff was an unpleasant, electric tingle in the core of Mesa’s brain. Finished arguing, the woman receded and left Mesa alone to stew in her own anger.
Fucking bitch, Mesa shouted, railing at the retreating presence.
She pressed her head against the bus window, took several long, slow calming breaths, and fought to align her chaotic thoughts.
“Mesa, I think we’re through.” Rameez’s voice rattled through the inside of Mesa’s skull, surprising her after the prolonged silence. He broadcast the Alabaster’s schematics to her. The ship’s entry points were highlighted in green.
“Thanks, Rameez,” she said, standing at a counter, waiting on the PetHuman to complete her authorizations for the rental car. “I’ve got one more thing. Something I’ve been thinking about.”
“Shoot,” he said.
“Whatever Schaeffer was working on—we need to throw a big old monkey wrench into it. This body-shifting crap—we can’t let it go wide. We need to stop it, right here, right now.”
“I’ll code up some virals and have them ready.”
“You’re the best,” she said.
“I’m sending you ship schematics and crew complement.”
“I see it. I’ll be heading to the hangar soon.” She disconnected the commNet and nursed a hot coffee while Rameez uploaded his files to her.
The information was straightforward, and she spent the most time studying the layout of the aircraft. Alabaster was staffed by nineteen crewmembers as well as a handful of stewards and medical technicians. In fact, the number of medical staff was surprisingly high, at eight souls, and she wondered why the ship needed so many.
Researchers? Alice suggested.
Mesa gave her a mental shrug. They could be a part of Schaeffer’s R&D team, and she worried over the implication of what their presence meant for Jade’s welfare. She blew against the rising steam and took a long pull of coffee. The caffeine sent delightful spikes through her endorphins, punching all the right pleasure centers between her taste buds and sensory inputs. She wished she had more time to savor the drink, but she was also afraid of wasting time. She wondered how long she had before the company and crew aboard Alabaster got word of Schaeffer’s death. Rameez would do everything he could to foul up their communications protocols and keep the news under wraps, but if she didn’t hurry, his interference would eventually become obvious and further complicate the threat response.
She couldn’t dally. Unfortunately, the small human staff of the rental agency was trying hard to impress her and present a united front of professionalism, which made her wonder how much business was suffering and what kind of credentials Rameez had set her up with.
After the car was cleaned, inspected, and signed for, she settled in behind the wheel, punched in the destination, and engaged the driverless steering functions. She slowly sipped on the refilled coffee and used the drive time to Quail Lake to study and memorize schematics. The drive would take a little more than an hour, which gave her plenty of time to prepare.
Although the H&K still had a number of rounds left, she ejected the magazine clip and replaced it with a fresh one, chambered a round, and freed the safety.
Among Rameez’s notes were possible locations where Jade was being held. The ship’s logs showed that she’d been given a private room with limited access by ship staff, and she had been scheduled for several rounds of medical testing.
Schaeffer h
ad clearly begun the body-shifting process. An echo of déjà vu from Alice bounced uncomfortably through her mind, while a dark, burning void bloomed in her belly. She felt sick as the implications reeling her.
Please let Jade still be Jade, she thought. She was afraid of what she would find aboard Alabaster, and Mesa wondered at the sort of emotions Jonah had experienced during his hunt to rescue her from Alice. She fought not to buckle beneath the enormous, horrifying weight of that thought.
As the hour ticked by, the smart car left behind the vibrant, traffic-clogged city for the rolling hills and scrub of Castaic and the desert surrounding Quail Lake. The car followed a dirt road off Lancaster and parked outside a large white hangar.
Mesa powered down the car and got out. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of life. A small red turbo prop sat nearby, its disuse apparent.
Daedalus owned the sky park, but they obviously didn’t put any effort into its maintenance. The area was merely a divestment of their property portfolio and nothing more.
Alabaster, however, was rather easy to find.
The vertical sky ship stood near the far end of the runway on a thick tri-legged assembly that surrounded the massive magnetometer lifts. The aircraft was a shark’s fin with engines, a sleek, almost-triangular construct that, while in flight, dominated the skyline with an art-deco flair that fell somewhere between a 1930s Philips chapel radio and the topmost segment of the Chrysler Building spire.
She was impressed. The ship was beautiful, curvy, and elegant.
Climbing the stairs to the entry bay, she hoped Rameez’s biohacks would do the trick. She didn’t truly doubt him, but her nerves made her antsy. Relief flooded through her when the door slid open after the security panel recognized her thumbprint.
Emergence (A DRMR Novel Book 2) Page 25
