“The cops?” Jia laughed. “Seriously? You go ahead and do that.”
“I’m not trying to be a jerk, but Neo SoCal isn’t as safe as I used to think.” He sighed. “Terrorists and criminals. They even tried to assassinate the police chief. How do I know you’re not a terrorist?”
Jia’s smile vanished. She was done playing games with this idiot.
“Move away from the car, sir,” she ordered.
“This is your last chance before I call the cops,” he replied. “Initiate Emergency—”
The man ducked and whipped a stun pistol out from behind him. Jia threw her bag in front of her and yanked out her own gun. The man fired, the bright bolt of the stun pistol striking and scorching the bag. He better not have damaged her dresses.
Jia fired two quick shots before her bag hit the ground. One bolt struck the would-be flitter thief’s hand, sending his pistol to the hard platform. He pitched forward, groaning when the second shot nailed him in the head. His eyes rolled up, and he fell on his back, drooling.
She marched over to the stunned thief, tucked her pistol back into her holster, and grabbed a pair of binding ties from her pocket. Drones swirled around her, flashing holographic red emergency warning lights.
“You are under arrest,” Jia recited. “All Article 7 rights apply. Do you need those explained to you?” She pulled the man onto his stomach and bound his hands. “Oh, wait. You’re stunned, and I’m not a cop anymore.” She chuckled. “Sorry, kind of fell back into old habits. I’m so used to everybody in my day job trying to kill, not just stun. It was actually rather refreshing.”
The stunned thief remained on the ground, drooling and immobile, other than the slight rise and fall of his chest.
Jia stood and dusted her hands. “But that’s pretty brave.” She pointed at a drone. “You were trying to steal a flitter in broad daylight.” She rubbed her chin. “You don’t seem like a total idiot, so you must have timed the drone patrol patterns.” She tapped at her lips. “That has to be it. I think if you were good enough to hack drones, you could have hacked your way inside this flitter, but today was not your lucky day.”
The piercing wail of a siren sounded like it was getting closer. The drones must have observed the firefight and alerted local security, which in turn called the police.
Jia turned toward the drone, smiled, and waved. She wanted it to get a good look at her face to speed up the facial recognition process. Relying on fame didn’t sit comfortably with her, but she didn’t want to spend the day at the local enforcement zone filling out witness statements.
She waited as the siren grew louder and louder. Soon she could see the spinning red and blue lights of the police flitter. She raised her arms and dropped to her knees in case the patrol officers had no idea who she was.
The police flitter landed and two uniformed officers stepped out, neither with their weapons drawn. A loud groan sounded from the stunned thief.
One of the uniformed officers shook his head at Jia. “You don’t have to do that, Detective Lin. We’ve got him shooting at you on a drone feed already. It was clearly self-defense.”
Jia stood and dusted off her pants. “It’s Miss Lin these days. I’m not with the NSCPD anymore.” She inclined her head toward the groaning man. “If you check his pocket, you’ll find an electronic lockpick. He was trying to steal that flitter when I spotted him.”
The officer tapped his PNIU and frowned. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He nodded at his partner. “She just nailed the Shadow Bandit.”
The other office laughed. “Really?”
“The Shadow Bandit?” Jia frowned. “Is he some sort of syndicate enforcer?”
“No, ma’am.” The officer shook his head. “Nothing so nasty. He’s a Shadow Zone scumbag who has been using stolen codes to come and go from the Zone. He steals flitters Uptown, then takes them down there and swaps out the transponders to hand off for sale. This guy’s been a freaking terror for the last few months.”
His partner grinned. “We all had a pool on who might catch him. Not just our EZ, almost every EZ in the city. People were saying he was some sort of super-Tin Man, using special hacking skills.”
“I think he mostly had good attention to detail.” Jia shrugged. “And a stupid amount of courage.”
“There you go. Lady Justice is out for a walk, and she bags a big one while we’re picking our noses at lunch.” The officer yanked the Shadow Bandit to his feet and turned the groggy man’s face toward Jia. “You’re looking at the best cop the NSCPD ever had, you sneaky bastard. Sucks to be you.”
The Shadow Bandit let out another quiet groan, and his head lolled forward. The officer shoved him toward his patrol flitter while his partner walked over and shook Jia’s hand. His partner opened the back of the flitter and pushed the criminal inside.
“You should come back to the NSCPD, Detective Lin. We need you. You and Blackwell are legends. We could use more legends.”
“You’re fighting the good fight.” Jia inclined her head toward the police flitter. “All I did was get lucky.”
He waved and headed over to join his partner. After a final salute from the front seat, they killed their emergency lights and lifted off.
Jia watched the flitter until it disappeared in the distance. She’d spent most of her childhood dreaming of being a police officer, only to step away after a couple of years on the job. Her current work was important, but no one could know about it. Its very nature prevented it from working as a public deterrent.
There were days she missed being a police officer and the clarity that came with going after people for breaking the law. She missed having the open support of the entire department rather than having to attend clandestine meetings and travel in disguise as she hunted the agents of the conspiracy who pretended to be upstanding members of society.
The conspiracy would eventually fall.
Everyone from Erik to Alina felt that way. The anti-conspiracy forces hadn’t won every battle, but they’d won all the important ones, including stopping the Hunter ship. What came after that?
Jia wanted to be with Erik, but she wasn’t a woman who could sit around doing nothing. Erik had made it clear he also wanted to be with her, but neither seemed to have a firm handle on work. It wouldn’t be insane to go back to the NSCPD.
At the same time, Neo SoCal, despite its size and population of a hundred-million, suddenly felt too small. Call it arrogance or ego, but she wasn’t sure stopping local criminals would satisfy her anymore.
“Oh, well,” Jia whispered. “I’ve got time to figure it out.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
July 18, 2230, En Route to Sol Hyperspace Transfer Point, Aboard Modified Space Yacht Beidou
Failure didn’t deserve mockery. Predictable failure necessitated it. Julia knew that, as did everyone in the Core, and those who worked closest with them.
Julia sat at her desk, reading a summarized report of activity on Earth, collected and collated by her most trusted agents. Her absence made it more difficult for her to control the unfolding events, but distance was no excuse for ignorance.
A fleeting thought sometimes taunted her, whispered to her soul about mistakes. Her desire for direct control created opportunities for attack. She couldn’t deny that, but humanity hadn’t yet been guided to a position where she could risk relying on any but a select few.
For now, Julia laughed at Shoji’s expense after finishing the report. She couldn’t be certain he was responsible for the incident in France, and he hadn’t sent her any messages since her departure from Earth. The lab was primarily his responsibility, both in supply and design, so it only made sense the devastating surprise raid was invited by a man who thought he was setting a trap.
An underling’s failure was the responsibility of their master. Leaders who ran from responsibility were cowards who would be destroyed by their fear and inability to select or guide others.
“What a foolish waste.” Julia shook her head.
The destruction of the facility was less the issue than its initial existence and all the time, money, and effort invested in it.
Every member of the Core differed in their opinion on how to best make sure of their resources for direct operations. Julia had never been fond of the Ascended Brotherhood. Tin Men were a dead end, and too resource-intensive for their intended use.
Shoji’s fondness for yaoguai filled a similar position in Julia’s mind. If anything, she thought they lowered the long-term chances of success. The extensive use of cyborgs and genetically engineered monsters encouraged the use of similar weapons by their enemies, which would reduce their differential advantage. The Core’s control needed to be complete before that happened.
The use of agents who could freely pass for humans was a good compromise. Their expense and the difficulty involved in their creation was a worthwhile tradeoff.
Julia waved a hand and dismissed the data window in front of her. Another sloppy failure, not unlike the assassination attempt on her. When evidence began to pile up and point in an obvious direction, only a fool looked the opposite way.
It was a good thing she was on her way to New Pacifica because she suspected she’d be forced to take drastic action.
“Oh, Shoji.” She sighed. “Why must you make this difficult for us?”
* * *
July 18, 2230, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Apartment of Erik Blackwell
Jia eyed Erik with suspicion from the other side of his couch. “You’re sure she said she wanted to meet here?”
Erik nodded. “That’s what Alina’s message said. Here at 2100.”
He preferred being debriefed in his apartment. Despite what Alina indicated, wandering around Neo SoCal to meet her struck him as more dangerous than meeting in a known location, a place with thorough infiltration of the systems by Emma.
“It’s 2100.” Jia frowned. “I wonder if something happened. She’s la—”
A light knock came from Erik’s door. Alina was punctual and deadly, a good combination for a government agent.
“A woman I don’t recognize is outside,” Emma reported. “Her gait and other relevant biometric identifiers don’t match Agent Koval’s, but I am receiving the appropriate confirmation code. She has looked directly into all cameras in the area, including the hidden one.”
“Let her in.” Erik stood, half-wondering if he was about to die because he didn’t have a gun in his hand. He could never decide if getting gunned down in his own apartment would be epic or pathetic.
The door slid open, and the woman stepped through. The sundress, light eyes, and blonde hair didn’t resemble Koval, nor did her face, though she was around the same height. She closed the door, her accusatory stare set on Erik.
“From this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be rememberèd— We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” the woman quoted. She had a strange accent Erik couldn’t place, like the bastard child of Venus and Louisiana.
“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed,” Erik quoted back.
He sat back down. He doubted any assassin would bother making him jump through Alina’s historical and literary hoops. They would have had the decency to gun him down already.
“What’s the point of all this, when you can just send a fancy confirmation code to Emma?” he muttered.
The woman shook her head, looking disappointed. When she next spoke, it was clearly Alina’s voice. “We’ve been over this. It never hurts to have redundant security protocols. There have been times I’ve avoided death because of something like this.”
“You’re sure it’s just not about you indulging your fetishes?” Erik raised an eyebrow.
Alina frowned. “Knowledge and respect for our literary past is hardly a fetish. My motivation for serving in the ID is the defense of human civilization.”
“You could be quoting beignet recipes,” Erik joked.
Jia cleared her throat to get their attention. “I’d like to move on to the debriefing. That’s the important part, remember?”
“Of course.” Alina wandered lazily to a chair and took a seat, unnerving Erik.
It took him a while to figure out why. It was her movement. Erik didn’t need to be Emma to perform his own subconscious biometric evaluation. Alina’s normal movements were graceful and lethal, like she was a deadly jungle cat always ready to strike, but when she was in disguise, like now, she often moved differently, even when it was unnecessary. It was a skill that came from decades of experience as a ghost, a reflex and instinct she often didn’t suppress, even when dealing with Erik and Jia.
Erik had spent his entire life never thinking about concealing who he was. His vague attempts to pretend had included non-painful sacrifices such as buying a high-performance flitter and de-aging. Disguises for ID mission and leads didn’t sit well with him.
Emma’s holographic form appeared, complete with an elegant high-backed chair. Inspired by the first code phrase’s origins in Plantagenet England, she had chosen a high-necked burgundy gown and an elaborate close-fitting white hat with a veil.
Erik had long since learned not to laugh at any of her choices. There was nothing more dangerous than an offended AI who could ensure you only got cold water in your shower.
“And you’re sure about doing this here?” Erik asked. “I know you’ve got people watching us, and we’ve got Emma, but we did just do an op. I thought you’d want to meet us underground, with everyone in disguise.”
“Don’t worry.” Alina smiled. “I’ve taken extra precautions, and sometimes it helps to poke them in the eye and remind them that they need to be afraid of us, not the other way around.”
Erik grinned. “You mean, you’ve got a whole army of ghosts and drones watching this place and looking for assassins in case they’re desperate and decide to take the bait?”
“Something like that.” Alina looked to the side for a moment before returning her attention to Erik. “Before we get into France, I wanted to mention that I’m approving Lanara’s request for more help. I can get her two or three other trustworthy engineers, but that said, I don’t want her doing any major mods to the Argo for the next several weeks. I’ve told her that. She responded with profanity and a string of numbers, but she understands.”
“You want us to be ready in case we need to follow up after the raid?” Jia asked.
“Exactly.” Alina nodded. “We’ve gotten good at trashing the conspiracy lately, but there are still a lot of things happening, and losing a factory, a lab, or Sophia Vand only seems to slow them down for so long. We don’t have the luxury of waiting around. Once we have a target, I want you two to be able to move and not wait three weeks while Lanara redesigns half the ship.”
“Sounds good to me,” Erik replied with a shrug. “Let’s find the next factory, lab, or Sophia Vand and take them out. I’m all for punching them in the face and kicking them in the nuts.”
“I love your enthusiasm.” Alina rolled her shoulders and leaned forward. “As you already know, most of the system at the lab was purged prior to the raid, but it was obvious they were relying on the self-destruct to finish their cleanup since there was enough left over between the remaining systems and some other information we collected from other operations to put us on new paths. I’m not going to go through all that because it’s not anything that’ll help you right now, but I’m confident we’re close.”
“That sounds good, but having another target would sound better.”
Alina raised a finger. “It gets better.”
“Better?” Jia lifted an eyebrow. “You have the names of all the leaders of the conspiracy?”
Alina eyed Jia. “I said better, not perfect.”
“Another facility?” Erik asked.
“Not quite.” Alina ran her finger over her PNIU.
An image of a somber-looking dark-haired man in a suit appeared. He was in the audience at a biotechnology conference. Erik didn�
��t recognize the man. Another leader of the conspiracy?
“This gentleman is a well-known molecular biologist who went into early retirement about five years back.” Alina nodded at the image. “He’s also the man you recently became acquainted with prior to his death.”
Jia leaned forward to stare at the image. “He doesn’t look like the man in Provence. Same build, but that’s about it. Is this a disguise?”
“No, this is what he used to look like.” Alina looked surprised. “We’re a hundred percent on this. We got a complete DNA match from the corpse, and we’ve double-checked the relevant databases to ensure their accuracy. For now, the rest of the world doesn’t need to know he’s dead.”
Erik didn’t care that the man was dead. He was a madman who had tried to kill good men and women with his monsters. Erik doubted the Provence raid was the first time one of Vincke’s pets had been set on humans.
Jia frowned. “They didn’t do something to prevent that? With all the trouble they’ve gone through in situations like the Ascended Brotherhood, I wouldn’t have expected it.”
“Yes.” Alina dismissed the image. “I’m surprised too, but we got lucky in this case. Besides the obvious surgery to alter his appearance, I don’t think they ever intended for us to be able to get a DNA match. They weren’t trying to be sloppy this time. It just worked out that way.”
“He was supposed to die in the explosion?” Erik suggested.
Alina shook her head. “I don’t think so. He was killed by a nano-adaptive virus we believe was intended to shred his DNA, too. No one goes to the trouble and expense of cooking up something like that if they plan to blow the target up. For reasons we don’t understand, maybe even freak mutation, the virus deactivated before finishing its job.”
“A good old-fashioned screw-up.” Erik chuckled. “It feels like people are getting desperate and rushing plans. I wonder if it occurred to them that he’d use his name?”
Desperate Measures Page 19
