Lilith blinked, raising a hand to touch her necklace with the silver ankh which was hanging from it. She often forgot she was even wearing it, but it made her feel better most of the time.
“Ah… well, I was going to give someone a call in the morning to see about a business partnership, but after that I could be convinced to go out… I have a few thoughts about other things we could do. I just don’t know about the necklace. I like this necklace,” Lilith said, frowning at Gina. “I found it in the things Amber left for me, and thought it looked good. It isn’t offensive, is it?”
“No…” Gina said, her voice a slight drawl as she tilted her head, looking at the ankh curiously. “It’s just that I thought you might want something different, like you do with food.”
“Mm… she has a point,” Rachel said, glancing at Gina as she grinned. “You don’t have to change necklaces, mind you, but it might be a good idea to take a look at other things. I don’t want you getting stuck in a rut, Lil. On the other hand, I’d also say you should be armed when you go out. Enough people have a bounty on you that I’m worried.”
“Not to mention Mountain Razor,” Gina muttered.
“Fair,” Lilith conceded, though she had to admit that she wasn’t sure why the idea of choosing another necklace bothered her.
That was as good of a reason as any to try other jewelry, though, as it was the same reason that she forced herself to try a variety of foods. Lilith refused to let herself stop exploring new options. She tried to ignore the suggestion of being armed, on the other hand. It didn’t make her happy, but she’d probably end up caving if they insisted.
Shadowmind Redoubt Invincible, Asteroid Belt, Sol
“Mistress, we may have a security breach,” Circe’s voice was unexpected, but the content was far more worrying to Amber.
Her head snapped upward, away from the dismantled alien weapon which she’d been studying. No matter how fascinating it might be, the idea of a security breach was far, far more important, particularly under the circumstances.
“Explain,” Amber snapped, straightening and glancing toward her sleek black power armor, with several purple stones set into the chest plate, forearms, and helmet.
“Do you recognize this piece of jewelry?” Circe asked, and a holographic projector sprang to life, creating the image of a silver ankh on a chain. Amber looked at it and her eyes narrowed slightly, trying to figure out why the necklace concerned Circe.
“…It’s the necklace that I’ve seen Lilith wearing on dozens of occasions. What of it?” Amber replied at last, concerned that Circe may have started suffering cognitive degeneration. That was unfortunately common in many high-class AIs, and was why there weren’t more of them. She just hadn’t expected it to strike Circe, with how she’d been designed.
“Mistress Lilith and her companions were discussing jewelry, them suggesting that Lilith look at trying out another necklace. Lilith was surprisingly hesitant to consider it, and mentioned that she found it among the things which you left her,” Circe said, her tone clinical and precise. The hologram changed to show Lilith going through a jewelry box and picking out the necklace as Circe continued. “While that is true, before this I did not realize that while the necklace came out of the jewelry box, none of my records show it ever being placed there, Mistress. Every other piece of jewelry in the box was scanned and logged prior to that, but the ankh was not. More concerningly, its presence has never flagged an alert, even after I became cognizant of its existence. I find this highly concerning, Mistress. Am I missing memories? Did you place the necklace in the jewelry box?”
At first Amber was annoyed at the explanation. The sight of the video concerned her a little, but it wasn’t enough to alarm her. The rest of the explanation was more than enough to raise her hackles, though.
“I did not,” Amber said, scowling and stepping away from the table as she began to pace, her thoughts racing. “You don’t have records of any intrusions into Alpha-Three?”
“None. The site was sealed after your last visit until Lilith was transported there, and nothing changed until she left at last. I have not detected any issues with the site’s structural integrity, and diagnostics find no issues with the sensors,” Circe said, “I am running further tests now, but am not detecting anything out of the ordinary.”
“Drat. What about the necklace? I assume you’ve scanned it, now that you know something is wrong?” Amber asked, her pace increasing as she crossed the room more quickly.
“I have used every sensor in Eden Manor that wouldn’t warn Mistress Lilith of what I was doing,” Circe replied, and the hologram changed, bringing up a variety of sensor readings, which she explained. “The chain is sterling silver, ninety-six percent pure, with nothing notable about it, save that it is registered in my systems. The pendant itself is as close to pure silver as I can determine, yet it is far harder than it should be for its composition. As I do not detect anything else unusual, from psychic residue to radiation, I must assume that this is due to either magic or an unknown superpower.”
“Damn it all!” Amber hissed, anger briefly spiking, and she paused, taking a deep breath as she counted to ten, then back down. It took that long to gain a handle on her temper. It was mostly prompted by fear, that much she admitted to herself, but it wasn’t pleasant either way. Finally, she continued. “I can’t do anything about magic, but I’m certain that isn’t what’s doing it. Lilith has been sleeping with a pair of spellcasters for months, and if anyone was going to notice anything strange about it, they would—”
Amber stopped abruptly, a thought striking her, and her eyes narrowed. A few seconds later Circe spoke curiously. “Mistress? Did you think of something?”
“Yes. Was Lilith wearing the necklace when she met Insight for her power testing?” Amber asked, reaching up to tap her upper lip, her thoughts racing.
“One moment…” Circe said, then spoke again. “She was, Mistress.”
“Did Insight’s report say anything about the necklace?” Amber asked, her eyes narrowing.
“No. The report doesn’t mention the necklace at all, Mistress,” Circe replied, pausing for several seconds before she continued. “However, Insight’s personal files are all heavily encrypted, and may contain additional information. Hacking them would risk exposing me, but I can do so if you would like me to. Do you wish for me to delve further into this?”
“Yes. If you expose what we’re looking for, it won’t cause any issues for my plans. This…” Amber paused and growled under her breath, then exclaimed. “Someone broke into one of my lairs without being spotted, and planted that there! They’re taunting me, and I won’t stand for it! We’re going to find them and make them pay for this!”
“As you wish, Mistress,” Circe agreed.
“Good,” Amber said, fuming as she headed back toward the device on the workbench. When Circe spoke again, she paused.
“Mistress, might it not be easier to tell Lilith that the item was not left in the box, and that we wish to analyze it?” Circe suggested. “I believe she would allow us to do so with minimal argument.”
“No,” Amber replied flatly, shaking her head.
“May I ask why?” Circe asked, her tone perplexed.
“If we tell her, it’s an admission of failure. Of weakness. I won’t have her see me as weak,” Amber retorted, folding her arms and glaring at the nearest speaker. “If there’s no other choice, and I mean that literally, I might ask her for it, but I’m far more likely to have you fabricate a replacement and simply switch them out. I shouldn’t have to ask Lilith for anything.”
“As you wish, Mistress. I am initiating my investigation now,” Circe replied, falling silent at last.
Amber went back to what she’d been doing before, but she found it hard to concentrate on the alien device or to find pleasure in deciphering its secrets. Not when someone else had proven themselves capable of infiltrating one of her strongholds, which made her wonder where else they could get.
While some of the contents of Insight’s files were intriguing, there was nothing in them that Circe or Amber were looking for. Her notes were more detailed, but there wasn’t really anything new in them, which meant that the processing cycles were mostly wasted in the end. It hadn’t been a bad thought, though, so Circe didn’t begrudge the effort, at least not much.
Expanding the search onto the internet was an exercise in frustration, however. She’d expected it to be difficult, with how prevalent the ankh was, but even so she was practically buried in a deluge of data. Such an enormous deluge that it managed to attract the attention of the other AIs, as a matter of fact, and a few of them even recognized that she was searching through the data on ankhs deliberately.
A tiny part of Circe was quite amused as several other AIs started delving into the same subject, though they obviously weren’t searching for the same thing as her, but were more likely trying to figure out what Shadowmind was obsessing over ankhs for, and what sinister plan involved them.
Circe was perfectly happy to let the other AIs waste their time and processor cycles on the subject. She just wished that she knew who had broken into Alpha-Three, and why they’d left behind a necklace that was almost perfectly mundane according to every sensor Circe possessed.
She also wished that she could talk to Lilith about it, since she was certain that Lilith would be reasonable. Unfortunately, Amber wasn’t reasonable, so Circe regretfully glanced through the sensors showing Gina, Lilith, and Rachel, and went back to her research with a fairly large part of her processing power.
Maybe she’d even figure out where the necklace was from. At least she did have permission to tell Lilith where the alien was, once she tracked it down.
Chapter 27
Wednesday, May 1st, 2031
South Street Hotel, Paragon City
Shawn checked his pistol again, making sure that it was charged and the safety was on before holstering it. Then he double-checked his knife and his other pistol, though the second one used bullets rather than being energy based.
Dorofei was adjusting his own weapons, and Shawn smiled as he examined the dozen neatly organized weapons. His partner was a quiet, meticulous man, but that was something Shawn appreciated. If he wasn’t, they’d have both died several times, so giving him the time to prepare was important.
“You about ready?” Shawn asked, glancing at the door.
“Da,” Dorofei said, glancing up at Shawn, his dark eyes distant as he considered, then spoke again. “Job is dangerous.”
“I know it is. It pays well, though,” Shawn said, resisting the urge to sigh. If they weren’t somewhat strapped for funds, neither of them would’ve taken the job. Even with the other teams they’d partnered with, their split of the overall bounty would be enough to deal with their debts and put them ahead of the game, at least if they succeed.
The bounty Destruction Corps had put on Lilith Carpenter’s head wasn’t as high as the one SMOKE had, but ten million was still a lot of money, and no matter how terrifying their reputation might be, Destruction Corps was far more likely to pay out. Besides which, it was much harder to kidnap and transport a person than it was to assassinate them, even if they were a superhuman.
Dorofei nodded slightly, going back to preparing his tools. It wasn’t as though they had a good handle on where their target would be, but it was best to be prepared. Their current best option was if Lilith accompanied Morgan to the university, since one of the other teams had learned about the meeting a little later in the day.
If she wasn’t, they had enough time to give it a few days. According to the news, Lilith went out frequently enough, so it wasn’t like they’d lack opportunities to deal with her. The important thing was to succeed on the first try, which was why there were so many of them.
Fairfield Outskirts, Utah
Okris hissed internally, frustrated as it continued tinkering with the equipment it had acquired from the savages. It was more primitive than Okris had believed when it had made its plans, so adjusting it to what Okris needed was proving difficult. It was made even worse by the pain radiating through its senses, which heightened its annoyance. Normally it would have just cut off its sense of pain, but that would have made making the adjustments clumsier and more difficult.
It didn’t help that it had been forced to relocate, wiping memories of its presence from the minds of the savages whose dwelling Okris had been taking shelter in before. It had almost missed the drone which had been following it back to its lair, but even so it had taken precautions and found an old mine to take shelter in and perform its work. At least it had plenty of power for its purposes.
While it worked, Okris considered how best to move forward. The sheer number of savages which had descended on it during the previous encounter had been truly daunting, and while it likely could have dealt with all but the plasma-wielder given time, there was no reasonable way to deal with that many opponents, not on its own… unless it was in armor. With a full pod that would have been different, but it didn’t have a pod.
No, the answer was to draw the savages out of position, it decided. It needed them well away from the military base it planned to attack, and that meant it was likely going to have to attack someplace they couldn’t help but defend. Someplace like the chemical agent disposal site it had heard was only a short distance to the west, perhaps twenty of the ‘miles’ the savages used.
The savages would panic at that, Okris thought, but it wasn’t about to do it casually. No, it needed a few days to recover, and to relocate to a site where it wasn’t in danger of getting caught in any of the chemicals, assuming they were released. That would take some time, but assuming none of the savages found it, Okris had more than enough time.
In the meantime, it focused on turning the equipment into a drive system.
Destruction Corps Headquarters, Unknown Location
“Interesting. Most interesting!” Da Vinci said, sounding unusually enthusiastic as he examined the data on the screen, smiling broadly.
Commodore Catastrophe looked at the screen in annoyance since she couldn’t tell much more than the fact that the diagrams looked somewhat like a strand of DNA to her. She had never done well in biology courses, which made her annoyance even stronger, as she looked at the inventor and crossed her arms.
“What is interesting? You’ve been analyzing the sample Corporal Punishment brought back for a full day!” Commodore Catastrophe said, unable to keep the sharp edge out of her voice.
“No, I have not. I have been studying it and comparing it to the information that we acquired from Black Emerald. Despite the Corporal’s best efforts, her whip did not quite render the samples attached to it unusable, but it was a near thing. I was forced to go to rather extreme measures to acquire anything useful from it,” Da Vinci said, not looking away from the screen as his smile dimmed slightly. “If it weren’t for Black Emerald’s data, I don’t believe I would have managed it.”
“Very well, you’ve been studying both of those for a day,” Commodore Catastrophe replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What have you learned?”
“For one, while the alien evolved on a planet with markedly higher gravity than our own, and with more radiation piercing the atmosphere, it appears to have a very similar basis to life on Earth. It appears that the theory that Earth was seeded with life from space may be accurate,” Da Vinci said, tilting his head a little. “Not that it’s anything that would be mistaken as human except at a distance, and possibly in the dark. While the alien may be bipedal and has two arms and a head, it is not human by any means. I’ve had Melzi make a composite image of the creature and analyze the data from Corporal Punishment. As such, it appears that this species has a natural exoskeleton and an internal one… I wonder what e
nvironmental pressures created that development? It also has lungs to breathe atmosphere, and I believe that Earth would be inhabitable for it, if somewhat short on oxygen for its tastes.”
“Yes, yes… that’s all very interesting. Now, how much of a threat is it?” Commodore Catastrophe asked, making mental notes, not that most of the information was very useful.
“That is the question, isn’t it? The alien hails from a gravity well approximately ten to fifteen percent higher than our own, making it extremely strong, and its exoskeleton is strong enough to shrug off most small arms fire and some energy weapons. All of that might be impressive, but we have no information on the technological advancement of the species, which is what would truly tell us how dangerous they are,” Da Vinci said, and let out a sigh. “How unfortunate that we didn’t get any samples of their technology. That would be useful.”
“Agreed,” Commodore Catastrophe replied, growing even more frustrated at the lack of information. “You can’t tell us anything else about it?”
“When did I say that? It’s a potent psychic, one which I estimate as a high-range class A super, based on the readings I extracted from Corporal Punishment’s suit. It certainly isn’t on the same level as Shadowmind but could likely punch through the standard psychic shields in time,” Da Vinci said, glancing at Commodore Catastrophe with a now-bored look. “Now, that is everything I have right now. Let the general know, and leave me to my work. I have things to do.”
The inventor turned away, deactivating the screen, and walked over to his terminal to take a seat. Commodore Catastrophe glared at him, but she knew better than to snap at Da Vinci. It wouldn’t do any good, and it wasn’t as though he could conjure the information she wanted out of thin air.
Queen's Move (Lilith's Shadow Book 3) Page 22
