“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Serge said, then pulled out his tablet, waving it for Huang’s eyes to lock onto. “I’ll make that backfire so fucking hard on you, mate.”
“He’ll do it,” Yanmei said in English. “Make you look like the ringleader.”
“Trust me, and Feng,” Serge said. “We’ll find your baddies and root out the problem.”
Huang gave another glimpse at the dead Yakuza, and a longer one at the bald guys with tattoo skulls. Who were the bald men? How did they get into the Federation? What role did they play in the battle that happened overseas? The attacks in New York, Los Angeles, and Munich weren’t sanctioned by the Federation, regardless of what Alliance and European Union media reported.
Huang and his team were to find out what really went on. Now all he had was more questions. And regrets about hiring Serge and his IW partner, outfitted with cyberware.
“Done?” Serge said as he approached Yanmei and the laptop.
Yanmei nodded. “I know where she is.”
Serge and Yanmei headed for the exit. “Well, mate, thanks for inviting us to kill these blokes, but we gotta bail.”
“Wait—”
Yanmei gave him a wave goodbye, ignoring his words. “Ja ne!”
He ran for them. They were gone by the time he made it outside, vanished into the neon and rain as homeless people with their hands out pestered pedestrians.
He marched back to the laptop Yanmei jacked into. It was wiped clean, even the OS was deleted. Yanmei took what she wanted and destroyed the rest. Worry grew in his chest. He wasn’t sure what his next move should be. Report Serge and Yanmei, and risk Serge hacking things to make him look bad. Or keep rolling dice and hope they found the IWs that attacked the Alliance before war with Alliance broke out.
Because war was coming. The public just didn’t know it.
One
Estrella
Estrella stood out from the crowd. Along with the sound of her bootheels, and her blowing bubble gum, she wore a black sleeveless jacket and mesh crop top revealing the full shape of her bra. Below that was her black pants with a pistol strapped to them. Everyone else around her entering or exiting the six-story structure was business casual. It was the Yoshida Corporation’s primary Los Angeles datacenter.
So, it was no surprise to her when security in the main lobby stopped her. Beyond the security team, all armed with a variety of lethal weapons, was the datacenter’s front reception desk. They gawked at her strangely. She did the same while keeping her hands in her pockets, chewing her bubblegum as the security approached her.
They made her step through the body scanner. Those dressed professionally didn’t have to. Estrella’s scanned image projected to a screen near the security checkpoint station. A nude picture of her body. The scanners beeped three times. A critical alert. The security staff faced the screen closer. It was hard to tell if they were getting off on her naked nineteen-year-old body projected onto the screen, or the discovery of the cyberware buried inside her. She blew a pink bubble, and it expanded and popped.
She took a sneak peek of the scan after they allowed her to leave the body scanner. There was an alert stating that over fifty percent of her body was a machine. Estrella wasn’t a human.
She continued chewing the gum, unfazed that the scans captured her naked body under her clothing. This had been the ninth body scan she’d been through for the week. She blew a pink bubble, and it popped. She resumed chewing.
The lead security guard approached her. “Please remove your eyewear.”
Estrella smiled with lips covered in black lipstick. She lifted her shades to her head of long, black hair. It now made her emerald, glowing, synthetic eyes visible. The guard flashed a palm-sized device covered in pretty lights, and he waved it around her face. A portable facial scanner. Estrella’s profile appeared on the computer screen. She gave it a quick glance as the security team reviewed its data.
Name: Estrella Rodriguez
Age: 19
Species: Real witch/warlock
Occupation: Yoshida Corporation threat assessment specialist
Notes: Serial number 78392
The screen made her grin. Yoshida Corporation’s CEO, Lady M, gave Estrella an exclusive title, one she wasn’t proud of. Selling out to the corporations was never part of her endgame, but getting her freedom was.
“Okay, you’re clear,” said the security guard.
“About time,” Estrella said with a mouth full of bubblegum.
“You need to surrender that piece, though.” The guard pointed at the pistol strapped to her thigh.
She did as they asked but it wasn’t enough, they wanted the gun stored inside her synthetic arm too. She made her left arm split open, reached inside, pulled out the hidden firearm, and handed it to the guard. Her synthetic arm closed, restoring itself to masquerade as flesh and bone, rather than soft plastic and cyberware.
Estrella tapped the NC gauntlet on her right hand, its silver metallic look reflecting the lights from above. “Want the gauntlet too?” She chewed her gum with her mouth open. “It’s just as deadly.”
They shook their heads. Estrella moved away, marching to the reception desk she had originally sought. Armed guards everywhere didn’t make her feel safe. Quite the opposite in fact. It was a sign of the times, the corporations and their private military were taking control of cities like Los Angeles, and the government didn’t give a fuck. The Yoshida Corporation made the Alliance economy strong. The president didn’t care about anything else.
She wondered why she had to surrender her guns as she approached the reception desk. It wasn’t like Estrella could harm humans, not while the AI wired to her brain was functioning. Unless it was hacked, which she’d done before with her old AI. But Geoffrey, the new AI she’d been outfitted with, was a newer model, and new shit wasn’t so easily hackable. One day, maybe, but not today. Whatever, Estrella wasn’t here to question the tightened security Yoshida implemented in the wake of the Federation sending illegal weaponized IWs to attack New York and Los Angeles.
At the reception desk, she saw Yoshida staff scurrying back and forth, while others entered and left via special exits behind the desk, traveling deeper into the datacenter. Dark bluish light shined down upon her, the reception desk’s staff, and its computer screens.
Estrella flashed her holographic ID card. A visual reminder that her body was corporate property and the staff needed to treat it well. “I’m here to pick up my care package,” she said. “Is it ready?”
The receptionist, a young blond man in his early twenties, looked down at his computer, keyed stuff on the keyboard, moved the mouse, typed again, moved the mouse, and double-clicked something.
“Ah,” he leaned closer to the screen, adjusting his glasses. “Ah, okay, here it is. Yes, Ms. Rodriguez, it’s ready.” He faced her. “Kind of odd for an RW to be picking up a resupply of nanites and batteries here, isn’t it?”
She shrugged, blew a pink bubble, and resumed chewing. “Was in the area, and this is the nearest Yoshida run building.”
A staff member returned from the back carrying two large boxes. It took all the strength in him to lift and place the first box on the desk. He had to take a quick break before returning to place the second box upon it. He panted. “That was fucking heavy.”
She blew another bubble. It popped. She grabbed one box and held it with one hand. The cyberware joints within her arm whirred. “Feels light to me.”
“Yeah, I don’t have cyber strength like you,” said the Yoshida worker. “There a reason you need so much of this shit? That’s a lot for one unit like you. More than the others get.”
“I’m on a special mission for Lady M.”
“Hence why it was sent here of all places…” he said. “I get it now. You got special privileges now with the corp.”
“Fuck off. Her?” The receptionist said, wincing. “Wasn’t she that unit that haywire in the news a few weeks ago?”
“
Go ask those guards how special I am to M.” She pointed at the security team. “They ran my scans and saw the data attached to my profile.”
“Still… even for a witch on special work, this is a lot. What the fuck are you doing that’s so important you need all this?”
She blew a bubble. It popped. “That’s classified, hombre.” The worker retreated to the back, looking to fetch the third box for her. Estrella looked behind, then to the side. There was another reason she came to this particular datacenter. “Hey, yo, where’s the washroom?”
The receptionist pointed. Her emerald eyes followed. It was hard to see at first until she had her optical scanners zoom in on the halls. She found the washrooms and had its location highlighted on the mini-map on her HUD. The map floated in the top right corner of her vision.
Estrella confirmed the washroom was deserted once she entered. She double-checked that the door had shut and gripped the knob with her right hand wearing the NC gauntlet. A small spray of nanites left the gauntlet, smothered the knob, and melted it. She’d locked herself in.
Geoffrey, are we still connected to the channel?
The AI in her brain replied with its unforgettable British accent. We are Estrella, and it is still secure.
Estrella spoke, the cyberware in her head working as a hidden microphone. “Piper, I’m in. Ray, you ready?”
She heard Ray mumble. “Yeah. Can’t say much.”
Estrella nodded, not that Piper or Ray could see it. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said. “Piper?”
Piper’s voice played on the communication channel after a five-second delay. “Hold on. Okay, releasing it now.”
Estrella stood ahead of the sink, her reflection in the mirror showing her synthetic arm open once again as her nanites released a huge pool of gray goo resting inside it. The goo fell into the basin of the sink, and then minutes later out from the sink’s drain, came more gray goo from a secondary source. The two pools of gray goo came together, slowing taking shape into a solid object.
She stood back and watched. “I really hope that’s from you, Piper.”
“It is, sweetie.”
Just to make sure, Estrella ran an optical scan of the goo coming up from the drain. Geoffrey revealed the results. Confirmed, I have detected nanites originating from Piper.
The goo finished forming together and took its final shape, a small beige quadcopter drone. She mused as the drone powered on. There wasn’t enough storage space in Estrella’s arm to hold the goo required to nano print the drone. Estrella carried one half of the goo, Piper’s arm held the other half, and she had sent the goo into the building’s plumbing, forcing it to enter the washroom sink.
The four propellers of the drone spun, and it lifted off, hovering over Estrella’s head. “You got control of it, Ray?” she asked.
“Yep.” Ray was still whispering over the channel.
She watched as the drone soared toward an air vent grille. Tiny blades deployed from the drone removed the screws from the grille and then hands carefully reached out and pulled the grille off. The drone vanished inside the darkened vent. It surprised Estrella that they got the size of it right to fit inside.
Her job was done. She flushed the toilet, not that she had used it, but she needed to make it sound like she came in here to handle her business. After that she washed her hands, further adding to the fake image she sought to project.
“It’s all you now, Ray.”
She resprayed the doorknob, ordering Geoffrey to command her nanites and restore the knob back to its previous state. She hoped nobody would scan it as the doorknob probably looked a lot better than the original.
Estrella left for the reception desk, and she saw that her third box was waiting for her. She picked up all three boxes, stacking one on top of another and went for the exit, collecting her two guns with one hand, while the other balanced the three stacked boxes. The staff wouldn’t stop marveling at her cyborg strength, or the speed she moved at to grab them. Even the security team stood wide-eyed as the girl, still in her teens, left holding three boxes that weighed more than them.
Once outside, Estrella trotted to a parked car three blocks away. In the alley, close to where the vehicle was parked, stood a woman wearing a dark cloak, its hood pulled over her head, and a burgundy scarf sophisticatedly tied around her neck. The woman blew out a plume of smoke from her cigarette, and if you looked close enough, the cigarette smoke turned green when it touched the emerald light from her eyes. A sorceress fused with technology.
“Piper, are you still puffing those things?” Estrella said to the woman.
Piper made that Mona Lisa smile that Estrella liked. “My nanites are still preventing any cancers from forming.”
“And draining your batteries faster.”
They quickly entered the car, placing the three boxes in the backseat. Piper took the driver’s seat, Estrella sat shotgun, watching as Piper reached back with one hand, ripping open the box, and grabbing an RW battery from it.
“Speaking of which,” Piper said, bringing the battery to her face.
Piper lowered her hood, exposing the top of her neck. It opened and ejected her spent battery with its LED flashing red as it was running low. She swapped it for the fresh battery. The tray retreated inside her neck and closed. Piper moaned in relief and returned to her cigarette, with her cherry-red-lipstick covered lips curling into an ‘O’ with white mist exhaling.
“Thanks,” Piper said, facing Estrella.
“This is twice the normal shipment we get,” Estrella said. “Enough for the two of us to split for the month.”
Piper’s Mona Lisa like smile returned. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“You need to cut back on those smokes though. Every time you put that shit in your body, your life support nanites have to work harder.”
“I know, I know, and it will drain my battery faster.”
“Meaning you’ll burn through our limited supply that I’m not supposed to be sharing with you in the first place. You’re dead to Yoshida; they ain’t gonna give you any new supplies unless you turn yourself in.”
“Don’t suppose you have enough leverage to get another package in mid-month?”
“Not without drawing unwanted eyes. People at the desk were already calling me out for this.”
“Fuck.”
Piper went to take another puff. Estrella yanked the cigarette from her hands. “So, no more!”
Piper took it back. “One last time.”
Estrella groaned, regretting not grinding it out in the overfilled ashtray. She needed to make sure Piper was always okay, and Piper needed to do the same. Their lives and ability to fight were in the boxes on the backseat, and the two had to share it. Estrella deposited her gum in the ashtray. It was losing its taste.
Piper leaned back on the chair, her eyes closed in bliss, and the red-tipped cigarette now resting between her left index and middle fingers.
“We good, Piper?”
Her eyes opened. “For?”
“You gonna explain to Ray and me what’s up? You know, this big bad secret you, Theo, and Bashiir wanted to share.”
Piper grimaced. “Not yet. Ray still needs to do his part. Bad time to be asking this, but Ray, you still got that list I sent you?”
Ray replied quietly although he still wasn’t in a safe place to talk. “Yes.”
“If Ray finishes his job, then we’ll move forward,” Piper said to her. “Consider this an initiation into our group—”
A beep on Piper’s phone interrupted her. She put the cigarette between her glossy red lips which matched the red highlights on the bangs of her black pixie cut hair, pulling her phone to her face. Piper fiddled with the phone, reading its screen. She scowled with the cigarette still held in her lips.
“Shit.”
“Oh, don’t you go backing out on now because of some inconvenient call,” Estrella said.
Piper handed Estrella her phone, pointing at the screen. Photos of dead Japanese
men made a mess on a dance floor, out in the Federation if Estrella were to guess since the neon signs had Japanese words on them.
“What am I looking at, Piper?”
“A contact of mine in Kyoto sent me that.” Estrella eyed the photos closer. Not all the men were Japanese. Several of them were Latino with shaved heads with a skull tattooed on it. Estrella’s body covered in terror sweat in an instant.
She nearly dropped the phone. “What the fuck are the Bald Skulls doing in the Federation?”
And who was strong enough to take off the head of one member as she saw in the next photo.
Two
Ray
The aftertaste of Ray’s café mocha lingered in his mouth. When he used his imagination, it tasted like real milk was involved in its creation, rather than soy, the main ingredient used in every product in the coffee lounge he sat in. The place had a blue hue of neon with pink lights at the corners of walls and around windows. Robotic arms behind the service counter made the drinks, while a solo clerk worked the front desk. Why hire a team to run the shop when you can have one person and the rest handled by robots?
And people wondered why it was hard to find employment on the overpopulated planet dying from climate change?
He drank those thoughts away with the last of his warm drink, tossed the cup into the recycling, and returned to his laptop resting at the table where he sat alone. The screen showed what the drone’s cameras saw, his fingers at the keyboard and mouse pad guiding it through the dark vents. Ray dressed low key for the occasion, keeping the board of the baseball cap he wore low, covering his face that was bathed by the blue backlight of his laptop’s screen.
The drone he controlled extended Ray’s abilities. It was capable of wirelessly accessing vulnerable networked devices, such as the datacenter’s surveillance cameras. He put them on a careful loop. The team monitoring them would never know the difference. Uniformed Yoshida PMCs patrolled the halls in the restricted areas of the datacenter, and each one held SMGs with laser targeting pointers. Ray kept his drone as close to the ceiling as possible.
Specter Protocol Page 2
