Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  She chose the first item that appeared on her search.

  Summon Spiderbot

  Deconstruct computers or large electronic devices, and use its raw materials to construct a spiderbot, capable of assaulting selected hostile targets.

  Min. nanite swarm(s) required: 3

  Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 3

  It cost three hundred dollars. Her eyebrow rose. “Spiderbots?”

  TT chuckled though she couldn’t see it with the pad’s screen now a part of her vision. “That’s a new one I created,” he said. “Turn any computer into a spiderbot, and then you can order it to attack, scout, or deliver nanites to a selected target.”

  “Deliver nanites? Why would I need a bot to do that?”

  “Well, say you want to use Incinerate? Spray three swarms of nanites at the target, hope they don’t burn too much battery power to get to it or get damaged during a gunfight. Nanites might be small, but it’s still possible for a bullet to pass through a cluster of them and destroy ‘em. With the spiderbot, you could have a swarm or three piggyback ride on it as it runs up and gives your target a warm face hug. The nanites riding it will arrive in one piece, and burn less of their energy, meaning a higher effectiveness yield.”

  Yo G’, is he for real?

  He is Estrella, according to a brief simulation I just ran, a target twenty meters away would take an additional 25 percent more damage from Incinerate. The reason for this is that—

  Yeah, yeah, the nanites wouldn’t have burned battery power to fly that twenty-meter distance.

  The extra power nanites would save means they last longer thus increasing their yield as explained by TT.

  “So,” TT drawled. “What do you think? —”

  Estrella selected the purchase option. The funds needed for it were withdrawn from her bank account. With twelve hundred left in her account, she read the screen for the next item on the list.

  Nanite Cleanse

  Nanites are ordered to seek and remove hostile nanites from your body or a selected target suffering from a nanite attack.

  Min. nanite swarm(s) required: 1

  Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 3

  It was six hundred dollars.

  “Eh,” she groaned.

  “Could be a lifesaver,” TT said. “You know what your nanites could do to a target. Now just imagine you had to face an RW like you? You’re fucking dead if they hit you with Incinerate.”

  “Wouldn’t my life support nanites attack intruding nanites?”

  “They might but there’s no guarantee they’ll react fast enough, not to mention it’ll be a greater draw in its batteries, thus taking more of your battery life. With this, once you issue the command, your utility nanites will find and get rid of invading ones. Plus, you can spray it on allies too if they get hit by nanites. You might be able to resist nanites, humans can’t.”

  “Good thing RWs can’t attack humans.”

  “Unless threatened first, and that rule only applies here. You ever seen a Soviet-made RW? Those guys don’t take shit from anyone.” He paused. “And what if you run into Piper again?”

  She wasn’t worried about Piper betraying her again. Though, learning that Piper and her friends followed orders from an unknown individual or individuals who could very well be the same mysterious people issuing orders to Nobuo was worrying. She refused to think more about the subject. Piper wouldn’t assault Estrella with her nanites.

  What had Estrella worried, the more she thought about it, were nanites getting neutralized before they took effect, like with her encounter with Nobuo. He used his power to blow out the flames from Incinerate, and he wasn’t an RW, just an S ranked telepath. Getting blasted by nanites wasn’t her concern, it was a target shrugging off her hardest hitting ability, Incinerate.

  Estrella hit the back option and continued browsing the list of programs listed for purchase.

  “No dice, huh?” TT snorted.

  She shook her head, though her view of the menu remained fixed in her vision. “Six fucking bills is too much, man.”

  “Hey, programming and testing nanite commands isn’t fucking easy. Took me fucking months to get that build in the state it is.”

  What Estrella wanted was something on the offensive side. She found it.

  Flash Freeze

  Nanites slow particles within a selected target, greatly lowering the temperature of their blood and limbs, freezing them.

  Min. nanite swarm(s) required: 3

  Nanite swarm(s) remaining: 3

  It was the opposite of Incinerate, freezing a target rather than making them burst into flames. And if that were the case, then anyone who touches a body frozen by Flash Freeze could put themselves at risk of having the surviving nanites spread to them. She liked it and then saw the price, five hundred dollars. She liked that too and made the purchase.

  A notification informed her of the new download that began. She hoped she did the right thing, as she wasn’t in the mood for spending more. If not, then she might very well be eating Piper’s nanites to the face. She did, after all, agree to join her team, which this whole time had been responsible for a lot of the unregistered IWs in the country, including the Bald Skulls. They too were all unregistered IWs. Estrella hoped the people Piper supported, whoever they were, wasn’t responsible for giving that gang the freedom needed to commit crimes. And kill her family.

  She was curious as to some of the other programs TT had available that were out of her price range and looked them up.

  Ablative Armor - Cost: $5000 requires Mark III NC gauntlet

  Force Field - Cost: $6000 requires NC gauntlet with fusion power cell modification

  Resuscitate - Cost: $3000 requires Medical grade NC gauntlet

  Regenerative Storm - Cost: $2500 requires Medical grade NC gauntlet

  Electrostatic Discharge - Cost: $2000 requires Mark III NC gauntlet

  She grimaced. She wasn’t rich enough for the high tier programs, nor had the NC gauntlet required to use them.

  One day…

  Estrella jacked out when the download finished.

  “Flash Freeze, huh?” TT placed the pad on the shelf.

  “Incinerate is useless if the flames get put out,” Estrella said. “That telepath I fought at the Yoshida towers did that.”

  “Hmm.” TT’s chrome hands stroked his chin. “I could see how that’ll have you concerned.”

  “I don’t what to know what an S ranked IW that mastered hydrokinesis could do to my Incinerate skill.”

  “Fair enough, Flash freeze would be a nice counter in that situation. Anything else?”

  “I just spent almost half my paycheck here.” She laughed. “That’s it for now. Put in that order for my leg.”

  “I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

  Estrella was outside when her arm opened, and her nanites forced the goo out that used to be her helmet. It covered her head and retook its shape once again. She got on her bike, powered on, and bolted forward, venturing back into the high-rise jungle of the city.

  She remembered TT’s opening words, about hitting the bar after getting paid. It wasn’t a bad idea, and she still had cash left. She glanced at her mini-map taking up a small section of her vision, and located the nearest bar with her internal GPS, one that served good Tequila. A grin formed under her helmet when she found it. She placed the navi-point on the bar and followed the blue arrows appearing on the roads in her the vision. Her speed climbed up and above the speed limit once again.

  Estrella, you have a new text message.

  Ah shit. She couldn’t text and ride at the same time. Well, she could but she’d have to jack into the bike and let Geoffrey take control, and that meant opening her overcrowded arm and search for the network cable. Who is it, Geoffrey?

  It is from Ray, marked urgent. Would you like me to feed it into your HUD?

  You can do that?

  Yes, after the recent software update I received from Yoshida three nights ago.

&nbs
p; Well, hook it up.

  The left half of her vision became her phone’s text messaging app. Anger lit her emerald eyes on fire as she read the message.

  Ray: The Bald Skulls just tried to kill me and Theo.

  Ray: call me or swing by my place. You will want to see this.

  She made a sudden and sharp turn on her bike. Dozens of cars honked their horns. The change in direction on the roads set her on a path to the freeway, and the path to the IW district. The navi-point for the bar she found moved away from her vision, and the numbers displaying its estimated distance increased, rather than decreased. Estrella deleted that navi-point and loaded a new one. It pointed her to Ray’s apartment.

  Thirteen

  Ray

  Ray was about to eat his words. He should have cleaned up his place, as he was about to have his first guests, Theo, and Ellsworth. None of them looked impressed at the condition Ray kept his apartment over the last month, and he didn’t care. He was more thankful he made it back alive and that nobody, after the events that took place at the Fox’s Den, noticed Ray was who he was.

  The two pushed Ellsworth onto the couch. Ray nearly tripped over an old computer case on the floor as he made his way to his seven-monitor computer workstation. He logged in and reviewed the various surveillance cameras he hacked throughout the city. None of them caught faces of the three of them leaving the club. It looked as if two friends, one human, and one a warlock, were dragging their drunk friend home for the night, and not the borderline kidnapping of John Ellsworth, from Regal Genetics. Even though they saved his life.

  Regal Genetics. It had Ray thinking about that corporation, and why would the Bald Skulls want one of its employees. And why would Obsidian want Ray to protect him, and what was up with the pods with people in them? He searched the net, starting with the corporation.

  Regal Genetics, according to the pages he found, was a company that specialized in bioengineering. They improved the technology in food printers, built the world’s first bioorganic printers, a critical component in the business of mass cloning, and cloning was a project that nearly destroyed the company financially. Regal Genetics spent years trying to perfect cloning but could never produce promising results, spending almost all the corporation’s funds in the process before they scrapped the project. The layoffs that came next were massive, and they didn’t stop until last month when the company unveiled a massive restructuring and hiring of new bright and young staff. Ray felt that John Ellsworth’s importance to the Skulls wasn’t because he kept his job in the company during that moment it was collapsing. Ellsworth knew something, and the Skulls wanted it. Something that only the old staff still working for the corporation would know.

  Estrella might want to know about this.

  Ray pulled out his phone and sent her a text message, he marked it urgent.

  Me: The Bald Skulls just tried to kill me and Theo.

  She didn’t reply, and it was marked urgent too! He was getting sick of people not doing that.

  Me: call me or swing by my place. You will want to see this.

  Ray resumed his net searches, ignoring the fact Theo lit another cigarette without opening the window… He gagged as the smoke filled his tiny living space. A texting ringtone sounded, he checked quickly.

  Estrella: I’m on my way.

  “Estrella’s on her way,” Ray said to Theo. He stood from his computer chair, walked into the kitchen, and opened the fridge. “Need anything to drink, Ellsworth?”

  “I’d like to go home, and file a report with the police,” Ellsworth mumbled.

  “Trust me you’re safer here.” Ray grabbed a can of beer. His nerves needed it. “If the Skulls were looking for you, no police protection is gonna help.”

  “RWs can fuck up IWs,” Ellsworth said.

  “Thing is.” He cracked open the beer can and took a sip. Ray wiped his lips clean with his sleeve. “These guys got killed by an RW, over and over. They keep coming back. And we’re pretty sure they’re being funded by Yoshida.”

  “You think that’s why he’s a target?” Theo said and finished his smoke. “Because he works for a rival corp?”

  “Maybe.” He held the cold beer can with one hand, reaching for his phone with the other. His thumb brought up the photos he stole from Ellsworth’s phone. “Or maybe it has to do with this?”

  Ellsworth grimaced. “With what?” Ray showed him what by shoving the phone’s screen to his face. “I told you, man; I can’t talk about it. Confidential stuff, NDA. You know how it works.”

  “Fucking give us something, malaka,” Theo said. “You didn’t seem surprised to see that Skull gangbanger spaced out too. We can’t protect you if you don’t tell us what’s up.”

  “Send me to the cops,” Ellsworth reiterated. “That’s all the protection I need.”

  “Not fucking happening,” Ray said.

  “Of course,” Ellsworth said, looking up at Ray as he sat back on the couch. “Fucking Ray Partington here, the Alliance’s most wanted motherfucker, holding me hostage.”

  Ray could only shake his head. After he finished his beer, he tossed it into the recycler like he was throwing a basketball into the net. He returned to his computer and his seven screens shining their light upon his face and transferred the photos from Ellsworth’s phone to it. It gave him a better glance at the imagery, and the ability to zoom in closer, while searching for clues he might have missed.

  The pictures of the pods were just that, pictures. Yes, there were people in them, but he couldn’t make out their faces. Given the fact Ellsworth worked for Regal, Ray assumed they were nothing more than early prototype bioorganic printers, which did not produce results.

  Did Yoshida pay the Skulls to kidnap Ellsworth for his knowledge? He thought those words in his head over and over. And if so, why does Obsidian care?

  A new text message arrived. Ray hoped it was Obsidian ready to reveal all. It wasn’t.

  Estrella: Almost there.

  Me: Sorry we didn’t leave any members for you to kill. I know how much you hate them.

  She didn’t reply to that. Perhaps it was a bad taste joke he figured. Or she was busy riding her bike. Ray cracked his knuckles, then brought up six screens full of computer code he juggled back and forth with. He began a hack of the LAPD’s database, hoping to find reports about the recent gang activities in the city, namely the Bald Skulls for the past month—

  A chat window popped on his screen, obscuring his hacks. Its sudden appearance made him leap off his chair in shock.

  Obsidian: Tell me, do you like snow?

  He hesitated to reply at first. Newfound fear forced him to wonder once again, how did Obsidian know he was on his computer and that it was the best method to contact Ray? And how did it bypass his security and proxies to reach him?

  Obsidian: Well? Do you?

  Ray typed slowly. He felt like he was being watched.

  DigiSamurai: Not really, been in LA most of my life.

  Obsidian: I may need you in Anchorage.

  DigiSamurai: Alaska? Fuck that.

  Obsidian: Yoshida has canceled a lot of projects recently.

  DigiSamurai: After the attack, they had to reorganize, so that makes sense.

  Obsidian: The money they saved from those canceled projects more than covered the cost of damage done to the triple towers. There’s a military base near Anchorage owned by Yoshida and it saw an increase in personnel. It happened around the time Yoshida canceled many of its projects. Meanwhile their new biotech division’s budget remained untouched.

  DigiSamurai: Didn’t know they did biotech.

  DigiSamurai: It’s a new division, look it up.

  DigiSamurai: And?

  Obsidian: Regal Genetics is still in business. You were doing research on them, right? Don’t you find it odd they’re still around and have money to operate?

  He thought back to the report on Regal, the image of it clear in his memory. It underwent a significant restructuring last month and hir
ed new bright minds.

  DigiSamurai: This has to do with the photo I sent doesn’t it? Yoshida has their hand in those pods and the people in them.

  Obsidian: That’s what I want you to find out. Press Ellsworth for more information. Someone in Yoshida has the answers, and he knows who it is. Those answers will be proof that I’m right about Anchorage.

  DigiSamurai: You know I’m on a no-fly list, right? JFK? LAX? I’m good at staying off the grid, but airports aren’t happening.

  Obsidian: Just do it.

  DigiSamurai: And if I refuse?

  Obsidian: You’ll never see Arianna again.

  His world froze for a second, the only sense of time passing was the blinking cursor on his computer screen, waiting for him to type again on the chat.

  DigiSamurai: Do you have Arianna captive or something?

  No reply. Obsidian’s vanishing act arrived.

  There was thumping at his front door. Ray spun on his chair, facing the left most screen on his desk. It displayed what the hidden camera he installed outside the front door saw, and what projected was a giant middle finger with its nail painted black. Estrella had arrived. He stood to let her in.

  “Nobody saw you come up right?” he said to her as he opened the door.

  “You think I’m fucking stupid?” Estrella shoved him aside as she entered, while holding a coffee cup picked up off the streets. He nearly fell on his ass; her cybernetic strength was incredible. “What the fuck happened?”

  “Remember Obsidian? They started messaging me again and told me to go to the Fox’s Den and contact Ellsworth.” Ray double-checked the apartment’s halls for unwanted guests. There were none. He shut and locked the front door. “Ellsworth works for Regal Genetics.”

  Estrella was standing still and probably shocked at the condition of his place as her face shifted from left to right, up, and down. He’d imagine she was frowning if he wasn’t looking at her from behind and noting Nobuo’s nanite infused Kanata holstered at her side. Estrella took a battle trophy from that day. He frowned when he noticed she hadn’t removed her heeled boots. They went clicking across his floor.