“Regal Genetics…” she said and sipped her coffee. “Who the fuck are they?”
“They’re big into biotech, medical, and pharmaceutics, and all shit.” Ray escorted her to the couch he had Ellsworth sit at. “Cloning was supposed to be their next best thing until it flopped. Theo and I found him as promised, and the Skulls were trying to take him alive. Does the name Hawk ring a bell?”
“Yeah, he was their leader.”
“Well, Hawk was one of them, Theo torched his ass though, while the other went braindead.”
They arrived near the couch. Estrella stood watching Ellsworth with crossed arms, turned around, and looked up at Ray. “He an IW? The Skulls still hunting unregistered telepaths last time I checked.”
“Not that we can see, he’s just someone the Skulls want, and I think it has to do with this.” He handed her Ellsworth’s phone, pointing her emerald eyes at the photos of the pods.
“The fuck’s that?” she asked. “Their cloning tech?”
“Maybe, but they abandoned cloning, right? This photo was recent.”
“Okay, so what? They’re trying again in secret. Typical corporate fuckers doing whatever the fuck they want.”
“You killed the Bald Skulls over a year ago in Buenos Aires.”
“Yes.” Her lips twisted.
“Now they’re back, living in LA and doing shit for Yoshida. And last month were reported in Kyoto and were killed there too.”
“And you just fought them again…”
Ray offered her the missing piece. “Perhaps the cloning tech was successful.”
Fourteen
Estrella
“Don’t let him see you!”
Estrella didn’t listen to Ray’s words. She darted forward with Nobuo’s nanite infused katana strapped to her side, and an angry gaze locked onto Ellsworth’s figure sitting comfortably on Ray’s couch. When it became clear Estrella wasn’t listening to him, Ray tried tugging her back by pulling her arm. He was better off trying to flip a truck over.
“Fuck that!” Estrella shoved Ray off. His ass hit the floor. “If this fucker was cloning the Skulls, then I’m going to slit his fucking throat right fucking now!”
Ray got to his feet. “He knows who I am…”
“Great.” She kept moving.
“And if he sees you’re here then he’ll know we’re working together.”
“Not if I kill him.”
“Whoa, Estrella, no!”
She was standing in front of Ellsworth now, hands on her hips, the coffee cup left behind on one of Ray’s tables. She couldn’t remember which one. Theo waved hello to her with a lit cigarette in his hand.
Ellsworth looked up, eyes squinting at the witch standing before him. “Rodriguez?”
Her lips curling into a half-smile. “You know me, huh?”
“Lady M’s new pet,” Ellsworth said. “Yeah, I do.”
“I’m gonna be straight up, yo.” Her hands never left her hips. “Did your company solve the problem with cloning and use it to clone the Skulls?”
Ellsworth faced the floor, his lips twisted now. “I can’t say—”
Estrella’s fist lunged forward.
She missed Ellsworth’s head by one inch according to her HUD, the wall behind him, not so much. She pulled her clenched synthetic fist from the new hole. Bits of drywall fell from her now dusty white hands.
She grinned, looking down at Ellsworth’s now pale face.
Geoffrey, you okay with me harming humans now?
I calculated the angle your hand was moving at. Even if he were to move his head, you wouldn’t have been capable of bringing harm to him. But please be advised, I will lock your motor functions if you attempt to hurt him.
Ray turned to Estrella after wincing away from the new hole in his wall. “Easy! You’re gonna wake up the neighbors.”
Theo laughed. “Malaka! I’m your fucking neighbor, yo.” Theo tapped off the ash from his cigarette, grinning at Estrella’s drywall-dust covered hand. “And I’m well awake after that.”
She was back looking down at Ellsworth, grabbing the katana and waving it ahead of his face. A reminder she was the strongest person in the room, and now equipped with a blade that could cut steel with one strike. “Talk.”
Ellsworth said nothing and just stared at Estrella like a terrified child. She might have overdone the scare tactic.
“You seem to know about me,” she said drily. “So, you probably know that I hacked my last AI and nearly killed a man.” She leaned closer. “What makes you think I didn’t hack this one as well?”
Ellsworth broke his silence. “We didn’t make any new breakthroughs in cloning!”
“That a fact?”
“Yes! I swear to fucking god it is!”
She didn’t believe him and grabbed his collar, the other hand still holding the blade. She pulled it and yanked his body closer to her.
Estrella…
Geoffrey, c’mon I’m gonna go easy on him. Just don’t lock me up, or he’ll know I’m bluffing.
I am programmed to force you to preserve human life unless threatened. If I calculate that you will harm him, then I cannot and will not carry out your request. I’m sorry, so please be gentle with Ellsworth.
She was still holding Ellsworth by the collar, his body shuddering with dread, face still pale. And if she lost her cool, then Geoffrey would shut her down, revealing to Ellsworth he had nothing to fear. It was bad enough her new arm was stronger than the last one. Estrella didn’t know its true strength.
“Oh fuck!” Ellsworth panicked. “Please don’t hurt me!”
She still had the power. “Keep talkin’ hombre.”
So, he did. “Look, the problem with cloning is, you can copy the body, but not the mind. Thoughts, memories, personality, and conscience can’t be copied. All of our clones turned out to be lifeless husks that did nothing but shit and piss themselves all day.”
“Now that’s nasty,” Theo snorted.
“Agreed,” concurred Ray.
“The human brain is way too complex,” Ellsworth continued. “And an IW brain is worse.”
“What about mind control?” she asked.
“Impossible,” Ellsworth said with a shake of his head. “Again, the clones are braindead. You can’t mind control a target and ask them to take a walk with you if they don’t know how to walk in the first place.”
Ellsworth was cooperating, at last, so she let him go. He exhaled in relief. “Those pods on your phone, were they the cloning vats?” she asked.
“The pods scan the body, storing their patterns into a 3D bioprinter,” Ellsworth said. “When a clone is needed, we select the pattern to use and wait a few hours for it to 3D print the clone.”
“What were you doing with these people?”
“I was conducting maintenance on the equipment, the higher-ups wanted to do another test.”
“Testing?” Ray asked. “Those pictures were taken this past December and January. Regal already gave up on cloning by those dates.”
“We did, but like I said, I was told we were going to try again. Next thing I know the company announced its restructuring plans. I never touched the pods again.”
“Why would the Skulls come for you?” She asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I know how the equipment works? Maybe someone out there is trying to sabotage Regal’s progress and knows I’d need to go.”
“If that were the case,” Ray chimed in. “They would have murdered you on the spot, not make a plan to take you alive.”
Ellsworth shrugged facing Ray. “Maybe they didn’t want me killed in public?”
Estrella chuckled. “Since when did the Skulls give a fuck about that?”
“Now that they’ve been in the spotlight and rose to the top of the LAPD wanted list?” Ellsworth said. “They’re probably trying to be silent about what they do. Take me alive, then drag me someplace silent where nobody would see me again or see them in the act.”
/> “What about all the new hiring you guys did?” Ray asked him. “Regal Genetics went from broke and laying people off, to suddenly having the funds to bring in new staff.”
“I know nothing about that. My job was to oversee the cloning project and it was a failure. We scrapped it and moved on, tried to give it a second chance back in December, but as I said earlier, those plans fell through after the restructure.”
“Yo, fuck this, malaka,” Theo groaned.
“Well,” Ellsworth paused. “There’s one person who might know.”
Estrella motioned to him. “Who?”
“His name is Dennis Patterson,” Ellsworth said. “He’s the guy that asked me to make sure the pods were still working, which you saw in the pictures. He quit after the restructuring announcement and got a job with Yoshida, damn fast I might add.”
“Yoshida must have bribed him to work with them,” Estrella said.
“And if that’s the case, maybe Patterson disclosed something to them.” Ray marched to his computer that had six screens too many. Estrella wondered why he needed so many as she stood behind him, watching him type away while resting the katana against the wall. “What was that name again?”
“Patterson,” Ellsworth shouted from the couch he remained at. “Dennis Patterson.”
In fifteen seconds, Ray had everything on Patterson loaded on his computer screen, including his past work at Regal Genetics and his current job at Yoshida, an executive manager in their biotech division. The division that never got its budget and projects cut after Nobuo’s attack.
“He’s doing pretty well in the company,” Ray said as he continued to read the data and watch the smiling photos of Patterson. “I think we will need to chat with him.”
Two clicks and Ray brought up Patterson’s address, along with pictures of his home. It made Estrella and Ray grimace.
“That’s his home ain’t it?” She asked.
“Yep, a fucking fortress.” Patterson’s home was in district one, Beverly Hills, smart homes with the top of the line security and endless surveillance. Ray sighed. “It’ll be a pain to hack all that security to get to him.”
Estrella didn’t like the sudden tone change on Ray. “But you can do it right?”
“Not discreetly,” Ray said. “There’ll be signs we broke in, which will only raise a few red flags. Not to mention, I’ll be leaving the comfort of this district… If we run into trouble…”
She stroked her chin while thinking of another way to poke Patterson for answers, ideally without kidnapping. They were already taking a big risk by keeping Ellsworth here. Estrella glanced at Patterson’s profile and resume, then remembered her last talk with Lady M, she invited high ranking employees of Yoshida to her party. Patterson should be one of them.
Estrella lowered her hand, unveiling a smile that stretched across her face. She pulled the invitation Lady M gave her from her arm.
“Don’t worry about it,” she to Ray. “Bring up a map of Lady M’s place.”
“What? Her place is going to be fucking impossible to break in.”
“You won’t need to,” she said. “M’s throwing a party soon, and Patterson might be there. And if he is, I’ll squeeze him for info.”
“Uh… how?”
“I dunno, maybe get him drunk and show some leg. I’ll figure it out. But what we can’t do is attack him, it’s way too risky. Yoshida’s got extra security in their offices thanks to the attacks. They’re paranoid as fuck right now.”
“Well then, Estrella, I guess you got a party to get ready for.”
And she had to have a dress to wear. She was glad she didn’t spend all her money at TT’s.
Fifteen
Miyuki
Rain soaked the roads during the midnight drive across Tokyo. The sound splashing against the van was soothing. Miyuki felt less nervous about the trip she was on. She sat in the back of an unmarked white van, its wheels splashing through puddles as it left the neon of the city behind. After a couple of minutes of driving, the talking holographic ads and people gaming in the arcades vanished, all replaced with sad-looking IWs sitting on soaked cardboard boxes waving empty cans at those that passed by.
She was surrounded by eight members of the Specter unit, each one performing last-minute system checks of their rifles and pistols. Like the rest of the unit, Miyuki wore a tight-fitting black catsuit, and the belt she wore was adorned with various spare ammo magazines. She cut her hair for the mission. The trim now had the edge of her hair reach the middle of her neck. She hoped it gave her a tougher appearance amongst the team. Bad enough, she was only eighteen, never handled a weapon until a few weeks ago, and was the short and skinny member. At that moment, she was glad to have received the cyberware enhancements.
They were three minutes out, and one member of the Specters, Nguyen, asked why Miyuki hadn’t checked over her sniper rifle. She buried the sense of embarrassment, reached for it, and studied the rating window appearing on her HUD.
Weapon Name: Ghostface 115
Damage: High
Clip size: 3
Rate of Fire: Low
Range: High
Type: Sniper Rifle
It packed a bigger punch than her Deckard still holstered at her side. Miyuki flicked its power switch on and waited for the soothing humming noise of the rifle’s targeting systems to boot. At the back end of the van was Yanmei, placing a nanotube injector to her thigh, emptying the device’s contents of fresh utility nanites inside her. Yanmei repeated the process twice more with two other nanotubes, the other members did so as well.
One member, Nakamura, faced Miyuki when they finished with the injections. “Don’t forget to inject yourself with nanites, newbie.”
She shook her head. “I can’t use them.”
Nakamura winced. “What?”
“We didn’t have enough parts or an AI for her,” Yanmei cut in. “She only has life support nanites.”
“Oy!” It was Serge shouting from the driver’s seat. “So, she’s just an IW with cyberware, eh?”
Yanmei nodded. “Yes, not the RW IW hybrids we are.”
“I wouldn’t call us hybrids,” said Porter, another member of the team. “We ain’t got working NC gauntlets.” Porter held his arm forward, and out sprang a long thin and sharp-pointed device from his wrist. It looked like an oversized needle to Miyuki. “We gotta run up and manually pump ‘em with nanites.”
The giant needle retracted inside his wrist. Looking at the Specter team, and Yanmei, Miyuki noticed they all bore cyberware slots on their wrists, most likely to deploy the needle, she assumed. Her worrying thoughts returned. Miyuki was not only the rookie but lacked some cyberware her team had. She was an incomplete unit.
The van stopped and powered down. Serge parked it in an alley a block away from the Port of Tokyo. Yanmei opened the backdoor, letting in the cool moist air and the sound of the rain falling that had become more prominent. Multiple boots splashed into the road below, Yanmei’s being the first, and Miyuki’s being the last. The downpour of rain drenched her hair, and she felt its drops sliding down her neck.
Serge joined the unit, though his face was down, gazing at the hacking apps on his tablet. In his free hand was a pistol, Miyuki’s optical scanner identified it as a Deckard 56, just like the one she had.
Yanmei raised her left hand, signaling for the team to follow her, so they did with weapons drawn and numerous feet splashing through the puddles. Ahead was the main gate keeping riffraff out of the port and its multiple platform levels, each one stacked on top of the other. The upper levels served as a boarding platform for Orbital Cargo Shuttles (OCS) making regular cargo trips to and from various orbital platforms. Down at ground level was the standard maze of cargo containers commonly found at large ports such as this, with robotic arms lifting containers to or from air or space capable shuttles, or anchored sea-based boats.
One of the six OCS rumbled the ground when its thrusters roared. It began a quick lift off into the
skies, a long tail of blue and white thruster flare left behind exhaust smoke. Miyuki paused at the sight, her lips slowly moving apart. She’d never seen an OCS take off into space at this range.
“Hey, let’s go, newbie!”
The Specter team had already pushed past the gates, now opened thanks to Serge’s hack. They were waiting on Miyuki. Above was a holographic sign that read:
‘Warning: This is a restricted area. Armed patrols will shoot trespassers!’
The sign was written in Japanese at first, then switched to Chinese after ten seconds, ten seconds after that, English, then back to Japanese.
“Yes!” Miyuki bowed. “I’m sorry.”
They were moving across the port now, weapons forward, HUDs linked with them, relaying the tactical information across their eyesight. The ten pairs of ruby glowing eyes in the night detected no movement. Each corner turned had Miyuki’s heart racing. Somewhere in the seaport, were the armed guards the sign behind mentioned, and she imagined they were more guards than the Specter unit.
Remember your training. The voice of Yanmei echoed in Miyuki’s mind, it was a telepathic thought.
Miyuki pointed up, drawing the team’s attention to a surveillance camera. Serge aimed his tablet at it and fingered a command on its app. The camera faced away. The Specters moved forward in the maze of cargo containers, the hacker Serge trailing behind, holding his tablet.
Yanmei stopped, left fist rising, right hand clenching her rifle. “Everyone spread out and search for it,” she said, and then faced Miyuki. “Matsuoka, you’re with me.”
Miyuki nodded. “Roger.”
The team split and spread out, covering more ground, while Miyuki followed the lead of Yanmei. Part of the training she figured, why else would she and Yanmei form a two-person team? Miyuki tightened her grip on her weapon, searching for confidence that wasn’t there. If she failed this, then that was it, she’d get removed from the Specter unit, bringing dishonor to her big brother Nobuo.
Specter Protocol Page 12
