“And how do you know that?”
“It’s all in my report. The pods make a log each time they’re used and by who. Patterson was one of the users during the times he was in Buenos Aires. They got around the cloning limits by using those neural implants. Telepaths like Hawk send their powers through it and can control others with the implants installed. My guess is, the avatars work in the same manner, someone out there is putting those implants into the heads of the kidnapped telepaths and controlling them remotely.”
“Proof?” Lady M puffed her cigarette.
“Workin’ on that part still, but it’s pretty fucking obvious,” Estrella said. “They called the implants avatar transceivers, and I just proved to you that’s how the Bald Skulls were able to animate their otherwise braindead clones. If they could make braindead clones, walk, talk, and think with the implants, just imagine what control they could have over those kidnapped telepaths? Portia Blanchard just wanted to star in memory sphere porn. Now she’s a fucking psychopath working for people like Patterson and…” Again, she wanted to say Ashford. She didn’t bother. “And your rogue employees.”
“And Arianna Kounias?” Lady M asked after sipping her whiskey. “She was one of them correct?”
“Yeah, someone in Yoshida must have put the implant in her head too, jacked into her mind, and forced her into the Federation to steal the plans to that weapon. Arianna, Portia, and others, they’re all the same, slaves to the person on the other end. A project funded with your money, resources, and manpower, right under your nose.”
“The Federation IWs, Partington, Taylor. They all fucking knew and wanted a piece of the rewards.”
Estrella grimaced. Piper and Ray wanted this stopped as much as she did. But Lady M, like everyone in the world, bought into the fake news stories that Ray and Piper were loyal to the Federation and their plans. And if she wanted to continue to rely on M’s help, then she’d have to play her part and pretend that was the case.
“Well, I don’t think it’s that simple,” Estrella said.
“Of course it is.” Lady M ground her cigarette off-screen. “Nobody can be trusted. Not the rogue personnel of my company, the Federation, or the people that caused a stir in a base we own up north. I appreciate what you’ve discovered, Ms. Rodriguez. You’ve given me Patterson, a few other assholes that are about to lose their fucking job, and the Bald Skulls hideout.”
“What’s so good about their hideout?”
“Yoshida now has a biotech division that spent its budget to produce fucking nothing, and the cloning tech in their hideout needs new owners.”
“Regal didn’t officially sell you the pods, so wouldn’t they want them back?”
“Probably but fuck ‘em, my lawyers are smarter and more cunning. My business used my money to acquire those pods. I want them. Once the police are finished with their investigation, I’ll have my people secure the pods. And then there’s my missing freighter, the Kobayashi, I’m being told there are pods aboard that. I’ll ask the authorities to hand those over to me as well once they’re done investigating.”
Estrella had just handed cloning technology to Yoshida. Now she didn’t know whose side M was on. She was a cybernetic witch making a deal with the digital devil to get her freedom, one that appeared as an alluring woman, made up of light.
“Your next task is to bring in Taylor and Partington,” Lady M said. “Nothing else.”
Estrella lifted an eyebrow. “Nothing else? What the fuck? Why?”
“You took out the Skulls and exposed members of my company helping them. Now, I want you to kill off this Federation threat. If it plays out how you handled the Skulls, you’ll reveal more proof of my renegade employees. And as it stands, Ray Partington and Piper Taylor have close links to the Federation, and the media won’t stop giving me a hard time about you working for me. They will when you bring those two to justice.”
“With all due respect,” Estrella spoke up. “But if I can locate where the avatar project is being run…”
“I will handle the avatar project,” Lady M firmly spoke. “You will deal with these Federation clowns looking to fuck with my business and the country. Understood?”
A reluctant nod. “Yes.”
“You’re one step closer to your freedom,” Lady M said. “The heads of fucking Taylor and Partington on my desk will give you another step. A big one. Who knows, maybe I’ll just cut you free after that.”
Estrella, it would appear Lady M does not fully understand what’s going on.
And she won’t unless we tell her Piper was operating under orders given to her by those creepy telepathic messengers. The only bad guys still standing are the remaining rogue Yoshida employees. And whoever stirred up shit in Alaska… And the violence in the north reminded her about losing contact with Ray and the others. Ugh, I don’t know what to do. She made it clear we can’t do anything else. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been lying to us this whole time and is just sending us on a chase to cover up the sins of the corporation. Estrella frowned. Why else would she keep defending Ashford?
Behind Estrella, Victor Ashford entered, almost on queue as she mentioned his name in the silent conversation with her AI.
Ashford walked past, nodding to her respectfully. “Ms. Rodriguez…”
Estrella winced. “Ashford…”
Lady M’s projection moved forward and strode through the desk like it wasn’t there. “What is it, Victor?” she said to him. “I’m busy with Rodriguez.”
“There was an attack in San Francisco,” Ashford said. “A truck was seen speeding away from a vehicle charging station, heading south. The authorities believe it’s the one we’ve been searching for. The one Mr. Partington hijacked with his IW Federation associates—”
“Hold the fuck up.” Estrella cut in. The mention of Federation IWs had her worried. “Federation IWs?”
“Yes, Ms. Rodriguez,” Ashford said. “Have you not heard of the attacks near Anchorage the other day?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “But nobody said who was involved.”
“IWs from the Federation are back,” Ashford said. “They are like the ones you encountered last month I might add, augmented with cyberware designed for the IW body.”
Estrella reached for her phone and looked at the unanswered text she sent to Ray. Nobuo’s people wanted his head, but they were supposed to be dead, except for maybe their leaders. Did their leaders take it upon themselves to get the job done? Was Ray a headless corpse lying in a desolate snowfield?
Her breathing increased. She hoped nobody noticed. “How do you know it was him?” she asked.
“Aircraft belonging to our private military contractors were hacked prior to the truck getting hijacked,” Ashford said. “The truck’s transponder went silent as it neared Vancouver and numerous cameras also had been compromised by a hacker.”
“I heard facial scanning software had been on the fritz lately,” Lady M said. “Are you positive it was Partington?”
“Positive,” Ashford said. “There was eyewitness from the train derailment that claimed to have seen Partington and one other watch them.”
Lady M faced Ashford. “Where is the truck now?”
“In the wastelands,” he said. “Most likely on its way to Los Angeles, along with our stolen weapons.”
“Weapons?” Estrella asked.
“Yes, Ms. Rodriguez,” he drawled. “Elmendorf was attacked. It doubled as a base where our weapons division tested and developed new products. Those responsible for the attack stole experimental rifles.”
“Rodriguez,” Lady M’s attention shifted to her. “I’m going to order assets to intercept the truck. I want you to assist them.”
She snorted. “Thought you wanted me looking for Piper and Ray?”
“Ms. Taylor and Mr. Partington are no doubt riding shotgun in that truck,” Ashford said. “Mass mind control was reported near Anchorage, likely Ms. Taylor helping them flee.”
It was a smear
job, and Ashford was pushing it forward. Estrella was Piper’s alibi, and she hadn’t left the city. If mass mind control had been used, then it was another telepath that did it, one that was S ranked like Piper.
“There you have it,” Lady M said. “The solutions to our problems are coming to us. Catch it, Rodriguez, before we lose it again.”
Estrella stood still, processing the reveal. “Just guns on the truck?” she asked.
“Yes… nothing else,” Ashford drawled.
“Because last time I checked,” Estrella said, crossing her arms, “your biotech division sent its funds to your weapons one in secret so that they could use it to fund something in that Elmendorf base.”
“As I mentioned,” Ashford said, facing Estrella, as she saw her reflection in his shades, “We own the base and were contracted by the Alliance military to develop new arms for their troops.”
Arms still crossed. “I just proved to M that Patterson and a few others are dirty.”
Ashford lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” she said mockingly. “Patterson’s division gave its funds away for your weapons division to do something shady.”
“I authorized that transfer when the Alliance government gave us the contract. Ask Lady M if you don’t believe me. Our nation is facing war with the Federation and the Alliance military wants our troops equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and armor if it comes to that. Weapons development takes priory over biotech under those conditions.”
“And if we don’t recover this,” Lady M said. “We may lose the contract to a rival company. So, don’t fuck this up, or you’ll fuck up your freedom.”
“Yes, Ms. Rodriguez,” he said, shades still reflecting Estrella with her arms crossed. “And we all know how much we both want to see you far away from this city.”
Hours had slipped by since the reveal. Estrella’s phone remained silent, no messages from Ray, who she was starting to believe was dead. And nothing from Piper, she was probably killing herself by killing her battery faster with her demons. For a second, Estrella considered giving up Piper’s location. She’d live longer while captured—
A car honked at Estrella.
And she was back focusing on riding her motorcycle. She nearly crashed. She swerved aside and sped to the freeway’s on-ramp. It was the afternoon now, and rush hour was in progress, clogging the highways and roads with vehicles eager to get home after another day being slaves to their jobs. Meanwhile, she was still slaving away, on a course to the rendezvous point marked via a navi-point on her mini-map of the city. She was going to meet up with Yoshida PMCs and the LAPD, possibly the military too, though they were preoccupied with searching for the incoming lone truck out into the wastelands.
Traffic ahead on the multiple-lane highway came to a halt, except for Estrella who rode in between the vehicles. It felt like navigating through a densely packed parking lot. A flurry of horns honked, and this time it wasn’t at her.
Crashing noises, and lots of them, thundered. Three vehicles from the opposite lane ran through the median. Ahead, a van sped off the raised overpass it was on. Highway lights blinked on and off. Then remained off. Streetlights flashed from red to yellow to green then red all at random.
Two cars spun out ahead of her. She braked. The twin spinning cars came about and faced her. Their wheels turned rapidly and then accelerated, right for her. She was speeding again, swinging to the left, and a gust of wind blew past her as she narrowly avoided the incoming cars. It looked as if they were trying to ram her.
To her left, she saw a panicking woman in the driver’s seat of her car. Her hands weren’t on the wheel, yet the vehicle moved on its own. Its self-driving autopilot engaged but given its erratic behavior and the silent screams from the driver, and Estrella guessed it had been hacked.
“What the fuck….”
In an instant, the freeway erupted into chaos.
Alert, Estrella. There is a massive cyberattack in progress.
No fucking shit!
Estrella jacked into the bike. Got us protected, Geoffrey?
Indeed, this bike should be safe.
Now Estrella’s bike was the only vehicle able to move on its own. She sped past overturned cars and powered down ones trapping their occupants inside as she made her way to the top of the overpass and pulled over. Looking down at the chaos sent her mind back to last month, during her near-death ride on the freeway. Only, this was a much larger scale. Someone hacked every vehicle, along with street signs.
Ray had the ability to cause this degree of disarray. Geoffrey spoke. It is possible; this is a result of his actions.
What? Oh no, no. Why would he do that?
According to Ashford, Ray controls the truck that is due to leave the wastelands and enter the city.
And you and I know that’s bullshit. This is someone else.
Who? Only Ray had this power because Arianna shared Yoshida’s programming source codes with him. Most of Los Angeles is powered by some sort of Yoshida designed OS.
And Estrella hadn’t heard from Ray since he left. And now, she told Piper to get lost. She wondered if protecting the two had been the right call. After all, Obsidian reached out to Ray, and then later Piper’s messenger.
Maybe Lady M was right. Estrella needed to deliver Ray and Piper’s head to her.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Forty-Eight
Ray
Ray was dreaming again. This one was different, he dreamed about the prototype TEK suit. Having seen it in person made the stuff Arianna put in his head clearer. Zhang Industries had been working on the suit and had been conducting tests with it regarding IWs. Ray wasn’t sure what the tests were since that part of the dream was a blur, like most of the visions. Someone had asked Zhang to develop the suit and involve IWs in its testing and development. Was it to destroy IWs or see if they could survive an encounter with it? He asked the ghostly visage of Arianna those questions. She just shrugged him off like she didn’t know him.
IWs and the prototype were linked somehow, and the individual controlling Arianna like she was a puppet knew it. Avatars, that’s what they were, telepathic puppets being strung along to do the dirty work of Yoshida overseas or locally, activated by a flick of a switch, then shut down. He asked the dream Arianna if that was true; she nodded yes. That’s why Arianna had been so cold, so distant. She was a different woman when he met her in New York City. Ray wasn’t talking with the real Arianna. He was speaking to the person controlling her brain. It was next-level mind control.
Did Nobuo know about it, he asked her? She shrugged and told him probably. Why else did Nobuo know of the hidden chamber in the Yoshida towers? Nobuo wasn’t there just to capture Ray; he was also there to dismantle the avatar program. In some strange twist, Nobuo and his party weren’t the true villains. Ending the avatar program was a goal Ray and Nobuo shared. They just went about it differently. Like Nobuo’s plan to deal with Norris, Arianna’s father. Remove him so the Bald Skulls couldn’t recruit him into the program.
And didn’t Estrella say Nobuo had been looking for the Bald Skulls when they first met?
Ray asked the dream Arianna if she was alive or dead. She couldn’t answer. He assured her if she was dead, he’d make Yoshida pay.
Even if it meant breaking the code of the ETG hackers and using his hacking abilities to kill lots of people.
“Ray.”
That didn't sound like Arianna’s voice. That meant it was time to wake up.
So, he woke up.
He sat up from the backseat chair he slept on. Bashiir was at the wheel, driving their stolen car though a desolate highway in the remains of what used to a city. The ruined structures in the vicinity carried the design of buildings built back before the third world war. This was the California Wastelands, and rumor had it out in the wastelands lived scavengers and raiders living off the land, long forgotten about by a society that deemed rebuilding everything between San Francisco, Las Vegas, an
d Los Angeles pointless.
They were surrounded by ruins of old cities now, a lone car driving across the dusty highway. It was a giant wasteland of nothing and one of the few places in the Alliance… and the world, without working surveillance. Ray considered moving there himself.
Ray yawned and mentally prepared himself for the day. Bashiir calling his name meant it was time for Ray to take the wheel and drive while he got some shut-eye. It’d been nearly three days since they left the Anchorage area. Ray and Bashiir took turns sleeping and driving on their purist of the truck the Specters hijacked.
He pulled out his phone. It was still bricked. That Federation hacker was good. Ray plugged the phone into his laptop, accessing its memory, and continued the painstaking task of removing the malware that infected it.
“You awake?” Bashiir asked with his hands on the wheel and face forward.
Ray nodded, keeping his watch to the laptop’s screen. “Yeah, I am, sorry.”
“I’ll pull over in a minute.”
Ray looked to the side, watching the desert winds blow sand into what used to be the lobby of a hotel. Ahead were drum cans with billow fires glowing from their tops. Someone had to have lit those. Raiders were near.
“We’re in the wastelands …” Ray said worryingly.
“That what you call it?”
“Yeah,” he said. “This part of California got blasted during the war. Yoshida had plans to rebuild it but opted to concentrate on the reconstruction of New York instead, then went to focus on other cities.” Ray realized something. “Wait! What the fuck!” Ray yelled. “Why are we here?”
He blamed his still awakening mind for the slow realization.
“Ah, you were asleep when it happened,” Bashiir said. “The truck entered San Francisco but left when it came under attack.”
“And they went through here…”
Ray looked at the map on the dashboard’s computer screen. Los Angeles was an hour away. “Vancouver, San Fran, now LA…”
Specter Protocol Page 40
