by M. D. Cooper
The analyst pointed in the direction of the divide. “On the other side of this mountain is a warehouse filled with illegal arms, owned by the Norden Cartel. The signal is an activation code that will initiate a countdown, which will set off a kinetic-EMP device. It'll decimate that warehouse.” Ben paused before letting the other shoe drop. “The activation code that will set the whole thing in motion is keyed to my auth token. So you see, Jason,” Ben sent his brother-in-law a quick grimace, “it’s not that I don’t want you to send that signal for me. You just can’t.”
Holy shit. Jason didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but that wasn’t it.
The two men stared at each other for a moment in silence.
“How much time on the countdown?” Jason asked.
“Depends on which code I send. I was going to wait and see how much time we’d need to rappel down the cliff.”
“Well, we sure as hell can’t do it during the day,” Jason mused as he squinted at the horizon.
It was almost dusk. The system’s second star, Zipa, was currently midway to apastron with its sister, Rigel Kentaurus, which meant that the planet would experience a slightly darker evening.
Had it been at periastron, the star would have bathed the nighttime terrain with a luminance equivalent to a Terran full moon—at least before the construction of the High Terra Ring. From what he’d heard, Earth never really had nights anymore.
“You knew that, though,” Jason stated matter-of-factly. “That's why you didn't want to start any earlier in the day, wasn’t it?”
Ben nodded, confirming his suspicion.
“Okay, we’ll do this together once the sun sets. Until then…” Jason looked down at Ben’s boots. “Let’s elevate those feet to minimize swelling.”
Ben's face twisted into a little smirk. “Actually, I’ll be fine. Military-grade mednano’s taking care of it right now.”
Jason rolled his eyes and saw Ben shrug.
“Perk of the job,” his brother-in-law explained.
They rested while Rigel Kentaurus continued its trek toward the horizon. The primary star had slipped behind the mountain peaks half an hour earlier, and they watched as the shadows lengthened across the flatlands, and darkness began to fall.
Jason knew the sunset would be even more pronounced in the shallow valley of the bowl beyond the ridge. Very soon, it would morph into El Dorado's own special brand of night.
Their surroundings were already beginning to take on a weird, perception-bending presence, and he saw Ben shift uncomfortably. His response was typical of someone not used to living on the planet's surface.
Prior to the ring's sweeping presence overhead, the planet would have experienced a true atmospheric night, its terrain plunged into an inky blackness. Now, the portions of the ring that were not in the planet's shadow—a bit more than thirty percent of its arc—glowed on each horizon.
It transmuted the planet into a world of deep silvery-blue twilight. The ring's twin glow cast an odd double shadow that most ring-dwellers found a bit disconcerting when they overnighted on the planet.
Jason found it oddly captivating, and had spent many an evening aloft, drifting across the striking yet eerie terrain in one of his reproduction aircraft.
“Okay, how’s this going to go down?” Jason asked Ben, seeking to distract the analyst from his unease with their surroundings. “I assume the No Trespassing line is really some sort of security net?”
Ben nodded. “I have a breach I can activate when we get to it. That’ll provide a window of ten minutes where the net will be bypassed as the system feeds a loop from the previous day.”
“Good. How’s your HUD? Is it military-grade, as well?” Jason asked.
Ben nodded again.
“Okay. Switch to night vision and follow me. Step where I step, place your hands exactly where I place mine. If you lose your balance, grab my pack. Don’t worry; I can handle it.”
* * * * *
As Jason turned and began climbing, Ben warily eyed the gradient of the slope. He harbored no illusions that this would be easy, but it had to be done. He hauled himself to his feet, wincing internally as he put weight on them again. Military-grade nano can only work so fast, he supposed. He’d never before had the need to test its effectiveness.
Fifteen seemingly endless minutes later, they reached the crest. Ben collapsed against a warm rock, while Jason unclipped his own pack and unslung it from his shoulders. With a sigh, Ben followed suit. He suspected that his clumsy fumbling at the pack’s fasteners looked nothing like the practiced ease with which Jason had accomplished the same task.
Hell, he was just glad he could rest for a few minutes before tackling that sensor net.
He saw Jason unclip his water collector from his pack and wave it at him.
Oh yeah, the whole 'staying hydrated is important' thing.
Jason had lectured him about it on the ride out to the ridge. He reached for his own, surprised at its weight. When they had begun the trek, the unit had been empty.
The water collector was a portable system that extracted humidity from the air, storing it in a small, collapsible pouch. Ben recalled Jason saying that it was one of the most valuable pieces of equipment a hiker could own; he couldn’t help but agree as he uncapped his and began drinking deeply from it.
He watched as Jason scanned the area, his face inscrutable. He exuded a coiled intensity that Ben had never before seen in the man.
The suspicion that he had misjudged his brother-in-law solidified into certainty. Ben wondered why Jason was content to let people underestimate him so completely, then mentally shrugged. It’s a free world; Jason can do as he chooses.
Ben pulled up the overlay of the mountain that his contact had given him and noted that they were nearing the sensor net. He hesitated, reluctant to use the Link in case the net could read the EM emission. Jason had been correct to warn against its use.
Shifting closer to Jason, he motioned for the man to lean in. In a voice barely audible, he spoke. “If my overlay has everything lined up properly, the net is twenty meters dead ahead. Once I pass the override token, we’ll have ten minutes to send the signal and get back out.”
Jason nodded and bent forward to reply in an equally soft murmur. “See that grouping of trees up there?”
Ben looked toward where Jason pointed: three tall pines, with some light scrub at their base. He nodded affirmation.
“That should give you a clear line of sight to the floor of the bowl, about two kilometers as the crow flies. Close enough to send the code to detonate?”
“Yes, that will work.”
“Good enough. Let’s go, then.”
* * * * *
Before Jason could move, he saw Ben raise his hand.
“Hold on, I almost forgot.” Reaching into his backpack, his brother-in-law pulled out two compact rolls, flipping one of them around so that Jason could read its label.
‘Mark II SC’, it said. Ben twisted the seal and, with the flick of a wrist, shook out a sheet of nanofabric. He handed it to Jason before breaking the seal on his own.
Jason fingered the material, noting that there was a hole in its center. He watched as Ben shoved his head through the opening, causing the material to settle around his shoulders like a poncho. Ben flipped up an attached hood and indicated to Jason that he should do the same.
As he placed the hood on his head, Jason heard a soft ping, and the cloak initiated a handshake with his Link. A menu appeared on his HUD: ‘Active, Passive, Standby, or Off?’
He selected ‘Passive’. A second icon appeared: ‘IFF ident nearby. Initiate secured Link? Y/N’. Jason toggled ‘Y’ and was rewarded with Ben’s voice in his head.
Ben shook his head.
>
He rooted around in the directory for a bit, then laughed quietly to himself. Good old tech trick: if a segment of code can be reused, why reinvent the wheel?
Jason noticed that one of the features of the cloak’s interface allowed him to have control over another device.
At Ben’s nod, Jason quickly configured both, changing his companion’s setting to ‘passive’ stealth.
Jason nodded, recalling that the directory tree had included a listing labeled ‘Instructions’.
Jason waited as the man accessed the net and sent the override token. Ben nodded to Jason and gave a thumbs-up.
Once again, Jason led the way, keeping to the tree line as best he could as they made their way to the triad of trees at the peak’s summit.
Just as they reached them, Jason heard the unmistakable whine of shuttle thrusters in the distance.
He pulled Ben into a crouch.
Dammit, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to dive into that manual....
* * * * *
Ben experienced a moment of disorientation as data began to flow at an incomprehensible rate over the cloak’s visual overlay, which Jason had slaved to his own.
Something’s wrong! Ben thought frantically. He knew nothing about military-grade nanotech. Did I accidentally trigger something? Is it fighting Jason?
He tried to access the controls, but was immediately kicked out.
What the—Jason isn’t paired with an AI, is he?
Jason’s voice returned.
Ben nodded.
Jason broke the connection, then moved to crouch at the base of a nearby tree. Both men curled into themselves, waiting silently as the craft approached.
* * * * *
Jason had felt Ben’s panic as the man sensed the speed at which Jason worked the cloak. The guy probably feared it had gone haywire and was going to turn on him, like the crazy, made-up stories kids told each other to scare the shit out of themselves.
He’d only spared a moment to reassure the man; now was not the time to explain to Ben that his brother-in-law was one of the rare—and, in Jason’s case, unreported—L2 humans.
Speed-reading the help file that the ESF had supplied, Jason found the section on camouflage and ordered the nano in both cloaks to configure for maximum concealment.
The manual had revealed that the material only had the capacity to actively hide them for about fifteen minutes. After that, it could extend the amount of time indefinitely by shunting the heat energy into smaller heat eggs. It would be up to Jason, though, to figure out how to dispose of them.
Hopefully if it came to that, he could do it in a way that suggested local wildlife. He was pretty sure Ben hadn't noticed, but he'd spied a sentry outpost tucked into a shallow curve of the mountainside, half a klick down the slope. He'd be willing to bet the bowl was ringed with them. Mimicking wildlife might be the only way they remained undetected, sensor net override or no.
As neither Jason nor Ben had internal, military-grade SC batts to extend the life of the cloaks, the active camouflage setting was a short-term fix that he hoped they would not need for long.
Jason had also modified the cloak to provide him a view of the sky above, which the cloak captured on its passive scan. He watched that feed now, as he crouched in stillness beneath the tree.
The approaching shuttle’s flight path may actually work in our favor, Jason thought, as he watched it pass directly overhead.
Unless they had military training—and had paid attention to said training—Jason knew that most humans tended to look just about everywhere but directly below themselves.
Hopefully the cloaks would be able to fool the ship’s NSAI, and it wouldn’t alert the shuttle’s occupants to their presence.
Still, the sight of turrets along the sides and belly of the craft as it performed an automatic sweep of the terrain was sobering.
The two men remained frozen as the shuttle descended into the bowl. Jason waited until the craft had moved from their line of sight before reconnecting with Ben.
Jason considered that.
Ben thought a moment, then shook his head.
Ben nodded.
Jason saw a ripple on his HUD as the analyst shrugged, and the material that shrouded him shifted with the movement.
Again, Ben nodded.
Jason broke off abruptly, his attention drawn to the activity on the floor of the shallow valley below. He dialed in a telescopic view using his eye implants and watched as a crew exited the building, pushing a maglev hand truck.
He drew in a sharp breath. There, glowing like a beacon through his night vision overlay, were dozens of small, cylindrical canisters, flashing a coded sequence. He recognized those canisters.
Shit. Those are isolation tubes. They’re loading AIs into that shuttle.
HIDE AND GO SEEK
STELLAR DATE: 07.04.3189 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Scar Top Trailhead, Muzhavi Ridge
REGION: El Dorado, Alpha Centauri System
“Dr. Judith Andrews has assured us that the university is working with local planetary authorities to enact a mitigation plan. This will prevent any major tectonic activity from impacting the Muzhavi Ridge and its environs. Area inhabitants are assured that local crops and herds, as well as wildlife and national park areas, will be given every consideration ….”
Ben saw Jason’s head whip around to face him. The man’s eyes burned with intensity.
>
Jason gripped Ben’s arm, commanding Ben’s cloak to send the man a visual feed.
Jason was gone before Ben could protest or even reach out to stop him. Ben gaped in astonishment as he watched his brother-in-law soundlessly leap from boulder to rocky outcropping with an agility that few athletes could match.
He saw Jason race down a stretch of light undergrowth, launch himself over a fall of loose scree, then use the trunk of a conifer as a pivot point. The man's hand unerringly reached out to grasp the branch that altered his trajectory, and Ben knew—he knew—that Jason hadn't been looking where he'd laid his hand.
The precision his brother-in-law used to navigate the weirdly shadowed landscape was uncanny. It was all done at a speed that could only be described as headlong flight. And from what Ben could tell, he wasn’t making a sound while doing it. Shock and disbelief rose up inside him as he realized the implications of what he was witnessing.
What the…Who the hell is Jason, really?
No ordinary man could descend five hundred fifty meters in just over two minutes. But Jason had. Clearly, the man he thought he knew either had a past he wasn't sharing, or his persona was a cover.
But a cover for what organization? Surely not the ESF, and he knew it damn well wasn't with the SIS.
Cursing under his breath, Ben checked his internal chrono and saw that there were five and a half minutes left before the net override ceased.
He watched as Jason began a slow approach on the unguarded side of the shuttle.
* * * * *
Jason wished he could reach out to Tobias. He could really use the AI's help right now. Not for the first time, he mentally cursed his L2 physiology; if he had been any other human, Tobias could have been embedded with him, and Jason would have a partner who could focus on spoofing the enemy’s EM while he executed a swift and silent approach.
