by A. Omukai
The man laughed again, this time in a rougher voice than before.
“You want me to piss off the Inquisition, this is gonna get expensive.”
“You owe me a favour, Floyd.”
“No way, buddy. This goes way beyond what a favour can buy. You should know, you’re on the same team as the dog.”
He did, and he wasn’t excited about having to resort to Floyd’s gang, but the last thing he needed was the inquisition breathing down his neck on a mission like this. Daniel wasn’t the type to always play by the rules.
“How much do you want?” he asked. He wouldn’t get around to paying him anyway, and he didn’t have enough time to haggle.
Floyd beamed. “Now we’re talking. How’s twenty k sound?”
“20.000 credits? You’re not bad, but for that money, I could hire the best. I’ll give you five now, five after the sub is on its way.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? We’ll need some pretty expensive gear to deal with an inquisitor, and my boys won’t do this for free.”
Daniel sighed. He stuffed in another shirt and slammed the suitcase shut. No time for this.
“15.000 creds, not one more, and I’ll cut the line if you try to press on.”
“Up front!”
“Fine. We’ll have a little talk when I come back.”
“If… you come back.” Floyd’s laugh sounded amused.
Daniel checked the transaction. He had used an account registered to the man he had taken his rogue chip from. Nobody had touched this money since he had killed him, because he hadn’t ever officially existed in the first place, and never died to a bullet between his eyes. This came in handy in some situations.
“Did you receive the money?” he wanted to know.
“Got it. Leave the dog to me, we’ll take care of him. And god-fucking-speed.”
Collins closed the call and gritted his teeth. He sure hoped Floyd was worth the investment.
***
Daniel got out of his capsule at the arrival point of Hope’s Harbor. The rain had stopped, but the air was still a bit too hot for a late January. He checked the time, almost nine. His capsule closed and shot off to the nearest depot, and he wandered over to his assigned dock. Two guards in civilian clothing stood near the entrance to the landing. One of them spoke in a low voice, then nodded at the agent and gestured for him to proceed. Daniel stopped in front of them.
“I was told my partner would wait for me here.”
The two men looked at each other.
“We don’t know what happened. No contact,” the left one said.
That meant Floyd’s men were doing their job. They were smart enough to keep the inquisitor jammed. Daniel looked over the docks. The silhouette of his submarine was clearly visible where the water didn’t reflect the moonlight, even though the harbour’s lamps were off.
“I will wait a few minutes, but this mission is urgent.”
No answer from the guards. The man on the left shifted from one leg to the other, visibly nervous, while the other stood there like a statue, motionless.
Time passed too slowly. Going on board without checking back with his superiors would be hard enough to justify, so he had to at least give the impression he’d given the inquisitor enough time to join him.
He looked at the guards. They were obviously security personnel. Even a clueless bystander would see that. They had hidden their holsters beneath jackets, but the trained eye would see the guns. What gave them away was their stern posture. They didn’t look at all like harbour personnel.
Incompetence, just when he needed it.
Daniel walked up and down in what he hoped looked like impatience, then the blip of an incoming message demanded his attention. He opened the file; the text was brief. “Can’t keep him busy any longer.”
The message closed itself after a few seconds and disappeared from his logs.
Daniel gripped his suitcase and walked down the stairs to the anchorage. Another man stood guard next to the plank. He stepped aside when he saw the agent come his way, and nodded. Daniel returned the nod and walked straight towards the airlock’s door.
Yet another incoming call, not unexpected. The face of a middle-aged man in uniform appeared in a small window. It belonged to the captain, no doubt.
“Agent Collins, we should wait a little longer, the inquisitor hasn’t arrived yet,” he said. His voice sounded like he was used to giving commands.
“This mission is urgent, and of top priority. If an inquisitor is late this much, something happened, and I can’t wait that long.”
The man fell silent for a moment. He probably had another call on a second line, listening in on their conversation. Then he nodded.
“Get on board. We really should wait longer though.”
“If I miss my appointment and my mission fails, you will take full responsibility,” Daniel growled. He heard the door of the airlock close behind him and impaled the man in the call window with his eyes. The captain looked down.
“All right. I have recorded your orders. We will depart immediately.”
The inner door opened, and a sailor reached for his luggage.
14
Nadya
Unlike China, most of Central Europe’s surface was relatively pleasant. Frankfurt, part of what used to be Germany back in the day, lay in the middle of the still temperate zone.
Nadya stood with Tanya outside the St. Paul’s Church, a redbrick cathedral with political history. It was hot, but the air was frigid. Later that night, the weather forecast announced a thunderstorm, but nothing in the blue sky showed that there was any truth to this. Nadya knew that things could change in no time, though.
A black transport with the word ‘POLIZEI’ written in big, white letters hovered over the small plaza in front of the church, then gained altitude and disappeared behind the unassuming, red building.
“All clear, go in.” Dmitriy’s voice sounded monotone. Both he and Pavel were covering them in case something went wrong, which was encouraging.
Tanya nodded at her, and they walked up the stairs to the entrance of the old building, only two small steps. While the cathedral had symbolic value for the locals, it was rather unimpressive, both outside and inside.
The entrance was a small corridor, leading into the wide, round chancel, which was not where they wanted to go. They went downstairs instead. Like the main room, which the parliament had used in the past, before the building turned into a historical monument, the basement didn’t look like the inside of a Christian church either. The central pillar displayed a mural, but it looked too modern, and light shone from the inside. It was boring in its simplicity.
Nadya walked past it, towards the next flight of stairs that led deeper into the underground, to the coat rack, Tanya by her side. There had been a police officer upstairs, and there was one here. He didn’t pay them much attention. Police everywhere, all the time. Nadya couldn’t live in Europe, she decided. She’d develop paranoia.
She was carrying a small metal case with the AI’s storage medium inside of her handbag.
“Did we have a business appointment?” a male voice asked from behind in a strange accent.
She turned around and saw the small man in a black suit appear from behind the pillar. He appeared to be Asian, but she couldn’t tell the nationality. Wouldn’t it be ironic if their customer was Chinese? But then they’d be in trouble now. Her pulse quickened, and she felt butterflies in her stomach.
“Depends on the business,” she answered, as arranged. The man smiled, then surprised her by offering her his hand. She took and shook it without hesitation.
“My name is Ito, and my colleague over there…” he gestured towards the stairs, “is Nakamura.”
Nadya nodded, but didn’t introduce herself in return. Not Chinese at least, or they were already dead. She tried to relax. The adrenaline in her veins made the attempt futile.
“Is this a good place for our little transaction?” she asked.
Ito nodded. “Any place is as good as the next. Would you like to go somewhere else?”
A small group of children and their adult supervisors came down the stairs and didn’t seem interested in them. At least Nadya and Tanya didn’t stand out here. Nobody was likely to remember their faces.
“No, it’s fine. The payment we agreed upon-”
“Already wired. Please check the account balance.”
Nadya looked at her partner. Tanya showed her a thumbs up.
She opened her handbag and rummaged through it, until she held the case in her hand. It fit nicely on top of her palm and was flat.
“All right. The code is 0528. There is no tolerance for error, get it wrong and the container self-destructs… violently. You cannot close it again once opened, and it will dissolve after 120 seconds.”
The small man looked up to her and smiled, but his eyes didn’t mirror the expression. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking.
“I believe it’s fair to assume that the content is what we’d expect?”
Nadya laughed. They had done their part, demanding she’d do hers was fair.
The police officer looked in their direction, then turned his attention on an elderly couple.
“Yes. You could take it out here, if you want to stuff it into your pocket. The security measures are for your sake.”
His laugh answered the open question. He took the case and bowed.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you, Miss Ivanov. We will get in touch, in case there are questions. I assume that’s okay with you?”
How they would do that, Nadya did not understand, but she didn’t doubt that these men had the means to find her. They had somehow found out her actual identity. Until they left the country and travelled back to Russia, that was. She’d get rid of her cover and try to trace them, to see who they had dealt with.
The man called Nakamura had already gone up the stairs and was nowhere to be seen, when Ito turned around and marched to the steps. A head shorter than Nadya, she had a perfect view on the bald spot on his head. His short, black hair made no attempt to hide it. Now that she saw him from behind, she noticed a long, red scar on his neck. Whatever he was, he wasn’t a typical business man.
She opened a video channel with Dmitriy. When it connected, she nodded in silence.
“The two just came out. There’s someone else outside the church I’m worried about,” he said.
Nadya and Tanya exchanged a look.
“I’ll fall back and stay hidden. Pavel will meet you, and you’ll return to the hotel, as if everything was fine. I’ll find out if there’s a problem.”
Nadya nodded and ended the call.
Pavel appeared from the men’s toilet down the corridor, and together they left the house of prayer, which hadn’t served its original purpose in a long time.
She tried not to look around when they came out of the church, but she couldn’t help it. There was a busy road right next to the building, and a parking lot on the other side. Lots of people were walking around, impossible to tell who Dmitriy was talking about.
“I called a Taxi,” Pavel said and pointed at a beige vehicle that glided into the parking lot ahead.
“Is that safe?”
“Wanna walk for an hour?” he asked. Then he laughed and poked her in the side.
The capsule had room for four people. Pavel handled the programming of the autopilot, while the two women closed the doors. They sealed with a hiss. The capsule didn’t look bulletproof, but she doubted that anyone would attempt to attack them here, in the open. The vehicle started up, left the parking lot and pulled out into the traffic seamlessly.
Both Tanya and Pavel looked as nervous as she felt. Their faces were a bit too pale, with tension in their posture.
Incoming video message. Nadya winced in her seat, and Tanya raised an eyebrow.
She opened the file, and the round face of the man she had done business with appeared, Ito, if she remembered correctly.
“I’m sorry to bother you. Just thought I’d let you know that we opened the case, and the trade is valid. Have a nice day and be careful out there.”
What was the meaning of this? Did they want to intimidate her by showing her they knew exactly who she was, and how to reach her?
She couldn’t make sense of this, and that fact alone didn’t make her nervousness any better.
“Thanks for your worries. We’ll be fine.”
His smile looked as fake as his first one, as he closed the connection.
***
When the taxi capsule reached the hotel, she had to calm herself down, so she wouldn’t storm to the entrance and appear suspicious.
The sky’s blue was now covered by clouds, not all of them dark yet, but more and more formed a thick cover that blocked out the sun.
They entered the hotel, one after the other, but still together as a group.
She walked straight to the elevator, her two companions in her wake, and kept her system’s main menu open, to not waste a second, in case there was a call from Dmitriy.
The elevator came, announced itself with a ping sound, opened and a middle-aged couple in expensive-looking clothes came out. The overweight man looked at her, then sneered. Nadya didn’t react. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have kept silent.
On the way up, the long-awaited call finally came.
“I was right, you have a shadow. He hasn’t entered the hotel yet.”
“Keep me up to date,” she said, her hands shaking.
“Relax.”
He ended the call, and her adrenaline returned to its prior high.
“We knew it would get interesting,” Tanya said. She didn’t seem any less nervous, but she looked stubborn as ever, the line between her eyes deep, and the corners of her mouth turned down. Typical.
Nadya laughed, and the laugh relaxed her a bit. Both Tanya and Pavel looked at her disapprovingly, but spared her the comments.
Their rooms were on the eighth floor, family accommodations connected by doors between the rooms.
When they entered, they left the light switched off. They took cover at positions they had determined earlier for just this case and waited.
She had the main menu open and watched Dmitriy’s messages come in, one after the other.
“Target entering the building.”
“Target in the elevator.”
“Get ready.”
15
Daniel
Daniel walked over from the parking lot at a leisurely pace. He had received the information he needed at the last second, but when he made it to the cathedral, he was still early enough to scout the area and find a good observation spot.
The area was open, but crowded. He would use the people as cover. Someone like him didn’t stand out here.
The church seemed to be a popular tourist trap; the entrance reminded him of a beehive. He would have to keep it under constant observation, or he’d miss the buyers.
“Your ID, please.” The voice belonged to a police officer in black riot armour. Daniel nodded.
“Of course.” He smiled and reached into his pocket for the fake document, while trying to keep calm. He didn’t have time for this, not now. He didn’t have a choice either. Not complying was not an option, Europe had strict laws. Anything more than a surface check would ruin his cover, but a patrolling officer wouldn’t carry specialised scanners around. Not that the cop himself would have posed a threat.
“Here you are, Sir.” He kept his fake smile going as he showed the old-fashioned ID card.
The officer took it, but didn’t look at it. His attention was elsewhere.
“You!” He shouted and walked over to a filthy man in tattered clothing in the parking lot, who was crouching and looking under the parking vehicles. Probably a homeless.
Daniel didn’t believe his ‘luck’. It would have taken the cop one second to look at his ID and hand it back, and now he couldn’t even walk away. He�
�d have to wait until the drama was over.
He noticed the two women enter the church, one tall and blonde, one a little shorter with dark hair. The Russians, he knew. The data from the spy satellite that had recorded the heist had eventually led to their identification. Not that he’d been interested in them personally. His plan was to follow the buyers, whoever they were, and take the AI without causing too much of a ruckus. The Russians were here with four people, attempting to take it from them was a bad idea. Daniel stood at the edge of the parking lot, watching the cop pull out a baton. The homeless seemed to have grasped the situation and looked up with his eyes wide open.
He heard them speak, but couldn’t make out words. The haggard man scrambled to his legs and assumed a helpless posture. He shivered visibly while talking non-stop.
Daniel rammed his hands in his pocket and watched it unfold. Meanwhile, the prime show was already running on a different feed.
The officer made intimidating gestures, and the homeless shrunk more and more. Finally, it looked as though it came to a conclusion, when the cop returned the baton to his belt and the homeless hurried away.
“Those parasites just don’t learn.” The cop grinned without humour in his eyes. Daniel would have loved to wipe that grin off his face, but forced himself to smile in response.
“Here you are. And remember, don’t linger.”
Daniel stuffed the card back in his pocket.
“Thank you, Sir. Have a nice day.”
The cop didn’t give him any more attention and strode over to the church.
How many people had entered the building, and who? Daniel wouldn’t be able to tell, unless he was lucky. He needed to move, though. Having another cop harass him would completely ruin the operation.