The summons had arrived while he’d been passing judgment on the wreckage left behind by a burglary, trashing and torching of a restaurant in Synra Two’s Nalase Entertainment Center. All evidence suggested the perpetrators had managed to torch themselves as well, if the crispy bodies on the sooted floor were any indication. Deep ID scans came back as belonging to a man and woman not affiliated with the restaurant, and all the patrons inside at the time of the crime were accounted for, making the bodies the likeliest suspects.
Neither of the individuals were particularly wealthy, so when they came out the other side of inevitable R&Rs, they’d find themselves indentured for the payment of a hefty bill for a crime they wouldn’t remember committing.
Inside the lobby of Synra Tower, he glared at the security dynes until they cleared him through the checkpoint and repeated the process in the penthouse d-gate room. The Platform’s anteroom passed by him in a blur, then he was through the open doors and at the pedestal facing the Guides.
“Advisor Satair, thank you for taking time away from your many duties to come on such short notice.”
“They are many, and I’ve documented the recent rise in crime rates on Synra. But I always have time to serve the Guides.”
“This is appreciated, particularly since we find ourselves with the unfortunate need to increase those duties further.”
He straightened up taller, interest piqued. “I welcome the challenge. What do you need me to do?”
MIRAI
Blake entered the Mirai Justice Center with the same intensity of motion as he had Synra Tower. Once there, he quickly halted in the middle of the Admin room, aghast at the activity, or lack thereof, proceeding around him. How dare this lackadaisical shit-show call itself a law enforcement operation. Was anyone working?
He loudly cleared his throat, and the heads of every Asterion and dyne swiveled his way. “If anyone here does not know who I am, correct that failing immediately. I want every departmental officer and deputy in Conference Room 1 in ten minutes. Make it happen.”
Then he continued on with his tour of the building, confident that when he arrived at the conference room, it would be full.
“I want patrols doubled in all sectors. Also, set patrol dyne engagement parameters to high. We won’t wait for the crimes-in-progress to come to us. We will be proactive.”
Blake’s gaze traveled down the table to those standing along the walls, for full the conference room was. “Next, I need somebody to tell me what bureaucratic screwup is causing the backlog in processing. Prisoners are stacked three deep in cells, but nobody’s getting tried. Nobody’s getting shipped out to Zaidam to serve their sentences. You and you—” he pointed to two men who had the look of competence about them “—dive into the processing systems and find out what the problem is. I want an answer in three hours. I want it fixed in five. Now we need—”
“Excuse me. What is this?”
He twisted around to see Adlai Weiss standing in the doorway. “This is me doing your job.”
Weiss’ jaw twitched. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“I thought I was crystal clear about my meaning.”
“Can I speak to you in the hall?”
Blake hesitated. Technically, Weiss was still the resident Justice Advisor, though the Guides had strongly implied this wouldn’t be true for much longer. “Nobody leave the room. This won’t take long.”
He followed Weiss into the hall, then waited impatiently while Weiss doubled-back behind him and closed the conference room door before finally facing him.
“If the Guides had fired me, I assume I would know about it. In the absence of such an action, you don’t have the authority to be giving my people orders in my building.”
“Actually, I do. You’re not fired yet, but you might want to start packing up your office. The Guides have lost confidence in you, and I’m frankly not surprised. You’ve always been soft. Now that the job’s gotten hard, you’re not up to the challenge.”
“Satair, you have no idea what’s going on here.”
“And I don’t care. The Guides have asked me to step in and get the situation on Mirai under control while they evaluate your performance and decide your future. I intend to do exactly that.”
Weiss chuckled, which struck Blake as a completely inappropriate response. “So they think this is the way they’ll get around the predicament they’re in? They won’t fire me, they’ll just disarm me until they can devise a better plan.”
“What the hells has happened to you, Weiss? The wheels of Justice have ground to a halt in this building, this city, this planet.”
Weiss huffed a breath. “That was the idea.”
“What?”
Weiss’ expression closed down. “Nothing. Don’t assume I’m going to make this easy. I will fight you. Compared to fighting the Guides, it shouldn’t be too hard. So go on and have your meeting—I’ve got more important things to do right now than break it up—but don’t think for a second this means you’re in charge.”
“I suggest you rethink your approach. Don’t make the mistake of interfering, and stay out of my way.” Blake turned his back on Weiss and returned to the conference room.
21
* * *
MIRAI
ADLAI SHUFFLED QUIETLY into the forensics lab, hardly looking up to check if Erik and Spencer were still there before he collapsed in an empty chair.
“Are you all right, sir?”
“Not particularly. Erik, I want you to test me for the virutox.”
“Sir?”
“You heard me correctly.”
A silence that might have been uncomfortable lingered for several seconds before the analyst responded. “Have you engaged in a deep neural interconnection with anyone lately?”
“Of course not. After seeing what happened to Advisor Rowan, I’m not sure I ever will again. But earlier today I basically told the Guides to go screw themselves—and not merely once in a fit of boiling-over frustration. Several times. Then a few minutes ago I pulled out the knives and dropped my pants for a cock-measuring contest with my professional rival just outside a conference room filled with most of my officers.”
Adlai didn’t miss the worried glance Erik and Spencer exchanged, and he didn’t blame them; he was worried about his sanity, too.
Erik nodded. “Right then. I’ll need to take a flash of your current state.”
“You’re fine. Showing a moderate degree of stress damage from lack of sleep and, well, stress, but otherwise your readings are perfectly normal—for an Advisor. What I mean is, you’re yourself.” Erik cleared his throat. “Sorry, sir. I’m not comfortable analyzing my boss’ psyche.”
“I asked you to analyze it, so don’t worry about it.” The news didn’t bring as much comfort as Adlai had expected. He was relieved, obviously, but in some respects more troubled than before. He was responsible for his own actions, and he was glad for it. But this meant he owned the consequences as well, and that knowledge came with a hefty dose of anxiety.
Spencer moved into his field of vision. “Sir, if I may? It’s starting to resemble the end of the world out there. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary actions. I for one am glad you’re taking some.”
So that would be enough of the self-pity routine. “Thank you. I appreciate the vote of confidence. Erik, tell me you have what you thought you had earlier, when I bolted from the room in a panic.”
“Yes, sir. Truth be told, I’m glad your swift exit gave me time to confirm the results. We’ve got ourselves an honest-to-stars vaccine against the limb augment virutox. Possibly for any similarly designed ones as well.”
Adlai felt a fraction of the crushing weight lift from his shoulders, and hope came up for air in his mind for the first time in days, but he forced himself to remain cautious. “What’s the efficacy look like?”
“Based on the simulations, between eighty-two and ninety-one percent.”
“That’s good. Really good
. What about for someone who’s already been infected?”
Now Erik hedged. “If the vaccine is applied within the first couple of hours, there’s a chance it can halt further damage. A…thirty to thirty-five percent chance. Max.”
“Those odds are far better than zero. All right. There’s no time for clinical trials, so how do we distribute it?”
Spencer’s sigh drew their attention to him. “Distribution isn’t the problem. We can put dynes on every street corner to hand it out. The bigger question is, who’s going to trust us enough to install it? Justice’s reputation at present is, to be blunt, in the gutter with the garbage.”
“Actually, we can’t put dynes on every street corner to hand it out.” Adlai rubbed at his eyes as weariness fought back against the resurgent hope. “While we’re down here in the basement, Advisor Satair is upstairs taking over the building. The Guides aren’t firing me—not yet, not for now—but they sent him in to clean house. To get prisoners moving to Zaidam and patrols filling up the vacated cells.”
Spencer’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Shit. Does he know what he’s sending them off to?”
“Technically, none of us know what he’s sending them off to, but I take your meaning. It’s possible, but I doubt it. A little stroke of his ego by the Guides is all it would have taken for him jump at the chance to put me in a corner. If I thought he’d listen with an iota of an open mind, I’d try telling him what’s going on, because we could use him on our side. But he’s not the listening type.”
“Most of the officers I know with Justice on Synra would agree with your assessment.” Spencer grabbed a chair and slid it over across from Adlai, then sat down. “How do we stop him from undoing everything we’ve done?”
“I can throw some last ditch kinks into the back-end system to slow him down, but they won’t work for long. The truth is, our overarching goals haven’t changed. We have to stop the flow of new arrests, or we’ll be fighting a losing battle. We’ve got to get the vaccine out there and into people’s hands. We can bypass Advisor Satair and the Justice infrastructure by distributing it to repair centers and up-gen clinics and broadcasting a message about the vaccine’s availability across the nex web. The average citizen is still oblivious to all this madness, so we should be able to convince them to take the vaccine.”
“What about everyone else, though? People living off the grid are the ones who are most at risk of contracting the virutox and the least likely to trust us.” Spencer paused, and something flickered across his eyes. But he’d always been reserved and guarded, and Adlai couldn’t decipher his expression. “They do, however, trust NOIR.”
Erik laughed. “Sure, but NOIR doesn’t trust us, either. They’re not going to be inclined to act as our gophers. Also, we have no way to contact them and beg for their help. Which, as previously noted, they’re not going to give.”
Adlai was so caught up noodling over how he could convince Dashiel to convince Nika to trust him enough to get NOIR to give them an assist, he almost missed Spencer standing and pacing deliberately across the lab, then back again. His officer stopped in front of Adlai and lifted his chin, jaw set. “I might be able to help in that regard.”
“What do you mean?”
“With NOIR. I…apologies, sir, but I can contact them. No promises about how they’ll respond, but I can make the request.”
Adlai’s brow furrowed. “How the hells do you know Nika?”
“Nika’s out of the picture for the time being. I meant Jo—wait, are you saying you know Nika? I’m confused.”
“So am I.”
22
* * *
MIRAI
“YOU’RE TELLING ME you’ve been in regular contact with NOIR for the last two years?”
“I wouldn’t call it ‘regular,’ as such. I’ve passed along information from time to time.”
“Classified Justice Division information.”
Spencer fidgeted. “Sometimes. Yes, sir. If you want my resignation, I’m willing to give it before I leave this room. But it’s my hope you’ll allow me to stay on until we’ve eradicated the virutox.”
Adlai rubbed at his face and looked around for an energy drink. They’d taken their conversation to his office on account of its subject matter, and gods but his office was a mess. “Ah, forget it. I can’t exactly condemn you for something I’m guilty of as well.”
Spencer relaxed a little. “I can’t believe Nika used to be an Advisor…no, actually, I kind of can. She’s uniquely talented.”
“Indeed.” He studied Spencer. “Mind if I ask you why?”
“Why have I helped NOIR?”
Adlai nodded.
“Sir, you said it the other day when you first confided in me about the virutox. This business these last few years of defining criminality down while increasing sentences? It’s not what Justice should be about. Our mission is to protect people, to ensure they aren’t wronged unfairly, and when they are to see that they’re made as whole as possible. Often this means incarcerating criminals while helping them become better people.
“But it has never meant inflicting punitive, disproportionate punishment for what’s often little more than a mistake or a harmless prank. Not until now. We’ve lost our bearings, sir. And while I wasn’t in a position to force a course correction from within Justice, I thought I could at least help those who were trying to force one from the outside.”
Adlai sighed. “You’re a wiser man than me, Spencer. I covered my eyes and ears for years to avoid facing what you saw clear as day.”
“No, sir, I’m not. I’m just closer to events on the streets, where the reality was too obvious to ignore.”
“Well—” He cut himself off as a request for entry arrived. An unexpected but not unwelcome one. “We have a visitor, but don’t worry. We can trust her.”
He opened the door to let Maris enter, then watched as she swept into his office with the flair and grace of a dancer. “Adlai, why—” she took notice of Spencer “—I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?”
“In a good way. This is my chief deputy, Spencer Nimoet. Spencer, meet Maris Debray, one of our Culture Advisors.”
Spencer looked as if he’d been struck by a stun pulse. “I…it’s a pleasure to meet you, Advisor Debray.”
“Please, call me Maris. ‘Advisor Debray’ is so stuffy.” She shuddered visibly, then offered Spencer a manicured hand in greeting.
He stared at it for a second, eyes wide, before accepting it like it was a priceless kyoseil sculpture.
Adlai swallowed a groan. “What can I do for you? We are sort of busy trying to find our way out of a nasty snare.”
She politely withdrew her hand from Spencer’s grasp and turned her attention to him. “Another one? I heard you gave the Guides quite a piece of your mind earlier today.”
“How could you have possibly heard that? I was the only one there.”
“When will you learn, Adlai? I hear everything. Such as how as a result of your possibly ill-advised tantrum on the Platform, Blake Satair has been sent in to nudge you out of the way.”
“Or to kick my ass to the curb, raise his flag over the building and steal all the people in it. Except for Spencer here and Erik Rhom down in the forensics lab.”
“So like Blake. Always a colossal ass, and not a subtle bone in his manufactured body. What are you doing to get around him?”
“That’s part of what we were discussing. We’ve developed a vaccine for the virutox, but with Satair taking over the operation here and wielding the authority of the Guides, we don’t have an easy way to distribute it.”
“Complicated by the fact that no one trusts Justice any longer.”
“Yes, complicated by that fact. We were discussing reaching out to NOIR for help.”
“To Nika?”
Off to the side, Spencer’s face lit up, though Adlai took more note of the hope and excitement in Maris’ voice. “I’m afraid not. Nika continues to be off the radar chasing down our larger pro
blem.”
“With Dashiel, yes? He is still with her?”
“I assume so. I’m not their favorite person at present. No, it turns out Spencer here knows Nika’s lieutenants in NOIR.”
“You do?” She let ‘do’ roll long and slow off her tongue as she considered Spencer with new curiosity. “How very rebellious of you.”
“Ah, yes, ma’am. I mean, no. I’m not a rebel. I’m a Justice officer. It’s more that…I suppose you could say I’m sympathetic to their cause.”
“Yes, let’s say that. I, too, have recently become sympathetic to their cause, so we share a common interest.”
Adlai stood and pushed his chair back from the desk. “We all do, but the clock is ticking for us to do something about it.”
It was with greater reluctance this time that Maris again focused on him. “Which happens to be why I’m here. I wanted to see how I could help, and now I know. Give me a batch of the vaccine weaves.”
“Why?”
“NOIR can get the vaccine to those off the grid and in the shadows—I assume this is why you need their assistance. But what about all those who don’t trust NOIR and don’t trust Justice? I can’t reach all of them, but I can reach a certain stratum. I’ll give the weaves out at gallery showcases, cocktail parties and art workshops as party favors. A whisper in the right ear about how one doesn’t want to get infected by the nasty virutox that’s risen up out of the slums to target innocent people like poor, poor Iona, and people will be clamoring for it.”
“Except it didn’t rise up out of the slums—it sank down from the Guides.”
“Oh, Adlai, your honorable streak is so endearing. Truly. Honesty is a worthwhile ethos to strive for. You know I agree with you on this. But right now, do you want people rioting in the streets, or do you want them inoculated?”
He took a minute to confirm her logic was technically sound, rather than merely seeming so due to the dulcet, hypnotic manner in which her voice delivered it to his weary analytical processes.
Asterion Noir: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 4) Page 42