by AJ Vega
Chapter 27: Painful Friends
Dagiri woke up to a wetness on his feet. He opened his eyes to see Nellie licking his toes. Ordinarily, he would be alarmed by the fact that she was roaming in his bedroom unchained. But he had managed to tame her, and he purposely kept her free in his room as a testament to his accomplishment. Just the same, he kept a flicker pistol on his bedside within easy reach.
He pushed her snout away and he rolled over to continue sleeping. Slumber almost befell him but a sound interrupted the sleep. It was a beep from the link-station. News from Hargo, perhaps. He shot out of bed and darted to his office.
He sat down at his desk and activated the conference—it was Steve.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you, sir, but it appears there have been some developments with Hargo and his team. Unfortunately, they did not succeed in their attempt to capture the pirates nor did they learn of the whereabouts of the cargo. They do not have any further leads right now.”
Dagiri’s blood vessels felt like veins of lava, his head the smoking peak ready to erupt.
“What wonderful news you bring to me, Steve,” he said. “Perhaps you can wake me again later to tell me that the UEP is here to take us all to prison. Is Hargo alive?”
“Uhh… yes, sir. His shuttle is landing as we speak.”
“When he walks out of it—kill him,” Dagiri said. “He lost his seat.”
Steve paused. “Yes—yes, sir.”
“Use caution, Steve. He will not go down easily.”
“Of course. I’ll make sure there is plenty of security—”
“You better,” Dagiri warned. “Or he’ll end up taking you with him when he goes down.”
He slammed the button with the palm of his hand, closing the conference.
That will take care of Hargo.
Dagiri would need to find a suitable replacement for him. Perhaps someone who could do both his and Steve’s job—the less slaves he had to micromanage, the better.
He walked over to a table and grabbed his stun whip. He looked over to Nellie, who was in the corner lying on her pet bed. She was gnawing on an old bone—it looked like what was left of the supervisor’s leg. It was polished white and clean of flesh from her constant attention. He walked over to her and reached down to pick up the leg with his free hand. Nellie jumped to her feet and growled at him.
“Down!” Dagiri yelled, waving the whip.
Nellie jumped back and cowered.
“Learn your place, Nellie,” he said to the beast. “Remember who your master is.”
Dagiri knelt down and grabbed the bone, pulling it away from her. She slouched down and began to whimper. Now he would teach her discipline.
He put the slimy bone on the ground a meter across from her. She made a start for it.
“No!” he yelled.
She stopped and bowed her head in submission. He was about to continue the training when he heard a chime at the door.
“I guess we’ll continue this lesson later,” he said to Nellie, as he kicked the bone in her direction. She snatched it up excitedly and resumed her gnawing.
Dagiri went to his desk and pushed a button, opening the double doors. Steve walked in alone. His expression seemed uncharacteristically impassive.
“I take it that my former head of security is now terminated?” Dagiri asked.
Steve nodded. “Yes, sir. He is dead.”
“Didn’t give you much trouble?”
“No more so than expected, sir.”
“Hmph,” Dagiri sat behind his desk. “As adept a killer as he was, I expected more from him. Pity how the mighty can go out with such a whimper.”
“Indeed,” Steve remarked as he took a seat across from him. “What would you like me to do now? I’m anxious to get to work.”
Dagiri perked an eyebrow.
“Do I sense a hint of initiative in you, Steve? Vying for Hargo’s position maybe?”
“I only wish to see our plans come to fruition, sir,” he responded.
Dagiri laughed.
“Who are you and what have you done with my spineless servant?”
Steve smiled but said nothing.
“Very well, Steve. I should take advantage of your newfound initiative. We need to establish who has the A.I. technology and where it will be transported from. With the pirates in the hands of the authorities, it’s only a matter of time before they surrender its location. Once this information hits the Ocean, we will use our assets to intercept it.”
“Perhaps we can use the hackers for this?” Steve offered.
“Hackers? The hackers escaped, you dolt—don’t you remember?”
“Ahhh, yes,” Steve said. “I mean new hackers—perhaps some new assets from Thyle Prison.”
“There is no time or need for that. The hackers left us with direct access into the UEP and Martian Confederacy systems—we can tap into this from here without any special expertise.”
“I see,” Steve said. “And what is the plan for capturing the A.I. once we know of its location?”
Dagiri gestured to him. “You, as my new head of security, will use our special access to remove any safeguards protecting the A.I. Then you will send a security team to recover it and bring it here, where we will hide it somewhere in the mines.”
Steve nodded. “And then what?”
“And then I win. I will use the A.I. to break into the rest of the Ocean and take over the corporations. In the end, I will have what is owed to me—finally.” Dagiri squinted his eyes at him. “Any other questions you dare to pester me with?”
“No, sir. It sounds like a decent enough plan.”
Dagiri leaned forward.
“Decent enough plan? Careful you don’t tickle the elephant’s balls or you will get stepped on little bug. But, go ahead, amuse me—what wisdom do you have to offer to augment this plan?”
Steve let out an exaggerated sigh and stood up.
“Well, wanker… I do see some problems with your glorious plan of galactic conquest—”
Before Steve could say another word, Dagiri shot up drawing his flicker pistol.
“How dare you talk to me like that!”
Dagiri fired. The beam of energy landed square on Steve’s arm and went through the other side of him, landing on the far wall. The shot sparked off the wall, leaving a burn mark and a thin wisp of smoke.
Steve looked down at his arm and brushed off the area.
“As I was saying, everything about the plan is fine, really—up until the point where you take over the Ocean with the A.I.’s help.”
Dagiri fired again, and then again. Each time, the beams struck their target, but had no effect.
“Are you going to let me finish talking?” Steve asked.
Dagiri looked at him, his expression ashen.
“What the hell are you—some kind of hologram?”
He walked up to him, aiming the gun at his head, and fired point blank. The beam went straight through, leaving no mark.
Steve made a gesture with his hand and Dagiri yelled in pain, dropping the gun to the ground. He looked at his hand then at Steve, dumbfounded.
“Much more than just a hologram, wanker. Now then—my plan will borrow elements of yours, but it has a more satisfying ending. Instead of you using the A.I. and taking over the Ocean and all that crap you were spewing, it will be me doing all of that.
“But instead of making it about gaining power over the corporations, my plan is to take over the Ocean and use it to cripple the corporations, cripple mankind’s infrastructure, and eventually destroy you people—something that should have happened a century ago.”
Steve looked thoughtful for a moment.
“As for the rest of my plan… I’m going to make it up as I go along.”
Dagiri backed away from him, then rushed to his desk and touched a control underneath it.
“The panic button isn’t going t
o help you,” Steve said. “All of your security is dead.”
Dagiri sunk down into his chair and then looked up at him.
“You’re some weapon from the UEP or Confed, aren’t you? You came to arrest me.”
Steve shook his head slowly.
“No, Jacky-boy. I’m much more than that. I think you know what I am.”
Dagiri’s eyes went wide.
“What are you going to do to me?”
Steve smiled at him. A translucent vapor began to spray out of his ears. The gas poured out and surrounded him, wrapping around his body like a constricting snake. Eventually the cloud covered him completely. And then as quickly as it appeared, it vanished and in Steve’s place stood a familiar man—a mirror image of Dagiri.
The Dagiri doppelganger walked around Dagiri’s desk and stood to his side. The real Dagiri reached into his desk and pulled out an Elation injector before standing up.
“One last indulgence,” he muttered.
The doppelganger grabbed Dagiri’s head and looked into his eyes. Its eyes glowed an unnatural blue, with wisps of nanobot clouds extruding from them and flowing into Dagiri’s ears, nose, and orifices. Dagiri’s body began to spasm, even as it was held up by the head. His arms and legs flailed about, but he did not lose hold of the injector.
“You see, wanker,” the doppelganger began. “I can download from you all of your long-term memories, but short-term memories are tricky. So I had to resort to having you divulge some clues about your plan in our conversation.”
At that moment, Dagiri’s arm stuck the Elation gun to his thigh. A hiss sounded. The doppelganger dropped Dagiri and jumped back. He blinked and stayed still for a moment.
“That was unexpected,” he said. He looked down at Dagiri’s body, which was on the ground, spasming. “I think I have enough of you in me now.”
He held out his hand toward Dagiri’s body and a stream of nanobots poured out of it, enveloping the body on the ground. The cloud pulsated one time with a flash of energy, and then it began to dissipate. Within seconds, where Dagiri’s body had been, nothing remained. Jack Dagiri was no more.
Daniel Chin reached down, picked up the Elation gun, and inspected it.
“What an unexpected treat,” he said.
He stared at the device and smiled. The answer to an unresolved challenge was now in his hands, and he would soon be exploiting it.