If you needed to run a search on a server, you’d end up having to wait for the search to run. This is no different. What do you do when you’re waiting for searches to return results?
You don’t want to know.
You’re right, I don’t, Ms. 4077.
Shut up, you half-witted data string.
Name calling now? My, my!
Molly ignored Oz’s last jibe. Telling him “you started it” wasn’t on the table.
She continued with Garet. “Okay, so she had access to this special server. Where did you come into the picture?”
“Well, one night we were lying in bed talking about our day and Paige happened to mention that this server existed.” Garet leaned back in his chair a bit, “I had been struggling to impress Dewitt for some time, and I figured if I was more in the know, I could be more useful.” He looked up at Molly.
“So you arranged to take a peek at the servers?” Molly intuited.
Garet nodded, “Right. It was to help. I wasn’t spying. But when I found the evidence of the vote-fixing in order to get certain bills passed, I had to rethink what I was going to do. I mean, they probably knew I knew, but I’d not taken a copy of anything. That was two weeks ago. It wasn’t until I asked Paige to take a copy of the file that the shit really hit the fan and those guys started coming after me. Before I knew it, I was on the run. But when I spoke to Paige earlier this morning, everything was fine at her end, as if Dewitt had no idea she’d been involved.
Garet paused a moment before asking hesitantly, “How is that possible? It’s not possible, is it?”
Molly glanced down at the table, and sensed Joel turning around. Feeling his gaze, she looked up to meet his eyes. She knew that look.
From his experience, he would guess that Paige was probably already dead or someone had killing her on their to-do list.
“Okay, so here’s the problem as I see it…” Molly began, unofficially starting a meeting that needed to happen.
Joel took the cue, and abandoned what was left of the dishes to take a seat at the table as well.
She continued when he sat down. “First we need to figure out a way to get hold of Paige. She’s compromised. There’s no way that they don’t know about her involvement. Then, longer term, we need a way to make it safe for Garet to go back to his life, or something close to it.” She paused to think, then continued.
“Stopping Dewitt from wanting Garet and Paige out of the picture isn’t going to be possible while he still has something to lose if they expose him. So we need to find a way of taking away any reason to care about what they do, or make it so that even if this intel did get out, it wouldn’t make any difference. We need to neutralize the threat that Garet poses, in other words.”
Joel scratched at the back of his head. “While I don’t know much about politics. It’s never been a world that I understood, but what we’d do in a military scenario is isolate the threat from his resources: lights, comms, weaponry, food, shelter, and so on.”
Molly picked up the thought-baton, “Yes, that would be applicable here. Except we need to go after the resources that make him powerful—allies, friends, and political relationships that he’s leaning on to get away with something like this. Then we take away the reason he wants our guys dead, so there’s no point in him pursuing Garet and Paige.”
“I wonder…” she continued again. “Why do we think Dewitt was keeping a file that was clearly a danger to him if it got out? Why not just destroy it? Why put it on a server where hackers and prying eyes could find it?”
Joel answered. “My guess was that it was some kind of protection against whoever else was involved. Garet, what do you remember about these donors? Do you have any names?”
“Sure, I have a bunch of files on a data tag in my briefcase. There were lots of people on there I know, and know of. They’re pretty prominent figures. Let me see, there was Mac Kerr, Luc Andus, Jessica Newld…”
“Mac Kerr and Luc Andus. Could this be the Syndicate?” Joel wondered, half to himself and half to Molly.
“The Syndicate? That rings a bell. I’m sure I’ve heard Paige mention a syndicate before. Does that mean something?”
Joel’s eyes turned a little more serious than they had been. “Yes, it means helping you just got a whole lot harder,” he confessed.
This wasn’t going to be just another easy job.
“But it also gives us a target,” added Molly. “Those resources we need to separate Dewitt from? The Syndicate would be the top of that list. Without them, he likely has very little power, and also very little incentive to silence you. And if we turn him against them, they’ll likely do what they need to do to take care of him without us lifting a finger. Honor among thieves and all that,” she said as her eyes unfocused in thought.
“Okay, so how are we going to go about separating him from the group, then?” Joel looked skeptical, but after seeing Molly in action—and her saving his life and all—he was on board with whatever needed to be done.
“I’m not sure yet, but if Paige is still alive she would be the best person to speak to. I think it’s time we let her know you’re okay.” she said, turning to a very distressed Garet.
“Do we try calling her?” asked Joel.
“Yes, maybe from another number, so as not to tip them off that Garet is still alive and in touch with her.”
Chapter 11
L’Ogg Restaurant, Downtown Spire
“You should be supporting this motion. We’re making healthcare available for all.” Dewitt popped another forkful of food into his mouth, casually chatting with the head of the biggest publicly owned institution in his sector.
All around, Sarkians were eating and talking; the buzz of the restaurant and the clatter of utensils were making it difficult for the pair to really hear each other well. At least this resolves the issue of having our conversation bugged, thought Dewitt to himself, pleased at his own cleverness.
“Yes, but have you read the small print in the second half of the bill? Where it says that it then becomes illegal to not have it?” Dewitt’s lunch companion was much smarter than Dewitt had originally given him credit for.
This wasn’t the first time Dicken O’Farus had tried to block a piece of legislation that Dewitt wanted pushed through. The man had been a thorn in his side for a while now, long before he ever took the CEO position at Medifair. But now, with the weight of the organization behind him, Dicken’s opinion mattered. And it mattered in the Senate.
Dewitt needed him on his side.
“No, I haven’t read it. I wrote it.” He placed his knife and fork down on his plate, and took a sip of water.
Dicken pointed his knife at Dewitt before he used it to cut a piece of his meat. “Well, then you know that the aim of this bill isn’t simply to provide care to people who need it, but to make drug companies rich. Once this is passed, there is nothing to stop the companies from hiking up their prices. And, because the insurance policies pay for it in the short term, they won’t lose a cent. In fact, they’ll make a fortune. But the insurance companies won’t stand for that—they’ll be jacking up their prices in no time. With the whole population on the inner planets locked into the system and penalized if they have no healthcare, they’ll have no choice other than to pay up.”
Now Dicken used his knife as a pointer, twirling it around in the air as he tried to come up with his next statement. “It’s like a tyrannical tax, except the monarch who benefits from it doesn’t sit at the head of the Senate. The monarch is Andus.”
“Well, you’ve got an imagination. What makes you think that anyone is planning to increase their prices, Dicken?” Dewitt smirked, trying to contain his frustration.
“Word on the street is that this is exactly what Health Corp was trying to do, before they got hacked and had half their stock dumped on the market.” O’Farus’ eyebrows were raised, as if accusing Dewitt personally.
Dewitt ignored the bait.
“Who said they got hacked?” he retorted instead.
“Why else would they hike up their prices, only to ditch their stock in one go and plummet their share price? It’s got to have been one of their competitors.” O’Farus was onto him. He knew something he wasn’t revealing. Dewitt was going to have to come at this from another way.
This lunch date was a bust.
Shit, he thought. This was the last thing he needed.
“Besides,” continued O’Farus, “what’s to stop any of them from increasing their prices?”
“Well, anyone who did that would be pricing themselves out of the market.” Dewitt deliberately acted naïve to see if he could turn it around.
“Not if they all did it.” O’Farus held Dewitt’s gaze.
Sooner or later, this Medifair thing was going to have to be handled. It was like having a white knight defending the castle Dewitt needed to get into.
“That, my dear friend, would be price-fixing. That’s illegal.” Dewitt tried once more to run the official logic that seemed to have been working with the Senate members the last few weeks, on the rare occasion any of them had actually read the bill.
“Until they lobby to change the laws around that, too.” O’Farus was onto them. There was no hiding it.
Shit, what the hell else could possibly go wrong? Dewitt wondered.
Safe house, fifty kilometers west of Uptarlung
I suggest Joel makes the call. They may recognize Garet’s voice, if they are monitoring her calls.
Good thinking, Oz.
“Guys, Oz suggested that Joel make the call.”
Joel nodded his agreement and pulled up his holo. Oz input the number and dropped the jamming signal.
Encrypting and cloaking. This call will be 99% untraceable.
“Okay, so Oz is cloaking the origin of the call. You know what you’re going to say, Joel? Just like we planned, yeah?”
“Yeah, I think I’ve got it.” Joel swiped through the notes they’d been making on the kitchen holoscreen as he hit dial and waited for the call to connect.
“Hello?” it was Paige’s voice.
Want me to put the call on speaker?
No, we don’t want Garet being too close to this. Leave it with Joel’s implant.
Roger that.
“Hi, Paige? Paige Montgomery?” Joel had his negotiator’s voice on. Firm and confident, but pleasant.
“Yes?”
“Hi, this is Dave. Our mutual friend has put us in touch…about the property viewing?”
How are we going with that cover story, Oz?
Nearly there. Implanted the search onto her personal holo and some message exchanges onto her personal accounts. Anyone checking up on her will see evidence of her lease being nearly up and her searching for a new apartment.
Great job.
Paige was ”umming” on the other end of the call. She clearly didn’t know what was going on, but had twigged that this was probably about Garet.
“Okay. So which mutual friend is this?”
Joel ignored the question, and continued with the script, knowing she’d get the message. “He says you’ve been worried about him, but that he’s fine. He’d like for you to take a look at this new apartment. Would you be okay to meet after work tonight?”
“Yes, yes, I can do that.” She hesitated slightly, no doubt wondering about her personal safety.
“We should meet somewhere like a bar, so you feel safe,” he continued. His voice was calm, balanced and soothing.
Molly was enjoying watching him handle the call. She wondered if his skill was a result of all those hostage negotiations and other badass shit he used to do when he was in the service. This wasn’t a part of his work that she had had the opportunity to see.
“May I suggest the Blue Rising Bar, a few blocks from your place of work?” Joel continued.
“Erm…yes. Sure. Hang on, you know where I work?”
“Yes, our friend told me so I can help you out.” Joel wasn’t fazed at all.
“Okay, fine. Say six o’clock?” she offered.
“Yes, great. I’ll see you then.” Joel clicked off, not wanting to get into any further conversation. They’d already agreed it would be Molly doing the meet and greet.
“That went well.” Molly confirmed, mostly for Garet’s benefit.
Garet started pacing again, having stood quietly captivated during the phone call. “She sounded okay, didn’t she? She didn’t sound like she was in trouble or anxious…”
“She sounded just fine,” Joel reassured him.
“It’s just…I don’t want to put her in danger by bringing her into this. Someone could be following her to see if she makes contact with me.”
Joel was about to interject and reassure him some more, but Molly couldn’t keep her mouth shut and turned to their client.
“Look Garet, she’s already involved. She’s already in danger. You saw to that when you asked her to give you access to the super-secret server. This is us working to get the intel we need to get you both out of danger. It’s the only way forward. And for all we know, they may already be onto her. In which case, having us looking out for her and involved in this op is the best protection she can get herself. Do you understand?”
Garet nodded.
Joel glanced at Molly a little uncomfortably. It was clear he disapproved of her directness with the guy who had come to them for help. At the same time, he couldn’t argue with her logic.
“Garet, we’re going to do everything we can to keep her safe.” Joel put a hand on his shoulder, and pulled out a chair for him at the table. Then, to Molly, he said, “Garet and I should have a chat about what this looks like, and settle his extraction bill.”
Molly took that as a clear sign that she was no longer needed, and realized too late she should have said something pleasant to Garet. Unfortunately nothing came to mind, so she left to go to her room to get some work done before she needed to get over to the bar in Spire.
She seriously needed to enhance her ability to connect with people. But dammit, sometimes they made a hash out of getting from problem to solution in the most efficient method possible. And that annoyed the ever loving hell out of her.
If efficiency had a middle name, she figured it wasn’t Molly, but if it had a second middle name, that might be her.
Chapter 12
A few hours later Molly emerged from her isolation tomb, dressed and wanting to refuel the car in preparation for her next drive to Spire. Bustling into the kitchen, she found Joel preparing food in the bowl that had been unofficially designated for the sphinx.
She raised an eyebrow, “So, we own a cat now?”
Joel spun around, as if caught red-handed. “Uhhhh, yeeeesssss.”
Molly cocked her head, about to mock him for his sudden attachment to a potential security threat. Realizing what he’d just said, she wanted clarification.
“We do?”
“Yeah, well, apparently, it doesn’t belong to anyone, and the landlady’s been worried about it not being looked after. She said that if it keeps coming back and wants to go with us when we leave, we’re welcome to it. She warned me that it’s never really stuck around in the past, but then, these sphinxes have a tendency to choose their owners.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Oh, joy,” she said as she grabbed a glass of water.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Joel had stopped what he was doing and was looking at her in concern, as if he’d missed a major operational detail.
“Nothing.” Molly resisted the urge to screw up her nose.
“No, come on. There’s something. I thought everybody liked these purry creatures as pets. And in fact, you were the first one to feed it.”
“Feeding a starving animal is not the same as wanting to adopt one into the family…” Molly blurted out, then regretted the comment.
I don’t see what the problem is.
No one asked you, logic pu
zzle!
She took a deep breath. “Okay, these things, they’re the equivalent of the cat in this system. And everyone knows the situation with cats.” She told him.
Joel looked lost.
She looked at her friend, “Seriously?” She took a moment to collect her thoughts and then explained. “A human is a slave to a cat. No one ever owns a cat. A cat owns a human. That’s just the way it is.”
Now it was Joel’s turn to cock his head, waiting for more detail.
“You’ll see!” Molly landed the comment with humor, and though Joel was captivated by the prospect of having a pet join their team, he wondered if her words were in fact laden with prophecy. He hated the idea that maybe she was going to be right.
He set the food carefully down on the floor in front of the waiting sphinx, and noticed how he suddenly felt like a server at a restaurant delivering food to a waiting patron.
Damn, she was right!
She flipped a hand out. “Anyway, whatever. If you want to keep it that’s fine with me, as long as I don’t end up having to take care of it.” She glanced at the sphinx before opening the fridge to find a quick bite of food before she had to fly.
“Why do I have a feeling you’re going to be right about this?” Joel asked, suddenly concerned he’d landed himself in something that he couldn’t back out of.
“I’m right about most things, you know.” Molly grabbed a couple of things, closed the fridge door and smiled at him.
Well, actually…
Shush, Oz!
Molly shifted into business mode. “Hey, while I have you, can we talk about our next steps?” Joel could tell that she processed information differently when she was thinking about operations and techie stuff. Her face was just…different, and she felt more serious and distant.
“Not a problem.” He folded a tea towel and laid it on the counter top, then leaned on it with his arms crossed to give her his full attention.
She grabbed utensils. “Okay, as you know, Oz has been looking into the process of buying a ship for off-world. But we need a legal entity to take possession of it once we find one. And that’s going to take about fourteen days to set up and verify through the various channels.”
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 11