Enlightened Ignorance

by Michael Anderle

  Erik’s face contorted in a feral grin. “Good. This is even better.” He clenched and unclenched his fists several times.

  Some of the confidence left Emma’s voice. “My understanding of human psychology has advanced considerably since I met you, but I must admit, I don’t understand why you’re so eager in this particular case.”

  “Someone good enough to do what you described is likely to be involved with the conspiracy.” Erik ground his teeth. “But if I kill them, I might lose the trail.” He shrugged. “No big deal. Time for some knee-capping. They will tell me everything they know.”

  Emma laughed. “How pragmatic. Shall I contact the station and request backup?”

  “No. If this is the conspiracy, I don’t want the NSCPD involved. The conspiracy might have influence, and even if they don’t, the NSCPD might lock this guy up somewhere I can’t get to him.” Erik reached under his jacket but stopped short of pulling out his gun. The hall cameras might flag it, and then he’d have to explain why he’d needed his weapon to enter his own apartment. “Do you still otherwise have control of the apartment systems?”

  “Yes. It’s only the camera feeds and certain internal sensors I believe are compromised. Whoever is doing this understands the power of subtlety, and I appreciate that. It’s a lost art among many hackers.”

  Erik moved closer to the door. His true revenge might begin behind it. “Can you activate the fire suppression system without alerting the rest of the building?”

  “Easily,” Emma replied.

  “Here’s the plan. Start rapid-cycling the lights on and off, then activate the fire suppression systems in all the rooms. Give it four seconds, then open the door and kill the fire suppression. Once I’m inside, seal this place up. I know the walls won’t block the gunshot sounds completely, but they might do it well enough to keep someone from realizing what’s going on.” Erik gripped his pistol and took a deep breath. Someone on the other side thought they were going to kill him, but they didn’t realize they were now the prey.

  “Initiating plan, Detective. May the formless female personification of probability be with you. Opening the door in four seconds, three seconds, two seconds, one second, now.”

  The door slid open. Erik charged into his living room and drew his pistol. A fine white powder covered the entire room and its contents. If there had actually been a fire, it would have been thoroughly smothered. Emma closed the door behind him.

  He kept his finger near the trigger, sweeping back and forth with the gun. Footprints disturbed the fine layer of powder beside the couch. Someone cast a long shadow from behind it as well. Erik pointed his gun at the couch. He liked it, but he would sacrifice it if he had to. A couch was a cheap price to pay for his revenge.

  “Nice tricks,” Erik announced. “To even get in here is pretty impressive, but I knew you were in here, and as you just saw, I got the drop on you. I’ve got my gun out, and I’m a great shot. I’ve got every reason in the world to shoot. I don’t know who you work for, or if you even know why you’re here, but I’m assuming you’re here to kill me, and that kind of ruins my night. So, if you want to keep breathing, you’re going to stand up very damned slowly, turn around, and place your hands on your head. You do anything stupid, I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

  “You’re pretty confident,” came a gruff, deep reply from behind the couch. Erik didn’t recognize the man’s voice, not that he expected to.

  “It’s hard not to be confident when you’ve got the advantage. The smarter move would have been to shoot me when I was getting out of my flitter, or anywhere except going after me in my own apartment. You’re the one being overconfident.”

  The man gave a low, rumbling chuckle. “Bullets always leave a trail, and there was a greater risk of alerting someone if I tried to hack the systems in a more public area. I knew given your paranoia, you had probably separated your apartment systems from the rest of the building, which means I could more easily prep the battlefield without public exposure. You probably had your pet AI do it for you.”

  Erik grunted. “So, you know about Emma? That’s all the more reason for me to take you out. Stand up before my finger gets twitchy and I start shooting anyway.”

  “What if I told you I won’t kill you if you drop your gun right now?” the man asked, a faint hint of mockery in his voice.

  “I’d say you should worry more about yourself.”

  “Your hubris will cost you. Achilles thought he couldn’t be killed, but an inferior man defeated him because of what appeared to be a minor weakness. Sometimes the greatest warrior is felled by something he could not anticipate.”

  “A rather educated gun goblin, isn’t he?” Emma commented. “It’s a nice change of pace.”

  Erik scoffed. “Yeah. Get up. We’re going to have a long talk about a lot of things. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to go to prison. If you’re unlucky, it’s going to be a lot longer little chat, and you’ll end up with a bullet in your brain.”

  “I make my own luck,” the man replied.

  A small white sphere flew from behind the couch, and Erik snapped his eyes shut as the bright flash erupted. He held his eyes closed for half a second before opening them, but it was too late. A huge man with crooked teeth and a crazed look in his dark eyes popped up from behind the couch. He threw a knife and spun to the side. The swift movement saved the man when Erik pulled the trigger. The bullet missed him by centimeters.

  The knife hit Erik’s hand, and he hissed in pain, dropping his pistol. His uninvited guest leapt over the couch, another knife at the ready, and jabbed toward Erik’s head. He brought up his left arm and deflected. It sank into his flesh before bouncing off the cybernetic arm underneath.

  “You should have shot me when you had the chance,” Erik taunted.

  “I could say the same to you.”

  The assassin swung again. Erik dodged. His enemy’s size belied his speed and dexterity. The man’s dark clothing completely covered his limbs. There was no way to see if he had cybernetic limbs, but the speed for the size supported the theory.

  “A Tin Man, huh?” Erik snarled. “Did they tell you back at Talos headquarters I’ve killed a bunch of you already? I’ve got hardware myself.” He threw a punch. His opponent jerked his head to the side rather than take the blow.

  The other man grinned. “Your legend ends here, Achilles. Drown in your hubris.”

  They traded a few more blows. Blocking a knife with his left arm wasn’t painless and splattered blood on the floor. Given the way the assassin kept dancing out of his reach, one good hit would probably be enough to down the man. He must have lacked hardware in his head.

  “People tried to kill me on Molino,” Erik snapped. He threw an elbow this time. The change in strategy caught the assassin by surprise, and Erik landed a solid hit to the chest. The assassin grunted and stumbled back but ducked his opponent’s follow-up punch before stabbing at his chest. Erik grabbed the man’s wrist and brought up his knee. The man dropped the knife into his other hand and tried to stab Erik, but his knee hit the assassin’s face first. The assassin’s head snapped back, and he grunted and fell back onto his rear and hands. He looked at Erik with a smirk, blood dripping from his nose and a cut on his mouth.

  Erik leaned over and grabbed the knife. “This is a lot quieter than a gun. The thing is, I don’t want to make a bigger bloody mess than I have to. The suppression system cleanup chemicals can handle the powder, but cleanup nanites are noisy. I’m tired, and I’m drunk. I’m supposed to be in bed, not kicking random assassin ass.”

  The man wiped blood from his nose and mouth. “If you’re this good when you’re drunk, I’d hate to fight you hand-to-hand when you’re sober. Under most circumstances, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to try to stab you.”

  “Oh? How would you kill me?”

  “I’d shoot you from a kilometer away with a sniper rifle,” the assassin suggested. “Explosive drones wouldn’t work because of the AI.”

/>   Erik almost turned his head toward the windows but didn’t. He kept his attention on the assassin. “Emma, are the windows still blacked out like I left them?”

  “Yes, Detective,” the AI responded.

  The assassin clucked his tongue. “I was almost certain you would look. It was worth a shot.”

  “Even ignoring Molino, someone tried to assassinate me using a terrorist group.” Erik grinned. “It’s taught me to be careful.” His smile disappeared, and he glared at the assassin. “I can’t die yet, not until I figure out a few things and kill a few people.” He pointed the knife at the assassin. “And you just volunteered to tell me what you know. I don’t care about you. I want who hired you.”

  The assassin laughed. “Forget Achilles, you’re carving your own legend. You’re in luck, Detective Blackwell. I’m more than willing to talk to you. This whole thing was a test. I needed to make sure of a few things.”

  Erik snorted. “Just because you’re not a mindless thug doesn’t mean you can fool me. Don’t think I’m willing to let you walk out of here. This isn’t any mutual respect garbage. You’re going to tell me everything you know.”

  The assassin shrugged. “Fool you? I already did.” His form shimmered for a moment, and the huge man was replaced by a tall, attractive woman with her cyan hair in a ponytail. She wore a skintight black bodysuit and a dark belt covered in small pouches. A thin layer of white suppressant coated most of the suit and her hair. Erik had just realized the man’s form hadn’t had any suppressant on it.

  The woman grinned and stood. Although she wasn’t as bulky as her holographic disguise, she was only a few centimeters shorter. A few more drops of blood dripped out of her nose. She reached up and winced. “It’s been a long time since someone’s gotten that good a hit on me. Congratulations, Detective.”

  “That explains a lot.” Erik tossed the knife to the side. “That’s a hell of a way to say hello, Agent Koval.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Alina walked over to the corner of the room, where she knelt and picked up a small gray rod. Erik didn’t recognize the device, and he wouldn’t have noticed it in the shadows if she hadn’t drawn attention to it.

  “What’s that?” Erik asked. “A ghost bomb?”

  “No. Bombs are sloppy. I don’t like to use them personally. They lead to too much collateral damage.” She set the rod on a nearby table. “The active holographic camouflage works wonders, just like you saw. Prototype tech. It’s not great for field use because it requires active emitters, but I figured I’d be proactive and test it under battle conditions. If it was purely suit-dependent, your little firefighting trick might have worked better. That was good thinking. I was interested to see how you would counter.”

  “I mostly just wanted to surprise you.” Erik leaned over and picked up his gun. He pointed it at her. “Now, tell me why the Intelligence Directorate wants me dead.”

  Alina laughed. She didn’t react to the gun trained on her. She walked over and picked up another tiny emitter. “No, if the ID wanted you dead, you’d probably be dead. Like I said, sniper or bomb or sabotage of your flitter. Something that looks like an accident would be best. It leads to fewer questions, but unless you’re secretly a terrorist or working for some organization like Talos, there’s no reason for us to come after you. If you don’t believe me, keep in mind I had numerous opportunities to kill you during the Scar raid, and I didn’t take them. It would have been trivial to make you disappear and let some yaoguai have you for dinner.”

  Erik holstered his pistol. “Fine, you’re not here to kill me. You are just here to stab me a bunch of times.” He reached into a pocket, pulled out a med patch, and slapped it on his left arm. “This is mostly metal, but the top part still hurts. I’m not too fond of people breaking into my apartment and trying to stab me, even if they are government agents.”

  “That’s the other thing.” Alina dropped onto the couch and crossed her legs. She reached into one of the pouches and pulled out a small med patch. After placing it over her nose, she smiled. “You gave as good as you got. Besides, here’s a pro tip. One of the worst places you can attempt to assassinate someone is on their home turf. Sometimes there’s no choice, but if I’m going after a terrorist or someone like that, I do my best to smoke them out first. Also remember I know about your little live-in AI girlfriend.” She tapped the side of her head. “And I know she’s going to have a better chance of manipulating your apartment’s systems as opposed to some random park somewhere.”

  Emma shimmered into existence on the other side of the couch. “You attempted intrusion knowing full well that I would detect you?”

  Alina shrugged. “It’s not like I didn’t do my best to beat you, but a lot of this was a test of both your capabilities. Erik’s success is partially attributable to him having your assistance.”

  Emma sounded far too pleased with herself. “I can’t say you’re wrong.”

  Erik settled into a chair, his arm tingling from the nanites. “You admit you’re an assassin.”

  Alina shook her head. “I’m an agent. Sometimes I have to kill people, but my primary job is to gather information on threats to the UTC—the kind of threats that don’t go on the news and announce themselves. The kind of threats that have the money, influence, and power to cover up their evil. If someone has co-opted the local authorities, they can get away with a lot, and sometimes they need to be eliminated with less of a trail. It causes less trouble.”

  “That sounds pretty ruthless.”

  Alina smiled. “I’m not Detective Lin. I’m not all that interested in going by the book, even by the rather loose book of ID field operations. I’m not a monster, Detective Blackwell, nor despite what you might call me, a ghost. I’m a woman who’s interested in protecting people from the real monsters who hide in the darkness.”

  Erik rubbed his arm. He’d always preferred guns to blades. “Monsters? Isn’t that kind of subjective?”

  “You’re not exactly known for your restraint either, Blackwell. I’m not taking out random people who wrote a mean antigovernment essay in college or praised an insurrectionist video. We’re talking dangerous terrorists, hardcore insurrectionists who think nothing of killing innocent people. That kind of thing, or vicious power-hungry organizations like Talos.” Alina kept a pleasant smile on her face despite the grim topic of government-sanctioned killing.

  He raised an eyebrow, and she continued.

  “I like to think of myself as a tragic Greek hero. I’m doing what I need to do to protect the galactic polis. I know I do things that would sicken some people. I also know I’ll spend my entire life in the shadows, never receiving any public praise, and if anything goes wrong, the government will burn me to protect themselves. But sometimes, the individual isn’t the most important. So I’ll do what I need to.”

  “I’m not here to stroke your ego, Koval.”

  “Good. I’m not asking you to.”

  Erik glanced at drying blood on his coffee table. “You’re not here to kill me, but you attacked me. You said something about a test. What sort of test? You’ve seen me fight before.”

  “Ah. That’s simple enough to explain. I needed to test you in a situation where you didn’t initiate the fight. That you’ve been drinking makes it even better.”

  “I’ve been jumped plenty of times.” Erik frowned. “If this is about Molino, things haven’t gone down the same way since then.”

  “Sure.” Alina gave him a quick nod. “I’m aware of the public records, but I still wanted to confirm it with my own eyes. When you went into the Scar, you knew you would be fighting monsters, even if there were still surprises. I must admit I lied a little before when I mentioned never taking people on in their homes. That only applies if you know they have a reasonable level of paranoia. If a person doesn’t have that, they might let their guard down. I still prefer to take people outside their homes, but my little test today showed that you and the AI are careful. The average person wouldn’
t have known I’d infiltrated their home, and even the not-so-average person would have been blinded by my little trick. You reacted instantly and were still able to fight. It’s been…” Her brow furrowed as she sought the right words. “I’m not going to say it’s been a surprise because after everything you’ve been up to since your return to Earth, I would have given you even odds. I’ll just say I’m happy you passed my test. It means I haven’t wasted my time keeping an eye on you.”

  Erik patted his gun. “What would you have done if I’d just started shooting?”

  Alina ran her hand down the side of her bodysuit until it reached her hip. “Prototype model. Just as good against small arms fire, but a lighter weight. Assuming you didn’t blow my brains out, I would have been fine, but what’s a test without some risk for both of us? I was calling you Achilles before, but maybe you’re more like Theseus, and Emma your Ariadne.”

  Emma folded her arms and scoffed. “I assure you, Ghost Girl, that I aid Detective Blackwell out of interest, not anything approaching fleshbag love.”

  Erik laughed. “Yeah, about the last thing I need is a girlfriend who can disappear and appear on a whim and has direct control of my apartment and flitter.”

  Emma smirked. “Wise, I think.”

  Erik brushed fire suppressant off the arm of his chair before resting his own arm there. “Why do you care if some random cop can handle himself against an ID ambush? You went through a lot of trouble and danger to pull this little stunt off.” He looked around. “And I’m billing you for the cleanup.”