“Jayne? Jayne?” Merry called through the comm. “Are you there?”
Jayne picked up her comm. “Merry! Please tell me you have some good news.”
“I was able to disrupt communication between the guards. At least you can get out without causing more of a commotion. But hurry. I can only keep it up for a few minutes.”
Jayne couldn’t believe Merry said that without making one of her patented jokes. A sign that the situation was as dire as she thought.
“Right. I’ll meet you in the next sector.”
Jayne rushed over to Burrett, who was practically foaming at the mouth as he repeatedly hit the guard. “Excessive force, agent.” But Burrett kept socking the guard’s now bruised and bloody face. Jayne knew what solitary could do to a person, but she understood now why she was warned about him. “Agent! Get off that man!” Jayne pried him off the limp body.
Burrett’s posture was hunched and his eyes traded their kindly look for a blank stare, volcanic with hate. His chest was heaving and a string of drool hovered over the fallen guard. The hate disappeared from his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Jayne put her hand on his shoulder before kneeling over the guard. She swung the inside edge of her hand hard against his temple. The guard stopped moaning and slept.
“How do you do that?”
Jayne waved her hand dismissively. “Very quickly.” She called Merry on comm. “Okay. Give us an exit.”
Merry directed Jayne and Burrett through two more empty corridors until the front entrance was in sight. Jayne touched the keycard in her pocket, grateful for Fred’s initiative in acquiring it.
“Great work, Jayne,” Burrett said, looking at what lay ahead of them, “but how the hell are we going to get out of here unnoticed?”
Jayne’s gaze scanned the room. There was a cap and a pair of work pants on a chair. Jayne grabbed both and threw them at Burrett. Jayne turned her jacket inside out while Burrett changed out of his orange jumpsuit.
“C’mon.”
Jayne grabbed Burrett’s hand and ran with him out the front door, down the corridor and back the way Jayne and the others had come initially.
“Merry, which way now?”
“Keep following that corridor. You’ll need to do a right hand turn in about 1000 yards.”
Merry directed them, turn by turn keeping them away from the busy corridors in the space ring, until the very last minute.
Burrett appeared to have little trouble keeping up with Jayne. Before long, they reached a tube station. The pair instinctively dropped to a walk and blended in with the crowd.
Burrett bent over to pretend to tie his shoe. He ripped off his mask and threw it into a trash bin, but a tiny mist of sweat still clung to his face.
“We’re meeting my crew back at New France,” Jayne told him quietly, “then on to the planet.”
Burrett laughed triumphantly. “To Armaros! I knew I’d be back.”
Jayne did as she was directed over her comm. At the entry booth she picked up the tickets Merry had ordered for them, and went to find their train back to New France.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Shuttle Bay, New France Sector, Tarem Ring
The three unlikely team-members arrived at the tube station, exhausted from running with their heavy equipment. Vlad took his cigarette case out of his pocket and held it up to the other two, indicating he would be right back.
Fred and Merry trudged their equipment to the rental kiosk. “I feel bad that we left her.”
“I know. It’s part of the gig,” Fred told her, as if he knew anything about it. “Plus, it was the plan if we got rumbled.”
Fred and Merry hit the kava stand and got on the conveyor belt to their train stop before Vlad caught up with them. Fred studied Vlad and Merry. He wanted to scream, “How can you guys be so calm?”
Merry was distracted though, monitoring a conversation thread on her handheld. “Oooh, you’re so noble because you’re a white hat hacker,” she muttered. “Same hat, different derby. All hacking involves theft, dumb fucking script kiddie…”
Their train arrived and the three piled on, along with a dozen other passengers.
Fred fumbled into the seat next to Merry, his leg twitching like a fish out of water. He checked his handheld. He checked every outlet of communication he could possibly be linked with Jayne through. Every option was empty. He sighed.
Vlad reclined in the chair across from him. “They’ll make it, Fred. You have to believe that until we have reason to believe it’s not true.”
“Wow, Vlad,” Merry huffed, “that was surprisingly nice. Who knew you were so sensitive?”
Vlad shook his head. “Force of habit, Ms. Winterbourne. A lot of teacher training comes from the time students and parents would sue when teachers kept it a little too real.”
“Way to kill it.” Merry turned to Fred. “Look, Jayne is a trained operative. She has some weird methods, but this is nothing she can’t handle. Jayne will get Burrett here.”
“I guess you’re right…” he muttered, unconvinced.
“I didn’t say he’d be unharmed. Or even alive,” she added with a raised eyebrow, “but she’ll get him here.”
Vlad laughed and shook his head. “We’ll know what happened when Jayne shows up with a large box.”
“Do we have the tickets?” Fred asked.
Merry clamped her hand on Fred’s spastic leg without missing any keystrokes. “Dude, chill. Yes, we have the tickets, alright? They’ll be here.”
Vlad paced pensively to the large window.
Merry sighed, “Not you too.”
Vlad shook his head and placed his bent index finger on the middle of his chin. “No, not at all. I was just thinking---“
Just then Jayne rushed onto the train with an older man in tow. “Hey! Did we miss anything?”
Merry acted like Jayne wasn’t late and like they hadn’t just pulled a jailbreak. “No, I think you’re good. How was the trip?”
Confusion flashed across Jayne’s face. “I… Wow. Nothing unexpected, I guess. Guys, this is James. He will be joining us for the next couple days. James, this is Merry, Fred, and Vlad.”
Burrett meekly shook their hands. He couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. Not yet. He continued to rub his left arm with his right hand. Now that the excitement had ended, now that he wasn’t literally fighting for his life, he settled back into nervously rocking back and forth. His eyes alternated between a kind and chaotic expression. “It is nice to meet all of you,” he told them.
Merry felt the outline of a syringe in her purse. Jayne discreetly shook her head and mouthed, “Not here.”
The automated voice rang out through the train cabin “Attention ladies and gentlemen, Shuttle 247C for Techcropolis, Armaros Station departing in five minutes. Repeat: Shuttle 247C for Techcropolis, Armaros Station departing in five minutes.”
Jayne led Burrett to a seat where the other three were sitting. Burrett’s upper lip quivered slightly as he caught the view out the window. “I haven’t seen any of this for a very long time.”
Jayne felt a wave of patience in her chest and put a hand on Burrett’s shoulder. “I understand. It’s okay.”
His eyes grew wide. “Can I sit by the window?”
Merry stifled a laugh. Jayne nodded. “Sure.”
Merry rotated her seat to face Burrett. He had half of his face on the window, watching his breath condense on the glass. His finger traced a spiral in the fog. Merry twisted the syringe in her hand. She pulled the plunger back and leaned forward. In one motion she pushed the needle through Burrett’s pants and into his thigh.
“Ow!”
Merry removed the needle and dropped it into a small waste bag. She explained, in a clinical tone, “It’s for your safety. You never know what sort of bugs are running around that prison. Don’t be a baby.”
Burrett continued to stare at the puncture site in apparent shock. Merry tapped Jayne with her foot and indicated Burrett with her eyes
. “Compos mentis window.”
Jayne nodded. She leaned in, trying to draw Burrett’s focus. “James? James?”
Burrett jumped, as if she had woken him from a deep sleep. “Huh? Yes?”
Vlad widened his eyes and compressed his lips before turning away.
Jayne took a deep breath. “I think now is a good time to give you a debriefing on what we’re dealing with.”
“Chamberlain? What about him?”
Jayne pressed her lips together, searching for the words. “He… It’s a long story.”
Burrett’s eyelids drooped slightly. “Everything with Chamberlain usually is.”
Vlad twirled his cigarette case between his fingers, watching.
Merry interjected. “The short story is, your buddy Chamberlain wants to stop the Treaty between Armaros and Tarem. He wants it done so badly that he is willing to blackmail our client, using information about our client’s terminally ill niece.”
Burrett’s eyes widened. “He’s bringing an innocent child into it…?”
Jayne nodded, “Yeah. We don’t know what else he’s capable of.”
“I see… And what’s my role in all this?”
Jayne paused, searching the faces of her three cohorts for the right words. Merry sat straight in her chair with her chest out, exaggeratedly indicating a feeling of importance as she jerked her head towards Burrett. Jayne’s gaze lingered on Merry before turning to Burrett. “It’s… a very important role, James. You’re going to help protect a young girl and bring down a madman.”
His brow twitched. “How will I be doing this?”
“Just tell us what we need to know about Chamberlain and how he operates.”
Merry slipped a packet of pills out of her pocket, giving one to Burrett. “Here, take this. The shot I gave you is going to pass too quickly. We need you, uh, well, for the time being.”
Burrett obeyed as he furtively watched her return the pills to her pocket.
+++
Theron Techcropolis Gateway Building, L45, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros
Merry raced into the office, bags of equipment in hand, as soon as the doors slid open. She dropped the equipment on the floor and poured herself onto the settee as though she was lava destroying a small village. “Ahhhhh… Home sweet home.”
Fred appeared in the doorway, positively wilted but managed to slide his three bags in over the threshold and off to one side out of the way of the others following in behind him. He plopped face down onto the floor and pretended to kiss the ground. “Land!”
Vlad smirked. “I suppose this is the time one of you ladies asks if anyone’s hungry.”
Jayne and Burrett ambled in behind them. Burrett continued to touch and inspect every surface as if he didn’t understand the concept of buildings. “This way, James. There you go…” She looked at the others. “Is anyone else hungry?”
“Right on cue,” Vlad grinned, satisfied.
Merry fired up her laptop and picked up her tablet with her other hand. “I’ll order something now.”
Burrett started picking up random objects on Jayne’s desk. He turned them over, inspecting each and every aspect of them. “This is a nice set up you have.”
Jayne felt her scalp crawl. Something about Burrett twirling her desk chair with his hand felt like a red flag in the back of her mind. “It’s a work in progress.”
He paused, then looked up at her. “Where are you going to put me? I can’t exactly check into a hotel.”
“You’ll be staying here so I can keep an eye on you.”
“What happens after the mission? Do I get to move freely again?”
“I wish I knew, James. It depends on how the next couple days go.”
Burrett’s eyes flashed, transforming his face from humble, to clever and sly, then back to humble. He winked at Jayne. “I have a good feeling about this.”
She forced a smile. “I’m glad you’re confident.”
Burrett sat himself down in the chair behind her desk and started spinning himself around slowly. “What do we know so far?” he asked, idly.
Merry finished ordering from the tablet and scrolled on her laptop. “Beyond the blackmailing? He learned to hate the government when he was with the Agency.”
Burrett chuckled. “Him and everyone else, Miss.”
“Gotcha. Well, he’s pretty hell-bent on stopping this treaty. Chamberlain likes to do things through the dark web, with as much encryption as possible. I’m talking layers between layers of dense double-code.” Merry spent a whole year learning how to pick apart double-code. It was like doublespeak. A line of code appeared to perform one function, usually something innocuous. But it was actually running through a second code that hid its true function. “He has kept his hand in the illegal weapons biz, from what I can tell. I was able to isolate his voice.”
“Good, good...”
Jayne felt her comm vibrate in her pocket. The log revealed a text message from Gerald Wilson. “Call me ASAP. New developments.”
Jayne wandered through to the back room for some privacy and connected a call with him. He answered halfway through the first ring.
“What happened?” she asked.
Wilson’s voice sounded desperate and breathy. “Jayne, things have… escalated. We have less than a day. And Chamberlain is now threatening to kill Celia.”
“When did he tell you this?”
She could hear a hard swallow from Wilson. He sounded like he was making an extra effort to speak slowly. “Earlier today. He… he sent me these pictures of Celia in her hospital bed.”
“How did she look? Did he do anything to her?”
“Not that I could see. She actually looked healthier, better… I… What do we do?”
Jayne took a deep breath, hoping to inspire Wilson to do the same. “For now, stay calm. Chamberlain is playing games with you. Freaking out will only give him what he wants.”
“Okay,” he agreed, the panic subsiding from his voice. “How are… things?”
“We’re making a lot of progress. I feel really good about getting this resolved. I just need you to stay calm. We will be in contact very soon.”
He hesitated a moment, as if he were going to press her for more information. Then he responded. “I’ll try.”
Jayne and Wilson closed the call.
Ambling back into the main office Jayne turned to Merry and Burrett. “That was Wilson. Chamberlain is now threatening to kill his niece.”
Merry gasped. Burrett’s posture straightened. “Then we have to find him,” he declared. “I’m going to need some tech.”
Merry turned to him. “I like you already.”
Burrett continued. “I’m going to be using QER to pick up the short-wave frequencies the authorities tend to use. It’s a little primitive, but the major advantage is it can receive infinite frequencies. At least, conceptually.”
Merry smiled like the overly eager girl sitting right in front of the teacher. “Like in the old days when perps would use short-wave radios to know when the fuzz was coming?”
Burrett beamed. “Exactly. The draw back with the quantum version is that the act of receiving the signal alters the signal itself. With a sophisticated enough program, it’s possible to monitor signals over, say, a city. Then you can pinpoint the location of one of these devices.”
Jayne’s eye narrowed with interested focus. “How come this isn’t standard issue police equipment?”
Burrett shook his head. “Too expensive. And to be fair, it’s not the kind of device your run of the mill criminal will have access to. Besides, the police know they’re better off ignoring the kinds of people who do use this stuff.”
“How do we go about tracking it?”
Burrett paused for a moment. “I can probably pull the program we need off one of my old servers. It probably needs an upgrade, but it should work.”
Jayne nodded. “Great. Let’s do that. Merry can help you.”
“So young lady, I was wondering how Ja
yne was able to get in and out of my cell without a retinal scan. Did you work a little magic in the security realm?”
Merry’s eyes flashed with self-satisfaction, despite the rest of her face remaining perfectly enigmatic. “A lady never hacks and tells, sir. Besides, I want to see that program you’re pulling off the server. Show me where.”
Burrett shifted in his chair and puffed his chest out slightly. “Well, certainly. Anything to get the job done. But you’ll have to show me how you got Jayne in.”
Merry grinned at him. “Oh, so it’s a you-show-me-yours-and-I’ll-show-you-mine proposition? No can do because I can’t even tell you I’m the one that did it. Now come on, let’s save the day and shit.”
Burrett and Merry huddled on the settee. Jayne noticed Merry would only hand Burrett her burner laptop. Burrett’s overall presence seemed prouder, more grounded as he exchanged subversive hacking tips with Merry. Her eyes were wide at times when he spoke, with no glimmer of her usual disengaged cynicism. Burrett looked at Jayne and smiled gratefully.
“They work well together.” Jayne turned to see Vlad evaluating his cohort and the disappeared spy. “Yeah… What do you think about his mental state?”
Vlad shrugged. “Are you asking if he’s compos mentis? It could go either way at this point, honestly. I hope you have plenty of pills.”
Jayne’s mind flashed back to peeling Burrett off the guard he overpowered. The guard was clearly not in any condition to fight back and his face was swollen like a cylinder of pressure-packed biscuits, bursting at the seams. Burrett wouldn’t stop. The almost cannibalistic look in his eye at the time made Jayne’s entire body shudder. “Me too.”
Vlad patted Jayne’s shoulder politely as he sauntered to a chair near the window. He plucked a joint out of his cigarette case and lit it. “I’ve been waiting a while for this…”
Jayne tugged at her jacket. “And I need a shower.”
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