by J M Guillen
“That’s not parties unknown.” I frowned. It had taken me a moment, but once I recognized the woman, I couldn’t unsee the truth.
“Who is it?” Sofia interjected.
“Isabella Juarez, Irrational 6604.” I sighed and massaged the back of my neck. “She’s an integral part of the Irrational cabal Gideon and I found in Istanbul.”
“The cult instigated the attack within Washington State,” the Designate clarified. “We believe they specifically lured us into action.”
“They did.” I clenched my fist as my mind scrambled. “Amir seemed so fucking smug, and this is why. They had our number from the beginning.”
“I don’t understand.” Wyatt shook his head.
So I told them. I explained about the dossier in the Yucatán, how almost no one had come out. I told them how I’d killed Amir, how he didn’t have the courtesy to remain dead.
“Fucked up,” Wyatt breathed. “You think they got a hard-on for you?”
“Something like that,” I muttered. “Amir taunted me the entire time we were in that cistern. Then they killed Gideon, just like Max and—” I stopped abruptly as my pulse beat like a wild and violent drum.
The pack. They killed my pack.
Swallowing hatred and bile, I relaxed.
“They just… turned off Asset tech?” Sofia turned from the Designate to Rachel. “How is that even possible?”
“We have no idea,” Rachel admitted. “I watched their holotecture as it happened. It wasn’t as if they terminated any active pathways or disrupted mecha protocols.” She shrugged helplessly. “It was horrifying to watch.”
“It was horrifying to live through,” I muttered darkly. “That’s what I think must have happened to Gideon. They shut him down and then took him.”
For a moment, no one had anything to say.
“The situation becomes even more dire,” the Designate admitted. “During that assignment, we also lost worldwide Telemetry.” She paused. “However, we gained understanding. The Darkened Road is most certainly part of our difficulties with Aberration 45171R and Sadhana.”
“What?” I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Agreed.” Wyatt frowned.
“Actually, 108, you provided the verification.” The Designate nodded at me and then placed both hands on the terminal orb.
After a moment, a new image resolved upon the screen.
I recognized my own hand as it gestured at a sheet of paper on a wall.
I pointed, my finger resting on 11 September 2001. Below that, 23 August 2005 and 8 October 2005 leered at us. The list ended with 18 September 2015.
“That…” I’d thought the final date seemed familiar, and now I felt certain.
Where had I seen it before?
“Oh, shit!” Wyatt sucked through his teeth, as if he realized something I hadn’t.
“Of course we have earlier intelligence regarding items on this list,” the Designate explained. She manipulated the orb again, and an image appeared on a separate screen to the left of the first.
A handsome man peered out at us. His sleek face held lean lines, and his long, dark hair had been pulled back into a low tail. He sat, relaxed in his chair, confident, like a man who knew his place in the world. Yet at the same time, he also seemed… worn somehow. For the barest moment, the view dimmed, and the ID readout changed at the top of the display:
Crowe, Jonathan, Asset 081
“Oh no,” I breathed and leaned forward. I remembered exactly where I’d seen that date before. Even though I knew what came next, I couldn’t help but listen raptly to the man’s deep, charismatic voice:
“Of utmost importance is one vital piece of intel. Aberration 45171R intends on a full occupation of Rationality before September 18, 2015. This date has no importance to our knowledge, but 45171R seems to believe it significant. From what we have learned of the species, they are long-term planners. An invasion planned for eighteen years in the future is well within the scope of their known patterns.” He leaned forward, his dark eyes serious.
“Do not underestimate them.”
“The confluence of events simply cannot be coincidental,” the Designate said. “The Darkened Road may not be allied with Aberration 45171R, but it’s certainly possible. We cannot afford coincidence.”
I swore. I hated to agree with the Designate, but in this instance, all of the facts aligned.
Some connection existed. We just couldn’t say what.
“You know I don’t even know who that is, right?” Sofia sat back in her chair. “I hate being in the dark, not having a ported packet.”
“I wonder what that feels like!” I wrinkled my nose at her. “Although, I seem to remember this one time…”
“You can shut it, Bitch-op.”
“Heh.” Wyatt shook his head. “Bitch-op.”
“I’ll catch you up.” Rachel nodded toward Sofia. “If I ever have a free moment where I’m not patching up Bishop.”
“Wait a minute.” I leaned forward and gazed squarely at the Designate. “Does this all lead to a dossier where I get to beat Amir’s ass?”
“This is the reason we adopted the limited timeframe.” The Designate gave me a rare smile. “We have a location on Amir Cadavas, yet we are uncertain how long our intelligence will remain accurate.”
“Why am I still sitting here?” I made as if to stand. “I’ll need my kinetic disruptors, two katana, a Maverick with null-materia rounds, a few dozen dampening grenades, fifteen Tabula Rasa—”
“And a slingshot?” Wyatt smiled.
“Yes.” I chuckled. “A Facility slingshot.”
How do we have telemetry on the location of 3302? Anya’s puzzlement bled through her link. I find it unlikely that we just so happened to have a Preceptor within range of his location.
“The Huntsman.” Rachel gave the rest of us a wan grin. “Gideon managed to tag him with a dart.”
“Right, I was there.” I shook my head. “But the Huntsman is only geared to the Asset who equipped it. How do we have access to that data?”
“Some beautiful genius managed to rewrite over five thousand lines of mecha interface.” Rachel raised one eyebrow.
“Seriously?” I blinked.
“Remotely. Without access to the original Crown.”
“Fuck-me running!” Wyatt gave a low whistle. “And here I like to go on about being the team Einstein.”
“That’s amazing.” I shook my head and tried to fathom how she had done it.
“Yeah.” She gave an earthy chuckle. “Didn’t have a Facility-driven power source, either.”
“You used the target’s own metabolism,” Sofia marveled.
“Yup. Amir probably thinks he has a tapeworm or something. If he’s not careful, he might come down with a case of the flu.”
“Good. Asshole deserves it.” I glanced at the Designate. “So we know where he is?”
“The Vatican.” She folded her hands neatly before her. “We’ve had Preceptor sweeps in the area of the last seven hours. We’re setting telemetric relays, and by the time you arrive, Anya should be in complete control of that network.”
“When does our conduit arrive?” I glanced at my cadre. “I don’t know about these guys, but I could use a white room.”
“We don’t have a usable conduit onsite at the Vatican,” the Designate apologized.
“What?” Wyatt laughed. “I don’t believe that. The larger the city, the more conduit probabilities, in my experience.”
Tier one conduits are regulated by long-range telemetric readings, Anya reminded him. Without long-range telemetry, the Facility only has tier three capability.
“Fuck, that’s right,” I swore. That explained why I had to take the tier three in order to get here.
“So… is there not one available?” Sofia seemed confused. “I probably have the coordinates for several different apertures I’ve opened in Italy somewhere in my Crown.”
“Not even you can use the
Gatekeeper over that range,” I scoffed. “Paradox looping eminent or some such.”
“No, of course not.” Sofia stared at me as if I were an idiot. “I just thought perhaps having the location within the system might assist with a conduit.”
“That won’t be required.” The Designate gave an enigmatic smile. “We have in mind something else entirely.”
“You know this is a trap.” Wyatt gazed up at me, his oculus baleful.
“You think so?” Rachel rolled her eyes.
“I do. Every time Bishop here goes up against these yahoos, they pull the rug out from beneath him. Yucatán, Washington, Istanbul.”
“Constantinople,” Rachel muttered.
“What’s gonna to be the difference this time? How do we know they aren’t expecting us to show up in Italy?”
“We have to assume they are.” Sofia bit her lip. “We have to assume they are absolutely expecting Asset involvement.”
Anya warned, One of the event dates from Michael’s record occurs in exactly three days.
“Do you think it’s the Vyriim? Another of their invasion dates?”
We have no context, she replied. It simply seems important to take note of it.
“I’m calling this one at seventy.” Wyatt seemed to think for a moment and then nodded his head. “Yep, seventy milli-Bishops.”
“What?” I glanced from him to Anya, and then to Rachel and Sofia.
I believe Asset Guthrie refers to the idio-matrix, Michael. Anya smiled. The system by which we agreed we would assess the foolishness of an action.
“I never agreed to that!”
“It’s entirely possible that the Hidden Road expects an Asset incursion,” the Designate continued as if we weren’t japing like children.
“The Darkened Road, you mean?” It wasn’t every day that I got a chance to correct a Designate, I tried to savor it for what it was worth.
“The group goes by many different names,” the Designate stated. “The Darkened Road is just as accurate as the Hidden Road. The original name was in Etruscan and translates to the Road Unseen.”
I snarled inwardly.
“Asset Guthrie is correct; in every case they seem to be well prepared for our presence.”
“Okay, but I don’t want that.” I gave the Designate a tight smile. “I want Amir to have no idea what’s coming. I want to smash him over the head with a hammer of everything he couldn’t expect and also hates.”
“We understand your nature, 108.” The Designate smiled. “Remember, we hope your occasional impetuousness can be used as a weapon in these situations.”
“Occasional,” Wyatt muttered.
If he doesn’t get us killed first, Rachel linked.
Wyatt chuffed softly, and Sofia nodded.
Everybody’s a critic.
“Therefore, we will prepare. This time, we believe we may actually catch Irrational 3302 by surprise.”
“That’d be nice,” I mumbled.
“If you’ll follow me, Assets, we’ll get you geared for your dossier. I’ll show you the specifications of the Citadel, and you can be on your way.”
With that, the Designate primly stood and walked toward the door. Her heels clicked on the floor, business-like.
We followed, curious to see what the Citadel had in store.
4
“The Citadel is designed to be a modular locale that includes all Facility amenities and technological stations,” the Designate said as she led us through yet another stark and sterile hallway. “On site you have a white room, emergency medical stations, quarters, a supply depot, even a matter-energy conflux that can keep you fed if required.”
“It probably will be,” Wyatt muttered as he rubbed his stomach. “Some of us need lots of fuel.”
“Some of you need a new wardrobe.” I poked him in his overalls.
“What are the mecha specifications like?” Rachel trotted closer to the Designate. “Will I have to file requisition requests? That’s tough when I’m in the middle of patching up some cowboy idiot who uses the Gatekeeper in the gloaming.”
“What!?” Sofia turned to me. “No. You did not.”
“He did.” Wyatt chuckled.
“A separate conflux exists in AES, geared specifically to your Crown, Asset Gardener. You will have the capability not only to deploy required viral mecha but also stock and specify which types your cadre will take on dossier.”
“That—” Rachel shook her head, eyes brighter than a kid who had just seen her Christmas presents. “That is exactly what I would want.”
“You also have a Crown docking bay and two iterations of synthetic adjuncts.” The Designate smiled. “The Citadel is designed to allow you to attend to your cadre without outside assistance.”
“Just wonderful.” Rachel seemed truly taken aback. “I love this place.”
“So there’s an onsite white room?” I cleared my throat. “How is this different from our personal white rooms with our personal gear?”
“The local white room is not typical to Facility specs. Often times, within standard locales, there are specific gear requisitions dependent upon what the Designates feel is appropriate for a particular mission.”
“Right.” I hated that. The Facility had so many cool toys to offer, yet the Designates usually kept at least some of them out of our reach.
“This is different.” She turned toward me, as if she intended her next words for my ears in particular. “The Citadel is fully stocked with all available packets and gear. Of course, we may discuss what an Asset intends to take—”
“Discuss.” I interrupted her. “An Asset gets an opinion in the matter?”
“Well…” Ling shrugged. “Most of the members of your Cadre tended to specialize. They became long-gear Assets years ago. Honestly, 108, only you often change what you gear. As Alpha, you will have my direct channel for such discussions.”
“That…” I smiled. “That could come in quite handy.”
“In any case, the Designates imagine we can keep a handle on what one Asset can do.”
“They do?” Rachel questioned.
“Man, oh man.” Wyatt shook his head and chuckled. “This just keeps getting better.”
“Maybe ninety milli-Bishops?” Sofia asked. “One hundred?”
“At least.”
Bravely, I ignored them.
“Furthermore, the local white room has an additional conduit in the back. Whenever the room is accessed, that conduit will queue to your personal white room as well.”
“Oh!” I smiled. That made sense.
“In this way, any personal gear you might desire is within reach when you use the Citadel’s conduit.”
“How are we supposed to gear anything while we’re having our—” Wyatt gestured at his head. “—firmware updated?”
“You can’t.” Rachel tapped at her interface and glanced down at the device wrapped around her left wrist. “At least not for another twenty-seven minutes.”
“For this reason, we won’t go to the white room just yet.” The Designate nodded at Rachel. “Instead we’ll spend some time studying our options regarding insertions and extractions.”
“I thought most conduits were offline?” I rolled my shoulders and then popped my knuckles as we walked. “At least as long as deep telemetry is down?”
“That is a fact, 108.” The Designate turned down a short hallway to her left. At the end of it, a metallic set of double doors, like an elevator, waited. She spoke not a word as she stepped toward it, yet they opened silently before her.
Wyatt strode just behind the Designate, but he stopped in place after only a couple of steps. Rachel, right behind him, ran into the bear of a man.
“Hey!” She glanced up from her interface, irritated. “Watch—”
Then she saw what had caught his attention.
I stepped next to Wyatt and the Designate. My eyes went wide. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yup.” Wyatt stood similarly stunned.
“Gotta be.”
A craft like an elongated teardrop hung impossibly before us, almost one full meter off the ground. Its sides an array of light-blue glass and short fins.
“The back is different.” I nudged Wyatt and pointed. A circular array of silver-and-blue metal floated there, much larger than the craft itself. The array didn’t touch the craft at all, but simply hovered in the air behind it, attached via some emanated tethers the eye could not perceive.
“The remnants of the realmship you liberated from Dhire Lith were fairly simple to recover,” the Designate explained. “The wreckage became somewhat damaged from impact, yet we were able to extrapolate and modify many of Jonathon Crowe’s alterations.”
You repaired the craft. Anya stepped up next to me and stared at the realmship quizzically. To what purpose? Do you expect us to require such conveyance on this dossier?
“The Corvus is currently the only one of its kind within the Facility’s arsenal,” the Designate explained. “It has been tasked as the primary means of transport for Citadel-cadre Assets.”
“The Corvus.” Rachel seemed to chew the word. “Named after the Rook.”
“It has fuel, right?” Wyatt gave the Designate a sideward glance.
“It does. Three different matter-energy confluxes are housed within the ship. You will find it handles with considerably more power and speed than previously.”
“We have a realmship.” I stared at her in disbelief.
Designate Ling moved toward the craft, and a side panel slid open without so much as a gesture from her. She stepped inside and gestured to us.
I peered within. Portions of the interior surface shimmered and shifted, revealing dials and gears constructed of azure crystal, silvery titanium, and some verdant metal I didn’t recognize.
“The craft is queued to each of you; this is part of the firmware update currently in process. Only a Citadel-cadre Asset can so much as open the door.”
“It has a Tangler, already geared?” Wyatt gaped toward the front of the Corvus.
“This is the next generation model, based upon Asset 081’s modulations.” Even though the Designate often remained stoic, I sensed pride in her words. “The T-90-B Axiomatic Redistribution Algorithm is suitable to operate and orient the craft, as well as calibrate the turrets.”