by D. B. Goodin
“Fine!”
Hunter threw up his hands in frustration. Dahlia made the turn into Tage Manor’s private driveway. There was a large, ornate gate with an intercom built into a low wall. When she pressed a button, it came to life almost immediately.
“Can I help you?”
“Dahlia Frost here to see Mr. Tage.”
A few seconds later, she heard a loud buzzing sound, and the gate opened. The noise woke Jony.
“I need you on high alert, boys.”
A few minutes later, they were in front of Tage Manor.
As soon as Dahlia and her crew stepped near the Manor entrance, the front door opened.
“Ms. Dahlia Frost, welcome,” Mr. Tage said.
Dahlia eyed the old man.
“Come—you must be cold and hungry,” he continued.
Before Dahlia could react, a servant took her coat, gloves, and hat. She followed Mr. Tage into a large study. There were several comfortable-looking chairs, a couch, and a fireplace.
“Have a seat,” Mr. Tage said, pointing at a chair in front of the fireplace.
Jony and Hunter stood guard nearby. Mr. Tage’s butler offered Dahlia some tea. She waved a hand to dismiss it.
“Your . . . companions need not stand guard,” Mr. Tage told her. “You have nothing to fear from me, nor anyone else at Tage Manor.”
“Who else is here?” Dahlia asked.
“Some people you know, others you don’t, but we are all friends here.”
We will see about that!
“I wanted to spend some time with you before we joined the others,” Mr. Tage said.
“You’re probably wondering why I was so keen on making your acquaintance. The truth is that your reputation precedes you.”
“If you mean that I don’t take shit from anyone, you’re correct,” Dahlia said.
“What happened to your husband?”
Dahlia gave Mr. Tage a cold look.
“We were never married, so he wasn’t my husband. But . . . to answer your question, he died.”
“How?”
“He had many enemies. That is why he got a dagger plunged into his heart!” Dahlia said more harshly than she intended.
“I can see why they call you Black Hear—”
“Does this conversation have a point?” Dahlia interrupted. “I didn’t travel over four thousand miles to take shit from an old man.”
Mr. Tage laughed.
“No, I supposed you didn’t. Forgive my morbid curiosity.”
“Dahlia?” a voice from behind her said.
Dahlia looked and saw Alexei Breven in his custom tailored suit. He looked like he was going for a night out: quite a contrast from her black leather outfit.
“I’m only here to collect a favor from an old friend,” Dahlia said to him. “You can consider us even, regardless of the outcome of these meetings.”
“What’s he doing here?” Alexei said, pointing at Hunter.
“He stays with me,” Dahlia said.
“Dinner is served,” the butler said as he stepped into the room.
“After you, my dear,” Mr. Tage said to Dahlia.
Dahlia followed the butler into a large dining area. The table looked big enough to host at least two dozen people. On the left side were several people she knew, and some she didn’t were already seated. Dahlia and her crew sat next to Mr. Tage. Alexei sat across from her. Nigel stared at Hunter, who didn’t seem to pay any attention to Nigel. Hunter’s gaze was directed at the two women next to him.
“In honor of our guests overseas, my chef has prepared beef Wellington,” Mr. Tage announced.
Wine and juice glasses were filled, and the feast began.
“What are we doing here, Alexei? You were insistent that I come in person,” Dahlia said.
“Both of our groups have seen increased hacking activity in recent weeks. Our independent analysis has concluded that it wasn’t Black Iris. I’m sure you’ve come to a similar conclusion, otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Alexei said.
“At first we thought the hackers were script kiddies, but after reviewing signs of an advanced, persistent threat, we changed our assessment,” Nigel said.
Hunter looked at Nigel like he was an annoying fly.
“We’ve seen similar findings, but it means nothing,” Jony said.
“None of this feels right,” Natasha said.
“Each of us only has bits and pieces of information. We need to complete the parts of the puzzle so that each group understands the bigger picture. Only then can we understand what is at stake here,” Mr. Tage said. He was standing at the head of the table.
No one said anything for a long time.
“Now, who among you will go first? I suggest we start by having each party provide their respective points of view. Let’s start with Christmas night. Any takers?” Mr. Tage urged.
Mr. Tage looked around the room, sat, and then yawned.
“Fine, I will start!” Alexei said.
Jony gave Alexei a worried glance.
“After our unsuccessful parley, I turned in for the evening. Malcolm woke me in the middle of the night, explaining that Black Iris was attacked. That Shadow Dealer bastard shoved us out the door!” Alexei said.
“Anything else you can remember?” Mr. Tage said.
“No . . . wait. Jony came to my room. We had a brief conversation about Hunter’s bad behavior at the talks. I thought he was just venting.”
“Interesting! Now, Melissa, my dear, if you can give us your recollection of the events of that evening, it may help to shed some light on things,” Mr. Tage said.
Melissa said nothing. She seemed to be in deep thought. She took a sip of water then started.
Why is she so nervous? Alexei thought.
“I remember that evening well. Hunter and Alexei were involved in a heated exchange. There was a lot of yelling going on. Malcolm concluded the talks for the evening,” Melissa said.
“What did you do after the meeting ended?”
“I locked up my notes, then retired. But . . . now that I think about it, I heard voices as I returned to my quarters. It sounded like Malcolm was speaking to someone, but I couldn’t make out any of it.”
“The Shadow Dealers are famous for not allowing technology of any kind to interfere with negotiations. Didn’t you find this side conversation unusual on Christmas?”
Melissa thought for a long time before answering. “I agree that the timing was irregular, but Malcolm is the leader of the Shadow Dealers, and he was probably setting up some other negotiation.”
“Anything else you wish to add, dear?” Mr. Tage asked.
Melissa shook her head.
“I will share my side of the story,” Jony said.
Alexei noticed Melissa staring at Jony. Do they have a history? he wondered. More than our confrontation at the Shadow Dealers?
Alexei had to lean forward to hear the soft-spoken man.
“Tried talking to Hunter, but he blew me off. So I walked around the complex a bit to clear my head. I found myself near Alexi’s quarters and wanted to apologize for Hunter’s actions. I returned to my room. Sometime later, I slept—until Malcolm awakened me,” Jony said.
Mr. Tage raised an eyebrow. “What did he say?”
“That was when he said that he’d received word that Black Iris had been attacked and that Hunter and I should return. We didn’t get our phones until they put us on a ship. I called D as soon as we were in cell range—well after dawn the next day!”
“We didn’t get attacked until the evening of the twenty-sixth,” Dahlia said.
Everyone started talking at once.
How the hell did Black Iris miss this? Alexei thought. From the looks of it, Mr. Tage had come to the same conclusion.
“I’ve noticed a common theme, and that’s Malcolm,” Mr. Tage said.
Alexei looked at Dahlia. So far, she hadn’t reacted to what they’d said, but Alexei noticed a tightening of her jaw. Dahlia slapped her h
and on the table hand enough to silence the room.
“I haven’t gotten to tell my side of the story yet!” Dahlia said.
All eyes were on Dahlia. Alexei could feel the tension in the room. It felt more intense than the negotiation at the Shadow Dealers.
“Christmas came and went with no trouble. I was working in the Design Center until well after midnight. No attacks, no unusual Black Iris alerts. Nothing until the evening of the twenty-sixth!”
Mr. Tage raised a hand. “Jony, help me here. Something else doesn’t add up. Did you leave a voicemail for Dahlia? The morning of the twenty-sixth, I mean.”
Jony looked rattled. “I did, I swear!”
“I can confirm that he did. He was more annoying than usual,” Hunter said.
“Thinking back on the day . . . we had some trouble with some building facilities. The phones didn’t ring all day,” Dahlia said.
“It sounds to me like all the evidence points to a third-party hack. Alexei couldn’t have given the word to attack while on Phantom Island. Hacking building control systems requires a bit of planning,” Mr. Tage said.
“Are you suggesting that Malcolm was conspiring with the attackers?” Alexei asked.
“I am,” Mr. Tage said.
Melissa looked like she wanted to leave. She started rubbing her shoulder. She got up to leave, but was intercepted by one of Mr. Tage’s men.
“Calm down everyone! No one leaves until we sort this out,” Mr. Tage said.
Melissa returned to her seat.
“D-do you still believe that my team or I had anything to do with any attack?” Alexei asked.
Dahlia gave Alexei a look. He couldn’t tell what emotion she was experiencing.
“Can everyone in this room agree that the Collective had nothing to do with the Black Iris attack?” Alexei said.
“It doesn’t add up. Whoever planned this had an intimate knowledge of both Black Iris and the Collective. It all points to the Shadow Dealers!” Dahlia said.
Mr. Tage let that realization sink in.
“Now, the larger question is, what are Black Iris and the Collective going to do about it?” Mr. Tage said.
Alexei stood and held his hand out across the table. “Truce? Until we catch the person responsible, anyway!” he said.
Dahlia gave Alexei a smile. It was barely noticeable. Her mask faltered for a moment.
She took his hand.
“Excellent!” Mr. Tage said.
Chapter 21
“Now that we are all friends, how are we going to solve our Delta problem?” Natasha said.
“What’s Delta?” Dahlia asked.
Natasha pointed at Melissa.
“Perhaps she can explain.”
Dahlia looked Melissa over for a long moment.
“Yes, I’m eager to learn of Delta,” Dahlia said.
Melissa explained how her father planned to transfer April’s consciousness to Delta so she could control Leviathan. Melissa didn’t trust Dahlia, Hunter, or Jony. There was something about Jony she hadn’t noticed while at the Shadow Dealers—something familiar. Had she met him before? The situation made her feel uncomfortable.
“This all sounds . . . unlikely. I thought you would give us some real intel,” Dahlia said.
Melissa didn’t offer any additional information.
“What do you think, Jony?” Dahlia asked.
Jony appeared restless, like he wanted to be anywhere else.
“I think the AI called Leviathan is plausible. I have seen prototypes at universities. I had the chance to see one at Big Blue Box Corp. The bloody thing beat several contestants on a game show!” Jony said.
A flash of memory hit Melissa. I’ve seen him before, at a party. All those years ago.
“I saw Leviathan in action while I was doing my recon at the Mason castle,” Hunter said.
“You were there? When?” Melissa asked.
“We also had a paper trail on your father. I went there to assess the situation. I overheard your squabble with Daddy,” Hunter said.
Melissa gave Hunter a murderous look. He didn’t seem to notice.
“Would it be possible for the AI to hack into servers?” Dahlia said.
“Not without extensive supervised learning, and even then, it’s unlikely,” Jony said.
Melissa examined Jony’s side profile. He was at the party, I’m certain of it. But his name was not Jony then.
“So, are you telling me that we need human hackers to teach the machine?” Dahlia said.
“Well . . . it’s more complicated, but it might be possible with a neural network interface that the AI could use,” Jony said.
“Like a cyborg?” Alexei asked.
“In theory, cyborgs would interface human tissue to an artificial neural network, but that’s impossible,” Jony said.
“You don’t know my father. He performs the impossible daily,” Melissa said.
“Did your father hire any elite hackers to aid him?” Dahlia asked.
Melissa noticed that Dahlia was giving her a glare.
“My father hires people all the time. I don’t know any of them,” Melissa said.
“Let me rephrase.” Dahlia rummaged for something in her pocket and produced a photo. “Did your father hire this man?”
Melissa looked at the photo for several seconds. That’s the drunken fool my father hired!
“I’ve seen him,” she said.
“Can you confirm his name?”
“Greg . . . Gregor, I think.”
Dahlia got up and stood next to Melissa, laying the photo in front of her. “Now, inspect the photo closer. Are you sure his name is Gregor?”
“Yes, err, I think—”
Dahlia backhanded Melissa hard enough to send her chair tumbling to the floor. Dahlia was on top of her in an instant.
“Look again!” Dahlia screamed.
“D—what’s the meaning—” Alexei tried to say, but Dahlia cut him off.
“This bitch is a traitor! She works with the Shadow Dealers, and she hired Gregor!” Dahlia hissed like an angry snake.
The room broke out into chaos. Alexei put himself between Melissa and Dahlia. Viktor tried restraining Dahlia. She slapped him for his trouble, but it didn’t seem to faze the man. Natasha grabbed Dahlia’s other hand. Hunter sat back and watched the show.
“Stop this at once!” Mr. Tage said.
Several of Mr. Tage’s men separated Dahlia from Melissa. Nigel escorted Melissa out of the room.
Nigel led Melissa to a side room.
“You’re safe here. I won’t let her harm you,” Nigel said.
Melissa was shaking. It reminded Nigel of a pet that had been beaten one too many times. Nigel got the first good look at her since the beating. Her face looked like someone had used it as a punching bag; it was purple and puffy and bruised. Her left eye was not open or closed but somewhere in between.
That crazy bitch! Nigel thought.
“I . . . was just trying to help,” Melissa said as she let the tears flow.
Nigel pointed to his throat. “I know . . . Gregor injured me, too.”
Melissa looked at Nigel with her good eye for a long moment.
“I’m not sure how to handle the situation. If we meet your daughter in her . . . Delta form, she might be too powerful for us,” Nigel said.
She pulled him close, whispered into his ear.
“Nigel, will you . . . hold me?”
Around ten the next morning, Mr. Tage summoned all the guests back into the dining hall for breakfast.
“Just to be clear, I will not allow any more fighting,” Mr. Tage said. “Will all guests will comply?”
Several nods and mutterings to the affirmative seemed to satisfy Mr. Tage.
“This will be a working breakfast. Based on what we know and what Black Iris has gathered, Jeremiah may be on the move,” Mr. Tage said.
“My father has been constructing something on an island off the coast of Africa for years,” Melissa sa
id.
“What’s he constructing?” Mr. Tage said.
Everyone in the room was looking at Melissa. “I know little, but he’s sunk billions . . .” She trailed off, lost in thought. I will be selective on what I give Black Iris. There are few I can trust in this room.
“Even if we find this place, we still need an ingress point,” Hunter demanded.
“That’s right. You also need to seize control of Leviathan. This will take more than brute force. An analytical mind,” Melissa said.
“Sounds like we need multiple teams,” Mr. Tage said.
Nigel motioned to Natasha. “I need a moment.”
Nigel led Natasha to a private room that served as his war room.
“I see that you are making good use of the room Tage provided,” Natasha said.
“Mr. Tage has the fastest high-speed internet I’ve seen anywhere!” Nigel said.
“What’s on your mind?”
“I found several pings on Jet’s phone. I haven’t given up on her. I won’t—” Nigel said as he choked up.
Natasha put a hand on Nigel’s, and after a few minutes he went on.
“So far, her phone has pinged in three separate countries: the United States, Canada, and Morocco. I’m grateful she had her data roaming turned on, because I could pick up additional metadata from her phone.”
“How were you able to get this? Did you hack her phone?”
“At first, I could create an alert based on phone activity. But after a bit of research, I found that the Pretzelverse communications app contained additional metadata,” Nigel explained.
“I thought you stopped using that app. Didn’t you create your own communications app?”
“Yes, and we turned it off for a while, but we re-enabled it to play the Colossal Machine again.”
“I also found . . . an open-source Prog-hub site.”
Nigel hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should tell her how he’d hacked Pretzelverse now that he knew its relationship to Collective Systems.
“Go on,” Natasha said.
“The project . . . contained a lot of reverse-engineered code that I used to gather the metadata.”
“When was the last ping from the phone?”