by Tracy Korn
“We would have been if we didn’t have to come and find you,” Liam says.
Dot is back at the table, but this time, she doesn’t have company. Liam slips into the chair across from her and kisses her hand. She raises a dark eyebrow, then rolls her eyes.
“So get on with it then,” she says, pulling her hand away.
“Somebody cloaked my little brother without his knowledge. He’s a ghost on the Grid now, and I need to find him. Can you run a scan for the last forty-eight hours for anyone coming from the Mainframe Office?”
“That’s all you want?”
“And run a sweep that will also bypass any implanted organics?”
Dot nods a few times to herself, then jerks her chin for Liam to follow her.
“Come on, and bring your puppies.”
***
We move to the other side of the room and go behind the bar, then down a small staircase that sinks right into the floor. At the bottom is another small room with the entire back wall comprised of nothing but endless stars. There must be a window there, though everything is so seamless, it just looks like the room opens up to outer space.
“Julius,” Dot says to the air, and seconds later, a sophisticated man’s voice replies at the same time green, crisscrossing lines stretch the length of the window.
“Good evening, Ms. Cavanaugh. Shall I access your queue?”
“Not yet, Julius. Bring the Grid online—Mainframe Office, all ports for the last forty-eight hours.”
“Channeling,” the Julius voice says.
Dot turns back to Liam and starts stroking the back of his hair. “Now then…” she says, moving closer to him.
“Um, we’re still here,” I say, clearing my throat. Liam flinches when she yanks a few hairs out of his head just as she smiles obnoxiously at me.
“Don’t I know it, puppy,” she adds, then turns back to the console station in this small, dark room and holds up the hairs she pulled from Liam’s head. A blue beam of light falls over them like the med bay scanning laser back at Gaia Sur. Code starts scrolling on the console screen, and Dot leans her head sideways like she’s trying to read from a new angle. Just before I can ask her what she’s doing, she turns around to face Liam again.
“So?” he asks impatiently. “Do you see him?”
“When did Lyden get back? A few others here would be interested in having a word.”
“I’m not here to talk about Lyden. Do you see Liddick in the DNA correlation or not?”
“This side of the atmosphere?” She cocks her head at the scrolling code again. “Yeah. He’s here. Or at least he was.”
“What do you mean, he was?” I ask, taking a few steps toward the console. “Where is he now? Who was with him in the Mainframe Office?”
Dot sticks out her bottom lip and nods at me but talks to Liam. “Don’t know why you need me if your poochie here can sniff out your boy.”
I glare at her, but before I can say anything, Vox slips behind her and jabs her pick knife behind Dot’s ear. She sucks in a sharp breath and straightens.
“We don’t have all day, prison lady…” she says, exasperated.
Dot winks one gray eye, then disappears in what looks like several puffs of smoke, which reassemble closer to the console. Vox gapes at her.
“Leash your dogs, Wright,” Dot says, glaring at us just before she turns back to the console. Liam shakes his head at Vox and holds up a hand.
“Just be patient, OK? I’ll handle this>” He takes a few steps toward the console. Dot flicks the air with her fingers, and Lyden’s 3D image—his head, shoulders, and torso with three obvious gills cutting around each of his sides—appears, along with a series of words under his name:
Lyden Wright
State Cryptonics, Classified
Phase Three Candidacy approved: Amphimorphics
Status: Organics not received
“So, big brother torqued off the wrong Frankenstein?” Dot snorts to herself. “I was wondering how long he’d be able to play in that sandbox without getting dirty. Your handiwork?” She gestures to Lyden’s gills.
“He’s not dirty,” Liam says through his teeth. “It’s complicated, and I’m trying to straighten it out, but I need to find my little brother before I can do that, OK? Do you see Liddick in that babble or not?”
Dot waves Liam off and nods.
“All right, all right…zone before you trigger the adrenaline alarms and poof us all back into the cloud,” Dot answers, then nods in my direction. “A girl can never be too careful with tech dogs—pro tip. Do you like my place here, puppies?”
“You made this place?” I ask, still not sure if it’s actually a place at all.
“I wrote and programed the original code…after I had a little help,” Dot answers, raising a quick eyebrow at Liam. She turns back to her display and swipes panel after panel of code with her fingertips. “This place is iteration, oh…four million something, something, and something. My baby’s evolved into such a big, handsome AI system.” She sneaks a wry grin over her shoulder at me. “Don’t you think?”
“Strapping, can you hurry up?” Vox asks, earning a nasty glare from Dot. She’s about to say something when Liddick’s 3D image pulls up. He’s wearing his blue Gaia jumpsuit…it’s his cadet file.
Liddick Wright
Diplomacy path, Cadet Class
Phase Two Candidacy Suspended: Amphimorphics
Status: Private Contract Assignment. LTC: GS.
Authorization 379846 Key 4.
“Phase Two candidacy?” I say under my breath, then turn to Liam. “They were going to take him? They were going to send him to that volcano Gaia no matter what…just like you and Lyden?”
Liam nods, then swallows. “Probably the rest of you too. Where is he now?” he asks Dot. “Who’s the private contract?”
“Must be a high roller for him to have a Long Term Clone standing in for him at Gaia Sur,” Dot says. “See it? LTC: GS? Just like his big brother…how is the good doctor up on the Skyboard hill?” She smiles at him. “Say the word, and I’ll push the button…scatter your doppelgänger to the four winds?”
“Can you please just get the private contract listing?”
Dot rolls her eyes, then looks back to the data display. “I give you some of my best hacking, and you won’t let me blow up their toys.” She flicks away several panels of code. “Oh, not you. Get back here.” Dot reaches far to her left and grabs at the air. A code panel appears in place of the previous one, and she starts nodding. “Huh…Van Spaulding, you dirty old dog.”
“Spaulding!?” I nearly swallow my tongue. “Tieg and Dez…are they?”
“His perfectly engineered prodigies? Yes, along with Zed, Bev, Lief, Leo, and Pitt,” she adds to herself, then spins around. “Want to explain to me how he can order splicing for all those brats, but they send me to Lima for processing the exact same tech? Excuse me very much, Mr. Biotech CEO, if you can’t appreciate a little competition,” she almost shouts.
“Dez’s father is the CEO of Biotech Global?” I hear the words in my own voice, surprised since I was sure I’d only thought them.
“And he seems to have taken an interest in cine tech these days…we’ve got a storyboarder credential here, a port-carnate override key, and even a little hab overlooking the Milky Way under the name Ludwig Sprague…how lovely,” Dot adds, tapping away again at the code panel. “I’ll download it all for you—then you need to take his stink out of my hub.”
“Dez and Tieg’s father did this? He took Liddick?” I can’t make it stick in my head. “Why?”
“That’s my question too. Why did he want that server reset, and why is he still keeping Liddick?” Liam asks the ground, then sobers abruptly and trains his eyes on Dot. “Where’s the hab?”
CHAPTER 10
Piranha Wind
Arco
“What is this place?” I ask, watching the black glass slabs below expand around us.
“It’s The Seam’s o
utpost hub…we like to call it The Hole in the Sky,” Tark says. “The magnetic field from the volcanic slabs disrupts the field scans, so it’s invisible to The State or anyone else looking for trouble.” A second later, another little Sojourner vessel glides into our path at the other end of what is quickly becoming a tunnel. A slab of volcanic rock slides into place behind the other craft, then another behind us until we’re completely enclosed by it.
“So, The Seam built this place?”
“No, we just found it…by spectacular accident.” Tark chuckles.
“You almost crashed into it too?” Tark makes a clicking sound with his mouth and sends me a wink.
“Spectacularly.”
I start to laugh but swallow it just as another pilot kills his starboard lights and switches on the hull floods. I squint and do the same. After the initial blast of light, a soft glow bounces off the slick, black walls. Tark stands up and motions for me to follow him.
We move toward the airlock, and I scan the area for a helmet. Tark keeps walking.
“Hey! You’re just going to walk out there?” I ask
“The field is contained, Mr. Hart.” Tark cocks an eyebrow as if to tell me this isn’t his first time on a spaceship because, hey, we do this every day. Crite…
The airlock doors open, and the air is noticeably thinner—like altitude simulation training back at Gaia Sur. My lungs squeeze, and I remind myself to take shallow breaths so I don’t start hyperventilating. The door to the other vessel opens in the distance, and a very tall, very slim, very pale man walks toward us. Instantly, the virtuo-cine back at The Seam building flashes through my head…the Transcendents with their long limbs and pale skin.
“What the—?” I start, but then suck it back in before I say something stupid.
“Look familiar, Mr. Hart?” Tark asks like he’s reading my mind, and both he and the tall, pale man laugh.
“Like it?” The man holds out his unnaturally long arms to his sides, then pats his face with one of his hands. “Dr. Cave—best in Admin City if you’re ever in the market for concepting. Tell him Fargo sent you.”
“Uh, that’s—you’re…engineered?” I stutter, then bite the inside of my lip before I ask more questions with obvious answers.
“Naturally!” the man says through a guffaw. “Heh! Filter what I said there? Naturally? Only it’s anything but? Get it?” He laughs again, and I look around, waiting for someone to jump out and say this is all some kind of joke. I close my eyes in a long blink, then turn to Tark.
“Does he have what we need?”
Tark cinches his composure back into place, then crosses to the lanky man and slaps him on the back. Dust puffs from the man’s white jumpsuit and dissipates in a scatter of glinting particles.
“Careful, it’s a loaner!” The man snorts, cracking himself up all over again.
Is this happening? I think. Maybe I never really got out of that virtuo-cine chair.
“Tell Cave he does good work. Briggs would be proud.”
“Briggs Denison?” I ask, cutting an eye at Tark.
“You’re a Gaia grad?” The tall man’s eyes flash to me, and I mean they literally flash a white-blue light that makes me stumble back. The man laughs. “Sorry, sorry! Just had that installed. Triggered by adrenaline levels. The ladies love interactive tech, you know?” He elbows Tark.
I blow out a breath, exhausted by all this.
“You have something we need, apparently?” I ask, hoping my tone pushes this whole idiotic thing back into some semblance of sanity. Tark grins at me, then turns back to the man.
“This is Morris Fargo,” he says, extending an arm to the cine character.
I raise two fingers to my forehead, then let them drop without fanfare. “Nice to meet you.”
“So, building some piranha wind, eh?” Fargo asks us conspiratorially, taking a flat, white box from his pocket and sliding it through the air to Tark. I do a double take, watching it just sail over to him in slow motion like it’s on an invisible conveyor belt. He takes it, flipping the lid back with one thumb. I can’t see the contents from here, but whatever is inside seems to be impressive. Tark nods, then flashes Fargo a big, white smile.
“Just a little one. What’s the density report?” he asks.
“The absolute thinnest blanket coordinates are embedded in those chips,” Fargo says, lifting his chin to the little box he just gave Tark. “Just let them do their thing, and try to keep up. Should only be just a few clicks from here, if you want to get into position as best you can.”
“Are they masked?” Tark asks, studying whatever is in the box again.
“Only from my personal obsidian reservoir—would I give you live wires? I’m hurt, Skull.”
I cross to Tark, fresh out of patience for trying to put the pieces of their conversation together. I stare into the box in his palm and see three black squares, shiny and textured like the walls, floor, and ceiling in whatever this enclosed hub is.
“Nice doing business with you, Fargo,” Tark says. “As always.”
Fargo makes a clicking sound with his mouth a few times, then turns to get back into his Sojourner.
“Nice not seeing you today, Skull…” he says over his shoulder, then waits, raising a white eyebrow.
“Copy that. Never a pleasure…” Tark nods, then laughs a low, graveled laugh from somewhere in his chest. He closes the box as he slips it into his jumpsuit pocket, then slaps me on the shoulder. “Let’s get this back to Ripley and his son.”
“You going to tell me what this is first? And what that was all about? Why do you need a density report on those chips?”
Tark nods to the air in front of us as we make our way back to our craft. “Because the thinner they are, the harder they will be to trace when we use them to make a hole in that port-cloud barrier. It won’t take as long for them to fuse with the atoms and reprogram them.”
“That’s an organic barrier…these chips are embedded with assassin code?”
“Well, good to see you were paying attention in class, Mr. Hart. Yes, that’s what’s on them.”
“And…that’s illegal.”
“Well, not outside of A-sym patches for cannibalizing damaged cells, but hey, that’s why they’re masked.” Tark looks at me again like he’s waiting for me to catch up.
“I assume you have a plan for deflecting the gaping hole you plan to make in the port-cloud with these then?”
“We won’t actually be leaving a hole,” he says, opening the hatch to our Sojourner. “The zephyr will occupy the space it leaves after consuming the organic matter in the barrier, just like an A-sym patch. It will simply shift to mirror the rest of the cloud.”
“Do you actually think it’s going to stop at eating just a little hole?”
“It will if Ripley and his son do their job right,” Tark answers as the door seals behind us.
“Where did you go?” Avis asks, nearly running into us when we get back on deck. “You went through the airlock, and the front window just went black.”
“Fargo must have launched a security barrier.” Tark half-laughs. “Can’t be too careful up here.”
“Did you get it?” Calyx asks, ascending the mesh stairs that go below deck.
“We got it—take these to Ripley and tell him what we need…he can build on the Wraith. Get everyone else locked down so we can launch.”
Calyx nods, taking the little box from Tark before she heads back down the steps. Eco moves out of his seat so Tark can sit in it, and I get back into mine.
“All right, what are the coordinates for that Slide place?” I ask, but Tark doesn’t answer me. He just starts pushing buttons. “We need to get Vox and Jazz out of there. That’s no place for them to be—for anyone to be.”
“Liam won’t let anything happen to them,” is all Tark says after several impossible seconds. I start to protest, but the Sojourner fires forward and forces the words back down my throat. I press my teeth together and start punching in an all-s
top code, but nothing registers on my console.
“Did you disable my controls? Six, seven, nine…Hart, Arco; initiate operations sequence,” I say.
“Authorization denied,” a female voice says from…everywhere.
“Are you split!? We can’t leave them there!” I yell once I realize what Tark is trying to pull. I punch more sequences into my console, which only activates the stupid computer voice again.
“Authorization denied…authorization den—“
“All right!” I shout, then push back from the console and try to take a deep breath. What are the odds this will be OK? What are the odds anything will be OK in a prison hub with Liam Wright… I think, and immediately numbers and signs I don’t recognize storm into the corner of my vision. “What is this?” I say out loud, pushing the heels of my hands into my eyes, which only makes the numbers and symbols flood everywhere. “What is this?”
“Running probabilities on your chances of knocking me out of this chair? Don’t waste brain cells, Mr. Hart—this rig won’t respond to you without my authorization.” Tark laughs to himself, and I just feel heat…violence in every cell in my body.
“Something is wrong. I’m getting Arwyn and Fraya,” Avis says from behind me somewhere. I hear Ellis right in front of me a second later.
“Hart—take your hands down and look straight ahead,” he says, his cold fingers wrapping around my wrists. “Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, or you’re going to seize. Do it now,” he says, and I try to listen to him. I snap my teeth together again and force the exhale through them, but it doesn’t offset the acid in my lungs or the throbbing that has just started behind my eyes. Is this what it feels like to want to kill someone?
But then I see a flash of Jazz in a white room with the back end cut off, like half of it is just hanging in space. She’s with Vox and Liam, and some green-haired woman in a white jumpsuit. “Is that the Slide? Where are the prisoners?” I hear myself ask.
“Ah, you see them now! I told you, they’re all right. Liam has it under control,” Tark says, which makes the image of Jazz and the others fade into another tornado of numbers and symbols. I feel the acid explode in my chest again, shooting through my arms and into the veins in my hands. I will kill him, I think, then push to my feet, even though I can’t see anything but these stupid numbers!