by Mark New
Jason smiled. ‘Whatever you’d like to be, I’m sure that’s fine with us.’ Catz snickered. Becky put her head in her hands.
‘Seriously?’ It was news to Guinevere as well. Good. I was through playing.
‘Brigadier John Harvard, Commanding Officer, United Nations Special Investigations,’ I said quietly. ‘And it’s not so much of a breakthrough in the case as having solved it outright.’
If ever a silence could be said to reek with consternation, this was it. Of course with the room dark none of their external Online links would work and probably only Peter would have the clout to check my credentials anyway.
‘When you say “solved it”?’ George let the question hang.
‘I mean that I know who has the codes, I know why, and I know who is going to receive the ransom shortly.’
‘That’s very clever of you,’ Jason said in tone that suggested that he thought the opposite. ‘Why don’t you enlighten us?’
‘Certainly. First a question.’
‘Oh for God’s sake,’ Becky muttered. I noted with amusement that her opinion of me hadn’t changed much even though she’d previously thought I was up to something. Only Taylor sat virtually unmoved.
‘By all means,’ Jason replied, spreading his hands wide.
‘How’s business?’ I asked, still in the same quiet voice.
Jason looked at George and then back at me. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Seems simple enough to me. Is Argonaut raking in profits hand over fist? Are you going to buy a new trans-orbital and a few other toys out of the profits?’
‘You know full well that Argonaut is a global corporation and a major player in tech and ancillary markets so what’s your point?’ George wanted to know.
‘So business is good, then?’
‘Why are we wasting our time with this shit?’ George asked the room generally.
‘Yes, Jason,’ I said, ‘why don’t you tell him why we’re wasting our time with this shit?’
Jason shrugged. ‘I haven’t the faintest idea. You called the meeting, why don’t you tell us?’
‘OK.’ I took out my slimpad and swiped a file to George’s table inset. Internal comms weren’t prevented by the dark protection and I’d loaded the slimpad from my implants before entering. It bleeped on arrival and George leaned forward to look.
‘What the hell is this?’
‘Argonaut’s balance sheet,’ I said simply. ‘Shall we all have a look?’ I swiped in several directions and everyone’s table inlay lit up. All except Jason studied it. ‘Not interested?’ I goaded him. He just smiled.
‘Where did you get this?’ Becky asked.
‘From a trusted source. I believe you’ll find it’s authentic if a bit basic. Still, it tells you want you need to know.’
‘Like hell,’ George objected. ‘This says Argonaut is bankrupt.’
‘Oh dear, does it?’ I sympathised.
George looked at Jason. ‘This isn’t right, is it?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Internal comms work, George,’ I jogged his memory, ‘why don’t you check it?’
‘I think the Field Marshal has exceeded his quota of eccentricity,’ Jason said smoothly, half rising from his chair, ‘shall we adjourn?’ It took him a moment to realise that he didn’t have the ear of the room. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked George who was busy at the table. George’s fingers were flicking data across his display. I was right not to have underestimated him, I noted with satisfaction.
‘What the fuck?’ Clearly George was making some progress with his assessment of the evidence.
‘You aren’t going to check, surely? You know how Mister Harvard can be eccentric. ’ Jason appealed to his brother.
‘Oh,’ I decided to be helpful, ‘if you’d looked more closely at the balance sheet, Jason, you’d see that it contains the password to the hidden accounts. You know, the ones based on reality as opposed to the public version that you use for shareholders and the authorities.’
Peter looked up from the inset with a frown. ‘Are you really a brigadier?’ Clearly he wasn’t ruling it out.
I smiled sweetly. ‘Ask the federal agencies who are on their way here to arrest some bad guys.’ Peter raised his eyebrows.
‘Jason? What have you done?’ George appeared to be reaching a conclusion.
I looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. ‘If you were the head of a global corporation that was losing money by the shed-load and you had been covering it up for years, wouldn’t a windfall of a few billion dollars help enormously to cover your tracks? You could either take it and run or pay it into the company coffers so nobody ever knew about your spending habits. Hmmm. I wonder which I’d do?’
‘Jason?’ George looked horrified.
To his credit, Jason didn’t try to bluff it out and nor did he try to excuse his actions. All he said was ‘It seemed a good idea at the time.’ I think, in his own way, he was as much of a sociopath as Ambrosia.
‘You stole the codes?’ Becky asked him, disbelievingly. She was a gifted analyst but she had a tendency to trust people a little too much. She should have learned from her time with me.
‘Not the sort of thing you can do on your own,’ I suggested.
‘So, the ransom?’ Peter turned to me.
‘It’ll go through a million laundering accounts till it gets to where Jason and his associate can get at it. Won’t it, Mr Catz?’ The second name on Ambrosia’s list. Difficult to steal codes without the assistance of the man paid to guard them with his life. Catz said nothing but exchanged a glance with Jason.
‘So there’s no issue with the weaponised nanotech being released? It was all a bluff for the money?’ I nearly applauded George for ignoring the money and recognising what was important.
‘So far as these bad boys are concerned. Unfortunately, their partner-in-crime intends to release the nanotech when the ransom is paid. Sort of a ‘take that’ to her erstwhile fellow plotters, you see.’
Becky looked alarmed. ‘So what do we do? Can we stop it?’
‘I don’t know.’ I was watching Jason who showed no outward sign of concern. In my field of vision, Catz looked a little more agitated, ‘but we have half an hour or so and the authorities are on the way. We might be able to do something. Let’s see.’
I stood up slowly and went over to the doors behind me. I shut off the seal and pulled on the door handles. They were locked tight.
A female voice came from the room itself. ‘I’m sorry, John. I can’t let you do that.’ It was The Ambrosia Promise speaking from her hiding place; the Argonaut mainframe. She had assumed control of the doors and probably everything else in the building. I turned around and saw Jason nod at Catz.
‘Hello Ambrosia,’ I greeted her. This time I saw Jason frown. Ambrosia hadn’t told him that she and I were on speaking terms.
‘Who is that?’ George asked me, totally ignoring Jason.
‘That’s Ambrosia. She’s an Online entity who has been working with your brother and Mr Catz. They were after money and she was after, well, the end of humanity.’ George looked disbelieving. I couldn’t say I blamed him.
‘I liked you calling me a trusted source,’ Ambrosia told me.
Catz rose from his chair and backed up a little. From behind his back he drew a snub-nosed automatic mini machine pistol and pointed it at the centre of the table so he could cover everyone.
‘This isn’t quite over yet,’ remarked Jason, ‘despite Harvard’s misplaced confidence.’
‘It will be in about twenty-five minutes,’ Ambrosia giggled. Jason ignored her.
‘For God’s sake Jason, you can’t let anyone release the tech!’ George begged. ‘You’ll kill everyone on the planet!’
‘I don’t think it will come to that,’ Jason soothed him.
‘Says you,’ Ambrosia said.
Becky finally recovered enough of her composure to speak. ‘Jennifer?’
‘Hi Becky,’ Ambrosia said brig
htly. ‘Sorry about the deception.’
Becky looked confused so I helped her catch up. ‘Your Online friend Jennifer is really Ambrosia who is the third player in this game.’
‘What?’
‘Been using your virtual real estate as her secret base.’ I couldn’t resist it: ‘Makes you an accessory, probably.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Jase, tell Catz to put the gun down,’ George told Jason.
‘I doubt that would be helpful,’ Jason demurred. Amid general consternation, everyone was careful not to make any sudden moves that might provoke Catz. Except me, obviously.
‘The authorities will be here by now. They’re probably outside.’ I tried the door again. It was still locked - as I knew it would be - but my actions achieved the desired result as Catz swung the little barrel and pointed it directly at me.
‘You could have someone’s eye out with that,’ I said conversationally. He smirked but didn’t take his eyes off me for a second. It was the death of him.
He had no time even to register surprise as his throat exploded in a shower of red and the round from the flesch gun, on an upward trajectory, ripped through his brain stem. He crumpled to the floor, dead before he hit it.
Peter reversed his chair slightly to avoid the growing puddle of Catz. Everyone else, too stunned to move - even the previously unperturbed Jason - was looking with shocked expressions at Taylor who sat pointing the flesch gun at Jason.
‘Nice shot,’ I congratulated her.
‘It pulls slightly to the left,’ she complained. ‘Still, no harm done.’
‘That’s not entirely true,’ I commented, looking over at Catz’s lifeless body. ‘Mr Catz might disagree. You weren’t worried he’d still get a shot off?’ He’d been pointing the business end at me, after all.
‘You can thank Jason for hiring a professional. He had his finger on the guard and not the trigger. As soon as he shifted the barrel I had time to draw.’
‘What the hell is going on?’ demanded George, carefully avoiding sudden moves.
‘Jason and Catz in cahoots to extort a mighty ransom from the UN; their accomplice intends to use the nanotech weapons to wipe out humankind and your PA works for me. Any questions?’
‘She works for...?’ Seriously? That was his most important issue from the explanation? Perhaps he remembered putting his cat out this morning.
‘Not quite,’ Taylor put in. ‘I’m a UN agent and, assuming the brigadier was telling the truth, he would appear to be my commanding officer.’
‘I gave you a gun, didn’t I?’ I had secretly passed Taylor the flesch gun when I was ostensibly patting her on the back as we entered. Right after she started whispering to me that she was working for the UN, not realising that I already knew.
‘You might want to keep your hands face down on the table,’ Taylor said to Jason as he attempted to reach into his long jacket. He hastily complied.
‘You’re UN?’ Peter asked Taylor. I guess Sir Edward wasn’t as talkative with him as he was with me.
‘And older than she looks,’ I said ungallantly. Without taking her eyes off Jason, Taylor stuck her tongue out at me. I’d seen her file so I knew.
‘How did you know?’ she asked, like the world wasn’t about to end. I rattled off a brief explanation.
‘That night we had dinner you listed the vir-movies you’d been in. I looked them up and recognised the production company as a cover the UN sometimes use. I’ve been in the business a long time, you know. I concluded you were likely an agent - a fact I verified from my own sources. Your file gave your age so I’m guessing three rejuvs?’
‘Just the two.’
I saw George look at her more closely. He’d thought he was seducing his young PA. She was at least his age and possibly a little older. I gave up on the mental arithmetic needed to work it out. We had more pressing business.
‘That was a fun little victory, Ambrosia. Thank you,’ I said politely.
‘I’m glad you liked it,’ came the reply. ‘It’s really been good knowing you. I don’t suppose that you found out anything about my problem?’
‘Sadly, no. It’s been a bit non-stop since I saw you. I’ll tell you what, though, I intend to have a long holiday and after that, if you still want me to look into it, I will.’
‘That’s kind but your long holiday isn’t going to last more than about five minutes.’
‘Because you’re going to release the nano weapons early?’
‘Obviously.’
I took a deep breath. This was going to be the tricky bit. ‘Get ready,’ I sent to Guinevere, then to Ambrosia: ‘I’m really sorry, Ambrosia, but I have some bad news for you.’
‘Oh, what might that be?’ she didn’t sound concerned which was a shame as it might have softened the blow.
‘I assume you can see into the room?’
‘Yes. I’m accessing the cameras.’ There must have been some hidden ones as they weren’t immediately obvious.
‘Ambrosia, tell me: does Jason look worried to you?’
Jason, still sitting with his hands face down on the table looked the very essence of unconcern. And I knew why.
‘No, but then he never does,’ she was a little puzzled now.
‘Don’t you think he would if he thought he was about to die?’
‘Probably not. He’s not really a people-person.’ I had to smile. Out of the mouths of babes and psychopathic Online entities.
‘He’s not a very good co-conspirator either. In fact, both of you fail that test. You think you’re double-crossing him by releasing the nanotech despite your arrangement but he’s double-crossed you right back.’
‘If this is getting us somewhere, you might want to hurry it up, John. There’s only a couple of minutes left.’ She didn’t sound quite as sure this time.
‘I have all the time in the world,’ I said sadly, ‘because there isn’t any nanotech weapon.’
All eyes except those of Taylor swung to stare at me.
‘What?’ George was astonished. I had been pretty convinced that he didn’t know and that confirmed it.
‘What do you mean, John?’ Ambrosia was a little agitated now.
‘You aren’t the first person Jason has taken for a ride. A few years ago he did the same to the UN. He took the money to develop and secure the nanotech weapons and never actually produced any. Much more fun to spend the money, you see.’
‘But there’s a facility in New Mexico...!’ George protested.
‘...that contains precisely nothing,’ I said flatly. It took a hunch of mine followed up at serious risk to himself by Sir Bors to verify it but it was true. The New Mexico facility - at least the supposed secure lab part of it - had never had anything in it.
‘But I visited the lab only a few weeks ago,’ George wasn’t going to let it go.
‘They dressed you in a hazmat suit and showed you a storage facility in a lab with lots of dry ice.’ I was guessing but it was an informed guess; Sir Bors had retrieved the actual pedestrian traffic records. ‘I’m sure you were very impressed with security but, sorry George, you wouldn’t recognise weaponised nanotech if it made you a sandwich. It was all fake.’
‘You’re mistaken,’ Ambrosia was seriously upset now, ‘as you’re about to find out. I’m releasing the codes.’
‘Releasing them to the thirty TAGs Jason gave you,’ I was still quite sad about having to be the one to tell her, however broken she was. ‘Which relate to non-existent people.’
‘Liar! I stole those TAGs for him!’
‘Yes, you did. And I checked with the UN that they had verified that the Namibian government destroyed them. That’s why I was suspicious when I saw the record of foot traffic in and out of the lab in New Mexico. There was never anyone there, they just falsified the records using TAGs they thought were legitimate. I’ve seen the real records. Nobody could have used those TAGs to take out a library book.’
‘You’re wrong - the nanotech has been released.’
<
br /> I sighed. ‘I expect you’re monitoring externally. How’s the end of the world going?’
There was a silence.
‘Jason?’ there was cold fury in her voice. Ambrosia had just discovered that Armageddon was postponed.
‘I’ll get a few years in a comfortable jail,’ he was addressing me rather than Ambrosia. ‘My creative abilities are too valuable to waste so I expect I’ll get to work for the government while I’m in there.’ He didn’t seem very concerned.
‘You betrayed me!’ Ambrosia was incandescent with rage. Without warning, the lights dimmed and flickered and then burned more brightly.
‘Now,’ I said urgently to Guinevere. I felt her leave the comms bot in a real hurry.
‘I’ll kill you!’ Ambrosia was still screaming. The lights went down completely and the room was bathed only in the glow of the insets on the table. There was a shower of sparks at the far end of the table, right under where Jason’s hands were flat on the surface. He grimaced and tried to pull back but he was far too late. Ambrosia’s ferocity overloaded his station and the reinforced safety slimglass shattered with the force, cutting into him and showering George to Jason’s right. George reeled back to avoid the worst of it. Everyone but Jason hurriedly pushed back from the table but he had been leaning forward on it and had no chance to disengage. The slimglass itself would only have done moderate damage to him but Ambrosia had shifted all available power into the workstation to press home the attack, her favoured method of using tech against the victim: an arc of electricity from the shorted circuits engulfed Jason, electrocuting him instantly. His body convulsed horribly and the room plunged into total darkness. We all heard the thud as Jason collapsed forwards onto the table. There was an eerie momentary silence.
As the emergency lighting came on Ambrosia said in a puzzled tone, shorn of the fury: ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Shh. It’ll be fine. You need to come with me.’ It was Guinevere. She had used the chaos as cover to enter the Argonaut mainframe and from there had opened the door to the rest of Avalon Red. My implants signalled that the room was no longer dark. I could monitor the law enforcement traffic as well as the standard Online access. A lot of emergency services activity was centred on the Argonaut building.