by Zara Zenia
My ears picked up the sounds of other feet scurrying through the streets. Someone followed Cat. I tore off my wrist band and tossed it to her. The corrupt thing probably had a hand in linking Peri to me, and I’d had enough.
“I’ve got to go, darling, but I will be in touch. We haven’t finished our dance yet.”
After blowing a kiss to my sweet angel, I turned and ran into the night.
Chapter 6
Cat
While waiting for the ax to fall, I sat at my desk, attempting to tease out precisely what Akrawn did to my AI. The damnable alien prince’s smiling image stared back at me from my computer screen as I accessed Peri’s program, a little “gift” from the rogue. If Peri could track him because of Akrawn’s hacks, then the next time he accessed her, I could get a fix on him.
If I still had a job.
Damn it, why did I freeze when he ran off? And why did David have to witness it? He was supposed to be on the way to Franklin Square, but followed me without my knowledge when I got an alarm that someone broke into my apartment. I was ticked at him for doing so, but I supposed, after my performance in the nightclub he had every right to be suspicious. We might be de facto partners, but it’s times like these that remind me he works for the ILE and not the SFPD. Here in San Fran, we had our fellow officers’ back, but David was true blue ILE. It was stupid of me to forget that.
The image of Akrawn winked at me.
“Stop that!” I groused at the screen as if my AI could hear me, which Peri couldn’t. I had her in AI quarantine, cut off from all input or output except for my probes into her programming.
The computer Akrawn blew me a kiss, and I swore when I got my hands on tall, dark and smirky, I would bash that crooked grin off his face.
Get ahold of yourself, O’Shea. You have a job to do.
That sneaky alien must have spiked my drink, because why else had I put my career, not to mention promotion, at risk by my stupid behavior last night?
Sweat beaded on my brow. I should dream up good reasons why an ambitious SFPD Inspector kissed her suspect.
Ricci entered the open plan work-area, and I snapped out of my stupor to get back on task to reprogram Peri. A headache grew behind my eyes. What had Akrawn discovered from sabotaging Peri? I needed David here to help me repair Peri, but he was at the ILE this morning to debrief them. I sighed. It didn’t matter what Akrawn was unearthing about me while Peri was under his control, I had to limit my time at SFPD to a handful of hours tops.
And to confirm my anxious thoughts, Ricci snuck up behind me, clapped me on the back causing me to stat. “Boy, Catwoman, you sure go all out for the call of duty, don’t you?”
“What the hell do you know, Ricci?” My voice was a snarl, and the fleeting thought crossed my mind that if I couldn’t smack Akrawn, a smart-ass coworker would do.
Ricci snorted with laughter and retreated to her desk before I could either speak or knock her teeth in.
I gritted my teeth and ignored her.
I fiddled with Peri’s programming while a pair of sometimes emerald sometimes golden eyes haunted me. Someone brought in cinnamon donuts, and the scent almost brought me to tears.
I don’t understand this. I need Akrawn, and the want of him sang through my blood like a siren’s song. Unmentionable parts of my body tingled at the thought of his hunky body. When those eyes faded in on the screen, I wanted to reach out and kiss a face that wasn’t there. What the hell? Did the Trilyn have some freaky pheromone thing going on? Was that how they hoped to convince the women of Earth to crawl into their beds to make tons of baby Trilyn to replenish their race? If that were so, then someone needed to report them to Earth authorities and have them declared an endangered exotic species and keep them off Earth.
I wish I’d never met Akrawn. Except for the fact, I wanted to be in his arms right now.
My computer flashed to show Chief Brontsen’s face. “O’Shea, in my office, pronto.”
With head held high and not daring to look any of my colleagues in the eyes, I strode to my destiny. As I paused at Brontsen’s door, I straightened my suit jacket and took three deep breaths.
Okay, Cat, be brave, be stoic, and worry about what comes next afterward.
Then I knocked.
“Come.”
Deep concentration on his screen made the Chief seem even more imposing than he was during briefing sessions. I dared not sit until invited, so I stood several paces in front of his large wooden desk and refused to fidget. Dawn’s light streamed in through the expanse of glass behind Brontsen, and tiny beads of sweat prickled my brow.
Captain Brontsen kept his head down until he said, “Sorry, sit, O’Shea.”
I sat as he signed his name via the touch screen.
“The brass wanted this report yesterday.”
Next, the Chief’s computer rang with an internet call. Naturally, Brontsen took it while I listened perched on my chair and refusing to indulge in chewing my lower lip.
“Right. I agree it's a sensitive situation. I'm dealing with it now. Yes, she’s in my office. Good.”
When the Chief clicked off the call, my mind went numb. Brontsen ran his hands over his hair and at last, looked up and smiled. I nearly fell off my chair.
“Damn fine work, Inspector O’Shea. That was the commander of North American ILE. David briefed them, and after running various simulations to forecast the prince’s behavior, they concluded you could give us a chance at capturing the devil.”
What? Did he compliment me? I still had my job? Somehow, I kept my mouth from falling open. I willed lower and upper lips shut until the Chief permitted me to speak.
Brontsen steepled his hands together and continued, “David said you ad-libbed to stall for time and allow the Special Forces to enter and apprehend Akrawn. Just too damn bad they weren’t faster. Still, the ILE concludes that Akrawn focused on you, so they suggest you continue to play him. Pretend an interest and get us his hideaway’s location. Damn fine work, Inspector, thinking on your feet to turn the alien prince’s obsession with sex against him. This is strictly volunteer. No one will think less of you if you decline.”
“No, I mean, yes. I’ll do whatever it takes to bring him into custody.”
“Excellent, then get at it. Dismissed, Inspector.”
I focused on my breath as I collapsed against the wall otuside the Chiefs office and relief broke over me like a wave. I still had my job! And the Chief had even commended me.
Okay, Cat, don’t waste your reprieve. Turn this mess about, get your man.
But what are you going to do concerning your school-girlish infatuation?
Ignore it. You are a grown woman with a clever mind and a brilliant career in front of you.
I returned to my desk with my head held as high as when I walked in the opposite direction. Although this time, I let a smile lurk at the edges of my mouth and looked confidently at any of my colleagues who dared stare at me as I passed. David was still not back from the ILE, so I resumed tackling Peri’s programming by myself. The guys in IT might help, but I wanted to see what Akrawn had done and show David the code when he returned. My partner was far more of a tech genius than any of our IT guys. Also, I had a deep niggling in my gut that somewhere in this mess of code lay a personal message from Akrawn. Would I show David that? I wasn’t sure yet, I just wanted to find it before David arrived.
I pulled Akrawn’s wristband from my pocket and wondered if I should open his AI program too. I didn’t understand why he ditched it, but he appeared to be casting off a nasty insect when he did. I should give this thing to the tech guys, but Akrawn’s scent clung to it, and I couldn’t bear the thought of parting with it.
Cursing, I stuck it back into my jeans pocket. The sneaky alien did something to me. It must be some chemical warfare, only designed to make a woman melt into her panties. No wonder so many women threw themselves at the Trilyn princes.
Line by line I trawled through the code as I had earlier, but this time m
y focus was sharper. I put on earbuds and played music by the group Temporary Dawn and hummed along. The first string I found with alterations, I highlighted and continued.
Wow, that alien was one master-mind. Not that I could decipher all the new code. I was brilliant, David was a genius, but Akrawn was beyond anything us Earthers could create. Grudging respect turned slowly to anger as I found tampering in line after line in Peri’s deep core. I had to wonder if Peri would be the same Peri when I rebooted it. Had Akrawn had his way as effortlessly with Peri as he had with me? Were we both left forever altered by Akrawn?
The headache worsened, and I massaged my neck. Some code I read with little trouble and recognized that Akrawn had stripped Peri of redundancies and streamlined and tightened its code. Peri would be faster, more powerful, and less likely to glitch. Many of the alterations didn’t resemble the malware I expected.
The more I dove into the ones and zeroes, the more my grudging admiration morphed into righteous anger. Those alterations should be for me to decide upon, not this arrogant, cunning, devious, manipulative—I ground my teeth—hunk of man.
But, what did Akrawn hope to achieve by empowering my AI?
A bitter taste spread through my mouth. Damn Akrawn! He was showing off, that’s why. The prince wanted me to know that whatever my efforts were, they would never be good enough to get over on him. He was a devious scheming being who manipulated all around him to get what he wanted.
But I would best him, by turning the tables on him.
“Wow,” said a voice behind me, Ricci, “is all that highlighting stuff the prince did to your AI?”
I pulled my earbuds out. “Yep,” I replied tersely.
“Can you understand this? Looks like total gobbledygook, not that I can identify one end of app code from the other.”
I refrained from snapping. Ricci, while a decent detective, didn’t have coding skills.
“Enough to get an idea of what the prince has done.”
“What’s he done, then?”
“See this string, here? And this one, and these? Together they gift Peri facility to connect with—I’m guessing here—alien computer tech.”
“Whoa there! Wipe it, Cat, get rid of it immediately. Akrawn’s got our office bugged through Peri.”
“Calm yourself, Ricci. Peri is not active, so it won’t connect with any alien tech until I turn it on.”
“But you’re gonna wipe it first, aren’t you, before booting Peri up?”
I raked my fingers through my hair, which I’d let escape from its habitual bun when my headache grew. “Well, I’ll show David first, but I wonder if we can turn this to our advantage.”
“You’re either a genius or an idiot, Catwoman. How did the prince crack through Peri’s defenses?”
“Don’t know, but Akrawn’s an inventor, and a genius, even when compared to his brothers, let alone us mere Earthers.”
“Well, good luck with the case. Glad it’s not mine. What did the Chief say to you about it, anyway?”
Heat flushed through my cheeks thinking of the chief’s orders to get closer to Akrawn, but I managed a straight face.
“That’s on a need to know basis, Ricci,” I said. My voice carried a threat not to continue the conversation.
Muttering, Ricci slunk back to her desk.
Refocusing on my screen, the string of code I’d pointed out to Ricci stared back at me and hit me. It was as if Akrawn had gifted me an ‘in’ into finding him. He had. I slapped my forehead with the heel of my hand. Duh! I just hadn’t expected him to improve Peri at the same time while facilitating the SFPD’s hunt for him. He must be super sure I wasn’t the going-in-guns-blazing sort who would worry about the due process of the law after the fact.
So what should I do now? Turn Peri on to see if it would connect with Akrawn? But why didn’t Akrawn email me, or at the least leave a message under my doormat? Either of my addresses weren’t that difficult to obtain.
My brain was fuzzy from thinking through so much code, and I remembered I didn’t have coffee this morning. My stomach couldn’t bear the thought of sludge in the break room.
Coffee! Get coffee first and then call David to see how far away he is.
The cafe across the road served decent coffee, and I deemed my brain needed all the help it could get. When I returned, David was sitting behind my desk, scrolling through Peri’s new programming.
“Cat, these code changes are mind-blowing.”
“I guessed, even deciphering less than half, that he’s a wizard. Any of it unsafe?”
“All!”
“How’s that? His software tidying doesn’t look malicious.”
“He’s an alien, Cat. I distrust all of his programming.”
“But, doesn’t this just look the same as what you or I’d do?”
“Perhaps.”
“I mean, I get that these here are suspicious.” I scrolled down to show him the strings I’d shown Ricci.
“Damn straight, they are.”
“But David—”
“Look Cat, the Trilyn are experts in quantum computing and use code none of us understand. I suspect he has made Peri compatible with Trilyn apps which means he’s integrated Trilyn code we can’t detect to add, qualify or mute. Their AIs are off the charts above anything we can produce. Their integrated neural networks use parallel processing, interactive real-time computing. And Akrawn—”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, he’s a Trilyn genius among geniuses. So how are we going to know what he’s done?”
I pulled David’s empty chair around to my side of the desk and plonked down next to my partner.
David kept scrolling back and forth and comparing the code with a Peri backup code I’d saved months earlier. He paused at one rather strange series of squiggles. “And this string here, it’s Trilyn, and I’m ninety percent sure it links Peri to the alien’s main AI.”
“Yeah, their separate quantum network. I wondered if that might be the case. The question is, do we play Akrawn’s game and catch him out with his tricks?”
“As my Chief told yours, the behavioral tests I ran on Akrawn back at the ILE San Francisco building show that we can. But Cat, the question is, can you?”
There was a hard edge to David, which I rarely saw. I screwed up last night, and his eyes betrayed he lost confidence in me. I swallowed and bit my lower lip. Took a deep breath and then looked up into my ersatz partner’s eyes with a ferocity of purpose.
“The prince twisting me about for his amusement makes me mad as hell. And no way am I going to let that alien destroy my career. I promise you.”
“Cat, you’re amazing and ILE material. I want to see you there where your talents can shine to their full potential. We both know you’re wasted here.”
“David, I’ve told you.”
“Yeah, I know. Your heart belongs in San Francisco.”
He sighed. “So I gather you are thinking what I’m thinking? We reboot Peri now, and see if the Prince contacts you. You ready?”
“Let’s do it.”
David scrolled once more through the code, then pressed activate.
“Hello, Cat. Hello, David. What may I do for you?”
David took control and asked, “Peri, where is the alien Prince Akrawn? Has he given you a message for us?”
“Akrawn sends Cat his regards and has provided me with a video, which he made earlier in the day at a location which he has left. He asks if you wish to play the video, or he can net-chat with you through me, now.”
“Net-chat,” said David with brusque finality.
Typed words appeared on the screen: Cat, thank you for a divine dance last night.
Crap! Why did Akrawn have to throw that in my face again? My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. I tried not to glance at David, though from the corners of my eyes I could tell he was glaring.
More writing followed. I hope my escape didn’t get you into trouble. My research shows you are one of the brightest Inspectors the SFPD have. I a
m keen to meet with you in person to discuss my predicament and a solution that might work for all sides. Are you willing? Please, bring no friends.
“Peri,” said David taking command, which pissed me off, even though I deserved David’s continued anger and mistrust. “Peri, please reply, I relished our dance, and am delighted to meet you again in person and get to know you better. Do you have a location in mind?”
“What the eff, David, that sounds like I’m coming on to him. Let me reply for myself.” My cheeks had once more lost their glow. I was stone-cold angry, now.
“Sorry for taking over, but I doubted you’d want to lead him on in front of me. Believe me, according to my predictive app, we need to play this guy all the way. These princes lap up women who fall for them hook, line, and sinker. Akrawn needs to be confident you are drooling for him.”
While we were arguing, more text had appeared: Please give me a couple more hours to set up a safe location. I will be in touch. Au revoir, ma belle. Akrawn.
I stared at his starkly real words. Ma belle. French. The language of love. He wasn’t hinting he loved me, did he?
“David, if we convince the prince he has me wrapped about his little finger then I need to be the one who communicates with him. Otherwise, he’ll figure it’s not me, and he’ll bolt.”
David stared at me grimly.
“Somehow, I doubt when and if the prince meets you again, the last thing he’ll do is leave without you, Cat. And that’s what worries me.”
“Why do you say that? He broke away from me two times before.”
“Because the ILE predictive AI says he’s fixated on you as his mate and Cat, these Trilyn don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Chapter 7
Akrawn
It’s a damned nuisance finding a new AI in the Badlands of San Francisco. I dared not venture out of this tech crippled zone without one, and each vendor I’d encountered sold wares filled with malware and tracking apps. It’s disgusting how opportunistic these humans were. Finally, I selected one with the least amount of troubles within and resolved to fix the AI myself.