‘Shopping list. Can you go and pick these things up this morning? We’ll need them all day if we’re going to get everything done for tomorrow.’
He glanced at the list. ‘A printer?’
‘We’ve got to print passes and a bunch of other stuff.’ When he didn’t move, she continued: ‘The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll get back.’
He looked as if he might object, but popped the last piece of pastry into his mouth, stood up and left.
Haber and Stornetta arrived about the time Ichi emerged from the spare room. She moved with a calm Amanda immediately envied. She was full of energy, their plans swirling around her head in little golden blocks coming together and flying apart as she thought through each one over and over again without plunging too deeply into the details of any one.
The two gangsters were dressed down, stylish tracksuits that had been well lived in. Haber wore a pair of spectacles.
‘How are ya, lovely?’ he said when she opened the door to them. He tapped the glasses. ‘Incognito.’
Stornetta sighed as he came in. ‘He loves his disguises,’ he said. ‘Made me wear this piece-of-shit outfit too.’
‘Who’s your girlfriend?’ Haber called back from the living room.
‘Don’t mind him,’ whispered Stornetta. ‘He’s just excited.’
Amanda introduced Ichi, and while coffee was made, explained what she needed the two of them to do.
The two men listened to her, interrupting to ask questions as she went. She was happy to work it through with them. When she was finished, the two of them shifted around a little before Stornetta dipped his head toward Haber.
‘It isn’t going to work,’ said Haber.
‘You can’t get us in?’ she asked.
‘Nah, that’s no bother. I’ve got a mate who’s owed favours by the security firm. That won’t be a problem. It won’t work, is what I mean.’
‘The plan?’ she asked.
‘The plan. It won’t work.’
‘Why not?’ she asked, hoping he’d seen something they could fix.
‘The law won’t stand by while you do this. They’ll be all over us. This isn’t amateur stuff.’
She knew it already, but hearing it said out loud didn’t help. ‘So you won’t help?’
Stornetta laughed. ‘We’re here, ain’t we? Just ’cause it won’t work doesn’t mean we won’t help.’
‘You spoken to your man Tangle yet?’ asked Haber, fixing her with a single eye.
‘I know we’ve got a tight window.’ She looked to Ichi, whose expression held steady. ‘We aren’t thinking about what comes after. You’re right—we won’t get away—but that doesn’t matter.’
Haber nodded. ‘Right you are.’
Stornetta dumped the bag he’d brought with him in the hallway. ‘Props,’ was all he’d say when asked. ‘Our fella’s going to let us in, but he won’t hold up the law when they arrive. He reckons there’s no easy way out, either.’
‘I’ve already had this chat with Haber,’ said Amanda.
He looked briefly at Haber, who shrugged. ‘I don’t think you’re listening. How much time do we need? We gotta know how long you want us to stall the goons when they arrive.’
She didn’t know, but didn’t want to tell them. Their plans depended on how long it would take to get the servers slaved, how much attention they’d have to give to keeping them under control and defeating countermeasures. Nor did she understand how long the tools would take to compile and use, or if they’d work straight away. Would they have to wait to see if what they’d done had worked?
‘I’m estimating about half an hour,’ said Ichi, stepping into the gap.
He nodded, Haber joining him as they retreated to the hallway. ‘We’re gonna go get some tea. We’ll be staying nearby tonight, but will come back tomorrow. We got a lotta stuff to arrange today, you know? What time do you want to see us?’
‘Half-six,’ said Amanda.
After they’d gone, Amanda busied herself with packing a small bag with things she thought would be useful. On top of fruit and snack bars, she packed a torch, twine, battery pack and pen knife. The last of these she held in her hands, uncomfortable with the blade but knowing it wouldn’t ever get used in anger. She filled a bottle with water, putting it into the fridge to cool. It would taste of the container by the time she drank it, but she wanted everything done before she went to bed—she could hear a voice telling her she’d forget otherwise.
‘How are you finding Tangle?’ asked Ichi, coming into the living room.
Amanda didn’t know what to say. She’d not thought about it, had actively avoided the possibility he was in her life again. ‘He’s like himself,’ she managed.
‘He’s clean,’ said Ichi.
‘Wasn’t he when you met him?’ asked Amanda.
Ichi shook her head. ‘Not completely. He was at the tail end, off the hard stuff. You could see the scars in his flesh, his behaviours, but he was a man coming into shore after a long time at sea. We watched him make that part of the journey, but he left us before stepping onto the beach.’ She smiled at Amanda. ‘If you’ll excuse my murdering the analogy.’
Hearing he’d got clean lifted a heaviness from Amanda’s stomach, a fear she’d not known was there until it left her. ‘When he opened the door and I saw him for the first time, I didn’t know what to do,’ said Amanda. ‘I’d had these fantasies about what I’d do, about what I’d say.’ She shivered. ‘I’d spent years imagining how I’d hurt him if I got the chance, then years trying to forget it.’
‘Did he apologise?’
‘I don’t remember. Yes?’ The moments after he’d opened the door and they’d talked were a blur. Flashes of their conversation were stuck in her head, but she knew she couldn’t recount what had happened. ‘I don’t know what I expected, not in that moment. You know what he’s like. He apologised and moved on, like he sensed he should but didn’t really understand the emotion behind it.’
Ichi pulled a thin smile. ‘He looks at feelings like they’re subjects to be understood and filed away. I don’t think he understands his own feelings, let alone anyone else’s.’
‘He’s more like himself than I’ve ever seen,’ said Amanda. ‘Like when I first met him.’
‘I had a friend whose wife was addicted to prescription opioids, one of millions in the epidemic back home. She slowly collapsed into a husk, but was institutionalised and got clean. They were on the verge of splitting up, but he wanted to wait until he felt she was emotionally strong enough to handle it. He didn’t want to feel responsible for a relapse. It didn’t matter; she fell back into herself as soon as she returned to work. They repeated the cycle a couple of times until she left him instead.’
Amanda wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about it but she could picture Ichi’s friends only too well.
‘Xiaoyang felt like you do. Used the same words: said Sherry was her old self again. I didn’t understand it at all while it was happening, but he told me later he had this fear that even when she was well, she wasn’t, not really. He would watch for any signs of backsliding, of stress triggers. Stray, nondescript comments became causes of paranoia.’
‘I get it,’ said Amanda. ‘But Tangle and I aren’t anything anymore. It ended for us years ago. I’m not trying to save a relationship.’ She didn’t want to dignify whatever there’d been between them by saying it was “too late.”
‘You’ll go your separate ways after this then?’ asked Ichi.
Amanda didn’t know. She wanted to say yes, but as she opened her mouth to confirm it the words refused to trip off her tongue with any certainty. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Can we trust Haber and Stornetta?’ asked Ichi.
‘They seem to be up for it,’ Amanda said, not quite answering. She stretched, tired despite having slept well; she could feel the stress covering her like a spider’s web, in her hair, across her skin, in her lungs.
‘Are you paying them?’ she asked.
‘They’re getting a good deal,’ said Amanda, not wanting to discuss what she’d offered them with Ichi. ‘My employer’s not going to like it, but by then it’ll be too late even if we’re caught.’
‘Did Tangle upset them too?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Amanda. ‘They returned him in one piece, then turned up agreeing to do what we need.’ She shrugged. ‘Seems to me if he did, they’re past it.’
Ichi didn’t respond and Amanda saw the same reticence in her face.
She stood up. ‘C’mon, we’ve got a lot of preparation to do before tomorrow if we’re going to be ready.’
With that they were done. Amanda was pleased Ichi hadn’t wanted to talk more about Tangle; she’d already said more than she wanted. Her words were out there now, illuminating who she was, showing someone else what was inside her in a way Amanda didn’t like. She didn’t believe Ichi would use them to hurt her, suspected she’d asked because she too felt ambivalent about Tangle’s reappearance, but Amanda had been the one to be vulnerable. It was as if she’d cut open her skin so Ichi could get a better look. She wasn’t threatened by it, but she didn’t understand why she’d done it either.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TANGLE RETURNED WITH the “shopping” in four bulging cloth bags. They laid everything out on the kitchen surfaces, turning to the coffee table in the living area when the piles threatened to spill off the side onto the floor.
Tangle had blank passes just like those Amanda was issued with at work, five small twenty-litre rucksacks, fabric patches, three paired sets of short range, encrypted walkie-talkies, ear pieces and augmented reality glasses, as well as new clothes for Ichi, Haber and Stornetta.
Ichi held an expensive white blouse up against her chest, tucking the collar under her neck. She didn’t look happy.
‘I only bought what Amanda asked me to get,’ he pleaded.
‘You can’t go dressed in anything you’ve got here,’ said Amanda matter-of-factly.
Ichi wrinkled her nose.
‘I think it’s all pretty nice stuff.’
‘Nice if you’re going down the corporate drone route,’ said Ichi.
Amanda opened her mouth to speak and then shut up again. Corporate chic was what she’d been aiming for, and Tangle had nailed it as far as she was concerned.
‘It doesn’t matter what you think,’ she said, dismissing Ichi with a wave of her hand. ‘You’ll look professional, which is really what you’re saying you don’t like.’
Ichi made a buzzing sound, took the clothes and went to get changed.
Tangle had done the same for his own benefit. He changed in Amanda’s room, emerging in a smartly casual combination of dark chinos and a pale blue shirt under a tight-fitting plain jumper. He sauntered into the kitchen without noticing Amanda staring at him. She caught herself before he looked her way, giving herself a mental slap on the wrist.
I’m not going there, she told her wayward body which was busy conjuring images of his naked body between her legs.
‘How do I look?’ he asked.
‘You’ll pass,’ she said. ‘Everyone looks better in work clothes.’
Tangle looked down at his body, running his hands over his stomach. ‘Good clothes fit well.’ He swung his arms around with a grimace of frustration on his face. ‘But they’re all constricting.’
Ichi joined them, and together they started printing up the passes to resemble the one Amanda wore to work, complete with State Federal Finance’s logo and headshots for each of them.
They found images of people working for the datacentre company that ran the facility, to copy the script they used on the day passes they issued visitors.
‘No one will be allowed in without a specific appointment,’ said Tangle. ‘These places run security drills where the head of security themselves rocks up and angrily shouts at the staff to be let in, or gives a sorry story of having forgotten their pass. I heard of one where they have them ring a number with a fake secretary on the other end confirming they have an appointment and complaining that the site had made a mistake. If any of it works, they fire the people who fall for it to encourage everyone else to learn from the mistake. With so many datacentres now core to running e-currencies, security is as tight as it’s ever been.’
‘I chose the site we’re heading to because it’s still being run directly by the bank.’
Ichi and Tangle both shook their heads despairingly.
‘They kind of deserve everything they get,’ said Ichi, her words dripping with scorn. ‘The hyperscale players provide what they want at a fraction of the price with none of the obsolescence risk, and they’d only pay for the power they were actually using.’
‘And if they did we’d be screwed,’ said Amanda.
‘Probably built in the teens,’ said Tangle. ‘When they thought they could do it for themselves. I’d guess its efficiency was somewhere around one-point-two, maybe one-point-one-seven.’
‘I have no idea what that means,’ said Amanda.
‘It means it’s crap,’ said Ichi.
‘What’s good, then?’
‘At the moment? One-point-oh-five?’
‘There aren’t any under one, then?’ asked Amanda, surprised that such a marginal difference made such an impression on Ichi.
The two of them turned to stare at her.
‘An efficiency of one is impossible,’ said Tangle slowly. ‘One to one would mean all the power coming in was used to power computation without any losses, which is, by definition, impossible.’
Embarrassed, Amanda turned to the printer, checking for defects in the passes.
Haber and Stornetta arrived after lunch, earlier than she’d asked, earlier than she wanted, but they weren’t about to leave and come back.
‘Alright, Tangle,’ said Stornetta. ‘How’re you feeling?’
Tangle wouldn’t look them in the eyes.
‘Feeling amped up? Speeding to go?’ asked Haber. The two of them laughed.
Amanda watched them, could see Tangle shrinking back from them as if they would hit him as soon as look at him. What had happened when he’d gone to see them?
She’d sent him because she’d hoped it would irritate him, make him feel uncomfortable. Seeing Tangle cowed by the two men made her regret her decision.
She wouldn’t defend him, but they needed to focus. ‘That’s enough,’ she said. ‘We’ve got work to do before tomorrow. You’re sure your favour’s going to be enough to deliver what we need?’
Haber looked mildly offended, drawing himself up and puffing his chest out. ‘We can all be professional. I trust you to do what you need to do, you should trust us to get our side done, our people know what they’re doing.’
‘He means “yes,”’ said Stornetta calmly.
‘Great,’ said Amanda, focussing on the calmer of the pair. ‘Tangle bought some clothes for both of you. You should try them on.’ She pointed at a bag at the foot of the coffee table. ‘You can use the bathroom to change if you want.’
Haber grabbed the bag, pulling his lips right back when he saw what was inside.
‘What’s she got us?’ asked Stornetta.
‘A fucking uniform,’ said Haber, throwing the bag at his partner.
Muttering to themselves like bus-riding grandmas, they traipsed to the bathroom to try on the clothes. They returned dressed in cheap nylon trousers and dark green thick cabled woollen jumpers without a smile between the pair of them.
Ichi passed by. ‘You two look good,’ she said.
‘We look like fucking schlubs,’ said Stornetta.
‘We’ve all got a role to play,’ said Amanda.
‘We could have been the office workers,’ said Haber. Amanda noticed Tangle smirking to her side and fervently hoped they didn’t notice.
‘You?’ exclaimed Ichi with too much surprise.
Haber’s expression darkened as Tangle snickered in the background.
‘I think you look alright,’ said Storne
tta.
Haber’s face brightened for a moment before darkening again. ‘You saying I suit this?’
‘No,’ said Stornetta calmly, taking hold of Haber’s hand. ‘I’m saying it suits you. You get the difference, ya daft twat?’
Haber chewed the inside of his mouth but didn’t speak and gradually the tension drained from his shoulders.
The rest of the day sped past in a fuzz of debate, rehearsal, craft and contingency. Amanda could feel calm settling on her mind as the others grew confident in telling each other the plan.
As afternoon slid into evening, Ichi asked where Tatsu was.
‘I’ve not gone anywhere,’ said the fridge. ‘While you’ve been preparing, so have I. I can ride each of your ear pieces, as well as help you access the head of the Russian blockchain. It’ll be me who’ll help you compile the tools and who’ll keep countermeasures at bay.’
‘You can do all that?’ asked Ichi sceptically.
‘Yes. I think. Maybe not all at once, but I don’t know what resistance we will find. Do you?’
‘We’re expecting it to be static and stiff,’ said Ichi.
Stornetta snorted from the other side of the room.
‘They’ll respond quickly, but the initial defences will be automated. It’s unlikely a bank’ll be geared up with AIs of its own. They’re not even likely to be using the servers at full load. The Russian response to us hacking their private network? I’m expecting that it’ll be such a surprise they’ll be just as off guard as the bank.’
‘The Russian system is guarded by a very rude AI,’ said Tatsu.
‘You know this because…?’ asked Amanda, trailing off, her face matching the horrified expressions of the humans in the room.
‘We had to find them. When it was located, it proved to be both upset that it could be found and uninterested in talking.’
‘Great,’ said Tangle. ‘They know we’re coming.’ He threw down the lanyard he’d been holding.
‘They do not. The AI is about as smart as a young human child, it has restricted reasoning abilities and could not conceive of what we have planned. However, we do know where it is, and the format of the cryptocurrency they’re using. I am satisfied we have identified the major variables in this project so that the odds of success are significantly increased.’
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