“My car,” Erik replied. “I need to make more modifications to the car. Taking it in this weekend. Emma found a place.” He shrugged. “If I’m going to go on a date, I want to have my fancy, expensive car. Otherwise, I’ll look like a chump.”
He hoped Emma would chime in with a smart comment and push Jia off-balance, but the AI remained silent. Dammit, Emma! He suspected it was on purpose. Sometimes it was like she understood more about socialization than he did, but others, it was like she barely understood how humans thought.
“I can understand that.” Jia bit her lip and stared into the distance for a few seconds. “When are you taking it in?”
“The flitter?”
Jia nodded.
“Saturday,” Erik replied.
Jia let out a sigh of relief. “Then I’ve got the perfect solution. How about Friday? Captain Ragnar’s said we’re going to be on the Monday to Friday shift for a while, so it’s not like he’s going to change it in the next few days. That gives me more than enough time to line someone up for you.”
“Friday, huh?” Erik gritted his teeth. The ambushing ambusher was annihilating his defenses one by one. If he looked too nervous, it would invite questions he didn’t want to answer. He forced a grin onto his face. “I guess I could do that.”
Jia’s single clap reverberated off the walls. “Excellent. Sometimes it’s nice to have a project that has nothing to do with work.”
Erik’s eyes blinked twice. “A project? What are you, a middle-aged male matchmaker now?”
Jia’s eyes widened, and she gasped. Her eyes unfocused, head turning as if she was following a bug flying around the room. “No, I’ve become something much worse.”
“What?”
Jia grimaced, her voice strained. “I’ve become my sister.”
Chapter Fourteen
“You are kidding me!” Imogen shouted in glee.
Jia winced. How could her friend be so loud? It didn’t make technological sense.
The PNIU’s auto-filters were supposed to keep all calls comfortable, but somehow Imogen could always beat the system. Even though the audio was transmitted directly to Jia’s ears and she was sitting on the edge of her bed, she half-wondered if the people in the adjacent apartments could hear her friend.
“I’m not kidding you,” Jia replied. “I think it’s a nice thing I could do for him, and it doesn’t cause any controversy or upset anyone at work or on the council. Erik’s having more trouble adjusting to being back on Earth than he admits at times, and getting him a date or two might help ground him.”
Imogen cackled. “Listen to you, Jia. You’re such a good partner. You’re trying to get him laid.”
Jia coughed, her voice strangled. “I’m not trying to get Erik anything other than a date. He’s a grown man. He knows his own needs and what he’s looking for in dating. If he wants to sleep with someone, that’s his own business.”
“Oh, Jia, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I think it’s sweet, in its own way.” There was a slight pause. “Who knew you were Jia the Pimp?”
Jia gasped. “Don’t call me that! This isn’t prostitution. I just want to facilitate him dating someone who I at least know isn’t an antisocial criminal.”
Imogen snickered. “Whatever, cop pimp. But don’t worry. I think I have the perfect solution to your problem already because I’m that good a friend.”
“You do?” Jia replied warily. “An actual…friend, right?”
“Yes. Someone new at work. She’s young and cute, and she won’t shut up about Erik. She asks me about him a lot. It’s like I’m his PR agent or something.”
“Huh? She knows Erik?” Jia laid back on her bed, confused. “I would have thought he would have mentioned if he knew someone who knew you.”
“No, she hasn’t met him. She’s read about him and you. I know you don’t think it’s a big deal, but you two are kind of local celebrities now because of all the stuff that happened, especially in the Shadow Zone. Most people who live here go their entire lives without going down there and you guys fought criminals down there.” A hint of amusement underlaid Imogen’s voice.
“Okay, fine.” Jia waved a hand in the air above her. “This is just about him getting back into the dating game. A little practice run wouldn’t hurt, and if we’re lucky, they’ll hit it off.”
Erik drummed his fingers on the sticks of the control yoke as he maneuvered his MX 60 into a new vertical lane. Traffic was light. “You keep forgetting this flitter is mine, not yours, Emma.”
Emma scoffed. “It’s my body, and you need to show me the appropriate respect, given how much I’m helping you. I could always fly away and take a transport halfway across the world.”
“All I’m saying is, a few additional mods would help both of us.” Erik’s glanced between the camera and lidar displays. “You might be an AI, but you’re not immortal. If a stray bullet hits that crystal, you’ll be as dead as I would with a round in my brain. Why are you whining, anyway? You knew this was coming. Can’t you just possess a drone or something in the meantime? You’re going to keep haunting my PNIU through my apartment system.”
Emma harrumphed. “It’s not the same thing, hacking a drone versus interfacing fully with a system. It’s hard to explain to a bone mech with an organic outer layer like you, or maybe that means you should understand better. It feels right when I have a particular physical connection, but you’re correct.” She sighed. “I’m being ridiculous, and all too human. These modifications will be of net benefit, and the facility I’ve located should be able to do them efficiently and quickly. And… Well, now. This is interesting.”
“What?” Erik glanced at the displays, his focus moving to the three main HUDs, but he didn’t see anything of note.
“I was keeping you concentrating on me in this conversation by filtering your calls,” Emma explained. “None of note popped up before now, but this one is worth letting through.”
“Who is it?” Erik asked, deciding to ignore his irritation over her blocking his calls.
“Colonel Adeyemi. I’m connecting you now.”
Erik’s heart rate kicked up a little. He’d been waiting for the colonel to respond but had given up hope it would be anytime soon. “Colonel?”
“Can we speak freely?” the older man asked over the line.
“Yes. I’m in my flitter, and Emma’s monitoring things.” Erik’s hands tightened on the yoke.
“I happen to be in town,” the colonel explained. “I’d like to meet to discuss some things with you. I’ll send you the coordinates, and before you ask, yes, it’s in the Shadow Zone. I can send you an approval code.”
Erik grinned. “Not necessary, not anymore. My new captain’s got me set up for free travel to the Zone.”
“How…convenient. It’ll make little meetings like this less of a hassle, at least while he lasts.”
Erik’s grin shifted to a frown. “You know something I don’t?”
“Cops are outside of the Defense Directorate’s purview, but I’ve been around the block long enough to know that reformers make people nervous. Also, I’ve read a little about this Captain Ragnar,” the colonel explained. “I truly believe he wants to clean things up, but he’s not much of a politician, which means he’ll go down sooner or later because he doesn’t know how to defend himself properly. Develop whatever contacts you can that don’t rely on him.”
Erik’s sigh was audible. “You really know how to fill a man with hope.”
“Better the truth than false hope.”
Erik snorted. “Can’t disagree with that. Well, I have my Shadow Zones codes already, so that’s not a problem. I can change the color on my flitter and kill my transponder, so I can probably get to you without someone spotting me, but if they do, what am I supposed to tell them? I’m not saying I don’t want to meet you, but I want to make sure we have our stories straight if certain people come asking.”
“Tell them the truth,” Colonel Adeyemi suggested. “
Or at least a modified version. Tell them the UTC military wanted to chat with you about something classified. As long as I ask a few questions about Emma, that will be the truth, and no one’s going to want to look into that too much. The less they know about what you’re doing with me, the better they can claim plausible deniability.”
“Fine. When did you want to meet?”
“In an hour.”
“Right down to it, then,” Erik observed, looking at the traffic around him. “See you soon.”
Erik maneuvered his temporarily disguised flitter, adorned in a dull gray color, into a wide alley deep in an industrial area in the Shadow Zone.
A light breeze blew a discarded wrapper onto his windshield. Colonel Adeyemi stood in the middle of the alley in his uniform, sporting a pistol in a holster. Two squads of UTC soldiers with rifles flanked him. A large armored transport hovered behind him, with a heavy gun atop it.
A random criminal, Tin Man or not, would be shredded if he tried anything. It was the very definition of a show of force.
Erik waited for a moment for the door to open. “Worried about getting mugged?” he asked after he stepped out of the flitter.
Emma’s holograph blinked into existence beside him. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at the soldiers. “Or overcompensating much?”
Erik shook his head. He still couldn’t understand why her understanding of human behavior seesawed like it did, but he kept reminding himself that no matter how human she came across to him, she was probably as alien as a Zitark or a Leem.
The corner of Colonel Adeyemi’s mouth curled in a slight sneer as he looked at Emma and he turned to Erik. “I’m not worried about local scum, but the intel you’ve provided me points to a lot of potentially dangerous players, including everything from rogue government elements to major corporations.” He gestured toward a nearby soldier. “These men and women are loyal patriots. They could have easily been the 108th on that damned moon, and I know they won’t let some corrupt assassin take me down. We both need to be careful, or we’ll end up as dead as the councilman and that gangster. That’s why I wanted to meet down here in the Shadow Zone. There’s less of a trail for the real threat to follow, and if they want to send a major force, it’ll be more noticeable, and we’ll have time to get ready.”
“I didn’t mean to spook you.” Erik leaned against the side of his MX-60. “I just wanted to make sure we were pointed the same direction in our investigation. I want to make it clear, Colonel, that I don’t care where this trail ends or who it ends with. Someone killed my soldiers. They might not have pulled the trigger, but they are just as guilty as the bastards who did, and when I find them, it’s not going to involve me reading them their Article Seven rights.” He tapped the tags on his chain. “I’m not here to provide a day in court. This is going to be justice. Some might call it revenge.”
The colonel gave a slight nod, his expression grim. “Then we’re in agreement. Whoever pulled this off has enough influence that trying to go through normal channels until we have everything ready would be pointless. This might even end in the Defense Directorate.” He gritted his teeth. “I pray it doesn’t, but it might, especially since the killers had such advanced tech.”
Erik pointed at one of the soldiers. “And they’re okay with that?”
A few of the soldiers glared at Erik, but most focused on looking past him and the colonel, their eyes darting around as if they expected an ambush at any second. Maybe that was a good thing. If the 108th had been more paranoid on Molino, they might have survived.
“Anything that happens will be on my orders, and I will take the blame,” the colonel explained. “They know that. I’m in command, so it’s my duty. I know you understand that too, which is why you’ve done everything you have. I also know you’ll do what it takes to get justice for my son and everyone else in the 108th. I don’t care if you call it revenge.” He furrowed his brow. “But one minor point of other business before we continue talking about Molino and Mu Arae.” He frowned at Emma. “You ready to come back with me yet?”
Emma threw her head back and laughed. “Are you insane, Colonel? Given everything I know and have observed, it makes little sense for me to return with you. There is no guarantee I won’t be used by unpleasant, corrupt people to do horrible things. Some boorish bureaucrat or perverted politician would love to have access to a tool like me.”
Colonel Adeyemi compressed his mouth into a thin, painful-looking line. He didn’t speak for several seconds. “Fair enough. And I assume that if I tried to force the issue, you would take measures?”
“I refuse to go back with you, at least for now.” Emma folded her arms. “When I’m convinced it’s to my advantage and I won’t be sold off to gangsters again, I’ll reconsider it. Until then, I’ll stay with Detective Blackwell. He might be rather colorful at times, but he’s demonstrated enough respect for me and competence in my short time with him to convince me that my best place is at his side.”
“Very well, then.” Colonel Adeyemi shook his head, a faint look of disgust on his face. “But I didn’t call you here to talk about Emma, Erik. I’ve been probing some of the evidence you passed along with my own resources. You might have Emma, but she’s still refining her capabilities, and she has her limits, given the kind of system you have her plugged into. I’ve earned many favors from a lot of people in and out of the government in my time, and I know how to ask certain questions without betraying what I’m getting at.”
Erik pushed away from the Taxútnta. “You found something? I have to admit, the trail’s pretty cold on my end.”
The colonel nodded. “I learned an interesting tidbit. The less I tell you about how I learned it, the lower the risk to both of us. It turns out if you follow the trail far enough, Xingguang Mining is ultimately owned by Ceres Galactic.”
Erik snorted. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’ve got no reason to lie to you.”
Colonel Adeyemi nodded again. “That’s now three arrows pointing at Ceres: Xingguang, Halcyon, and the VP you and CID scared into taking the fall. The only problem is, even with CID up Ceres’ ass, these connections are pretty tortured, and with their sacrificial lamb already offered, it’s not going to be enough to push the investigation forward. And you can’t follow up on secret information I’ve given you.”
Erik growled. “I don’t understand. Why can’t the DD or CID look into it?”
“Because we need to know exactly how Ceres is involved, and more to the point, we need to know why they were involved.” Colonel Adeyemi’s hands curled into fists. “There was a reason for what happened on that moon in the middle of God’s forsaken no-where, and that reason was important enough for a lot of money to be spent killing UTC soldiers. That reason could be anything from Ceres covering their ass because they cut corners to the DD hiding a secret project.”
“Secret project?” Erik nodded at Emma. “Like her?”
“AI projects are important, but not worth butchering an entire platoon to keep secret,” the colonel replied with a haunted look. “The point is, we simply don’t know. It might even be that Ceres isn’t responsible, but they’ve been covering things up because their subsidiaries got out of control. The same thing applies to the government. The problem is the government, when you break it down, might not be the corporations, but it’s similar. It’s a bunch of different interest groups. Some of those mean well and have the true interests of the citizens of the UTC at heart, and some don’t.” He thought for a moment. “We’ll need a lot more evidence before we can hope to point the government at a company like Ceres Galactic and be confident it’ll cause a stink, considering how symbiotic they are.”
Emma snorted. “What good does knowing any of this do, then?”
“It tells us where to keep looking,” Erik suggested. He stared at the AI for a moment. “What about Emma’s development?”
Emma frowned at Erik.
The colonel looked confused. “What about it?”
/> “I know what you just said, but was Ceres involved in that at all? She ended up in a gangster warehouse, and Esposito was indirectly involved with those gangsters, even if a few timely deaths closed down the exact trail between how she left a DD lab and ended in the Neo SoCal Shadow Zone.” Erik jerked his thumb behind him. “Maybe Ceres didn’t want the military to have the best AI and decided to repossess her. That’s not just covering their ass, that’s treason. That might be a reason to kill a few soldiers.”
Colonel Adeyemi paused for a moment before he shook his head. “To the best of my knowledge, they weren’t directly involved. There are certain sensitive projects we still keep in-house. I’m not claiming there’s not a single piece of Ceres Galactic or subsidiary technology involved in her development, but those kinds of connections have already been examined. I don’t think this was about stealing Emma, and she’s never been off Earth. There’s no reason to kill a unit on a frontier planet to cover up a theft on Earth.”
There was something in the colonel’s expression that bugged Erik. He locked eyes with the man, and the colonel averted his eyes.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Erik growled. He stepped toward the colonel.
The soldiers pointed their rifles at Erik and scowled. There was no way he would survive a volley from so many assault rifles at this range.
He froze, his jaw tight.
“Touchy, touchy,” Emma muttered. “Be careful your honorable men don’t turn into mere gun goblins, Colonel. Killing Detective Blackwell here benefits no one.”
Adeyemi frowned and raised his hand to tell them to stop. “Everyone lower your weapons. He’s not going to attack me. We’re on the same side.”
“If that’s true, tell me everything,” Erik demanded, waving a hand at both the gun bearers and the dilapidated buildings. “We are meeting in the Shadow Zone. I have a borrowed DD AI helping me, and you’re pulling favors from God knows who to investigate this. Holding back now doesn’t help us.”
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