by Caldon Mull
“All the coms have gone quiet.” she looked around again, “The last feed I could harvest was about four off-worlders coming on to this level, and the chatter from the local channel is spiking. There is going to be trouble.”
“What Pele said?” Esteban nodded.
“More or less.” The Doctor nodded, “They’ve blundered into a situation they weren’t expecting. My job will be to get you out of here. I am contracted to guard your body.”
“I thought we had covered that by the lake?” Esteban was confused.
“What can I say, I’m versatile.” She grinned, “Pele warned me that we could draw a lot of heat, but the primary goal was covert ops. I didn’t bring a lot of skin to this game.”
“You’re... a clock?” Esteban shook his head.
“No, Esteban.” A gun housing opened on each of her forearms, flechettes from what he could see, “I’m almost like you. I’m the SEAT-09 model. I’m still in Cadiz and this is one of my remotes.”
“The military hive model?” Esteban blinked rapidly, “The one that your client was-”
“Caramba! You can be thick sometimes!” Annoyance registered on her face. “How many routes to the pod-station?”
“Only one.” Esteban could feel a rising panic, “We’re trapped! They’ll find us for sure.”
“Shit!” The Doctor cursed, “We can still get through, but we’ll have to get past cross-fire. Come on, Esteban! You wanted to be taken seriously, you wanted to be more than ‘just a weatherman’ and now this is your chance.”
“I didn’t think it would involve any of this.” Esteban steadied himself, “I thought that once I was out of the barrio, I would never need to go back.”
“Yet here we are,” a lens extruded from her right cheek bone, covering the eye and sealing the socket shut. “in the only place that they do take you seriously, here in the barrio. They know you as Esteban Perez, who is also their weatherman.”
“What do you need me to do?” Esteban squared his shoulders.
“Get to the pod, get to the hotel, get to the shuttle and get back to Cadiz as quickly and as cleanly as possible.”
“I got that much, I mean now.” Esteban chuckled nervously.
“Whatever I tell you, whenever I tell you to do it.” The Doctor stepped into the deserted tunnel, “Follow me.”
They stopped at the confluence of the tunnels, their side-tunnel was set askance to the landing. Before them was the pod-station and the way back up to the city.
“It’s a standoff.” The Doctor veeped Esteban, as she scanned the room from the cover of the rock. “Your boys have encircled them, but they’re totally outgunned. Who are these guys?” she muttered mostly to herself.
Esteban peered out to see for himself and met the gaze of a barrio boy behind some cover, who must have recognized him. He made a ‘stay-back’ motion with his hand, and Esteban nodded and pulled back into the tunnel.
“They’re behind us.” Esteban veeped, “If we try and get to the pods, they’ll have clear sight of our backs. I get the idea that they’re just shooting at everything that moves down here.”
“So here’s what we do...” The Doctor looked thoughtful, “Use your sonar and send me their locations, then seal your systems.”
Esteban positioned himself and ran pulses into the section opposite the protection gang. There were bodies clumped on the cave floor, none of them appeared to be any of the intruders. He ran a second sonar pulse as he felt his skin tighten up. “Are you sure?” Esteban groaned, “It’s great for under water, but not too good for running.”
“Just do it.” she snapped, “Where are those files?”
“Coming, I’m just triangulating.” Esteban set off a third pulse. “Here, one of them looks wounded behind some hard cover.”
“Good enough.” The Doctor nodded after the transfer, “I’m going to position them in my targeting system. Can you tell your guys we’re coming?”
Esteban stood up and waved at the barrio boy. He moved his arms and pointed at the pod-station behind them;‘we’re coming’.
The barrio boy waved back, ‘stay-back’ and ‘no’.
Esteban pointed again as urgently as he could and pointed to the pod again ‘we’re coming’.
The barrio boy whispered something to someone near him, grinned at the reply and then shrugged ‘fuck, whatever’ back at Esteban.
“I think they’re ready for us.” Esteban veeped the Doctor.
“So the plan is you seal up, run for the pod, and keep running.” she blipped back. “Ready... Now!”
Esteban closed his eyes and felt his casing harden. He lumbered forward, his stiff legs pushing him over the distance as he navigated with his sonar.
Behind him was a white mist of noise as he moved, blinding his 360 degree sonar. He focused on the pod door, even as the barrio boy stood and provided covering fire as he moved past him. Two impacts slammed Esteban to the floor, but he pushed himself up and headed for the pod bulkhead and fell inside the cabin as the doors opened.
Esteban lay in the bottom of the pod, and unsealed his systems, gasping for breath. Being able to breathe through your skin while gliding through water with minimal effort, and running on dry land were two very different experiences. He wasn’t sure he cared very much for this one.
He scrambled to his feet and his hand hovered above the routing keys. It was very quiet outside. His left shoulder blade and his right hamstring throbbed like the devil’s own, and Esteban knew what he should be doing... He gulped, opened the door to the pod and stepped outside.
The barrio boy had shouldered his rifle as Esteban limped over to him. “We got them.” he grinned triumphantly at Esteban. “If you guys hadn’t come along, maybe things would have been different. I know who you are, I’m Rashid.”
“You know who they are?”
“Ese, they look like GovSec, I mean whiskey-tango-foxtrot, snooping around in our business. We showed them good. They ain’t talking no more, so there’s that.”
“Can I...?” Esteban exhaled slowly, “Can I go see if my bodyguard...”
“Sure, ese.” The barrio boy grinned, “You took a bullet for me, go ahead.”
“I did?” Esteban shook his head.
“Yeah, here let me...” The youth reached behind Esteban and prodded at the throbbing place before showing him the spent slug. “It didn’t even break your skin. I don’t know what you’re made of chumba, but you’re much tougher than you look. If you hadn’t soaked that one for me, my brains would’ve been all over this place. Come on, you’re with me.”
Esteban limped over to the small form in the cavern, following Rashid. The barrio boys were stripping the four intruders of weapons and gear, and carting their flatliners and wounded back into the tunnels.
She lay in a pool of hydraulic fluid, sparks showered from what used to be her pelvis. “I told you to get out of here, Esteban.” her head twitched spastically.
“Rashid, this is my Doctor.” Esteban was at a loss for words. “My Bodyguard.”
“It doesn’t look good, Doctor.” Rashid knelt next to Esteban. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get Esteban out of Cartagena.” she said to Rashid, “Otherwise whatever heat is coming will keep coming. I’m uploading all this clock’s data right now. Rashid, recycle everything, you got it?”
“Sure thing, those flechettes look nice.” Rashid grinned. “I think I know what you are, Ramon once mentioned someone like you.”
“State of the art, real expensive. You can have them.” The Doctor’s voice sounded amused, “Rashid, do you know how those spooks got here?”
“Ramon tipped us off.” Rashid shrugged, “They came into his place looking for two people and a clock pilot, so they roughed up his security and pushed him about to drop a dime. You don’t do that to Ramon. He sent them straight down here, like he usually does.”
“Does anybody know who those three were, any ID at all out there?” she asked him. An ‘upload complete’ sensor
flashed on her sleeve.
“Nope. Nobody does. He let us know they were coming to roust us, and dropped big cred in case things got wet. Whoever they were, they didn’t see you coming. I don’t think Ramon knew you were here.” Rashid shrugged.
“They never do. I guess we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” she stopped twitching, “I’m starting the wipe now. Rashid, recycle everything and get him out.”
“I promise.” Rashid stepped back and waited for Esteban.
Esteban shook her frame, smearing his suit with fluid. “Don’t go, Doctor. I thought we had something…”
“We did Esteban; whatever a Pondsmith and a SEAT…” her voice started to fade as the wipe progressed, “Esteban… my name is Dolores… Use it, the next time… I’ll get it, I’ll understand. Just get back to Cadiz.”
“Come, ese.” Rashid said quietly, “Let’s get you to Ramon and away from here.”
#
Esteban sat very still, hoping the man over the table from him couldn’t see that he was terrified. Outside the viewport, the Canyons of Cadiz loomed bright in the morning sunlight. Three days ago, the storm had broken and Cartagena had started to spin up it’s services. Ramon had immediately smuggled Esteban onto a private shuttle back to Cadiz.
Yesterday, the GovSec had arrived at his apartment to bustle him into a cell for the night and this morning he was sitting over the table in an interview room with the Chief of Martian Government Security; GovSec Captain Damien Justin. He had been sitting and watching Esteban without a word for twenty minutes with a file on the desk between them.
Esteban was almost beyond reason and grateful for once that his synthskin couldn’t sweat.
“What is this about, Captain?” Esteban finally broke the silence. “Ask me anything, I’ll talk.”
“So, you’re trying to contract to Winston_Starlight for a Mapalé broadcast in violation of your MCN contract?”
“… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Esteban blinked.
“Don’t deny it… You’re in active contradiction of your MCN contract.” Captain Justin’s cold eyes bore through Esteban. “The Starmind has reported you, and his case seems solid. You go on a jaunt… you take the shadiest Pilot you can access and fly through to Cartagena to set up the most downloaded GRID experience to date… in history, in order to leverage your contract with MCN by bootlegging some or other quaint Martian dance.”
“… I still don’t know what you are talking about.” Esteban shook his head.
“Listen, bit… I’d peel you open except that now you are prime property, the MCN asset that nobody is going to let me near… If I even as much as touch you, somebody else is going to use some or other clause to shut me down.” The Captain sneered, “I’m sitting here wasting my time on a litigious case when I have better things to do… squabbles between Martian Corporates on ownership of a media trinket. You’re not really human… and I just have to suck up that I can’t damage you and get to the truth. A collection of mechanical parts that thinks it’s human; a mockery of interaction that tries to make me believe you’re real.”
Esteban blinked, his mind racing… he had used the word ‘bit’ and that indicated that the Captain was a Terran. His frustration at being blocked from doing what he wanted to do meant that he was really important in the GovSec hierarchy, and that Starmind had put him and Esteban together meant something. He seemed completely dismissive of InSystems culture, and that could mean that if Captain Justin dismissed him… Esteban would be in the clear?
Esteban decided to follow his hunch, “Did you win my lottery? Perhaps if you would like to milk my UroQt to make yourself feel better; the MCN network extends that privilege to subscribers and thanks you for your continued support.” He said in as steady a voice as he could manage.
The man snorted in contempt “You clocks disgust me. You’re useless. You’re just a weatherman… cyberware and everything, a talking head. Will you admit to recording your media performance and trying to sell it to the OutSystems channel?”
“I still have no idea of what you mean. I did Zonedance at a club in Cartagena, but you’re not allowed to record performances because of broadcast contracts… any recording I could make would be a ‘Point-of-View’ perspective and so I really don’t know what you’re talking about.
“If my Mapalé bootleg is out, I didn’t make it and I don’t know who did.” Esteban flashed his ‘reassuring smile’, testing the waters. Esteban suddenly realized something about his present situation… something he could use to his advantage.
“You see… another patented cosmetic response.” Captain Justin sighed, “Item 33 in the ‘friendly-mod’ catalogue. You’re completely manufactured. You’re a ‘thing’ that somebody considers valuable.”
Esteban decided to go for broke. Somehow he had to reinforce the Captain’s natural inclination to be elsewhere, doing something else. “If you have a five year subscription that is in good order, you can have sex with me as part of our MCN rewards program. Should I upload that token for you? The MCN guarantee a unique reward experience for selected VIP’s… ” Esteban dialed up the current specials on his internal Browser, “… you could win a holiday estate on Hellas? The MCN really appreciates your support. I’ll update your profile preference for repeat business with the Network.”
“Get the fuck out of here, you useless bit…” The Captain’s look of mild disgust soured completely, “I’m not wasting another minute of my time on you, you and your petty legal squabble with your network. This interview is over, the recording wasn’t POV and this case is bullshit! Just get the fuck out of here.”
Esteban waited for the interview room door to slam shut before exhaling slowly. If Captain Justin wasn’t going to ask the real questions, then Esteban wasn’t going to answer with real answers. The Starmind must have fingered him in order to provide a more plausible cover for the Argyre thing. Something to distance him from a primary suspect…
Esteban stood on shaky legs and left the building as quickly as he could. As he walked back to the pod to take him down to his apartment level, his fear started to change inside him. The cold turned to warm and Esteban realized that he was angry with the Terran.
The Captain was dead wrong, Esteban wasn’t just ‘a weatherman’! Who was that puffed up fossil to dictate to the Fleet what they should or shouldn’t be doing! The Fleet had got to Mars! They had taken the chance, they had done what had to be done.
He knew that now, he was much more than that; he was also a weatherman. The voice of the promise of a Green Mars; the guardian of forgotten traditions and the most public representative of the InSystems culture. At least… a part of him was.
Esteban breathed heavily through his nose and exhaled slowly as the pod door opened to take him home. Once the Ocean rolled up to the Tempe Terra and Cartagena sprawled out of its Arcology, Esteban would be in that water.
Haphazard individual adaptation was a hallmark of being human, no matter what shitheads like that GovSec Captain thought of it. Esteban knew what he had to do. Lay low, work on increasing his profile and wait for Pele to contact him again.
#
“This is Esteban Perez with the naked weather. I’ll be in the shop for the next few days, so please just put up with the canned projections for the week.” Esteban smiled his ‘reassuring smile’ and helicoptered his junk, “Then I’ll be in Cartagena for the Easter Dance Festival, where our very own La viejita Dona Senora Mercedes will be the guest of honor to hopefully welcome teams from each of the Fleet cities who will be attending this year. MF2-Hamburg, maybe next year… you can’t hold out forever! Hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it… come on over and show us.
“Next month I’m coming to check out your cisterns, perhaps you can show me some local Zonedancing then.” Esteban smiled his ‘special smile’ and held it as his private feed announced “3… 2… 1… and cut! That’s a wrap, people.”
Lin-ho handed him some water, “You were on fire tonight. The last six mo
nths you’ve been tireless on this dance Olympics project and it shows in the ratings. You’re more popular than Pele_Starmind in nearly half the 3rd Fleet.”
“I don’t care about the ratings as much as I care about what we’re doing on Mars.” Esteban swallowed some water and handed the bottle back gratefully. “But ratings are nice.”
“Ceres just picked up a subscription for the channel, so we should talk about that. I was thinking of giving Babs the News Lead position for that channel. She won’t budge without you on Weather and Social for the Belt. Wasily is tied up with the five OutSystems Fleets forming in Earth Orbit, so we’re getting thin on the ground. Do you want to think about it?”
“When I get back. I’ve got that med-mech thing I’m scheduled for, because of the Fleet cistern runs this season.”
“I haven’t forgotten, we’ve got your studios set up over the Fleet for the outside broadcasts.” Lin-ho worked the deck at her sleeve, “This is your eighth tour. Do you think they’ll get some one else on the spare Pondsmiths before long? It’s been twenty years, someone else must step up? Look at everything we’ve discovered so far just on Callisto, the Solar System needs a fleet of you guys.”
“I don’t really know.” Esteban shrugged, “I think it takes a special kind of person, and I don’t think anyone really wants to give it all up. Looking forward we might have to put in an immigration drive with those Earth-mutant Mers to work with me on our hydrology schedule. Mers on Mars… that’s funny!” He grinned at her, “So, I’m going to put on some clothes and get going.”
“I’ll set the Avatar and catch you when you’re back.” She smiled back, “Have fun, Esteban. I’m glad that you finally seem to be having some of your own.”
#
Esteban sat in the geranium-scented room and stared at at the Canyon walls of Hellas Montes.