Crossover

by Joel Shepherd

  "Halfway between an art and a reflex," Sandy replied. "If you don't know what I'm saying I can't describe it to you. Mostly I'm not even aware I'm doing it. Now, you going to that chair?" Nodding across the room. Vanessa looked.

  "Oh no, don't you ... no!" Protesting loudly as Sandy shifted grips and lifted her effortlessly, gave her a mid-air heave to get the grip right. "Sandy!" Having at least more sense than to fight. "Sandy, for godsakes, I'm not your damn toy!" But she was laughing. Sandy carried her comfortably across to the work chair before the terminal and placed her carefully into it, with only the faintest rippling of shoulders and biceps to mark the transfer of weight.

  "What were we just talking about?" Sandy asked her, leaning close with mock impatience. "Trust?"

  "Trust?" Incredulously. "Trust you how, in respecting my dignity? Get outta here y'big blonde ox!" And spoiled it by grinning, the SWAT commander all evaporated of a sudden, replaced by the impish little girl. Sandy gave her chair a hard spin and walked away, windmilling her arms.

  "I'm one-hundred-and-sixty-eight centimetres, Vanessa," she replied primly, as Vanessa stopped her rotation with a foot against the desk. "I am well proportioned, extremely sexy and assuredly feminine. I am not an ox."

  "Are from where I'm sitting." Activating her terminal with a good show of looking annoyed.

  "A mushroom would look tall from where you're sitting."

  "Watch it." And tapped again at the keyboard. Frowned distractedly. Tapped again. Sandy sat on the floor before the windows, legs spread wide before her, grabbed one ankle and pulled herself down to it. Another several taps from Vanessa and Sandy caught the brief sense of Vanessa's own transmission code from her interface augment.

  "What's up?" Switching legs and pulling hard, hamstrings resisting with irritating force.

  "I'm just requesting duty files," Vanessa replied with puzzlement. "It's not coming through."

  "A data-glitch in Tanusha. I hadn't thought it possible."

  "No, it's no glitch." Even mare puzzled. "The request's just not getting through. It's telling me it doesn't recognise my access code."

  "Hang on." Leaned low over her right leg, Sandy uplinked to Vanessa's apartment system. Found Vanessa's active link, followed it racing along the network, through the mass of encrypted connections and light-fast traffic. And hit a barrier wall about the various key operational systems within CSA establishment ... It was certainly surprising. And very selective, she saw, pulling back to a more suitable range, observing the way the barrier software isolated only those command-and-control elements ... "That looks official."

  "No shit." Tapping more keys in coordination with her own reflexive uplinks with increasing alarm. "I'm not getting interface with Ibrahim. Nothing, nada, zip. Or Parliament. What the fuck's going on?"

  Something felt hollow in Sandy's gut. A slow, sinking feeling. And a growing fear. Something she'd missed? Electronic sabotage of the leading government institutions just wasn't possible in a city like Tanusha, it had to be something else ... she let all seeker programs fly across the network, racing in a myriad electronic directions to search, for causes, key fragments, command codes ... What was going on? And if something had happened within the government...

  Vanessa beat her to the next thought, leaping up from her chair and running for the gearbag on the table. Sandy was up a split second later, darting for her discarded shirt and pulling it quickly on, followed by her shoulder harness, as Vanessa pulled firepower from the bag and began checking and loading. Sandy left her automatic systems to search the further areas of the net, turning her attention instead to the local network, the building security, the neighbourhood hookups ...

  "See anything?" Vanessa asked, smacking in a last magazine and tossing the snub-rifle her way. Sandy caught one handed, rechecking her pistol in the holster beneath her hastily shouldered jacket, established interface with the rifle's CPU and sighted briefly along the muzzle without physically looking.

  "No. Could come in by air." No way of hacking into those systems behind those recent barriers. And suddenly the apartment looked very vulnerable, the broad open space of windows that overlooked the Santiello streets, and could afford a sniper a comfortable shot from anywhere within that sprawl of city...

  "Minder," Vanessa once again read her mind. "... window polarise, one hundred percent." And the glass faded to near-full blackness. The view remained visible from the inside, though now heavily shaded. From the outside, all would be black. Sandy backed away from the windows toward Vanessa, standing near the door, rifle in hand, eyes wide and alert with dangerous calm. "Sandy? Any idea what just happened? I'm still getting nothing—it's like the entire Tanushan C&C has been branched."

  A sudden reception message, internal visual, one of her autos speaking back ... she accessed, and received a veritable flood of data-visual information, cross-references and details ...

  "Sandy?" She overloaded for a moment, searching on full concentration.

  "Governor's office." Sandy couldn't quite believe it as she said it. Partly because it made so much sense. She hadn't wanted it to make sense. When these kinds of things made sense, in her experience, bad things followed. "It's Governor Dali. That's what we missed. He's taken control of the Parliament."

  "He's what?" In utter disbelief. "He can't do that! He ... he's just the Governor! Fuck, it's ... it's ceremonial...!"

  "Callay is a member world of the Federation," Sandy recited almost wearily, half for her own benefit, just to hear someone say it and make it real. It was so obvious. The most elusive possibilities were always the ones directly under your nose. And mostly because no one ever believed their opponent would have the unmitigated gall to do something so brazenly obvious. "All power rests with the Governor, on the Federation's behalf. The President was nearly assassinated by Dark Star GIs. That involves the possibility of war with the League, which directly concerns the Federation. If Governor Dali feels the present administration is not acting in the best interests of the Federation, he can take over the administration. He has the master codes to all the relevant systems—he can reroute the entire administration through his own offices ..."

  "Why?" Vanessa bit out, tight-jawed and fuming. She no longer looked wary, backed against the wall by the doorway, black, short-nosed firepower clutched comfortably in her right hand. She looked furious. "What's it gain them? What's it gain anyone?"

  "... thus halting," Sandy continued with increasing steadiness as her combat reflex began to assert itself, "any present governmental activities subject to the Governor's review. That means all CSA investigations. Which means the FIA, all the people we're hunting, can now get away scot-free." She shook her head in disbelief, eyes distant with consideration. "It's beautiful really. A piece of art. Attack the President to force the Governor to invoke Federation privilege, and it'll get you all the protection you need from the CSA. If they'd actually killed Neiland, they would have done this yesterday. I just delayed them a day."

  "You reckon the CSA's gonna stop just because some mad lunatic Governor says so?"

  "Try running an investigation without your master codes," Sandy replied. "He can shut down the whole CSA. He can shut down everything." Vanessa just stared at her with incredulity. "I think if you check through Dali's file and personal staff," Sandy told her, "you'll find there's FIA backgrounds everywhere. Just a hunch. It's all the same thing, Vanessa. The FIA have tentacles everywhere. Trust me, I know."

  "Like you knew about all those codes for so long without telling anyone?" Sandy blinked, staring at her, not expecting that. For a moment she was too confused to speak. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that..." with tight-jawed frustration, sparing the darkened, recently familiar apartment another fast once-over, "... just ... Jesus, Sandy," turning back to fix her with a hard, penetrating stare, "figure out where you're at, huh? No more secrets. You're CSA now."

  "Then why are we suddenly expecting an attack?" Sandy replied. Registered Vanessa doing a fast security scan of the prem
ises and surrounding vicinity for suspect accesses or monitors ... no real need, she had it monitored well enough herself. But maybe anyone incoming would know that and wouldn't bother trying.

  "Dali's not CSA," Vanessa replied tightly. "Come on, we're leaving." Smacked open the door and spun out, weapon first. Sandy followed, reflexive cover. The corridor was empty. Sandy shut the door behind, Vanessa locked it with an uplink signal, and they went up the stairs at speed. Flattened against the left wall at the top, before the glass wall and doors that led to the rooftop car park. Gusting wind blew the garden ferns sideways, light rain spattering against the glass. Beyond the heaving rooftop awning above the parked vehicles, a third storm front darkened the sky, and lightning blazed the surrounding towers in stark relief.

  "Where's Ibrahim?" Vanessa muttered, ducking and peering to see as much as she could from her vantage. "He should have called. If Dali's had second thoughts about the way CSA investigations have been running, you're the first person he'll have taken into custody."

  "Who'll he get to do it?" Sandy asked, thinking only practically as she eyed the open, space between the glass doors and the sheltering cars. Laser snipers had uninterrupted killing range of several kilometres, without regard for deflection shots. Including all surrounding towers, that meant hundreds of possible firing vantages. And who knew what orders had been given? Considering the predictable xenophobia against her within the various arms of Tanushan administration, and particularly in the present chaotic situation ...

  "Dunno." Tight-lipped, eyes darting. "Could be cops, could be plain-clothes, could be SIBs ... though that's unlikely—they don't like to get their hands dirty much ... dammit, we've gotta run for it, I don't give them credit for enough organisation to get a sniper in place in advance. No one plays the bureaucracy that fast in Tanusha, 'specially not an outsider. If they're sending someone it's by air, which means we're wasting time."

  "I'll go." Accessed the door through the local net and opened ... it clicked and swung open, cold air and raindrops gusting in. Sandy tensed briefly, got a foot against the back wall and exploded forward, out into the cold, hurdled the gardens and then abruptly slid, feet first in under the first of the cars. Came out the other side and crouched between the two, scanning for any sign of hostile targeting. Nothing. Made a hand signal to Vanessa, braced for covering fire ... Vanessa ran, somewhat less explosively but fast enough, and this time kept going straight for her vehicle, the door of which was already open, and Sandy could hear the pre-start whine above the wind gusting the overhead awning. Sandy glanced about, vision multi-shaded and tracking, hearing finely tuned, only too aware of how impossible it was, in these surroundings, to pinpoint a hostile target who did not want to be spotted. Beyond the rooftop and all around towers rose skyward, some near, most far. Clear lines of sight between millions of people. Not for the first time she realised just how useless many of her military skills actually were in this environment.

  The engines reached an agreeable pitch and she turned and ran, crouched low, skirting around the front to the open passenger door which whined shut as soon as she hit the leather seat.

  "See anything?" Vanessa asked, eyeing the generator displays as the greenlines reached red-critical.

  "Nothing. Anyone could have, though, if they'd known where to be." And still could, if willing to take out an aircar. But it was unnecessary to point out such obvious things to a SWAT lieutenant.

  "Wonders of obscurity," Vanessa replied, pulling back on the control grips as the indicators reached red and the go-lights showed green. A whine of field distortion, vibrating through the seats, and they rose fractionally above the tarmac ... a warning light reprimanded their lack of seatbelts, quickly killed by Vanessa. "The only way to be really safe is to be hidden. Big FIA advantage over everyone else, that's for sure."

  A com-light flashed as they glided forward, turning towards the open space beyond the rooftop pads ... they both glanced at it. Vanessa recognised the incoming signature.

  "Oh great." Hit the receive button ...

  "Hello Snowcat, this is S-15, repeat, S-15, please deactivate and stand by for further instructions, we are inbound on ETA of thirty seconds"

  "Negative, S-15," Vanessa replied, easing control grips forward. "We are outbound, I am awaiting instructions from a direct superior, I am not at liberty to take instruction from any source outside the chain of command, out."

  Sandy did a fast air-grid search, locking onto the ID signature of that incoming message ... found the incoming immediately, still a kilometre away, and patched that location into the cruiser's own navcomp so Vanessa could see, it was blacked out on regular systems, invisible to everyone but Traffic Central itself.

  "Snowcat, chain of command has been restructured, SIB have been authorised by Callayan C&C to carry full authority over any unit within our jurisdiction. Please stand down."

  Vanessa shut them off.

  "Definitely SIB," she said, although the ID already said as much. "Only SIB could talk about an electronic coup like it was a temporary reshuffle." Pushing the controls fully forward, and the aircar accelerated out into open air, a sudden, unobstructed view of wet city suburbs. "Damn. That means the Senate's involved. They've been after Neiland for years. I bet they're ecstatic."

  SIBs ... governed by political opposition within the Senate toward the Neiland government. Alarmed, perhaps, at the emergency legislation that had given the CSA such unprecedented power ... which they'd used to override xenophobic caution and include a captured League GI in the investigations. The thought gave her a very, very bad feeling, remembering Hiraki's assessment of Tanushan populist politics, and Ibrahim's calm contempt ... and the SIB had sent a cruiser straight for her within minutes of the takeover being implemented. The bad feeling got worse.

  "Vanessa, I've got to get out of here." As the cruiser accelerated toward an adjoining skylane, gathering speed and altitude. "I can't stay with you. CSA and the administration have been protecting me this far ... now it's all come down, all the people who're so scared of me are going to be after me." Past the combat reflex, she felt a rising, irrepressible dread. Given the opportunity, it could rise to panic. She determined not to give it the chance.

  "Out of here how?" Vanessa asked, scanning her navcomp display, adjusting viewpoints for possible paths ahead as she steered one-handed. "If CSA Ops comes back on line we can get a phony ID, give these fools the slip. Then we'll..."

  "I can't stay with you, Vanessa." Tracking the trailing SIB cruiser on her uplinks to the traffic network. It was closer, but not much. Unless it broke lanes, it wasn't going to catch up—all Tanushan airlanes were the same speed. "Even CSA's not safe any more. Dali's in command. Even Ibrahim can't challenge that directly." Vanessa shot her a hard look.

  "Sandy, this isn't the time to go off half-cocked ..."

  "I'm not going to let them lock me up, Vanessa," Sandy said warningly, the fear surfacing with a sudden surge, her heart rate accelerating at the prospect. "Not again. Not ever."

  Vanessa blinked, stared back at the navcomp screen, then at the passing towers and surrounding air traffic, increasingly obscured as the slipstream streaked rain across the windshield with growing force. The mist was closing in and lightning flashed closer.

  "What then?" she said finally. Voice hard and reluctant, conceding Sandy's point. "I can't lose the tail until Ops comes back online to give me some help."

  "I'll jump."

  Vanessa stared at her. "You're kidding!" Already Sandy was scanning ahead, searching the topographical displays for the landmark she required beneath the present flight route ... found a likely site, locked it in, transferred it to the cruiser's navcomp. It bleeped in reception, and Vanessa stared at it.

  "Nice little scenic lake, four metres deep—should be plenty."

  "Sandy, for chrissakes, there's not an airlane in Tanusha that goes under fifty metres. If you're gonna hit water from that height you may as well just land on the road ..."

  "I could," Sandy
cut her off, "but it hurts." Vanessa stared. "And it's too visible." Vanessa kept staring, then back out the windscreen, steering along the new course and muttering under her breath. The lights of a passing tower flashed dimly through the pounding rain. Sandy made certain of the safety and shoved the pistol back firmly into her harness. Zipped up her jacket as far as possible.

  "What are you going to do?" Vanessa asked then. Her jaw was tight.

  "Keep looking," Sandy replied, securing the interface unit in one pocket and the spare magazines in the other. "I agreed to help Ibrahim catch the people involved in this. As soon as Neiland is reinstated all the old rules will be back again, and I still want my citizenship."

  "Cassandra," Vanessa said firmly, demanding her attention. Sandy looked. "Don't do anything stupid. I know you want to catch the bastards who hurt you. I also know that you want to find whoever it was who sent you that message. Don't let it affect your judgment."

  Sandy's gaze was fixed and unblinking.

  "I've led more combat missions than I can remember, Vanessa," she said. "I'm not prone to letting my emotions get away from me."

  "Bullshit," Vanessa said warningly, half watching her, and half watching the course-display on the windscreen. "You're not the same person any more, girl, you said it yourself. You're angry as hell, you're only marginally legal, and you're dangerous enough to pretty much kill whoever you like, if you choose to. You just be damn careful what you decide to do, and think about the consequences. You can come out of this fine if that's how you decide to play it. Or you could end up a fugitive again, and hunted by everyone. Or dead. You just think about what you're really after."

  Sandy stared at her. It was, she realised, well worth her consideration. The cruiser banked again, slowly descending.

  "I'm not that angry," she said. Even as she said it, she wasn't certain if it was true.

  "Sure," Vanessa said sarcastically. "Sure you're not. You're so used to attacking everything from logical angles that you don't even realise when you're furious. If it were me, I'd want to rip their guts out. And unlike me, you can actually do that with your bare hands. Sounds pretty romantic sometimes, having that kind of power ... but girl, you can keep it. I don't want that responsibility. You just be damn careful what you do with it."