She kept her head and eyes moving slowly and constantly, searching for odd patterns of movement. Her sensors were watching the surrounding streets. Stonefield seemed like an open enough city, but that was illusion. Every street, every building, every park and open space was under constant security surveillance. All corporate cities were like that. They were under near constant cyber attack by competitors. It was their countermeasures that were giving Stone fits. His nano-spies had to navigate through a blizzard of invisible sentries in any building he found of interest, and those sentries were designed to specifically detect exactly what he was attempting. Security was tight. It always was in these pseudo cities. They weren’t really cities at all, but mega factories, and like the huge machines they were, each part of the city had a purpose. The mines supplied raw materials, the nano-smelters refined it, the factory complexes used what the smelters produced, the ports transported the products, but the rest of the city supplied the workforce and supported all their needs. That was just as important to the operation. All of it was ultimately owned and protected by the corporation that built it; they took that protection very seriously indeed.
While Stone fought his electronic battle, using his minions to thrust and parry his way into the hotel to vacuum data, Kate kept watch and prepared to battle other threats. Security didn’t just consist of Whitby Corp. personnel; it had divisions supplied by mercenary companies. While Whitby employees—no better than low paid drones—acted as civil police and first responders, the mercenaries took the place of a true military. The day she couldn’t outmanoeuvre a corporate owned police service was the day she’d eat her beret, but mercenaries were a different bowl of sushi altogether. They varied widely in competence, but in general, they were a match for the smaller militaries of worlds outside the core. Veteran soldiers often gravitated from the Alliance army or marines into those kinds of outfits come retirement.
She was vigilant.
Another round of drinks later, and Stone surfaced to find Kate with empty glasses in front of her and an impatient expression on her face. She watched him drink his own brew, before demanding some answers. He took his time, thinking about his answer before giving it to her.
“We have a problem, and by we I mean the Alliance.”
Kate blinked. How could her brother do anything to threaten the Alliance? “Huh?” she said intelligently. “I mean... what do you mean?”
“Richard Whitby and your brother are partners. They have some kind of deal worth a lot of money. I couldn’t get all the details, but they’re talking billions, Richmond. That five million you told me about?”
She nodded.
“I heard them laughing about it. They called Danny Cole a fool for giving up his life for chump change. Since when has five million ever been chump change? The lawyer took ten percent commission over and above the five mil, but Whitby considered their overhead nothing to worry about.”
She shrugged. “He’s rich.”
“I know that, but... you had to be there, I guess. This deal is something huge. It was the way they talked about it. They’re expecting to hit it big. Think about what big means to someone like Whitby, Richmond.”
She whistled silently. “And you don’t know any of the details?”
“I didn’t say that. I said I don’t know all the details.”
She frowned. “So far I haven’t heard anything that worries me let alone the Alliance. How does any of it help me get my brother back?”
“I’m coming to that. I couldn’t do more without tipping them off, but I did get a few hints. It’s all linked to our mission on Helios. Those dead aliens did come from somewhere out here in the Border Zone.”
“Well, we already guessed that.”
“True. They didn’t say it outright, but I got the impression that its location is your brother’s contribution to the expedition they’re putting together.”
“Expedition?”
Stone nodded.
“And we don’t know the destination?”
“No, but your brother does. We need that data.”
Her thoughts flashed to the data crystal she remembered Paul swallowing back on the bridge of Jean de Vienne. He must have copied a portion of the jump log and erased the original. She had to admire his quick thinking. Without that data, he wouldn’t have had anything to trade for his freedom. He was five million up and counting.
“Well, we planned to grab him anyway.”
Stone nodded but he looked grim. “That was the plan, but we can’t leave without that data no matter his decision. He can come with us or he can stay here, but that data comes with us no matter what it takes.”
“We need to get it back to Helios and Commodore Walder ASAP.”
“We do,” Stone agreed. “I’m glad you see that.”
“Of course I see it. It’s obvious. The navy needs to scout the system and estimate the threat before anyone can go in and clear the Merki out.”
“Right. We need a new plan. If I can’t sniff out the jump coordinates, we’ll need to get them out of your brother.” Stone looked her in the eye, grimly. “Whatever it takes, Kate. He will cough up that data.”
She stiffened at the implied threat. She’d die before she let him or anyone hurt Paul, but he knew that. She nodded slowly, not to agree with him, but to acknowledge his threat. If it came to it, she would get the data out of Paul herself, but without force. Besides, Stone was scary good at this sort of thing. He’d get the data without needing threats of violence. She was counting on it.
“What’s the plan?” she said as they left the bar.
“We need to get into the penthouse. I can’t access what I need from out here in time.”
“In time?”
“They’re outfitting a ship. We have less than a week before they leave the system.”
“Oookay,” she said, realising the urgency now. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. “I vote we cap a couple of the hotel staff and go in posing as them.”
He gave her a look.
“What?”
“I just realised Marion was right about something.”
“What?” she said again, and this time it sounded like a whine.
“Nothing important,” he muttered. “It’s a decent plan as your plans go.”
“Hey!” she protested.
“But there’s no need to kill anyone at this stage.” He noted her scowl. “Maybe later.”
She snorted. He was offering her a bone to placate her. She wasn’t a complete psycho! She frowned. Had Hymas said something to him? She shook her head. It didn’t matter.
“So, where are we going?” she said.
“If we’re going in as staff we need a simcode reader.”
She nodded. They would have to read the simcode data of some of the staff, and then they could program their own implants to match. Security in places like Dickhead’s hotel, high-end hotels catering to corporate execs and their own owners, would rely way more upon simcode implants than visual I.D. There might not be any staff working there with matching builds, she mused. They would have to check on that. It would be better to choose people they could be mistaken for, at least from a distance.
“Any idea where to get one?” she asked.
Simcode readers weren’t readily available. They couldn’t just buy one. Security services and government agencies would have them, and places that needed really good and expensive security measures, but no one else would need one.
“They don’t grow on trees,” Stone said. She nodded, not that trees grew in the desert. “I could build one given time, but I think we’ll just do it the easy way and steal one.”
“Oh good!” Some action at last.
He smiled.
Stonefield, Douna Wastes, Northcliff
They chose one of the distribution centres for their larceny. Unlike the ports, which operated 24/7, the distribution centres were a daytime operation. Two shifts of employees worked to package Stonefield’s products and transport them to the p
orts where they were boosted into orbit. At night, the depots were shut down and handed over to the crews responsible for maintenance and replenishment of the packaging lines. The crews were small, making the site seem deserted. In comparison to the day, it was deserted, but that didn’t mean security was lax. It wasn’t and for good reason. Finished products were literally stacked unattended awaiting crating and shipping, making all the distribution centres an attractive target for theft by employees and outsiders alike. Simcode protocols were definitely in effect here, making it one of Stone’s prime targets for securing what they needed.
Night was definitely best for burglary, Kate mused, as she studied her entry point. Traditional, and kind of fun when she didn’t have orders to slaughter some poor soul for getting on the wrong side of someone important. Stone was monitoring the area and her objective from a distance. That was nice too. He would know if anyone sounded an alert or made a call for backup, and should be able to run interference. She could get used to having a partner on these things.
She hunkered down into cover and contacted Stone via viper comm. “In position.”
“Acknowledged. Patrol approaching from your nine o’clock—airborne.”
She glanced up and edged further back into the deep shadows between one of the sprawling warehouses and the loading dock. She was wearing her sneaksuit with its hood up and mask in place, and had left her street clothes with Stone, but she didn’t want to take chances. The suit’s IR masking capabilities were excellent, and in the cool night air of the desert, she should be like a hole in the air.
Nothing to detect here, move along, move along.
The warehouse at her back would contain the crates and other things used to package and ship stuff through foldspace. Most merchant ships transported cargo in holds pumped down to vacuum. It saved on environmental costs. Cargo needed protection against the cold and harsh conditions found in holds with minimal particle shielding.
Her sensors told her that the loading dock was unguarded by droid or human guards, but it was a sensitive area, and patrols were numerous. She waited and the patrol cruiser entered her area of responsibility at last. She was monitoring her sensors close in, while Stone kept watch further out. The system was working out really great. It allowed her to concentrate on sensing emissions close by and countering them with ECM. She had dedicated a lot of her processor’s cycles to that task and tagged it as a priority.
She watched the cruiser’s searchlight sweep the area in front of the loading bays counting under her breath.
Thirty-two, thirty-three...
“Going in now,” she said when the patrol moved off. She sprinted toward the loading dock.
“Three minutes.”
She had three minutes until the next patrol arrived. “Copy.”
Her ECM alert flickered as it intercepted and neutralised security cams at the dock. She could have fried the system, but that would have set off the alarms. ECM was able to spoof the cameras and other security measures in a gentle way when necessary. A flicker on security monitors as she raced by, and then back to normal with none the wiser. The unseen threat of the security nanos were more dangerous to her, but again ECM should handle it... if her systems proved to be the more advanced. They should be, but there was never a guarantee. Corporations like Whitby Corp. researched and manufactured such things after all.
Her ECM alert flickered on and off repeatedly as she sped through the building. She used the blueprints she had up on her display to navigate her way from the business end of the facility and into admin areas. Employees wouldn’t enter the building through the loading bays. They would enter at the other end—the facade that fronted the transpo hub. That would be where they had to pass through security to clock on shift.
She moved out of industrial areas and into the administration spaces. She walked stealthily past offices used for monitoring inventory levels and shipping schedules, noting the signs pointing toward Human Resources. The map on her display confirmed her location. She chose the correct turns heading toward her objective without pause or error, her ECM indicator was on solid now. She imagined the security nanos swarming around her; they must be trying to attack constantly, only to have her ECM thwart them at every turn. There was no evidence of the battle, but she must be winning. Stone would have alerted her if an alarm had sounded.
Keeping her steps silent as she navigated the corridors, she slowed to a crouching wary walk and stopped before an office door. This was the risky part. The door was locked of course, as were all the doors, but this one led into the security department itself. It might be manned... she checked, but her sensors said no. The outer office was empty. Good deal. She had a stunner as well as a pulser on her belt, and had been prepared to take out anyone inside, but it would be better to slip in and out stealthily. Sensors reported the monitoring station further in was manned, but that was to be expected. With luck, she wouldn’t need to go in there.
She reached to her hip and the decoder clipped to her belt that Stone had given her. He loved his gadgets. She could have used some of the face cream nanos for this infiltration, but he insisted she use one of his other toys. She grinned remembering the look he gave her when she told him how well the cream had worked on the armoured car. He agreed they would have worked here too, but the cream was a fast and dirty method. What was it he said? Oh yeah, not very refined. Quick and dirty wasn’t good enough this time, and she had to agree. There were alarms and advanced security to by-pass. The armoured car’s lock was nothing in comparison.
She applied Stone’s decoder and it easily diddled the lock. She had to admit Stone knew his stuff. She’d used other decoders in her time but this one seemed smoother and faster than the high-end electronics supplied by ISS for her missions way back when. Now though, she was packing more and better tech, but most of it internally. It was forever part of her. Electronic locks like this were actually simple, technologically speaking, but that was by design. Neural tech was banned, and linking locks to the net opened them up to tampering. This kind of lock needed to be opened by the user in person.
She shook off her preoccupation and eased the door open. She was greeted by silence, not screaming sirens. Stone stayed off the comm. Goody.
She crossed the outer office quickly and applied the decoder to another door. The room in which she stood was more like a lobby area than an office, or perhaps they called it a reception? Whatever. The locked doors led to various rooms used for interviews, monitoring the facility, managing personnel, etc. The one she entered was a locker room. She raced between metal lockers to the door at the far end, and applied the decoder one last time. Before opening the door, she used her sensors to locate the security cams inside. There were two, one in each opposite corner covering the door. There was no way to enter without being seen. When she spoofed those cams, she would have very little time before someone noticed. She had to be in and out fast enough to release the cams without notice or setting off alarms.
Computer: light amplification mode.
The room brightened a little, enough to see without using the flashlight on her hip, and she gave the command to her ECM. She opened the door, and stepped into the armoury. Her attention flicked to the cameras in the corners, but the ready light on each no longer glowed. Her ECM had disabled them. She had less than a minute. Ignoring the weapon racks decorating the walls containing rows of gleaming pulse rifles, she dived toward the steel cabinets that ringed the room. Her fist hammered into a door and it buckled away from its frame. She jammed her fingers into the gap and ripped it open. She glared inside the cabinet and discovered spare body armour. Her fist flicked out at another door, and it folded inward. The door came off in her grasp to reveal handheld scanners and simcode readers. She snatched what she needed and dashed out of the armoury. She gave the order to release the cams as she crossed the threshold, slapping the door closed at the same time.
And waited... and waited... and... and nothing! No alarms sounded and no contact from Stone givin
g dire warnings. She grinned fiercely. All she had to do now was retrace her route out of the building, and meet Stone at the perimeter fence.
Damn, she was good.
“Got it,” she reported via viper comm.
“Good. Hurry it up, we don’t have all night.”
She scowled. The nerve of him! “On my way, ETA five minutes.”
“Copy.”
Bloody man! No well done, Kate. No, way to go, Kate. No, I was worried and I’m glad you’re okay, Kate! She growled under her breath, but she didn’t hang about. She made her way out of the building, waited for a patrol to fly over, and hurried to make her rendezvous with Stone. Behind her, she left the distribution centre unaware anything untoward had happened.
* * *
23 ~ Resolution
Stonefield, Wastes of Douna, Northcliff
Kate finished taping the unconscious pair’s hands and feet, absently pocketed the tape, and stepped back to study them where they lay on the floor. She wasn’t happy with what she saw.
“Yours is a bit tall, don’t you think?”
Stone shrugged.
“You don’t think someone will notice that you shrank almost half a meter in a day when they see you?”
“Maybe, maybe not, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Yours is close enough.”
She nodded. The woman did have the right build and hair colour—completely the wrong style of course, and very unflattering on her, but overall Kate was pleased with hers. It was Stone’s that worried her. The two men looked nothing alike. Stone was obsidian skinned, wide shouldered, and barrel-chested. He was completely bald and barely 1.7meters tall for God’s sake! He looked nothing like the hotel employee who was easily a half meter taller with long hair in tight braids... well he had the right skin tone she supposed, but that was all. In fact, he was the only black skinned man on the night shift at the hotel. All the others were female, or pure Anglo with tanned skin, or had a mixed Anglo and Asian heritage. That was why they grabbed this guy in the first place.
Merkiaari Wars: 04 - Operation Breakout Page 28