Bourne

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “Thank you, everyone. Now let’s turn to page 238 in your strategy textbooks and pick up on the Cantopole Wars case study again…”

  ***

  Molly stepped into her classroom. The hubbub quickly died down as students scrambled to their desks and fixed their attention on Molly.

  Molly unzipped her atmosjacket and stepped up to the front bench, pulling up a holoscreen of her teaching notes. Out of her peripheral vision she clocked a smartly dressed gentleman, too old to be one of her students, sitting patiently in the back of the class.

  Who’s the guy at the back?

  Rick Shadrows is his name. It’s some regulatory body representative that Garett Atkins suggested we humor. You ok’d it last week.

  You mean in that string of things you asked me about during my workout?

  You said you could multitask.

  I did. And I can. I remember now.

  Good. So I don’t need to call security on his ass.

  No. In fact, it will give me a good opportunity to see if I can get a read on him.

  Ahh, with your hoodoo voodoo energy reading thing.

  Exactly. And don’t call it that. When you say hoodoo I think of Paige’s granny growing herbs in her back yard.

  Roger that.

  She started her lecture. “Okay, we’re onto the second phase of the Estarian unification convention. Who can tell me what the primary concerns were when the parties sat down to negotiate?”

  Two hands went up. One was Donovan, her mousey-haired medical monitor.

  The other was the gentleman at the back of the room.

  Molly smiled at him as she moved out from behind the front bench and stepped off the platform to be closer to her students. “Class, we have a guest joining us today. Please say hello to Mr. Rick Shadrows.”

  The class turned their attention on the man and said their hellos.

  Mr. Shadrows nodded and smiled politely, acknowledging the sentiment.

  “Mr. Shadrows is here to observe to make sure that we’re following regulations. I’m sure he’ll probably want to ask you some questions…” She looked at him as if to give him permission. “So please cooperate and treat him with the same respect you’d treat any faculty member.”

  There were grunts and murmurs of acknowledgment.

  “So, Mr. Shadrows. You had your hand up to answer the question,” she ventured.

  Shadrows nodded. “Yes. I believe you’re referring to the circumstances that led up to the Huntington Convention, which created the unification of the two major powers on Estaria. In essence, the major considerations were how much trade each party could bring to the table and how much aid each would supply to its relative populations in terms of reparations.”

  Molly nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Well, there were a few rumors that there were some back door dealings between a couple of their major corporations at the time, but those were wholly unsubstantiated and probably started by rebels within the two groups to try and undermine the terms that were eventually reached.”

  Molly kept her expression friendly but blank, noticing certain students in the class recognizing the paradigm the intruder was answering with. “And Mr. Shadrows, were these claims ever upheld down the line?”

  “Actually yes, but by that time the corporations in question had been dissolved and…”

  She wasn’t paying attention to the rest of his argument. She’d heard it several times before over the years. She had already started moving back to her desk on the raised platform. “Right,” she agreed as she pulled up a holoscreen and pushed it against the wall for the whole class to see.

  “Here are the names of the executives associated with those two corporations… the ones charged and found guilty of policy manipulation, extortion and bribery, I believe the exact charges were.”

  She flicked the screen and a second set of data was displayed next to the first.

  “And here are the names of two new companies which then incorporated within eighteen months following,” she told the class as they took in the new data on the screen.

  There were murmurs in the class.

  “So what can we conclude from this data?” she asked.

  Most of the hands in the class went up.

  Molly nodded at one of the quieter students who rarely raised his hand. “Yes, Nathan?”

  Nathan cleared his throat and quietly explained the case as he saw it, including the fact that it looked like the companies just renamed themselves to get out of trouble.

  Molly nodded. “That’s certainly one theory,” she agreed, allowing space for other interpretations of the data.

  She looked to the back row of the class, “Anything to add to that assessment, Mr. Shadrows?”

  “Ah well...” The man looked embarrassed. “Yes, I can see that is a potentially valid point now.”

  There was a snigger from the front of the class that Molly silenced with the glare. She continued the lesson.

  Eventually, part-way through a discourse on the third phase of the development, the bell rang, releasing both Molly, the observer, and the class from the inconvenient contentions of education.

  The class filtered out, realizing that after-class stories of rogue missions and near-death assignments were probably out of the question while Mr. Shadrows was around.

  The mysterious gentleman waited for the last of them to filter out, and cautiously approached the front of the class and nodded. “I have to say, Ms. Bates, I was expecting something quite different when I came here.

  She watched him approach the last few steps. “Oh. Yes?”

  He nodded his head slowly a few times. “Yes. I thought things would be a little less… rigorous,” he admitted.

  “Well, I can understand that concern, Mr. Shadrows. But if we’re going to shape change, then we have to do it from a solid foundation of facts and careful, considered evaluation, no?” she left her question hanging.

  His earlier nods started to become more pronounced. “Yes, yes, I agree.” The man’s eyes lit up. He stuck his hand out to shake with Molly. She reached out and took it. “I’m going to reflect nothing but good things in my report,’

  Molly could sense that he was genuine, despite his original feelings when she had first stepped into the room. Her grindle senses had picked up that he was indeed there to start the process of shutting them down, but now, shaking his hand and seeing his enthusiasm for their work, she didn’t pick up a trace of it at all.

  “I’m very happy to hear that Mr. Shadrows.”

  “Please, call me Rick!” He chirped.

  She carefully didn’t raise an eyebrow. “Ok, Rick.” She repeated.

  “Well,” he said moving towards the door. “I’ll be in touch if I need anything else. But thank you very much for your time.”

  Molly smiled, waving to him as he walked away. “Excellent. Yes, please do. Thank you Rick!”

  And with that he disappeared out of the door and down the corridor.

  What was that?

  What was what?

  You know what.

  I don’t.

  Well, he came in with one set of beliefs and left with another. Don’t think I didn’t hear you logging in your mind what you were picking up about his state emotionally.

  You noticed how easily he changed his mind?

  Yes.

  And you know that most people would point to the information and say that that was what changed his mind, right?

  Yes. And they would be wrong. There have been countless studies that have shown that information had very little effect on someone’s opinion. Most people will simply reject it, diminish it or disregard it in order to maintain their current paradigm.

  This is also true.

  So something else changed his mind.

  You’re back to that then.

  I think it’s worth looking into. Apart from anything, if this creates long term changes in peoples’ beliefs then imagine the impact that could have on our missions? Heck o
n the Federation.

  Yes, and imagine the ethical issues with that too. It wouldn’t be any different from hacking someone’s code, methinks.

  Hmm. There is that.

  So, how are we getting on with finding out who has been probing us?

  I’m still working on it.

  Should I be worried?

  No. Why?

  Because whoever these people are who are trying to find out about us have so far evaded you. You’re the most powerful AI this system has seen.

  Molly paused, weighing her next words to Oz.

  I don’t suppose we need to bring in ADAM to help do we?

  No. I’ve got this. I’m just having difficulty, what with having to help Bourne and the missions and…

  Ah. Single parenthood catching up to you eh?

  Well, I didn’t think I was on my own in this…

  You’re not. Molly chuckled. I just liked the expression. It seems to map to the challenge you’re having.

  What challenge?

  You know — balancing your career and child rearing.

  Oz went quiet.

  Oz?

  Yes?

  You okay?

  Yes, sorry. I was, erm… just contemplating the dilemma. I’m wondering if there is a way of increasing my capacity…

  Well, let me know if I can help.

  I will.

  And if you need ADAM on this, then let’s be smart about it. It’s perfectly okay to ask for help.

  Hmm. Okay.

  Molly could sense his pride was stopping him, but figured she should let him run a little longer to see if he came to the conclusion himself. She wanted him to make the decision. Not for her to dictate it to him.

  She picked up her jacket and headed out of the classroom.

  Outside University, carport

  The Sark was setting as Rick made his way across the half-built carport of the new university. The campus grounds were still in disarray in places, but it seems that a big injection of cash had been made to smarten certain areas up.

  The college administrator, Garett Atkins, had given him a tour earlier that day and pointed out where the various tech labs and discussion theaters were going to be developed as soon as they had the head count to justify it.

  “Hi, yes, I’m here,” he said to his holo connection.

  Rick had been on hold and the holocall connected just as he was arriving at his car and began a battle with getting in with his jacket and case.

  “Yes sir. It went very well… and honestly I know we were looking for signs of impropriety, but I couldn’t find anything observable.”

  He listened.

  “Yes. Yes. I understand that. But we can’t find something that isn’t there.”

  An air of frustration descended on his good mood.

  Shadrows was silent as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. He got into his car and closed the door, hoping that the noise canceling algorithm would filter out the bang.

  “Yes, I’ll do that, of course sir, but I don’t think this warrants further investigation. Everything seems to be in order. Yes. Thank you sir. I will.”

  And with that the call was disconnected.

  Rick sat in the quiet of his car, contemplating what he’d just seen over the course of the day. He had been convinced that this outfit was spelling social trouble and that it would cause a problem in the future. But since Molly’s class, and seeing how she was instructing the students to think for themselves and not take hearsay at face value… there was something valuable there.

  And try as he might, he couldn’t seem to recapture the feelings he had felt earlier that day about the whole thing.

  He started the car and buckled his harness.

  Well, if his boss wanted his report, he’d just have to accept it as he saw it, he concluded, pulling out of the car port and heading off for the stratohighway.

  But right now, he needed a beer.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Undisclosed bar, Spire

  Carol Bates looked up from her holo as the waiter passed by her table on the way to the next. She glanced at the ice in her drink and then at the time on her holoscreen.

  Her asset was late.

  She glimpsed over at the man at the next table. He’d come in a few seconds after she had, so naturally he was suspect.

  She turned her attention back to the screening reports from her team from the data they had captured before she shut the operation down. She hoped there might be a clue in there. Something to give her insight into what her daughter was doing with Sean Royale.

  So far she’d turned up nothing.

  Just then a pretty young Estarian female came in through the front door. She was all made up, but dressed casually. She glanced around, her eyes still adjusting to the dim light of the bar.

  A second later she spotted Carol and headed straight over.

  Carol stood up and signaled to the seat on the other side of the booth. “Glad you could make it, Karina,” Carol said, with the air of forced pleasantries.

  Karina looked at her sternly. “You didn’t give me much choice. Seems I’m at your beck and call these days.”

  Carol pursed her lips together and lowered her eyes. Her demeanor was no-nonsense, but she didn’t want to come across as domineering or harsh. “I understand that might be how you feel,” she said quietly.

  The waiter came over and Karina ordered before returning to the conversation. “So… why am I here?” she asked, crossing her legs and sitting back in the booth.

  “I need you for a job,” Carol said flatly.

  Karina’s interest was piqued. “What kind of job? Engage and neutralize? Engage and interrogate?”

  “Engage and marry,” Carol answered.

  Karina’s mouth dropped open. “You’re not serious?”

  “I am.”

  “Who’s the target.”

  “We’ll come to that.”

  “What’s the purpose?”

  “Information, mostly. But then once you’re in we might need to leverage your position, so you’ll want to go in with a long-term plan.”

  “How long-term.”

  “Maybe a few years.”

  Karina started choking, coughing on her surprise.

  “Oh, come on,” Carol remarked. “It’s not like you haven’t done anything like this before.”

  “Well, I’ve never actually gone through with the marriage part. At least not for work.”

  Carol sipped her limeade. “Well, first time for everything. It will look great on your resume.”

  Karina’s eyes tensed up as she processed what she was going to have to do. Just then her drink arrived. No sooner had the server set it on the table she picked it up and downed it.

  “Another,” she said, signaling to the server, who had only seconds before moved away from the table.

  Carol continued. “You will of course be compensated. Usual rate for a long term gig.”

  Karina nodded, still stunned. “And the target?” she asked.

  Carol sat back in her chair. “Yes. That’s something else you’ll have to acclimatize to.”

  “Why, who is it?” She asked, her face suddenly a little more animated. “You’ve not landed me some prince from one of the provinces have you? Is that why I got it? Because of the human thing?”

  Carol raised one eyebrow, pretty much in the same way her daughter would when casting doubt on a statement.

  “You know,” Karina said, her eyes dancing now as she shrugged her shoulders from side to side. “All the Estarian princes like humans. That’s why they keep marrying them.”

  Carol felt her inward face role her eyes. Her poker face remained unchanged. “No Karina. It’s not an Estarian prince… although, some people have called him a prince among men… over the years.”

  Karina’s eyes narrowed as she tried to piece together the clues she was being given.

  “It’s Sean Royale,” Carol finally admitted.

  “My EX?” She hissed.r />
  “Yes. Your ex.” Carol replied calmly.

  “And you thought this would be a good idea because?”

  Just then Karina’s second drink arrived, reminding her to keep her voice down. She visibly shrank and waited for the server to move away again.

  Once he was out of earshot, she got back to their conversation. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  “I can assure you I’m not.”

  Karina’s eyes roamed the bar before she asked, “And you can’t send anyone else?”

  Carol shook her head, “No. We need the history. The relationship.”

  “And you think that after everything that’s happened in the past, I’ll still be able to play him?” Karina asked.

  “Yes,” Carol answered.

  Karina slumped back in the booth again, her face twisted like a teenager in discourse with a parent.

  “You’re the only one who can do this,” Carol added, again trying to make it look like she wasn’t strong-arming her.

  But then, they both knew that Karina had no choice, and any illusion that she might have was merely a formality to make proceedings feel civilized.

  Karina downed her drink and placed the empty glass back on the table in front of her. “Okay. When do I make my play?”

  “I’ll send you the details, but basically this is how it’s going to play out…” Carol began.

  The two women occupied the booth for another twenty minutes, ordering another round of drinks. Carol left a reasonable tip when she paid the bill and quietly left the bar a good ten minutes after Karina departed. With Karina now in play, her plan to find out what her daughter was really up to would have a longer shelf life than the digitally driven assignments.

  Gaitune-67, Molly’s Conference Room

  “Hey.”

  Sean popped his head in to the conference room, tapping his knuckle against the door.

  “I heard about what happened today,” he told her.

  Molly didn’t turn around or look up. “With what?” she asked, distracted.

  Sean stepped into the room and stood in front of her, just behind her line of vision on her holo. “With the shady guy coming into your class,” he qualified. “Oz was monitoring his communications after he came out. Seems he had a change of heart about coming after you.”