Maelstrom of Treason

by Michael Anderle

  Jia nodded slowly. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  The next evening, Jia collapsed face-first onto her bed, her stomach lurching. She could grab an alcohol filter patch from her bathroom, but that would require getting up. Her stomach and head told her that was a terrible idea, even if she’d suffer more in the long run. She already had regrets.

  Half the night was a gut-churning blur.

  Jia groaned and turned her head. Why had she let Erik convince her to drink so much?

  A memory surfaced—his mouth warm against hers. She cursed. Being drunk enough to vomit was annoying enough, but being so drunk she couldn’t remember making out with Erik was the true punishment.

  Her PNIU chimed with a message. Jia batted at it unsuccessfully a few times, moaning, then blinking when the message came up.

  The client’s quicker than I expected. We have a meeting at the hangar tomorrow morning. I know you’re probably passed out right now, so I’ll call and pick you up tomorrow morning.

  Jia rolled out of bed and staggered until she was upright. The darkness of sleep would have been her preferred choice to deal with her alcohol-filled veins, but she’d also expected to have the next day off. Better to clear herself out before she woke up.

  “Right to it, huh, Alina?” Jia chuckled and stumbled toward her bathroom. “If this involves more stupid nanozombies, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Erik set the MX 60 down inside the open hangar holding the Pegasus, the Rabbit-class ship that would be their transportation for future assignments.

  Even though they’d barely used the spacecraft, Erik realized he thought of it as the Rabbit despite its registered name. He had no problem with the name Pegasus, but for some reason, the long, squat ship reminded him more of a rabbit.

  He didn’t know if he approved. Rabbits ran away, and that was the last thing he planned to do.

  Erik looked around and frowned at the empty hangar. “If she’s invisible again, I might have to shoot her. There are only so many tests I want to take. There was a reason I never went to college.”

  “Her ghost thing does get annoying,” Jia agreed. “Of course, I’m not sure if her disguises are more or less irritating.”

  “I feel compelled,” Emma began, “to point out that both of you used disguises on your last assignment for her, and it’s highly likely you’ll be using them again, given the nature of who your employer will be going forward.”

  “She did say we’d turn into her.” Jia snickered. “Did you ever think you’d end up doing something like this? I never, ever thought about working for the Intelligence Directorate when I was younger, directly or indirectly.”

  “Working for a ghost, huh?” Erik opened his door. “No, but I knew on my way back to Earth that things might get weird since the people who killed my unit couldn’t have been normal terrorists.” He stepped out into the hangar. “When your enemy isn’t normal, your allies can’t be either.”

  Jia exited the vehicle with a lingering gaze toward the hidden storage beneath the passenger seat. “At what point does being careful become paranoia? I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately.”

  “That happens at the point when you hurt someone who doesn’t have it coming,” Erik suggested, surveying the hangar. “Until then, it’s about not letting the bastards surprise you. Don’t worry. I see what you’re doing. I know what you’re thinking, and I’m thinking it myself. That’s why we’re both alive after all that shit we’ve dealt this last year. The second we let our guard down, some zombie will eat our brains.”

  Jia laughed. “You know what I just realized?”

  “That goalie wasn’t playing that badly the other day?” Erik joked. Being alert was good, but being too tense could cause overfocus.

  “That’s a load of bull.” Jia rolled her eyes. “Just look at the stats. He sucked! Sure, we all have bad days, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t terrible just because they’re rare.” She shook her head. “No. I keep thinking I’ve become paranoid, but I’ve always been paranoid.”

  Erik gave her a skeptical look. “You used to think there was no serious crime on Earth. That doesn’t sound like a paranoid woman.”

  “Maybe not consciously, but subconsciously. If I wasn’t, I would have never pushed so hard when I started at the 1-2-2. On some level, I knew there was something more going on. Working with you and Alina isn’t turning me into anything I wasn’t already. It’s more that it’s returning me to my true nature.”

  “It sounds kind of scary when you say it like that.” Erik grinned. “Okay, Alina, stop playing games before I pull out the laser rifle and start shooting randomly. Or maybe I’ll toss a few plasma grenades to clear the hangar.”

  The Rabbit’s cargo bay door rumbled, lowering to the floor to become a ramp and revealing Alina. The spy started down the ramp before it had finished opening. She was trailed by Cutter and a tiny redheaded woman with frizzy hair in black overalls with an angular face.

  Erik nodded to the redhead. “Who’s she?”

  “Lanara Quinn,” the woman answered. “Next time talk to me, not through me, Blackwell.”

  Erik raised his palms in mock surrender. “Sorry. Not trying to be an asshole.”

  “I don’t care much if you are,” Lanara replied. “I just find it inefficient if you’re talking to somebody about me instead of talking to me.”

  Cutter shook his head, a pained look on his face. “First, Holochick and now her. Somebody up there hates me.”

  Emma winked into existence at the bottom of the ramp, smirking at Cutter. “Be assured, Pilot Durn, that your bravery during the prison incident doesn’t mean you’re beyond reproach.”

  “No offense, Holochick, but you don’t even have a body,” Cutter complained.

  “You waste your body, including your brain, fleshbag.”

  “We’re certainly collecting a colorful crew here,” Jia commented. She nodded at Lanara. “Jia Lin.” She gestured at Erik. “My rude partner is Erik Blackwell. Nice to meet you.”

  “I know who you are.” Lanara shrugged. “Why would I be here if I didn’t?”

  “Aren’t you direct?”

  “It’s efficient to be direct. Bullshit wastes everyone’s time.” Lanara shrugged, not a hint of apology on her face.

  Alina put a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat. “Lanara’s a skilled engineer. She can get around pretty well working on vehicles, too, and exoskeletons. Basically, she’s a solid all-around support person you can trust and who won’t wet herself if she gets shot at.”

  “Try to kill people before they shoot me, please.” Lanara folded her arms. “I’ve already started working on the fuel intakes. There are some inefficiencies. I’m surprised whoever maintained this ship before left in there. Plus, they didn’t take advantage of grav field modulation to improve flow. When you do that kind of thing, you can improve efficiency as much as two percent in this model. I also—”

  Alina cut her off by clearing her throat again. “As you can see, Lanara might not always be the life of the party, but she knows what she’s doing. She’s worth an entire support crew by herself and has worked for me on and off for a few years.”

  Erik offered his hand to the tiny engineer. “I’m not the kind of guy who specializes in bullshit. Good to have you helping us out.”

  Lanara’s shake was surprisingly firm. “I’m excited about the job. Sometimes it’s nice to do less with more.” She glanced between Erik and Jia. “And I like working with competent people. Alina says you’re the real deal. That means a lot. I’ve seen you on the news, but they specialize in bullshit.”

  “We try to be real,” Erik offered.

  Emma smiled. “I like this fleshbag. She amuses me in a good way.”

  “I’m glad someone does,” Cutter mumbled, scuffing his boot against the hangar floor.

  Lanara nodded to Emma. “Having you around will help a lot. It’ll save time on a lot of diagnostics. I always wondered what I co
uld pull off with a self-aware AI helping me out, but I didn’t think that kind of thing was possible.”

  Emma bowed. “I am a wonder of the modern age.”

  “If we’ve got a pilot and an engineer, does that mean you have an assignment lined up for us, Alina?” Jia asked eagerly. “Were you just waiting for us to leave the department?”

  Alina shook her head. “I’m working on some leads, so I’d stay close to Neo SoCal, but I’m not sending you anywhere tomorrow.” She motioned to the Rabbit. “As Lanara mentioned, there are some modifications she wants to make, and they’ll take a few days anyway. You should take the time to relax and appreciate Earth. I plan on running you ragged soon enough.”

  Erik chuckled. “It’s not like we're planning on jaunting off to Molino anytime soon, but it’d be a good time to transfer gear to the ship, so we’re ready.” He furrowed his brow. “Damn. One thing I didn’t think about is drones. It might be nice if Emma didn’t have to hack around us as we go.”

  The AI nodded her agreement. “It’s not always that practical, given the situation.”

  “Drones are easy, but it’ll be better if we don’t go crazy.” Alina gestured to the cargo bay. “I’ll get you some decent disposable drones. You have tactical suits and the like already. Adeyemi should still be your primary weapons supplier for anything heavier than your TR-7 and your ammo.”

  “Spreading out the blame if we get caught?” Jia asked.

  “Something like that. Besides, I’m taking care of everything from fuel to docking fees.”

  “What about the exoskeletons?” Erik pressed. “Are those coming?”

  “They’re coming, but they might not be here in time for your next assignment. Since I’d prefer you to not die while you’re hunting down Talos and whatever other monsters I point you at, I’m going all out.” Alina offered him a lopsided smirk. “I’m going to get you something nice. Trust me.”

  Jia tutted. “Isn’t trusting a ghost kind of a bad idea?”

  “That’s true,” Alina replied.

  “Assuming you get me the exoskeletons, it’s much appreciated.” Erik stuck his hands in his pocket and whistled. “I wish I could have had all of this and all these people when I left Molino. If I had, I might have already taken down the conspiracy already.”

  Even if he’d splashed cash around immediately, there wasn’t much he could have done.

  The frontier colony didn’t play host to mercenaries and hirelings ready to help a vengeful ex-soldier. If he’d tried to look into it right away, he probably would have ended up outside the dome without a suit and been reported as a suicide. The failure of the conspiracy to finish him off when they had their chance was their first big mistake.

  An enemy who made mistakes was an enemy who could be defeated, even if they were stronger.

  Lanara headed toward the ramp. “If we’re not going anywhere anytime soon, I’m going to start on the modifications. I also noticed the ship lacks a VR system. If we’re going to be stuck on this thing together, it might help. It won’t be nano-augmented, but if I add a decent chair, a treadmill, and a few things like that, I can get halfway there.”

  Jia’s brow lifted in surprise. “You can do all that in a few days?”

  Lanara crested the ramp and shrugged. “I happen to have most of the equipment lying around. I get bored a lot when I have time on my hands. And I was thinking because we have Emma that it’ll be easier to dynamically modify simulation parameters and the programming. On top of that, even if I can squeeze that extra power out of the reactor like I was planning, we don’t have a weapons system to feed, so might as well use it, and then I was thinking about...Wait.”

  “What?” Erik frowned and searched around for trouble. If there was something obviously wrong, Emma would have already warned them.

  Lanara threw up a finger. “I’m an idiot. Why didn’t I see it before? I can add dedicated grav field emitters, and Emma can provide active adjustment in a way a normal system couldn’t, and then…” She sprinted into the cargo bay, no longer interested in human interaction. “I’ve got this!”

  Jia leaned to her right to catch the last moment of the woman going deeper into the ship and blinked. “She’s certainly…interesting.”

  “See?” Cutter nodded as he pointed to Jia as if she had just exclaimed the whole problem. “Why can’t we have a normal engineer?”

  “We could say the same thing about you,” Jia observed.

  “Damn, Lin. You know where to hit a man. All those ballbusters on this ship. It’s just going to be me and you holding the line, Erik.”

  Erik offered an evil grin. “Remember, I’m dating Jia.”

  Cutter groaned.

  Alina rubbed her hands, an excited gleam in her eyes. “You’ll all do great things soon. That’s all I have for now. Just try to stay alive for the next few days.”

  “I’ll try,” Erik replied.

  Jia shrugged. “We can’t help it if we’re popular.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The MX 60 sped away from the hangar, Erik in control.

  He’d not said much since their mini-briefing, leaving Jia time to sort through her impressions of their latest ally. When she was working as a detective, she’d had little control over who she worked with, and that trend had continued with her new job.

  Most people could say the same, but most people didn’t have to worry about being targeted by galactic conspiracies. Her instincts told her Lanara would be a great help, but instincts were the beginning of a thought process, not the end.

  “What do you think about Lanara?” Jia asked, worried she was overreacting. “Honestly, it’s not like I’ve known a lot of ship engineers, so I don’t know what kind of personality they’re supposed to have, but she seems enthusiastic about her job.”

  “I think she’ll get things done, but we shouldn’t ask her to arrange the New Year’s Party,” Erik replied. “It’d probably just be an empty bowl with a sign next to it saying, ‘Insert snacks here and then consume.’ After that, she’d send us a message on our PNIUs reading, ‘For maximum efficiency, select your favorite song and play it in your ear. P.S. Parties are a waste of time. I’m going to go turn your flitter into a giant catapult because I’m bored.’”

  “I was thinking she doesn’t have much of a personality, but when you put it that way, it’s more that she has too much of one.” Jia chuckled.

  “Better to be too much than nothing,” Erik replied. “I don’t trust anyone who is quiet and won’t speak their mind. You never know if they’re trying to protect themselves or your feelings. I’m a big boy who doesn’t need his feelings protected. She’s even pumped about Emma.”

  “A true sign of intelligence, I assure you,” Emma commented.

  “Of course.” Jia smirked. “I’m surprised by both Lanara and Cutter. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but that’s the way I feel.”

  “Surprised?” Erik spared a glance her way, his brow wrinkled in confusion. “What’s surprising about them? They both seem good at their jobs. Were you expecting idiots?”

  “No, nothing like that from Alina.”

  Erik nodded. “I was surprised Cutter got himself hurt trying to stop that guy at the prison, but we haven’t worked with Lanara, so we don’t have a good feel for her. The whole super-direct bitch thing might get old, but I’m guessing she likes to spend more time around machines than people.”

  “I do know the feeling,” Emma noted.

  “You just like her because she was kissing your virtual ass,” Erik replied.

  “You say that as if it’s objectionable.” Emma scoffed. “Acknowledging my abilities is a way to prove one is a fleshbag with a semi-working brain. She might turn out to be a fool and a waste of molecules soon enough, but for now, I’m inclined to have a positive impression of her, even if Jia thinks she’s going to slit your throats while you sleep.”

  “I don’t think that.” Jia groaned. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “What, then?” Er
ik asked. “I’d have to agree with Emma. I thought that was what you were getting at.”

  “Alina might have her quirks, but she’s still what I’d expect from someone in the ID.” Jia shrugged. “Those two, though, aren’t as professional. If I were conducting interviews for a position like this, I would have filtered them out right away because of potential social interaction problems. I’m not saying they’re antisocials in the worst sense of the world, but they are both…you know.”

  Erik laughed. “What about me? Am I unprofessional and antisocial?”

  “You get the job done. That counts for a lot. And you’re loyal, and you might be ruthless, but only toward people who have it coming.”

  “Exactly. Keep that in mind for everyone we’ll be working with.” Erik passed a flitter that was flying achingly slow. If they didn’t want to fly, they should have used the autodrive.

  “I see what you mean.” Jia blew out a breath. “It’ll take me a while to not apply my normal standards to people.”

  “Then you’re thinking about it the wrong way. They aren’t cops. They aren’t customer service at some store, and they aren’t working for a corporation where kissing everyone’s ass is part of the politics.” Erik drummed his thumbs on the control yoke. “Cutter’s a good pilot, and if Alina brought her in, Lanara’s a good engineer and mechanic. Remember, they’re not ghosts. They’re like us, contractors and ghost tools, but they’re not being brought in as investigators or ass-kickers. All of us only need to be good at our given role.” Erik yawned. “Don’t worry about it. Alina wants us to find the monsters in the dark as much as we do. She’s going to do her best to make sure that happens, including with the people she hires. I’m not worried about them, and Cutter already proved himself at the prison.”

  “You’re right. I’m being paranoid.” Jia nodded slowly, trying not to yawn after seeing Erik do so. “But let’s set that aside. You’re still tired from the party? I thought you didn’t leave long after I did.”