by Eric Brown
Wellman nodded. ‘Of course. Just as soon as the techs have finished we’ll take the flatscreen in the elevator to the underground car park. I have an unmarked van waiting for us. We’ll drive across town to a house on the East Village waterfront. It’s the perfect venue, quiet and secluded. While the techs set things up there, you can take a look at the place. I’ll return here and await the call.’
Halliday’s pulse quickened at the thought of what would happen then. The appearance of Reeves, the ambush with freeze. It would be over in minutes, if not seconds. Wellman had a private bed standing by in a local hospital, and a surgeon on call to remove Dan Reeves’ NCI.
After that, all that remained would be for Joe Kosinski to come up with the program to scour LINx from the Net.
Barney said, ‘Okay, a worst-case scenario. Two worst-case scenarios. One: for whatever reason, LINx suspects something is screwy with the set-up and doesn’t send Dan Reeves in. That leaves Reeves still out there somewhere, armed and dangerous. What do we do then?’ He looked from Halliday to Wellman.
‘Then . . .’ Wellman said, ‘we start again. Either we set up a similar situation, or . . .’
Barney looked at him. ‘Or what?’
‘Or we dispense with the computer-generated simulation. We use Joseph instead. We set him up somewhere else - well protected, of course - and have him call in, using another encryption-defective line.’
‘I don’t like the idea of using live bait,’ Barney said.
‘If it’s a case of having to stop Dan Reeves before LINx decides to kill again...’
‘What’s your second worst-case scenario, Barney?’ Halliday asked.
Barney took a long breath. ‘Okay . . . just suppose we bungle it. Something goes wrong, something unforeseen. He starts firing before we can use the freeze . . . what then? What do we do? Do we fire on him, risking killing him - or do we let him get away?’
Halliday recalled what Joe Kosinski had said in the Himalayan virtual reality, that rather than risk possible future lives, Dan Reeves should be sacrificed.
Wellman nodded. ‘It’s a hell of a dilemma, gentlemen, and one I wouldn’t like to put anyone in the situation of facing. I don’t envy what you’ll be doing today.’
‘It’s what you’re paying us to do,’ Barney said. ‘But you haven’t answered my question.’
‘I’ll issue no orders. Do what you feel is right in the situation. I’ll stand by you whatever happens. Hopefully, however, neither of your worse-case scenarios will come to pass.’
A technician approached and told Wellman that the screen was ready. Wellman okayed its removal, then turned to Halliday and Barney.
‘They’re taking it to the car park. We’ll give them five minutes and make our way down.’ He moved to a table and came back with something in a plastic wrap. ‘This is the chu, Mr Halliday. If you’d care to try it on.’
Halliday ripped open the plastic and examined the capillary holographic unit. Deactivated, it resembled a fine mesh net in the shape of a balaclava, except with the facepiece intact. He moved to the window and slipped the flimsy, lightweight hood over his head. He arranged the mesh capillaries carefully around his mouth and eyes and stared at his reflection in the window; he looked like a recovering burns victim. He examined the control unit, then pressed the slide. He was aware of a quick blur of light in his eyes as the chu came on, and then his eyes adjusted and in the window he saw a stranger, staring back at him.
‘Amazing,’ Barney said. ‘It almost makes you look handsome, Hal.’
The stranger reflected in the window was a ruddy-faced, ginger-haired man, perhaps fifty years old. He experimented with the control, cycling through a gallery of a dozen different faces. Some were young, others old; all were absolutely convincing.
‘The program contains twenty different personae,’ Wellman said. ‘You can get male or female chu, and even some which combine both sexes.’
Halliday removed the chu, returned it to its wrapper and slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Wellman looked at his watch. ‘It’s time we were making a move, gentlemen.’
‘Before we go,’ Barney said. ‘What does Reeves look like? I don’t mean facially, as he’ll probably be wearing a chu. How tall is he, how big?’
‘He’s not tall, a little smaller than you, Mr Halliday, but compact, broad across the chest and shoulders.’
As they took the elevator to the underground car park, Halliday found himself wondering if Dan Reeves would be armed with a cutter.
A silver van was backed up to the elevator, its roll-door open. A technician crouched in the back, adjusting the ties that held the packaged flatscreen into place. When Halliday, Barney and Wellman appeared, the technician climbed out and moved to the cab.
‘We’ll travel in the back with the flatscreen,’ Wellman said. ‘The chances of LINx recognising us via the surveillance cameras are remote but, to be on the safe side, I advise caution.’
Halliday climbed into the rear of the van and sat on a fold-down seat. Wellman closed the roll-door, pitching the compartment into darkness. He found a small light and switched it on. The van started up and Halliday held onto a hanging strap and swayed as they turned a corner.
He tried to track their progress through the city by the turns they made, but without any visual clue as to where they were he was soon lost. The journey seemed to take an age. They were stopped by every set of traffic lights across town, a needless delay as the streets these days were almost empty of vehicles.
Fifteen minutes later the van slowed down almost to a stop, and then moved slowly forwards. Wellman looked up. ‘This must be it, gentlemen.’
The van braked, and seconds later the technician pushed up the roll-door. Halliday was surprised to find that they were in a garage: they had completed the journey without once subjecting themselves to the scrutiny of surveillance cameras.
Wellman and the technician carried the flatscreen from the van and up a short flight of stairs into a comfortably appointed lounge, with a sliding glass door giving onto a balcony overlooking the cold grey water of the East River.
While the technician set up the flatscreen before the room’s com-screen, Wellman showed them around the house. It occupied two levels, with bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and the lounge, kitchen and dining area downstairs. There was no way an intruder might enter the house through the upstairs windows, short of performing a kamikaze stunt in a micro-light. The windows were supposedly burglar-proof, reinforced polymer-glass in aluminium frames.
‘There are no security cameras in the vicinity, gentlemen. I made sure of that before selecting the house. The only entrance from the mews is through a single front door.’
Barney was staring at the sliding glass door that accessed the balcony. ‘I like the look of this, Hal. It’s easily accessible from the river. It might be a bit obvious if we leave the door open, but it might be an idea, an invitation to walk into the trap.’
He unlocked the door and stepped out. Halliday joined him. A ladder was attached to the wall down to the river. Barney tried it for strength; it was pegged solidly into the mortar between the brickwork.
Barney turned and looked into the lounge. ‘We might have to split up, Hal. One of us take the front, one the river balcony.’
They returned inside. Wellman and the technician were adjusting the flatscreen in relation to the camera mounted on the com-screen. They were lifting the flatscreen back and forth, then checking the view from the camera. When the image of Joe Kosinski was running, the frame of the flatscreen had to be out of view. It would be tragic if such a simple error gave the game away.
Halliday and Barney moved to the front door and stepped outside. The house was situated at the end of a narrow, pedestrian mews, not wide enough to admit any vehicle larger than a motorbike. A visitor would have to approach on foot along the mews, observable from the house for about fifteen metres.
They strode down the red-brick walkway to an arch that g
ave access onto a narrow sidestreet. ‘If anyone comes to the front of the house, Hal, they have to walk along this street and then turn into the mews.’ Barney looked around. ‘There’s no other way to approach from this direction.’
‘One of us could wait out here in the street,’ Halliday said. He looked across at the neat red-brick apartments. A covered walkway opposite provided perfect concealment.
Barney nodded. ‘Do you want to take the front or the back?’
‘The front.’
‘I’ll cover the river entrance. I’ll stay in the house. We’ll keep in contact through our coms.’
‘Be careful, Barney. If you’re in the house and Reeves mistakes you for Kosinski. . . Remember, he’s out to get rid of the kid.’
‘Thanks for reminding me,’ Barney said. ‘I can look after myself, Hal. I’ll find somewhere big enough to hide my bulk. Let’s see how they’re getting on in there.’
They retraced their steps along the mews.
‘We’re almost ready,’ Wellman said when they entered the lounge. ‘Have you seen enough?’
‘We’re all set,’ Barney said. ‘What now?’
‘I’ll take a cab back to the office. When I arrive I’ll give you a call: don’t reply, just listen for three rings, then I’ll hang up. That’ll be the signal for you to dial the office code, Ralph.’
Crouching beside the flatscreen, the technician nodded.
‘As soon as the recording is completed, Ralph will cut the connection and then leave the house in the van.’ Wellman paused. ‘The rest will be in your capable hands. I don’t know how long it might take LINx to trace the call to here and despatch Dan Reeves.’
‘If it’s monitoring all calls into Cyber-Tech facilities, it’ll be able to trace the call instantly.’ Barney said.
‘The thing is,’ Halliday pointed out, ‘we don’t know whether the part of LINx inhabiting Reeves is in permanent contact with itself in the Net. If it is, then Reeves might be round here in a matter of minutes. If it isn’t and Reeves contacts LINx in the Net from time to time for instructions, it might take him hours to get here.’
‘Always assuming, of course, that it traces the signal in the first place,’ Barney pointed out.
‘So Reeves could be round here in minutes or hours,’ Halliday said. ‘Or then again, not at all.’
It was the imponderable aspect of the situation that was so damned worrying.
‘I’ll be getting back to the office,’ Wellman said. ‘Halliday, Kluger, good luck. Take care.’ He nodded to both men and slipped from the room.
‘If I leave the sliding door open and Reeves approaches from the river,’ Barney said, ‘then he must come through this room to check the rest of the house.’ He stepped from the lounge. ‘There’s an alcove out here,’ he called. Halliday left the lounge, moved into the hall, and felt a quick prod in the small of his back.
‘Gotya, kid,’ Barney said, stepping from the alcove.
They play-acted the situation again, Halliday stepping through the door and purposefully looking in the direction of the alcove. He saw a flash of movement, and Barney had the canister of freeze out and aimed.
Halliday looked at his watch. Wellman had been gone no more than five minutes. ‘I want to go and check out the approach street,’ Halliday said. ‘I’ll be back inside ten minutes.’
He left the house and walked to the end of the mews and through the archway. To the left, the narrow street was a dead end, choked with the overflowing garbage containers of a waterfront restaurant. He turned right and walked to the end of the street. It came out on a wide main street lined with boutiques and bistros, evidently an exclusive district. He retreated to the covered walkway opposite the mews, concealed himself and leaned against the brickwork. From here he had a perfect view along the street to the main drag, and across to the archway and the length of the mews. He was even sheltered from the elements. He commended Wellman for choosing the perfect area for a stake-out.
If someone matching the description of Reeves’ build came along the street - no, scratch that: ifanyone came along the street - and turned into the mews, he would quickly follow them. If they approached the door and looked intent on trying to gain entry, he would use the freeze first and ask questions later.
If the wait became protracted, he’d suggest a swap with Barney. The important thing was to keep vigilant, not let himself become tired or bored, which would be some undertaking. He had to remember that not only his own life was at stake if he messed up, but those of Barney and many others besides.
He returned to the house. Barney was crouching in the alcove, a squat goblin protecting his territory.
‘No call from Wellman?’
Barney shook his head. He looked at his watch. ‘Coming up to twenty minutes, Hal. Won’t be long now.’
Halliday leaned against the wall. ‘Hey, when all this is over, how about we splash out on a big meal, you, me and Kim?’
Barney looked up. ‘You know what, I might just hold you to that.’
His com buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket, held it out on his hand and counted the tones. ‘One . . . two . . . three.’
They hurried into the lounge. Barney said, ‘This is it, Ralph. You all set?’
Halliday and Barney positioned themselves behind the com-screen in the corner while the technician summoned the stilled image of Joe Kosinski to the flatscreen with a remote control. Ralph crouched beside the com-screen, out of range of the camera, and dialled in the Cyber-Tech code. He directed the remote at the flatscreen and Joe’s image began to play. The techs had included a run-in of ten seconds.
Halliday watched as Joe tapped his fingers on his chest and said ‘Come on, come on . . .’
He was aware of his heartbeat, loud in his ears. The com-screen activated, Joe said, ‘Hi, Wellman,’ and he heard Wellman’s voice: ‘Joseph - I told you not to call. If the link’s...’
The recorded image of Joe Kosinski smiled. ‘It’s okay, it’s encrypted . . .’
‘You sure it’s safe, Joseph?’ Wellman said his lines with the panache of a born holo-star.
‘Sure I’m sure. It’s safe.’
‘How’s it coming along?’
Joe nodded. ‘It’s going okay. I’m working on it.’
‘It’s vital you get the program up and running,’ Wellman said.
‘That’s right, I know. I’m pretty confident I can rig something up.’
Halliday watched the image of Joe as he leaned from the picture and returned, holding up a needle. ‘This is the little beauty. What do you think?’
‘That’s great, Joseph,’ Wellman said. ‘Listen, I must go - ‘
‘Okay, yeah. Take care. I’ll catch you later.’
‘Bye, Joseph.’
The image of Joe reached out to cut the link, and the technician killed the com-screen, then shut down the flatscreen with the remote.
Halliday discovered that he’d been holding his breath. He let it out with a relieved sigh and clapped the technician on the shoulder. ‘Good job, Ralph.’
‘Well done,’ Barney said.
‘This is it, Barney,’ Halliday said. ‘If LINx has traced the call . . .’ He felt his throat go dry at the thought.
Ralph and Barney carried the flatscreen down the steps to the garage, and seconds later Halliday heard the van start up and drive away.
Barney returned and opened the sliding glass door to the balcony, then moved out to the hall. Halliday followed him and stood before a full-length mirror.
He pulled the chu from his jacket and eased the capillary net over his head. He arranged the weave of mesh around his eyes and lips, then switched it on. He touched the select control, and a succession of strangers’ faces stared back from the mirror. At last a handsome, Scandinavian-looking guy smiled out at him. He decided that the face was in keeping with his style of dress and slipped the control into the inside pocket of his jacket.
‘All set,’ he said. He turned to Barney, standing in the alcove, fre
eze at the ready.
‘I’ll contact you,’ Barney said. ‘Not the other way round, okay? Set your com to vibration. I’ll call every quarter, on the dot, just to keep you on your toes.’
‘Take care,’ Halliday said, nodding at Barney and slipping out through the front door. He hurried along the mews, propelled by adrenalin. He knew it was irrational, but he half-expected Dan Reeves to turn around the corner at any second, miraculously early.
He ran through the archway and made it to the covered walk with a paranoid sense of relief. He leaned against the wall, sighting along the street to the main drag, and worked to slow his breathing.
He told himself that it would likely be hours before Dan Reeves showed up.