by Corey Ostman
“Always was, Grace. Always was,” Raj said, swirling the last bit of tea in the bottom of his cup.
“Speeches aren’t my forte. Are you going to write it, Raj?” Tim asked.
Raj shook his head. “We’ll ask Djoser when the time comes. He’ll know what to say.”
“Djoser?” Grace said.
“Djoser Reynolds. He owns the Freer Diner. A fanatic when it comes to AI. He’s been trying to get artificials acceptance for years. Anything AI eventually makes its way to him.”
Grace looked queasy. “Was his food made by AIs?”
Raj smiled. “No.”
“But it’s highly illegal. I’m a protector, Raj.”
“You know what I think about AIs, Grace, and you still offered to help. Going to back out now?”
“It just seems like we’re kicking a hornets’ nest.”
“I think we’ll have the advantage,” Raj said, returning to his sesame balls.
“You’re being cocky, Raj,” Grace said. “And you’re the first to admit you’re usually paranoid. What gives?”
Raj scraped the bowl with his chopsticks, stirring the last bits of rice through the sauce.
“ITB has made my life hell,” Raj said. He glanced at Tim. “Our lives hell. Any chaos we can spread their way would be worth the half dozen patents I let them steal. And the security I’ve had to—”
“Raj, there’s a board meeting coming up soon at ITB,” Tim interrupted. “It’s before any Wyoming Compstate speeches.”
“It’s worth a shot. Will Maud be there?”
Raj watched as Tim cocked his head, then went motionless.
“Is he okay?” Grace said.
“He’s fine. Just a minor version of what he was doing after you got him into ITB. It takes a lot of concentration.”
Tim raised his head. “Maud will give a security briefing at the meeting. She’ll hear about Hopper from Varghese himself.”
Raj smiled. “Good.”
“What should I do?” Grace asked.
“If this works, you’ve done all you need to do for us, Grace. I’ll close the deal with UU and AI will be a discussion instead of a taboo.” Raj put down his cup. “For now, lay low. Don’t give Maud any reason to notice you.”
Chapter 23
“Good morning, Protector Van Decker.”
It was one of the drones from engineering. Maud ignored her and pushed forward into the crowded ITB lobby.
She passed the concierge. Another greeting. Maud clenched her jaw. The pain in her feet had swiftly progressed from cramped, to sore, to blistering.
Just a little longer until I reach my office, she thought, daydreaming about the lesser gravity on Mars.
Maud entered the lift and endured another round of greetings. She nodded, knowing that if she spoke it would come out a hiss. She leaned against the wall of the lift to remove some pressure from her feet.
Never again, she thought. Never again.
She relished the prestige of handmade clothing and the link to her cloister past. But as she grew older, the bootmakers in Cheyenne were challenged by feet that proved less flexible than young cadets fresh from academy.
Maud remembered the last time her feet hurt this badly. Over thirty years ago, she and Gene Huber had removed their boots before entering mini grinder Tau. They hadn’t known the loafers would confiscate them. The march back to camp in bare feet was brutal.
Mimic, she thought. It’s time for me to try mimic.
Maud walked into her office and closed the inner door. She squatted, unzipped her right boot, and then her left. Finally, relief after the half hour trek to the building. The floor felt delicious as her feet relaxed and expanded.
Maud brushed the boots aside with her left foot and walked over to the wall of displays, fingering her ptenda. As the monitors filled with telemetry from last night’s loafer reconnaissance, she heard the distant rumble of a liftoff at the spaceport. Maud glanced to the windows and saw a slender white contrail arc above the distant mountains. She knew from the angle that it was a fastback cruiser headed for either the Moon or the Belt. One day soon, she would be on such a flight, flying away from the dust of Port Casper.
She wondered what Donner had thought of the view. Maud remembered what a liftoff had looked like as a young academy recruit, neck craning upward, the ship bright in her unjaded eyes. She had hated cloister that day, the deliberate backwardness of it. Cloisterfolk sat like rabbits in the middle of a technological highway, and thought everyone should go around them while they closed their eyes. Some of the protectors out of cloister acted the same way, but not Donner. Maud wondered if Donner had any desire to visit Mars. She would need to contract a few good protectors when she went to the red planet.
Maud looked at the walker pad. So tempting. It had been a while since she’d walked in virtual Martian dust. Varghese had interrupted her the last time. Would he bother her again?
She continued to gaze out the window. She remembered standing there with Donner. Varghese had interrupted her that time, too.
Wait, she thought. That was a spurious call. My ptenda had pinged, but the old man hadn’t wanted me. At the time, she’d dismissed it as a messenger glitch.
She glanced at the displays. The glitch bothered her now. Maud felt an unwelcome tickle of anxiety. Had someone been trawling? Installed a sniffer? Impossible, she thought. No one would dare. Still, she didn’t want to take any chances.
Maud reviewed the work schedule for the past week. No maintenance activity on her floor. She retrieved the security scans for her office and hallway. The footage streamed quickly, stopping only for two visits from Varghese and the single episode with Donner.
Maud checked her inventory. All loafers were safely in their racks. She touched her ptenda and brought unit L-4R442 to life, commanding it to her office. She walked to her waiting room and sat down, knowing when the loafer arrived that it would require unfettered access.
She imagined the unease the loafer would cause as it traversed the halls and ascended in the lift. Good. She was in no mood for social niceties today.
Five minutes later, the loafer hummed as it sailed by and into the office. She reclined, crossing her legs as the unit darted about, scanning the floor, walls, ceiling. The machine didn’t pause to admire the view from the windows. It alternated between an efficient spiral search pattern and a random walk designed to confuse an intruder.
Stupid machine, she thought. There’s no one there now. She watched the data streaming from the loafer. It wasn’t detecting anything untoward, just the standard equipment and microscopic detritus of office life.
The loafer issued a wheezing beep as it sailed by Maud and back into the hallway.
Nothing.
A glitch, then. She’d have to call tech support about it. More time wasted out of her day. With a sigh, Maud rose from the seat and walked back into her office. She lingered by the windows, in the corner where the displays met the wall, trying to salvage what was left of her Mars calm. She should put a chair there. It was the best vantage point—even Donner had agreed.
Donner.
She remembered her new protector spending an inordinate amount of time there a few days prior. And a clumsy attempt to support herself against the display wall.
An energy drink? In that little vial?
Maud frowned, picturing the encounter. I walked here from the displays. And Donner was…she closed her eyes for a moment, then reached out and touched the wall. Her fingers grazed an access port.
Right there.
Maud knelt down and examined the port. It was a typical expansion node for the ITB network. She brought her ptenda closer and switched on its light. Instead of the gold contacts, she saw blue. And the node wasn’t flat. It looked concave.
She switched off the light and touched the port with her index finger. The digit was too big, so she inserted her pinky.
It was cold. Squishy. Wet.
Maud was briefly blinded by a white flash and a loud voic
e. She yanked out her finger and sat down on the floor, blinking as she glanced around her office.
Nobody was there.
Chapter 24
Grace sat in her apartment, barely awake and wrapped in a blanket on the couch. It was ten in the morning, but this was her first day off after a week of constant assignments. Maud had kept her busy, working both alone and with other operatives in the unending quest for business intelligence. Today, there was no looking over her shoulder, trying not to shine so Maud wouldn’t notice her. Her only assignment was relaxation.
The incoming call alert sounded. The wall display read: Donner, Dan, Cloister Eleven.
“Pick up.” She trembled, excited to talk to her father for the first time since her ouster.
The display came alive to a familiar scene. Dad sat in his favorite recliner in the common room of their big ranch house. Grace saw a pitcher of mango lemonade next to an ice-filled glass. He balanced a plate of bacon and eggs on his lap.
“Dad!”
“Hey, kid. How’s it?”
“Good, Dad. I got an apartment. I’m sending you the multi-view so you can see the whole place, okay?” She tapped the screen on her ptenda and sent an internal security vid directly into her father’s display.
“Gracie! Nice. Sort of a big place, huh?” Grace saw the fleeting excitement in his face: he was shocked and proud to see the luxury in which his ranch girl lived.
“It’s not bad at all,” she said. “There’s a computer in it. You mostly just talk and it follows orders.”
“You were always good at giving orders,” her father said, grinning.
“I don’t spend that much time here, though. The job is keeping me busy.” She tried to be general, and not too chatty or positive. Pragmatic and full of work. That’s how conversation unwound in cloister, especially in the Donner family.
“Tell me about your job, Gracie.” He poured himself a drink, took a sip, and crunched down a piece of bacon. “Not too much danger and intrigue, I hope.”
“No shots fired worth talking about yet, Dad. But you never can tell. And don’t worry. I’m only beginning my probation. I plan on living until I’m old and gray.”
“I’ve already accepted your career, baby. I know what you are. What you do.” Her father leaned in closer to the display. “I’m proud of you. You are the best of them, and that’s all I have to say.”
It felt good to hear him say it. She caught herself reaching toward the screen to touch him.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“So what do they have you doing?”
“I’ve been running security for compstate officials as they visit companies here in Port.”
“Really? I thought they’d have you patrolling the streets.”
“No, Dad. Some protectors do that, but I’m mostly corporation covert ops.”
“That seems complicated for a first job, Gracie.”
“It is.” She couldn’t understate that. She was walking a complicated web spun by other people.
“How’s Raj and his family?”
“They’re fine, Dad. I saw Raj a week ago.” She wondered if Tim had planted the speech yet.
“He’s got a new dog,” she continued. “His brothers aren’t here. I saw an image of Kyran at some outpost in space. I haven’t asked about Tanish.”
Dad nodded. “I have to get back out for the morning roam, kid. Is Ronnie clean and ready?”
“You know it.”
“Remember rule one, kid?”
“High ground, moral or strategic, is where you want to be when a situation becomes serious.” Grace spoke with a smile of remembrance.
“That’s my—”
There was an abrupt click and his voice cut off. Her father’s image froze on-screen.
“Dad?”
Chapter 25
Maud Van Decker stood in an alcove outside a closed conference room on the twelfth floor of ITB, fighting a headache. The vase of freshly cut roses had been sprayed with perfume. It was strong, and a little nauseating. She fixated on the paisley border of the rug below. White on deep blue, its patterns helped her focus. Not that she liked paisley. She much preferred the traditional Navajo patterns common in Cloister Eleven. If she invested in a hotel on Mars, it would be completely Navajo.
She turned as an attendant came out of the conference room, the doors clicking loudly. She glimpsed the recently refinished mahogany floor before the doors closed. Everything was a little too pretentious here.
“Ms. Van Decker?” He was young, dressed in overly expensive business clothes. Cloister-made, she realized.
“Mr. Varghese asked me to inform you that the board is a few minutes late, and to please have a seat.” He motioned to the leather club chairs by a large picture window. “May I get you any refreshments?”
“No, thank you,” she said, taking a seat. She expected this. The board was always late.
She looked out over the city, with its modern spires and globes. Navajo rugs on Mars. A taste of home. She was sure it would become a fashion. Modern things felt empty after a while. Once she started producing liquid computers on Mars, she’d have the wealth to redefine taste. On Mars, people might listen.
Moments later, the attendant returned. “They will see you now, Ms. Van Decker. Please follow me.”
Maud trailed the attendant. She looked around as he paused to close the door behind her. The sparse room was dominated by a conference table six meters long. A total of twelve board members sat on either side, a mixed gathering of old and middle-aged business drones. Varghese sat at the far end, facing Maud. The fattest drone of all.
“Leave us, William,” Varghese said, gesturing toward his left. The attendant disappeared into a side room, presumably out of hearing range.
Maud stood relaxed, sensing the room still waited for Varghese’s command.
“Secretary Marlow,” Varghese continued, turning to the thin, elderly man on his right, “please suspend recording.” James Marlow touched his console and nodded to the CEO.
“Very well. Ms. Van Decker, your report please,” Varghese said. He steepled his fingers and reclined in his chair. The other board members, whose rapt attention had been on the chief executive, turned their heads toward Maud. She loved the feeling of their eager, greedy eyes pointed solely at her.
“Gentlemen, and ladies,” she said, making eye contact with the three other women in the room, “our surveillance has proved most successful.
“Recent activity has confirmed that Unlimited Unlimited plans to license a new computing technology, perfected for space travel and unparalleled in terms of storage and processing capacity. They plan to develop it for commercial applications within the next two years.”
The excitement was palpable in the room, much of it negative. Maud ignored the crowd. She delivered this information directly to Varghese. The rest of them were merely spectators watching two warriors discuss the latest battle.
“As you all know, our primary difficulty in the space industry is with the complexity of onboard computers. Existing storage technologies have failed in high acceleration testing. This new computer, a liquid computer, offers three dimensional storage, the ability to self-organize, and extreme tolerance to high acceleration.”
“I hope you’re saying we have this technology, Van Decker, or you’re ringing our death knell up there,” a rude board member interjected, to general murmured agreement.
“What I’m saying,” Maud said, biting off the ends of her words, “Is that UU just acquired an inventor. As of today, they have no working models and they have no patents. We’ve been preparing to mass-produce the liquid computer for months. ITB should be able to bring the computer to market far faster than UU, and we will be in a position to dominate the industry for years to come.”
She saw a few raised eyebrows and looks of disdain when she said the word, we. That’s right, guys, she thought. I’m one of you now. Deal.
Varghese leaned forward in his seat. Maud noticed the move and stop
ped speaking.
“Where is the prototype, Ms. Van Decker?”
Maud stared directly into Varghese’s eyes. He knew the answer. Which meant that he was trying to soothe the shareholders. At her expense.
“Our informant was unable to provide us information regarding the prototype. But it has not been delivered to UU at this time.”
Varghese cleared his throat, but his face didn’t betray any other useful information to Maud.
“We need the prototype, Ms. Van Decker. I don’t care about space travel. I don’t care about acceleration. The prototype. It’s nearly 10 o’clock. Leave us now, and find it.” He paused with a forced smile. “Oh, and remember to send roses to Vice Minister Gobi.”
“Yes, sir.” Bastard. She snapped to attention and turned toward the door. He’d never dismissed her mid-meeting before.
“And now, everyone, let’s discuss our Hopper initiative.”
Maud nearly stumbled. Had she heard the word correctly?
“Secretary Marlow, please resume recording.”
Maud closed the doors behind her and sprinted back to her office. Her mind reeled. What did they know about Hopper? She flipped on the security cameras in the conference room.
“The goal, therefore, is to introduce legislation to allow AI on Earth. By that time, ITB will have the liquid computer and its patents.”
“Donner,” Maud hissed through clenched teeth.
Chapter 26
Grace watched her father’s image vanish and the screen go red. It began to stream with white multilingual phrases and access codes.
A blind bang.
Grace was surprised. Blind bangs were rare. It meant there was a compstate security incident in her area. Whoever sent out the yelps could summon any number of protectors, usually three to eight, their identities held in secret until they coalesced. The group would be ordered to arrive at a location where a lead protector would be waiting.
The message advised Grace to be prepared for anything. She must be armed and ready to kill.
Grace threw off her blanket and dashed for the kitchen. She grabbed her holstered weapons from the table and clipped them to her belt, cursing under her breath. She hadn’t drilled for combat since the academy. She felt stiff and unrehearsed.