by T. G. Ayer
Lyra sounded confused.
Lyra replied as though weary of the task, though Nerishka suspected the opposite was happening. The more she worked with Lyra the more she understood the AI and how she thought. It was pretty clear that Lyra was slowly understanding more about organic perception and thinking. Hopefully that was a good thing.
An hour later, having eaten and chatted with Lakit, the restaurant owner, Nerishka called for a ride and headed back to her hotel, arriving on the ground floor this time. She’d shrugged the cloak off and held it over her arm as she strode through the brightly lit reception hall, then took the lift up to her suite. After a cursory check of the entrance, with Lyra confirming that nobody had attempted access in their absence, Nerishka hurried inside, relieved to be back in a place of safety.
She disrobed and spent a while in the san before dressing in comfortable wide-legged slacks and a flowy singlet before heading back into the room. Lyra, in the meantime, had begun to work the file they’d stolen from Fletcher’s database.
A few minutes later, Lyra threw up a holo of the master matrix of Fletcher’s database.
Nerishka frowned as she scrolled through subtrees and files, shaking her head as she settled in. The data was far more extensive than she’d expected, and at first seemed to be merely a standard backup of research data; plant product DNA and structural molecular changes when affected by specific toxic chemicals, among a raft of other projects.
Fletcher’s company seemed to leave few stones unturned in researching a wide variety of biochemical products. Irrelevant to Nerishka’s search for his progress with picotech, but still interesting.
Lyra’s avatar raised an eyebrow.
A man had been photographed from a variety of angles, each image revealing the terrible extent of his condition. His skin was covered in patches of what appeared to be a fungal growth, small repeating patterns of discoloration that would have appeared to be a normal infection easily fixed with one’s nano. But the color and scope of the infection surprised Nerishka.
Lyra sent a nodding face to confirm.
Nerishka continued to page through a variety of images of patients who were recorded as suffering from various infections and cancer-like conditions. The images and reports continued in a similar vein and ended with at least three miscarriages of healthy fetus’s. Fletcher’s files detailed at least a hundred and ten patients presenting with similar symptoms over a period of two months.
The idea was worrying, considering most governments usually kept a close eye on toxic spills and environmental contamination. Even more so in a system with this much interstellar commerce. There was always someone dumping their waste in space, thinking it would never hit anything.
Lyra said with a long-suffering sigh.
Nerishka let out a soft laugh and checked her messages. Nothing yet from Karsin.
That wasn’t the first time Lyra had voiced her c
oncern. Nerishka wondered if the AI knew something she didn’t.
Nerishka named a shop near The Black Lion; as Lyra expected, she’d take a circuitous route to Karsin’s last known location to avoid being followed. Whatever he was up to, Nerishka planned on finding out. She just hoped the operative hadn’t changed sides, because it would not be good for him.
She didn’t want to have to kill one of her own.
DUST AND OWLS
STELLAR DATE: 10.06.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: West District, Eshnunna
REGION: Anahita, Ayra System (Independent)
Three skycars later, Nerishka arrived at the address she had for Karsin. She alighted from the skycar and stepped away as the craft took off again. Beneath a long flowing dress—its muted blue perfect for mingling among the people on the streets—she wore her light armor. The dress could come off in an instant, and her armor had advanced stealth capabilities more than sufficient to fool the locals.
Her flechette pistols were secure in their concealed holsters on her thighs, and her lightwand’s presence against her waist was a constant comfort. She’d missed her weapons.
Nerishka was wondering the same thing as she stared at the building, and the sign above her that said ‘Ink and Dust’.
Once inside, she saw that the shelves were filled with books of every type, from thick leather-bound to thinner casebound to simple staple-spined comic books. Many shelves were more than a little dusty, confirming her prior suspicion.
A slim young woman lounged on her chair, her eyes focused on the paperback in her hands. As Nerishka drew closer she grinned. The girl—whose dark blue hair hung almost to her waist—currently held the book—a faded copy of a story about lions, witches and wardrobes—upside down. A holo badge on her collar named her as ‘Vanka.’
Nerishka reached the counter and cleared her throat. “I’m here to see Karsin? Tell him the Owl is here.” To Lyra, she said,
Vanka looked up from her upside-down book and stared at Nerishka for a moment. Then she pointed a thumb at the wall behind her where a narrow doorway led into an interior room that appeared to be filled with more dusty tomes. As soon as Nerishka’s gaze shifted to the door, Vanka refocused her attention on the book and appeared engrossed again.
A smirk on her lips, Nerishka leaned over and tugged the book free from the girl’s hands. Vanka let out an affronted squeak and straightened, mouth open, ready to voice her dissatisfaction with being disturbed while upside-down reading. Nerishka merely smiled and made a show of turning the book around the right way up, then placed it back within the girl’s grip.
Her job done, Nerishka headed around the counter and entered the interior room. She’d only glimpsed the books when she’d stood at the counter, but once inside the small space, the volume of books threatened to suffocate her.
She barely broke her stride as she hurried through the room to a second doorway which opened onto a narrow stairwell. Nerishka climbed the stairs, thinking that a Hand agent should have a more secure base of operations than a rundown antique shop.
At the top of the second flight of stairs, Nerishka met with a single door.
said Lyra carefully.
Lyra chuckled.
Nerishka snorted.
Though Nerishka hesitated, she was well aware that her AI was right. She gave a firm nod and did as Lyra suggested, though was still surprised when the door slid open for her. Pursing her lips, she set loose a passel of drones to sweep Karsin's apartment. Then she pulled up her dress and drew one of her flechette pistols from her thigh before entering the room, wary and alert. Once inside, her lips pursed in a thin line. The entire apartment looked like a tornado had run through it.
Sofas and chairs were turned over, a giant gilt-edged mirror lay shattered in the floor, a few shards still affixed to the wall where it had hung. Nerishka shook her head and moved deeper into the apartment, making her way toward the bedroom. The door stood open, and she could make out the edge of an unmade bed, covers twisted and half on the floor. She slipped inside, pistol sweeping the empty bedroom as she moved.
Nerishka let out a sigh as Lyra said,
Lyra sent an agreeable emotive and Nerishka crept deeper into the room, skirting the bed on her way toward the san. She wasn’t about to get careless, and the rest of the living quarters needed to be checked thoroughly. Nerishka stood on the threshold and palmed the control, waiting as it slid open slowly.
With her pistol still leading the way, Nerishka entered the san and stopped in her tracks. Lying inside the tub was the man she’d come looking for. Only he wasn’t enjoying a nice soak; he was very much dead. A single bullet to the eye had done the job and he now lay within a pool of his own coagulated blood.
said Lyra softly.
Nerishka dodged into the san unit, but not before a pulse blast hit her in the side and spun her around into the wal
l. Her armor absorbed most of the shot, and Nerishka moved further into cover, but her assailant switched to kinetic rounds that tore through the thin wall, ricocheting off her armor, and destroying the san.
Nerishka pulled the tattered remains of her dress off, triggering her armor to unfurl and cover her head before tossing the dress into the san’s doorway, a heap of dark blue fabric that her attacker began to shred to pieces.
said Lyra drily.
Nerishka frowned as the room fell silent and the weapons fire died down.
With a grenade ready in one hand, she stepped out into the room, holding the sonic emitter with the other, sweeping it around the room.
Without a moment’s pause, Nerishka threw the grenade at the camouflaged assailant who was standing on the other side of the bed. The explosive hit the still-invisible attacker mid-section, throwing her against the far wall.
The force of the blast also knocked Nerishka back. She collided with the dresser behind her, and then with the wall as she lost her balance, wincing as she felt the impact through to her bones.