Hitomi flushed red and tried to rise from her chair. “How dare you. You knew I was coming here—”
“Not at all. A fortunate coincidence, Hitomi. Nothing more.”
“And is it also a coincidence that you know so much about a project that was classified until quite recently?”
Gillings shrugged. “You may wish to conduct an internal security audit when you return.”
“The Council has no business interfering with the affairs of a free corporation. The Council was formed to serve at our discretion, not its own.”
“And we will serve you now. It’s a fair offer, Hitomi. Your finances are a matter of record. We know of the attacks you’ve already endured. How long before you lose everything? And for what? Take the offer.”
“Don’t do me any favors, Randal.”
Gillings raised his hands and backed away slowly. “I’ve said what I came to—more than I had to. You have our offer. I advise you take it. It may not be there tomorrow. Good day, Milady.”
Hitomi looked angrily at him. “This isn’t some experiment, Randal. This is evolution. These girls are unique. Their genetic structure is like no other. You can’t deny them…” Hitomi looked down, closing her mouth, biting her tongue.
Gillings studied her for a moment, turned and left.
Sigrid watched him leave from Hitomi’s side.
“Damn…” Hitomi said, muttering more curses under her breath.
“Mistress, what’s wrong?”
“I let the bastard get to me. I fear I may have said too much.”
“He seemed to know a great deal already.”
“Indeed, but I should have never said anything about your genetics.” Hitomi grew silent, lost in thought. “He was right about one thing…we have a spy in our midst.”
* * *
With the party thoroughly spoiled, Sigrid and Lady Hitomi retreated to their rooms. Sigrid said a quick goodnight to Ensign McTeer before reporting directly to Lady Hitomi in her suite. The Lady had her tea service laid out and poured two steaming cups. She handed one to Sigrid.
“What did you think of our man, Chairman Gillings?” Hitomi asked.
“I thought he was a miserable old man who could use a good punch.”
Hitomi snorted, almost choking on the tea. “Not too far off. But how about what he said?”
Sigrid thought for a moment. “I don’t feel like an abomination, Milady.”
“Good, because you’re not. But circumstances, it seems, are conspiring against us, and rather quickly. I fear much of this is my fault.”
“Yours, Mistress?”
“Long before the first attack on Alcyone, I demanded more protection for you and your sisters. But the Board denied me at every step.”
“But—they sent the company of soldiers—”
Hitomi barked a laugh. “That? Hardly adequate for guarding a cargo of wheat. Sigrid, I know you don’t believe it, but you’re far more important than you can possibly imagine, and not just to Kimura—or to me…” Hitomi took a sip from her cup. “I know it’s hard for you to understand, but you represent a threat to them. A shift in power. They fear you.”
Sigrid laughed. “That doesn’t sound like me, Mistress. No one at the Academy worried about fighting me.”
“You are far too modest, my dear. They have good reason to be afraid of you, even if you don’t believe it. But Gillings…he knows far too much. I would love to know where he’s been getting his information.” She looked up at Sigrid; there was a bright spark in her eye. “How would you like to pay a visit to the Council offices tonight?”
Sigrid checked her internal chronometer, it didn’t seem likely that the offices would be open at that hour.
Hitomi placed her purse on her lap. “Do you know why my son picked you? Do you know why he brought you to me?”
Sigrid remembered the test very well, and with some distaste. “Because I killed that man. He said I passed his test.”
“He brought you because I asked him to. I picked you, Sigrid.”
“You? But he said…the test…?”
“Oh, he tested you—and I’ve scolded him about that.”
“But…why?”
Lady Hitomi reached into the purse on her lap and took out a data-module, holding it out for her. “I have a present for you.”
Sigrid took it in her hand.
“This is something I’ve developed on my own. No one knows about it, not even Dr. Garrett. This is a secret I’ve kept for nearly twenty years. You’re the first person I’ve ever shown it to, Sigrid.”
Sigrid examined the module; she could feel her own heart beat faster. She had no idea as to its contents, but there was something about the way Lady Hitomi looked at her and the small module nestling in her hand.
“What is it?”
“Tell me, you’ve studied history—you know of the myth of the ancient Ninjas?”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“We’re alone, Sigrid…”
Sigrid blushed. “Yes, Hitomi-san. If we’re speaking of the myths, rather than history, it was said that they could disappear, make themselves invisible, disguise themselves as their adversaries, vanish in puffs of smoke.”
Hitomi smiled. “And what if I were to tell you that it was all true?”
* * *
The one-piece uniform that the Lady Hitomi had provided for Sigrid was made out of a thin, but incredibly strong fabric. It was light, hugged her figure snugly and moved as she did. Superficially, it might have resembled a variation of the standard Kimura Uniform, but the material was laced with a unique, highly conductive nano-fiber. Everything she wore, everything from the high boots to the new holsters that held her pistols, even the harness that held the katana strapped to her back, all were made of the same material, all stitched with the same fibers.
The nano-fibers allowed the suit to become a pure extension of herself. She could interface with it just as she could any of her other bionic implants. The cloth had a highly unique feature: Sigrid could control the color of the material, shifting both the color and pattern to match anything in the environment around her, creating a perfect camouflage. And, for very short periods of time, Sigrid could adjust the opacity of the material, rendering it virtually invisible.
She tested the feature now, holding her arm up against the wall behind her. The material reflected the pattern and texture of the wall perfectly. Intrigued, she pressed her whole body up against it and watched as the cloth perfectly mirrored the textures and hues.
“Sweet,” Sigrid said.
A broad smile spread across Hitomi’s face. “Now, move away from the wall.”
Sigrid did as instructed. It was difficult; she had to concentrate, but she was able to maintain the translucent effect of the suit. She wasn’t quite invisible, she could still see the outline of her body, but if someone wasn’t looking directly at her they wouldn’t notice she was there. Her exposed hands and face looked odd though, they remained quite visible, as if they were suspended in the air. Sigrid waved her hands about and laughed.
“Now—the rest,” Hitomi said.
Sigrid reached deep within herself. The Lady Hitomi had loaded the program from the data-module she’d shown her. This was her secret. Now it was time to test the old program. Sigrid accessed the algorithms; they were long and complex, and she combed through the hundreds of terabytes of data.
Controlling the transition took even more effort than it had to alter the suit, but Sigrid initiated the program.
Instantly, she shrouded.
Just like with the suit, Sigrid was able to alter the light reflecting on her own skin; still not quite invisible, a shimmering, translucent outline of her body remained.
Pleased, Hitomi clasped her hands together. “Marvelous.”
Sigrid felt suddenly warm and dizzy and stumbled backward; her clothes reverted to their normal colors of black and red. She leaned over with her hands on her knees, reeling from the wave of nausea. “Whoa…”
�
��You must be cautious. Shrouding draws power from your own body’s energy reserve. You can only maintain the effect for a short time.”
“Yes, Hitomi-san,” Sigrid said, taking a moment to recover. Hitomi handed her a glass of water, which Sigrid drank deeply.
Hitomi took Sigrid’s hands in hers. “How do you feel? Do you detect any ill-effects?”
Sigrid ran a quick diagnostic of her body and functions. Despite a slight feeling of fatigue, she felt perfectly fine. “No, Hitomi-san. Just a little tired.”
“Very well, but use these programs sparingly, at least until we’re positive there are no side-effects. I don’t want you hurting yourself.”
“No, Hitomi-san,” Sigrid said; she found herself surprised at the genuine concern the older woman seemed to have for her.
Hitomi looked at the wall chronometer; it was nearing two in the morning. “We don’t have much time. I suggest you get underway.”
* * *
Sigrid pushed the ceiling tile aside and poked her head down into the dark corridor of the CTF Tower. Her long blond hair was bound in a tight braid and hung down below her head, swinging back and forth in a pendulum-like fashion. The soft soles of her boots barely made a sound as she dropped to the polished, marble floor below. Sigrid had armed herself more heavily than she’d ever done in the past. Her belt was lined with the little throwing knives she liked, as well as a selection of blackout bombs, smoke-grenades, flashbangs and frags. She reached back and touched the hilt of the katana—her gift to Suko. Having the gift with her was like carrying a little piece of Suko; it may have been foolish, but it brought her comfort.
Her objective was on the 222nd floor, near the top of the CTF tower. The Council’s main server was located there as well; it was not connected to any network so the only way to hack into it was by direct link. Sigrid would need to make her way there now, hack into the system and get out, all without being seen.
Sigrid called up the building schematics on her HUD and studied the possible routes. The stairs seemed safest, but she was running out of time; it was already 3:36 and Hitomi had warned that by 5 a.m. it would not be unusual for staff to start filtering back in to prepare for the working day ahead. Sigrid called for an elevator and waited in the shadows while it made its way down. It arrived without incident and the doors slid open. The elevator was empty, but Sigrid detected several monitoring devices so she engaged her shroud before entering. She pressed the button for 223rd floor, just above the offices; there was a viewing terrace located there that she’d chosen as her point of insertion.
Sigrid climbed through the ceiling hatch onto the roof of the elevator. Only when the hatch was closed did she allow the shroud to fade; she breathed a sigh as she felt her system recover. Holding the effect drained all her focus and energy.
There were little grips on the side and roof of the elevator—most likely for the service personnel—and Sigrid clung to them as the elevator shot upward at an alarming rate. She looked up to see the top of the tower grow ever closer as floor after floor shot by. If she hadn’t been holding on, she might very well have been propelled into the air when the lift came to an abrupt halt on the 178th floor. She heard two people board the elevator beneath her, a man and a woman. They were muttering complaints about the elevator going up when they needed to go down, but they didn’t seem suspicious so Sigrid relaxed a little.
It only took a second for the elevator to traverse the next few levels. Sigrid jumped off and clung to the wall of the shaft. She’d only just found footing when the elevator dropped away beneath her; Sigrid had a peculiar feeling in the pit of her stomach as she watched it disappear like a stone into the darkness, leaving her clinging to the rail of the vertical shaft some 740.271 meters up. She did her best not to think of the abyss that gaped beneath her. Whether she fell 50 or 700 meters made little difference.
The door was just below her so Sigrid scrambled carefully down to it. The walls of the shaft weren’t exactly built for climbing and there were few handholds, but Sigrid negotiated her way down. Prying the door open was easy enough, and she was glad to find the floor she’d chosen unoccupied.
With her camouflage set to a dark, charcoal grey, Sigrid blended perfectly into the shadows as she made her way out to the terrace above the Council offices. At the upper levels, the tower was built in a pyramid-like fashion, and there was another terrace on the office-level just beneath her. Sigrid slipped up and over the high protective barrier—designed to prevent people from leaning out over the edge, no doubt—and dropped down to the lower level. The doors were locked and electronically sealed, but no match for the Lady Hitomi’s excellent decryption algorithms.
Sigrid was in.
Quickly and quietly, Sigrid made her way down the hallway to the server room. She saw a guard there, walking by, making his rounds. He seemed oblivious to her, so she let him pass, before commencing the task of breaking into the server room.
The security here was much more complex. It took Sigrid almost a full minute to break through the locks on the great door, and it didn’t get any easier once she was inside. The room was armed with motion and heat-sensors, audio sensors, even chemical and bacteria sensors, and cameras positioned at all angles.
Sigrid searched and found what she was looking for. The Security Node was located in a service panel in an alcove just inside the server room; she’d still need to get to that without being detected. She shrouded herself, again becoming virtually invisible—just a shimmering, translucent outline of a woman. Concentrating even harder, Sigrid lowered her body temperature by several degrees; she could only hope it was enough to shield her from the heat sensors. If it wasn’t…well, she’d know soon enough.
Her optical implants picked up the location of the biological sensors. Sigrid selected four of the silicone gel-caps from the pouch at her waist and fixed them to the tiny palm-sized launcher she carried. Four quick shots took care of the sensors, coating them in a thin layer of silicone. After that, it was a reasonably simple matter to avoid the infrared beams by stepping lively as she moved toward the security panel. She couldn’t deactivate the security completely—that would set off a series of alarms—but Sigrid put the system into a temporary diagnostic loop. It wouldn’t last long, but she only needed a few more minutes. With the security systems temporarily deactivated, Sigrid de-shrouded. The effort had been particularly draining this time, especially after having to alter her core temperature; she didn’t want to be doing that again any time soon, she decided.
Now, for the server.
Sigrid was surprised to find the security so light, and she gained access quite easily. They probably never thought anyone would get this far, she thought as the monitor lit up in front of her. Sigrid slipped a blank data-module into the access port on the side of the unit. Hitomi’s wish list was extensive; she was to find and retrieve all files pertaining to the Andraste project.
It didn’t take long to find the first, and one seemed to lead to another and then another. Sigrid was finding hundreds of communiqués, all of them voicing either outrage or concern over what they perceived as ‘Hitomi’s army of genetic monsters’ and what it would mean if they didn’t move to control them, and soon.
The loop in the security system would not last much longer and there were more files to download. The powerful processors implanted within her enabled her to scan through the thousands of terabytes of information rapidly. The files pertaining to the Council’s financial accounts took up most of the room on the four data modules she’d brought—especially since there seemed to be two sets of accounts. Sigrid chuckled; she knew Hitomi would find these of great interest.
Sigrid filled all four data-modules, then cursed; there was still more. Her own PCM could accommodate some of the information, but there was too much. She was about to extract herself from the system when she spotted the anomaly. One communiqué—she’d almost missed it. It wasn’t logged as all the other messages were. Someone had even tried to delete it, but they hadn’t bee
n quite thorough enough. No. That wasn’t correct. Someone had tried to repair it.
There was no ID tag and the message was nearly completely corrupted. Much of it didn’t make sense; names, dates, payment schedules. Two names stood out instantly: Alcyone. Dalair. But it was the third name that stopped her cold. Tansho.
Suko…
It was Suko’s last name, but there was nothing more. There was no signature, and she couldn’t make out the recipient either, but she downloaded it quickly to her PCM. With luck, Hitomi could analyze it later.
It was time to go.
Sigrid exited the server room and made her way back to the terrace; she would leave the way she came—retracing her steps, covering her tracks on the way out.
Before she’d completed half the distance to the terrace, every sensor in Sigrid’s system shot the warning to her. She rolled into cover, behind one of the many pillars that lined the reception area. Someone was there.
Sigrid didn’t breathe; she reached out with every sensor she had, scanning the vicinity. The signals she got back were confusing. She couldn’t lock anything down, but was certain of it now—someone was there, watching her. She took a chance and peered out from behind the pillar.
The reception area appeared clear and quiet. She switched to her thermal optics and scanned and—there! She saw them. Two men hiding behind cover, and another lay in wait on the other side. They knew she was there and were blocking her exit to the terrace. There was something odd about their scans. She was only getting a partial signal, as if something was shielding them from her.
Sigrid played back the entire operation in her mind—she couldn’t think of any alarm she’d missed. How was it they knew she was there?
Sigrid moved quietly into the shadows, away from the men and back toward the elevator. But her sensors picked up more movement. More men, many more, were moving toward her from the opposite direction. It was a trap.
What was it that Rosa had always drilled into her—the path of least resistance? She had little choice; she had to take out the three men blocking her exit to the terrace. Sigrid grabbed two flashbangs and one of the gas grenades from her belt, rolling all three in the directions of the men lying in wait for her. The explosion shattered the silence and darkness, filling the corridor with smoke and the debilitating gas. Sigrid held her breath and rolled out from behind her cover, coming into a crouch and drawing her two pearl-handled pistols.
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