The Last Hercules

by Ron Bender

  “We’re too spread out and not in cover.” She looks around, determination settles on her like her daddy’s old coat. Too big and too heavy but worn because, in the moment, right now, it’s all she has. I watch her process what I’ve said, her expression shifting with connections and realizations about our situation.

  “Ahhuh.” I let it sink in for a second more. “and a second strike can work both ways too. Don’t forget that when you go up against a gangland crew. If your people are trained to do it, hitting back now might finish a foe, you have to judge when to push. That’s it, schools out, lessons done.”

  “I gotta go anyways. Lots to do,” she says. Her voice is steady and her back is straighter.

  As I watch her go rain begins to fall, masking the sounds and smells of the aftermath of battle.

  She moves with purpose, far older now than the number that states her age. And in another four or five years maybe she’ll be working at AlphaTek doing milk runs with the banking clients.

  If she lives that long.

  3.24

  The Takedown

  The main chamber, five stories tall, is glowing with interior licht architectuur that highlights intricate patterns of the carvings and the veins in the marble. Lush greenery, thick vines trailing rope-like around columns, capitals, and lintels.

  The council bureaucracy even has activated the nighttime projector. Glittering patterns rotate across the massive stained-glass oculus set into the top of the dome.

  Virtual projections of every member of the council, regardless of their status as attendants, or confirmation of their long-term profitability, are blended into a crowd scene.

  The effect is that stern faced men and women appear to be interacting with one another inside the glass enclosed galleries just below the rim of the ceiling.

  The caretaker program has been set up to scent the conditioned air. Night blossoms, sandalwood, and a hint of sea breeze. Someone in the media, maybe a fashion or interior design group will take notice and streaming fans will rush out to buy it for themselves….

  The concentric rings of desk space and narrow seating is designed to remind the council members that no one corporation is bigger than the game; squeezing the players together and highlighting a space psychologically designed to make an individual feel small.

  I know the tricks, and I don’t own a typical corporation. The result is that I’m often playing a completely different game.

  Ms. Taylor and I fit ourselves into the section designated for AlphaTek and wait as the rest of the council files in. If she has a reaction to the architecture, emotional pressure, or my crowding into her space, it doesn’t show.

  I scan the faces of the people who are actually here, and most of them are.

  A few are returning from distant global locations. They need to be seen in New White Sands while the fallout happens. This is the biggest show of the season and no one wants to miss out. Those who can’t be here have opted to join the fray using VR.

  I don’t give Yolanda names. She has those on file. I provide salient background details about the bigger players. That eats up the five minutes prior to the Speaker opening the session.

  There’s a fast round of introductions for the sake of the StreamingInfotainment viewers, and the council settles in. Most are here trying to rip me a new hole.

  Dzur’s corporation may have called for this meeting but he isn’t anywhere to be seen. His replacement for the meeting is familiar; Shoshauni Helbraun. She used to be the Senior System Developer at Living Memories Inc.

  That she’s moved up the ranks isn’t a surprise. Alex, Jen, and I have been keeping tabs on everyone linked to Phillip but I hadn’t expected her to be the Corporate Council Representative.

  The massive holoprojector flickers to life and grows to dominate three stories, suspended in the center of the room.

  No one speaks as the long-range cam footage of from Origin Oasis plays out in in grainy fuzzy detail.

  I have a good idea what the slightly out of focus footage is actually showing. For all of their advanced equipment Origin Oasis hasn’t bothered to upgrade their moon-side facing long-range cams. Who wanted to stare at the dark side of the moon when there were so many other things to do?

  The bright flashes of the explosion are short lived, quickly gone without atmosphere to carry them anywhere.

  The Speaker reads off the fifty-three names of confirmed dead. Voices, muted, but angry and surprised, buzz inside the media area as she finishes her list.

  Shoshauni leads the charge. “As a senior Corporation on this Council we would like to know, Mr. Ferdinand, how this disaster happened. What was your team doing that far out? Why did your corporation engage in the hostile boarding and destruction of a privately chartered vessel? Who gave you authorization to act?”

  Ms. Taylor narrows her eyes at the well-dressed representative from Living Memories. I get the immediate sense that if they met privately things would spiral into dirty fighting quickly.

  I lean over and whisper in Yolanda’s ear, “Options?”

  “Does she know you personally?” Her tone is vicious.

  “No.” I say. I keep my own tone neutral. “We haven’t meet.”

  “She comes off like your angry Ex….” She sighs. “Well, you can’t dodge the questions. My opinion; this is bad. Media Control needs to be on this for the next month. Twenty-four-seven. My advice; avoid anything that can cause them to blame us directly. We need to justify our actions and divert attention elsewhere. You do that by telling them the same story you told me. Be calm, clear, and concise. You military guys still do that, right?”

  I nod and stand; keeping my expression grave, I open my address. “Speaker, Council members, assembled media, and by extension those who are interested in the truth. I’ll take a moment to address the concerns raised by Ms. Helbraun’s corporation.”

  It’s still odd to see myself projected three stories tall from the shoulders up, floating in the center below the high dome. The media circus was going to make my getting around town on my own that much harder.

  I say, “Last evening, a team of AlphaTek’s orbital operatives stumbled across reports that indicated explosive devices had been secreted aboard the Speedwell. That ship was a for hire charter designed to transport CitOne and EuroElite level of citizenry over medium to long distances.”

  Yolanda throws a stock image of the Speedwell up onto the display.

  It’s a fat, round bellied, thing with folded back extension booms fixed with chemical fired maneuvering thrusters and powered by an EmDrive for the main thrusters. A specifications list runs down one side of the image. It’s one gee acceleration means there’s no centrifuge to break up the lines midship. It just makes the vessel look bulky as hell.

  “I had a second team that contained demolitions experts with decades of orbital experience nearby,” I say. “They had been originally looking for illegal mining operations but I had them routed to pursue the Speedwell. Some of the communications we had intercepted indicated the presence of well embedded terrorist cells on Liberty Transfer Platform.”

  An image of the boxy looking L One torus swipes up onto the holo-projector.

  “We knew those cells were in place, but we had no identities. Tipping them off was unacceptable and rushing in would have caused them to scatter.” I look around at the crowd, trying to gauge reactions and support. It seems a pretty even split between two camps. “Allowing the explosives to arrive at Origin Oasis wasn’t an option.” Yolanda drops an image of Origin Oasis and the opulent Nasrid complex out on the projector. It looks like a faceted sphere. Sapphire in color and built of perfectly reflective fractal facets of itself. There was a reason it was called ‘The Gem of Humanity’s own Making.’

  I hear the “ohs” and “ahs” from the media gallery. I was sure they’d seen the place before but this was as much a show for the CitFours and Threes as it was for all the TopSiders.

  I say. “The damage and loss of life would have been stagger
ing. If this council is upset that we didn’t waste time asking for permission, waiting for deliberation and a response… then so be it. We acted in good faith within the timeframe we had. As it was the terrorist cells on Liberty were in a position to have intercepted those messages and created even more mayhem during their escape.”

  “We opted to overtake the Speedwell, and after ascertaining the fact that all the passengers had retired for shipboard night-time, we boarded.” I say. “The entire action was executed on my personal authority. My team found one device quickly. During an attempt to remove it, it and two others, detonated. Believe me when I say we’ll be looking into what the triggering event was and will be releasing that news as it develops.”

  Helbraun asks, “You want us to believe that you just happened to have a team of specialists waiting in orbit? Waiting to create chaos someplace else, and instead this opportunity arose—"

  “Mr. Ferdinand didn’t say that. Nor did his words imply anything chaotic or even close.” Ms. Taylor cuts her off. “The team that was dispatched to the Speedwell was nearby, looking for illegal mining operations. Operations that are an ongoing concern for large numbers of corporations across multiple control zones. That team was utilized because they were the best suited, most ideally placed team to act.”

  I watch as Shoshauni’s expression twists just little. I dial in my optics and record what I can for Data Development to go over. But I can tell she’s thrown off her game by Yolanda’s sharp rebuttal.

  “Which group are you claiming planted the device?” the Rep from Quardralinx Chemicals shoots back. His tone is loaded with distrust and disbelief.

  It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him speak out loud, and he’s obviously not on my side in this….

  “We won’t answer the question as it was spoken… the way you’ve phrased it.” Yolanda shakes her head. “By answering it at all there is a subtle insinuation that the information we are imparting is manufactured. It’s not. The group responsible call themselves the Luxemburg Free Miners Society, or the L.F.M.” Yolanda says briskly. “We’re here presenting facts to this council. Fifty-three people lost their lives. Facts, compassion, and support are all we have to offer right now. If this council wants to perpetuate alternative information to feed their secret UnderCity conspiracy theorist groups, they won’t get anything from us. Period.”

  The silence in the chamber is stunning. I find myself liking Ms. Taylor.

  “Now, we can present what we have, and you can bicker over it as much as you like- just be quick about it so we can get back to the task of finding out more details to present.”

  “We’ll be done when we’re satisfied with the answers we receive.” Shoshauni snaps. “Let’s try for a fact then. How long have you known about this particular terrorist organization?”

  “They’re a relatively new group. Three months ago we started to hear persistent rumors about them,” I reply. That was the truth. I had heard of them and they were rapidly growing. Their leadership had been noted for radical position statements and urging violent action as the only recourse. If I handled this situation well, this new problem could have a solution before it got too large and ended with yet another expensive asymmetrical war in space. There was still debris in orbit from the last two. A third one, backed by nothing but desperation, would be better to avoid. “We’ve been running into more pronounced resistance from them in the last few weeks. I suggest this council organize a meeting with them and see what sort of diplomatic solutions can be found before any further radicalization or greater violence can ensue.”

  A third voice rises from the chamber. “Mr. Ferdinand, that advice seems to run contrary to the core of your business.”

  “I believe in security; personal, corporate, doesn’t matter.” My voice recognition picks the speaker out as Rand Johnsten from NanoCyb LLC. They produced components exclusively for use by Living Memory. “Ultimately my task is to make it so that my Corporation or any like it is never needed again. As lofty and impossible as that sounds, we need to try. If we can find a solution that worked for everyone’s benefit; who here wouldn’t accept that?” I look to the area of the room where the voice had come from.

  “I forward a motion that we undertake a diplomatic effort to address the concerns of the L.F.M. group and our interests in space. The intention would be the development of common ground for future discussions.” My AR shows; Ocean State Aquatics. Mr. Douglas Eglund. A major food provider for the city….

  “Seconded.” An AR flag pops up, Peak & Dureera, Mr. Rashid Dureera. They’re an energy distribution corporation.

  These two, in the past, have been tenuous with their support. I wonder at their motivations here. It could be PR, but it could be more. They haven’t been on my radar for anything ground breaking, always middle of the road conservative.

  “The motion is tabled and in light of the original purpose of this meeting it’ll be set aside for a vote at our next regular meeting.” The Speaker says to the clerk who makes a great show of entering notes.

  “It seems incredibly convenient that you have multiple operations in the area with exactly the right people in place….” Shoshauni tries again.

  Ms. Taylor isn’t shy about gunning her down. “If you’re suggesting that Mr. Ferdinand is lying, or distorting the truth, you had best have facts to back up those assertions.”

  Shoshauni says. “I was only stating the convenience of those facts…”

  Yolanda jumps on her once more. “AlphaTek is a mega corporation that fulfils an extremely large number of corporate security contracts. Those are in flux and actively changing parameters all the time. On top of that, we have personal contracts and other considerations—"

  Rand chimes in. “Do you know anything about an assault on an Arcology, specifically Neo Detroit?”

  “No.” Yolanda shakes her head.

  “I was asking Mr. Ferdinand directly.”

  I stand once again, “If there were such an attack I’d be wondering where you are drawing the connection, given, as the speaker has said, the nature and purpose of this emergency meeting.”

  Rand continues unabated. “How about the actions of a rogue operative who ran amok in the Bastion Medical Center, killing innocent civilians, and setting fires to hide evidence of their actions…?”

  I don’t even get a chance to speak.

  “Or, perhaps we should ask about your interference in a police investigation a few months ago that led to a citywide lock down and riots in the streets.”

  “There was no interference by AlphaTek.” I know that Shohauni has put him up to this. He’s not clever enough to find these facts or understand them if he had.

  “You deny hiding fugitives in your home on Power Island?”

  “I do.” I meet his gaze and let my eyes drift over to Helbraun. “I let a family member, his fiancé at the time, and his foster child, stay at my home for a few days while I was away.”

  “All I hear is you throwing plausible deniability at us.” Rand blasts at me. “And that sets a precedent for how your corporation is handling this disaster and this meeting.”

  “Well, I have something I can add.” Shohauni’s voice is almost a purr.

  Three stories’ tall; cam footage of VTOL APC’s unloading weapons in a hilly environ plays itself out.

  I know exactly where it taken and can even guess by whom. I would deal with that later.

  Helbaun gestures widely, like a huckster in an UnderCity market. “This is footage is from Coahuila in the United Mexican States. Last week in fact. Those are crates of weapons going to a known group of rebels.”

  The voices in the media area rise and then fall in anticipation of more bloodletting.

  “And the personnel we see here.” The image shifts and shows my people heading out of AlphaPlaza. “They’re yours. When that gets added to this…” An audio loop of my conversation with the Minister in Nuevo Leon plays. “We can see just how you bully and manipulate the situations around you. Lofty id
eals indeed. You aren’t in control of your people. You’re connected to an attack on a sovereign nation, and play both sides of conflicts for your own profit. Why would we think anything else could be going on other than some grand deception?”

  It takes a few minutes for the uproar to settle.

  I can see Shoshauni’s head-bowed smug expression. She lifts her face and slowly nods. “I understand that these things could be something other than what they look like.” Her tone is placating. “Corporations undertake many strange disconnected actions that taken out of context could appear horrible. But in your case; I have to wonder how often deception and manipulation are the real truth. I’m sure a lot of us wonder what other serious situations have never even come up as speaking points in this council.”

  The council grumbles.

  “You have the weapons systems and the personnel to use them. You have a wall of secrecy that endangers all of us and the citizens under our care. I motion that this council insist on oversite for AlphaTek Global Security’s operations. An unchecked, unobserved, defacto military is dangerous for everyone but you, Mr. Ferdinand.”

  The only thing saving me is my quick response. “No. I will not allow this council to install oversight of any aspect of my own personal corporation.”

  “You don’t understand.” She sneers. “This isn’t a choice.”

  “Choice only works if all sides agree to allow it; and I don’t.”

  Ms. Taylor adds, “This motion would set a dangerous precedent. Allowing corporations to observe operations in another corporation could lead to a blanket bill being passed. That opens the door for huge numbers of abuses of council authority and a monopolization of control….”

  Dureera, his voice rising over the growing clamor, says, “The precedent is dangerous. The scope and legality of which will need to be studied before a vote can be taken. I recommend that we forward a query to other zones. After which a randomly selected panel drawn from corporations in all control zones sit at an extra judiciary meeting. Their goal is to discuss the legality and ramifications what the Representative from Living Memory’s is tabling.”