Perfect Dark: Second Front

by Greg Rucka

  And then, wrapping an arm around the shaken young woman’s shoulder, DeVries headed off, into the shadows.

  “You’re welcome,” Steinberg said.

  Calebasée Café

  19 Boulevard Allegre

  Fort-de-France, Martinique

  March 11th, 2021

  “He’s staying at the Squash Hotel,” Anita Velez told Joanna Dark and Jonathan Steinberg. “On the Boulevard de la Mame. Room 412.”

  “And right now?” Joanna asked.

  Velez used her head to indicate the building behind her. “Inside. Alone. Finishing his dessert.”

  Jo adjusted her sunglasses, glancing past Velez at the entrance to the restaurant. A table of patrons seated out front burst into laughter at something their waiter had said. Past them, she could see through the open windows to the interior, and at the rear she thought she could make out a figure seated with his back to the wall.

  “Thanks,” Steinberg told Velez.

  The woman considered the word, as if Steinberg had uttered something profound, then ran a hand down the front of her tan linen suit, drawing herself up to full height. It put her almost a full head taller than Jo, and when she looked down at her and then Steinberg, the expression wasn’t quite one of disapproval, but it was close.

  “If you do not wish to do this, I will handle the matter myself,” Anita Velez said.

  “We’ve got it,” Jo told her. “Don’t worry. You can tell your boss we’re covered.”

  “This is the only favor we shall ever do for you, or Carrington.” She moved her look to Steinberg. “I offer this in exchange for your aid in my time of need. But do not mistake it. We are enemies.”

  “Then you better leave,” Steinberg told her. “Before I decide to do something about that.”

  Anita Velez almost smiled, then turned away and quickly disappeared in the crowd of tourists milling on the boulevard.

  They watched her go, waiting until they were certain she was gone, before Steinberg asked, “How do you want to do this?”

  “We’ll wait until nightfall,” Jo said. “We’ve waited this long. Another six hours won’t hurt.”

  It had been a long road to recovery for Joanna Dark, almost six weeks, and three of them had been in the Institute’s sick bay in London, tended by a very strict Dr. Cordell. In addition to the infection in her abdomen, the two bullet wounds, the three broken ribs, the one punctured lung, and the half-dozen other injuries she couldn’t be bothered to list, there had been the system shock incumbent in the Chrysalis reversion. Some kind of bizarre, experimental nanotech, Cordell had said, nothing unusual from Zhang Li, who had no hesitation to launch unethical and dangerous product testing.

  Then followed an exploratory surgery followed by a second procedure to actually remove the Core-Mantis OmniGlobal ThroatLink.

  She almost missed the ThroatLink, missed having Carcareas in her head. But then she would think about the way CMO had used her, the way their dropships had descended on Zhang Li’s mansion even as she had stumbled from the DeathMatch bed. The way the women—and they’d all been women, Jo could tell that, even behind their suits of basalt-black body armor and full face shields—had shot every last one of Zhang Li’s children, his Continuity. She could remember screaming at them to stop, not having enough air to do it, and then there’d been Colonel Tachi-Amosa, and Jo had been tranquilized yet again.

  When she’d woken up, she’d been alone in a hotel room in Moscow, and her body had once again been her own. She’d rolled off the bed, promptly vomited, and then managed to call the Institute in London to tell them where she was. A man from the Moscow campus, Vaklav Dugarova, had come to fetch her, had flown with her all the way back to London.

  It hadn’t been until almost a full week later that she’d gotten the whole story from Steinberg, what had happened in Paris, how the world had almost come to its end.

  “What were they like?” he’d asked her, meaning the Continuity.

  “They were kids,” Jo had told him. “They were kids who had lost the only thing that ever mattered to them.”

  “Zhang Li.”

  “No.” Jo had shaken her head, lying in the sick bay bed, trying to get Jonathan to understand. “Someone who loved them.”

  “Weird way to show it.”

  And Jo had nodded, and Steinberg had left, and she had thought that maybe he was right about that. But she didn’t know.

  Her own father hadn’t done much better, after all.

  It took more than six hours. It was closer to ten, almost midnight when Leland Shaw unlocked the door and stepped into his hotel room, and in the interim, Joanna Dark had had plenty of time to think as she had waited for him in the dark. Mostly, she thought about her father; sometimes, though, she thought about what she was there to do, and whether or not she could actually bring herself to do it.

  At her request, Grim had gone digging, scouring US Department of Defense records. Shaw had done a good job vanishing himself, but it had been incomplete, and in the end, Grimshaw had confirmed for Joanna that Leland Shaw and Jack Dark had, in fact, served together in the United States Marine Corps, both as members of Force Recon. He had even been able to confirm that Shaw had been her father’s commanding officer for a short time.

  But that was all that Grimshaw had been able to learn. Not what had passed between the two men. Not why Jack Dark had left the Marines. Only that Leland Shaw hadn’t been lying when he’d told Joanna that her father had stood beside him in combat.

  A fellow Marine, Jo thought. Who knew my father better than I ever did.

  Shaw entered clumsily, and she could smell the rum on his breath and the sweat on his skin as he moved past without seeing her, switching on the lights and drunkenly veering in the direction of his bed. He was having trouble getting his jacket off, and she wondered how drunk he was, and whether it was enough to buy him a break.

  She decided it wasn’t.

  He’d removed his coat and his shoes, had set his holster with its titanium-slide P9P on the dresser, when Jo detached herself from where she’d been standing, pressed against the wall, and came forward. He saw the movement coming, mostly because she wasn’t trying to be particularly fast or particularly stealthy anymore, and he made a halfhearted lunge for his gun, but it was clear he lacked commitment. Jo kicked him in the side, sent him off the bed and onto the floor, and only then did she draw her own gun.

  “Wondering when you’d show up,” Shaw said, rubbing his side and beginning to sit up.

  Jo pulled her silencer from her jacket pocket, began screwing it into place at the end of the Falcon. “Don’t get up, Colonel.”

  Shaw blinked at her rapidly, then ran his hand across his eyes.

  “Figured it’d be you or Velez. I was kind of hoping it’d be Velez.”

  With a final twist, Jo released the silencer, then racked the slide on her pistol. “You think she’d be easier on you?”

  “She wouldn’t have taken it personally.”

  “You’re wrong,” Jo said. “She would have taken it even more personally than I do. That’s the problem with professionals, Colonel, we’re all alike. We take our jobs very seriously.”

  She pointed the pistol at Shaw’s head.

  “God, kid … we can work something out.”

  “I don’t think we can.”

  “I knew your dad!” The words came out quickly, in a blurt. “I served with him for years! Mogadishu, did he ever tell you about Mogadishu? Or Tokyo? Did he ever tell you about the time we took the plane in Madagascar? Or the time he got drunk in Thailand, nearly got arrested for public indecency, and I had to bail him out? Did he tell you any of those things?”

  Jo readjusted her aim. “No.”

  “I know things, Joanna! I know things about your dad! I’ll share them with you!”

  “In exchange for your life?”

  Shaw’s nod was vigorous, his eyes almost glassy. “Yes! Anything you want to know about him, I’ll tell you!”

  Jo shook her
head. “Do you know what they did to me, Colonel Shaw? Do you know how badly they hurt me? What they turned me into? Do you have the faintest idea?”

  He looked at her blankly, either the alcohol or his fear or his ignorance conspiring to keep him from answering.

  “You gave them the daughter of a brother Marine, Colonel, and you expect mercy?”

  “I can tell you things about him!”

  “I already know enough,” Jo said, and she shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in the head. She unscrewed the silencer and dropped it back into her pocket, then slid the Falcon back into position at the small of her back. After a moment, she crouched down on one knee and began going through his pockets, and after perhaps fifteen seconds, she found what she was looking for.

  She got back to her feet, staring at the challenge coin, then slipped that into a pocket as well.

  “My father was a son of a bitch,” Joanna Dark told Leland Shaw. “Just like you.”

  She left the lights on when she left the room.

  * * *

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TO ALL APPROVED NEWS OUTLETS

  FROM: Gabrielle Shephard, Media Relations and Public Affairs Division

  Product Rollout Update

  There has been a great deal of understandable interest in the culmination of DataFlow’s recent product rollout celebrations for AirFlow.Net 2.0, and the scheduled, but regrettable, interruption of the final ceremonies. To help allay consumer fears and to dispel some of the fog of misinformation that has arisen (notably on competitor newsfeeds), I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify the events of 30 January 2021.

  Rest assured that DataFlow, and dataDyne, are committed to excellence in our products, and even more, to consumer safety. The final activation of Air-Flow.Net 2.0 was temporarily postponed, due to a minor programming error that was detected in the system’s signal-processing apparatus.

  This malfunction is in no way associated with AirFlow.Net 2.0—the error was localized in a third-party relay that had been mistakenly installed by contractors who were setting up the conference facility in Paris. Consumers and shareholders should be pleased that it was the diagnostic routines for AirFlow.Net 2.0 that detected the error and self-halted the demonstration, as part of the system’s overall safety programming.

  Any reports that the AirFlow.Net 2.0 system is nonfunctional are wild speculation. A secondary rollout (initially scheduled for deployment in the Asia/Pacific Rim region) will go ahead as planned, with worldwide implementation within 90 days, per the existing product release calendar.

  It should also be noted that the public events surrounding the AirFlow.Net 2.0 launch were a spectacular success, with concerts and DeathMatch VR tournaments crowning the ratings, and adding a great deal of dataDyne brand equity to our already successful entertainMe™ networks. We at dataDyne wish to thank our loyal customers for their continued support.

  Gabrielle Shephard Vice President,

  Media Relations and Public Affairs Division

  dataDyne Corporation

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  World Financial Times-Independent

  Core-Mantis Omniglobal on the Rise

  Clash With dataDyne Inevitable?

  By Pieter von Beck, Staff Writer, World Financial Times-Independent London (FT-I)

  The world financial markets have taken a keen interest of late in the sudden and unprecedented growth in prominent hypercorporation Core-Mantis OmniGlobal (WORLDAQ: CMO), and it’s attendant rise in market share.

  In the wake of the collapse of Zentek and its absorption into CMO (and the subsequent destabilization of rival Beck-Yama InterNational), CMO has climbed into prominence, and has already begun to challenge dataDyne Corporation in several of dataDyne’s (WORLDAQ: DD) key markets (notably in China, as CMO’s newest forays into consumer body-modification and fashion, augmented by a revitalized Zentek line of ZeeWear™, have just launched in Beijing to great success).

  Industry analysts insist that dataDyne is still the reigning powerhouse, with massive market penetration, broad diversification, vertically integrated product categories, and streamlined overhead, though Joseph Bishop, director and chief financial analyst of Bishop Financial Strategies, Ltd., indicates that dataDyne is by no means secure. “They are the longest-established player for these kinds of stakes,” Bishop said, “but they do appear somewhat weakened. Dr. Cassandra DeVries and her much touted AirFlow.Net 2.0 rollout was disappointing—and it had a disastrous effect on DataFlow stock values, which dropped nearly 20 percent within 48 hours of the aborted product launch.”

  Still, others are quick to point out that a less-than-stellar software debut has not hampered other software pioneers, and that DeVries and dataDyne have a strong track record for delivering quality products.

  Core-Mantis OmniGlobal CEO Shane Eddy, however, was quick to leap into the fray. “CMO has long had an interest in the personal null-g vehicle market, and our product teams are working hard to deliver SafeFlight 1.0 within the next fiscal year. Finally, consumers will have the freedom to choose how best their safety can be governed while traveling.”

  With the move into Chinese markets and the surprise announcement of a direct competitor to the venerable AirFlow.Net product line, the battle between Core-Mantis OmniGlobal and dataDyne is far from over.

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  TECHFEED > SCIENCE NEWSFLASH

  NULL-G PIONEER DANIEL CARRINGTON ADDRESSES AERONAUTICS ASSEMBLY

  By Alicia Brattin, TECHFEED Aeronautics Correspondent

  Dateline: London

  Null-g pioneer and founder of the Carrington Institute, Daniel Carrington, addressed the 23rd Annual International Aeronautics and Aerospace Conclave in London this afternoon. Carrington, a respected engineer and scientist, and the creator of the open-source technology that powers the modern personal aviation industry, gave the keynote address for the Conclave.

  Citing the need for continued innovation, and the stifling effects of corporate oversight, he called for “constant vigilance. The new breed of global hypercorporation is interested merely in the bottom line, in the capture and containment of large percentages of ‘market share.’

  “It is our job to make sure that they never forget that their ‘market share’ is composed of a vital, irreplaceable commodity: human beings. We, as scientists, as the innovators and creators who make the technology they so gleefully adapt, package, and fling into the marketplace, look upon—and will continue to look upon—their precious markets with better eyes than those they grow as fashion accessories.

  “We must never let them forget that they are a delivery system for beneficial technology, a means to an end. We, as the creators of that technology, must never let them forget that our goal is the betterment of mankind, not larger numbers on the ledger sheet. Nor should we forget our responsibility to shepherd that technology. It is a matter of pure responsibility, to ensure that what we create is not perverted into something harmful, that it is not turned into mere widgets and meaningless candyfloss, endlessly repackaged, refined, and regurgitated.

  “We must ensure they never forget that we will watch what they do with our better eyes, with our hearts and consciences locked on the singular goal of making the world a better place, and the bottom line be damned.”

  Carrington’s speech was met with some criticism from the scientists in attendance, many employees of larger hypercorporations such as dataDyne and Core-Mantis OmniGlobal. Dr. Michelle Ballantine of the Runyon-Adams Aerospace Research Division said, “Carrington’s own organization includes an industrial and manufacturing arm. It seems unusual that he would be so outspoken about the negatives of corporate control of research and technology distribution, while he himself competes directly with such organizations. That doesn’t sit particularly well with me, or my company.”

  Carrington himself was apparently unsurprised at the sour reaction to his address, but continued, “To that end, as the creator of the null-g technology that has h
ad an undeniable impact on the world economy, I feel it is my responsibility to closely monitor the recent developments in the aviation safety community. The failed launch of AirFlow.Net 2.0 [from dataDyne subsidiary DataFlow] and the sudden rush to launch SafeFlight 1.0 [from Core-Mantis OmniGlobal] should concern us all, and I pledge to closely monitor the progress of both projects, to ensure that the gift of flight is not tarnished by monopolistic corporate practices.”

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