“Hardy-har-har.” Mark grimaced as he rubbed his chest. “They hurt.”
Peter walked up. “They are supposed to,” he told them. “You four are being prepped as an operations group.”
“Wait, we are?” Jacqueline’s eyes lit up. “To do what?”
“Don’t know yet.” Peter smiled back. “And it shouldn’t matter to you, recruit. Your job is to get better and learn the strengths and weaknesses of your team, then train harder.”
Ricole, her eyes round, kept looking around. She had been here since the night Baba Yaga picked her up. Then, after answering a few questions about her skills, she had been introduced to Mark, Jacqueline, and Sabine.
All of them were close friends of Michael, the man with the hat. She had later found out that Michael and Baba Yaga were a “thing” (whatever that meant) and that Michael was with Bethany Anne as well.
She wasn’t sure if she would allow her male to have two females, but humans were different and Ricole wasn’t going to judge.
She could smell that Mark and Jacqueline were a pair, but Sabine didn’t smell like a human. She had a musky smell of another being on her. When she asked, Sabine had said she hung out with “Demon.”
Ricole surmised that the translation software was off, because the explanation for the name was an alien from another dimension where there were fire and molten rocks. Sabine didn’t smell like she had been around fire.
Ricole would learn in time.
“Ok.” Peter clapped his hands. “We know the two shooters in the group can work together…mostly.” He eyed them both. “You will have to get better. Now let’s see what happens when we give our targets chest and head protection and weapons.”
Ricole’s eyes darted from Peter to Sabine and back. “Where do we shoot them?”
Sabine leaned over and whispered into Ricole’s ear, “I suggest shooting Mark in the crotch.” When Ricole shrugged, she explained, “The apex where his legs meet the body. It’s very sensitive to a…”
“Sabine, don’t you DARE shoot me in the crotch on purpose!” Mark yelled from the armor area some thirty paces away. “Just for that, I’m wearing a carbon-fiber jock strap.”
“See?” Sabine smirked. “They will do anything to protect the area. And he has very good hearing, which I sometimes forget.”
The Noel-ni understood good hearing. Perhaps she should admit she could hear Mark and Jacqueline making plans?
She turned to Sabine, which put her back to the other two, and opened her hand. She drew a path on her palm with her finger, then lifted two fingers and used one of them to draw a second path on her palm. Sabine glanced at their opponents and a smile grew on her face.
It took a moment for everyone to get back into starting position.
“GO!” Peter yelled.
Mark took off to the right at enhanced speed and jumped toward the wall. He hit it with both feet and rebounded, aiming his attack to the right of the two women. He wanted to roll and then swing his dummy sword at Sabine’s side, possibly blocking her pistol.
By narrowing his profile, she would only be able to shoot at his helmet.
The problem was, the two women had moved and he was going to overshoot his mark.
After landing he rolled and came up with his sword in front of him. His enhanced reflexes gave him a small chance to knock the missiles away.
His body was peppered with darts, two of them aimed for his crotch.
“HEY!” he yelled, but it was too late. The ladies had caused him enough distraction that they were able to hit him with three darts, one in the arm and two in the legs. He had four sticking out of his chest-piece and two in his crotch. He watched as they worked in tandem to take out Jacqueline. Because she was using a quarterstaff, they had to work hard to keep her out of range. In the end Jacqueline got Sabine, but Ricole turned that sacrifice into a win for their side.
Sabine was rubbing her ribs where Jacqueline had whacked her a good one.
“Round UP!” Peter called as Mark plucked the two darts out of his crotch.
This was going to be a long session. He started walking toward the group, stopping to pick up darts as he found them. If nothing else, he respected the Noel-ni’s quick reflexes.
Even if she did look like a bipedal fox with a nasty disposition at times.
Bethany Anne waited in silence for Addix to arrive. Glorious silence, without anyone asking her anything or talking in her head.
She glanced around her suite and wondered how it would look if she added some white pillows to the couches. She rubbed a hand over the present cushions, wondering if the surface was too rough for a baby to crawl on. Would the animal skin they had chosen for the couches hurt the baby? What would happen if she (or he, if Michael heard her) had an allergy to the leather?
Wait!
She looked up, her eyes narrowing. What about the flooring? She liked the rugs in the suite, but the medium-high thick carpet could catch on its little feet, right?
She rolled her eyes at herself. "I've become every mother I laughed at over the last hundred years."
Their baby would be just fine.
And if the baby wasn't, they would do something about it when they figured it out. Not every small item in the suite needed to be changed for the baby to be the safest it could be.
A chime announced a visitor and Bethany Anne turned her head toward the door. "Come in!"
Addix strode in, her spiderlike visage no longer bothering Bethany Anne in the least. Having known the Ixtali since she was a Senior Legate, she’d had plenty of time to get used to the woman.
“You asked for me, Bethany Anne?”
“Please sit.” Bethany Anne nodded to the other couch. It was meetings like this which made the two couches facing each other so useful. “Care for a Coke?”
Addix perked up. “You have a new batch?”
“Yes, almost frozen now.”
“And a straw?” Addix asked. Ixtalis’ mouths were interesting. Two sets of mandibles connected and tapped together in various ways to provide additional information on their mental and emotional states. The first group of Ixtalis to work with the Etheric Empire so many decades before had found straws to be a most fascinating invention.
“Of course, help yourself.” She waved a hand. Frankly, Bethany Anne could have gotten up and out of the couch easily enough—it wasn’t like she was in her third trimester or anything—but Addix was still new to her group.
Addix had accepted a position in the intelligence acquisition section, a skill her people had been involved in for hundreds of years and one which Addix had worked in for her whole long life. Bethany Anne had provided a place for Addix to go when her life was nearing its end. Healthy now, Addix’s body had been through the Pod-doc, rejuvenated and enhanced beyond anything she could have expected in exchange for working here on High Tortuga.
For Bethany Anne.
“Make yourself at home,” Bethany Anne told her. “You have to realize that we humans aren’t as socially striated as your society. I don’t care if you avail yourself of my fridge.
Addix’s four legs moved oddly underneath her robes as she made her way to the snack area. “And cookies?”
“We have the small ones you can just pop in your mouth, and since you are there would you grab me a few?”
Addix busied herself fixing a plate of snacks and grabbing a couple of drinks. “So, who do you want spied on?”
“Well,” Bethany Anne shook her head, “I don’t know. We have issues with the banking system and I don’t know that I have an answer.”
“Okay.” Addix made her way back to the couches, setting down a plate of cookies and two drinks on the table between them. “I assumed you wanted something?”
“Oh, I’m always up to drink a Coke.” She reached forward. “It’s a damned shame we couldn’t find more treasures at Coke’s headquarters.”
“The amount of time between the Apocalypse and your return did allow much of it to weather away,” Addix agr
eed.
Bethany Anne bit into a cookie. “Here is the puzzle: in the past when I wanted to find someone who would look at the data and then do something I’ve always called ‘following the money.’ It’s a phrase that has always meant, ‘see who gets the benefit.’ However, it has also meant following the money’s trail, for the most part. ADAM has figured out that someone is messing with the banking system here on High Tortuga with software which will make a bunch of money go poof.”
Addix stared at Bethany Anne and asked, “Go poof to where?”
ADAM’s voice came out of the speakers. “That’s just it, Addix. From what I have uncovered, it won’t go anywhere. All of the money is going to disappear. In fact, if someone wanted to use the same software they could, well, poof money into existence instead of taking it out of circulation—which seems a better idea and causes my electronic brain to hurt.”
Addix took a slurp of her Coke. “That is odd.”
Bethany Anne glanced at her ceiling. “ADAM, you say they could create income?”
“That would be a one-time event. Once it happened, the fix would be easy to implement. The only reason I feel it is working here is that the infrastructure is at least three decades behind everyone else. Some verticals are eight decades behind. There was no reason to continue to invest in this planet when the first rush of wealth petered out. The other companies left, and it’s only recently and with Bethany Anne’s help that some companies are upgrading again. This security hole in the system has probably already been fixed in dozens of systems.”
“And they are using it to delete money, not create it.” Addix’s two major mandibles tapped together. Bethany Anne grabbed another cookie.
“They are trying to foment fear of the banking industry,” Addix finally concluded. “The military attack didn’t work, so they are trying to undermine your authority.”
“But the banking industry isn’t…” She thought for a moment. The banking industry was hers, and those banks she didn’t own a primary interest in would suffer as well. “Well, that’s pretty fucking genius.”
“I would also bet,” Addix spoke louder to accommodate ADAM, not that he couldn’t have heard a pin drop since he was able to hear using Bethany Anne’s neuro-system as well, “that the accounts they are trying to delete are those they can associate with your stock ownership. I doubt they have been able to confirm who Baba Yaga really is, but they would be able to track down a high probability of congruence between stock ownership and monetary accounts.”
“Those slick bastards.” Bethany Anne took a nibble of her cookie. “Oh, try these.” She lifted the cookie. “Yum!”
“This doesn’t bother you?” Addix asked, reaching down to acquire a cookie like the one Bethany Anne had shown her.
“Well, not really,” she admitted. “ADAM, when is this supposed to happen?”
“I’m tracking down all the code, but my guess is it will hit when the system has eighty-two percent penetration amongst all banks.”
“And that is?”
“Approximately seven days and fourteen hours.”
Bethany Anne smiled at Addix. “So that’s how long you have to catch them before Adam shuts down the code and they realize their effort has failed.”
Addix stood up and walked back to the snack area. Opening the fridge, she snagged two more bottles and closed the door again. She took a small handful of straws. “Never know when these will come in handy,” she muttered and swept by the coffee table, grabbing her unfinished bottle and two more cookies.
Bethany Anne looked up at Addix and her full hands. “Do you need some help?”
“Oh, no,” she answered as she headed toward the door. “Who should I use for this?”
“Well,” Bethany Anne spoke loudly, “get with Stephen if you need him. Otherwise, whoever you want, I guess. Just ask them. If you don’t get enough door-knockers and head-breakers just let me…”
The door shut behind Addix.
“Hmmph.” Bethany Anne reached down to grab another cookie. “That’s what I get for hiring consummate professionals. They don’t wait around for me to tell them the obvious.”
Bethany Anne thought for a moment and her eyes narrowed. “Where is Michael? He hasn’t shown up, and a quiet Michael is not a good thing.”
>>Michael is in the R&D lab with Jean.<<
“What’s he doing?”
ADAM switched to speaker. “He is discussing the force it would take to shock an alien as large as a Tyrannosaurus Rex.”
“Dinosaurs?” she mused aloud. “He must have really had his head scrambled in the Etheric to be talking dinosaurs.” She shrugged and chewed on her cookie. “But whatever, so long as he isn’t trying to go out on an operation again.”
She clapped her hands together to get rid of the crumbs. “Almost got hit by an airship during a ground fight. That man has the worst luck.”
“ADAM, connect me with Addix.”
“Yes, my Queen?” Addix answered through a mouthful of cookie.
“Hey, you didn’t update me on tracking down the mercenaries.”
“I have nothing to report. In our last discussion I told you I suspected that the contract came from off-world. I suspect my data acquisition specialist will return with confirmation of that within the week.”
“Ok, keep me posted.”
She disconnected.
Bethany Anne got up, cleaned up the snacks, and headed out of the suite. It was time she checked into the Security Pit.
Chapter Nine
High Tortuga, Hidden Space Fleet Base, Security Pit
Bethany Anne walked around the bottom floor of her high-security data acquisition room, most commonly called "the Security Pit". Presently there were fifteen others reviewing their screens and interacting with their sectors EIs. Bethany Anne looked up at each of the faces before continuing her circuit around the bottom.
A short human figure opened the door at the top of the Pit. Bethany Anne nodded to Eve, who proceeded to walk down the steps toward her.
“Where is Yuko?” Bethany Anne asked.
Eve smiled and waved a hand, a human gesture for an EI. “Still in love and seeing parts of this world with her man. I think I’m going to gag,” Eve commented. “Well, not really, but when I wished her happiness I wasn’t expecting the sappiness that came with it.” Eve pulled out a chair and sat down. “Besides, I have something to share.”
The teams had pulled Yuko, Akio, Michael, Eve, and others off Earth during the project to emplace the massive satellite defense ring around the planet. At the very end Yuko had decided to ask a police officer in Japan to join her in the stars, and he had accepted her invitation. Without any responsibility for the first time in a very long time, she focused totally on her relationship with him.
Eve had eventually accepted that Yuko would come out of it sometime and look for a task.
And Bethany Anne would supply one.
“Something in all the media trip your filter?” Bethany Anne asked, pulling a chair from the table and sitting down herself. For the most part, she didn’t have closed-door meetings on security situations. She wanted those here in the Pit to learn from what was talked about and to be updated as quickly as possible without requiring constant meetings.
The Pit’s design, a holdover from their base in Colorado on Earth so many decades before, fit the bill nicely.
“Yes, I am seeing editorials, inserts, and occasionally ads stewing over Baba Yaga’s heavy-handed approach to ‘taking over our planet.’”
Bethany Anne’s focus narrowed to Eve. “Are those the exact words?”
“In so many differently-worded phrases. It is the one distinct thread that runs through all of them. They might use phrases such as ‘I am not sure who makes the laws anymore’ or ‘who gave this person the right to issue security proclamations?’ and, of course, ‘we own this planet, not her!’”
Bethany Anne pursed her lips. “Interesting.” She looked down at the short android. “Have you tracked the
editorials back to who supplied them? And the advertising?”
She almost wanted to laugh. The EI had enhanced her emotional verisimilitude and made a face which Bethany Anne interpreted as “Teach me to calculate one plus one while you are at it.”
Eve, however, had worked for a long time with two Japanese partners. The level of snark and argumentation she displayed was directly related to the respect she had for the person she was speaking with. Since her imprint had come from ADAM, Bethany Anne was the highest in her hierarchy even this many years later.
"I contacted Addix and supplied my research to date. She confirmed that she was familiar with a few of the individuals from another project, but the trail left the planet.”
Bethany Anne sat back in her chair, tapping a finger to her lips as she considered the implications. "Off-planet, off-planet. It seems we have interrupted someone's party here on High Tortuga. While we need to track down the source, based on a recent conversation with Addix I suspect we will find a dead cutout."
Bethany Anne ran through all the scenarios. Anyone who was doing this much to upset her effort to settle the planet down would desire to keep her infrastructure in place as much as possible. Obviously someone had already spoken as to the base's location.
They had not seen another attack yet, but it would most likely be forthcoming. So far there had been the attack on the base and the attack on the banking system, and now the war for the minds of the citizens was coming at them. The banking problem had been neutralized, but that hadn’t helped them find who was attacking yet.
The PR effort was a bit more insidious.
She would have to be more proactive than normal to get ahead of the challenge related to the PR. She sighed. “Okay, I need to ask a few questions around. Please keep up your…” Bethany Anne’s right eyebrow shot up. “Have you been replying?”
Eve shifted in her seat. “Well, if you mean the editorials, certainly. They offer the opportunity to have a lively conversation.”
And you are bored? Bethany Anne wondered. "Using the same ID or different ones?”
Eve answered, “So far I have only gone through three false identities in larger metropolitan areas. In the small towns I have to leave my responses using a generic 'concerned citizen' byline, because everybody knows everyone else in the town.”
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