Double Bait (Stone Blade Book 2)

by James Cox

  "Uhh... sure," said Robin.

  She had one 'stick walking across the plaza and then stopped for another. Her mouth decided to think for itself and Robin didn't know why or particularly like the fact. She didn't know why she slipped. After two glasses of wine she switched to tea. Small glasses! By what Robin uncovered Eileen didn't frequent any bars or clubs.

  Robin sat and lit another 'stick. She herself had no desire to socialize. Neither, ostensibly, had Eileen. She wracked her brain for a clue as to why she sat here instead of back in her apartment. Finally she decided to visit this Corner, just for a break. Apparently her mind thought she needed one.

  Light, upbeat music drifted out of the Corner and led Robin to the place. Not loud, though; Robin liked the place before she even entered. The inside space was divided into two areas. The smaller had a stage and a band and the decor made it cozier. The other was larger both in size and in seeming and had a dance floor. Robin let her feet guide her; she sat close to the band and ordered a weak ale.

  After a long set the band took a break. Robin and about half the crowd stepped to the stage to leave a tip. She smiled at several strangers who promptly smiled back. When she sat down again realization struck!

  Throughout the entire evening Robin had felt not a single nerve! The crowds around her were just that: people out for an enjoyable evening and not staring at her or laughing at her!

  "Hello hello!"

  Robin looked up and smiled as Deb and another lady walked up.

  "May we join you?"

  "Please," smiled Robin.

  Deb introduced her friend as Evvie and no sooner had Robin finished shaking Evvie's hand than two men walked up and sat down. Deb introduced them as Brandon and Terry and the band started tuning up for another set. Robin gave her name as Samantha Taw.

  Robin again enjoyed the music. More so with her new friends. When the band paused between songs Terry had a quip or quick joke. After the second crude one Evvie reached over and slapped his hand. He made a sad face which she totally ignored. When the band again left the stage Evvie headed for the dance floor.

  "Do you dance," asked Brandon, taking Robin's hand.

  "N-no. I... I really don't." Now she felt a trickle of nerves.

  "Me either," he said.

  Robin soon discovered he lied! He danced perfectly, covered her slips and even held a conversation. One-sided, though, since Robin had to concentrate both on her own feet and on the thoughts now bubbling in the back of her mind.

  "I'll be back," said Robin, when the song ended. Brandon winked back.

  Robin found Evvie in the ladies' fresher. She offered a 'stick and began adjusting her hair.

  "You're after Terry," said Robin.

  "What?!" Evvie glanced up sharply. "No! Not at all. We're just... Is it that obvious?"

  "No," assured Robin, "It's my job to notice details, especially subtle ones." Again she wished her mouth would stop working on its own.

  Relief melted Evvie's concern. "He is plus-plus drooly. Smart, too."

  Robin nodded.

  "The problem is that everybody who chases him chases him away." Evvie scowled at this.

  ***

  "It isn't easy, you know."

  Robin concentrated on her hair and carefully didn't smile. Evvie sounded exactly like Jasmine and more so with Terry in easy reach.

  "How so?" Robin knew Evvie, like Jas, would ramble on and let her finish her hair and lips.

  "You have to make them want you." Pure Jas! "But you can't let them know you're wanting and willing them to want you. If they think it isn't their idea they run like linkspace. But then, if you don't, someone else will move in on you. Hey. You got a lighter?"

  "Sure. Here." Robin looked up as she handed it over.

  Eileen Ransey stood looking into the mirror beside her!

  ***

  Robin sat clutching her covers until her breathing slowed. She hadn't slept long but she knew she'd not sleep soon. She pulled on a robe and turned on the lights.

  She and Brandon danced until the Corner closed. He kissed her hand as a final compliment and it sent thrills up her arm and down her spine. Then she blushed and he smiled at that, too.

  Robin called up multiple pictures of Eileen Ransey.

  "What are you trying to tell me?"

  She smoked a 'stick. She washed her face and rinsed out her mouth. She brewed a pot of chog, poured a cup and took a sip. She sat at the terminal. Then she rose. Then she paced.

  "Think, Robin!"

  The sun brightened the sky, not rising yet but not far from it.

  "You were perfect. Just what he wanted." Like her. "You were smart, too. You were smart enough to tell me something. What is it?"

  The sun through the window cast Robin's reflection off the terminal. Right next to Ransey's.

  Then she knew!

  ***

  Kelle Anne Halley. No such person existed on Landsrey's Refuge, Robin knew that for certain sure. Kelle Anne Halley did not exist. Yet!

  As the sun climbed slowly toward lunch Robin carefully crafted Kelle Anne Halley's life. Very intelligent and very adept at computers. She stood a bit taller than Robin but with a similar build. After a mundane childhood, barely into her teens Halley blossomed. Not just adept but a true natural talent and affinity. Halley took to computer theory and practice like a bograt to a swamp. Not popular, though, and not many friends. That would set the pattern for her life. Her life had no room for them and her drive to excel allowed no time, either.

  Then came college. Halley excelled at computer and data technology. Naturally. She didn't do as well on others. Why bother? She also continued her habit of not making friends. In her junior year Halley received an internship at...

  "A large company," said Robin softly, "Never mind who. They wouldn't want it widely known."

  During her summers and the year after graduation Halley did well. No surprise there. She didn't do quite as well at first but still received good evals. Then, fast track upstairs. No doubt the company made an excellent choice.

  Now for the complications. Robin didn't know, exactly, who Halley's boss would be, just that he was an unscrupulous bastard. His scam of choice: embezzle money from the company and set his underlings up to take the fall. He especially liked to target those who might one day supplant him.

  "A plus-plus slimy bottomfeeder. Now, my friend, let's see what we can do."

  First the company. Robin picked several, none of which Carl or Robert suspected, from a list of those with unsolved data theft. She considered creating more people but she herself could only observe one town at a time.

  "Refuge Major." Where else would a young, single, career-obsessed lady with outstanding skill and obscene drive and ambition go? Now Robin needed a home town.

  Small, decided Robin, but not too small. Small enough that crowds of strangers would stick out but not so small that everyone knew personally everyone else. She also didn't want Kelle too memorable. Robin called up a list of such towns. She also decided that it shouldn't have too many ways in or out, no airport if possible and only sporadic hoverbus service. A transit station used mostly for cargo would tip the decision. She picked the town of Tolgos' Bridge: some tourism, mostly agriculture and the linear and hoverway both followed the same line into town.

  Cozy in a datamart far from her apartment Robin began her burns, starting with Tolgos' Bridge. This would be chancy. She had absolutely no idea on the security there or, worst case, if they used the CA for it. She saw no sign of the CA as she burned past the tourist information into the municipal system. Cold sweat trickled down her back as Robin worked. Absent though it seemed the CA or any other security would have ample time to trace her. None appeared, though, so Robin continued her work. Birth record, parents, school, biometrics. She felt a touch of pride with the last item; using a fractal imager she wrote along with a set of genuine biometrics she found on the net Robin created a generator capable of producing statistically different biometrics on demand.
<
br />   The system spiked! Robin started to collapse her tunnels and jack out but something made her hesitate. Dissecting the message packet almost made her yell in frustration but she didn't have time for it. Daily backups! If she could only delay them a few minutes...

  Success. By the time the archive warez rebooted Robin had Kelle Anne Halley completed.

  Robin stopped for a quick lunch before her next datamart. She lazed over it, spending a glass of tea and a drugstick watching the people bustling about their business. Ingman Trisystem LLC's netsite opened easily to Robin's deft attention. She hoped, abstractly, that someone somewhere would appreciate her accomplishment there, even if it cost them. She worked under considerable time-pressure now. She inferred most of their internal structure and where she operated little security existed but that latter fact could change quickly.

  She chose Ingman for several reasons. They had a long record of internships from just about any college in the Federation. They did most of their business offplanet and between them, no matter the office or the planet. They also had one of the lowest Federation Financial Certification Authority ratings possible before mandatory closure and seizure of assets. Robin activated her modules in rapid succession. The first inserted Halley into Ingman's personnel records. The second created a pocket in the company's finances into which Robin slipped eighty-three thousand unicreds. It grated her to lose that much so easily but she had more. Finally she correlated the personnel records with the published CA findings and sifted the results until she found the most suspected manager still employed there. Once the modules completed she cut herself a few cheap doors. She knew she'd need them soon.

  Robin considered the rest of her day over an afternoon cup of tea. If all went well she'd have an arsenal by sunset. If not, well, she tried not to think on that. She mentally lined up her modules for her hottest burn of the day and it could go spectacularly awry in at least two dozen different ways. She took the precaution of disguising herself. She had a removable layer of outer clothes covering the one under it. She had a few clothes and a pair of shoes stuffed into her handbag that would drastically alter her appearance. She had glove-seal sprayed on her hands and gum in her cheeks. She lit a 'stick and thought about another...

  Stop it! Robin chided herself. She knew what she had to do and now she needed to do it!

  ***

  Deep in the bowels of the Central Authority district office in Akkleford two young burners chatted idly. Eight large holovees dominated the walls with an impressive and complex display of the data paths to and from the fans and fans of CA cores there. Each of the young men had two terminals and a datapad with both standard keypads and dexes and every security module either wanted at their fingertips.

  "... and I still say she's drooly," said the first with half a glance to his readouts.

  "Like she even knows you're alive," replied the second, "Six sigmas. NEGATIVE!"

  "Say it low, nubb. She happens to like me and she is not just drooly she is thermal drooly!"

  The other snorted in contempt. "Steff Allson wouldn't even give you the little flick."

  "Blather! You're just..."

  The second man never found out exactly what he was. Three of the immense screens flashed solid red and began beeping urgently. They showed major penetration in multiple sectors and the stape hadn't set off a single dog! Both of the burners donned their dexes and began working them.

  "Sonuva puppy-rutting slut!"

  "This stape is good!"

  The hair-trigger initial dogz finally roused. Without wasting time cursing the first burner spiked the dogz. They wouldn't do any good now and he needed the processor cycles.

  "Got him," said the second burner, "Why the flames is he spiking into the... FECES!!"

  No sooner had the trace locked into place than the stealthed worm detonated. The trace and everything else inside hot memory vanished. Abashed, the burner began clearing and rebooting his machines.

  "Problem negative," replied the first, "I have a briar patch in place. He won't get past that!"

  He began spooling his data syncs. He had no thought that this idiot burner would get away with invading the CA. The CA! There was, after all, a limit to how much one single burner could do!"

  "I gotcha now!"

  One terminal blinked red, then twice. Then every piece of equipment in the room died.

  ***

  Robin took the first, fastest hover she could away from the datamart. She resented the delay to change her appearance. When she left from it she tried not to scurry. She saw no CA hovers but they might have taken an alternate route. None of the other passengers seemed suspicious but she'd not trust that for a milli. At a random stop she left that tran and boarded another.

  The burn started well. She accessed the CA as easily as she expected and found the data she sought quickly enough. She launched the edit module that would take the longest first followed by the permission module and the other access modules. That raised security. Human security, she thought, since machines didn't react and adapt that unpredictably. She spiked several hard traces and fired off her countermeasures.

  Then the net itself spiked and she had it completely to herself. The edit module completed before she could spike it and she wasted no time collapsing her tunnels and jacking out. Robin changed trans one last time with none of the passengers from her previous hover following her. Still, she changed three more times before she felt safe.

  ***

  The two CA data techs faced their supervisor. Neither felt particularly comfortable. They never failed! Except that they had. Dismally! It didn't help matters that their supervisor wasn't comfortable either. Two strangers sat in the conference room listening to the reports. They were comfortable.

  "... and so the penetration succeeded," said the first burner, "Before we could do anything he launched a vvvvortex and took down our entire net."

  "So you said." The supervisor turned to the second young man. "Anything to add?"

  "Nak, sir. We have a good idea what the stape..."

  The supervisor cut him off curtly. "You both logged your reports?"

  "Yes sir." "Plus-plus."

  The supervisor keyed in a sequence. "Slib. I have just deleted your reports and the backup archive of them. You will not attempt to file another one."

  "Sir..."

  "Silence! As for this afternoon, nothing happened."

  "But..."

  "I said nothing happened!" The man half-rose. "There was no incident. There was no penetration. Nothing happened.

  "Now." The supervisor spoke as though around something both sour and bitter. "In recognition of the incident this afternoon that did not happen the two of you are to receive a special award in the form of paid vacation. You each have two weeks with Brilson Resorts, your choice of coasts. Signoras Allson and Reelin have both expressed an interest in accompanying you." This last he spoke through clenched teeth.

  Thoughts flashed visibly and very predictably across the men's faces. They exchanged glances and the second spoke.

  "Yes sir. Thank you sir. Nothing happened." Then, from the first, "When do we leave?"

  The supervisor watched his two best techs leave.

  "Good job."

  Mentally the supervisor termed his visitors Ice and Weasel. They gave him names but, by the nature of the IDs the words on them meant nothing. Ice had spoken.

  "I will be lodging a protest," said the supervisor, "The incident represents a major compromise of both structural security and data integrity. As of now we have a good idea of what happened but as time passes it will..."

  "It is of no consequence," said Ice, "My colleague knows far more than do you and about certain parameters of whose existence you are not even aware."

  "But we cannot trust our data! Those two..."

  "Could just as easily have been transferred," interrupted Ice, "to a place neither pleasant nor appealing. Through no fault of their own. If you wish to press this issue they will be."

  "I a
m not without my own resources. If anything you claim is false..."

  Ice sighed. "You personally will be the cause of much unpleasantness in my life. Very well. Take whatever action you deem appropriate. Do not, however, complain in the least when the consequence of it finds you."

  ***

  Robin paced her apartment, uncertain of what to do. She thought she had sufficient authority for her semi-legal equipment, but only thought.

  "Feces!" The word still felt good to say so she lit a strong 'stick and repeated it. Then paced some more.

  "No choice," she said, "Go with what's certain."

  With that she set about her secondary plan. She had all of her data and warez spooled or chipped. She securely purged her terminal. Though she hated to let it go she could acquire more of them easily and legally. She gathered the few things she'd take with her: her spools, several changes of clothes and plenty of hard, untraceable money. She minimally imaged the terminal and jacked it into the net. It had one last duty to perform and she knew it would do so splendidly. She eyed her apartment critically. It looked as though she'd return at any moment. Good enough.

  At a convenience store near the southern airport Robin bought a pack of drugsticks, a soda and a magazine advertising Brilson Equatorial. When she opened the 'sticks and took one out the man behind the counter grabbed a lighter and held it for her. She smiled, winked and made a kiss at him. He blushed bright red so she licked her lips at him just to drive home the point.

  Outside the store but still within the clerk's sight she commed her apartment. The terminal answered and presented a minimal menu. She entered the appropriate codes for the delay, the module sequence and the final hard purge. Then she waved at the clerk again and blew him a kiss.

  ***

  "Trust me," said Ferrel, "She'll be back. Not too soon, though. I hope."

  Micah nodded but didn't turn his attention from covering Ferrel's back. Within thirty seconds the door popped open.

  "Very impressive," said Ferrel, examining the place, "Our girl's learning."

  "Or showing," said Micah, "No one gave us the vanish that well since training."

  "All truth and no blather," agreed Ferrel.