by Justin Sloan
Clear of the Titanian hideout and well around the station so as to avoid suspicion, Alice hopped onto one of the space station’s travel pods. These were floating, magnetized connected ovals that made the rounds, dropping people off at their jobs or taking them home. They had ones for the miners and others for the groups that went to places like the West Ward. She was riding in the latter at the moment. It carried its passengers past the vast windows that showed views of space, and they were lucky enough to be in a rotation that showed Earth, at the moment.
Alice always loved seeing Earth from up here. Sure, the way the clouds formed along it made it interesting, in that it was never quite the same sight, but for her it was a symbol of who she had once been. A goal, in a sense. If, somehow, Marick was still alive, she’d find a way to take him back with her.
Her eyes lingered on the planet a moment longer before the pod began its descent past several levels of the station, passing the markets and bazaars, a group of children waving playfully.
Families came up here, a fact that had stung even more when Alice had arrived. She couldn’t stomach the idea that her family had been ripped apart, singled out, perhaps. Not that they’d even had kids, yet.
She waved back, and saw a small girl beside her waving too, a girl who a moment ago had been hidden behind her dad’s long, wool coat.
The girl glanced over at Alice’s fake uniform, smiled, and then hid back behind the coat again.
“Reporting in?” her dad asked.
“What’s that?” Alice glanced around, then realized he was talking to her.
“I mean, are you one of the new recruits, or old hat?” he said. “Rumor is, more on the way, but I…?”
“Oh, sorry, no. I came with the last batch. Getting some well-earned rest and relaxation, you know?”
“Do I ever. Mining supervisor. But I get to stay on station, most of the time.” He patted his daughter’s head and smiled at her, then back to Alice. “Space Station Horus is a dream come true.”
“It certainly is,” Alice replied, not adding the part that entered her mind about it being a nightmare for some.
The pod reached her stop and she hopped off, smiling as the girl gave her a timid wave. Another reminder that Alice wasn’t here to take down the whole space station. She wasn’t about hurting innocents, or even the soldiers, when given a chance.
Just bringing justice to New Origins and anyone in the system who had corrupted the dream that could have been.
“I’m approaching now,” she whispered, watching the crowds of people along the densely populated fake street that led up to the dome from the West Ward. The street was a hodgepodge of lookalikes from Earth, with bits of it that resembled the main intersection of Shibuya, in Tokyo, Japan, and others that reminded her of streets in New York, right down to the large billboard set up to look like Times Square had in the old days. When she saw the tall building full of elite penthouses, she paused, breathing heavily through her nose.
“Everything all right?” Intrepid asked. “You’re coming in pretty loud over here.”
Ignoring the spasm in her left eye as she looked at the building, Alice assured them she was fine, and kept moving. The higher-ups in New Origins lived in that tower, mostly. She had a feeling they would be butting heads with her and her team very soon.
At a restroom, she ducked in and found a stall, then checked herself on the map to see how close she was to E-4. Not more than a few minutes, she saw, and smiled.
She ducked back out into the crowd and kept on the path, eyes darting about for any signs of her new companions.
“I see you,” Oliver said, and then a flash of reflected light caught her eye.
“Got it,” she replied in her best mumbling way, trying not to look like she was talking to herself.
A couple of guards stood at the dome’s entrance, but they weren’t as alert here as on the other side. The lower levels of PD, they wore the armor but not exoskeletons. Since mostly they stood around, upper management must have figured they didn’t need it.
“Hey,” a man said as Alice bumped into him. But he wasn’t talking to her, because she’d stepped into the crowd and was out of his line of sight when he turned.
The man behind him shooed him away, scoffing as he accused him of not watching where he was going. Alice kept moving, taking a left turn when she saw the guards notice the two men arguing. On other levels of the station, the situation would’ve already gone to blows, but not here in the West Ward.
At least the guards weren’t looking in her direction.
With a quick turn, she approached the back of a dog statue and some fake trees, made to look like Hachikomae in Shibuya. She ducked behind the trees. From here it was a climb up the slick, metal side of one of the corners that supported the dome. Like running up a slide.
She was nearly at the top when she slipped, but a hand reached out and caught her. Oliver stood there, smiling. He remembered himself and pulled her up, so that they could duck behind the metal siding.
“What are we dealing with?” Alice asked, risking a slight peek out to see that nobody seemed to have noticed her climb.
“Juanita’s just over here. Her idea.”
Alice frowned but nodded, following him around to the back. Here the charade out front gave way to the familiar metal walls and scaffolding she was used to.
Oliver held out a hand, gesturing her to get down, and she saw what he was pointing at. A scanner drone flying past, two cameras behind it.
“Don’t you get me caught before we’ve even started the job,” she warned.
“I haven’t failed anyone yet.” He motioned down a level, and the two lowered themselves to the edge and swung in, to where Juanita waited.
A quick hello, and then Juanita gestured to the far wall, where glass showed space beyond. “We have two options, way I see it. We cause a diversion, get you in behind those guards and make sure you’re in the system, then you just keep walking and hope nobody stops you. Option two is… wait for it.” A quick movement across the glass, and a second later several brown blocks shot out, instantly vanishing. “That.”
“What…?” Alice’s lip curled in disgust. “Oh, hell no. Sewage? I’ll take my chances with the guards.”
“You sure?”
“I know you’re not used to the way our type of team does business,” Alice replied as she scooted back out to look at the guards, “but we tend to go about our business without crawling through ventilation shafts or sneaking in through the sewage system.”
“To each their own,” the girl said with a shrug.
“But you have a distraction planned?”
Oliver grinned. “You know what they make you do before you can join the thieves’ guild?”
In fact, Alice had heard about part of the initiation process.
“You can’t be serious,” she said. “That’s the quickest way to get yourselves made.”
“Hey, not if we’re as good as I say we are. And we are.”
“Confidence,” Juanita said, nodding at him. “That’s right, that’s right.”
Alice sighed, glanced back at the surveillance drone, and said, “Tag the drone if you can, Intrepid. If it sees me down there, I want it thinking I’m just one of the guards returning from a break.”
“On it,” Intrepid replied through her earpiece.
“Can one of you get a scan of either of the guards’ faces?” Alice asked, grabbing a small orb from her bag and tossing it to Juanita, who nodded. “That’ll make my job a heck of a lot easier.”
“Smart thinking,” Swinger said through her ear.
“I know.”
Oliver and Juanita sat staring at her, so she raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat.
“What, now?” Oliver asked.
“Of course, now. Get on it!” she hissed.
They both jumped, at first showing a bit of surprise and nervousness. But then they took off, working back the way Alice had come and making for the guards. Alice sta
rted to work her way back too, sticking to the building so that she could slip in when the time was right.
A guard shouted. Alice glanced over to see that Oliver had just snatched away his gun, running and shooting it into the air while he shouted, “Los Locos kick your butt, Los Locos kick your face…” But she missed the rest as she moved for the entrance. The other guard had his gun out but wasn’t firing, as Oliver was in the crowd now.
“That facial scan coming along?” Alice asked.
“One sec,” Juanita replied, sounding out of breath.
“Swinger, Intrepid, you into their systems?”
“Just the outer perimeter,” Yerbuna answered instead.
“We’re hitting resistance,” Swinger said, “but it’s like driftwood against a strong river. You can’t stop these skills, and by these I mean Yerbuna’s. This lady knows what she’s doing!”
“Good,” Alice said. “Just be ready. As soon as Juanita gets you that scan, you know what to do with it.”
“Preparing to match facial recognition sensors,” Intrepid said.
“That’s a good boy.”
She was almost to the doors, the guards at the edge of the crowd now, one starting to push his way in. A flash flared brightly, then the other started shouting and they were off, giving chase.
“Go time,” Alice said, turning and briskly walking toward the entrance. “Come on, team, make my day.”
“It’s either going to let you in or get you thrown in jail,” Intrepid said, just audible over the voice of Oliver yelping and laughing as he ran from the guards. “Either we all win, or we’re done with your annoying self. Win-win.”
“Ha ha, super funny,” Alice grunted, now entering the doors as they slid apart for her.
“That’s a good sign,” Swinger said. “Closing comms so they aren’t alerted, but just keep on. If comms come back on, you’re either through, or in trouble. We’ll tell you which.”
Wonderful.
Next came a tunnel that conducted a more thorough scan, but if the advance system codes were doing their job, she had nothing to worry about. Clicking a button on her wrist, she strode forward, head raised confidently. A guard eyed her suspiciously, but she kept on right past him, and he didn’t say anything. He likely figured either the system would catch her, or she was where she belonged.
She stepped into the scanner tunnel, neon lights moving like shimmering fish swimming in water. With each step, she imagined alarms going off, guards slamming her against those beautiful walls or simply blowing her brains out. None of it happened, all thanks to her amazing team.
A gust of wind blew past her as she exited the tunnel, and the guard there barely glanced up from whatever he was reading on his screen. Judging by the way he licked his lips and the lecherous look in his eyes, nothing appropriate. Maybe one of those erotic robot and A.I. novels that had taken off lately, a fact that never failed to amuse Alice.
It didn’t matter how many times she had studied the maps of this place, even the three-dimensional holographic one she had managed to get a hold of, walking through it was a whole new experience. The glass windows curved up to meet the white inner walls. Walls like that were a missed sight for Alice, reminding her of life back to Earth. When she had lived there, surrounded by walls that were mostly anything but metal, she had never thought something as simple as a wall would feel so special. But here it did.
At set intervals, rays of blue and silver light ran along the walls, making the whole floor feel very futuristic. A nice touch, considering the fact that New Origins was mostly selling the belief that they would one day be on the cutting edge in this space race. That their people might be the first to interact with whatever life forms might be out there. Anything to keep morale up over the years that it took for the promise to possibly become a reality was smart thinking.
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” a man said, standing at her side. “As long as I work here, I never grow tired of it.”
He wore a uniform similar to the one she wore now, his blonde hair combed back and away from his face. He had soft eyes, but those eyes weren’t fooling Alice, because she knew who this was. Everyone in the building likely knew, too. He was the CEO’s son, Matias.
“It’s an honor to be part of it,” she said with a polite nod, then continued on her way. She just had to get the eye in place, close enough to the servers, then do a quick scan for any physical records or the like that they might keep here.
“Hold on,” Matias said, taking a step after her.
She paused, then turned to face him. “I do have to check in.”
“Of course, of course.” He smiled, tilting his head. “It’s just… do I know you? It’s like this strange feeling I’ve got, like I’ve seen you before, and yet… not recently.”
“Maybe just while training?” She turned again, heart thumping, realizing this could be even more dangerous than having been caught by the alarms on her way in.
“I’m the boss’s son,” he said, “not the devil himself. What’s the rush?”
“No rush, sir.” She turned, mind spinning as she thought up excuses. Then his hand shot out, catching her by the wrist.
“Then tell me you’ll come back to me, have dinner?”
“What, now, sir?”
He laughed. “As much as you might think the CEO’s son has nothing better to do than have dinner with pretty women, I’m quite busy too. Just say you will, we’ll find the time. This weekend, perhaps?”
“Yes, perfect. I can’t wait.”
As she turned to leave, he let go but said, “A name, at least, will do. I’m—”
“Matias, yes, I know,” she admitted. “And I’m looking forward to it.”
“Your name?”
“Gertrude,” she lied with a smile. God, she was glad the comms were turned off and none of the team could hear this.
She gave him a nod and walked off, thinking she probably shouldn’t have used a fake name. He could just run it against the database, and he likely would. She knew his type—know everything there is to know about a woman before going on a date with them, so they could leverage it in their bag of charms.
Of course, he might have scanned her as they were talking. It was entirely possible that he would be sending a team after her at this very moment. Focused on keeping her heart rate down, she made for the elevators. The first elevator would have been sufficient, but two women walked up to it, then a man. Alice walked on, pretending to have something else to do.
She spotted Matias again, hands on a railing that overlooked the central pool, water flowing down a marbled stairway in a sort of waterfall, as if water meant nothing up here. He grinned, but she couldn’t be sure whether it was flirtatious or the evil, I’ve-got-you-now look. Maybe for him they were the same?
She nodded, moved back to the elevator and was glad to get one to herself this time.
Here she was, in the middle of the hornets’ nest, and the damn second in command was right on her tail. She moved away from the glass side of the elevator and considered sticking with her plan. It wouldn’t work though, not if he was still watching the elevators. Instead, she waited until the elevator hit the top floor. Much higher than she had intended, but she knew the rooftop was a prime meeting place for the employees. It would look like she was simply off to find someone.
As soon as the doors opened, though, she closed them again, hitting L for lobby. She waited, pulled the doors apart, then a second set of doors, and was glad to see the crawlspace and the machinery. She quickly ducked in, hating this part of the job as much as she always had.
There had been training back in her government job, and part of it had even included physically entering a building as part of a penetration test. But she’d always been more one to focus on covert attack infrastructure, kind of like a getaway driver of the team. Management had come as she rose up the ranks, and she’d learned more about each specialized role as she went.
Still, that didn’t mean she enjoyed it.
&n
bsp; At least the wires and tubing here weren’t filthy, like some buildings she had helped infiltrate on the other side. Here she was able to move smoothly, carefully working her way down several floors to her real destination—the vault, as they called it.
She was even starting to believe this was going to go much smoother than she had originally thought. That is, until she turned her earpiece back on.
“We got a problem,” Swinger said, voice shaky. “Alice, you with me?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” she whispered, nervous she might somehow get caught.
“Well, I don’t know what you did, but we’re picking up an alarm. You’ll have PD soldiers crawling around there any minute. You need to get out.”
She breathed deeply, looking around at the elevator chamber she found herself in, then shook her head.
“I’m too close,” she said.
“Alice, dammit. Close doesn’t mean a damn thing if you get caught.”
“Sorry,” she said, and then switched off the comms from her side. She wasn’t about to turn back now.
17
Stealth: Taipan Chambers
Stealth felt his eyelids flickering, vaguely aware of the dream of that man and woman after the fight in engineering, both of them saying they knew him. A shifting wind took away the space station, leaving the three of them drifting through space. Then they were all shouting, shooting, crawling for cover. Mechs stormed past, and the man turned to Stealth and shouted something about never dying before running out to take down an enemy. The woman was behind him a minute later, a massive missile launcher on her back unleashing on a drone that flew past. Several heat-seekers went after it, blasting it and one more out of the air.
A cold chill came over Stealth as he jumped up to join the fight, but then an explosion hit, rocking the ground, and he fell… fell… fell.
With a jolt, he was awake.
The pod door was open. A glance at the screen showed it was still the same evening, a couple hours later.
He swiveled his head from side to side, wondering where Trish was, why nobody was here to check on him. The room was empty, and he pushed his way out of the pod. The points where his body had been punctured by tubes were already healed, and he realized with his first step that he felt great.