by L. Fergus
“Yes, Mister Gjord. I will have the appropriate offices contact you.”
“Thank you, General. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, Mister Gjord. That is all,” Galina said, standing up. “Thank you for your time.”
“My pleasure, General.” Sven walked her to the door. Once she was gone, Sven returned to his desk.
“What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were glitching,” he typed into the command line.
“I was. I fixed the problem.” A winking face appeared on the screen.
“How does a simple program like you fix itself?”
“I’m hardly simple. I do apologize for the surprise. I didn’t expect Galina to take over the entire facility.”
“Do you know how many of my employees you have put in danger?”
“A hundred and ninety-three. They will be interviewed, and all will pass any test on their knowledge of the information I planted in Rio. I’m sorry I had to do this, but I had to protect Lina.”
“Did you give them all the information on Lina’s nanites?”
“No. It’s mostly accurate, with a few hidden mistakes that will keep the Bureau busy and off Lina. I’m sorry, but she is my baby. I hope you understand.”
Sven sighed. “I do. I’ll make sure their families are taken care of. Three things. Stay out of my office. I want to know how you got into my office—and warn me next time you pull a stunt like planting information in one of my facilities.”
“Galina found the information on Lina quicker than I intended. If I can’t have access to you, how can I warn you?”
Sven grunted. “I am beginning to understand why parents dislike the partners their kids bring home.”
A smiley face appeared on the screen.
“That doesn’t mean I approve of you and Jane or what you do.”
“I don’t expect you to. If you did, Jane would not be the person she is. I just asked that you accept us.”
“We’ll see. Now, get out. I’ve got work to do.”
“Goodbye, Dad.” The terminal closed on its own.
Sven sat at home, alone, eating and watching the financial news. An incoming call flashed at the bottom of the screen with the picture of his personal accountant. Putting down his takeout, he answered the call.
“Jack, I haven’t heard from you in a while. How are you?” Sven asked the older gray-haired man with small round glasses.
“Fine, sir. I went to Earth for a few weeks on vacation to tour the northern European golf courses. Spectacular place.”
“I remember. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Europe. I’ll bet you’ve subtracted five points from your handicap.”
Jack laughed. “Just two. I was reviewing your personal spending accounts and found some irregular purchases.”
“What has Jane bought now?”
“It’s not Jane. A few weeks ago Jane’s new personal assistant contacted me to set up an account for a friend of hers who was having financial difficulty.”
“Ok,” Sven said puzzled. Why does Athena need a personal account?
“What caught my attention was where the purchases were made.”
“Where?” Sven said, concerned.
“On Angelica Station.”
“Where the hell is that?”
“I took the liberty of looking it up. It’s a small station, above the ocean moon GX-30CB, about ten light-years away. It’s home to an ultra-exclusive resort city that’s themed around medieval European culture.”
“I know Jane hasn’t been out there and doesn’t have any friends there. What’s the name on the account?”
“Kita is all she had me list.”
The blood in Sven’s veins went cold.
“Should I alert the fraud investigation unit, sir?”
Sven blinked in shock. Where is that damn AI?
“I haven’t left Neptune. I promise,” scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
“No. Ah, can you send me a list of the charges? I’ll want to go over them with Jane before I do anything.”
“Of course, sir. Let me know what you wish to do.”
“Thanks, Jack. It should be an interesting story.”
“I’m sure it will be. It is always interesting to hear the stories these kids have to tell.”
Sven sighed tiredly. “Isn’t that the truth?”
“Have a good evening, sir. You look like you need a break.”
Sven laughed. “You know me, Jack. No rest for the wicked.”
“You? Really?” scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
“Your father used to say the same thing and I will tell you what I told him…”
Sven smiled. “I know. You can’t take it with you, so you might as well enjoy it.”
“It’s good advice, sir.”
“I’m a god. I can,” blinked around the screen.
“Thanks, Jack. Good night.”
Sven hit the button for his secretary on his Arcom.
“Sorry to call you at home, Kristi. I just have a quick question: Have we heard anything about Triton?...No? Ok, thanks…I’ll find the number. Have a good night.”
Sven scanned the directory and found the number for the head of the Near Station Object Detection Team. The team had been searching for Sarin’s whereabouts since she stormed out of his office. A tired-looking man, trying not to look irritated, answered the call. Behind him, Sven saw a large group of people sitting and typing at computers.
“Doctor Merk?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
“Sven Gjord.”
“What do you want?”
“I put in a request for you to watch Triton for anything unusual. I want to know if you found anything.”
“If we’d found anything I’d have told your secretary. Is there anything else?”
“No, Doctor. That’s all.”
The other man cut the feed without another word.
“That...is a man in need of a golfing trip to northern Europe,” scrolled across the screen.
Sven chuckled and nodded in agreement. “So, what do we do?” he asked the screen. He received no response. “You, speechless? That’s a first.”
“I don’t have an answer for everything. I used to.”
“I guess all we can do is wait for her to come home,” Sven grumbled as he returned to his news and cold takeout.
A call came in. Sven raised an eyebrow. The caller was Doctor Merk. He answered it, but instead of the gruff doctor, a young looking kid, maybe in his late forties, appeared.
“Mister Gjord?” he asked in a quiet, nervous voice.
“Yes, who are you?”
“Daniel Rhodes, sir. I know you’ve requested we look for changes in Triton, and I have some. Doctor Merk said it was nothing, just a computational error, but these aren’t errors. Here, I can show you.”
He held up a screen and flipped through the images. “Did you see them?”
“What am I looking for?”
“Here, ah, sir,” Daniel fumbled with the screen and zoomed in.
There was indeed a brief change, hidden across two different frames of video.
“She’s destroying things, and fixing them,” appeared on the screen.
“Daniel?” Sven called.
“Yes, sir?”
“How much more of this do you have?”
“A dozen, sir.”
“Listen to me carefully. I want you to download everything you have onto a protected drive. Then, I want you to destroy all other originals and copies. You’re not to talk to anyone or say anything. I want you to get on the next shuttle for Gjord Tower. Security will be expecting you and will take you directly to my office. You’re going to be signing a nondisclosure agreement, along with some other paperwork, and then you’re to show me everything on the drive you have. From this point forward, you work for me. Understand?”
“I…ah…My stuff and fish…I can’t…”
“I have people for that. I can send th
e best aquatic specialists to move the fish. I need you here in an hour. You think you can do that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I’ll see you in an hour.”
Sven ended the call, and called his secretary at her home, again. “Sorry, Kristi. One more question. Where do you keep the standard high-security clearance contracts and the rest of the contract paperwork?…You don’t have to come in. I can do it…It can’t be that complicated…Well, ok. I don’t want to ruin your filing system…I’m headed there as soon as I get off the phone with you. The new employee should arrive in an hour. Tell Ray, I’m sorry…He’ll accept Seahorse tickets? Get him whatever he wants and whatever you want…All right. I’ll see you in an hour.”
After hanging up, he called to have his car brought around. He rushed upstairs to find something business casual. As he tied his tie, a message appeared on the bottom of the mirror.
“Can I come?”
Sven raised an eyebrow. “I suppose…if you behave,” he muttered. “I will send you the code when I get to the office.”
“I will. Thank you.”
“I suppose no one would ever believe me if I told them.”
“I know lots of people.”
“I’m sure you do,” said Sven as he went downstairs to meet his car.
Sven read the first file containing information on the takeover of the Rio facility he’d requested, during the car ride over from his villa to his office. So far, he just had the government’s version, which was very light on facts and heavy on rhetoric. He closed the screen after hearing a soft knock on the door.
“Come in, Kristi.”
His secretary entered, looking like she was dressed for a formal day at the office. Behind her, a man wearing jeans, sneakers, and a dirty hoodie followed, clutching a bag to his chest.
“Kristi, this isn’t a Monday morning during investors’ week,” Sven said, surprised. “But, you do look splendid.”
“I am your personal representative and must represent your interests at all times,” said Kristi.
Sven nodded. He’d had this argument a hundred times before with her. “And you are Daniel?”
“Yes…yes, sir.”
Sven stood and walked around his desk. “Nice to meet you, Daniel.” He offered his hand. Daniel looked at it briefly as if confused, then shook it limply.
“Nice to meet you, too, ah, sir,” he said timidly.
“I hope you found our hiring package to your liking?”
“Yes, sir. About my fish…”
Sven smiled. “They will be well taken care of. I’ll get you a bigger tank if you want.”
“No, thank you. The tank I custom-built myself. I left detailed instructions on how to take it apart if I can’t be there to do it myself.”
“That must be some tank.”
“I live inside it…I…I mean, it covers all my walls, floor, and ceiling.”
Sven raised an eyebrow. “So, you’ll need a custom apartment?”
“Just one larger than eight feet cubed.”
“I promise you’ll have an apartment bigger than that. I’ll see what I can do about getting you there to oversee its removal.”
“Thank you,” Daniel said quietly.
“So, what do you have for me?”
Daniel held up the bag.
Sven chuckled. “I hope more than a bag.”
Daniel opened it and pulled out a secure file server. “Do you have a secure link?”
“Yes. Why don’t you plug it into the big screen?”
“No. The windows. They can see in.”
“Those windows are mirrored. No one can see.”
Daniel shook his head. “They can still detect the trace radiation through those mirrors. Get them shielded.”
Sven nodded. Maybe that’s how the Political Bureau acquired some of its information. They were just simply looking over his shoulder. He turned the screen around on his desk. “How’s that?”
“That will work,” Daniel said as he connected the server. The screen blinked, and a display of dancing rabbits and hamsters appeared. He pulled a projection keyboard from his bag and tapped out a sequence. The screen filled with pictures of Triton’s surface, while the rabbits and hamsters minimized to dance in a corner.
“Ok, Mister Gjord, this is the image I showed you earlier.”
Sven noted Daniel’s change in body language, speech, and confidence when he spoke. Sven knew the type. He employed a large number, but only a few to this degree.
“And this is the photo of the area adjacent, each containing half a shadow image. When I put the images together, you get a picture of the same landscape, but vastly altered. You can see the same in the rest.” He cycled through a dozen pairs.
“Can you zoom in?” said Sven.
“I have, but I haven’t found anything.”
“For my sake.”
Daniel zoomed in on the pictures and moved around the image, showing there was nothing to see.
A message scrolled across the bottom of the screen, “She’s pissed and is taking it out on the moon and then rewinding time to fix it.”
Daniel looked at Sven. “I thought you said this link was secure.”
“It is. Don’t worry about that. It’s just a gag gift from a friend of mine. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for weeks.”
“Ha-ha, you wish,” scrolled past.
“This is a good first step,” Sven said ignoring Kita’s antics, “but not conclusive evidence. Do you think you can get better resolution images?”
“Of course, with better equipment. I wrote the detection program.”
“And you brought the source code with you?”
Daniel nodded.
“Don’t waste your time,” scrolled across the screen. The images on the screen vanished. New images, showing a shadowy figure with wings appeared. Circles appeared around the figures. “Who does that look like, Dad?” flashed at the bottom of the screen.
“Do you want me to call a tech, sir?” said Kristi.
“No, don’t bother. If we kill it, it will only come back stronger.”
“You got that right,” appeared on the screen.
“What happened to my images?” Daniel said in a panic.
“I ran them through a couple of noise and sharpening filters. Using a simple algorithm, I was able to increase the definition. And, it helps to know who I’m looking for. Jane doesn’t have a shape you can forget.”
“Kita, that’s enough. Where are the images?” Sven demanded.
“In the trash.”
“Kita, what did I tell you about—”
“I didn’t delete them if that’s what he’s worried about. Mine are better. I do offer congratulations to Daniel. It’s not every day you capture images of a god.”
“Are you sure this is a…a prank?” said Daniel.
“I hope you’re paying them well or plan on killing them soon,” wrote Kita.
Sven sighed. “Someday, Daniel, when you have children, you will understand what it is like to have someone work so hard to make your life so miserable.”
A big smiley face appeared on the screen.
“I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Yes, you were,” Kita retorted. “You just don’t want to admit that I’m your daughter-in-law now.”
“Daniel, can you send a secure, untraceable message to the surface of Triton?”
“Yes, if I had the right equipment. Why?”
A message filled the screen, “To say, ‘Jane, I’m sorry for being closed-minded during this time of transition. I understand coming home is hard for you and I deeply apologize for not accepting you and your partner as the strong, independent, and beautiful Angels that you are. I hope you will forgive me, and please come home. Love, Dad.’ I usually started the apologies on my knees. But, you know, don’t take my word for it. I’m just the one who’s been living with her for ten thousand years.”
“Kita, if you’re not going to be helpful, then go away,” S
ven ordered.
“I just gave you the damn answer. You think Jane was putting on a show when I arrived? I saw the way her eyes lit up when I entered the room. I saw the excitement on her face and heard the joy in her voice. You can’t fake that. I would think as her father who cares for her you would know when she’s happy and when she’s pretending. You know it was the first time she’s been happy since her return to this metal donut. Why deny her happiness? No one asked you to like what we do. No one said you had to live with it. We said we’d leave when I arrived. If you didn’t want to talk to her, she’d understand, but she’d be hurt. Go ahead and mess around with your scientist, get better pictures, send a bizarre message, think it over, be my guest. But, I know my girl, I know when she’s upset, and I hate not being able to fix the situation. Instead, I’ve got to rely on you and this pencil neck to do it for me. And, just like men, you have to do it the bloody damn hard way.” Kita added, “DOOR SLAM,” to the end of her tirade.
Sven sighed sadly. “I can see why they go well together. None of what you read or saw here tonight leaves this room.”
“Of course, sir,” Kristi said, trying to hide her amused smile.
“Yes, sir. But what was going on there?” said Daniel.
“The less you know, the better,” said Sven. “Give me the list of equipment you’ll need to send the message, as soon as possible.”
Daniel listed off a dozen things. “And a clear line of sight to Triton.”
“Can you write that down?” said Sven.
“I have it, sir,” said Kristi.
“Oh, splendid.”
“I will put the formal request in immediately, Mister Gjord. Should I file the requisition under our Monitoring program?”
“Sure, if they can’t use it, transfer it to someone who can.”
Kristi tapped on her Arcom. “All items, but one, are in stock in our warehouses or currently in use at a lab here on the station. This missing item can be purchased locally. I can have everything delivered to our monitoring station tomorrow morning before ten. The items can be discreetly moved to any location you want after that.”
Daniel looked dizzy when she finished, but years of working with Kristi had left Sven unfazed by her efficiency.
“Excellent. Daniel, I’ll provide you with a list of my secure facilities. One of them should work for you.”