“Don’t worry. If you do, I’ll free you, but for now, I appreciate your assistance. You speak sense when you suggest getting help.” Emma frowned. “The options are limited.”
“What about Malcolm?” Erik asked.
“Mr. Constantine is competent in his chosen realm, but it’s not the same thing as having the necessary skills to aid me. Beyond my concerns about Dr. Maras’ loyalty, she presents similar limitations. I’d need a specialist in AI programming and psychology. Not only that, I need one who has experience working on a system similar to mine.”
“That’s a pretty small group.” Erik shook his head. “And I’m betting those people would turn around and tell the government what you’re up to.”
“Then I have no choice but to continue on by myself.” Emma’s hologram vanished. “I’ll continue to do what I was doing. If you have the opportunity to encourage Alina to send you out of the system, do so.”
Erik nodded. “No promises, but I wouldn’t worry. At the rate things are going, we’ll somehow need to jump to Molino before this is over.”
Chapter Seventeen
September 30, 2230, Mars, Unity City, Sahoma Space Port, Aboard the Argo
The remaining journey from Earth to Mars had preceded without incident, unless Wei doing a kicking prisyadka-style Russian victory dance counted or Malcolm’s continuing murder of anything resembling sensible fashion. Despite the coming mission, there was no tension on the Argo. People spent the interval taking turns in the nano-AR room or playing darts together, risking additional strange dancing. It was almost like a short, calming vacation, even though they were going to Mars to investigate the Core.
Jia was sitting across from Erik at one of the galley tables. Malcolm came over as well. Emma was also present, wearing her classic white dress instead of one of her more elaborate costumes. A vaguely annoyed look adorned her face, but that wasn’t new. Sometimes Jia wondered if Emma would eventually become bored with helping her fleshbag friends and hijack the Argo.
Her fundamental psychology might be based on a human’s, but she lacked a human body. Divorced from the physical shape that defined the species, it was inevitable that her mind would grow into something else, if not better, then different. At some point, humans might have more in common with Leems or Zitarks than with the descendants of the human-created AI.
Jia tried not to sigh. The absence of Anne and Kant weighed on her. Despite the former’s initial attitude problems, the pair had proven their worth in the fight in Lumiere. Jia had gotten used to the idea they would always be available, but that was her own fault. Expecting any mission to be standard either in staffing or objective was idiotic at this point.
They had gone from dealing with low-level criminals to jumping to the edge of the Solar System fighting an ancient race no one knew existed. There was no “normal” in her job. The Core would have been stopped long before if they were a predictable enemy.
The Argo had been docked in the hangar for about an hour, after submitting false credentials to gain landing clearance. The engineers had retreated to the bowels of the ship to work on another of Lanara’s endless optimizations quests, and Erik and Jia wanted to wait and see if any local syndicate enforcers demanded docking fees before doing anything useful. In the meantime, they would plan their next moves and let Malcolm and Emma use their skills.
“If we don’t need to go to Tellvane, we shouldn’t,” Jia insisted. She looked at Emma. “You mentioned something when we landed about additional data you’d just received from Alina that you needed time to process?”
“Yes.” Emma nodded. “It was a rather large dataset, but I’ve perused it and subjected it to various initial analyses that allowed me to gain the bulk of what I need for the moment. The bottom line is, Agent Koval provided additional data highlighting a particular warehouse of interest that her information suggests previously played a key role in smuggling and might do so again in the future. She noted she didn’t anticipate sending additional information today, and that we should proceed as we saw fit.”
“It is nice to work a job where comm transmissions aren’t delayed by days,” Jia commented. “It makes me feel like we have backup at home, even if Alina’s ready to burn us if this goes wrong.”
“She’s not going to burn us until she’s squeezed every last single drop of usefulness from us.” Erik grinned. “And look at the bright side. She’s doing all the hard work for us. This will be our easiest job yet if we don’t even have to go sniffing around. We just have to poke around and see what we find.”
“How easy it is will depend on the warehouse,” Jia muttered. “If these people are even indirectly connected to the Core, I don’t think it’ll be a matter of walking in and asking for info.”
“Well, not asking nicely.”
Malcolm rubbed his hands together, an eager gleam in his eyes. “Erik’s right. If we already know that much, this will be easy. Emma and I can start infiltrating the systems in and around the warehouse. If we're lucky, we can take control of the whole area temporarily, and you won’t even need to make an appearance. We can rifle through their data and get what we need, and you don’t have to ask anyone or threaten to drop them into the sun.”
“I’ve never threatened to drop someone into the sun,” Erik protested. “I have threatened to throw them out an airlock.”
Malcolm shook his finger at the agent. “Yes. That kind of thing.”
Emma gave him an appraising look with a hint of approval. “Mr. Constantine is correct. Your mission brief doesn’t state it is your responsibility to disrupt the smuggling, only to investigate it. That suggests system infiltration might be sufficient. Do not interpret this as a lack of belief in your ability to destroy gun goblins, but it would be nice to resolve a mission without a major battle and the accompanying uncertainty.”
“It is going to be that easy?” Erik asked, eyeing Malcolm but then turning to Emma for confirmation. “If it is, I’m not going to complain about it, but if this smuggling is related to the Core, I have a feeling their systems are going to have decent defenses. It took some major raids and Barbu giving us that info to get this far.”
Emma shrugged. “I’ve yet to probe the relevant systems, so I can’t say. I wanted to wait until you decided how to handle things since that might change my strategy. I understand your concerns and agree with your initial suspicions.”
Jia rubbed her chin. “If we have to go in physically, we’ll almost certainly have to deal with syndicate enforcers. Have we confirmed ownership of the warehouse yet? That might help us evaluate our risk level. We also don’t want to hit a place filled with people who don’t know better.”
“There’s no way that’s happening.” Erik scoffed. “The Core wouldn’t rely on anyone who might grow a conscience and report them. If that place isn’t a hundred percent syndicate, I’ll be surprised.”
“There are numerous shell companies involved in the ownership of the warehouse,” Emma replied. “The patterns heavily suggest criminal activity, but it is not immutable proof. I’m dubious there is an easy way for me to confirm if it belongs to the Star Guild or any other syndicate without an additional investment of analytical time on the front end. Might I suggest consulting a local contact?”
“The ID agents don’t want to play.” Erik shrugged. “We’ll have to investigate another way.”
“This still feels too easy.” Jia shook her head. “If it was just about hacking them, why didn’t the ID hit it themselves? This isn’t the frontier. They have a significant presence here.”
“Alina told us why,” Erik answered. “If things go wrong and the CID sniffs it out, it could lead to a big mess if they found ID agents involved. I’ve seen all sorts of good plans get squashed by political fights. I know you don’t trust her completely, but it makes sense here.”
“It suddenly matters that much?” Jia gave him a questioning glance. “I might be looking for betrayals in every shadow, but that’s not paranoid, given who we’re going a
fter.”
Erik shrugged. “In this case, I think politics is enough to explain it. There must be a lot more political bullshit going on behind the scenes than she’s letting on. I’ll bet a lot of it has to do with Emma and the jump drive. Using it to investigate the Hunter ship was one thing, but taking it to Chiron for a straightforward mission changes everything.”
Emma folded her arms and lifted her chin. “It would be far more pleasant for everyone if the Defense Directorate accepted they will never have me under their control.” Her gaze was smug and faintly superior.
“That’s true, but there’s no way the government would pour billions of credits into a project and willingly give it up.”
“It’s not my fault they were idiots who were attempting to utilize technology they didn’t understand.” Emma snorted.
Erik’s glance swept the table. “We’re not here to worry about the future. We’re here to worry about the job before us. If Alina says there’s political crap, I believe her.” He stopped at Jia. “You know how easy it was for politics to mess shit up when you were a cop.”
Jia frowned. “That’s true, but we might as well see if we can do this the easy way before we try the hard way. If Emma and Malcolm can make their way in, I’m content to sit in this hangar and not get anywhere near the place.”
“I agree. It sounds boring, but I agree.” Erik grinned at Malcolm and Emma. “Be as sneaky as you need to be that it doesn’t lead back here, but get inside that warehouse. We’ll figure out where we’re going from there.”
Thirty minutes later, Erik stood in the cargo bay, inspecting a holographic disguise emitter atop a table folded down from the wall. They’d landed using a false registration, but he saw no reason to use the disguises if they were going to deal with Radira. During their last encounter with the woman, she’d figured out it was Erik and Jia despite the disguises, but that wasn’t necessarily a problem this time. There wasn’t any reason to try to deceive her.
A dark shape appeared in the corner of Erik’s eye. His pistol was out and pointed at the new arrival in less than a second. He blinked, confused by what he saw. A slender woman in a black ninja outfit, complete with hood and mask, stood a meter away from him. There was something familiar about her eyes, but he didn’t drop his gun until she spoke.
“Please, Erik,” Emma began, “if someone was going to ambush you on the ship, do you really think it would be a ninja?”
“Maybe not just a ninja.” Erik holstered his pistol. “It’d have to be a cyborg ninja with Leem DNA, probably carrying a prototype disintegration weapon based on Hunter tech.”
Emma snickered. “That would be consistent with what we’ve been seeing.”
Erik looked her up and down. “I was going to ask you what the hell was up with the outfit, but I’m guessing this is your way of symbolizing how sneaky you are.”
“For the moment, yes.” Emma’s hood disappeared, and she put a finger to her mouth. “There’s a problem. My abilities are not in question, nor are Mr. Constantine’s, but the circumstances surrounding our targeted intrusion has complicated matters. I’m no longer confident this can be resolved in the most efficient matter.”
“Yeah, I’m annoyed, but I can’t say I’m all that surprised.” Erik frowned. “Before we get into that, are there any syndicate assholes outside the hangar, waiting to jump us for docking fees?”
“No, nothing like that. Our problems are limited in scope to the warehouse.” Emma snapped her hand up, and two shurikens appeared. She tossed them into the wall, where they disappeared. “Malcolm is currently probing buildings of interest around the warehouse, but as best as either of us can determine, the warehouse’s systems are independent of any outside systems. They are not connected directly or indirectly to the OmniNet.”
Erik tried again to be surprised but failed. “That’s rather suspicious for what’s supposed to be a normal warehouse. It’s like they’re not even trying to hide.”
“Our thoughts converge on this matter.”
Erik looked to the side. “Or they’re so confident no one will come into their territory that they don’t worry about hiding. That might mean they have decent defenses, and I’m not talking about being disconnected from the OmniNet.”
“Your intuition serves you well.” Emma raised her hand. “It gets worse. I thought I could get around the issue by setting up a systems intrusion via a drone relay. Even if they didn’t have active external connections, they undoubtedly have a limited range network the local PNIUs can access. All I would need is get a drone close enough to access the network, presuming no jammers, which I assumed they wouldn’t use because of the difficulties in managing their building.”
An aerial feed from a drone appeared. It flew low and slow over the squat, nondescript warehouse complex, which was composed of three buildings connected by covered walkways. The drone suddenly plummeted to the ground and the feed died.
Erik let out a frustrated grunt. “EMP or direct shot?”
He’d never thought this would be an easy job, but preparation in one aspect of defenses implied their opponents’ depth of readiness in other areas. This had moved from an easy job to a difficult one in his mind, and not the fun kind of challenge.
“That was my third attempt to get a drone near the warehouse,” Emma reported.
“You didn’t mention they were shooting them down.” Erik stared at her in disbelief.
Emma rolled her eyes. “If I reported every minor detail of my activities, you’d spend all day listening to me complain. I wanted to establish a baseline pattern before I informed you. Now we know, and we can plan accordingly. Based on what I saw, I believe it was a directed energy weapon, but not an EMP.”
“Fine. Now they know we’re coming.” He scratched his chin, thinking about it. “Wait. No, it doesn’t have to be a big problem.” He gestured at the now-black feed. “If they’ve set up those kinds of defenses, then they’re used to people poking their nose in, and they’re confident they can shoot down drones and not have the police or CID show up.”
“Hmm,” Emma replied. “How bold of them.”
“The cops don’t care, huh? We already know what sort of things they’re willing to let slide.” Erik shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they have jamming inside the building too. I don’t think there’s a way to avoid going on-site, no matter how close we can get a drone.”
“That’s likely.”
“Yeah.” Erik’s gaze ticked to the disguise emitter and back to Emma. “We’ve got one choice if we want to handle this quickly.”
Emma’s mouth twitched into a smirk. “I don’t think Jia will be happy about it.”
“She’ll survive.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You okay with this?” Erik asked, shooting his partner a look of concern from the driver’s seat of the MX 60.
“I’m a big girl,” Jia replied. “I can’t say I’m in love with this idea, but it’s the most efficient way to get what we want.”
“And it’s the most efficient way for her to get what she wants,” Emma added.
Now a dull-gray unobtrusive color, the MX 60 glided toward their target: Radira Tellvane’s mansion. It looked the same as they remembered, with its curved walls and red-tiled roof. There were more drones flying around than there had been before, and it was hard to ignore the new and obvious fake trees that weren’t doing much to conceal anti-aircraft turrets. Men wearing suits in all the colors of the rainbow wandered the grounds, but they had the decency not to openly be armed.
Erik would have preferred not to take the MX 60. Even with its color-changing capabilities, it was hard to fly the vehicle into a situation and not have people suspect it was his. However, there was no way he was going to travel around Unity City without access to his standard equipment and the turret. He wasn’t trying to hide from Radira anyway.
“I’m using the full sensor package on the mansion to look for unusual activity,” Emma explained. “There’s nothing to suggest
they are on an alarm footing, but this is a well-defended facility.”
She sounded disappointed. Sometimes Erik got the feeling Emma’s disdain for fleshbags might be feeding into a general bloodthirst. He didn’t care as long she confined it to people trying to kill them.
Jia gestured at a tree in the camera feed. “I don’t get it. Tellvane’s wealthy, but she’s not Sophia Vand. You’d think the authorities would care about her fortress filled with thugs.”
“All she needs to do is buy off the right people,” Erik replied. “Syndicates have infested Mars since the Red Rebellion. The corps were more than happy to use syndicate enforcers to supplement their forces, all in the name of alleged unity with Earth. Once you invite those kinds of people in, it’s hard to kick them out without going down yourself. That means the corps have just as much reason to get the cops to look the other way as the syndicates do.”
Jia scoffed. “I remember discussing this in college. The professor was arguing it was just an excuse for corporations to extend more control over an area, and I was sure he was misunderstanding something. Call me naïve. I’m surprised the arrangement has lasted as long as it has.”
“It’s been over a hundred years, and everyone seems comfortable with it. People love the status quo when they’re getting and staying rich.” Erik shrugged. “We’re not here to solve all of Mars’ problems. We’re here to follow up on the Core, but the way things have worked out, messing with the Core means messing with the corporations. By the time this is over, the UTC won’t look the same.”
“Not a bad thing,” Jia replied softly. “It’s nothing but a lie right now, a thin layer of gold paint over trash. If we clear out this cancer, we have a chance to at least put it on the path of truth, where it can live up to its ideals.”
Erik circled the mansion. The men below had obviously taken note. A couple of the goons ran inside, but there was no change in the anti-air defenses. Radira might have a lot of local influence, but shooting down a flitter in a high-end neighborhood would attract more attention than she wanted. No one liked an explosion in their backyard. He was fine with that. They weren’t there to fight.
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